Speech detachment
I was the experiment that went horribly wrong. My biological data was unstable and I was likely to spontaneously combust. I was supposed to be perfect. The ultimate killing machine… Those idiot scientists couldn't brink me back from the brink of my own self-destruction. That was the problem with only being thirty percent human. I had woken for less than a day and they were ready to scrap me.
Was I junk to them? I was physically superior even with my malfunctioning limbs and grotesque features. I was not beautiful, much as I would like to be. I had wings with both scale and feather, the gills of a red snapper, the ears of a bat and the fangs of a tiger. Although my legs ran faster than any man , my flying speed faster than any bird of prey, my sight enhanced that I could pick up movement of distances up to a hundred kilometers away…
I was broken.
I could not speak.
Some of the imbeciles must have sliced my vocal cords by accident. In truth, I have no idea why I can't speak… But that would be my first guess. I flicked my ears to hear what the scientists were saying. I was in a crate that forced me into a crouch position.
"She failed the speech test. Her vocals are damaged. She is too unstable. The animal DNA was too much for her body." I knew what they meant… Just this morning I had claws like a bear but they had changed after a couple of hours to be replaced by my useless human appendages. Which meant that I changed erratically with almost no warning.
"We should scrap her… We can't send her out into the field. She's too conspicuios." I suppose most humans looked like them and thus I would stand out.
"They already know about the avian experiments and the Erasers. What's one more failed experiment going to harm?" She strained her ears to hear them only to have the ears replaced by slug antenna. Great…
"Get out." My crate was kicked roughly. I stumbled to my feet when the door opened. The shoved a picture in my face.
"Maximum Ride, her name is Maximum Ride." I nodded, what did he think I was? I was speech impaired not mentally deranged!
"Find her and kill her." My eyes flashed for a moment as I was given dog vision with limited colour range. So be it… I'll kill this girl. I was scooped up by some wolfish looking beasts.
"Make sure you do as you're told." I made a submissive gesture with my antenna bent sideways.
I was released and was told to run before flapping my wings. As I did so I looked back upon the place I had been 'born'. This was my home, I shall return victorious. I flapped awkwardly at first but learned to glide and use the thermals to lift myself higher.
"She'll be killed by Maximum Ride."
"I didn't doubt that for a second."
I had heard the bastards. They thought I would fail because I was flawed. I would show them! I had flown for an hour of so when I spotted a large looming figure up ahead. I whizzed toward it to be greeted by a noise that would break the sound barrier. It was large, metallic and absolutely terrifying. How was it flying? I bore my teeth at the creature with no effect. The monster kept flying and I strained to keep up with it. I tried to claw its sides to no avail as my human hands slipped.
I fell downwards in a spiral. The moving air currents there had been so strong that they knocked the wind out of me. I hit the dirt so hard that my imprint dented the ground. I felt bruised and battered with my first steps into this world. They should have given me information about it so that I could compose myself better and blend. I found a large black coat airing in someone's back yard and took it for myself. I buttoned it to the top and folded my wings carefully. They could not be seen, thankfully. My ears on the other hand were a different matter. How was I to explain antenna? I looked at the clothes line and picked a cloth of white (not knowing that it was a towel) and wrapping it around my head.
I wandered barefoot onto a path with lots of metal objects zoomed past me. I jumped at first and switched to defensive tactics. They were many and I was all but one. A hand touched my shoulder and I whirled around to face big brown eyes.
"Chill! I was just gonna ask if you were alright. You looked a little lost…" I realized that everyone in this outside world communicated with speech, much like the scientists. I made a gesture and clutched my throat.
"You're thirsty?" I shook my head and motioned with my hands near my mouth.
"You can't speak?" I nodded violently and a few of my black hairs came loose from under my towel.
"Are you in shock?" I shook.
"Sore throat?" I shook again.
"Born that way?" I nodded and sympathy just poured out from him.
"You look starved. Have you eaten in awhile?" I shook my head.
"No? Are you an orphan?" She hesitated, but nodded regardless.
"Harsh man… I have a couple of bucks. Wanna follow me to the near McDonald's for a bite? My treat." I nodded, whatever a Mcdonald's was I sure hoped it was tasty.
"I am wondering why you have a towel on your head though… Is it part of your religion?" I nodded again. He seemed to be providing my excuses for me. At least I didn't have to lie. Well not really, really lie.
He bought me a burger so large and nice smelling I almost pounced on it. I restrained myself till we got to the table and gobbled the whole thing up. He whistled when I polished off the burger in no time flat.
"You must have been really hungry…" I nodded. Heck, I was still hungry! He pushed his food towards me.
"You can eat it, I'm not that starved." I gave him a grateful look and chopped it down.
"You eat a lot for a girl." I tilted my head expectantly.
"Not that you're fat of anything, but my younger sis is a big eater and you just polished off two upsized burgers and have finished your fries and large coke. I sipped the coke noisily, knowing I was at the bottom of the carbonated sugar water.
"Where are you from? How'd you get here?" I pointed up and then to the left.
"By plane? From uh… Mexico?" I nodded even though I did not know what a plane was or what a Mexico was.
"You are in Chicago so you must have traveled a long way right?" She bobbed her head up and down.
"Did you hear the latest news? The bird people were spotted by the Jamison's kid. Course they don't believe him. But I think its worth checking out. How long are you in town for?" I shrugged, I honestly didn't know.
"They blew up those Itex labs and managed to round up loads of kids from all over the world to revolt against them. They're heroes of America. I'll show you a cutting." He rummaged through his pockets and found the newspaper cutting. He tried to smoothen the crumpled parts and passed it to her. She looked it over and narrowed her eyes at the girl in the center. She mouthed 'maximum ride' beneath her breath.
"Are you okay?" She realized that the girl had wings even with the blurry picture. Her wings were gruesome and ugly while their wings were works of art. She had clutched the cutting so tightly that the paper tore slightly. The lab picture had been a close-up with a numbers and a name. This was from an article… Nodding she got up from her chair. She bowed low and proceeded to run outside.
Her arms were morphing again, resembling something like a frog with slime oozing out. Her slug antenna had vanished and had been replaced by bat ears. She unfurled her wings and took off the towel and coat. She flung her towel to the ground and flapped her wings.
"You're one of them?" She shook her head as she left.
She was not one of them.
She was a monster.