Dawn is the most beautiful time of day, and you can fight me about this opinion.
Gathered around the table was my beautiful family; Fang, who was as strong as he was silent, and had mysteries even I had yet to process. Then, sitting across from him, was our daughter Phoenix. Although she wasn't born with wings, like us two, her personality flamed like the color of the bird from her namesake. She reminded me of Angel, quite naturally, who was sweet as all get-out but oftentimes shone brighter than all six of us together.
Our family had not always been so small. There was Iggy, Nudge, and the two actual siblings The Gasman (Gassy for short, I'm sure you can guess why) and the youngest, Angel. We had escaped from the lab where we were made, literally designed, almost 14 years ago. Ever since then, we had to work together to evade the lab's soldiers at all costs, careful not to ever be captured again.
Very long story short: we had been captured again. Multiple times. The latest, however, was only a couple years ago. Since having our daughter, the three of us moved into a place together, effectively splitting the group and throwing our relationships into turmoil. As far as I knew, the other half of the group stayed together, until they were caught by the lab's most evil specimens: what we called Erasers. Our manhunt for our family members commenced, including Phoenix, who was only four at the time. Hell, if you spend your life in constant guard, you better start early.
News spread that a facility in remote California had exploded in a fiery ball that lit up the night sky. Our only lead to our loved ones, the location of the School, was demolished into the ground it belonged in. Since then, there was no glimpse of hope leading us to believe they got out alive. Our scope of the area proved that everything in a 50 mile radius had been completely destroyed.
I don't think about that now, but you better believe I still hope to God they somehow made it out.
"Eggs?" I asked Phoenix, wiping the awful memory from my vision. She sensed my troubled nature, like she sensed everything else. I encouragingly held out the pan in front of her, spatula ready to scoop.
Her eyes glistened with early morning hunger at the slightly overdone scrambled eggs, and held the plate out. I scooped a generous amount next to her equally generous (and equally overdone) pancakes. The food bill was sky high in this household, what with all the calories each of us needed.
Fang quietly read the newspaper, a fatherly habit I admired. Unique in his own right, he still was the greatest father and husband I could ever imagine. The fathers and husbands I knew of only came from television anyway.
"Did you want to talk about anything, love?" He inquired, the endearing name fluttering butterflies in my chest. I bit my lower lip and glanced at Phoenix, who was happily munching away.
"I just have this feeling..." I let my voice trail into silence. Fang set down the paper and watched me intently.
"We all have a feeling. But we're risking our lives researching dead end leads. Once we find something solid, we'll look again, okay?"
I sat on my place at the table, in between the two, and took Fang's hand when he outstretched it. Phoenix did the same, and I embraced her hand as well. It almost looked like we were praying, and I even said a few words to whatever God might be out there.
In that moment of peace, with the sun shining on my back, my eyes flew open, and both Fang and Phoenix cocked their heads to hear the incoming shuffle.
We lived out in the middle of nowhere. No one should have known we were here.
The glass window shattered behind me, and I protected Phoenix from the flying glass shards. Fang immediately went into offensive mode, pulling out a pistol we had stored in the linen closet next to the kitchen.
"Mama?" Phoenix whispered, fidgeting with something on my neck. I looked down, unable to see what was sticking out of the side of my jugular. I ripped it out immediately, gazing down at the high tech, small arrow that fit in the palm of my hand.
The bullets that Fang fired at whoever was attacking us started sounding farther and farther away. I tried calling his name, but my mouth weighed a thousand pounds. He heard whatever came out, however, and rushed to my side just as my whole body began to feel numb. I slouched over in his arms, struggling to keep my eyes open.
"What is it?" He shouted over the hail of semi-automatic bullets that wreaked havoc on the side of our house. Pushing through the fatigue that swallowed me, I dragged Phoenix under the table, using all of my remaining energy. He pried open the hand that held the arrow and threw it across the room.
I was dead weight by now. My eyes were closed permanently, it seemed, but I could still hear Fang through the fog.
"Max. Max! Stay with me! What did you fuckers shoot her with?!"
If only we had the rest of our family, maybe they could have helped me from what was to come. And it was something far worse than the School could ever dream to be.
W/N: Hello :) Welcome to the only story of its kind: a crossover between the Resident Evil Series and the Maximum Ride books. I actually have no clue if this story is gonna get any views, but I'm going to post it anyway, since I've been working on this storyline for over three years!
It makes sense to me, really, to combine Resident Evil and Max together. Both have their base in science fiction with a heavy load of genetic experimentation. Max, who has been experimented on herself, gets thrown into the world of BOWs and Albert Wesker. Makes a very intriguing pair if I must say.
A little backstory on my thought process: the first thing you should know is that I rarely work on one thing at once, and even more rarely work on things in order. So far, this story, which I've dubbed the First Installment, has 14 chapters! I've already worked on a few chapters (again, nowhere near in order) and this first chapter you've read just now I had literally opened up fanfiction and began writing without very much forethought. I know exactly where this story is headed, but I like to see where it'll take me apart from my original planning.
On a side note, I'd love for you to rip this fic apart with all the constructive criticism you got. No hard feelings: if I can learn from your wisdom, I will.