First Flight
I had been running all day and the exhaustion had finally caught up with me. Now I was starting to feel my muscles burning and realized that I had not slept in what felt like an eternity…and if they kept up the chase I would collapse and be taken back to that place. Nothing could be worse than that. With those thoughts running through my head, I rounded the street corner and saw one of the busy streets that I had been running into all evening. This one was just at the time when the walk signs were saying 'DO NOT WALK.' Both the lights were still red.
Based on the length of the traffic backed up on each side, I realized that this was a golden opportunity — the second one that I had stumbled across. I was not going to stand by and miss it. I sprinted across the street and at the exact moment my feet touched the sidewalk the traffic surged forward, cutting of my pursuers and leaving me free to get myself as far away from them as possible.
The sun had now set. And my luck had run out.
The small park was completely surrounded. It was, however, silent, and the only way to tell that there was no escape was the occasional bark or growl from the police dogs and the low buzz of the walkie-talkies as the leaders conversed.
"*Crackle*we're ready to move in. What's your position? *Crackle*"
That was all I needed to hear. I was right where they wanted me and soon they would close in for the kill.
I ran. I ran as fast as I could away from them. Away from the white-coats who controlled them and away from their dogs. I was fast, but those dogs were even faster and were quickly catching up to me. I would not escape this time.
As I ran, two forms that had been pressed down close to my back unfurled: pale silvery feathers, catching the wind as they spread.
Gaining speed I leapt into the air, my wings catching the wind and pushing down hard as I rose higher into the inky sky.
Looking down I saw them staring up at me. Those morons. Completely shocked that I'm flying. Well, Duh, if you give a girl wings expect her to fly!
Down there they seemed to be recovering. And I was pretty much sure that I heard one of them giving commands and now they had stopped staring up at me.
Uh oh, here they come.
A bullet whizzed past me and at the same time another bullet left a shallow wound in the top edge of my wing.
OK— time to get the hell away from here!
I pushed down a few more times, rising about twenty feet for every downstroke of my powerful ten-foot wings and quickly rose out of their firing range.
Soon I was soaring high enough that the park looked like a small greenish square, surrounded by four grey snake-like roads.
Banking a turn I looked towards the city.
Down there all the streets were full of lights: pathways of red on one side, white and yellow on the other.
The city itself rose up into the air. Towering buildings and bright fluorescent signs filled the sky with lights.
Speeding up, I headed in the direction of those bright lights, each one becoming distinct the closer I got.
Diving, I snapped out my wings. Once I was about even with the lights I began to weave my way through and around the bright lights until it was all a brightly colored blur.
The whole thing had a kind of dream-like quality…the bright blur of the colorful lights, the huge buildings, and best of all — I was flying.
I slowed down now; rising higher I was now making slow lazy circles around the gargantuan buildings that rose way into the velvety sky.
Rising still higher I lighted down on one of the tallest buildings. I looked down at the glittering fairy tale world below me.
They would come after me, I was sure of that. But for now, I was free.