Chapter 1

I jumped off the cliff. I closed my eyes and felt the rush of wind through my hair, the exileration of free falling. I opend my eyes to the swirl of green and blue colors that shapes the tropical forest I have come to call my home. The ground rushed up and I snapped out my wings.

Yes folks, I said wings, and after all this time I am getting tired of explaining this over and over again, so I will just blurt it all out now.

My friends and I are the result of scientific experiments, I mean my friends as in my flock, the little group of bird kids I spent my whole life before the change protecting. We all have wings and before the change spent most of our lives running from wackos who wanted to experiment, torture, kill, use and destroy the whole freaking world. Little did those wackos know the world was going to destroy itself anyway. Before they had the chance to wipe out all human life except for the hybrids (which are my flock and a about a hundred other human/whatever combinations) in some horrible sick way, The planet began its own little game. The Earth shook and there were natural disasters all over the world. It is belived that no one lived but the highbrids and I few humans that were protected by the forcefeild protecting the island I am on. Thats what I call the change. The day humanity died.

And amonst all the chaos i was told i was supposed to save the world. I dont know if letting all of humanity die was exactly what i was thinking, but at the end i had to accept that i wasnt all powerfull. I couldnt save everyone. I saved who I could and am starting a new lifer here. I have been chosen to lead the new generation of evolvd people. Maybe that was my real purpose to begin with but who knows?

I banked back towrd the edge of the cliff where my flock was sitting eating a picnic lunch. They sat on a orange blanket, a basket sat on top and i flew to it hopeing against hope i wouldnt have to kick a little bird kid in the but for eating my lunch.

My feet pounded on the ground and I strolled up and sat between Fang and Angle, my wings folding behind my back. Fang look down at me through his long hair and gave me a smile. Those smiles used to be so rare, but since the change he has become more relaxed, happier. I hoped that was a good thing.

" Anything left for me?" I asked

"Yeah, I kept Nudge out of the basket for you." He lifted the lid on the basket and handed me four sandwiches and two bags of chips. I bit in hungrily, we have to eat way more than normal humans, we require more calories. Trust me it really sucks when your on the run and struggle to get even a normal persons share of food.

"Max, we are normal now there is no strange anymore" Angels voice whispered softly in my her voice is in my head. Not only can we fly but we have other skills to, Angel for example can read/control/put thoughts into peoples minds. She's seven. It used to creep me out a bit. But Angel... shes my little angel.

"I know hun" I thought back, "thank you". She smiled and went back to eating her chips.

Nudge got up and walked off, if there was no more food to be eaten she was always playing. She joined a group of other bird kids that looked about 13, her age and they began chatting quickly. Nudge could talk forever. I was glad she was making new friends, and being accepted for who she was. Before the change a few months ago she was having a harder time than all of us, she just wanted to be a regular human, to be popular. Now she is regular. Its something we all wanted, but now i am noticing that it was kind of nice to be different.

"Uh-oh" Gazzy said, he smiled a little and I quickly burried my nose is Fangs shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent.

"Ugh, god Gazzy could you try not to do that while we eat?" Iggy, who was sitting next to the Gasman burried his face in his bag of chips, His sightless eyes closed tight as if he could push away the stench by thinking about it.

"Yeah Gazzy its gross!" Angel said as her fingers closed around her nostrels.

Gazzy chuckled. He was only ten, of course he still thought that was funny. After i was sure the smell had passed i released Fang and ate a bag of chips. I looked at Dylan who was smiling while he finished his soda. His male-modle face shined in the sun and his sea-blue eyes betrayed his outgoing personality. He crunched up the can and placed it in a bag along with the other sandwich bags and pop cans.

Once we had all finished, the six of us got up I bent down to pick up an end of the blanket, Fang grabbed the bascket of and set it down on the grass.

"Oh, i'll help" said Dylan and skipped over to get the other side of the balnket. Heres the back story on Dylan, he had been made to be my perfect other half, and before the change he would have done anything to be close to me. I hate to admit it but i kind of liked it. It also annoyed me to hell but, Thankfully, After the change many things shifted. Dylans liking me for instance. Now he is just a kind hearted freind. I like it better that way. And trust me so does Fang.

Fang, Dyan, Iggy and I are all the same age. I never thought of Iggy the same way I think about Fang, or the same way I thought about Dylan a while back. Hes just my brother, not to mention my half sister and him are a thing, which is good because i dont think I would trust anybody else with her, or anyone else with him for that matter. Dont get me rong, Iggy can take care of himself. Don't feel bad for the blind guy, you will only earn yourself three hard and percise kicks to your side.

When we finished I flew the basket and blanket back to my treehouse. You can only enter if you fly, or if I drop a ladder to you. It's great, one of the only places i feel truly safe. Well, I supose that you could get in if you came thru Fangs treehouse which is connected to mine by a large sturdy branch. But he doesnt do anything like that without my permission. He's just perfect like that.

I turned away from the kitchen counter and jumpded when I saw Angel. She had entered as silently as Fang usually does.

I took a deep breath. "Angel! What are you doing? You scared the living daylights out of me!"

Angel smiled, and I felt my anger rush away. It's impossible to stay angry at a face like that. "Sorry Max. I was just comming to see if you wanted to check out the underground with me, you still havn't gone yet. I think Fang should see it too. It could be important if anything dangerous happens." I felt proud of her. Evevn after all we have been through and then finding a safe place to be she still thought like the strong and smart birdkid she was when we were always in danger.

"Yeah, ok. I will meet you over at the entrance. I just have to grab Fang."

I skipped across the barnch to Fangs little hide out. Pushing the door open I walked in. I looked around at the many couches, sofas and coffee tables that formed his living room. Walking past his mini kitchen I knocked on his bedroom door. His room was spacy and conntected to a balcony with a hamoc on it, just like mine only his room was a dark shade of blue where mine is a yummy chocolate color.

"Who's there?"

"Just me, can I come in?"

" Oh, Yeah." His voice was calm and welcoming, I opened the door and strode in. He smiled up at me over his new laptop.

"Angel wants to show us the underground. She said that it could be important if we needed to evacuate the island. You in?"

"Sure, just a sec."

He turned off his computer and jumped over to his closet and grabbed a jacket. We walked onto his porch and jumped off the railless balcony. I dipped a few feet down then cought an updraft soaring back up to meet Fang. Naturaly sliding into a steady rythm in which we could fly close but not get our wings all tangled up.

I looked over at his wings. We have about a fifteen foot wingspan, his all black and sleak gorgousness. Just like his hair. And his eyes. And every darn thing about him. I studied the trees around us, pushing my thoughts about Fang back.

Up ahead there was a metal door peeking out of a small hill in the field. Kind of like a futurized hobbit hole. Angel sat on top, weaving together some grass while she waited. She must have seen us comming a while back because she got up and waved, we all have hightened vision and faster senses in general. As I have said we used to be on the run all the time. We never completly relax.

Fang and I thumped down in unisun while Angel hopped down to our level.

"Gosh, everything looks so natural here until you come across these ugly things. You almost feel like you have finaly escaped into the wild until, whoops! So unatractive." I scoffed.

"They probably just want it to be noticable in an emergency." Fang reasoned. "Look at the red lights all bordering it."

I glanced at the lights, unfased by Fangs sensible-ness. He's always like that. Unless we're alone. He's always the one to figure things out when I am precocupied... or when things are just to crazy for one person (being me) to figure out alone.

I walked up to the door and placed my heand on some high tech finger print reader. It scanned my hand and a female computer voice said softly "Maximum Ride, welcome to the underground." The door clicked and I cranked the handle to the left.