Hi all! So I'm kind of excited for this story, it's loosely based on the beginning of Shatter Me - great book btw, you should read it ;)
But yeah, let me know what you think of this! Reviews, even critics, are really appreciated xx Besides that, enjoy!

Disclaimer: James Patterson holds all rights to this story.

Chapter 1: Brumous

I stood on my tiptoes, craning my neck to see through the window. The window was really just a small hole in the cement wall, with a thick film of glass that my breath misted up.

Today the sky was grey and heavy; soft rain dripping seamlessly into the earth like a watercolour painting. Standing as tall as I could, which wasn't very high considering how I was 5'2, I had a tiny view of a waterlogged field and some barbed wire that I knew was the edge of the Institute grounds.

I sagged back to the stone floor and looked miserably around my cell. A moth-eaten mattress with a thread-bare blanket was the only thing I had for a bed. That, a chamber pot in the farthest corner, and a metal door with a slot that food could be pushed through, were the only other things besides me in this cold, dark room.

I knelt down next to the wall and picked up a rusted nail. I scratched a new small line into the cement, wincing at the noise as I did so, even though I'd been doing this for my whole life. I surveyed the wall before me. It was seven feet, and I was currently on my sixth row down of day-markings.

Instead of doing them as regular tallies with a new one after every five markings, I did them after seven so that I knew when a new week started. Mondays meant that I would be forced out of my cell and into the laboratory, and that I would be in complete control of the white-coats for twenty-four hours.

Today was Monday.

I looked at the steel door and barely contained the shivers that went through me. On Mondays I didn't get breakfast, as according to the white-coats food messed with their experiments, and so, today, when that door beeped and the button on top flashed red, it meant that I was to be escorted into my white, sterilised hell.

Even the prospect of seeing light and other people wasn't worth the pain that always came. I would choose solitary confinement any day, but, as usual, I wasn't offered the choice.

I crouched into a ball in the furthest corner from the door and tried not to let my whimpers take over me. I had given up fighting long ago. I used to kick and thrash around when they came for me, getting dragged feet first into the white halls, but the punishment that came after was also not worth the struggle.

*Beep beep beep*

I looked up from my knees as the door swung inwards. Dr Anne, a tall, stern woman who I liked to call Dr Ass, marched in, clipboard in hand. She peered down at me over her silver spectacles. "Come, #44627, I am to take you to the management office today."

I glared at her as hard as I could, but inside I was confused yet jumping for joy. I would not be going to the lab! A whole two weeks with no experimenting. I wondered what management might want with me. Fear froze me then. What if they'd finally had enough of me? They wouldn't release me – that was far too dangerous. What if they'd decided that I had no use to them anymore, and that the only option was to put me down?

I didn't have time to speculate anymore, as Ari, one of the violent patrol guards, appeared from behind the white-coat and grabbed my wrist hard, pulling me into a standing position. He shoved me towards the door and notched the barrel of his gun into my back. "Walk," he growled in his deep voice.

Helplessly I followed Dr Ass, the three of us clattering down the marble hall. It was almost hard to imagine that my grey, dusty cell was part of this pristine building, but I preferred the dust to this sickening sterile-smell. We passed other sound-proof, steel doors, and I wondered who the prisoners inside were.

I knew that there were hundreds of us here – I'd lain in laboratory stretches besides them, and in the halls passed many, many people – some horrible transformed and others completely broken inside. I wondered for a moment what people saw when they looked at me. A shrivelled, skinny 16 year-old with no strength whatsoever left? A girl, so deprived of humanity that she was hardly human?

A couple of turns and two staircases later Dr Ass stopped in front of a big glass door. She opened it for me and I stepped into a well-lit, very big office – probably five times the size of my cell. A dark-haired man with a pointy chin and piercing grey eyes looked me over from behind a desk. Papers littered the area and diplomas and paintings hung on the walls. Two ceiling-high windows made up the right wall, looking over a three-storey drop outside.

I had to tear my eyes away from the golden field and mountains that I'd never had a full view of before. "This is Maximum Ride, Dr Batchelder," said Dr Ass, then she and Ari exited the room.

I was left to be scrutinized by this 'Dr Batchelder', who continued to study me. He rubbed a hand over his cleanly shaven face. "So, this is the golden girl," he said in an articulate voice. "I've heard a lot about you, young Maximum. Your reports show that you respond well to almost all experiments and that you have a healthy body."

I stared at him, not sure what to make of this.

"I expect you are wondering why you are here, are you not?"

I didn't respond so he carried on. "We have decided to make some changes to your life here in the Institute. First of all, you will find that some adjustments have been made to your cell, though I assume that you will soon be able to figure out why."

He shuffled some papers on his desk. "Your dietary planning is also going to be altered slightly. You are aware of the three pills you receive with your two meals?"

"Yes," I said, my voice coming out hoarser than I imagined. It's amazing how when the only noises to come out of your mouth are screams and yells of pain and anger, you almost forget the feel of words on your tongue. "There is a red, a blue and a white one, and they are there to prevent infections," I said, quoting the white-coats.

He nodded at me. "More or less. Anyhow, one is going to be replaced, so don't be surprised. The last thing that is going to be changed is your laboratory hours, and their activities."

I held my breath. "You will now," he continued, "only have to go once a month." I could hardly believe my ears. This was a dream come true! I would have no people to abuse me, or force questions out of me, except for one small day out of every thirty. I would be completely alone and at peace in my cell, with no one but my thoughts and nothing to worry about but one small day. I barely kept in a squeal.

"Now," he said, "This is all due to the fact that we've decided you are to have a new purpose. We will now be observing how you react to some different situations, but in order to begin we must make sure that your blood pressure and other bodily functions are working normally."

There was something about the way he said it that made me doubt this 'new purpose', but when he handed over a pill to swallow and a strange container which he instructed me to urinate into, I went into the bathroom and did as he said.

When I was returning I noticed that the container was turning a light shade of pink. "Here," I said, and gave it back to him.

He looked at it and smiled. "Everything appears to be in order. Ari will escort you back to your room."

I almost rolled my eyes at that. 'Room'. As though my cell were a place you could live in as a home.

I barely had time to ponder what had just happened when the door behind me pushed open and I was led, rather roughly, back to the cell corridors. When my steel door finally shut with an echoing bang, I lay down on my back, facing the opposite wall. From this angle I could see the grey clouds through my window, and I watched as a tiny bird flew past.

Freedom. I could hardly imagine what the word meant, let alone what I'd actually do if I had it. The Institute had provided its patients with a few textbooks, to 'improve mental wellbeing' as Dr Ass liked to call it, so I knew that in the world outside you could do almost anything. I wondered what it would be like to touch the ocean, or hike a mountain. I wondered what it felt like to have a mother, or to be one, and most of all I wondered what it would feel like to stand beneath the sky, with no walls or boundaries to keep you in.

I yawned. It couldn't be past midmorning, but in my cell, with only the foggy light filtering through the window, it was easy to lose track of time.

I decided to take a quick nap. Sleeping was the best pass-time, I'd discovered, and sometimes it left me with the most beautiful dreams. I scooted over to my mattress and tucked my head into the crook of my arm, surrendering myself to a world of oceans and blue skies and impossible imaginings.

-:-

I almost jumped out of my skin when I was woken to the *beep beep beep* sound. Scuttling into a sitting position I watched in terror as my steel door swung inwards. What were they going to do to me? I thought that I wasn't going to be taken to the laboratory today!

A strange rattling sound, like chains clinking, came from the hall. Was that some torture device? Was I in trouble? Was I about to be punished for something I didn't know I'd done? I racked my brain for anything rebellious that I'd done recently, but came up blank.

Ari and another buff patrol guard came in, carrying something long and beige between them. When they threw down a second moth-eaten mattress against the opposite wall to mine, confusion swept through me. What was going on? Was my cell being refurnished? Surely not, for they wouldn't replace a dirty old mattress with a dirty new mattress.

Ari saw the lack of comprehension on my face and grinned a nasty smirk. "Don't worry sweetheart," he said, "You're in for a real treat!" I wanted to punch the smirk off his face, but I was still rooted to the spot on my bed.

Then I heard the rattling sound again and snapped my head back to the door. A tall boy with black hair and a grey suit just like mine was being shoved inside by two more patrol guards. His hands and feet were chained and were what was making the rattling sound, also causing him to walk funny.

I didn't move, hardly understanding what was happening. The boy scanned the room, taking in the small window, the freshly cleaned chamber pot, and then finally landing on me. I watched as he took in my appearance, his eyes widening in what I assumed to be shock, and then scowling at the guards shoving him.

"There must be some mistake," he said in a low, rumbling voice.

Ari seemed to be bouncing on the balls of his feet in glee. "Let's have some introductions, shall we?" he said. This entire event was frightening me, and I had a feeling that things were only going to get worse. What was going on?

"Nick," continued Ari, addressing the guy before me, "Meet Maximum. Maxie," he said, now looking at me with barely concealed mirth, "Meet Nick, your new cellmate.

So once again, thanks for reading! I hope you liked it and would love for you to comment your opinions on it or where you think the story should go - I love inspiration x