Adalyn's POV

I woke up groggily, trying to decide whether I should stay in this town for a few more days or fly out today. The best bet would probably be fly today, but then again I really needed a break.

In the end, after much deliberating over breakfast, I decided to stay two more days, unless the Erasers catch up to me. That's unlikely though. I'm far enough away from the last spot they caught up to me (a densely populated city miles away from here) that it would be a miracle for them if they ever found me here. I could have gone anywhere, and as far as I know they have no way of tracking me. After breakfast, I decided to trek up to the lake overlooking the town, Lake Everstill, in hopes that it could give me a break from the endless running and I would have some time to relax. It was a secluded enough spot that it'd probably be safe to open my wings up there. Smiling, I hiked to the top, and unfurled my wings. It felt so satisfying after weeks of hiding them from sight and only using my truck for travel.

My wings were blue and grey, in the pattern of a blue-jay's. I was 7% blue-jay and 93% human. According to scientists at the School, I had wigs grafted onto my body at the infant age, and… he and I were the first to have that much avian genetics. His were that of a steller's jay, but I try not to think about that too much, or guilt will consume me. There's nothing I could have done, I tell myself as I swim in the water, my wings soaked and weighing me down. It's hard to swim when you're a bird kid.

Internally, I know I am wrong, and there are so many things I could have done differently to save him. Can't dwell on that, I remembered. Just keep running from the pain and never let it catch up. I knew that letting my pain get the best of me meant falling into a downward spiral of anxiety and guilt trips.

Eventually, I felt reinvigorated enough to step out of the water onto dry land. My normally light-purple hair looked much darker because of the water, making my face look out of kilter, but maybe it was just because of the blackness of the lake's surface. In it, I looked a year older that I was.

Shrugging, I pulled a yellow sweater on top of my white undershirt and black jeans. My hair was back in a ponytail, higher on my head this time and coming down in waves. I'd change into my fighter clothes once I got back to the hotel. They were these awesome "tough" clothes I had modified so that my wings would easily slide in and out. It looked pretty good, if I did say so myself.

Max's POV

"C'mon guys! Chop chop chop, we're losing daylight!" I clapped in their faces and shouted to wake them up. We needed time to fly to the town before the Erasers caught up.

"Max, it's literally six in the morning," Nudge groaned, rubbing her head.

"It's also literally time to go!" I said enthusiastically, throwing a bag of food at Angel's face to get her to wake up.

"The sun hasn't even rose!" Iggy complained. I whacked him over the head with a handful of Doritos bags from our pile of groceries.

"We need time to eat and stretch before we go, so wake up, party people!" By now, my shouting and various food projectiles had woken most of the Flock up, although they all looked half asleep and about ready to murder me. "Hey, don't look at me that way, you know I'm right," I received various grunts and nods, before they began to dig through our remaining food. Gazzy was still pretending to be asleep, but he jumped out of bed at the mention of food.

"Right, So the town is northwest, that way," I pointed northwest, where a map I had picked up in a public library told me the town was. "And it should take us about and hour and a half to fly there, so move your butts,"

It ended up taking us two hours because of wind currents blowing in the opposite direction and a break because Nudge was hungry again. Thankfully, w Us bird kids eat wayyyy more than regular teens, even when they are going. Even small bird kids need an extra thousand calories. That's right we eat 3,000 calories a day when we're kids. It's more like 4,000 as adults.

When we finally arrived, we checked into a motel, telling the receptionist that our car was being towed here at the moment. She raised an eyebrow, and I didn't blame her. Even the oldest of us could barely pass as sixteen or seventeen. Nonetheless, she gave us a room key. Yes, I said 'a'. One room four six bird kids. We barely had enough money for that.

"Okay, we're staying here for four days, unless we're attacked before then. Understood?" I waited for their approval, continuing after I got it. "Alright, time to see what this town has to offer!"