Chapter 4

"Max wake up! Max! Samantha's is gone! Max!" My eyes slowly fluttered open as I heard Nudge's scared voice. My adrenaline was slow to kick in, but it still did. I jumped up and ran to the tent that Samantha had set up for herself, unzipped it and peered inside. Inside her tent were her sleeping bag and a small pillow which her chameleon was curled up and sleeping peacefully. Something was off, she wouldn't have left without her companion, would she?

"She's not here," I said and turned around to a no duh face from Fang. "But, she left her chameleon here, so she must be close." I said making a point.

"I thought of that, but when Gazzy tried waking him up he bit him, and now look at Gazzy." He pointed over to the 9-year old who looked like he was sleeping contently.

"He looks fine."

"He's been sleeping like that for over 3 hours. He hasn't moved from that position, not even a twitch. There's something mysteriously wrong with that lizard and she might have left him with us to be rid of it." Fang had a point, but I still had a feeling that he was wrong. I looked around to see how everyone else was doing and they seemed fine Angel, Star, and Kate were eating some waffles that I guessed Iggy had prepared, Ratchet was gawking at Star and Holden was trying to get Ratchet to pay attention to something else besides the girls, in fact the only one that seemed out of sorts was Dylan, who was quiet and picking at his food. Fang was still waiting for my reply and Nudge was staring at me with those gorgeous brown eyes of hers.

"I don't know Fang, I think you're wrong. The way she acted toward this chameleon just doesn't make me assume she left him here to cause us trouble." Fang opened his mouth to comment but stopped and sighed. I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion and he saw my expression and pointed up, I looked up and there Samantha was wings extended and in the air enjoying the breeze. She flew across to the next building and landed there facing away from the campsite. I have to admit, she looked like pretty graceful flyer, maybe even more so than me or Fang. I laughed at the thought and Fang glared at me, clearly upset that I was right and he wasn't. I shouted up to Samantha up on the roof.

"Hey Samantha, come down here! I need to talk to you!" She looked back to me and sort-of half smiled then saw Dylan and the smile dissipated.

"You come up here! You've got wings, use them" She replied back. I sighed and shrugged to Fang and Nudge. Then I released my windbreaker and set my wings free, as a used my beautiful powerful wings I felt a sensation only known to the flock and some very unique individuals such as Dylan and Samantha. I landed on the roof with ease, then walked over to Samantha. She had a restful look on her face that was rare to see within my lifetime.

"You okay?" I asked without thinking. She turned towards me with sadness in her eyes.

"Physically, I'm fine. Mentally however, that's a completely different thing." She sighed. "But I know you came up here to ask me to heal your friend from Colors poison." I nodded not saying anything or afraid to. "It's not really a poison per say, more of a genetic problem or a medical malfunction in his DNA, Colors saliva contains the same chemicals used for sleeping potions, so your friend should wake up in about 10 minutes or so. I was immune to it from the day we met so he stayed with me." She looked up to the clouds, I took a long look at her, she definitely reminded me of someone but I couldn't make out who it was. "Colors is one of the lucky ones, as am I. We were both genetically engineered or test tube babies as you would call it." My blood froze, why was she telling me this? I couldn't help but think back to her conversation with the whitecoat and how he had prophesized that she would be the cause of somebody who she cared about's death. She put her hand on her neck and rubbed it.

"I should be dead though, I am already past my 'expiration date' so they say. Those stupid scientists think I'm a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at any time. I suppose they could be right, you saw what happened yesterday." I was speechless and my eyes were opened wide. She was confiding her past into me, was this what she was protecting Dylan from?

"I need you to tell me one thing Max, well maybe more than one thing." She paused making my heart drop to the bottom of my stomach. "Why can I hear your thoughts, and only yours? Why does everyone, all those scientists in white coats, even those robots, think I am you? And Why did you save me when I should've died?" She looked at me contently in the eyes. My mind was reeling and I was so confused. And then,

Do you understand now, Max?

Voice, now is not the time. But if you have anything to do with this, I will kill you.

Max, I will tell you the truth. This girl you see before you in your true twin sister.

I collapsed right then and there and the weird thing was, Samantha collapsed to, and she was holding her head as if it hurt. We looked into each other's eyes momentarily and then we blacked out together, simultaneously.