Chapter 7 of Feather Strings

"If they're talking about us, which they probably are, they are going to try to kill us in seven days." Fang said to me. He actually looked worried, which must have meant there was unbelievable terror inside.

"I know this sounds spur of the moment, but we need to leave," I said, a Alpha Female instinct kicking in. "I give us three days to prepare, four days to fly as far away as possible."

"You've always been the leader." Fang said. I was sure he was reaching into some memory that I had no recollection of.

...

...

"Okay," I said to Fang as we waited in the tattoo parlor the next morning. We both had bags under our eyes and were slightly dazed. My mom was surprised to see him still there in the morning, both of us still in our clothes talking seriously. She called his foster mother to let her know that he was here, getting the tattoo. Iggy was getting his right now, the first of us.

"What's the plan?" I asked. This was a quiz. We had spent the rest of the night making the plans to leave. It was impromptu and sudden, but we had researched some more, and the evidence was indisputable. In less than a week, we were going to be on the run from evil scientists trying to kill us. Sounds like a cartoon doesn't it? Too bad it isn't.

"First," Fang started. "We leave the day after tomorrow, in the night. We spend the next three days preparing, then vamoose. The next four days will be spent getting as far away as possible. It appears that it took the scientists only a few weeks to track us down, so we will go one of three directions, to be decided at the moment we leave. To decide the location, you will say the one of the secret words we have assigned to each location, in case they are monitoring us. When we reach said place, we will try to find a remote area to settle down in. We will avoid human contact as much as possible. If we are caught, as it looks like these people are intent on catching us and are technologically advanced, so we will fight, then flight, and go to one of the other locations."

"Good." I said.

"Tell me how we will prepare to depart and the locations." Fang quizzed.

"We," I began. "will prepare to depart by spending the next few days collecting the necessary supplies -food, clothes and maps for example- and pre packing them. Important supplies, such as first aid kits, will be split across two or three bags in the event that one bag is lost. We will cash part of each of our savings that we received and store the money, which will be held in secret compartments, split across each of the seven bags. We will not tell the flock that we are leaving. I do feel bad to deceive them, but they know nothing of this, except for Iggy, and will not want to leave. We will take them on a midnight flight and explain the situation. If they are on board, we will return to the house to say goodbye. It they are opposed, we will give them their back packs and fly on.

"The three locations are northern or maritime Canada, remote places in Brazil, or somewhere small in the Caribbean. To reach Canada and Brazil, we will fly direct to location, only stopping to rest, eat and -god forbid- treat wounds. To get to the Caribbean, we will fly to the Florida Keys, going to the nearest island and then island hopping until we find a good location. Fang, what are the possible enemies that may occur?"

Yeah, that sucks. On top of the plot to kill us and us having to leave everything we care about (except for us.), right before we finished planning our escape, we found another report, done by the same man in the video, Dr. William VonCarte (there's your villain, kids!) addressed only to 'Sir' saying that he had prepared the humanoids. Of course, there would be goons. What kind of evil plot was complete without goons? None!

Luckily, now that Nudge had hacked the security (took her a good ten minutes D: ), we had easier access to the information that was being shared over the facility's secret site. We quickly found a hidden section -or at least attemptedly hidden; even non hackers like us managed to find them, I guess they thought that their security system was enough- on humanoids. Damn, was that disturbing. Basically, they have two different types of humanoids, Neo-Humanoids and Exo-Humanoids. Be prepared; it gets a bit freaky here.

Both Neo and Exo-Humanoids were a combination of human and robot, and one Neo-Humanoid and one Exo-Humanoid could be made from one human, and one robot and a few extra parts.

To get them, you take apart a human and a robot without killing the human's brain and allowing tissue decay.

A Neo-Humanoid was a robot, through and through. It had synthesized human flesh, made from tissue samples, on the outside. There was no blood vessels of internal organs, except for the brain, because the flesh was used simply to cover the robot. The tissue was kept from decay by chemical treatments. The robot shorted out easily, as the report stupidly said (why would you write that down? You should expect mutant bird kids to read it once they know that you're after them) so if we cut though the flesh and pour enough water or spit or whatever onto it, it would be rendered useless. A few sentences before, I mentioned that the only organ that it had was a simple brain that could give and receive basic combat commands.

Exo-Humanoids were a bit of the opposite. They had robot brains which were more intelligent, but their bodies were human, occasionally mixed with the DNA of another animal, making them much less resilient.

We were surprised that all this information online, but Fang pointed out that the website was protected by a high, high tech security system that probably only the worlds best hackers could get into. They just didn't count on any of the hackers wanting to get in.

As soon as we were done reviewing, Iggy stepped out. We all had long sleeved shirts and pants on so that our tattoos would be a secret to everyone. I didn't know what one of Iggy's tattoos was, but all three of us were matching tattoos on our left wrists. It was going to be simple, just the word 'fly' written on small, and in a small font. We were getting the other flock members 'fly' tattoos too, as soon as they were older.

Fang walked in next, and as he disappeared, I tried to get Iggy to tell me what he got.

"Come on, I'll tell you if it looks good, since you don't know!" I begged.

"Is the 'fly' one good?"

"Yes..."

"Then I'll trust that mine looks good. You can see for yourself in a few hours though."

I groaned, and flopped back in the plastic chair passively. Fang came out after an hour rubbing his arm and holding a tub of cream. We were supposed to apply it every day until it healed, a few weeks later, so basically apply it once and hour for six hours and we were good.

"Velcome to zee haus of pain." Fang said to me as I walked past him on my way to get stabbed by an inky needle hundreds of times. And then I realized what was going to happen. Break the sentence apart. Stabbed. Needle. Hundreds of times. Remember, I have needle issues, a carry over from childhood.

"How did you do it?" I asked before I went into the back room, where a panic attack was sure to ensue.

"Do what?" Fang asked.

"The needle!"

"It was hard, but it's okay." He consoled. "You're not at the school anymore. They aren't trying to hurt you, they're just trying to give you at tattoo that you wanted."

I nodded, worried that I was going to cry hysterically. Let me tell you sonething, I am tough. Really tough. Tougher than nails, but everyone, probably even Mr. Stone-Faced Fang, had one fear, one horrible fear that made your blood run cold. One fear that made you want to cry, or run away screaming or curl up in a ball and disappear.

"Everyone is afraid of something, Max, even you, even me, everyone." he consoled. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

I shook my head. "You can't see my other tattoo before anyone else." I said weakly.

"Clowns and Santa Clause. I'm terrified of them. You just can't trust people that happy." Fang told me as I walked in the room to face my fears.

"Don't cry." He teased.

...

...

Finally, two painful hours later, the tattoos were done. I rubbed my wrist and where I had gotten the other tattoo.

How did I survive? Barely, but, I am proud to say, without shedding a single tear. So Fang can stick that in his juice box and SUCK IT!

It did hurt getting the tattoo, but I zoned out enough so that I only felt a few pinpricks. Call it a gift, a skill perfected by years of mind-numbing school and having to ignore the people in fifth grade for being a 'big, tall nerd'. I was really tall in fifth grade, nearly five feet tall, and I was really smart, which was why I got so bored in school. Bullies and boring teachers. Who ever thought that they'd help you get a tattoo?

"Did she behave?" Fang jokingly asked the tattooed tattoo artist. "She didn't cry or freak or knock anyone out like she did with poor Iggy?" Fang pointed to Iggy, who had fallen asleep.

I sneered at Fang, while the tattoo artist said. "Perfect. Not a problem, whine or tear. It was a pleasure tattooing her." The artist playfully winked at me.

A noticed Fangs shoulders tense the smallest bit. Over the past month, I had become really good at reading his body language -I had to. He never showed any expression. He relaxed them only slightly as he managed a strained. "Good."

We went to pay, and and then waited outside of the shop for Mom to show up. We left a still sleeping beauty inside, while we talked.

"Gosh," I said looking out at the mountains surrounding the town. I can't tell you what town because they could find out, but I'll let you know that it's somewhere in Colorado. "I'll miss it here."

"Me too." Fang said staring intensely at the panorama, and when I said panorama, I mean me, specifically my eyes, which. Was. WEIRD.

I looked away. "What was that back there? With the tattoo guy?"

"Nothing." He said quickly.

"No it was something. I could tell. You were..." I searched around for the right word. "Ticked off." +10 pts. for me! I found a good word to describe it. Almost. Except he wasn't ticked off. I didn't know what it was, but ticked off seemed close enough.

Fang shrugged. "He winked at you. That's pedo. He was like, thirty or something." He said, tensing up a bit again. "Plus, you won. I whined a little getting my tat."

...

...

Fang, Iggy and I stood in the living room, where the family was gathered, preparing to see our new tattoos. Iggy had his shirt collar popped up, I had on low rise jeans and Fang had a jacket on over his TShirt. We had already shown the small 'fly' tattoos an everyone's faces were scrunched up in anticipation.

"Show us!" Nudge shouted, clapping her hands excitedly. She, Angel and Gazzy were all on the couch in front of us, and mom stood behind the couch.

"Iggy," I ordered. "You first."

Iggy pulled the collar down on his shirt, but before Fang or I had a chance to see, the flock had rushed to his side, pulling him down so they could see better.

"Oh! It suits you so perfectly!" Nudge chirped.

"Nice one, dude!" Gazzy shouted, slapping Iggy a high five.

I finally got a look, and I have to say, Iggy chose well. On the side of his neck was a red cartoon bomb looking like it was about blow, with white wings attached to the side. I chuckled and motioned for Fang to show everyone his tattoo.

On his upper arm, he had gotten a small classic smiley face, except the smile perfectly mimicked Fang's half grin. It also has two shiny white fangs and a pair black wings that looked just like his. Everyone 'oohed' and 'ahhhed', commenting on how cool it was. I stood to the side, a small smirk on my face as I realized that Fang had the same smile on at that moment that his tattoo had.

And something flickered inside of me.

Finally, it was my turn. Slowly, I hitched my shirt up a few inches and turned around. On my lower back, I had decided on a pair of wings. They started an inch and an half above my butt, the bases separated by a small space, then swooped up an out into a pair of beautifully stylized wings. They were colored the same as my wing, brown and tan and white.

"Ohhhh..." Nudge gasped. "That's so beyond beautiful"

"Just like Max is!" Angel added.

I ruffled her hair. "Thanks sweetie!" I said, then added in thought form so she would hear it, '...but I'm not beautiful.'

"Yes, you are!" She whispered into my ear. "Fang thinks so too!" My shoulders tensed up and I looked down, so that no one would see me blush. Most people could just discredit that, but not of the person telling you was a mind reader. Never, ever have a) personal b) romantic c) mean or d) all of the above thoughts within a twenty foot radius of that child. And then I was the one that realized that I was happy/embarrassed, not Fang.

...

...

That night, until Fang went home, while everyone admired our tattoos, Fang and I took turns packing bags. We had managed to cash some money already, and after everyone went to bed, I finished packing and shoved the bags into my closet.

Angel walked into my room. "Max, why are we leaving?" she asked nervously.

I tried to keep the expletives in my head out of her impressionable mind. "We have to."

A shocked look came over her face, as she learned of our plan and everything we knew about Dr. VonCarte's plan. (Hope you didn't already forget who he was, children!) Her eyes went wide. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I sighed and rubbed my temples. "I tried to hide it so you couldn't force yourself to stay." I confessed.

Angel thought for a moment. "No. I think we should leave. Tomorrow, even."

And that was that.

...

...

I fought back tears as I looked back at the dark house, my arm around a sobbing Nudge's shoulders. Here we were, about to leave. I hope that mom would see the note explaining that we had to leave before she panicked.

"I said goodbye instead of goodnight." Nudge cried. None of us were happy about leaving our mom. Iggy wouldn't look at anyone, trying to hide his red rimmed eyes. Gazzy was trying to be strong, but a few tears still slipped down his cheeks. Nudge, being Nudge was sobbing dramatically. Angel had her face buried in Iggy's shoulder. The only ones not crying was Fang and I. Fang didn't count as much; he'd only know us (again) for slightly over a month, even though he was like family to all of us, and I was in a losing battle.

Fang snaked one of his arms around my shoulder and pulled me against him. "It's okay." He whispered into my hair.

I gave a fierce nod, then we all took off into the night.