I had to close the laptop to process what I just saw. Flying kids. Flying. Kids. And they were spreading awareness for global warming. There were so many things flying around in my brain at the moment. First, there were other flying kids out there. Second, they were free, definitely from ITex because nobody else would do that to kids (that I knew of). Third, they were trying to send a message for global warming, which made zero sense to me. Aren't they scared of being caught? But they have themselves plastered on the front page. Are they being protected? If so, by who? Who would accept them for who they are? They have wings for crying out loud. There was also a good lot of them, maybe five or six in total. They seemed to be doing acrobatic stunts in the air, like they were part of Cirque de Soleil or something. They were showing off. They were showing off their freak-selves to promote awareness. Why? Why would they be doing this? I would be fearing my life and hiding out in the shadows. Wouldn't they be doing the same? There had to be something I was missing, none of it was making sense.

"Here," Speck turned the laptop to me. I didn't even see her take it from my lap. I glanced at the screen and gaped. There were tons of pictures of them. Flying around and doing flips in the air. There were even pictures of kids with cardboard wings taped to their back. There was even what looked like a link to something called "Fang's Blog." I clicked on it and it led to me to a site dedicated to one of the fellow flying kid's blogs. I gasped and scrolled through, seeing all the updates of their lives: running from near death experiences, being in Germany, and rallying together innocent human beings to fight against ITex. It was like the world was moving forward at an extremely fast pace and I was locked up for most of it.

I gulped and stared at the comments of each blog post: "I wish I had wings!" "You rock Fang!" "Will you and Max have babiiies?" It was disgusting. These kids, regular ol' kids with no mutations followed this winged guy, Fang, and wished to have wings like himself. It made me sick that they would allow their... fans to be that way.

As much as I wanted to just gag at the entirety of the situation, Speck continued to scroll through the blog. "Whoa," was all she said that caught my attention. There were posts from at least over a year ago, maybe two; it was hard to even understand what year we were in now. I've missed so much. I wanted to read through all of it, all of their stories and adventures, but a person out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.

I glanced up and saw a person reading the same newspaper and had his nose deep within its pages. But it didn't feel like he was. I peered at him over the laptop, catching him glance at us and eye our oddly colored spots on our body.

"We should go," I whispered to Speck. She glanced up at me as I watched the guy with great interest while putting away the laptop. I adjusted the collar of my jacket and put my arm over her shoulder, guiding Speck away from him and out of the park.

Once we were away and found ourselves walking down another side of the strip mall, I let out a soft sigh. Yeah, those kids could show themselves. All they had was wings. Not... I blinked as Speck oohed at a pretty dress standing in a nearby window. A tail, cat ears, and fish scales. They're more normal than me. I watched as she started to do a little skip, proud of her feat of hacking ITex. Speck was more normal than me.

My sigh caused Speck to look up at me with worry in her eyes. I shook my head, "Let's get some food. Then I think we should move." To where, I didn't know.

We were sitting on the branches of a large tree, eating away at our little mayo cheese sandwiches. I savored every bite, trying to keep my hunger at bay. It annoyed me, as it felt like I had to eat every second of the day. I instantly worried about my weight, thoughts haunting me from my lie of a past, but I ignored it. I was as thin as any runaway. Speck, on the other hand, was who I kept worrying about. Her legs still looked like sticks. I handed her my crust.

She shook her head, "No, you eat it, I don't like crust."

"Well, me either," I insisted, tossing it at her face. She scoffed and I laughed, licking my fingers. I carefully pulled the laptop out of my bag, turning it on and going back to the database before it flashed angrily at me. I groaned and handed it to Speck who easily got past the firewall. "Thanks," I muttered as I started searching. I was able to find my fake parents' files, and they were all right according to Jacob. Everything was word for word, even their intent after they "fell in love with me and didn't want to let me go". When I searched for my file: 4MB3R-001, only one thing came up. It was a large file of multiple scanned in images of written notes. It had coffee stains and red scratched pen all over it. It made me sick to read through every detailed note, so I quickly closed the laptop out of anger. I heard Speck say "easy" over my shoulder before curling up in the nook of her little tree branch. As I slid it back into my pack, Speck asked:

"What are you going to do now?"

I looked up at her, knowing full well I couldn't just go through this without telling her. But I didn't want it to be a burden for her. Nor did I want her to get caught up in all of this. She's never had a family. The only sort of family she had raised her to be an army pet.

"Amber?" she leaned down and I instinctively put a hand out, ready to catch her if she fell. We matched eyes and all I could think of was the first few times I held her hand back in the cages. Her big eyes filled with fear as they did their rounds of testing. She cried when it was her turn. She cried when it was mine. I was her only family now. I couldn't let her not know.

I sighed deeply, closing my eyes and trying to think. What was I going to do? There wasn't much of my birth parents nor my twin brother in those files. I could go searching the sides of milk cartons, but what if my face wasn't on there? Or what if my brother wasn't there? How in the entirety of this universe will I be able to find him?

A small hand gripped my shoulder and I turned to see Speck literally dangling off her branch to hold onto me. Thankfully she was using her jacket as an anvil. I stared at her as she wiped away the tears on my cheeks. I didn't even know I was crying.

"We'll find them, don't worry," she said with her signature sweet smile.

I closed my eyes again and squeezed her little hand.