Well hi there Sunshine! At least, I hope you're still sunny after the long wait. But I have an excuse! I used to think I just had chronic, big-time writer's block, but it turns out, I have ADD! Which - now that I think about it - explains a lot... And it's SO not what it's cracked up to be. More like being chronically bored.

You know, some people are so freaking lucky it's not even funny. They have a family, friends, a house, food, and they don't have to worry if they'll even survive the night. They can spend money on things they want, they get to take hot showers, ride their bikes around town without worrying about creepers, and probably smell like hair care products. They'd even win a couple bucks at a casino if they went to one. Yeah, some people have all the luck...

I am so not one of them. Heck, maybe I was born under an unlucky star. Just a shot in the dark there, since up until a month ago I lived in a dog crate in a secret experimental facility beneath the streets of Manhattan as some kind of sick living lab equipment.

About a month ago, maybe less, salvation came in the form of six scruffy bird-kids at one A.M. - the six most wanted, according to Zelda. They helped us and the other experiments escape through the sewers, the subway tunnels, and up into the streets. I'd only been out once before - ran for the door when no one was looking and got my sorry ass hauled back by Erasers within the hour, and I don't know about Livvie. It was pretty much impossible to plan escapes because everything we did was captured on video. I used to think, if the government got hold of just one of those cameras...

Anyway, back to the other bird-kids. They offered to take us in, but I was too paranoid. I didn't know who we could trust. So I refused, me and Livvie rounded up the rest of our ragtag crew, and we headed North. Some of them branched off in their own groups. Don't ask me where they are now, we didn't keep in touch. Could be anywhere by now.

A few of them even went back to the Institute. It was the only life they'd ever known, and don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think they had the capacity to imagine that there was something else out there. Sometimes I even wonder if they were the right ones - I mean, life outside wasn't exactly a walk in the park. The first week was especially hard.

My group kept on going north until we found an empty vacation home in the Catskill Mountains. But on the way, most of them died for one reason or another. Some of them needed drugs to the Institute to survive, others were just doomed from the beginning. Our first night there we spent digging graves. Cheery housewarming party, right?

But the part that really cuts me up was how most of them died without a name. Like they never knew who they really were.

I picked the name Snow for myself ages ago. And Livvie, I guess she did the same. I don't even remember why I chose Snow - It's just who I am now.

In the meantime, we had other things to worry about. The house had electricity, running water, internet, all that good stuff. I really have no idea how nobody noticed that we were using their stuff. I mean, didn't they get bills or something? That's what makes me think it was a little less than a month, then they didn't get the bills yet. Or maybe they just never paid them to begin with, I don't know. We lifted a couple of wallets and bought ourselves a ton of food, clothes, and whatnot.

By the end of the first week, everyone had died off except for us two. So we lived like that for a while, just counting on something to happen. That's why we had everything ready when it finally did. And yeah, I feel kind of bad about blowing up their house. Remind me to write them a check later, I think I left my designer purse in the Lamborghini. Note the sarcasm.

One thing we didn't count on was having an ally. And for once it seemed like my luck had finally changed.

"There's another lab in Death Valley," Zelda announced. "Called the School."

"Wait, where's Death Valley?" I asked.

"It's in Californa."

"...Where's that?" Livvie asked. What can I say, we've been out for like a month.

Zelda spread out a map on the smooth dirt ground and crouched down. We copied her motions. "Over here," Zelda said, pointing to one side of the map. "And we're over here." she pointed to the other side.

"So what's the catch?" I said. "It seems way too easy."

"It's way farther than it looks." Zelda replied.

"How far?" Livvie prompted.

Zelda hesitated. "At least four, maybe five days of flying. No breaks."

Livvie and I exchanged a glance. I nodded. "So we go to the School. What do we get out of it?"

"There's two or three avians there," She said. "And three or four between."

I narrowed my eyes. The whole deal was sounding pretty sketchy. "How are we supposed to find them?"

"With this!" Zelda pulled a cell phone out of her backpack with a flourish.

"A cell phone?" Livvie asked rhetorically. "We're just going to call them up and demand to know where they are?"

"No, of course not!" She scoffed. "We're going to ask them nicely." Livvie stared. Zelda cracked up. "Kidding! It's a tracking device. All the avians have tracer chips implanted in their forearms."

Unconciously, my hand flew to the smooth, pale skin of my forearm as if to guard it from some maniac in a speedo running up and shoving a chip in it. Well, he doesn't have to be in a speedo. But most maniacs are... "Can other Erasers access this?" I asked sharply.

"No."

"I doubt that's true." Livvie said, not trying to be mean. Just being honest.

"Look." Zelda barked (No pun intended). "There are different units of Erasers. The Avians Unit is the top of the food chain, the creme de la creme. Because you crazy birds are notoriously smart, fast, and lucky."

"Aw, shucks." I muttered sarcastically. "Get on with it."

"Each member has their own job - There's the Alpha, who's in charge; the Beta, who takes over if the Alpha gets hurt; some random fighters; the guy who holds the tranquilizers, or the duct tape, or the... body bags; the chopper pilot; and the Tracker. That would be me." Zelda explained. "Only the Alpha and the Beta know the whole plan, everyone else knows only the part they play in it. It's safer that way. The pilot doesn't even know the place until about an hour before the mission. I was the only one with access to this thing." She waved the tracker around.

I glared at her tensely for a moment. "Okay," I finally admitted. "So where exactly are they?"

"Not too far." Zelda announced, her expression challenging.

Livvie straightened up and crossed her arms. I copied her. Let's go with some scare tactics, eh? "Where are they?" I repeated, deceptively calm.

Zelda slipped the tracker into her backpack and stood up in one fluid motion. "You'll find out. Eventually." She said evenly, meeting each our eyes in turn. "Stick around and you'll find out."

"That's BS!" I exploded. "We're the ones who took you in!"

"Yeah..." Zelda mock-sympathized. "Bummer I'm the one with the information you need."

So there we were. Allies? Not so much now. This was more of a business offer, albeit a dangerous, shady-on-the-details one. If we accepted, we'd have to take it in faith that she was actually leading us to the avians, not somewhere more... evil. And so far, Zelda wasn't proving herself to be very trustworthy. I mean, she was an ex-Eraser, our mortal enemy. Plus, with all the random mood swings, leaving out details, and obviously trying to get on our good side, I wasn't exactly convinced she was Abraham Lincoln (Honest Abe, no?).

But if we refused, said "Screw THIS!" and walked away, we would never find other people like us, never have our revenge on the people who made us this way, and - most importantly - never guarantee ourselves a cage-free future.

Honestly? It was a no-brainer.

I sighed, shook my head at the stupidity of my next move, and dropped my defensive stance. "I'm in."

Livvie glanced between me and Zelda tensely before she caved. "Me too." She said reluctantly. "I think we have to do this."

Zelda nodded quickly. "Pennsylvania." She announced. "Energy's in Pennsylvania. With Rhaksha."

I shook my head in disbelief at what we were getting into again. "Let's go," I growled as I snapped out my black wings. "Before I change my mind."

Livvie shook out her Golden Eagle-esque wings, and Zelda her white, blood-splattered ones, and the three of us leaped off the cliff, into the air, and soared South.

I have a request for everyone who has a character in the story! Please PM me about your character's parents. Do you have a story in mind? Or can I improvise? This is very important, it'll resurface later in the story!

And, um, read my blog. ..

R&R?