Chapter 21

It was about a week before they allowed me back into the lessons. I had told them repeatedly that I was fine; that I had accepted my sister's death at the funeral and had done all the grieving I needed. They had kept me in my room for that week and I was bored out of my mind. They only company I had was Laura, and even then her visits were only brief because of the testing the whitecoats wanted to do on her. But I always found something to occupy my time. First it was examining my new wings, now that I had begun to get used to them there I began to notice things that naturally happened, like whenever I curled up to sleep they wings folded around me like a blanket, or how when I was surprised my wings opened slightly, as if getting ready to fly, although I don't know how to yet.

If it wasn't that, then I was on my computer, studying birds, their wing feathers, the structure of their wings and how they moved them in flight. It was there that I learnt how to lift myself of the floor. I didn't try any acrobatics in my small room, but I did manage to get myself to float of the floor while flapping my wings. After achieving that I began to study in depth the movement of bird wings in flight, watching documentaries on the TV and read up on how each feather controls what part of flight. I began to store the knowledge in my mind, began to remember it until eventually I didn't had to think about it, it was all done on instinct. The only problem was I needed open space to test my flying skills, but they wouldn't let me, not until now. And here I am, at my first flying lesson. Who knew there were more like me? More people who had been drugged and transformed into bird people. From catching their conversations most of them were willing test subject, orphans.

"Right, listen up," A voice commanded over the people collected on the field outside, "There are a few rules you will learn while out here, but I will give you the two main ones. Unless instructed by an instructor like myself, or any other instructor, no-one is allowed to go outside the perimeter of the compound; otherwise you'll have a retrieval squad on your tail. The second Rule is this; there will be no escape attempts by anyone while in the class understood? Otherwise I get the blame and I will personally hunt you down and kill you myself. Most of you here are filling participants and we won't have the problem, but there were others, who the only way we could save them was by changing them."

The Instructor looked at me as he said the last bit, but I just stared back at him. He was only about eighteen, a year older than me, military style haircut and was dressed in the all white clothing this place gave people who didn't have clothes. He had wings like us, except they were of a dark, wooden brown. I guessed I figured out how he was going to teach us.

"My name is Dean," He said, "I am your flight instructor. Would you all kindly remove your coats and spread your wings out. I am going to teach you the basics of flying. How to control your flight using your feathers and wing movement."

Dean noticed I hadn't moved from against the building and approached me. I ignored him and continued to look out over the forest below us and the mountains in the distance. Guess what? Flying lessons are held on a cliff on the northern side of Haven.

"Nathan remove your coat and join the class," Dean ordered.

"Oh, but I like black," I said removing my black trench coat, "and I prefer to watch and wait. I already know this."

"I doubt that," Dean replied casually, then turned to the rest of the class, "In fact I doubt any of you would be able to lift off the ground as of yet. I have a free all access pass to anywhere in Haven for the first person who can get airborne."

An all access pass? That could come in handy for my planning. I had to get that pass. But unfortunately things weren't that simple were they.

"I have a second all access pass for people," Dean said, "but since Nathan here thinks he is an expert, he can have it, if he can beat me in a flight race." He turned to me, "First one to that mountain peak and back wins, and anything goes."

Anything goes? This was going to get interesting.

Chapter 22

There were no rules. We could do anything we wanted. I approached the cliff face to prepare for take off. Dean walked up beside me with a look of determination on his face. He wasn't going to let a new person like me beat him. I'd have to show him. One of the students shouted go to signal the start of the race. Dean shoved me off the cliff and launched himself into the air. I pulled my wings in closer, shifting the feathers for the dive to gain maximum speed. I plummeted towards the ground, the trees slowly growing larger and larger, the wind whistling past me ears at a deafening howl and the force of gravity began to rattle my bones.

Once I was sure of my speed, I flared my wings open, locking the feathers to grab as much air as possible and shot along close to the ground and near supersonic speeds, or so they appeared. I tilted upwards and used my speed while flapping my wings to gain altitude, slowly gaining on the lead Dean had on me. He seemed surprised to see my still flying, even more surprised to see me catching up to him. I continued to climb, flying towards the mountain peak. I love the thrill of going at incredible speeds and feeling the adrenaline course through my blood. The view was unbelievable; I could see rivers and lakes spread through the green sea of trees spread out below me. The mountain peak began to get closer and I could make out the rock features buried in snow. Dean was just ahead of me banking into the turn that would take him around the peak and back to Haven. As I passed the mountain, I made sure I was close enough to grab a couple of fists full of snow. I packed them into hard balls and threw them at Dean, the first missed, the second hitting him square in the middle of the back, making him lose speed and altitude as he had to correct his flying from losing concentration. Anyone feel like a game of aerial snow ball fighting?

As we flew back I began to gain on Dean. The snow ball seemed to cause a sting that annoyed him had made him lose his concentration. Well he said anything goes. I drew near him, flying almost directly above him and had to perform a barrel roll as he bought out a small rock to throw at me. I avoided it and crept into the lead while Dean recovered. Haven was within visible distance without using our bird like vision and I estimated the distance, letting Dean take the lead and let him think he was winning, and then once I was sure, I folded my wings, aiming at the cliff below where the class stood. I plummeted in a straight line, aimed right for the cliff face. I passed Dean and was the look of surprise on his face as I shot passed. The air was rushing at me again, but my vision was focused on the point of the cliff I had aimed for. At the last moment I angled up sharply and zoomed almost straight up the rock face and landed right in front of the shocked and stunned faces of the class.

"I think I win," I said, before throwing my coat on and walking back into the compound. I had got what I needed. I wanted to fly, outside the perimeter and see what it was like, see how long I could handle myself before I collapsed. While I was by the mountain I had found a small cave that was hidden from plain sight, but I had noticed it s I went in close to the mountain. It would be a good hiding spot. Erasers couldn't climb there and it wasn't easy to notice from the air. Especially by helicopters. Only the winged kids might pose a problem. The all access pass was only a bonus to what I had wanted to do. It would give me access to anywhere I wanted to go. Including archives. But I didn't want to be too obvious about it. Another obstacle to ponder.

As I entered the building I was greeted by the warm and cheery faces of four Erasers and my mother standing at the head with a look of pure anger on her face. What have I done now?

"Nathaniel Derrick Corway," My mother scolded me. I knew I was in trouble when she used my full name, "You broke almost three different protocols in disobeying you Instructor and Flying out to that mountain and back. You were unprepared for a flight of that length and could have failed in mid flight."

"But I didn't mother," I replied, "I knew what I was doing, and I won against Dean. Now if you don't mind, I don't care how many protocols I broke or nearly broke. I'm tired and want some rest. Flying uses a lot of energy. You should try it sometime. Oh wait… you only want to test others, never yourself. Next time you try to lecture me, look in the mirror, she's the one that need lecturing."

I stormed off into my room and collapsed on my bed, but I couldn't get to sleep, no matter how much my muscles hurt. It was the adrenaline in my blood from experiencing my first flight. I was thrilled. And now I had the key to getting out of here anytime I want. I just had to plan on using it wisely…