Ok, here's another chapter everybody. I know I need to get the rest of the flock into this story, but that will come soon. Maybe even in this chapter, I'm not sure. But they'll get there. I still need a few ideas for later on, but I haven't gotten much feedback. Anybody is welcome to give ideas, any idea is welcome. Please feel free to say anything. I'm off of school this week and next week for spring break, and I hope I can update a few more times to make up for not updating for about a month. Sorry about that.

Now, to the story.

Disclaimer: JP IS THE AMAZING AUTHOR OF MAXIMUM RIDE, NOT ME.

The first thing I was aware of was this: everything hurt. I felt like my head was a bowling ball, my arms felt like 25 lb. weights, and I could barely even feel my legs they felt so heavy. My ribs were definitely bruised- maybe even broken- my stomach growled and was twisted with hunger, my cheek felt swollen, and I could feel various cuts and bruises on my body.

I was laying on something that was cold and hard, but it wasn't like a concrete floor. It seemed like a little bed that was made of just metal springs, with no sheets or any sort of bedspread to make it softer. It felt almost like a chain link fence, and I thought I would have tiny squares all over my back.

I tried to roll over, make myself more comfortable since I was laying on my wings and they were getting chafed, but I felt like I was glued to it.

I groaned and eventually got my eyes open. I was in a small white room, probably only about nine feet on each side. A very small room. I noticed another cot on the other side of the room, and it was definitely made out of chicken wire, and it had a slight dent in the middle of it that showed it had been used a lot. I blinked a few times and tried to take a deep breath, but I gagged on the air. It smelled like antiseptic and chemicals. I had always hated doctors' offices, but I hated the smell even more. This room smelled like someone had opened an antiseptic bottle and just dumped everything all over the walls, with the worst part right under my nose. I managed to move my hand over my mouth and breathe through my fingers to somewhat cover the stench. I coughed and tried to keep the smell out as much as I could.

I finally managed to sit up, only to almost fall down again by surprise. Sitting against the other side of the room against the wall, was a boy. He seemed around my age, with sandy brown hair and deep blue eyes, and he was extremely cute. Almost like he had just been plucked out of one of Nikki and Jaz's magazines, with all the movie stars they swooned over all the time. He was staring at me, with curiosity plain in his amazing eyes. He had his knees up to his chest with his arms loosely hanging over them, wearing a white T-shirt and white pants, completely sterile.

He smirked at me and then looked down to his hands, breaking the stare contest we were apparently having. I coughed and looked down at myself, noticing I was wearing the same sterile fabric but it was in a dress form instead. Great. I felt a little better now that I had moved, and the smell was starting to fade as my nose got used to it. I had a few itchy wool blankets on my legs, wondering why I had two instead of just one.

"I didn't need mine." I looked up at the boy again, and he was watching me intently. His voice was deep and smooth. Sadly to say, it was a voice that I could listen to for hours. What was wrong with me? I never felt anything like this for anyone in such a short time. I blamed it on the chemicals.

"Oh. Um, thanks." He nodded, keeping eye contact. I broke it, then pushed the wool blankets off my legs and shivered when the cold hit my legs. I stretched my arms and moved my legs off the bed, the cot way too uncomfortable. The white dress came to a little above my knees, making me extremely uncomfortable with a guy in the room. I tried to pull it down, but it was being extremely stubborn and didn't go anywhere. I huffed. "Where am I?"

He stood up. He was about six inches taller than me, and a little taller than Fang was. He gave me a knowing look. "We are at the School, in Death Valley, California. A place where they test you, run you, and experiment on you until you either die, or are too sick to do anything, so they put you in the field to let the Erasers finish you off."

I fell back onto the cot in surprise, then straightened back up as the metal "springs" poked me. I knew it was coming, but I had just hoped it wasn't real. That it was all just a dream. But now that was blown out of the water. I took a deep breath and ignored the sting of chemicals, trying to stop the tears that pricked at the back of my eyes. I would not cry in front of this guy. I wouldn't cry in front of anyone. Especially if that's what they wanted to happen. "Oh." I squeaked.

"You okay?" he took a step towards me and held out his hand, then let it fall back to his side uselessly. He actually looked worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just… it's all…" I sighed and shook my head. "Too much." He nodded in agreement, and then held out his hand to me.

"I'm Lucas. You are?" he looked at me evenly, watching me carefully.

"Max. Why are you here? What's different about you?" I asked. I purposely didn't shake his hand, because I didn't want to see what happened if I touched him.

He sighed and dropped his hand again, then slid down the wall again. He wouldn't look in my eyes again. I guess I sort of missed the deep blue, then shook my head. I slowly sat down on the wool blankets, making sure to not get poked by the cot. He sighed heavily, deep in thought. What was wrong?

"I don't like to talk about it, Max. That's the first thing you should know about me." He ran a hand through his oily hair. I wondered if mine was the same way, and if the scientists even cared at all. I doubted it.

"Alright, I'll remember that. How long have you been here?"

"As long as I can remember, really. I've never had much of a memory of this place, though. Nothing up until about two years ago. I just assume that it's all the drugs they test on us, that it affects our memory somehow. I know how long you've been here, but what's your story?"

"How long have I been here?" I asked.

"About two days, give or take a few hours. Hard to tell when there aren't any windows in here. All there is to go by time wise is what they bring you for food. You've been out for most of the time, though." He smirked to himself, thinking of something.

"How did I get so… beat up?" I asked, rubbing a sore bruise on my arm. It felt like someone had hit me with a club.

"You woke up when they dumped you here, and started thrashing around everywhere. They had to knock you out by force just to get you to stay in the room. It was crazy. You just started punching everyone you saw, and you actually broke a few of the white coat's noses. You have a pretty wicked punch, I have to say." He rubbed his shoulder, and I guessed I had punched him. Whoops. I gave him a little apologetic smile, and he shrugged the shoulder that he wasn't rubbing.

"I don't remember anything, other than getting captured, then waking up here." My voice faltered when I said captured, and I wondered just where Fang was and if he had been taken, too. It would have been really nice if he was there to talk to, just to see a familiar face.

"Do you love him?" Lucas asked, and my jaw dropped a little bit. What was that supposed to mean?

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you love him? That Fang guy, you thought about. You seem really worried about him." He looked me right in the eye, completely serious. Then what he said hit me.

"You can read minds." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. All the proof was in what he had just said. I had seen people who could read minds in movies, and all that junk, but I never thought it was actually possible. Yet, I never thought I would have wings on my back and be trapped in a place where people ran tests on mutants, either. I purposely avoided the question he was asking, plus I was too surprised to even think about an answer to that.

Lucas looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "Uh, yeah. It's one of my… powers. Most of the experiments have them, depending on what their genes are." He shrugged. "I guess it's just something that happens, and the whack jobs can't do anything to prevent it. You'll probably find out you have them soon, if you don't have them already."

Geez. Now there're powers involved? This just keeps getting more and more strange, like in some fiction flick you would find in theatres. I sighed, wishing this was all just some crazy dream and I would wake up soon. I was even tempted to pinch myself.

Lucas was still looking at the ground thoughtfully, and I noticed a small crease in his forehead. Worry?

He looked back to my eyes, then his eyes flicked around the room so fast I could barely see them. He turned his head towards the almost invisible door I hadn't seen, and I noticed it didn't have a handle on this side. I looked at him quizzically, but he just stared at the door. I couldn't hear anything, or see anything, since there was no window. Still he stared. Suddenly, I heard footsteps outside the door. Had he known someone was coming? Had he heard that before even I had, with my new hearing? Wow.

He stood up quickly, then took a few strides and grabbed my arm to pull me up. My nerves immediately felt like they burst into flames at his touch. I was so surprised that my knees couldn't hold me up for a second, and Lucas had to grab my waist to keep me from collapsing.

Sadly, as soon as he had touched my waist, the door just had to open. A woman in a white lab coat, black pencil skirt and blouse, and high pumps, with light brown hair in a tight bun, appeared in the doorway. She had a skeptical look on her face, which suddenly turned to an evil smirk when she caught sight of our position.

Awkward, much? Nah.

She cleared her throat as Lucas let go of me, then he stood up straight and put both hands clasped together in front of him. He looked like a military captain, standing tensely and staring straight ahead. I just stood still, leaning on one leg with my arms crossed, staring at her evenly as she was looking back and forth between us. Her eyes settled on Lucas.

"Well, subject twelve, I see you've met subject one." Lucas's jaw tightened, and he nodded tensely. I glared at the lady.

"I have a name, you know." I growled. Her gaze flitted to me, and her eyes turned hostile.

"You will not speak unless you are told to speak, or have been asked to answer something. Other than that, you stay quiet." She snarled back.

"And what if I don't?" I challenged. I thought I saw Lucas gulp out of the corner of my eye.

"Then you, and you roommate, will be punished to the fullest extent we can manage without killing you. Or, we could just throw you in the field with the Erasers and see how well you two fare." She seemed to be playing around with those ideas, and that just made her extremely sick and twisted in my eyes. I sort of got the idea she would do that for anything we did, if it didn't fit her standards. I stayed silent, just to make her think she won. She smiled pleasantly, like she hadn't just threatened anyone's life. "Wonderful. Now that we have an understanding, I would like you to come with me, subject one. We need to run a few tests on you." She looked down at the clipboard she held in her hands, which I hadn't seen before since it was almost invisible against her suit.

She probably expected me to follow her like a lost puppy, but I just stayed put and raised my eyebrow at her, showing my defiance. Her fist clenched at her side, and her teeth grinded together. She probably wasn't used to being disobeyed.

"I said, come with me." She growled. Lucas nudged my shoulder, and my heart jumped at the slight touch. I was still confused as to why that was happening. I still blamed the antiseptics.

"Go, Max." he murmured out of the side of his mouth, barely visible. I sighed, dramatically, and took a few steps forward. The woman grabbed my arm and pulled me close to her face, her grip almost cutting off the circulation in my arm. She looked like she was about to kill me.

"Listen to me, you worthless experiment. You will do what you are told, and you will not fight it. If you do, you will be exterminated like the vermin you all are!" she spat at me. I wrinkled my nose and yanked my arm away from her, crossing my arms again.

"Well excuse me, then. Remind me to read the rule book next time." She hissed a breath through her teeth, and I tried to hide a smirk. This lady had some issues. She grabbed my arm tightly, with her perfectly manicured nails digging into the skin of my arm below my dress sleve, and practically dragged me down the hall, slamming the door to my cell shut behind her and scanning her ID card. I tried memorizing the hallways, but after a few I got lost. They all looked exactly the same, and I wondered how the scientists got around.

She dragged me into a room with C 148 printed on a plastic plaque to the right of the door. It was a small white room, like my cell, but a few feet bigger. Inside was a table that I had seen at my mom's work the few times she had taken me with her, an all metal one that they put the animals on for surgery and checkups. There was a smaller rolling table with scalpels and syringes filled with different colored liquids and even a gas mask. There were a few other scientists in white lab coats around the table, with masks around their necks, and they smiled happily when I was shoved into the room. But it wasn't happy, like if you had gotten something you really wanted. It was scary happy, the smile when you know you can do whatever you want because you know nobody can catch you doing it, and you get away with everything.

My heart jumped. What were they planning on doing here? Were they going to test me like some deranged animal that was sick, like my mom did? But my mom was nice- she cared about the animals, and would never do anything to hurt them on purpose. These people… they looked like they would purposely try something horrible on me, just to see me squirm around helplessly.

Yeah, like I would let them do that.

Duh-duh-dunn….

I hope you liked it! Sorry I didn't update more than this, like I was planning to. I was gone half the week and I didn't have internet the other half. So, this is a long chapter to make up for it. I'll try to be better about updating at least once a week. Give me a few extra reviews, and I might even make it sooner…?

Review, please! Much loved!

BoOk-NeRd38