The next morning I woke before anyone else. Ash was asleep next to me, his arm limply draped over my shoulder. I carefully slide out from under him and look over my flock. Everyone was there. Everyone was safe.

Except Lyric.

I shook my head, needing to keep my thoughts off of that subject. If I thought about it I knew I would start bawling my eyes out. We had to do something. We needed a plan. I ran a hand through my messy hair and sighed.

First things first, we needed to get new clothes. The hospital gowns were not going to do if we went into public.

Then a thought occurred to me. Could we go into public? Surely the white coats would be looking for us. But if it was just the nerdy scientists, we may be able to handle them. All of us were stronger then the average human, after all. But if they sent out Erasers…they wouldn't do that, would they? No. They couldn't. Surely someone would notice a huge, wolf like creature lurking the streets.

But…Erasers were capable of morphing into regular looking humans, weren't they? I couldn't be sure. The only time I ever saw Erasers were when they were fully morphed and ready to kill me or my flock. But I had heard other kids talk about them. I was pretty sure that, when they wanted to, the Erasers could morph back into normal looking beings. And if that was the case, we were in serious trouble.

Aside from that, I didn't know anything about surviving on my own. But that hardly mattered right now. We weren't in cages, and that was the most important thing. The rest we could figure out on the way. Food, clothing, shelter. All of that could be taken care of as long as we stayed away from the white coats.

Not wanting to wake the others, I searched the forest floor until I came up with a sharp rock. Using the edge, I cut a slice in the center of my gown, turning it into two pieces. I tied the bottom piece tighter around my waist and tried hard to stretch out the top. My result was an outfit that vaguely resembled a skirt and long shirt. But as long as it covered my wings, I couldn't be too picky. It was the best I could do with what I had. Then I left a short note for my flock in the dirt, letting them know I was alright, and took off into the morning air.

I could slightly remember passing a town a few minutes before landing in our clearing. If I could just get there I could get some clothes and food and maybe some other supplies we could use.

At least, that was my plan.

When I finally found and landed on the outskirts of the town I made my way to the nearest store and realized I had overlooked one important detail. I needed money to get supplies. And I didn't have money. Still, I was already in the store. And I knew this may have been my only chance to get stuff for us to survive, so I managed to slip a pocket knife into my skirt hem and a small first aid kit up my shirt before I left the store. No one knew the difference, and I was sure the small things wouldn't be missed. After that, I walked the streets wondering how the hell I was going to get new clothes for my flock. They couldn't stay in those awful white gowns. Not only did they offer no protection against the weather, but they contained memories that we wouldn't be able to get over if we didn't get new clothes.

As I was walking, contemplating where else I could hide merchandise to steal from stores, something caught my eye. A woman was standing at a large yellow box and throwing plastic bags right into it.

Bags of clothes.

Perfectly good clothes and she was just throwing them away! What a waste. But not for me. No way. If she didn't want them, I'd take them. Being careful not to be seen, I hid out in a bush until the lady had gone. Then I headed right over to the yellow box to examine it.

Was she incinerating the clothes? Had they been contaminated? I had seen the scientists do that on more than one occasion at the school. But the yellow box wasn't hot. So there couldn't have been fire inside. So what then?

Looking in the opening on the side, my mouth dropped open. There were bags upon bags and perfectly fine clothes just lying there! Why? What were these people thinking? Not that it mattered much. This was just what I needed. Hoisting myself up, I rolled into the yellow box and started going through the bags.

Within seconds I had a perfectly durable backpack filled to the brim with jeans and tops and sweaters that would fit my flock. I made sure to get things that would be easy to run in and not tear every time we flew into a tree. One of the jeans even had a twenty dollar bill in the pocket! Man, normal people were crazy throwing these things away.

Once I was satisfied with my findings, even changing into my own outfit of jean shorts, a zip up hoodie over a tight black tank top that kept my wings pressed firmly against my back, and a fantastic pair of sneakers, I climbed out of the box and resumed walking down the street, trying to look as normal as possible. I made a quick decision to use the twenty dollars I'd found to buy some food for the kids before I went back. It was strange, being able to choose what I ate. Before, it had just been the scientists forcing food down our throats, and never enough might I add. Now it was like I had the world at my fingertips. I was making the decisions. I was in charge. It was insane.

But at the same time, I was beyond paranoid. Everywhere I turned I thought I saw Erasers coming after me. Every time someone made eye contact I could have sworn they were a scientist or taking my description down for the FBI. Just paying for the burgers at some fast food place had sent my heart racing. Actual interactions with a normal human that didn't want to do experiments on me. It was totally new.