Chapter 2

Flying in a tight triangle formation behind me, Sara and Tara beat their wings in tandem. Yes, people, I said their wings. No wonder I got that weird feeling around them! They were hybrids too! Glancing down at the ground, we were over the mountains now, far away from the city. I arced downward and dived to the ground, pulling out just in time to land on a thick tree branch. The twins landed in front of me, and for the first time I got a good look at their wings. Sara's were white with splashes, almost brushstrokes of black across them. Tara's wings were black as pitch, tiny flecks of white covering them like stars. I glared at both of them with folded arms, but I couldn't seem to process a single coherent thought, except... "WHAT?"

I had thought I was alone, wandering aimlessly and running at the same time, searching for who knows what. I guess you never really know what you're searching for in your life until you find it. I wanted to be shocked and just dumfounded but something inside me wouldn't let me. There was a warmth somehow, blooming like a rose in my chest. Some question I hadn't known I'd been trying to answer until it came to me. I wasn't alone. Somebody else was on my side, and... maybe I wasn't so much of a freak, an experiment after all. Sara was smiling at me, and I couldn't help but smile back. "How long have you been like this?"

"All thirteen years of our lives," Sara answered, her smile fading. "We came from a lab very far away, in Arizona I think? It was called The School..." She shuddered. "You?"

"The Institute for Higher Living, in New York," I answered shuttering as well. "I'm fifteen."

Tara, who had been watching the stars instead of our conversation, asked darkly, "Do you think there are others like us?" Her gaze was so unfocused and calm, I wondered what she was thinking about.

"I used to think there weren't. That I was just a one-time experiment, like all the other mutants, but here you are. Do you think...that's why they called me Subject Seven? You think there are at least six other bird-kids out there?" I asked, gazing up at the moon myself.

"They called us Subjects Ten and Eleven. So there must be at least eight other avian-hybrids, if our basis is right," Sara thought out loud. "Hey, Jay, are we going to fly together now? Like a flock of birds?"

"Huh. That's a good way to put it. We're a...flock...now." It was kinda funny and kinda cool at the same time. It would be so fun! Like having...friends! Real friends! Like on TV! (If you're wondering how I know what's on TV it's because you can watch it online. Like on computers and stuff? And you can do that for free in libraries.) So now there was the small question of, where to? I guess we could fly south, maybe shoot for Atlanta-

"Guys!" Tara blinked, coming back to reality and whirling to face us. "There are at least eight others out there that are like us! At least."

"Yeah," I said uncomprehendingly. "So?"

"Don't you see? We should find them! We'd be unstoppable! Eleven or more mutants together, we could stop those whitecoats once and for all. We'd be like a Super-Flock!" Tara explained enthusiastically.

"That's...actually a good idea. Actually, that's a really good idea!" I thought aloud, smiling at the picture of all the whitecoats running around screaming like ants when you step on their dirt mound. That, my friends, is a magical thing called Karma.

"Great! We could just fly back to the Institute and bust them out and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I stopped her. "It's not that good of an idea. We escaped. Who's to say the others didn't? They could be anywhere. And plus we can't just barge into the Institute. That thing is guarded more heavily than you can imagine. We'd need a Super-Flock just to be able to make a Super-Flock." I couldn't help feeling bad about it, watching their faces fall, but they just didn't understand. They hadn't grown up there. Hadn't seen the Erasers on each hallway, the cameras on each wall, hadn't had a gun pulled on them from every scientist in the building, just to do what they were told. They hadn't watched the heavy foot-thick doors slide closed and locked so fast it was unbelievable. They didn't know how hopeless that place was. It was a miracle I escaped that nightmare.

"Look," I announced, stepping up and taking control of the situation. "It's a nice thought, but chances are we'll never find another bird kid. If we do, awesome. But for now, I say we head south."

"Why?" Sara questioned, a quizzical look on her face.

"Why not?" I retorted. "Besides it's warm and away from both the School and the Institute. Everyone cool with that?" Nods from both twins. "Good. Now get your sleep. We've got a long flight ahead of us tomorrow...uh, now that there's more of us, we should probably take turns watching for Erasers. I guess I'll go first. So when I feel like I can't stay awake anymore, I'll wake up you, Sara, and then when you're about to fall asleep you wake up Tara, and so on. Got it?"

Tired murmurs of agreement. Gradually the twins picked branches and drifted into sleep, their constant deep breathing a way to measure the time. I glanced around, my hypersensitive ears on full alert. I gazed up at the moon, glowing in the darkness, a beacon of silver light. How many others were there like us? Could it be true? Eight others? More maybe? Would we ever find another? We'd fly all day tomorrow, this I was sure of. Maybe the hours of time together would help the flock get to know each other. Would they trust me enough to talk to me?

As it turned out, this was not the right question to be asking. The question was, would they ever stop talking. Well Sara at least. Tara had the right mind to only speak when spoken to, except for interjecting thoughts every now and then into Sara's stories.

"...and that's how we escaped the School," Sara finished, running a hand through her wavy brown hair. Believe it or not, she was actually a pretty dang good story-teller. She really got into it. She was one of those people you'd expect to find dressed up in costumes at bookstores reading to kids. Which wasn't actually a bad idea, that was totally something Sara would do. The sunlight glinted off her white feathers, almost shining through them in a way that kind of made them appear to glow as they worked to keep her in the air. However they weren't working quite as hard as ours, and she was falling out of formation. "Hey, Sara, keep up," I called to her.

"Sorry," she murmured, catching up. "I'm exhausted."

"Trouble sleeping?"

"No. Tara just didn't want to wake up so I took her watch." I glared at Tara, who was suddenly really interested in the land beneath us.

"If that happens again, wake me up instead. I'll handle it." Tara made no comment so I changed the subject. "Sara, how'd you get those bruises?"

She glanced away. "Well, I guess I kinda left this part out of the story. You see, when we were escaping the School, one of the Erasers came, like, out of nowhere and caught me. He threw me against the wall and started hitting me over and over again... the next thing I knew I was laying in the grass with Tara leaning over me." The twins looked at each other and half-smiled. You could almost feel the love passing between them.

Tara spoke up then. "I saw that monster attacking her, but a whitecoat behind me had his gun aimed at my head. I spun and knocked it out of his hand just as Sara collapsed unconscious. That demon was bent over her, claws ready to rip out her throat and I just fired. I killed him. He morphed back into a human as the blood ran out of him... I couldn't believe what I had done, but there was no time. My sister was still out cold and her face was already purple, so I grabbed her and ran.

It's not easy, trying to run and carry a person that weighs as much as you do, but something kept me going. Erasers were chasing me and with Sara I could barely outrun them. They kept swiping at me, cutting up my back and legs, but somehow I got out. Just when I thought we were safe and put Sara down, an Eraser jumped out from hiding and lunged for me. I turned, but not quick enough and blood came racing down my arm. I picked up Sara faster than he could predict what I was doing, and took off, carrying her in the air. The pain was maddening, and it was literally all I could do to hold on to her and stay in the air. By some miracle, we made it away from there and I was able to kinda bandage my arm. It was a while before she woke up, but honestly for a while there I didn't know if she would. You have no idea what that feels like. To even think that you might lose your twin that way."

Heavy silence hung in the air between us, the weight of it pressing down into me. The love between them was warm, but the thought of Sara dying... it almost hurt, and not necessarily because it was a scary thought. I mean it was a scary thought, but that's not what made my chest grow so tight I had a hard time breathing. It was the thought that I'd never had someone to love like they loved each other. There was nobody to mourn for me if I died. Nobody loved me the way the twins loved each other. Nobody loved me at all. I murmured, "I'm glad you two have each other."

"Are you okay, Jay?" Sara called worriedly.

I wiped my hand over my eyes just to make sure my face was dry. "I'm fine."

We had flown for a good four hours straight (we left pretty late, taking some time to make one stop for food and bathroom breaks) when we finally landed, or crashed is more accurate, onto a tree branch, almost to Georgia. We all just lay there for a minute, breathing heavily, wings hanging down beneath us trying to get some feeling back in them. "Who wants first watch?" I half-groaned.

The twins didn't respond. I turned my head to look at them. "Guys?" Sara breathed heavily, almost sighing. My eyes narrowed and I sighed, beyond exasperated. Dang new flock members thought they could just fall asleep... "No, really guys, you get some rest, I'll take first watch. Don't mind me, I just flew more than 400 miles, no biggie." I muttered sarcastically to nobody.

I propped myself up against the tree trunk and stared at the starry sky. Was it just me, or are there more stars when you're away from big cities? The sky was so big, never-ending, so... infinite. In such a big world, it made me feel so small.

I let my mind wander, just drift in, out, and among half-focused pictures and incoherent thoughts. A cool breeze caressed me and smoothed my feathers in that light way that felt like a tender touch. Everything grew fuzzy and it hurt to keep my eyes open. Right before I fell asleep, I shook Tara, my speech slurred from exhaustion. "Tarawaykuuup...cmoooonpleeease..." She finally blinked awake, cursing under her breath. I barely heard her though, I was out the second I laid my head down.