A/N well here's the second chapter hope you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it. But hopefully it shouldn't take you as long to read it. LOL! By the way has anybody heard any news about the new Maximum Ride book coming out? I am dead curious and excited, and I am proud to say I am a Maximum Ride Fanatic wooo! :D

Chapter 2

Kids for their third birthdays got cards, cake and presents. They woke up to the sounds of parents yelling surprise, they went through their day with people singing out of tune 'Happy Birthday'. I got a wakeup call by a kick in the face, I had a present of newly unwrapped needles that were waiting to be pressed into my skin. I had to listen to Wing Beaters sing cheery tunes as they delighted in my squeaks and squeals of pain, I had a whole new experiment set up and designed just for me, to cause me pain.

I hung ten feet from the floor, my arms were stretched high above my arms, and my fingers curled tightly around the metal pole that was the only thing stopping me from dropping onto the broken pieces of glass and nails and whatnots on the floor below me. The pole continued its slow rotation and my arms shook stiffly as I changed my grip and tried to hold on. There was an observation window to my right, and an LED clock on the wall facing me, counting the seconds I could last. No matter how long I held on I knew I would fall. They would leave me up here for as long as it took for my will to give. I couldn't hold on forever, I had already been like this for fifty six minutes.
I changed my grip again but this time my arm felt too heavy to lift and coordinate, as I panted and tried to throw my hand above my head in a blind attempt to save myself from a painful fall, I could feel and was highly aware of the fingers on my other hand uncurling as the pole made another rhythmic rotation. It was too late.

Just as my flailing arm reached the pole my fingers that were holding me snapped their grip as the pole finished its rotations. I had a second to gasp and wish that they hadn't put me up so high. As I fell, my baby wings automatically flapped trying to save me, it was as useless as crying. My wings only caused me to flip in mid-fall so I could see floor and ceiling. There was a loud thud as I connected with the ground, accompanied with the sound of tinkling glass and metal, I didn't know which hurt more, the force of hitting the floor face first, the slice as glass and metal pierced my flesh, or the pain of crushed and snapped bones.

Either way I started to scream in pain, it was too much. I wanted nothing to do but die, right there, right then. I willed the blood to flow faster so I could drift off quicker. I wished for the crushing feeling in my chest to be the pain of my heartbeat slowing. They wouldn't care, it's why they did this to me. They wanted to push me to see how far it took for them to kill me. This was the finish line for me.

No! Max just hold on sweetie. I'm here, and so's Chase. We won't leave you, I know it hurts it always does. But we will get out of here, soon I promise. Then you can see the sun and sky, you just have to last that bit longer. Don't let them win Max, we can beat them, but until then we have to play their game. Then they are going to sorely regret the day they laid a finger on us, 'cause we are going to repay them. If you believe or live for anything let it be for me and Chase. And for yourself.

I cried. I was so close to simply falling into a final sleep, yet my sisters smooth voice kept me clinging, the thought of my protective brother and gentle sister kept me hoping. Hoping that there was something else to life than this. There had to be.

I was numb to the cold hands that inspected my body, to the sharp instruments that were inserted into my flesh. I ignored the taunts of the monsters that were asking me if I wanted to die. I willed myself to live, to not give up. I tried to train myself to accept the pain of broken bones and open wounds. I tensed and made myself acknowledge the pain of needles. If I could feel pain, I was still alive, if I was still alive I would live another day, I would see my family.

After hours that felt like days I opened my eyes to a room that was all shiny and clean, and truly horrifying. It was the operating room. I didn't want to be operated on today, I had already been through too much. There was only one option I had, it was a choice of either one pain or another pain. It was either being operated on or I got a beating and was thrown back into my cell without any food for three days.

It could have been cowardice, fear, desperation or something entirely else, but I still did what I did. In a way it was the only way I could think of to defy them, just like my brother and sister.

I started thrashing around on the metal table they had placed me on. They never thought I would move so I had no restraints. I managed to crawl off the table and avoid the grappling hands after me. I crawled under the table, hobbling as my joints and bones ached, I had been stitched and bandaged and I even had an awkward brace on my left leg.

I made a break for the door, not sure really on how I planned to put my plan in action. So as they would say, I went with the flow. I knocked some guy over by barging into his legs, while he went down and some of the others tried to help him up a Wing Beater grabbed me by my hair and hoisted me up. I started twisting and flapped my wings in a futile attempt to get free. The Wing Beater was a new one and obvious unused to experiments like me rebelling. He stumbled back and one of my wings knocked his head, causing him to lose sight. He fell backwards and we crashed onto a tray holding operating equipment.

I heard a muffled shout and the arms around me went slack. I rolled off the Wing Beater as both of our bodies hit the floor with a thud. The scientists around us stood frozen looking at the Wing Beater who was no longer moving. Again I tried to run for it, I nearly made it to the door as the scientists were ignoring me and focusing on the limp body. But the door opened and one of the nastiest Wing Beaters ever came in. I turned to run and he caught me by the neck and casually carried me as though I was a bag.

"What's happened here?" His voice was harsh and sharp like a whip.
"Coran is dead. That experiment your holding killed him, he has a scalpel stuck in his spine and he has a broken neck. That experiment is meant to be dead, and yet its rebelling." The scientists was looking at me as though I was a piece of road kill.

The Wing Beater holding me just laughed and walked out, still holding me by the back of my neck, with a comment about cleaning up the corpse.

I'd killed him? That Wing Beater? But I didn't mean to, it was an accident. But according to that scientist they were going to kill me, or something like that.

I started kicking out as I swung slightly in the Wing Beaters grip. He was still laughing and my defiance seemed to make him laugh more.

"So you killed Coran? I was hoping someone would do that snivelling idiot in finally." I paused in my kicking and looked at the Wing Beater with wary eyes, he had shifted me so he was now holding me so he was almost cradling me. Like Sky had when I was a baby. But unlike Sky's or even Chase's hugs this didn't feel safe and warm, it felt hostile and threatening.

"They're right you know? They all expected you to die, but your still here. The ones who survive are the ones like me. They always become Wing Beaters. You ever think about being one of the guys on the winning team, to be one of the ones with a life, with control and power?"

I looked at the Wing Beaters eyes and felt fear for what my future may hold apart from this painful hell I was already in.