Thank you to everyone who left a review, it means a lot to me to see that people like my story. Especially CosmicKitten16, I had forgotten about this story but I finally finished the chapter tonight, so here's an early update. Thank you all!
After another hour of flying, the adrenaline had long worn off and I was close to my limit. Sam is the first to notice when I begin dropping a few feet and he signals to Michelle and Reid that we needed to land. I was reluctant to make everyone stop, especially when my gut screamed to get as much distance between the laboratory and me as I could, but I had to yield when I felt ready to drop from the sky. I let Sam and Reid land first so I could see how this stuff went (Michelle neglected to teach me how to land in her 1 second tutorial) before precariously attempting it myself. I land, stumbling hard, but keep my balance long enough to run into a tree. I rub my head as I head back towards the clearing. Michelle had landed by now and we all take a few seconds to just enjoy the moment. Michelle breaks the reverie. "Holy crap, we did it." It may not have been the most eloquent thing, but no one could have said it better. We break out into wide grins before Sam suddenly pulls everyone into a group hug, jumping up and down with joy. I'm not going to lie; we all started crying, this had been our dream since we were fledglings. We stand there, crying and hugging without thought for what seemed like hours, just getting used to the idea that we were whole again. Soon enough Reid pulls back and his logical side kicks in.
"We need food, fire, and shelter. The temperature is going to drop harshly at night, and it's already sunset." We all pull together and nod.
"Michelle, Amanda, and I need clothes too. The School took ours." Sam adds. I tilt my head slightly at that name and Michelle sees.
"That's what we call the laboratory. Max and her flock started it." She says in a low voice. I nod with the new information and in agreement to everything else. In a louder tone she continues, "I'll take Amanda with me to go get clothes. Sam, you help Reid gather everything else and I can get you clothes, I remember your sizes." Everyone nods this time and we split off, Sam and Reid walking into the woods and Michelle and I towards the nearest town. A peaceful silence settles over us, but Michelle breaks it reluctantly. "Do you remember what I showed you?"
I think for a moment, recalling what I can, "Yes, I'm not sure I remember everything well though. It's more dreamlike than anything." Even though Michelle could send memories and thoughts over her empathy links, sometimes they only appear like dreams, making it hard to get much detailed information from them. She sighs, holding out her hand.
"Here, I'll give you a more detailed description of some everyday things so you aren't lost. There is a lot of stuff that we learned." I take her hand.
"I'm already lost." I grin and she snickers before she starts streaming over memories. I stumble, forgetting to move for a moment, before continuing in a dreamlike state as I go through memories of domestic life. Daily care, shopping, people; the basics to function in society flow through my mind. It wasn't exactly full memories but it was enough to help me understand the world I had been released into. After a while I blink, resurfacing from the slideshow.
"Better?" Michelle looks curious to see if I retained any information. Her shared memories were always hard to hold onto; that was the one downside to her power.
"Much. I didn't know so many things could even exist … Internet, phones, houses … I really didn't think people could be so free and cared for. Did you guys get a house?" I really wanted to stay in a house. They looked amazing: clean, warm, safe. A haven all our own.
Michelle sighs and shakes her head, "No, we haven't been able to find as safe one. Rental cabins have been easy to find though in the off seasons, and they are similar. I'll ask Sam if he can find one for us to stop off in. It's much better than sleeping on the forest floor, that's for sure!" She was right back to grinning, and despite our new on-the-run status, I couldn't help but smile back. She was just infectious. "Oh, we're here. Follow my lead and be quiet." She lets go of my hand and I feel a small jolt; I hadn't noticed we were still holding hands. She flares her wings and takes off silently, swathed in the newly fallen darkness like a bird of prey. She smoothly lands on the roof of some superstore and turns, waiting for me. I pause. There was no way I could do this without getting both of us caught. Michelle notices my hesitation and gives me a dual thumbs up with her infectious grin. I take a small breath and hesitantly open my wings, pushing down hard and gaining air. I quickly loose said air. I slam back onto the ground, containing a yelp of pain as my knees are jolted around in their sockets. Michelle winces for me, but I take t the air again, this time flapping rapidly just to stay airborne. I flew nothing like Michelle, haphazardly darting through the air and almost falling on her as I try to land. However, we both ended up on the roof. I grin childishly. Bam, that's how to use the stealth. Michelle snorts then creeps to a skylight, wiggling the rusty nails out of place and opening it. I peer down into the darkness and watch as she jumps in, flaring her wings to land silently. Again, impossible standards. I huff but close my eyes and jump, immediately flaring my wings in panic. I knock over a shelf and get a small bruise on the tip of my right wing, but it wasn't too bad. Michelle was already heading for the back, having spotted the security room. I guess she was going after the security tapes and alarm. I leave her to it, drifting towards the clothing isle. My jaw drops. I had never seen such a selection of clothes before. My wax paper hospital gown suddenly felt all the more revealing. I blush. I had seen people wearing clothes in the memories, but it didn't really hit me until now. Reid was the only one really dressed. I take a deep breath to try and get rid of the embarrassment. There is nothing I can do about the past, so I can't worry about it. I walk over to the jeans, really enjoying the idea of something to cover my legs while flying instead of having everything revealed in the breeze. Michelle reappears beside me and hand me a package of underwear. "You're going to want one of these on first." I flush even worse.
"Ah, thanks." She notices my newfound embarrassment and laughs softly.
"Don't be ashamed, we've known each other from birth. I'm just excited to be getting out of this gown. Do you need help with sizing?" I look at all of the cloths again and notice all differences in length and width.
"Oh, yeah, that'd be great." She chuckles, then helps me find pants that fit and several generic T-shirts. I grab a dozen of the pants that fit, all the shirts that I could grab, a few jackets, and tons of underwear. The socks and panties were easy, but the bras took a bit longer to find. While I was getting clothes, Michelle had already grabbed four bags and gotten Reid, Sam, and herself their normal outfits and new shoes. She comes back over as I finish getting dressed, handing me my bag and a pair of shoes. I roll up my new clothes, shoving them inside the bag as I put on the shoes. I trail Michelle while she shops for the essentials next: canned foods (evenly distributed), can opener, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, soaps, bandages, a sewing kit, medication, bottled waters (as many as we could fit), water purifiers, water bottles, knives (we pre-cut wing holes in the clothes after we wrestle it out of the packaging), and any other oddity that popped into Michelle's head, like sleeping bags and blankets. Finally we were ready to leave. She takes each bag to the roof one by one, flying through the skylight with one hard flap before taking the last bag up and landing there to wait on me. The sky was beginning to grow grey and I knew we didn't have long to get out of here before we lost the cover of darkness, not to mention my growing anxiety from being separated from Reid and Sam for so long. I flap hard, barley gripping the edge of the skylight before my momentum is lost. I haul myself through the skylight with some help from Michelle, then we both grab a pack and fly for the woods. For some reason, every avian mutant seemed to have an internal GPS that guided them to whatever they thought of. Using this, it wasn't hard to re-find our landing site. I land after Michelle, a roaring fire greeting us.
Reid jumps up from beside the fire when he sees us land, "Michelle, Amanda! You guys took forever; don't make us worry like that!" Sam materializes from the shadows with a pile of sticks then grins. Top notch timing right there.
"Yes! Clothing has arrived!" Sam drops the sticks a little ways from the fire and Michelle tosses him his pack. He catches it midair and unzips it, rummaging for his clothes as he heads back into the woods to change. Michelle hands Reid his pack and he takes off the sleeping bag, unrolling it and setting his bag down at the top to use for a pillow.
"I cooked the last of our previous rations, they should be done by now." Reid gestures towards the fire, sticks jammed into the ground at a gentle angle. Hot dogs were hanging off them, slowly roasting in the heat from the flames.
"Mm, I was starving! Thanks Reid." She snatches a stick, unrolling her sleeping bag beside Reid with one hand as she tries to eat the hotdog gingerly with the other, occasionally yelping when it burns her tongue. I snicker and unroll my sleeping bag on the other side of Reid, Sam emerging from the woods and putting his down on the other side of me.
"So, did Michelle catch you up on how things are out here?" Sam pipes up, grabbing his own hotdog. Reid grabs the other two, handing me one as he sits on his sleeping bag. The rest of us follow suit as the sky grows lighter.
"Yeah, it was pretty shocking but also amazing."
Michelle cuts in, jumping up a little as she remembers, "Oh yeah! Sam, can you find us a rental cabin to crash in, Amanda wants to see one. She's pretty excited by the idea of a home too." Reid and Sam chuckle. It looks like I wasn't the only one who has been hoping for a house.
"Yeah, I'll see what I can do. It's been a while since we've slept anywhere besides caves or the forest floor, huh. For now, let's focus on getting some sleep, I know I'm tired as hell."
I nod, "Me too. Today's been so exciting, I can hardly keep my eyes open now!" Michelle laughs, which kick starts the rest of us. After finishing off the hotdogs and some light banter, we each settle into our sleeping bags and scoot closer to each other, thrilling in the knowledge that we were together again. I've never slept better than that night.