Moving

"Leaving?" We all asked, various tones and enthusiasm. Jim looked at us, trying to make sense of our gloomy expressions. Truthfully, I don't think the Winged had moved for a while, based on all the looks they were giving Jim. They looked at him like he was insane. I was okay with moving, but, no one else seemed to be. I was just wondering where exactly, would we be moving to.
"Yeah, moving, and we should go get our stuff before those idiots come back..." He says, bringing us all back to the reality of what just happened with the Stencils and Rachel. We all nodded, quickly flying back to the cave. I was getting a little better at flying and I didn't hit the cave wall with my wing, victory! Max handed me a backpack that weighed just over ten pounds. I pulled it on so that my wings would be able to maneuver around them. The rest of the Winged did the same, flying out straight after. I followed, not exactly sure where to go.

Max waved me behind him, and he was behind Simone. Who was behind Carter. Who was behind Wendy, and who was finally behind Jim, who was leading us away from the cave. I don't know why, but I felt sad we were leaving the cave. It was the first real home that I had ever known, even in the short time I had lived there. I'm sure everyone else felt the same way because they were quiet, very surreal. I tried to ignore the huge expanse of barren nothingness below us and keep my eyes focused on something else. That's how I ended up staring at Max's shoe for half an' hour.
"Are we almost there yet?" Simone sighed, watching a bunch of birds fly back toward the cave. Max sighed also, watching the birds. "Why are you guys so sad looking? We needed to move anyway- we couldn't stay there forever!" said Jim, looking back at everyone. Everyone nodded, all of us craning our necks to watch the birds fly away, getting smaller and smaller until they were just dots. We all sighed, looking back forward. "Look, when we get there, I swear, it'll be awesome! Louisiana, not that bad!" We all looked at him questioningly. Louisiana? Why Louisiana? "It's south, wanted to see what southerners do, how they talk!"
"We're in Texas, Jim...." Wendy said and Jim nodded.
"I know."
She looked at him a second, then just looked at the ground, falling silent from what ever she was going to say.


We flew for hours, all the while having no breaks for food or restrooms. Simone had said "I really need to go!!!" Jim had replied with determination ,"We're almost there, hold it..." He still didn't stop after an hour but Simone didn't say anything else. Though it was clear everyone was starting to get tired, wings aching, stomach yelling at us, head aches. We were all exhausted. It showed, how quiet we were, how everyone had to keep switching spots in the line to take tiny breaks from putting out so much effort. Soon we started seeing tiny cities below us, and I swear, I had never wanted to land so badly.... but I stayed up, trying to ignore the lights. The buildings. The smell of food. Civilization.
The sun started setting, creating a beautiful seen of oranges, reds, and purples. But everyone ignored the spectacular light show, waiting for Jim to say we could land. "Okay, we're here! Now everyone follow me...." We all dived after him in a line, toward an unlit area that was a bunch of trees. Everyone tucked in their wings and I followed suit, wondering if this was a good idea to be diving straight into trees.
Everyone smoothly landed on a tree limb though, jumping to the ground. I, on the other hand, had to grab onto the tree trunk, holding on for dear life. The 15 feet down to the ground wasn't helping settle my stomach either. "Christy! Jump down!" Wendy yelled up in hushed tones. I shook my head, holding the tree tighter, seeing the ground zoom in and out of focus. "Just land on the balls of your feet, it won't hurt!" she called up and the rest of the Winged came to gather around my tree. They all bombarded me with encouragements, but I shook my head at all of them, only hearing Jim's comment. "Jump and I'll catch you. It's way quicker anyway..." I looked down at him, terrified. "Just jump, I promise that I'll catch you." He held out his arms, looking up at me. I very slowly released my death hold on the tree, balancing on the bough. Then I jumped. I didn't even feel it, because Jim did catch me. I sucked in a breath, opening my eyes. Jim smiled down at me, setting me gently on the ground. "You did it, you jumped!Great job!" Everyone grinned, all of us starting out of the woods. "Thank you..."

Jim led us out of the woods, into the busy street. Music- everywhere. People, everywhere. People in bird kid costumes, everywhere.