Louisiana

We had all taken our wings out, deciding we blended better with them. People all over had fake ones on. Strap on, tie on, Velcro- but not real wings that could hold them up. Not genetically implanted wings; fake wings with plastic feathers. I felt sorry for them and jealous at the same time. Those two feelings aren't the greatest mix, I could do without the jealousy....
This place was crazy. No offense to anyone who lived there, but it kinda was..... hectic and crowded streets. Someone always looking at someone else. That humid air filled with smoke, in this area at least. Coming down I had seen some pretty cute places, but this was not one of them. Music filled the air, seeming to come from every house or so. And yes, the feeling of claustrophobia was veiling over us all like a thick fog. We all tried to stay close, away from the tons of other people trying to rush past us. It was like a river, and we were rocks being pushed and shoved against by the water. Or the people..... but not many people noticed us. If they did, they didn't try and come any closer or assault us.But we sure didn't know as to if they were following us. For all we knew, they could be stalking us through the city! I thought that was highly unlikely though, the people was a strong current to swim against and they never go easy on you. If we weren't genetically 'improved', I'm sure that we would be swept away by now.

Jim lead the way through the crowd, trying to get us out of it. I jumped as I felt Max grab my hand. I looked to see everyone holding hands. So we wouldn't get lost, I realized. Well, that was smart! 

Jim lead us out at last, off a road that forked off. He took us down a couple blocks that were scarcely populated. Then out into a place with cute shops and friendly people walking around, talking and going into the tiny shops. We pulled our wings in, now we stood out like a sore thumb. There were normal people here. We all disconnected hands and moved on. Simone said excitedly, "Ooh! Jim- can we get some?" She pointed to a stand where kettle corn was being sold. "Kettle corn! Come get your fresh kettle corn!!!" The man was shouting, more like shrieking at the top of his lungs. "Let's spare him the yelling...." Jim said and we all stride over. The man waved us over, smiling. "So, you wanted kettle corn? We have three kinds. Regular, chocolate covered, and caramel coated!" He exclaimed and I concluded that, he must have hearing problems. That or he just really wanted to be heard. Jim looked around nervously to see if people were staring at us. They were. Jim turned back to the man and said quickly ,"6 medium bags of caramel coated."

"Oh, but sir-" The man shouted and Wendy cut in this time.
"Just get the popcorn, dude!" She shouted. The man scurried away, starting to fill bags. Wendy crossed her arms over her chest. "That's better...." She mumbles and Jim nudges her. "What?! He was getting on my nerves...."
"So you yell at him and make the police over there look at us?" Jim said in hushed tones. We all looked over to where he was glancing and sure enough- two police officers staring at us over the rims of their coffee. Great, just what we needed. To be criminals watched closely by the police.
"Great...." said Carter, saying my thoughts for me.
"Well..... he was asking for it..... " Wendy said as the man came back with the kettle corn. Jim gave him the money to pay for it and we all walked away. Eating kettle corn. There weren't many people out now, since it was night now. Why was that guy shouting about kettle corn this late? I shook my head, someone must be wondering why us kids were out this late, getting kettle corn from a strange shouting guy. I would be too, if I were normal people in general. I'd ask, 'why the heck are these kids alone on the streets with no parents?' But, since I'm not normal, I guess there was no point in even thinking about it.

Jim led us around and I wondered how he knew where he was going.... did he even know where he was going? I hope he did....
He led us down a couple streets filled with music, but the music was far off in the distance. But, if we could hear it from here.... it was loud. We walked down more avenues and streets and the music faded out. But there was no escaping it. It was everywhere.
Jim took us to a tall building with a fancy sign reading
                '25% off'
What was that about?
Wendy rolled her eyes, looking at the sign. "There is no discount, their just trying to get people to come in and buy a room...." She whispered to me and I raised my eyebrows. Huh? She cocked her head at me, obviously understanding that I had no idea what she was talking about. "This is a hotel, here you rent rooms. They want people to rent more rooms so they say there's a sale. When it's really the original price with the fake original price being more than the room is actually worth." she explained and i nodded, somewhat more informed. Well, if they were not telling the truth then.... they were lying to these good people. That's a little.... mean. I shook my head, still following after the Winged. Jim went to the front counter and waited in line with Wendy while the rest of us went to sit down. I sat next to Max, since he was quiet. Simone and Carter were talking away. Like they weren't tired from that trip at all. I sighed. How could they be so cheerful and lively? while Max and I were sitting here like the walking dead? Oh well.....at least we weren't zombies and the Stencils weren't here. That's a plus.

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.

Rachel and the Stencils

"Christy, come over here- quickly!" Jim shouted up at me and I fell out of my daze, swooping down with the group. They had all landed on the ground and speaking quietly. "Max and Christy, to the left side of them. Simone and Carter, to the right. Wendy and I will go straight for them. Everyone clear on what to do? Attack them? All of them?" All of us nodded, unfolding our wings and making eye contact with our partners. Follow me, Max's eyes said and I nodded. "Let's go!" Jim said and everyone took off in different directions. I flew behind Max, not close enough to run into him, but not far enough to get lost. Suddenly he fell back a little to fly next to me. "Okay, so those things are what we call Stencils. They track and are generally used for capturing us, luckily their an old generation and out of date. So they have a few weak spots. You can pull their tail and/or pull their wings behind them to touch. You can also beat the Heck out of them. I recommend any one of them but, I personally prefer beating the Heck out of them." He grinned as we got closer to the mass of Stencils. All these required for me to hurt these things..... hmm..... so..... well, hitting them couldn't be that hard, could it? All you had to do was throw a couple punches to the nose.... maybe a kick to the stomach.... okay, than it wasn't that hard. Until they fight back....

"Okay, We can do this.... yeah, we can do, let's go kick some Stencils....." I mutter. A few caught sight of us and separated from the hoard, and soon we had 20 Stencils flying over really fast. Max was thrilled, charging at them. I was bombarded by two of them, their wing span a whopping 17 feet. They seemed to have trouble keeping up, being pretty large. I was a mouse compared to them and ducked under them, coming back up and around to snap one's wings together. He screamed, dropping like a rock and bringing the other one with him, who had been gabbed by the ankle. Huh, well, those two weren't bight. I cried out as claws racked down my side, tearing through my shirt and creating a long gash down my side. I dropped like a rock, folding my wings in. The Stencil's claws narrowly missed my head and I heard it hiss.
I opened my wings, catching a draft back up. I came up and kicked the Stencil is the shin, then brought my hands down on her ears. She screamed, clutching at her shin and her ears while spiraling toward the desert floor.

I turned back to Max and helped him with a Stencil who was tiny, both of us ganging up on the tiny Stencil. It seemed like a little kid until it started foaming at the mouth, it's eyes filling with blood-lust. That's when Max kicked him in the face so hard, the Stencil was sent 30 feet backwards and then started falling, still screaming words-that-I-cannot-and-will-not-repeat- at us. "Yes, thanks Christy!" Max said. That's when we heard it, a scream. We both looked toward the front of the mob, where the scream had come from. We didn't even have to look at each other, both of us were going. We flew over, trying to take down Stencils as we went.

Once we got there, Max suddenly froze, staring. I looked around. Jim and Wendy were also staring at her. The girl from my dream, Rachel. My breath hitched in my throat. She was smiling directly at Jim, his mouth moved, though I couldn't hear him, I knew what he had said. "Rachel...."..... She grinned THAT grin and charged him. Before I even knew what I was doing, I rushed into her, right before she crashed into Jim. She pushed me off her, kicking me in the gut. I flipped in the air a few times, in a ball. Then i stopped and sucked in a breath, GOD THAT HURT!!! "You must be her..... the new girl everyone wants....." Rachel smiled at me, flying around me like a predator does with prey. I was the prey in this scenario. "Well.... they said to get you, not that we couldn't hurt you.... this is going to be fun..." She grinned, aiming a punch for my head. I ducked and grabbed her hand, twisting it back. She cried out and folded in her wings, dropping like a rock and pulling me with her. We were a tangle of fists, feet and wings, falling toward the ground at a deadly speed.

Suddenly she let go, pushing me away. She smiled, her nose bleeding and having multiple scratches. "See you later, Christina...." I gasped as she swiftly flew in the other direction, toward the sun and blinding me.

I carefully pulled out my wings, straightening my position. I burst up toward the sky again, narrowly missing hitting Wendy an Jim. "Sorry!" I called below me as they stop and start to come back up as well.

I hovered next to Max, who was gaping at me. "You just..... beat up Rachel....." I shrugged, itching to mess with the cut on my side.... it itched..... sooooo bad....

"We need to get out of here.... now." Jim said and we all looked at him. Leave?

Vision comes true

I woke with one side like fire, the side against Jim, and the other cold, the desert on a typical morning. I pulled away from Jim and he woke immediately, getting up and glancing around. "Thank you...." I muttered, tucking my notebook and pen into my pocket. Max, the boy who was about my age, had loan me a pair of his clothes since mine were obviously not worth wearing. Simone, was the little girl. She was cute, Simone, she had a way about her that made everyone around her cheer up. Carter, the dark boy, very rough but protective of his loved ones. Wendy, sarcastic and mocking, but still, she had a nice side also. I was fine with every one of them, why wouldn't I be? I felt they were fine with me also.

"Oh, uh, yeah- your welcome...." Jim yawned. He walked to the mouth of the cave, breathing in the scent of fresh desert air. He suddenly swung around to face me. "Want to wake the others and go for a fly?" He looked so eager. His wings were already unfolding to their magnificent length that nearly brushed the sides of the cave. I smiled and nodded, starting to prod Max who was right next to me. He stirred a little, then sat straight, lightning rod up. I jumped back, exclaiming something that made everyone wake up. "Holy flying cows!" I had exclaimed, which, really, who ever says that? Everyone burst out laughing as I said it and I ducked my head, my face turning a bright crimson. My tutor says that.....

"Oh, don't worry, your okay..... that saying is perfectly normal..." Carter put an arm around me, his skin like fire. "Really, if your like us, nothing is not normal. It's all routine..... you get used to it!" He laughed and I smiled at his kind-of-logical- excuse for me shouting 'holy flying cows'. But really, I guess I just had an obsession with cows to them- which I didn't! Hadn't seen a real cow in my entire life. Which, let's face it, is pretty sad.

"We wanted to go for a fly, you guys up for it?" Jim asked,  grinning. There was an eruption of commotion where all I could hear was exclamations of 'yes', 'why didn't you tell us earlier?!', and ' duh, who wouldn't?' And then we were off, flying in the warmth of the sun. I breathed in a deep breath of fresh air, enjoying flying. It was a perfect day. Pretty white clouds in the sky. The lake from the day before reflecting the sun's light everywhere around it. There were tiny animals making calls in the trees. But over the horizon, I could see a little blob swimming this way, no doubt a thunderstorm. The Winged all flew like they were born to, in huge, arcing circles, doing large flips, catching drafts. Wendy stayed with me though, watching the others while they played games. I was watching also, not quite sure I could fly that well yet. While we flew in silence, I thought about my horrible nightmare/vision. I wasn't sure what it really was.
I had just suddenly showed up in a sunny pavilion. There was a large amount of women and men standing alert and ready. I didn't know what for at the time. Then there was a man who showed up, I could only see his back which had a tip of a white coat. He had said ."Get her back here, alive. Go." Then the people in front of him suddenly started to change. Getting huge claws, covered in black and gray fur, wings sliding out of their backs. The wings were larger than they should have been, 20 feet on some creatures, others were only 6 feet long. They all seemed to be mixed and matched depending on their heights. They took off gracefully though, but slow. REALLY slow, I swear, turtles would fly faster than those things.
The scene had changed and I was looking at Jim, speechless in the sky. He was staring at a girl about my age who stood in front of the creatures who were now attacking the rest of the Winged. She was smiling sweetly but behind her eyes I saw something different. It was hate, bitterness toward everything happening around her. "Rachel...." Jim whispered as Rachel charged him. That was my last image, the girl grinning at me....

"Christy? Christy?!" I looked up at Wendy to find her pointing at the black blob in the distance which had now maxed out in size, almost filling the horizon. And now that I looked closer I saw feathers and flashes of fur. Oh no. "We need to warn the others- now!" Wendy swooped down and yelled at the others who stopped and stared at her in horror. I kept my eyes on the oncoming hoard of creatures and thought, it wasn't a dream after all.

YAY from the writer!

Yes! 100 page views. This may not sound like a lot, but for me, yeah it's a lot of people...... ha ha. Thanks for reading and remember that I'm not plagiarizing, just fan writing :D. Thank you all so much!

Nightmare

"Why did you ask her to stay?" Wendy asked quietly, so not to wake any of the kids. Jim looked warily at her. He was just on the verge of sleep when she asked the question he hoped he would never have to answer, ever. But here he was, having to debate on what to say to her while she waited expectantly. He swallowed, not really even fully sure him self. "She..... Christy.... she has a way about her that is very mixed. She is rebellious against the school. Yet quiet and shy at the same time. She knows her place. Does everything she is told. I can't imagine what they did to her back at the school, but somehow she survived longer than us. She preserved her character in that place and I admire her for it. We stayed less time than her and there, I remember feeling so cold, like the walls and everything around me just sucked the life out of everything. That didn't seem to bother her, at least that I have observed. She is very spirited, I think it would be good for the Winged to have someone like her. Also for her..." he paused. "To have a life outside of there that wasn't torturous. I just want her to turn out different..... like we would if we had lived like her. I want to keep her spirit..." There was total silence, the only sound the kids' quiet breathing and animal sounds outside.

"How touching, I never knew you could feel that passionately for a tiny girl like her. Makes you sound like a big brother...." Wendy teased, bumping him playfully with her shoulder. She was much more gentle than she seemed; really sarcastic and mocking. Jim laughed through his nose, Wendy joined in. They looked up at the moon in silence, each in their own world. Then both snapped their head in the direction of Christy as she whimpered loudly. Then stopped. Then she bolted straight up, breathing hard. She immediately pulled out a journal from her pocket and started to write jibberish words onto it. Her silky black hair hid her terrified face, and strangely, she wasn't looking at the paper, she was looking straight ahead (at the cave wall) as she wrote like lightning. The pages of her journal flipped every thirty seconds as she filled the page with words that Wendy and Jim couldn't make out. She never glanced in their direction, never blinked, never stopped writing. When she did stop, she sat there, blinking. She looked confused and scared, her large ice blue eyes glassy with tears. Jim stood up and came over, she looked up, frantically covering her notebook. Jim sat beside her, tentatively putting a hand on her back. She stiffened, not prepared for how warm he was. She rarely had human contact and when she did, it felt like fire across her skin. "Christy, did you have a nightmare?" Jim asked, stroking her hair.

"N-no. A vision....." she started to tear up and rubbed at her eyes. "You were so..... still..... you saw a girl..... Rachel..... y-you guys couldn't fight her.... I didn't know what to do..... " Jim and Wendy tensed at the mention of Rachel. Still, Jim pulled Christy into his embrace, deciding against asking her about it. She seemed so fragile, even though she was so strong. Her tears were short, and soon she was asleep in Jim's arms. He wrapped his wings around them both, warming everything around them.

The Winged

I could fly....


I closed my eyes, filled with a new joy that brought on energy. "Wait a second, kid. We have a few questions that need answers before you start flying off." Said the dark teenager and I heard him get off the wall. I opened my eyes and looked at him. Anything, they had saved me. I would do almost anything for them. "Shoot!" I exclaimed, beaming. He looked at me critically then to Jim, for guidance obviously.

"Where did you come from?" Jim said blandly, watching me closely. I smiled, stepping forward and everyone else stepped back. "The prison, did you come from there also? Did you guys live in crates?" I was curious, I think I'm the only one who lived in an actual room made especially for me. Everyone else seemed to be living in dog crates and in weird test tubes. Jim raised his eyebrows, no doubt wondering why I was so straight forward about this. "Well, for one, we did come from the prison and we did indeed live in dog crates. What did you live in?" He asked casually.


"A room."

"You lived in a room? Why would they let you have that privilege?" He asked, his voice really sounding curious.
"My parents still own me! Like I'm a doll and they just use me for their own entertainment. I was born for one reason. To help the scientists. My parents don't love me, they just let the Idiots use me to their own demises. They only make sure I am as comfortable as I can get it that heck whole. Basically, they use me, I know it, their using me to find something bigger. I heard them talking once, about their son. They wanted him back so badly- pft!Yeah, if only they realized that they had a daughter being used in stupid experiments. No, I doubt even then they would do something. Their too wrapped up in my brother that I don't even know the name of. The one who the Idiots are searching for right now...." I clenched my fists together in agitation. Everyone was staring at me as if I was from an alien planet, everyone except Jim. He looked thoughtful, watching my wings flutter in an annoyed way that I had. I felt self conscious and pulled them behind my back, folding my arms over my chest and looking at the floor.

"You sure do have a rebellious side, don't ya'?" Asked the dark boy, coming to stand by me, looking me up and down. Jim glared at him, making motions behind his back. "Oh, don't worry, Jim. She may be rebellious, but she wouldn't hurt me even if she wanted to. It's clear in her eyes...." He trailed off, picking a stray piece of lettuce out of my hair. The other boy rolled his eyes, looking like he was about to say something. But Jim said before he could ,"Could we have a moment alone? Just go fly out in the sky, like usual, but don't stray too far." He warned, gesturing toward the cave entrance. All of them walked to the door, giving him looks that ranged from disapproval to a carefully aimed anger. I gasped as one by one, they pulled out their wings and jumped over the side of the cliff. They all had different colors, but the dark boy actually had dark wings like mine. But his were less narrow and more for power, not speed. The curly headed teenager had white wings that looked like freshly fallen snow. The boy about my age had blue wings, ranging from a dark green and then lightening to a turquoise. The little girl had brown, white and black speckled wings.

"So, you don't really know about the person your parents and the scientists want to find?"

I shook my head, looking back to him. "I have lived there my whole life, and what I do remember of them talking about him was quiet and distorted. It was behind a wall or door, closed off. I never dared to ask about it, I'd be whipped or would have to do another experiment. No one really cared but my tutor. He helped me get away, he gave me a very influential series...."


"Do.... can you do anything?"

"Only see the future while I'm dreaming. I saw you and the other girl come and save me after I fell."

"Hmm..." He looked at my wings that were beating ever so slightly, my posture, my body language.

"Do you want to stay here, with us I mean? The Winged?" Jim asked and I froze. He... wanted me to stay? I new feeling over came me and I blinked. It felt like....acceptance, like someone really cared about my well being. I blinked again and he said, thinking I didn't want to ,"You don't have to, it's your choice. I wouldn't want to pressure you into anything."

I smiled up at him, since he had inched closer. "Yes, I would love to be One of the Winged."