Of Birds and Wolves

“Bryce, where’s Leara?” Pigeon asked for the hundredth time. Before Bryce lost his temper, Kiera put a hand on his shoulder and answered instead to the terrified eight-year-old. “We don’t know, Pigeon. It’s been the same every time you’ve asked.”

“This is my fault. Damn it!” Bryce cursed, beginning to pace back and forth. The other kids watched him with wide eyes: huge, lost, confused, innocent eyes.

“We can’t just give up,” Kaylee crossed her arms. “There has to be something we can do.”

“We’re in DC. Maybe we could find Leara’s boyfriend and that other chick,” Pigeon suggested.

Bryce thought it was a good idea, but he noticed how dark the sky actually was. “First, we need to get some rest. Leara will have to wait.”

The memories from where she was laying was both comforting and angering her. Leara could recall talking with Max and Fang in this exact cave. Sitting with her knees carefully tucked under her chin, she slowly rocked herself back and forth. Her eyes were wide and blood-shot, her hair tangled and her skin covered in dust.

“What’s going on?” She asked aloud, as if her echoes would answer her. The way she spoke was like a small child, lost and confused. “I feel like… I could explode at any moment. Can’t be around people, though; I’ll just hurt them.” Looking at the fresh scars on her arms, images reeled through her head of biting herself until she tasted the warm, red, coppery liquid. Just the feeling of it on her canines had let her relax and feel just that much normal again. Until her head began pounding again and she felt whatever sanity was left leaving.

“That’s right. I only hurt people. Exactly why I’m going to live here with the hawks.” Her gut wrenched suddenly, feeling as if her stomach was ripping in half. She howled in pain, sounding like a real animal. The hawks outside squawked in surprise from the terrible noise. Thoughts of ramming her head against the cave traveled through her mind, imagining herself knocked out on the cool rocks.

“No. Need to stay awake. If Erasers find me while I’m knocked out, they’ll just take me back and make it even worse…” The pain never stopped searing through her as she spoke, making her just want to explode and get it over with.

A couple days of searching came up with nothing. The dark streets of DC were lit by small street lamps and lights from the parties in the drug houses.

Turning to a lamp, Bryce gripped the metal until his knuckles were white. Damn it all. Never realized this place was so huge.

A hand grabbed his pant leg and he saw Toronto tugging on it. “Look up there. It’s the one mean lady that she doesn’t like.” Poor kid, he can’t even say Leara’s name without getting upset.

Straight up, he could just barely make out the small shape of a winged person. “Up and at ‘em, guys,” he commanded, taking off.

The look on Max’s face went from surprised to angry to confused within a split second. “What are you guys doing here? And where’s she?”

Kiera spoke up for Bryce, who was stammering over his words and babbling out of embarrassment. “That’s why we’re here. Some of those wolf guys came and kidnapped Leara.”

Max let a smirk show on the corner of her lips. “Serves her right… Ah, I mean, I wonder what they need her for.”

“All they said was she was wanted just as bad as your flock. But we need to know where the School is so we can find her,” Kiera said smoothly, without sounding like she was pleading for help.

“And why should I help?” Max crossed her arms. “This isn’t my problem.”

Toronto glared at Max, causing her to wince just a little. Kiera gave him a disapproving glance as she plotted in her head. “We’ll tell Fang that you wouldn’t help us. Then he’d leave you.”

Max scoffed. “You think that will make him leave me? You’re pathetic.”

“You know it’s true,” Toronto piped up, still glaring despite Kiera’s warning. “Now help us. You have to; you’re just like us. We’d do the same if you were back at the School.”

Looking over the kids’ faces, Max sighed and shook her head. “Can’t believe I’m giving into this…” Pulling a couple pieces of folded up paper out of her coat and handing them to Bryce, she said, “We don’t need these anymore. One is a map of the School and the other is a map of the West states and where the School is. Keep a keen eye out there. And if you slip to them where we are, I’ll wring all your necks with floss.”

Ignoring her hostile comment, Kiera and Bryce said their thanks and begin to study the maps. They realized they were on the opposite side of the country from Leara.

“Well guys, we’ve got a long journey ahead of us. Keep those spirits up; we’ll find her. Now let’s go make camp and get some rest before we leave.”

One Month Later…

“That was a waste of time…” Kiera growled as she saw the familiar lights of DC below them.

“Yeah, we almost lost our necks in that School place,” Bryce groaned as he rubbed his neck, as if to make sure it was still there.

Toronto was the one who barely said anything in the last month. He had been like that back at the Institute, but he had instantly warmed up to Leara. Who knew one person could change the six of us in less than a week? Bryce wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

At the School
When the flock had found the School, while crawling through the air vents, they had come across a room of scientists conversing and began snooping.

“The lupines still haven’t tracked her down? What’s the problem, Ari?”

“She must have found a good hole to hide in, but I doubt she’s gone very far,” he sneered. “First, Leara wasn’t in the greatest shape when she escaped; there’s no way she could make it out of the state yet. Second, she seemed pretty insane when she left, too. How she remembered to do anything other than kill is beyond me.”

“What?” Bryce mouthed to Kiera, who replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders. The whole flock exchanged confused glances, except for Toronto, who was still peering through the vent.

“Hold on a sec, doc…” Ari grumbled and took a huge whiff. “Something’s not right here…” Punching straight through the ceiling and the ducts, he roared when he saw the pale faces of the flock above him. “I thought I smelled something! The other bird freaks are here!”

Quickly, Bryce shoved the kids back towards the exit as Ari tried to climb into the ducts after them. But he was too heavy and fell back to the floor.

Luckily, they were able to get back out of the building before an Eraser came to cover the ducts. They got a good head start before a batch of flying Erasers took after them.

Barely taking their surroundings into notice as they escaped, Bryce caught a quick glimpse of a valley with a bunch of caves below them. He thought of hiding in them until he noticed all the hawks lined along the walls with razor-sharp beaks and piercing eyes.

Around the Arizona-New Mexico border, the flock realized the Erasers had given up the chase. “Well, maybe Ari was wrong,” Bryce panted as they slowed down. “Maybe Leara is back in DC looking for us. Let’s go back.”

D.C.
But there wasn’t a trace of her anywhere. In fact, there wasn’t even a trace of Max and her flock.

Growling, Bryce stomped down the sidewalk with the flock following behind wearily.

“Bryce,” Lacey sniffled, “what are we going to do? We can’t find Leara.”

“That’s because she’s dead.”

Turning sharply on his heels, Bryce barked, “Who said that?!”

“I did,” Toronto mumbled, looking down at his filthy sneakers. “If we can’t find her, it means she’s dead, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know who ever told you something like that, but Leara isn’t dead,” Kiera gave the four-year old the stink-eye as she growled.

“Yeah, she’s one of the toughest people I know,” Pigeon puffed out his chest, trying to look brave and not burst into tears.

Kaylee shook her head. “There’s no way she could die. From what that white coat and Ari said, she may be hurt, but she’d never give up. The only way she could’ve died is if the Erasers killed her; they don’t even know where she is.”

“Well, well,” A cocky voice called, “if it isn’t my second favorite bird-kid flock!”

Strolling along the sidewalk came Max and Fang. Raising an eyebrow, Kiera noted, “Aren’t we the only other flock you know?”

Ignoring her, Max rose up on her tip-toes and looked around. “So? Where is she?”

“We don’t know,” Bryce muttered. “Nobody does. Some white coat said she escaped and is hiding somewhere.”

Bryce noticed that the color from Fang’s face left as he spoke. “Wait. Leara’s missing?” he questioned.

Max frowned as Kiera caught on, her eyes turning a blazing red-orange. “You never told him? No wonder Leara hates you…”

“How long?” was Fang’s only response.

“Who cares? I mean…” Max started, but Bryce interrupted, “About a month. She’s most likely over in Arizona or Nevada, somewhere she could rest and hide that’s still close to the School.”

“Ari said something about her being… what, insane? Having a blood lust? I don’t remember.” Kaylee shook her head. “What ever it is, it’s not good.”

Rolling her eyes, Max complained, “Which means she’s probably dead by now. Just forget her and move on.”

“No.” Fang shook his head. “There’s no way she’s dead.”

Surprised, Max turned to him. “Even if she escaped, what ever the scientists did probably slowly killed her. That or lack of food and water.”

“I’m going to find her,” Fang said sternly.

All six of the other bird kids had wide eyes. From what they had heard, Fang was Max’s right-hand man. He always did what she did or wanted him to do. And Max wanted nothing to do with Leara.

“You can’t leave!” Max declared. “What about the flock?”

Shrugging her off, Fang replied, “Won’t be gone long. I’m pretty sure I know where she is.” Rolling his shoulders, he got ready to take off.

“No!” Max cried, blocking his path.

Frowning, he only pushed her to the side “Lay off. I said I’ll be back.”

“It’s either her or me,” Max warned. “Your choice.”

This left the other flock speechless, watching them as if it was a soap opera.

“Alright, Max,” Fang looked her straight in the face, his dark eyes serious. “I choose her.”

With that, he gave his wings a powerful lurch and took off into the night sky.

Max’s jaw dropped, tears starting to sting her eyes.

Before she exploded, the flock was up and desperately trying to keep up with Fang. But the skilled flier was going at a pace that the younger ones couldn’t match.