We Run

Chapter 1 - Abby

This story was inspired by the great James Patterson and his amazing series Maximum Ride. But, it is my own imaginative thinking and creativity that brought me to We Run. 

I pushed myself, pushed harder than I ever had before. If they caught me now, I was dead meat. Stealing this of all things would get me 18 to life. But I didn't care. We needed it. Well, he needed it, at least more than the rest of us did. I quickly pulled myself out of my thoughts and concentrated on nothing but getting away from the cop. It was a good thing it was a skinny cop, and he could run. I could run for miles without being short of breath, but a fat cop would soon stop and shoot, and I'd be dead in a minute.

I hit the water running, diving as far down as I could while keeping hold of the precious cure. Ever since Zakk had started coughing, I could tell that something wasn't right with him. It had gotten worse, quicker than I had ever seen it, and we knew that he wouldn't last very much longer without the medicine. Eventually, Savana, or Nanna as she'd been called since we found her, started the coughing, too. Although it wasn't as horrible as Zakk's, me and Tyler could tell that it wouldn't be long before she was in Zakk's condition. Just thinking about losing either of them made my breath catch.

Now, I don't know if you caught that, but yes, I was breathing while I was underwater. It's all part of the new-and-improved human experiments. Of course, we aren't supposed to use our enhanced-ness in front of the regular humans, because they aren't supposed to know about us. Hell, we're not even supposed to be out of the lab. We're just lucky the idiot experimenters forgot to lock our cells, and left the door cracked. I'm sure you can guess what happened after that.

I propelled myself forward, seeing the slope of the ocean floor indicating I was approaching our little island. My feet barely dragged across the sand, but soon I was walking with my head over the water. I climbed out of the saltwater, pulling seaweed off me as I walked. I saw Tyler bent over by two lumps, one twice as big as the other. I raced over there, unscrewing the cap as I went while doing my best not to spill any. The foul stench rose up to meet my nose, and I forced myself to not gag.

I crash landed next to them, barely keeping the bottle in my hand. The cap had a line on it to fill up for the correct dose. I poured it into each of their mouths and made them swallow it, giving them fresh water to rinse out their mouth of the disgusting taste. Zakk immediately looked healthier, color coming back into his face. His eyes didn't look so hollow, and he was even attempting to sit up. I gently helped him, being careful not to go too fast. He immediately slumped back down onto my arm.

"Woah... Head rush," he mumbled. I laughed quietly, smoothly pulled my arm out from under him, and went to check of Nanna.

"Wow! That really worked! I feel wonderful!" She exclaimed while making a rainbow shape with her hands.

I twisted the bottle and read the warnings. "Warning: May cause dizzyness." The other sticker read: "May cause side effects related to those of Nitrous Oxide." Great.

Nanna giggled loopily, then plopped down in the sand. She started tracing what looked to be a pony, but who knows. I turned to Tyler and showed him the labels.

"Well, this is just great," he muttered. He was only 9, but he had basically been forced into an adult life. "What do we do now?"

"I guess just wait until it wears off, although who knows how long that will be," I said. "We've already been here too long, though. We've got to get going. Soon." I turned back to Zakk to find him already looking at me. I felt my face flush and looked away. You see, me and Zakk met at the lab where we were "created". He had been kept in the cell beside mine, and we learned sign language to talk. Back then I just thought of him as a friend, but after things weren't as hectic, I started realizing how... hot he was. We had kind of had a thing, but I wouldn't call it being together. It kind of died, and I wasn't sure where we were at this point. But enough about this sappyness.

"We do have to get going. But I think they could travel. Hopefully," Tyler sighed. I felt bad for the kid. Me and Zakk had picked him up soon after we escaped the lab. His parents had been criminals, and they made the mistake of having a kid. They were, clearly, bad parents, so they decided to keep robbing stores and houses while keeping him home alone. That kept going until about 2 years ago when his parents got caught and shot. He ran away and started robbing things himself to keep from starving. Talk about following in daddy's footsteps. But we found him in a Speedway, stuffing Twinkies and Mountain Dew into his jacket. Afte he explained, we decided to take him with us. Three is better than two, right?

"Yeah, I think they could, too. Zakk, you up to leaving?" He gave me a thumbs up. "Nanna?"

"Ready!" She said, and I was relieved to hear some normalcy in her voice.

"Alright, then. Up and away, guys!" I shouted, already running in the direction of the shore. My toes barely skimmed the water when I jumped, probably a good 2 feet in the air, and unfolded my pure white wings. I pumped them up and down, gaining altitude fast. I looked behind me and saw them doing the same, Nanna with her auburn wings, Zakk with his dark blue, and Tyler with his almost golden color, the same exact color as his hair. I turned back around, involuntarily smiling at the total rush of feeling the cool wind under my wings.

Oh, did I forget to mention that we could fly, too?