Project Songbird

Chapter 5

"Seems to have healed well." Amy speaks as she finally stops poking and prodding my abdomen.
I look down at the scar tissue.
I close my eyes briefly at the memory of Andy's sharp claws making their way straight through my body. It makes me shiver.
"I heard both Mark and Jack had offered to teach you to fly." Amy brings me out of my memories and I nod, "Yeah, they have been waiting for your approval."
"Well, it's been about a week since the attack, so you should be able to take the lessons with no problem." May walks in as she set down some clipboards. May is Amy's partner.
She was the woman that I saw before I had wondered out of the hospital the night I woke.
"I'm a bit nervous." I admit.
"You don't have to be, Mark will help with the coaching and Tyler is ready to catch you." Amy smiles as she pats my back.
"Speak of the devil," May whispers as Mark makes his way into the room, "Are you ready?"
I hop off the bed and slip my shirt back on, "As ready as I'll ever be."
"Cool, let's go!" Mark grins.

"Do we really have to be this high up?" I lean over the edge of the roof and swallow the forming lump in my throat.
The ground was so far away.
Tyler looked so tiny.
"Yeah, you need enough room to flap your wings and get enough height." Mark nods his head.
Jack walks over and grabs my wings, "Spread them out after you jump, if not the wind will knock you off your course."
"How do you know so much?" I hum.
"I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two." Jack smiles.
Mark jumps off the roof and flaps his wings a couple of times before turning to face us, hovering, "Don't worry, once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature. Trust me."
I stepped up on the edge of the roof, Jack holding onto my hand, "And you have nothing to fear; Tyler used to be a professional football player, he has years of experience in catching things."
I giggle and it makes me feel a little less nervous.
"Are you ready?" Jack asks.
"I guess so." I bite my lip.
"Don't think about it, it'll come to you." He steps back, "Just let go of my hand when you're ready."
I clutch his hand and squeeze it before taking in a deep breath.
I let go of his hand just as I jumped off the roof.
I spread my wings.
"A-ah-!"
I give a wimpy flap before plummeting.
"HELP!"
I slam my eyes shut, bracing for impact.
I hear a grunt as I collide with something and then hit the ground.
I tense as I can't tell if I'm injured.
"Are you okay!" I hear Jack from the roof.
"All good." I hear Tyler's voice and glance down to see that he broke my fall and I was laying on top of him.
"Are you okay!?" I jolt up.
"Yup," He knocks on his head, "Stone, remember?"
"Oh, right..." I stand and offer my hand to the giant. He groans softly as I hoist him back to his feet.
"You know, that wasn't too bad." Mark hovers over as Tyler dusts himself off.
"But I fell." I look at him.
"True, but you flapped. That means something." Mark points out.
"How long until I get the hang of it?" I ask.
"Well we aren't birds. It's not like a couple of tries and it comes to us, this is something we just have to practice at." Mark shrugs his shoulders, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I guess I can try again. It's comforting to know that Tyler can catch me." I give the giant a nervous smile.
He gives me a thumbs up.
It's sort of strange that he is so quiet.
He seems like the type to be peppy.
A professional football player, huh.
"Let's go again!" I wave up at Jack.
"Sounds good to me!" He hollers.
"Here, let me just take you to the top." Mark reaches down to grab me. I take in his wings as he pumps them and we glide to the top of the building.
His wings resemble Felix's.
They remind me of bat wings except thicker and Mark's didn't have the end talon.
"How come your wings aren't feathers?" I step onto the roof, Jack steadying me.
"How many demons have you seen with feathers?" Mark questions.
"I've never seen a demon until now." I admit.
Mark shakes his head a bit then says, "Okay, the demons in movies never have feather wings."
"You have a point." I reply.

"It's starting to get dark, we should make this your last shot for today!" Jack yells from the ground.
I give all three a thumbs up before stepping up on the edge of the roof.
Please, let it work this time.
I take in another deep breath and then release it.
"You can do it!" Mark shouts.
I step off and plummet to the ground.
"Watch out!" Jack jerks Mark out of the way as Tyler braces for the collision again.
Come on, come on!
I pumped my wings and managed to stay above the ground for a bit longer than the rest of the tries.
"Good good! Keep it going!" Mark yells, he rushes over to join me in the sky, grabbing my hand, "Pump them."
I nod, focusing on my wings.
It was so strange to have two new limbs that took me off of the ground and into the sky.
"This is tiring." I look at Mark.
"I'm going to lower you, okay? Don't stress your body." He replies and we begin to drift towards the ground.
Tyler and Jack both reach up to steady us as our feet touch the ground.
"Did you see that! I flew! I actually flew!" I grin at them.
"You did amazing!" Jack pats my back.
"Nice job." Tyler gives a small smile.
I lean against the giant, "Man, I'm exhausted. Flying is a lot harder than I thought."
"Let's head inside for supper." Jack juts his thumb back towards the door.
Tyler shifts and then he picks me up with ease, "You've probably exhausted yourself, I can carry you."
"You don't have too." I blush.
"It's fine." He replies as we make our way back inside the hospital.

Tyler sits me down in one of the more comfortable seats. He carefully tucks my wings against my back so they wouldn't be stepped on.
"Thanks for the help, I probably wouldn't have tried flying if it wasn't for you being there as a crash pad."
"Don't mention it." He mumbles as he stands back up and glances around the room.
"Are you able to sense others or something??" I question. I had observed Tyler just sit in the background. Anytime, just before a fight would break out, he would always scan the room.
"The experimenting seems to have enhanced my sixth sense. I have a secondary ability for sensing life around me." He explains, "It's how I was able to sense Ashley's attack when you first met Felix. She is able to make herself invisible to the naked eye, and was hoping to attack you using Felix as a shield. Sort of trying to declare war between the different groups."
"What's with the different groups anyway?" I pry, hoping this would be a perfect moment to get all my answers and I would haven't to rely on Felix.
Tyler mulls over my question, "Well..."
"Tyler, do you guys want some water??" Wade calls from the other side of the cafeteria.
Dammit, I almost had him open up.
"Sounds good Wade." Tyler replies, taking the opportunity to ignore my question.
What are they so afraid of me finding out anyway? I understand that they describe it as an accident and that there were many more flyers until this incident. Was a different Songbird the cause of this pain? Wade, Bob, stay out of my head please.
"Sorry."  They collectively apologize.
If you're not going to give me my answers, I don't want you reading my mind. Whatever decision I make is up to me.
"But Felix is not the best way to get your answers, maybe just let it be." Wade offers.
"Why do you want to know so badly?" Bob asks.
I think I deserve to know why we're trapped here. Why nobody wants to make an effort to escape. The knowledge that Jack has of wings doesn't make any sense. You can't just get that knowledge from watching flyers. And why did Felix tell me that if I get this information it's going to make me look at all of you differently??
Silence is the only response.
"So what's for dinner?" Mark asks, his voice breaking through my concentration.
"I heard it was spaghetti night." Tyler replies, kicking his legs up on a chair near him, closing his eyes and folding his arms over his chest.
"Does everyone else have secondary abilities?" I lean on the table, facing Tyler. The giant peeks open an eye to look in my direction and then just shrugs his shoulders, "It just depends on what all the scientists have done to you."
"You guys sure like to shrug your shoulders to answer my questions. What are you all so afraid of telling me??" I cross my arms. I was getting a little tired of them jumping around the bush. "Just rip it off like a bandaid."
"Let it go Ethan." Mark tells me for probably the millionth time. "It's something we just don't want to tell you."
"I feel I have a right to know these things." I turn to face him, "How else am I supposed to understand what is happening to me?"
They just look at me uncomfortable.
Jack looks to be in pain as he shifts in his seat like a child that had just been told off.
Mark pulls his close and wraps his arms around the smaller man, "Just block it out, it'll be alright."
"...I'm sorry..." I feel guilty now.
I could just be prying into the worst part of their lives.
"I just feel left in the dark. It's been a month since they kidnapped me from my home and turned me into this Songbird."
"We don't completely know why they are doing this to us. We only have a fairly small amount of information, even those that can read minds." Amy sets down the plates of food for our group onto the table. "They could be making us weapons for war for all we know."
"They could be seeing how far they can take the human body, pushing it past its limit and breaking down our DNA to reconstruct it. They could be trying to make us better and more powerful. Or trying to make our bodies more indestructible in case of nuclear war."
"We just don't know." Mark reinforces Amy's words.
Felix was first.
He must have the knowledge.
"I apologize, I'll stop asking. I didn't mean to be so insensitive to your pain." I start to eat my food.
I have made my decision.