Disclamer: I don't own any of James Patterson's stuff. My ideas are my own though.

Borrowed Wings

Fly

The buzzer sounded and I started running. I didn't want to but there were those wicked wolf-men with their wicked claws and wicked grins right behind me. I ran out into the yard and looked up at the open sky. My first sight of it since I'd been captured a month ago. There was a growl of frustration behind me and I ran faster. I looked over my shoulder and saw one of the Erasers holding the others back. Giving me a head start. Like that would help.

The door led into a corridor of razor wire and I sprinted through it, the cruel barbs only inches from my sweaty face. There was a barked command from behind me and the Erasers started running. Hell! I went faster. Faster than I thought I could ever go before. The Erasers were gaining on me though, some of them looking just like regular people and some fully morphed and running on all fours. And to think I used to like wolves.

The razor wire dropped to about waist height but there was no way I could climb over it, the Erasers were too close anyway. An Eraser snapped at my heel then dropped back, toying with me; I squeezed a drop of more speed but the Erasers kept pace easily, hardly breaking a sweat. The razor wire fence came to a dead end, a literal dead end. 'Who'd build a corridor that's a dead end?' I thought angrily. I knew who. The load of sicko scientists that had been holding me for the last month. They didn't want to trap me though. Oh no they had something far worse in mind.

I wanted to cry. Those fking scientists. They'd trapped me far better than the Erasers and razor wire ever could. I opened my wings with tears in my eyes. Beautiful tawny yellow wings, glinting gold in the soft afternoon light.

I hated them.

They'd done this to me. Those freaking scientists. I was perfectly normal until they'd got their filthy hands on me but now I was a monstrosity.

I didn't bother flapping; I knew I was going fast enough to leap into the air though how I had no idea. A small jump threw me into the air and sent me soaring over the end of the razor wire. I pushed down hard with my wings, trimming them to give me more lift without thinking.

'What have they done to me?' I thought quietly in the corner of my mind, but I knew what they had done, I'd had a month to think about it. And now they were going to kill me, just like all the others. I heard a scream of pain and risked a look back; one of the Erasers had run right into the wire. I smiled despite myself. Nothing like seeing your captors suffer. The smirk was wiped off my face as the other Erasers unfurled their own night black wings and laboured into the sky.

I gained height and went faster, feeling the new muscles across my chest labouring to move my golden wings. It was incredible, and terrible. I was a freak, a kid with bulky wings tacked to her back. Even if I did escape what life lay before me? For a moment I considered letting them catch me, give it all up, or simply folding in my wings and crashing into the treetops twenty feet below. Then I saw the Erasers closing fast and decided that, on balance, I wanted to live.

I flapped my wings faster, feeling the gentle flow of air beneath my secondary feathers and instinctively finding the path of least resistance. It was scary, I could even sense a thermal thirty feet to my left. 'What have they done to me?' I thought again, half heartedly, but I knew. They hadn't just taped wings to my back; they'd messed with my whole DNA.

One of the Erasers yelled something but I couldn't hear it over the roar of the wind. That was probably a good thing. I looked back then banked sharply as an Eraser screamed past, claws outstretched. He tore twin gouges of feather out of my wing; I yelled in pain and kicked out at him. I missed, but there was a muffled crash as he slammed into the trees below.

'Pain pain go away come again some other day,' I though, gritting my teeth and wincing every time I flapped my injured wing. I had no idea why that childish rhyme was running through my head.

I just wanted to fold in my wing and stop the pain, lick my wounds, curl up in a ball and convince myself that this wasn't happening. But I couldn't stop. The Erasers would kill me. Horribly. Then again, they probably would anyway.

I fought through the pain and flapped harder. I told myself if I could just find a town I would be safe, someone would save me. I didn't believe it though.

An Eraser darted down and delicately plucked a feather from my wing, showing off to his buddies. I hissed in pain; just imagine having a tuft of hair ripped out. He held the feather up for the others to see and they laughed raucously.

'Right!' I thought angrily, setting my jaw and holding my left wing ridged. A massive thrust with my right wing sent me spiralling up towards the guffawing Eraser. I pulled in my legs and then lashed out at him, hitting him squarely on the jaw. He yelled in pain and surprise and dropped the feather. My feather. I snatched it out of the air and jammed it into the flimsy nightgown that they had put me in when I'd arrived in a pathetic gesture of defiance. Inside I was wondering how on earth I knew that stunt would work.

The four remaining Erasers looked at me in surprise; the cat never expects the mouse to bite back. Oh, and the mouse never wins. The Erasers charged, swooping down with claws outstretched, covering every possible angle of escape with the ease of long practice.

"Hell!" I cried, folding my wings and dropping towards the trees, the Erasers following close behind. I've played enough video games to know that I was doomed but I didn't care, I wouldn't just lie down and die. I'd seen what they had done to Kit for a start. I opened my wings just above the treetops and pushed down with as hard and fast as I could. I wasn't even thinking about getting away anymore, just running.

The lead Eraser dived towards me, the centre of a rough triangle. I banked left, my wingtip scraping the top braches of a pine, feeling the G-force tugging at my insides. The Erasers tried to follow but their wings were too large and bulky. They swooped round in a long arc and then caught up the distance I'd gained in about three flaps. They formed up around me, one on each side, one above me and one behind. I was completely trapped.

"Game over, Fly!" called the Eraser above me, grinning horribly and showing his too large yellow teeth. He was right too. They charged, each closing with their claws outstretched.

"My name!" I yelled defiantly at the approaching Erasers. "Is not Fly!" I pulled up sharply and held my wings as stiff as I could. They acted like two feathery parachutes, cutting my speed with bone crushing force. I completed my miniature loop, flipped the right way up and shot forwards passing inches from an Eraser. It turns out Erasers have good reactions. He caught me across the temple with a clawed fist.

I blinked blood from my eyes and fought my way through the air. I'd bought myself about, like, three seconds but by God I was going to use them. Ahead of me I saw a lose flock of birds, hawks I think, flying lazily through the sky. 'Free as birds. Like me,' I though blearily wiping more blood out of my eyes.

One of the Erasers rammed into me and my wings crumpled like paper. I knew this was it. I didn't have anything left. The treetops were coming up fast and I was half glad that this nightmare was about to end. Maybe. If I was very lucky I would wake up just before I hit the trees and I'd find out it had been just a terrible nightmare. One freaking month long nightmare with all the trimmings.

I wish.

I hit the trees hard. Catching my outstretched wings on unforgiving braches I raised my arms to ward off their lashing blows. My foot caught on a bough and I screamed in pain as I heard my ankle crack. I crashed into a tangle of branches which miraculously held. I hung in stunned silence, my arm hanging uselessly by my side and feeling as if every inch of skin was on fire, my insides felt like they were on fire too.

I strained to hear the sounds of the Erasers coming for me but couldn't hear anything over the blood pounding in my ears. I knew I was going to pass out. It was only a matter of time; I'd been running on adrenalin for the last few minutes anyway. In all honesty it would be a relief to get away from the pain.

I smiled despite myself. I'd beaten them. I was still a mutant freak girl with ugly taped on wings but I was alive. I felt myself slowly slipping away, one limb at a time. There was a crash of branches as something landed in a nearby tree. Vaguely man shaped. My best guess. Eraser.

'Oh. They found me,' I thought, strangely detached from reality. Not really caring.

Then I closed my eyes and fell into darkness.