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Ark: The Original
A Maximum Ride Fan Fic
By Ahura Werewolf

Note: Maximum Ride is copyrighted to James Patterson and all characters, places and settings therein. Ark, Barb, Keith and all other characters outside of them are copyrighted to me and don’t appear in any of the Maximum Ride series.



The beeping of the machines, both EKG and machines to monitor my brain waves either way the constant beeping had been a part of my life since day one. But my life has been anything but normal, I know nothing of normal.
I didn’t have any birthday parties or sleepovers at a friend’s house. No afternoon baseball games on a warm summer’s day. No my life has been filled with needles with mind numbing liquids and the beeping of the machines. My name is Ark, and I am an avian-human hybrid. I was created in a lab and as far as I know I am the first of my kin. I never really understood why I was created or what I was created for? The sickly sweet anti-septic smells have clogged my lungs for as long as I can remember, the only other sound I can remember being louder than the beeping machines has been the thudding my heart.
The sound of pure terror coursing through my veins. My wings pinned to my sides, useless, the feathers faded and full of holes. The sneering of the men in white coats haunts my dreams, the cold soulless looks as they insert more needles into my arms.
“Doctor the subjects stress levels are spiking, maybe you should leave it to calm down before you continue to insert the needle?” I hear a cold voice say, “Nonsense, science is progress and often the price is pain. Think of what we could learn from it? Its genes could revolutionize everything. Cure diseases, eliminate old age, the sky is the limit. So let it feel a bit of pain who cares, we didn’t create it to coddle it.” Looking up at my reflection in the doctor’s glasses, I was disgusted with myself. A pale young face looked back, wearing a dirty hospital smock. The reflection made me shrink, I felt helpless. I was merely a toy to them, heck I wasn’t even addressed as he, I was an it. Not human and not worth pity.
Inside something exploded, a spark had grown into a raging inferno. I started to wiggle, struggling against my bonds. Trying to snap out my wings, the doctor above me could only look down and a smile crossed his lips. “Trying to escape is useless” at that moment I felt another rush of mind numbing fluid course through the IV and into my arm. My vision started to blur and my body became numb. Inside my brain felt like it was being enveloped in a fog, I shook my head and the room swirled. I felt all the energy go out of me, replaced by pinning weight. But the fire in my soul raged even harder. The muscles in my wings weren’t responding to my commands. My brain was screaming for them to move, my heart was pounding and the EKG machine was beeping like crazy. The doctor standing over me was sneering, looking up at him, venom pouring through my veins. If I got off this table he was in trouble.
Slowly the leather bindings began to tear, the harder I struggled the more panicked the muffled voices from behind the glass became. The Doctor above me continued to look down in utter indifference to my struggle. In fact he seemed amused by it; he turned around and pulled out a gun. Pointing it at my head he said, “Stop struggling, or I will shoot.” I knew he wasn’t joking, at that moment something strange happened. I was staring at myself on the table; my body slumped back on the table. My left wing was partially free and it hung lifelessly at my side. The sight of my wing was depressing, the feathers all in disarray, they were faded from the lack of sun. On the floor a small pile of dead feathers surrounded the table I was on. I felt the fire in my soul burn with the fury of the sun.
I was dragged back into my body by an unseen force, just as I returned the leather bindings holding me down exploded. I shot off of the table and grabbed the gun. But I was too late, The Doctor fired and I felt the bullet hit me. The wind was knocked out of my lungs, clasping my chest, blood seeping in between my fingers. I knew this was it, but I wasn’t afraid. All the years of pain and torture would end when my heart stopped beating. I saw The Doctor slowly squeeze the trigger of the gun and I waited for the bullet to strike me and it would be all over. But my instincts took over; I got off the floor and rushed at The Doctor. He fired and I dodged the bullet, I was surprised by my own speed but I had no time to admire it. I grabbed the gun and slammed The Doctor’s arm down on the table. I could hear the snap as it broke. I pulled the gun from his hand and pointed it at him.
I placed the gun on his forehead; his eyes swiveled up and looked at the barrel. I lowered the gun and said. “I am not like you” as The Doctor exhaled in relief I smacked him with the gun and he slumped unconscious to the floor. The door to the room burst open and a small group of white coats and guards came into the room. I fired a few times in the air to keep them distracted, a quick glance over the room I saw a glass window up above me. I smiled and said; “Up and out” I flapped my wings and surged into the air. I crashed through the window, and shot straight up into the air. I didn’t even bother looking back, at my former home. I was too preoccupied enjoying the warmth of the sun.
I started to grow colder; looking down there was a trail of blood falling off my body and down to the ground. I felt light headed and my vision was fading fast. The sun above was nothing but a blur, my brain hurried through a thousand solutions. None of them made sense; I figured I had flown, far enough from The School to know that I was safe. Below I saw a small cluster of buildings with a large road next to it with cars rushing by. I figured it must be some sort of strip mall I had heard one of the white coats talk about. Landing behind one of the buildings I made sure no one was around before I folded my wings. I managed to break open a metal door in the back of one of the stores. Walking inside there were rows of shelves filled with clothes, toys, and books. On the counter I read a small sign that said, “Salvation Army.” Regardless of what this place was it was my salvation, raiding the back of the store I found a med kit and patched the whole in my chest. I figured the bullet had missed my heart and lungs by only a few inches. Regardless I made a promise to myself to try and avoid becoming less holey in the future. With the wound patched up I grabbed a sandwich and a can of Coke from a small fridge in the break area. Before discarding my blood-stained and dirty smock. I grabbed an old backpack from the shelf and went to looking through the shelves. I found an unopened package of underpants and put one on; I placed the remaining in the old backpack. I grabbed a faded t-shirt with the word Metallica still printed on it and I found a pair of brand new blue jeans. Putting them on I went looking through the store for more useful items. I wondered how no alarm had been tripped because of me being in here.
It must be that no one would really expect anyone to break into one to begin with or it was my lucky day either way I didn’t question karma after all it can be kind even to a birdkid like me. I found a black hoodie with what looked like an angel on the front with the word Trivium written above. Irony has a sense of humor I suppose? I found a survival knife and some a few boxes of poptarts and granola bars. I felt as though I was missing something, I looked down at my bare feet and said, “Duh, shoes.” I don’t know about you but to be honest I have never owned a pair of shoes let alone worn them. I don’t really know what shoes are in fashion or what the latest among normal people are. But I grabbed a box labeled Converse and admired the shoes. They were made of some blue canvas material with white laces to me they were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Putting on a pair of crisp white socks I slid my foot into one of them the thing was I didn’t know how to tie them so I did the best knot I could do and left it. Placing the other shoe on and knotting it up, I grabbed a small knife and cut a few slits in the t-shirt I tied the hoodie around my waist and in case I ever had to land I would put the hoodie on to disguise my wings.
Stretching my wings in the warm sunlight letting the heat from it soak into the bones, I felt my body relax for the first time in my short life. I enjoyed the feeling and hoped that many more such occasions would soon follow. I flapped my wings and soared into the air, watching the small cluster of buildings disappear in the shroud of clouds. Trying to as far away from The School was harder than I thought; all those years of being strapped to a table had thinned away any muscles in my body. As the sky darkened on the horizon my eyes would close and I would find myself in free fall before snapping awake and keeping myself from ending up a grease spot on the ground. But tiredness enveloped me and I fell through the sky like a rocket.
Subconsciously my body continued to flap its wings to keep me from becoming a feathery rocket smashing into a hillside. I landed on something with a hard crash, I could feel the coolness of something metallic below my body, but I had no idea what it was. I felt something warm trickle down my face, a voice rang out in the dark, “What the hell was that?” A light appeared over the side of the object I was laying on, I tried to move my wings but they wouldn’t respond. They were shattered and sharp waves of pain shot up my back and made me cry out. The light was so bright I squinted to see what it was and I saw the shocked face of a man with brown mustache looking at me. His eyes wide in shock and he said to whoever was near him, “Honey it’s a kid!” a voice replied “What is a kid doing on the roof of the RV?” before I could hear his response my vision faded away.
I felt completely numb, no pain. If this was what it was like to die, I had no problem with that, I have had enough pain to last me more than ten lifetimes and I have had enough of this life. If death decided to take me then I would go willingly, but I felt a something cool and wet being pressed against my head. Opening my eyes I saw a women with dirty blond hair and blue eyes pressing a small wet cloth to my forehead. She looked at me and smiled, I wasn’t sure how to react whether to cringe in fear or think this was some pleasant dream, either way I didn’t care. Someone for once especially an adult wasn’t jamming needles in my arms or causing me pain.
She said, “What’s your name?” I replied, “It’s Ark,” she then continued to dab my head with the wet cloth. Just then a man’s head appeared behind her in the doorway, he looked down at me with a mixture of suspicion and fear. He approached me slowly and his wife turned to look at him saying, “Honey this is Ark.” The man’s gaze drifted to my wings lying limply from under the blanket covering me, he replies, “What the hell are you?” I began to shake I wanted to run out of there as fast as I could but as I got up to move the women pressed me back down on the bed. She said, “You will be safe here” she looked at her husband and said, “Does it matter what he is, he landed on our RV and needed help would you turn him away because he is special?” I looked at this women, why would she help me was the question that rung out in my head. What would possess her not to throw me out on the street, I had wings I am a freak and yet she didn’t turn me away or even report me to The School. But she didn’t and that is what was confused me. “Why?” they both looked at me and she replied, “Cause” and that seemed to sum up all of her reasoning for helping me. She did not say anything else, her husband continued to watch me carefully then relented and helped his wife clean and dress my wounds.
I cannot remember the rest of the day I passed in and out of consciousness. I can vaguely remember a few things, my wings twitching violently and the man pressing them to the floor as his wife gave me some type of pills no doubt some sort of pain killers because my body went numb and I felt nothing again. After that a long dreamless sleep enveloped me, I enjoyed it. I felt nothing something I was becoming used to. Maybe it was the years of feeling that way when the White Coats would allow it but either way I didn’t care. When I awoke I found the man sitting on the side of the bed looking at me. His gaze had softened since the first time I saw him, it was one of pity and even a hint of love. I sat up in the bed, looking at him and he embraced me, saying, and “Sorry kid for the way I acted before. It’s just my wife and I just lost our son a few months back in a car crash. Since then it’s been hard for both of us. Having your presence here I think has brought Jen out of her shell.” He lets go of me and ruffles my hair, he asks, “May I see your wings?” I nod and unfurl them, there is no pain. Just a few pops from the muscles from a lack of use. I rather amazed that I can heal this quickly, since my wings were nothing but a mangled mess when I landed on the roof. If this body of mine was good for something this was some small measure of comfort that relieved me enormously. Shaking out my wings, a few feathers fell off and landed on the ground, the man bent down and picked one of them up. “Ya, know you are very lucky to be able to fly, most people would give everything they had just for a chance to” I replied, “I would give everything I am just to be normal, I don’t know why I have wings or why I was created? For whatever reason I am just glad to be alive and not back at The…” I caught myself, the less these people knew the better. The man seeing my hesitation didn’t press for more information but instead said, “I haven’t introduced myself my name is Keith and my wife’s name is Barb.”
Looking at him, I reply, “My name is Ark but I guess you already knew that?” Keith nods and says, “Yeah I did but it is proper for people to introduce themselves this way” I smile and nod my head. For some reason a strange feeling came over me, it was not fear or anger, it was something different. I couldn’t understand why I was feeling this way but I knew it was a good feeling; these people had taken me in and nursed my wounds. Despite the fact I was a freak, they did not judge me, or look on me with pity. I felt safe here, which is a feeling I have never experienced before, back at The School I could have died merely at the whim of someone. Snuffed out so quickly before I even got to know what life really was like, but here it was different.
He patted my head leaving the room with one of my feathers in his hand, I watched as he left wondering why he would keep it. Life with Keith and Barb seemed usual at first but gradually I adapted to it, every morning I would wake up in a soft bed, which was a first for me, Barb would have breakfast waiting for me when I entered the small kitchen area. She would say hello while standing over a hot stove then go back to preparing breakfast for herself and her husband. I often felt as I ate that Keith and Barb had so many questions they wanted to ask me but never did and kept them reserved. I waited to tell them what little I could but I didn’t want to involve them any further just in case the White Coats would show up. It was the little things with my life with Keith and Barb that I enjoyed the most, taking a hot shower was definitely one thing I took full advantage of. When you spend most of your life strapped to a cold operating table have needles jabbed and poked into every part of your body none of that seems to matter when the water would run down my shoulders. Everything would melt away and the entirety of my world was consumed in feeling every knot and strained muscle loosen and the serenity of a blank mind that was no longer troubled by thoughts of pain and torment. I wondered if this is what people who lived normal lives felt and just how lucky they were. The thing about my life with the both of them that I found most striking is how they integrated me into it, as if I were a long lost son who had now finally come home. Keith would often spend time with me watching baseball games on TV and would explain to me the objectives of the game and why the men in the funny uniforms with stripes would run around the bases after hitting a ball with a wooden bat. Barb would have me wash dishes after dinner and I would help her with chores around the camper.
Keith would move the camper often to new locations and I went along for the ride. I enjoyed that the further we traveled was further from the School and the further away from pain. I would spend nights gazing at the stars and when Keith and Barb weren’t looking taking midnight flights away from the camper. I enjoyed the coolness of the night air and the strain of my muscles in the wind as my wings pounded the air with powerful strokes. I was careful to return to the camper before Barb and Keith would notice I was gone. Although on a few occasions Barb had gotten wise to my midnight flights and she would wait outside in a folding chair until I returned and would scold me for being so reckless, I figured that since it was dark people would be less likely to see me and besides I don’t have problems seeing in the dark in fact I see just fine in the dark. Must be one of the small and far few miracles of being part bird is that I gained some of their abilities. But after being scolded a few more times after that I wasn’t so keen on causing her any more stress that was already needed given they had already taken a huge risk by just taking me in. When Keith would stop at rest areas and gas stations I was careful to tuck my wings in and I always wore a pair of sunglasses and a hood over my head to try and disguise myself in case anyone from The School was looking for me. Not that anyone could get near me without me noticing first, if I got the feeling someone was trying to come close to me or was acting suspiciously the hairs on the back of my neck would stand up and my gut would start twist itself into a knot. But most of the time my suspicions were baseless except for the time a park ranger decided to question me because I looked like as he described it, “a hoodlum” needless to say when he tried to drag me into his office I broke his nose and arm trying to get out. Barb had to call an ambulance for him and we left the park as quickly as possible before the park ranger could describe how he got beat up by this said “hoodlum.”
Needless to say after the incident with the park ranger Bark and Keith were careful to keep an eye on me when we stopped anywhere and would sometimes forbid me to leave the camper. Although I did sneak out of the camper when Keith stopped at a gas station and I walked in the store and stole some candy bars. I had a hard time trying to explain that one away when Barb found the empty wrappers in my bed but she wrote it off that I didn’t know any better. I figured that they were both starting to realize something’s about my past at The School given the way I would act in public places and the avoidance to any person wearing the color white. They never really asked any questions about where I can from or anything about my past. I felt that this was done merely out of respect for my privacy but I felt that they wanted to ask more than they let on.
I obeyed what they asked of me despite my instincts telling me not to. But I never wished to cause them any harm. Sometimes I would lie awake at night and wonder when this fantasy world would end, I have no doubts the White Coats would come looking for me and if they did I had to make sure they didn’t trace Keith and Barb to me. But while this life lasted I was going to make the most of it after all how many times in a birdkid’s life to you really get to feel normal?
I stayed in the camper as Keith traveled farther and farther away from the School, the only thing I could tell is that we were heading east because the desert gave way to flat farmlands and miles of corn. The sunlight setting over the vast flat lands was truly a sight to behold the amber waves fading behind the shadows of the stalks of corn. I watched as the sun disappeared, and the world was enclosed in darkness. I went to bed early that night unsure whether I should feel calm or should panic, I was so far where I had lived my life, given I was in pain most of the time but it was the only thing I had ever known. I had no idea what lay at the end of the road, I wasn’t really sure what Keith and Barb would do with me now that I had been with them for so long. I stared at the ceiling of the camper until I fell asleep.
When I awoke the next morning, I could smell bacon and hear it sizzling. I got up and Barb greeted me as I entered the small kitchen. I said, “So where are we heading?” she smiles and places a plate of bacon in front of me, my stomach shamelessly growls. She says, “Vermont, we are heading to Vermont” I cock my head and say, “Where’s that?” she turns back to the stove and cooks more bacon replying, “It’s a small state in the northeast. Most of it is covered in trees, there are small towns spread throughout it, most of the towns are so small that they are just a blip on the map. It’s really pretty and safe.” The word safe rang loudly in my head; it was a word I had never heard anyone use before. I never knew what it meant to feel safe but hopefully Vermont would be as safe as she said given that if there were really so many small towns it would be harder for the White Coats to find me. I asked, “What is to happen to me?” Barb stops cooking and places the utensils in her hands down on the counter and turns looking at me and says, “Well you could live with me and Keith. We have even thought about adopting you given you don’t seem to have any other parents to take care of you.” Keith appears behind me and places his hands on my shoulders, “Listen kid, we know there are things about your past you haven’t told us but there are a few things we have figured out for ourselves. One, whoever placed these wings on you obviously didn’t do so with the best intentions and given all the scars you have on your body it’s true. Second, I have grown fond of you and so has my wife. If you had any parents its clear whoever they were they don’t care about you otherwise they would not have placed you into whatever life you had before you crashed landed on my camper. So we figured we would adopt you and raise you like our son you will be part of our family.”
Family, my heart stopped at the very mention of the word. What was it like to have one? To have individuals who cared for you? My whole body started to shake, my heart pounding, the whole world became like a very dark tunnel then everything was black. I was lost in darkness but felt the coolness of a cloth on my forehead, slowly opening my eyes I saw Barb looking down at me. I weakly said, “What happened?” she said softly, “You fainted.” I started to rise from the bed but she gently pushed me back down saying, “I know what a shock it must have been to hear that given you must not have had a family before you met us. But every word Keith spoke is true; we do want to adopt you.” Tears formed in my eyes and I felt like a heaviness have been lifted from my shoulders. Barb pulled me into a hug and I was lost in the warmth of her embrace. I finally felt like something in my life was actually going to work out, I was glad that I had crashed into the camper roof in what seemed like years ago when in reality must have only been a few days ago. When she released me from her hug I said, “Thanks Barb for everything” She stood up and ruffled my hair saying, “No, Ark thank you” she walked out of the room and I watched as she disappeared beyond the doorway. I went back to sleep and I hoped that when I awoke that the world would just allow this change. After all I cannot say I have had too many good things happen in my life. So world please go easy on me, after all you owe me at least that much.

Pretty sick Love it, man! Can't wait to read more! And I like that you made it a boy. MR fans mostly like the idea of having girls as the main characters, but I'm also one of those people who use boys more often X) I also really like your writing style, and I really can't wait to read more!

LOVE it. Lol, now I need to make a Maximum Ride fan-fic.

And yeah, it is cool to have a male perspective, though I doubt I could pull it off. I suck at boys. >P

I really do like the style. Wonderful job, Ahura.

story has been updated it is 8 pages total in my microsoft word doc