Book 1: Missing Angel; Part 1

Edited as of 10/27/25

Digi remembers the school positively. To him, it was cold, stale, but it was all he knew.

He was a test subject. Not numbered, just Digi. He remembers mostly tests, bloodwork, and having limited internet access… He knows he’s lucky. But he can’t remember anything until about two years ago. He knows vaguely that he had a childhood, but when he tried to recall he got nothing.

Sometimes though, when he’s alone, he’ll crawl into that vent just behind his bed, and watch the flock. He’s been told he was born around the same time as the eldest of them. That he was supposed to be in there, with them.

But the researchers said he’s special. They said he was chosen to not undergo the frankly horrifying treatment that his flockmates receive. But watching them, bonding and protecting each other, makes him yearn.

He wonders what having friends, a flock is like. Seeing the others, the others with wings, and watching them all, makes him sad.

He wishes they were all special, and that they would be up here, with him.

There’s a researcher who visits them often alone, a man with a moustache and round glasses. His flock seems to like him.

He can hear the screams, the begs and cries of others, while doing his homework assigned by his main researchers. He lives a comfortable life, while everyone else, his flock, suffers.

To Digi, this has been his reality for years. Until one day, he spots the glasses man, the special one, walk past his door. They lock eyes for a moment. All he can see is something from that man. But why?

A few minutes later, the lights go red and alarms start to blare loudly in his ears. That day, when he’s about twelve, the alarm goes off for the first time in his memory. He can hear growls, the shrieks of Erasers storm past him.

He stays in his bed, wings free and surrounding him like a shield.

A few hours later, an angry researcher storms in, but instantly calms upon seeing him still there. “Of course he wouldn’t take you.” The man pats his hair. “Digi, our star student.”

The next four years are a rush. He spends them alone. Sure, the researchers are cordial, but none are close to him. He is just a test subject. Digi is aware of that now.

He is a means to an end. Far too valuable to kill. Digi spends it wondering if his flock is okay. They’re free now, away from the school. The researcher guy, Jeb, took them away from here.

He knows the emotion he saw in his eyes now, it was pity. Jeb was pitying him.

Digi kinda understands why now. The researchers can be as nice, as polite as they want to be. But it won’t change the fact that he’s a bird in a cage. Literally.

His routine proceeds as normal, until he hears a voice talking about how they’d recaptured a subject that had been missing for four years.

That could only mean one thing.

He crawls into his bed side vent, and sure enough it’s her. The little girl who clung to the eldest’s side. The baby of the flock.

She’s all alone, just like him, and he wishes he could help her.

For a moment, their eyes meet. She stares, and looks deeply saddened by something.

Digi hears someone knock at his door, and quickly crawls out of the ven and returns to his sitting position.

“There’s our star student, come on, we have some physicals to do.”

He hesitates, for just a moment, before following the researcher.

---

Angel wondered just who that person she saw was. She’d never seen them before. But after focusing for a moment, she could hear their thoughts.

…This person knows who she is! They know who Max is too, by the brief flash of blonde waves. She wants to shout, to say something, but just as quickly as she sees them, the person is gone.

She had only seen brief glimpses, but she had seen that the poor soul had been here just as long as Max had.

Before she could think on it any further, she was being dragged out.

After two excruciating days for Angel, she sees some familiar figures get dragged inside of dog cages. Tears well in her eyes.

They were unconscious, bloody and beaten. After all she had endured, they’d still come to rescue her. Her family had still fought for her.

Max woke up first, and she desperately tried to figure out a way to tell her about Jeb, about the strange person, but she wouldn’t listen.

Watching who was basically her surrogate mother basically breaking at the sight of the man who raised them all, on the side of their torturers, was gut wrenching.

Seeing her leave with him hurt even worse.

---

Max sat across from Jeb. The only father she had ever known. The man who taught her everything. Who protected her, who kept the flock safe.

And now he was just another white coat.

He was talking, but it was hard to hear him over her own thoughts. He was preparing some hot chocolate, her favorite.

“You must have so many questions… But I just don’t have time to answer them,” Jeb started, stirring his own drink. He started to ramble, about how sorry he is, and then he began to panic. “I need to tell you two things.”

“What? That they’re gonna dissect our bodies after subjecting us to torture.” She huffed. Max was not happy about being here.

“You're even more special than I always told you. You see, you were created for a reason. Kept alive for a purpose, a special purpose.” Jeb said, emotions raw and real in his eyes. “Max, that reason, that purpose is: You are supposed to save the world.”

Her jaw dropped, but before she could say anything, the man continued.

“I can’t tell you much more than that right now,” Jeb said, looking over his shoulder again. “But I had to let you know the size of what we’re dealing with, the enormity, the importance. You are more than special, Max. You’re preordained. You have a destiny that you can’t imagine. But…”

“But what?”

“You need to find the missing member of your flock first. There are seven, not six.”

Seven? What was Jeb talking about? It had only been the six of them, for as long as she could remember. If there was a missing member, they’d been gone for a long, long time. That was only if he was telling the truth.

She sat there, not really listening once more, as she pondered what he said. She had a supposed destiny to save this world. But only if she found the lost flock member.

She was taken back to her cage, where Angel sat waiting for her. “Are Gazzy and Iggy okay?”

Max looked at her, thinking hard.

The younger girl nodded, relieved.

Now, they just had to wait for an opportunity to escape.

---

Digi was just free from an endurance test, having spent a few hours running on a treadmill. He was sweaty, and just collapsed to the floor after arriving in his room.

Then, after an hour of relaxing, a researcher entered his room. He was vaguely familiar.

“Hello there. I’m Jeb. You must be Digi, our star student.” He said, eyes shining behind his glasses.

“Yeah. That’s me.” He sits up, still feeling woozy.

“I have a very important task for you.” Jeb says, giving him a duffle bag. “Hold onto this, no matter what. Don’t open it just yet. It’s going to be very important later.”

Digi raised a brow, but complied, putting it under his bed.

“In a few hours, it’ll make sense, I promise.” He said, softly.

Digi said nothing, and he left as quickly as he came. He sat there in the silence, and then suddenly the alarm began to blare like it had four years prior.

He got the urge to look outside. And then he saw it. A swarm of hawks, and kids with wings just like him.

They were escaping again, and he was left here alone, again. Their wings flapped, surrounded by hawks, and they flew away.

Digi sighed. One day, he imagined using his wings for once, flying away from the school to freedom. Flying away with his flock.

In the dark of the night, there was a harsh knock. That was not the researchers. He barely had time to react as an eraser entered his room.

He backed into a corner, terrified. Behind the wolfman, was the researcher man from before. “Grab your things.” He said coldly.

Digi didn’t move. Alarm bells began to ring in his head, and his fingers began to itch badly. He couldn’t understand why.

The eraser growled, and he saw nothing but sharp teeth in his mouth.

He hurriedly grabbed the duffel bag from under his bed, and he was then ushered out. Digi saw a lot more of the school than what he was used to, as he climbed flight after flight of stairs.

He was so scared, and confused. Did he do something wrong? Was he in trouble? Was he being punished? His weird sense of danger was screaming at him, telling him to prepare to go down swinging.

He gripped the rough green fabric of his new bag. A door opened, and he was on the roof, where a helicopter was waiting. He swallowed deeply.

The eraser grabbed his wrist, tossing him inside.

Another few researchers had arrived outside, worry on their faces. “The others just escaped! That’s the last one of their kind! He actually behaves! Why are you doing this?”

“Because,” said the glasses man. “In order to get proper results like the others, this one must experience similar conditions.”

And suddenly, the helicopter began to lift, and the school seemed further and further away. He didn’t want this. He was scared, confused, and afraid.

Learn to be wild? What exactly was going to happen to him?

They flew for a while, a long while. Stopping to get fuel every now and then. Eventually, they began to descend, but stopped nearly a mile up.

The glasses man approached, leaning over in his ear. “You have much more agency than you think.” He then stood, eyes narrowed. He opened the helicopter door, and then dragged Digi over by his wrist. “This is your stop.”

“Huh?” He said, confused, and before he could even react, the scientist dragged him to the helicopter door.

“Remember to flap!” The man yelled, and just like that, he was tossed overboard.