Subject 009: The Bird Girl

Ever since I was old enough to speak, it was my dream to fly in the sky. I would tell everyone I met that I’d grow up to fly a jet like all those in the army. Despite everything that’s happened to me, I’d still love the chance to fly, even a small plane.

You see when I was about eight years old, my parents and I were driving back home in a harsh rainstorm. My dad was driving, and he was going slow to avoid spinning the car off the road, he even had his high beam lights on.

Unfortunately, not all drivers are so careful. I barely remember it, but one moment there was nothing, and the next there was honking, followed by a big semi-truck smashing into the front of our car.

I was in a coma for months before waking up, and when I did my grandparents were standing over me looking sad. That day, my entire world shattered. My parents didn’t survive the crash, and I barely survived, but was left paralyzed from the neck down.

My grandparents took me in after that and took great care of me. Life was rough for a while, all the doctors, the grief, the therapy sessions and so much more. A decade later, not too much has changed.

I’m not as sad anymore, but honestly, I don’t feel very alive. All I really do is sit outside in my wheelchair and stare up at the sky daydreaming. Pretending to be up there flying around is probably the only thing that gets me through the day.

My therapist tells me I shouldn’t, but honestly, I don’t care what he has to say. Even if I know it’s pointless and impossible, if I give up my dream I’ll have nothing left keeping me going, and I don’t want to think about that.

As I’m staring up at the sky, my grandma comes outside to grab the mail. She seems confused by one of them and walks up to me with it. She tells me a strange piece of mail has arrived for me.

She opens it up and reads it to me. It was from some new drug trial being run in the next city, and they wanted me to take part in it. Apparently, it claims to be able to repair the damage to my body and make it so I can walk again.

Grandma scoffed at it, she was ready to toss it away, but I stopped her. We’ve gotten these kinds of letters before, and none of them worked, but I still begged her to take me to it. Even if it doesn’t work, they might learn something.

She looked upset, probably because she didn’t want me to get my hopes up and disappointed again, but agreed to take me. A week passes and she drives me to the facility where the trials are taking place.

There were several other people in the lobby when I arrived. Not long after I arrived I was handed off to one of the workers and wheeled through a hallway. The other participants were led to rooms, while I was led to an elevator.

I was a little nervous when we went down five floors. I didn’t expect this place to be so big. When the elevator opened, I was shocked. It almost looked like we were outside. Trees everywhere, birds chirping, and crazy high ceilings planted to look like the sky.

The worker picked me out of my chair and brought me to a nice open grassy field to sit down in. He handed me a pill and water to consume. After that he told me to relax and watch the sky for a bit, even take a nap.

As he left, he said that they’ll be watching over me, but not interacting a whole lot unless entirely necessary. That sounds strange considering I can’t do much on my own, but perhaps they’re that confident It’ll work.

Well, not like I can get up and walk away anyway. Might as well take in this new unique view, maybe even watch all these cool and strange birds flying around. After a couple of hours, I did end up falling asleep.

I had the same dream I’ve had since my accident. It was me flying around in the sky like a superhero, but for some reason, It felt different this time, I just for the life of me couldn't figure it out.

My dream ended early when I fell over in my sleep. I smashed the back of my head on the ground. It hurt like crazy, without thinking, I moved my arms back there to make sure it wasn’t bleeding.

Then I froze suddenly and slowly moved my hands back in front of my face. I could move my hands again! For the first time in ten years, I could move them. It felt so strange, I couldn’t believe it.

I used my hands to push myself up, I couldn’t believe it. Then I looked at my lower half, and my legs were twitching. I could feel them as well, which means it worked, I was fixed! It took me w few moments due to my body being weak, but I was able to stand up.

It was slow going, and I fell down a lot, but I managed to walk all the way over to the elevator. When I reached the elevated I decided to check myself out in the shiny silver surface. I was a bit surprised at how I looked.

I was so small, and skinny. My waist was so slim, and I basically had no hair anywhere on my body, well except my head. My hair was longer than I remember, but I hadn’t exactly looked at myself in years.

I guess not moving around in a decade will do this to your body, but I’m a bit disappointed that I’m not taller, I really thought I was. I shrugged it off and continued my walking, I was far from ready to sit back down.

I ended up finding a small river, which was crazy in a place like this. They even had fish swimming around in it. The fish looked good though, not like cool, but more like I wanted to eat them.

Again without thinking much about it, I dived into the river and grabbed a fish. As soon as we were both out of the water I just started eating it. Which, I’ll admit was a bit weird, but it was so good and it was fun to catch.

I walk around eating my fish for a while and get kind of lost in the woods. I decide I’m well enough again, and climb right up to the top of the tallest tree I could find, and look around for anything interesting.

That's when a flock of birds flies over me, and for the first time in years, I feel myself filled with hope. Thanks to this trial, I’ll be able to finally achieve my dream. Of course, if I break my leg standing in this tree that won't happen.

So I make my way back down to a lower branch and lay across it. I relax for a bit and listen to the birds chirp, the bees buzz, and the over sounds of who knows what creatures wandering around in here.

I end up drifting back to sleep again, and I have that dream again. Except this time it’s very noticeably different. Instead of a superhero, I was a bird flying around, and I had my very own flock flying with me.

I woke up feeling great. I jumped down out of the tree and stretched my wings. They had become stiff with the way I was sleeping last night. I really need to build a nest to avoid that happening again.

When I was on the ground I noticed a strange-looking package with a symbol of a bird on it. I think that’s meant for me, so I rip it open to find some new clothes inside it. It was a cute red and white dress, with white panties and a new pair of shoes.

This was great, my old clothes were kind of baggy and boyish. These new panties will be easier to fly in since they'll be nice and tight against my crotch and won't catch any air. So strip naked and change into my new clothes.

I kinda of just left the box and old clothes behind as I went out into the open. I had to test out these new clothes. So I squatted down and jumped, then with everything I had, I flapped my wings and took off into the sky.

I was so happy, I couldn’t stop myself from crying. I felt so free and alive, and exactly where a bird girl like me belonged. Once I stopped crying, I made my way back to the river and flew over it, grabbing a couple of fish to eat for breakfast.

I returned to my tree, with my fish and sat on my branch and consumed my tasty fish. Once I was nice and filled up, I decided it was time to build my first nest. It was going to be a lot of work, it had to be strong and perfect to hold my eggs.

As I walked around picking up things I thought would be good to use, I saw this cloud of smoke start to fill the area, followed by the animals around me starting to fall asleep. I tried to fly away from it, but it eventually got us all.

When I woke up again, it seemed like nothing had changed. I was sitting at my tree. I flew up and around, and some stuff around me was different, and I was even able to fly so much higher than before.

The smoke was also nowhere to be seen, along with that silver reflective wall thing. I flew back to my tree and decided to not worry about it. I had more important things to be doing, after all this nest won't build itself.