Zits, whose real name is Michael (a fact that is not revealed until the end of the novel), is the protagonist of Flight. He is a 15-year old orphan who has spent most of his life in foster homes. His father, a Native American, abandoned him shortly after he was born, and his mother, a white woman of Irish descent, died of breast cancer when he was six. He then went to live with his Aunt Zooey, whose boyfriend sexually abused Zits. Aunt Zooey, refused to believe Zits’ accusations of abuse against her boyfriend and, when the boy was 10, she abandoned him.

After being placed in foster care, Zits led an itinerant life in foster homes, where he suffered more sexual abuse. He runs away from every foster home, abuses drugs and alcohol, and commits crimes, including stealing a car and driving it into the Alaska Way Viaduct. He shoplifts and panhandles to survive. He starts fires because he likes to destroy things. The only constants in his life are the alcoholic, homeless Native American men to whom he returns every time he leaves another foster home.

Despite the misery marring much of his young life, Zits is an intelligent boy with a self-deprecating sense of humor.