Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does.
Voice, what are we doing? I asked irritably.
You're saving the world.
Then why are we going to rural Pennsylvania? You said we had mission.
This is your mission, a small one before the next big step.
Okay, so what are we doing?
The voice was silent. Figures. I noticed Fang watching me.
"Voice," was all I said. He nodded. I raised my voice so the entire flock could hear me. "Okay, we're heading southwest to Pennsylvania."
They followed me unquestioningly, but after a few hours Nudge approached me. "Max, can we break, I gotta pee and I'm hungry."
I sighed, "Yeah, I can see a KFC up ahead." We landed in a field behind the fast food place and threw our wind breakers on. I fished out the card my mom had given me last time I'd seen her in Virginia. Ten minutes later we were wolfing down food like we hadn't eaten in days.
"So, why are we going to Pennsylvania?" Ig asked between mouthfuls.
"The voice said we had to go on a mini mission, that was it."
Iggy rolled his eyes and kept eating.
Go to Kennywood tomorrow, have some fun for a day.
Kennywood? What's that?
"We're going to Kennywood tomorrow, Fang can you look up where it is?"
He pulled out his laptop and clicked away on it, after a moment he gave me an odd look. "An amusement park?" He seemed to question me, but then shook his dark head, "Whatever. It's near Pittsburgh, we could get there in about two hours, from here."
The rest of the flock got really excited then. "An amusement park? Like with roller coasters?" Gazzy shouted.
"Ohh, and cotton candy?" Nudge chimed in.
"I want to play the games!" Angel said happily.
I sat back and smiled briefly, it was good to see the flock so happy. But then, of course, the voice had to mess it up for me.
You're going to have to be on alert tomorrow. And you will need to learn to trust outside your flock, this mission you can't do on your own.
Great, thanks.
Fang tapped my leg with his foot. I glanced up at him and communicated that everything was ok. The kids didn't seem to notice our exchange because they were currently discussing what foods to get.
"Okay, we should find a place to settle in for the night guys."
"There was an old barn, about a mile back, it looked abandoned, and there were multiple exits."
And that there was the reason Fang was my right hand man.
"Okay, barn it is." I filed the kids out of the KFC and we took off in the field we'd landed in.
Sure enough there was the barn, and it was a decent place to spend a night I supposed. I got the flock settled; we did the hand stacking thing, and Fang offered to take first watch. Just as I was about to sleep the voice told me one last thing that I knew would keep me up all night.
Keep an eye on Fang; he will need you more than ever pretty soon.