Ok, this is really stupid cause I've only read to book two of the MR series so bare with me. My library sucks and my Borders just got robbed so they're closed. I know who robs a book store the day after New Years, I was very sad. So I guess there can't really be any spoilers seeing as everyone know more than me! -huffs- Well, I'll get over it when I have the next book in my hands J .
Siy Rowling?
(Chapter One)
Max P.O.V
God, I was so tired, but I knew I wouldn't get any sleep. Not until I got the stupid chip out of my arm! Fang looked over his shoulder at me, we were in a loose formation just for the heck of it, I guess. A few seconds latter he pulled back a few feet away from me.
"Something up?" He cocked his eyebrow, man that was so cool, and he would show me how to do it either! I just shrugged and floated up on a warm updraft, ahh.
It was probably almost eleven at night, and he Flock looked dead tired. "Hey, let's land on that cave up ahead, due northeast." I said the coordinates automatically, Iggy nodded, showing me he understood. And one by one, we swooped into the dark. . . Bat cave? We all sprawled out on the cold stone, I couldn't say I didn't notice the fact that Fang nudged a little closer to the bats than the rest of us; always curious. I chuckled lightly.
I did a silent head count, One Fang was watching as the bats take off from over him with interest Two, Three Iggy and Gazzy were huddled over what I could only guess was a new experiment, Four Angel was talking with Total about how Celeste's dress show lay on her little bear figure, Five Nudge was decoding the papers she should have just left behind that we found in the Itex computer.
My Flock, I didn't even need parents as long as I had my family. Though it hurt sometimes, the fact that I was probably a test tube baby, it was better than the Flocks sad stories. I didn't have any past to hold me back, I could only look to the road ahead, wow, I was Max the Fortune Cookie today! There was a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the cave, my head jerked up without my telling it.
"You guys, I think I found something." Nudge's voice was cracking, Iggy and Angel were the first to romp over to her side. Me and Fang shared a wary look and then followed the others to crowd around Nudge.
Maximum, take the papers, take them NOW. This isn't supposed to happen. Maximum this is serious, Damn it Max listen to me! I ignored the voice and listened as Nudge explained it.
"I think Fang had it right, but kind of off." Nudge said. Oh no, looking for the parents again, hadn't we just gotten over that?!
"How so?" I found myself asking, Nudges eyes where blood shot like she was about to cry.
"We were so close! We need a world map." Iggy guiltily dropped a pile of mapps on Nudegs lap, I gave him a questioning glance, that was completely wasted on the blind guy.
"I was bored and thought about making paper bombs is all. New prototype." Iggy explained, I didn't push any more, knowing I would ask latter. Nudge grabbed the world map and started marking coordinates. They were all in the U.S. of cores. She got out a pen and put the first letter of each of our names next to the pinpointed location, everyone had one. . . Except for me.
That was how it all began, the next day we headed to the nearest coordinates. North Carolina. It was Gazzy and Angels home, it was a huge white mansion that looked like it could hold twenty million people.
Angel, Gazzy, Total and I walked to the door, a man who looked to be the butler opened the door. Turns out, it was their grandma who handed them over to the School, the blonde couple who had only been in their early twenties at the time, had known nothing about it until it was over and the kids had all ready been shipped off to Cali.
Their parents welcomed them home with open arms, even after the wings. . . And the talking dog, I stuck around just to make sure. The kids both gave me huge hugs and then were off to bond with their parents.
I stepped out of the house dazed slightly. Fang was by my side in a second as was Iggy, I told them the whole story, we even stayed the rest of the day just to make sure nothing like the Iggy fiasco happened again. Both kids seemed happy and. . . Normal, I guess you could say.
The next day we were off to the next nearest location, Arizona. It was Iggy's house. All of us were unsure about it so we all went to the door with him.
His aunt answered, she was on her knees crying as soon as she saw Iggy's face. The house was a regular town house, brick and all that homey junk. Iggy's story was, he was taken away from his parents after they were deemed "unfit" to have children, and right before his Aunt ,on his moms side, got custody of him, Jeb took him and he was off to the School.
The same procedure, and the same result, Iggy was happy and his wings weren't a problem, at around two we flew off, me carrying Nudge, since she had crashed at twelve. This was getting eerie, It felt like someone was ripping apart my family. But I knew they would be happier, so we went to the next nearest place, Nudges coordinates.
We ended up in Idaho, the house was quant I. . . Guess. It was painted a kind of purple-ish red and the shingles were black, an old man answered the door, he had a Santa Clause beard and had the same coco/mocha skin that Nudge had except he had wrinkels. It was her grandpa, her mother had died giving birth to her and her father had run out on her after he found out she was worth nothing and his wife was dead. The School had intercepted her transport to her grandparents house since they were too old to travel by plane and Nudge had been sent to the hell hole.
Her grandparents only seemed happier when she unfurled her wing and walked around like a model, posing and winking. I don't even think Nudge realized we were their after she hugged her grandma, who smelled way too strongly of lavender and smoke. . . Like campfires maybe. They where out in the middle of no where after all, so I guess that was normal.
We didn't bother to stay the extra day.
Fang and I bunkered down in a tree, nothing too fancy. I didn't get any sleep that night, neither did Fang, I think. Both of us knew what was coming next, it made me want to throw up right then and there. I was sick. Not high fever I have to go to the hospital sick, more I forgot the ending to this book and it's hitting me twice as hard as the last time I read it.
The last stop was so obvious it was kind of funny, New York. Of cores! That's why Fang's all stalker-ish and had a bad attitude, it all made sense now! I flew slowly when we got to a small apartment building. It wasn't horrible, at least not as bad as some of the places I'd been in New York. Ha. Memories.
Once we got to room 3A Fang glanced at me. I smiled encouragingly. He rang the buzzer.
A few seconds later a voice from the other side of the door asked, "Yes?" In a musical voice that could only belong to a women.
"Um. . . I have someone you might like to meet." I stated, I heard a gasp and then, a minute latter, after I heard a few locks being grinded unlocked, the door almost flew off of it's hinges, behind it was a lady, she had dark brown almost black hair, like Fang, deep blue eyes and tanned skin. She looked shocked. Obviously she was in her twenties.
One second all was silent and then she pounced on Fang, all but choking him.
"This is-" I was interrupted, with a happy chime voice.
"I know my Conner when I see him! This my son. Where have you been? Who is she? What's going on? Oh god I missed you." She ushered Fang in, I wouldn't say she. . . Well all right she didn't give a da- I mean schnitzel about me. The reason I know that is, one second Fang is hugging his mom, the next the door is slammed in my face. Fang did even protest, he forgot. He forgot already. Two seconds and I'm no one.
I waited for a second, and then I was off. I looked around for the exit, usually I would have done a quick head count, which I did do, out of habit. I winced when I counted. And then there was one.
I trudged into the cold darkness of the street and then I blended with the crowd. One girl with ragged hair, red rimmed eyes and a bulky hoodie was probably the most normal person who would find in the streets of New York. Which is one reason why I'll never go there again.
I knew I had a chip in me, I knew the Erasers would find me eventually, take me back to the School and I would end up dead in an isolation tank. . . For real this time. So I did that one thing I knew I did best. I flew. My super speed really did come in handy some times. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't have anywhere too go. So I went back to where it all started, Cali-forn-i-a.
I wasn't just going to do nothing. I was on a mission. I was going to bomb the School.
**~`~`~**
I was exhausted, I was on the cliff over looking Death Valley. A Flock of Raptors flew through the sky just over head. Probably the very same ones that saved my life back at the School not even half a year ago.
But that didn't occur to me until latter, the only thing I saw was a pair of black wings that glimmered red in the sunlight. One second it was among the Raptors the next it was being ambushed by a bunch of Erasers. I jumped up out of natural instinct and I pushed as hard as I could to get to the unrepentant black wings. I didn't even have a chance to look at the face of the person I was helping before I went into combat mode.
"You know." I said in a sharp voice, so sharp it probably felt like a razor slowly sliding across the Erasers throat, good, "Eight on one isn't very fair, but I'm sure I can help even that out."
The next thing was a bit odd, I jumped into the middle of the ring of Erasers and was back to back with the black wings.
"Who the hell are you?" A male voice hissed. I just shrugged.
"Not sharing time yet, little Timmy." I lunged for the Eraser in front of me. Not a very big one either. I roundhouse kicked one of the five that had cornered me alone. The person I was helpings served out some awesome high kicks, but not a lot of fist action.
I dove a little and then came up on the other side of a strong looking Eraser, folding its wings together, hard, I watched momentarily, it's fall into the lake bellow.
"Duck!" I did as the voice commanded, a leg went over my crouching figure, I saw and Eraser fall below, that had to hurt. The boy, -I realized- that was now my combat partner, was oblivious to an Eraser who was coming up behind him.
"Switch." I said hastily, we grabbed each others hands and spun around in a millisecond basically we switched "partners" so to speak. I gave the Eraser in front of me a good one, two kick, in the groin just for fun and I turned when I hear a frantic voice say, " DIVE!"
Our hands still clinging together, we dove about forty feet before shooting back up again. Two Erasers had planned on bashing us together, but they had run into each other instead. The last Eraser, a male, who looked quite big, looked at both of us and then. . . Bolted.
I was sweating and breathing heavily. The boy was doing the same. I directed him towards the cliff I had been sulking and planning evil bombing things at.
We landed on our hands and knees, panting and choking on laughter. After a second I realized our hands were still intertwined, we looked at each other and simultaneously, we collapsed beside each other.
"Max." I said, "I'd shake your hand but, I can't move."
"Zane." He stated sandy brown hair covering some of his right eye only slightly, "Same here. Nice switch back there by the way."
"I know, but that dive thing, hilarious. But the best part was-" At the same time we said.
"The look on the last guys face!" We laughed for what seemed like hours but was probably only minutes.
"You remind me of someone, who used to be in my Flock." I chocked on my own words, that was it, I wanted to break down, but Maximum Ride does not break down. So I swallowed my past emotions and waited for Zane's reaction.
"You mean there are more. . . People, like us?! That's. . . Fan-freakin' tastic." Zane was happy for a moment before he looked away. We were both so tired we didn't bother to move. I could feel his hand clench a little around mine.
"What?" It was weird. My relationship with Zane. If there even was one! I felt. . . Connected to him. In a weird way.
Max, you need to leave, get out of there and leave Zane behind. Right. Now. He was sent by Itex Max!
'What?' I asked in both realities.
"I escaped from the School, a couple of months ago. But before I left, I was able to figure out something, well actually, one of my flock members found out something. They're going to have us fight, they're going to attack us themselves. And whoever comes out on top is the high Avian I suppose. They want one left standing." His words shocked me so much that I shot upright, never releasing his hand. Zane slowly sat up as well.
"What happened to your flock?" I asked, although, I was pretty sure I knew the answer already. I prayed, and prayed it was different, I even swore I would go to church if it was a different answer. But it wasn't, it never was.
"They were picked off, one by one. I'm the only one left." He said dazedly, then when he snapped back to reality, he looked over at me warily, "What happened to yours."
"You're lucky." I whispered, Zane looked at me as if I were insane. He was lucky, so lucky. "Your flock, didn't leave you, they stayed until the end. My flock went away. One by one. And I had to be the one to hug them goodbye and then leave. I had to whatch them leave me and forget about me. God they did it willingly!"
All was silent in the ever mood changing cave. It had gone from 'hi my name is' to, '. . . and when I was six I had pink eye!' Apparently I had a way with making people talk. That was. . . Interesting.
"I'll make camp." Was all he said, and then flew off to go find some firewood. He knew what I wanted to do, and he knew that I couldn't do it in front of him. I let both my tears and my blood spill. Emo Max coming at 'cha. Yep that's right, we all thought it was going to be Fang -wince- but look who it is! I cut myself, it was clear to Zane when he got back, but he just looked at me with understanding eyes, eyes that said it all. His hazel golden eyes that said I could do whatever I wanted, I could be as emo or goth or intelligent or a leader or a follower and he would still look at me with those know understanding eyes. That was the moment I knew I could live n ok life without the flock, the moment I knew, I could be Maximum Ride without my gang.
No words were shared for the rest of the night, but so much was said it wasn't funny. With just a nod or a gleam of the eyes, we understood each other. By the end of the long night, it had been assessed that we had both been leaders of our flocks and we were both mourning, but we could get over it.
I hoped the flock, -wince- was ok and happy. And I knew, I needed therapy. Why? Simple answer. I was being a freaking fortune cookie! God.
Zane and I slept back to back curled up on our sides. That was when my voice decided to have a nice little chat with me.
Max, you can't do this. The flock needs you. They need to be with you Max, not those fools they call guardians. They can't even save them from Erasers! Max. This isn't what's supposed to happen. You're supposed to save the world. You're supposed to keep to the plan.
'No, I don't need anyone. If anything, all I need is to know the flock, -wince- is happy.'
You would be a wreck if you hadn't found Zane and you know it. Now Go. Get. The. Flock.
'So you're admitting Zane helped me, and is till helping me, and you want me to leave him? Shallow voice, very shallow.' I started to shrug off the voice and before I knew it, I wasn't conscious anymore. The last words I could make out from the voice where something along the lines of.
Maximum, if only you knew. The flock needs you.
I turned over and fell into a deep sleep.
***Chapter End***
Yeah, so there you go. I need one review to tell me it doesn't suck, which I know it has some suckish parts. All will be explained in the next chapter a couple months later, from the flocks P.O.V
Siy Rowling?
