Silence –Chapter 1
By MyNameIsCAL
You should read all this stuff in bold. It's important.
***In-depth Summary***
The flock, minus Max, were put into a mental hospital by Itex when they were kidnapped five years ago. When the mental hospital burns down, the FBI gets involved and finds Fang, Iggy, and Nudge. Knowing Max has been looking for them, they contact her and they are reunited. But things have changed. They have spent five years being told that what they thought used to be didn't exist and are untrusting, each of them choosing different ways to cope. Something happened to Gazzy and Angel and Max must piece the stories from each of the remaining flock members to figure out what happened while she also helps them to recover. They also play vital roles in the trial to bring Itex down.
If you are familiar with my The Disbanded: Divided We Stand story, Ted will return in this story as a character, but who he was in The Disbanded story will not relate to who he is in this story, so no prior knowledge of my other story is needed. This is just to clear up confusion for those of you who have read The Disbanded.
This is basically another one of my stories where I take the characters and their backgrounds and run with an idea. Let's not worry about what happened in the books except that they still have wings and instead of them being public, the public knows nothing about the flock until things in this fic happen. Perhaps this will be the first fic that doesn't involve Ella and Mom. I'm going to write another story, probably soon, that branches off of the newest Max Ride book Fang, so stay tuned for that.
Well, I hope that all makes sense. And as always, I do not own these characters (as much as we'd like to own Fang and Iggy and the rest of the flock). They belong to Mr. James Patterson and I shall be forever grateful to him.
Thank you!
---Max's POV---
Five years. Was it five years already since I had last seen the flock? Five years since I kissed Fang or had his arms around me? That long since Iggy and he were fighting over what Gazzy had mocked in their voices? It felt only like yesterday that Nudge was running her mouth about something, only yesterday that I had to force Angel to get out of bed. Yesterday, or five years, time went by too fast and too slow.
I must have spent a year, wandering the US, looking for them. Eventually, I had no choice but to seek help. I knew there was no way I could ever do it alone, but I was used to bad luck, so I hadn't expected much. And then I met this FBI agent in training. If it weren't for him, I'd probably be dead or still wandering aimlessly through Northern America.
His name was Theodore. Teddy, as I would call him. He was sweet and charming, but he wasn't Fang. To me, he was more of a brother. Teddy wasn't old enough to be an agent when I first met him, just working for the FBI as a cop, so his job was to look after me. We became friends because of that. Maybe he was the only person I really trusted right now with everything going on.
"The media doesn't know anything," he told me as he walked into the room.
"Then what do you know that they don't?" I questioned.
He set the pizza box on the coffee table. "Captain just called me. Some mental hospital, I don't remember where now, but it was set on fire and apparently Itex was holding its experiments there. They've got a few survivors, but so far they're unidentified. He'll update me when he knows more."
That flame of hope seemed to be sparked again, but it seemed like every day it would reignite before a strong gust of disappointment would put it out again.
"Jeez, this pizza is cold. I'll warm it up in the oven," Teddy rolled his eyes. "If you didn't live so damn far from the city."
I laughed. It always bugged him that I lived up in the mountains. But to me, it was the closest thing that felt like home since the flock wasn't around. Sometimes I would fly out to the place where I flew with those hawks and Fang.
"Have you ever been to New York?" he questioned after a while.
"A long time ago," I replied, remembering how the flock and I had slept on the branches of the trees in Central Park.
"They have the best pizza there," he said quickly. Teddy never lingered on the things that he knew reminded me of the flock. I would never admit it to him, but I still spent a lot of nights crying, wishing for the impossible.
We sat at the table, waiting for the pizza to finish warming up.
"So, how are things, up here?" Teddy grinned.
"Same as always," I frowned.
He gave me a more serious look. "Hey, you should get out more often. You live outside of LA. Go to the beach or something. I feel bad showing up and dragging you out places."
I shrugged. "I wouldn't even bother going out if it weren't for you."
"I'm sorry, Max." He looked sympathetic now.
Before I could say anything else, his phone rang.
"Hello?"
We were speeding towards the hospital, Teddy's sirens blaring.
"Jeez, slow down," I said. Somehow speeding down the freeway at a hundred miles per hour was scarier than plummeting down towards the ground.
"You've been waiting five years to find them," he breathed out. "I'm gonna get you there as fast as I can."
The hospital was swarmed with FBI agents. Teddy always had a sense of direction, even if he had no idea where he was going. It wasn't long before we saw Captain marching towards us.
"We only have three of them," he said. Captain had one of those low, scratchy voices.
"Three?" Teddy seemed just as concerned as I was.
"They're the only survivors," Captain continued to explain. "One of them is in surgery right now. The other two are being kept in one of the rooms. I'll take them to you, c'mon."
Only three? My heart sank.
Iggy and Nudge sat in an empty doctor's office when we walked in. She immediately sprung up and hugged me, but Iggy, he wasn't so trusting.
"I burned that place to the fucking ground!" He laughed hysterically. "Nudge, what the hell are you doing?! It's another trap!"
"Iggy, shut up, it's Max!" Nudge sobbed.
I wrapped my arms around her, tears streaming down my face. She shook against me, crying. "Max, the doctors took Fang away. Is he going to be okay?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Captain nodding.
"Yeah, he'll be just fine." Fang was here. Making three. Gazzy and Angel. What happened to them?
"Nudge, get away from them!" Iggy growled, standing up.
"Ig, really, it's me," I cried.
He started towards me, walking into the desk and swearing.
"Iggy, we've finally been saved!" Nudge let go of me.
"Then if you're really Max…" He trailed off into jibberish. At first, I didn't comprehend. He wasn't speaking English. English was the only language I knew! And then I remember. It was our language. The one we had made up so many years ago.
I answered him and he fell back into his chair, crying too.
Nudge still had her motor mouth. She told me they hadn't seen Gazzy and Angel in a long time. Nudge claimed the scientists deemed Angel dangerous with her mind reading and mind control powers. When they tried to take her away, Gazzy tried to attack them and they were both dragged out, never to be seen again. That took a long time to let sink it. And then there was Iggy. He still was untrusting of the agents.
"Sometimes I think he's gone insane," Nudge whispered as we sat, waiting for Fang to come out of surgery. "I don't know how he got those matches, but he started the fire with his bed sheets. He laughed madly all the way out as we escaped. Max, it doesn't even faze him that he killed people."
I stared at Iggy who was now asleep, slouched in his chair.
"For a while, he was convinced that everything was a lie," Nudge explained. "He would lash out at everyone. Itex stuck us there to torture us, to try to make us believe that we were just crazy. Of course I never believed them. After Iggy and Fang got into a fight, Ig started to believe me again. He's got a temper now. I'd be careful."
"And Fang?" I was anxious to hear about him.
Nudge shook her head. "He doesn't talk anymore, Max. I haven't heard him speak a single word since we got stuck there. Out of all of us, he's been through the most. They'd beat us for not doing what we're told and Fang always took the blame or the beatings for us. I don't think we would have survived without him."
I didn't know what to say to that.
"I'm sorry, Max," Nudge said, leaning against me. "I wish I had better news for you."
I put an arm around her. "I'm just glad you're here now, safe with me."
And so that's the first chapter. I sort of just threw that together in one day. I hope the rest of the story will turn out ok. The story will become more focused on Max and Fang's relationship, but don't worry, I won't forget about the other characters either. Since Fang isn't talking right now, I've decided the title shall be Silence. Thanks for reading!