AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently finished the last book of the Maximum Ride series, Nevermore. Towards the ending I was feeling pretty exasperated; after all, the entire thing had turned into a love triangle that resembled the stupid "Team Edward/Jacob" of the atrocious Twilight series (apologies if that offends you). And then the ending came – abruptly, mind you – and I was in shock. It was a great ending. A beautiful ending. But the ending to Maximum's story? As soon as I finished the book and wiped my tears away (come on, most of us cried) I sat down and opened a document on Microsoft Word. So, the end of Maximum's story?
Not in my world.
Write on,
WriteFF13
.:FOREVERMORE:.
Chapter 1 – Prologue: Ashes to Ashes
We cheated death.
There was no other way to explain it.
As I sat, surrounded by the only people left in the world I actually cared about, I couldn't help but wonder how I had survived that monstrosity of a tsunami. Shudders rippled through my body when I thought about it. My ears rang and my hear pounded, remembering the rushing wall of water as Fang held me in his arms for what seemed like the last time. Now here I was, alive and well (or as well as you can be when you might be the very last people alive on earth after the apocalypse). Before, I thought the whole "captain-going-down-with-the-ship" thing was what I had to do…as Maximum Ride.
Then Dylan pulled me from the water, gagging and vomiting gallons of putrid liquid waste. By then, my left wing had been broken, the porous bones crushed and bloodied. You'd think that being submerged in the water during a tsunami would lessen the impact when it hit. Hardly.
I suddenly winced, remembering my body whipping through the water, torn from Fang's grasp. I had closed my eyes and curled myself into a ball, wrapping my wings around my body. But they couldn't protect me, something I figured out for myself when debris, trees, rocks, and every sharp object imaginable seemed to slam into me. It's hard to recount the pain I felt – more pain than I had ever endured in my life. I would take two hundred Erasers in a second, I would take ten Red-Haired Wonders (okay, maybe not), and I would take on an army of psychotic scientists I'd met before. If I could have traded those two events, I would've in a heartbeat.
Now here we were, huddled on a steep precipice half-floating and still rooted to the core of the earth. I felt like we were about to sink into the ocean any second, but at least we had dry land under our feet. I couldn't say the same for the pieces of land floating aimlessly below us. Wood planks and thick tree trunks, blackened by the explosion of the sky, drifted around us, but ocean currents kept us within a mile of each other, still circling around where the island use to be. I knew the rest of the flock was somewhere down there, but Fang promised we could search for them as soon as my wing got better.
Fang.
He was here now, kneeling behind me and keeping a steady hand on my shoulder. He, too was looking out at the horizon, his black irises scanning for another possible tsunami. It was the end of the world, after all. The sun could plow into the earth and I wouldn't even blink in surprise. When you have my kind of life, you don't get surprised all that easy.
Angel lay behind me a ways, bruised and beaten. I wanted to comfort her, but at the same time I didn't. Angel had caused so many problems and created so much tension between us that at the moment, I didn't want to think about her just yet.
Then there was Dylan, the super-model of a boy who had had his heart ripped from his chest and stomped on by me. Unintentionally of course. His eyes weren't bitter as Fang helped me stand; instead, they were determined. Maybe he thought he had redeemed himself by saving him. But one thing was sure:
I owed him one. Big time.
But now wasn't the time to get in another fight. We had just survived the end of the world, and I was still alive. And damn it, if I was still alive, then I would make myself useful.
Hobbling to the edge, I peered over as Fang held me back in case I fell. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal. But all of our wings had been damaged. Mine hung uselessly, Fang's was dark and wet with blood, Dylan had lost a slew of feathers, and the youngest girl out of all of us had also broken her wing. I smiled tightly at her. She was a one-winged angel, and there was nothing I could have done to prevent that.
"What are you thinking?" Fang murmured as I turned back to the horizon.
I sighed. "A lot of things."
"As soon as you get better, we have to find the others. They're alive, I know it," he said determinedly. I nodded, folding my arms across my arms and shivering. Fang wrapped me with his black wing.
Suddenly Dylan spoke up. "I can still fly, you know. I'm not useless," he said, unfurling his wings to prove a point. I blanched at the blood that dripped from his left wing. Dylan's once-beautiful chocolate wings had been bloodied to a pulp.
"No."
He started to protest but I cut him off. "It's not that. I know you can fly and I'm sure you want to. But we can't risk anything until we're 100% and back to normal. Plus, we've got to stick together," I said, and Fang nodded in agreement.
Dylan sighed.
"I know this place isn't exactly paradise–" I snorted. "– But we need to stay on the highest ground possible, in case another one of those tsunamis come," said Fang. He was probably right.
"And do what? Fly? Max has a broken wing." Dylan's voice was hard. So they were still playing the alpha-male game, eh?
Fang's voice was steely, his eyes dark. "Then I'll carry her."
"And Angel?"
"Well, if you're going to do nothing, then I'll carry her as well. Look, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but right now, we need to focus on surviving."
"Fine," Dylan finally consented, and turned to push past burnt brush, his footsteps heavy. I moved to go after him but Fang held me back.
"He won't go far," muttered Fang. I raised my eyebrows, remembering the temper tantrum he had thrown after seeing Fang and I – well, yeah. "You're here. And as long as you're alive, Prince Charming will be sticking around."
"Fang..."
He smiled tightly. "Sorry."
" 'S okay..." I sighed, but suddenly hissed in pain. My wing throbbed and my speckled white feathers were splattered with blood.
"Let's find shelter until the morning," Fang suggested, and went to help Angel up. I crossed my arms again, looking out over the devastated horizon. Everything seemed to be painted in a horrible red and black – the fires that fell from the sky had blackened everything and the sky's hue – or what was left of it anyway – was scarlet. The sky really had fallen. It was too depressing. I kept waiting for the Voice to chime in – Angel could still read my mind just as easily as before – but she kept silent.
I turned and followed Fang as we descended the steep side of the cliff.
What a crappy day.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Come on, you know Patterson's ending was a total setup for another three books or so, but I'm overall glad he ended it. The story was falling apart and while the tension between Max, Fang, and Dylan was enjoyable while it lasted, dragging it out for more than three books would have been overkill. Nonetheless, hope you enjoyed this! I'll definitely be continuing when I have the time. Don't forget to review!
-WriteFF13 (I write Final Fantasy XIII fanfiction, that's the reason behind my name)