For What It's Worth

Chapter One

"No!" I said for what must have been the millionth time. I was sitting in my mom's kitchen trying not to lose my temper.

"Max, it's the best way to keep the flock safe." Jeb tried to reason. "There have been rumours that Itex are rebuilding under a different name. If they do, then their first goal would be to get rid of the ones who destroyed them last time."

"We've done fine up until now, no thanks to you."

"Max," my mom stepped in. "Jeb makes a good point. It would be harder for people to find the flock if you split up."

Who's side was she on? "We're strongest when we're together. And we split up once before, it didn't work out too well." That had been one of the worst weeks of my life.

Jeb nodded as if he were taking my point into consideration. "Yes, but this time it would be under more controlled circumstances. You'd each be in a safe house, everyone would know where the others were-"

"No!" I said once again. "How many times do I have to say it? I'm not splitting up the flock on your orders!"

I pushed my chair back roughly, making it scrape against the floor, and stormed out of the room.

I found the flock lounging in front of the TV. I sat down heavily and sighed.

"They still trying to split us up?" Gazzy didn't even look away from the screen as he spoke.

"Yup."

"Maybe we should think about it." Angel said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Well," she started hesitantly. "We are on the news a lot. Everyone knows who we are after we came back from Antarctica. If anyone wanted to find us it wouldn't be that hard."

"Yeah, but we can deal with them easily." Gazzy said.

"But what about people who are always around us? Max's mom, and Ella, and Jeb. They'd be in danger too, right?"

That left us all in silence.

Jeb cornered me again that night. We were in the kitchen and Iggy was making everyone PB and J sandwiches before we went to bed.

"I want to talk to all of you as a group." He started. "I've made a few changes to the plan I told you about. Some compromises that might make you feel different about it." He glanced at me.

"What changes?"

"Well, not only would you all know where the rest are, you'll also be able to keep in touch with each other."

I leaned back, giving him more of my attention.

He'd said before that if the plan was going to work properly than there couldn't be any contact between the flock. Psh. Like that was going to happen.

"You'll each have your own disposable cell phone, with each other's numbers on it, along with mine and Valencia's in case you need anything."

I glanced around at the flock. "If we were to say yes, how long is this going to last?"

Jeb hesitated. "That's yet to be determined. It depends on how well the plan goes. But I suppose if you all wanted to pull out, or if something happened, then you could easily re-group and forget the whole thing."

I glanced at the flock again, then at Jeb. He got the message.

"I'll let you discuss it a bit." He closed the door behind him.

"What do you guys think?"

There was a moment of silence as they thought.

"I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of us." Nudge said. "Especially Dr. Martinez. She's don so much for us."

"And Jeb said we could pull out anytime we wanted." Iggy added.

"We could try it out for a while. See how it goes."

With every sentence my body felt colder and colder, until I was afraid I'd start shivering. Everyone suddenly thought their laps were extremely interesting, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

Except Fang. He was staring right at me, his face as emotionless as ever. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, whether it was 'Let's try this out' or 'Max, what the hell are you thinking?'

Jeb came back into the room. "Have you decided anything?"

"Yeah," I said slowly, looking at the flock, hoping that someone would jump up and say, "Actually no, this plan sucks."

Nobody did. And I couldn't make their choices for them. If they thought we should give it a go, then…

"We'll give it a try." I said reluctantly.

Jeb nodded and lifted up a baseball cap. "In that case, each take one of these papers. It's the location of the safe house you'll be at. Gazzy and Angel, you two will be staying together."

I couldn't help but feel slightly relieved as Nudge took the cap from Jeb. At least two of us would be together.

Nudge lifted out a scrap of paper and unfolded it.

"Omg! I'm going to San Diego! Max, I'm going to California!"

Gazzy took the hat from her and chose one at random. Unfolding it he said, "Bridgeview, Minnesota. Why does Nudge get a big city and we get a place no one's heard of?"

"We tried to mix the area's population. If you all lived in big cities or all in small towns then it would be easier to locate you all." Jeb explained.

Iggy took the next piece and Gazzy read it out. "You're going to Denver, Colorado."

Angel passed the cap to me and I unfolded one.

"Forks, Washington." I said. I quickly sketched a map in my head. Washington was relatively close to California, Minnesota and Colorado. A few hours flight, a day at most.

I passed the cap to Fang. He unfolded the last one.

"Blackstone." He said after a moment.

Everyone burst out laughing. There couldn't be a more suitable place for Fang.

I was the only one who didn't laugh. I was the only one who noticed the small frown, the tightening around his eyes.

"Where is it?"

He looked up at me. "Florida."

In character? Too slow? Review and tell me what you think!