Disclaimer- Maximum Ride is a creation of James Patterson; I highly recommend reading his books

Maximum Ride

Beginning from the End

Chapter I- At the End

The heat was unbearable, my skin felt like it was crawling under the sweat, blood and dirt. The smoke was so thick and clouds of it rolled through the air all around me, and I was surrounded. It was thick and black, dry and hot, nothing like real clouds, I would know. I couldn't see well and it was getting harder to breathe, all I could think of were my family, where were they? Did they get away in time? Or were they still here somewhere, where I couldn't find them? I tried to call out to see if anyone would answer me, to make sure no one else was still trapped here in this inferno, all I managed was a painful squeak turning into a coughing fit. My eyes were burning, tearing up but the tears were evaporating before it could help. I knew I was running out of time, and I still had a job to do. I looked around wildly, trying to get my bearings straight, I knew I was somewhere over a grated catwalk but I wasn't sure what to do next.

I was getting tired, I knew I couldn't last too much longer, but I had to finish this once and for all. There, I break in the smoke below me. I took my chance and dove for it. The closer I got to the ground, the hotter it got, the more uncomfortable I was. I shook my head; I didn't have time to think about it, down, down, down faster, and faster. I figured I must have been going close to 350 clicks, had to have been, yet it just didn't feel fast enough. I wasn't going to make it. I was out below the rolling clouds of black smoke now.

*Go for the Reactor core* Huh? Who said that? I thought, pulling my feet up flames licking at the bottoms of my sneakers. I looked around, realizing it was the voice I sometimes heard when I was off track of what I was supposed to be doing. I realized it was the first time in a long while, that I'd heard it.

"Nice of you to join me" I muttered under my breath looking around, there below the catwalk, the reactor core. I flapped my wings hard a couple times and gave it everything I had left. Faster and faster, I needed to go faster. I brought my arms up over my head, hands together, spiralling faster then, I've ever flown before. Somewhere in the back of my brain, something just sort of clicked and I knew, I just knew I'd broken the sound barrier for the first time ( and quite possibly the last time) and my ears popped painfully. I cringed and clenched my teeth before shrieking at the top of my lungs, but I didn't stop. *This is it* came the voice again and then my brain started to shut down as I felt hard glass shattering all around me, cutting into my skin. I'd flown straight into the reactor core and out the other side, it seemed to take forever for a reaction, but it was only seconds later that a deafening blast radiated from the core. My wings crumpled as I was thrown hundreds of miles into the air, I felt all the wind whoosh out of my lungs and air sacs. I saw the world light up in bursts of yellow and orange and red, and then the world grew darker around me. I realized I was falling, which wouldn't be the first time I fell out of the air, just the first time from this height without anyone else around, I was falling and every important moment in my life seemed to flash behind my eyes, I felt the tears rolling down my face and all I could bring myself to think was how much I loved him and that I hoped the world was safe, because somehow I didn't think I was going to get to find out for myself. I was falling and the mix of hot and cold air was rushing up to meet me was oddly comforting after the blistering heat of the inferno I had started. The last thing I consciously remembered was his soft longish hair and his dark as midnight eyes, that half smile he seemed to have just for me. I was blacking out, I had no idea how far I'd been thrown, but I knew with absolute certainty that I would never feel myself hit the ground either. I was gone.

*You did it Max, The World will be Saved* I don't even remember hearing the voice clearly it was almost a whisper, but it was the last thing I heard. I was sure that I Maximum Ride, leader of the flock, and only 16 years old, 98% human 2% bird had just died...

The world shook as a new era swept in fast and violent, all around the planet, top secret facilities most of the populace didn't know about exploded, and multi-million dollar corporations collapsed everywhere. The world was rocked with wave after wave of devastation but ultimately the world had been saved, when the dust cleared and people around the world began picking up the pieces and putting their lives back together, there would be peace and better care of the one planet known to support humanity.

It had been nearly six weeks since everything had changed; things were starting to come bad on line now. He looked across the room at the computer screen blinking in the dark. It was the first time it had powered up and connected to anything since the world wide black out weeks before. He looked at it sideways from across the room, where he laid on his side on a lone mattress in the dark. He hadn't had the strength or the energy to get up from his mattress on the floor of the darkened basement he'd taken refuge in. He slowly sat up running his hand through his longish black hair, he rolled his shoulders painfully working the kinks out of his muscles, he tentatively shifted his wings a little bit, and the pain was still too much to try to move them much. He got to his feet walking slowly across the room to the computer blinking on the table by the door. He ran his fingers over the track pad and his e-mail popped up on the screen. One new message. He was about to close the window, not really wanting to respond to his blog yet, everything still hurt too much, it was all still to fresh in his mind, when he noticed the subject line. He clicked the open button.

To: Fang

Subject: Maximum Ride

I thought you should see this.

-A friend.

Fang scrolled down to the bottom of the page and saw two attached files. He opened the first, and the screen filled with images of the brown sun-streaked haired girl with the brown eyes that he loved more than anything in the world. There were images from points all through her life, as a child growing up, images of them together, of the flock all together, of her flying on her own. They were all mixed up, just random points of Max's life. Fang could feel his eyes tearing up before he even clicked the second file; the pictures were all of his Max. He opened the second attachment and a video played, it was grainy not very clear like it was a recorded feed of Max's final moments. Her last battle, he watched her gathering speed flying straight through the reactor core and thrown from the impending blast, the screen went black as he watched her falling from the sky.

Fang stood staring at the screen for a moment, he'd known what had happened of course, but he hadn't been there himself. He should have been but he wasn't, She'd made sure that he couldn't be. Max herself had made sure there was no way he could be anywhere near her when it came down to the end. He remembered all too clearly the last time he'd seen her. They were arguing, that seemed to be what they'd done best as of late, fight. Max had suddenly gone quiet in the middle of their last fight and let the argument go, before folding him in a hug.

"I love you Fang..." She'd whispered beside his ear before pulling back enough to kiss him soundly. He remembered his arms circling her slim waist, pulling her closer, and then the pain. The unbelievable pain. When she stepped back, he'd dropped to his knees, it just hurt so much. What had happened? He'd looked up at her clenching his teeth against the pain. There she was standing in front of him, holding his favourite switch blade, and his blood ran the entire length of the blade to drip onto the floor, she must have worked it out of his pocket.

"Max?"

"I'm sorry Fang; I just won't be able to do what I have to if you're there..." She said dropping the knife, he watched fall to the floor from her hand. "That's why you left me right, because we cared more about each other, then about anything else... I made some bad choices..." She said through tears, he'd made her cry again.

"Fang, I love you so much, but I have to save the world, right?" she said with a little laugh before turning and walking out the door.

Fang gave his head a shake clearing the memory away. He closed the top on the computer and walked back to his mattress. He lay back down careful to stay on his side. Max had driven his knife into his shoulder blade close to the base of his wing. She'd done it to keep him from coming after her. She knew better than anyone that the injury would heal fairly seamless, and relatively quickly. But if he'd gone after her and watched her die unable to save her, he'd never have recovered. That's why she was the leader, the real leader; she could make the hardest decisions in a snap. Fang put his head down and closed his eyes, trying to sleep a little. Sleep came a lot harder now than it ever did.

Fang had only just settled into a light sleep when he heard something vibrate. He listened for a moment and realized it was his cell phone. It wasn't the first time it had rang in the last couple weeks, but up till now he hadn't really moved a whole lot. He reached for his jacket on the floor beside him and dug through his pockets trying to find the vibrating contraption. One look at the call display and his heart near stopped as his breath caught in his throat

Fang remembered trying to go after Max, even after she had stabbed him.

"Max!" he yelled getting to his feet, she stopped in the doorway at the end of the hall, her back to him.

"Max, why?" he asked after a moment. She stayed to listen to him as he leaned heavily in the door frame.

"If I screw up, the world will end Fang." She said looking back at him, he reached out for her but she turned her back on him. "I'm sorry Fang, but I love you. More than anything in this world, that's why." She said quietly over her shoulder before disappearing through the door and up the stairs out of sight.

"Max, Max!" he tried again "Max, I love you..." He said crumpling in the hallway as he tried to flex his wings hoping she'd heard him.

Fang came back to reality as the phone vibrated in his hand again. The call display still showed Max's number. He flipped open the phone almost afraid of what he'd hear.

"Hello?" he asked quietly, his voice sounded rough even to him, from lack of use.

"Fang?" came the confused answer

"Yeah"

"Its Gazzy" came the surprised voice again

"Yeah"

"You must have been the last person to call Max. I found her phone dude! We're out here at the blast site, the flock that is, looking for clues man!" Fang was stunned, Gazzy had found Max's cell phone out at the blast site, and it was intact. This meant one thing; there was a chance she had made it out alive. Fang didn't answer Gazzy right away, he didn't trust his voice.

"So, uh, you comin' out to help us search some more? Or are you still on the Fang's bad for flock, thing?" Gazzy asked. Fang ran a hand through his hair scratching the back of his head

"Fang?"

"I can't Gasman"

"What do you mean you can't?" Gazzy exploded sounding outraged.

"I can't fly." Fang admitted after a moment, Gazzy was silent on the other end of the line. Fang tried to fluff his wings up a little and clenched his teeth against the pain.

"... You can't fly...?" Gazzy finally asked in a hushed voice not wanting anyone else to hear him.

"Max, she uh, she didn't want me to be able to follow her." Fang said after a minute, keeping his own voice low. Gazzy was silent again before asking his next question.

"When will you be here?"

"Maybe another week before I'll even be able to try, even then it'll be slow going." Fang admitted quietly feeling low. He'd been fighting with himself the last couple weeks about going out, but he wouldn't have even been able to walk without killing himself. Gazzy was quiet for a minute and Fang could hear Nudge yelling to Iggy in the background before a loud crash.

"I'll call you back in a little while, okay Fang?" Gazzy said after a minute had passed. Fang wanted nothing more than to be out there searching with or without the flock too. Then it dawned on him that there was something he could be doing.

"Yeah okay." Fang agreed after a second and hung up the phone. He sat in the dark for a moment. Gazzy had found Max's phone intact. Max always had her phone in her front jeans pocket; there was no way for it to just fall out without some effort on her part. So if it survived then there was a chance that she did too, and Fang planned to find her for better or worse. Fang got up and flipped open the computer again. He went over his e-mail again looking for anything that stuck out, and then started to search news bulletin after news bulletin, missing person's reports, emergency check in rosters, he searched for anything and everything that could possibly hold some answers. Then after some thought he opened his blog, deciding t make a post to see what others could find out.

Fangs Blog: Welcome

Visitor Number: Broken again

Location: Anywhere but here

Subject: Maximum Ride

Yo, I'm back after that brief worldwide black out we've seemed to have experienced. So how crazy was it? The apocalypse not have as much of a bang as anyone thought? Haha yeah right. The worlds impending doom was thwarted by none other than the amazing Maximum Ride! Let's hear it guys, give it up for the saviour of the world, Max!

Okay so now you know that Max really did save the world single handed, we all have to do our parts to keep it safe! See previous posts about global warming and air and water pollution.

Now Speaking of Max, no ones heard from her since taking on the big bad, we're starting to worry more then a little, this has been the longest that she's been away from the flock, so I would greatly appreciate any and all information you guys may have.

-Fang

Fang shut the computer off for the second time that day and decided he needed to make more of an effort. He needed to get up and work the kinks out of his muscles and eat, gotta fuel the body if he planned to do anything at all, anytime soon.

"I'm coming max." He muttered under his breath picturing her sun streaked hair, her warm brown eyes, her beautiful brown and white wings.

There was a chance to find her, for better or worse he was going to take that chance. He owed it to himself to find her and he owed it to her to do everything he could to find out what happened and if it was really over.