"Ah!"
A shout woke fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride up as someone was thrown into the cage next to hers. Max was in a horrible mood- she had been taken back to the School again-and felt like bashing the whitecoats up. She couldn't find a way to escape the stupid cage! She had only escaped from the cages the last few times was because someone outside the cages had helped her.
A flurry of horrible curses woke the rest of the flock up. Heads turned to look at the new arrival. Actually, the new arrivals. It was two new people-a girl and a boy-and they positively furious.
The boy, who looked about 19, shouted a string out four-lettered words that made Max wish she could cover Angel's ears.
The girl, who looked around Max's age, glared at the departing whitecoat and shouted a few words in Chinese. She looked Asian, but one of her parents must have been European or American because she had curly yellow hair. Her eyes were reddish-brownish. Her clothes were slightly stained red. Max's first thought- blood.
The boy-man-whatever-had maroon-colored hair and a cowlick, tanned skin, and dark red eyes. Sheesh, why did they have such an unusual eye color. After he was certain the whitecoat had left, he took out a nail-driven baseball bat and started eyeing the cage, as if he wanted to smash it into pieces. "D'you think it'll work?" he asked to the girl.
The girl shrugged. "Just get us out of here, we're gonna be late," she yawned, flopping down onto her back, noticing the stares the two were getting.
"What're you guys staring at?" she asked calmly, as if she wasn't trapped in a freaking dog crate. "You don't happen to know why we're here, do you?"
Nudge, who was in the crate across from me, seemed to get over her shock. "Who are you? Why did the whitecoats take you? Why are you here? I know why I'm here, how about you? Oh, silly me, you don't know why you're here- you just asked me that!" she started bombarding the new comers with tons of questions.
The girl smiled, a bit to herself. "Worse than Alfred," Max heard her mutter.
"Darn, they took my watch. Ollie's gonna knock my head off my body," the girl suddenly groaned. "And to top it off, we'll be late! Remind me why we're here again?" she looked pointedly at the boy, who glared.
"F*** this sh*t!" he suddenly yelled, swinging the club, which effectively smashed open the cage. "F*** you Oliver! F*** you, damn mirror!"
Why he was cursing a mirror, Max didn't know.
He leaped out of the cage and ran towards the window and punched it, shattering the glass. The girl fake-yawned again and clambered out of the cage as well (they were put in the same cage). Instead of just escaping, which was what Max would have done, she calmly walked over to Nudge's cage and took out a penknife. Then she slipped it into the keyhole and pressed it in, but, of course, it didn't fit.
"W-wait-what are you doing? AH!" Nudge cried as her cage suddenly flipped to one side and shook violently. Blondie winced.
Blondie turned towards Mr. Curse Words. "Allen, would you mind?" she demanded. "Stop cursing and help me!"
"Why would I help you?" Allen drawled.
"I'll let you do your 'stuff' without complaining for three days."
"Deal. Girlie, I need you to stand back. I'm gonna bust this cage."
The whole flock (they had been watching the whole scene silently) gasped as the boy swung his bat in a wide arc and smashed off the rails of Nudge's cage. Nudge shuddered as bits of metal hit her, but, thankfully, did not cut into her skin.
Blondie offered a hand to Nudge, who hesitated before she took it. "Could you help my friends, too?" Nudge asked.
Without hesitating, Blondie nodded. "Nine days, then," she distractedly told the boy who rolled his eyes. She skipped over to Angel's cage and slowly pried the rails open, then carried a confused Angel out. Then she leaped over to the Gasman's cage and started pulling the bars apart.
Max scooted backwards as Allen swung his bat and smashed the rails of Max's cage. Max screamed in her mind as the bits of metal showered onto her, stinging her slightly. Hey, Voice? Do you know who the hell these people are? she silently asked the Voice. You know, the one in her head. What, you don't have one? Oh well.
"Now, let's all get the f*** out of here," Allen growled.
Blondie pointed to the broken windows, "There's a ladder you can use to climb," she said the same time Iggy spoke up, "Someone's coming."
Maximum met Blondie's eyes for a second before nodding gratefully, even letting a small smile slip onto her face. Then she ran over to the window, leaped easily over the edge and unfolded her thirteen-foot wings and soaring upwards, watching as the rest of the flock swooped up after her.
She heard no gasp from the two people, no shriek, no sound at all. Just silence, and the unfurling of wings as the rest of the flock joined her.
When they were alone in the air, there was a rare minute of silence before Iggy asked, "What just happened?"
Max was wondering the same thing. Her eyes searched for the two people who had helped her, but they were nowhere in sight. They had just disappeared. Where were they?
Then, suddenly, the building the flock had been in started to fall over.
One-shot or not One-shot?