Maximum Ride

Worlds Collide

Chapter 1

Some one was screaming, a terrible, ear splitting scream filled with pain that Max could barely imagine. Not the kind of pain she felt when she had brain attacks, the kind that emotionally ripped you apart and left you bleeding. It was the scream of a mother who'd lost her child, a lover who'd lost her other half, like someone was slowly having their limbs ripped off. This particular scream was for two of those things, Max guessed, seeing as the screamer was staring in the direction of a large oak tree, under which lay two bodies. The first was a teenager, dark haired and olive skinned, like Fang, she thought, he had a pair of liver chestnut wings stretching from his back and a bullet whole through his eagle tattooed chest. The second body made Max feel sick, it was the body of a little boy, the boy looked like the teenager, enough so that Max guessed he was his brother. His wings were soft, downy white, the kid was a fledgling, maybe even younger. Physically around two, the boy appeared to have fallen from the nearby tree, his neck twisted at an odd angle, blood from the side of his head staining the grass. Max, since she'd realized who it was, had stopped screaming and now knelt between the two bodies, sobbing inconsolably. Strong, invisible arms grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

"Max!" She jerked awake as Fang shook her, meeting her eyes with worry, "Are you okay?"

She nodded, unable to shake her clear discomfort that the dream had left her with. Frowning, she had to wipe tears from her cheeks, "I'm fine. It as just a nightmare."

He didn't look convinced, "You were screaming."

"Was I?" She forced a little laugh and shook her head, frightened by how easy she found it to lie to him, "That's odd, I don't even remember what I was dreaming about. I'm sorry if I woke you."

"Iggy and I were already up," He shrugged, though his bed head suggested that it hadn't been for too long, "it's the kids I was worried about."

She nodded, looking around at where they'd been crashing for the past week, it was a quaint little cottage used for family vacations. Nothing too fancy, but comfortable and charming with two bedrooms, one with a queen sized bed that her and Fang had been sharing and one with two sets of bunk beds that contained the other four flock members. She smiled to Fang and headed for the bathroom, she couldn't stop thinking about the boys in her dream. They'd felt so familiar, the older of the two had resembled Fang a bit, but with chestnut hair and wings. The little boy was horrifying, the last thing she wanted was to start dreaming about dead kids. She splashed water on her face and tried to stop thinking about it, she didn't want Angel seeing that in her head. She headed to the kitchen and was hit by the smell of fresh omelets, Iggy was cooking breakfast.

"Morning, Ig," She smiled at him, even though he couldn't see her.

"Hey Max," He chirped pleasantly, "You okay? That was a lot of screaming."

"I'm fine," She sighed, "If you heard that out here then it probably woke the kids."

"They'd be up by now if they'd heard that," He shook his head, "But you should wake them anyways, breakfast is ready."

Max nodded, heading back towards the bedrooms. Suddenly her senses tingled, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, something was wrong. The knock out gas hit her the second she opened the door, she choked and stumbled in to get the others. She grabbed a hold of Nudge's arm and tried to pull her out of bed, but her knees buckled underneath her. Carefully lowering herself to the floor, she managed to choke out one word before she passed out, "Fang!"

Yay, chapter one! for anyone who is aware that this is a rewrite, I'm sure you'll agree that this is far more climatic than the old version. For anyone who's just discovering this now, I'm hope you like it anyways! ~Tygger