Chapter 1: Summer and oh, crap
I love summer. Sunshine, beaches, sea, bikinis (though you'd never catch me dead in one), and a good rise in temperature. Great for a few runaway birdkids to camp outside and not have to huddle up close in blankets. Welcome to my world.
"You seem happy, Max," my 'brother' Iggy commented from cooking the rabbits we managed to catch. We got lucky; usually it's just rats.
I was lying in the sun, spread out like an eagle (appropriately), and enjoying the feeling of warmth on my face, eyes closed. Iggy couldn't see this, but he could feel the happy vibes emanating off me.
"Sunshine and heat," I replied, not opening my eyes. "What's not to like?"
I was greeted with blissful, calming silence after that…until a looming shadow blocked my heat source. "Shift you rear, Fang," I still hadn't opened my eyes. "Get out of my sun." But a barely-suppressed giggle broke my trance, and I was just about to open my eyes when I felt a lot of cold water tipped over my face and head. I screamed and jumped up, my breathing slightly accelerated from early hypothermia. The others broke down laughing and I stared incredulously at Fang, a huge grin on his face and the offending empty water bottle in his hand. I swear I heard the water, still on me, start to sizzle in my fury. Fang just continued to smirk, then threw the bottle by his bag and sauntered off, his prized possession – his leather jacket – practically glowing with his smugness.
Hmm…his leather jacket…
I quietly crept over to my rucksack, whilst his back was still turned, and found what I was looking for. I sneaked up on him – quite an achievement actually – unscrewed the cap and emptied the contents of the sun-cream bottle onto his head, hence ruining his jacket. He whirled around, pure anger clear in his dark eyes, and the others were silent with shock. Fang curled his fists, and if I hadn't known him, I would have thought that he was properly pissed, and not faking it.
"It is on, Maximum Ride," he barely whispered.
He lunged at me – probably faster than light – and tackled me to the ground, and I couldn't help laughing at the thrill of the play-fight. Fang caught a glob of sun-cream from his hair and smeared it all over my face. I cried out at the stickiness of the substance, but before I could get him back, he wrapped his arms around me, securing my arms and wings to my sides, and started pulling me past the others, who had started their own water-fight. I cried out again as I realised he was pulling me towards the small lake we had rested by. I began to struggle more, but Fang just laughed – properly laughed – at my feeble efforts. He threw me into the air, but I managed to grab his jacket again, hauling him in with me.
There was an explosion of bubbles and the freezing temperature, despite the season, was enough to stun me for a few moments, but I managed to surface just before Fang.
"Jimmy crap (don't make fun, I say that sometimes), it's freezing," he forced out between his teeth.
I laughed at him, and he took a deep breath then dived again, yanking my arm to pull me under as well. He ruffled his hair with his hand, letting the water wash the sun-cream out, as his jacket was already clean; it was some cheap water-proof leather, like a bike jacket. We surfaced again, and he jerked his head back to where the others were resting from their fight. Fang was breathing heavily.
"C'mon," he muttered between gasps. "Let's get out before we get hypothermia."
I marvelled briefly at the length of his speech, then swam to the bank. We stood at the bank, shivering and trying to catch our breath. I was about to suggest drying in the sun when I looked around and realised; where was the sun? I glanced at the sky, and a huge black cloud was looming over us. And when I said black, I meant 'black-as-Fang's-wardrobe' black. But even with the absence of the sun, it should no way have been this cold. I shivered again, but then stopped as my mind focussed on the more defensive training thoughts: scanning a 360, slipping back-to-back next to Fang, getting ready to protect any member of the flock, whether we should U and A now, or wait to see what we were up against, etc.
Fang tapped my hand twice, and I turned to him. He pressed his finger to his lips then pointed straight in front of him, into a huge bush. It rustled slightly again, almost silently, but now I knew what I was looking for, I still saw it. I nodded my thanks to him, and he returned it, then helped me push the others behind us, always placing ourselves between the younger ones and danger. Iggy was further in front of them, but still behind us, considering he's the same age as Fang and me, but he is blind.
The bush rustled again, louder this time though, like our attacker knew that we had become aware of its presence, and rose out from behind the bush.
I heard Angel whimper behind me, then Iggy caught his breath as she showed him what the thing looked like. I couldn't help it myself; I gasped quietly and instinctively grabbed hold of Fang's hand for protection. The small part of me that was paying attention to trivial details was mortified at this weak gesture, and I was about to pull away when Fang closed his fingers around mine, keeping my hand connected with his. Whether this was for my reassurance or his, I couldn't tell.
Standing in front of us, about eight feet off the ground, was a huge, coal-black, obviously improved version of an Eraser. But it was all wrong; there were no human features in any part of its body, it was on all fours, its teeth were way too sharp for my liking…and its eyes were red.
But there was only one of them, so surely we could take it? It couldn't be that much advanced, could it?
Before I could even begin to answer these questions, it let out a short but piercing howl and charged straight at me. Fang's grip on my hand tightened, and he yanked me towards him, crushing me to his chest and literally spinning me out of the way with him. The Eraser/dog leapt onto the place where I had just been, but whirled to face us when it realised it had been cheated of its prey. Fang removed his hand from behind my head, and detached himself from me to take on a defensive stance, and I automatically copied him, deliberately putting myself further forward than him. I saw him glare at me from the corner of my eye, and I knew he was getting defensive about me; he's always worried about me, always wanting to protect me.
Not this time, Fang, I thought.
The new Eraser leapt at me again, and I rolled under it, then lashed out with my leg at its back leg, expecting it to crumple. Instead, I felt as if I had kicked reinforced concrete, and just made the Eraser angrier. I saw Fang leap onto its back like a cowboy, sitting just behind the ears, and started driving punches into its skull, trying to redirect its attention. It worked, but only for a few moments, then it just tossed its head, and Fang came flying off in my direction. He recovered by rolling head-over-heels next to me, landing with a soft grunt.
"Max, it has a mind, but I can't control it!" Angel called to me, looking more scared than I had seen her in a good few months.
The Eraser had seemed to notice the others now, and was charging at them. Gazzy and Iggy were throwing God knows how many bombs at it, but it just ran straight through the explosions, unharmed and unaffected.
Okay, Max, I thought, trying to calm the other part of my brain that was telling me to scream very loudly. Think, kiddo, think. Nothing we're doing is hurting this thing, so what do you do when you just can't beat an enemy?
"Guys!" I yelled through the battle noises. "U and A, now! Forget the backpacks if we have to! Just get in the air!"
Gazzy and Nudge managed to get their packs, as the Eraser-thing wasn't paying attention to them right then, and they shot into the air faster than I had ever seen. Fang, Iggy, Angel and I had to leave our packs to be mauled by this thing, and we just got in the air. But, of course, me being the leader, I stayed behind slightly to check everyone was in the air. So when the dog-thing jumped up to catch the "lowest bird", guess who it was; moi.
Its huge claws dug into my back as I tried to power my way upwards, and its own weight brought the daggers dragging down my back slightly, but they still clung on. I couldn't hold in the scream of pain as I felt a bad amount of blood trickling down my back, and I swore out loud when I was dragged back down to the ground by the creature. I heard Fang scream my name and the others were calling to me but knew they were no match for this thing. They were just trying to make enough noise to distract it from me. Unsuccessfully.
It snarled at me, then slashed across my chest, ripping my shirt entirely in a matter of seconds, and then continued to do the same to my torso. I squirmed about trying to find a release from the weight of its garbage-can-lid-sized paws on my chest. One claw caught my face and dragged across my cheek, causing a scar that would look impressive on my corpse.
And, suddenly, it was over. I opened my eyes in time to see the thing simply…vaporise, and a weird-looking sword clattered to the floor. Some bronze material I think. Then the effect of blood loss over-took me, and my light head fell to the floor with a thunk.
I heard the thump of someone landing very quickly from the sky. Frantic footsteps came over to me and someone skidded down on their knees to my side. They started talking before they had even reached me.
"Max, Max can you hear me? Stay awake, Max, yeah?" the voice – male, deep and velvety, but with an anxious, concerned ring to its usual indifferent tone – called to me. "Iggy, five steps, two o' clock." More footsteps, different this time. A gentle pair of hands stroked over the gash in my stomach, and I cried out as pain flared through me.
"Shhh, shhh," the voice was back, and a second, rougher pair of hands gently ran over my face and forehead.
"This is bad," a higher – but still male – voice warned me. "These cuts are really deep, and I haven't even checked the ones on her back." The velvet voice swore.
"Fang," I slurred out, finally finding my voice.
"Shhh, don't talk, Max. Save your energy, sweetheart," he told me. My heart leapt at the word; he hadn't called me sweetheart in years.
"Fang," I demanded his attention, my voice sounding stronger. "Take the others and leave…before more come." I took a breath, letting that sink in. "I trust you," I whispered.
The hands held my face more firmly , angling it to look in a certain direction. "Max," Fang hissed. "Max, open your eyes and look at me." I did as instructed, and his face – his angel face – was taut with pain and anxiety. His eyes were solidly furious. "You listen to me, Maximum Ride; I made a promise to you that I would never leave you again, and I intend to keep that promised in every situation."
"She'll never heal with just your bandages," an unfamiliar voice interrupted out moment. I tried to strain my neck to see the newcomer. "I've got medical supplies that you can give her, and she should be fine after a rest. But we're going to need your bandages."
I knew that the only thing stopping Fang from grabbing this guy's "medical supplies" and giving them to me was his acute sense of paranoia; this stranger could be an enemy, and when Iggy, Fang and I are distracted, he could take the younger kids back to the School.
"Fang, it's okay," my baby informed us, her voice quivering slightly. "He's the one who threw the sword and saved Max. And he knows about us."
I stiffened automatically, but relaxed almost immediately when I felt the consequent pain igniting again. But I also relaxed because, since he had saved me, surely he was a friend? Or was my life just so twisted that someone could save me just so that they could kill me themselves?
"Fang, she's right. I –"
"Introductions later, Seaweed Brain," a girl's voice stopped him. I heard everyone's heads turn to the source. "That kid needs help, and she needs it now."
Her voice had that kind of voice I would usually have – if I didn't have a great big freakin' hole in my chest.
The boy sighed. "Alright, Annabeth. You got the kit?"
"Yeah."
I heard Iggy get up and drag his backpack over to me, searching for bandages in it. Fang still kept a hold on my hand, gently but reassuringly stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. On the other side of me, I heard the new-comer and "Annabeth" getting their own instruments out. I heard the boy speak again, this time to me.
"Hey, Max. Can you hear me?" I nodded in reply.
"Okay, there's this drink I'm holding, and I'm gonna need to you drink it. This is gonna be awkward since you can't really move, so I've put a sports' bottle cap on it. It might still run down you though."
"Okay," I said, trying to push the uneasy feeling about this boy out of my brain. He placed something to my lips, and I took a sip, expecting something that tasted really disgusting. What I wasn't expecting was my mom's chocolate chip cookies, fresh out of the oven, to greet me. Wow, this stuff was like magic.
I hurt to move in the process of swallowing because of my stomach muscles being ripped, but the mysterious substance tasted amazing. I greedily sucked down gulps of the mixture, but Annabeth's voice jerked me from my trance, even though it was only a whisper.
"That's enough, Percy."
The bottle was removed from my lips, and I frowned at its disappearance. A different hand came down on my head for the briefest moment; Percy seemed to understand my chagrin.
"I know it tastes nice," he said. "But too much of this can kill you."
"Okay," I replied weakly.
There were a few more minutes of silence apart from Fang telling Iggy where my injuries were worse and shooting the occasional reassurance at either me or the younger kids. Eventually, he leaned down to whisper in my ear, and squeezed my hand slightly.
"This is going to hurt," he admitted. I was about to breathe in deeply but thought better of it.
"Don't let go," I commanded. I was already scared, and I needed something to hold onto consciousness and sanity if it was going to hurt even more.
"I never will," he promised in nothing more than a breath of wind.
The bandages were put on me, and I moaned in pain almost every five seconds. If I hadn't been holding them in for the flock's sake, I'm sure that I would have moaned every two seconds. Percy and Annabeth also gave me a weird kind of food, but I didn't feel as lethargic and drained once I had eaten it.
I heard the flock and the newcomers conversing as to how they were going to move me. Where they were going to move me to was already sorted; Percy and Annabeth said they were staying at a place which was one of the safest places they have ever known.
God, let's hope their assumption was right. Blackness soon overtook that thought.
Percy's POV
A pegasus. That's what we needed; she couldn't fly at all (she had completely blacked-out), and if the black-haired bird-kid – Fang, I think it was – carried her, her back would be jostled around too much, and it would open her wounds again. I whistled loudly twice – one for me and the girl, the other for Annabeth – and two pegasi came thundering from the sky, one of them, my faithful Blackjack.
Yo, boss! Need my help again?
"You bet," I replied, ignoring the strange looks I was getting from the bird-kids, and the stares they were giving the flying horses. "This one's badly hurt by guess-what sent from the Underworld."
Ugh! I've always hated dogs! Especially those ones!
"I know what you mean. Okay, I'll hold onto her round her front, but you gotta be careful when you're flying, because she's been mauled on both her front and back. I don't want those wounds re-opening."
Got it, boss. Smooth and easy, you can count on me.
"Appreciate it, Blackjack. Alright…"
I bent down to Max, and tried to get her onto Blackjack's back, but even with Annabeth's help, I was struggling. Fang came up beside me and shifted her gently but enough to get her securely onto the pegasus' rear, then he held her in position whilst I climbed on next. I held her to my chest with one arm, then linked the other around Blackjack's neck. Annabeth had got on her own pegasus, and I glanced down at the awestruck bird-kids.
"Follow us in the air," I said. But I hesitated; I knew I owed these kids more. "I know this looks confusing, and I remember what it felt like for me. But it's complicated to explain, so I'll be happier to do it with the experts around me to help me, and we'll explain when Max is awake."
"Which will be…?" the eldest blonde boy asked me. I did a quick calculation of their supposed heal-time, then shrugged.
"She'll be awake by tomorrow morning, then she'll be able to actually walk around by tomorrow night at the latest."
"Thanks," the blonde one called me back just before I took off. "I think I can say that on behalf of all of us. We owe you big time."
I smiled at him, then remembered that this one was the blind one, so I said, "You're welcome. Now, come on; we need to get Max into a bed and give her some proper treatment."