Yes, I realize I have been gone for however long it's been, for those of you that have noticed. I do have a very good reason as to my disappearance, however I doubt you care, so I will not give it to you. For your dedicated patience, here is the revised story so far of Maximum Ride – The School.
"Hey! Wake up!" The loud yells pierce my sleep. And I was having such a wonderful dream. I was finally using my wings again. Flying, soaring across the sky. The air felt soooo good rushing past my face. But then I woke up to this. Filthy cages, surrounded by dying freaks of nature, experiments gone wrong. A whitecoat is banging on my cage. What a perfect way to start your day, right?
The whitecoat sees my eyes flutter open. He smiles wickedly. "You're due for testing today, sweetie." Ugh. Why do they always pretend to be nice? It just makes it feel so much worse when they turn around and hurt you. "Just come along, sweetie. Nice and easy. Nobody's going to hurt you." Yeah, right. Who does he think he's kidding? And why do they always talk to me like I'm incapable of complex thought? It's so degrading.
I crawl out of the cramped cage, and the instant he sees my hands he snaps a zip tie around my wrists. He knows what damage I can do with my hands. He yanks me to my feet and pulls me after him. I look back and catch a glimpse of Fang's dark eyes peering out from the shadows of his own cage before I disappear into the next room.
"Keep going, sweetie. Just a little farther." The voice calls out as I pant for breath. My feet slam down on the treadmill. I feel hate rippling through me, but I can't let it out. They'd shoot me up with tranquilizer and I'd be out in ten seconds. I just have to obey every ludicrous command thrown my way. Even if it is to run twenty miles with broken arms.
Yes, you heard me right. They broke both of my arms. They want to see how well I can handle pain under pressure. And the worst part? They're enjoying this. I just know they are. I slip back on the treadmill as another wave of pain washes through me. They prod me with a taser and I jerk forward.
"Only one more mile to go," the whitecoat says, making a note on my chart. I clench my teeth against the pain and run. I let numbness wash over me. My legs don't ache anymore. I don't feel each painful, sharp gasp for breath. I just run.
The treadmill slows and stops suddenly. I crash into the front of it, hanging on to the bar and gasping for sweet, sweet air. My arms throb, but I block that out, too. "Come on, sweetie. Let's go set those arms, okay?"
If he calls me that one more time, I swear I will snap.
I let him heft me up onto a small metal table, his strong grip hurting my sides. He grips my arms and, without warning, yanks the bones back into place. I scream out, in pain and rage, hating how utterly hopeless I am in the hands of these monsters. I dimly register the other wave of pain that surges under the first when he sets my other arm.
"There we go. All done. Now it's time we go back to your bed, okay?" He grabs my hand and pulls me off the table, then leads me back to my cage. Not a bed, a cage. Moron. I've never even slept in a bed.
"There you go." He shoves me into the cage, rattling my arms. He slams the door shut and walks out of the room, flicking off the lights on his way out. It takes my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the sudden darkness. When they do, I see Fang's eyes peering back out at me.
He's a quiet boy, never yelling or crying. I don't even think I've ever heard him speak. But he's always been there for me. Almost as long as I can remember, he has been in the cage beside me. And if I have to settle for having this, then at least I can have it with him.
He beckons a finger to my arm. I gingerly poke it through the bars of the cage, being careful not to hit it against the sides. He takes my arm into his hands and his eyes disappear. They must be closed. His hands trail lightly along my arm, taking in the broken bone that was set so hastily. His eyes appear and pierce the darkness again. Looking straight at me, he twitches his hands and re-sets the bone.
I barely manage to not cry out. I wince in pain. After the initial shock, though, my arm feels a lot better. It must not have been properly set before. Damn whitecoats. Those idiots have no idea how to take care of us.
I pull my arm back in and carefully poke the other one through. It's a good thing we're so skinny. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this. He probes my arm again, and then quickly snaps it back into place. I hiss in pain, but manage not to do anything loud enough to attract the microphones.
"Thank you," I whisper quietly.
My arms feel a lot better, but I feel so tired. I think I should sleep now. I lie down on my stomach and poke my arm through the cage, feeling for Fang's hand. He senses this and slips his hand into mine, laying close to the bars so I will not have to extend my arm too far.
We fall asleep like that, two friends bonded together by the same suffering, both hoping that we won't wake up to this again, yet knowing that, irrevocably, we will.
I hear the two small snaps of bone from across the room. The boy must be resetting the girls' arms. Stupid whitecoats! Can't they even do a good job of fixing us once they've hurt us? No. I guess that they only like hurting us.
"Thank you." I hear the small whisper. So quiet that the cameras won't detect it. I can hear the small sound, though. I have good hearing. I sigh as I look at them fold up and fall asleep together. I wish I had a friend like that. Someone to help me through this. I've never known anything else, but I hope to. I've seen pictures of some exciting-looking places.
Maybe she can be my friend. The little girl next to me. They brought her here earlier today. She was asleep then, and she's asleep now. She can't be but a toddler. She has cute blond curls, dirty and tangled in the filth of the cage. I can see the small rise of her wings under her shirt. She must be like me, then.
Maybe we are sisters! No. Her skin is all light. Mine is dark and tan. Maybe, if we leave, maybe she can be like my daughter. I can be her mommy, and we can do all kinds of fun stuff together. We can go to the places on the pictures! That would be fun.
I drift off to sleep thinking about the pretty little angel.
"Get up!" The voice splits open my head yet again. I blink the sleep out of my eyes. They can't possibly be coming for me again. I had testing just yesterday! There's usually a few days recovery period. I sit up, my matted, tangled hair sticking to my back.
No. They aren't taking me away. They're taking Fang. Great. He's pried from my hand and dragged out of the room. I look around. They accidentally left the lights on, so I can see into all the other cages. I have really good night vision, but it's hard even for me to see when there is no light at all. I gaze around at all the other experiments, skipping over the ones that I simply can't bear to look at. There don't seem to be any that will survive.
They all look like grotesque failures. How can they do this to us? We're just children! I notice a particularly gruesome looking child, who has no arms or legs, and has a beating lump on his head that I suspect to be his heart. See! What can they possibly gain from doing that? Do they now know that we need limbs and that hearts don't belong on our heads?
Words fail me. I can't, I just can't…
I notice a curious pair of eyes gazing at me from across the room. I sit up and poke my face close to the bars of the cage. Can it be?
I gently unfurl my wings, letting them fill the cramped space of my cage. The girl smiles at me and unfurls hers. I smile back, for the first time in a while. I see something small stir beside her and my anger flares up again. They have an infant in here! She's the youngest I've ever seen. She can't be over two years old.
She sits up and looks first at the girl beside her, then at me.
Hello. I hear inside my head. I'm Angel.
I physically lurch back, shocked.
I was in the nursery, but they transported me here yesterday. They said I could help them, if only I used my gifts.
Oh my God. How could they do this?
"Hop up on the table, son." The man's voice commands me. I scowl at him and pull myself onto the metal table. There's dried blood splattered on the corner. How sanitary. I scrape at it with my fingernail absently while he turns around and rummages in a drawer.
It would be so easy for me to just reach over and snap his neck… But, no. If I do that, then I probably will get punished, and won't be able to go back to Max. That's why I can't try and escape. Because then, even if I get killed, I would be free. And she would be stuck here. I can't let that happen. She needs me.
The man turns back around with a large syringe in his hand. "Just relax, okay? He pushes my shirt up and plunges the needle into my chest. I gasp slightly, but let no other emotion through. He empties the syringe and pulls it out of my chest. "There we go, all done! Just sit still."
He exits into an adjacent room, one with a one-way window facing this way. I know because I've seen inside it when I left the room last time. I stare up at the ceiling, determined not to look at the mirror and give the man the satisfaction of seeing me without me seeing him.
The liquid burns inside of me, spreading throughout my limbs, numbing everything in its path. It actually feels good, in a way. I don't feel any of the pain I normally have. I don't feel hungry anymore. I feel a small smile push past my lips, and I relax my body. Then the numbness turns into burning.
No. This shouldn't happen. This doesn't feel good. "Stop it!" I yell. The scientist jumps up out of his seat and launches himself into my room. The burning turns into liquid fire.
And that's when I start screaming.