Max

We're at a School facility, trying to find Fang. We've been looking for him for nearly two years now. Everyone's hoping we can find him, especially me because I don't think any of us can handle another failed mission. We all miss Fang so much. I know I do. He's my right-wing man, my best friend and my boyfriend. I just hope he's still alive. I don't know what I'll do if we get there too late. We're already very late. We just can't seem to find him anywhere.

Oh where are my manners? (Not that I have any, but you get the point.) Anyway, my name is Maximum Ride but I go by Max. I'm sixteen years old, I live with the flock: five other kids plus one talking dog. We all have wings and we can fly. How is this possible? Well, we all grew up in a School where these lunatic scientists genetically "enhanced" us (they experimented on us and then tortured us for their own sick pleasure so they could test out our abilities, excluding our amazing ability to fly because then we could have escaped sooner.) Anyway, one of the scientists or as we in the flock like to call them, whitecoats, named Jeb felt sorry for us and took us away from the School. Turns out that was all a test too, but I'll probably explain that more later. As I was saying, the flock consists of me (kick-butt leader), sixteen year old Iggy (our blind explosives expert who can pick locks quite well and cooks better than anyone I know-except maybe my mom), thirteen year old Nudge (our well-meaning chatterbox), ten year old Gasman who we call Gazzy (our little pyro), eight year old Angel (our mind-reader), her talking dog Total (our crazy winged-dog who never stops talking), and sixteen year old Fang (Mr. Calm Cool and Collected), who like I mentioned earlier is held captive in a School facility, (hopefully it's this one).

Now, lets get back to the rescue. We're carefully making our way through the School when Angel says, "I can feel him!"

"Where?" I ask.

She points to the end of the hall to our right. As we go down the hall I can't help but notice that the temperature seems to be decreasing the further down the hall we go. When we get to the door we find out that it's locked (as usual.)

"Iggy, we need you to break in." I tell Iggy, pulling him to the door.

Iggy gets to work and quickly opens the door. I step inside first in case there's some kind of trap. The first two things I notice are that it's dark and freezing cold. Fang better not be in here or I'll be pissed that they kept him in such ridiculous conditions. It's inhumane-not that that's stopped the whitecoats from doing something before. I grab a flashlight from my bag and start looking around the room. There's a solitary cage on the floor with a dark, shaking figure in the corner of it, as far from us as possible.

"Fang?" I ask, opening the cage.

Fang looks at me, face expressionless, eyes full of an immeasurable amount of fear that makes my heart break for him.

"We're gonna get you out of here. Okay?" I tell him, moving out of the way so he can get out of his cage.

Fang cautiously steps out of his cage. He looks awful; he's way too thin, his face is bruised and bleeding, he's cradling a newly broken arm, his wings are limp and broken and bleeding, but the worst part is that he's shaking like a leaf and his eyes are full of fear.

"Come on Fang. Lets get outta here." I say, motioning for him to follow.

He takes a step forward and collapses. I catch him before he hits the ground and help him walk as we escape. Nobody seems to notice us leaving. Fang's unconscious by the time we get outside and he's so light that I'm able to carry him out of the School. He's lost too much weight. It's not healthy at all. We fly for hours straight, Iggy and I taking turns carrying Fang. He can't weigh more than Nudge and that's not good since Nudge is skinny as a rail and a good six inches shorter than Fang.

Poor Fang. I think. My poor love.

We fly until the kids look ready to drop out of the sky. Then we find a cave, build a small fire and rest. I make sure Fang's by the fire so he can get its warmth. He looks like he was run over several times by a truck and I'm sure the injuries I can see are only a small portion of the total amount of injuries that cover Fang's painfully thin body. His wings look so sad and mangled; he won't be flying for a while. Iggy helps me patch Fang up and then we take turns on watch.

When Fang wakes up, I'm still on watch and nobody else is awake yet.

"Hi Fang." I say, approaching him carefully like you do a hurt animal. "How are you?"

Fang doesn't answer. He just watches me, dark eyes full of fear. He's shaking badly.

"Are you hungry?" I ask, holding out a granola bar.

Still no answer.

I take a piece off the granola bar and eat it, proving it's not poisoned.

"Now do you want it?" I ask, holding it out to Fang.

Fang cautiously takes the granola bar and takes a tentative bite. When he realizes nothing bad is happening to him, he eats it quickly. We repeat the process with four more granola bars and he devours them quickly.

"What were they feeding you in there?" I ask. "It must have been hardly anything."

Fang tenses up at the mention of his capture.

"I'm sorry Fang." I whisper.

He eyes me cautiously, not saying anything in response.

I take a swig from a new water-bottle and then I pass it to Fang who chugs it down almost immediately.

"We really missed you Fang." I say quietly. "I-I really missed you."

Fang starts shaking again and I see tears brimming his eyes.

"I'm sorry Fang. I didn't mean to upset you." I apoligize in a gentle voice.

He nods and I hear him sniffle once. I can tell right now that Fang's rode to recovery is going to be long and not very easy. They really messed him up this time.


Fang

I wake up feeling warm. I can't remember the last time I was warm. It must have been a long time ago. I see Max walking towards me. I know she's important but I can't remember if she's on my side or not. I saw clones of her at the School, they always pretended to save me and they never did; they just hurt me.

This Max is different; she's kind and patient. She even ate a bit of the granola bars she fed me just to prove that they weren't poisoned.

"We really missed you Fang." She tells me after handing me a water bottle. "I-I really missed you."

As stupid as this may sound, my eyes tear up from her words. She's the first person to be kind to me in a long time. I can feel myself start shaking as I force myself not to cry.

"I'm sorry Fang. I wasn't trying to upset you." Max apoligizes in a gentle voice.

I nod and sniffle once, trying to stop shaking.

"Are you cold?" Max asks.

I'm tired again but I'm not cold so I shake my head.

"Are you tired?" Max guesses.

I nod sleepily, feeling my eyes begin to droop.

"You can go to sleep if you want. It's only 2AM." Max offers.

I curl up on my side by the fire and close my eyes. I feel something on my shoulders, going down to my feet. My eyes snap open and I'm looking up at Max who's gently tucking a blanket under my chin. She doesn't notice my open eyes. She just notices my shaking.

Max starts gently rubbing my back, being careful not to bump my injured wings and begins to sing softly. The song is familiar and soothing and I know that I know it, but I can't remember where it's from.

Hush, hush, goodnight, sleep tight,

Everything's gonna be all right,

You're safe,

No one can hurt you,

Hush, hush good night, sleep tight,

Everything's gonna be all right,

You're safe,

No one can hurt you,

You're safe,

No one can hurt you,

I will protect you,

Everything's gonna be all right,

Everything's gonna be all right,

Hush, hush, goodnight.

Max gently kisses my head and says, "Sweet dreams Fang."

As a wave of exhaustion washes over me, I remember the song and the voice that sang it. The voice that was a comfort to the flock all our lives. Max's voice. This is the real Max; it has to be. None of the other Max's sang and that was a lullaby that Max would sing to the kids when they had bad dreams when they were little. It always made them feel better and lulled them back to sleep. Right now, with Max rubbing my back and singing it to me, it makes me feel better and lulls me to sleep.


Okay so nobody likes author's notes and most of you will probably skip this so I'll cut to the chase: Thanks for reading and please review!:D