I opened my eyes as the voice inside of my head chimed in, sounding a bit panicked.

" Max, get back to the flock now! They are in huge trouble!"

I rolled my eyes and got to my feet, making Fang look up in surprise.

" We have to go. The others are in trouble. Gazzy probably hid a stink bomb in the principal's office again."

As I spoke I stretched my tawny brown wings. I looked at Fang, smiled, and leapt into the air. I sighed. I loved the feeling of the wind sifting through my feathers. Behind me, Fang seemed to float through the night sky, his deep black wings blocking out the stars.

Three days ago the flock had decided to try school. It was not a decision that I supported, but I went along with it anyway. It was better to let them get the idea out of their heads, right? I mean, we all know that school just doesn't work for us. The others had decided to go because this school was different than the others. It was in the middle of nowhere. As for where we were living, the school had loaned us a house that had nothing near it. That had calmed me somewhat. If anyone tried to attack us, we would see them coming.

Today we had arrived and gone through a bunch of tests that told us what we already knew. Then I tried to make everyone come with me and leave, but Nudge told me that she wanted her wings removed and that she wasn't going to come. I had flown off, tears streaming down my face, and Fang had followed me. What happened then wasn't pretty. Mostly I yelled about Nudge. I cried a lot too. Finally, around midnight I collapsed from exhaustion. I dozed next to Fang while he kept watch. Now we had to head back and I didn't know how to make Nudge see the fact that she had to come with me.

Suddenly, I heard Angel's voice in my head.

"Max, you have to help us, they are all around. Gazzy has a plan, but I don't think it will work."

I shouted to Fang. " The others are surrounded! We need to get back now!"

I rose high, until I could see the house. Then, using one of my few special abilities( other than the wings) I sped up until I knew I was going over two hundred miles per hour. Fang fell back as I raced ahead. As I flew, I scoped out the ground below. I saw thirty people or robots or whatever surrounding the house. I aimed myself at the one directly in front of the front door, slowed down, and crashed into him foot-first. Then I saw that the others all had machine guns and were aiming at me. I jumped up, using my wings to propell myself still higher. Quickly I snuck around to the back of the house. Instead of stopping to opened the window like a sane person, I crashed through it foot-first. Iggy whirled around, then relaxed as he realized that none of the baddies outside come have come in through the second story window.

" Nice entrance, showoff." He said.

I smiled. " So, what's the plan?" I asked. When noone answered I asked again, this time in my deceptively calm voice.

" So, what is the plan?"

Gazzy yelled, " Duck and cover!"

I hit the floor, as did the rest of the flock. There was a huge flash outside, then all was eerily quiet.

" Gazzy, what did you just do?"

" Umm I just blew up all of the bad guys?", he said, turning the statement into a question in the hopes that he wouldn't be in trouble for not telling me what the plan was.

" Ok, now if you ever...,"

I paused, hearing a knock at the door. I raced down the stairs, yelling to everyone that if I yelled they would up and away, no matter what. I looked out the little peephole thingy on the door and saw Fang. He was cut and bruised all over, the worst of which was a large, jagged cut on his inner arm. I threw open the door.

" Fang!" I cried, diving forward to catch him as he fell backwards.

I dragged him into the house, closing the door behind me. Somewhere miles away I heard glass breaking, but nothing could penetrate the one thought running through my head. "He's going to die," I thought. I ripped off a peice of his tattered shirt and bandaged the gash with it. We needed help now, and the school's isolation meant that it would take an ambulance at least an hour to get here. Fang's eyelids fluttered open and he whispered,

" I'm going to die, aren't I?"

I shook my head fiercely, tears streaming down my face for the second time that night.

" No, I won't let you die.", I whispered.

He smiled, then said, " I think I was caught in an explosion."

Fang grimaced and I looked at his arm to see that he had bled through the bandage.

" I asked them what they were going to do. Instead of telling me, Gazzy yelled duck and cover."

Fang whispered," Tell Gazzy that I gave you permission to kill him if he ever does anything like that again."

Then he was gone.

A/N. Thank you for the reviews to those of you that have, you've been very nice about it and it was nice to have some constructive criticism. I will probably end up writing more Maximum Ride stories after this one. THIS ONE ISN'T OVER YET!Z!Z!11! I do not have a huge ego, but I almost made myself cry reading through this.