Trials of Life and Love

Chapter 1: Attacked and Injured

Disclaimer: This fan fiction is based on the novel, Maximum Ride, created by James Patterson and is in all rights, his. However, the fan fiction story line is mine.

Please enjoy!

I sat and gazed down upon my flock while watching out for erasers. They were all sitting around a fire, eating and chatting. I smiled down at them, it was nice to see the flock happy and at ease for once. The whole Itex thing was leaving little room for us to lighten up and have some fun.

I was sitting in a nearby tree watching them; I had the lunch shift today. Nothing had happened in the last three days, but still, we kept a constant watch. I didn't mind watching from my perch, it gave me time to think, away from the others.

Today was a great day to just sit and relax too. The sun was out without a cloud in the sky. I gazed at the blue expanse for a moment as I thought about everything.

As I was thinking however, something caught my attention. Out in the distance, merely blobs of black upon the horizon were what looked like an army of ten or more erasers coming this way.

The sight of them shocked me. I hoped that it was merely a large flock of birds but my instincts told me otherwise. I swung into action, leaping from the tree, landing in the center of the flock.

All eyes looked to me as I spoke, "It seems the erasers have found us; at least ten of them are headed this way."

"What?" everyone seemed to say in unison.

"Well, lets not all just sit here and wait to be attacked, lets go kick some eraser butt." replied Fang.

Agreeing we all unfurled our wings and took to the sky. Luckily the erasers had chosen to fly here, their wings were definitely a set back for them. While we felt comfortable flying, they were big bulky messes with unnatural metal wings. A fight in the sky was definitely one in our favor.

Once in full flight, I was able to spot the erasers, they were barely fifty feet away by now.

The flock and I soared higher and remained where we were, waiting for the erasers to catch up. Once they were within ten feet of us, they attacked. The flock immediately swung into action. It was six against ten.

The erasers seemed a bit more graceful in the sky then last time but were still out of their more comfortable element.

When I looked around Angel had already knocked off two of them, using her special power to get into their heads, making them fall out of sky, dropping like rocks. I swear, Angel's power was definitely something to be feared, lucky for us she was on our side.

I kicked into the groin of my eraser causing him to waver allowing me to kick him the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Temporarily out of breath, he dropped to ground, too shocked to flap his wings.

The others were doing just as well; it was only five to six now. I watched while punching the gut of my eraser assailant as Fang quickly round house kicked his attacker. Once Fang was through with him Angel worked her magic, causing yet another Eraser to drop from the sky.

I turned my focus back to my own eraser just as he freed himself from my grasp. He slammed his fist into my stomach, causing me to drop a few feet. I quickly regained my composure only to have him upon me once more. He kicked me in the head causing black dots to dance before my eyes.

My head hurt but I cleared my vision hastily as I attacked him punch for punch. Finally, after a few moments, I gained the upper hand and clapped my hands over his ears, causing him to yelp and then drop.

I sighed, thankful to be rid of that nuisance. Looking around I found Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy taking on two others at a time. Nudge was talking their ears off as Gazzy and Iggy prepared a make shift bomb. The erasers were blasted and cast off to join the many others who had fallen back to the ground.

The battle was definitely in our favor. It was a mere two to six. The remaining erasers looked uneasy until one of them began to smirk in my direction. I wondered what he was so smug about until I saw Nudge's expression. I turned around to see what had made her look so shocked only to come face to face with Ari.

I turned sharply to find his grinning face and was about to attack when he shot towards me, jabbing a blade into my stomach.

The knife stabbed through me, causing me to cry out in pain. Turning around, the whole flock gasped as they saw Ari grab my shirt and rip the blade out from my bleeding stomach. I grasped the wound trying to stop the blood flow all the while fighting off the need to sleep. Unconsciousness was closing in on me but I fought the urge to give up.

Ari laughed at my attempt to stay conscious and dug his knife into my shoulder. I cried out in agony at the intense pain and nearly blacked out when he pulled out the knife once more causing me to gasp sharply. The whole flock was horrified. Iggy and Gazzy were still working on the other two erasers but the rest of my friends rushed forward to attack Ari.

He merely laughed, the way he saw it, they were already too late. My wounds were fatal to say the least and I was starting to slip into the darkness.

Fang yelled out to Ari, "Let her go you monster!"

Ari couldn't help but laugh once more and reply, "Are you sure you want me to? Well, if you say so."

With another malicious smile, Ari let me go. He released his hold on my tee shirt and allowed me to plummet down to the ground below.

As I fell, I could see Fang's face whiten in horror and watched for a moment as the flock converged on the eraser, Iggy and Gazzy having finished off the other two erasers.

I didn't see anything else take place after that, as I began to drop even farther, I finally succumbed to unconsciousness. The last thing I felt before everything went blank was the feel of the breeze rushing around me and then strong warm arms wrapping around my bloodied body.

MAXIMUMRIDE

Whoever had caught me would not allow for rest. I was quickly awoken. It seemed I was back at the campsite the flock and I had set up. I quickly looked around to find Fang's worried face in front of my own.

"Max? Are you okay? Talk to me, you can't go back to sleep, you have to stay with me." Fang sounded so flustered and worried, it scared me. Fang never lost his cool, was I that badly injured?

"Fang?" I replied. "What's… going… on?" My breathing was labored and all the pain came rushing at me. I gasped from the blinding agony.

"Max! Don't move, try not to talk too much." Fang was scrambling all over the place attempting to find some bandages for the stab wounds.

"Fang?" I whispered. "Can I go back to sleep?"

"If you go to sleep now you might never wake up, you might have a concussion and these wounds are severe. You're losing too much blood!" I could tell Fang was flustered. The wound was obviously bad and would most likely kill me. It didn't help that my shoulder was also gushing blood.

"Wow, I never…thought I'd…die…so soon."

"What are you talking about? Don't say such things!"

"But it's true, I can feel…it."

"NO! Max, you are not dieing, I won't let you!" At Fang's angry response I smiled, he really did care for me.

"You know… you can't… save me, but… its okay…"

Fang started to beg me to stop giving up; he couldn't believe that it was all over. Better yet, Fang refused to think I was dieing. Even as my blood seeped through my wound and onto his hands as he applied pressure; he denied the fact.

"Please Max. You can't go, we need you and we can always take you to a hospital. I know it's risky but it'll be okay. Just please… please Max, don't go."

I looked up at Fang, he was so worried and sad. Tears filled my eyes as his own tears began to spill forward.

"Please don't… cry… Fang. I promise too… fight just… for you."

He smiled sadly at me and replied, "You better fight. I never thought of you as a quitter."

I chuckled at that only too cough violently. Blood spilled out from my mouth, if we didn't get to a hospital soon I was a goner.

I looked to Fang, "You can… take me to the… hospital. Its my… only hope… now."

Silently, he nodded. With his strong arms he lifted me up and unfurled his wings. He leapt into the air with my body held tight as I once more slipped into unconsciousness. I knew I wasn't supposed to give into the darkness but I was so tired.

Authors Note:

I was wondering if I should let Max die or not but I decided to let you guys, the readers, decide. If you want Max to live or die and if you think she should be with Fang, please review and tell me so.

Well, that's all for now, if you want more you better review. Please R&R people.

The author.