Chapter 1

Max's Point of View

Brushing my hair, I looked into the mirror. Each strand sat numbly on my back and dripped onto my shirt. I quickly snapped it into an elastic. I looked into the mirror one last time but stopped. There was something black on my neck below my ear. Leaning in, I gasped.

Crap.

Fang's Point of View

I knocked on the bathroom door. This was the one thing that I hated about our hotel suite. It had one bathroom. "Yo, anyone in here?'

"It's taken!" I heard Max say.

I sighed. Hadn't she been in there long enough? I really couldn't wait anymore.

"Max, I really have to go the bathroom…"

"Fang please." Max said.

"Okay, but you're cleaning up the mess! Could you at least hurry up?"

"No!" Max shouted. She sounded like she was crying. "Go away!!"

I knew I should talk to her, but I REALLY had to go. So I ran down to the hotel

lobby and used the bathroom down there. Then I ran back upstairs. Max was still in the bathroom.

"Are you OK Max?"

"Ya…Sure…Can I have some time to myself?"

I agreed silently and left, but I wasn't going to give up yet.

Angel's Point of View

It was dark. I was sleeping. Because that's what tired people do when it's dark.

But unfortunately my sleep was disturbed by Fang. He shook me awake and pulled me to the bathroom door, which was closed and Max was inside.

"What's Max thinking?" Fang whispered.

I strained to pick up her thoughts.

"Something about finding her expiration date-Fang what's going on?"

Fang turned white.

Fang's Point of View

Crap! That's not good! We finally finished saving the world and Max figures out she's gonna die soon.

I told Angel everything was going to be OK and took her to her bedroom (which was thankfully out of her mind-reading range). Then I ran back to the bathroom.

"Max, you need to tell me what's going on." I said at the door.

"NO! GO AWAY!!"

I tried the door. Lucky for me it wasn't locked.

Max was sitting on the floor holding her knees to her chest. Her eyes were red

from crying and her face was stained with tears.

"I got Angel to tell me what you were thinking." I said, kneeling by her. She was too upset to get mad at me for invading her thoughts, which was a good thing as far as my health goes. "Can I see?"

She turned her head to the side so I could see the black numbers.

Well this sucked- She had a month left.

Iggy's Point of View

I like sleep. Sleep is good. And any person in their right mind should like sleep too. Which was why I was really PO'ed when Fang woke me up at 3 o' clock in the frickin' morning!!

"Get up!" Fang yelled at me "I need you to wake up the rest of the flock. We need to go to Max's mom's house."

"Just what I wanted." I said "To wake up at 3 to go see Max's relatives. Can't it wait?"

I obviously can't see, but something told me Fang was giving me a really dirty look right about now. It's times like these when I fear most for my personal safety.

So I decided to get up before Fang ripped off my wings.

Max's Point of View

Have you ever had the feeling when you feel like crap 'cuz you just figured out you're gonna die in a month? If you haven't I can assure you it's not fun. So after Fang insisted we wake up the flock and go to my Mom's house, I tried to pull myself together. After all, I am the amazing Maximum Ride and I don't cry! (As far as they know!)

I splashed some water on my face and looked in the mirror. My expiration date stood out like a sore thumb. It was like having my own clock ticking away at my life.

I grabbed a sweatshirt off my bed and packed up my stuff. When I crept out of the hallway and into the entryway of our hotel suite, everyone was ready to go and waiting for me.

We snuck out of the lobby and walked at least a mile out of town. Then we raised our wings and took off into the sky.