Chapter One

Max

If you weren't aware, I am the amazing, incredible, basically indestructible Maximum Ride. And I think I might faint…

"What? What are you talking about?" I was practically hyperventilating over here. Jasper was giving me the weirdest look, like he wanted to calm me down, but he didn't want to interfere with my angry conversation. He got up and headed upstairs, leaving me alone with the phone.

"They sent out a search team for you and the flock a few days ago," Jeb said. I ground my teeth together.

"And you're only just contacting us to tell me this?"

"It took a while for me to get a hold of you. Why aren't you picking up the home phone?"

"Because we're never home."

"And this is why I told you to get a cell phone." I rolled my eyes, upset that he couldn't see me. "I know we've had that argument before, but still, you should have gotten a disposable phone."

"Ok we're going to move past this conversation," I said icily. I was sick of arguing right now, especially since I needed to find out what the heck was going on over there. "Who did they send?"

"They sent everyone." Jeb sounded so emotionless as he told me that his organization had sent every single one of their operatives to hunt me down and kill me.

"Great. Lovely. How many? Where did they start? Where should we go?"

"Over two hundred or so. They went south towards Mexico. Head north to Canada," Jeb responded quickly, all business now.

"Crap. Why? Ok…" Yeah, that's me, the wordy leader.

"I'm not sure why they went south. But you really need to get farther away. Two states is not far enough in my opinion."

"Fine. Bye."

"Maximum." That made me stop. Damnit… "Get a cell phone, get some gear together, and get out of there. Pronto." Jeb hung up, probably not wanting to hear my answer to his orders.

I slammed the phone down, angry with him, with the School, and with myself. He would be the one to give us the bad news. That's because he's the only one who cares about you. So good to hear from you again Voice. Of course, I got no response. Obviously, I'm angry with the School for not leaving us alone after all these years. But most importantly, I'm mad at myself for allowing the flock to get so comfortable in one place. We'd gotten lazy and sloppy. It was a huge surprise that the School hadn't headed north to Washington initially.

"What's wrong?" I turned and a small smile came to my lips. Fang was always the first one to get an explanation out of me.

"Jeb just called." Both our smiles disappeared. Fang's lips turned down into a frown. "The School just sent out a team to get us back."

"Where are they?" That's my man, always business first, happiness later. Just the way I trained him. Ah, a man after my heart. Wow, I sounded sappy. Eww, gross…

"He says they headed south toward Mexico. Neither of us is sure why, but that gives us some time to head farther north into Canada. That should put some more space between us and them." Fang nodded, understanding my obvious logic. I wasn't going to tell him that it hadn't been my idea, but Jeb's. Hey, what Fang doesn't know won't kill him. At least, it won't in this case…

"Sounds good. When do we leave?"

"Immediately," I said, sad for once that we had to leave. He nodded again and headed out the door to find the kids.

I sighed and rubbed my hands over my eyes, suddenly tired. Walking up the stairs, I tried to think up an explanation for our sudden departure. Then I realized it would be best to tell Alice the truth. She would have known that we were planning on leaving as soon as Jeb told me to go to Canada.

"Are you sure you have to go?" Alice asked, her lips turned down in a sad frown. I nodded sadly.

"We don't have a choice," I said quietly, knowing she would hear it. Her frown deepened slightly.

"Couldn't you just stay here with us?" She almost sounded desperate.

"No," I said, shaking my head. I had already thought about that. "If we stay here, it'll pull you guys into our fight. And that's exactly what it is: our fight. I can't have you and the others involved. I won't risk it. Trust me," I said when she opened her mouth to argue. "These guys from the School fight dirty. Besides, when Jeb said everyone, he meant everyone that could fight. That means all the scientist will still be at the School or somewhere else in the world. If any of the fighters find out about you, they'll instantly send that to the scientists. There'd be no way to hide after that. And I'm not a mass-murderer."

"I understand," Alice said quietly. She looked so sad. I know I was, but still… I didn't like having to upset them. Especially after all they've done for us!

"WHAT?" Edward thundered from upstairs. He was standing in front of me a moment later, his face a mask of fury. "What do you mean you're leaving? We can fight them for you!"

"Weren't you listening?" I asked, knowing full well he was. "I just can't risk your exposure. I'm sorry," I added when he looked like he was going to argue. That shut him up.

Edward sighed and nodded. He knew that even though it was stupid, it was the best way to do this. He gave me a quick hug before heading back upstairs to tell Bella the bad news. I could hear her cry of dismay from his room.

"I have to go help the others clear out the house," I said to Alice as I walked away. "See you later." She didn't respond. I had a feeling she wasn't even behind me anymore. When I turned the corner to go down the staircase, a glance back confirmed that Alice had indeed left.

Once I got to the house in La Push, I took a deep breath and opened the door. Just like I had hoped and dreaded, the rest of the flock was getting their packs together. I'm sure our bags were dusty from their time under our beds. When I walked through the door, everyone stopped momentarily and looked to me for orders. I just nodded, motioning for them to continue packing.

Fang and I made sure that everyone had only what was necessary in their bags. I was surprised when I looked through Nudge's bag and found, guess what, only the necessaries. Weird, right? I had been expecting some girly stuff tucked away in a corner. Same with Angel, but her bag was ready as well. Although, Gazzy had been trying to sneak out a few of his homemade bombs. Fang confiscated them, but after a second thought, put them back in Gazzy's bag.

"We really have to leave?" Nudge asked for the thousandth time. I nodded, slowly becoming irritated with her constant questions. Fang sensed this and sent Nudge and the others to go for a walk on First Beach. Once alone, Fang sat next to me on the couch.

"It's for the best," he whispered. I nodded, knowing he was right, but still not wanting to believe that we had to leave Forks. It had quickly become our home, and over the past couple months, we had been happy and safe here surrounded by vampires and werewolves.

"Are you sure there's no other option?" I asked softly, already knowing there wasn't. I still had a pang of dismay when Fang shook his head morosely.

Fang kissed the top of my head. His lips made a trail down my forehead, over my nose, and stopping at my lips. I loved him so much, and he knew that. He frequently used that against me. Like now, for instance. He was making my forget all about being sad and depressed just by kissing me. Kissing me hungrily and passionately, I may add.

"Eww!" Nudge said, giggling happily anyways.

"That was a quick walk," Fang commented dryly as the others came into the living room. Iggy shrugged.

"It's raining." He said that as if it were something new. It was always raining here. I rolled my eyes at him, mad once again that it was wasted on the blind Iggy.

"Max?" I looked past Iggy into the front hall. Emmet, Jasper, and Edward stood by the door.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"We just figured our help would be needed," Edward said.

"He means we wanted to come make sure you guys weren't suffocating under all the heavy stuff," Emmet corrected with a laugh. Luckily, eye rolling was not lost on Emmet.

"Thanks guys, I appreciate the thought, but there's nothing we can really do with all this stuff." I shrugged. "We can only take what we can carry on our backs."

"Well, we're here to take everything else to our storage facility." Edward shrugged. "We don't want anything to be stolen."

"Ok," I agreed. They said they didn't need our help, so the flock went to the Cullen's place to wait for their return.