Well what can I say about this?
Firstly, the concept is awful. I was just fiddling around to make a nice tense atmosphere.
Secondly, the writing is terrible. I haven't edited or anything...its too long for that. I just hope there isn't anything too cringey.
Third, towards the end there's quite a few OCs...just deal.
Fourth, I like to think this is an Iggy/Lissa fic. There's no romantical stuff though.
Maximum Ride huddled herself into the corner of the cell, sobbing.
Five minutes, she said to herself, five minutes then I'll pull myself together.
An even harder sob escaped her at that, wracking through her entire body, then as a postscript a loud sniff.
"Max?" came a voice from the other side of the wall. "Max, are you crying?"
"No," said Max loudly. "Maybe." she added as an afterthought.
"Don't cry" said Fang, and it was Fang, of course it was Fang.
Max sniffed again.
"Sorry," she said, wiping her face in an attempt to stop, "I was just...just thinking about the last night."
Flashback.
Nudge giggled maniacally and snapped the marshmallow of the end of the stick in 10 seconds flat.
"Go Guy Fawkes" said Fang sardonically, "helping kids get obese since 18-something."
"1605" put in Iggy, coating his marshmallow with melted chocolate.
Angel smiled sleepily from her position in Max's lap.
"The stars are pretty." she said, stroking Total lazily.
Five heads turned almost simultaneously to the sky, where the stars sparkled in the night sky.
And then began to wink out.
Fang was the first to realise.
"Erasers!" he shouted, jumping to his feet and taking off.
There were so many that the flock was overpowered in less than ten minutes.
"Max?" called Fang again, uncertainly. Max hadn't been aware she'd even stopped talking.
"Sorry," said Max, "Lost in memories, I guess."
"You're ok then?" said Fang, still not convinced.
Max nodded, then realised he couldn't see her.
"Yeah. Cuts and bruises from the Erasers, I think I sprained my wrist, that's all though." she reassured. "You?"
Fang groaned.
"You don't want to know."
"I do." insisted Max.
"You don't." said Fang, equally as insistent.
Max sighed.
"Whatever. I'll see them at some point anyway."
There was a moment of silence as both of them realised they had no idea when that would be.
"Have you seen the flock yet?" said Fang abruptly, cutting the silence into shreds.
Max mentally kicked herself for her selfishness. They were just kids.
"Haven't you seen them?" she said, trying to keep her voice calm. "I haven't, not since they brought us in."
"Me neither." said Fang.
A cold snake of fear ran its way down Max's stomach.
"They're just little kids, Fang. Defenceless kids."
Fang made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a growl.
"No-one will lay a finger on the flock, Max, I promise. But its worthwhile remembering, they aren't kids any more than you or I are. They're strong Max, they'll pull through."
Max let out a cry of frustration, got up and started pacing around the tiny cell.
"I just hate not being able to do anything!"
As if on cue, the tiny loudspeaker in the corner of the cell crackled in to life.
"crrrk...delta 2-oh-4 merge cells and prepare for Operation Choice."
The wall separating Max from Fang slid open swiftly, revealing Fang standing bang in the middle of the cell, stooped slightly to fit in under the low ceiling.
"Oh, Fang," said Max, rushing towards him and nearly knocking him over.
Fang grinned and disentangled her from around him.
"No need to get over sentimental, bird girl, its not over till its over." he said, then winced.
Max looked him over to see a patch of red on his grubby shirt.
"Jesus, Fang!" she said, forcing him to sit down on the ground. "What the hell happened?"
"Relax, Max. It's nothing," he said hastily, "don't get your knickers in a twist. Just some eraser with extra nifty claws, I dunno."
"Are you sure you're okay?" frowned Max, folding her arms.
Fang nodded.
Max let out a breath, then quickly drew it back in as the door to the cell opened.
"Help me up, Max." muttered Fang.
Max gave him The Look.
"We can at least look strong." insisted Fang, and grudgingly Max helped him up.
Several Erasers walked in, and behind them came Jeb, his clean white lab coat gleaming in the gloom of the cell.
Max felt Fang grope for her hand and squeeze it reassuringly - he knew her feelings on her biological father.
"Morning guys," said Jeb smoothly, clapping his hand on Fang's shoulder. He winced and wobbled slightly. Max squeezed his hand tightly.
"Get your hands off him." she growled, "You piece of..."
"Now, now, Max," mocked Jeb, "temper temper. I have a few things to discuss with you two."
Max glanced at Fang before nodding brusquely at Jeb.
"Whatever." she said, "Just get whatever crap you want to say over with."
Jeb chuckled and spoke into his walkie-talkie.
"Lower the screen." he said, and a TV screen lowered itself from the ceiling. It crackled into life to show a similar cell to the one they were in, and in it was the flock, Iggy and Nudge and Angel and the Gasman, tied up in the centre of the room. Everyone looked terrified except Iggy, who had closed his blind eyes and looked like he was narrating a story for the benefit of the rest of the flock.
The grip on Fang's hand became iron-strong.
"What. Do you want?" spat out Max, her temper barely under control.
Jeb smiled, a proper evil genius smile.
"A choice Max. That's all."
"Max, I don't want to kill you. Any of you." said Jeb abruptly.
Max snorted.
"Sure." she said. "I believe you."
Fang chuckled quietly.
"Anyway," carried on Jeb, regardless, "as I was saying. You're my daughter, Max, despite our past, and I want to keep you. So, I let you and one of your little flock, say..." his lip curled in amusement, "Fang here, live and the rest of them can be...disposed of appropriately."
Max's knees gave out beneath her for a second as the reality of what Jeb had just said hit her.
"But then I realised," said Jeb, "that you're the strong one, Maximum. The leader. And then I thought, what if I keep the young ones? The most impressionable, I suppose you could say. I'd be right in imagining you wouldn't be too happy to follow me?" queried Jeb.
Max nodded slowly.
"So in the end," finished Jeb, "I realised I just couldn't choose. So its up to you, Maximum Ride."
"What?" breathed Max disbelievingly.
Jeb gave an exasperated sigh.
"Its simple really." he said, "You and Fang, or the little ones. Your choice. I'll bring them in, give you say, ten minutes? That sound fair? Good. See you soon, Max."
And with that, Jeb and his eraser cronies left the room.
Max stared after them disbelievingly.
"I think," she said blandly, "I'm going to explode."
Then she turned to Fang.
"I'm sorry..." she said, tears shining in her eyes.
The door opened then, and the rest of the flock came in. They walked slowly, flanked on either side by Erasers, each one twice their size.
Max allowed herself one last sniff and then pasted a big, fake smile on her face. The Erasers took a mechanical look around the cell, then turned around and stomped out, the key grating in the door behind them. [A/N on reflection, i think the Erasers sound like flipping Cybermen here *sigh* anyway, I have to live with it and so will you :)]
It took Angel all of ten seconds to figure out the situation. The stalwart expression on her face wavered, collapsed and she burst into tears. Max quietly pulled her into a hug, trying not to cry herself, until Angel's sobs quietened into tiny whimpers.
Max released Angel and straightened out her hair, pulling the little blonde curls so they sprang above her shoulders. Then she looked up and saw Iggy, Nudge and the Gasman staring down at her.
"So," said Iggy in a low voice, "what's the plan then?"
"What!?" asked Max, straightening out and brushing herself down.
"You know..." whispered Gazzy, prompting, "how are we going to bust out of here?"
Max looked at Fang.
"There is no plan." she mumbled, unable to look her flock in the eye.
"What?" said Nudge. "Are you freaking kidding, Max? There's no plan?"
"There's always a plan!" insisted Gazzy.
"There always was a plan," said Iggy quietly, carefully examining his shoes. [Despite the fact he's BLIND? Jesus, Emma]
Max looked at him imploringly.
"Don't hate me, Igs," she begged, "I've tried my best, for so long. I just...I've just run out of ideas." she finished limply.
Nudge bit her bottom lip.
"Please don't give up, Max," said Angel suddenly, the grown-up words sounding odd against her girlish voice, "without you...we're nothing."
"I can't!" shouted Max angrily, "Don't you understand? Don't you think I've TRIED to think of a way out of this, I just CAN'T do it. I'm done. I'm USELESS. God, you might as well kill me now, I'm such a stupid....a stupid, useless...stupid...IDIOT!"
Trying not to completely crumble, Max pushed her way out to the opposite wall and pressed her hands against it, trying to vent her fury, fury at the flock for needing her and herself for not being good enough, into the grey stone.
"Max," came Fang's voice from behind her, "its okay. You did-you did your best..."
"Its not okay," said Max twisting and slowly sliding down the wall, no longer really caring what the flock would think. There was silence. They agreed.
The intercom on the wall crackled and Max heard the door open and the Erasers walk in and out again, and then they were gone.
Max felt a new emotion overcome her now. As far as she was concerned, her life was over now. Sealed shut, she was in the twilight moments, inbetween life and death. She opened her eyes and looked out at the cell.
"Well, you fucked that up," said Fang, shaking his head disbelievingly, looking like he was barely concealing his anger.
"What?" asked Max, letting her head fall back against the wall.
"Think about it, Max!" said Fang, and Max couldn't place the emotion in his words, "Last ten minutes with your goddamn family, could you not have made it good?"
It was disgust, realised Max, pure disgust.
"You said it yourself," continued Fang, ranting now, "they're just kids! Defenseless kids, and I quote! You had ten, freaking minutes and you knew it was the last time you were going to talk to them, and where were the words of wisdom? The tender goodbyes they can cherish forever? You were the closest thing they had to a mother, Max!"
"Oh because you can talk!" said Max, leaping up, incensed, "I didn't see any tender crap from you, did I? Oh no, not Fang the freaking...freaking emo angst machine! Maybe next time you can take the responsibility of everybody on earth you care about on your shoulders? Maybe next time it can be your duty to look after your family, instead of winging off on your global warming crap? Couldn't you!"
"There isn't going to be a next time, Ride!" said Fang, absolutely inflamed. "because we're going to die okay? Dead. Over. Finished. Rotting in the ground like the little dead sparrows that cats bring in."
"Shit." said Max, realisation dawning, "shit, shit, shit. What have I done?"
"Language, Timothy," said Fang, a grim smile on his face.
Max wasn't listening.
"Listen, Max." said Fang, trying to break her out of her feverish pace, "Max, listen!"
Max looked at him cynically.
"Right. Before the...before they left, I spoke to Ig, and it's worth remembering we're all about the same age, yeah? So I trust Iggy, and I told him to go to Dr Martinez's when he could, and that his first priority was to keep the flock safe, and escape came second. I also told him that, if we could...we'd try and be as much of a distraction as possible at the...the execution. So they could try and get out of there."
Max bit her lip.
"Did I miss anything out?"
Max shook her head.
"Shit." she said again, too exhausted to change the pattern.
"Shit." agreed Fang, dropping down onto the floor.
There was silence.
"I'm not an emo." said Fang.
"I know." said Max, "So what about this distraction?"