((Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters in this book. They all still belong to James Patterson, well, they still did when I last checked. Enjoy!
But I do own the plots, so PLEASE respect this story and the author and don't steal the plot(s).))
Chapter 1: Poisoned in Washington DC
I looked around us, seeing no danger. I lowered myself back into the thick and warm tree trunk, only to have Nudge kick me in the side of the head.
"Ow! Watch it!" I said, rubbing the sore spot. I heard max snigger from above me. I was about to say something in reply when Iggy started snoring loudly. Great, I rolled my eyes, cross that Iggy couldn't't't see it. Then, in the distance, like a whisper, I heard my name. Fang. What was that? I sat up right, tense and ready for a fight. Well, actually, no, I didn't't want a fight. I had enough fighting with max today. I sighed, remembering. Then I heard it again, it was soft, like a whisper.
"Yes?" I said uncertainly, looking around. I had forgotten the rest of the flock, and when Nudge spoke, it made me jump.
"Are you alright Fang?"
"Well, well, Mr. Rock seems to be having trouble with his voice to." Max said, peering down around her branch to look at me, grinning. I didn't grin back.
"What's wrong?" Everyone was know one full alert, looking into the darkness of the park in DC. Well, we didn't know where it was exactly. And if we did, we won't tell you. No offence or anything.
"Earth to Fang. Is anyone home. Or will I have to beat him wake? I call you know, if you want." I realized that the flock had trying to get my attention so I looked up at Max.
"I heard my name. At least, I think I heard my name." Then came the sound of footsteps, getting closer. I hide in the tree and hoped my new found skill was working.
"Max? Can you see me?" I whispered. I heard a no in reply. Good. This skill came in handy actually. The footsteps passed. No one dared stick their heads out to see who it was.
"You know Fang, that skill really suits you." Nudge wanted until the person had gone completely before talking again. She did an awful lot of that. Angle giggled to my thought that I had forgotten about. I'd have to be more careful in future.
"Yeah, I does hey. I know what you mean. Like mine suit me, obviously."
"Obviously, Iggy," I replied, waiting for Max to jump in with some smartass comeback. So was everyone else. Silence filled the air between us, making the air heavy.
"Max?" I asked warily, on the look out for anything suspicious. Nothing came up. I stood up on my tree truck, stretching my head to see Max's. She was kneeling on her branch, face pale. I was about to say something when all of a sudden she barfed, making Gazzy jump up in a seconds notice. He jumped with inches to spare thank Goodness for that. Max really didn't look well.
"Max! Are you alright?" I clambered on to her branch and held her hair back as a second lot made a reappearance. Oh, Jeez.
"Max?" Angle tried to look over but I made her sit down. I held Max under her arms and flew down the 4 or so metres from the ground.
"Ok Max, what's up." A statement and she knew it. She shrugged.
"Nothings wrong. I must have swallowed a bug or something with dinner."
"What dinner?" Gazzy pushed in behind me.
"Nice try Max. We haven't had it yet." Iggy grinned, imagining the expression on her face. It never came. However, the next wave did. And unfortanly over my right shoe.
"Oh Jeez. It's bad, isn't it?" Yeah Iggy, it was. I nodded, then remembering said yes.
"What do you want me to do?"
"And me?"
"And me!" I looked up to see the kids standing around me, waiting. I could have told them to go and play on the road and they would have done it. I felt something then, and for once I was completely lost about it. I made a mental note to tell Max. Angle, reading my thoughts, leaned closer to me and wrapped her hand around mine. As Max kneeled there panting, I wasn't sure what to do. She had helped me at the beach and when Ari shredded my stomach. Know, my chance to repay her, and I was kneeling next to her, my shoe covered in vomit, not sure what to do.
"Um. Go and….um….find some water?" I looked up at Angel who nodded.
"Gazzy, you get the water. Nudge, can you go and find a bucket or something? Iggy, can you start cutting my old jacket into strips to put on Max's forehead? Fang you stay there and look after her. I'll be back in a second." I got up off my knees.
"Wait, Angel. Thank you. I….," she smiled, knowingly. I thanked God she could hear without me saying it.
Max started reaching again and I got back down again, holding her hair.
"What's up max? We can't fix it if you don't tell us what's wrong." She looked up when she was finished.
"You don't have one material bone in your body, do you?" I smiled at her, pleased she was well enough to make a rude remark about me. I squeezed her shoulder.
"No, you right. I don't. Thank Goodness Angle could help. Are you training her to be a Maxet? I looks like it, that's for sure." Max smiled back at me. I knew she, along with the rest of the flock, thought I was a non-smiling, depressed, socially-challenged mutant freak. When actually I'm not. Am I?
They all think I have no emotion whatsoever. I do, it's just I don't blubber about life being hard and unfair and all the rest of it. I mean, not even Angel cries and she six.
Max made a small whimpering noise and I looked down. She was doubled over, her face almost in the mess. I pulled her in to me so her face wouldn't land in the stuff if anything happened. It smelt nasty.
"I'm so sorry Fang. I know you don't what to deal with things at the moment but…I'm sorry." She sighed, acting as if it were her fault.
"Don't be stupid Max," I rolled my eyes at her.
"You have to say that. Just because you're second in command." She just didn't get it.
"Max. Shut up. Ok? I'm sorry that your sick too, but you have to learn that I'm not going anywhere." She was quite for a while and I thought she was going to barf again.
"You remember when, um, when I got my chip out? I was, like, high on the antiseptic. I said something's. And Fang, you teased me for it, for them. But you never said them back. I mean, yeah ok, I like you. But I was confused when you never said anything to me about it. That's why I flew off when you…. I thought that you-," She barfed again but this time I didn't notice. I was frozen. My eyes were as wide as dinner plates. There was vomit down my side, sticking to my clothes.
"Oh, Max." I said, barely focusing. I had thought she'd flown off when I kissed her because she didn't like me. But when I realized she might….I was confused as well, put it that way.
"I'm sorry Fang. I didn't mean to. I shouldn't have let you hold me. Now I've puked on you. Great." I heard Iggy coming. I quickly kissed Max on her sweaty forehead then got up. She seemed surprised, but I think she understood. I wasn't could with words.
"What took you so long?" Iggy was approaching us with the strips he had cut and Gazzy was coming with him, clutching a container of water. His eyes widened at the site of my clothes.
"Wow! What happened there?" I looked down, only just realizing the extent of the damage now. Great.
"Sorry," Max said, looking up at me. She tried to stand, but she doubled over, her hands on her stomach. I swooped down and held her arm as she kneeled back on the ground.
"What's wrong with me doc?" I had to admit, I was impressed she could still say Max-like things. She was obviously in pain. But she was very stubborn.
"You know Fang, she's sort of acting like you. You wouldn't have help when you were hurt. You wanted to get back up again. You know, I'm scared that because you keep getting your self into trouble, because of your invisible attitude, that one day you won't get back up again." Angel looked at her shoes, holding a grocery bag in her hand. I started at her. Then I did the most unFang-ish thing I could have done. I got down to her level on my knee and hugged her. There was a small gasp from Max and Gazzy. Angel patted me on the back.
"I'm sorry Angel," I whispered in her ear so only she'd hear it. I let go then tried to dust myself off. I couldn't believe I'd just done that. Nether could Max going by the expression on her pale and clammy face.
"What?" Everyone looked away as if I had done something wrong. Maybe I had? Max barfed again, narrowly missing Gazzy's shoes. Everyone stood around watching so I made a quick decision.
"Ok, Iggy, wet those strips in the water, then hang then on this little bush here. Gazzy, start gathering some soft leaves for a pillow. Nudge can help. Ok, get going." Not a material bone in my huh? Maybe so, but I knew how to get the flock going. They moved off with out question. They obviously knew Max would get angry if they didn't do it.
"That's not why we're doing it Fang. Don't be a wiener, we love you too." She seemed somewhat angry that I had thought that. Wait, wiener!
"Angel, don't say wiener again ok?" That's my word, I thought then realized Angel could have heard. Damn it. Did it say it was useful before? Never. I sighed. Max laughed.
"Wow, Fang. I'm impressed. Who knew you had it in you!" What was with that anyway? Did everyone think I was totally incapable of showing any emotion at all?
Gazzy came over and handed me a large strip drenched in cold-ish water. I started dabbing it on Max's head, and she didn't complain. I also wiped down her arms as they had vomit on them from were I was holding her. I didn't care about mine mess: all I wanted to do was make sure Max was ok. Nudge brought over the bucket of water and an empty one.
"Is the bed ready yet?"
"No, not yet. We're trying to get it comfy." I nodded.
"Thank you Nudge." I hope she heard the double meaning in that. I was saying thank you for everything. She nodded and walked off: if she did heard, she showed no signs of it. Iggy came over a short while later and checked out what was happening. I told him about. Max had been silent seen our talk and I was worried. I didn't know if I'd hurt her or if she felt sick.
"Oh yeah, Angel, what's in that bag?" I had forgotten about it and so had she.
"Um, don't get mad at me ok?" I raised an eyebrow. "I stole it from the chemist. It should help Max get better. The doctor himself said so." I sighed.
"Did you steal-steal or steal-asked-with-your-mind?"
"I asked with my mind. But I didn't pay. I couldn't. I asked him to give it to me." I nodded and took the bag. Inside were several medicine packets; headache tablets; stomach tablets; pain relievers; Tablets for injuries; stronger pain killers; several creams; bandages; Band-Aids and a small first aid kit.
"Jeez Angel, this is worth hundreds. He just gave it to you! Wow. Oh, Jeez. Um, great Angle, really it is. But please don't go around telling everyone to buy you everything. You should tell me or Max, ok? I'm not angry: I'm pleased with you." Angel nodded, thinking. I reached into the bag and pulled out the packet of stomach tablets.
"Have you got a headache Max?" She shook her head no.
"It's just my stomach. What's wrong with me? A Voice in my head, blinding headache every now and then, a killer stomach ache and saving the world issues. Great. Why me? Couldn't they all annoy someone else? Like Jeb?" The flock fell quite at the mention of Jeb's name. They still hadn't got over him leaving us, nor had Max. Speaking of which, she bent over and barfed into the bucket she snatched of Nudge. Nudge looked away, disgusted.
"how come she keeps throwing up? Shouldn't she run out sometime?" I thought for a minute before answering her.
"We have to eat, like, 3000 calories a day remember?"
"Oh, right." Iggy came up to me and handed me a long strip.
"Here. Is she any better yet? Is she still pale?"
"Yeah. Have you got any drinkable water?" Iggy shook his head.
"Angel? Can you go and get a few bottles of water?" I didn't care now if she stole using her mind: I had changed mine. Gazzy and Nudge approached looking at Max warily.
"The bed is ready Fang." I nodded then went over to Max.
"Thanks. Ok Max, we're going to move you onto a bed Gazzy and Nudge made. Do you think you can walk?" She groaned quietly and tried to hide it.
"To be honest, no. But I'm going to do it anyway, being the annoying person that I am."
"Tell me about it," she looked up angrily at me, saw me grinning and smiled. She failed on her first attempt to stand.
"I'm going to pick you up and carry you, maybe 20 metres, over to your bed ok?" He shook her head.
"No, I can walk. Just let me walk." I rolled my eyes, then bent down on my knees. I placed one arm carefully around her head and one under her legs. I picked her up, with much protesting.
"If you don't put me down this instant, I will kill you." I grinned at that idea, finding it funny.
"I mean it! I'll rip both arms from their sockets then I'll beat you with them so hard your brain will explode inside your head. Then I'll sharpen the ends of them with a giant pencil sharpener and stab you repeatedly with them. Do you understand Fang? Are you slow?" All the while Max was going on, I was carrying her to the bed. By the time she had finished, I was lying her down. She glared at me. If looks could kill.
"Grrr" I rolled my eyes at Max's attempt to scare me. It failed, I might add. Now what? I looked around, counting the flock. No one was missing thank goodness. Iggy was still wetting the strips over and over again. Nudge and Gazzy were keeping their eyes out, doing an 360 check every now and then. Angel was sit getting water. I hoped I'd made the right decision. I sighed deeply.
"You made the right choice Fang. We're lucky we have you. And Iggy." I turned to see Angel carrying a bag of water bottles. She handed them over. There were 7 in there, enough for one each and a spare for Max.
"Thanks, Angel." She nodded, then went to help Nudge and Gazzy keep look-out. Iggy yelled out to me, saying he was finished. I yelled back just as Max barfed again. I spied the long strip I had placed on the ground. Picking it up, I dipped it in water then rug it out. I pulled Max's hair out of her eyes and around her face, then tied it back with the strip. She looked up at me, and she looked small, like a child.
"Thank you Fang. And thank you for all this. I couldn't have done it without you. I know this isn't the best position to put you into and I'm sorry. I'll be up and at 'em in a few." Then she barfed again, removing all doubt that she'll be fine 'in a few.'