Chapter 1: Signs

Max's POV

The flock and I were heading for San Francisco; we had decided we needed a break, to hang about in a big city, and New York was too familiar. So we thought that Frisco would be the best place for it, because Vegas was just too bright. And I was not about to let the younger ones near gambling chips and roulette wheels. Fang had smirked at that excuse. We had left Total at my mom's, so he could stay with Akila.

So here we were, just about to check into one of the more expensive hotels. Thank you, unlimited Max Ride card. We got three twin rooms, and Gazzy was going with Iggy, Nudge with Angel. So that left me with Fang. I swear they do that deliberately sometimes. Our rooms weren't connecting, but they were next to each other, which helped. Fang and I told everyone to prepare for a shopping trip as they skipped to their own rooms, and I gave Iggy and Gazzy a strict word and rule about how there was going to be no bombs. They dipped their heads sheepishly, but promised in that droning bored way.

So Fang and I walked over to our own room, and he swiped the key card through the scanner. The door clicked open, and he opened it further, then grinned at me.

"Ladies first," he said. I smiled at him disbelievingly, but walked through.

"I've taught you well," I muttered to him. He just rolled his eyes.

I walked into the room and put the backpack on one of the beds, and headed straight for the window. I gazed out at the scene before me; perfectly blue sky with an equally blue ocean just below it, with a sun-flower coloured beach touching it, and the road just in front of that.

"Wow," I breathed.

Fang was suddenly at my side, pulling the sliding glass door open onto the balcony. He walked right out and stepped into the sunshine, then leant on the railing, facing away from me. I followed him out and stood next to him, relishing the brilliant warmth.

"Nice temperature," Fang stated.

"Mmm…" I agreed. "It's nice after Antarctica."

Enjoy it whilst you can, Maximum. You need to get out of San Francisco.

What? I thought back. But, Voice, we've only just got here. We need a break, and deserve one too.

I'm not saying you don't deserve a break, just don't have it in San Francisco. Go to your mom's house or something, but stay out of San Francisco.

Why? I hate it when you keep information from me like this! What's going on?

I can't tell you, you just need to get out of there by tomorrow morning.

"Ugh, gimme a break," I complained out loud. Fang turned his head towards me.

"Voice?" I nodded, and he scowled.

"I wish that bastard would leave you alone for two seconds. You deserve a break."

"One, watch your language," I reminded him. He smiled slightly. "And two, yeah, me too. Thanks."

"What did it say?" he asked after another few minutes.

"That we need to stay out of Frisco. That something bad is going to happen, and we need to get out of here by tomorrow."

He turned to me to raise his eyebrows, and I just shrugged. "He didn't tell me what's going to happen, though."

Fang rolled his eyes, then stretched his shoulders back, screwing up his face as he did so, then returned to his normal position and exhaled whilst giving a suggestion:

"Terrorist attack?"

I shrugged again; he's rubbing off on me. "Could be."

"You know, I don't see the point of going to bomb cities as unimportant as these…" he said. I turned to him to stare incredulously, but he had a teasing glint in his eyes.

"…Coz all the terrorists need to target," he continued, "are the gambling houses in Vegas; enough people go there today to fill two Frisco-s."

There was a pause for a few seconds, before we both started laughing. Mine was more disbelieving; I can't believe Fang just suggested to terrorists where to bomb or blow things up.

"Fang, what would you do if Gazzy and Iggy were listening?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Tell them not to tell anyone, then make a threat in case they go and do it anyway."

I stared at him open-mouthed, but still smiling. "You are so…" I trailed off, looking away from him again.

"So…?" Fang urged me on, the tone of his voice daring me to say the wrong thing. I stared some more at the sky, trying to think of a response.

"Full of yourself, was the first thing that came to mind," I confessed, still not looking at him. He turned to me indignantly.

"Says the bird-girl who, once she found this hotel, said, 'God, I'm good.'" Alright, he got me.

"Touché," I congratulated him.

We stood there for another few minutes, just honouring each other with our company. I was more contemplating though; Fang seemed to have opened up more since we got our room. He was laughing and smiling, and generally just talking a lot more than he usually did. What set this off? And the other thing on my mind was, of course, the Voice. What had the Voice meant? Could it be a danger to the rest of the flock? Was someone after us, that will endanger a whole city just to get to us?

I sighed, no closer to finding answers. "We'd better get ready for shopping," I suggested.

"Yep," Fang replied, sighing too. "Then I'll just get the rope ready so we can hang ourselves."

"And hurry," I agreed.

In the end, Fang and I decided that one shopping trip wasn't worth suicide, so we agreed to live. Mind you, the shopping trip would've been considerably more appealing if Nudge wasn't going too.

"Oh my God, this is sooooo good, I mean we finally get to go shopping, and we can buy each other new clothes, ooh, Fang, you need something in your wardrobe other than black, and, Max, you need to get a bikini for the hotel pool…"

"There's nothing wrong with black," I heard Fang mutter, but no one else did. That was the first time he had said anything on this trip.

"Nudge, come hell or high water, I will do everything in my power to never wear a bikini in my life," I insisted.

"What? Why, Max?" Angel cried. "You have the perfect body to look good in it, and Fang really wants to see you in one."

At that moment, I stopped dead, taking in that information and flushing at why Fang would think that. At the same time, Fang lost his footing and tripped on a loose pave-slab, but regained himself before he fell on his face. He glared at Angel, and she actually looked terrified. Then Fang suddenly found the sidewalk extremely interesting.

I was about to save mine and Fang's asses when I heard something; a deep rumbling, like the sound you hear from someone's baseline music turned up full volume. The flock were instantly on alert, and Fang even looked at me again to see if I had any ideas as to what it was. People around us started noticing it, stopping in their tracks to look around them to find the source of the noise. It grew and grew and grew until my eardrums felt like they were bursting, and I stuffed my fingers in my ears, noticing that I was only one of the flock who hadn't done so yet. Even Fang's face was screwed up in pain.

Yeah, but he had never felt pain like this before; a brain attack suddenly hit, just as the volume peaked, and I screamed, dropping straight to the floor with my head in my hands. Images flashed through my head, horrific ones that I really hoped Angel wasn't watching.

It was suddenly quiet in the street, and all pain was gone. Physical pain, anyway. I slowly opened my eyes, expecting more – because that's just the way my life runs – but it never came. I peeled my head out of my hands, and finally registered the warm, large hand on my shoulder, the thumb rubbing gently on the side of my neck. I looked up and saw the hand belonged to Fang, who was crouching by my side, with all the flock surrounding me worriedly. I sighed, trying not to groan at the same time, and ran a hand over my face and hair.

"Images," I explained. "Angel, were you watching?"

She shook her head, her eyes still fearful. I smiled at her, trying to be reassuring, and stood up. They copied me.

"It was some place, I don't know where though. Let's stay put until we find out where it is, and what we're meant to do."

They all nodded. Fang tried putting my arm around his shoulders, but I gently pushed him away. "No, Fang, it's fine. I'm just…" I sighed, trailing off.

"Exhausted, is the word you're looking for," Fang finished for me. I flipped my eyebrows in acceptance, then turned to Nudge.

"Sweetie, can we put the shopping trip off till tomorrow?"

She nodded vigorously. "Sure, Max, but let's get some dinner whilst we're out here."

I nodded tiredly. "Good call," I replied.

We all started walking towards some restaurant-y place we could just about see at the bottom of the road. When the others got engrossed in their own conversations, Fang slyly took my hand and tugged on it slightly, signalling for me to slow down to walk with him. I managed to dodge my way back to him without the others noticing.

"Are you alright?" he asked before I could say so.

"Yeah…it's just the images." He raised his eyebrows at me, telling me to continue and explain. "They were…pretty horrible. It was, like…buildings that had collapsed really badly, most of them on people, and everyone was running around in panic. Rubble was everywhere, and the…" I stopped, taking a deep breath. He squeezed my hand reassuringly. "The fires. They were everywhere, and…the only sound…I heard was…someone…screaming, as they were burnt." (All of you who have read my Twilight / Max Ride cross, no I am not a pyromaniac. I'm the opposite; a pyro-phobic. I have a fear of "wild" fire. So this kind of fits with the stories. OK, continue…)

"Jesus," I heard him murmur. "I'm glad Angel didn't see that."

"Me too," I agreed.

"Wait a second," he said, frowning. "Do you think this has something to do with what your Voice said?"

I shook my head. "No way, the place I saw didn't look anything like this, and if it was a terrorist attack like you suggested, it would have to be one hell of a bomb to create that. Even Iggy and Gazzy would have had enough common sense to run away instead of figuring out how you build it."

Fang smiled, but it disappeared almost instantly as the reality of it all came back to him. I cupped his upper arm gently and looked up – damn, when did he get so tall? – into his eyes.

"Look, just forget about it for now, and we might talk about it more tonight. Let's just get some food, okay?"

He stared back at me, and we stood there, while I got lost in his eyes, for a good minute or so. Eventually he sighed.

"Okay."