Well, here's my first Maximum Ride story. It's going to be kind of long because I wanted details, but I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the characters, but I wish I did. I also do not want to be sued, so that's why I have a disclaimer before every story, thanks for asking.
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MAX'S POV
"Hey Max? I was just kind of wondering what we are going to do next. I mean, we practically defeated Itex already, so what else is left for us to do? Are we going to go look for out parents, or return to the Institute, or maybe we're going to investigate the tunnel under the normal school by Anne's house because we never really figured out what that was all about…" Nudge asked me. We had just taken off and were flying Northeast, and already Nudge was talking. I was hoping for silence for at least a little while so I could think, because honestly, I didn't really know the answer to her question.
The flock and I had just left Mom's house and I was missing her already. She and Ella were the only real blood family I had. Well, besides Jeb. And I had only recently discovered that he was my dad, and Dr. Martinez was my mom.
Honestly, I had no clue where to begin. Sounds just like your big, smart leader right? Sure, being only 14 and having to take care of a bunch of kids and planning to save the world is hard, but hey, usually I was dang good at it. Still, sometimes I missed when it was just the six of us and Jeb, at our house back in the mountains. Back then, Jeb was is charge, and I didn't have to worry about being a leader. Back then, we hadn't yet known that Jeb was a traitor who was really working for the school, but would eventually double cross the school and help us, then tell me he was my dad. Complicated, right? Let's not get into details.
"Or we could start by…" Nudge still, aka the eleven year old motor mouth. She really needed to stop that.
The more I thought about it, the more I missed having a place to live. I missed having a home and having the same bed to sleep in every night, instead of whatever cave or mountainside was convenient. And even if having a new home was only the beginning of our plans, that didn't mean we couldn't leave the house to go out and do all of the other things necessary for saving the world, which as I've been repeatedly told is my destiny.
I felt wings brushing mine. I looked. It was Fang. Fang was also 14, and he was defiantly my best friend out of the flock. Recently, the flock split in half and all I could think about was Fang, and how much I missed him and the others. When we were finally reunited, I finally felt the emptiness in me lift. Something happened when we reunited that day, but I wasn't quite sure what. All I was sure of was I had never been so happy to see someone before in my life. We definitely had some talking to do, that's for sure. We hadn't gotten a chance to since we were all back together. He raised his eyebrows.
"You ok?" He said. Apparently I was taking too long to answer Nudge's questions. I nodded.
"So is your plan to just fly around for the rest of our lives, or do we actually have strategy?" Demanded Iggy, in his usual style. Iggy, also 14, and blind from an experiment at the school gone wrong, was known for his lack of patience and his amazing gift with weaponry, bombs in particular. Gazzy, also known as the Gasman, was Iggy's usual partner in crime. Which you may think is odd, considering that he is only 8 and should probably not be involved with bombs just yet. But not much normal about us. We are avian-human hybrids. We've got wings, for Christ's sake.
"Yeah, I think I've got a plan. I think we should find a home," I said. I was a little unsure about how this would be received by the flock, considering that our last real home had been with Jeb, and we all know how that ended. The only other real home we had had was with Ann, and that didn't go so well either, considering that she was the head honcho of the school, the place that did crazy experiments on us from when we were born. Until we escaped that is. The main reason I wanted to build a new home is that it would give the kids comfort………. and give me time to think of a real plan. "We need our own home again. Are you guys up for it?"
"I am," said Angel, my 6 year old sweetheart.
"Me too," said Gazzy, automatically agreeing with his little sister.
"A home? We haven't had one of those in along time! Let's do it!" Iggy cheered. Fang nodded.
"Alright, let's keep flying northeast then, and look for places along the way." So that's what we did. We all flew for about three hours, stopping occasionally when we thought we saw a good place. The first place we stopped was on a rocky mountain side, about ten miles away from a town, and well hidden. The only down side was that it would be too hard to build a house there because of the rocks. The next few places that we stopped at had similar problems: too rocky, not well enough hidden, bad water source. We had now been flying around for about our sixth hour and still no luck on finding a good place for our home. But hey, we didn't have to find a home right now. We had along time to look.
"Hey Max? I'm hungry," Total whined from Fang's backpack. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that we have a talking dog as our pet? The flock voiced their agreements. It was starting to get dark, and we had been looking for a home all day with no luck. We found a cave and decided to spend the night there. The kids set up camp and Fang and I went to search for food. We both hid our wings and ordered McDonald's to go using the credit card that Jeb got me. We got back to the cave and ate, and no matter how strong I am, I sill whimper with delight every time I take a bite of those delicious burgers. I was exhausted. I could feel my eyes closing as I listened to everyone still telling stories about when we were apart.
"And then Fang and grabbed a gun and started shooting everything in sight. He almost shot me!" Gazzy said, showing us patched up bullet holes in his jeans. Nudge whistled.
" Close call, Gasman," she said. I opened my eyes and looked at Fang. Guns? I mouthed silently. He smiled at me, lighting up his immediate area.
"I've decided to petition against your no-gun policy. They work brilliantly." I laughed at him.
"And the bullet holes in Gazzy's jeans are a perfect testimony as to why we are a no-gun flock," I countered. I looked at Angel and Total. They had both fallen asleep next to the fire. Angel had her arm around Total and was mumbling in her sleep. I looked at Nudge. She was yawning. "Alright guys, to be continued. I think we're all tired. We need to get some sleep." I banked the fire and put a blanket over Angel and Total, then leaned against the cave wall. "Iggy, first watch." I said. I watched him go sit near the front of the cave. All was well. I waited until the flock was asleep, then I allowed myself to sleep too…
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I woke up to the smell of bacon. Iggy was cooking breakfast and everyone was getting packing up. Who can sleep through the smell of delicious bacon? I wasn't ready to start being a leader yet, so I closed my eyes and pretended I was still asleep. I could hear the keys of Fang's wireless laptop as he updated his blog, I could feel the others setting up breakfast or cleaning up our mess or whatever. I was slowly falling back asleep.
Rise and shine, Max, it's time to take control.
'Oh god no,' I thought. The voice was finally back. Jeb's voice, which had been inside my head for about a year now giving me advice.
'Go away,' I thought back.
I can't, Max. You're looking for a home for the flock and I have one for you. Although it was tempting to ignore him and fall back asleep, I was not looking forward to building a home from scratch and decorating it. It is only a few hours' flight from where you are. It is already fully built and decorated, with working water and heat and electricity. I hated to say it, but Jeb knew me well. He knew that that was exactly the thing to say to make me want to live there.
'I'm listening,' I thought back. Before I knew what was happening, the flock was on our way.
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"Are you sure you trust Jeb?" Fang whispered in my ear. We were now standing on a very narrow ledge of a mountain. In front of me, I could see a well hidden door, barley visible among the rocks. The truth was I wasn't sure. I had no idea if I should trust him. Just inside could be Jeb and a bunch of Erasers or Flyboys or Omega, there to take us away or kill us
"Nope," I said, but I pulled the door open anyways.
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"Wait here," Max said, stepping inside.
"Why?" Gazzy asked Fang. Fang could see that he was itching to go inside and see the house. Fang was too. He was also excited at the concept of safety, food, and running water.
"We don't know what is in the house." He replied.
"Could be a trap," Iggy said. Fang nodded. They waited in silence for awhile while Nudge rambled on about how excited she was.
"Maybe we all have our own rooms. Maybe mine will be purple with butterflies. Maybe there will be a TV! With cable! I would love that! I hope it isn't a trap…" Five minutes later, the door creaked back open. Fang was unsure what would come out- a Flyboy or Max. It was the later.
"Hey guys, check out our totally awesome new home!" She exclaimed.
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What do you think of the first chapter?? It was kind of fast paced, but I wanted to get all of the boring stuff out of the way so I could get into the main story. More soon.
Sarah