Chapter One: The School
'I'll lose my hard-earned freedom if my fear defines my world…' –Superchick
We, as in the flock and I, were back at the School. We've been here for about a year. Fang, Iggy and I are 15 now, Nudge is 13, Gazzy is 10, and Angel is 7.
Total… I really miss him. No, I'm not on drugs, for those of you who are thinking 'what?! Max misses Total? Has she gone crazy?' No, I haven't gone crazy.
But being locked up in a medium-sized dog crate, living a life of bleak existence, tends to make one miss sarcastic or funny remarks.
Even if it does come from a talking dog.
Well, for those of you who are wondering what happened to us and to Total, I'm getting to it, I'm getting to it!
About a year ago, give or take a few months, the flock and I were hanging out at a beach, against my will I might add.
It seemed like a typical day of an Avian-American, but that all changed around 6:00 P.M.
We were seated around a fire that Iggy had built; Angel and Nudge sitting next to each other and eating, Fang sitting next to me, being his usual quiet self, Gazzy was inhaling hotdogs by the second, and Iggy was chewing on his hotdog slowly, which meant he was thinking. Total was sprawled out on the ground next to Angel, munching on his own hotdog, grumbling something about how discrimative it is that they called them 'hotdogs'.
I was thinking of how to make Iggy give me that lighter of his, and where to go next when the setting sun was blocked out.
We all jumped into a fighter's stance, but it did no good. 8 of them had tranquillizers, and they took us down before we could even look shocked.
We woke up in dog crates at the School. I had a medium sized one well everyone else, except Angel who was kept in a clear orb thing that I'd guessed was to keep her from reading or controlling the minds of the whitecoats, got large sized crates.
Lucky me. Fang and Iggy were the only ones who weren't able to lie down comfortably.
Me? Well, I couldn't even lie down. Not even sit. I had to hunker down with my knees pulled up to my chin. And my head still skimmed the top of the crate, no matter what I did.
Total was in a large crate right across from mine. After about an hour a Flyboy came in and took Total out of his cage, and left. I looked out the window; I was the only one who could get a good look. I really wished I couldn't.
The Flyboy took Total over to a tree right in my view, held him by the ankle, and slammed him into the tree over and over until Total hang limp, dead.
I almost hurled, barley suppressing it, I turned away from the window, replaying the scene over and over in my mind. I shivered, not only from cold but from fear. Would they do that to one of us?
"Max? What's wrong?" Fang asked me, sounding genuinely worried.
I glanced at him before looking at my hands again. "Nothing."
"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that. Tell the truth, Max. Now." He said forcefully.
"No." I retorted just as forcefully. I didn't look anywhere but my hands. They suddenly seemed very interesting. I'd bet my soul Fang was scowling at me.
The door opened and closed with a swish, and in came some Flyboys. Two walked over to Angel, took her out, and put a knife to her throat.
Four Flyboys came to my cage, and pulled me out roughly.
I started struggling, and one of them said loud enough for everyone to hear, "If you struggle, kick, say sarcastic remarks, or anything of that sort I will make sure that your little friend here," He pointed at Angel, "will have her throat cut out."
Angel paled, hey eyes wide in fear. I stiffened, but complied, letting myself be roughly dragged out of the room. Soon I was in the killing yard. The yard where they had new Erasers kill broken experiments.
But instead of Erasers, Omega was in the yard. I glanced at the window where I knew the others were trying to watch as hard as they could, and I smirked, mouthing 'easy'.
Omega came up behind me, tapped my shoulder, and I whirled around. As soon as I turned towards him I punched him in the face, breaking his nose. It felt good.
He kicked me in the stomach, and I elbowed him in the ribs.
A few kicks and punches and cheap moves later, he was laying unconscious on the ground, face first, well I was on my hands and knees, coughing up blood. Not fun.
A few whitecoats came over and started checking my injuries, announcing what it was every time they found one.
I had a broken ring finger on my right hand, my left wrist was jammed, my jaw had chipped slightly, one rib was broken, and they guessed I had internal bleeding. Hence the blood hurling. Oh, and they said that my ankle's main tendon was wrapped around my bone in some bad way.
So yeah, I was in quite a bit of pain. And instead of getting nice meds to help with the pain, I was dragged back into the cage room and tossed in my cage quite roughly.
I drifted off before anyone could ask or say anything. I only woke up to lean out of the cage to cough up more blood. Which was about every 5 minutes. Soon a puddle of blood was on the floor right under my cage, and I could feel the flock's worried faces peering at mine.
"Max?" Fang asked after about my 20th blood hurl, the puddle was quite large now.
"Broken finger and rib, messed up ankle, chipped jaw, jammed wrist, and what ever the heck 'internal bleeding' is." I said hoarsely, and took a deep breath. Wow, it took all my energy to just talk!
"Crap." Fang muttered, the Kind of Understatements.
"Ya… think?" I choked out before falling asleep again. I woke up just in time for a whitecoat to come into the room with a bunch of water bottles. She had blonde hair with blue eyes and slim lips. Plus her whitecoat and jeans. She gave two waters to everyone but me, shooting me a smug look when she gave Fang the last two.
I felt like making a nasty retort or at least sticking out my tongue, but that took to much energy so I simply fell back asleep.
I woke up, hurled some more blood onto the quite large puddle of it, my throat burning. My tongue was like cotton, my throat dry and sandpapery.
I opened my eyes a crack and saw the flock looking at me, fear and worry written all across their features.
"How long." I muttered to Fang, who looked slightly relieved that I had talked.
"Three days." He answered. I opened my eyes fully in shock, my mouth opening in a small 'o'.
"Sorry, you guys." I said loud enough for everyone to hear. They all gave a small, relived smile when they noticed my eyes were open fully and I was talking.
I leaned out of the cage and hurled some more blood before swallowing some spit to try to get my throat to stop burning, which it didn't.
I rubbed my throat slightly before letting my eyes stray around the room. My gaze stopped on Total's old cage, and I felt sick again, remembering what had happened to him.
"Max…?" Nudge asked tensely.
"Uh ha…" I answered, fighting the urge to sleep.
"Where's Total?" She said in a rush. I glanced at her, her lip quivering. I glanced at Angel, who seemed to be hanging on every word.
I looked out the window at the tree where he had been beaten to death, and drew in a shaky breath.
'Murder,' that was all I'd have had to say, and this conversation would've been over. But I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud. I didn't answer her or look at her. How could I? That would just make it worse. Make them fear more.
But Angel and Nudge didn't need an answer; all they needed was a sign. That was that I didn't answer, or look at them.
They started crying, and I felt tempted to join them, but refused. I needed whatever water I had in my system to stay there.
I hurled some blood out again, wiped my mouth off on my sleeve, and said quietly so that nobody could hear, "He was murdered by a Flyboy, slammed into a tree again and again till he was dead."
But I guess Fang heard, because he stiffened. "Here." He muttered, thrusting his last water bottle towards me.
"No." I replied.
"You need it more." He countered.
"And this may be the last water any of you are given, so no." I said forcefully, glaring at him, daring him to try again. He did.
"Then just have a little. You need it, Max." He said, matching my force.
I sighed, saying, "You aren't gonna drop this, are you."
"Duh." He replied, a smug look on his face. I sighed again and grabbed the water bottle, opened it and took a quick sip before thrusting it back at Fang. "More." He ordered.
I sighed again, and drank more. "There." I said, and threw it at Fang. He caught it and dragged it into his cage while I leaned my head back against my cage wall, closing my eyes.
Jeb?
I am here Max.
Good. I just want someone to talk to. Oh, and do you think you could try to get us out of here?
I'm here to talk to, Max. Always here. I am sorry, but the Director isn't going to even let me visit you. She is keeping me in Germany.
Okay… Do you think… that I'll ever feel as strong as I did before we came here?
Yes, I do. You are Maximum Ride, forever strong, in more ways then one. You are strong physically, mentally, emotionally, and in friends.
Thanks. I'll talk to you soon. Right now I think I'm gonna sleep.
Yes, you will. And make sure you get lots of sleep.
Aye Aye, Captain!
I think I heard chuckling coming from Jeb. I'm not sure. But I fell asleep before I could ask.
I gave you a long first chapter. You should review, otherwise I'm not gonna post the next chapter. Oh, yeah! I have a hostage! I will not post the chapter unless I get 4 reviews. I do not own MR or any of the characters. I do own the plot and my own characters. Review and get homemade bananas!
Wacky saying for the chapter: 'When life gives you lemons, make applesauce and let the world wonder how' –An Icon.