Max Pov:

It was iggy who said what we were all thinking.

"We need to clean our cloths." He stated simply.

"They reek." Nudge added. "it feels like i am wearing dirt."

"In a way you are." Fang muttered, loud enough for iggy and i to hear.

I will be the first to agree with them. We had been traveling for about two days, with minimal rest stops and very little sleep. Whenever we did stop it had been to sleep in caves or trees. For the past fourty two hours or so we had avoided civilization. This also meant avoiding showers.

"there is a town coming up." Angel said suddenly.

"how far off?" I asked.

"about seven miles, northeast." she answered easily, pointing a finger in that general direction.

wait a second, how would she know that? she dosen't read the maps, only fang, iggy and i do the navigational work...

"I heard them max. the people's thoughts, there are more of them over there." she nodded her head to the northeast. " i don't try to know what they are thinking, i just want to know where the people are."

I admit, that was way into weird. But i didn't really care, we were gross and we needed showers.

"what do you guys think?" I asked.

"Sure." gazzy said.

"good." angel added.

"I say let's do it. I miss people, and we totally need a break." nudge said nodding slightly. It was quiet.

"Iggy?" i asked.

"Yes, let's go." he said easily. I glanced at fang. He shot me a look that said 'if we must.'

The tiny town of amanon had a population of about three thousand. They had a laundramat, grocerie store, hair salon, a few banks, some old houses and a few other buildings. Angel said they had a camping ground a few miles away. I didn't ask how she knew that. there were also a few boutiques, some tourist traps.

We stood on the far end of the tiny mainstreet. They all looked at me, waiting for a plan or instructions.

"We need to shower, clean our cloths, grab some supplies and eat. How clean is everybodys spare stuff?" I asked. We each carried a change of clothing in our backpacks.

"Not clean." iggy replied quickly.

Half hour later we stood out in the woods, in the campgound. There were a few showers in a bathroom type building.Sure it wasn't the cleanest place ever, but it did have hot water. We were in and out in about 45 minutes.

And then it was back to mainstreet.

i survyed the flock, all of us were clean. we were dressed in normal clothing, for the most part we blended.

"let's go." fang said simply, evenly. I began to walk towards the landramat. We must have looked weird, a bunch of kids with backpacks walking down the sidewalk.

We walked into the landramat. It smelled kind of soapy and really clean. It wasn't like the school, that smelled like disenfectant, straight bleach and indusrtial sanitizers. This place smelled like detergent, friendlier, softer but still clean. There was a door in the back, a few windows, all possible escape routes. I walked to the counter and the lady behind it looked at me.

"Can i help you?" she asked politely.

Hi max, you need quarters. Angel's thought drifted into my head.

"I need quarters." I said putting a five dollar bill on the counter. The lady began to count out quarters slowly.

"what are you children doing here?" she asked in the same curtious tone as before.

"we are on a camping trip, we are backpacking." i lied.

"oh." she said smiling.

"i'll take the boys. Give me some quarters." Fang said when i returned to the flock. I handed him about two fifty and he walked off. Iggy and gazzy followed him. I turned to Nudge and Angel, they were putting their stuff into a washer.

"I'll get the soap." I said. Nudge nodded at me and kept putting things into the washer, one at a time.

When i came back with the soap, all of ninety seconds later, angel and nudge were sitting on washers feet swinging.

"I put your stuff in too." angel said as i put the soap in the washer.

"Thank you." I said, thanks for the quarters thing too.

"Your welcome." she replied.

Without much difficulty we managed to get our washer on the proper settings, and start it.

"it will be a little while." I said to nobody in perticular.

"I'll keep watch." angel said quietly, tapping her head. I knew that meant she would invade the mind of every human within a mile and a half. It was an ethics issue, but if it meant us avoiding erasers i was all for it.

"Be good." I said to her.

"I still think it should be cold water, not hot." Nudge said motioning to the dial.

"but hot water cleans better." angel argued, "that's why we take hot showers." I smiled and left them to their hot versus cold debate.

I walked to the boys, they had loaded their clothing and set the dials without any arguing. Now Iggy and gazzy were in the middle of an intense converation. Fang sat off on a washer, quietly watching everything.

"You can make some wepons with about six more of these sheets." iggy said to gazzy. Great, they were taking about making exlosives in the middle of a laundrymat. we were supposed to be blending in, not making our selves sound like juvenile delinquints.

"you'd have to get the other stuff to mix it with." gazzy whispered, iggy nodded. "you couldn't make soap explode by itself." though, i'm sure if given enough time and soap they could make detergent spontaniously combust. I shuddered at the thought.

Fang looked at me. i sat on the washer next to him.

"Our explosives experts." i muttered.

"they kept begging me for quarters, so they could get soap." he said evenly, a hint of sarcasm in his face.

"you didn't let them have any." I stated. It wasn't a question, we both knew that once iggy says he could use something in a bomb it is best to not let him have it.

"Nope." he replied "how is everybody?"

"relaxed but edgy. We'll stop for supplies and eat on the go." I muttered so only he could hear, well, he and iggy. I didn't really want to stay here for too long, people made me nervous.

"angel is keeping watch." I said slowly. I saw him relax a bit, angel could monitor better than any of us. His posture stayed tense, but his jaw wasn't tight, and his eyes stopped darting.

Our loads took about a half hour to wash. Then we transffered it all to the dryers. Angel tossed in celeste. I was glad, the bear was starting to smell funny. We all sat down together to wait.

"we are getting supplies and then eating." I said to the flock. Gazzy looked at me, just about to speak.

"we are eating on the go." I said, he closed his mouth.

An hour after we walked into the landramat we walked out. I felt paranoid, twitchy. It must have been the soap or something. The fumes were messing with my head. that wasn't good, i was already a paranoid recluse.

We walked to the local one-stop-shop. We baught some rope, bandages, bandaids, granola bars, trail mix, beef jerky, pop tarts, and energy bars. We unloaded our stuff onto the registar counter. The cashier looked at us, confused.

"We are backpacking, we don't want to run out of food." i said quickly, pouring all my honesty into the lie. It must have worked, because the cashier didn't ask us any more questions.

In the parking lot i passed out the food, giving each of us an even amount. We had started carrying our own backpacks as a prcaution, in case ersaers found us.

The tiny town of amanon had a mcdonalds. Normally, i would rather we dumpster dive out back. but we had already been seen around town, and we were clean. Jumping into a trash can for dinner would defeat the perpose of a shower. The others had pleaded to eat inside, so we took a vote. Iggy, fang and myself were against, angel, nudge and gazzy were for. Total was the swing vote. We filled into the mcdonalds, fang, iggy and i were nervous.

"You let the dog vote." fang muttered uneasy at going inside.

"this is america." I said simply, but i was just as thrilled as he was. the last time we had been to a mcdonalds we had been surrounded by erasers. Considering how our day had gone, this would be the perfect time and place for a disaster.

Iggy went first, ordering three whole meals, drinks and about five apple pies. I paid and he stood off to the side, waiting. Gazzy told angel what he wanted, and followed iggy into a booth near the back. Fang shuffled up to the register, calmly ordering enough food for three people his age, he also got a milkshake, two apple pies and an extra drink. I shot him a questioning look, since when was fang a milkshake person? He got his food and i paid for it in silence, hearing him slurp loudly on his shake.

Nudge walked up to the counter, getting four salads, two parfais, some orange juice, three apple pies and two orders of fries. Angel ordered for gazzy, and herself, walking away with an overflowing tray of food. I smiled and stepped up to the counter.

"can i help you?" the girl behind the counter asked, she looked stressed.

"six double cheesburgers and two orders of fries, two cokes, an apple pie, and a twelve piece chicken tenders meal." I said, not even looking at the menu board. The girl sighed.

About three minutes and twenty something seconds later i put my tray down on the table and slid in next to angel. They had already eaten most of their food. Fang, much to my dismay had half of his milkshake left. Angel and gazzy were eating peacefuly, total was on the floor, digging into an open box of chicken. For a few seconds there was silence, except for some wrappers shuffling.

"this is nice," Gazzy said suddenly, nudge and angel nodded. "i mean we haven't had anything go wrong yet." Angel nodded just a little, her face gowing suddelny stoic.

"it dosen't feel right," she said slowly. "we wern't meant to live like this." I was silent, all of us were.

We ate quietly. I was stunned, angel was right. We were avain human cross breeds. It would be ironic if we were to lead normal lives. It wasn't like we had signed on for the school's experiments, but we had gotten something out of them. Gifted with wings, superspeed and strength to try and live normally, anoung people would be...

"a waste." angel said softly, finishing my thought.

"what would be a waste?" gazzy asked curious.

"not finishing all your food, eat up." i said easily. he looked down at his tray and dove into some fries.

About ten minutes later I put two burgers into my bag, and started to clean up. The flock gathered their wrappers up, packing whatever food they wanted to eat later. We left the mcdonalds and headed out around back.

We couldn't just take off behind the mcdonalds, because we'd be spotted for sure. So we walked in the woods for about six minutes, finding a clearing. We took off into the sky soundlessly.

That night we set down in the woods, i felt weird, today was too normal. I guess it was a sign of how messed up i was, i disliked days that were too normal.

Fang Pov:

The flock went to bed pretty fast, max, iggy and i stayed awake, quiet for a few moments. iggy sighed, it was a happy sigh.

"night." he said, walking silently over to gazzy. he layed down on his stomach and was soon asleep.

"max."

"This shouldn't be happening." she said tense, she was on edge. she had been all day.

"max." I repeated, concern leaking into my voice. I was worried about her, she couldn't put herself through this. Was her voice making her worry?

"Today was too normal, to quiet. We've been on the run for days, it has been ages since they found us..."she got up and started to pace, her footsteps silent.

"Fang what if this is another game? a sick, twisted game?" panic edged into her words her body tensed, shoulder muscles tight. I stood up silently and came behind her, grabbing her by her upper arms gently, holding her still.

"Max." i said calmly. " you need to relax and take today for what it was." i felt her body slacken a little. she looked at me confused, like what i said made no sense.

"this is one of the few days we haven't clocked over fourteen hours in the air. one of the few days erasers haven't crawled out of nowhere and tried to kill us, today we sat down and ate as a flock..." i looked her in the eyes, "they are enjoying the heck out of this, and if they wern't it would mean they were so messed up they couldn't be saved ever."

she was starting to crack, her body was becoming really limp. It was the end of the breakdown, the crying, once when she was like this she had cut herself. i had found her, bleeding on a beach, holding a jagged shell. I composed myself, pushing the image of her out of my mind. I had to calm max, it was her job to watch our backs, guide us even when she didn't know how, defend us. My job was to take away her pain, fear, insecurity and protect her from the world, no matter what was tying to hurt her. i held on to her. she shook, her whole body quaking silently.

Max PoV:

"i know." i said finnaly. Fang was holding me up, my own legs to weak to fully support me. I know that good days should be celebrated and not scorned. But it all felt too much like a test, or a nightmare to enjoy. Maybe it was because i had been made to fight, or had grown up fighting and hadn't ever really stopped. I was a soldier, gifted with all sorts of wepons, but today i didn't fight my war. Normal stuff had almost torn me apart, angel's words echoed in my head a waste... she was right.

but right now right and wrong didn't matter. five things mattered to me more than my own life. i looked at my flock, my gaze stopping at each face. I had a lot to be thankful for...

Iggy.

we were still alive, nobody was injured, severly.

Nudge.

we had escaped the school and had the chance to start over.

Gazzy.

we were never going ack to the school.

Angel.

we had been given flight, we were angels litrally. We were meant to save the world.

Fang.

We would do that too, all of us, together.

My gaze stopped at the last face, his face. He was looking at me, reading my thought's and feelings as though they were written across my cheek.

Fang Pov:

When i let go of her she was Maximum again. she was ready to fight the world again, win or lose. She was ready to die fighting. This was the maximum everyone saw, but it was only half. Her weakness defines her as much as her strength. The times when the world left her for dead, when all we trusted to be true becaume a lie. The times she lost her battles defined her as much as the times when she wins. Her name fit her perfectly, Maximum ride, she was designed to be the best, the ultimate. She was maximum, the world's fate lied with her. She had been meant to save hummanity, something we would never be a part of.

I didn't know if she would save the world, i knew that if she really wanted to, she would succeeed or die trying, it was the kind of person she was. I knew one thing and one thing only, we would follow maximum, to the ends of the earth and sky. We needed her, i needed her. She completed us, she was what held me to reality, the only reason i wanted out of those cages. without her i would have stayed and let them kill me. I didn't know what came tommorrow, or the next day.

just that we would follow her, on this incredible, indescribable maximum ride.

I looked down at her face, her eyes were closed. she was asleep.

"i love you maximum." i muttered, "i won't ever stop."