Chapter 2
Do you ever find yourself ecstatically happy in spite of everything around you? Temporarily, at least, I felt that I was on the right track.
Sometimes, mostly during the tender moments with Max, I wondered if my life was real. I mean, sure, the memory of the horrible times of my life remains very real, no doubting that. But when I'm with Max, and she's kissing me and telling me she loves me… well, yeah, it's times like that when I wonder if anything is real.
But the more sensible part of myself told me that indeed it was. Somehow, I was everything she could ask for. Somehow, we were in love. And that's the sort of thing you really shouldn't question.
I was pondering this as I watched her sleep. We had found a nice campsite in the dark forest that Keegan had transported us to. We still didn't know where we were; we didn't really care yet, as the "I-can't-believe-we're-alive" celebration was still going strong. Now, with the sun starting to peer over the tall pines, everyone was asleep apart from me. In a few hours, I knew, everyone would wake up and things would start getting serious. But I wouldn't let that feeling spread beyond myself, not yet.
I looked around our camp. Max had just discovered that she would be eighteen in a few days' time, and with that knowledge came a kind of inner peace that I'd never seen on her before. Her sleeping face was content; not something I was used to seeing on any member of the flock.
Iggy and Nudge were huddled together lovingly. I'd begun to realize that they were just as in love as Max and I were, maybe more. Over the course of three years, I'd watched them grow and change, and at this point it almost seemed like the two of them had developed in such a way as to fit each other perfectly. Iggy was still the tallest member of the flock, now seven feet five inches (that's one inch taller than the guy who played Chewbacca, if you want to know). Nudge was tall as well, taller than me, and—though I hadn't really noticed this until Max had returned, observed it, and wouldn't shut up about it—was unbelievably beautiful.
Gazzy and Angel were head to head as they slept. There weren't enough blankets, and the two of them had been the ones to sacrifice theirs. They could take care of themselves, a lot better than any of the rest of us.
On the edge of the camp was Brigid, wrapped tightly in blankets and ropes so she couldn't escape. Taking her with us had been my idea. Though she had betrayed us, betrayed everything she had ever seemed to believe in, would have done anything to anyone in order to preserve her own life, I cared for her as if she was my own child. She had lost her mind, and I wanted to take her back home to see if there was any way to get her better. No one really supported me in that venture, not even Max. But she trusted me utterly, and if helping Brigid was important to me she would never stand in my way.
The final member of our group was the Living Cell, doubtless the most wretched life-form we had ever encountered. A black, pulsating stone cube, forty feet in every direction, it had been used by Jewel's organization as a prison cell, a foolproof way to house their enemies. It had sought our aid in ending its miserable existence. With Angel as an interpreter, we had figured out that the Cell wanted to end its life—that was the only way it could figure that it could gain happiness. It wanted us to kill it, but we had no idea how the hell that would have been done even if we wanted to do it.
In complete silence, I fluttered up to the top of one of the few deciduous trees in the area. I was out of sight of the camp, but I would hear them if they called, or if anything else happened. I wanted to be alone with my thoughts, undistracted by the sight of the people I loved.
Many minutes past without a decipherable thought really crossing my mind. I was barely aware when a familiar figure dropped into the tree next to me. I looked at her, a face I knew, a face I loved, with its lovely brown eyes, sunny hair, and, folding up behind her, a pair of streaked and speckled wings.
I winced. It was an abomination.
"You're not Max," I said.
She held up her hands defensively. "Ease up, hot stuff. I wasn't planning on saying I was."
"Sure," I said suspiciously.
"Honest," the clone said. "That was gonna be the first thing out of my mouth; I'm not Max. Incidentally, how could you tell?"
I looked her up and down. How had I known, before she had even said a word? "You're just not Max," I said.
"Yeah? You sure it's not because I'm wearing different clothes and have shorter hair?"
I snorted. "Yeah, that too, I suppose," I said.
"Well, that's not as romantic as saying that I'm just not Max," she said wryly. She sighed. "You're something pretty special, Fang. I wish they'd made a clone of you."
I eyed her, still not letting my guard down. "There's no guarantee that he'd be anything like me, or at all compatible with you."
"Yeah, I know, but it would have been worth a try."
"So… there never was a clone of me, then?"
"No, just the girls," the fake Max said. "The other two were killed when Itex was blown up. I found their bodies. It's just me now."
I gently clutched the slender knife that I kept in my belt loop. She had been civil so far, but she was almost as crafty as the real Max, and I knew it could come to a fight at any moment. "So, what have you been doing?" I asked.
"Livin' la vida loca," she said sarcastically. "What do you think I've been doing? You people have some support, some sympathy. Everyone wants me dead."
"Well, can you blame them?" I said.
"I've been living like a rat," she snarled. "I've been sneaking around the world. The only thing worse than being seen is being mistaken for Max. I don't want to exist this way anymore! I don't want to survive. I want to live."
I looked into her eyes tightly. "Isn't that from WALL-E?"
"No, that's been a proverb for a very long time, actually," she said. "But don't you see what I'm saying? I want my own life. Like that's gonna happen. I mean, I'm the evil twin of a world-famous freak. But I thought that if there was any chance of living, I could find it with the flock. That's why I've been searching for you."
A tear dripped down her cheek. A fake one, I could tell; somehow, she had learned to cry on cue. But I got her meaning.
"Well, we'll see if you can pass the lie detector test," I said.
She scowled. "Angel?"
"That's right. If she thinks even for a minute that you're being deceitful, you're dead."
"And… and if I'm not?" she challenged. "If it turns out I'm honest?"
"We'll see."
"Will… will I be a member of the flock?"
"I don't know about that."
She sighed. "That'll have to be enough," she muttered. "Thanks for the chance."
"No problem," I said.
"They're not gonna really appreciate me showing up, are they?" she asked.
"Probably not."
"If they attack before it's time, can you protect me?"
I shrugged one shoulder. "Fine."
"I mean, it's just… everybody trusts you."
"Uh-huh."
She slumped, and I settled in next to her. I could tell that she wasn't ready to come with me to the camp just yet.
"I've seen your blog," she said. "Your daughter is beautiful."
"Thanks," I said.
"She's named Airy… after Ari Batchelder, huh? That's really sweet that you did that."
"It was Max's idea," I said.
She sighed. The mention of Max's name was probably pretty irksome for her.
"If this thing works out, what do you want us to call you?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said. "I'm really used to being 'Max'."
"Well, that's not gonna work," I said.
She tilted her head suddenly. "They're starting to wake up over there," she said.
"They are? I don't hear anything."
Then, I heard Gazzy call my name.
I looked at Max's clone, impressed. "How did you know?"
She grinned. "Everyone knows a wild animal has better senses than a tame one."
"I see," I said cautiously. "Well, all right then. Don't fly behind me, stay where I can see you, and we'll see what they make of you."
