Okyas, I didn't get a lot of reviews for the first chappie (one to be exact T.T) but whatever ^-^Thanks Ciel-chan!
Date: unknown
So here I am, still scribbling down words in a crappy notebook I bought at the dollar tree a state or two ago. I guess I should be somewhat proud. In my entire life I've never really gotten around to finishing anything. Of course, there were the good reasons. Great ones actually. I never finished my blog, (the Institute was tracking us through it), my plans for getting us an apartment went down the drain (the Institute has their people everywhere you can imagine and places you don't want to, and even my goal of moving to Finland bombed (the Institute freakin' loves to bother us). Anyway, today was pretty routine. Get up, make sure no one was nabbed in the middle of the night (previous experience with which sucked immensely), and try and find breakfast. Now, this is a hell of a lot harder than it sounds. After weeks, even months, (who am I kidding? YEARS) of moving from place to place it's not like we're in the best shape. People do tend to get a bit suspicious when four ragged kids walk into their store and try on a bunch of clothes than leave without buying anything. They have really, really good reasons. (only twice, a freakin' freezing December somewhere west and right after an attack when our clothes were practically in shreds, they didn't even see us come or leave) It defiantly isn't my intention to steal my way through life but what else are we supposed to do? It's not like we have bank accounts or can get jobs.
Once again, Jojo just made a point of telling me that if I plan on sending this to people who I think can help us; I should do more writing of the Institutes evils than ranting for my own needs. Admitting that we've stolen is a huge no-no. Well, fine than. Have it your way.
I guess I should explain what I wrote earlier when I said that we had woken up and one of us was MIA. It was a little over a year ago that we had gone to sleep in some pine trees and when we opened our eyes- VOLA! Shi was gone. This isn't exactly the most alarming thing ever though. Sometimes if any of us can't sleep or just don't feel like it we take a flying leap off a cliff. (literally) It's actually quite calming and by the time we're back the uneven ground practically begs us to lie down. So, of course, I though Shi had done this. Since he wasn't passed out under a tree or nearby it was a little weird but there was always the possibility that he had gotten up before any of us and had thought he had enough time to take a quick look around. (we had landed in the dark and without our amazing night vision would have flown into the side of a nearby warehouse) The thing was, he didn't come back. I've never been so glad that I'm impatient and don't wait. If we had waited there would only be feathers and bones left. The people cough cough the Institute cough cough who had taken him weren't really careful about not leaving a trail. It was easier to follow than Hassle and Gretel's bread crumbs (before the birds or whatever ate them) Surprisingly, they led to the very factory we had almost flown into the night before. Since sneaking is Jojo's area of expertise, I let her handle finding us a way in, past the cameras. It took her a record-breaking seven minutes- and us a record breaking ten to get 'caught'…
"I hate cages." As soon as we had been 'caught' they had quickly tired us up and thrown us into small dog crates because, as everybody knows, we're among the most dangerous species on earth. (that was sarcasm if you didn't recognize it)
"Me too," I agreed with Jojo one-hundred and ten percent, but if we were going to break Shi out we had to break in. And what better way was there to get into the inner sanctum of an evil liar than getting yourself caught? I do have to admit, it wasn't the smartest plan I've ever come up with but it was all last minute and I was doing things sleep deprived. If we were going to bust him outta' there it would just be easier attacking from the inside.
"Jojo?" I asked her but I could already heard her inserting picks into the lock of her cage (locks? Really? How prehistoric of those silly mad men!) It took her about two minutes before I heard the faint click of the catch. Quietly she worked the lock off the door and laid it on the ground, that's my girl! Her silhouette could barley be made out against the meager light that made it's way under the one door. Still as quiet as a mouse she began to work on my cage. Trying to calm myself, I looked around the small room. There were about nine cages total, two of them stacked on top of one another. There were no windows and one door. These people were slowly learning that a jump out of a glass window wouldn't impale any of us.
"Got it," she whispered and I could hear pride in her voice, she must have made another personal record or something.
"Get Lese," I ordered and crawled out of the cramped space scowling. For all the funding these creeps got, do you think that they could at least invest in some bigger spaces? No, we all got stuffed into the same brand of metal dog crates, medium size if we were lucky. Lese wasn't. She came out of the confined space timidly looking around. I watched Jojo help her stand up and rubbed my own aching knees. I stretched and headed for the door signaling for the two of them to follow me. They didn't.
I spun on the heel of my, um, 'borrowed' army boots hissing, "Come on guys! Shi's probably wondering where the hell we are!"
"Arc," Jojo said quietly, "come here." She was squatting in front of the other cages and I felt a mix of pride and irritation wash over me, if there were kids in those cages there was no way I could persuade her to leave. It was an integrity thing.
I clomped over to where her and Lese were and looked into the first cage, a medium. Inside lay a kid that couldn't have been more then ten. He had dirty blood hair and patches of dirt and blood we splattered on his face. Even we weren't in that bad a shape. I assumed that he and the others had been brought in while we were still in pretty pretty dreamland, we would have heard them otherwise. "Jojo," I nodded sharply and she got started on his lock.
"God," I said disgusted standing up to look in the one above his, "these guys must have gotten shot up with enough to knock out an elephant or somethin', Jojo." I held out my hand and she pulled out another pick (they had obviously searched us but she had her ways) and I started on the crate above the incredibly dirty kid's.
The girl hadn't been as lucky as the boy because she had gotten shoved into a small. They had propped her up against the side and her blond ringlets fell over her shoulders and through the bars. Dirt covered her face and a raw bruise was just beginning to heal on her wrist. I opened the lock a minute after Jojo started on another crate and sucked in my breath when I began to gently pull her out. On her back were a pair of angel white wings. Granted they were covered in mud and dust but when they were clean I bet my life that they were exactly like Shi's (and that's not something I do every day).
Carefully I put her on the ground and went onto the next crate. By the time Jojo and me were done, six bodies took up most of the space in the room. Three girls and three boys. I handed Jojo back the pick and put my hands on my hips, trying to decide what to do. Lese sat Indian style on the floor next to a boy with strawberry blond hair and touched his arm gentle. For a moment nothing happened but within seconds he shot up, as if woken from a dream or something. Lese jumped back with a little squeal. He simple sat there and as the seconds ticked by I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly, "Um, hi?"
"Who are you?" His voice didn't waver and I have to admit that it impressed me a bit. If that had happened to me, God only knows what would have come out of my mouth.
"I'm Arc," I crossed my arms, "listen, um, I-" what should I say?
"We found you in the crate and decided to help." Jojo spoke up for me, that girl is never at a lose for words, "Lese can wake the rest of your friends up then we're gone. You're welcome."
Did he say thank you? I shot her a look but she ignored me and focused on the boy. "Okay then," he stretched, "I'm Iggy. Could you, um, wake her up first?" he pointed to his left.
"That's a boy," I said unsure about how stable this guy was.
I could have sworn he blushed in the faint light, "Um, I mean the blond girl, Tall." He clarified for Lese.
Lese nodded shyly and stepped over the first boy we had seen to a girl with choppy blond hair dressed in blood smeared clothes. Her nose seemed broken, though the bleeding had stopped, and I noticed tan feathers peaking out from her back. Slowly Lese reached out but before she could touch the un-conscious girl, the girl woke up by herself.
"Wha-" she began when she saw Lese with her hand still outstretched. "Who are you? Where's Fang?" she looked around and seemed to calm down when she saw Iggy sitting up, obliviously unharmed. "Iggy," she snapped and he turned towards her, "Who are these people?"
I rolled my eyes, "'These people' are still in the room and can hear you. 'These people' saved your sorry-"
Jojo shot me a poisonous look then turned her gaze on the snappy blond, "If you'd rather get back to your little nap then go right ahead. We're outta here." She spun and began to walk away, not glancing back. Who had put a cactus up her butt?
I smirked, oh well, can't say we didn't try to help, "Come on Lese." The ever silent girl followed us without so much as a peep.
As we headed out I could practically hear the wheels turning the older girl's head as her friend told her what he knew so far about us. "Wait." She said after a few seconds and I stopped, smiling knowingly.
"Yes?" My voice came out somewhat tauntingly sweet and it was her turn to send me a venomous look. She wasn't enjoying this nearly as much as I was.
"Can-" she sighed, "can you wake the rest of them up?" she gestured to the rest of the knocked out bird kids. The dirty blond boy was grimacing in his sleep and the dark colored girl looked like she was having a nightmare. For a moment I looked at her intently trying to figure out of she was serious, there was no way this girl was used to asking for help from strangers. Finally (after I creeped her out a sufficient amount) I nodded at Lese who walked back over to the dark haired boy. When she knelt next to him it was ever slower then before. The girl and Iggy must have scared her quite a bit.
Before putting a hand on his arm she looked over at me and Jojo (who had magically decided to come back), I nodded encouragingly.
The girl didn't look away from where Lese was but directed her question to me, "Who are you?"
"Arc," I replied simple my gaze also fixed on Lese. Turning to the girl I crossed my arms and tried to look irritated. "And who exactly are you?"
"Maximum Ride," the girl grinned looking at me for a moment, "but if we get out of this hell hole alive you can call me Max."
I smirked, "You've got you're self a deal- Maximum Ride."
*Nervous* Sorry about the horrendously long chappie, I was on a roll ^_^' Review! Flames will be used to burn down the school!
