Exile
Chapter Two
By Lina
… I slipped into a nightmare reliving the events which had only just happened.
I awoke the next day to a crazy rumble. Having lost the ability to care, I simply sat up and looked to where my head had recently lay. There lay a little kitten. Under it, I saw an envelope. Carefully reaching under the little fuzz ball, I took the envelope without waking it.
Dear Max,
You do not know me yet, but I am sure you will soon meet me. I thought it would be nice for you to have a little companion who would assuredly never willingly leave your side. Ever. There is another with a similar companion. I know that you two will meet someday and together, you will set everything right. You're not meant to be in despair, Maximum Ride.
I looked back to the kitten, and even though the Flock, my only love, had kicked me out only yesterday, I couldn't help the microscopic upturn at the corners of my mouth as I looked at it. I flipped the letter over, checking the back for no apparent reason, and there it read…
It's a she.
Well, now I don't have to keep saying 'it'. Hmm. What to name the little fuzz ball…
As if knowing I was thinking about her, the little kitten mewed and opened its little eyes as it rolled onto its belly and looked at me. Aw man. Talk about puppy eyes cute, they were nothing compared to this. The thought of Angel and Nudge and their puppy eyes took a stab at my heart and I winced at the memory. The little kitten mewed, recognizing I was in pain, and I looked at her. She was a little orange striped tabby. Typical, but still oh so adorable. I leaned over and took her in my hands.
"Companions for life." I muttered. And I tapped into the deep memory banks of my brain to think of the perfect name. "Latin Latin Latin… ugh." I looked at her and rubbed her little tummy, causing her to purr up a storm. I giggled. Already, I felt memories of the flock slipping into a vault, to remain untapped and untouched for a long time.
Parim Amicus. Little Friend. An unknown voice spoke into my mind.
"Friend…" I pondered. "How about, Amicia?" The kitten mewed loudly and batted with its paws as it nodded. Yes, nodded. In my life, Nodding Kitten = Normal.
"Max! Time for experimentation time! And I now feel like a horrible person!" I looked up at the door. A young woman stood there, looking at me and pointing at her clipboard while grimacing. It seems like the School has changed a good amount since I was last held captive here. Then again, this time around, I was here because I wanted to be. I looked at Amicia. She seemed to smile at me, as she rolled out of my hands and onto the bed. She almost instantly fell asleep again. I turned and nodded to the lady outside my door. I walked out and we turned to the left and continued down the hall.
"We don't do cruel experiments anymore. Or at least, that's what those bastards tell me." She smirked and looked at me. "We try to find weaknesses and eliminate them. I don't really have a personal opinion on it, but I guess its okay. Not saying that they don't cause immense pain. Just that the pain isn't for their sick goal of 'having fun'." She looked at the ground, frowning. I grunted to show I agreed and approved of what she was saying. We stopped outside thick metal doors.
"Well, here's your current hellish destination." She smiled the tiniest bit. "I'll be meeting you here after and helping you back to your room." She walked away, leaving me to face what was coming. The doors slid open (all the doors are sliding doors dunno why) and I slowly walked in to see a treadmill. I sighed inside as I stepped onto it.
"Well, we don't electrocute you. You just go for as long as you can so we can see if it would be beneficial to enhance your leg muscles or not." A man in a, get this, blue coat said to me. I smirked just a bit, amused at the color change.
I started at a jog, getting my muscles warmed up a bit, and then I kicked it into high gear and sprinted for a total of, unbelievably, 7 hours. I'd never done that WITH the electrocuting crap.
"Wow. Well Max, I think we're all done here," The man told me.
I nodded and walked out the doors to see the lady waiting for me there. She nodded, and began to lead me back to my room. I decided, since she seemed to be a nice enough person, I'd ask her for her name.
"So, what's your name?" I asked her. She seemed surprised that I was talking to her, but answered anyways.
"Alana." She smiled timidly as we reached my room. I gave a small smile back, and walked into my room.
"MEWWWWW!"
"Hello Amicia. How are you doing?" I smiled. She was so adorable.
"Mew." She jumped onto me, using her little claws to hold onto my jeans. I grunted. Not a very pleasant greeting, but still a heartfelt one. I pulled her off of my pants and cradled her as I rubbed my face into her soft fur. I could live this way. But I wonder, how long will I be here?
****** Time Lapse of 7 months******
I woke up this morning feeling refreshed. Already, memories before my arrival here had been safely filed away. I didn't need that crap so my brain had adjusted to my needs and wants.
"I fall asleep by the telephone
It's 2 o'clock
And I'm waking up alone.
Where have you been?"
My alarm went off, hooked up to the iPod Alana had gotten me. Love is a Lie by Simple Plan. Music was the only time I allowed me to think of… those people. I growled.
I sat up, Amicia rolling down off of my chest and curled up in my lap, still asleep. She could sleep through a nuclear blast. She's so silly. I picked her up, cradling her to my chest as I did when I came home that day however many months ago. Yes, home. I consider my little room to be my home now. Where else do I have?
Mom and Ella.
I groaned as the memories came back. The Flock, exiled… tears began to flood over and I cried. This was the first time in all those months that I had cried. Getting the 'upgrades' to my wings where they sliced them open and operated on them, while I could feel anything, didn't break me. Getting Exiled, didn't break me. But here I am, thinking a simple word. Home. And I just break down like a little baby. I smothered my face into Amicia's fur. She meowed and pet my hair.
"It's okay. I love you." She whispered to me. Turns out she wasn't a normal kitty. She could also morph into different sorts of house cats. No wild cats, apparently. She was strictly domestic.
"Awww, Max. I love you too." Alana came in and hugged me. It was a big bad cry fest. "Would you like to take a break day today? I'll take you around the School and you can meet some other… experiments." She wrinkled her nose at the word and I laughed and nodded as I wiped away the tears.
"Okay! I'm on it!" She swiftly took out her cell phone and called in to report that I wanted to take a break today. "Thankya!' She hung up and smiled at me.
"Both of you guys can come with."
"YAY!" Amicia batted her paws in her own little version of a dance party. What a cutie.
Setting Amicia down, I nodded to Alana and we were off. Sniffling, I thought for a moment of how I had turned into a sort of Fang. But then, feeling my heart break a little more, I shoved the memories aside as I paid attention to where Alana was leading us.
"Well, there is actually just this one girl I want you to meet. You two will get along perfectly. After all, you do remember that letter you got with Amicia?" I nodded. "Well, see this one woman, Bell, she saw you and felt so bad because she knew what it felt like. She had been kicked out of her family, you see, and she thought how you could use a life-long partner. She herself had a cat and she believed that you too ought to have one. So, she asked the School if they had any kittens, and it turned out that they had been working on these two kittens to try and make the two kittens soulmates. Well, it worked and so the woman remembering another young girl like you, gave her one and you the other. The girl I'm going to introduce you to is that other girl with the matching cat. Beware though, this pair is very… how would you say it. Ugh, " She looked to the ceiling for an answer. "Well, powerful. The girl was designed to be the most powerful being in the world. In the old schemes of the School, she was meant to beyond replace you."
She sighed. "But, now you two seem to be obvious best friend material. You will get along very well. I just know it. As Bell knew." We came to a room with class sliding crap doors, like mine, and the room appeared empty.
Looking at the info panel on the wall, I saw that they were supposed to be in there. I looked into the room, and let my enhanced vision take over. Then, I saw them. The girl was laying back on her bed, hands behind her head, one leg bent and the other swinging back and forth suspended from the bed. Her cat was nowhere to be found though, probably under the bed. THERE! I saw a little bit of a black tail sticking out from under the bed.
"Well? They here?" Alana asked me. I gave a very small nod. So, she opened the doors and I walked in with Amicia.
It was practically the same room. But, most of the stuff was black. And if it wasn't black, it was red. I chuckled. I have a feeling that we will get along well.
"Well, Max I would like you to meet, wherever she is, Cali." Alana looked around nervously, not knowing the location of the girl. My enhanced vision allowed me to calmly look at the girl. She had a very muscular build, but not overly. Just enough to get guys to drool all over her. Brown hair brown eyes and a beautiful face completed her to sum her appearance to be fit for a goddess.
"Well, thanks Max. I was just thinking the same for you!" She smiled to me. It was then that her… cat? Came from under the bed. But it wasn't really a cat, actually. It was now a white snow tiger. I raised a single eyebrow as Amicia hissed with her hairs on end. The tiger growled as they both took on a fighting stance.
"Eferus. Play nice. This is your little future girlfriend you're hissing at." Cali calmly said. Eferus relaxed and went up to Amicia to greet her.
"My full name is actually Caliga. Latin name, "she gave me a quick side glance. "means darkness." She sighed as she rolled over.
"Cali. C'mon. It's no time to sulk. You have a new friend here. Why don't you two go play outside?" Alana suggested. "Now I feel like I'm talking to some 2 year olds." She laughed as she threw a set of keys to Cali and left, leaving the doors open.
Shooting up and off of her bed, Cali was running out the door. "Come on Max! Eferus! Amicia! Let's get out of here!" She spread a pair of winds, like bat wings yet they were long and, like my wings, didn't connect to her feet. She sped down the hallway to the right. I peeked out and saw her figure getting smaller and smaller. Eferus was keeping up with her amazingly, and Amicia was halfway down the hallway when she realized I had yet to move.
"Maximum Ride! Get your ass down this hallway and out the door so we can live free!" She shrieked at me. Man, she was one pissed kitty! She nodded her head with certainty, reading my thoughts.
I rolled my eyes as I took off. Superspeed was like walking compared to my new enhanced self. But, we'll get to that later. Now, I had a School to break out of. Alarms went off as red lights flashed and I heard a bang and the shattering of glass. Seconds before, Cali had disappeared around the corner. I smirked, registering what had happened as I also turned the corner. She had blown right through the ultra thick metal doors and through the glass as well. Yup! There she was in front of me.
"AIEEEEEEEEEEE! I FEEL HIIIIIIGH!" I heard her scream as she spread her arms and twirled in the air.
"WAHOO!" I joined her in celebrating our great break out, laughing. We shot straight into the sky, now side by side, and we heard the pop of the sonic boom as we accelerated and soon, we were going around 600 mph. We arched and shot in opposite directions on our backs. I angled myself down to the ground as I prepared myself for Cali. Aha, there she was.
"You ready?" She smiled at me.
"For what?" I raised a single eyebrow.
"To go start a new life. We'll be the bestest friends." She nudged me with her shoulder. There was another stab at my heart as I thought of Nudge.
"Why not. Where are we going?" I smiled. I was starting to get excited already.
"Why, New Yawk of cowse." She laughed so hard tears streamed down her face and she clutched her stomach. Seeing her like that just broke through my emotional barrier, as I too began to laugh uncontrollably. We fell to the ground laughing, but soon stood as we heard a gun shot.
"Aha, I see that we have been spotted." Cali peered at the school.
"Let's go," I said, turning to the forest. "We should just get them off our tails so they can't stick us with tracking devices or some crap." I began jogging.
"Rodger Dodger," She smirked as she began to jog next to me.
"It's your blades pal," Eferus smirked as he caught up to us, Amicia right behind him.
"Aww man, I knew I should have changed them," Amicia replied, and she let out a small giggle.
"Crap. I can't remember…" Eferus trailed off. "Stupid commercial." He muttered in defeat.
We all laughed and we clicked our tongues three times, on the third click collectively going into full sprints shooting off in separate directions.
The Chase has begun…
