C h a p t e r T w o
I felt so powerful, so graceful, up in the sky. I rode the air currents. Roller coasters were nothing compared to this. For a few moments I forgot me worries, all of my cares, Fang. I just left them behind.
My hair whipped back as I picked up speed. I assumed I was going about one hundred and thirty miles an hour, which is nothing compared to what I get clocked at while in hyper-drive. I can fly at over two hundred and fifty miles per hour.
Yes. You should be jealous.
I willed myself forward, but my speed was declining. I started to descend, planning to land in a small cave about seventy miles away from the house.
The flock and I still lived in that house Fang and I had invested into, even though it's already been under attack. We figure that they'll either know where we are just like they would anyway, or they'll assume we ditched the place after being attacked. Right now, though, I really wasn't up to looking for a new place to live.
As soon as my feet touched the ground, I broke into a fury. I kicked up the dirt surrounding my feet, and punched the cave walls until my knuckles bled. I almost broke my knee from kicking the walls so hard.
It just hurt so dang bad.
The same questions I had been asking myself for the past month circled my head, flooding me with heart-wrenching memories of Fang and I together.
Why did he have to leave? He had said that he wanted to protect us all from him. He thought he was endangering us by living with us. But didn't he remember that we'd been hunted by Them for our entire lives? Since when does that change things?
He said he had loved me. I know, deep down inside, that I loved him too. I always will. As much as I, Maximum Ride, hate admitting emotions, I loved Fang.
I glanced at the sky.
A scream pierced through the rigid air, and I realized with a start that it was my own.
There was no way I was getting over this. Ever.
I sat down against one of the cave walls, wishing Fang was next to me; like old times. His hand entangled in mine, and his arms around me. I'd never get to feel his gentle touch again.
I blinked back tears as I looked at my bleeding knuckles. I had ripped off several layers of skin, but thanks to my genetically altered being it should be healed within the next twenty-four hours.
Another scream echoed through the atmosphere. This time though, it wasn't my own.
I stood, wiping stray tears from my face. The mouth of the cave stood a good hundred feet above a winding river in the canyon below, so I was safe; unless whatever gave that scream could fly.
But because I am just so lucky, it could.
Coming straight at me was a bunch of…what? They actually looked like, well, Avian hybrids.
They were a bunch of grown up bird kids. I could feel my face break out into the universal "What the Heck?" expression before leaping off into the air. Something told me these guys weren't here to make friends.
The first one in the formation, a guy of about seventeen, screeched for the others to attack.
Something was different though. These things didn't just look like people with wings; they actually looked similar to birds. Massive birds. Their noses seemed to come to a point, looking more like a beak than anything else. A few flowing ripples of feathers lined their arms and legs, all a dull grey color.
They basically looked like overgrown dodo birds with a humanoid form.
The largest one yelled across at his flock-or rather army-again, in a language unintelligible.
I'm pretty sure he said attack, because pretty soon they were all charging for me, various talons (just overgrown fingernails) slashing out in front of them. Their wings created a great mass of grey feathers, looking like the ocean with less color.
Hey, it was attack of the Dodo's.