Lifeline: Chapter 2
I woke up to the sounds of a thunderstorm, but the only place that I felt wet was on my forehead where beads of sweat coated my brow. I saw a dark figure sitting motionlessly beside me.
"Fang?" I murmured sleepily.
The figure stirred, and Fang pulled himself over till he was leaning over me. "Hey."
"Hey," I croaked back.
Fang's eyes were searching my face for signs of pain. I tried to sit up, but gave up. My head slammed back into the stone floor, and I grimaced.
"Ow."
I sat up more carefully, gingerly holding my head. Fang sat next to me, and handed me a cup of water.
"Thanks." I sipped at the water, relishing the feel of it slipping down my throat. The rest of the flock was huddled toward the entrance of the cave that we were sitting in, whispering together.
We sat in silence for a while, staring out into the pouring rain. Uncharacteristically, it was Fang who broke the quiet.
"Is it the voice again?"
I laughed humorlessly. "No, thank goodness."
"Then what was it?"
"I have no idea." I mused. "What do you think-"
I broke off quickly as Angel's head snapped up in front of us.
"Max. Fang. Erasers."
I jumped up, stuffing my things into my backpack with a groan. "Why must those stupid Erasers follow us everywhere…" I muttered to myself irritably.
"OK, flock. Pack as fast as you can, then U and A, head east." I ran to the entrance of the cave, then turned back to face the flock.
"Come on, guys!"
Suddenly a huge, powerful arm wrapped around my neck, and I was pulled back. "What's the matter, Max? Not happy to see us?"
A rough voice grated next to my ear. I pulled on the huge arm, trying to loosen its grip.
"Ari." I snarled.
I looked out at the rest of the flock. They were standing immobile, staring stricken at me. Gazzy and Angel were clinging to each other, Nudge was whispering to Iggy, and Fang was staring at me with a caged look in his eyes. I stared back, totally at a loss for what to do.
"What do you want, Ari?" I finally asked.
"For you to come back to the School with me."
"No freaking way is that going to happen." I said, stamping on his foot and elbowing him in the gut.
I saw Nudge smile and the corner of Fang's mouth twitched, but other than that none of the flock moved. Ari responded by clenching his arm tighter around my neck, making me gasp and pull weakly on his arms again. Iggy, hearing my gasp, jerked forward before Nudge pulled him back. Fang looked like he had the same idea. He advanced slowly, his eyes almost black with fury.
"Why don't you just leave, Ari? Max will never go with you."
Ari grinned sardonically.
"Oh yes she will."
Fang snarled, "Oh no she won't!"
He ran forward, ripping Ari's arm from around my throat. I collapsed to the ground, hands to my bruised throat, sucking in air. Nudge darted in with Iggy and helped me up, pulling me to the back to where Gazzy and Angel were waiting. I looked back for Fang, where he was fighting Ari. They were evenly matched, but Fang had anger on his side.
"Stupid… freaking… Erasers." he growled, kicking Ari solidly in the temple, making his head snap to the side. Ari, recovering quickly, ducked down and landed a heavy punch to Fang's stomach.
Fang's breath whooshed out, but he popped back up and clapped his hands over Ari's eardrums. With a hard side kick to Ari's ribs, he stepped back to catch his breath. I turned back to the others.
"Max, I have an idea." Iggy whispered.
"Does it involve bombs?" I asked, glancing anxiously back at Fang.
"Um, yeah." He said sheepishly.
"Good."
Iggy grinned at me, then pulled some sort of an explosive from his bag.
"Ready Gazzy?"
"Ready."
"Guys, wait until I give the signal. We don't want to blow up anyone who shouldn't be blown up."
"Yessir, Captain," Iggy whispered back.
I ran lightly to the entrance of the cave, where Fang and Ari were still attempting to knock each other's blocks off. Fang took a hard slam into the wall, but he retaliated by cocking his fist and slamming Ari powerfully on the side of his head. He stepped back again while Ari shook his head dizzily. He glanced over at me, residues of his fury still showing.
"You OK?" he asked.
"Yeah, just peachy."
He flashed a rare grin at me, and then we both focused on Ari, who was recovering his balance.
"Ready to go?" he asked.
"I think I can stand to part with the grimy bed I was so looking forward to."
Fang grinned.
"OK, Iggy, let's blow this joint!" I yelled, never taking my eyes off of Ari.
Ari charged us, but we were ready for him. I skipped out of the way as Fang crouched down. He leaped at Ari, shoving him backward toward me with a grunt. As Ari spun into me, I met him with a strong double punch to the temples. He collapsed on the floor with a grunt. Just then, a huge explosion rocked the entire cave, sending debris raining down on us. Fang and I crouched down with our hands over our heads. When the explosion died down, I jumped up and ran coughing for the flock, followed closely by Fang. Once the dust cleared enough to see, I saw the flock huddled in the back, under a small hole in the ceiling, and I realized that the thunderstorm had stopped.
"OK, Iggy, you go out first!"
There wasn't enough room in the cave to spread his wings, so Iggy grabbed the outside edge of the hole and hoisted himself up. He reached down, and motioned for someone else to come up.
"Angel."
I grabbed her around the waist and swung her up to Iggy, followed by Gazzy. Nudge went after Gazzy, then I motioned for Fang to go up. He shook his head at me.
"No, Max."
"Fang," I began exasperatedly, but he cut me off.
"No, Max. I'll be fine."
I rolled my eyes at him, and reluctantly pulled myself through the hole.
I turned back down, and called to Fang.
"Fang, come on!"
He jumped up and caught the edge of the opening in his hands, and was pulling himself up when a huge hairy hand caught his ankle. He grimaced, and kicked back hard with his other booted foot. I heard a grunt, but Ari didn't let go. He kicked back again, and this time Ari let go. Fang quickly pulled himself up with his strong arms, and brushed his black shirt off. I shook my head, then turned back to the flock. "Come on, guys. Head east."
They nodded, and took off one by one, with me following.
Once we were safely away, I called out, rummaging in my bag.
"Report, flock. Gazzy?"
"Good to go!"
"Nudge?"
"Check."
"Angel?"
She sniffed. "My finger hurts, but I'll be OK."
I smiled and flew over to her, and kissed her cut finger, making her giggle.
"OK, Iggy?"
"Nose." Iggy said thickly through the blood running down his face.
"Jeez, Iggy. What did you do, run into a wall?" I asked, coasting over to him and beginning to work on his nose. He grinned.
"Almost. The wall ran into me."
Ah. The explosion.
"By the way, Iggs, nice work with the bomb in there. Way to be!" I said, slapping him a high five.
"Fang."
"Fine."
I examined him closely; he looked slightly off balance. Not enough for anyone else to see, but I knew him better than anyone.
"You sure Ari didn't get a lucky swipe?"
He glared dryly at me, then shook his head, looking resigned.
"Ankle."
I made one of the snap decisions that I'm known for, yelling, "Guys, forest at one o'clock. We'll stop there for the night."
I winced, rubbing my bruised throat unobtrusively, hoping that nobody noticed me. Ari had been none too gentle. I tilted my wings, coasting down a little ways away from the spot I had chosen. I flared my wings, running a few steps before stopping.
"OK, Gazzy, Angel, unpack over at camp. Nudge, Iggy, firewood. Fang, you stay here."
I raised my hand to cut off his protests.
"I want to take a look at your foot."
He glared knowingly at me, and I knew he had seen my holding my bruised throat. The others scampered off to complete their tasks, and Fang turned his back on me. "Come on, Fang," I said, striding over to him. "You can't hide it forever."
I grabbed his shoulder spun him around, shoving him to make him sit down. He did, reluctantly, and pulled his left boot off. I sighed and sat down cross-legged in front of him, pulling out the antiseptic and bandages.
I couldn't help it: when he peeled down his sock, I gasped and closed my eyes for a minute. Ari's claws had raked deep gouges in his ankle, even through his socks and boots. When I opened my eyes again, he was looking concernedly at me. I laughed humorlessly at this, he was the one with the bloody ankle, and he was worried about me. Ironic, no?
I grabbed the bandages, and wiped off as much of the blood as I could. I bandaged it up the best I knew how, grumbling the entire time.
"This is my fault. If I wouldn't have gone next, you wouldn't be hurt."
He frowned, looking puzzled.
"Would you rather be the one sitting here while I bandaged you?" He said sarcastically, thinking he knew the answer.
Yes, I answered mentally, thinking it would probably be best it he didn't hear that little thought.
"Shut up and hold still." I muttered, jerking savagely on the bandages. He leaned back, and his dark eyes tightened.
"Max, I can do that."
I sat back as well, and snapped, "What, I'm not good enough?"
"No, I figured you should get some rest. It can't hurt, with your throat and all."
I lowered my eyes, ashamed by his thoughtfulness. I slowly sat forward and more gently finished wrapping his foot. When I was done, he pulled on his boot and stood up.
"I'm sorry, Fang." I muttered quietly. He looked down at me for a minute.
"I've got first watch."
Hearing this from anyone else, I would have taken it as a blow off, but from Fang, it meant that we were OK. I nodded, and stood up to help Nudge, who was staggering into camp with an armload of firewood.
"Nudge, you go to camp with Fang. I'm going to help Iggy with the wood."
I trudged out into the woods, picking up pieces of dry wood. After a bit, when my arms were full, I set the wood down and slid down the trunk of a tree, coming to rest on the ground. I put my head in my hands, allowing myself a rare moment of peace to stop and think. My mind was drifting, and I wasn't sure how long I had been out there when I heard someone calling my name.
"Max?"
I stood up, grabbing my wood and glancing pointlessly at my wrist for the nonexistent watch.
"Crap. Over here, Iggy."
He walked over to me, and almost ran into a tree.
"Whoa, Max?"
I brushed his arm so that he knew where I was and started back to camp with him.
"What's up, Iggy? How long was I out there?"
He grinned, his hand hovering near my elbow so that he knew where to go. "Oh, about a half hour. Fang was about to have an aneurysm."
I sighed, that meant I was going to be getting a lecture pretty soon. I rubbed my temples; the headache was coming back. I felt a dull ache building up behind my forehead, and my eyes widened. "Crap. Iggy, get Fang. Now!" I gritted.
Pain seared through my temples, and I dropped to my knees. Clutching my head, I let out a strangled groan. I heard Iggy exclaim in surprise and helplessness, then call urgently for Fang. Ahead I heard footsteps crashing through the underbrush, and then I was gathered into a pair of wiry arms.
"Fang…."
"Max, shut up."
I dimly felt him picking me up, and running back toward camp. That can't be good for his ankle. I thought hazily. Then, I heard the sounds of my worst nightmare coming true.
Hello, Maximum.
Heh. No resolving anything with me, is there? Remember how I said that I wrote this a long time ago? Well, I very much so enjoyed torturing Fang. Still do, matter of fact. :) So I always hurt Max and make him worry. Haha. Review!