Max looked suspiciously at the tube they were telling her to go into. She'd always hated small spaces, and her cage freaked her out. She was always scared the walls would collapse on her, or shrink and leave her trapped forever.
She looked back to Iggy and Fang. They didn't seem fazed by this sudden turn of events. The whitecoat prodded Max, her icy blue eyes flashing. "Come on!"
Max stepped in carefully. The inside was made of a sleek gray material, and had fans at the far end. Max shivered; it was cold inside. Fang and Iggy shuffled in. "You have to get to the other side for them to stop," he explained.
It seemed easy enough for Max, and she started walking towards the other end of the tube, not understanding the difficulty of this trial. There was a horrible roaring noise and the fans started to turn. Wind knocked her over and sent her tumbling along the ground, until she thumped painfully against the wall.
The air had been knocked out of her, and the force of the air held her pinned against the wall, not falling. "Use your wings!" Iggy shouted above the deafening noise. She saw him and Fang flapping desperately, trying to get to the other side.
Max kicked back, putting enough distance between her back and the wall so she could unfurl her wings. They spread out around her, tan and brown. She flapped powerfully against the strong winds, and started to move forward.
Fang had his hand against the end of the hallway, and Iggy was tailing him. Max beat her wings hard and got halfway through the tunnel. Iggy had gotten to the end and she tried to catch up to him.
In one last, desperate burst forward, Max reached the end of the tunnel. Trying to fight the winds and not be pushed backwards, Max touched the back wall. Everything stopped. They landed on the ground, flying down. Max was still shaky. She didn't know her wings worked. Of course, she knew she could move them, but never that they could let her fly.
Max followed after Fang and Iggy and left the wind tube. Whitecoats escorted them to the next room. "How did you know I was behind?" Max asked Iggy.
"I heard you screaming. You scream like a girl," he chortled.
"I am a girl," Max said sourly.
! #$%^&*
"Max? Are you listening to me?" Jeb asked. Maximum's eyes snapped back towards him.
"Uh-huh," she said distantly. Jeb sighed.
"Do you ever think of outside?" he asked her.
"What do you mean?" Max asked. She'd caught the glint in Jeb's eye.
"Do you ever want to go outside?"
"No. I don't like the yearly experiments."
"Yearly experiments?" Jeb asked. He was learning every day how they had been treated, and everything was just the opposite of what he'd planned.
"They make us go to the courtyard once a year, to be chased by Erasers. I hate that."
"But don't you wish you could go outside, further than the courtyard?" Jeb persisted. Max gave him a blank look.
"Further than the courtyard is the School," she stated, frowning.
"What's further than the School?"
"Nothing," Max said with certainty.
"There's a whole world out there," Jeb told her. Max's eyes widened exponentially.
"Impossible."
"Possible," Jeb countered, taking out a magazine. Max could read National Geographic on the front. The cover featured a… a building. Max hadn't seen anything like it before. It was old and crumbly, and yellow. It was shaped like a huge triangle. Pyramids, the covers announced.
Tiny people were underneath it, peering up at the giant. Max's mouth dropped slightly as she flipped through the magazine, seeing things she hadn't ever thought were possible.
Looking up, the white room she was in seemed quite dull. "I want to leave," Max said.
"It's not that easy."
"Let me! Why won't you let me?"
"I will. Just be patient."
! #$%^&*
For the first time in her life, Max defied those who had been like gods to her, who did what they pleased because of their mystical authority. When she was being escorted to her new cage, the one on this new floor, she decided to try and leave.
She'd been living there a few weeks, though Max didn't know that. The drugs warped her perception of time. Her usual cage, next to Fang, had its door open. They opened it and prepared to shove her in. Max took a deep breath. "Let me leave."
"Why should I?" the intern sneered.
"Because, I asked you to."
"Ha. As if," said the pimply guy. She grabbed her by the back of her neck and prepared to throw her in her cage. She bit down on his hand hard. The guy howled and Max ran out of the room.
Exhilaration was coursing through her. She'd leave, and see the world! She remembered with a twinge of regret the magazine she'd left in the room, as well as her friends.
Max decided she'd get them out later. She turned another hall at random and came crashing into an Eraser. He growled at her and held her down. Max bit again, finding what Fang's enjoyment had been in doing this.
More Erasers came, and she was slammed against a wall. She slid down, shocks of pain coursing through her, as one kicked her in the stomach. She hugged herself helplessly, trying to avoid the pain.
Max was jerked up and carried by an Eraser. He marched her back to the room she slept in. She was thrown in the door, Iggy and Fang watching curiously. Another intern had replaced the one she'd bitten.
This time, she had violently yellow hair and a sour expression. She grabbed Max and slammed her against her open cage, not even pretending to try and get her in.
Max whimpered, as the intern slammed her again. She was about to be hurt a third time, when a voice spoke up. "Leave her ALONE!" Fang screamed, reaching out a skinny arm and pulling with all his might the necklace dangling from her neck.
The intern choked and yanked Fang's hand away. The necklace had left a thin, red mark. "You two lose the privilege of having your own cage," she said tensely.
She opened the door to Fang's cage and shoved Max in, a crumpled mess. She glared at the Erasers and the intern until they left. As soon as the door had closed, Max started sobbing.
"Here," Fang said, reaching into the next cage. He pulled out Max's precious magazine. He handed it to her. She gave him a watery smile and sat up straighter against the bars of the cage. It was too small, so their legs were side by side when they sat. Max had no idea how they would do to sleep.
"Sorry I got you punished, too. I shouldn't have bit her," said Max.
"Wow, you bite too?" Iggy asked. "Just like Fang." And idea occurred to him. "Max and Fang, sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s—"
There was a chorus of "Iggy!" and he stopped, flashing an impish grin in the entirely wrong direction. Max sat back, sighing. She flipped through her magazine. About twenty minutes later, Fang spoke.
"What's so special about that?" Max looked up, startled at sound of his voice. She didn't hear it often, but she liked it.
"It's the Outside. Jeb told me about it." Slowly, carefully, she managed to turn around so she was next to Fang. It was cramped, and their shoulders were squished together, but Max showed him her magazine.
"My favorite," she began. "Is Niagara Falls. Isn't it pretty? I wish I could go. When we escape…"
"Thought you'd have been discouraged by now," Iggy called.
"No! I'm as stubborn as I am pretty!"
"So, not at all." Iggy said, at the same time as Fang said:
"So you're really stubborn." There was a silence Max didn't really get. It was as if the boys were sorting something out. Iggy nodded and everything resumed.
"I will escape. Because I am Maximum!" Max shouted. The lights shut off, running her dramatic moment. That signaled time to sleep.
Turning around again, Max found it impossible to move in such a cramped space. She just set to moving forward so her shoulders had space, and leaning back on Fang's shoulder. They fell asleep quickly, though Max could be heard muttering in her sleep.
She was dreaming of the Outside.