Turns out, Max came to them. She stormed into the room, practically breaking down the door. Iggy could hear the bloodthirsty, protective snarl escape her throat before she realized it was just the three of them. Well, the four of them. No way Iggy could forget the unconscious girl on his bed with Max standing only feet away.
He heard Max's slight exhalation at the sight of them safe turn to a sharp intake of breath. She'd seen the girl.
"What the hell is this?" Even now, with a potential threat lying on one of her flock's beds, she still sounded hollow. It was as if the bipolar mood swings she was famous for were completely gone and all that was left was this little crappy façade she held in front of her. Iggy could tell she was weak. She had spent all of yesterday in her room- she hadn't even eaten most of the food they gave her. Thank whatever-deity-in-charge that no Flyboys had attacked them yet. She'd be dog food.
Iggy held up his hands in a sign of surrender, as if the trying to calm the anger that so obviously wasn't there. "She's unconscious and she might be hurt. I couldn't just leave her out there."
It was as if Max hadn't even heard him. She stomped over to Dylan and got up in his face, trying to intimidate the taller boy. Wouldn't have been too hard had her heart been in it. "You brought some weird girl back to the house? What the hell were you thinking? I want her taken back. She doesn't belong here and we can't keep her. The whitecoats could have some sort of trace on her for all we know. How could you be such an idiot?"
The blind boy stepped between them, bringing Max's attention back to him. "Look, I brought her here and she's staying until we can figure out more about her." Max's false fury was turned on him now, but he had told the two boys that he would take their bullet.
"And what makes you think that you can decide what's best for this flock? Did that scumbag suddenly name you as leader when he left?"
Iggy could hear the slight touch of pain in her voice that the other kids would have missed. He knew it was going to hurt to bring Fang up into this, but she started it. "Fang," he threw the word at her, "would have at least heard me out. He would have stopped to consider that it wasn't all about him all the time. That there are other people in this flock that matter just as much as the leader. And he would have let me keep her!"
"Excuse me? Don't try and make me look like the bad guy. I've always done what's best for the flock and I'm not stopping now." Iggy could feel her staggering, though her words flowed out smoothly. "She's a threat to the flock's safety and it was wrong to bring her here. You can't just endanger your family by making these kinds of stupid decisions. You are the one not thinking about us first. Take. Her. Back."
"Oh, really? I'm not thinking of us? So what was your excuse when you swooped down to save Ella when you should've flew on to go rescue Angel from the School? Where you thinking of us first then? And what about being all lovey-dovey with Fang? You two were so distracted by each other that you forgot about the rest of us completely. There were a lot of times when we were in danger and you weren't there to help us. Fang at least tried to do the right thing for the flock, even if it meant that the leader would have to suck it up and get back to leading!"
Iggy could practically feel Max's cringe getting deeper and deeper with each accusation he flung at her. But he was just finally saying the truth that nobody else had the guts to face. He was going to fight for this red-haired girl even if it meant he had to make Max face facts.
"You're allowed to help whoever random person you want so I can, too!" He felt their leader draw back at the sting of the harsh refusal to follow orders. Guess nothing was going her way anymore. "She'll be my responsibility and she'll stay with me. I'll keep an ear on her and make sure she isn't some psycho crazy killer wanting to terrorize us in our sleep, but the bottom line is… I'm keeping her."
Iggy couldn't help but notice the childish possession in his own voice. Max noticed it, too, and she immediately fired back at him, trying to regain control of the situation.
"You don't know anything about her! Who is she to you that you would put us in harm's way to keep her safe? What if she is some psycho crazy killer and the first one she kills is you? What if she gets her hands on Gazzy? Or Nudge? Or Angel? How would you feel then? Are you willing to risk the flock's lives over some random girl you don't even know? You're being stupid, Iggy. Fang would have told you the same."
"Oh, right," the blind boy sneered at her, "because he was always your little puppy dog following you around. 'Max is boss.' 'Whatever she says.' Look, oh fearless leader, I'm not being stupid. I'm doing what I think is right. I'm not going to let her hurt anyone if she is, in fact, a threat. And Fang would never have said something like that to one of us."
He could hear her breath go a little ragged at the edges, as if she was holding back tears. This wasn't Max. This was just a shadow of her. A crying, hollow, maybe even angry shadow.
"You're right, Iggy," she said quietly. "I'm sorry I said you were stupid. I'm not all together right now."
He almost felt sorry for her. Fang had taken a huge chunk out of her when he left. Hell, he left a giant gaping hole for all of them. And then the addition of Dylan was just another thorn in Max's side, telling her that she had lost the sanity of her own situation. She felt like she wasn't the one in control anymore. But she had people counting her. She needed to pull it together.
"But this isn't a good idea, Ig. We can't keep her here." It was more of an offering than a command. She was losing grip on this argument, too.
"I know that there's a risk. But I couldn't take it if I always had it in the back of my mind that I just left her there. I wouldn't be able to function if I knew that I had just left an unconscious girl lying out there where she can get eaten or something. Please, you have to understand that it was right to bring her, even if it wasn't smart."
Iggy had his eyebrows scrunched together in obvious worry at the thought of something happening to the red head. Max was hesitating, no doubt looking at him with that same worry he had on his face. It was quiet for a moment and then Gazzy spoke up.
"Max," he started slowly, hesitating, "can we just keep her for a day? Then we can figure out a new place to move her to, far enough away from the house to keep everybody safe, but close enough so Iggy can be with her. I just don't want to see everyone fighting like this." His voice broke a little on the end of that sentence, making Iggy feel immediately guilty about his outbursts. If he himself was having a hard time, how bad must this have been for the Gasman? He was only nine years old.
Max felt it, too, and she immediately went to him. She hugged him close to her, that familiar thud of contact Iggy heard between them making him feel better about Gazzy. Max would never be completely gone, not while she still had them. "That sounds pretty fair," she murmured into the blonde head tucked into her.
Dylan finally came back into the picture, clearing his throat a little to get the other kids' attention. "I can go out and look for a place. Someplace high and dry. I'm sure there's something on the canyon." Ever the helpful one, that Dylan. Not saying a word when either side was fighting for their way, but still puppy-dogging to Max. Real original.
Max ignored him and went to sit on the bed, still holding Gazzy's hand. Iggy tensed but let her be. As long as Gazzy was still close to her, she wouldn't pull anything lethal.
"Do you know how she got like this?" She still had that empty-ish sound, but at least she was trying to be in command.
"No," Iggy responded reluctantly, and he explained to her what he had already told Dylan and Gazzy.
"We don't know how she got here, either," said Dylan. Again, ever the helpful one.
"Iggy said he heard something," the Gasman offered. "What did you hear Ig?"
The tallest boy didn't really know how to explain it. Any way he said it could make it sound like something dangerous, especially since it sounded vaguely metallic. He knew that Max's mind would go directly to Flyboys. "I don't know what I heard. I only knew that I'd never heard it before, and it didn't sound natural."
"So, of course, you just go towards the strange, unnatural sound."
It was then that Iggy noticed how old Max sounded. She was so resigned, her weight shifting on the bed in a way that might indicate she was slumping. The way she had said that didn't even have the right amount of sarcasm in it, she just said it like she was making sure she got the facts straight.
"You didn't hear anyone else in the area? Gazzy, you didn't see anything? Where were you guys anyways?"
The Gasman shook his head vigorously to the first question. "We were just taking the regular route. The one over the canyon. We found her about twenty miles from the lake on the south end."
Max finally regarded Dylan. "And when did you get there?"
The youngest member of the flock shrugged. "Gasman came and got me around an hour ago. It only took like five minutes to get out there, but this girl is beyond heavy."
"Well, what is she? Like, one-twenty?" She had one of her more sarcastic tones on, as if she were making fun of them for not being able to lift the seemingly light load.
"No, she was pretty heavy," Dylan responded, like he totally missed the little jab. "I'd guess around one-seventy or one-eighty."
"One-eighty?" Funny how Max seemed to have more emotion when she was talking with Dylan. She sounded pretty close to incredulous.
"Yeah," Iggy agreed, "Heavy like you wouldn't believe."
Max was silent a moment, probably looking at the girl more closely now. "And that hair. Never seen quite that shade of red before."
Neither have I, Iggy had to bite his lip to keep from saying. Of course, he hadn't actually seen it. He'd felt it. It was warm, like you could just hug the color to you and not get burned. The boy started to blush in embarrassment as he realized he wanted to touch it again. He shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to cool his burning face. It seemed to suit her. New color for a new girl… Now he was blushing again. What was going on? First the fascination with a color (but it was her color… not that that should make a difference anyways), then this insane need to keep her close (only to protect her, he was sure). Totally unreasonable.
Why should he feel responsible for her anyways? She was nothing more than a color to him. Whatever she had been doing out in the middle of the canyon had probably gotten her into her current situation. She could be on the run from someone just as much as the flock was constantly on the run from the whitecoats. What if she was running from the police? In the few seconds of silence that had sustained itself between the present members of the flock, Iggy listened to the redhead breathe. Soft, even wisps of what could've been sleep. So innocent. It was almost too hard to believe she could be some psycho with a bounty on her head. He let that almost hang in the air above his thoughts before finally dropping it.
She mattered to him because she was a person. She was human, like most of what he was. She was someone who needed help. Someone who didn't have control over their own situation. She had lost consciousness. Max had lost Fang. Iggy had lost his sight, a memory still painful and forever present in his mind. All the flock had lost their chance of ever being normal. This redhead stranger was like the rest of the flock in a way that it didn't matter what was wrong with her. She was, as of right now, homeless. And she need someone. She needed Iggy.
Max brought Iggy out of his thoughts. "Well, I guess since she's already here there isn't a whole lot we can do now. Gazzy and Dylan, you guys can head out and find some hidey-hole or whatever to put her in. Keep below the radar and get under cover immediately if you see anything or hear anything. Iggy, I'd send you with them, but you probably don't want to leave your little prize here alone with me. I'll contact the g—"
Iggy stopped her little tirade of leadership with a sharp retort. "She is not my prize. She's my responsibility, and I'll fly with the guys. I trust she'll be okay here." He finished his statement with a note of expectectation, one eyebrow raised, waiting for her agreement.
There was a short pause before, "Okay then, you can go with them, Ig." As if she had any control over Iggy anymore. Then she addressed all three of them. "But I want all of you back here before dark. I still don't trust this girl and I don't really believe she was just lying out there all by her lonesome. And Iggy, I want to make it clear that after tonight, she is not allowed near any of the younger ones."
Max cut off his protest before he had a chance to say it. "Don't even argue this one with me. You may believe everything is hunky-dorey, but I don't. And I'm already letting you keep her so you can just give me this one and call it even."
Iggy kept his mouth shut. It was enough for him.
"Alright," Max said, "now you guys better get back fast before I change my mind."