Chapter 8 of Feather Strings
The chilly night wind in my hair would have felt amazing, except that we were kind of leaving everything and everyone that we had ever known. Oh, and don't forget: We were also on the run for our lives, which would be over in only a few days if they found us. Yes, people, this is my life now. Girl on the run, with nothing but herself and her adopted siblings. Yay.
Fang turned to me, his face illuminated by moonlight. "Okay, leader. Where to?"
I thought about our options. 1: We could end up in the Caribbean, but I heard that hurricane season was starting soon. Ovbiously, A hurricane is not a desirable condition to fly in. 2)Brazil. Except we knew absolutely nothing about it or even if it was a good idea in the first place. 3)Or we could just go to Canada. That seemed like a somewhat decent option, except for all the Canucks walking around. (A/N: IM A CANUCK :P)
'Stay in America. They'll expect you to flee out of the country as soon as they know.' Said a voice.
"Who said that?" I shouted over the wind.
"Said what?" Angel asked.
"Nobody said anything, Max." Nudge said, looking at me strangely.
"Sure you did," I argued. "One of you just told me where we should go."
"Nobody said anything, Max. Maybe you thought they did because of the, like, wind in your ears or something." Gazzy suggested.
"Then there's just a maaaaggggical voice in my head that tells me where to go, then EXPLAINS it's logic." I said sarcastically.
"Max," Fang said. "I hate to interrupt your inner turmoil, but we need to decide where to go soon, or we'll end up in Turkey."
"We stay in America." I declared. "Once they find out that we've foiled their evil plan, they'll expect us to flee the country and what not. It should buy us time."
"Okay," Fang said. "But where?"
I waited impatiently to see if whatever was in my head would tell me exactly where to go.
'go where your wings guide you.' the Voice said.
"McDonalds?" I groaned.
Fang looked at me. "You want us to go to McDonalds?"
"No. I was...thinking." 'Okay, voice' I thought. 'Where exactly are my wings guiding me?'
'you know in your head where to go.' The Voice replied. Arggghhh.
"Look," I said, this time out loud. "Are you going to be a permanent fixture, because you and your fortune cookie answers are already annoying me a lot." I waitied for a response, but didn't get one.
"Who are you talking to, Max?" Iggy asked.
"Just the maaaaggggical voice in my head that tells me what to do."
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...
Sir pounded his fist onto the key board, causing a dozen random letters to appear in the text box. That insolent VonCarte! How many times had he told him not to kill the Winged Children? They were part of his Master Plan. If they were to die, all his work for the past two decades would be redundant! Useless, swept away. He needed them. Without them, he could not duplicate the lost DNA strand that had allowed them to be the first and only successful non-androidial hybrid. Without them, he could never get the trust of society! Without them, he could never find the way to recombinant success! No way to create his army and to create his new world.
One chance, once more chance was all he would give to VonCarte.
He picked up his phone.
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...
I don't know where in God's name I was flying, I was just doing what felt right. And right now, what felt right was to refuel our starving bodies and rest.
Nudge sent me a look, a look that said 'I'm hungry.'
"Guys!" I shouted. "We're going to refuel and find a place to rest okay?"
I was met with four relieved faces and one nod from Fang, who had become my right-wing man. Ha ha. Get it?
We were kind of in the middle of no where, somewhere between the end areas of Colorado and the beginning reaches of Utah. There wasn't any nearby places we could get food, so we swooped around the mountains for awhile. Eventually, I spotted a nice patch of trees in a clearing by a river. Perfect. I caught Fang's eye. I jerked my head in the direction of the trees and he nodded back. We swooped down, the flock following suit. After a rough landing, we spread ourselves on the thick branches of a tree.
"This is where we're staying tonight? Any objections? If so, hold it in." I told everyone. "We're going to have a long day tomorrow, so eat up and get some sleep. I'm going to keep watch."
Fang looked at me. "All night? You barely slept the past few days."
"Okay, I get three hours, you get three hours." I told him. I pulled out a few granola bars and began to eat them. "I get first watch."
"Fine with me.I'll eat later." Fang said and went to sleep.
Slowly, The rest of the flock drifted off, so I was left, tensely waiting for the sun to rise. The three hours I had to keep watch for were long up, but Fang looked peaceful sleeping, so I didn't wake him up. At five in the morning, an hour through Fang's shift, he stirred. The first thing he did was look at my watch, nearly making me fall off the branch while grabbing my arm to do so.
"Sleep. Now." he ordered.
I shook my head and tried to fight, but I ended up falling asleep first.
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...
We were back in the air again, soaring joyously. It was only the early afternoon, but we had already been flying for several hours, leaving Utah in the dust. I had finally managed to hash out a vague plan of where to go in my head. We were going to California; I figured it would be a pretty safe place, with us being able to jump from place to place and the beaches were an added bonus. Plus, everyone else seemed to want to go there. I hoped that we could hit Battle Creek, Nevada, by day's end, getting to Reno the next day and then making one long day all the way to Los Angeles. That way, we could have one last fun day before our possible annihilation.
I waited to see if the Voice was going to give me any insight, or if it was just a one time crazy episode, but it said nothing if it was still there.
"Angel, shut your mouth!" I told her. She was flying with her mouth wide open, screaming with glee. "Not to rain on your parade or anything, but if you're not interested in a mouthful of bugs, and I doubt you're hungry enough for that, you may want to close your mouth."
The sun was warm on my face as we flew. I could fly forever, swooping freely up and down, through the clouds and above any nasty weather, but I could tell that the little ones needed to refuel again.
"I'll be back in a few." I told everyone, tucking my wings in and free falling head first for a few thousand feet. Snapping out my wings a thousand feet up, I used my raptor vision to seek out anyplace where we could get some grub. I spotted what looked like a small town, so I torpedoed up, and told everyone to come down.
Ducking into a small fast food restaurant, we fueled up and were sitting, waiting for the food to settle for a bit before flying. (Don't tell anyone because she'd kill me, but Nudge use to get airsickness if she ate and then flew right afterwards. I feel bad for the poor schmuck below her...)
I was itching to get back in the air. I was hot, -no, not in that way- as in high fever, melt an icecube in two seconds flat hot. Also, I was lightheaded and dizzy and I had a horrible headache.
"Max are you okay?" Angel asked. "You look really pale."
"I-I'm fine. Jus' need a lil' walk." I managed to choke out. I stumbled blindly out of the restaurant. The edges of my vision were dark, so I could only see a blurry small area in the center of my vision. I tried to lean against the wall, but miraculously, I missed and barely managed to keep myself from falling. What was wrong with me? I rubbed my throbbing temples and silently asked the Voice if this was it's fault. No reply.
The bell dinged as the restaurant door opened and someone walked out. I could only see a black blob.
"Max, you really don't look alright." Fang commented. To me, it sounded as he were speaking with a mouthful of cotton.
"I'm fine. I just need to fly it off." I said tersely. With that, I ran down the parking lot, tripping slightly over my feet, until I managed to lift myself off the ground a few feet. I pumped my wings up and up, hoping the ill feeling would go away, but it didn't. I had only made it up a short way into the air when I blacked out.
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...
I opened my eyes, just to see a girl. She looked like any normal person until I looked closer and saw her red eyes, faintly glowing, and the seams around her neck and shoulders. She was wearing a jumpsuit with the letter 'E' on it.
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When I came to, the last rays of the sun were slipping over the flat horizon. I was lying somewhere with dry, dry sand. My head was still pounding, but my vision had cleared some and the extreme heat that I felt had been replaced by a tinge of chilliness. I moaned a bit, then managed to lift my head a a small amount. Fang was the only one near me, sitting on a rock holding something cool and damp to my forehead. Everyone else was huddled together, a good thirty feet away looking scared.
"Wha... What happened?" My voice slurred slightly.
"You blacked out." Fang said.
"I remember that. I mean why are they huddled over there looking like terrified puppies?" I asked. I put my head back down; it was starting to swim again. I realized that I was resting my head on his legs.
"We decided to land here and while you were just laying there, you had a bit of an unconscious freak out." He said slowly.
"It was really freaky! You were just lying there not moving or making any noise and all of a sudden our backpacks started flying everywhere! They opened and cans and clothes and everything started zooming about, just moving crazily. We ran away 'cause we didn't want the stuff to hit us!" Nudge shouted loudly and and I winced. "But Fang just sat and ignored it and kept the rag on your forehead 'cause you had, like, a fever or something!"
"Mmmm." I lifted my head, ignoring the throbbing and looked around. Nudge was right. All of our supplies were strewn across the ground, all dusty from the sand. "I really should repack those." I murmured, starting to get up.
Fang held me down. "Don't move." he turned to everyone else, who were cautiously making their way back as if I was a bomb about to explode. "Repack the bags. I'll take watch for now. Nudge or Iggy, I'll wake you up later." Yes, because of his incredible sense of hearing, Iggy could keep watch.
There was a soft shuffling as everyone began to pack their bags, then quiet as they all drifted to sleep. I felt Fang begin to smooth his fingers softly on my hair. I felt... comforting.
"How are you feeling?" Fang asked quietly, more so for my sake than for the sake of the flock. Fang's voice, though soft and comforting, sounded as if it wad coming from a long ways away.
"Terrible. Better, but still terrible." I replied, feeling slightly dazed.
"Do you want me to get you some Tylenol or something? I could be back in fifteen minutes. There's a nearby drugstore."
"It's okay, that'd be a waste of money. It'll probably just wear off soon."
We sat in silence of awhile. I closed my eyes and drifted off a bit, somewhat asleep, but also somewhat alert to my surroundings. I heard my deep breathing, and felt Fang take the now warm cloth off my forehead, and put it back on again, but cool instead. I kind of zoned out again for awhile.
Later, I opened my eyes. Fang's eyes were closed, but I didn't know if he was sleeping or awake. "Fang?" I whispered.
"Yes?" He said, opening his eyes and looking down at me.
"I feel that I'm being a burden. As if I'm going to hold you back being ill like this and that whoever is out for us will catch up and kill you guys. And I feel that I really need to get us tot California soon or..." I trailed off, not sure of what to say.
He looked away for a moment, then looked back. "You're not being a burden. Besides being terrified of the freak out, they're worried about you. And no one is going to die."
I frowned.
"And it's only been a few hours since you first passed out."
"Define 'a few'."
"You first passed out six hours ago and woke up about an hour ago."
"I was out for five hours?" I shout-whispered, jumping up quickly. Immediately, I regretted it and the pain in my head made me fall to my knees.
"Shhhh. Lie down, Max. Lie down." Fang lay down, and gently pulled me over so my head was resting on his chest.
"I think I'm going crazy..." I said softly, my whisper being lost in the gently breeze.
"Shhhh."
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...
Waking up at sunrise the next morning, I felt a ton better. My headache was only mild. Somehow, in the night, Fang's arm had wrapped around me and I woke -eughhh, I cannot believe I am actually admitting this- snuggled up to him. I noticed Nudge sitting boredly on a rock.
"Go sleep until everyone else wakes up, Sweetie." I told her taking over watching duties. The sunrise was spectacular, a sherbet rainbow spilling over the horizon.
I absentmindedly fiddled with my hair as it blew into my face with the breeze. I noticed that it was beginning to get quite long, almost mid-back. This would be difficult to handle and unpleasant during flight, so I decided to hack some off. Then and there, because all of a sudden, it seemed imperative that my extra hair was gone. I flew up, luckily not being forced to be land bound by a headache. I noticed a few stores and remembered that Fang had said that there was a nearby drugstore. I quickly found it, so I zipped back and grabbed some money. Maybe they'd have some decent scissors at the drugstore.
I walked in just moments after it opened and browsed the aisles for scissors, and grabbed the strongest looking pair I could find as well as some pain meds. The probably would be really useful in the near future.
After buying then, I flew to a pond which was between our campground and the store. I decided to use the pond as a mirror, and started snipping away. It was a difficult and long task, since my hair was dirty and thick, but I did the best I could.
Twenty minutes later, I returned with my hair hanging just below my shoulders, cut slightly uneven. Mucho to my relief, no one had woken up since I had left, so I sat back down on the rock, noticing that we were all slightly yellow from the sand.
"Nice hair." Said a voice.
"Shut up and get out of my head!" I said in an angry whisper.
"Woah." Fang said, reappearing from the spot where he was sleeping. "Touchy."
"Sorry." I mumbled, rubbing my forehead. "I thought you were someone else."
"Like what?" asked Fang. "A cactus?" He gave a small grin. I sent him A Death Glare, and his grin grew slightly more.
"Wow," I said sarcastically. "A smile from the emo king! Call the newspapers because this has to be a sign of the apocalypse!"
Fang rolled his eyes and disappeared again.
"I'm going to find some cheap breakfast. We fly out in an hour. Keep a watch out." I instructed.
I popped three of the pain pills in my mouth and swallowed the with some water before flying out to get some breakfast. Ten minutes later, I landed behind a diner. The food was cheap, so I was guessing that it was less than world-class, but when you need twice as many calories as a full grown person, you're never picky. Heck,once,at home when we were out of snacks and food because we needed to go shopping, we killed and ate fish in a nearby pond. We can be dramatic savages sometimes.
I had just gotten the three giant bags of food, when I realized that there was no way I could carry all this back or leave it. I decided that it was as good a time as ever to practice my telekinesis, or whatever. Focusing intently on one of the bags, I willed for it to float up. After a dizzying moment, it pitched upwards, nearly spilling its contents. I wrote a mental note to practice doing the mind movement, then steadied the bag. I broke my gaze, but still focused on the bag. It didn't drop, thank God. And that's how I flew, with a giant plastic bag following me three feet above my head.
It must have been a pretty odd sight, and considering the last night's events, I sort of understood why Gazzy and Nudge began to slowly back away as they saw me approach. I yelled down that it was okay, I wasn't having another spaz-out, and they stopped backing away.
"That's way cool, when it's not about to decapitate us!" Gazzy exclaimed.
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...
"Hey, Max!" Shouted Nudge. "I have a really good idea."
"Shoot." I told her.
"Well, we're gonna have a really long day tomorrow, so we should rest up and store as much energy as we can,right?" She asked and I nodded. "Reno is only a couple hours drive from here, so why don't we get a car and drive. It will help us out a lot, and you took some drivers Ed. Plus, there's a car place in five minutes. I can see it."
To save all the boring details of me reexplaining what Nudge just said and yadyadya, let me skip ahead 20 minutes.
There we were, all standing in front of a used car dealership on the outskirts of a small Nevada town. I was a large, inconspicuous blue van, perfect for holding seven mutant children who don't have much driving experience.
"So, who's driving?" I asked, trying to be nonchalant. "Fang, do you have any driving experience?"
"No." He answered.
"I guess that Max is driving then." Angel said. "She's taken a few classes."
"Max,driving? I wouldn't call it driving." I heard Iggy snort from behind me.
"Can it, Gazzy!" Yes, I am that epic that I can tell Gazzy's mimicry. Ok, more of Gazzy made the mistake of not concealing his lip movements, but close enough, right?
Anyways, I ended up driving.
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Sir cursed loudly. His newest report said that the bird children had escaped! And only a few days before he needed them captured! He sat, waiting to figure out what to do, where to search for them. It had been two days since they left, and they could be pretty much anywhere on the planet by now.
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...
"That is so creepy!" Iggy commented as 'One Way or Another' played on the radio. "Saying :'i'm gonna find you, I'm gonna get you...'. That is so ominous, as if they're playing it for us. But I guess I'm being a little paranoid."
I was about to agree when Nudge screamed.
"Pull over!" Nudge shouted. "There's a girl at the side of the road!"
I roughly pulled over to the side of the road and Fang, Nudge and I stepped out. At the side of the road a slim red-headed girl near our age stood.
"Do you need any help?" Nudge asked.
"Yes." The girl answered, her voice sounding slightly strange. "I was hitch-hiking my way to Reno when I was dropped off here."
"Do you need a ride?" Fang offered immediately.
"Yes, thank you!" The girl chirped. The sleeve of her off-the-shoulder tee slipped down, revealing what I thought was a line and a 'N'. She threw Fang into a hug, and Fang blushed. Did I mention he had a thing for redheads? I began to get irritated, and almost as if she sensed it, the girl sent me a smug look, her eyes glowing a faint red for a short second. As she clung onto Fang, I clamored onto the roof of the van. I noticed the tips of her fingers sparking...
The next thing I knew, I had jumped off of the cars roof and side kicked her in the face. She lay on the sand, eyes closed.
"What the hell was that for?" Fang shouted, almost sounding angry. "You don't just kick a poor, random girl in the face! What is wrong with you?"
I ignored him and examined her neck. Yep, there was a 'n' tattooed on her shoulder and what looked like a seam around her shoulder, and another one down the back of her neck. I rolled her over, while Fang was still screaming at me. I hoped that I was right in my suspicions, or else I was going to have some heavy charges laid on me. I dug my finger nail into the seam down her neck and opened it a small amount. Fang stopped yelling to watch me in probable appallment. When it was opened enough, I reached my fingers in and began to work my way down the seam by tearing it. Underneath and inch of bloodless flesh was wire and metal.
"Oh, wow." Fang said.
"Neo-Humanoid." I finished.
