Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the characters, locations, and original ideas therein. Nor do I own any Disney trademarks, etc.
I woke hot, drenched in sweat, tears still pouring down my face, tangled in a mess of blankets, backpacks, clothes, and Fang, biting back another scream. It was broad daylight, sunny, dry, and warm. My flock was huddled around me, looking worried. Fang slowly disentangled himself from me, and I laid absolutely still, panting. Angel crawled up next to me. "Max? Are you okay?"
I nodded carefully. "It was just a nightmare."
"It must have been a pretty bad nightmare. You were screaming and crying and punching things, mostly Fang, and calling our names out," said Gazzy.
I froze. Had I really said everything I said in my dream out loud? I felt Angel brush at the edges of my consciousness and blocked out everything that had just happened in my dream. "Let's just forget about it," I said cheerily. "Remember, today's Disneyland day!"
Iggy rose, sort of bent over, and felt his way out of the tent. I just sat there, trying to calm down. Fang shooed Gazzy and Angel out of the tent. Nudge followed them, wordlessly for once.
Fang put his hand on my shoulder. "You sure you're okay?"
I shook my head.
"What was it?"
I shook my head. "I'm not saying around the others."
He lifted his eyebrows. I sighed and laid back down. "How bad was I?"
"Screaming."
"What did I say?"
"Stuff about Jeb, whitecoats, Angel. A lot about Iggy. Also artificial insemination."
"How much of this did the others hear?" I whispered in mortification. I wasn't sure I wanted to hear.
"Just the end part, where you were apologizing, crying, and screaming about Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge being killed."
I flinched and returned to blocking my thoughts from Angel. Eventually, the scent of frying bacon reached me and I awoke fully. Fang put his hand on my arm as I stood up. "You're OK?"
"It was just a dream," I snapped. "I'm fine."
Dark eyes regarded me. "No," he said. "You're not."
I sighed and brushed past him to get bacon. Nudge looked at me with worry. "Max, are you okay? You were crying a lot. And you were screaming a lot, too. They shot Gazzy in the stomach? Oh, I get it. You were dreaming about the School. But why would they actually kill us if they wanted to do experiments on us?"
Angel blinked hard. "It was scary, Nudge. You died, and Gazzy died, and I died, and it was just Max and Fang and Iggy, and… and… Max?"
"Shh, honey, it was just a dream."
"Max, what's artificial insemination?"
I blushed. "It's a way to make people have babies," I said. "Now shh. Let's forget about it. It was just a dream."
She looked depressed as she ate her bacon. It broke my heart to see her this affected by something as insignificant as a dream. "Oh, Angel, sweetie, cheer up. Remember we're going to Disneyland today?"
She brightened visibly at that, and even more as Iggy brought over peach pancakes. (Peach pancakes, by the way, are just like blueberry pancakes, except with chopped up peaches instead of blueberries.) Don't ask me how he does that. I have no freakin' clue. I mean… we're in a campground. He's cooking over a barbeque grill. Pancakes? Oh, but that wasn't all. We also had scrambled eggs with little slices of hot dog scattered throughout. As if we hadn't had enough food to eat last night. I could learn to live with this. I watched, stomach full, as Iggy repositioned the remaining food in the remaining ice.
"So, let's go," said Gazzy.
"Max, is this like Disney World in Florida? Because if it is, it would be totally awesome. I mean, I want to go in the castle, even if it isn't really a castle. Do they call it Cinderella's Castle here? Oh! Will they have cotton candy? I really want cotton candy. Are we going to go on all of the rides?" asked Nudge. Thankfully, they had moved on from my disturbing dream.
Gazzy looked up at me with those innocent blue eyes. "Do they have a Tomorrowland?"
I raised my arms in mock defeat. "Agh! We'll see when we get there, OK? Let's go catch the bus now, so we'll get there sooner."
Angel grabbed me by the hand and led us all down to the bus station. I stood there for several minutes, trying to figure out the bus system. I finally figured out that the buses had their destinations scrolling across their foreheads. So we waited. Our bus finally came. Of course, I hadn't needed to worry about finding our way. Angel knew. She tugged my hand and we boarded the bus.
Part of me liked this, and part of me hated it. It was a free, clean bus… and it was enclosed and sort of dark. But hey, it got us where we needed (okay, wanted) to go. We pulled up outside a bunch of high-security gates. Angel got up and led the rest of us down the aisle of the bus.
When we stopped outside the ticket booth, my heart stopped. Or so it seemed. The prices were incredibly high. Of course we had to be 2/3 10+. That just worked out, as always. Wonderful. Hopefully my MaxRide card could withstand today, because it was going to get a workout.
I bought us tickets, mentally vowing never to come here again, and we sauntered off to the gates. The security guards waved us through metal detectors and the like.
We pushed through the throng… and there it was.
(A/N: My sincerest apologies. The characters are becoming ever more OOC, mostly because I haven't read the original books in… … … a long time. Like, last December or something like that)
(A/N II: I have no idea if my facts about Disneyland are straight. All I have is an online map and a knowledge of Disney World.)
