Disclaimer: Duh
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MAX POV
There was a short silence after that announcement, in hindsight, it did sound pretty crazy. How could Nudge help us? I couldn't think of a single way that we could escape, as far as I could see, there was no way to escape.
The silence grew in weight and I flicked my eyes up to Nudge's face. She looked about as confused as I felt. Her mouth opened and I braced myself against the ocean of words I knew this action preluded.
"How can I help? Who told you that I could? I mean, I'm stuck in a cage too." At this point, she reached out and grabbed the bars at the front of her cage, shaking them slightly. "I don't have any special powers, I can't read minds like Angel, I can't stay really quiet like Fang can, I can't take care of everyone like you can, I can't hear things as good as Iggy. How am I supposed to help us escape? I can't do anything." I could hear the frustration in her voice; she was angry at herself, angry because she didn't think that she could do anything that would help us.
"I don't know how you can help us, Nudge. The voice in my head only told me that you would help us escape, not how you would do it."
"But Max," She looked up at me, still holding onto the bars of the cage. "I don't think I can help."
I didn't know what to say and looked away from her pleading face. She, too, looked away, disappointed and dejected, and leaned against the wall of the cage, pulling her knees up to her stomach.
Guilt swirled in my stomach and I closed my eyes, sighing. It was cold in the cargo hold and the metal floor of the cage was wet from the rain before. I wrapped my arms around my waist and opened my eyes again, bringing myself back from my momentary escape from reality.
A sense of hopelessness hung in the air, it was as if we had been given hope and then it had been cruelly snatched away. Actually, that was exactly what had happened.
My fists had clenched involuntarily and I slowly opened them, looking across at Fang as I did so.
He looked back, his eyebrows drawn together as if he was confused.
"So, a voice told you that Nudge would help us?" He asked, speaking slowly.
Irritation flared once again, "I am well aware of how crazy that sounds."
He looked up from the floor of the cage. "No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just wondering if there actually is a way Nudge can help us."
I raised my eyebrows in confusion. By now, Nudge and Iggy were listening to Fang as well.
He swallowed, "If Angel can read minds, who's to say that Nudge doesn't have some power that she doesn't know about that could help us?"
I stared at him thoughtfully. He had a point; Nudge could have a way of helping and just not know about it, but it wasn't doing us much good if we didn't know what it was or how to use it.
"Fang," Nudge's voice rung through the hold. "I told you before that I don't have a way to help." She had once more grabbed the bars of her cage and was holding them so tight that her knuckles were white against the brown skin of the rest of her hands. "Whitecoats have been doing tests for years, nothing has shown up. I'm sure that if I had a power, they would have found out about it by now." She sounded angry, and a lot older than she actually was.
When Fang didn't reply, she shook the bars angrily, obviously wanting to take her anger out on something.
However, instead of just remaining still, like bars on cages usually do when someone tries to shake them, there was a horrible creaking noise; the sound of metal bending and breaking, and the bars tore away from the floor and roof of the cage, coming off in Nudge's hands.
We all stared at her in shock, even Fang's eyes were hanging out of his head. Metaphorically, of course.
She looked pretty surprised herself, just staring at the bars in her hands, the newly jagged edges gleaming in the dim light, then at the considerably sized hole in the side of her cage. Her gaze kept switching between the two, getting faster and faster.
I stared on in amazement and slight confusion myself for a few more seconds before laughing. Fang tensed next to me, then relaxed as he realised I was laughing and not choking or slowly being robbed of air some other way. He looked at me and smiled, showing surprisingly white teeth.
"What's happening?" Iggy was confused. "What was that sound before? Are you laughing?' His tone was incredulous. It just made me laugh harder.
Nudge was the one who answered, still staring at the damage she had caused to the cage. "I think- I think I just pulled the bars off our cage."
By now I was laughing so hard that tears were running down my face for the second time today. Fang was grinning like an idiot beside me and Angel and Gazzy were giggling, smiles lighting up their similar features.
"You did what?" Iggy sounded like Nudge had just announced she was marrying a monkey and going to live on the moon.
"I ripped the bars off our cage," Nudge told him, sounding more confidant than she had before. "We could climb out the hole and escape!" She looked up at me triumphantly, smiling. Iggy, however, still looked confused.
I smiled back at her, still laughing slightly. Nudge opened her hands to drop the severed bars but they stayed connected to her skin. She stopped smiling and looked at them in puzzlement. I stopped laughing and Fang's smile faded as she shook her hand and the bars remained where they were, as if her hands were magnetised or something.
"I think you're magnetic." I told her, voicing my previous thought.
She looked down at her hands, then back up at me. "Magnetic?"
Obviously this whole ripping-the-bars-off-cage thing had affected her ability to speak.
"Yeah, metal sticks to you."
"Is there a way to turn it off or do I have to walk around for the rest of my life with metal stuff stuck to me? I think that would make a lot of stuff hard to do."
"You don't want to turn it off," I told her hurriedly. "At least not yet; you have to rip the bars off our cages too."
"Oh yeah." She smiled and crawled out of her cage, the bars still stuck to her hands.
"Wait," That was Iggy. "I still don't know what's going on."
"I can show you in your mind if you want." Angel offered. I'll admit I was slightly shocked; I knew she could read minds but showing people stuff that had already happened, even blind people? That was all new.
Iggy's face wrinkled in confusion, I looked over at Angel and her face was crumpled too, as if she was concentrating. Seconds later, Iggy's face cleared and he smiled.
"We can actually escape?" He asked, almost refusing to believe that it was true. I didn't blame him; the last time we had hope to escape the School our plans had been foiled and our hopes thrown back in our faces. I was about to reassure him that, yes, we were going to escape but was interrupted.
"Yep," Gazzy's excitement showed in his voice. "We're finally gonna get out of here."
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A/N: So, this story is finally coming to a close. The next chapter will probably be the last.
This chapter is dedicated to goldenrose37 who gave me the idea of Nudge using her metal ability to help the flock escape. A few of you actually figured it out though, I hope this story isn't getting too predictable.
I would also like to thank sparkleglitz01, santaclausrules18, maxride333, Sarra Elizabeth, my friend Maddie whose pen name is Names Are So Hard To Think Of and Fuzzylogic, who all reviewed the last chapter.
To everyone, thank you for reading, please review; tell what you think and whatnot.
