Chapter Nine
The black wasn't the end of that video, though. It automatically fastforwarded until Fang and I woke up after being slightly patched up and thrownback in cages by the whitecoats. I was the first to wake up, judging by Fang'smultiple injuries, it was expected. There were five sandwiches piled in frontof my cage, along with a picture that I recognized as Jeb. I had learned toread after he had rescued us, so I guess that was his way of saying he had beenthere. Quickly, I reached through the bars in my cage and squished themthrough. They were a bit misshapen, but I quickly tore into one. I couldn'ttell what kind they were from the screen, but I managed to eat half of one inone famished bite. Then, Fang groaned in the cage beside me, stillunconscious, and I looked back to my sandwiches. There were now four and ahalf, and though I didn't know that then, I knew equals.
I pushed two and the half into the bars of his cage, then sat with my backagainst the side of the cage so I could still eat and look at Fang. I sat likethat for a good five minutes until the aroma of the sandwiches woke him up.
From the position of the camera we could just see his eyes opening slowly, black eyesstare around, until he closed his eyes again in pain and pushed himself up. Theyounger me's eyes widened and I painfully scooted myself forward.
"I gave you some food." I croaked, my head injuries making my head soundslightly Elmer Fudd-ish. He looked at me, then at the food, and tentativelystuck his hand out to grab a sandwich. Slowly, he brought it to his nose andsniffed it.
"Where's yours?" He croaked through his teeth, clenched in pain.
"Ate them."
Without hesitation, he nibbled at a crust, but then heaved forward and spat between the bars of the cage. A little red spot appeared on the floor, he did it again.
"What are you doing?" Mini me leaned forward and carefully lifted my good handto reach between the bars to touch his shoulder. We were barely close enoughfor it.
"Eraser." Spit. "Blood." From the camera's view, we could see his teeth,ringed and stained with red.
"Oh, yes." I said. "Take a bite of sandwich. It'll get the taste out of yourmouth, gross, isn't it?"
He stopped spitting and looked at me. "You think?" But he took my advice andtook a bite. Eyes widening slightly, he took another, and quickly polishedthem off. When he was done, he took a position similar to the one I had so hecould rest and look at me. It was then that I had noticed he was stillbleeding in the leg. Now it was more oozing than bleeding freely.
I leaned back in my cage and slammed into the other end so it skidded forwardand banged into Fang's cage. He yelped as his leg was jarred, but pressed hislips together afterward.
"Lemme see your leg." I demanded, eyeing it. Fang narrowed his eyes andseemed about to shake his head, but it seemed to hurt to much so instead hesaid,
"No."
"It's still bleeding!"
"No."
"There. Is. A. Freaking. Bump. In. Your. Leg. Now. Let. Me. See.It."
Fang hesitated, then carefully rolled his pant leg up. "More." He did, andthe me on the screen tried to refrain from recoiling. Back in the living room,Fang stiffened into a board, staring at his feet. It was hard to make anything out, his entire lower leg was stained a bright red. The broken bone had pierced the skin.
I didn't say anything to Fang back in the living room, who had instinctively,reached his hand forward to grasp the place on his leg where he still sported a scar. On screen, I wastrying to convince him to let me wrap it up with a shred from my shirt. Justbelow the knee, part of the shin was poking through the skin. It was coated inblood. I wasn't worried about Nudge burying her head into Iggy's lap or Angelwith her hands over her eyes or Iggy going back and forth between asking Ella what was happening and then saying he didn't want to know.
I rested a hand on his arm, and my other hand over his, looking into his blank eyes and then leaning my head on his shoulder when it was clear words would not suffice. On screen, Iwas trying to convince Fang to let me fix the wound. He just kept muttering "no"over and over, not sounding like he meant it but he didn't know what else to do.
"Look!" I snapped at him, banging on the bars, "I never want to go back intothat tunnel, I don't know about you. But I don't think they'll care much about whether we want to or not! Idon't know if you noticed, but we're never gonna get anywhere better than this.They call us 'it' and 'specimen.' We're never fed, we're thrown around byErasers and tested on by the men in white. I want to leave, the whole worldcan't be white because then where would Jeb go? But we won't get anywhere ifyou can't walk so let me see your damn leg!"
Fang looked at me, eyeing me closely, seeming to take me in. Judging.
Finally, "Who's Jeb?"
I answered promptly. "My whitecoat."
"There's more than just...this?" He asked quietly, looking up at me throughblood clotted black hair.
"Yes," I tried to nod, winced, and instead leaned closer to him. "He told me. There are these things called 'trees' and they're really bigand green and apparently they smell good and grow really," I stretched out thereally and looked upward, "tall, bigger than this room. Fruit called applesgrows on them. You can eat them and then the fruit juice drips down your chinand they taste really good!"
Fang slowly relaxed and looked at me. He still seemed to be deciding if I was pulling his leg, was another test, or was the real thing. "Seriously?"
"Uh huh! And there's stars which are like little sparkly lights in the skywhich during the day is blue but at night it's dark, like your hair. The sky is like the ceiling, but higher up, and it stretches on as far as you can see. Further, even. Birds fly in the sky." Fangtook his hair between his fingers and looked at it. "But we need to be able torun if we're ever going to see the outside. So can I please fix your leg?"
"If you tell me more about outside."
I grinned on the screen at him. "Deal." He laughed and leaned backward,closing his eyes but keeping the smile.
"You know," I said conversationally, "You look like you have fangs with allthat blood in your mouth." I began to examine his leg closely.
"Like, Eraser fangs?"
"Yep." I tore another length of cloth from the hem of my pants and carefullybegan to put it in place for quick bandaging. Even then I knew that what I wasgoing to do would hurt. Luckily my scrawny little hands fit through the bars of our cages.
"Just call me Fang." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and biting hislip. I laughed.
"Seriously? Because you can hardly go around being called 10447 what with your rants on names and numbers."
Fang answered quietly, he seemed wiped out. If he hadn't been hurt, he probably would have started harping on me about the numbers all over again. I had heard it a good few times before Iggy came in. "Don't care."
"You gotta care." I replied, moving his pant leg back again and telling him toposition his hand to hold it in place. "It's what makes us different fromthem. Among other things." I frowned. "But yeah, we care. We know what they do is wrong."
He sighed heavily, then I guess decided against it as his bruised ribs moved. "Fangs are dangerous." Around a yawn, he muttered, "I think I'd like to bedangerous. The Erasers couldn't hurt us then."
"Okay then, Fang." He grinned as I used his new name. "On three,"
"Three what?" Fang was exhausted.
"Two, one." I pressed the bone back under the skin. I wrapped my arms aroundFang in the living room as the one on the screen had his eyes bug out in pain,then squeeze them shut again and hiss in pain. Quickly, I wrapped the fabricaround it to hold his leg to hold it in place. I leaned backward, watching him until hefinally relaxed.
"Ahh..." He breathed, looking at his leg, then he looked at me, trying todistract himself from the pain.
"Well," His voice was croaking in pain, "You need a name, too."
And I do believe it's called irony when a tape ends on such a place as this,totally unplanned.
"Fang?" I asked, pulling him to his feet.
He looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Max, I know my name is wonderful andeverything, but you can stop saying it now." I rolled my eyes but didn't letgo of his hand. He squeezed it once and caught my eye.
The others got up silently, mom's eyes were on Fang's leg as we walked (he had dropped the limp ages ago) from the room and out into the yard through the side door. It wassunset, the sun like a fiery ball giving everything long shadows. Nudge andAngel were ready with their wings out and Nudge carrying a small pack ofprovisions. Mom was helping Gazzy get another large backpack around his wings. Ididn't even want to know how Iggy and Gazzy managed to tote all that aroundwithout me noticing. Ella and Iggy were standing slightly awkwardly near eachother.
"Come, oh Shining Sun!" Total nudged Akila towards Fang. She dutifully sat byhis feet, he was unwilling to pick her up until he had to. I didn't blame him.Determined to be the proud dog he is, Total began to flutter around in the air.I shrugged my wings out of my sweatshirt, and tentatively began to stretch theright one. It was sore, but didn't hurt as much as when as I moved my arm. Icould fly.
"Bite?" Fang sidled over to me.
"Fine, but if the rattlesnake wishes to remain not extinct, they should watchout."
Fang rolled his eyes, and in a sudden whoosh of air, unfurled his midnightwings. Everyone in the Flock has pretty wings, they're all such an array ofbeautiful feathers, but it is my personal opinion that Fang and Angel have themost stunning. Angel's are a snowy white that's could only be achieved byfresh snow at midnight on Christmas, and Fang's are like raven wings with a bitof a purple shine in the sun. The rest of us have slightly mottled colors, soFang and Ang stand out.
"Iggy," I tried to refrain from snickering, "You need to pick Ella up now." Heglared in my general direction, but complied. Putting my younger sister andbrother into embarrassing situations just never gets old. "C'mon guys, U andA." I called, and waving to my mom, I leapt up into the air and allowed mywings to take me from there. Fang was a bit behind for a moment, Akilawouldn't leap into his arms, so he actually had to bend down to pick her up.Tragedy. He did, however, catch up quickly, despite carrying an eighty pounddog. My shoulder ached a bit in the beginning of our crusade, but I rubbed itaway quickly, I'd had worse.
"What are you guys planning for tonight?" Nudge asked, "You have that hugebackpack of materials, so it's gonna be big, right? Is it gonna be colorful?Will you start when it's dark, like, completely dark? Because I hate it whenit's at sunset, fireworks are best at complete darkness, not just half, butlike, Fang's clothes darkness."
"Of course, Nudge." Gazzy whapped her with a wing, "Did you ever expect it tobe small?"
No. Fang glanced across at me as if to say the same thing, then swerved aboveme to whisper in my ear.
"If you're tired, just say so." I rolled around so I was upside down but
looking at him, crossing my arms. I didn't really need to say anything, he could see it in my eyes. If he didn't have a malamute in his arms, he would've raised his arms in defense. After making sure he got the point, I spun downward and circled the group before coming back to where I was at the front.
Enjoying yourself, Maximum? I dropped a foot in the air but quickly regained composure before responding with a mental glare.
Before you decided to drop in. I could hear the Voice sigh, I hoped it could feel the irritation that spiked in me whenever it came.
You can't afford to make stupid mistakes, Maximum.
Max. How many times do we have to go over this?
I thought only your close friends called you Max? It replied smarmily.
I rolled my eyes. Point taken. Maximum.
Thank you. Anyway, the world needs you, Maximum. I just came to remind you of that. Allow me to rephrase my prior statement. The world can't afford for you to make stupid mistakes.
I rolled over in the air, angry. Why couldn't the world just save itselfalready? Then, quickly before it could respond, I added, "kidding." It didget old though.
Yeah, I get it. What's up with you and the Jebster trying to mash this into my skull? No, don't answer that. If you're done invading my personal space, just go.
There was no reply. Thank God it wasn't the kind of Voice who would pretend to be gone then come back chanting "gotcha, sucker!"
"How are you doing, Ella?" I spun around, flying backwards, to look at her.She was looking down in awe, not a trace of fear in her eyes.
"Good." She replied distantly.
"Tell me if you start to feel light headed or anything," I heard Iggy instructElla. "We have air sacs, so we can go higher than you can."
"'K." Shoot. I had forgotten about that, so I angled us downward a bit. Iused the excuse of a large cloud to cover me up and ignored Angel's giggles. Ilooked back at the rest of the Flock. Ella and Iggy were talking, her tellinghim about all the things she could see. Angel and Nudge, who was already carrying Total, were talking over some teen girl's magazine. Seventeen, by the looksof it. Great, as if I needed seven and twelve year olds learning how to kissguys or fawning over the Jonas Brothers. I prayed that they at least hadbetter taste than that. That left Gazzy listening to Ella's iPod and flippingthrough all the Taylor Swift songs and Fang taking up the back with Akila. Ifell back a bit to fly with him, he was fine with silence and being alone, butI'd keep him company anyway.
"Hey," he almost smilked as I came over.
"Ready to vote Akila world's heaviest dog?"
"Just about." We smirked at each other. After a moment of companionablesilence, I asked him, "Are you okay? With the movie, and everything?"
He looked down at the ground for a moment, thinking. "I guess, it's weird,seeing it all, especially the stuff I forgot. The first time you offered me asandwich, first time I grabbed your hand, and then it's hard seeing the badthings. Wind tunnel. Erasers. Whitecoats. And we can't do anything aboutit, we literally are just watching our lives go by. I have to keep remindingmyself that we're all safe, together."
I nodded, that pretty much summed up what I was thinking. "I know, and it'sbizarre seeing how reluctant we were to talk to each other at first, since weknow each other so well now. I'd forgotten about how long it took me toconvince you to let me touch your leg."
Fang didn't respond, I thought that was the end of our heart-to-heartconversation thing, but then he looked at me and began to talk very quietly, sothe others couldn't hear. I hoped Angel was very absorbed in her magazine.
"I was so ready for anything." He began. "Just a spark of hope that theremight be somewhere out there, whether it was another room or the 'outside' youtold me about where I might be safe. Even if it wasn't true, what you weretelling me about trees taller than the room or apples with juice dripping, Iwanted to believe it so badly."
I was a bit shocked at him saying this, opening up so much. Even though we werereally close, we didn't go around having heart-to-heart sessions. It was slightly overwhelming.
"I nearly didn't believe him, Jeb that is," I said aloud, "when he first told me. I felt the same way, I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come."
Fang didn't say anything more, but swooped above me and kissed the top of my head. I don't know if he was going to say anything more, but suddenly Gazzy exploded. Not that way, thank God, Fang and I were downwind.
"Ella, do you have anything besides Dixie Chicks and Taylor Swift?"
"Yes," she responded patiently while the rest of us started cracking up, "Paramore, all the stuff Fang listens to,"
"Exactly!" I elbowed Fang as Gazzy pointed this out with a cheeky grin a Fang.
"Paramore, Augustana, Motion City Soundtrack, songs from Wicked and some of the Disney movies we watched. Play 'Why Should I Worry' by Billy Joel. You might like that."
"Billy Joel?" Nudge asked skeptically.
"Can you sing it for us, Gaz?" Nudge asked. "I mean, if Ella listens to anyone named 'Billy' it has got to be good. I love the music you listen to. I think its so cool how you and your friends have like, music sharing parties. That's awesome."
"Joel actually is pretty good," Fang mentioned. "I have an obsessed blogger."
"Isn't he the one with anger management? Or addicted to drugs or something?" Iggy asked.
"Everyone these days is addicted to drugs, Ig. It's to hard to keep track of them all." Angel said seriously, which to her bemusement made all of us laugh.
By now Gazzy had located the song and was listening through it to make sure he knew it.
"Ah!" He exclaimed. "I know this, I heard it in Texas at that football game we went to."
Then, he began to tap the whole song through until he began to sing. It was catchy, and he had a lot of fun with words like "bepopulation" and "savoire faire." He ended with some mimicked instrumentals and a lot of "whoo, whoo, whoo, whoos" then he finished with a mid-flight bow to Angel, Nudge and Ella's fierce clapping. It was great but there was a fine line between Billy Joel and Weird Al that Gazzy tended to cross all to often.
"Fantastic," I praised him, ruffling his already mussed up hair.
"Max?" Angel asked, handing the magazine back to Nudge. I was instantly aware, when Angel puts away a magazine she's either playing with Total or something is seriously wrong.
"Yes?" Please, please, not another power. Not another power. Not another...
"Do you think people would mind if they saw us?"
"What do you mean?" I asked suspiciously. Was there some CSM meeting we were going to that had slipped my mind?
"Like, on a plane. Seeing kids with wings."
"Well, Ang," I began hesitantly, "I don't know. That depends on the type of
people they are. Why?"
"There's a plane, or glider, I don't know, coming this way, it's behind that cloud." Angel stuck her lower lip out. "There's a tubby fat man who's not nice."
"Tubby fat man?" I giggled. Yes, I, Maximum Ride, giggled, when a mind reader informed me that a 'tubby fat man' was in fact sitting on the plane.
Fang is much better at dealing with tubby fat men. "What kind of mean thoughts?"
"Well," Angel began, "He was yelling at one of the ladies in the tiny dresses who tell you how to use an oxygen mask because she offered him peanuts and he's allergic."
Darned peanut allergies. I love peanut butter, almost as much as Mexican food and cookies. I also love peanut butter cookies, peanut butter crackers, and snacks manufactured in a factory that processes peanuts.
"Not that we don't love tubby fat men with nut allergies, but Angel, would any of them be, like, bad? As in School bad, or Itex, or Chu or director bad?" Nudge looked concernedly at the cloud. "Otherwise I don't mind them seeing us."
"I don't think so, actually, John's on it."
"CSM John?" I asked. The junk food man, as I often mentally referred to him as he had compared my knowledge of junk food to other things. And claimed I went running off. Apparently the Flock agrees with him on both accounts.
"Yep. He's bored and sitting next to the tubby fat man by the window. Can I go wave?"
Um, how about no? Just because we were now international celebrities, it didn't mean we had to go up to random planes at cruising altitude. Unfortunately, Angel was already diving away.
"Angel!" I yelled, then gestured the Flock to stay out of view by the cloud, and I bolted right through it. Ahh, cold, cold, cold! Clouds are not the pretty fluffy things that everyone always dreams about dancing on in ballet slippers, they're cold and wet. Then, my breath was knocked out of me as I slammed right into the plane. Right onto an open window.
I pushed away slightly, but held on, Angel was down the row. Waving cheekily to the passengers inside with their jaws hanging open, I slid down the row to Angel who apparently was sending thoughts to John. Finally, after ignoring the passengers looking at me like the kind of mutant freak I am, I got to the same window as John and Angel.
I waved at John, who waved back with a big smile. Generally, I don't like most adults much seeing as they have this uncanny tendency to try to stick me in a cage or a school, but John's decent.
He says "hi" and "how are you?" But he's a bit confused on why we're here. Angel sent into my head.
I rolled my eyes. Anyone would be. Tell him we're just in the area, and we're good.
Want me to set up a link between all three of us? Huh, I hadn't known shecould do that, but I guess it did come with her wonderful abilities to manipulate the human, or avian human mind.
Sure, and then I was greeted a moment later by John's slightly hoarse voice.
Hey, Max. Haven't seen you in a while.
Same here, what's up?
I heard a long internal sigh. Meeting, with suits and many governmenty 'bigwigs' as you tend to call them. All for the CSM, of course, and I'm happy to do it, but they never seem like they can make up their minds.
Tell me about it. I laughed, and it was nice seeing you, but Fang's carrying Akila, Iggy's carrying Ella, and I'm a bit tired, so I think we'll leave, but it was nice seeing you.
Yes, of course...wait, what? AKILA AND ELLA? John bolted up in his seat, eyesbugging out. Is there anything wrong? Where's Valencia? What-
It's fine, I reassured him, Ig and Gazzy are going to give us a fireworks display up at Lake Mead, mom's fine. I remembered Akila had been his friend'sdog. Total is keeping Akila company. I'll give mom your regards, if you'd like.
He relaxed, grinning. Sure, and I know how you love cameras and people are beginning to get over the initial shock... Give everyone a hello for me.
Yep. See ya. I waved, grabbed Angel by the waist (she was communicating witha carry-on Chihuahua) and jumped away from the plane.
Stupid cloud, my wings were immediately uncomfortable and icy, but I warped usforward for a second, and we were out of the cloud. Angel and I looked around,then she pointed. Off in the distance I saw the Flock waiting patiently, andGazzy wave.
"Max?" Angel asked. "Are we gonna warp back?"
I nodded, grinning like the crazy nutcase I am. "Hold on, it's awesome."
I grabbed her around the waist, then poured on the speed. I think I laughed,but it was torn away by the wind, and suddenly I was circling our group until Imanaged to slow. Angel rolled away, giggling madly, already dry despite thecloud exposure.
"John says 'hello.'" I reported, moving everyone forward again and settlinginto a somewhat stable flight pattern, despite my sore wing, next to Fang."And I can guarantee that tomorrow's newspapers will either be about John's CSMmeeting or flying mutant birds attacking a plane."
Fang rolled his eyes, Gazzy rubbed his hands together, laughing maniacally.Nudge was fussing over her windblown hair so much I had to remind her that onlyAngel and I had been in the pictures, but then she looked a bit disappointeduntil Ella pointed out that she wouldn't want to be sprawled on everything allover America in dirty jeans. Perish the thought. If I cared about myappearance, I probably should have been worried about all the flashes in theplane. Oh well, it was a small window.
"Max, are you worried about how you looked? Because, like it's nothingpersonal, but your shirt really would look better with jeans that weren't torn,and there's a bit of blood where you got bit, but Ella and Fang cleaned most ofit up so I wouldn't be too worried. I'm sorta glad I wasn't in the picturesnow, though, because I think my nail polish really isn't the right shade to gowith my shirt, see the stripes?" I nodded to show that in fact, I had seen thegold crisscrossing purple on her shirt and then again to show that her nailswere definitely the wrong type of purple. And that (GASP!) her pinky waschipped. Then, after my responses were deemed unsatisfactory, she turned toElla to appeal to.
"Poor Iggy." I heard Gazzy mutter, then he turned to talk with his sister. Ilooked at Fang, who was looking at me.
"Fang," I said pitifully, "What will I do? My jeans are ripped. This isobviously a cause for disaster, like, worse then flyboys."
He looked at me with raised eyebrows, then simultaneously we burst intolaughter.
