A/N - I'm back! But writing this story always gives me such a writer's block D: Yay to the reviewers, though! xD Speaking of reviewers, some people have told me that it's confusing with all of the Zander/Zera/Zarra POV switching, so here's the distinction for you.
ZARRA is the oldest, and is the same age as Iggy, being his match. She is a deaf mute.
ZERA is the middle child, being Gazzy's match. She is one year older than him, and is really kind of useless apart from being the brain of the mission to destroy the world.
ZANDER is the youngest boy who can read people's minds and body languages. He is Angel's match.
Hope that helped! ^^
My Girl
Chapter 9
Gazzy POV
Bored, bored, bored. Not only did they keep us prisoners in this rat hole, but they also had to starve us, drug us and separate us. Once again, I had been moved into that special room for testing. They told me it was because they were sure there was something wrong with me, but I knew it was to keep me away from Angel.
They wanted to see how we reacted without seeing each other. And it was working quite well, judging from my beating my head against the concrete wall around me every other second.
"Bored, bored, bored," I mumbled, hitting my head on the wall with every "bored" that spilled out of my mouth. My head had started aching long ago, but at least this distracted me from the insane boredom. I didn't know if that made me crazy or just masochistic, but either way, my head was starting to go numb.
It had been hours since anyone had checked on me. Occasionally, one of those bastards would poke their head in to make sure if I was still alive. I got a few amused chuckles out of them every time I went back to beating my head against the wall. Well, that was just dandy. Happy to amuse.
One thing was for sure – the scientist bastards weren't the only ones who had been in and out of my room while I slept. I hadn't forgotten about that clipboard that I had found on the floor when I had woken up. Sure, it had been about ten days, but I had seen it, and her handwriting on it, using my awesome raptor-vision powers.
And how did I happen to know that it was hers? Well, I know so many whitecoats that dot their i's with hearts.
I didn't know when she'd been in there, I could have been asleep for days or hours or a few seconds, but she had definitely come in to see me. I had no idea what she wanted, because she wasn't the one who controlled or fed me, but for whatever reason, she had been in there.
I hated myself, because just thinking that maybe she had been in there because she wanted to see me made me happier than I had been in a long time. She didn't feel that way about me, and I knew it might have been because she was a year or so older than I was. But I still hated thinking that maybe, I could possibly like her.
It reminded me of once when we were staying at Dr. Martinez's house, a month or so after Fang left. Max was in tears constantly, and Iggy was just trying to hold things together, and Nudge couldn't stop talking to try to ease the tension, even though she really only made things worse.
Angel and I were the ones who tried to be like we were before. She came home, and apologized to Max and the rest of the flock. Max didn't forgive her, and maybe she still didn't. Either way, it should have been just like before, but it wasn't, because Fang was gone.
When I was with Angel, she was my sister, and I could just forget the fact that Fang had left and that everyone was miserable. We spent time together, took walks, sometimes just sat and laughed or made jokes. But one day, when I was walking with her on the sidewalk to the park, we saw some kids on the other side of the sidewalk.
They were cute and really young, younger than we were. But they were standing beside a van, the man inside the van saying something to them that we couldn't hear. His charming smile and welcoming attitude soothed the children, and we saw them get into his van.
The van drove away, and we were too stunned to do or even say anything. The guy in the van could have been their uncle, or a family friend, or even their father, for all we knew. But there was something nagging at my brain, telling me that he could be one of those perverts that pretend to be nice just to kidnap innocent children.
They were the evil ones. And some part of me knew that Zera wasn't evil. But she was smart enough to know that it was kill or be killed, and she wouldn't simply be killed. She was like the man in the van, at least to me, the one who seemed to be nice and civil, making her like you, maybe a little too much, but really just lured you in until you were trapped.
But I already was trapped. I'd be trapped forever if I didn't get out of this.
Dylan POV
It had been a slow process getting any close to Venezuela ever since the planes had started showing up. The same black planes were everywhere, either following us or corrupting more people. They stopped over large cities, over small villages, and over small farmhouses, determined not to miss anything.
I didn't know much about the Director. I clearly hadn't been around for whatever happened between her and Max, but I knew she was evil enough to destroy the world. She was doing a good job of it, too. By now, almost half of North America would be brainwashed with the gas.
Every few miles, another plane would come by, so the plan might have been going faster than I had thought. To avoid being seen, we'd have to stop constantly, hiding in the trees until the plane passed, only to be met with another one a few miles later. It was tedious, but of course it had to be done.
We were currently taking a break. Or at least, I was taking a break. Fang was frozen, as always, sitting up against the tree trunk where I had deposited him. We didn't have a fire, and I was almost out of food. I had no money, so stopping at one of the towns was out.
My stomach growled, not for the first time, but I clenched my fists, keeping my promise to myself that I'd ration it and have only a little each day. That only reminded me how long this was taken. Max had been with them for over two weeks, and the flock was probably being starved and abused.
I hated myself for letting that happen. But I couldn't do anything to help them. I felt just as helpless as they did. The difference was that I wasn't in a dog crate or a concrete cell, fighting with all my willpower to stay alive.
Just then, I heard a groan, and my head snapped over to the source. Fang's eyelids were blinking rapidly, and one of his arms was twitching. But how was that possible?
"Help," I just barely heard him whisper. His eyes were wide, and his voice was hoarse. Both of his arms started twitching, his neck stretching out but he didn't seem able to lift his body off the ground.
I crawled over and helped him to sit up better. I forgot that he was the person I hated. He was just another guy that probably loved Max as much as I did, maybe even more. I was furious at myself for thinking that. No one loved Max more than I did. Just because he had her first didn't mean that he was made for her.
I shrank back, remembering that the very reason that I was made was for her. I was everything she could ever want, should be everything she ever wanted. I was made for her, to suit her likes and dislikes and interests and tastes and personality. So why was I helping him, when he wanted to take away everything I loved?
Yet I found myself digging what was left of the water out of my backpack, and getting him some food. He accepted them with shaking hands, hands that were just regaining their feeling from being paralyzed so long. He drank all of it, and I tried to ignore my own hunger and thirst.
I discovered that it was easier to feel good about rescuing him when he was just a statue, not able to talk and think and basically exist. Now that he was back to normal, I almost wanted to kill him, which was scary. Max would never know, and there would be nothing standing in between us.
I'd had the thought before, but never like this. I was seriously considering it, knowing that I'd get away with it. Fang had wanted to kick me out of the flock, take away my only family and practically leave me to die. I had enough rage inside me to do something like that.
"Thank you." Fang spoke softly, not looking me in the eye.
What? I was dumbfounded. He was clearly as thrilled about thanking me as I was about having him alive, but he had thanked me, and I was surprised. And I had to admit that maybe he was the better person. Because I knew for sure that I wouldn't have said the same thing to him, not in a million years.
"You're welcome," I answered simply.
Max POV
And now, time for one of Nudge's newest games, "Where's-the-bathroom-in-this-place-oh-wait-what's-that-bucket-over-there", brought to you by the lack of toilets or proper indoor plumbing in our jail cell.
"Done," she announced in a small voice, setting the bucket at the far end of the room, humiliated. I pointedly ignored her, but I had to admit that it was painful, not talking to anyone in ten days. It must have been killing Nudge.
"I so wish they had soap here," Nudge complained, not for the first time, and I rolled my eyes.
"Easy over there, OCD," I said. "With what they're feeding us, you have to admit that it's not that often."
"Can we not talk about this anymore?" she asked, wrinkling her nose, and clearly not noticing that I had said my first words to her since our little fight over my boyfriend.
But I ignored it. This is how bored and sad and alone being imprisoned could make you. "Hey, you talked to me!" she finally yelped, not sure whether to smile or to be slightly alarmed. "Why?" she asked, confused.
I sighed. "Because it was too quiet. Because I need human companionship, and you're the closest thing I could find. Because it alarms me that you can't talk to me during the day, so you talk in your sleep. And because I miss you," I said, not looking at her.
Nudge sat down in the center of the room. One thing I was glad for was that she had complained so bitterly about not being able to go to the bathroom that they had released us from our chains and were now more concerned with putting an electric field on the other side of the door to ensure that we didn't get out.
"Here it is, Max," she looked up at me. "I miss you, too. I miss when you were my sister and I could trust you with anything, and we weren't fighting all the time. But just because I miss you, I'm not going to stop liking Fang."
I gaped at her. "Who do you think you are? He's my boyfriend, and he has been for years! I love him, and I waited for him for over a year! You're too young for him, anyway!" I was practically spitting with rage.
"Sit down," she said sadly. "I think we can talk without yelling this time." And even though I wanted to grab her neck and beat her skinny head against the concrete wall, I thought better of it. I sat on the floor and folded my legs under me, looking at her expectantly.
"Stop talking to me like I'm a little kid!" she exclaimed, surprising me. "I'm fourteen! I'm as old as you were when you and Fang first got together, and no one treats me like it! Max, I can't help who I like! When you left Fang and me alone at the cliff with the hawks two and a half years ago, I started liking him!"
"So why didn't you just get him then?" I asked.
"Hello, I was eleven!" she rolled her eyes. "He would have talked to me like you're talking to me now! And it was all fine when I was eleven, but it's been three years, and we've all grown up, not just you, Fang and Iggy!"
"What about Dylan?" I asked, avoiding her eyes. I hadn't thought of Dylan for a few days, mostly because it was Fang that Nudge liked, so I had been focused on him. But what was I to Dylan now? I thought I'd decided that I had chosen Fang.
"Dylan's my brother," she shrugged.
"Great," I gave a shaky laugh. "The one who showed up just over a year ago is your brother, but the one that's been with you all your life is the one you really love." I searched her face. "And you really do love him, don't you?" She gave a meek nod.
"You always get the guys!" she sighed. "First Fang falls in love with you, and then Dylan. You're amazing and pretty and I'm just…me…" she finished glumly.
"Sweetie, you're really cute, but I guess you're just too much like family," I hugged her, wanting desperately to believe what I said was true. I couldn't let her take Fang from me. He was familiar, adventurous, and Dylan was just too…safe? But hadn't I always wanted someone safe, the opposite of my life?
My head was swimming, but I managed to get out one more thing. "I'm over Dylan," I choked out. "It was just a phase."
"Phase or not, he still loves you," Nudge pulled away to look at me. "Even if you're not meaning to, you're breaking his heart."
Iggy POV
I heard the cell door open, and I knew it was her. It was always her. She was the only one that came in, and the only one who was kind at all. She always brought food, or something to do, and sometimes she came alone, just to talk, knowing that it had to be hard for me to pass the time.
Sometimes it was hard to tell that she was deaf and mute. Unable to hear and sometimes jumbling her words when she talked, she generally preferred to communicate with her mind. But when she couldn't, like to other people, she carried a small whiteboard everywhere.
I usually looked forward to her coming. I knew she wasn't really allowed to see me, at least because we were supposed to fight each other, but she came in anyway. She was more of a friend than my family had been in the last year or so. And I knew it wasn't right, because it was betraying Max and the flock, but I probably appeared like a puppy waiting for its master to come home.
"Hey, Zarra," I said casually, laying on the floor and staring blankly up at the ceiling, or at least what I thought was the ceiling. For all I knew, the ceiling could have been torn off by a twister while I slept, but I trusted that it was still attached, and rather than slamming into the ceiling, I stayed where I was.
Her mental self –the picture of her that I saw in my mind as she spoke to me, unlike Max or the others- giggled, amused by my strange thoughts. What if it had been someone else, Iggy? You should be more careful, she scolded.
Relax, it's always you, I thought back. Well, it wasn't exactly like thinking. I had to work to get the point across, really think as if saying it in my mind, not just the vague idea like I did with Angel.
I'll say, she retorted as she sat down next to me. I'm practically the one saving you from death. I feed you, and keep you company…
It's also your fault that I'm in here, I rolled my eyes jokingly, but she cast me a worried look.
I'm sorry, she sighed. I am the reason you're in here, because you're my 'match' or whatever. I'm sorry I can't do anything to help you, but there's just too much security, and you're blind. I know that you and the flock are right. The Director is evil.
This isn't your fault, I protested. I won't let you be killed just for helping me.
It is my fault! she exploded. I should be able to help you, and get the flock to safety! I should have Doctor Gunther-Hagen get you your sight back, just like he refuses to do with my hearing until I help him! But I can't! I can't even help my little sister, who thinks that the Director really is right, and is helping her to destroy the world.
I sat up. I didn't understand why I was so bent on getting my enemy to see that it wasn't her fault, but I was. I put one arm around her shoulder, hugging her tightly. It is not your fault, I emphasized, and she lifted her head, her face only inches from mine. And I had the craziest thoughts.
Thoughts like leaving the flock and staying with Zarra. Who cared if I was under the Director's power? I could get her to trust me, and we could escape, just the two of us. And wouldn't that be great? Just forgetting the flock to be with Zarra?
Zarra's eyes were swimming with her own thoughts, and I had my own. I couldn't hear hers, and I hoped she couldn't hear mine. Because this was wrong, what I was feeling. I wouldn't forget the flock for a girl. A girl risking her own death for you, I snarled at myself, but I ignored it.
I'm sorry, the thought was hazy with others as she picked herself up off the floor. A second later, the door slammed, and she was gone.
Fang POV
"So you're saying that the gas wears off?" Dylan asked. Man, he was slow. Unfortunately, he had given me food and water, so I guess I kind of owed it to him to at least stay and tell him what I knew. I nodded blankly.
The color returned to Dylan's face quickly. "So all of those people…" I thought I heard him mumble, but I was probably just hearing things. I hadn't been able to close my eyes, eat, or sleep for days. I had been completely paralyzed, unable to move my chest, making breathing difficult.
"Look, I don't care who finds the flock first," he continued, "But they're probably dying in there. It's been too long, what with all those planes and everything. I'm so worried that when we make it there…not all of them will be saved."
I was silent for a moment, too. "As much as I hate to say this…it's not going to do either of us much good to be alone. And we're no use to the flock if we're dead, that's for sure."
"Are you suggesting…"
"Yeah."
We both groaned.
Zander POV
"Do you just keep coming here because you're bored, or what?" she asked, highly annoyed, as I sat with my back to her cage. I grinned, although she couldn't see it. She was right, I was bored, and I had come because it annoyed her, and provoking her was fun. But it was also because I couldn't stay away.
"Fine. I'm in here because I have a test to give you, and the doctors didn't want to deal with the little winged demon," I answered. It was a lie, but whatever. I pulled out a scrunched up paper, the posters that eye doctors use to test your vision with the big E on the top.
What? I don't know what it's called. Let's just call it the eye-tester-inator.
"I am going to use this to test your eyes," I said, pointing to the eye-tester-inator. "Just testing your raptor vision-thing. So see if you can tell me all the letters. Let's start with the big letter on top," I offered, stifling a cackle.
I walked to the back of the storage area and held up the poster. "Ready!" I called.
"E," she said easily.
"Sorry, that's wrong," I said in all seriousness.
"The top letter is an E," she insisted. "Look, it's right there!"
"Sorry, that's not an E," I shook my head.
"Look, you idiot," she seethed, "That is a freaking E! Can't you read?"
I fell over laughing.
She growled viciously, but strangely, a little blonde girl wasn't very vicious. "You were just tricking me, you loser!" she snarled. I only laughed harder.
"What was your first clue?" I gasped in between fits of laughter. "You're supposed to be the mind reader, and you couldn't even figure that out! What kind of a bird kid are you?"
"I was distracted," she pouted defensively.
"By my devilishly handsome good looks?" I wiggled my eyebrows. Her cheeks reddened significantly, and she looked away.
"Come on, lighten up," I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling.
"I'd lighten up for a sandwich," she complained. "Do you have any idea what they feed us?"
"One sandwich for the lady, coming right up," I grinned, and I was off.
And she thought I didn't notice her little giggle.
Gazzy POV
Once I had grown bored of hitting my head on the wall -that, and it was starting to really hurt-, I had decided to take a nap. My stomach growled painfully, and I missed Angel and the rest of the flock, but I could forget about it all if I slept.
Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard a soft scratching at the door. I didn't show any sign of being awake, I let my shoulders sag. But out of the corner of my eye, I could see a small head towards the bottom window in the door. It was Zera.
Her eyes traveled around the room, and I shut my eyes when they ghosted over my "sleeping" form. After making sure that I was asleep, the door opened quietly and she tiptoed in, retrieving her notebook, and making for the door.
But something made her stop, and she turned around and stared at me. I tried not to flinch. She stayed like that for a few minutes, then disappeared behind the door. When I was sure she was down the hall, I pumped my fist in the air. "She likes me!" I whisper-hissed to myself.
…Wait…was that a good thing?
3rd POV
The Director was angry as she glared down at Dr. Gunther-Hagen. "I told you there can be no screw-ups this time!" she growled in frustration. "There was a glitch in the formula! Fang is alive, and getting closer. The gas's effects are only temporary!"
"I'll fix it!" he growled back. He didn't need to be told what to do, especially from this bitch who didn't know anything about science. "We'll re-distribute it, even in a vaccine. We can lie and tell them it's for an unknown illness, and people will take it. In the meantime, Fang will be no threat."
"Do not underestimate him!" The Director slammed her fist on the table, hatred in her face. "He was trained by Max. She almost killed me two years ago! I do not want a repeat, understand?"
"What do you want me to do?" he growled.
"Send in the Kaiju for them," she smirked.
Alrighty then. For those of you who have never seen Godzilla -coughlikemecough-, Kaiju is the Japanese word for 'monster'. A Kaiju is a humanoid monster that is generaally very tall and goes about destroying cities and killing people. A Kaiju is a medium-sized large monster, wheras a daikaiju is a large supermonster. But I didn't say that, now did I? xD Next chapter - monster time! 8D
Also, I have decided to stop using the line breaks because they are a BITCH to do on my computer, since they never show up or they show up in the wrong places, making you all confused. So now, you get to be told whose POV it is! Yaaaaay! ^3^
~Rachel
