I know, it's been forever since I updated! Blame high school. The only reason I'm updating today is because I'm sick. Again, blame high school.

I finally saw Harry Potter Pt. 2. My life is officially over. ),: And my childhood. *sobs* Thankfully they have a Harry Potter enthusiasts club at my school. (A.K.A.: Therapy)

In other news, for those of you who don't know, James Patterson has moved the release date of Nevermore from February 2012 to August 2012. Which is good news for us because that means a much longer book. ;)

Also, I officially have a Facebook page. (Empress of Sarcasm.) I'll be posting unknown facts about characters and my stories. Also, check there to find out when I'll be updating or going on hiatus. (Which, by the way, will be from now until November, when we have a week-long break for Thanksgiving.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or any of its characters/.

Claimer: I own the plot.

Chapter 10

"Here," I said, handing Mike a water bottle and some charred desert rat. Yes, desert rat. Us flock members had had to resort to our old diet of warm bottled water and rat, cooked over an open flame to a crisp, after a quick scan of our backpacks had revealed a less-than-satisfactory supply of three protein bars. And that's out of the entire flock, by the way. "It'll help."

Just like old times, as the saying goes.

Only, you know, now Fang had his own group of mutants, wasn't here, my entire biological family was missing, Angel was dead (possibly, we were still unsure at this point), Dylan was a part of the flock, and now we had straggler Mike Schaefer, the computer hacker from months past.

But still just like old times.

He gladly accepted the food and drink and scarfed down the rat so fast that it made all of us blink. He guzzled the water like, well, a starving person who hadn't eaten for four days because they'd survived a freaking explosion.

"So what's your story?" I asked.

Mike stared into the fire for a second, and then looked at me. He seemed a dozen times older than the last time I'd seen him healthy, which was in the New York subway tunnels.

"Last month I was in LA," he said after a few minutes. "I was working for some corporate executive, trying to hack some rival's files. I was downtown when I saw you bird kids show up. Apparently there was some shindig at some major Hollywood-type club/restaurant." I nodded, remembering the incident in which Angel had actually aimed a gun at me and intended to shoot me and Jeb had been shot by an evil minion of one of our enemies. He paused. "That was when the Doomsday Group caught me.

"This girl started talking to me. She talked so honestly and sincerely that I just couldn't help but listen. And when I looked into her eyes…" He shuddered. "That was when I started thinking like one of them. It was horrible.

"So I ditched my computer—" He grimaced, like the thought was the worst thing possible "—and headed east. I had heard about a facility here in the desert that could make me a mutant. As a DG-head, that sounded like the best possible thing ever. That was when I met up with you, Dylan, and the little girl—Angel you said her name was?

"So I made it to the facility. They welcomed me with open arms. They thought it was brave that I wanted to become one of you—a mutant." He stopped for a minute. "And I got what I wanted. They gave me wings and all the 'perks' that come with it. The metabolism, the warmer core temperature, the bone structure, everything.

"'Bout a week later, I heard a couple of the leaders talking about the explosion in Paris. They wanted to blow up this facility, make sure authorities could never find it. So they did. I hadn't gotten far enough away by the time the clock hit zero. I got knocked unconscious. The next thing I knew, you guys found me, cured me of my DG-ness, and here we are."

I nodded, processing this information. "Mike," I whispered. "While you were in the facility, did you ever meet a girl named Ella Martinez?"

He looked at me. "Why? She a friend of yours?"

I poked the flaming logs of the fire with a stick. "She's my sister," I told him, my voice soft.

A look of sympathy crossed his face. He thought. "I think…" he muttered. "Yeah, I met your sister. She's a real looker that one, just like you. Guess it runs in the family."

"Where is she?" Iggy shouted, standing up. "Is she alive? Did she make it out?"

"Hold you horses there, buddy," Mike said. "Let me finish." As soon as Iggy sat down on the dirt heavily, he continued. "She got the surgery to be grafted with wings about the same time I did. She and I went through training together. She's a great fighter. The last time I saw her was about an hour before the explosion, getting on a bus with some other DG members. I don't know where the bus was going, but all I know was that she got out safely."

I let out a sigh of relief, and so did Iggy. For the first time in days, I felt a sense of hope.

"Which way did the bus go, Mike?" Dylan asked.

Mike's brow crinkled. "Southeast, if my memory serves me correctly—which it always does."

More relief swept through me. At least I knew the general direction where my sister was going. That at least left out most of North America, Europe, and Asia. That left South and Central America and Africa.

"Do you know where they might have taken them?" I asked.

"Yeah," Mike said. "There's one place that they take trainees with gills—like your sister has."

"Where?" Iggy asked. I knew that he wanted to go there.

Mike thought, rubbing his temples. "About a thousand miles off the coast of Rio there's this base. From what I've heard, they have about twenty-thousand mutants there. And you have to take a boat to get there."

"Why?" I asked. This just kept getting more mysterious by the second.

He chuckled. "Like I said, it's a thousand miles off the coast. And plus they've got shark/human hybrids guarding the place day in and day out, so if you try to park your boat a good ways off and swim your way in, which you'd have to by the way since the entrance is a little bit below the surface, you'd be subjected to a feeding frenzy on a scale you've never heard of, let alone seen. You try to sneak in there you don't have a chance."

I thought for a long time. The odds were certainly weighed against us. But then again, when had that ever stopped me before?

"I have an idea," I told them after a while. "But it's going to take a lot of effort on both parts."

"I'm sorry," Dylan said, holding up one hand. "Did you just say both parts? Who else do we need to get involved?"

I smiled. "Their part can wait for a while. But ours—mine—will take a little bit more effort." I told them the plan quietly, just in case someone might be listening in. (Yeah right. We had scanned the entire area within a fifty mile radius. No one was going to listen.)

Iggy thought. "That… might just work," he said. "But you never know with him."

I nodded. "But it's worth every chance we have. Now everyone get some sleep. We have a long flight tomorrow."

This is where the story gets good. ;) This chapter was officially dedicated to GoldfishThoughts, who is possibly the best reviewer I've ever had. Thanks for your words of encouragement!

Please remember to review/favorite/alert!

Peace, Love, Happiness, and Maximum Ride.

-A$h