A/N: Last chapter was depressing. I almost cried writing it. Nothing much to say. Hopefully this will be another long chapter. Vacation gives you a lot of free time. Especially when you're sore. Warning: Don't go skiing on black diamond trails unless you're READY. I fell about five times and lost both my skiis. Needless to say, I'm never going on another black diamond trail let alone a DOUBLE black diamond trail. I stick to blues and greens.

If you want to see pictures of my lovely trip, follow me on InstaGram (endlesswinters) and see some really awesome mountains. And sled dogs =]

Robert de Spaz: I took up your idea of eating one sausage for every cliffhanger I do. My mom made sausage for dinner one night and I almost died laughing. I took one bite and the sausage was gross. Sorry. Just couldn't do it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. But it would be cool if I did because then I would be the only one who knew what would happen next. Credit goes to the incredible James Patterson.

Heres the chapter.

Chapter 10: Beneath

Fang leaned in to hug me tightly. I held on to him for dear life. He was the only thing right now that was keeping me sane right now. We pulled apart. We stared at each other.

The cause of what happened next baffled me. I don't know if it was what Gazzy said before he died, because I truly did have feelings for Fang, or because all my emotions were screwed up and I just didn't know what to do. Or just because he was...Fang.

I kissed him. And not your usual peck on the cheek, "just friends" kiss. Full-blown, on the mouth kiss.

I felt him lean back in surprise. I had almost knocked him down with the force of my kiss. His mouth was hard against mine, but then I felt it soften. One arm wrapped around my waist and his free hand cupped my cheek gently.

And you know whats funny? Even though I had kissed him, I still didn't know what I felt for him.

I suddenly realized what I had done. I had kissed my best friend. I pulled away quickly and stared at him, not knowing what to do. I unwrapped my arms from his neck. But his arm still encircled my waist and his hand was still cupping my face.

"I-" I stuttered. I didn't know what to say. I had no explanation for what I had just done. Actually I did. But the way Fang kissed me just seemed so...genuine. It felt real. Like Fang really did have feelings for me. If I explained myself, I feared I would hurt him terribly.

So I ran. I flew down the spiral staircase of the balcony and ran to my dorm. When I was dead center in the middle of the courtyard, and slid to a stop. I knew what I had to do. I don't know if I was going to do it because I was confused, insane or anything else. I just had to do it.

FANG POV:

I knew what Max was feeling. I had known the Gasman for as long as I could remember. I missed him. I leaned in to hug her. When I did, she hesitated a second before hugging me back so tightly, I almost started coughing. When we pulled apart, we stared at eachother for what seemed like an eternity.

She kissed me. She had kissed me right on the mouth. I stumbled back in surprise. I kissed her back. I wrapped one arm around her waist and cupped her face with my other hand.

I didn't know if I wanted this moment to end. For one thing, Max was my best friend. And now we were...kissing?

I don't know if a person can taste like emotions, but Max certainly did. Our kisses tasted of desperation and sadness. I was confused too. If I wanted to pull away, I was afraid I would hurt Max's feelings. I felt a stirring emotion inside my chest as we kissed. But before I could figure out what it was, she pulled away. I opened my eyes. She looked surprised at herself.

"I-" she stuttered. I didn't know what to say either. It was like I was reading her mind.

But before I could say anything to her, she ran off. And my first thought was; God, she's a fast runner.

With almost silent footsteps, I followed her.

MAX POV:

I stopped at the dorm next door to Fang and Iggy's. It was the Gasmans room. Without hesitation, I pulled out the lock picking kit that I stole from Iggy and picked the lock to the room. When I opened the door, I instantly felt a wave of emptiness. And a stench that made my eyes water.

I spotted a large box in the corner. Perfect. I thought. As fast as I could, I rifled through drawers and cabinets, even under the bed. I gathered up all his stuff that I could find and stuffed it in the box, and sealed it shut.

Next stop, janitors closet. Nothing much. I just grabbed a shovel and ran outside to a secluded part of the courtyard where no one goes. It was all grass. Green. His favorite color. Just the thought of it made me choke up a bit.

I jammed the shovel into the ground, scooping up dirt and grass as I went. I needed to make the hole as deep and large as possible. I shoveled angrily and threw the dirt and grass everywhere.

I felt him. I felt Fang behind me.

"Max?" he said, his voice tinted with concern.

"What." I didn't turn around or stop what I was doing.

"Whatcha doin?"

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing, Fang?" I turned around and glared at him.

"Uhhh...digging to China?" After realizing that my glare had no effect on him, I went back to digging. My shovel hit something hard with a clank! I struck harder. Still there. I kept hitting the thing in my way with my shovel angrily until I jammed my finger.

"DAMN IT!" I yelled as I held my finger. I got so frustrated, that I just sat down on the grass and cried. I cried. What was that? The third time today? I was becoming weak. I tried to hide my tears from Fang but failed. He sat next to me in the grass and put an arm around my shoulder and hugged me tight.

"Max. What exactly were you planning on doing?"

"We didn't get to have a funeral for him. They cremated him at the hospital. I just wanted to bury his stuff. So it would seem like we got to have one for him." I wiped my runny nose on my sleeve.

"Oh..." Fang sighed. He kissed my hair.

After a moment of silence, he spoke up.

"Can I help you?"

"No." I stood up and walked over to the hole I made. I decided that getting the thing out with the shovel would be a waste of time. So I reached inside the hole, and felt around for the thing that was blocking my path. I felt...a handle? I gave it a yank. No luck. This time, I gave it a harder one.

It opened. It wasn't a rock. It wasn't a piece of concrete lost inside the earth. It was a door. A trap door to be exact. When I yanked it open, it surprised me and I fell in, head-first. I gave a shout and fell. And fell, and fell, and fell. It was like falling down the rabbit hole in Alice and Wonderland. That's how deep it was.

I hit my head at the bottom of the hole so hard I literally saw stars. And when I looked up, I realized that it wasn't just any hole in the ground. It was a tunnel. A very long one. To my left, it stopped after about ten feet. To my right, it looked like it when on and on forever.

"Max! You okay?" I heard Fang yell from the surface. He seemed like he was a million miles away.

"Oh, yeah! After falling about fifty freaking feet and hitting my head, I feel just perfect!" I yelled back.

I heard a soft ruffle of wings and before I knew it, Fang was next to me, looking at the never ending tunnel.

"Whoa..." he muttered. I started to walk down the tunnel when Fang grabbed me by the arm.

"Max, no. You don't know what could be down there."

"Which is exactly why I'm going down there."

"Max, I'm not letting you go down there."

"You could always come with me, you know."

"I'm not going down that tunnel."

"Okay. Have fun then." I started walking down the tunnel.

"Max." he said warningly.

"Fang." I mocked his tone. I looked at him as if to say Are you coming or not, you wimp?

He threw his head back and exhaled heavily.

"Fine." he sounded as if he had just had it with me.

As we walked further and further down the tunnel, a small light appeared at what looked like the end. As we kept walking towards it, it grew bigger in size. I looked at Fang. He looked just as confused as I was. We started running at it. We couldn't fly at it because the tunnel wasn't wide enough. Unless we wanted to fly sideways, we woud have to go by foot.

After about a mile and a half of walking, we reached the end. And the source of the light, came from a door with a window on the upper half. There were curtains drawn. I tried opening it, but it was locked from the inside. I knelt down to pick the lock, when Fang stopped me-again. This was getting annoying. Who does he think he is? My protector? Right.

I glared at him threateningly. I gave him a look that said, If you try to stop me one more freaking time, I will bit your hand off and stick it down your throat. He let go of my shoulder and I continued trying to pick the lock.

After about ten minutes with no success of opening the door, I gave up and just started kicking at the door knob with all my strength. Fang just looked at me.

"Are you gonna help me or not?" I asked him.

We both started kicking at the door with all our might, hoping that someway, somehow, we would be able to see what was behind it.

There was a crack. I saw a crack run along the side of the door. We were getting close. With a couple more kicks, the door gave way. We hesitated for a moment. Deciding if we wanted to go in or not. The place gave me the creeps.

Fang was the first one to step inside. It just looked like an abandoned room. But someone forgot to shut the lights off. Either way, it was still creepy.

After a minute of contemplating, I stepped inside. It smelled earily like antiseptic. It was a plain, white room with no windows. The fluffy white carpet looked a little too perfect. Almost like no one even dared to step onto it even with perfect little socks or brand new shoes. Or they were just obsessed with the cleanness of the carpet. I took my shoes off. If whoever used this room was one of Them, there was no sense in letting them know Fang and I were here.

"Fang," I whispered, "Take your shoes off," he looked around and seemed to understand why and took off his boots.

There were a couple white chairs, that looked fitted to be in a model home. It was almost like in this room, whoever maintained it, wanted to be sure there was absolutely no evidence. To whatever it was.

Voices. And not just the one in my head. Real voices. They were so soft that normal humans wouldn't be able to hear them at all. I looked at Fang. He was frozen in place. Eye's like a deer in headlights. We opened our wings a bit, incase we needed to make a quick getaway.

I heard a low growl. After spending the first ten years of your life at the School, you recognize that growl. It's like having perfect pitch. But instead of recognizing the name of the note, you can tell on the spot what the growl belonged to. Or even who it belonged to. And this one belonged to Ari. My half-brother.

I wanted to get out of here. Make a break for it, and fly straight out of here. Every sense in my body told me to run. Run and don't look back.

Just like you did to Ari, Max. the Voice said. I ignored it.

Except one. One of my senses told me to peer around the corner and see who it was. And what they were doing. What they were talking about.

Naturally, I listened to that one part of me that was maybe just too curious.

With footsteps softer than Fangs (and that's saying something) I rounded the corner. There was a white, metal door. No fingerprints. Not even on the handle. The door looked like it was designed so that no sound could get through. Inside or out. Looks like they never took bird-kid super hearing into account. I could hear every word they were saying, loud and clear. A couple inches above my eyes, was a peephole. I rose up on my toes and peered through. I had to hold in a gasp.

"You're sure?" Anne Walker asked Dr. Harvey.

"Absolutely. The boy made it, and he's very well. He's being shipped off to California as of right now." he said with a heavy British accent.

"And the other students?" Brigid Dwyer asked.

"I told you, Dr. Dwyer. They're of no use to the School or me. They would never had made it anyway."

"Dr. Walker. You failed. At the hospital this morning, the other children showed up at once. Judging from body language, they were all quite comfortable with eachother. Why didn't you keep them apart like we ordered? You do understand that they can't know about eachother."

Dr. Walker lowered her head as if she had failed at her task. Which she clearly had if Dr. Harvey was talking about us.

"I couldn't help it. If I deliberately tried to keep them apart, they would suspect something."

"I'm very sorry to hear that. But unfortunately, we don't offer second chances in my line of work." with that, he took a gun out from behind his back and shot at Dr. Walker in the head. She dropped dead instantly. Brigid looked like she was about to lose her lunch, but she remained her composure.

"Ah, Ari my boy," Dr. Harvey said, now to Ari who had just entered the room. "You know what to do." But I didn't. I grabbed Fangs hand and we hightailed it out of the place. We picked up our shoes at the entrance and shut the door silently, being sure to lock it on our way out.

We spread our wings and flew sideways out the tunnel and up to the surface. I shut the trap door slash secret entrance and as fast and neat as I could, I filled up the gaping hole I made with dirt. Now no one had ever gone in or out.

"Max, what'd you hear in there? Who was in there?" Fang said, gasping. He was still trying to catch his breath.

"He's alive. The Gasman's alive, Fang. I heard Dr. Walker, Dr. Harvey, and Brigid talking about it. Fang. Dr. Harvey killed Dr. Walker because she couldn't keep us apart. Oh, my God." I said, finally realizing what had just happened. "Ari was in there too. That's when I left. But Gazzy's alive. They're shipping him off to the School right now."

Fang just stared at me, like he could't believe what he'd just heard. Then he smiled. Or sort of. I've developed a theory that Fang is incapable of completely smiling.

"He's alive." He repeated. And then, Fang strode towards me and kissed me. He kissed me like he was afraid to lose me. Like he would never see me again. Like I had almost died.

And I think I liked it. It wasn't like when I kissed him before and I didn't know how I felt. My emotions were all over the place. I forgot to breathe, and pulled away. I opened my eyes. Fang looked like he wanted to kiss me again.

"Max," he started. At least he had an explanation. "I'm sorry. I-I dunno what I was thinking. I guess I was just overwhelmed and...I was afraid that you might've died in there." I stepped a bit further away from him. I'll admit it. I was scared. I was scared that I would lose my best friend.

"Fang," I interrupted him, "It's okay. I pretty much did the same thing to you. But I didn't know what I was doing. I think I was just upset." Crap. Did I just say that out loud? Fang looked like I had just slapped him. Quickly, I changed the subject,

"Look, Gazzy's alive. We've got to tell Angel and the others. We've got to find him."

He nodded his head. And we ran.

But before we did, the ground beneath us exploded.

AND THE PLOT THICKENS!

Another semi-longish chapter. I get back to school tomorrow and wont update again until maybe this Sunday.

GUESS WHO GOT TICKETS TO THE MIDNIGHT PREMIERE OF THE HUNGER GAMES! ME! Four days. And the world will be watching =]

I'm super excited. And if you haven't read the books, I recommend it before watching to movie.

REVIEW!