The camper burned almost as well as sticks and twigs Gasman realized sometime later as they sat huddled around it the dark at their backs.
Nudge was pressed against him from the right, her wing around him comfortingly. Fang was to her other side and Iggy was on his left gnawing on a granola bar, bored out of his skull.
Aaron was almost ten feet away, alone, his head bowed broken glasses reflecting the flames back at them. He hadn't spoken since he'd made his confession hours before.
Nudge, surprisingly, had remained silent and Gasman had only gaped at him.
Iggy on the other hand had said only one word. A short four letter word that, had Max heard him, would have gotten him punched in the arm.
Fang, like his newly found big brother hadn't spoken since ... That was until now.
"What do you mean you can't fly!" He spat, releasing all his pent up anger and astonishment in those seven little words.
Aaron sighed and hugged his knees, giving the boy across from him a rather hateful look. "Well, if you had spent your entire life locked in a cage instead of flapping about as you pleased you'd be a bit behind in the aeronautical department also!" His voice was deeper, more controlled and adultlike than it had been earlier.
Fang was on his feet, his eyes reflecting the brilliant red of the fire. "For your information we were ALL stuck in cages, we've only been OUT of cages about ten months."
Aaron shook his head, "According to your BLOG you've been out a few years actually."
Fang decided Aaron's accent sounded quite pompous and he wanted to smash his fist into his brother's mouth. But for some reason he regretted that thought as soon as it popped into his head. "How long have you been out then? How long were you with HIM before all this crap started?"
Aaron sat his jaw and returned Fang's deathlike stare, "I was at the Institute in London my whole life. Da- Mr. Hutchinson rescued me two days before your friend Max apparently got there."
Fang's stomach clenched ... Max...
"I'd been locked in a kennel for thirteen years, Nick. I'd never seen the sky before he found me. I've never had the opportunity to fly, let alone the room to even straighten my wings properly."
"What about David?" He felt himself ask even before Aaron stopped speaking.
Aaron chuckled darkly, "We found him at the Itex headquarters in Yazoo three days after I was rescued. Dad got your E-mail and we went in for the kill. David was due for extermination because his powers were ... Unstable, and we were able to grab him and release four others before we were noticed."
Something clicked in Fang's mind and he gave his head a little shake, "David has abilities?"
Aaron nodded slowly, "Yes, he does, doesn't everyone?" He made a circular motion with his index finger, "Everyone, as in; all recombinant life forms present."
Fang shifted on his feet uncomfortably and opened his mouth to speak but Gasman jumped up and dashed forward grinning, his hand out.
"Pull my finger!"
Fang gagged, "NO, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY DO NOT PULL HIS FINGER!"
Aaron stared up at him an eyebrow raised his hand extended, barely an inch from Gazzy's index finger. "Dare I ask why?"
Fang pointed to the blonde, "'The Gasman' ... THINK about that name for a second."
Aaron's lips curled back, and he withdrew his hand. "Oh."
He stared up at Gazzy slightly amused, but mostly horrified, "You and David should get along famously."
Gasman plopped down beside Aaron grinning, "Why?"
"Well ... er ... You see, David's nickname is 'Sandman'."
Nudge snorted, "Sandman?"
Aaron nodded, "He can make people fall asleep just by thinking it ... Though he has been known to blow imaginary sand into your face as he does it. Bit annoying actually."
"Is that why you were konked out when we found you?" Iggy said, still gnawing on the granola bar.
Aaron sighed but nodded, "He was afraid, he didn't know what he was doing ... Is he all right?"
Fang nodded, "Max and Angel are with him."
"Are you sure it's smart to leave two girls alone like that?"
Fang laughed out loud.
"BIG fire. BIG-BIG-BIG!" David yelped and began scooping sticks into the flames, bent at the waist, behind to the light, throwing the twigs between his legs like a dog.
Angel laughed and turned to Max, trying to see her TRUE reaction, but all she got when she peered into Max's head was worry.
Where are you Fang? PLEASE be OK..."Why does the fire have to be so big?" Angel said turning her head to the side.
"The monsters don't like the light ... It hurts their eyes."
Angel nodded. It seemed logical enough. "You really should sit down and rest, you're gonna make your arm bleed some more if you aren't careful."
David shook his head and marched around the fire, arms crossed over his chest. "Nuh-uh ... They'll get me."
Max sighed and climbed to her feet. "Why don't we just go find Fang and Aaron, then we'll all be together and you won't have to worry so much?"
David shook his head and turned to her, "We gotta stay here, Nick said he was gonna come back here. We gotta wait for him. He said he'd come back, he promised."
Max growled and sat back down beside Angel. This kid was NOT listening. He was NOT taking orders either. They had tried to convince him to come with them when they decided to go out looking before the sun sat, but he'd gone into hysterics and put Angel to sleep for two hours.
So, now they were waiting for Fang, Iggy, Gasman and Nudge to get back with Aaron. If Aaron was even still alive...
David's memories had shown the 'monsters' grabbing Aaron and dragging him back into the motor home as it rolled over a cliff, blood and feathers flying.
David had been too afraid to stick around and he'd accidentally knocked Aaron unconscious with his ability and flown awkwardly away then crashed into a tree because he didn't know how to land. Max wondered if unconsciousness had spared Aaron any pain.
"David, we have flashlights ... We can take light with us and you can stick close to me."
David shook his head and dropped into a sitting position across the fire from them, "Can't, we gotta stay here."
Angel sighed and whispered to Max, "David doesn't really know how to fly that well, Max. He's tried a few times but Aaron screams at him when he does."
"I can fly just fine!" David said defensively, "Aaron's just scared I'll fly too high and get hit by lightning!"
Max nodded, not believing a single word he said, "How high can you fly?"
David puffed his chest up and pointed to himself, "I flied so high once I was in space!"
Max made a faux-surprised face, "Really!"
"Yeah, I did! I fly up into space all the time. I even been to the moon once!"
Angel giggled.
He smiled at his audience and curled his fingers, wiggling them like tentacles. "And all the aliens and moon men that live in the moon came out and I fighted them all like this!" He gave a savage kick and nearly fell. "And they're all really scared of me cause I can fly all the way to the sun and I made friends with the dragon that makes the sun burn!"
Angel burst out laughing her hands over her face.
It struck Max as odd that David was such a normal seven-year-old and Angel was more like a little adult.
Perhaps Aaron hadn't taught David enough about survival to make him understand-
Something screamed in the night, a deep, animalistic, angry wail.
David went rigid and dashed at Max, his arms out, little bruised face pale. He wrapped his arms around her and started crying. His whole body trembling.
Another scream answered the first, quickly followed by four more from different points in the darkened forest around them.
Angel backed up, pressing her wings against Max's side.
"What is that!" Max whispered picking David up, since he was smaller than Angel she didn't have much trouble scooping him into her arms.
Angel shivered and spoke in a low, creepy monotone voice, "They're very hungry..."
"Bloody Hell!" Aaron climbed to his feet. "Look at this!"
Fang turned to him, staring as he continued to throw sticks on the fire. Aaron walked to him and grasped his shoulders turning him around so they stood back to back.
Fang felt that odd sense of peace fall over him again and he thought of Max, her hair blowing in back of her as she flew, her eyes closed feeling the majesty of flight-
Aaron placed his hand on top of his head and stared at the differences in their height. "You're nearly twenty centimeters taller than I am!"
Nudge couldn't contain her laughter.
Gasman leaned over and whispered into Iggy's ear, "Fang's practically a foot taller than him!"
"Right, you look 'bout my height!" Aaron motioned to Nudge, "What's your name?"
"Nudge," She said between giggles add climbed to her feet pressing her back against Aaron's. She felt giddy standing next to him and she couldn't look him in the face without feeling a red tent flow to her cheeks.
And then she knew ... He's lying!
"AH! See, finally I'm taller than someone!" His voice shook, cracking. He cleared his throat
"Only by an inch!" Gasman crowed and jumped to his feet pressing between Nudge and Aaron to be measured also. Aaron gently grasped his shoulders and smiled.
Nudge stumbled a few feet away, her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach, her eyes wide.
He's lying-lying-lying-lying!Gazzy felt as if he'd known Aaron his whole life and he wanted to fly around and chase fireflies and bats with him like he did back at the Martinez house. He wanted to laugh and jump and run and fly and teach Aaron how to throw his voice so they could make noises behind Max's back. Because somehow he knew Aaron couldn't throw his voice...
"You're only six inches taller than me ... Come on, Iggy, you have to check this out!" He laughed and puffed his chest out feeling important and grown up, even for an eleven-year-old bird-kid.
Iggy clambered to his feet knocking dust from the seat of his pants.
"Blimey..." Aaron mumbled, "Makes me feel quite the dwarf he does!"
Iggy's face turned red. He'd never liked being so tall, seeming to tower over everyone else even-though he couldn't see the others below him.
Aaron circled him, he could hear his shoes crunching across the dirt and pebbles. He chuckled and stood behind Iggy, raising his hand to the top of his head to press directly between his shoulder blades.
Iggy felt something thin and chilled tickle behind his eyes, spinning him briefly into a deep, dark, bottomless void. Then he saw faces in his head, a young man's and a woman's bending to peer down into a small box at him then he was pulled back through this void and he stumbled away from Aaron sick realization settling into his stomach like a lead weight.
It all made perfect sense now...
His hands shot upward, covering his sightless blue eyes, fear and anger closing on his heart as if rusty jaws had been sunk into his chest. He blundered backward with the force of it all and bent nearly double a sob catching in his throat.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Everything went deathly quiet and Fang put his hand out, grabbing Iggy's shoulder steadying him.
Aaron didn't move. His arms hung limply to his sides his fingers twitching uneasily. He was staring intently at Iggy, a hint of anger in his pale, bruised face. He took a shuddering breath and licked his lips his voice coming out thin...
"No ... No, I don't think I will."
Chapter 16; Fly or DieFang stood there agape. Tension was so thick in the air he could barely breathe and he gave Iggy's shoulder an affectionate squeeze.
As soon as the redhead had made his outburst Nudge and Gasman had rushed over and cowered behind Fang their eyes wide.
"What happened, Iggy?" Fang whispered, still staring at Aaron unsure what to do.
"I felt something ... In my head, something cold that shouldn't be there ... Oh, God, I'm gonna be sick!" His stomach heaved but he didn't uncover his eyes.
"Did you do something to him?" Nudge spat staring at Aaron in shock. All the time wanting to tell Fang that Aaron was lying, even though she didn't know about what...
Aaron shook his head, "No ... They did it to him ... I just showed him what it was."
"Did what? What's wrong!" Fang felt an unfamiliar panic rising in his chest and again he felt twice as frightened by actually admitting he was scared. It was as if he was suddenly unable to control his emotions ... Or he finally had words to describe what he'd been feeling all along.
Iggy let out a small groan and sank to his knees whimpering palms still firmly pressed over his face. He trembled and just as Fang was about to rush past him and attack Aaron he grabbed him by the hand, halting the fractional lunge Fang made at his brother.
"It's ME ... Oh, God, Fang it was me all along!"
They huddled by the fire together, Max in the middle David on her left Angel on her right.
The monsters were standing just out of the circle of light cast by the fire but Max could see their eyes reflecting back at her. Little floating red pinpricks encompassing them.
Every once and a while they could hear shrill shrieks in the night and a monster would slink closer then scurry back.
Max kept Angel's and David's faces pressed firmly into her shoulders so they wouldn't have to look at the creatures surrounding them. But what she herself had seen would lurk in her dreams forever.
Black, billowy shadows with pale smooth faces, ghosts shifting in and out of sight like a fog. It was more of a creepy, bump-in-the-night kind of scared than a facing-down-a-maniacal-scientist-and-her-most-prized-experiments kind of frightened...
This was the kind of odd, not-really-scary scary that gave Max nightmares sometimes. It was an eerie sight, pale oval shaped faces drifting in and out of her vision...
Part of her had simply wanted to stride forward and kick butt, but David had gone into hysterics and literally curled himself around her leg wrapping his wings around her knees to keep her from going out of the circle of light.
And of course, he'd given her frightened little Bambi-eyes so she'd sat there holding him and Angel, a little worried that Angel was so frightened of them when she'd stared down Flyboys and Erasers without so much as batting an eye. These 'monsters' didn't look half as scary as either of THEM.
But then the fire started burning lower and lower ... And the pale, eerie faces got closer and closer while the shrieking became more and more frequent.
"Angel, can you get anything from them?" Max whispered into the girl's blonde curls.
Angel shook her head, "A few have minds, Max ... But there's something wrong with them ... When I look in ... So do they," She shivered, "They look into ME ... And they're so hungry..."
Max kissed the top of Angel's head and turned to David, who was deathly still, every muscle in his little body tight like a bow-string his eyes wide open, but terribly blank and empty.
Max had seen this distant, hollow look in Fang's eyes every time she'd looked at him back at the School ... He closed in on himself, finding the only comfort he could, within his own mind.
What had the whitecoats done to David? What atrocities had they perpetrated on this small little boy? This pale, blonde version of Fang...
She shivered, realizing that David looked nearly identical to Fang when he'd been seven years old... The only differences were David had blonde hair, freckles and light brown wings ... But that hollow, lost betrayed look in his eyes was the same and it haunted her.
David also had a fury in him, a wild, deadly ... Insane, fury. She could feel it when she'd looked into his eyes as he'd run into the clearing hours before.
He'd been insane, oh yes ... David had been crazy when he'd knocked Fang out of the air, a terrifying, helpless kind of insanity that he couldn't stop, that spread like a virus throughout his consciousness...
Another wail went up, this one closer than ever and Max felt the little hairs on her neck stand on end. She glanced up at the sky, gauging the time by the position of the moon and stars, then she looked back at the fire and her stomach clenched.
They would never make it... The fire would burn out hours before the sun came up and those monsters would be able to get them.
She made a decision, one of her famous, split-second-spur-of-the-moment decisions and climbed to her feet, pulling Angel up with her. David remained limply rigid and she had to grab him with both hands and forcibly lift him to his feet.
Angel alone was half her weight now. Two years had added about six inches and ten whole pounds to Angel. She was no longer a little girl, she was growing up ... Now the age Gasman was when all of it started...
When the Erasers had nabbed Angel during a strawberry picking expedition...
"Ange, when we get up there I want you to grab my belt, do you understand me? Grab it and don't let go, just keep your wings ready and your eyes closed," She scooped David into her arms and bent at the knees. Readying herself for what could possibly be a flight for not only her own life, but the lives of her little girl and Fang's baby brother...
Angel was so very glad they'd left Total at home. She made sure her backpack was securely attached and readied herself.
Max sat her jaw and pushed down with her legs and her wings, shooting skyward into the darkness, urging herself, Angel and David into hyper-speed.
Angel gave a small surprised squeak and her hands latched on to Max's belt.
It was a frightening feeling, she could feel Angel's weight slowing her, could hear David screaming in her ear, but all she could do was fly.
Grab my waist and flatten out! She thought to Angel who complied with out thinking, wrapping her arms tightly around Max's waist and, in a moment too frightening to comprehend, tucking in her wings.
They shot forward but Max could feel Angel's weight still pulling on her. Thankfully David had stopped screaming and was clutching her and sobbing uncontrollably.
Something white glinted to her left and she turned her head staring in horror at the fluttery monster flying not ten feet from the tip of her wings. A blue cone of flames following it.
A rocket! They travel on rockets!Max screamed in fury and tucked David's head under her chin, diving straight down and praying that Angel didn't slip off of her when she braked to stop.
Then she saw a white dot five miles to the north west and her acute raptor vision honed in on a large bonfire ... And the four people standing in front of it.
She tilted, one hand going behind her and grabbing Angel by the strap of her backpack.
The monsters were gaining on them. She'd never seen something go so fast, they seemed to be able to keep up with her as easily as if she'd been walking!
That's when she noticed the smooth, shining white faces were gone, replaced by a ghastly countenance of leathery black skin, thick bristly fur and an enormously wide mouth ringed with row upon row of four-inch long needle like yellow fangs.
Beady black eyes glinted in the moonlight and Max could only stare in horror and scream in her head; Move faster, Maximum! Move FASTER!
The seemingly enormous mouth opened and to Max it appeared that the thing's lower jaw came unhinged, dropping down to its chest exposing a huge, gaping cave of a throat that she realized could quite literally swallow a basketball without difficulty.
They're very hungry...Angel's words made perfect sense now and David twisted his head and stared blankly at the monster for a full two seconds before he screamed and jerked free of Max, seeming to fall upward his wail fading into nothingness behind her.
"DAVID!" She screamed and threw out her wings, screeching to a halt just as something pink and nearly as thick as Max's wrist shot forward out of the monster's mouth, extending through the air a good twenty feet before snapping back into the things mouth with a wet, grotesque THWACK!
Max felt Angel's weight as a sort of pendulum, swinging her forward and down at the same time. She saw David, flailing above her as he plummeted, arms and legs out as if he were doing a cartwheel, wings twisting and trying to flap. And she felt Angel's hands slipping as the downward momentum pulled at her.
Max's hand tightened on the strap of Angel's backpack and she heard Angel give a quick, exasperated little grunt as she slipped free and started falling.
Max felt herself split ... One hand reaching downward to Angel, the other upward to David.
She saw Angel's snow white wings snap open and she zoomed like a bullet through the air pulling out of the dive at barely five feet to spare, kicking up a line of dirt and sand as she shot forward the monsters chasing her.
Max caught David by the legs as he plunged past her screaming in a high-pitched, terrified child's voice.
"DON'T KNOCK ME OUT, DAVID OR WE'RE BOTH MONSTER-MASH!"
He blubbered something incoherent and latched onto her leg with both arms. She ignored his screeching and stared at the little white slash below them that was Angel, still flying toward the bonfire the rest of the flock stood around.
"Go, Angel! GO!" She whispered, praying the girl heard her thoughts.
Angel tucked in her wings collided with one of the standing people and rolled to a stop in the circle of light. She was safe...
The monsters pulled up, executing a fighter-jet type of banking maneuver and rocketing straight back at Max and David.
"Oh, CRAP!" And she pulled at David, turning him in her arms so he clutched her about the chest, not the knees.
"Hang on, sweetie, and if you can knock out those monsters do it!" And she angled herself downward and laid on the hyper-speed.
"Its ME ... Oh, God, Fang it was me all along!" Iggy didn't have time to finish his sentence before a scream split the night.
Fang's eyes shot heavenward and he saw seven shadows moving quickly toward them.
Then he heard Angel's voice in his head, HELP ME I CAN'T STOP!
"WINGS OUT!" He screamed, praying she heard him.
And the center shadow expanded, two white wings bursting from it.
She was moving so fast!
He saw her face, tears tracking the dirt on her cheeks and he ran at her his arms going out. He saw her big blue eyes go wide and as she appeared to be on the verge of shooting past him he leapt into the air. Grabbing her around the waist and throwing out his much larger wings, braking. Pain tore across his back and his left wing threatened to turn backward again, but he dug his heels into the dirt ripping twin troughs through the sand nearly fifteen feet long.
They crumpled to the ground and the monsters Fang had named Wizards zoomed straight up screeching and then aimed back into the night at a forlorn shadow hanging in front of the moon.
"DAVID!" Aaron's voice was high, near frantic and he started running, his wings snapping out.
Fang stared in awe as his older brother, who had never before flown, leapt into the air and began flying upward, chasing the Wizards his big, white and black tipped wings beating in perfect sync.
And Fang felt himself following pulling up beside Aaron, who he realized was cursing bitterly in a child's voice and staring down at the ground his eyes wide. "I am going to die!"
"Just keep going!" He shouted and passed Aaron, flying as quickly as he could toward Max and his younger brother.
The rope like tongue wrapped itself around her ankle and started pulling her backward, slowing her, but she continued to flap as if her life depended on it ... Which, she realized, it did.
She kept flapping, praying the whole time that the monster's tongue wasn't as securely attached to its throat as she believed it to be.
"You're not going to eat me!" She screamed and banked sharply to the left.
The moon and stars swiveled as she turned, David clutched to her chest. She wished he'd stop screaming it was giving her a headache. Another shadow loomed out of the darkness before her and her head split in two.
Everything went a blinding shade of white. All sound faded to a soft whispering, like the wind blowing past her as she soared high above everything, a lone bird-girl in a world only she and her flock would ever experience.
All fear faded and all motion stopped. She heard herself inhale, she felt David trembling in her arms and she looked down at him but saw nothing except the same dazzling whiteness. She was a small spark of a thought floating in the entire expanse of the universe.
Am I dead? She thought, and her voice whispered in her ear, soft, young, feminine ... and she pictured her own lips moving the sound was so real. Did I die ... Did I get David killed?
Somewhere in the brightness she felt someone smile, a tender, loving, fatherly smile and she heard her Voice. Calm, cool but firm.
You're not dead Maximum, you didn't get David killed, not yet ... But you have to trust me, do you understand? You MUST trust me this time and do what I say or you ARE going to die.
I understand ... That same, whispered, soft girly voice.
The brightness started to fade and the tingling feeling of motion began to return, slowly, like a rusty film projector beginning to spin a movie after decades of neglect.
Sound started to filter back in, softly, as if heard through feet of solid concrete.
She felt the tongue wrapped like a shackle around her leg, pull taut and everything started moving again, very quickly.
The monster started reeling her in, like a fish, its beady eyes glinting in evil happiness and then, to Max's sickened delight the thing's head suddenly exploded and a loud BOOM! Echoed in the night.
She whipped her head around and saw the last person she ever expected seated on one of the weird rocket-powered sticks.
"JEB!"
He didn't look at her, but instead worked the cylindrical mechanism on the bottom of the shotgun in his hands and expelled a red casing, which fell out of sight. He cocked the shotgun and took aim at another monster firing again and again.
"GO MAX!" Voice and Jeb screamed at the same time and she didn't hesitate, she shot downward, aiming herself at the two shadows moving on near silent wings toward her.
Two of the beasts turned to follow Max and Jeb felt rage explode in his chest and he fired at them, taking off the top of the first monster's head in a spray of gore, brains and computer chips.
He hit the second in the small of the back. It toppled out of the sky soundlessly and made a small mushroom-cloud of flames when it hit.
He cocked the gun one last time to finish off the remaining creature as it streaked toward him, mouth opening to strike.
He raised the gun and aimed along the barrel, placing the tiny silver bead right between the thing's beady black eyes, "Say, hi, beautiful!" And he pulled the trigger...
Nothing happened. He felt himself go cold with shock and he sat his jaw, grabbing the shotgun by the barrel and swinging it like a baseball bat right at the thing's head.
He felt the impact and the spray of blood as he crushed its face, smearing its tiny sensitive eyes into a paste of pus-yellow and antifreeze green.
It made a series of horrid bat like chirping noises and screamed like a child as it fell.
Jeb leaned forward on the 'broom' panting, his heart hammering in his chest. He saw, far below him, Max landing in the firelight with the others and he gently angled himself on a downward slope to join them. To explain himself and his actions for the second time but he felt something wet, sticky and hot tangle itself around his arm. He felt himself gag in revulsion at the exquisitely alien feeling of it and he sent Max one final thought as he was pulled violently from the 'broom' into an all to short free-fall.
I love you, Maximum Ride ... Thank you for calling me 'dad'...Aaron landed on his knees and fell to his stomach skidding on his chest laughing hysterically, "I did it! I actually flew!" Fang scooped David into his arms and held him tightly, his lips pressed firmly into the boy's hair.
They were safe ... His flock AND his family were safe.
Max stood there smiling and then suddenly her face changed ... Turning slightly pale and a shudder ran through her. Then she was on her knees, her fingers digging into her scalp screaming as if her wings had just been ripped off.
Aaron scrambled away from her cursing and Fang shoved David into his arms. He leapt at her, pulling her to his chest... "MAX!"
A brain explosion, she'd gone two and a half years without having one, why was she having one now! What had happened? They'd gotten the chip out and she swore it didn't hurt anymore when Jeb used the Voice...
He cradled her for close to ten minutes while she trembled and groaned and then she started sobbing, blubbering and trying to speak but not getting anything more than a 'J' sound out before dissolving back into tears. She took a deep, strangled breath and turned terrified, bloodshot brown eyes to Fang's face. Her hands tangled in his shirtfront and she mouthed a name.
'Jeb...'
And he pulled her tightly against his chest wishing there were someway to take all her pain away, to make it all right ... To change it. But there was nothing he could do...
"I'm so sorry, Max ... I'm so sorry," He whispered, barely making any sound at all.
She didn't know how long she bawled into Fang's chest, but when she raised her head she wished she could bury herself in his strength for ten times that amount of time, but she just didn't have anymore tears left...
She stared blankly around for a moment, breathing slowly, tasting the insanity that had been David's earlier that day...
She expected her Voice to chime in that she had to suck it up, had to be brave, heroes had to be brave, had to stay strong, even in the face of death...
Everything is a test...
But her Voice didn't intone within her a Confucian-like bit of wisdom, and she knew it never would again.
She forced herself to sit up and wipe her eyes, she couldn't let this break her, no matter how tempting it was to just give up ... Give in. She had to be strong ... Even if she didn't feel like it, everyone was counting on her.
She chewed her lip for a moment and noticed everyone was looking at her compassionately, except Iggy, who had his hands clamped firmly over his eyes. But she could see tears streaming from beneath his palms.
Chapter 17; Stool Pigeon"Why are you covering your eyes, Iggy?" Max whispered, turning to him.
He whimpered and licked his lips. "I ... I know how they found us. How they were tracking us," He hesitated, "I know why I'm blind."
Max blinked and walked to him dropping to her knees, her hands going to his shoulders. "Tell me."
"They ... They're using me like a camera ... They put things in me ... They were watching us through my eyes ... Through my EYES, Max!" He stifled a sob, "Who would ever expect the stupid blind kid of being a spy! The stupid fu-"
"You're not stupid!" She said firmly and he went quiet his lip between his teeth.
They'd been watching them through Iggy's eyes!
Fang coughed and he remembered when he Iggy and Gasman had split from the Flock, going their separate way. Flyboys had been all over them, as if there were some kind of beacon drawing them!
He had wondered how the Flyboys found them so quickly yet had somehow been unable to find Max until she was within 'The Snake's Head' as they had called the base in Germany. And then she could have been noticed running in the gate!
It all made sense, frightening, terrible sense.
Iggy. It had been Iggy all along.
Just because HE couldn't see didn't mean someone couldn't be seeing THROUGH him. And NO, they hadn't expected Iggy because Iggy was blind and how many blind bird-kid spies were there?
Max hugged him tightly, "Its OK, we're going to fix this."
Iggy sobbed, "I know how to fix it!" And he scrambled to his feet and took off on a run into the darkness intent on flying away and never coming back.
He'd endangered his whole family all this time. It was his fault, it was ALL his fault!
Fang tackled him, forcing him to the ground then sitting on him, pinning the redhead's wings between them. "Now you're being stupid!" He growled.
"It's my fault!" He shrieked, hands still firmly clamped over his eyes. "Fang, its ALL my fault!"
Fang smacked him upside his head hard, "Knock it off!" He turned and shouted over his shoulder. "Nudge, give me your hair ... thing!"
He pointed to the bright pink bandana Nudge had tied over her unruly hair and she yanked it off and threw it to him without a second thought.
Fang caught it against his chest and had to use his teeth to untie the knot. "Okay, Iggy, listen carefully. I want you to keep your eyes closed, but I want you to uncover them OK? Is that too hard to understand?"
Iggy shot him the bird.
Fang wrapped the bandana around Iggy's head and tied it, completely covering his eyes. "There, now you're safe and you don't have to be stupid and run off."
Fang climbed off of him and helped him to his feet. "You're spy proof."
Iggy wrung his hands, "I feel ridiculous... What color is this thing? It's not pink is it?"
"No, its blue," Fang grinned evilly and patted him on the back. "We'll have Max's mom take a look at you when we get home, she might be able to undo whatever they did."
Iggy nodded and shuffled back toward the warmth of the flames. He sat down tentatively, his shoulders hunched.
After all this time they finally knew how the School had tracked them and he felt so stupid for not realizing it. Those doctors hadn't wanted to enhance his night-vision. They had wanted unrestricted access into his world. And what better way that through the eyes of a bird-kid.
He wondered absently if perhaps the white-coats had chosen him specifically to receive the operation or if perhaps they had done an 'enee-meenee-miney-mo'... Or if they'd just flipped a coin and he'd won the prize of becoming a surveillance system.
He started crying again, his lower lip trembling and he felt Angel creep up to him then hug him tightly around the neck. "Its OK, Iggy ... Please don't run away ... If you run away who'll make breakfast in the morning?"
He couldn't help but smile and he felt Aaron's eyes on him. He turned in the direction he remembered Aaron being and spoke bitter words in a rather emotionless tone, "So, your ability is showing people what's wrong with them?"
"No..." He whispered, "I'm not quite sure what this ability is. Its different with everyone I've ever come into physical contact with."
Max turned questioning eyes to Aaron, "You're British?"
Aaron shrugged in a very Fang like way and Max couldn't help but think of the dark haired boy standing by himself to her left.
David jerked weakly in Aaron's arms his eyes barely open. Aaron cooed softly and stroked the sweat damp hair away from David's forehead.
"What's wrong with him?" Gasman whispered eyeing David's twitching body uneasily.
Aaron shook his head, "He puts himself into a dream and all he does is have nightmare after nightmare ... When he gets frightened he can't control his abilities and people usually start dropping like babes coming off of a sugar-high or he goes to sleep like this. That's why they were going to kill him, they believed his powers are too unstable ... Defective they called him, poor little tyke."
Angel climbed slowly to her feet her eyebrows drawn down, wrinkling her nose. She wrenched open her backpack and rummaged inside for a moment. Then she drew out a slightly stained little brown teddy-bear wearing a white gown and little angel wings.