((Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters in this book. They all still belong to James Patterson, well, they still did when I last checked. Enjoy!

But I do own the plots, so PLEASE respect this story and the author and don't steal the plot(s).))

Chapter 10: Intro

"Hello Jazz," Angel said, calming the mood. Max sat down next to her and whispered something in her ear. I saw Angel nod and Max relax.

"Ok, here's some food and water. You can sleep here I guess, tonight." Max looked around the flock, searching for hesitation.

"How old are you?" Iggy leaned up against the log, facing me.

"I'm about 15." Iggy's eyebrows went up.

"Sweet, us to. Or at least Max, Fang and I. We're about 14-15, we think. Angel and Gazzy are about6 to 8 and Nudge is about 8." The flock members held up their hand when their names were called, like school children. Not that I would know. I've only ever been to school for about 2 months. I think. I hated how everything about out lives are estimations. Everything's a guess. How long we've been here, how long we'll last. What will happen next. I'm sick of it, really I am.

"Cool," Jazz sat down and ate the choc-chip bar Max gave him. He finished it with in seconds, leaving me for dead. My eyes tightened. Maybe he was one of us?

"Wow, hungry dude?" Gazzy said, tapping Iggy's hand.

"Can you pass me my backpack? 3 o'clock to our left. Thanks." Iggy found the backpack and handed it over to Gazzy.

"Iggy's blind," Angel said, reading Jazz's thoughts. Iggy smiled, being the tough guy he was.

"Oh, right," Jazz said it as if we had told him it was Tuesday. How would I know what the date was? I lost my watch when I was fighting with Ari on the beach. Ari. My eyes tightened again, this time for the worse. The whole time I had been trying to hide my anger from the flock, especially Max, who seemed to be able to see right though me.

"What?" Max was watching me again. I realized I was frowning and cooled it.

"Nothing." Suddenly I was tired and tried to hide a yawn.

"That's it. Off to bed, all of you. I'm on first watch." Jazz looked up at Max.

"Me to. It's the least I could do. Thanks for the food to." Max nodded, taking Gazzy's backpack of him. We had agreed not to let him eat at night after the last time.

"No stunts tonight Gazzy," I said and Max nodded.

"What he said." She smiled at me.

"Yeah, 'cos I'm always right." Nudge laughed. Max rolled her eyes.

"Are you all related?" Jazz stood up, stretching. I shook my head. Max was looking at me.

"Only Gazzy and Angel are," I nodded towards the sleeping siblings.

"You all get on so well together. My sister and I never did." He frowned.

"What happened to her?" I turned and glared at Nudge who shrugged.

"Na, it's cool. She was killed."

"By who!" Nudge sat up straight in her tree branch.

"Horrible people with nothing better to do." I nodded, understanding more then he thought. I climbed up onto my branch.

"Max, wake me at 3 ok?" She nodded, turning into her branch to get comfortable. I feel asleep almost straight away.

I woke in the morning to the smell of eggs cooking. I winced, my neck sore from the nights sleep. Then I realized it was morning. I looked around at the rest of the flock. Thy were all up and sitting around a small fire, Iggy cooking.

"Hey, sleeping beauty's awake!" I flipped the finger at Max before Gazzy turned to me. Max laughed.

"Wow! Man your hair is like, whosh! It's sticking up all over the place!" I started through sleepy eyes at him, wondering why they were also happy. Then I saw Jazz sitting by the fire, watching Max. I frowned and laid back down, falling off the branch.

"Ow! Shit! I meant-" I clambered up, finding the entire flock, plus one, staring at me.

"Is this the right Fang? I mean, they both look alike. At first, I thought Fang had got this new skill where he could make two of himself, but then I realized that it was another guy. Since when did Fang become so clumsy?" Nudge looked around at Max.

"Since when were you quite?" I snapped, possibly over reacting. Nudge looked hurt, then ignored me, talking to Jazz.

"Jeez, fall out on the wrong side of bed?" Max watched me as she handed Jazz a leaf of egg.

"Sorry about the use of my best silverware." Jazz smiled, digging into his eggs. I rolled my eyes at my stupidity.

"Fang, are you jealous?" Max asked suddenly. I was so shocked that, put it this way-lucky I was out of the tree.

"No! I felt out of a freakin' tree, 6 meters of the bloody ground!" I held my back and stretched, feeling it click back in place.

"And possibly on your head," Iggy said, getting seconds.

"No, these are Fang's." Max looked up at me.

"Want some?" I nodded, took a step forward and collapsed.

"Stupid freaking tree!" I yelled, biting my lip. My toe! In my head I was going berserk, but I wouldn't say anything I thought out loud. Imagine Max's face! Angel gasped. Oops. Damn it!

"I'm ok. Really. No need to rush to my aid."

"Why? Damsel in distress?" I am going to hit Iggy before today's end. Why was everyone

pulling my damn strings today? They say to go to sleep angry, you wake angry. Yeah, whatever.

I was born angry.

I scowled at Iggy so fierce he felt it. And laughed. I ate my egg's in silence, still fuming.

"So, what are you guy's doing here?"

"Running." Max said without looking up.

"Me to," Jazz replied, looking up at me. At first I thought he was going to ask if I was ok. But he raised an eyebrow at me. Wow, the guy was more like me then I thought.

"Who from?" Nudge said, openly ignoring me.

"The same guys that killed my family."

"Us to!" I frowned at Nudge, warning her not to give to much away. But Jazz didn't say anything more. He just sat there, staring into the small fire.

I sat on the log, the rest of the flock lying around, 'getting fat,' as Max had called it. I think that kinda suited what they were doing. I couldn't stand it, lying there on the ground, vulnerable to attack. I took off my shoe and peeled off my sock. The bleeding had stopped but it was still broken. I turned facing the other way so Max wouldn't see it. I gingerly touched the top of it. My toe was numb, I couldn't feel it. I wonder if that's a good thing? Maybe it's some sort of anesthetic my body let of to help it heel. Don't know. Jazz came up and sat next to me.

"Still not bet-oh, it's broken." I nodded, gently trying to wriggle the broken toe. I was beginning to get worried about it. Couldn't move it, could feel it. That's got to be bad right? I asked Jazz.

"Yeah, I think it's bad. Doesn't it mean that the bloods not getting to your toe? Maybe that's why it's stopped bleeding?" I nodded again. He did have a point. I put my sock and shoe back on then turned around again, looking at Jazz.

"Iggy, what happens if you can't feel or move a part of your body, say a finger? It that bad?" I saw Max counting my fingers and give them the once over. Satisfied, she turned back to Angel, who was telling her something.

"Why?"

"Jazz hurt his finger once and he told me that's what happened." Jazz nodded, holding up a finger, which had a small scar on it. Wow, this guy was good at laying a long.

"Oh. Well, that normally means that it should be amputated. What happened to you?"

"Well, the…doctors fixed it up from the inside." Iggy nodded.

"You could do that, but only if it's not bad. I guess if you had to you could re-break it and split it, then wait for it to heal. You could move it bad into place in the mean time." I thought hard. I had to do that if I wanted to keep my toe. I stood up to get something out of my backpack, stumbled and fell. Max started to laugh, then stopped seeing my face. Pure confusion.

"You ok-"

"Yes! I'm fine!" I jumped up, dusted myself off and sat back down.

"Can you pass me my pack Nudge? Thanks" I rummaged through it, looking for my pocketknife and a spare sock. I found a dirty one and began ripping it into strips. Max walked up to me and sat between me and Jazz.

"What are you-what are you doing?" Damn it, she had seen the bloody sock.

"Don't know." I looked down at my shoes, feeling small. Everyone was watching me.

"You know, you've been acting really weird lately. Clumsy, tripping over everything and out of everything, taking long flights, coming back with random people, no offence Jazz." Jazz nodded.

"What is up with you? Tell me Fang? Or do you want to go over there? Come on." She pulled me up on to my toe. I yelled and fell again, saying some very colorful things in the process. Even

Max was shocked.

"Fang! What did you just sa-you know what? Never mind. What's wrong. Fang?" I was clutching my toe, screaming blue murder. Oh God, the pain! It felt as though someone was burning the damn thing off. Stabbing, blinding pain. Ahh! Driving me insane! Why wouldn't Max, or someone, make it stop? I heard laughter somewhere in the distance and exploded.

"What the freaking hell are you laughing at? Are you stupid? Ahh! Give me a painkiller! Please!" ax was staring at me, when I could finally see, with a look of disgust on her face.

"You know what? Get it yourself." She turned on me, walking off and sitting on the log.

"Max?" I heard someone-Nudge, say.

"No, I don't care anymore. He thinks I'm going to do anything for him, he's wrong. really wrong. Why does he have to be such a jerk sometimes Nudge?" I heard her sigh before I got tunnel vision. Oh no. No, no, no, no. I. Will. not. Pass. Out. No, no, no, n…

I opened my eyes and rubbed then, trying to figure out where the heck I was. Well, there won't be any signs up would here? I sat up, winced at the pain in my toe and looked around. The flock, plus one, were staring at me, waiting. What the! How long was I out for? I looked up at Max.

"Welcome to Australia Fang." Her voice was thick with sarcasium, but I heard the relief there to.

"How long was I out for?" I put my hand on my temples and rubbed them, closing my eyes. My head! Man, did someone hit me a golf club or something? Ahh, it hurt! Was I having one of those brain attack things Max used to have? Suddenly it stopped, as quickly as it had started.

"Are you ok Fang? You looked, like, really bad." I nodded, trying to stand.

"I…how long was I out?" I stumbled but caught myself.

"About 3 or 4 hours." Max held my shoulders and looked me square in the face.

"What's. Wrong. Fang." She looked at me, waiting for an answer. I shrugged and Max looked frustrated.

"If you won't h-"

"Just let me sit down ok?" I mumbled, feeling her hands drop.

"Fang?" My hand flew to my mouth. Oh shirt. I meant sugar puffs.

"Excuse me," I managed before turning away, barfing behind a small scrub. Max was here next to me, her hand on my shoulder. She didn't say anything, just let me get it out. The second wave was up before I'd finished the first. Give me a feakin' break! I lowered myself to the ground and leant up against a tree. I must have looked really pitiful. Jazz came over, leaving Iggy in charge.