Hey guys! So this is Chapter 10. I'm soooo sorry I haven't updated in a while. I think I mentioned this with my other story. I've been really busy with the Make Your Mark dance and stuff so yeah. And now to the story.
Chapter 10
Max's P.O.V
I was scared. Yes, I the great Maximum Ride was scared. I have good reason to be too. Fang hasn't woken up yet and it's been like twoish hours. He did have another one of his pain attacks though. While he was asleep. I don't know if Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge are okay, and I need to keep Angel safe. Sometimes, I hate being the leader.
Fang's condition was getting worse and worse. He was pale, and his lips were in a tight line even though he was unconscious. Angel was leaning against my shoulder and Fang's head was on my lap. Angel yawned and sprang awake. "Max, I had the scariest dream. Fang was hurt and we were at the- oh." She stopped.
"Angel, honey. I don't think that was a dream." I told her softly. She nodded and looked disappointed. I put an arm around her. Suddenly Fang's body jerked upwards and he started wheezing. I didn't know what to do, so I stroked his hair, trying to comfort him.
Suddenly, Fang's eyes snapped open and he started coughing like crazy. I patted him on the back until he finally stopped. "I'm fine." He said. His voice was raw from all of the coughing. The next side effect. Lovely.
I put my hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure? You were out for a while." I asked him, truly concerned. He nodded. He looked really tired and weak. His face was pale, his eyes were drooping, and he could barely sit up straight. I put my hand on his chest and gently pushed him so he was lying down. "You need more rest. You look like you were hit by a truck."
He tried to protest, but I gave him my motherly stern look. He decided it was best not to argue. Smart move on his part. Max, someone's coming. Angel's little voice said in my head. Before I could ask who it was, the door was slammed open and three whitecoats and two Erasers came into the room.
Angel, get behind me NOW. I screamed into her head. She slowly crawled behind me. I got into a crouching position in front of Fang and Angel. "It's protecting the others." A whitecoat observed.
"No freaking duh!" I screamed at him causing Fang to wake up. He looked around and sat up. Then he tried to move forward, but I pushed him back with Angel. This was my flock, and I was going to protect them. The Erasers knelt down to open our cage when BOOM! There was a huge explosion that shook our cages.
The Whitecoats and the Erasers ran out of the room to see what the problem was. I smiled because I knew who caused it. Maybe it was a good thing that Iggy managed to hide his bombs from me. The door opened again and Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge came running into the room. Iggy was working on opening my cage.
When it opened we ran out and hugged all of them. Then Iggy went to open Dylan's cage. Even though I hated him, he didn't deserve to be at the School. The door opened again and Erasers came pouring inside. We all got into a fighting stance. I looked over at Fang.
He had a grim determination etched in his face. He would be fine. Then Dylan came up beside me. I launched myself at the first Eraser. I kicked him in the wrong spot which made him collapse in pain. Then I started working on the next one until I had brought down at least four of them.
When I looked up, I saw that my flock was doing fine. They all were sending a flurry of kicks and punches at the Erasers except for Angel of course. She was walking around saying, "You will die now." In a calm voice and watching them drop. A bit creepy but hey what's not creepy about an avian hybrid mutant's life.
"Max! We have to get out of here!" Iggy screamed. I knew that that was bad. Iggy must have set a bomb somewhere in the School. I knocked one the Erasers who was blocking the door out of the way. I ran through the School knowing my flock along with the remaining Erasers was following me.
Big Man up there must have been in a good mood since I found a window. I kicked it and the glass broke with ease. I jumped through, whipping my wings out so that I wouldn't fall onto the ground. I hovered in the air to make sure my flock was with me. Once they had all come out of the building, we flew away from it was fast as we could.
Suddenly there was a huge explosion and the whole School was a bright orange. I covered my eyes. "Okay everyone Report." I screamed through the wind that was hitting our faces.
"I'm fine." Angel said.
"My nose feels weird, but I'll live." Said Gazzy.
"I'm fine." Nudge said.
"Leg hurts, but I'm okay." Iggy said.
"IGGY! WATCH OUT!" I've never heard Fang scream that loud. I whipped around to see Ari firing a gun straight at Iggy's head. I didn't know how to react to it. Fang came from, above and pushed Iggy down. Instead of hitting Iggy, the bullet hit Fang straight in the stomach.
Fang let out a small cry and plummeted to the ground, his wings folding like paper. "Iggy! Get him!" I screamed. Then I went for Ari. He raised his gun at me, but I used my super speed and knocked the gun right out of his hand. Then I let out a battle cry and launched myself at him. Ari might have been able to handle a normal Max, but with an angry Max, he stood no chance.
Now he was facing a really, really, really angry Max. I roundhouse kicked his chest, uppercut his jaw (not even flinching at the sound of it cracking), and side kicked his head. His neck snapped back and he crashed into the trees. I knew he wasn't dead, but he sure would have a bad headache when he woke up.
Then I used my eagle eyes to locate my flock. I landed and hit the ground running. I saw the flock gathering around Fang. What I saw brought tears to my eyes. Fang's eyes were barley open. He was sweating and his breathing was fast and erratic.
"Fang!" I cried out, choking on my tears. I sat down next to his head. "How bad is it?" I asked Iggy.
He shook his head. "It's really bad Max. It might have hit his stomach. I can show it to you but..." I understood. He didn't want the younger kids to see. "Guys, go cut up a t-shirt into strips for bandages." I told them sternly. They nodded and Nudge took one of her old shirts out of her pack.
I turned back to Iggy. Iggy knelt down feeling Fang's stomach. He found the edge of his shirt and lifted it a little above Fang's bellybutton. I gasped. There was a hole in Fang's stomach. There wasn't that much blood spilling out though, but I knew that if we didn't cover it up, it would get infected. Fang's eyelids fluttered. "Max." He whispered.
"I'm here Fang. I'm right here." I took his hand in mine and squeezed it.
"Why did you do that you idiot." Iggy asked, sounding like he was on the verge of tears too. "Couldn't… Let…You… Die." Fang managed to breathe out. Iggy turned to me. "We need to get him some medical help. Now." I nodded weakly.
'How are we going to get him in the air? He's in no condition to sit up forget fly." I asked Iggy.
Iggy nodded. "I'll carry him. Besides, I'm taller than him and he probably weighs less than me considering he hasn't eaten in like three days." Iggy tried to sound confident. Then Nudge handed me the shirt stripes. She gasped, seeing Fang's wound.
There was no point trying to hide it from them anymore. I gave the strips to Iggy, and he gently wiped up the blood, and made the remaining strips into band aids. Once we were finished with our sloppy job, we got ready to fly.
Iggy knelt down next to Fang. He lifted Fang's arm and placed it around his shoulder. Then he put his one of his arms under Fang's knees and the other under his upper back and scooped him up. Fang's head was against Iggy's shoulder (please note that this is NOT Figgy. Fang is just unconscious).
Then we all whipped out our wings and we were in the air. I was looking for the nearest hospital. We flew over the forest for about twenty minutes and found nothing. I kept checking on Iggy and Fang to see if they were okay.
When we finally hit civilization, I looked down and saw something even better. Dr. Martinez's car. It had the same license plate and everything. It was also a veterinary clinic "Hey guys! I found Dr. M's car. Let's land and see if she can help." I yelled. They all nodded and we landed.
I banged the door. Iggy was still carrying Fang, but he looked exhausted. Ella opened the door with Dr. Martinez behind her. They looked happy to see us until they lay eyes on Fang. "Oh dear. What happened?" Dr. M. asked worried.
"He was shot in the stomach and we really need your help." I said, my voice shaking.
"Well, bring him inside, and I'll see what I can do." Mom said sternly. Iggy took him in and laid him on one of the operation tables. Dr. Martinez cut off Fang's shirt and my first thought was ohhh... nice abs.
'You're really lucky Max. The bullet just missed Fang's stomach. If it had hit it, Fang would already be dead." Mom said I let out a sigh of relief. "Max, I want you to wet this with warm water." Dr. M. gave me a piece of cloth. I walked over to the sink, wet it and came back to give it to her.
She gently wiped all of the blood and whatever else off of Fang's wound. The she looked into it (gross!) and turned back to us. "Ella, take Angel, Gazzy, Dylan, and Nudge and show them around the clinic please." Dr. Martinez said.
"Why do I have to go?" Dylan asked, annoyed.
Mom looked at hi distastefully. "If I'm not mistaken Dylan, nobody here wants you to stay so if I were you, I'd cooperate with the mother of the leader of the flock to get you some trust points back." Dylan turned around and muttered something about hating his life. Then once they were gone, she turned to me.
"I need to get the bullet out of Fang's stomach. If it stays there, it will infect. To get it out, I need to do surgery. Since you are avian hybrids, I don't know how much anesthesia to give Fang, so I'm going to have to do it the old fashioned way. Max I need you to hold down Fang's arms and Iggy I need you to hold down Fang's legs." I nodded.
Then I went to the end of the table where Fang's head was, reached over, and held his arms down at the wrist. Iggy went to the other side of the room and somehow found Fang's ankles. "This is going to hurt a lot." I whispered to Fang, wondering if he could hear me.
Dr. M. gathered her supplies and started working on the wound. She had to cut it open even more. Fang woke up and started trying to break mine and Iggy's grip, but we were too strong for him. He wasn't making any noise, but pain was clearly etched on his face.
"Almost over Fang." Mom called out. I couldn't bear to look at what Mom was doing. I knew that I would probably throw up. "Got it!" Mom said sounding relieved. She held up a bullet which was covered in bold and god knows what else.
"Okay. Fang you awake?" Mom asked. Something told me that if Fang didn't answer, he was dead.
"Fang?" I asked worriedly. I flicked him in the head three times.
"Ow. Stop doing that." Fang said groggily, eyes still closed. I swear that I felt like skipping like a ballerina. Did I do it? In my head, yes. Outside, no. "Okay Fang." Mom sounded relieved as well. "Now I just have to bandage you up."
Mom used a special tape, and tied it tightly around Fang's wounds. "Alright. I'm going to take all of you to my new house and you can rest up there." Mom told us.
"Mom, are you sure it's okay that we stay at your house again after what happened last time?"
Mom looked at me incredulously. "Max, you're my daughter. I'm never going to not accept you in my house. I love you two percent bird or not. I'll meet you in the car okay. Try and get Fang up. If you can't, I'll help you. Let me just find the kids first." I nodded. I felt so grateful that I had such an amazing mother.
I walked up to Fang. "I'll be right back okay. I just need to take care of something.." I told Fang. I don't know if he fully understood me or not, but he nodded. "Iggy, keep an eye… err… an ear on him okay?" Iggy nodded, cracking a smile.
I walked out of the room and saw Dylan sitting by himself. "Hey." I said sitting next to him. He turned around and looked at me. "Dylan I need to tell you something." I started.
"You want me to leave." Dylan finished for me.
"Yeah. I do. I'm sorry Dylan. It's just not working out between us. We don't belong together. I have a flock and you just… You don't fit into it." It was painful enough to say so I tried avoiding his eyes.
"I'm sorry too. I'm sorry that I wasn't good enough. Tell the flock that I don't hate them and I hope Fang feels better." With that, Dylan tool off leaving me dumbstruck. Well, at least he took it well.
Meanwhile
Iggy's P.O.V
I did what Max asked. I kept my ears on Fang. He was breathing which was a good thing. I felt so guilty though. If I had better reflexes or eyes I might have been able to dodge the bullet myself. Fang wouldn't have had to take the bullet for me.
"Fang? Are you awake?' I whispered.
"Yeah." He whispered back.
"Fang. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I don't know. I should be better. You shouldn't have gotten hurt for me. Maybe Ter Borcht was right. I am a hazard to the flock." I was on the verge of tears.
"Iggy. Never say that ever again. I wouldn't be alive without you. You're the best doctor, the best cook, the best bomb maker. If you weren't there, me, Max, Angel, and Dylan would still be stuck at the School. You carried me all the way here. You are not a hazard. You're a weapon and don't ever forget it. I said I trust you with my life, and I meant it." I gaped. Fang never talked that much when he was feeling okay.
Before I could answer, Max came back into the room bringing the only good news I'd had for days. "Dylan's gone."
Max's P.O.V
I helped Fang sit up. Then he put his arm around my shoulder and I helped him stand. His face turned a little green so I'm guessing his stomach hurt, but I became his human crutch. When we got to the car, Mom gave Fang the passenger seat since it was the only one that could recline.
Nobody talked during the car ride. When we got to the house, there was another car parked beside it. Iggy helped Fang out of the car this time though, so I went inside to get water, only to be greeted by Jeb. "What are you doing here Jeb?" I spit.
"I'm here to warn you Maximum. It's been twenty-three days. Be prepared." Jeb said calmly.
"For what?" I asked even though I knew the he answer.
"For the liquid to take effect. For Fang to die."
So whatcha guys think? Please review. I also want you guys to know that Torturing Fang is almost over. So, you guys can vote for one of three stories on my profile. You'll have until Torturing Fang is over to vote. Then I'll write the one with the most votes. I hope you enjoy this story and will continue too.