Max's POV
I'm in a cage, a dog cage to be exact, and everything smells sterile, like, a hospital on steroids, or something. I'm not sure how long I've been stuck in here, but I think it's been awhile. The red-haired wonders told me that they don't think just stealing me away from Fang is enough in case I ever escape. They said they have to turn me into a freak that Fang could never love to ensure the end of our relationship. I don't know what they're going to do, but I have a feeling it isn't going to be good.
I've tried every possible way to get out, but nothing works, and every time I misbehave I'm tortured. The punishment is always different and each one is worse than the last. The most recent punishment was for trying to starve myself. I had to run as fast as I could for as long as they wanted and if I slowed down I was zapped with a huge, terrifying, taser. I think this probably makes hell look like paradise. I need out, I can't live like this. I need help. Don't tell anyone I asked for it though. I'm supposed to be tough and independent. I can't ask for help even if I need it.
"Max," A familiar voice calls. A voice I don't want to be hearing. "Max, I can save you."
"Get away from me. I hate you. I HATE YOU!" I spit at that man as I scurry to the back of my cage.
"Max, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, I promise."
"You're a filthy liar! I can't believe I ever thought of you as my father!"
"Max, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," He chokes out. It sounds like he's about to cry, but I've known him long enough to know what a good liar he is.
"Sorry isn't enough. Do you know what you did to your family? Mom is still not herself. She's going crazy! I take care of the entire family now! Everyone is relying on me! And that's not even the worst of it! ANGEL IS SIX YEARS OLD AND HER FATHER HAS LEFT HER! HOW DO YOU THINK THAT MAKES HER FEEL? DO YOU THINK SHE'LL EVER BE ABLE TO RECOVER FROM THIS? And what about Ari? Your son who could never do anything right! Your son who was always trying to please you but was never enough! NOTHING HE DID WAS EVER ENOUGH! So don't even try to apologize for this! I will never forgive you."
"Max-"
"No. Ari tried to kill himself because of you. A thirteen-year-old boy tried to kill himself because of you. He thought you abandoned us because he wasn't good enough for you. You didn't know that, did you?"
His face shows pure horror. Good. He needs to be horrified. My little brother almost died because of him. He will never be forgiven. He slowly shakes his head no, he didn't know Ari tried to kill himself because of him.
"Yeah. It's all your fault! So, don't come in here and expect me to just forgive you for abandoning us, and driving Mom to insanity, and ruining Angel, and almost killing Ari because I don't want to hear it."
He opens his mouth to say something, but the intercom interrupts him before I have to. "Dr. Batchelder, your needed in room 402 immediately." He turns on his heel and marches out of the room without another word.
I need to get out of here quick.
Fang's POV
"We should call Nudge and Ella in. They'll want to know what's going on with Max."
"I'll call," Says Iggy. I think he's over all of this thinking. He just wants make bombs, but we have to find out where Max is before we can actually go save her.
"Fang, can we take break? I'm huuuungry," Gazzy complains as he plops down on a pillow.
"You can take a break, but I'm not going to break yet."
"Okay, thanks!" He exclaims and dashes out of the room.
Rebel purses his lips. "Are you okay?" He asks finally.
"Just dandy," I reply. My voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Right, sorry. You really should take a break, Fang. You haven't stopped working on this in three days straight and you haven't found anything probably because of lack of nutrition. You're barely eating or drinking. I understand, Fang, I really do. If something like this happened to Katy I'm sure I would be the same way, but I would hope that someone would stop me before I hurt myself. Please, Fang. Just go eat something and take a nap. We'll keep searching. Nudge and Ella will be here soon and I'm sure they'll be able to help. Okay?"
"Rebel, I can't I-"
"No, Fang. You have to."
"But-"
"No."
I finally give in and fix myself a Hot Pocket. It's great to finally eat something. All I've had the past three days has been two pretzel snack packs and a bag of gummy bears. I've had plenty of water, though. Steve saw to that. He didn't want me to hurt my voice with lack of moisture.
After I finish my Hot Pocket and three bananas I decide that maybe a nap isn't a bad idea, but am woken up by Nudge's loud blabbermouth almost immediately after I fall asleep.
"Well, I just searched Maxine Martinez and this website came up called and the little blurb below the web address said 'We are now in possession of subject 248: Maxine Ride Martinez.' So, I clicked on that and there were all these passwords and stuff I had to hack past and then I just found her file. Easy as that. She's being kept in a lab in Death Valley called the school."
By now I am fully awake and back in my room on my bed with the rest of the band and Nudge. "We have to go get her. Iggy wants to use bombs so we have to incorporate that into our plan some how for his sake. Where is Ella?"
"She's sick. Won't be able to come with us to save Max," replies Gazzy.
"Okay, she's going to be our backup plan then. She needs to know where we are and if we're not back in three days then something is wrong. If something goes wrong she needs to come up to the lab with reinforcements and save us as soon as she is well enough to do so."
Nudge nods seeming shocked at my sudden taking charge. "Okay, I'll call her and let her now," She says and walks out of the room to call Ella.
"Rebel, go get the car. You're going to be the driver because we definitely cannot take our limo to Death Valley and you're the only one out of all of us who can drive a rental. Iggy, call Steve and tell him to postpone the tour. Gazzy, make bombs. Now everyone go. I need to think."
They all leave to go do their jobs and I start studying Max's file. It all seems like scientific nonsense until I come upon her "subject type". It says she is the first avian-human hybrid test subject. What does that mean? Like, a bird-human hybrid? They're going to make a Max-bird DNA cocktail.
"Guys, we need to go, now. Are you ready?" I call as I pick up my black backpack from the corner of the hotel room.
"DONE!" Gazzy shouts as he comes barreling into my bedroom from Iggy's holding armfuls of ammo.
"Steve's given us a week. He said he can't go past that because we have an important interview with Ellen that day," Iggy calls as he strolls in and plops onto my bed. "Also, Rebel just texted me. The car's ready when we are."
"Great, where's Nudge?" I ask as I start going through my backpack and making a mental list of what I'll need to get for the trip.
"Here! I'm here," Nudge yells from the kitchen. "I'll be there in two secs!"
I sigh, toss some clothes into my bag, and direct the others to do the same before meeting me at the elevator in ten. I grab some trail mix, binoculars, my iPod, and a black hoodie. I also pack for Rebel who I forgot to have pack before he left.
We all meet at the elevator on time (with the exception of Nudge who almost lost an arm to elevator doors when she thrust it between them to make the trip.
"Okay, we're all ready. Does everyone understand the risks of this mission?" I ask.
They all nod solemnly and I say, "Are you sure? You really understand that we could all die on this trip?"
Nudge's eyes grow a little wide, but she nods along with Iggy and Gazzy.
I swallow and look up to notice a little old lady standing in the corner of the elevator with wide eyes and her hand over her mouth.
"Oh, uh, hi," I stutter giving her a small wave. "Um, we were just talking about a, uh, um, game, by the way. It's just a game."
The lady nods, but I notice her fingers tighten on her handbag. Don't worry old lady, I don't judge. I would be scared too if I was stuck in an elevator with a bunch of crazy people talking about their possible death.
The elevator dings and we all climb out relieved clump.
Once the old lady is out of earshot Iggy snickers, "Nice cover, 'It's, uh, a, um, uh, uh, g-game, uh, like, just a, um, game.'"
I elbow him in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him momentarily and to receive a death glare.
I snicker back and say, "Looks like the tables have turned."
Rebel pulls up and we all pile into the car, which is so small I swear he must have rented from clowns. The ride is almost nine hours all the way to Death Valley so we stop to rest in Bakersfield. We each get our own room and each bed is a tempur-pedic, but I can't sleep. I stare at the ceiling all-night and think about Max. The next morning I look like a zombie, but I just couldn't sleep. My brain wouldn't shut up.
"Fang! Get out here! I brought McDonald's!" Iggy yells.
I groan and shuffle to the door.
Iggy's eyes turn to saucers. "You look like hell."
"Gee, thanks," I reply as I snatch the paper bag from his hand and attempt to slam the door in his face.
Iggy sticks his foot in the door and slowly pries it open. "Jesus, you've only been awake five minutes and you're already this strong?"
"Yeah, I really don't want to have to spend anymore time staring at your ugly face."
"Well, we don't always get what we want," Iggy retorts as the door slips from my grasp and is flung open.
I sigh and retreat to my bed to eat my biscuit breakfast sandwich.
"What do you want?" I ask through a mouthful biscuit after realizing Iggy is still standing in the middle of the room.
"Nothing. I'm just waiting. Will you hand me the remote. I'm gonna watch TV."
I sigh and throw the remote at his head before finishing my sandwich and getting ready for the day. The rest of the morning is pretty uneventful and the four-hour drive next follows suite.
When we finally arrive at Death Valley I realize why I've never cared to visit. The entire place is sand, rocks, and cacti all endured in hundred plus heat.
"This is exciting," Iggy grumbles sarcastically as we drive through the unchanging desert, but soon things start to change. There are tall electric and barbed wire fences and large sand-colored buildings roofed by solar panels.
"We're getting closer," Gazzy whispers.
"Definitely," Nudge replies.
The road we're on twists and turns until it finally ends up at a huge fence decorated with multiple "NO TRESPASSING" signs. The gate is locked electrically and requires a key code to get in. For most people this would be the end of their journey, however, we have Nudge to break in for us.
Once inside the gate we are all scarred for life. On either side of the road are piles of dead bodies that all have some strange mutation or growth.
Nudge screams and Gazzy and Iggy cover their faces in horror Rebel winces ands trains his eyes directly on the road. I don't want to look, but I can't help it. I need to know if Max is in one of those piles.
The bodies don't seem like they'll ever end, but, eventually, they do and when they do we end up at a towering building labeled Itex. There are men and women dressed in white coats and carrying clipboards bustling around and mutants fighting, running, struggling to escape everywhere. We pile out of the car and walk up to a whitecoat.
"Hi," Nudge starts. "We're here on a field trip for science class. It's our summer school course taught by Mr. Walker," she gestures to Alex, "We made reservations a few months ago and some lady gave us the code and location and told us to come today. Is that right? Please tell me it is. I'm so interested in science and everything I've seen so far has been amazingly educating. Can we please continue."
The whitecoat looks terrified for a second and then makes a large hand motion, calling several wolf-like mutants to attention. The wolfs attack us and in seconds the whole group is out.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? DID YOU LIKE IT? THE WHOLE GROUP HAS BEEN TAKEN NOW! ONLY ELLA CAN SAVE THEM! I'M SOOOOO SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG! MY SUMMER GOT REALLY CRAZY AND THEN WHEN IT FINALLY CALMED DOWN MY INTERNET WENT OUT FOR OVER TWO WEEKS! I HOPE YOU LIKED THIS CHAPTER THOUGH. I TRIED TO MAKE IT REALLY GREAT TO MAKE UP FOR BEING MISSING FOR SO LONG.
THANK YOU jetthedog, Beauty with a Bite, DntlessAnnabeth, xXAdventureTimedaBossXx, no-one, FangAKat, and NeonEnigma88 FOR REVIEWING. ALSO, Beauty with a Bite, NO MY CAPS LOCK IS NOT BROKEN, BUT THANKS FOR YOUR CONCERN.
ALSO, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE INTERESTED, THERE IS AN AWESOME FORUM I'M INVOLVED IN CALLED Airhunter Assassin. IF YOU LIKE MAXIMUM RIDE RP YOU SHOULD CHECK IT OUT. AND, FOR ALL OF YOU PERCY JACKSON FANS OUT THERE, I HAVE STARTED A PERCY JACKSON RP CALLED HERO CAMP THAT I'D LOVE FOR YOU GUYS TO BE APART OF.
