Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Max's POV

Fang turned towards me and yelled, "We have no choice, my group will stay here. You have your group go do the two main prerogatives."

"No, you guys wouldn't stand a chance."

"If you go fast enough we will."

I hesitated and Fang yelled, "GO!"

Then I turned to my group and shouted out, "Follow me."

I took one last look back at Fang. This could be the last time I saw him. I forced my self to turn away and run out the door. I was running on pure adrenaline, I had no real plan.

How could I destroy the main lab room and defeat the director and then get back in time to save Fang? Simple answer: I couldn't. But I had to try.

I searched my group to see who I could count on for help. I was relieved to see Bobby, Angel, Melanie, Nudge, and Tom. I gestured towards Bobby to catch up with me.

When he got within speaking distance I said, "Do you know where the director might be and where the lab is?"

He nodded. So I told him, "You take the lead then." He quickly moved in front of me.

He yelled back at me, "Which one are we going to first?"

"The lab. It's more important to the school."

"Kay."

We came across a patrol of erasers and this time we just barreled right through them. Soon we were nearing the lab room so I told Bobby to stop. I turned towards my army of thirty or so and gestured for them to follow me quietly.

I peeked around the corner of the wall and saw around thirty leeches guarding the door. I knew that if we fought them it would mean casualties, but my guess was the experiments were willing to fight for their freedom.

I turned back to the group and quietly said, "There are around thirty enemies over there. We are going to have to fight them. Are you with me?" Thirty heads bobbed up and down simultaneously. "Okay, then were going to take them by surprise. Let's fly to the ceiling and descend upon them. Ready?"

Sixty wings stretched out and began to beat quietly. When we all were on the ceiling I said, "Okay, follow my lead."

We glided silently over to the corridor and before the leeches could notice us we dive bombed them. They didn't know what hit them. There was a flurry of wing beats and high-pitches screeches. Then a dull silence came over the area.

I looked over the group to look at the casualties. It seemed as if no one was seriously hurt. We were lucky that these leeches weren't very observant.

I turned towards the door to inspect the locking system. It needed a key and a password. I had Nudge begin to crack the code while Bobby and I began to search the leeches for the key. I found the key in a particularly nasty looking specimen. I carefully inserted it into the keyhole. A perfect fit. I twisted it and I heard a soft click.

I swiftly opened the door and was astonished by the site that beheld me. Technology that I thought was decades ahead of us were in this room. I looked around and saw many whitecoats mulling around, they hadn't noticed me yet. Well they would soon. I turned towards the group and motioned for them to move into the room.

One whitecoat seeing us yelled out. Quickly we went into action. We weren't nearly as vicious with the whitecoats as we were with the leeches or erasers. We didn't kill them; instead we just knocked them unconscious. After dealing with the whitecoats I turned to Nudge and asked her if she could hack into the system. After a few tense minutes of loud typing she turned towards me and said, "I can't break into it. It's far too complex."

I strode over to one of the whitecoats that looked like a leader of some sort and picked him up by his shirt and said, "Do you know the code to break into the system? Answer truthfully or you'll regret it."

He looked around nervously and said, "I may possibly be able to find a way to break into the system. But it probably won't work. Just don't hurt me."

I led him over to the computer and he diligently typed away and a ding sounded. I jumped and he said, "You're in."

Nudge quickly broke down the remaining resistance left in the system and began working on decimating everything in the system. In a matter of minutes everything that the school had worked on for years was gone.

But there was no time for celebration. I yelled a quick good job and said let's get moving. Bobby once again took the lead for he knew where the director's quarters were. We ran down the linoleum floor as quick as wee could but every second passing felt like forever.

What if we couldn't get back in time to save the other group? What if we all were captured? I shoved the thoughts out of the way. They were just nuisances. Good for you. Oh no. You're back again. Yes, and you're very close to finishing your mission. Destroying this school is the last step. I soaked in what it had just said. It was going to be finally over. I couldn't imagine a life not on the run.

Bobby's voice snapped me back into reality, "We're at the director's quarters."

"Have you been in here before?" Problem was that Fang's group was supposed to be taking down the director so I didn't have a strong plan…yet.

"Yeah, once."

"How many guards were there?"

"Maybe fifty or so."

"Well this will be a completely different fight from that surprise attack. This one we will have to fight face to face. There will probably be casualties. Bobby is there any other way we can enter besides the front door?"

He thought for a moment and said, "Well there is a system of air vents, but it might take a little longer to navigate through them. Do we have time to do that?"

"No, we don't. You're right. Okay so it looks like this is a special door. There is a camera hole so when you try to enter they have to grant you access. Iggy do you have any bombs on you?"

"Yeah," he fished around in his backpack and pulled out a small square object, "This one should do the trick." He walked up to the door and placed it right beneath it and hit a button of some sort on the bomb. Then he began to run back towards us and yelled, "Move back!"

A deafening explosion went off. I quickly regained my composure and realized we needed to fly in now otherwise we would lose the element of surprise. I shouted out to the group, "Follow me!"

I flew into the smoke covering my eyes from the smoke. I finally broke through the smoke and found myself in a huge room with lots of leeches. Soon the whole group was out of the smoke and flying with me. We dived down upon our enemy. Our forces collided with a resounding crash.

The chaos of battle filled the room. I found myself fighting four leeches simultaneously. I elbowed the one to my left, kneed the one directly in front of me, I knocked down two of the others by jumping up and doing a split kick. This all happened within a three second span, trust me super speed in fighting is awesome. I sensed another leech approaching me so I spun around and punched. My punch was blocked, then my arm was grabbed and I was thrown into the air. I looked down and I didn't see a leech, I saw the director. He looked like a normal person, but then he spread wings. He was an avian mutant as well.

I began trading blows with him and he began taunting me, "Maximum Ride I have been waiting to finally face you."

"Really? Oh, I am flattered."

"I am going to prove that I am the best. I was created to be the best, and I always will be the-"

"Ya ya ya. What next, survival of the fittest? You guys always say you're the best and you were created to beat me, but you always fail to recognize your own flaws. You guys are all the same. So predictable."

"Predict this." He flew so fast I couldn't follow his flight path with my eyes, and then I went flying backwards. We began fighting in super speed but he was far faster then I was.

I threw everything I had at him, but it wasn't enough. I jabbed to the left; he dodged and elbowed me on the back and I went spiraling to the ground. I hit the ground with a oomph. I started to get back up but a heavy weight knocked me back down. He was on me, his hands around my neck. I couldn't breathe. Déjà vu. It reminded me of when Max 2 and I fought, but this time the strangler wasn't going to be merciful. I saw a bright light. This was the end.

BOOM! I could breathe. I took huge gulping breaths, I must have looked like a large mouthed bass but I didn't care. I was alive. I turned to see who had saved me and I saw the most unexpected and ironic savior. Max 2. She had the upper hand against him but I doubt she would for long. I took one last deep breath and threw myself back into the fray.

Max 2 was already losing; she couldn't fly super fast in battle. I quickly went to her aid. Now it was two against one, and we slowly backed him into a corner.

In desperation he tried to fly straight up but I was one step ahead of him. When he flew up I was above waiting for him. I landed on his head with a satisfying thud. As he was falling to the ground I realized he would die if I didn't catch him, and I wanted to be able to question him. So I dive bombed after him at full speed, and I caught him a hundred feet to spare.

I turned towards the rest of the room and saw the fighting was just about over. I quickly gathered the group again and made a count. We had lost five people, it was sad but I knew we had done the right thing. At least they died fighting instead of in a test tube. None of them had been in either of the flocks, so we were lucky in that aspect.

We quickly departed and I had Max 2 fly next to me, together we carried the director. I decided to ask her about what had happened, "Why did you save me?"

"You spared me before, so now we're even. Also, I wanted the end of the schools just as much as you guys. If they captured me I would have been experimented on as well."

I nodded and from that point on we flew in silence. We were nearing the spot where Fang's group was so I turned to Iggy and said, "When we get in there I want you to plant a bomb on the roof. We will go through the hole it causes."

He nodded eagerly, he seemed to be enjoying that he was getting to use bombs with my consent. We flew in and saw that their group was faring too well. Even with our forces added we couldn't win that fight, we were all too tired.

I yelled out as loud as I could, "Let's blow this joint!" Everyone down there turned to see who said it when a huge bang went off. "Follow me!"

We all flew out the hole in the ceiling and Fang quickly caught up to me. I turned and nodded at him. I realized that we weren't making any distance on the leeches; they were just as fast as us. We couldn't escape.

Use your power. What? You mean the power to make people faster; I thought I had to touch them to do that? It just takes more energy if you do it this way. You can do it. It may render you unconscious though. I quickly turned to Fang and told him my plan. He worriedly nodded in agreement. I looked around at the people I wanted to give a speed boost to and then concentrated and sent out a wave of speed to the direct vicinity.

A wave of exhaustion overcame me and the last thing I remember was feeling strong arms wrap around me.

Fang's POV

I saw her beginning to fall and I quickly swooped down and caught her. I looked down at her perfect face and realized how much she and all of us had gone through. She tried so hard, I just hoped for her sake that it was almost over.

I turned around and saw that the leeches were out of sight, we had already put a lot of distance between us and them. We flew for half an hour more and then settled down for camp in a clearing. I gently lay Max on the ground, she needed her rest. I lay down next to her and brushed some hair out of her face. She began to stir and mumbled, "Fang…"

"Yeah?"

"What's going on, where are we?"

"Don't worry Max were safe."

"The voice says it's not over."

I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her head. It was going to be a long night.

A.N. PLEASE REVIEW. More to come soon.