Chapter 14: Graveyard
Chapter 14: Graveyard
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
We were in a California state park, I don't know where.
Surrounded by giant evergreen trees,
We had convinced the younger kids to go out looking for fire wood.
The baby wailed and wailed, sitting on a tree stump.
Crying her adorable green-brown eyes out,
"What's wrong with her?!" Fang had yelled as if at a very loud concert,
"I don't know!" I yelled back to him,
"What ever happened to these maternal instincts you're supposed to have?" Iggy yelled,
"You ruined them for me, now shut up." I snapped at him,
I was trying to concentrate under the piercing screams of the baby girl,
We still hadn't given her a name.
Suddenly strong arms were rapped around me,
And I realized it was Adam.
He must have noticed I looked stressed because he spoke in a calming cooling tone.
Adam's arms were the coldest arms I had ever felt, I supposed that was because of his Cryokenetic abilities. I found the cold relaxing, and comforting.
"Maybe she's hungry." He said, after giving me a peck on the cheek.
"Yeah." Said Iggy standing up,
"What do you feed a baby?" he asked, stupidly.
An awkward silence washed over us,
Fang and Iggy looked at Talon and I,
I had the strangest feeling Adam was standing behind me, pointing at Talon and me.
Embarrassment and anger washed over me like a tsunami.
I broke away from Adam's arms and stood next to Talon,
An expression of anger on my face.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no……"
All the boys were smirking, as Adam joined them.
"Out of the question!" Talon yelled, waving her arms.
Now all the boys had the smuggest smirks I'd ever seen on them,
Iggy looked like he was one person tripping away from bursting with laughter.
"Scientist agree it's the healthiest way to raise a baby." Adam said, smiling.
"NO!!" Talon and I shouted,
Ny was escorting the younger kids, so she wasn't here for the embarrassment.
"It's a bonding experience." Iggy shrugged,
The baby screamed even louder making it difficult to argue.
They had a solid argument, but I was nothing I not stubborn and I knew Talon was the same.
"Didn't you once say you counted the flock as your kids?" Fang smiled,
"OUT OF THE BLOODY QUESTION!!" I yelled at him, and he just smirked.
"Well, what are we going to do? She needs food, and you're not going to let her starve are you?"
I sighed, time to give in…
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3 hours later,
Adam's POV
Branches and leaves flew by me as I fell out of the tree, landing perfectly on the ground.
Rolling like you're supposed to do, to distribute force through your entire body.
Maybe twenty feet away I saw Max, feeding the little girl.
The bottle in one hand, her other was cradling her.
She had made Talon and I fly to the closest supermarket to get baby formula and a bottle.
Max can be pretty persuasive when she cheats and uses her lips and her eyes… it's unfair!
It was late and most of the younger kids had gone to branch (See what I did there? I replaced bed with branch because… never mind)
I walked over, feeling the breeze of the wind ripple across my shirt…
I sat down next to her and wrapped my arm around her,
Her eyes were the softest I think I'd ever seen them, as she stared at the baby girl.
She smiled, but didn't look away from the little girl…
"What are you thinking about?" I asked her, absently playing with a loose strand of her light brown hair…
"How her eyes look…" she mumbled, now I knew Max was never one for being sentimental. I had a theory that she was trying her best to be open with me…
"And what do you think about them?"
"Just look." She passed me the little girl,
I remembered how to hold a baby really quickly,
Recalling when Pain as a little baby.
I cradled her in my arms and looked at her eyes,
Closest to the pupil they were an emerald green, swirling around towards the edge they became a light cinnamon brown.
It made her eyes look like a forest or woodland area.
I looked up at Max's eyes, which were the exact shade of brown as the baby girls.
I remembered that my eyes where emerald green, not that I've really ever looked at my eyes… but I knew Pain and I had the same color eyes, and his where emerald green.
I decided to play dumb, not quite sure what Max had in mind,
"They look like this forest?" I guessed looking at Max again,
She smiled at me.
"No, well yes. But I was thinking about how…" she seemed to stop of embarrassment.
I gave her hand an encouraging squeeze…
She smiled sheepishly,
"Well, he eyes look like someone took the colors of both your and my eyes and through them in a mixing bowl…"
I cocked my head, examining her face…
She smiled sheepishly, and said
"Kind of stupid right?"
"No, I think it's nice… very thoughtful." I smiled at her,
She leaned her head onto my shoulder,
"Sleepy?" I asked her,
The little girl had already fallen asleep in my arms.
"No, just trying to calm down."
"Why are you stressed?"
"I'm not stressed, I'm troubled."
"What is troubling you?"
With one arm I was cradling the sleeping baby, and with the other I was slowly stroking my sleepy baby.
She sighed, and said "Those people, all of them… They just died."
She was referencing what happened when I had blown up The School.
"Would have rather have had me let the school continue existing?" I asked not sarcastically at all.
"No, I can't tell you what a relief is rushing through me. That place has been my personal hell hole for too many years… I just wished they didn't have to die." She finished quietly.
"Those people were Doctor Frankenstein incarnate." I whispered,
"Jeb was there."
I grunted,
I didn't care about Jeb; in fact I hated him just like any other one of those bastards at the school. If not worse…
"He was my father." She whispered,
"He abandoned both of us remember…Just because he took care of you for two years, doesn't make him you father…" I whispered,
"No, he is my biological father… he and Doctor Martinez…" I whispered,
"Huh… and who is Doctor Martinez?" I asked trying to change the subject.
"My mom; don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Try and distract me…"
"Hmmm…" I made an angry noise in my throat, but didn't protest.
"He was my actual father…"
"So? He abandoned you didn't he?" I said,
Despite the fact we were arguing she didn't remove her head from my shoulder, and I didn't take my arm off of her.
"Yeah, but… I mean wouldn't you care if your father died?"
"I have no father, I raised myself."
She looked up at me, alarmed at the sudden venom in my voice,
"What? No you must have had a father."
"No, I must have had two people to donate gametes. That's egg and sperm. I had no father; if I had parents wouldn't they have stopped the white coats from taking me… No, I have no parents." I said in an icy tone,
She gapped at me,
"That's a dark way to look at things." She said,
"It's the truth… or at least how I see it."
We sat there in silence,
She seemed to be thinking,
I was afraid I had scared her off, but I was satisfied with what I said… I was the truth and if she couldn't accept that…
She seemed to relax and she leaned back against me…
That took me off guard,
But I held her close to me, grateful for her understanding.
She still looked troubled about it…
"Your really tired aren't you?" I asked,
"Just kind of exhausted… They did this awful thing to us…"
"What?"
"Well, they injected us with some drug that causes hallucinations…"
"What kind of hallucinations?" I asked, absently playing with a strand of her hair…
"Like, it showed me my worst nightmare…"
I grimaced,
Remembering when they did that to me,
"It was awful…"she whispered pulling herself closer to me…
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked,
"Well… it was like…" she paused; to encourage her I pressed my lips to the top of her head.
"It was like, what I've been fearing ever since I first saw her…"
She didn't say the name, but I knew that she was talking about Eraser Max.
"Loosing control to her, and doing awful things…"
"I hallucinated that I… she killed Angel… I thought it was real, I thought my baby was dead."
I had a feeling Max had a soft spot for Angel.
I noticed tears were appearing in her eyes, glistening and obstructed my view of her beautiful light brown eyes.
I wiped them away, and she continued
"I…I was distraught." She whispered in a shaky voice,
"You know, they did that to me… a long time ago." i whispered
"Yeah…Right after they did it to you… they did it to me, and after…"
she paused, and looked me in the eye...
"I saw you... you... you protected me." she whispered
"I never thought I would see you again…I didn't even recognize you…" she continued...
"I recognized you as that girl the moment I saw you, the moment we touched…" i said, and i pressed my lips to her cheek.
She laughed darkly,
"I believe the first moment we touched, is when I decked you."
I laughed too…
We settled into a comfortable silence, and she pulled herself even closer to me. Pressing against me…
"Can I ask you a question?" she asked me,
"Sure." I said, and kissed her on the top of her head.
"What did you see when they gave you that drug?"
I grimaced, not something I want to remember.
"I remember the room got very dark and very small… like elevator small."
"Mine too." She said,
I moved my fingers through her hair absently,
"Then the ground was gone… and I was sinking…"
"It think it was quick sand."
"And I opened my wings to fly away, but… my wings weren't there. They were cut off…"
"I hated it, it made feel so restricted, so controlled, and I felt like I couldn't even control myself. Like I had no freedom, it was violating…"
I hugged her tighter,
A silence ensued… a nothing-needs-to-be-said silence…
Eventually the sun set and it was dark…
Max had fallen asleep on my shoulder, and the little girl was asleep in my arms.
I repositioned Max, so that she wouldn't wake up and stood up.
I moved over our backpack and pulled out a baby carrier from it, it was the same baby carrier that Total used.
I slid her into the baby carrier, the next thing I know warm arms wrapped around my waste…
Max
"I'll take her." She said, looking around me.
I handed the little girl to Max; she put her around her like a backpack, but on the front.
She still looked really tired,
"I'll take first watch, you go get some sleep."
She smiled at me, and in response kissed me on the lips briefly, and walked off to go to sleep.
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"AHHHH!!" I screamed in pain...
Painting deeply… I ached in pain.
Panting for air… Feeling nothing but pain.
Ridiculous over the top pain…
Of surely the worst pain ever……
Was this hell?
Did I actually die again?
I think the school blew up…
And I was killed again… for good.
I felt the burning, this was HELL!!
I screamed again, a blood curdling scream of pain!
I WAS DAMNED!!
Was this for eternity?
Was this how god worked?
No forgiveness?
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
I screamed again,
"HELP ME!!"
Wasn't supposed to be God who could forgive all sins?
Who could forgive everything?
Was it truly I who disserved this agony?
I don't think anyone could stand this agony?
Was there no chance for forgiveness?
No re-judgment?
The pain surged all over my body…
"WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!?"
"What crime could I have possibly committed to be damned to this eternity of pain!!"
"WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!?" I screamed in pain,
For surely all can be forgiven!
…why?
……Arg…
Why…
??
Pain…awful…pain…
It was unending…
Surely nothing would be preferable to this…
Why exist if you would only face pain…unending pain…
Just emptiness, it would be a better fate… than endless pain.
Numbness… I beg for thee…
Ice…please…I need ice…
I need to be numb from pain…from hell.
I became aware I had eyes… out of nowhere
I opened my eyes…
I wasn't in hell…
Or at least, I don't think I am…
It looked like I was surrounded by ruble…
There were bent burnt steel girders, and destroyed concrete… lots of concrete…
I couldn't see much, but it look like above me was a light.
I wanted to go to the light, desperately to go to the light.
But I didn't think I had a body to move to the light,
I looked down at myself,
Uhgg…
I felt like throwing up at what I saw,
My body was there heavily burnt, missing a lot of body parts, bones poking out, fingers hanging off bits of muscle.
And yet my regeneration abilities were doing their job, my finger hanging off the side by a muscle tendon slowly pulled it's self back in place, and re-sealed it's self…
Soon enough my hands and arms were fixed,
I thought I had a chance of crawling up towards the light…
I recognized it as moonlight…
I pulled myself up,
"AIIEEE!!" I screamed in pain…
"ARRGG!!" I went for a manlier scream…
I just kept at it, enduring and grunting through the pain,
And oh my god was it painful…
Soon enough my legs were able to move and I was able to increase my speed…
Yes…
I pulled myself out of the hole of rubble… and fell,
"ARGG!!"
It hurt every time my burnt skin touched something, or moved… it was like the worlds worst sunburn.
I pulled myself, crawling on the ground… I began to snarl…
Like the monster I was, I was able to pull myself to my knees…
It was her fault…
Max…
She's the one who cause me this pain…
She's the one responsible for all my pain,
The most awful pain, her and that jackass she's dating…
I looked up at the full moon in the sky and felt a sense of majesty and power…
Staring at the moon, I whispered
"As God as my witness I swear an eternal vendetta on Maximum Ride…"
I howled at the moon…
…….
…………
………………
"Ahhh!!"
I woke up in a sweat…
I looked at myself,
Oh thank god… it was just a dream.
Just a dream…
Or was it?
Was Ari still alive?
Did my personal nightmare live?
……
I can't stand not knowing…
I need to find out…
I could go,
I could look for him,
Make sure he was dead; make sure I'm not crazy.
I stood up abruptly,
I needed to check
I took the little girl off my chest and placed her on her back on the ground.
With a quick 360 to make sure no was watching and seeing no one I leapt into the air,
WHOOSH
My wings unfurled and I soared into the full moon in the sky…
It wasn't hard to find the place; it was sort of marked by a giant mushroom cloud in the sky…
I was now soaring under the cloud; I couldn't see anything from up here,
But in my dream I had seen Ari crawling on the ground.
So it stood to reason I might not be able to see him from the sky,
With a couple flaps of my wings I landed, and surveyed my surroundings…
It was difficult to see because so much of rubble was packed on top of each other…
Making a sort of mountains…
I walked over looking for a high point to look around…
Bingo!
I saw a large concrete wall, which was ripped apart but was jutting out of the ground like a giant ledge. I slowly crawled up it and perched on top like a bird…
I surveyed my surroundings…
Nothing…
Absolutely nothing…
And fear began to drain out of me replacing it with sadness…
depression ensued...
My father…Jeb… had a grave here… he was dead, my brother was here dead. That man and woman who gave birth to the baby were here… they're dead…
They're all dead…
All dead…
They had hopes and dreams… they were all dead, because of the people they hung out with, because they were in a building full of mad scientist who needed to die…
All…dead…dead……dead…………d…e…a…d…………
"Dead…dead. Gone, dead." I whispered and I realized I was crying…
I let the tears roll off my nose, as I sat there crouched…perched on a concrete wall…
"Aw…Maxie…" said a creepily familiar voice…
I looked up, adrenaline pulsing through me…
I looked to the left… nothing…
"Over here."
I looked to the right…….nothing…
"No over here!"
I looked up…nope.
"No stupid look down!"
I looked down and there in front of me was a broken piece of metal with my reflection looking back at me…
Only it wasn't my reflection…
It was eraser max, who looked at me,
I acted instinctively, I leapt off the perch and landed feet first on the metal… breaking it like glass.
"You can't destroy me Max." said Eraser Max,
I turned and I was facing a mirror like surface with Eraser Max sitting calmly in the mirror…
I kicked the surface, shattering the reflection,
"Not quite…"
I whirled around to see twenty feet away, another mirror like surface.
I sent a jet of white hot flames at it, and it broke.
"Maximum can't we cut this silliness… your being prejudice."
I turned again, to see six mirrors with Eraser Max in all of them.
"Max what have I ever done to you?" asked Eraser Max,
"You…You bug me!" I yelled my voice breaking.
"So does your other voice, but you don't fight it."
"Your evil!!"
"What makes you think that?"
"You ask me to kill people…"
"Adam does kill people, and he isn't evil…"
I was speechless, turning from mirror to mirror…
"I'm just looking out for you Max." she said,
"I am you… and I don't want you to be hurt Maxie." She said sincerely,
"I don't want Angel to be hurt, or Nudge, or Gazzy, or Iggy, or Fang… Or even Adam…"
I was panting,
"I care for him too." She whispered,
"Liar!!" I screamed,
"No Max, I'm you…If you care for him, so do I."
"I want you to survive, I want you to be happy." Whispered Eraser Max,
"No…no…your bad."
"No Max, there you go again. Your being prejudice."
"Because I take the form of an eraser, you automatically assume I'm evil."
"You of all people, I never would have expected to mimic Fang."
"Wha?"
"Your being just like him…remember how he wouldn't accept Ari?"
"Because he was eraser."
"I've done nothing to you…"
"I-I…"
Everything went dizzy…
I couldn't see straight…
The world was moving, and shacking…
"I'll drop in again." Was the last thing I heard from her,
I felt nauseous…
I stammered around, feeling drunk…minus the good feelings…
I vomited…
"Oh God…Oh God…"
I climbed up a stack of rubble…
I couldn't see straight…
The next thing I know I'm on the ground…
Breathing heavily…
"No…No…"
I stared up at the moon…
"Oh God…no…no…"
I knew I was dead…
How?
Because I saw, silhouetted against the moon…
An angel,
He was the most beautiful angel I had ever seen,
Snow white wings landed by my side,
Then my mind conjured up the best thing I could think of,
The angel spoke my name…
"Max? Max!?"
The angel sounded distressed…
That's not right; angels shouldn't be distressed…
I began to float off the ground…
The angel lifted me off the ground in his arms,
His snow white wings surrounded me, shielding me…
"Max…Max…" spoke the angel's soft musical voice…
Whoosh…
His large powerful white wings opened, the world spun around me,
And he took off, and we flew towards the moon…
Of course…
The moon!
Heaven must be on the moon… or it is the moon.
I felt so safe in this Angel's arms…
I loved it… I love this angel, this protector…
"I love you…" I whispered to the angel…
He was my guardian to heaven…
I fell asleep, passed out…
With a smile on my face, waiting for heaven.
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A/N: I will now say a few words…
"But"
"Going"
"Chilly"
"Twig"
"Tentatively"
"Phrase"
"Jesus"
"Most"
"Popcorn"
"Toilet Seat"
"Badger"
Lol…anyway.
Please review.