AN: ILuvMyFangPlushie here.
Thank you Day Dreamer 614 for reviewing. I appreciate the suggestion but I want to give Gazzy the entire spot light for once.
Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, JP does.
Gosh guys, it's been almost an entire day and only two people has read my last chapter. I didn't do anything wrong right? If you didn't read it, you might want to. Just making sure.
Chapter 20: The Beach
We were flying high into the air. We could see the outline of Manhattan. We could see Long Island. We flew along the coast while the sun goes down.
It's so pretty.
An hour and a half later we saw a little beach. There weren't any lights, meaning there shouldn't be that many people.
Fang nods to Max. I guess we're going to the beach. Yeah! I've never been to the beach before.
We aimed down. We dived. It's so much fun. The speed is so awesome. It's like going on a roller coaster but so... much... better.
We land.
"Looks good," Fang says looking around.. We land.
The sand is soft with big giant boulders closing us off.
"Home sweet home," Max says taking off her backpack. Huh, I've never seen that backpack before. Is it new? Where'd she get it? Oh well.
We sat down on a piece of driftwood. Max passed out food. Yay food!
Twenty minutes later we stacked fists and then we curled up and went to sleep.
The next morning we woke up to the ocean. The waves crashing into the sand. It's so cool. We're like on vacation. A lot of it is kind of sucky, but we're going places we've never been before and it's kinda cool. I mean New York, underground cities, zoos, beaches, stupid restaurants, and a park.
Max goes with Nudge into town so they can get us breakfast and other stuff. Wonder why Nudge always wants to go. Maybe they talk about stuff. What would they talk about girl stuff or something. Eew.
Nevermind. Don't think I want to know anymore.
Me, Iggy, Fang, and Angel sat there.
"Can I go in the water?" Angel asks.
"Yeah, go ahead," Fang says.
"Don't go too far," Iggy yells after her. "Gaz go with her,"
"Okay," I say getting up.
I run after Angel. I take off my shoes.
"Take off your shoes, the water feels cool," I tell her as the waves crash into my feet.
She takes her shoes and socks off.
Running into the water with me, she puts down Celeste.
I splash her.
She turns around and glares at me. She splashes me back.
"This means war!" I yell at her.
We splash each other for a couple of minutes.
'AHH!' I scream. Someone dumped water on my head!
I hear Iggy laughing. I turn around to see him holding up a bucket. Where the heck did he get a bucket? IHe's still laughing so I tackle him.
He falls into the water and I splash him. He splashes me back.
"And the splash war continures!" I yell.
SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!
Nudge then joins us too. Guess they're back. They're back?
"Food!" I yell running up onto shore to Max right before Iggy tried to splash me. "Hah, missed me!" "Food?" I say to Max.
She smiles and hands me a sandwich.
"Just one?" I ask pouting.
"For now," she says rubbing my hair.
Soon the others are back onto shore. We eat.
After that I run back up to the shore line and I stand there feeling the waves crash at my feet. Something comes up to me. Something orangy and small.
"A crab!" I yell, pointing at the place by my feet. Angel runs to me holding Celeste making the teddy's paws almost touching the water.
It's so small.
Nudge comes to look too. "It has big claws. What if it like pinches us or something?" We step back from it a little.
She wades into the water.
"Water fight?" I ask.
"Nah, I'm just gonna swim a bit," she says.
A couple minutes later, Nudge runs up to Max. Max says something, Iggy laughs, and Nudge says something.
Nudge runs back into the water with Iggy running behind her.
A couple hours later we eat some more and we stack fists and go to bed.
Fang leaves the next morning to get more stuff.
"Do we still have cookies left?" I ask Max.
"A couple, here," she hands us each a cookie. Yay, cookie!
"Max?" I ask.
"Yeah?"
"Why do you like cookies so much, all of a sudden?" I ask curiously.
"Yeah, why?" Iggy asks.
"Um,... uh... I've always liked cookies. We were just never around them much," she says looking away. Okay?
"Whatever," Iggy says.
Fang comes back. We ate breakfast. Fang handed Max a newspaper.
"Mysterious Bird Children Nowhere To Be Found," it says.
"Well good for us. We've gone two days without causing a huge commotion in a public place and getting our pictures splashed all over the news," Max says. Cool.
"We're going swimming!" Nudge said tapping Iggy's hand. Iggy got up and me and Angel followed them.
Shiny, bright sun. The water is still cold though. Iggy is building a sand castle. Just with his hands. It's pretty cool.
Me and Angel splash each other. She dove under the water.
Cool. I dive in for a second too. She hasn't up yet? I looke around the water confused. Angel!? Oh my god! Where is she? I can't lose my sister again. I can't. Oh my god! WHERE IS SHE!?
I look up at Max panicking. Se runs to me. "Angel!" she yells grabbing my shoulders. "Where'd she go down?"
"Right here! She dove that wayl! I saw her go under," I say wanting to cry.
Fang, Nudge, and Iggy came up to us.
"This would be an excellent time for one of us to develope xray vision," I hear Max mutter. Don't I wish.
"Angel!" Nudge yells cupping her hands around her mouth.
We all yell out her name sweeping our hands in the water in different directions.
What if we can't find them?
We looked for what felt like hours. if we never find her? My eyes stung. What if my she was being pulled out to sea?
"Do you see ANYTHING?"Max cries to Fang.
He shakes his head looking at the water.
We swept the whole area again.
And again.
And again.
We looked and looked.
Max is looking at something. I look to where Max was looking.
ANGEL!
Max and Angel ran at each other.
"ANGEL, Angel, where were you?" Max asks barely as whisper.
"Guess what? I can breathe under water!" Angel says happily.
"At least she's happy," I mutter under my breath.
Iggy pats me on the head.
Max grabs Angel and hugs her hard. "Angel, I thought you had drowned! What were you doing?" she says almost crying.
Angel wiggled closer and we went to shore.
Don't cry, crying is bad. Don't cry.
"I was just swimming and I accidentally swallowed some water and started to choke. But I didn't want Gazzy to find me. We were playing hide and seek. Under water. So I just stayed under, and then I realized that I could sort of swallow water and stay under and not choke," Angel says. Wait? What?
"What do you mean swallow water?" Max asks.
"I just swallow it and then go like this." Angel like blew air out of her nose. I smile. Her face looked kind of funny.
"It comes out of your nose?" Fang asked.
"I don't' know where the water goes but bair comes out of my nose," she says.
Max looks at Fang. "She extracting oxygen from the water," Max says.
What? What does that mean?
"Can you show us?" Fang asks.
Angel got up walking to the water. We followed jumped into the still kind of scared me. Like I was gonna lose her again.
She knelt and took a giant mouthfull of water, and stood up.
Then she like swallowed it, and like blew air out of her nose like she said. Then like the water came out of her NECK!
"Holy moly," I breathed.
Nudge told Iggy what happened and he whistled.
"And I can do it and stay under water and jusst keep swimming," Angel says letting out her wings so they could dry.
"I bet I can do it too! Cause we're siblings," I say.
I dropped down and tried what she was doing earlier.
I swallowed the water and tried to blow the air out of my nose.
Then I started gagging and choking and coughing and gagging. I felt like barfing.
I can't do it. it didn't work at all.
"You okay?" Max asks me. I shudder.
Never... Doing... That... Again... Ever.
"Iggy, touch Angel's neck and see if you can feel anything, those pores that water comes through," Max says.
Iggy touches her neck. All over her neck. "I can't feel anything."
Everyone else tried it too. Just to see if they could do it too. Or if it's only Angel.
Yeah, they can't do it either.
At least now, I don't feel like a loser.
We sat down for a bit. Everyone trying to relax.
"Who asked you?" Max yells out of nowhere.
"Asked me what?" Nudge asks her looking up in surprise.
"Nothing," Max says. Maybe it's like her voice thing. Is that a power too? Kinda weird.
Then she frowns.
Huh.
We ate then stacked fists and went to sleep.
"Look who's come to the seashore," someone says.
It's Erasers. Eraser voices.
We wake up and look up. Ari is looking at us.
I look around while Angel wakes up holding the teddy.
Erasers. Erasers were everywhere. There was like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. And they're just standing ther looking at us. Creepy. Really creepy.
"You're so pretty when you're sleeping... and your mouth is shut. But what a shame to cut your hair." Ari leans down and whispers to Max.
Eew, does he like Max? Like, like like Max?
"When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it," she spits at him trying to get out from under his boot. Wait? He's stepping on her?
"I like em feisty," he says laughing at her.
Eew, he does like like her. That's so gross.
"Get off her!" Fang yells tackling Ari to the ground. Told him, he loved her. He's really scary when he tries to protect her.
Iggy and Max jumped up ready to help Fang, but Erasers grabbed him.
"Nudge and Gazzy... U and A, now!" Max yells.
We flew into the air untl we got up to Angel, who was already up there.
Erasers were holding onto them. Max yells to Fang. Fang and Ari were fighting.
I feel so helpless, up here, while they fight down there.
Ari was smashing Fang's head on a big rock.
No! Fang!
Max screams at Ari to let him go and leave him alone. She manages to get escape the Erasers who were holding her and she runs up to Fang.
Fang opens his eyes a little bit. He got up and kicked Ari in the chest.
Go Fang! Beat him up!
They fought. Ari hit him again and blood flew out of his mouth. And he... and he... fell.
No! Fang! Ari gets down next to him and opens his mouth over his neck.
No...no...no...no. I can't lose Fang. He's like my daddy.
Max is crying.
No...
"Ari!" someone yells.
I look.
It's Jeb.
Ari paused.
"Ari you have your orders!" Jeb yells.
Jeb stops in front of Max.
"Do you get it now, Max. Do you see the incredible beauty of the game? No child, no adult, no one has ever experienced anything like what you're feeling. Do you see why all this is necessary?" Jeb says.
What? Game? Beauty? Necessary? What the heck is this dude talking about? Fang's dying... I sniffle.
Max got out the Eraser's hands. She spit at him.
"No, I don't get it. I'll never get it. I want to get out of it," she says.
"I told you , you're going to save the world. That's the purpose of your existance. Do you think an ordinary, untrained fourteen year old could see that? No. You've got to be the best, the strongest, the smartest. You've got to be the ultimate. MAXIMUM," he says.
What? Save the world? Max is supposed to save the world? She's already the strongest and the best. She's Max. I don't know what he's talking about.
Max yawns and rolls her eyes. Jeb looks mad.
"Do not fail. You did okay in New York, but you made serious, rather stupid mistakes. Mistakes cost you. Make better decisions," he says.
"Stupid Jeb, who does he think he is... that was my fault anyways," I mutter.
"No, it's not," Nudge says.
"Yeah, yeah, "I say waving my hand at her.
"You're not my dad, anymore Jeb You're not responsible for me. I do what I like. I named myself. Maximum Ride," Max says.
"I'll ALWAYS be responsible for you. If you think you're actually running your own life, then maybe you're not as bright as I thought you were," Jeb says.
"Make up your mind. Either I'm the greatest or I'm not. Which is it?" Max snaps.
Jeb motions with his hands and him and the Erasers leave.
Ari turns and smirks at Max.
"Daddy always loved me best!" Max hisses at him.
He steps to her.
Uh oh. Max what are you doing?
But the other Erasers pushed him away.
Max stumbles to Fang. She looked at him and then turned him over carefully.
"Fang, you have to wake up," Max whispers while we run up to them.
"He looks really bad. He should see a doctor," I say.
Max lifts his head into her lap. He looks so cold and bloody and he's not waking up.
I kneeled down.
"We could carry him, you and me," Iggy says feeling Fang for injuries.
"Where to? It's not like we can check him into a hospital," Max says a little bitterly.
"No hospi'l," Fang mumbles.
HE'S ALIVE!
"Fang! How bad?" Max asks.
"Pre'y bad,"he says groaning and shifting to the side.
"Don't move!" Max yells at him.
He turns his head he spit blood into the sand. Raising his hand, he spits something else into it.
"Tooth, feel like crap," Fang says touching his head.
"You look like a kitty cat," Max says looking at his scratches. "Fang just live, okay? Live and be okay."
Then she leans down and KISSED HIM! She kissed him. Max kissed Fang.
"Ow," Fang says touching his lips. Then they just, like, stare at each other.
Is this normal? Do they do that a lot? I look at Fang to Iggy to Max. I mean, I know they like each other, but... but...
Fang slowly sits up. "Man, this feels pretty bad." He coughs.
He stands up and took some water from Angel, who went to get some. The rinsed his mouth and spit onto the sand.
"I'm going to kill Ari," Fang says.
AN: Hope you guys liked the chapter.
Review, review, review.