Hello, friends! I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, my family had a Japanese exchange student staying with us for the last three weeks and I had little time to write because I'd been busy showing her American movies, American foods, the weird things Americans actually buy at the supermarket, Walmart, and driving her all over tarnation in my rickety stationwagon. I also house-sat for a family that got all upset with me because their dogs were acting poorly while they were gone, as if that was my fault. They people acted like I was a complete psychopath and chewed me out for not being perfect. Like, dude, I try really, really hard all the time, but apparently I can't do anything right. And I also had to finish up my summer class and do a big presentation, which ate more of my time.
I'm also blogging a lot! I blog about a really awful condition I have called misophonia, something that I try to turn into humor. It's mostly sarcasm, but sarcasm makes the world go 'round, right? My blog is geared towards raising awareness about the condition and towards encouraging others who might have it. We all need a little hope and encouragement in our lives, I think. Look me up on Tumblr, my username is "powertotheoctopus"!
And finally, I apologize because literally nothing gets accomplished in this chapter. It was supposed to be a lot longer, but I couldn't get the last scene quite right and I want to spend more time on it. I've literally written the next scene three times and I'm still not happy with it. I feel like opening my head and throwing handfuls of brain at the wall. Anyway, I'm anticipating it to be a rough go, so I decided to post this much for you now because I'm not actually a psychopath and really, really love my readers!
Please enjoy :)
The morning was raw when the five slipped out Fang's window. They could not yet see the sun, but it already had illuminated the horizon, bathing the desert land in honey gold. The air was fresh and nice, already eighty degrees out. It felt good underneath Max's wings as they took to the sky.
She was paranoid that nothing had inhibited her flock to leave the house with the red door. If Anne had heard them packing or moving about, she did not call attention to it. It was like she had completely missed their departure, and that worried Max. What if Anne was planning something really bad? She probably was, and there was hardly a doubt in Max's mind about that. She half expected a bazooka to shoot through their little V in the air.
Looking back, she observed her family. El was strapped to Iggy with three different belts – one across her shoulders, one around her hips, and one to hold her feet in place. There had been a lot of experimentation to get to this point, Fang had told her one time. Ari had abandoned his crutches at the house because he said he didn't need them anymore, he could walk just fine. The braces were still around his shins, and he still walked like Quasimodo, but she wasn't about to argue with him. Pick your battles, Lou had once told her.
When she shifted her gaze to Fang, he gave her a smile that only she would have noticed. Max slowed so that she was flying to him. "Okay, so Fey's house is that direction, correct?" she asked, pointing.
Fang nodded silently, reaching into his pocket to pull out the folded Google Map he had printed. We are so high tech, Max thought.
"North-East," Fang confirmed.
She didn't know how to explain it, but she and her family had been born with an innate sense of direction. They didn't need to be told which way South was, they just knew. In her biology class at Legacy High a few months ago, she had learned that birds could feel the magnetic fields of the earth, and that they could navigate by the stars. It was instinct that drove them to migrate when they did, something that she was sure couldn't have just evolved. Max knew this instinct, because she too could feel it when she was supposed to do something. It wasn't a question of whether she wanted to do it or not, her instinct told her what to do.
You're special that way, Max, said the Voice.
In surprise, Max yelped and dropped several feet.
"Max!" Fang called, while the others let out similar distresses.
Her head started to hurt, and she pumped her wings so that she was again flying level with the others, rubbing her temples. "I'm okay," she said to them. "Just – headache, is all."
Nice of you to drop by, Max grumbled.
You're choosing to find Fey, the Voice stated.
She focused on remembering to flap. Yeah, she retorted spitefully, because it's important to my family.
The Voice made a sighing sound with its mind. You're making the wrong decision, it said.
Um, and who are you to tell me what I should do?
I want to help, Max. You need to listen to me.
I don't need your help! Max snapped.
Go to San Francisco, the Voice continued, that is where you need to go.
Max clenched her jaw. She noticed Fang out of the corner of her eye looking concerned. Where I'm needed is with my family. We're going to find Fey first, and then maybe then I'll consider following your suggestions. kapish?
Suit yourself.
And then the Voice was gone, but the headache still lingered. Max closed her eyes for what she thought was a few seconds, but as Fang told her later, was actually much longer. There were so many things going on in her mind. Literally, Ari's dying wish was to meet his mom and get some answers from her, and Max wanted to grant him that so he could die in peace. Max, also, was curious about the woman, as she was the surrogate mother of both Max and Fang.
On the other hand, if the FBI hadn't actually been the FBI and they weren't going to take down the Institute, Max knew that she and the others had to do it themselves. Itex was unprecedented, unchallenged, and impermeable. They had to be stopped. She didn't know what exactly they were supposed to find on Rhode Island Street, but it was apparently kind of important, given the hullaballoo the Voice was giving her. But the Voice could also be leading her into a trap. She didn't know that the Voice was friendly, just like she didn't know if Anne was really a secret agent. The Voice could be telling her to get to San Francisco just so the whitecoats could jump on her and make her churn out babies. Ugh. And her head hurt now.
Max opened her eyes, light penetrating her momentary darkness.
The flock had surrounded her on three sides. They all knew better than to break her concentration, so they floated and stared without speaking.
"Okay, nobody panic," Max said, trying her best to not sound psychotic, "but that was the Voice. He's trying to tell me what to do, but he's gone now and we're going to ignore him. All good?"
But of course it was not okay because these were the four most forward people she knew – granted, the only people she knew – and they all decided to talk at once."One at a time!" Max had to shout over them and the pain screaming in her head.
El raised her hand from underneath Iggy's larger form. She yelled over the wind as it rushed past, "What did it say?"
"He thinks going to find Fey is a bad idea and that we should instead go on a wild boar chase to San Francisco," Max answered, "Mostly just the stuff I told you yesterday in the laundry room."
"What's in San Francisco?" Ari called.
"The Rhode Island Street Institute for Higher Learning," Max droned out.
"What's that?"
"I have no idea! Some variation of the Institute, is the best I can guess."
There was a pause. Max knew that Fang was waiting until they could talk later in private, because he always asked the questions she didn't want to answer, let alone in front of all the others.
"I still want to meet my mom," said Ari, trailing behind her, his awkward wings beating erratically.
"I know," she responded, looking back at him. "I want to meet her too."
They passed into a cloud then, which was not fluffy like a cotton ball like most people think. It was wet, mostly, and cold. When they resurfaced, Fang asked, "So…are we sticking to the plan?"
"Business as usual," Max confirmed, not really knowing what else she could say. They flew silently for a while then. Max rolled up her sleeve and looked at the bar code tattoo on her arm, studying the angry red lines criss-crossing it from when she had tried to cut it off herself. A surge of rage washed over her, but she chose begrudgingly to let it go. There was plenty of time to get angry later. All she knew was that she wanted Itex destroyed, and ter Borcht killed. She really hoped that Fey could help them make that happen.
They flew four hours, not including the one break because Ella had to pee. "I told you not to drink anything before we left!" Iggy had exclaimed, blind hands trying to unbind himself from her once they'd landed.
"So kill me if I like juice!" she'd shouted back.
It was now around ten-o-clock in the morning and the sun was already starting to beat down heavily on their backs. Nobody had had the bright idea to bring sunscreen. Iggy wouldn't shut up about how his lily-white ginger skin was going to burn, and that he was going to start peeling like Satan's sulfuric dandruff, but they tried to tune him out.
A town in the distance began to make itself more evident, evolving from a stubble on the dry ground to postage-stamp-sized lots.
"Is that it?" Max asked Fang as soon as she saw it.
He pulled out his printed map from the pocket of his jeans, squinting at it. "Yep, Hawthorne."
Sadly, it was hard to land anywhere without people seeing them, so they had to veer off at a distance where they'd still look like oversized birds. They biffed behind a hill. As she landed, sand found its way into Max's shoes and she had to pull them off and knock them against the ground to get it out, muttering profanities. Ari had a more difficult landing, seeing as his wings were grafted on after his birth and less natural to him than theirs. But he didn't complain, even while examining the substantial scrapes on his palms where he tried to catch himself. Fang stepped over to help unbuckle Ella from her blind counterpart.
"As always, a pleasure to fly with you, Ms. Martinez," Iggy said when he was free. "And thank you for being a freak-uent flyer."
Ella groaned loudly.
They walked for the next hour until they reached a sign that said, "WELCOME TO HAWTHORNE", marking the town they believed Fey lived in. It wasn't by any means large, and the buildings were all weathered and worn like they'd been in one too many sandstorms. Yucca plants were everywhere, and Max swore she saw a tumbleweed. It was a little too quiet and vacant for her liking. She nudged Fang and he pulled out his map again, flipping it over to see where he had marked where they would stay.
"Sand N Sage Motel," he read. "Sounds classy."
"Aren't we?"
Because they didn't have a ton of money to spare, Max decided they should get one room with two beds. The rent was forty-five dollars a night, which she thought was pretty reasonable for five people. The man at the counter had looked surprised to see them, but El smiled brightly and grabbed the key before he could make any comments, thanked him, and led the others out the door. The building wasn't nice; it smelled like cigarettes and had a flat roof. It was made with a rough, cheap-looking stucco.
Their door was at the very end of the row nearest to the road. It read "105", with faux gold lettering and the five was hanging sideways. It opened to reveal a room that was slightly worse-off than Max had expected. The walls were a nasty shade of yellow and were hung with cheap paintings. There was a small, scuffed table across from two beds, which were draped with comforters the colors of, um, vomit. A bedside table stood between the beds with a quaint lamp on top of it, the shade torn.
Ella happened a glance at the carpet and immediately said, "I'm not sleeping on the floor."
Max followed El's eyes and had the same sentiment. In one word, the room could have been described as "ugh".
They tiredly dropped their backpacks onto the beds, watching the dust fly as soon as they hit the comforters. Max had a coughing fit and covered her mouth with her elbow, worrying she would die right then and there of asphyxiation. Iggy was feeling his way from the door to the closest bed, when he suddenly froze, eyes wide. "I just stepped on something crunchy," he said in a horrified voice.
Ella leaned over and checked it for him.
"Roaches!" she yelped, leaping onto the bed with an elf-like agility that even Legolas would have coveted. Iggy followed the sound of her screaming, clambering onto the bed after her.
"This is my home now," Iggy gestured to his vicinity. "This bed. I live here now."
Unamused, Fang looked at Max."Who's sleeping where?"
"I call the bed!" El exclaimed, holding a pillow on top of her head as if that solidified her claim.
Ari was the biggest by far, and Iggy was taller than Fang. She and El were smaller, so maybe Fang could fit on the bed with them."Okay, Ari and Ig, bed number one, and then me, El, and Fang on bed two."
"But Fang farts in his sleep!" Ella protested, pointing accusingly at Fang with her pillow.
"I do not!" Fang snapped.
"How would you know?!" she countered.
"Fang doesn't fart in his sleep," Max seethed, her patience waxing. "That's Iggy."
Iggy was defensive. "I get indigestion!"
Max's stomach growled audibly, and she remembered how hungry she was. She was a little worried that if they went out in public, Anne may have issued an Amber Alert or something and their faces would be plastered on windows, like they were missing children. That would be hilarious. Mr. ter Borcht? We have your mutant freaks down here at the station.
"Do you think we're on the news yet?" she asked Fang, who was standing beside her and leaning up against the table.
He thought about it. "It wouldn't surprise me, if she's working for Itex."
"That's what I thought," Max agreed grimly. "We have to eat."
"I know," Fang said, "I was thinking that too."
"McDonalds?"
"It's a long walk."
"There was a grocery store down the street, maybe we could pick up some deli meat and sandwich bread?"
From across the room, laying on her back in the bed closest to the door, El said, "In all seriousness, anything sounds appetizing right now."
Iggy poked her leg as he lay head-to-toe with her on the bed. "Desert rat?"
She shrugged, "Nothing we haven't eaten before."
"Pizza, " Ari suggested hopefully, taking a break from clicking to the roaches under the bed, which was completely disgusting.
Max shared a silent conversation with Fang, communicating without even needing to speak. He's dying, he can eat whatever the hell he wants.
"There's a pizza place down on E Street," Fang contributed, pulling out the map.
She had a hollow feeling in her chest when she smiled at Ari. "Pizza it is."
Max grabbed her switchblade as an afterthought and put it in her pocket before they walked out the door. Just in case.
"I think maybe El and I should stay here," Iggy said as they discussed walking over to Fey's house after pizza. "I mean, what would you do if five – well maybe four – tall teenagers and a midget suddenly showed up at your door asking serious life questions?
"I'll have you know I'm taller than the average girl!" Ella exclaimed, and then said more calm and collectedly, "She's your guy's birthmom, not ours."
With a frown, Max considered this, but said, "I don't want to take the chance of getting separated from you guys. You're all coming."
"Twelve-o-clock," Fang said quickly, his gaze trailing down the street in the direction of the woman's house. Max followed his vision and her stomach did a flip-flop. An unmarked white van was parked on a corner marked "D St.". Its color was almost blinding in the hot Arizona sun. A satellite dish perched atop the roof and turned slowly around, facing and focusing on where the five of them stood.
That was quick, Max thought.
"No sudden movements," she said tightly to the others, putting an arm out around Ari's shoulder, "Duck behind the pizza place."
She tried to keep her racing thoughts under control, but she couldn't help thinking of all the possible things that could come out of that van. How long had the flock been in Hawthorne? Two hours? It could be the United States government for all she knew, but it was far more likely in her mind that Anne had been working with Itex. And they all knew what Itex sent after people.
Max scanned the street with her raptor-vision, looking for places to hide, or escape into the air. She caught Fang's eye as he led El, Iggy, and Ari behind the next building. Max hid in the alley and peered around the corner as far as she dared. But when she looked, the van was gone.
This is just beautiful.
"They're gone, they know where we're going!" she said in an urgent whisper to Fang while he lead them behind another house, sideling down the main road.
Fang grabbed El's arm, swearing, pulling Iggy along as he held onto El's opposite hand. Ari was preoccupied sniffing the air.
"Do you have anything?" Max whispered to him.
Ari's expression was grim. "I'm willing to bet those are Erasers in there."
"I guessed as much."
"We can't hide forever," Ari said in a low voice. "They're going to find us. Max, let me distract them - you and the others go find Fey and make sure she's safe."
"You're not going anywhere by yourself," Fang said, surprising Max. "No one gets left behind, not even you."
"Fang, I can take them," the Eraser argued quietly, "Think of Ella, she's never fought a day in her life, they'll tear her to pieces!"
El rolled her eyes.
"Um, guys, they're coming this way," Iggy said, listening intently with his eyes closed and head cocked slightly to the right.
Fang grasped Ari's sleeve. "We're staying together," he said firmly.
"Guys, run!" Max barked as the van came into view, taking off with the speed of an Olympic runner. The flock followed on her heels, ducking behind houses and jumping over fences as effortlessly as if they were picking daisies. Max scraped shins and earned splinters in her palms from scrambling over the wooden barriers. A bulldog lunged at her while she balanced herself over the fence. Their hands bled, but they kept at it, stopping only occasionally to let Ari catch up. He was straggling. "Guys, I can't…keep up, my legs…" he panted.
"Then we'll have to confront them," Fang said, chest heaving and breathing hard. "The next street over, come on."
Max cast a look at El. The girl did not look afraid. El's fingers were intertwined with her blind companion's and her eyes were as hard as stone. Ari's fists were clenched and he sniffed the air again with the ghost of a snarl across his face. She could tell Iggy was listening hard. Between those two, they would know exactly where the van was and where it was going.
Fang's black eyes met hers.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Max said. "Let's join the party." She looked both ways just like Lou had always taught them, and stepped out onto the road.
The rest of them followed, and within a minute, the van came screeching down the road and came to a halt before the flock. There was a tense moment where nothing happened, but then movement inside the van caught their attention. The window of the driver's seat whirred down, and the hot Nevada sun poured into the darker interior, revealing a clean-shaven white man. He looked as if he could have been a model in another life. But he was here, and he leaned out, looking first at Ari, and then at Max. The eyes of her enemy were yellow. Max slipped her switchblade out of her pocket and snapped it open.
"Hey kids," he crooned, "want some candy?"
"Why, did you make it yourself?" Max snarled, and then stabbed him in the eye. The Eraser howled in pain, and he fully morphed to take a swipe at her through the open window. Max jumped back just in time as the doors of the van swung wide open. Four other Erasers piled out, and they each launched themselves at a kid. The Eraser she had stabbed stumbled out and moved in Max's direction, snarling sadistically.
"I don't care about the others, I just want Max alive!" he barked.
Max watched out of the corner of her eye as Fang battled a grey mutant. He wore a grimace on his face, blocking each punch perfectly and landing painful blows at the Eraser in front of him. To Max's surprise, El was holding her own just fine, as she had jumped on the back of her attacker and used her arms to suffocate it around its neck. The Eraser choked and swiping uncoordinatedly, falling to its knees. Ari was already standing over the body of one of his kin, blood dripping from his dagger-like claws. It was the first time in months that Max had seen him in full morph, and it haunted her of the time at the Institute when he assaulted her.
Her vision went red, and she kicked the Eraser she had just stabbed so hard in the chest that its breath exited in a whoosh and she heard his ribs crack beneath her heel.
"I am never," she growled, "going," she punched him in the snout, "back," she ducked a lethal swipe to her midsection, "again!" And then she took her knife and brought it up under his chin into his head. Blood poured from the wound and the hybrid collapsed onto the ground, motionless.
Then out of nowhere an explosion of intense heat knocked Max to the asphalt beside the creature she had just slain. Through her fog, she heard El let out a short cry, and watched in slow-motion while Iggy covered her body with his own. The white van had somehow exploded and was now flying in all directions. The remaining two Erasers had been standing too close to the explosion. They now screamed in agony as their patchy fur burned and boiled atop their flesh.
Max scrambled to her feet as soon as things stopped falling from the sky. Both Erasers looked like baked potatoes. One opened his good eye and snarled at her, but could not move its paw in her direction. Fang appeared beside Max and watched with her as their remaining attackers stirred painfully. He looked at her with a solemn glance and then stepped over to snap the first one's neck with a swift movement of his hands. Its life ended with a sickening crack.
The second had stopped moving. Max checked to see if it was still breathing, and then broke his neck like Fang had just done. Just for good measure.
Her head hurt like crazy.
"We need to get out of here," Fang said in a scratchy voice, pressing the back of his hand to his split lip while it bled. "People would have seen that."
She saw Ari out of the side of her vision staring vacantly at the Eraser Max had stabbed through the eye.
"He was my friend," he said quietly, nudging the creature with his boot, and then shaking his head. "Was."
They heard Ella coughing from beneath Iggy's body at the same time. "He got hit in the head," she rasped, trying to keep herself from falling into complete hysteria, "He's not moving, Max!"
Max's heart dropped into her stomach when she was Iggy's still form, the gash right above his temple. She heard her blood rushing through her ears as Fang pulled Iggy off of Ella and stretched him on his back. Fang held El back while Max placed her ear over Iggy's mouth to check his respiration, and, not hearing anything, placed two fingers on his pale neck to see if he had a pulse.
"Nothing," Max's voice wavered. The sound of sirens echoed in the distance. "Fang, grab him," she ordered, taking the blind boy's opposite. Pain shot up from Max's left arm and she realized she'd been sliced pretty bad from her pinky to her forearm. She bit her tongue and tried to shift most Iggy's weight to her right hand. Ari grabbed Iggy's feet and they all lifted him a ways from the burn site, hiding finally behind a tall wooden fence. His form left a trail of blood.
Max reached out with her good hand to touch El's shoulder. "It could be shock," Max said hurriedly with her heart hammering. "You know CPR, right? You took that athletic training class?"
"Yeah," El stammered, "I-I learned it in school."
"Good, 'cause I can't do it," Max said, holding up her injury. "I never learned to do it properly anyway."
El got on her knees and closed her eyes for a few seconds before she took a deep breath, plugged Iggy's nose with her fingers, and placed her lips upon his. She blew two puffs of air into his lungs, then pressed her hands onto his chest, counting thirty chest compressions out loud. She checked for breathing, and hearing nothing, puffed more air into his mouth.
"Come on, Ig," Max murmured, struggling to breathe properly herself.
After what seemed like hundreds of compressions, Iggy finally stirred, blinking as he realized he was mouth-to-mouth with El. He croaked and she immediately drew back in surprise, falling into the red dirt behind her. Iggy tried to sit up. "Happy to see you too," he wheezed, coughing profusely as he breathed in dust. His head wound was bleeding into his eye.
El was nearly in tears."If you ever die again, I'm going to rip out your spine and beat you with it," she said, swallowing hard. Iggy continued coughing while Max peeked around the corner.
"Um, not that this isn't cute, but we should really go now."
"Where do we hide in a town this size?" Ari exasperated, licking a three very large and bleeding claw marks on his arm.
"Home," Max helped Iggy to his feet. "Back to Fey's."
"In a bloody mess?"
"If you have any other good ideas, I'd be happy to hear them!"
Oh, and you may notice that I deleted the prologue. This story seriously needs a facelift. I started writing it when I was sixteen and I'm now nineteen and my writing style has changed quite a bit. I agree that you guys have been right - the Fax that I wrote last year right after I got out of the freakin' mental hospital is too heavy for the characters, so I will edit all of that sometime soonish and let you know where I changed some things.
I will post the next chapter once I finally get it perfected! It's really important, so it needs to be just right. I hope you liked the chapter despite nothing getting done!
Please, please review! I actually read and try to respond to each one :) My reviews give me strength when I have none - I literally will go read them when I'm feeling stupid and handicapped because they raise me up like Josh Groban's bra.
Thank you for reading! God bless :)
~ Steph