Max:
"Max?" Hey, I knew that voice, I thought fuzzily. My head felt like it had been compounded by a garbage truck. It was so hard to breathe I could have been smoking since I was born. But I wanted that voice to say my name just one more time…
"Wake up, Max. Stop being so dramatic" Well, that was good enough, I guess.
The steady thump, thump of my heart wasn't as steady as it should have been. No, it was more like a kid on a sugar fix pounding on a drum set. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of burnt… something, smoke and ash drifted over to me and got stuck in my lungs, choking me.
"Hey! She's alive!" Was that The Gasman? Figures he would be the one to say something like that. I'm pretty sure his life mission is to state the obvious with as much enthusiasm as humanly possible.
"Yeah, and you're way too loud. Shut it" I grumbled, coughing on the thick air. I pushed my self up into a somewhat upright position, blinking in the freakishly bright sunlight. Never have I wanted sunglasses more in my entire lifetime and I probably would have killed for some shade. Would it kill these people to plant some freaking trees?
Hmm… there was something important I should be remembering. Was it that paper due next Wednesday? No, shoot, that was the fake person the School had implanted in my brain. So what was it I, Maximum Ride, had to remember? Why did my head feel like Jell-O? Oh… right. The end of the world. Thaaaaat.
I jumped to my feet, ignoring the dizzy wave that washed over me, and crouched, ready to fight. But blinked instead. A city of ash and rubble lay all around me, a charred star in the dead center of it all. I'd learned enough from Iggy to know at least that that was where the bomb had gone off. Iggy… I whipped around, remembering again, and there they were. My Flock, still kicking, despite what Jeb had said. My heart gave a weirdly giddy little leap at the sight of them.
"You're alive" I said, cringing as I realized that maybe a piece of my life mission was the same as Gazzy's. Birds of the same feather, as they say.
"Is that a bad thing?" Ig asked and by way of an answer I just ran over and hugged him- quickly. He may have saved my life but that did not mean I was handing out free hugs and mushy emotions. Gazzy cleared his throat so I let go of his best friend and gave him his turn, relishing in the brief moment of The Gasman being a little kid again. Ah, how I miss those days. When he wasn't trying to be all tuff and macho… and not obsessed with fire.
"Me, next!" Angel skipped over and wedged herself between me and her brother, holding so tightly I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to breathe again. But I stroked my baby's hair and planted a kiss on her head. I hugged Nudge, as quickly as I had the other's but grinned realizing that she had never felt like more of a sister than she had at that exact moment. When, you know, I knew she wasn't as dead as they had said she was.
There was not an eraser in sight. One of those rare occasions worth celebrating in my world. Oddly, though, I'm pretty sure a crumbling island that had created an experiment to destroy most of the world's population isn't quite the place to host the biggest gala of the decade. Especially not with all the nasty remains and reminders of a day I would gladly prefer not to repeat. I shuddered at the sight of a smoking boot not ten feet away… and thought of Ari. That couldn't be all that was left of him, could it?
"Forgetting someone?" said that voice again, the one that had called me dramatic, and that sent nice little shivers up my spine. Fang wasn't smiling- would you expect anything less?- and he looked like a living version of plum pudding, but his eyes were the lightest I'd ever seen them, shining almost as brightly as the sun. Forget the sugar rush, the kid pounding on my heart now was definitely on something a bit stronger than candy.
Queue that dramatic Lifetime special music, the slow motion running on the beach- not that I'd ever do that, cough, cough- and you've got what was playing in my head at that moment as I walked up to Fang and threw my arms around his neck. I don't think I'd have held on tighter even if I was dangling from the Empire State building- without wings.
"Ow" He muttered, wincing as his arms wound around my waist. What was that? Fang, admitting to pain? Well, if Pluto not being a planet wasn't enough of a shock, Fang saying "ow" definitely was.
"I'm sorry" I said- another shock among various shocks- and tried to pull away but he was having none of that. Instead, right there in front of the Flock- and Cam, I noticed- he pulled back just enough to kiss me. And all thoughts of everything completely fled my mind. It was like the moment his lips touched mine, my brain short circuited and bam- What's my name again?
Someone coughed, another person cleared their throat and we flew apart- literally, my wings snapped open and everything. I think it's safe to say I blushed, yes? I probably looked like a circus clown with big red splotches on my cheeks.
"I knew it" The Gasman said accusingly, but he was smiling, which is a good sign. Right?
"Hate to burst this reunion bubble of yours, but I think we should go now" Said Cam. Normally I would have yelled about me being the Flock leader, blah, blah, blah, but I decided that since it probably would have taken me another ten minutes or so to realize that erasers were most likely on their way, I decided to let it go.
Be the bigger man, Maximum.
Hmm… that might work- if I was a man.
"You heard the girl. U and A" Wow, thirty minutes ago I had been sure I would never been getting off that island, positive that we would all meet certain disaster, and now I was telling my entire Flock- injured but alive- to hit the sky. How much better could my life get?
Wings whooshed open, feet skidded on the gravel and rubble, and one by one, we launched into the sky- this time with Iggy carrying Cam. Which was just fine with me, let me tell you. We were less than 50 miles away, the shore looming closer, when a shout- followed by a lot of other shouts- made us slow and turn, watching as reinforcements showed up- ten minutes too late. I could just picture Donald Trump saying "You're fired"- weird hand motion and everything.
"Holy crap!" I said as realization hit me like a brick wall. Ooh, maybe not the best word choice, I thought, rolling my ankles with a wince. "What about-"
"Got it" Fang reached into his pocket and low and behold, presented that tiny Vial, still glittering in the red-ish, sunset light. I could have kissed him all over again.
"So that means…" We all looked at each other, eyes wide and hearts racing, as slowly the grins broke out across our bruised faces. "We did it!" And in comes the chanting, courtesy of the Gasman.
When I asked how much better my life could get a few paragraphs up, well it just did. The world was saved, so it seems. Thanks to who? Not your tax dollars- that goes to the President's new car- but yours truly and her marry band of mutants. If you see us around, you owe us at least lunch for all our trouble. Don't worry, McDonalds holds up just fine for us- and yes, we would like fries with that.
The sounds of Erasers fighting, white coats trying to get things under order, and something else, hidden just underneath all of that- a sad sort of silence- slowly dimmed as the coastline grew from a tiny strip in the distance to a beach, waves crashing in the sand. Ah, land. I don't think I've ever been happier to see it. I'd kiss the ground if that wasn't utterly disgusting.
Fang glided up next to me, his wings lightly brushing mine, and he did the craziest thing. He smiled. For a second, I forgot to flap and dropped a few feet before righting myself with as much dignity as possible. Fang just smiled some more, proving that it wasn't an illusion. My tiny heart couldn't take it!
"What are you smiling at?" I asked with narrowed eyes. It's not often Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome smiles like that… and to be honest, if it wasn't completely breath taking, it might have been creepy.
"… Nothing" He said after a pause, but I knew why he was smiling. I knew very well, and I blushed because of it. Darn it! Why does he bring out the girly tendencies in me? It's so… distracting.
"Hey, Max" Oh, no. Not Nudge, not now. I had almost just died and already with the ranting. Didn't I deserve a little leeway time? But like the good leader I am, I smiled at the fourteen year old and was surprised to find that was as genuine as anything.
"Yes, Nudge?"
"Does this mean we can go to Disney World now?" She asked and just like that, the ship went down. Celine Dion starts singing and Rose tells Jack not to let go. The Flock stared, waiting and waiting to hear my reply.
Should I have said no? Yes. Would I have said no? Normally, but something weird came over me, a feeling of rebellion and adrenaline- the need to do what I wanted for the fun of it and not for necessity. After all, I think saving the world merits a little fun, don't you? Especially for kids who barely knew what fun meant.
"I think we can fit that in"
Boy, did I feel like I had just won the super bowl. Except, instead of winning a game, I saved the world. Kind of puts things into perspective doesn't it? And in comes the chanting again… loud and happy and clear. My heart was soaring, happier than it had been in a long, long time. Finally, it was over. Ari was gone and the world was a-okay! For a while at least, we could live the way we wanted to. And boy, did we deserve it.
Not to sound cliché or anything, which I sometimes manage to do anyway, but we turned our backs on Genesis- on Ari and Jeb. As a Flock- or a family- we spread our wings and flew off into the sunset, leaving behind a battle we almost didn't make it out of. The crowd goes wild, streamers fly, fans rush the field and a reporter runs up to me.
"What are you going to do now, Max?"
I'm going to Disney World.
I'll post the last chapter either later today or tomorrow. Thanks for reviewing!