Random Quote of the Week: "But you're so hypnotizing, you got me laughing while I sing, you got me smiling in my sleep" -Demi Lovato, from "Catch Me"
If you haven't noticed by now, I've been in a Demi Lovato mood the past few weeks!
Fang's POV
"Yo, sleepyhead. Time to wake up," Iggy said, shaking my shoulder. He stood over me, holding a tray of coffee. Ella was right next to him with a cup of her own.
I blinked a few times and sat up. "How long was I out?"
"Just under an hour," Ella told me. "But we gotta get going now. Drink the coffee, stretch, whatever, but it'll be midnight soon."
"Got it," I said. I stood up and saw Max about ten feet from me, still unconscious.
"She's fine," Ella assured me, sending my worry. "Relax."
"I am relaxed," I said, stretching my arms. I jogged a few hundred feet and back, and did a few more arm and leg stretches since I'd need to be carrying Max.
After I finished stretching, I accepted the coffee from Iggy and downed it within seconds.
"Actually," Iggy said, "Max isn't conscious, so we probably should alternate fireman's carries or something. She can't keep her arms around anything right now."
I shrugged. "I'll go first," I said, kneeling down. Iggy helped prop Max on my shoulder, and I made sure she was secure before standing up. Max was pretty light, so I didn't think I'd have too much trouble carrying her. Of course, I couldn't take her to the car by myself, but I figured I could take her far enough for Iggy to make it the rest of the way back.
I walked, with Iggy close behind me to catch Max in case she fell, and Ella in front of me to lead the way. My arms and shoulder began to tire after about a thousand feet, but I pushed on. At times, Iggy helped stabilize Max's body so she wouldn't fall off. Not that she was close to falling, since I was trying my very hardest to keep her balanced, but I was still tired. My muscles were looser than they should've been for a task like this, my eyes were heavy, and my brain wasn't functioning at top speed. Even though I finished a coffee minutes ago, I was living on minimal amounts of sleep. I woke up early this morning (thanks, Ella) and had nothing but a short power nap since.
"Bro, you're done," Iggy said, after about half a mile. I pressed on, not wanting to relent. There should've been no reason I couldn't have pushed on. After he realized I was ignoring him, Iggy said, "You're gonna drop Max if you keep going. Her leg's still banged up." Despite my concerns, I continued to ignore him until he moved in front of me and waved his arms. "Dude, just stop!"
"No—I'm—fine," I wheezed between breaths.
"Give it up already. You can't even say three words without coughing and grunting. This isn't a matter of manliness. All three of us, plus Max, know that you're stronger, quicker, whatever than I am. You can carry her again later, when you're less tired. C'mon, man. Do it for Max," Iggy said, waving his arms around. Ella was standing next to him, amused by her fiancée's exasperated tirade, but she motioned for me to set Max down.
Finally giving up, I sighed, turned around, and knelt down. Iggy helped me set Max on the ground so I could catch a breath. Ella tossed me a water bottle and I drank half of it.
After I finished and gave Ella her bottle back, I did a few shoulder stretches to loosen up for my second leg. I jogged several hundred feet and back to begin circulating the lactic acid in my right upper body.
"Ready?" Iggy asked, kneeling down. I nodded and stood beside Max. After gently heaving her atop Iggy's right shoulder, I offered Iggy a helping hand up. With Ella's help, Iggy was up and running, nah, more like walking, within seconds.
Unfortunately, Iggy didn't last nearly as long as I did. Before we covered a quarter mile, Iggy announced that he was too tired to continue and set Max down gently on the grass. After he had a sip of water, he told us his plan.
"So, I'm cooked. Fang is mostly cooked. Ella was never in the frying pan to begin with," Iggy said. "We're about a quarter mile from the gates, so if Fang takes her the rest of the way, I'll hail a cab and we'll be at a hospital in no time. I might be too tired to carry a girl that's younger yet more muscular than me, but I'm not too tired to drive."
"Iggy, we don't need to drive. It's a taxi," Ella reminded him.
"Oh, right."
Ella sighed. "Too bad, since I need hours for my permit anyways," she said. "Actually, they won't count. I'm legally required to drive with a responsible adult, and we don't have any of those here."
"Hey, what about me?" I defended.
"If you're going to be fussing over Max the whole ride back, you don't qualify as responsible," she said, laughing despite having bags underneath her eyes.
"Let's just go," I suggested warily.
By the time we made it out of Lake Hollywood Park, my shoulder felt ready to explode. Iggy was meekly offering to help me, but we both knew I was a better bet than him at this point, both strength-wise and motivation-wise.
"You can put her down now," Iggy said, when we neared the road. I did so and turned around to look at the park. I sighed. Such a beautiful place, ruined by one stupid mistake.
Iggy walked to the sidewalk and waved his arms in an effort to hail a cab. Within three minutes, a yellow taxi pulled up by the sidewalk. Iggy spoke briefly with the driver before motioning for me to follow him. I picked Max up bridal-style and walked to the cab. After making sure she was secure and buckled up, I buckled myself up.
The drive to the hospital was uneventful, sans a wave of frustration emanating from our local pyromaniac.
"No, you make a right, then a left!" Iggy cried.
"A right? When?" he asked.
"Right…now! Turn! Oh, man. You just missed it. Now we have to go in a loop just to get back here," Iggy said, exasperatedly.
Eventually, after Ella and I had gotten our money's worth in entertainment as well as mileage, we finally arrived at the garage.
When we neared the lowest level of the garage, Iggy suddenly stopped. "Wait a minute," he said. "Where's Max?"
I looked around, uselessly, as realization dawned on me. "No!" I yelled, running out of the garage. With Iggy and Ella trailing behind me, I ran down the street the way we came.
I wouldn't have caught the taxi under any normal circumstances, but Los Angeles wasn't like most cities. There were traffic lights all over the place, which slowed down traffic badly even at midnight.
I ran down the sidewalk, my adrenaline returning to me. I didn't even think about the inevitable crash I was going to endure soon; I was too worried about Max. What if the taxi driver was corrupt? What if he was ticked at Iggy and wanted revenge by attacking his friend? And worst of all, how did I freaking forget about her?
As I looked down the street to the red light a thousand feet from me, I saw it—he taxi that looked identical to the one we rode in. It had the same ad displayed on its hood. Even though there were plenty of them in the city, it seemed unlikely to me that one would be in the right spot and going in the right direction unless it was the taxi I was looking for.
I chased after it, pushing pedestrians aside, coming as close as fifty feet before the light turned green again. The taxi driver continued down the street until it was out of my sight. I relentlessly chased after it. But the taxi was gone—even with red lights, the taxi was much faster than me.
When the taxi was well beyond my eyesight, I heard a loud crash in the distance in front of me. I picked up the pace, the chill trickling up my spine growing colder and colder.
With Iggy and Ella behind me, I approached the site of the crash. Hundreds of other pedestrians were crowding around nearby, but I pushed through them all.
When I made it to the front of the crowd, I saw the source of the crash—a taxi was lying sideways in the road, with its side slammed in, and a car on its right had its front pushed in hard. My heart crawled into my throat. The taxi could've easily been the one with Max in it. It was the right distance away from where I was when the crash happened. It sounded too horrible to be true.
I jumped up on a backed-up taxi to get a better view of the situation, but I slipped on the roof and tumbled down. I landed hard on the asphalt, cursing as my heels buckled.
With difficulty, I stood up and looked into the taxi. I gasped. Max was inside, asleep across the seats. I tugged at the door handle, but it was locked and the driver was too focused on finding a route around the collision he somehow didn't hear me. I banged on the window, but the driver ignored me.
Just then, the taxi started moving. I tried to keep up with it, but there were too many people in the way. I watched in horror as it made a turn and drove off.
Question of the Chapter: How screwed is Fang on a scale of 1-10? 1 being perfectly fine and 10 being down for the count.
Question of the Chapter #2: If Max gets saved, what will save her? Who do you think will be the hero(ine) if Max is saved?
Can we get to 700 reviews this chapter? That'd be really awesome! And crazy, but isn't it a given that anything having to do with this story will be crazy?