Sheik: Next chappie! Sorry I haven't updated for a while! I had to go someplace.
I am not in the owning of James Patterson or anything of Maximum Ride. Everything else, I do own. Deal.
There was a girl crouching there. Her eyes were wide when Gazzy moved the brush back. She inhaled a great lungful of air, her mouth opened wide, then she screamed. "Ahhhhhhh!" If it weren't for my pride, I would have keeled over right there. While she was still screaming, I struggled to open my eyes to stare at her again. I didn't have a chance to see her again because she kicked away from us, running through the river then taking off into the woods.
"Come on!" I blurted out, my ears still ringing, running through the river after the girl. Well, I think she's a girl. "It's all right! We're not going to hurt you!" Next thing I knew, Fang flew past me and dropped onto the poor thing. That's when the girl's scream rose at least three times in pitch and volume. How can she scream so loud? "Fang, stop!"
"I've got her!" He called to us, the girl in his arms. She was giving him heck, though. He had his arms wrapped around her arms, keeping them stuck to her sides while she thrashed wildly. She bit, screamed, kicked then she broke down and started to cry.
"Stop it Fang!" Angel shouted as she ran over. "Let her go! Now!" By the way she looked and sounded, we all knew she was prepared to control his mind. "I said now!" When she stopped, her beautiful blond hair whipped in front her, giving her an almost bewitching appearance. Everyone stared at her, completely forgetting about the weeping child in Fang's arms.
Slowly, Fang let the girl go. She kicked away from him and hid behind a couple trees. Angel walked over to the trees and crouched. She then unfolded her wings, letting them spread to their full length around her. "It's all right."
I looked at Fang and saw a bunch of feathers around his feet. Then I looked back at Angel. What is she doing? All I could do is stand there and take in what was happening and trying to understand what the girl was. What she looked like. How she looked that way. Who had done that to her? Who else? I guess Jeb and the other whitecoats are still trying to play God.
Don't judge before you actually understand the story. My Voice said. I just rolled my eyes and continued to watch.
The girl peeked out from behind the trees and I thought I saw her smile. Then my eyes must have widened farther than normal human eyes could sustain. Unfolding with an enticing whispery sound was a wing and it came from behind the tree, where the girl was hiding. That's when I knew my eyes weren't playing tricks on me when she was thrashing and that explained the feathers around Fang's feet. They were hers. The girl had wings! Wait…
"Did I just hear wings?" Iggy asked, his wings half folded behind him. He seemed really uneasy, maybe because he was almost deafened like the rest of us. Nudge wasn't saying anything. She looked scared. Really scared. Like Iggy, her wings were too half folded.
Before I could answer him, the girl moved out from behind the tree and stood straight. All our jaws dropped. If this was a girl, she had no breasts. Not because she looked to be only twelve or so. No, she didn't even have any nipples! And her chest depth looked to be at least two or three times deeper than ours. That's not what shocked us. It was… It was her wings! They weren't connected to her back like ours. Hers were…Hers were like a bird's!
They were connected to her arms somehow, but you could see her arms worked fine. She had hands, even though her thumb looked a little longer. It looked as ifher wingsgrew from behind her shoulders and the middle of her back. The wrist of the wingbent atthe top of her handsand folded out like a real bird's.
"Wow." That was the first word out of Nudge's mouth.
Indeed, wow.The girl's wings were lovely. Her flight and primary feathers were a dark rusty brown, but glowed within with a glinting raven black. The very wingtips were silver, which took my breath away. They looked like real silver!
The undersides of her wings were lined with what looked like soft secondary feathers. Soft brown piers speckled with brown and black. Maroon splashes lined where the wrist bent on the wing. Where her skin showed through the wing, was very pale, but was visibly rosy pink with flowing blood. It was cool how well her skin melded so smoothly with the feather and wing. The color even melded.
Angel smiled and walked over to her then spread her wings out to their full length. She had a proud wingspan of ten feet. The girl mimicked, lifting her arms and spreading her wings all the way out. When she lifted her arms, she, for some reason, extended her index fingers. That's when I saw the rest of her wings spread from her hand. She must have had abouta twelve feet wingspan.
"Iggy, I'm so sorry you can't see this." Gazzy murmured. "This girl has no boobies like a normal girl and no nipples, but she has wings, man!"
"She's a winged experiment like us?" Iggy asked, sounding a little disappointed.
The little guy shook his head. "I don't think so. Her wings are connected to her arms somehow!"
"She doesn't have hands? Just wings?"
"No, she has hands and fingers, but-"
"Think of a human diagram. Now picture hawk wings connected to that human." Fang tried helping. "The hands are near the top of the wing where it folds like when the bird lands." I wasn't even paying full attention to Fang speak. That didn't matter. All that mattered was that I was looking at this girl who seemed more bird-like than we did.
"Angel." I called to her.
She looked back at me and smiled. "We have a new friend." Then she flapped her pretty white wings. She wasn't trying to fly. No, just flapping them for the fun of it. The girl mimicked again, but she actually hovered off the ground. Her feet three feet off the ground, her long raven black hair hung at the back of her knees. She looked stunning really!
I walked toward the bird girl. My legs feeling like rubber under me. When I reached her, she landed and smiled at me. Her stunning bright green eyes searched mine, as if trying to see if I was friend or foe. I hoped I wasn't seen as a foe to her.
Inhaling slowly, I tried to speak calmly. "What is your name?" She continued to smile, her bright green eyes sparkling. Then she turned away from me and spun in step. I just watched, the rest of the flock's eyes on me and the girl. Angel just watched with a smile of her own. How on earth could she be so calm about this?
"Max, is this girl for real? Are those real wings? Why isn't she wearing any clothes? How come she isn't answering you? We know she can talk, we heard her. Girl, why don't you answer Max?" Nudge started spouting questions, and ended asking the girl herself.
The girl stopped twirling and folded her wings back against her arms. Her silver wingtips tucked snuggly against each other and stuck off somewhat from her elbow. She looked at Nudge and tilted her head a little. I couldn't help but think how cute that looked. Stop thinking such nonsense! We don't even know who or what this girl is!
Again with your judging. Listen to the story first. The Voice oh-so-kindly stepped in.
I didn't have the patience to argue with it, so I just turned my attention back to the girl. "Please, we want to now your name." Before we could figure out if she was going to answer or not, a crashing sound caught us off-guard. I whipped back and saw the strange bat thing flying at us. "Up and away! Gazzy, help Iggy!" Looking back at the girl, she had her wings unfolded already. "Come with us."
"Come on!" Angel tugged on the girl's hand and they both took off into the air. I couldn't help but notice how more accurate the girl was at taking off and flying. Beating my wings as fast as I could, I was in the air and leading the rest of my flock up and out of the trees. Something told me evading this thing in the trees would prove futile. It looked born to fly like us! Or, like that girl. "Iggy, do you have it?" I called back at Iggy and Gazzy.
Gazzy stared at me. "It's back at the house." He answered, looking a little panicked.
Crap! I looked ahead and saw the girl hovering in one spot then I saw she was trying to lead us somewhere. "Follow the girl!" Everyone changed their course and flew straight for the raven-haired girl. She whipped around and took off straight into the air, rocketing for the sun. We all tried keeping up. For some reason we had a harder time keeping up with her flickering movements. Maybe because her body was sleeked and designed with her wings to turn and plummet with ease she had a greater advantage than us. No! I won't accept we have competition in the skies! The flying Erasers are something we can handle for now, but new bird kids who are greater flyers than us? No way!
"Slow down!" Total yipped. "I'm getting sick!" He was still strapped into Iggy's coat.
"We can't dodge that thing!" Nudge shrieked when she looked back. Suddenly, the girl dropped into a dangerous kamikaze dive and we followed. We were moving at dangerous speeds and I was afraid Iggy was having a hard time with this. The poor guy can't see where he's going! Even with Gazzy and Fang's help!
That's when my worst fear happened. When we dived down into the trees, Iggy was separated from the flock in the bombardment of leaves and branches. "Iggy!" Angel screamed.
I was about to whip around and go at my new faster speed, but a maroon flash past me and darted after Iggy. What is she doing?
"Chee-rup! Chee-rup!" The girl was whistling loudly. She kept darting back and forth, evading the creature while whistling at Iggy. "Chee-rup! Chee-rup!" I close to thinking what she was doing was nuts, but then I saw Iggy fly straight at her and attack the creature. He kicked the thing right in the head! The thing let out a strangled yelp and backed off a little. "Chee-rup! Chee-rup!" She whistled again and flew at us. Iggy following close behind. I understood now. She was whistling for Iggy to find them.
This girl. She can sound just like a bird. Can she mimic sounds like Gazzy, or is it something more? There was no time for deep thinking. The creature flew at us, its great leather wings beating away the air with ease, despite its size.
"What is that thing?" Nudge asked as we tried to escape it again.
"A Screecher!" The voice that answered was unfamiliar and it took me a minute to find it was the girl who answered. Her voice was so soft, but had a hint of stubbornness. Right now, I saw that her eyes didn't hold the child-like innocence they did when she looked at me. They now held a look of determination, deep hatred, and anger. Anger toward the creature maybe? She did know its name. Whatever a Screecher was.
An extremely sharp whistle cut through the air, stinging our ears. I looked back to check on my flock and saw the thing, the Screecher, stop chasing us and hover in the air. It then turned around and flew toward the whistle. We all slowed and banked in a tall oak tree, all of us choosing a sturdy branch to perch. Okay, we just sat on our branches to catch our breath, the girl really perched.
She looked down at us, her intelligent bright green eyes on us. Then she smiled and spoke. "You guys all right?" This girl finally spoke more than two words to us, and she actually cared if we were all right! I was astounded. Much more than if Fang spoke. Which is very rare in his case. The speaking thing anyway.
Swallowing nothing but dryness, I spoke to the girl, hoping to get answer this time. "Yes, we're all right. Are you?"
She shifted position to sit on the branch, her slender legs and feet dangling. "Yep, just dandy." Her voice was light and cheerful, even after that traumatic moment.
Inhaling slowly, I hoped she would answer again. "What is your name?"
"My name?" Her head tilted to the side a little, her long hair sliding a bit off her shoulder. Cute! She blinked twice. "I don't have a name."
All right. All right. All right. Think Max. This girl is something different from us, but like us at the same time. Think of something we all want to know. My thoughts were a buzz and the mysterious Voice was nowhere in thought. "What are you?" The words escaped my mouth before I could even think of what I said.
Her eyes closed a little, hurt filling them. She wrapped her feathery arms around her front and leaned back a little to face upward. "They said I was the new hope. They said I was special. They never told me what I was. I could never fly…" I could tell she was delving back into memories, but I wanted to know so many things! Who exactlywas this girl?
"Who are they?" Iggy asked, his closed eyes pointed up at the girl. "Doctors? Scientists? Whitecoats?"
Blinking rapidly, I saw she was fighting off tears. The same affect that happened to us when we thought back to those horrible days. This girl had been experimented on, but how advanced have they gotten since then to create something like her? Oh, ouch! Did I say something like her? I'm so glad I didn't say that out loud. That was almost mean to even think.
She sniffled then wiped her nose on her arm. "They wouldn't be happy if I spoke of them. You talk, you die. I don't want to die."
Angel fluttered up to the branch and hugged her. The girl wasn't fazed in the least. "We won't make you say anything."
"Hey Max?" Nudge asked. "What was that thing chasing us? That bat thing that was flying at us? How come he could fly so well without stumbling like an Eraser?" For once, I didn't know what to say. Sometimes I really thought back on this leader thing. The leader was always expected with an answer to everything. Which I really couldn't provide.
"I told you, it was a Screecher." The girl answered.
"What's a Screecher?" Gazzy asked as he clutched onto the branch.
She shrugged. "What you saw chasing us."
"Why was it after you?" Nudge asked, leaving it as one question.
Her eyes filled somewhat with worry. "It wanted to take me back."
Hear her story, Max. You need to know. The Voice told me.
Shut up! I don't need your help as much as you think I do! I was getting more than a little annoyed with the Voice. "Iggy, was this section the only area where your motion sensors went off?"
"Yeah. Just here." He answered with a slight nod.
We needed to talk to this girl more. She seemed to know new things we would need to acknowledge to beat the bad guys. God, it seemed as if every new day brought new horrors and tests that I wished would only be dreams. Of course, this is reality and I had to live it.
Standing unsteadily on the branch, I spread my wings a bit. "Come on. You can stay with us for a while."
"What? You openly invite her, but when Angel wanted me in the beginning, you tried to change her mind? That's not fair!" Total whined from inside Iggy's jacket.
I gave him a look. Do I even need to say which one? "She is a girl. A human being. You're a dog. A flea-bitten mutt." Angel gave me a look of her own as Total growled a little. "Where else would she go?" I looked to the rest of the flock. Fang seemed a little reluctant, but he nodded. Gazzy was still a little wide-eyed as he nodded in agreement. Iggy shrugged and nodded as well. Once he got a feel of her wings, maybe he'd seem a little more comfortable.
"Yeah! She is so cool looking! Look at her wings!" She fluttered on the other side of the girl. "We have to give you a name. We can't just keep calling you girl. What can we call you?" She felt the girl's wings and squealed. "They're so soft! And what a pretty color! Were you born like this? Are there others like you? How come we have different wings than you?"
"Nudge." I warned placidly. Yeah, you heard what I said. Placidly.
She smiled nervously. "Sorry."
"Home." Fang nudged in.
"Yes, let's go. There might be Erasers out here for all we know." I agreed and leaped off the branch. My wings opened and caught the wind. I glided effortlessly forward then up, a small air stream guiding me all the way. It was as simple as that. I looked back and saw everyone follow suit. Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy then Angel.
The girl stood there for a second, seeming to be deep in thought. "You talk, you die. Maybe I'll die." I heard her hushed words as she dove off the branch. Her stunning wings unfolded from her arms, and she was airborne.