A.N- Hey guys. Sorry about the two month wait. I think I've said this before, but all my classes are advanced and stuff so I get a lot of homework and need to study a lot. Also I'm trying to be more social, so yeah… Again, sorry about the wait, but here it is!
Freedom At Last!
I'd taken my wings out, placed them in front of me, and flexed them (yes we can flex our wings) so they'd be able to protect the front part of my body from Fang's blows.
I knew, going in, that this wouldn't be an easy fight, but I had really underestimated Fang. It wasn't even Fang who was doing this, so I'm going to call it Fang's body.
This was a real fight, and Fang and I haven't been in one since we were little. All the way back when we lived in the 'E' house and had Jeb, if I remember right. Even then, though, we would never actually have the intent to kill. Fang's body had that was a sort of unmentioned rule that the three older kids wouldn't fight; and although we always argued (especially Fang and Iggy because of Gazzy's voice pranks), we never fought for-real.
After a while, I kind of gave up on trying to fight back against him, it was just too dangerous to risk even a single punch to the stomach.
I know… I know… I'm stupid for even starting to fight, but in my defense, it was my only choice. I couldn't just run away. I had to do anything I could to protect my flock. I mean Gazzy, Ratchet, and Jake were unconscious, Maya and Kate were busy, Nudge and Iggy were fighting Xavier, and Dylan was…
Wait, where was he anyway…?
"Fang-" I say, between punches to my wings, getting ready to ask about Dylan. I noticed that Fang looked really pained, probably more so than me, and finally I realized what he must be going through right now.
If I were in his situation and was watching any of the flock getting hurt, I would be furious. It would be a whole other story if I were the one to cause that pain in the first place, though. I'm pretty sure I'd be thinking of ways to kill myself by now if I was in his situation.
I try to look in his eyes now. "Fang?" I ask.
He didn't respond; all I saw in his eyes was pain. He'd asked for help from Maya a while ago, but I'd ordered her to stay back and keep Kate safe. Her body was slightly weaker than mine and she wouldn't be able to protect herself if Fang's body suddenly picked her as his new target once I got help from Maya.
"Fang-" punch*"I'm not blaming-" *dodge* "-you for any-of this. I know you don't want to do this. I know you, Fang."
He finally looked up at me, "Max, I'm-" He started, with apologetic eyes, but then fell to the ground right as he was about to roundhouse kick my wings again.
I unfurled my wings and kneeled to his side. "Fang." I then sat down beside him. "Fang?"
What happened to him? Did Xavier do something to him? Will he be okay? I grab his shoulder and start to shake it, "Fang! Answer me Fang!" I was ready to start screaming some more until I heard Nudge yelling at me.
"Max, he'll be okay. Iggy and I just knocked Xavier out." She informs me as she gets closer.
I look up and see Nudge kneeling down to check for Jake's pulse. I could see Xavier further back, collapsed on the white-tiled floor, surrounded by a small pool of what I think to be his own blood. Iggy was coming towards me, his right fist bloody and bruised. So that's what happened to Xavier… Iggy happened…
"Are you okay Max?" Iggy asks, out of breath from sprinting.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you sure Fang will be, though?" I ask, not caring about something meaningless like any aches or pains I had. I just cared about whether Fang would be alright or not.
He gets down on my level and looks at Fang on the floor. Putting his index and middle fingers together, he grabs Fang's hand and puts then to his wrist, where his thumb bone ended. Not a moment later Iggy says, "Yeah, he'll be fine. He's asleep now. I'm not really sure when he'll wake up though. Could be a few minutes; could be a few days." He tells me shrugging.
I breathe a sigh of relief. At least he was fine. Then I remember something, "Iggy, Kate's water broke!" I say. We both look to Kate to see that Maya had helped her walk down the hall, to where Iggy had set the Gasman down earlier. I look back to Iggy, "Go to her and see what you can do, I'll try to get Fang up. We really need to get out of here."
"Alright." He stands up, giving me a nod and then he's off to help the others.
I look down to Fang. He was actually sleeping, am I the only one that finds that weird? I do my best to sit him up, and then turn my attention back to Nudge. "Is he okay?" I ask.
She had already stood him up and against a wall. "Yeah, it doesn't look like he lost too much blood, but we should get him checked out." Nudge tells me, and then goes back to attempting to wake Jake up.
Just then, Maya makes her way to us.
"Have you seen Dylan?" I ask her.
"No, I came here to ask you the same thing." She tells me nervously.
I look around for a second, thinking. I spot a camera and get an idea. "Hey Nudge, could you look through that camera and try to find where Dylan went?" I ask, knowing her power wasn't limited to only things she touched anymore.
She nods and closes her eyes, concentrating on the camera above her. A moment later she opens her eyes. "He went that way, right after we saw Xavier." She tells us, pointing down the hall where Iggy, Kate and Gazzy were.
"You don't think he would have run away, do you?" I ask, confused.
"No, he's wouldn't do that." Maya says, sounding a little unsure herself.
I pause for a moment, thinking about what we should do. I was their leader after all and we couldn't just stay here and wait for them to send us more goons.
"Iggy come over here, and bring Gazzy. Maya, could you go and help Kate come here?" They did as I told them to and now everyone was in the same place. "Okay guys, we're missing Dylan but we really need to get out of here. We only have three able fighters, Iggy, Maya, and Nudge, so if we get attacked again I seriously doubt we'll all be able to escape." Maya's eyes widen. "Dylan might already be outside, waiting for us." I add quickly. "-And if not, I promise we'll come back for him, alright?"
"No! What's with you? This isn't like you at all; you would never leave a flock member behind!" She screams furiously.
"Maya, think about it!" I say. "Ratchet, Gazzy, Fang, and Jake are all out. Kate and I can't exactly give it all we've got; I'm not even sure how we're going to get everyone out as it is!"
"I still don't want to leave Dylan." She says, softer.
"None of us do, but you have to think it all the way through."
She stays quiet, and looks back down the hall to where Dylan had run off to.
"Nudge, can you carry Gazzy?" She nods and walks to get him from Iggy. "Iggy, Jake?" He nods and goes to pick him up. "Maya, Fang?" She just walks to him and starts to pick him up. I wouldn't have normally let her take Fang, but I had to keep my jealously out of this right now. "Kate, are you okay enough to help me with Ratchet? We're not too far from an exit. Do you think you can make it?"
"Yeah, I just want to get out of here as soon as possible."
I nod and we walk over to Ratchet. Someone had propped him up against the wall, so we didn't have to bend down much. We both grabbed under his arms and I noticed his eyes started to open slightly. "Wait. Hold on, I think he's waking up!" We both take a step back to give him some room.
He looks around and rubs his forehead. He looks up at us, "What happened? Where am I?" He asks.
"You passed out from Fang's punches, don't you remember? We're still in the Itex building." Kate tells him.
"Guys, I think he might have a concussion." Iggy says.
I look back to Iggy.
I remember once when we were little and we were practicing our kicking and dodging, Fang had ended up getting a concussion. That day he'd been a little off. He was being slow and unobservant, and those are two things you should definitely not be when you're fighting with me. Even if it is just practice, it's just not a good combination. So I ended up giving him a roundhouse kick to the side of the head and scared Jeb half to death. I felt really bad, of course, but I couldn't really do anything. Fang didn't pass out from it, but he was disoriented and unbalanced for the rest of that day. Jeb made him stay up that night, for fear of not being able to wake him up again, and I stayed up too, since that was the least I could do. Fang ended up being okay, but I made a promise to myself that day; I would never let that happen again. I would always hold back as much as possible when fighting a flock member. I would beat the crap out of Fang and Iggy on occasion, when they got out of hand, and threaten the others, but I would never really hurt them.
Iggy caught me looking at him and shook his head. "There's nothing I can do, Max. We just need to get out of here, and fast."
"Okay. Kate, take one of his arms." I say.
"Try to move him as little as possible." Iggy adds.
Kate and I nod, and put his arms over our shoulders. We supported him while he did his best at a fast walk. He didn't ask any more questions, but I could tell he was confused. "It's not that much further guys, just hang on, we're almost out." I tell them.
Ratchet, Kate, and I were fast-walking down the empty, white hall with the rest followed close behind. Nudge carried Gazzy in her arms, Iggy somehow managed to carry Jake in his, and Maya carried Fang. We turned the next corner and could now see the door they'd all come in from. It was pretty hard to miss.
I was so excited to be seeing freedom again that I didn't even bother to ask who'd torn the door down.
We were almost there, but, as most of you would've guessed, we came across yet another obstacle… Awesome…
Right in front of us, blocking the door, were countless numbers of people. Most were experiments, some were white coats, and a few others were those reptilian guard things. I could tell some of them were experiments by how old they looked. I mean some were still only children. I'm pretty sure Zaila was the youngest white coat I'd ever met. I wondered for a second if she was in the mix, but quickly dismissed the thought. I didn't have time to think about that right now.
They were waiting there, up and down the whole hallway and when I looked back, I saw ever more were starting to swarm in behind us and blocking our only exit. We were completely trapped. Only three of us could fight, against the probably hundred or more of them. That was it, game over.
Most of the experiments had blank looks on their faces, almost like they were being controlled. It wouldn't surprise me, considering all of the mind controllers around here.
"Maximum Ride!" A booming voice roared from somewhere up above us. "You have caused us enough trouble over the years, so surrender now before you force my hand!" Who I assumed to be the head of this place yelled.
"Force your hand? What more can you do, you've been keeping us in freaking dog crates for most of our lives and experimenting us half to death. Are you going to send us to different prisons? Or sorry, I mean 'facilities'."
"No, I will kill your flock Max." The man over the loudspeaker deadpans.
I went silent.
I knew these people were capable of it, without hesitation. I looked around and noticed most of the people around us had guns. They were really going to do it. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen.
"I-" I start.
"Max!" I hear two voices shout from the back of the crowd behind us.
Suddenly everyone who had guns drops them. Next, the people who were blocking the voices who'd called my name take a few steps to make room in the middle of the hallway, revealing Dylan and Zaila.
Dylan runs to us and starts to explain, "It looked like we needed help back there so I went to find Zaila. I guess we ended up needing her more than I thought." He smiles.
Maya takes a few steps forward, so she's now right in front of Dylan's face. She slaps his straight across the face, making a loud, sharp sound, heard all around.
Dylan clutches the right side of his face with his hand. "What was that for?!" He asks, wide-eyed.
"That was for leaving us without a word." Maya takes his hand away from his red cheek into hers, and then gives him a kiss on the same cheek. "And that was for coming back and saving all of our butts." She tells him. They both smile at each other and I finally decide to look away.
Zaila was now in our little circle. "I just blanked everyone's minds; I can't hold it for long so I suggest we hurry on out of here before they come to their senses again." She tells me.
I nod. "Alright guys, quickly now, grab someone and let's go!"
Dylan helped Ratchet out so now Kate and I only had to carry our own weight around, for which we were both grateful for might I add.
In only a few seconds, we were finally outside. We'd actually made it out. I'd actually begun to think we'd never make it out. I mean, we've been in these situations countless times before, but I was really scared this time. Tell anyone I said that and you're dead…
It was just beginning to dawn outside and I didn't mind it one bit that we were in a desert. There were a few trees here too which was a little weird, but I shouldn't really worry about that now. What I needed to worry about was how we'd be able to get home.
We had five able flyers (Nudge, Iggy, Maya, Dylan, and myself), four of which could carry someone for a while (not me). We had six people to fly home (Gazzy, Jake, Fang, Kate, Ratchet, and Zaila). I'm not sure where we are, so no clue where home is.
"Iggy, how'd you all get here?" I ask as I stop everyone in front of some thick shrubs, only a short distance from the facility.
"We drove in a van to the closest town, but flew into the desert." He says, setting Jake down for a bit. He was starting to look a little out of breath and tired from all of the fighting and having to carry Jake around. Now that I looked around, so did Nudge and Maya. Even Kate looked a little out of breath, and I'm not going to lie, I didn't feel great either.
"Max, I'm almost at my limit. There are too many people." Zaila informs me. I look back and notice her nose was dripping some blood onto her lab coat. She noticed too and quickly whipped it away.
We're always so close to freedom and then this kind of stuff happens! Someone must really hate us up there!
I was starting to panic, but then remembered what Jeb would say at a time like this. 'Panicking can only lead to failure'. Yeah… Something like that…
"Max?" Nudge asks, while I try to think things through. "What do we do?"
I look around. I wanted to scream. We couldn't run for it, Kate and I were too pregnant and some of the others had to carry people.
"The town isn't very far Max." Iggy finally adds.
I look at him. He could have said that a while ago.
"Let's go, as fast as we can without losing anyone." I say.
They all realize it's probably the best option we have and start to go. About a minute in I look over to Zaila, who was running beside me. He nose was bleeding more now and she looked paler than usual.
I realize she was still doing mind blank. "Zaila, stop! That's enough, you can stop now, or you're going to hurt yourself!" I tell her. We'd been going at a fairly quick pace, but I could still see the building if I turned around.
She smiles at me. "I know Max, and it's okay. This is my job. Jake messed up a little and we can't lose you all now, not like this. You're supposed to save the world and I can't let you get caught by these people. I'll be known as a traitor now, so I can't get caught either, and if they get Jake… Well that wouldn't be good either." She tells me, still smiling while the blood gets into her mouth and starts to redden her white teeth.
"No, Zaila, stop." I turn forward again, from facing Zaila to the side, and yell for Maya. "Maya, you know where the car is. I want you to fly as fast as you can to it and then drive it back to us!"
She'd been listening to the conversation, and understood. "I don't have super speed like you, but I'm pretty fast." She tells me and stops to hand Fang over.
Iggy takes the car keys out of Jake's pocket and chucks them at Maya, which she catches expertly before she takes off flying.
Nudge comes back to us and starts talking really fast. "Here Zaila, take Gazzy. He's lighter than what he looks because of our bones, but you probably already knew that. Anyway, I can take Fang because I'm stronger than you, which you probably knew too." She swipes Fang up from Zaila with only minimal effort and continues jogging ahead.
"Do you think Maya will be able to make it Iggy?" I ask.
"Yeah, I think so." He answers.
"Okay, now you can stop Zaila. We're pretty far from the place and we have help on the way." I all but beg. "-And we still need you, you can't pass out (or worse) on us."
She looks back, as if considering whether or not to stop. She finally nods, "Alright Max, I'll stop for now."
I sigh in relief. We kept our fast speed walk/jog going for a while. Iggy carried Jake, Nudge-Fang, Zaila-Gazzy, Dylan helped Ratchet, and Kate and I just tried to keep up.
I could tell Zaila had stopped when the blood finally stopped dripping from her nose, and she started to pick up her pace.
It'd already been about half an hour and I was getting really thirsty. We'd lost sight of the facility long ago, but Maya still hadn't come back. I was getting more worried by the second and I'd felt Dylan had already calmed me a few times. He didn't say anything though, probably so as to not worry the others. I was really grateful for it.
Just as I was starting to think this desert would never end, Dylan shouted, "I see Maya!"
A.N- Sorry for any and all mistakes. I didn't want to wait any longer to post, (I've already lost a few followers) so you'll just have to try to overlook any mistakes. If there's anything that's written SO badly that you can't understand just write a review on it and I'll explain, and fix it if it need to be fixed. For all of those out there who are still sticking with me; thank you:) you all are great! I swear I won't leave this story unfinished, I'm not that kind of writer.
Q.O.T.U- What is your favorite movie? At the moment, mine is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I'm going to make there be a movie playing in the next chapter.
Love,
~Lucy