Chapter Eight: Unsurprisingly Betrayed
After two days of flying we are finally in Palm Beach, Florida. I made sure we avoided Orlando at all costs this time. I did not want a repeat of last time. We land in trees in a small park. Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Frannie, Ozy, Wendy, and Peter all fall asleep immediately. The rest of us stay up to talk about what we plan to do.
"We need to head south to Broward County and then West to Weston," Max II says.
I nod, but the other Max decides to ask Max II, "Why Weston?" I realize I have been thinking the same thing, but just haven't asked.
Max II smiles and replies, "Ever look at a map of this area? No, well, Weston is a city right by the Everglades. I've heard that they give air boat tours and that type of thing around there. We will enter from Weston, and then fly north, out of the way of the people." She looks at all of us. "Anyone disagree?" We all shake our heads.
She smirks, and that makes me worry, but I let the feeling go. "Good. Then I'm sleeping, since we seem to have this taken care of." With that, she lies down on a branch, and falls asleep in three minutes. I look at everyone else and see the other Max motioning for me to follow her. I nod and we both take off and fly for ten minutes looking for another park to land in. We find one, land, and she turns to me.
"Do you trust that Max II? She seems too sure of herself, and is relieved we are following what she tells us." I think about that for a little and then sigh before answering.
"No. We had a hard time last time she was with us. I'm being cautious. Did you notice she smirked after we agreed with her tonight?"
"Yes, I did. I had hoped I wasn't the only one. I think she was controlled like the rest of us, but willingly. Almost as if to trick us once you figured it out and helped us. She might still be working for whoever was controlling us." She has a look in her eye that tells me she has been thinking about this for the past two days as we flew here. I also see that she believes this, and I have to agree with her. Max II joining us like she did is odd, and I mean really odd.
"I have to admit you're right Max. She isn't just possibly working for them, but is certainly working for them. Angel knows her mind already, and found the truth in minutes. We have let her lead us so that we can be lead right to the enemy. If you trust me, I think we should leave now, while Max II is asleep. This is why I had my Flock pack everything up last night, so that we could make a fast take-off before Max II noticed. Do you want to leave without her, or with her?" I watch as her face gets determined.
"Let's go get our Flocks." I nod and we go back to the park everyone is sleeping in. Fang gives me a quizzical look, but I just go to the Flock and start to wake them up. Within ten minutes we are flying towards Weston, without waking Max II up. That was something that made everyone happy once the other Max and I had told everyone the plan, muttering under our breaths.
After flying for about two hours we were at Weston. We find some nice trees and fall asleep for five hours, each one of the older members of this group taking watch for an hour. By that time it is eight in the morning, and we're all hungry. We find the closest Walmart, and get some food. We can't stop to eat yet, so we take off towards the Everglades. The problem is that Nudge, who seems to be starving, wants to eat right then. After a few minutes of hearing her whine, the other Max, Fang and I look down to see what is below us, and we happen to be headed towards two schools right next to each other. We all look at each other and nod. We direct the Flocks down.
After we scope out the area, and find an area on the bigger of the schools, a sign says it's called Cypress Bay High School and the smaller of the two is called Falcon Cove Middle School, where we would eat and be hidden. That's when we eat our breakfast, enjoying the view of the courtyard, students walking around, and that class for people wanting to be in the arm marching. We also can hear the band playing. Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Ozy, Frannie, Wendy, Peter, and, to my surprise, Matthew all have cinnamon rolls. The rest of us have bagels. Everyone is done, so we take off, and are met by Max II and three hundred Erasers.
Instinctively, we all make a circle, with our backs to each other. Gazzy is to my right, with Iggy next to him. I remember that those two had been doing something while we were eating, and I have a weird feeling that they had been making bombs again. I tap Gazzy's hand, and he looks up at me.
"Were you and Iggy just making a bunch of bombs before?" I whisper almost silently to him. He has an evil grin on his face that was the only answer I need. "Okay. You two try to take out the half closer to the middle school." He smiles happily and taps Iggy's hand so that he can pass on the message. Once Iggy finds out what I told them to do, he got an evil grin on his face, and his hand slowly moves to his backpack, just like Gazzy's. I've got to remind them that this is only because there are so many of them.
The other Max is on my left, so I whisper into her ear, "Gazzy and Iggy will take out the half near the middle school. The rest of us will take out the other half. Pass that onto Fang." She nods and whispers the message onto Fang, who is to her left. He passes it on until everyone knows what the plan is. Everyone had a look of determination on their face.
Then, suddenly, the plan changes because Max II says, "Max and Max, come on up here and fight me, not the Erasers. Aw, too scared that your Flocks will be hurt badly without you? Don't be, I have all of the Erasers on my side, and they will be after all of you with more anger than normal if you two don't fight me. So either you both fight me, and let your Flocks deal for themselves with normal Erasers, or I'll fight you two anyway and your Flocks will have tougher than normal Erasers as these are ones that are more enhanced than the others, but they know how to be like the older ones. Your choice."
Max and I look at each other and nod. We know that we both know that we will fight Max II. We each tap the hand of the person next to us so that they will pass on the message that we will be fighting Max II, but to otherwise keep the plan in motion. Each person nods as they get the message. Max and I go up to where Max II is, and face her. As we get up there, our Flocks attack the Erasers.
Max II looks at us and said, "Do you two want to watch the fight down there, or start our fight now? I won't do anything to change that fight." We both nod, and all three of us start to watch the fight below, though the two of us have our senses on high gear, paying attention to Max II's every move. The fight was huge. I can't believe it. There aren't three hundred Erasers. There is a thousand! I stare at the numbers, and then I suddenly realize I should watch what the Flocks are doing.
Fang is kicking and punching them as much as possible, knocking them out. Nudge is flying as fast as she can, kicking them on their backs whenever she gets behind one. Angel is controlling fifty to attack another hundred, and it's working well. Matthew and Icarus are fighting back to back taking on one hundred each, and I think Matthew is whistling for some odd reason. Wendy and Peter are helping each other take on one hundred and fifty. Wendy would fake an attack, fly up just before hitting an Eraser, and Peter would hit them from behind. Ozy and Frannie are doing the same thing.
Gazzy and Iggy were… OH MY GOSH! Gazzy just threw two bombs, but one missed the Erasers completely! That would be fine except that the middle and high schools were so close that when the bomb passed the Erasers, it went right in between the two schools, blew up, and hit both schools. They are both trashed on the sides that got hit.
When that bomb exploded, everyone, Erasers included, froze and looked down at the bomb site. I look around and saw well over six thousand students and teachers over by a park, all staring at what had happened to their schools. I guess while we were fighting the schools had evacuated to a far enough area so that the students wouldn't get hurt. I look back down at the middle school and saw that there is a teacher in one of the rooms. There is a geography textbook cover right next to her in her classroom. At lease I think it's her classroom.
My Flock is the first to get back into action, but instead of starting the fighting back up, everyone but Gazzy goes to the other Flock and gets them moving again. Gazzy looks up at me, and I glare at him. He gulps. He knows I am going to yell at him for that, and he's scared. I point to the other Flock and he rushes off to help get them moving. I go over to the other Max, and grab her. Both Flocks fly away from the Erasers and Max II, and over the students who were still staring at their schools.
We don't stop flying until we get to the Everglades, and find a dry part of land to sit down on. Once we all have our backpacks off, I turn on Gazzy. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU DID?!?! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CAREFUL!!!" I calm myself down a little before continuing. "Do you know what could have happened if the schools hadn't seen us and evacuated before you blew up those schools? There would have been hundreds of students dead right now!" Gazzy is looking at the ground.
He looks up at me with scared eyes before he replies. "I'm really, really sorry Max. I… I thought I only had one bomb in my hand, and so when I threw the second, it kind of slipped from my hand and went under the Erasers. It wasn't on purpose…" That's when I realize that he is truly sorry and it was just a mistake on his part. I take a breath and sigh.
"It's okay Gazzy. I guess it was an accident. Just… don't let that happen again. I looked at one of the classrooms in the middle school, and a saw teacher in there, dead." Everyone looks at me, horrified. Gazzy is the most horrified, and then he starts to cry uncontrollably. I go over to him and hug him tightly. "It wasn't your fault Gazzy. We all know that. Don't worry about it." After about five minutes of crying, he calms down, though he stays next to me, keeping my arm around his shoulders as he hugs my side.
"Okay. We got to the Everglades. Now we need to figure out why Max II wants us here. Anyone have any ideas of where to go?" I look at the group and see everyone is thinking. I just glance over Angel's face, but then turn back to her quickly. Oh no, she had that look that always says she's reading minds and having a hard time with it. I am about to tell her off, when I saw the other Max looks confused suddenly. That's when I realize that Angel was looking at the other Flock's mind to find any information that might be able to from when they were controlled. Smart girl… sometimes.
"Max? I think I know where we have to go. It's in the center of the Everglades," Angel informs me. I sigh. In the middle of a swamp – how nice. Flying would make it faster, but we'd have to stay away from the air boat tours that Max II mentioned, if she hadn't been lying. "She wasn't lying Max. I can hear the minds of those people. They are enjoying the animals and plants." I groan silently. Can't she learn that a mind is a nice place for people to think without others knowing? "Nope." Ugh. I guess I'll deal. "Good."
"Angel, get out of my head." She smiles but nods. "Okay people. Let's get a little rest, and then start going to the center of this swamp." Everyone nods, and then everyone but the other Max, Fang and I lay down. Most of them are tired from that fight and fall asleep right away, but a few take a little bit of time.
After about ten minutes everyone but the three of us are asleep. "Fang, get some sleep. Max and I didn't actually fight Max II, so we can keep watch." He shrugs, but lies down and is asleep in three minutes. The other Max and I walk away, find a tree, and sit in it so that we can talk and watch our Flocks. "I think Max II is trying to get to us, not our Flocks," I tell the other Max.
"I have to agree with you. She wanted us to fight her, and then having us watch our Flocks fight a thousand… Erasers, as you call them, is just plain evil. I've been wondering why she chose us, though," She told me. She sighs and leans back against the trunk of the tree we were sitting in. "Oh yeah, I want to tell you that you handled Gazzy exactly how I would have handled one of my Flock if they did that." That makes me smile slightly.
"It's weird. We seem to be so alike, and yet so different. We are both the leaders, take care of our Flocks because they are our family, and can fly. Yet… our personalities are different, we have different ways of doing many things, and we aren't the same in appearance at all. It's almost as if… No, they couldn't have, but they could have…" I stare at her and can't believe my thoughts.
"What? What couldn't who have done?" She looks confused and yet at the same time she knows who I am talking about. "You don't mean… the scientists from the School, do you?" I have to nod. "Wait… Oh my gosh, what you just said makes sense now, and I think you're right." We both stare at each other in disbelief.
"Why would the School try to make me after you, but different at the same time? I mean, we are the same in so many ways, and yet different in just as many. It's almost as if they were using you to create a better experiment: me." We both stare at each other, looking sad. We have both realized that they made her, and then took her 'imperfections' and fixed them to make me.
"We can't tell our Flocks. They would go crazy. If we keep this out of our minds then Ozy and Angel can't find it from us. If they find out, it should be because they figured it out," she says quickly. I nod in agreement and we fall silent as we watch over our Flocks while we let them sleep for a few hours. I know that she is doing the same thing as me, thinking about what we just discovered before Ozy and Angel wake up, and at the same time preparing ourselves for what is coming. This is going to be a long few days.
Review please. I'd like at least 5 reviews on this Chapter before I update on Thursday. (I will update then, but I have a plan that will work soon if I don't get the updates I ask for. ;-P ) Review!