Disclaimer: If I actually owned Maximum Ride, I'd probably have better things to do with my time.

"Angel, what color do you want?" Nudge asked. Angel tilted her head and peered up the rows of cotton candy hanging from the side of the cart.

"Uh… pink."

"One pink," Nudge told the cashier, turning back to Gazzy and Angel. "Gazzy?"

"Blue," he said without hesitation.

"One blue, and, um…a purple." Nudge had never seen purple cotton candy before, and she wondered if it tasted as good as the pink or blue kind.

They all taste the same, Angel reminded her. Nudge jumped at the sudden internal noise. The cashier stared, pausing slightly before handing her Angel and Gazzy's choices. Nudge doled them out, watching their faces light up. Angel licked her lips at the sight of her treat. The glob of pink fluff was easily the size of her head.

Nudge paid, took her own cotton candy, and led Angel and Gazzy over towards the animals.

"Oh, let's go look at the flamingos!" Angel gushed.

"Why?" asked Gazzy. "Because they're pink?"

"No," said Angel, rolling her eyes. "Because I like them."

"Stop it, you two," said Nudge. They stopped.

"Whoa," she said. "I told you to stop, and you stopped. You listened to me. That is so cool! No wonder Max likes being leader, you get people to listen to you! Like, if I told you that we were going to see the flamingos first, then we would, and if I said the lizards, then we would do that!"

Angel stared. "Yeah," she said simply.

"So where are we going?" asked Gazzy.

"Um… the lions. They're at the beginning, so it makes sense that we would start there, you know. Like if we started at the end, that would be stupid. So we're starting at the beginning." She set off towards the lions.

Angel and Gazzy looked at each other with their eyebrows raised, but they followed her.

The lions were sleeping in their cave, so it was hard to see them. Nudge didn't blame them for hiding. Maybe it was warm in there. It was certainly cold here. All of the leaves had fallen off the trees and it was probably going to snow soon. Nudge thought that snow was pretty, but it was cold. And that was never a good thing.

The gazelles stared at her with wide eyes. Nudge wondered what they thought about the fact that they were so close to the lions. Was that why they looked scared? Or did they just not like the people peering in?

The monkeys seemed happy; they screeched to each other and darted around animatedly as they swung through the trees. One of them stood behind the glass and started at Nudge. It was silent for a while, but then it burst out into cackling laughter. Nudge wondered if it knew what she was. Human, but animal. Nature wasn't supposed to work that way. The monkey laughed an laughed, pointing a surprisingly human finger at her.

Nudge was just starting to wonder if maybe this was why the older kids didn't like zoos, when Angel tugged at her arm. She and Gazzy had been oblivious to Nudge's discomfort, but now the younger girl looked frantic.

We have to get out of here. Gazzy jumped, and Nudge knew that Angel was speaking to him too.

"Okay," Nudge said out loud, but softly, so only Angel and Gazzy could hear her. "We'll go back and try to find Max and Fang, I gue-"

No. Up. Out of the city. Now. I'll warn the others.

"You mean," Nudge whispered, lowering her voice further as the grimness of the situation sunk in. "You mean, in the sky, with…"

With wings. Trust me.

Nudge nodded. Gazzy's eyes were wide. The three of them took off their jackets quickly, looking around, nervous.

And then they unfurled their wings.

The city looked dark. The sun hadn't come out from behind the clouds in almost a week, and it left a dreary sense in the air. The wind had picked up today; leaves blew frantically through the streets like they were running from an unseen enemy.

But I couldn't see that from the air. Fang and I were flying along the outskirts of the city. There was no real purpose to what we were doing, which was starting to frustrate me. We'd been going for so long, from place to place, with no objective. As much as it was nice to know that we weren't in any specific danger, it had gotten kind of boring. It turned us into sad, pathetic runaways instead of mutants trying to save the world.

I would have said all this to Fang, but he knew already. We both felt the same way, but talking about it made it more real, somehow. We were fine in the silence; it wasn't awkward, for us. If there wasn't anything to say, there wasn't any reason to talk. I'd been trying to teach Nudge that for years.

A gust of wind threw me slightly off track, and I glanced over at Fang. It was nice to know that he was there. After he'd left, four years ago, I was always nervous about losing him again. About losing any of us. Which was probably why I was so nervous now. They were just going to the freaking zoo. If I wanted to, I could fly over the place and watch them walking around. Hey! That was a good idea. I opened my mouth to share it with Fang, but something cut me off.

Max, Fang, Iggy, came Angel's voice, fast and frantic. Fang and I looked at each other, tense. Guys, get out of the city. We're coming. We-

And then everything exploded.

Author's Note: Okay, here it comes... As therealme1123 put it, blood and gore! The plot will hopefully pick up from here. Thanks to ElvinDragon, RippedIntoPieces, AsanteSanaSquashBanana (Great name! I love the Lion King!), FightingRose, senoritasophia13, Kim-Chan6606, Scarrlet Fang Limit the First (another great name), bitten-by-luv, and therealme1123 for reviewing!

I've noticed that there are a lot of hits on this story but not a lot of reviews, so... This story needs to have 25 reviews before I update again. Sorry guys, but that's not really that much, only 7 more. So if you read this, please review! It really means a lot to me. Even if you didn't like it. Tell me why. Thank you, and I'm going to go do my homework now. Bye!