-Chapter 6
What happened next passed in a series of blinding, white and grey images. I had no control over my body. My mind rebelled against it, but my body was not me. I was Iggy, it was a savage. I vaguely remember the flock rushing in as I ripped all the Velcro and leaped up. Gazzy and Nudge grabbed my arms to try to hold me down. I threw them against the walls where they hit with resounding thuds and stayed there. Max and Fang grabbed me, and tackled me to the floor. Angel backed out of the scene quickly, staying with Gazzy and Nudge. I remembered the Savage that was my body threw punches, and hit Fang in the jaw. I grabbed Max and threw her into Dr. Martinez. Fang alone was left standing. The Savage leaped, and it hit him with its shoulder, throwing him to the ground. I heard quiet footsteps behind me, stabbing pain in my lower back, and it all disappeared in a flash. Just like that.
I awoke again to blinding pain, and worried faces. The one that struck me the most was Jeb. He was bent over me. I wasn't strapped onto a table anymore. I was in a chair. I wasn't strapped in either. I was just there in a chair. What also struck me is that I could see. Is there some funky-doodle thing going on that every time I get knocked out, I can see when I wake up again? What's with that?
"Iggy? Are you okay? Are you angry?" Jeb asked slowly. I blinked and shook my head. There went the colorblindness. Now it was just blindness.
"No. Should I be angry?" I asked, bewildered as I heard angry hisses of breath from the flock.
"No, you just attacked the flock and Valencia like a savage. Why did you do it? You almost fractured Fang's skull, and broke both Gazzy's arms. Why, Iggy, why?" he pressed.
"I-I don't know," I said, shaking my head again. "I just felt this awful anger, like I wanted to kill everybody I saw. I had no control over myself. It was like I was stuck in somebody else's body. Honestly!" I held up my hands as I heard shocked and vengeful mutterings front the flock again.
"So you're not angry at anybody?" Jeb asked again.
"NO. I said it the first time. Why should I be angry? Do you want me to be?" I asked, starting to get annoyed at his persistent questions.
"Someone was tainting your morphine with a drug that causes uncontrollable rage. I didn't give you morphine. I injected you with a tranquilizer usually used on wild lions." He said, the words wild lions carried more weight than usual.
"You mean the only thing powerful enough to take me down was lion tranquilizer?" I asked, my eyebrows shooting up.
"Yeah. The way you were fighting wasn't too far off from a wild lion either . . ." Fang said, and I could practically see him rubbing his jaw where I had punched him.
"Guys, I'm so sorry!" I yelled, pulling all them into a bear hug. I heard Nudge giggle.
So we all made up and there was a lot of hugging and crying (on the girls' part), and Fang even admitted himself that he cried when they brought me in and I was dead. When he said that, I tried to keep my face straight, but my sides were about to burst with laughter at the idea of Fang crying. I just let go. I was laughing maniacally, rocking back and forth, clutching my sides as tears of laughter streamed down my cheeks. When I finally calmed down enough, I could see again. Fang was glaring at me with a dark scowl, and Gazzy was shaking with barely suppressed laughter. Nudge was smiling and for once silent, and Angel was sitting in Max's lap, giggling quietly. Max was smiling at the look on Fang's face. I blinked and it went. I didn't see Jeb or Dr. Martinez, so I assumed they had let the flock have some catch-up time.
"That's the last time I show any more emotion. When I do, I get laughed at." Fang said very quietly, so only I could hear. I grimaced at him.
"So who do you think put the drug in your morphine, Iggy?" Max asked. I angled my head down to the floor. I took a while before answering carefully.
"I don't know for sure," I said slowly, "but I think it might have been the School's people. Maybe they wanted to get rid of the flock using me as a weapon," I said, my words greeted by shocked silence on the flock's part.
"You really think so?" Nudge asked, her voice thin.
"I don't know. I just know that the School wants us dead, and they're desperate." I said, once again choosing my answer with precise care.
"Ig, how do you know all this? Nobody knows this, even Angel." Gazzy said.
"Never give Nudge Pixi Stix." Fang said, making all the flock jump.
"Excuse me? What did you say?" Max asked, shocked.
"I said, never give Nudge Pixi Stix. They're pure sugar. She'd be talking nonstop for 48 hours." Fang answered. I had a feeling something was going to surface in a second. Something small and tube like – a wrapper of some sorts was going to fall out of Fang's hand. I just knew. Don't ask me why.
"Hey, what's that?" Gazzy asked.
"It looks like a tube . . . it says Pixi Stix on it . . . Fang? Where did you get this . . . ?" Max asked, cautious.
"I picked it up at Dr. Martinez's house. It was in the pantry. Angel dared me to eat it." Fang said. He was becoming more and chattier as the minutes wore on. Wait—he said it was pure sugar, right? Oh god . . . Fang was having a sugar rush.