A/N: Okie dokie people, here's Part 2 of Chapter 2…once again, things are guaranteed to be confusing, but hey, that's what suspense is all about, right? Well, ok, fine, not really, but you get the idea. And, of course, THANK YOU REVIEWERS. I thanked you guys properly on my profile page, so go check.
People seemed to like the whole summary idea, so here's a summary of Part 1 of Chapter 2:
When Max runs through the door in her dreams, her body outside of the dream stops breathing. Fang discovers this, and when he yells to alert the rest of the Flock, instead of his own voice, out comes the rough voice of an Eraser. Fang's voice is changed back to normal, and the Flock tries to figure out what to do with Max. In doing so, they reveal that they are connected in some way to the whitecoats of the School (ok, the summary makes this sound really weird, so just try to stay open-minded and wait to see what's really going on, in the next couple of chapters). Max, meanwhile, is still caught in her dream. After running through the door in her dream, she finds herself in The School. Overcoming her phobia of the School in order to save Angel, whom she heard screaming earlier, Max also encounters an Eraser and a whitecoat. When the Eraser and whitecoat fail to notice her, Max becomes confident that, in this dream, no one can see her. She starts running through the halls, looking for Angel, and eventually stops in front of a room. The same room where she first met Fang and Iggy, while they were all still trapped in the School. Someone inside the room is trying to get out, so Max, already drawn to the room, walks through the door, and into the room, to see if she can find Angel.
Hmm…I am really bad at summaries, so just remember, that these summaries are only to make sure that readers understand the basics of what is happening.
On with the show!
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Chapter 2 Part 2: Endless Impossibilities
(A/N: Sorry, I bet my chapter titles suck)
Max was still lying on the ground, and she still wasn't breathing. She looked frozen, like time had stopped somehow, but had only stopped for her.
Gazzy glowered down at Max's still face. "The whitecoats are going to kill us if they find out what's happened."
"Why the hell isn't she breathing, Fang?"
"Just shut up…err…Nudge. How would I know?"
"Um, maybe because you're the leader of this outfit?"
"Whatever," growled Fang. "Maybe something went wrong with the machinery."
A twig snapped next to him, and he swiveled sharply around on instinct, knocking Angel over in the process.
Fang's patience was growing thinner by the second. "Get out of my way, you idiot."
Angel lithely jumped up to her feet and snarled. "I'm not the idiot here." Reaching back, she packed every ounce of power she had into one tightly coiled fist, and brought it slamming up into Fang's cheekbone. Stepping swiftly back, she glared down at her fingers and muttered, "What I wouldn't give for my claws...could have ripped his pathetic throat out…"
Fang, meanwhile, was doubled up on the ground, clutching his face, and uttering a stream of profanities.
"God that hurts…what the hell was that for?!"
Angel glared up at him wildly, a gleam of rebellion and disgust in her eyes. Her hands were still locked into a rigid, claw-like shape, and her teeth were bared. "Just because Batchelder made you the leader this time, doesn't mean you can push me around. Got that? Or next time I'm gonna whup your sorry a–
"Jeez ok, just shut it!" He touched his cheek tenderly and winced as his fingers ran over the large purple bruise that was rapidly spreading over the left side of his face. "Great. I have a bruise now, how the heck am I going to explain that if the subject starts breathing again, and wakes up?!
Angel smirked. "Just say you, oh, I don't know, ran into a tree or something."
The look on his face…Fang only just barely restrained himself from lunging at Angel. His face flushed with rage, he slammed his fist into the nearest tree trunk in frustration, leaving a deep indent…and started howling in pain. His knuckles were a bloody mess of splinters and damaged skin.
"Smart," Iggy grunted, the sarcasm very obvious in his voice.
"Well, Angel," Fang snarled, "If that Max freak wakes up, how am I going to tell her that I ran into a tree, when, according to Batchelder, this Fang guy never does stupid things like that?! Like, he's Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected, or some crap like that..." (A/N: Yeah, I know Fang was supposedly just talking about himself. That's not a typo. Just go with the flow.)
Gazzy broke into the fight. "Everybody just shut up! While you've been arguing, has anyone bothered to notice that the freak hasn't been breathing for 10 minutes?! Too hell with all your arguing about what's going to happen when she wakes up…she looks like she's dead. So someone needs to tell the whitecoa–
Iggy interrupted. "First of all, I don't know how I got stuck with a pack of idiots like you." Gazzy made a rude gesture behind Iggy's back. "Second of all, she's not dead. I checked. She still has a pulse, and she hasn't gone all cold and corpsy yet.
Total sniggered. "Corpsy? Great word choice."
The blind kid rounded on the smug little dog. "Alright, you know what? I–
Suddenly, Fang cocked his head to the side. Eyes unfocused, he appeared to be listening to something. The other Flock members, minus Max, who was still down and out for the count, stopped their arguing and gathered around him. Waiting for their instructions.
With a dizzy shake of his head, Fang came back to reality. "Okay, the Erasers on watch have finally notified the whitecoats. Ha. I bet it took them so long to sound the alarm because they were worried that they did something wrong. Which of course, is never a good thing." He slid one finger across his throat, in the universal 'You haven't got much longer to live' sign. "Batchelder's coming too. Wants to see what's going on and why the freak, I mean, Max, isn't waking up."
Nudge spoke up. She hadn't said a word during the whole fight. "So…does that mean we're getting out of here? And out of these pathetic little birdkid bodies?"
"Yep," growled Fang, a wolfish grin on his face.
"The real Flock is on their way."
(A/N: Yes, that was probably vastly confusing – and hopefully interesting? –…but anyway, keep reading and it'll all become clear in…2 to 3 chapters. Sorry!)
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Max's POV
I gulped.
Five pairs of eyes were watching the door, glinting from out of the shadows. The eyes flitted back and forth, searching for whatever had just entered the room (me). It was almost as if they could sense that something was different, that there was a presence there that didn't belong…eerie.
I'd just walked through that door in the School, and my stomach clenched as I watched those eyes carefully, trying to gauge whether or not those eyes belonged to Erasers, whitecoats, or maybe even some failed experiments, trapped in cages. Why was I torturing myself like this? Why did I feel drawn to this room, when there were so many other hellholes around the School to choose from?
And where was Angel?
The room was dark, but even with my raptor vision, it was still hard for me to recognize anything. I could just barely make out the outlines of the five shapes – were they people? – in front of me. Thank god that no one could see me in this dream…
"What is that?" one of the five shapes whispered.
Oops. Spoke too soon. I guess they could see me.
My eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness of the tiny prison, and when I could finally see who these people were, I felt both a pang of relief and a stab of pain and guilt.
Relief, because I loved them with all my heart, and felt incomplete without them.
Pain, because they were here, suffering with me.
And guilt…because a very small and selfish part of me was glad they were with me, so that I wouldn't have to be brave in this dream all by myself. Now, I had someone to protect, and of course, that's what I do best. Not that I would admit that to anyone.
It was the Flock. My family.
I skimmed my eyes over them, checking them out to make sure they weren't hurt. Just like in real life. And just like in real life, they didn't look too good.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I registered that Angel was here, and safe. But why the heck had she been screaming before? Angel's golden hair looked limp and unwashed, and instead of being held neatly back in fuzzy cornrows, her hair was out in loose, messy curls. She looked exhausted and painfully thin, and my heart hurt just looking at all the cuts and bruises that covered her little body and face. Actually, everything about her looked vaguely different, from the clothes she wore (a ragged t-shirt and pair of jeans that I'd never seen before) to the defeated look on her face. Only the big, blue eyes, that I knew so well, for all 6 years of her existence, were the same.
Holding her hand tightly was her older brother. Gazzy. I almost smiled at how protective he was being. But then I remembered. Oh, right, this is The School. He has every right to be.
Nearest to me was Fang, his stance tense and darkly angry. Abruptly, I realized that he had been the one who'd been trying to knock the door down. Since when was he that strong? He was frozen in a position that suggested that he'd just been about to charge at the door again. Which I'm sure is what he would've done, if I hadn't come waltzing in out of nowhere, straight through the door.
"Fang, you guys, you're here too?" I cringed as the words left my mouth. Well, no duh.
Instinctively, I walked forward with the intention of a group hug. God knows we all needed one. (And hey, this is my dream, I can do what I want, right?) Who cares if Fang isn't exactly the huggiest person in the world. Or that Iggy is blind and Nudge is a talkaholic. All I knew was that now, I was as safe as I was going to get, because even though we were all trapped in the School, and I was trapped in this creepy dream, we were together. Even though I was sure that this dream flock wasn't real, just a figment of my imagination, I didn't care. It was them, and we were safe. For now. And that was good enough for me.
Fang stepped back, and faster than I thought possible, he and Iggy gathered the younger kids behind them. Slack-jawed with shock, confusion, and hurt, I only just barely felt the pain as Fang, my best friend, slammed me back against the door. He glared down at me, and whispered in a voice so cold and deadly and biting that I flinched…
"Who are you, and how the hell do you know my name?"
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A/N: Okay…good, bad, just plain ugly? I don't know why, but I have this weird, bad feeling about this chapter…so can you guys review and tell me what you think? Am I just being paranoid? (i.e., is the part where Max goes to give a group hug too…OOC?) Pick an adjective or two that describes this chapter: good, bad, confusing, cheesy, wonderful, corny, too-convenient, interesting, suspenseful, weird. Feel free to mix and match. Just kidding.
I hope this wasn't too confusing. The next few chapters will really start explaining some of this mumbo-jumbo…like, why the Flock was being so so so out of character. I mean, Angel was being a total beast, Fang was showing pain and emotion, and being mean to everybody, Iggy and Gazzy were definitely not their normally cheerful and sarcastic selves, and Nudge WASN'T TALKING. The Answers…coming soon. If you have any questions about things you don't understand, just ask in a review, or send me a private message. Remember: stay open-minded.
Oh yeah. This is how I came up with the room number MFI1471:
Obviously, MFI stands for Max, Fang, and Iggy, and I got the numbers by corresponding letters to numbers. You know, that system where A is 1, B is 2, C is 3. So, I took N, G, and A, for Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel, and came up with 14, 7, and 1…weird, right?
But I like Set.Me.Free.123's idea better. She guessed that MFI stood for Max, Fang, and Iggy, and that the numbers stood for the years Max was at that room in the School with Fang and Iggy. Ages 1, 7, and 14. Much cooler than my original idea. I might actually use that in my story, so if you see it, you know where it came from.