Past yo

Chapter 1 Well this is an Odd Place to Wake Up

OMG I had one heck of a headache. I opened my eyes and rubbed the sticky stuff out of them. I looked around and almost hit the ceiling-OF THE TUBE I WAS IN! I banged the sides with my hands. Bam, Bam, Bam. What was I doing here? I couldn't remember, but I could remember other stuff like…THE FLOCK!

"Gazzy! Iggy! Fang! Angel! Nudge!" I yelled.

Bang, bang, bang. I pounded on the stupid tube again. Mirrored images of Max slumped on the floor of the tube and put her head on her knees. The floor and the sides of the tube start vibrating. I shot up, and bracing my back against the side I pushed against the opposite side with my feet. As the tube rose light filtered through the mirrored sides and they became transparent.

"Maximum Ride," a mechanical female voice echoed in the tube. "You are now a part of the Hunger Games. Once the tube lowers do not step off your plate, it is surrounded by land mines that will be live until the gong sounds. There is only one rule in this game: survive. The games will conclude when only one person is left. They will be crowned victor. Good luck Maximum Ride and may the odds be ever in your favor."

When this ultimatum was finished the tube was completely above ground and the sides started to lower. I was surrounded by a lush green forest. Birds chirped and sang, and I could hear water running. The music of it filled my ears and uplifted my soul. Forest-no, rainforest smells filled my lungs. Of their own volition my wings beat the air. This was bird-person paradise, this was where we belong. I nearly stepped off my plate before remembering to wait for the gong because every molecule in my DNA wanted to be out there.

Dong, it echoed through the quiet peacefulness shattering it, but at least I was free…..and alone.

Where are they? Why aren't they with me? Are they okay? Or dead? My heart sank to my feet.

I might be a little ADHD; you probably noticed that already though. I was also a little undecided about what to do.

Should I fly up over the woods and search that way? Or should I stay basically hidden down here and find them?

This was a whitecoat trick one hundred percent. Which means it's going to be one twisted trick after another. I slowly stepped off of the plate craning my neck to see everything. Apart from my appearance it looked like this forest had always been the same and always would be. What did that lady say again? Hunger Games? At least I had that cookie in my pocket-I looked down at my pants. These…..are not my pants. There nicer than any pair of pants I've ever owned. Cargo pants, hiking boots, thick socks, a jacket that was thin but surprisingly warm, and a long sleeve T-shirt; they'd even gone through the trouble to put my normally crazy hair into a ponytail. Interesting, with whitecoats you never can tell what they'll do next, except I seemed to be suffering from amnesia so I couldn't remember what they'd done before now either, they only thing I could remember was my family, the Flock, Gazzy, Nudge, Fang, and Angel, they were in danger and I had to find them. I felt a pull to go east toward the high mountain that jutted up through the trees although I couldn't tell if they actually stretched that far. Leaves and twigs snapped and rustles under my boots.

After walking for a better part of the morning I started to get hot, tired, and thirsty. It had been cool when I'd got here, but it was hot and muggy now. My hair was stuck to the back of my neck with sweat. I gently pumped my wings back and forth to get a cooling breeze going. The novelty had rubbed off of this about as fast as complete silence had, aka faster then I'd thought. It was incredible how much I missed those kids already.

"Nudge talks to much, Fang is depressing, Iggy shreds stuff, blows stuff up, and is generally annoying, I don't have a private thought as long as Angels around, and Gazzy is a kid with issues." Reminding myself of the Flocks imperfections didn't help, much. So I decided to try a different angle. "If Fang was here he'd say something insulting or undermining, if Angel was here I'd have to carry her, if Iggy was here-OH MY GOSH IGGY IS PROBABLY BUMPING INTO…..OH MY GOSH IGGY!" Iggy wouldn't be able to see a thing and this place was completely unfamiliar. What if he was on the top of a mountain! What if he fell off! Great. Suddenly a scream pierced the air, high pitched scream that belonged to a little girl in terror.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX! MAAAAAAAAAAAAX! HELP ME!"

Oh my gosh it's Angel! I no longer cared who saw me; I spread my wings, took a running start, and lifted into the air. Pumping my wings hard I gained altitude quickly until I was soaring over the rainforest. I swooped low in the direction of the yelling. In a clearing I saw two jerks beating up my baby. I folded my wings and dived slamming one them to the ground just as he was about to punch my baby. We skidded a few feet making a cloud of dust. I rolled off of the jerk and started beating him up, no one, no one hurts my baby (except the school which is inevitable).

Jerk number two laughed, "Wow Thomas your getting beat up by a girl."

I glared then flew across the clearing tackling him to the ground.

"Now you're getting beat up by a girl," I snarled.

"Max? Max? Maaaaaaaaaaaax?" Angel shrieked as I wrestled both those jerks.

"Not now Angel, fly to a tree, get safe," I hollered shaking one of them off of my wing.

They backed off. One of them raised an eyebrow, the other one nodded. Angel was still on the ground yelling.

"Get in a tree Angel!" I ordered.

"But Max-"

"Tree. Now. No excuses."

Both boys (have I mentioned they were boys?) charged me, slamming me to the ground. I scrambled to my feet to see them across the clearing making faces. I charged.

"No Max!" Angel yelled. That girl was being disobedient; I would have to take it up with her later.

Suddenly I was swept off my feet in a tangle of wings, jacket, and limbs. I struggled wildly beating my wings and yelling. I finally thrashed around enough to get a breathing space for my face. It doesn't matter if there your feathers, Fang's feathers, or someone else's those things are just not fun to breathe through! I was in a net hanging from a tree branch, like those bad animal traps you see in the movies. The jerks were sitting around talking about me.

-WICKED really went all out with this."

"Mm-hm, do you think this one is that little one's mom?"

The Angel attacker gave the other jerk a weird look.

"Max."

I looked up and Angel waved. She was sitting in the branch my net was hanging from untying some gigundo knots.

"I mean like, protect your babies and all that, 'cause whatever it is…it ain't human."

I got the last of the hair and feathers out of my mouth.

"For your information my name is Maximum Ride and that girl you were attacking is Angel and we are much more human then you because we don't hurt innocent children."

Both boys were shocked and surprised. I caught my breath and started struggling again. The net broke and I landed on my feet on the ground. I could practically smell the fear coming off of those jerks (I should probably figure out their names) when I got free.

"Yo, where are we?" I asked I'd decided in my benevolent goodness that information was more important than beating them against eachother.

Angel jumped off of her branch and glided to the ground next to me.

"Well first things first. Allow me to introduce us." The Asian looking kid said. "This slinthead shank here is Thomas."

"And this shuck faced shank is Minho," slinthead shank Thomas cut in.

What? "What?" I asked.

"Oh, well you're a shank, she's a shank, and he's a shank, just basically means person. A slinthead is an idiot and a shuck face is one ugly shank."

"So your Thomas the Stupid and that's Minho the Ugly?" Angel asked.

Thomas glared at Minho, "Just Thomas'll work out ok, greenie."

I cut in before Angel could start calling Thomas Just Thomas'll many, many years of playing mama bird to those kids and I'm getting good at predicting that stuff. Besides Iggy could still be falling off that mountain.

"Well we're going to find the rest of our flock, come if you want."

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