Chapter Ten- Wrong
Max POV
"This place looked like a bomb hit it." Total commented as we walked very cautiously through Itex.
"It did!" Gazzy snickered.
"I know that, but more recently." It was true, there were smashed computer screens, chairs knocked over and shredded paper all over the ground.
"Okay guys," I got the flocks attention. "Gazzy are you sure Iggy said he was coming here?"
"Positive, he said that he was going off to Itex headquarters, to follow Violet, who was going there to find some information." Gazzy replied. I sighed.
"Well, there's no one here. We've looked everywhere." Though Iggy had super hearing, could feel colours and cook better that anyone I knew it wouldn't be hard for Iggy to get lost without someone to guide him. He could be anywhere. Nudge touched one of the computer keyboards.
"The person who was last on here was angry and upset about something. But they felt comforted by something or someone. Could it be them?" No one answered. None of us had an insight into their relationship. Fang was silent as usual; he was looking at something in a folder frowning slightly.
"What's that Fang?" Nudge asked. He quickly snapped it shut.
"Nothing." He stuffed the folder in his backpack. He was hiding something; I'd ask him about it later.
"I think we should search the area and if we can't find him we'll have to keep looking." I only cared about finding Iggy, I was still convinced that Violet was a spy or something like that. There was something about her; it made me think she was hiding something. I'd investigate that later. We left Itex and started flying around the area.
"What's that?" Angel said pointing in the direction of a stone building surrounded by a tall fence with barbed wire on the top. Outside there were two winged people rising into the air. One had golden wings and the others were a dark black, M-Geeks were coming out of the door as the two flew quickly away from them. They were almost over fence when Violet knocked Iggy off course. He fell down slightly, but Violet jerked back like she'd been hit by something. She started losing height quickly falling, like a rag doll. Iggy heard her fall past him and quickly moved to catch her.
He started flying quickly over the fence and into a nearby group of trees so he was out of sight.
"She got shot." Angel said. "She was knocking Iggy out of the way to save him. She's not waking up. Iggy's panicking."
"Why did she knock him out of the way?" I asked. Why would she try and save him.
"Because she loves him." Angel said this so sincerely that I knew she couldn't be lying. I was forced to admit to myself that I had been wrong. And I hated admitting I was wrong. She genuinely did care about Iggy, he felt the same way. She'd made him happier than I'd ever seen him. And now she was dying.
"Well let's go help them." I made a swift dive down to where I had seen Iggy disappear to. The flock followed. Iggy was bent over Violet, using his hands to stop the bleeding. But blood was seeping out from under them.
"I can't stop it, there's too much." Iggy said sounding like he was in despair. Violets face was a pale white from the blood loss, her eyes, which were so much like Fangs, fluttered. She was waking up. She groaned lightly.
"Violet?" Iggy asked. "Please say something, let me know you're okay." But Violet just coughed up blood violently and her dark eyes shut again.
"She needs to get to a hospital or something." I told Iggy.
"What if she's too weak to move?" he whispered.
"Then we'll just be sitting here watching her die. Keep your hands like that; use your jacket if you need to. Fang and Nudge the three of us are going to lift her. Angel and Gazzy go ahead of us and keep an eye out for a medical centre, anywhere with a doctor." Nudge, Fang and I gently lifted Violet of the ground. Though probably one of us could have lifted her, I wanted to keep her as still as possible and there was less chance go jostling her around if there was three of us. Iggy had taken off his jacket and was keeping it glued to the bullet wound.
We flew awkwardly but as quickly as possible. Gazzy, Angel and Total were in front of us scanning the ground below us.
"There!" Gazzy called pointing at a large white hospital. We landed in the parking lot and carried Violet into the emergency department.
"Oh my god! Someone get a gurney!" called the receptionist and a couple of nurses brought one out.
"Keep the pressure there." One of the nurses told Iggy. We lifted Violet onto the gurney and she was wheeled behind a set of double doors. Iggy went with her still pushing his jacket on the wound.
"Do you think she'll be okay?" Nudge asked.
"I don't know." I said in all honesty. "But for Iggy's sake I hope so." The flock all sat on the hard plastic chairs. After about a couple minutes Iggy came out of the double doors. He looked like he was in some sort of hypnotised state oblivious to the hustle and bustle around him.
"Iggy?" Nudge said concernedly. Iggy just sat down in one of the chairs next to Gazzy. He sighed heavily.
"They're preparing her for surgery. I don't know how things are going to turn out." he said flatly and his head in his hands. No one said anything. If there was anything that we could have done to comfort him we would have done it in a heartbeat, but I could tell by the expression on his face that he was best left alone for now. A doctor dressed in surgical scrubs that looked as if they were about do a surgery approached us.
"At the moment Violet is being taken to an OR where she'll be put under general anaesthetic. Firstly does anyone know about her medical history?" everyone except Fang shook their heads.
"I've got a file about it." Fang said producing the manila folder he'd been looking through at Itex headquarters. He handed it over to the doctor.
"Thank you this will be of great help and secondly we've been told that your blood is different than a 100% human. It has nuclei?" We nodded. "She has lost a huge amount of blood and needs so much more. Would one of you be willing to make a donation?" Iggy stood up willingly. So did Fang.
"I'm her brother, I'm best match. Right?" Fang stated. "Its fine Ig, I've got this." Fang and the doctor walked away down the hall. Iggy slumped back on his seat looking lost. I looked around at all the younger flock members. They all hadn't eaten since we set out for Itex headquarters and that had been hours ago. I thought it would be best to find a cafeteria or a vending machine.
"Come on guys lets go and get some food." The younger kids stood up but Iggy stayed glued to his seat. "Are you coming Ig?"
"Not hungry." he said simply.
"You should eat..." I started but he cut me off abruptly.
"I said I wasn't hungry! Stop mothering me!" he snapped. I gestured for the other kids to follow me. There was sign to telling us to turn right to get to the cafeteria.
"Don't feel bad about what Iggy said." Angel piped up. "He just feels guilty. He's blaming himself. He keeps thinking, 'it should be me, it should be me' over and over. But he'll cheer up once Violet's okay." I nodded but didn't say anything. It seemed unlikely that she'd be okay and Iggy knew that. Why else would he act like that? We found the cafeteria. We ordered our food and sat eating at a table in the corner. Fang joined us after a while sliding into a seat next to me.
"Hey, Iggy told me you guys were here." He grabbed a few chips off my plate.
"How was he when you saw him?" I asked. I felt a lot better now that Fang was back. Even if he was eating my food.
"Depressed. He asked me to show him where the OR was and now he's moping around there."
"That can't be good for him."
"I tried to tell him that but he practically bit my head off. I think it's best we let him do what he wants at the moment."
"Yeah I guess." I dropped my voice so the younger kids didn't hear. "I don't think he'll come back from this. If she you know... doesn't make it."
"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it... which I hope we don't." We ate the rest of our food and decided to go to wherever Iggy was. We found him pacing up and down a hallway with a sullen, brooding expression on his face. The five of us sat up against a wall and watched him.
Doctor POV
Wow. I couldn't believe I was operating on a girl with two percent avian DNA. The differences between her and normal people were numerous making it harder to operate but so far she was stable. Her cardiac walls were a little thinner than normal for some unknown reason so I had to be extra careful about tearing them. I'd try and find out why in the folder that I had been given by her brother later. I cut away some more sinews to get to the bullet. It had missed the heart by inches. She was lucky. If it had perforated her fragile heart she would have been long gone.
"Tweezers." I said to the nurse who handed them to me. I gently pulled out the bullet. I held it up to my eye and examined. Small but deadly. How many people had I lost on the table because of these? I dropped into a waiting metal bowl.
"Okay, let's close up and get the one in the wing." I was about to step aside for one of the interns to stitch her up. Then I heard it. The loud beep that could only mean one thing. I looked at the screen monitoring her heart. She was flat lining.
"Get the crash cart."