Disclaimer: You know this might surprise you, but… um, how should I out this gently. I DON'T OWN MAXIMUM GODDAMN RIDE!!!!!! Thank you for your time.
"Hey!" I bellow, "Get your ass back here!!" I launch myself into the sky after her. I catch up to her easily without even needing to launch into overdrive. The dark-haired girl's flight is sloppy and unpracticed, like she only flies when absolutely necessary. And she doesn't use any fancy maneuvers like the flock and I learned, she just pumps her wings, pump pump pump. I drop down onto her back, causing her wings to fold. I flap furiously, softening our landing in the pine trees in the yard outside the School.
"You've got some serious explaining to do." I bark. Fang and the others are at my side. "What's your name? Who created you? What are you doing here? Who are the whitecoats looking for?" With each question, I give her skinny shoulders a shake, so hard that I hear her teeth rattle. I feel a little bad. She's emaciated, so sickly looking it makes me a little nauseous. She looks like one of those abandoned dogs on the ASPCA shows on the Animal Planet, so thin that every bone in her body sticks out, her eyes welling with tears, her neck bent, head drooping, but the big saucery eyes still turned upwards at me. Her thin black sweater makes her look even paler, if that's possible.
"One question at a time, if you don't mind." She says sarcastically, but the effect is ruined by her appearance. I can tell that if she was healthier, she would have had quite the bite, but now she looks like she can barely stand on her own. I wonder how she managed to kick that whitecoat. I'm sure if I removed her boot and wooly socks, I would reveal a purpling bruise, like the one on her cheek. I probably didn't even need to tackle her, she certainly would have dropped out of the sky soon enough.
She grins, then winces at the pain in her face, "My name's Mayzie." Mayzie pauses, then says, "And who do you think created me, if I'm here?" Mayzie rolls her eyes. I guess I should have known.
"But you haven't been here your whole life?" I say.
Mayzie shakes her head, "No, no. I just got taken yesterday morning, and they've been milking me for information about Tamarind ever since."
"Wait, wait, wait!" I say, putting up a hand, palm facing outwards, "Who the hell is Tamarind?" Pretty much, all this is just starting to sound like more inane pyschobabble form someone who's had one too many of the School's sedative-tinis. Too much can hurt the brain in some pretty odd ways. Maybe she's schizo, just another health problem to add to her bedraggled appearance.
"Tam's my brother." Mayzie says, acting like I should already have known this by now. " The School's gone after him real bad. They were never interested in him in particular, but I guess they just found out something about his experiment or genetic coding or whatever, and now they think he's real special. They're saying that if I give him up to them, he'll be happier, that he can be used to his full potential. I mean, I got no idea what they're talking about, but as his older sis, its my job to keep Tam safe, you know?" yeah, I thought as I surveyed my flock, I did know.
"Well, up until yesterday, Tamarind and I were just living as best we could, trying to make do wherever the wind blew us, you know, usually in the city. Then they jumped me when I went out for food. I still don't know where Tam is, if they got him or not…" Her tears bubble over her bottom eyelids. "But you've got to help me. You've just got to help me find him!"
I look at Fang, and he shrugs. "She's one of us, Max. She knows how to survive, its not too much responsibility. And if we help her escape and find her brother, who the School obviously needs really bad right now, its just another blow to the School. And another member of the flock will make great material for my blog. And the more popular the blog, the more people willing to stand up for our cause." Right, Fang and his God-damn blog. Unfortunately, I had to admit that he had a point. While I did find the blog childish and incredibly time-consuming, it had saved our asses back in Germany.
"Okay, Mayzie." I say, turning back to the dark girl, "I guess you know the rules of survival when your one of us." She nods, the tears still dripping rhythmically, but a tiny grin spreading across her face. "And, just so you know, I'm the boss in this flock. What I say goes."
"Really, I didn't notice," she says, sarcasm again, but its affects are once more lost.
I roll my brown eyes. She rolls her blue. My mind unconsciously tallies the similarities between Mayzie and I. There are quite a few. "Up and away." I murmur to the flock, and all six of us turn towards the night, lifting off. Mayzie catches on and extends her magpie black wings and follows behind Angel, the slowest, now tanking over that position and bringing up the rear. Then, that School is gone, a twinkle in the dark. Until Iggy activates the bomb he planted there.
Iggy and Gazzy exchange high-fives.