MAX

"Glad that guy is gone." Iggy shouted towards me through the air. The two of us were further back, flying as close as possible. Ari was off to the right, more by himself. Nudge and Gazzy were up front, trying to hold a map steady while flying at over sixty bird miles per hour. I don't know why those two wanted to navigate, but I didn't complain. The plan was still Florida, just with two additional bird kids and possibly a few enemies.

I shrugged back at Iggy. I didn't bother trying to yell over the wind. Earlier we had cut Fang loose and as soon as he was out of sight we took off as well. I'm still not completely sure letting him go was the right choice. I'm just hoping my decision won't come back and bite me in the butt.

I surged forward a little and brushed wingtips with Ari. He glanced over at me and raised a classic 'what do you want' eyebrow. I signed 'you okay?' to him and he rolled his eyes, looking ahead again. I edged over a little before falling back to where Iggy was, once again.

A lot of my memories of Ari were still hazy, but was he always such a... wet blanket?

What does your gut tell you? The Voice thoughtfully decided to chip in.

"My gut is telling me that I'm hungry." I muttered to myself, checking my watch. 3:15. Yeesh. We were definitely stopping for snacks soon. We must be in Alabama by now.

I'm serious Max. Trusting your instincts is an essential part of being a leader. It could be the difference between life and death. The Voice was being pretty relentless with this one, which was unusual.

Way to kill my good mood, I thought snidely, with no response from The Voice.

I flew closer to Iggy at an angle and tapped his shoulder. I gestured to the ground before rocketing forward and grabbing Nudge and Gazzy's attention. We angled a little lower and Ari followed our decent. We were right over the middle of cow country. Surrounding us, as far as I could see, were miles of grazing pasture. It was the perfect place to stop, take a breather and chow down a little.

The kids walked for a while, stretching out their arms and legs while I sifted through the backpacks, collecting all the food we had and laying it out. Our rations were still plenty stocked.

"How's PB&J?" I called to the dorks, receiving various levels of enthused responses.

I threw some protein bars to Nudge, Gazzy and Ari. Nudge and Gazzy sat beside each other, chatting and munching while Ari continued to walk. Iggy sat beside me and grabbed for one of the plastic spoons and the jelly jar. Improvisation is obviously one of our strong suits.

I passed him a few slices and he'd jelly them up. Then I'd mash them with the peanut butter ones I made and finally, we'd stack them on top of the other finished sandwiches. We made nine just to be safe and then licked the spoons.

"Foods ready guys!" I called. Everyone grabbed a sandwich or two and sprawled out. I sat back, watching everyone eat. For some reason, seeing everyone laying back and enjoying themselves, made me inanely happy.

When I finished my sandwich I laid beside Iggy, covering my face with the sleeve of my jacket and stretching out on the grass. The sun was warm and it made me sleepy in a good way. "I'm gunna take a quick nap." I muttered to Iggy, closing my eyes.

"Alright." I heard him murmur in response.

Max?

What is it Voice? I asked, a little irritated by the interruption.

This is not the best time to be napping.

Ugh. Why not?

There was no reply and I sat up, frustrated. I immediately scanned the area, mainly because the Voice had me on edge, and no, not the TV show. Iggy was still laying beside me. His eyes were closed and his mouth was open slightly and I found myself a little distracted. It was flipping, ridiculously cute.

Ari had stopped pacing. Now he was just sitting listlessly and fiddling with his hands. Gazzy and Nudge were sitting side by side and talking quietly.

"Everything is good Voice. You need to chill out." I muttered quietly, hauling myself off the ground and moving towards Ari. He glanced up, looking a little calmer than he was earlier, as I plopped down beside him.

"What's up?" He grunted.

"A heartwarming movie about an old guy and a boy scout who go on an adventure involving balloons and a house." I replied easily.

It took him a second and then he was smiling faintly and shaking his head. "That was awful."

"What? The movie or the joke?"

"The joke dude." Ari clarified, pulling his long sleeves a little lower. His charcoal eyes met mine and then sort of slowly looked away.

"We haven't had a chance to actually talk since, heck, before all this stuff started." I tried to think back, but it just made my head hurt.

"I don't know if you remember, but we never actually talked. Even before people started trying to kill us." Ari smiled a little again and I hesitantly smiled back. It was like an awkward first meeting or something.

"Well, we can change that. Especially since people are trying to kill us. It's the perfect opportunity." I tried not to sound too cheesy, but I was practically oozing Velveeta.

"You're starting to sound like Dad." Ari shook his head, but he was amused.

"So how are you with all this? You haven't really said anything since the motel." I tried to keep the cool older sibling tone going, but like I said, I'm cheesy.

There was a long pause, which Ari seemed to fill by fiddling his thumbs. "I'm thinking of going off." Ari hesitated. "On my own."

"Huh," I exhaled. Jesus, talk about a curve ball.

Our eyes met and he looked apprehensive, like he expected me to go off on him or something. I already knew that stubbornly screaming at Ari didn't do much except give us both headaches and my head hurt enough already with the recent injury.

"Well, I don't really want you to go..." I admitted, frowning slightly. "Mainly because I'd worry about you and we don't exactly have cellphones or anything."

"Yeah, I know." Ari started chewing on his thumbnail as he gazed out across the green field. I sprawled out a little more, letting my weight shift to my elbows.

I found myself flinching slightly as I thought back to The Voice's advice. "Just follow your instincts Ari. If your gut is telling you to go, then go. Whatever you choose, I won't hold it against you. Very long."

Ari gave me another strange look. "Jesus. I don't think you've fully recovered. Normally you'd have me handcuffed to you by now."

"You don't have to make a decision or anything anytime soon. Like, honestly, I trust you more than anyone else in our weird ass group. Whatever you decide to do is fine by me." I affectionately punched his shoulder and he sighed, letting his head loll to the side.

We sat in silence for a few moments and I found myself sighing as well. "I really have no idea what I'm doing."

Ari didn't reply, but I could almost feel him smiling beside me. I guess that means I did pretty good on the sibling front. Kudos to me.

"Yo Max!" I heard Nudge call from behind. I glanced back, shading my eyes with my hand. Nudge and Gazzy were standing further back. Gazzy was gesturing up to the sky and looking confused. Nudge just gestured for me to go over there. I hoisted myself up and Ari gave me a curious glance, standing as well. Together, we walked over to the smaller, more hyper portion of our group.

"What the hell are those?" Gazzy asked, gesturing wildly to the air. I squinted up at the blindingly blue oblivion, unable to see much of anything.

"I don't see anything..." I muttered, giving Gazzy an irritated glare.

"I see them," Ari cut in before Gazzy could retort. "Twelve o'clock."

I quickly looked back to the skies, trying to block the sun from searing my eyeballs out. I followed Ari's instructions and squinted slightly. "Huh." It was just a cluster of dark smudges. Whatever it was it was pretty far away.

"What the heck d'ya think it is?" Nudge asked, unconsciously tugging on her hoodie's strings. I just shrugged.

"I- I think we should keep moving," Gazzy said, turning to face us, his eyes wide. "I got a bad feeling."

"I'm sure its nothing," I assured him, glancing back to check on Iggy, who was still sound asleep. "But its time to get moving anyway... so lets bolt."

He nodded eagerly and ran over to his bag, hoisting it up over his shoulder and shoving the rest of his energy bar into his mouth. I jogged over to Iggy and crouched beside him, shaking his shoulder gently. He peeked up at me and I raised an eyebrow. "Let's go sleeping beauty. Troubles on the horizon."

"Poetic." He yawned, hefting himself up and rolling his shoulders. He smiled warmly at me and I tried not to get suckered by his blushy cheeks and his floppy strawberry blonde hair. He grinned as if he knew exactly what I was thinking and stood, reaching down to help me up. I took his hand and hefted my backpack to my shoulder with the other. Gazzy and Nudge were already flying circles above us and Ari was taking off.

"What's the dealio?" Iggy asked, his eyes catching slightly on the dark smudges in the distance. I put some space between us and threw open my wings, feeling the country wind tickle between my feathers.

"Whatever those things are, they're giving Gazzy and Nudge the creeps." I called out, before turning and taking a running leap. My running take offs always feel kinda clumsy, but I usually manage. Three powerful down strokes later, I was rising quick.

Iggy signed to me that he understood as we circled up to where the others were hovering. We got in our impromptu formation again, except this time much closer together, Gazzy and Nudge leading the way.

They're getting closer Max. The Voice decided to chip in.

"Wait, what? They?" I quickly balked, whipping my head back to inspect the approaching blob. It was definitely something much bigger than a few birds. I felt my gut clench instinctively and I sped up the pace, rocketing to the front of the group. They gave me a few surprised looks, but I didn't have to say anything, they just matched me. I really didn't like this.

After about fifteen minutes I could make out the flying shapes. They looked more like... more like people, but large and honky. I sure as hell hope these aren't the things Fang and Angel were so terrified of. Whatever they were, they were gaining quick. At this rate they'd be on top of us in another twenty minutes. We needed to make a move... and fast.

I banked upwards and shifted my body around, jerking my thumb up. The flock nodded and the five of us shot upwards. There were some thick fluffy clouds that were pretty low as far as clouds go. I had us fly right through it so we were positioned, hovering above the cloud line and completely invisible to... whatever those things were.

"Are we going to fight?" Ari shouted over the wind. Cold perspiration from the cloud had stained his shirt darker and he looked almost... afraid.

"We might have to." I called back, but the wind was whipping so loud he couldn't hear me, so I just signed it to him instead. Gazzy and Nudge just looked confused. I banked a little closer, trying not to bop them with my wings and shouted as loud as I could. "Yes!"

They seemed to relax a little, almost as if they were more comfortable with that option. I didn't get those kids at all.

Any moment now. The Voice said.

I felt my heart start to pound, sending adrenaline coursing through me. This is it, I thought. Here we go.