((Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters in this book. They all still belong to James Patterson, well, they still did when I last checked. Enjoy!
But I do own the plots, so PLEASE respect this story and the author and don't steal the plot(s).))
Chapter 7: Going Somewhere, Soon
We all woke early in the morning. Max and I got up roughly half an hour before everyone else. I woke lying flat on my back, Max still sprawled across my stomach. No I idea how we ended up like that. Last I remember we were both sitting side-by-side, cross-legged. My stomach was warm, ether way. A few late stars were leaving the sky as Max stirred, then woke fully. She smiled to me, looking around the rest of the flock.
"What's for breakfast?" she asked, sounding like a child again, asking Jeb for scrambled eggs.
"Scrambled eggs? Out here. Yeah, right." I hadn't realized I had said it out loud.
"What?"
"I was just thinking of when Jeb used to cook us scrambled eggs, I didn't realize I say it out loud." Max snickered.
"Well, unless you can catch your own chicken eggs, we'll be having what ever I pull out of the backpacks, if there's anything left."
"What do you mean? We filled 'em up, what? 2 days ago."
"Yeah, but last night I caught Gazzy having a midnight snack/feast, whatever you want to call it."
"I must have been asleep sooner then I thought."
"Yeah. Your funny when you sleep. Like a little boy. I watched you for a while." She blushed deep red and so did I. I felt the hot rush to my face. I hoped I didn't sleep-talk or anything. More red joined the rest as I thought of the possibilities. She moved to find some food. I didn't move. I was enjoying just resting for once. I was pleasant with the breeze and-
"Gazzy! You didn't did you!" I looked up to see Max standing over Gazzy, who was grinning very evilly. Now the smell drifted over to me and I got up, choking.
"Oh man! Foul! No more mid-night snacks for you!"
"Hey! How did you-" He looked suspiciously over to Max. Who put on her most innocent looking face she could muster. It didn't work and Gazzy scowled.
"Come on guys, lets get on the plane now. I heard one luggage handler saying he would be the first one here at 11. Let's go." Max moved everyone one in to the cargo plane.
"Wait Max. There's something we want to show you. Don't worry-it's good."
"We hope." I nodded at Nudge who brought out the laptop and turned it on. I opened the blog and turned it around on the grass for Max to see. There were still heaps of birthday messages coming through. Each of us had written a personal message to Max, which was on the top of the page. There were 3 pages in all. Max gasped, hand over her mouth.
"You guys remembered! And posted some of these notes for me. And lots of other people posted notes for me. Wow! You are so dead Fang! Thank you guys! Thank you so much!"
"Happy birthday Max." I smiled at her and she hugged me. When everyone had got a free Max hug, we got up.
"Thank you guys. I'm so surprised you remembered! I'd completely forgotten. But now we have a plane to catch. We'll talk more in the plane."
"Talk about what?" I must admit, I was confused.
"How to kill you. Duh! You're so evil Fang!" She grinned at me, heading towards the cargo plane.
"I find that hard to believe," I looked at her frowning. She didn't think I would retaliate! Ha, sucker!
"Oh, really?" Suddenly she threw a road-house kick my way. I cut her off, turning. I grabbed her by the neck.
"Tag," I whispered in her ear. She was completely screwed. If was Easter she would be dead by now. "Wow, you really get your guard down." I was surprised.
"I was taking it easy on you! Now let me go, we have a plane to catch," I let her go.
We made in to the plane with heaps of time to spare. Once in, we settled down and waited for the long ride to Australia. Max and I sat against a create, Iggy and Gazzy were quietly scheming something in the corner. Nudge and Angel were talking about the Australian flowers they had seen in pictures on the laptop.
"Thanks for the birthday surprise Fang. It was pretty cool."
"Hey, Iggy helped. I don't the first thing about computers." Iggy's head shot up at the sound of his name and he and Gazzy fell silent. Jeez, guilty conscience!
"So? It was cool! I remember my last birthday, when Jeb was with us." She had fallen quieter now. "That was cool. Nut the fact that I get to spend a whole day with my flock and no traitor is better." She smiled. I was planning to buy her a cake once we were in Australia, but no one else knew that, only me. I was good at keeping secrets.
"Hey Fang, do you think we should stay in Australia for a while? I was thinking of what Gazzy was talking about and it just sort of, I don't know, sounded good? It should be safe there right?" I nodded, thinking of what she had just said.
"I don't know. It's not really my decision. It's the flock's, as a whole." I lowered my voice. "I don't know, I like the idea of hanging ten for a while. I really am sick of running. And all these stupid missions." I sighed. Max nodded slightly.
"I was thinking of stay there for about a year, you know, lie low and all that. We're not very good at lying low though, are we?" I nodded again. I liked the idea. Hopefully Australia would be good enough.
Half an hour later we felt the plane's 4 wing-mounted engines start up. Within minutes we were being towed up the runway. Once we were up in the air, we came out of hiding. Nudge and Gazzy both fell asleep, Angel was taking to her little toy bear, Iggy was listing to his Ipod. Max was drawing in the dirt at my feet. I looked down at her picture. She had drawn two, large wings side by side. She was drawing in the feathers when I stopped her.
"Do ever wonder what it would be like if they weren't attached to us?" I nodded down at her drawing.
"Yeah, all the time. I wonder if our lives would be different. If we would have know each other." She went back to drawing, carefully adding in detail. They looked good, I must admit.
"Yeah, I know. It would be cool to live a normal life, but having wings, well, kinda speaks for it's self."
"I know. Image if we had bigger wings. Like massive. Like a 30 foot wing span instead of 13 or 14. Hmm." She stopped drawing and looked off into space.
"I don't know. That would be hard, wouldn't it?" She shrugged.
"We'll never know." She then thought of something. I saw it light up in her eyes. "What if our wings haven't finished growing. What if as we get older and bigger, our wings do to."
"That would be if we get bigger and older." We didn't know if we were going to expire or what. I was hoping that we wouldn't, or at least for a long time yet.
"Hmm. But what if we didn't expire? What if we just grew up, like normal people. If we became adults and Gazzy, Angel and Nudge became teenagers. That would be weird. What do you reckon?" I frowned, wondering.
"Yeah, it would be weird. A grown up Angel! Ahhh!" Max laughed.
"It would be scary. And Gazzy! Imagine the damage! Goodness help us!" I nodded.
"Yeah, that could get ugly."
"And you! You'd be popping up everywhere, and disappear at work." Max laughed again.
"I'm not going to no work. And you'll be flying around at the speed of light, bossing everyone around from left, right and center. You'll be the worse!" She scowled at me and joking slapped my arm.
"Hey! That's not fair. It's my job to do that. Hey, I should get the military to pay me. I could be, like, a commander that's so fast no one can catch her! I'll be rich. And you'll be my partner in crime. You'll pop up everywhere and surprise the enemy. Then Iggy will drop bombs on them made from Gazzy's gas! Nudge and Angel will run the whole op. Wow! Imagine that!" She sounded like a little kid. I had to laugh. I kinda liked the sound of being Max's partner in crime, and the fact we might all still be around and together in a while's time.
"What's so funny? Don't you like my idea? You got a better one!" I shook my head.
"You idea's very good. I like the partner in crime bit." I didn't mention the rest, that was enough. I think she understood because she nodded.
"Do you think that, if we live that long, you will remove your wings and be like everyone else?" I pursed my lips. I wonder what made her think of that?
"No. I didn't want to be just like everyone else. That's everyone else's job. I going to fly, with my own wings."
"Yeah, I agree. I'd rather be free."
"Exactly." There was a pause of silence while we both thought.
"Hey, do know what would be really funny?"
"What would?"
"If one of us became a pilot! That would be so weird!" I kinda liked that idea, found it funny.
"Yeah! That would be like 'what the?' I'd hate to be in the plane! It'd be like 'Oh, we're about to crash but I'm not worried because I have wings. See later.' That would be weird!" Max and I laughed.
"Especially if it's Iggy!" Max nodded.
"Oh yeah! That guys trouble at the best of times!" There was another pause of silence. It was comfortable silence though.
"Why are we talking as if we're not going to be together later on? As if the flock will, like, break up or something? Is it because we know, deep down that it will happen, or are we just saying it because we don't think we'll get that far?" I did wonder the same thing myself. I hope will stay together.
"Don't know. But it'll be weird if, you know, it happens. Where would we be? Where would we go? What would we do? We'll all be lost."
"I know I will." I added it quietly on the end, hoping she didn't hear it. Of course, being the annoying Max person she is, she did hear it."I know, I will be to. It would be or feel right. I'd go looking for you, for the flock if we did ever split. Like when you…" She trailed off, not wanting to say anything out loud, as if would make it all real. Well, it was. I had left the flock, but Max had sent out a cry for help. And being the very kind, loving and caring person I wasn't, I went to save her, Nudge and Angel. Yep, Max had wormed her self into trouble again. Then she calls me a trouble magnet.
"Do you think it will every go back to being us, living somewhere like normal. Like it was before those Eraser's attacked our house, and Angel was taking. Before we set of to save her and I helped that little girl, who turned out to be my sister. Will it ever be that simple?" Max looked up at me as if I would bring her all the hope and rainbows in the world. I couldn't, I knew that. But I could try.
"Maybe one day Max. Who knows. Lets just get through the night first ok?" She sighed and nodded. Then she smiled and put her hand on my neck, pulling me closer to her. She kissed me softly, then pulled away and got up.
"Thanks Fang." I watched her walk up to see how Nudge and Angel were going. Both had crawled behind a create towards the front of the create, asleep. Iggy was still sitting up, headphones in. Completely unaware of what just happened right in front of him. Poor guy. I heard Max walking back and smiled. Every time without doubt she would always come back. We were like magnets. She saw me smiling and smiled her self.
"So, what's that funny that you had to laugh at me for no reason? Is there something on my face? Or are you-"
"You know Max, if you stopped talking I could kiss you." I watched her eyes widen and she fell silent, shocked. I lent in and kissed her, softly. Then she pulled away, frowning. "Why do I keep doing this?" She muttered to herself, so I wouldn't hear. But I did, unfortunately for her.
"Do what? What did you say?" She looked up at me again.
"What? I didn't say anything." She frowned at me then continued on with the drawing of her wings. As she drew in the detail, I thought over everything we had said. I had an annoy habit of analyzing every conversation and finding the holes in the stories people tell me. Sometimes it's good, but sometimes, which is most of the time, I find this that I shouldn't have found. Things that make me angry, upset or spastic. Which ever comes first. Fortunately, most of the time it's ether angry or upset. I find things that me untrusting. Like Jeb for example. I watched as Max and the flock drank up every lie he said like a little boy and red cordial. Everything like 'one day you'll all have parents' and I'll be here forever' and 'I'll always love you' and 'I won't let them hurt you.' That was my personal favorite. Just call me optimistic. No please, go right ahead.
"What are you thinking?"
"Why?" I realized there was a hint of anger in my voice. So did Max.
"What's wrong? What are you thinking?" I know what she's thinking. I can read her like a book. A really good book you don't want to put down because something might happen while you aren't reading it.
"About Jeb." I lowered my voice to keep the anger out. She misunderstood it for sadness.
"It's cool Fang. He's gone and we're free of him and his crap."
"That's what I was thinking about." I said, truthfully. "How everything he used to tell us was a lie. How he told us that time he'd never let us go back to the school. He promised."
"Fang, you have this really annoying habit of-"
"Analyzing everything? Yeah, I know." She frowned. See what I mean? It's not only me that notices these things. I wonder if Jeb did to? No, he was to preopepided with Max. Then I realized that he never really spent time with me, not like the father he was 'meant' to be. I mean, yeah he taught me to read and all that, but he didn't care for me like he did to Max, or anyone else for that matter. Was I jealous? No. I have better things to do then be jealous over a two-faced, lying, backstabbing bastard. And yeah, I don't like him. Did you pick that one up? No?