Chapter 28 – Power Struggle
Fang POV
I sat with my back against a tree, eyes closed, and thinking of what had happened to us in the last few months of our lives. Being recaptured by The School, with none of us remembering how it had happened, the introduction of Will, escaping, being captured, escaping again, only for everything to suddenly fall apart around us. Will betraying us, even though I had told everyone he couldn't be trusted, they still didn't believe me. Will conveniently returning only for us to be attacked hours later, losing Gazzy.
And now we were here, in a forest somewhere in Western Europe, moping around for over a week.
I heard footsteps, walking towards me, and I opened an eye, to see Max. She sat down beside me, and but her elbows on her knees casually, and didn't say anything.
"Hey." I said, before the moment got awkward.
"Hey." She said back simply. "What's up?"
I looked around at the small clearing we had been in for the last week, then at her and replied, "Not much. You?"
"Not much either." Max said casually. She was such a great conversationalist. "I've just been thinking about heading into a town, we've been low on supplies now for a while."
"Yeah we have." I agreed, waiting for her to ask me to go with her. But she didn't.
So I asked, "You want me to come with?"
"Umm, yeah sure if you want." She replied with enthusiasm. "You wanna go now?"
"Why not!" I said with fake enthusiasm.
"Okay, I already got our backpacks ready, let's just tell the others." She said getting up. I could see what she was doing here. Trying to make me think it was my idea to come, when really it was hers. I'd never seen Max trying to be manipulative before. Then again, it was probably for the best. She wasn't very good at it.
I got up myself, and followed her over to the flock and Will, who were grouped around the fire, not saying anything.
"Hey guys," Max called to them, with only Nudge bothering to look up. "Me and Fang are gonna head out to town, get some supplies. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting sick of eating freshly hunted rabbit." She laughed. No-one else did. God they're all being worse than me. "Umm, yeah, anyway, Iggy you're in charge till we get back, okay?"
"Ermph" he grunted in reply. It was the longest sentence I had heard him say in 2 days.
"Yeah you just hang in there buddy." I said, patting Iggy on the shoulder as I walked past him.
"But how long will you be?" Nudge asked worriedly. "Where are you going? What if you don't come back?"
"Don't be such a worry Nudge. Nothings going to happen!" Max said not all too sincerely. I looked at her as she turned around and slung her pack over her shoulder.
I turned to Nudge and said quietly "It's okay, we'll be fine. We're just going to town to get supplies. We'll be back later today, okay? I promise."
Nudge looked at me, and then to Max, then back to me, and nodded.
"Okay, Fang, are you ready?" Max asked me.
"As ready as I'll ever be." I muttered, and nodded to her, as she already ran off and jumped into the air, spreading her wings and taking flight. I sighed to myself, thinking I probably shouldn't have offered to come. Something told me nothing good was going to come of this. However, I reluctantly spread out my wings, and ran off towards her, jumping into the air and glided over the trees towards Max.
The town was only a few minutes away as the Human-Avian hybrid flies. We set down in a back street, so as not too be seen and made our way towards the main road. It seemed like a small town, with only one street with a significant amount of shops on it.
Max and I spent a couple of hours, getting food, and clothes. Anything we felt we would need. She was still acting differently, like she was trying to pretend that nothing happened a week ago. She was starting to annoy me with all her cheeriness. I knew it shouldn't that in a way, she was right, we should just try to carry on as normal, but it irritated me that I hadn't seen any type of mourning from her at all. There was being a strong leader, and there was being an idiot. She needed to start acting normal, even if I had to make her.
We were just leaving the last shop, our backpacks full, and the sun was beginning to set, when I saw a store across the road, which gave me an idea.
"Hey Max, check it out." I said to her gesturing across to the store.
Max looked over and frowned. "An Internet Cafe? So what?"
"Well we haven't been able to check up on our situation in a while. Why don't we have a look at what the media has said about last week, see whether the heats off us?" I explained.
Max looked at me, thinking. "I dunno, I mean we haven't been bothered in a while. I don't really think it's necessary."
"Of course it's necessary!" I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the store. "Come on." We went in and bought an hour each, and sat down on PCs next to each other. I instantly logged onto the net, and went to a news site. After navigating my way back by one through, I found a few articles on a dogfight between flying creatures above the English Channel, but nothing major. Apparently a serial killer was loose in Miami, and it meant that the fight was being pushed back, not being deemed as important.
I decided to try a British news site instead, thinking that would have more coverage of it. Instantly I saw it. It was still the main news of the country, and was getting al lot of public interest.
I read through a few articles, and found that the media were as bemused as to what had happened as we were. Experts had been called in to judge the cause of the tidal wave, and there were hundreds of bodies, not all human, washing up on both the English and French coasts.
"Oh." I uttered accidently when I read the next part.
Max looked at me and asked "What is it?" I pointed at a portion of text on the screen. "There are witness statements of a minor's body, washing ashore in Kent, England, amongst that of apparently wolfen creatures, but these reports are, as of yet, unconfirmed." She read aloud. "Oh. "
"Do you think it might be Gazzy?" I asked her quietly.
"Umm, I'm not sure. Maybe. It says unconfirmed though so..." she trailed off and returned to her screen. I looked at what she was reading.
"What is that?" I asked her. "That's not the channel."
"No, I was looking at some stuff about Genetic Research facility which was blown up outside of Birmingham a few day's ago. I think it's the facility we were at." She explained.
"How can you do that?" I asked her.
"Do what?"
"Act like nothing has happened! Gazzy is dead, Max. At least show you understand that!" I exacerbated.
Max looked around uncomfortably at the people on the computers around us. "Fang, this is hardly the time."
"No this is the prefect time!" I said loudly. "You need to stop acting like an idiot, and start seeing sense!"
"Sense of what?" she asked bewildered.
"Sense that you're not being a proper leader. You're supposed to be helping everyone get through this; you're the one who's supposed to be paranoid of newcomers. You're the one who is supposed to take charge, take action!" I shouted at her. People were staring at us now, and Max got up and began to leave the store, conscious of all the eyes that were on her.
I followed her out the stop, keen to get this off my chest. "So why is it," I pressed as I walked out of the door, following her down the street, "That I'm the one doing all the leading lately?"
"Oh so that's what this is about?" Max retorted. "You think you could do a better job than me as head of the flock?"
"Yeah maybe I do! For a start, I wouldn't have let Will into the fold again. Hell I wouldn't have let him in in the first place. I wouldn't have let my personal feelings get in the way of the flocks safety!" I said to her.
She stopped underneath a lamppost, and turned around to face me. "What do you mean personal feelings?" she frowned.
"Oh come on Max. If it was any other person, you'd be as suspicious as them as I am of Will. It's obvious you like him. He's someone new who you feel you can genuinely relate to, who you can help, who you can save, because he is so much like you."
Max stared at me for a moment, mouth agape, and then laughed. "So that's it! You're jealous!"
"Don't you try and turn this on me!" I began but Max cut in.
"No. You are jealous. And you know what Fang, you should be. Yeah, maybe I do like him, but you had years to do something about your feelings for me. But you never did. Whereas Will, he tried to make them clear within a few months." She sneered.
She stepped up close to me, so she was right in my face. "So Fang, you wanna be the leader? Okay. Why don't we let the flock decide hmm? Why don't we go back, and let's just see what they say, see who they want to follow?" She hissed. "So how bout it?"
I looked into her brown eyes, and moved my head towards her so that our noses were almost touching, and said simply, "Fine."
Max POV
Okay, maybe I shouldn't have pushed him into this. But he shouldn't have pushed me. I was so angry with Fang, I couldn't describe it in words, it was like all the feelings I'd been bottling up over the last week were coming out. We were both flying back towards camp quickly, Fang in front. I could easily overtake him if I wanted to.
Max, are you sure you want to do this?
"Oh great that's just what I need." I thought. "Go away Voice, I don't need this right now."
You realise what's going to happen Max. No matter what happens, if you let Fang do this, you will lose at least one member of the flock.
"Don't be ridiculous, no-one will choose him very me, not after everything I've done for them." I retorted in my head,
Even if that is true, do you really expect Fang to stick around after this? Either he'll make a fool of himself, and no-one will choose him, and he'll be too ashamed to stay, or he'll leave and take half of, if not all, the flock with him. You should be able to figure that out Max.
I thought about this for a moment, and realised the voice was right. "Oh god what was I thinking? I can't let this happen, I can't lose Fang!"
Have you been paying attention to the flock lately Max? Are you sure that it'll be just fang you're going to lose. With the flocks in its current state, you could be looking at a mass exodus on your hands.
Oh crap. I looked ahead, and could make out the clearing where the flock where in the distance by the glow of firelight coming from it. I had to be quick. I flew up next to Fang and said hurriedly. "Fang! I'm sorry, okay. I've not been myself lately, no-one has. Listen lets just slow down and we'll figure something out okay? Just you me." I looked at him hopefully, but he didn't look at me.
"No, Max. It's too late; you've set the wheels in motion. I've had enough." He said bluntly and sped up ahead of me.
"Fang, for crying out loud!" I pleaded as we headed over the last trees and into the camp. "You're over reacting! Don't do this!" I landed clumsily, and held my head in my hands as Fang went straight to stuff and started putting it in a pack.
"No, I've given you, and him, every chance!" Fang shouted back. "Well I'm through giving chances! I'm through with taking the back seat!" I looked around at the flock, who were all staring at the spectacle before them with worried looks on their faces.
"It's time you decided." Fang said, pointing at Will. "Either he goes, or I go."
Will looked from Fang to me, and then back to Fang, a look of genuine concern on his face. He was worried he was going to be out casted.
"Fang look; it doesn't need to come to this!" I negotiated. "We can sort something out okay? We can all sort something out."
"No, we can't Max. It's gone too far." He said to me bluntly. "So what's it gonna be?"
I looked from Fang, to the flock, to Will and Emily and back to Fang, raking my mind for something to say. "Fang, I..." I stuttered. "We can't... We can't just boot him out. He's got nowhere to go."
Fang looked to the ground, stern jawed. I could tell he was gutted that I has said that. I don't think he had fully thought this through either. "It wouldn't be fair on Will." I said finally, tears in my eyes.
"Yeah that's what I thought." He muttered quietly.
Will, who had been silently watching along with the rest of the flock, spoke up and said "Hey, I don't want to get-"
"You..." Fang shouted at him. "You just shut your face!" he breathed in deeply and then turned to Iggy, Nudge and Angel.
"Right then. I'm leaving. Anyone who agrees with me, are welcome to come with." I looked at them, who all had look of worry on their faces. Nudge kept on flicking her eyes between me, Fang and Will, whilst Iggy was staring off, thinking. Angel had her head hung.
"Guys, its okay." I said to them. "Look, if any of you want to go with him, its fine. I won't-" but broke off, when Angel stood up and strolled over to Fang, picking up her backpack on the way. "Angel?" I breathed.
"I'm sorry Max." Angel said, not looking at me. "But it's because of him that Gazzy's dead. I don't want to be around him any more. He scares me."
I looked over to Will when she said this. He had his head hung down, staring at the ground.
"He's right Max." I heard Nudge say. I turned to her, to see her stood up, and picking up her backpack. "He tried to split us up. He can't be trusted." She started to move over to Fang and Angel. "And until you realise that, I don't think you can be trusted either."
All eyes now fell onto Iggy, who hadn't moved yet. "What about you Ig?" Fang called over to him. "You staying or going?"
He looked over to where Fang was and said, "I think you got it all wrong Fang. I think you all do. I know we're all trying to cope with Gazzy being dead and all, but this is a bit extreme don't you think? Will never meant any harm; he was just doing what he could to protect his flock, him and Emily. We'd have done the same thing. Max has lead us right for over a decade. Yeah, it's been a bumpy ride, but she's done all she can..." He trailed off. "No, I'm not going anywhere."
"Fine." Fang said quietly, whilst I looked at Iggy with silent pride. "You two got everything your gonna need?" Nudge and Angel both nodded. He looked at me, and said."Well, Max, if you ever change your mind..." before trailing off, unsure as to how to finish. "Goodbye."
He looked down at the girls, and muttered to them, "You should say your goodbyes." before running and taking off. Nudge and Angel, looked at me, both with tears rolling down their cheeks.
"It's okay." I smiled solemnly to them.
They both looked at me longingly, before Angel ran over quickly, tears streaming down her face. She grabbed a hold of me so tight, it hurt, but I hugged her back just as hard. "It's okay." I kept repeating sadly. "It's okay."
Iggy then came over, and hugged them just as tightly; Nudge whispering something in his ear. I knew there was nothing I could do, that they were leaving.
It all seemed to pass in a blur, but we must have been holding tight to each other for a few minutes. But before I knew it, Nudge and Angel were turning away, going off to join Fang.
"Wait!" I called to them just before they took off. They stopped and turned around, and I ran over to them, digging my hands into my pockets and handed Nudge what was left of our small wad of cash. "You need to be careful okay? You need to look out for each other." I said tearfully to them. Nudge nodded sadly. "Goodbye Max" she whispered.
And then they flew off, over the trees, and away, with Fang. I stared at the tree line, tears flowing freely down my face, my face scrunching up in sadness and frustration.
"Max, I'm sorry." Will piped up. "I'm rea-" but I cut him off, turning towards him.
"Shuttup! This is your... ... If you had just..." I cried to him. "I want to know everything! I want to know, everything they told you at the facility, everything they wanted you to do. I want to know exactly what happened to you while you were gone. I want to know why you wouldn't use your powers in the fight over the channel. I want to know everything! And I want to know now."
Jeb POV
I watched from out of the helicopter as we came into land. The pilot bought us down on top of the not all too noticeable building on the edge of downtown Los Angeles. We had had to move our temporary base of operations to here, seeing as our European, Asian and Australian headquarters had all been destroyed by the impossible Dr.
How he had managed to orchestrate an attack like this, destroying all the buildings and research within the space of a few days was beyond me. The helicopter set down and I was greeted by a young, scrawny man with brown hair and a clipboard. "Hello! Welcome to L.A.! Can I take you're name please?" He asked putting on a pair of glasses and looking at his paperwork.
"Jeb Batchelder." I said to him as he found my name and ticked it off.
"So you're the great Dr. Batchelder I've heard so much about?" he said, staring at me with awe. "I have so many questions I want to ask you. You were the one who cracked the genome code for the avian hybrids weren't you?"
"I'm afraid that would be classified, Dr..." I queried. This man was making me uneasy.
"Yes, quite..." he smiled absently. "Oh! Of course! I'm Dr. Holord. Vincent-Daniel Holord. VD for short. I've been put in charge of helping everyone find their new place of work."
"Yes, well VD, I'd be happy to talk to you about what I can of my work, but I need to go prep my office, I'm expecting someone. Perhaps another time." I explained.
"Oh yes, of course. Another time!" he smiled at me. "You never know, I might run into you later. All over the place today me!" he called to me as I walked through the doors into the building.
A few hours later, I was in my office, at my desk, when there was a knock at my door.
"Jeb!" Dr. Wilkinson said frantically as he ran through my door.
"By all means, come in." I said cynically, as he brandished a piece of paper at me.
"Sorry, I just thought you should see this." He said handing the paper to me. I looked at it for a second, and then up at Wilkinson. "When did this come in?"
"Just now." He breathed as I re-read what was written.
"Has the Director received a copy of this?" I asked hurriedly.
"No. I figured you'd want to be the one to tell him." He said as I got up and ran out the door. I jogged up to the Directors office and said to the secretary "I need to see him. Now!" She fumbled around and spoke into the intercom,"Jeb is here to see you, Sir. It's urgent."
"Send him in." His authoritative voice answered back.
I quickly pushed open the large doors ahead of me and walked quickly in.
"I was in the middle of a conference call Jeb, this had better be good news!" he said threateningly from behind his desk.
"It is Sir." I said quickly. "We just had a preliminary report in from the chip we implanted in Will. It would appear he has done it.
"Well, I'll be. He actually split up the flock? Do you know how he did it?" he asked, intrigued.
"No Sir that will come in on the full report in a couple of hours. But I think we should begin the next step now Sir. Get a head start."
"By all means. You have the boy yes?" he questioned.
"Well then, I'd get moving wouldn't I?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes Sir." I said, and turned to leave but the Director spoke again.
"Oh, and Jeb. What has become of your son?" he queried.
"We got him too, a bit behind sched-" but the Director cut me off.
"No Jeb, your other son. Lars. What has become of him?" he asked sinisterly
"Oh, Umm..." I muttered, a bit taken aback. "We haven't finished identifying all the bodies from the Channel Fiasco, but due to his... unique physiology and DNA, if he was one of the dead, we would have found him by now. It's likely he got away before things got out of control."
"Very well." The Director said slowly. "I want that report when it comes through Batchelder. That'll be all." And with that I walked out of his office, and back to mine, unsure of what would come next.