Heh, I'm back (: This one's a lot longer then regular chapters. I loved writing it, and I hope you guys like it. Disclamer: I do NOT own Maximum Ride. Get it?
I cried some more, and then some whitecoats banged the door open.
"Crying, are we?" one hissed. He walked over to Piper's cage and dragged her out of it.
"No!" I called as they pulled her out the door. I could see the sadness in her eyes, but I could do nothing. I sat helplessly in my own cage, watching her being dragged away. That just made my tears fall faster. Then, I heard a scream. A horrible, heartbreaking scream. I knew it was from Piper, no question about it. I knew I had to do something, so I did a stupid thing: tried reaching my hand through the bars of my cage, toward the latch. Thinking for sure it wouldn't work, I was extremely surprised when it did. My hand seemed to shrink so I could reach through and undo the latch. I shook it off, thinking I was going crazy. I was just glad to be out.
Quietly, I walked out of the room where the cages were kept to a long white hallway. Another piercing scream rang out, and I ran toward it. Finding myself at a brown door, I opened it and saw the same two whitecoats that had come to our room and Piper. She was strapped to a table, and they were both blocking most of her body from my view, so I had no clue what was happening. They turned around as soon as I opened the door, so I ran straight at them. I jumped up and kicked one in the stomach, and the other one ran out the open door.
"Piper," I whispered, not even wondering where the other whitecoat went. Walking toward her, I saw a long cut down her neck. I ran from there, unhooking her from the table.
"We have to get out of here," she muttered, rubbing at her raw wrists. "That guy went to get backup. What's your plan?"
"I…have no plan," I murmured, embarrassed.
"Then we run," she said, grabbing my hand. We ran through mazes of hallways till we got to a door.
"This will lead outside. Think you can fly?" Piper asked, looking into my eyes.
"I guess," I said, and she kicked open the door.
"Up, up, and away!" she screamed as soon as we were outside. Flapping her wings, she started to rise into the air, and I was left on the ground. "Come on!" she called as she got higher. I stretched out my wings and flapped. As I followed her through the sky, I heard the whitecoats screaming at us from the ground. But, we never looked back. We were finally free, and when I caught up with Piper, she had a huge smile on her face. "Thank you, Jace," she said, looking over at me. And then she dropped from the sky.
"Piper!" I called, and dove down to catch her. I grabbed her, clutched her to my chest, and landed on the ground. I decided to hide under a large willow tree. It seemed like I had landed in a park, which was good. We weren't trespassing anywhere. I laid her down on the ground and brushed her bangs from her eyes. "Piper, are you okay?" I whispered as she sat up.
"Yeah," she said weakly. "I don't know what happened,"
"Well, you're fine now. I'll keep you safe." I stood up and started to pace. "What should we do?"
"You're asking the girl who just dropped out of the sky?" she said sarcastically, rubbing her head. "I'd hope your brain's functioning better than mine."
"I'm gonna go look around," I mutter, turning and walking down a random path. The sun was just starting to set on the warm summer day, and the sky looked beautiful. After a few minutes, I realized something. I had been to this place before. It was a small park near Bree's house. Bree! We could go to her house! Running back to Piper with the good news, I knew something had gone wrong when I got back to our clearing. She had pulled her knees to her chest, and it looked like she was crying into her hands. I rushed over to her and wrapped my arms delicately around her shaking body. Forgetting all about Bree, I sat there until she had almost stopped crying.
"Piper, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Everything," she whispered, just as I had when she asked the same question of me. Only, we were in cages then, but now we were free. I couldn't understand what was wrong.
"Jace, my whole life has been messed up. Every little bit had something wrong with it. When I was finally starting to get better, to get happy, they took me away. Tortured me for no reason. The pain, Jace, is overwhelming. I never fit in, but now I'm a freak. No one's ever going to be my friend. No one's ever going to love…" She stopped because I had pressed my lips against hers. My arms found their place, around her waist, while hers snaked around my neck. She pulled me closer, and I lost myself.
When we broke apart, she pushed her head into my neck. Soon, I felt warm tears streaming down my neck. "Piper," I whispered softly. "Piper, it's going to be okay." I started to stroke her hair, and soon she calmed down and her head popped back into my view. There was a small smile on her face, and I smiled back.
"Thanks," she whispered. "I think I needed that." Then, she leaned her head back to rest on the tree trunk. I did the same, and soon her head fell onto my shoulder. I had one arm still wrapped around her waist, and I pulled her closer. We silently watched the sun set, and when the moonlight started to shine, she turned back to me. Laying a sweet kiss on my lips, she relaxed and curled up in my arms. Soon, she was asleep. I listened to her breathing for a while, trying to get my thoughts organized. In the morning, I would tell Piper about Bree, and we could start our journey to her house. It wouldn't take long, and that was good. I fell asleep with my head against the tree trunk, still holding Piper in my arms.
"Jace," I heard, and then felt a kiss on my cheek. "Jace, wake up." I opened my eyes, and saw Piper smiling, her face close to mine. "Good morning, sleepyhead," she said. I let her crawl out of my arms, and she asked, "So, what's our plan?" I told her that I had a friend in the area, and she nodded. "We can stay there for a while, regroup. Lead the way, Jace."
"Of course. But Piper, can I ask you a question? What happened in that room, with those whitecoats, before we escaped?"
I saw her wince at the question. Tears formed in her eyes, and she shook her head.
"Jace, I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Okay," I said, walking toward her. I wrapped my arms around her again and kissed the long, deep cut on her neck. I knew whatever the whitecoats did was still hurting her. "Tell me when you're ready."
"Thank you, Jace," she said, turning around and getting ready to fly. Then, she crumpled to the ground.
Shocked, I looked around and saw three whitecoats behind her, wide smiles on their faces. They were a few feet out, and all of them had guns. When I looked down at Piper, she was lying in a pool of crimson. In two seconds, literally, I was face to face with them. They looked at me in amazement, and I had no clue what was wrong. Then, I figured it out: I had moved extremely fast. Could it be a side affect from the medicine they injected into me, or just a trick of the light? I had no clue, but I kicked the closest whitecoat in the face. He fell to the ground, and I smiled at the other two. They ran away, and I was left with an injured Piper. I decided to fly her to Bree's house. I was sure Bree could do something for her. Then, I felt a stabbing pain in the back of my leg. Turning around, I saw the injured whitecoat holding his gun up with a weak arm. Letting it drop to the ground, he croaked, "My job is done."
I looked down at my leg, and saw the damage. Blood was staining my jeans, and I had nothing to stop it. Scooping Piper into my arms, I flew off toward Bree's house.
It only took fifteen minutes to get to Bree's driveway. I stumbled up and rang her doorbell. Black spots were dancing in my eyes, and I fell to my knees as she opened the door.
"Jace?" she said, amazed. "What's…who's that? Why is she covered in blood? Wait, Jace, are you okay?"
"No…" I choked out. "Bree, the School…they're after us." Then, I blacked out, falling at her feet.
When I woke up again, I was laying on a couch, my head in someone's lap. I felt that person stroking my hair, and looked up. I saw Bree's face looking down, and watched as a small smile danced across her face. "You're awake," she murmured, and helped me sit up.
"How long have I been out?" I asked, reaching down to touch my leg. There was a bandage wrapped around the bullet hole, so I felt okay about standing up.
"Two hours," she replied. "Let's go to my room. We don't want to disturb the girl," she said, gesturing at Piper's limp body lying on the other couch.
"Piper! Is she going to be okay?" I asked, panic filling my body.
"Of course, I just bandaged up the bullet wounds. There was one on her leg, one right under her heart, and one on her…"
"Wing," I mutter. I wouldn't expect Bree to understand.
"Yes, wing. I think I deserve an explanation. You show up on my porch with an unconscious bird girl in your arms, and then you collapse. What the hell happened to you two?"
"I'll tell you in you're bedroom, Piper does need rest," I murmur, taking one more look at Piper and then following her down the hallway. I knew my way around this house, but I felt better following Bree. This house had been my second home for as long as I could remember.
"Explain. Now," she said, sitting down on her bed when we arrived in her room.
"Wait, where are your parents?" I asked. Her house had been decidedly parent-free, and I was starting to wonder why.
"They're away on a cruise. So you can say anything you need to," she said, patting the spot on the bed next to her. "Come on, I want to hear what happened.
"I…" I started, not knowing how to say it. But soon, I had launched into a full explanation, sans kissing Piper, after I sat down on her bed next to her. When I had finished, her eyes were wide.
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. We've been through a lot. So," I stopped speaking as she pulled me closer to her.
"Jace, stop talking." Then, she placed her lips on mine. I was so surprised, I didn't fight back. I knew it was wrong, and it didn't feel right, but I couldn't do anything. When we pulled apart, she had a smile on her face. It slowly faded as she turned to face the door. When I did the same, I saw why. Piper was standing at the doorway, her mouth open in shock.
"Piper," I said, surprised she could even walk. She had lost a lot of blood, and she looked weak. But now I was just wondering what to say to her. I had no clue how to explain it, what I had done was uncalled for.
"Don't!" she said, running back down the hallway. Tears formed in my eyes, and I looked back at Bree.
"I'm going after her, no matter what you say," I said, standing up and running back down the hall. I saw the front door slam shut, and heard a sob. I quietly walked out and saw her take off into the night sky. With a shudder, I sat down on the porch swing. I couldn't fly after her, because I couldn't see her. Then, the front door opened again.
"Jace?" I heard, and watched as Bree, pale as a ghost, as she walked out and sat down next to me. "God, I'm such an idiot. I'm so sorry. I didn't know that girl was your girlfriend, I swear," she murmured. She looked embarrassed, and she should've been. I didn't know if Piper was ever coming back to me. Tears were falling from my eyes now, and she wrapped my arms around me.
"Jace, I'm sorry. Please forgive me," she murmured, looking into my eyes.
"I can't stay mad at you, Bree. But, if she doesn't come back, I don't know what to do,"
"Are you going to sleep out here tonight, waiting for her? If you are, I'll have to go inside. She probably won't come back if I'm here,"
"Yeah, good idea," I said as Bree got up. "Good night, Bree."
"Good night, Jace. I'm really sorry," she said, and then she disappeared inside. Feeling more alone than ever, I curled up on the swing and got ready for what I thought would be a long, lonely night.
Cliffhanger, I guess. Bahaha (: Review, please. Thank youuuuu for reading it. 3 I love you guys.