"Max, Max, can you hear me?" I could hear the faint call of a familiar voice in the distance. I slowly began to open my eyes, flinching at the bright morning light flooding my pupils.
"You guys, I think she's awake!" The familiar voice spoke once again. I could make out the words much clearer this time, and they sounded like they belonged to Iggy.
"Ig?" I croaked out. Ah, why did my head hurt so much? The unwelcome pain instantly reminded me of what had just occurred in this most unfortunate motel dining room.
"Oh My God, Fang!" I yelled jumping up way too quick. The room began to spin and I swayed to my side, as a remembered a bleeding Fang saying he loved me. I would have fallen to the ground if my reluctant blind companion hadn't reached out and stabilized me. Iggy grabbed my upper arms, helping me regain my balance; how he knew exactly where I was – mankind shall never know.
"Max, you need to calm down before you pass out again," said Iggy as the rest of my flock cautiously made their way over. I looked around the room and noticed that we were the only ones in it, we probably only had so much time before people began to arrive with police.
"Ig…what'd they do with Fang?" I said searching his sightless eyes for an answer. He turned his head to look (well not exactly look, but you know what I mean) away from me.
"Max they took Fang away. I'm sorry" He said his voice cracking. I stared at the wall behind Iggy frozen in my spot, as silent tears began to make their way down my cheeks. I couldn't believe it. This was all my fault, I knew why they were doing this, and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. I just watched as they beat the side of his face in and carried him off. I wanted to curl up in a little ball and never face the world again. Suck it up Max! Don't do this, not now! The Flock needs you…Fang needs you! I thought to myself.
"Max, are you okay?" I heard the soft melodic voice of Angel inquire. Oh no. They can't see me like this, I'm their leader! I quickly gathered myself together, and pulled a Fang – disguising any and all emotion on my face.
"Yeah sweetie, I'm fine. How about you, are you okay? Did they hurt you?" I asked, my anger flaring once again.
"No, I'm Fine," she said, "but Iggys' face is pretty busted and Nudges' nose too." She informed me.
"I'm fine," Iggy and Nudge both piped up at the same time. Those are my troopers, always trying to be strong.
"I don't think so; let me take a look at you guys." I looked at Nudge first. Uh-oh. Her nose needed to be set, and this was going to hurt. I hated being the one to do this, this was always Fangs' job…oh Fang…Focus max!
"Okay Nudge, I need to set your nose," at these words her eyes widened, "this is going to hurt a little bit, I'm really sorry baby, but I have to."
"I know" she replied with a sniffle.
"That's my little trooper, I'm proud of you. Okay on the count of four; one…"I reached both hands to her nose placing one on either side, "two…" she squeezed her eyes shut, "three" and I snapped her nose back to its original position. She let out a gasp, but nothing more.
"You said four!" she yelled at me.
"I know, I lied, it's easier that way," I said kissing her forehead.
She smiled knowingly and after another sniffle, said, "I know. I should have known you would go on three, Fang never goes on four…" she let the sentence go, not finishing and gave me an apologetic look. I didn't say anything and instead called over a reluctant Iggy.
"It's really not that bad Max" he said, hoping I would leave him alone.
"Stop talking, you'll only make it worse." I snapped…I wasn't exactly in the greatest mood. I patched him up, cleaning the blood from his face and placing band-aids where they were necessary.
Once I was done Nudge looked up from behind a very swollen nose and asked, "What's the plan Max? For getting Fang back? Where do you think they took him anyway? Do you think they took him where they took Angel when they kidnapped her?" leave it to Nudge to play twenty questions during such a time; but she did bring my thoughts back to reality – to the real matter pressing at hand.
"Nudge! One question at a time, please."
"Right, sorry. Well then, what's the plan?" she asked again, each member of the flock stared at me waiting for a response. Right. A plan. I'm the leader I should have a plan. Then I remembered back to something Nudge said two seconds ago about Angel; the school. That has to be where they took him. It made sense; they wanted to mess with me, that's why they took Fang. They knew I would follow Fang wherever they took him, and they wanted me at the school. It made sense.
"We're going to the school," I said. Each face instantly became wide-eyed and shocked; than simultaneously fear covered all of them, and I realized there was no way I could make them go back there. I couldn't…I wouldn't.
"Well actually I'm going to the school, you lot are staying here. Iggy's in charge."
"What?! No way! We're coming!" The five avian-americans shouted at once. Uh-oh. There was no way I could shake them, was there? That's my flock! Stupid and self-less.
"Let's back track a second here," this was Iggy, "why are we/you going to the school in the first place?" he inquired. I quickly realized that Angel was the only mind reader here, and the rest of them missed out on my thought process.
"Because that's where she thinks the erasers took Fang," said Angel, smiling up at me, "because that's where they took me," she added. There was a moment of silence as they all absorbed and processed this bit of information.
"You think they want you to come after Fang, don't you?" asked Iggy, turning his head towards me, and quickly catching on. "But why…?" he started questioning but than cut himself off realizing he knew. I decided to fill in for the younger members of the flock, who were all staring at me inquisitively.
"They took Fang because they knew I would follow. They probably figure why bother dragging me there, when I would just come willingly in search of Fang." I began.
"But why wouldn't they take you directly? It's just as easy for them to drag you off to the school as it is for them to drag Fang off to the school," asked Iggy, a little unsure.
"To mess with me. They probably figure I'll comply easier with their commands if Fangs well-being is on the line as well, and not just my own; and the erasers probably think this is fun…those sick twisted bast-"
"Max!" Iggy said cutting me off in harsh whisper.
"Sorry," I mumbled, throwing Iggy a thankful glance for cutting me off before cursing in front of the flock. I quickly controlled my thoughts and began thinking of a plan.
"Just so you know, we're coming with you, you don't have a choice Max," said Angel. She must have been reading my thoughts. I glared at her and then looked at the four determined pairs of eyes holding no room for negotiation.
"Fine," I said, knowing I had no other choice, "than lets not waste time and go." I said, remembering that we had a limited amount of time before the police showed up. I'm surprised they're not here yet, I thought to myself. And as if on cue I could hear the faint whirl of sirens in the distance. "Quick, upstairs, grab your bags and meet in the back parking lot." The five of us raced up the stairs and into our rooms.
The moment I saw the bed I was slammed with an intense emptiness, remembering the heavenly night Fang and I had spent together (that is, minus the brain explosion). Fang was my right hand man, I felt lost and empty without him. A few stray tears once again intruded upon my already tear stained skin; I really need to control this whole crying thing. I quickly wiped them away, grabbed my backpack and jumped out the window, only to find the four other members of my flock already waiting. The sounds of the sirens suddenly became alarmingly close.
"U and A" I called, and the five of us simultaneously ascended towards the open sky. Of course today the sky was blue, and the clouds puffy and white like cotton candy, as if in mockery of my current emotional state. The cool rush of air against my skin was more than welcome against my hot tearstained cheeks. The bouts of wind ruffling my hair, which usually provided the purpose of putting me at peace, failed for the first time today. I looked to my side at the vacant space that was usually Fang, knowing that this vacancy would taunt me the entire flight, serving as a constant reminder of the emptiness I felt without him flying here by my side. I silently cursed the wind ruffling my hair for not ruffling Fangs as well.
We headed west.
We flew for sixteen hours straight.
"Max, we need to stop." I was so deep in though I hadn't even noticed Iggy fly up next to me.
"Hmm?"
"We need to stop, Max" he impatiently repeated, "we've been flying for sixteen hours and the flocks about to fall out of the sky with exhaustion. And we need food too Max, we never even eat breakfast." I didn't want to stop; we needed to find Fang, who knows what they're doing to him while we're flying around. At the look on my face, Iggy persisted before I could protest. "Max look at them." I did as he said, and instantly felt terrible. Gazzy was holding the hand of Angel, who looked like she was asleep, her wings flapping with as little energy as possible to keep her in flight. Nudge was pulling an Iggy and flying blind because her eyes were closed.
"I'm sorry guys" I said. They all looked up at me wide-eyed that I was speaking; I hadn't muttered a word in the last sixteen hours or so. I looked around and saw a small clearing to the North West. "Clearing two o'clock, Iggy bring up the rear." I ordered, and then began spiraling down.
Once everyone landed, and I did a quick scan of our surroundings to make sure all was safe, I began muttering off orders. "Nudge, Gazzy and Angel go collect wood for a fire. Iggy make a fire pit and once the others are back start the fire. I'm going for food." Each one nodded their dreary heads in acquiescence, not even bothering to ask where I would get food. I figured there must be a town somewhere eventually, and spread my giant white wings and jumped into the sky. I did a quick 360 and noticed some buildings off to my right and headed in that direction. I decided to kick into super speed, wanting to feed my flock as soon as possible.
I found a twenty four hour seven eleven. Thank god something's open; it was the middle of the night after all. The man at the counter gave me a strange look when I walked in. I decided I must look pretty funny. It was the middle of the night, I was a girl – alone, probably looked like I haven't slept in days, and I'm pretty sure I had some sticks and leaves in my hair form flying. I ignored his looks and headed over to the food.
There were two other men in the store as well. Both were dirty and greasy, and were eyeing me suspiciously; they looked about mid twenties. Great. I was in no mood to be dealing with some dirty hormonal crazed men. I decided to ignore them and grabbed six bags of bagels (six out of habit), six boxes of donuts, three boxes of granola bars, and six jars of peanut butter. I carefully balanced all this in my arms and dumped it on the counter, before going back to the refrigerators in the back and grabbing as many water bottles as I could possibly hold. After dumping these on the counter I didn't bother waiting for the cashier to ring up the price and instead just handed him my credit card.
While I was waiting for the card to process, I watched the two greasy men take the opportunity to make their over to me where I stood at the counter.
"Hey baby, what brings you to this part of town so late at night?" said the first man, as the other slowly made his way to my other side in hopes of cornering me in. That was it. Today was definitely the wrong day to mess with Maximum Ride.
"What'd you call me?" I asked the first.
"I called you baby…baby" he replied with a smirk on his face.
"That's what I thought" I said, than punched him so hard, I wiped the smirk right off his face.
"You Bitch" said the second man instantly advancing from behind me. I threw my elbow out hitting him square in the face without even turning around. I heard his body crumple to the floor behind me.
"I am nobody's baby" I said to the two writhing men, than grabbed my groceries and left the store. Ah, that felt better.
When I arrived back at 'camp' I found all four members of my family already asleep around a hastily built fire. They must have been beyond exhausted if they couldn't even stay awake for food, especially Nudge. I set the groceries down against a tree and snuggled in between Nudge and Angel next to the fire, and suddenly felt the full impact of my exhaustion, passing out the moment my head hit the ground.
A/N: Please review! I have no idea how I am as a write and would love your feedback; any and all comments and criticisms welcome! Hope you enjoying the story!