Flying Free
Chapter 3
By Blackie
I stared at Gazzy in utter shock.
"Not meaning to be rude," Iggy said in a tone of voice which meant that he definitely meant to rude, "but what the heck's going on?"
"Gazzy… Gazzy's got a new power," I said slowly, still processing this information.
"Oh?" Iggy said, sounding interested, "what is it?"
"I can make pictures move!" Gazzy said excitedly.
"Move? As in make tap dance, or something?" I scowled, something which was wasted on him, "No. As in making the things inside pictures move."
"And we know this how?" Iggy said scornfully. Instantly our situation came crashing down on me.
"Oh God," I moaned, sinking to the floor, "Oh God."
"Max?" Angel said timidly, "Max?"
"It's okay, Max," Nudge said soothingly, "we'll get Fang out." I nodded slowly, and got to my feet. "Okay guys," I said, shaking out my wings, "let's get this show on the road."
*****
The whitecoat dragged Fang along a small, thin corridor. Fang was repeatedly knocked against the wall, leaving him dizzy. The whitecoat with the leash didn't seem to care that Fang was getting hurt, but Jeb kept glancing at him nervously as if he was afraid of the boy.
They came to a white door. The whitecoat shoved Fang inside, so he fell onto the cold, concrete floor. Fang's hands were tied tightly, so he could not use his hands to break his fall. His face hit the ground and some skin was scraped off his cheek. Blood trickled down his face and dripped sickeningly onto the floor.
"John?" Jeb asked cautiously.
"Jeb," The whitecoat said curtly. Then, "Get up, Experiment F10364!" Shaking, Fang stood up. His wrists were beginning to bleed. The whitecoat smirked, and yanked on the chain.
"John, perhaps you should stop-"
"Oh yes," Fang breathed heavily, "because we're all so worried about the mutant's welfare!" The whitecoat scowled suddenly.
"I don't like your tounge, freak. Perhaps it's time to cut it out?" Fang's eyes widened slightly. The man smirked, then dragged Fang over to a steel table and bound him to it. Fang tried to struggle, but the metal bindings prevented him from moving at all. He could see the man approaching, a needle held aloft. He could see Jeb's anxious face looking down at him.
Then everything went black.
We kept flying, Gazzy grumbling slightly as I had not given him the picture of Fang back. In the back of my mind I had a tiny doubt that we were heading in the wrong direction. Not flying direction- everyone in the flock had internal compasses- but the idea that storming the School to rescue Fang was not the best way to go about it. There was also a strange presence in the back of my mind, one that felt very strange, but at the same time completely familiar.
'Angel,' I growled in my mind, 'get out. Now.'
'Are you sure, Max? 'Cause you're having some really depressing thoughts.'
I sighed out loud, causing Nudge to look at me sympathetically.
'Yes, Angel, I'm sure. Out.' I said, in my best I'm-the-leader-so-do-what-I-say-right-now voice. Angel gave me a regretful glance as she left my mind to go and annoy someone else. Moments later I saw Iggy zoom over to chase her. Angel darted out of the way, giggling. I smiled slightly. She had chosen Iggy.
Hours later, I could see that Gazzy and Angel were slowly beginning to lag behind. They hadn't said anything yet, but I could tell that they were hungry and tired, and wanted to stop. Hey, I'm the leader. I'm good at stuff like that.
"Come on guys," I said finally, coasting over to where they were flying a few metres behind me, "we're gonna stop down there." I pointed to a forest full of thick braken and tall trees. They grinned at me, and began to dive down.
"Hey, wait!" I shouted after them, "I need to tell the others first!" They laughed, and continued spiralling down. Note to Max. Never tell Angel and Gazzy to stop somewhere without telling anyone else.
"Tell us what, Max?" Nudge asked, gliding over to me.
"We're going to stop now," I said.
"Finally!" she shouted, "do you know how long I've been dying for a meal here?" I winced at the word 'dying' and she gasped.
"Oh no, Max, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-,"
"It's okay," I said quietly, stopping her apologies, "I understand."
We began to fly down. Angel and Gazzy were waiting for us at the tops of some trees.
"What took you so long?" Gazzy demanded.
"Nothing," I said quickly.
We finally found a quiet clearing and settled down on branches to sleep. I took first watch again. Nudge had to take one while we were still searching for our missing flock member, so Iggy and I made sure that she got the shortest time.
As I sat down and leant back against a tree trunk, I heard Nudge talking to Gazzy.
"Hey, Gaz?" she crowed, "can you tell me what these guys are doing?" She was waving a magazine clipping around. Don't ask me how she got it. Nudge has this weird ability to find magazines wherever she goes. I swear the whitecoats programmed it in her at birth. Perhaps they wanted her to become a mutant member of the paparazzi.
"Sure!" Gazzy agreed eagerly, and they moved off to a shady corner of the clearing, where Nudge proceeded to quiz Gazzy vigorously. To my surprise, Gazzy seemed to be enjoying it, happy to show off his own power. I laughed quietly, and leant back, letting my thoughts take control of my mind.
The noise of the slap had hurt a lot more than the actual slap had. Fang's head shot back. It was just another bruise to add to his collection. He opened his eyes slowly, ready to send a death glare at the person who had hit him.
He was back in a cage again, but in a different room. He felt sore, like someone had made him run miles and miles through wasteland and then been hit, over and over again. There were different people next to him in cages too. He turned to stare at the person who had slapped him.
To his surprise, it wasn't a whitecoat who had hurt him. It was the girl next to him in a larger crate. He hand, which was so small it seemed to have been able to slip through the bars, was still raised and was bright red.
"What?" he said, intending to get her to shut up and let him sleep. But, strangely, no words had come out. Startled he said it again. No sound.
"Wake up!" The girl hissed. Fang glared at her, trying to conceal his fear at having no voice.
"Wake up!" she whispered again. Then, seeing his open eyes, she said brightly "Hi. I'm Lucy. Who are you?" Fang continued to glare at her.
"Fine," she said angrily, "be like that!" She huffily turned away from him as best she could. Fang closed his eyes again and waited for sleep to overcome him.
"Pssst!" Fang opened one eye. There was Lucy, smiling at him.
"I'm twelve. How old are you?" Fang made no response, scared of what might happen if he opened his mouth. Lucy looked a little crestfallen, but continued none the less.
"I'm part rabbit. What are you?" Fang pointed to his wings.
"Cool! I'd love to fly. I don't think I ever will, though. The men in the white coats say I'm going to be terminated. What does terminated mean?" She was still smiling sunnily, unaware that people had been discussing her death right under her nose. Fang felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Oh yeah. I forgot you were ignoring me." She frowned slightly. She leant in, as if she was going to tell him a huge secret. "I don't like those wolf men though." She shivered. "They're scary." Fang just shrugged. Then, something struck him. He pointed to his mouth and shook his head. She looked puzzled.
"You're not hungry? I am. I haven't eaten for ages." She rubbed her tummy, as if comforting it,
Fang shook his head again, and repeated his previous action.
"Oh!" Realization seemed to have dawned. "They did that to you…" Fang looked at her inquiringly.
"Oh, poor you. The last boy they did that to… And he was so nice too." Fang shivered, and waited for her to continue.
"It was so horrible." She looked like she was going to cry. "Basically, they've-,"
Suddenly a whitecoat and two erasers entered the room via a small side door. Lucy fell silent instantly. They strode up to her crate and the whitecoat signalled to the Erasers to take her out. While they were doing so, he opened Fang's cage a little and stuck his hand inside. He probed him with a long fingernail and then took out a needle.
"Subject L896G7 scheduled for termination," the whitecoat barked.
"Bye Fang," Lucy chirped, "see you soon!" The erasers smirked as the whitecoat stuck the needle in Fang's arm.
Everything went black.
The stars are bright tonight. There are six dominant stars in the sky, shining brighter than all the rest. Like us. I'm not going to pretend that I don't love my wings. They make me special, unique. One of a kind. Except there are six of us.
I looked around me, gazing at my sleeping flock. They were sprawled around in various postitions of deep sleep. I smiled at the sleeping figures of Angel and Gazzy, curled up together at the base of a tree. Iggy lay with his back pressed against a tree trunk, breathing deeply. There was Nudge, lying down on a mossy patch of grass, fast asleep,
turning over slightly in her dreams. Suddenly she sat up, glaring round at us all.
"Will you lot please be quiet?" she burst out angrily, "I'm trying to get some sleep!" I looked at her irritably.
"Nudge, you and I are the only ones awake and I ain't talking." She looked confused.
"But-I heard people talking!" I shook my head slowly, wondering what on earth she was talking about.
"Nuh-uh." She scowled in annoyance, and rolled back onto her side. Five minutes passed with me still being all philosophical and gazing at the stars when she stood up and burst out "Look, you lot, this isn't funny! SHUT UP!"
"Nudge!" I exploded, "there is no one talking! Get it?"
"I can hear someone!" She shouted. The rest of the flock had woken up by now and were watching our verbal battle silently.
"And you!" Nudge yelled, glaring at the trees, "You shut up as well!" A bird flew out of the tree, startled.
"Yeah, you run away!"
"Nudge," Gazzy said, "calm down! You're scaring me!" Suddenly, Angel gasped.
"Nudge!"
"What? Nudge and I both snapped.
"You've got a new power! You can talk to animals!"
Fang groaned, and stretched slowly. He opened his eyes and surveyed what was going on around him. The sound of a door banging open had woken him. The same whitecoat and the four erasers were carrying a completely still body into the room.
"Subject L896G7 successfully terminated." The whitecoat said curtly.
Laughing, one of the Erasers ripped something off the body and threw it at Fang. It was so small it managed to slip through the bars and fall into Fang's lap. He looked down at it.
A small, blonde rabbit ear was lying there.
Fang leaned over and was finally sick.
Hey Everybody! Here is Chapter 3. So I had exams two weeks ago, and then half-term and then exam results, which left little time to write. However, here is the next chapter!
Question and Answer time!
frizmeraz and Jace'n'FangLover ask:
Why aren't you continuing?
Well, like I said earlier, I've been very busy. However, Furface has been pressing me to update, so I'll try and update more.
Special thanks to the following people for reviewing:
frizmeraz
fang luv
Jace'n'FangLover
Yuki's Little Girl
Wolflover77
Apologies if any names are spelt wrong.
Maximum Ride © James Patterson. I do not own it.