8 - Vera
She stared at me, a flicker of confusion in her eyes, then a flicker of recognition—a flicker that was quickly replaced with bitter glare and an almost patronizing smile. She scooted to the front of her cage, and I got a better look at her, her familiar brown eyes hidden behind shaggy bangs and her jaw marred by a long scar that ran along the right side of her face. Then she told me, "Sorry, kid, I'm not Maximum Ride."
As soon as she said it I believed her. There was no denying the similarities between this girl and my sister—the word 'identical' comes to mind—but there was something very un-Maxish about her. Something colder. "But," I asked her, as I took a few steps towards the cage, "if you're not Max, then who are you?"
She smirked at me. "I go by a lot of names: mutant freak, the subject, your worst nightmare..."
Just then I remembered something that Iggy had told me. "Wait, I know who you are! You're Max II, they swapped you with—whoa!" That's when she grabbed me by my shirt through the bars of the cage, slamming me into the metal grid.
"That," she snarled, "is one name I never go by. Ever. Get it?"
I nodded emphatically, and then she let go of me. I backed up a couple of steps so she couldn't grab at me again, and then tried again. "So," I ventured carefully, "If you don't go by that, then what's your name?"
"I've never had much need for a name," the girl eyed me down carefully, "but you can call me Vera."
"Vera," I repeated, nodding. "Cool. I'm Ella."
Vera cracked a devious grin, amused by my attempts at diplomacy. "Well then, Ella, mind telling me how you know who I am? And how did you get in here?"
"They let me out of the holding area to clean up this hallway." Then I stood up straighter and tightened my jaw, trying to look tough and closed-off like Vera did. "And you could say that I know a few people. They tell me things."
"What kinds of things?"
"Things like the fact the last time Max saw you, you were scheduled for extermination Germany." Ella keeps a blank face. "So why aren't you?"
"Escaped during Max's little upheaval," Vera shrugged, "I faked my death for good measure, too, to keep the labcoats from coming after me. It's not hard to do when you can shut down your vital organs whenever you want. Or did your sister forget to mention that little trick she pulled when she was trapped in the isolation tank?"
"But then how did you—" I stopped mid-sentence. "Wait, how did you know that Max is my sister?"
Vera smirked at me again. "After I got away from Itex I kept up with the Flock online. Call it a hobby. With a kind-of famous mom and a winged wonder for a sister, I'm surprised you're not used to people recognizing you."
My cheeks grew a bit warm. "Yeah, well, I mostly stay out of the spotlight." Even though I'd tagged along with Mom and the Flock to plenty of their CSM stuff, I was always one of the background faces. It's pretty easy to remain anonymous at events like that when everyone's busy staring at the kids with wings.
Vera nodded curtly. "So, the whack jobs dragged you into the fun because of your family connections, right?"
I shook my head, explaining, "They took samples from random kids all over the place and then grabbed ones with the DNA they wanted. I don't think anyone knows about me—except for you, I guess. So... how did you end up here?"
"Got careless a few months ago and was nabbed somewhere on the west coast," Vera sighed, "Apparently four years out in the real world 'ruined' my training, so now I'm only good for offering up genetic samplings. They use them to make that Frankenstein mutagen serum they're testing on you humans. So basically, they think I'm as bad as your pig-headed sister." She rolled her eyes and asked, "How is the great Maximum Ride these days? She'll be here to save your sorry butt any time now, I assume."
I gaped at her. "You mean you didn't hear?"
"Hear what?" Vera asked warily.
"Max and Fang... they've been missing for like six months now." I gave her a quick recount of the situation of what was going on outside the facility, putting a guarded but obviously concerned expression onto Vera's face.
"That's not good," she muttered, cursing under her breath. Vera had just made the world's largest understatement.
Just then I became aware of how long I had been standing there gabbing. "I should probably get back to cleaning. They'll probably get suspicious if I don't finish soon."
Vera scoffed. "Have fun with that, then."
I turned back to the door and turned the knob, but just then I remembered something. "By the way, was it your blood I had to clean out of the cage a few days ago?"
"Some of it," Vera confirmed, donning an almost sinister expression. She didn't offer any other explanation, so I mumbled a quick goodbye and left to return to my cleaning.
When I got back to the barracks I was feeling a little nauseous. I wasn't sure if it was Vera or the virus that was making me feel unwell.
"Are you okay, Ella?" Anna asked, sitting beside me on my bunk, "You look distracted."
"Hmmm?" I turned and looked at her. "Oh, I'm fine. Just feeling a little weird today." I had already decided not to mention Vera to the others—it would bring up too many incriminating questions, and I was scared that word might get back to the guards somehow.
"I feel funny too," Megan said, sitting next to me on the bunk, "I still feel a lot better than I did at first, but I think it's getting worse again."
"Maybe it means our bodies are fighting the virus?" Anna suggested hopefully.
"Maybe," Megan winced, "or maybe these good days are just the physical calm before the storm."
Though I wasn't about to support Megan's pessimistic bout, but I had to admit, I was feeling apprehensive too. I'd had it pretty easy so far—my "really sick" wasn't nearly as bad as most of the others'—but I knew it could only be a matter of time before something finally happened.
Of course, I wasn't expecting that "something" to happen in the dead of night, while we were all trying to sleep.
It must have been past midnight when I heard Megan moaning slightly. I didn't think much of it at first; my insides had been doing cartwheels since I'd returned that afternoon, and I imagined that if her nausea and stomach pain had returned it must be ten times worse than mine. However, Megan's moans got louder and more persistent, and she tossed and turned in bed like she was having a nightmare. Finally I got up to go check on her.
"Meg, what's wrong?" I whispered, putting my hand on her shoulder. Her skin was burning hot.
"It... hurts," she whimpered between stiff, pained gasps, "it hurts... all over..." Then suddenly her moaning turned into shrieking and she pushed me away, dangling over the side of her bunk to vomit bile onto the floor. Once the contents of her stomach were gone, she resumed the pained screeching and erratic jerking. The others had woken up by then and were nearly crying with terror, and it was a moment before I got myself together enough to scream for the guard.
"It's Megan!" I shouted at him through the chain link wall, though I knew he didn't care about her name, "Get a doctor, something's wrong!" Then I ran back to Megan's bunk and attempted to calm her down. There was no consoling her, though, and by the time the guards arrived with two doctors and a gurney I was nearly as hysterical as she was. I don't think any of us slept that night, even after they'd taken Megan away and her echoing screams had faded down the hallway.
Aaand this is where that whole "incongruities between my story and the canon" thing comes into place. James Patterson totally stole my thunder. :( But yeah, basically Vera is an alternate Maya-a rougher, tougher Maya in a cage. (As a side note, I do like Maya as a character, but am I the only one who thinks she seems a little too nice compared to when we first met her? It seems like Max II should either be still caught up in her inferiority complex and her out-perform Max routine, or she should've done a one-eighty like Vera and start breaking the whitecoats' rules left and right. But who knows.)
On another note, this will be my last update for at least the next ten days, as I will be out of the country for that time. :( So sad.
