18 - A Rescue Too Late?

Before the last air could escape from my lungs, however, I felt a strong pair of hands grab me by the arms and pull me back to the surface. Someone was in the water with me! "Hang on," the voice shouted to me, "the boat's right here!"

It took me a moment to realize who was carrying me to safety. "Iggy!"

Iggy swam back to the edge of the boat with me in tow, where Gazzy was waiting to help hoist me back onboard. I was chilled to the bone as I lay down on the deck, and yet my internal organs radiated pain and heat like never before. My breaths came in gasps, and I tried to remain calm. Whatever was going on inside, getting thrown into the ocean certainly didn't help anything.

Gazzy covered me with a blanket and then handed one to Iggy, who had pulled himself back onboard. He was shivering and worried, but he looked glad to see me. "Ella, are you alright?"

"Iggy..." Tears started running down my face, and I was too scared to answer his question.

"Shhh," he told me, taking my hand and squeezing it comfortingly, "You're alright now, everything's okay."

"Th-the guard," I stammered, "Is he—"

"He's unconscious," Iggy explained, "and Gazzy's over at the controls, trying to figure out how to steer this thing."

"We have to go back to the island," I told him urgently, "They need to know that the guard didn't escape to tell mainland about the takeover."

"The takeover?" Iggy raised his eyebrows.

I grinned wearily. "I know, right?"

But just as I was starting to feel marginally calm I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my gut, and I whimpered loudly. My muscles tensed, and it became painful even to breathe. Something was really wrong—it had never hurt this bad before. A wave of nausea hit me, and I struggled not to throw up or start wailing.

"Ella, what's wrong?" Iggy asked, before calling to the Gasman, "Gazzy, find a first aid kit!"

"I-I can't," another sharp wave of pain, and I couldn't bear to talk. It hurt to the point I was paralyzed by my own pain. "The island," I managed to order, "Go!"

Gazzy walked over with the first aid kit, which Iggy quickly took from him and opened up. "Gaz, can you get this ship turned around? Ella needs to go back to the island."

"What?" he exclaimed, "But I thought—"

"It's safer than the shore," Iggy told him, "now come on!" Gazzy complied and went back to the helm, and Iggy's attentions turned back to me. "Just hang on, Ella, we'll be there soon."

I know people say that intense agony can make you faint, but if anything pain will keep you awake—I was so hyperaware that the only thing I could feel or comprehend was the pain itself, because everything else was drowned out by its intensity. Instead of falling deeper into the unconsciousness I so badly wanted, I kept falling deeper and deeper into the pain. And after everything that had happened, I wasn't sure if I'd ever come back out of it.


I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I woke up sometime later on a bed that smelled like disinfectant, and I could feel an IV had been jammed into my arm. What happened to me? I wondered, daring to pry open my eyes. I blinked a few times to adjust to the brightness, the harsh florescent lights burning overhead. I was in a hospital room, it seemed, and Iggy was sitting nearby in a chair.

"Ella," Iggy stood, moving to my bedside, "You're awake."

"Yeah," I replied quietly, "How long was I out for?"

"Three days," Iggy replied, "Between the virus, the exhaustion, the shock from the cold water, and the acute appendicitis, you needed the rest."

I blinked a few times. "Did you just say appendicitis?" I reached down and felt around my abdomen. Sure enough, there was a bandage down there, presumably covering up stitches. The pain had also greatly subsided, I noticed.

Iggy nodded. "They didn't notice it before because the symptoms for appendicitis are so similar to the virus' symptoms, but the doctor was able to treat you when he realized your appendix had burst."

"What doctor?" I asked.

"One of the island doctors," he explained, "We decided to put them to good use. Under close supervision, of course."

"Oh." So this was part of the island compound, apparently. "Was he able to... I mean, did he check to see if I changed at all?" My back was as wingless as ever, but had all my worst symptoms really only been appendicitis?

"He checked," Iggy replied, "and congratulations, you're as un-mutated as ever." He cracked a smile, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I was definitely still entirely human, and I couldn't have been happier about it.

"And what about everyone else?"

Iggy's face grew solemn when I asked that question. "We've had the whitecoats working on most of the other survivors," Iggy told me, "About sixty of you have stayed unchanged, and the virus is gone from almost all of you now. Another thirty or so have some dormant human-avian genes in them, but they didn't actually mutate."

"But that's only ninety kids," I pointed out, "There were way more of us than that, when we started—twenty kids a barrack."

"Another fifty kids survived the mutation," Iggy informed me, "Their wings are almost fully formed now."

"That's one hundred and forty," was my impatient calculation, "How many of us were there to begin with?"

Shuddering slightly, Iggy replied, "There were four hundred of you, Ella. Most of the kids' bodies just shut down when the mutations took over."

I blinked back tears, knowing not only that I hadn't been able to save everyone, but that many of my bunkmates—my friends—would be counted among the dead. I had failed them all. "I want to see the mutated ones," I declared, "We need to ID the survivors so we can figure out who the victims are."

"We'll do that," Iggy nodded, "But we should probably tell Vera and Craig you're awake first."

"Vera's here?" I asked Iggy, surprised she had stuck around.

"Yup," he confirmed, "In fact, she's been the one helping to hold this place together while you've been down and out. Right now, though, you're the one that everyone wants to hear from."

"Me? Why?"

"You're the one who masterminded this whole thing, didn't you? Everybody is talking about what you did. You're practically legendary!"

"I don't feel legendary," I replied, blushing. Shakily I sat up on the edge of my bed, trying to gauge whether or not I could walk.

"Here, I'll help," Iggy allowed me to shift some of my weight onto him. "And whether you feel like it or not, everyone out there thinks you're a hero, Ella, and they're all looking to you for direction."

"Oh, wow." Talk about overwhelming.

"Come on," Iggy urged me, guiding me towards the door, "everyone's gathered in the central hallway."

"I don't think I can do this."

"I know you can," he squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, "Now let's go; don't make the blind guy drag you there." I smiled at that, and together we headed out into the hallway.

Gazzy, Vera, and Craig were standing together a ways down the corridor. Their faces lit up when they saw me and Iggy walking towards them. "There she is!" Vera exclaimed with a grin, "You sure picked a bad time to take a nap."

I smiled. "Sorry about that."

"Are you feeling okay now?" Craig asked, "Everybody's been asking about you."

"I'm fine. Iggy tells me we've been here three days. Have you been radioing in to mainland on schedule?"

"Yup," he confirmed, "Your buddy the Gasman even loaned his voice to the cause, imitating one of the doctors. Those suckers on the mainland don't suspect a thing." He beamed at me, "Funny how you forgot to mention that Maximum Ride is your sister and you're close pals with the rest of her Flock."

"Must have slipped my mind," I replied innocently. Then I paused, listening to the unsettled chatter that was echoing from around the next bend. "Now, to face the masses," I muttered, separating myself from Iggy and moving towards where the rest of the group was waiting.

The moment I stepped out into the main hall everyone rushed towards me at once, surrounding me—all these kids, both older and younger, were turning to me for leadership. "Alright, alright!" Vera called out from behind me, "Everyone back off before you suffocate her!" She wedged herself into the crowd and shoved a couple people back to give me some space. The rest of them get the message and backed away.

"Thanks," I told Vera. Then I turned to address the others. "Alright, everybody!" I began, "So, there were definitely a few close calls during this whole takeover, but in the end you guys all came through.

"Of course," I continued, "there's still a lot left to do. We need to figure out how to get everyone back home, and maybe try to contact the families of the people who didn't survive." I grimaced, and everyone in the crowd stirred glumly at the thought. "But we'll worry about that later. Right now you all just kill time and handle whatever tasks have already been assigned while you wait for further instructions." I paused, then added, "I'm really proud of all of you, guys. What we did as a team... it was incredible. Never forget what we did; never forget that even kids like us are capable of doing great things."

Everyone cheered and applauded when I was finished speaking, and I could feel my cheeks growing hot. I retreated out of the crowd and back to the corridor before muttering to Iggy, "There, I did it. Now can we go see the new mutants?"

"Incredible," Iggy applauded, "If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you scripted that pep talk."

"Shut up," I said good-naturedly, trying not to smile too brightly at the compliment.

My girlish glee was quickly mellowed when Vera and Iggy led me to the room of newly winged kids. The room was huge and filled with shirtless teens lying on their stomachs in hospital beds, their bodies shivering beneath thin blankets and their backs covered with blood-crusted gauze.

"The doctors said that the last of them are almost fully developed," Vera explained as we walked, "and that if we cut the sleeping drugs and get them eating they could all be flying by the end of next week."

"Unbelievable," I uttered.

Iggy shook his head. "This is a new level of low, even for whitecoats."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the kids stir, and I turned to look at them. It was a girl, pale and sandy-haired, who looked like she had been wasting away in that hospital bed for weeks. I stared at her for a couple of seconds, puzzled, before I realized I recognized her. Megan. She was frighteningly skinny now, her curvy figure having been replaced with the thin, elongated structure of a human-avian, but it was definitely her.

I dared to venture closer, watching as she quietly stirred to consciousness. "Meagan?" I spoke quietly, nudging her a couple of times. Sleepily Megan's eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at me.

"Ella?" she croaked, "What... where am I?"

"It's kind of complicated," I winced, "but you're going to be alright. Just get some more rest, okay?"

"I'm hungry," she said groggily, "I feel like I could eat a train."

"That sounds about right," Iggy muttered.

I quickly shushed him. "We'll get you some food soon, but for now you should go back to sleep."

Meagan gave a small sigh of agreement, and she quickly dozed off again. "She's sure in for a surprise when she wakes up again," I muttered, feeling the tears well up in my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ella." Iggy put his hand on my shoulder, while Vera stood there silent.

"And she's one of the lucky ones," I went on, sniffling.

"It's going to be alright," he reassured me, "You're safe now."

"Am I?" My voice quivered as I spoke. "Am I ever going to be really, truly safe ever again?" I wanted to stop feeling weak, to stop breaking down like this, but I couldn't. I felt so helpless and pathetic at that moment, as the tears slid down my cheeks and I started to cry.

To my surprise, at that moment Iggy pulled me into a hug and whispered, "It's okay, Ella. Everything is going to be okay." He stroked my hair and held me close, trying to console me.

"I shouldn't cry," I choked, "Max wouldn't have cried."

"But you're not Max," was Iggy's reply, "You never had to be Max. Just be yourself, Ella, don't ever try to be anyone else."

Despite the tears I smiled, burying my face in his shirt. "Thank you." And for a while I just stayed there, crying in Iggy's arms. He was right; for a little while at least, I was safe.