The Disbanded: Divided We Stand – Chapter 52
By MyNameIsCAL
---Iggy's POV---
You could say we picked the worst time to go to Alaska. It was dark, with a few hours of sunlight, the worst blizzards were starting, leaving us stuck in the hotel for at least the next week. Mike and Eli had seemed to have forgotten what our goal really was. Ramirez was becoming a distraction. Even Chuck and Kerry, who had been very open to seeing their old commanding officer, drifted away from them and started to hang with the flock. We weren't even eating dinner with each other. Sometimes we would in small groups, but mostly by ourselves.
We were wasting time, being stuck here. Max grew anxious. Her worry grew for Fang, who refused to step outside the hotel room since the incident with Ramirez, and the worry that came that we might be missing our chance to find Angel and Nudge. But most of her stress came from Fang.
I sat across from Max in the same restaurant where Ramirez spilled coffee on Fang. It sounded like she needed someone to talk to, other than Fang. I wasn't going to let her eat alone, especially with Ramirez at the bar with Mike and Eli now.
"This was supposed to be faster," she muttered. "We should be in Chicago. Angel and Nudge should be here with us."
"A lot of things should have and shouldn't have happened," I reminded her.
She let out a deep sigh. "And Fang isn't going to last much longer. You know, the other day, he started talking about settling down. Somewhere in the mountains, within distance of the beach. Do you know how nice that sounds? How bad I want that?"
It didn't surprise me and I said, "Fang wants stability."
She agreed. I got the feeling in her silence she was nodding. "He needs stability and the way things are going now, it's not even stable for us."
Max was right. But she wasn't giving up. It was just how she felt. We would keep going until we got Nudge and Angel back or we got our revenge on Itex.
---Angel's POV---
Nudge was so hopeful that Iggy or Max or Fang would come bursting through our cell door. It hurt to against her hope, so I stopped giving up and played along. The scientists were almost done with us. We no longer had to run through mazes or fly for them. It had been too long since we'd been in one place. All their thoughts screamed It's a shame we have to retire them.
"I think this is the best food yet," Nudge babbled. "Beef and bread! They even gave us extra water today."
The food increasingly got better. How could Nudge not see what was going on?
"Mhm," I agreed, keeping myself from saying anything that might hurt her.
Although what I had said days before still lingered in the back of Nudge's mind. She had nightmares about what I'd said. Now I wished I hadn't said anything at all.
"Do you want more bread, Angel?" Nudge asked, pausing from rambling.
"You can have it," I insisted. She needed it more than I did.
After eating her own cut, she hesitated to eat the extra piece of bread. Eventually, after a few minutes of contemplation and silence, Nudge began to eat it, talking about Iggy and how she wondered what had happened to the rest of the flock.
"What do you think happened to them?" Nudge questioned.
I thought for a moment. "That they're out there, somewhere, thinking about us."
---Fang's POV---
Max left me to have dinner with Iggy. She needed time away from me, I think. I couldn't say I was the best person to be around.
I lay in bed, breathing in an out slowly. The few daylight hours here made things depressing. More depressing than the weather usually is. Speaking of depressing, my depression meds were running low. There was no way we could get out of here to refill my prescription and quite frankly, I was tired of medication, especially now that I was taking one to keep my heart rate lower.
The darkness, when Max wasn't around, was my best friend. It was easier to be in the darkness because I wouldn't be tempted to stare at my scars and feel the want to cut again. I slipped up once and I certainly wasn't going to slip up again. No. That would disappoint Max more. For her, I wanted to be stronger, not emotionally broken and falling apart.
---Gazzy's POV---
I was watching TV in the room. There wasn't much on with limited channels. The news talked about the weather and politics. It would be another twenty four hours before it would stop snowing. At night, you could hear the wind pounding against the windows.
There's one channel that only shows movies. It went from comedies like The Rocker to science fiction like Wolverine. James Bond was just finishing up and Twilight was next. It was between this weather and the news that I watched.
Iggy knocked on the door, finally returning from dinner. Max was having a rough time being stuck here, especially with Fang. I guess Fang had more problems than I thought.
"How's Max?" I asked.
Iggy fell back on the couch with perfect aim. "Tired, stressed out, exhausted. We need to get out of here before someone goes insane. I think she's alright."
I hadn't talked to Max in a while. I made a mental note that I would go talk to her, maybe get something more out of her about Fang. I was curious, but I also still felt guilty, even though none of this could possibly be my fault anymore. But really, I did care what was going on with Fang. There was no reason for him to shut everyone but Max out.
They're in Alaska! I had to stop myself from making a Sarah Palin joke. Ahem, thank you for reading! More to come soon!
