Chapter 39

Can I handle the maximum ride?

Rain began to down pour as I rushed through the thick, darker woods. Branches swiped across my skin and cut me. Rocks were slick and I slipped. I tripped over tree roots too far up as the path moved up and down. Breath rapidly passed through my lips as my eyes darted around the foliage, hoping to find Mr. Chu.

Dark grey clouds pounded down rain against my skin. My pants were ripped and jagged from attacking M-Geeks and Brigid. Loose strips of fabric were flapping against my calves while I ran faster than I had ever run in my entire life. My shirt was pushed against my stomach and flying out behind me as I continued forward, convinced that I had to end this now or never.

Thunder rumbled.

Gun shots into the air followed.

While following the echoes of the ringing booms, bird wings flapped and fluttered as they strayed away. My own wings pressed hard into my back to avoid making contact with low branches or high prickled bushes. When I stumbled into the large opening of the cliff, Mr. Chu stood there with his gun. A mist of rain outlined his body as my body frose. My wings shot out wide and shook off the freezing rain. Rage heated up my blood as it pulsed rapidly. I could feel it pounding through each individual vein.

My sneakers dug into mud as the rotten stench of M-Geek blood and watered down earth drifted along the winds. My nails broke the skin in my palms but I grinded my teeth together to avoid saying anything or doing anything. I held myself proper and tall, staring down the killer as if I had done this every day of my life. Well, I had, almost.

He killed my father and others too most likely.

He shot my brother.

He held me prisoner and tortured me.

He wanted to destroy the world.

And I had to save it.

Tears fought at my eyes but I easily blinked them away. After the tears for Fang I wasn't ready to break down again. "Maximum, you've lost. Aren't you ready to give up?" Never, I thought as I tightened my jaw. All the Maximum Ride self-control wasn't going to hold on much longer. Mr. Chu caught it, "No? You're willing to let more die? You are the selfish hero." He tilted his head trying to be sympathetic.

I had no more patience for words. Mr. Chu began raising his gun when he caught my wings flicker to move. Rain blinded me slightly as I pushed off my feet and ran at him. My wings carried me forward so fast that Mr. Chu only managed one shot.

Pain stitched its way up my side and through my left wing. Screaming in agony, I stumbled forward struggling just to keep moving. Jeb taught me to always fight through the pain. That kept you on the alive side of the very thin line of life or death. Blood soaked through the fabric of my shirt although the rain had gotten them just as wet so I could barely to tell. I felt my cheeks burn in anger.

My shoulder rammed into his waist, his stomach caved in from the impact. He staggered and fell backwards before I even had time to stop him. I'd been so angry that I was blind to my surroundings. I hadn't thought the situation as thoroughly as I normally did. I hadn't been the Maximum Ride who made a plan. I had lost complete control and attacked like…an Eraser or a mindless M-Geek. I acted like one of them instead of me.

I literally dove, my stomach scrapped against the rough rocks of the cliff. I probably looked like a baseball player diving for a ball except I had wings, one of which was very bloody, and a very bad side wound. My hand reached out to wrap around Mr. Chu's wrist just as he began to fall long the edge of the drop. When his dead weight hit me, my body skidded, making me wince as my wounded side took on the weight of my body because the hand I held on to him with was the same side as my wound.

My head hung over the side so I looked down to see him. dangled there without trying to get back up. His black hair was thinning out from age and he had a few wrinkles. He was in his late forties most likely. A wide grin spread across his face and he began to laugh. I was struggling holding on to him.

Too much blood dripped onto the ground and I felt it puddle beneath me. My eyes fluttered with pain and trying to wipe the rain away. "You killed them! Give me one good reason not to kill you right now!" I grunted through my teeth as I screamed in agony. Lightning and thunder crashed and boomed around us.

Mr. Chu laughed, "You never get it Maximum! Bigger, always think bigger! That's what your stupid father always said and now he's dead!" Mr. Chu grinned just dangling there. He had to know I couldn't hold on much longer. I wasn't a killer though and I still didn't get the bigger picture but I knew enough of it to know he was the enemy. But I knew enough of myself to know I wasn't a killer.

He began slipping and he didn't try to get back up. Why wouldn't he let me help him? His gun lay at the rocks below were the rushing and storming ocean rushed into the cliff and smacked its side. "Come on Maximum, drop me, save the world. I guess you didn't consider this to be a part of it." Laughter of his was lost into the rolls of thunder.

"Max!" A familiar voice to far away to do anything rang out through the forest. He shouldn't have followed, Fang should've stayed away. He couldn't see me like this. I was afraid of what might happen if he arrived. I was afraid right now though to, what was going to happen now?

I wasn't a killer…I wasn't. But his grip was beginning to loose in mine as the rain slicked my hold. His dead weight dug my wounded side into the dirt and rocks of the cliff. I was weakened from fighting already and my blood was still dripping out. My eyes fluttered more from all the pain as smiled up at me, "Save the world, Maximum, and lose yourself."

When he slipped, I reached out for him, my fingers flaring out wide and my body lurching a bit forward to try and grab him. I could not fly for my wing was throbbing and wasn't responding. He fell in silence with his words still ringing through my ears. I shut my eyes as I heard the clashing of body on rock. I knew then, that he was dead.

Weak and crushed, I stood up when a hand reached out and touched my shoulder. I pulled away from him, not wanting to him to be my comfort. "I tried to save him," I murmured, my eyes stared forward at the raging ocean clashing with the rain. Water against water, like vs. like, and yet, in the end, I may have seemed like the rain but I was part of the ocean as well. I was a killer, he had dropped because I had failed to save him.

"Not your fault," Fang whispered. I hated that his voice comforted me and made a small portion of me feel better. I still loved him but he had made it clear the last few weeks that he wouldn't think twice about getting back together. Tears mixed with the rain.

"Ari is dead isn't he," I stated feeling the empty hole in my heart. Wind whipped through my hair and my feathers. I held my wounded side and looked at Fang over my shoulder. Dark eyes that were giving off worry and pain for me. He nodded his head, enough said. Three dead, this wasn't worth it. A tear drop fell from my face and Fang winced. Why should my pain hurt him?

"You saved the world Max," Fang reminded me. Great, I did what I was meant to do so why didn't I feel better? Why did the world still hang on my shoulders? I didn't feel like I had did the world a favor. I heard sirens, one of the flock must've called my mom who then had called the cops.

I stared down at the blue/grey water crashing into the rocks calling out to me. I didn't know who I was now, Mr. Chu was right. I would step right over now if it weren't for the fact that Fang could fly and would catch me. Or maybe he wouldn't, I never thought he would break us up again and yet, here we were on two separate ends of the world I had just "saved".

Could I handle the Maximum Ride?

No-no, I could not.

One more chapter left.

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The more reviews I get and I will include a special bonus chapter that is post Taking Back the World and Pre Save Us so only faithful readers of this can get an extra-taste for after this event.