A.N. Okay, here's the second chapter! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and thanks for the positive feedback! I'm really happy that you guy's are liking this story! Hehe I love long reviews, so don't worry!
Chapter 2: The Council
"Okay, so who wants to be in charge of bathroom duties?" My 'Cabinet' all grimaces, shaking their heads. Save for the ten year old pyromaniac who has a deep love for anything to do with the wacky functions of the digestive system.
"It would be my honor!" The Gasman exclaimed, grinning mischievously. He rubbed his grimy hands together in excitement. You may wonder why he's called 'the Gasman', for people who are knew to this fandom. And take it from me – You don't want to know.
"Great!" I was just glad I had a taker. "Your exciting new job will include setting up… erm, 'poop places', for our lovely citizens, as well as-"
"She said 'poop'!" Total snickered quietly. I glared at the little Scottie as Angel covered her mouth to stop from giggling. Fang shot me a half-grin, and I rolled my eyes at him. "As I was saying, you'll also have to make sure that it stays somewhat clean in those areas, that way it doesn't get too disgusting and people don't get sick."
Nudge waved her hand in the air like a mad woman. I nodded at her. "Okay, well; I was just thinking - how in the name of Gandalf's beard are we going to keep that space clean?! I mean, it's going to be full of poop!" Total snickered again, muttering something about us 'killing him with our poop talk.' Who ever said that dogs couldn't be immature too? "And, like, where is it going to go? Is it going to be like a mound of poop? Because that would be pretty gross!"
"I was thinking more like a hole in the ground, Nudge." I explained, trying to hide my laughter. "Then Gazzy, who is highly qualified for this job, I might add," Gazzy nodded happily. "Will just make sure that the holes don't get too full, and make new ones if they are."
My 'cabinet', or my leadership team or whatever you want to call my decision making buddies, consisted of my most trusted people, for obvious reasons. Fang was my right-hand man, as always, and Iggy had taken on the roll as my co-commander. Although he calls himself the "Motivational Idea Inspirer", and prefers to talk in random British accents when providing suggestions. Don't ask. I'm assuming that he just likes to shake things up from time to time, which, admittedly, we all need in these somber meetings.
Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel all pitch in when they feel like it and help in thinking of tasks that we need to fill. And Jeb, Dr. John Abate and Mom do the same, although Father Dearest tends to try and give me advice during our meetings, which I always end up ignoring. Dylan is surprisingly a great voice of reason, and helps think of a bunch of different solutions for the millions of things we still need to cover, and Ella has elected herself as the record keeper. Which basically means that she writes down ideas and solutions in a half-burnt sparkly pink notebook that was salvaged from a drawer in Nudge's destroyed tree house.
So here we are, in our established meeting place; a small cave high in one of the rock cliffs, with a large flat-topped boulder as a makeshift table and a small fire atop its center for light. We're like the leaders of the cave people, it seems!
"So Gazzy will be the 'Poop Master'?" Angel squeaked, trying to hide her giggles. The flock burst out in laughter, and I couldn't help but laugh along with them. Gazzy stood up on the stone slab, puffing out his chest and flexing his scrawny bird-boy muscles.
"I… Am… POOP MAN!" Angel doubled over in laughter, and Iggy threw his head back as he laughed. I grinned at my family, happy that we were together. That we had all survived, and made it through the end. My eyes flicked to Fang's warm dark ones, happy and alive, and reflecting the fire's lively dancing flames.
But let's not get poetic, here.
"Okay, okay." Mom laughed, shaking her head at Gazzy as he spun in a circle and struck various poses. "Let's get back on track." You may wonder how Mom, Ella, and Jeb got up here. Well, we flew them up here, of course! I carried my mother, Fang carried John, Dylan carried Jeb, and Iggy carried Ella. Which he was super happy about, even though he pretended like he didn't care. Men. Pfft.
Gazzy jumped back to the ground with a flourish and sat back down on one of the many sawed off logs that were positioned around the stone table as seating.
"All right, all right- enough with the theatrics. What problem's next, Ella-bella?" Ella snorted at her nickname, and I beamed at her. Sisterly love at its finest!
"Hmm… Let me see…" She flipped to the previous page in the offending pink book of records, skimming her finger along the lines. "How about what we're going to do for shelter?"
"That seems important." Jeb nods, smiling heartily. I squelch my desire to snort at him. Me and him aren't exactly 'sim-pat-ico' at the moment. And his never failing ability to state the obvious doesn't help me like him any more than usual.
"Yeah, no duh." I muttered. "Okay, any ideas?"
"I could lead the building team." Fang voiced from his seat to my left. "See if we can salvage anymore materials from the tree houses. It wouldn't be hard to come up with some plans." I grinned at him and nodded. Fang was crafty; he could definitely pull that off.
"Yeah! You could totally make some t-pees or something!" Nudge exclaimed from her seat by Ella, resting her arms on the big rock table. "We could be like the Indians! Except we can't really harvest the land, since we need more seeds and the plants that we did have are burnt to a crisp just like Max's cooking used to be-"
"Hey!"
"-so now we can't farm the pastures and stuff. Well, not like this island had pastures in the first place. Hey, Max? What are we going to do for food?" That was a question that had been bothering me since we had gotten the caves open and seen all of the people that we would have to provide for. The cave shelter had had a storage room with enough food stocked up to last the whole population about three weeks, give or take a couple of days.
But after those three weeks were up? We were on our own, with no known source of food. Granted, we haven't gotten the opportunity to scout the whole island yet, but the immediate area that we were located in was nothing but black soil and scorched trees. I think Fang said something about me and him taking a spin around the island after this meeting to do a little recon, which I was highly anticipating. But duties come first and Fang and I come later.
"We're still working on that, Nudge. I've thought about fishing, but we might want to make sure that the fish aren't radioactive or something." I turn to the adults in the group. "Are there any Geiger Counters or anything in the caves? Any lab equipment we can use to test for harmful rays or toxins?"
"Hmm…" John says, scratching his scruffy chin. I'm amazed by how fast facial hair can grow. It's only been about three days since his last shaving, and he's already almost got a full beard! Jeb too, but not as much as Dr. Sasquatch over there. "We have a bunch of lab equipment stocked up in one of the cave's makeshift first-aid offices, but I wasn't the one who did the stock checking. Valancia, would you happen to know?"
Mom shook her head, rubbing at her arm. "Not a clue. We could always check in the morning, though." I nodded, turning back to the rest of the group.
"Okay. So that solution is still pending. What about records? There must be files of the people here, just so we can get a count of how many of them we'll have to feed and shelter.
"Plus ve can better divide zem up based on skill sets and zer special talents," Iggy voiced in a slow drawl, going for the Russian accent this time. "Zat may help us lots."
"Thank you, Rasputin." I looked back at Jeb. "Do you know about any files?" Jeb nodded.
"They're in the records office in the caves, way in the back." He said, leaning forward on the table. "It might pose a problem to get back there, though. A portion of the caves collapsed when the sky fell, so it might be inaccessible."
"Okay. We'll have to work on clearing that out." Nudge waved her hand in the air again, a bright smile on her face. "What is it?"
"Just a question; what are we going to do for clothes?" Leave it up to the fashionista of our gang to want to install post-apocalyptic style into this destroyed world of ours. "Because I can totally scrounge up something. I mean, I know I don't have very many materials to work with, but I can weave together some plants, or some spare fabric from the cave's storage to make some new wardrobes. Because, seriously, we all need them." I looked down at my holey singed t-shirt and jeans with large rips in the sides. The rest of the flock wasn't much better. "See what I mean? And I'll bet I can make them look stylish, too!"
"I have no doubt in my mind that you can, Nudge." I said. "Ells, sign Miss Chatterbox up for fashion duty." Nudge squealed with joy, no doubt already beginning to develop designs in her head as Ella marked it down in the notebook.
"What about education and schooling?" Dylan's smooth voice questioned from his seat beside Iggy. He had been quiet this entire meeting, and currently looked like he was going to pass out. Had he not been sleeping lately? I'd have to interrogate him about that later. "We should really try to endorse those things, since we don't want our descendants to be uneducated dummies." I snorted, earning a small smile from 'Mr. Perfect'.
"An excellent point. At the meeting tomorrow, I'll have to make an announcement about needing teachers to help with the kids. And even if they don't have experience, the adults could always train them. Okay." I clapped my hands together, looking around at my council. "Anything else that we need to address right at this moment?" The group all shrugged, shaking their heads. Except for Mom, who was smiling warmly at me with slightly watery eyes. I cocked my head to the side.
"What's up?" I asked. Mom laughed softly, shaking her head.
"It's just…" She began, wiping away a few tears that fell down her cheeks . "You're so grown up."
I laughed, and a deep uninvited blush colored my cheeks. "Yeah. I'm getting old." I agreed. The group laughed, and I couldn't help the warm feeling that settled in my heart. My family was here, all of the people I cared about, together. I felt… normal, for once. Normal and happy. It was a strange feeling.
"No, honey," Mom said, shaking her head again. "I meant that you're taking charge, trying to take care of all of us. And you're doing such a good job, with pulling everything together." She paused and my heart swelled as she beamed up at me. "I'm proud of you, Max."
The rest of the flock nodded, grinning at me. I drew in a shaky breath, smiling at them all. Having her with me, the flock here with me, finally able to live with my biological mother, sister, and family all at the same time… Well, It made me feel more loved then I'd ever felt before.
"Thanks, Mom." I said, trying hard not to run to her and give her a huge hug. But we were still in the meeting, and I had to keep my leader-face on. "You know I couldn't do it without each and every one of you." I said, smiling at all of them. Angel made a 'heart' with her hands, and I copied her, grinning when she giggled. Jeb smiled sadly, looking at his hands. "And I do mean all of you." Jeb looked up at me and I forced a smile at him. He grinned back at me. The world was different now. And even though I'd never forget the things he'd done to us, there was no sense living in the past any longer.
"I don't really say it enough, but I want you guys to know… That I love you." Okay, cue more blushes from me. The flock all cooed, 'aww-ing' at me, and I shrugged, taking their teasing.
"You mean you love Fang?" Iggy smiled mischievously, wiggling his eyebrows. I gaped, and the catcalls grew louder. Fang smirked at me, his eyes full of mischief. But there was a bit of warmth to them that wasn't there before, and my heart started to pound inside my chest. I stuttered as I looked at him, seeing his true feelings reflected in his eyes. I looked away quickly, trying to avoid any sign that Iggy had been right.
But unfortunately, my face muscles got the better of me, and a huge cheesy grin broke out across my face.
"Awww! Look at Max blush!" Ella teased.
"That's so freaking adorable, guys!" Nudge exclaimed, placing her hands against her face.
"Okay, okay," I said, trying to calm them down as they laughed at my reaction. I purposefully didn't look into Fang's eyes, knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to look away, and geez; that would be bad for my reputation. "Settle down, people. I meant that I love you all, not just Fang."
"Sure you do, Max…" Angel cooed, resting her head on her palm.
"The mind reader has spoken!" Iggy declared, pointing his finger up to the sky.
"You guys are impossible!" I huffed, sitting back down in my seat next to Fang. He lightly wrapped his ankle around my own, and I ignored him, grumbling and crossing my arms over my chest. My council laughed, and for the next couple hours, we teased and bantered, enjoying each other's company. The fire continued to flicker, illuminating the cave in a warm orange glow.
And when the fire dwindled and all that was left were ashes, we filed out of the cave, opening our wings to carry the wingless back down to the campsite.
A.N. Time for some FAX in the next chappie!
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