Okay, quick summation: the chip is gone! It's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone! Sweet!
Though uh, when I mentioned the possible loss of the of my left hand, that's uh… kind of what happened…
That's right. My left hand is basically completely useless. Can't move it; can barely even feel it.
And was it worth it?
Uh, no. Actually, not really, no.
Because the Voice is STILL HERE!!!
So, hand not usable; Voice still here.
What have I accomplished?
Nothing.
Excellent. Just freakin' peachy.
So, needless to say, I cried a bunch. Not in front of anyone, but still a bunch.
Twice in as many days.
I'm now sure I'm a stereotypical teenaged girl.
Goodie.
Anyway, so back on our never ending quest to accomplish I don't even know what.
We had just left Dr. Martinez's place, as much as I didn't want to, and were now back en route to that canyon thingy where the others were.
Fang was being Fang which was fine, as it was nice and quiet, so I had loads of time to think.
Which actually wasn't that good, because I never seem to come up with good things to think about.
The current 'on the mind' menu was thinking about my useless hand , mentally pouting about the prevalent residence of some foreign Voice inside my head, wondering if and/or when I'll ever see Dr. Martinez or Ella again, and then of course all the other crap: the flock, saving the world, and everything else.
I'm thinking about so much I can't remember what to think about!
Or something…
I glanced back at Fang to make sure he hadn't fallen out of the sky; seriously, he was being incredibly quiet, even for him.
He looked right back at me and locked his eyes with mine.
"Max, we need to talk," he said.
Uh huh… Okay…
"'Bout what?"
If he brought up my drug induced overstated feelings of love for him, then he'd shortly be falling from the sky for real.
That's a promise.
"It's about Dr. Martinez," Fang said.
Oh, well I had been waiting for Fang's 'I don't like Dr. Martinez' speech.
This must be it.
"Have at it," I muttered.
"I found something in her office," he said.
"Was it a computer? Or maybe a chair? C'mon, tell me!" What the hell was he trying to say? Spit it out already!
He moved up to fly next to me and pulled something out of his pocket.
I recognized it instantly. It was that baby photo of the Gasman. The one we found almost a whole lifetime ago.
"I found this in Dr. Martinez's office, Max," Fang said. "In between a book about recombinant DNA theory and one about birds."
…
Huh?…
And it was from that point on that my initial imaginings of Dr,. Martinez drastically and maybe irreversibly changed.
What the hell was going on?!
"Exactly how much does Dr. Martinez know about us?" Fang asked.
"I don't know! How should I know?" I sputtered.
"Well, she seems to know more than your average bear," Fang said dryly. "I'm talking about a long term knowledge in matters concerning us."
"Wait, you searched her office?"
Why hadn't I done that?
"Uh, yeah. isn't it policy to find out about people who know we exist?" Fang replied. "Max, there's something wrong with that woman. She knows something, and knowing our luck it's something we don't know. I mean, obviously we can't trust her."
"Yes we can! We… can…" I trailed off.
Could we?
Oh, crap.
Whose side was Dr. Martinez on?
And it was suddenly that thought that defeated all of the other random thoughts, taking the award for most noticeable, and most pressing.
And this quickly became one of those times when I had literally nothing to say.
They're few and far in between, to the point of being extinct, but this was one of those moments that I could articulate not a single thought, and just sat there (probably looking stupid) in silence.
"What if she screwed up your hand on purpose, Max?" Fang said.
"No!" I yelled.
No.
She couldn't have.
Could she..?
We then flew in silence after my one word outburst. Fang clearly got the message to leave me the hell alone. We were almost back with the others, so I decided to put the ambiguously affiliated Dr. Martinez out of my mind and concentrate on seeing the rest of my flock again.
This had been the most bizarre trip in recent memory.
If only I had known when that thought had occurred to me, how much weirder things were going to get in the next few minutes, I may not have thought it and jinxed myself.
Oh well. Bring on the future.
Good; the canyon came into sight. I would be seeing everyone soon!
Fang seemed to agree with my happy thoughts of reunions and we both sped up in unison anxious to be back with the rest of our only family.
We both noticed the absence of smoke and assumed the rest of my intrepid little flock were being halfway intelligent for once and not doing anything to draw attention .
No unnecessary fire.
How many times had I told them that?
It brought a smile to my face to think they were finally being smart.
We wouldn't survive very long if we kept making grievously stupid and easily avoided mistakes.
It broke my heart a bit when I learned that the rest of the flock being smart just wasn't the case here.
We swooped in, and I swear my heart stopped for several seconds.
The camp was destroyed beyond recognition and the signs of a massive fight were inconceivably obvious.
Which all, of course, led to the one simple fact that my flock had been captured.
Or killed…
But I didn't let myself think the second part for long; I pushed it out of my head almost as quickly as it had arrived.
We landed in the middle of the destroyed campsite, and Fang muttered a four little expletive that I won't mention.
"They got them" Fang said, stating the obvious and looking around with anxious eyes.
My thoughts precisely.
I looked up to survey the surrounding area, to maybe find something that could help with what would soon be some kind of rescue mission.
My hear stopped once again.
There was someone standing about ninety feet away. How we didn't spot him from the air I have no idea.
My mouth fell open, and I just stared.
And whoever he was, he stared back. A look of fascination playing over his features.
He was maybe a few years older than me; still in his teens.
He was tall, over six feet, and looked lean, though it was kind of heard to tell for sure under the black coat that he wore.
He had short, straight dark brown hair, and a patch of what looked like duct tape over one eye.
I didn't move, and probably didn't breath. I just stared for who knows how long.
And this boy just stared back.
"Max, what do you want to do no-" Fang stopped talking quite abruptly, and I could only assume that he had turned around and had spotted this boy.
I was transfixed and couldn't turn to see for myself. It was like I was hypnotized.
And for the first time, the boy moved. He walked very deliberately towards us. He moved in such a fluid motion, that it looked almost like he walked on air; there wasn't a single wasted motion.
It only added to the hypnotizing effect.
I waited for Fang to say or do something, but for all I knew he was hypnotized, too.
Come on Fang, do something!
But he didn't, and in a few short moments the boy was less than ten feet away.
He had never once broke eye contact with me.
He stopped, and gave a small smile.
"Hello, Max."