Phoenix: a Maximum Ride Fanfiction

Chapter Two

I lay on the couch, staring at the backs of my eyelids, not ready to wake up. After a few minutes, I can't stand to stare into the red abyss and open them. I tiptoe through the house to Angel's room to see if she is up yet. I poke at the door and it creaks open. The covers are thrown off of her loft bed and her window is all the way open. Angel is nowhere in sight. I furrow my eyebrows and continue my search throughout the rest of the house. The bathroom is empty and completely untouched with a completely dry bathtub. Angel always bathed in the morning.

The floorboards creak under my feet as I make my way towards the sliding doors that lead to the porch that wraps around the house. I walk around the porch and find nothing. I do a second complete search just to be sure I didn't miss somewhere. Nothing.

Maybe she just got up early to get some exercise, yeah, that's it, I tell myself. I fly back to my house to get dressed.

About an half hour later, I am completely ready for the day. I fly over to my parents' house to ask if they have seen Angel. I land on the front porch making no sound at all, which surprised me because normally I make a huge racket just trying to walk across the room, and knock on the door.

After a moment's pause, Dad opens the door. "Hey Phoenix, what's up?"

"Have you seen Angel lately? When I woke up this morning I couldn't find her," I say, not mentioning that I was at her house last night.

"No, why don't you check Nudge's house; maybe she went over there for an early breakfast," my dad suggests.

"Okay."

I fly to The Castle, as I like to call it, again not making any sound; Iggy wouldn't even know I'm there. I knock on the door. It is answered by Nudge whose makeup is only applied to half of her face; I must have interrupted her morning routine.

"Hey Nudge," I say, "Have you seen Angel? She has been missing all morning."

"No-I thought that when you knocked it would be her. She normally comes by at about this time...."

"I was just about to go check her house again; I'll wait for you if you want to join me."

"Sure, come on in," Nudge says with a smile.

When I get inside I take a seat in the luxurious fainting couch in the middle of her living room that would have cost a fortune, you know, before the world nearly ended and everything. "Help yourself to anything in the kitchen," She tells me and heads off to her room.

I wander for a while, wondering what could possibly be taking her so long. Probably her hair, I thought, she always has it curled into perfect little ringlets somehow.

I find a Dr. Pepper in the fridge and open it. After the world pretty much ended, we found ourselves with a plentiful amount of pop, canned food, candy and anything else made in massive amounts in factories and didn't expire quickly. The rest we have started growing and trading for; not that we have much to trade here in the Amazon.

"Okay, let's go," says Nudge reappearing.

"Let's." And we're off. As we pass each house, Nudge tells me a short, funny fact about each of them. For example, as we pass Gazzy's home she says,

"The Gasman- causing people to pass out with his toxic farts for twenty-two years."

We both laughed like maniacs at that. Honestly, I'm pretty that Gazzy will never grow up. The other day he play a prank on me by painting the words FAX BABY over the ones that said Phoenix. When we asked him what that was all about he said, "Well, Iggy told me it was stupid but I did it anyway. Between you and me, Mang, which was his suggestion, is ridiculous. Fax Baby sounds much better than Mang Baby. It makes you sound like a fruit."

At Angel's house I decided to see how much noise I could make when I landed. I dropped down on the wooden porch but I didn't make a sound. None. Nothing. Not even the slightest creak. Weird.

"Phoenix, go get Max- I mean your mom."

When I see she's looking at I gasp. Taped to the door is a note, typed with a typewriter. A ransom note. It says,

I have Angel. Do not worry, she is completely unharmed. Bring me Phoenix and I will not hurt your beloved Angel.

-Dr. Hans
The School