Maximum Ride: The Demon Experiment

Chapter 5: Us or You?

~Cinder’s POV~

It was a long flight and I can tell by how clumsy the others seemed that they were exhausted. Poor Chai was having difficulty keeping up with the others that Patch had to hold onto her hand to keep her from falling behind … or falling.

Before we took off, I got the others to cut huge slits into the backs of their shirts in case we needed to make a quick up and away.

It was mostly silence the whole trip to the Flock’s hideout. The occasional joke was tossed around, mostly from Gazzy. I guess he was trying to make the tension a little less awkward. Iggy was quiet most of the time and I guess he was a little wary of us. I don’t blame him. We are a little bit more different from them and us just popping up out of nowhere and asking for help, hell I’d be suspicious too.

Another few minutes passed and I was suddenly aware of all the mountains in the area. I can see why they lived so far away from civilization. This place is well hidden and the only way you could possibly get there is by air or if you know where the hell it is. Otherwise, you’d get your sorry ass lost. I came out of my mental ranting when I felt a hand grasp mine. I looked over and noticed Chai looking at me with a worried look.

“What is it hun?” I asked, suddenly worried.

“‘Something seems to be wrong with Specter’ she says,” translated Patch as he pulled up next to her. The moment I heard that, I felt a sudden pang in my chest and my eyes darted over to him. He had shadows under his eyes and he seemed unsteady. His breath came out in short gasps.

“Hey Specter, you alright?” At this point, all the others noticed the worry in my tone and looked over. Specter nodded his head and smiled and for a moment, I thought that he was just tired until I saw his eyes close and his wings folded back. Next thing I knew, he began to plummet back down to the earth. I didn’t hesitate; I folded my wings and dove down after him. I noticed that Fang and Hail did the same, but I was faster. We were already close to the trees and luckily, I managed to grab onto Specter. I snapped open my wings, but I wasn’t able to stay airborne. He was too heavy for me to fly back up so instead of that, I clumsily floated back to the ground. And by clumsily, I mean it. I was still falling at a quick pace, hitting a few tree branches on the way down and I think I felt some bones in my wings crack, nothing too serious.

Before we crashed, I spun the both of us so Specter wouldn’t get hurt once we hit the ground. I looked up and noticed the others diving down after us and next thing I knew, I felt something hard hit my back and then I blacked out.

~Solstice’s POV~

I always feared that I wouldn’t be able to see, to forever be trapped in my dark world, but now, I didn’t fear that as much. Yes, the glasses are difficult to get used to, but I’m getting there. I like being able to go outside when the sun’s out without it being painful and I also like not being a nuisance to everyone.

We were flying to where the Flock lives and everything was going great until Specter began to plummet down to earth.

Cinder was the first to respond and flew down after him and then Fang and Hail followed suit. The rest of us threw glances at each other before flying down after them.

Once I saw Cinder grab hold of Specter, I thought that the worst was over, but I was wrong. They continued to fall and soon disappeared amongst the trees.

My mind couldn’t comprehend what just happened. Specter is one of the strongest in our small group and just seeing him fall out of the sky like that made me think that something serious was wrong with him.

Once the rest of us caught up to the others, we were already on the ground. Fang and Hail were already by the unconscious pair.

“What happened?” questioned Gazzy. I looked over at Chai and noticed that she was probably trying to say something.