Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

6

"Max?" The Gasman's voice was very young and very scared.

I heard a horrible, low moan, then realized it had come from me.

The Gasman and Fang were leaning over me, concerned expressions on their bruised, bloodied faces.

"I'm okay," I croaked, I have no idea if I was or not. Memory came rushing back, and I tried to sit up. "Where's Angel?" My voice was strained.

Fang's dark eyes met mine. "She's gone. They took her."

I thought I might faint again. I remembered being nine years old, looking out the wired-glass lab window, watching the Erasers in the semidarkness. The whitecoats had released chimpanzees onto the School grounds and let newly made Erasers after them. Teaching them how to hunt.

The sound of the chimpanzees screeching in terror and pain still echoed in my mind.

That was who had Angel now.

Rage overwhelmed me -- why couldn't they have taken me instead? Why take a tiny kid? Maybe I would have had a chance -- maybe.

Shakily, I got to my feet. My head was spinning, and I had to lean on Fang, hating my weakness. "We've got to get her," I said urgently, trying to stay upright. "We've got to get her before they --" Horror-filled images flashed through my mind -- Angel being chased , being hurt, being killed. I gulped, shutting them down.

"Check in, guys -- are you all up for a chase?" I examined the four of them. They looked like they'd been stuffed into a blender set on "chop" 

"Yes," Nudge said a tear-choked voice.

"I'm up," said Iggy, a split lip making his voice thick.

The Gasman nodded solemnly at me.

To my horror, hot tears momentarily blurred my vision. I wiped them away with the back of one hand and called on fury to keep me going.

Just then Iggy cocked his head slightly. It was a clue for me to start listening intently. Then I heard it too: a faint engine noise.

"There!" Iggy said, pointing.

The five of us ran stiffly and clumsily toward the noise. A hundred yards through the woods brought us to a sharp drop-off maybe fifty feet above an old, unused logging road.

Then I saw it: a black Humvee, dull with dust and mud, bumping roughly over the unpaved road. My heart pounded. I knew, just knew, that my little one, Angel, was inside.

And she was on her way to a place where death came as a blessing.

It wasn't going to happen, not while I was breathing.

"Let's get her!" I cried, then backed up about ten feet. The others scurried out of my way as I ran to the edge and simple jumped out into space.

I started to fall towards the road.

Then I unfurled my wings, fast, catching the wind.

And I began to fly.