Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

18

Okay. Despite the imminent sunrise, I felt better once we were flying above the treetops.

But still! How stupid was that? What kind of a loser was I, to let us fall asleep in the middle of a freaking rescue! I thought about Angel waiting for us, and my heart clenched. With a sense of dread, I banked and set us going about ten, twelve degrees southwest. Anxiety fueled my wings, and I had remember to find good air currents, set my wings at an angle, and coast when I could.

"We had to rest," Fang said, coming up beside me.

I shot him an upset glance. "For ten hours?"

"Today we've got another four hours to go, maybe more," he said. "We couldn't have done it in one shot. It was late when we left. We're going to have to stop again anyway, right before we get there, and refuel."

There's nothing more annoying than cold logic and reason when you've got a good fit going.

Fang was right, of course -- sigh -- and of course we'd have to stop against. We hadn't even hit the California border yet. Far from it.

"We going to storm the place or what?" Fang asked an hour later.

"Yeah, Max, I was wondering what your plan was," said Nudge, coming up alongside. "I mean, there's only three of us, and a whole bunch of them. And the Erasers have guns. Could we, like, drive a truck through the gates? Or even into the building? Or maybe we could wait till nightfall, sneak in, and sneak out with Angel before anyone notices us."

That crazy thought cheered her up. I kept silent -- I didn't have the heart to tell her we had about as much chance of that as we did of flying to the moon. But if worse comes to worst, I had a secret Plan C. If it worked, everyone would escape and get free. Except me. But that was okay.