Maximum Ride : A Second Forever

1

The crisp morning was brisk, but I couldn't have cared less. I ran out to the cliffs, the ones at the very edge of Peru that met the sea below. I looked up at the sky, which was still dim but getting brighter. I breathed in the cool air, smelling the salt from the ocean spray. Inhale, exhale. I patiently waited, looking to the east. Almost. I stood at the very edge of the cliff, watching as the first sliver of sun peeked out from behind the horizon, and I smiled. Leaning forward, I looked over the edge, took one last look at the sun and jumped.

Now, dear reader, before you go and make assumptions, just... listen, okay? I promise you, I'm not suicidal, and I promise you, I fully intended to take a flying leap off of a cliff. For those of you who have been keeping up with the fun and fabulous adventures of the flock, you'll get the pun. If this is your first dip into the pool of the truth, both what will come and what is history (or Her-story, if we're getting technical), I highly suggest going back to the first book, because I'm sick of explaining it. If, however, you are well informed of who I am, I sincerely apologize for interrupting this story.

But anyway.

I love freefalling. It's the best feeling. It's like the old saying- it's not the fall that hurts, just the landing. And I can say, the falls are fun, but only if you have massive 13-foot wings to snap out and save yourself from certain death. Which, you know, I do.

As I fell closer and closer to the rocks below, I braced myself, and just as I was seconds away from going splat, I unfurled my tawny brown wings and soared upward. I flew gracefully, spinning and twisting in the open air. I laughed at every breeze I caught.

"Yeah!" I screamed. Why shouldn't I? There was no one to hear me. My lungs burned as I shouted.

"Whoo!" I tucked and plummeted, doing a dive-bomb just like the ones Gazzy taught us.

I remember when he taught Phoenix how to do them. She almost didn't catch herself at the end. They nearly gave me a heart attack, and I definitely disciplined the Gasman for it.

I sighed, remembering. I looked at the faint pink still in the sky - you know, the kind when the sun is almost finished rising? Then, I saw a black dot speeding towards me. A feeling of horror instinctively settled in my gut as the thought popped into my brain like a reflex - Erasers. But then I shook the thought out of my head. The Erasers were gone. They didn't survive the apocalypse. Neither did any of the other minions of Dr. Gunther-Hagen, like the Horsemen.

Well. One did.

Dylan.

But I find it too hard to talk about the adorable boy (he wasn't actually a horse, that's just what Gunther-Hagen's guards were called), my "perfect match," who made me candlelight dinners in treehouses he built and kissed the pain away when Fang was gone and tried to kill Fang and tore apart a town and saved me again and again and then sacrificed himself for Fang. God, I loved Dylan. But I loved Fang more. It was just the truth, and I couldn't bear telling Dylan that. But like I said, I can't talk about it.

After I decided that the blur coming towards me wasn't a threat, I calmed down, but still braced myself. That's when I realized that the black mass was moving almost as fast as I can go in hyperdrive. And I've only met one living thing in all 23 years of my life who can do that.

Fang.

I smiled, laughed maniacally, and took off. I poured on the speed, and though I could go faster than him, I knew he'd keep up. I sped through tunnels in the cliff face that Iggy discovered (how a blind guy can navigate narrow tunnels while flying, I'll never know). I could clear the openings fine, but Fang has to be a little careful. His wingspan is larger than mine, and even though he's had it for eight years, he still is cautious about going through tight spaces with his prosthetic wing. I could tell he was then, too, because he started to trail back. I slowed down and let him catch up. When I burst out of the other end of the tunnel, I soared upward, and Fang followed suit. I fell into a path that I traveled all the time with Fang, and I knew that he could figure out where I was going. I went into hyperdrive again, and he did the same.