Ari watched him go.
Angel was keeping the humans at bay, and it was my turn. Ari and I had a troubled history-okay, we usually wanted to kill each other, and one time I did kill him-but I couldn't worry about it right now. I leaped from the cage, took a step on the ground, then snapped my wings out and was up in the air within one breath.
Oh, God, it felt so good to be up, flying, away from a world that held only pain and death for us.
"I'm so glad to see you guys," said Total, sounding a little choked up. "I thought you were dead! I didn't know what I'd do without you."
"Glad to see you again too," I said, surprising myself by actually meaning it.
Below us, Angel dropped the metal bar and zipped upward, streaming like a comet, her small face serene and beautiful. I blew her kisses through the air, my faithful partner in deception, and she beamed at me.
It was at that point that the executioners arrived and started shooting at us. I saw Jeb grab one of their arms, trying to mess up his aim, but the guy just clubbed him down with his gun, then kept firing.
We were already out of range. They would need a missile launcher to hit us now.
"Nyah, nyah, nyah," I said quietly, looking down at them. I sucked in sweet lungfuls of night air, counted my flock, and took a moment to focus my direction, feeling where we were, which way was north, where we should go.
Then I saw Ari, still on the ground. The men with guns were running toward him.
"Ari!" I suddenly screamed without thinking. "Get out of there! Come up! Come with us!"
"What?!" Fang exclaimed. "Are you nuts? What the heck are you thinking?"
Ari probably couldn't hear exactly what I said, but when he saw me waving my arms, he must have understood. He ran clumsily, a seven-year-old freak in a huge linebacker body, and forced himself into the air. A bullet grazed one of his unwieldy patched-on wings, but he kept flying awkwardly, rising upward slowly but steadily.
"Max, you are way out of line," Fang said furiously. He tossed Total through the air at Gazzy, who gave a startled cry and grabbed the little dog. "There's no way he's coming with us!"
"He saved our lives," I pointed out. "They're going to kill him."
"Good!" Fang said, a savage expression on his face. "He's tried to kill us a hundred times!"
I'd actually never seen Fang like this.
"Max, Ari's really mean," Nudge said. "He's tried to hurt you, and he's tracked us-I don't want him with us."
"Me neither," said the Gasman. "He's one of them."
"I think he's changed," I said, as Ari flew toward us.
"He helped get you guys out," Angel reminded us. "And he found Total for me."
Fang gave me an enraged, disgusted look and flew off before Ari got to us. Looking doubtful, Nudge and Gazzy went with him. Iggy heard their direction and followed.
Leaving me, Angel, and Ari behind.
55
"Thanks, Max," Ari said when he was within earshot. "You won't regret this, I promise. I'm going to keep you safe."
I frowned at him, trying not to look at his ruined, gory face. "We all keep each other safe," I said shortly, then swung into a steeply pitched right turn. I saw Gazzy and the others swooping over the School's large parking lot. An entrance there led to additional, underground parking.
"Where's Iggy?" I demanded.
The Gasman pointed downward, and I saw Iggy leaning over the open hood of a car.
"Oh, no," I muttered, as Iggy slammed the hood shut, then pushed the car toward the sloping entrance to the underground parking.
"Oh no, oh no," I continued as the car smoothly, silently rolled through the opening and disappeared. Iggy shot upward, looking happier than he had in weeks.
"And a-one, and a-two, and a-thr-," he began.
Boom! A massive explosion blew part of the top off the parking garage. We quickly flew out of range as streaming chunks of glowing red asphalt, glass, and concrete rocketed through the night sky. Alarms went off. Outdoor emergency lights flashed on.
"Way to be!" the Gasman crowed, slapping high fives with Iggy.
"Yeah," I said. "Way to be loud and obvious about where we are and what we're doing."
"High four!" Total said, holding up a paw. "That rocked!"
I felt Fang looking at me furiously, but I avoided his eyes. Ari hung back on the periphery.
I needed several moments to get a grip. Why had I asked Ari to come with us? Now everyone was mad at me. But it had seemed like the right thing to do. On the other hand, it required a perhaps ill-fated leap of faith on my part that he wouldn't suddenly turn bad again. I'm not real good at leaps of faith.
Then again, Ari was going to die soon anyway.
I wheeled around and faced the flock, their forms dimly lit by the fireball below.
Boom! Another explosion, even bigger than the first, blew out another section of the garage. I looked at Iggy, and as if he could sense it, he shrugged.
"Big garage full of big cars with big gas tanks."
Whatever. "Okay, guys, let's head north," I said briskly. No idea why, no idea where, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
Sometimes all you have is instinct, a gut feeling. It's important to pay attention to them.
I almost groaned aloud. Look what the cat dragged in, I thought. Hello, Voice.
Hello, Maximum. I'm glad you're okay.
No thanks to you, I thought as I leveled out and started flying directly north.
I've missed talking with you.
Well, I can't say that I've missed you, I thought. But I sort of missed you too.
Now I'm back.
Yep.
And you know what else was back? I saw it when I waved for the others to follow me more closely.
The scars on my arm. From taking out my chip.
Part 3
What do you know? It wasn't all a dream after all. And somehow my hand still worked now. So, bonus.
First thing we did was circle back and pick up the gear that Fang and I had stashed before we'd been caught in the desert. Then we flew through the cold night air, north, and then northeast. I can't explain how I know where to go-it's like I have an internal compass or something. At the School, when we were little, they'd done tons of experiments searching for our magnetism sensors, which tell us where magnetic north is.
They didn't find them.
The farther north we went, the higher the mountains got, and the more snow was on the ground. Was it still December? January? Had we missed Christmas? I'd have to check a newspaper the next time we were in civilization.
Fang was still radiating fury, not looking at me, flying ahead of us, not talking to anyone. Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy were also avoiding me, Angel, and Ari. I sighed.
Long flights are a good time to think things through. I guess that's true for people on airplanes too. I went on autopilot, my wings moving powerfully through the cold, my lungs pumping air in and out. Every so often we'd hit a current and coast for a while, moving our wings in marginal fractions to take advantage of nature doing the work for us.
I was born to fly. And yeah, I know tons of people before me have said that, thought that.
But I was literally born to fly, made to fly, created with the purpose of being able to propel myself through the air as effortlessly as any bird.
And I'm fabulous at it, let me tell you.
"Max?"
Nudge had dropped back next to me, but she still wasn't looking me in the eye, and she was as far away from Ari as possible.
"Yes?"
"I'm hungry. We already went through everything we had in the packs. I think the others are hungry too. Total keeps whining-you know what he's like."
"Uh-huh."
"So, uh, is there a plan to stop somewhere? Get some food?"
I looked at her. "There's always a plan."