Free Maximum Ride Forever by James Patterson

doesn’t really seem like a priority for you.”
    Iggy stood up. “We want to learn who’s still alive, but you’re too worried about who’s dead.”
    Like my mom. I didn’t know what to say. Instead, I stormed out of the cabin, hoping to see Fang soaring back toward us, like he’d just gone out for a morning zip around the block. But no… things don’t work the way they used to in the pre-apocalyptic world. No Hollywood endings here.
    I spotted Nudge and Total in the garden over by Akila’s grave. “Has anyone seen Fang?” I called out.
    Nudge shook her head miserably. She looked like she’d been crying all night.
    Iggy and Gazzy came out of the cabin wearing their backpacks.
    “You’re really going, then?” I said angrily as they strode past. “That’s it?”
    “Maybe you should start trusting
us
for a change,” Iggy said. “You ready, Gasman?”
    Gazzy glanced up at the roof. Angel was balancing on top of the lightning rod, swaying with the wind. She didn’t make a move to come down.
    “Let’s see if America is still the land of the free.” Gazzy arranged the pack straps on his shoulders, and both he and Iggy snapped open their wings.
    Nudge walked over to join me. As we watched the boys take off, I shoved clenched fists deep into mypockets. Silent tears ran down Nudge’s face, and when Total put his paws against her legs, she bent down and held him tight.
    Before I could even process the fact that I might never again see these kids I’d known since they were hatchlings, Total pulled away from Nudge and touched my hand with his wet nose.
    “Fang left at dawn,” he said quietly. “I think he wanted me to tell you.”
    “He—” I squeaked, but the words felt strangled in my throat. After… last night? I thought that had cemented things between us. Now it looked like it had done the opposite.
    I’d known the truth, deep in my bones, even if I hadn’t wanted to believe it at first. Now it was real, verified: He wasn’t coming back, despite everything. Despite me. He was
gone
gone. Total’s sad eyes confirmed it.
    Fang really was gone.
    Forever.

23
    I STARTED TO hyperventilate.
    “You know that boy adores you, Max,” Total said.
    “Stop it,” I said, covering my ears and squeezing my eyes shut tight.
    Tears threatened to overflow, but I couldn’t give in to them, not yet. I was too furious—at Iggy and Gazzy for leaving, at Fang for not even bothering to say good-bye, at Angel for starting this whole thing.
    I stomped across the yard and glared up at our little towheaded mystic. Angel was crouched like a gargoyle, her lips pursed into a pout.
    “Are you happy with yourself?” I snarled. “We could’ve figured out a plan. A place to go together. Instead, you broke up the whole flock!”
    She looked down at me sadly, unblinkingly, for a long time. Finally, she stepped off the lightning rod and fluttered down to the ground. “I should get going, too,” she said.
    With those words, the reality finally hit home: I was going to lose her—again. As hard as I’d tried to keep us together through the years, she was leaving, along with everyone else—my mom, Ella, Dylan, Akila, Fang, Gazzy, Iggy…
    The anger disappeared, and I reached out and clutched her to me in a fierce hug. What else could I do?
    “Please,” I whispered. “You can’t go.”
    Angel wrapped her arms around my neck and I pressed my face into her ashy, once-fluffy locks, remembering how I use to smooth her hair from her face when she was little, how I’d promised I would protect her. I imagined Angel out in that awful new world alone, without her flock. Without me.
    I’m not your baby anymore, Max
, her voice said in my head.
I never really was.
    She wriggled out of my grasp and turned to Nudge and Total. “Take care of each other, okay?”
    Nudge nodded and hugged her tearfully, and Total licked her face, leaving odd clean streaks. Angel unfurled her wings, her primary feathers still tipped with crud from the