Free Maximum Ride Forever by James Patterson Page A

ash and rain. But before she took off, she turned back to me.
    “One day you’ll understand,” she said, her face aninfuriating picture of Zen confidence. “You might even thank me.”
    “I seriously doubt that,” I muttered.
    I guess we can’t all be enlightened.
Angel grinned.
See you in Russia.
    Moments later, I watched the little kid I’d raised and loved and butted heads with fly away from me. I watched her curls bouncing as she pushed off, waiting to see if she’d turn her head again, but she never did.
    Instead, Angel’s white wings rose through the ash, and soon she was a speck I couldn’t tell apart from the rest of the sky.

24
    I STOOD NEXT to the mound where we’d buried Akila, staring up at the churning sky and biting hard on the insides of my cheeks as I tried to keep from screaming.
    They’ve left. They’ve really left.
    Sure, we’d had our ups and downs. The boys had splintered off briefly before. Fang had gone off on his own more than once. Iggy had joined a cult. Nudge once wanted to cut off her wings. Gazzy almost blew up his sister, and Angel had always had a bit of a God complex.
    But this was the first time that the flock had really, truly, broken up, and it was the worst possible timing. After the world ends, you really need someone you can count on, you know?
    No problem. Just leave it to Numero Uno to pick up the pieces. As usual.
    I went back into the house, past Nudge and Total, who were sitting dejectedly at the kitchen table.
    “I used to think you couldn’t trust adults,” I announced, banging open the cupboards to search for anything we could use. “But really, you can’t trust anyone. Not kids, not mutants.”
    My fingers trembled with rage. I swiped my arm across the shelf and Total whistled as dishes clattered to the floor. I flung jars of rotten Vegemite at the wall and stabbed a dull, useless knife into the counter. Nudge gasped.
    “Nothing, nothing,
nothing
!” I bellowed.
    I collapsed onto the couch and raked my hands back through my snarled hair, trying to get a grip on myself. “How am I going to do this alone? There’s no one left.”
    “Gee, thanks, Maximum,” Total said pointedly, and strode out, his black nose pointed in the air.
    “Come on,” I called. “I didn’t mean—”
    “That we don’t count?” Nudge said coolly from the kitchen, where she was opening other cupboards. “Even though we’re the only ones who stayed with you?” Her cheek was healing, but there was still a huge, jaw-shaped wound, and it made her expression hard to read.
    I sighed. “Of course you count, Nudge. Let’s just go back to the island, all right? Like we said.”
    “There’re no
boys
left is what you meant,” she continued bitterly, cocking her head. “No Dylan. No Fang. No more cute guys to obsess over you.”
    I pressed my lips together and stared at her. “What?”
    But Nudge was on a roll. “Poor, poor Max,” she said, finding some ancient cans of tuna and an old jar of hearts of palm. Who
eats
that? “How are you going to survive with no one to fight over your attention?”
    “Nudge,” I said, getting up, “you know I’ve never been the princess. Always been the dragon-slayer. Look at me: If I wanted guys falling all over me, don’t you think I would wash up once in a while?”
    Nudge frowned but followed me through the cottage as I gathered our meager belongings, layering clothes and tucking a rusty hammer and an old water bottle into my tattered pack. It wouldn’t last much longer.
    “It’s just always about you,” Nudge said, but with less heat.
    That stopped me in my tracks. I turned and took both her shoulders, looking up into the face that might never regain its startling, budding beauty. “Sweetie,” I said softly. “It’s always about us, the flock. It’s always, always,
always
about the flock. I don’t know how to do it any other way.”
    Nudge gave a shuddering breath, then nodded and rested her untorn cheek on my shoulder. We