Angel (Maximum Ride 7)

“The apocalypse is coming, and no one will be spared,” the kid said with scary conviction. “The world will be safe without humans, and every last human will die. And so will you.”

/> I shook with anger and resentment. Everyone—even my mom—had been pushing me to come see these kids, to lead them. Well, clearly, they weren’t looking for my help. I was trying to come up with a withering retort when suddenly we heard a series of pop-pop-pops and one of them yelled, “Now!”

In a flash, the ’noids broke their cord ties, leaped up, and rushed us.

Without hesitation, Dylan, Angel, and I raced to the edge of the roof and threw ourselves off.

29

“I CARE IF you save the world or not, Max,” Dylan said softly as we flew back to my mom’s house. The tip of his wing brushed mine, and I felt a bolt of electricity.

“Okay, that makes about ten of us,” I said, avoiding his eyes. My gaze fell on a little dot moving erratically far below us. An injured animal?

“What’s that kid doing down there?” Dylan asked. His exceptional raptor vision was starting to come in pretty handy.

“Looking for the nearest water park?” I said dryly.

“No, I don’t think so,” Dylan said. He still had a hard time appreciating my sarcasm. I rolled my eyes at Angel. “He’s sunburned and staggering. Must be lost.”

I glanced around us. The kid was a good five miles from anything; the chances of his making it to help were pretty slim.

“We should probably just leave him for dead, seeing as how no one actually wants to be saved around here,” I grumbled. Okay, it had been a rainy parade back at the Deathwire School for Spider-eyed Kids, and I was feeling bitter. But when I looked up, Dylan grinned at me, and before I knew what was happening, I grinned back.

“Heck, let’s go save ’im, whether he wants it or not,” Dylan said in his best Scooby-Doo voice, and I laughed. Angel glanced at me, her head cocked.

“What?” I said defensively. “I laugh sometimes.”

Long story short, we swooped down on the kid.

Okay, now, if I were staggering and lost in the desert, sunburned and parched and without a hope in the world, and suddenly, three kids with wings fluttered to a graceful landing before me, I’d be pretty sure I was hallucinating or near death or both.

This kid looked up when we landed, blinked, and said, “You again?”

My eyes widened as I plucked recognition from the attic of my brain. “You!” I said.

“You know him?” Dylan asked. “We’re in the middle of a desert!”

“I recognize him,” I clarified. “We met like forever ago” (six books ago, for those of you in the know) “in the subway tunnels in New York.”

“Where’s your computer?” I asked. Last time I saw him, he’d accused us of hacking his precious Mac, which he seemed to consider his only friend on earth.

“I don’t need it anymore,” the kid said, smiling dreamily.

“Oh yeah?” I said. “Last I knew, you were practically joined at the hip.” I mean, not literally, which, sadly, is all too possible in our world. But this was more of a codependent situation.

“I’m free now. The end is near, and soon we’ll all be free!” he shouted, raising a fist.

“Again with the world ending,” I muttered. The kid had always been a bit off, but it seemed like the heat was really getting to him.

Angel offered him her water bottle, but he shook his head. “Everything’s happening, just like my computer predicted.” His eyes glazed over. “But I don’t need it now. I don’t need anything. It’s all beautiful, man. Everything will be beautiful once we kill all the humans. You’ll see. Can’t you feel it?” He looked at me earnestly.

Okay, things were getting more than a little crazy town. “Say what, now?”

“The humans have ruined everything,” he said. “But once they’re all gone, we can start fresh again. We just need to kill the humans.”

“But… you’re human!” said Angel.

His eyes wavered, then focused on her. “Nah, not really.”