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
BREAKING
UP IS HARD
TO DO
56
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.”
And just like that, boom: I had one.