Maximum Ride: The New Breed

(Rose)

Rose dropped to the floor at the new resting place. She was panting and shaking uncontrollably. Tears ran down her face. Rose reached up to touch the deep cut on her arm. Blood was running down the back of the hand. She had tripped while everyone was escaping from the clearing. Everyone was recovering from the shock.

ZT was resting on the ground not far away from Rose. Lexy gasped in pain and clutched her side. In the dim light shining between the trees Rose couldn't see ZT very well. She crawled over using one arm and stared down at him. Blood had soaked into patches on his clothes.
"Are you ok?" Rose whispered.
ZT nodded quickly and tied to look brave but Rose knew he felt weak. She raised her eyebrows as he winced. she wanted to help everyone but had no idea how to.

Someone gripped Rose's shoulders and led her away from him and over to Kei, Mayze and Nate who were sitting down tiredly. Rose turned round. Colt was walking away to check on the injuries. Reed leant aganist a tree, unsure of what to do. Rose narrowed her eyes then swivelled round to look at Mayze. Mayze gave her a sad smile. Rose tried to indicate to Reed using just her eyes to find out what Mayze could see. Mayze shrugged and yawned. Nate gazed at the floor deep in thought. Rose sighed and drew her knees to her chest.

Reed-

For some reason or other the side of my head was hurting. I reached up and discovered that I had fallen on a rock, but I felt blood too. The transmitter had been smashed by the rock and had cut my head open. I looked up to see everyone leaving. They think that more Erasers are coming, I thought. I quickly got up and followed the rest of the group.

As we passed a stream, I threw the remainders of the transmitter into it. No one noticed me or no one cared. But I hoped it was the first.

When we got to there new campsite, everyone got busy with the wounded. Now I had time to think. My head filled with questions. Why had there only been one Eraser? Why had it attacked a mutant? Why hadn't the whitecoats sent more Erasers to bring the mutants back to safety? And why did I save the mutant when I might have been going against orders?

[Stella]

I watched the new guy, Reed, throw something into a cool stream. With my own eyes, for the first time. It was dark enough now that the sun had set. I turned away and watched Colt led Rose away to Nate, Kei, and Mayze. I followed them silently and stood behind her.

I watched and listened to everything I could, becoming as useful as possible. The white coats hadn’t trained me. I had never protested anything, but they didn’t trust my silence. My gaze drifted to the stars above, their light stung my eyes slightly. There were so many and I felt so insignificant.

A gasp of pain from Lexy tore me out of my aimless thoughts. I hadn’t been hurt at all, thanks to this new flock. I pushed down the tears, trying to be strong. Walked over to Reed.

“Um…I’ll look out for more Erasers.” I offered, when nobody answered, I stepped from under a tree and flew.

Reed-

to last poster, BTW I'm not a girl

((Mayze))

I knelt beside ZT, "I'm ok." he said. The wind was frantically buzzing around him. I knew he was lying, he must've hurt like hell.

I raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure you are. But until I'm sure of it, you're staying right here. I actually read some medicine books at the School; in case I ever escaped."

ZT tried to smile, "Alright. I guess I can obey, just this once, oh Healing One."

I laughed at the sloppy grin ZT gave me. His acting was actually pretty good but the wind told me he was in pain. I looked around at who else was injured, Lexy was pretty much the only one. I took a head count after: Nate, ZT, Rose, Kei, Colt, Reed, Stella, Lexy and myself. Nine of us in one flock. That was a lot, and that was good.

I shuffled on my knees over to Lexy, who was holding her side next to a tree. Colt hovered over her, asking her several times to let go of her side.

"Let me see your wound." Colt coaxed Lexy.

Lexy vigorously shook her head, "It'll hurt. I know it will."

A little frustration bled across Colt's face but it quickly disappeared. He heard me come up behind him, he turned.

"She won't let me see what's wrong." he whispered, "I'm afraid she'll bleed to death."

I nodded and crouched down so I was at Lexy's face level, "Lexy?"

She looked up at me, her eyebrows knit together in pain. The wind was going crazy, "I know that hurts, can I see it? I promise I won't touch it."

She shook her head but then looked worriedly at her side. Her shirt was almost completely red.

"Please?" Colt asked from behind me.

She shivered, "I guess."

She moved her hand from her side, wincing. She moved her shirts up, slowly, to reveal a bullet wound. I inhaled, "Get me some yarrow! It looks like a white flower and its leaves are long and spikyish."

Colt nodded behind me and ran off to look for some. "Yarrow grows in..."I strained to remember, "Dry fields!"

Colt was gone and I looked at the wound, I need to bind it after. Colt returned with the wrong plant, "Try again. The middle is yellowish and it goes to white. The leaves are the same."

He ran off again to look for the leaves. I felt Lexy relax. She had slipped into sleep. I was getting worried, I needed to get the bullet out. Or maybe it could stay in? I almost started to panic. I stopped myself and cleared my head, I was going to leave the bullet in there, hoping to God that it didn't do anything.

Colt returned with the right plant. "Thank you." I said, "I'm gonna need more for ZT. And extra in case we run into the Erasers again."

"Alright." he took one last look at the plant, gave it to me, and ran off. Nate came over to see what I was doing.

"Do you need any help?" he asked.

"Can you sit beside her if she wakes up? It's going to hurt."

Nate nodded grimly and sat, ready to restrain her. I picked the leaves off the plant and put them in my mouth. A pungent and bitter taste entered my mouth as I started chewing it and it took all I had not to spit it out. I shuddered and spit the pulp out into my hands. I took the pulp and put it directly into the wound.

Lexy woke abruptly and emitted a scream. She remembered where she was and stopped. She yelped as she felt me putting on the yarrow. Nate held her arms down as he explained what was going on. I finished spreading the pulp on the wound and saw the bleeding stop. It had actually worked

I leaned back and looked at the remaining pulp. I hadn't noticed Colt came back until I saw him doing the same thing to ZT. "Are you going to be ok?" I asked Lexy.

"You tell me." she responded.

I laughed, "You'll be fine."

I stood and walked over to ZT and Colt. I examined all of his cuts and bruises. Half of them were covered by Colt's yarrow pulp. "I'll help." I offered. I told ZT to take his shirt off so we could start on the cuts under his ratty shirt. He slowly took it off, cringing several times. When he got it off Colt and I attacked the cuts on his torso.

(ZT)

It felt good and bad as I was coated with the flowers. It helped, but like any cut medicine, it's going to hurt worse before it starts to hurt better. Often when I got hurt, I would pinch another part of my body near the cut. Then the pain evened out, which, in a weird way, seemed to help. Now there was no frickin' place on my body that wasn't already hurting. Except my wings... and my hair... and I guess most of my face. I had protected that pretty well, so I just had a few scratches on my cheeks and forehead. Luckily the eraser never got close to my eyes.

Finally, Mayze and Colt were done. I felt awkward, and wanted to put my shirt back on, but couldn't because it would make the cuts on my back and chest worse yet.

I felt a lot better, so I tried to stand up again. Soon after I had stood up before, I had to lay down again. But Mayze stopped me, saying that the yarrow would work better if I stayed still.

Luckily no one was in a hurry to leave yet... for now, at least, there was no danger of me getting left behind.

The worry of getting left behind must have showed on my face--or maybe I murmured it, I was having trouble staying focused... I was ready to fall asleep, or unconscious. Mayze said, "Don't worry, we won't leave you here." She blushed slightly. "I won't, at least."

I smiled, glad--again--to have a friend. "I know," I said. "I trust you... I won't ever leave you, either."

Then I left consciousness.

(Rose)

Rose got to her feet, gripping her arm and walked across the new clearing. The cut was still dripping down her arm and off her fingertips as she joined Colt and Mayze. She held out her arm to show them. Mayze took it and examined the cut.
"How did that happen?" She asked gently.
Rose shrugged then winced.
"I fell over." She mumbled.
Mayze didn't have any more yarrow but Colt spat out some pulp before she could ask. Mayze paused then reluctantly let Colt drop it into her hand. Rose scrunched her nose then tensed her arm. Mayze put yarrow over the wound then smiled.
"Is everyone patched up now?" she laughed.
Rose thanked Colt and Mayze by giving then a quick hug before skipping away.

"She bounces back quickly," Mayze muttered.
"How are Lexy and ZT?" Colt asked.
They both turned around to look at them. Lexy was sleeping on her opposite side while ZT seemed more unconcious then anything. Rose curled up into her usual little ball and stretched her wings out around her. Her habit of curling up into small spaces came fom the tiny cages everyone had been stuffed into for years.

She felt bad for everyone else. They had been locked up for longer then her but at least they had got to train. She still felt upset about not being aloud out. Reed glided past her slowly like a ghost and sat on his own again.

(ZT)

I woke up around dawn, and Mayze and Colt were still there. They sat a little ways off, talking. Suddenly, I felt angry and jealous at Colt.

Slowly, I stood up, and they didn't stop me this time. It didn't even seem like they had noticed me yet. I started to get really mad.

But I heard what they were talking about, and they were just discussing the injuries among the new flock. I stood up. I felt a lot better. I glanced around at everyone. The only injured were Lexy, Rose, and me. If that was all, how could Mayze and Colt talk for so long?

I wanted to call out, but didn't. I just stretched out my wings and pushed into the air.

I just hung there for a second, but I loved the feeling.

It also got everyone to notice me... including Mayze. My anger towards Colt dissolved when she smiled at me, happy that I was recovering. I remembered the night before, and hoped that Mayze would still like me now... even if I was a little bit too close to dying.

She came over to me.

(Lexy)

I laid on my side trying to breathe I felt as if my throat was closing up. I turned on the oppoisite side and threw up, blood coming along with it. I needed to burn calories, most of the flock needed to just to be healthy. I wasn't up to it.

*it's short I know*

(Lexy)

I looked at Mayze tears stung at my eyes but all I could do was push them back because they weren't going to fall. I refused to let the people in the flock see me cry.

"We can help." Mayze said to me.
I shook my head... "It's too late, and you know it. I'm going to die. Just face it. Call Colt back it's no use, just take care of them... For me? Please." I wasn't finished when she said,
"Your not gonna die, I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep. Can you have someone kill me, I don't wanna go through all this pain, M. I don't wanna die slowly." She shook her head.
"Please, don't say that."
"Why not? It is too late." I felt my black hair cling to my neck I was sweating, the first stage of dying. After a while I'll be so numb I won't be able to feel anything and then I would eventually die.

(Rose)

The flock could see Lexy was in lots of pain still. Rose's wings were arched like a cat's back when it's angry.
"We can't do this," she whimpered.

Lexy was lying on the floor. She drew in another gasp of pain.

Everybody slowly spread out around her. Colt sat down on a tree stump and gazed at Lexy.
"I don't know how long i'm going to last." she said quietly.
Rose's wings drooped and her green eyes widened with sadness. The outside world was even worse then being experimented on by whitecoats.
"No!" Rose cried, tears streaming down her face.

Mayze crouched down next to her and looked at her injury. It was even worse. Most of her shirt was stained red. Rose stared up at everyone. They all stood in silence, unsure of what to do.
"Can't we do something" Mayze asked.

Rose hated seeing people in pain. Colt caught her eye then dropped his gaze back to Lexy.
"Well I think we should respect her decision." Colt voiced.

Everyone began to slowly nod. There was just one question left. Who should do it?

(Lexy)

*I know I'm writing alot... I know*

I looked at Rose, then at Mayze and Colt. My body started to going into shock. I was gasping for breath as blood started coming out of my mouth and nose. My breaths were very loud as was my gasping. Rose grabbed the back of my neck and barried my face into her collarbone. I was getting blood all over her. I was going into physical shock. I couldn't see her but I felt Rose fight back tears. I gave up, not into death, but into the darkness. Rose laid my head back against the tree as I stopped gasping. Blood still came out of my closed mouth and the rest dried by my nose. Colt reached out his hand to check for a pulse. I quickly grabbed his hand, shock by my adrenaline I spoke to him directly,

I'm... not dead.. yet." I said with a serious face.

*Maybe, I should die, but not killed off the storybook, like the second Maximum Ride, Ari comes back "from the dead"... maybe we could do that here too? IDK just a thought*

Reed-

I didn't know what to do. Wether to stay and see if the whitecoats could keep lexy alive, or to go with the rest of them. I wonderd, Is this what happens to mutants without medication? And suddenly I decided, I would go with the new flock. Somehow or other, I would have to get them back before they all died.

(ZT)

I looked around. Lexy was hurt. Bad. I could tell she was probably dying. I overheard the conversation. She wanted to be put to death. I could probably do it. I remember, early on, killing a whitecoat. But after that I realized that I needed them to trust me. Somehow they did... they thought they could tame me.

I wanted to be known for being brave, reckless, crazy, smart, strong... and overall, a good fighter. But could I kill one of my own?

(Lexy)

I looked at all of them and spoke anger in my voice.

"Stop it, Rose, don't you dare cry, or feel bad for me.... any of you. I won't take pity. Now do it. Hurry up. Kill me." I spoke as I stood and turned my back to all of them spreading my arms in a cross sort.

"Do it now." I spoke.

"I can't, do it. I just can't do it." someone spoke. "I can't take this."

"Someone just do it, please." I begged closing my eyes. Hoping it would be over... and soon. Clutching my side as sweat tricked down my forehead.

"ZT, you still have the gun, right?" I asked him, not turning to face any of them.

"Yeah, so?" He knew what I was asking.

"Use it. put a bullet in my head. End it." I spoke my voice shaking.