Snowflakes Cause an Avalanche- Maximum Ride Fanfic

Max

"Can I interest you both in a bite of a desert rat?" Fang asked, landing in the huge ledge and patting his pocket."Oh, no!" Nudge replied, looking absolutely horrified. Fang took off his windbreaker and brushed some dirt off of his black shirt. He then popped something into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed loudly.

"Can't get fresher," Nudge turned away from him. "Ugh!" She exclaimed."Okay, then," said Fang."How about some kabobs? You get the vegetables." I smiled and stood up, leaning against the alcove's wall for support. Ever since the damned Eraser made those huge gashes in my legs, it's harder to walk. But with us, injures don't last long. The injuries from the first attack are completely gone, but now I have two small scars on my face; one on my chin and the other on my left cheek, just under my eye.

Nudge whirled around and hurried to Fang like food was going out of style."Where did you get them? You didn't have time to go all the way to town. Oh, my gosh, they're still hot."I chuckled at her excitement. I loved how excited she could get, even about little things. And we all needed a little cheering up.

"Let's just say some campers are going to be a little surprised," Fang said dryly, pushing off all the food and sorting them into piles."Such a delinquent," I said, earning an eye roll from him. Nudge took a grilled pepper and said,"Now this is food."She closed her eyes, looking like it tasted like heaven.

I just took a piece of grilled meat and popped it into my mouth. Utter heaven, I tell you."So I guess we have to decide whether to keep looking for Max or go try save Angel."said Fang, eating a chunk of beef. "But the Erasers said everyone else was dead. Doesn't that mean Angel and Max too?"

"There's really no way to tell," I say, picking a piece of fat off of the meat. Fang nods, agreeing with me. "Thing is, if Max isn't here, is it because she's dead? How would they have found her? Angel..." he paused, looking for the right words."Well, we knew they had Angel. That's probably all over by now."

Nudge tossed her last bits of veggies into the pile and put her head in her hands."I can't think about it." I rub her back consolingly, comfortingly. But we could never be comforted again if they were dead. "I know. But what are your-" Fang stopped, squinting, looking off into the distance.

Shading my eyes, I looked out as well. Far off, where I can't distinguish details, were two dark splotches. Probably just more hawks. Nudge sat back down and ate her last chunk of onion and licked the foil it was in.

I looked back at Fang. We just had to make out a plan. We weren't stupid, we knew we had to do something, and soon. But Fang never noticed me looking at him. He just stared off into the cloudless blue sky. I decided on looking out as well.

The two spots were getting bigger and close. Well damn, were those hawks or eagles? Abruptly, Fang stood and got out his small metal mirror. Oh, the jokes I could've made out of that. He held out his hand, catching the last bits of the sunset in the mirror, flashing the dark spot's reflection outward.

He flashed, stopped, flashed again, and then stopped. S. O. S. Save our ship. He was signalling whatever it was, and I was hoping that it wasn't flying Erasers. Or just stupid birds. The eagles became larger as they got closer. They were now spiralling in our direction.

My mouth went agape as soon as I realized that they flew too awkwardly to be eagles. I jumped up and hugged Fang tightly."You smart birdy!" I said. Fang gave an awkward sort of hug back, putting his left hand on my right hip and then us departing.

He didn't just signal flying Erasers, stupid birds or even Superman. He signaled something much more special. Seconds later, Iggy and the Gasman landed on the ledge, knocking rocks and dust particles everywhere.

"You aren't dead," Nudge muttered out. "No. You aren't dead either."Iggy said irritibly."How's about just a 'hello'?"

"Hi, guys," said the Gasman, brushing dust off of him. "We couldn't stay home-- there's Erasers all over the mountain. So we decided to come here. Anybody have a problem with that?"

I didn't even have time to say anything before I enveloped the Gasman in a huge hug. I clutched him tightly to me, as if he were my own son. "Happy to see us?" he asked, sort of giggling. I bit my quivering lower lip. They were alive. My Gasman and my Iggy were alive and well.

"Don't I get a hug?" asks Iggy, who has his hands in his pockets as if he were a cool kid from some movie. So I let go of Gasman, and Nudge hugged him, and I moved to Iggy, hugging him jus as tightly.

He was about five inches taller than I was, so his head rested perfectly on top of my own head. "Little room to breathe?" he asks, chuckling. I swatted him on the back of his head and let him go."Jackass. You ruined the moment."

---

Max was two days late, and Fang and Nudge owed me twenty bucks. Of course we had no money, so I'd bring it up later. Everyone but me, Fang, and Iggy smiled like she was Jesus as she approached. I wasn't angry, but she looked like hell. I was more worried than relieved that she was alive.

"Max! Max! I can't believe it! *Can* I believe it?" Nudge squealed, flying closer to Nudge. One after another, they all landed on the ledge, scurrying to the back where me and Iggy were. All of us where here, safe. Well, six of us at least.

"Max!" Nudge called out again, rushing over to hug her. "We were so worried-- I didn't know what happened to you, and we didn't know what to do, and Fang said we were going to eat rats, and-"

"Okay, okay, everything's okay," Max reassured her. She mouthed 'rats' at Fang, and a flicker of a grin crossed his lips and then was gone."I'm so glad to see you safe," she told Nudge. She then turned to the Gasman and Iggy, acting as bi polar as usual.

"What are you two doing here? Why didn't you stay home?"

"If they'd stayed, they'd be dog food by now, Max." I told her. For the first time since she arrived, she looked at me, her tired brown eyes leveling with mine. She gave me the look that we needed to talk later and said,"When did they start hunting you?"

"Right after we left?" She asked."No," Gazzy said slowly, but gave a glance at Iggy, who was sitting next to me, dusting the dust he couldn't see off of his pants.

"What?" Max asked, her suspiciousness showing. A lot."When did they start coming after you?" the Gasman turned to Iggy and asked,"Was it-- was it after the oil-slick Hummer crash?" Iggy rubbed his chin, thinking.

"Or maybe it was more-- after the bomb." the Gasman said in a low voice, trying to look more childlike by looking down. Those damn puppy eyes of his.

"I think it was after the bomb," Iggy agreed."That definitely seemed to tick them off." I sniggered at the look on Max's face. It was gold. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of it. "Bomb?" she asked incredulously.

"Bomb? You guys set off a bomb? Didn't that tell the Erasers exactly where you were? You should have stayed hidden!" Max yelled. I sighed and stood up, but making sure that I didn't hit my head on the roof of the cave.

"Max, they probably already knew where we were. They knew that we lived in the general vicinity." I said, stepping in between Iggy and the Gasman."It was just a matter of time," Iggy agreed, crossing his arms.

Max looked at a loss for words. Were me, Iggy, and Gazzy the only ones who thought of the Erasers?"Well, I'm glad you're safe," she breathed out lamely, and Fang tried to smother his own laughter. Max clearly ignored him.

"You're right to come here. Smart thinking. Excellent." She then moved to hug the others, and then the hug-tour came around to me. She raised a light brown eyebrow at me and I shrugged. "Ha, no homo," I joked, hugging her. She laughed, as did the others.

Finally, we departed and she held out her left fist, and the rest of us did the same, but on top of hers. We tapped each other's hands twice, then threw our arms up in the air. "To Angel!" Max yelled.

"To Angel! To Angel!" we yelled in unison. After that, we fell off the side of the cliff and opened our wings.

Next stop, Hell.

The School.