“I have video!” Total said, happily trotting beside me.
Inside, the flock was a little… different. Besides the limbs in casts and stitched-up wings, everyone had bruises, black eyes, and assorted scrapes, but no one looked at me when I walked in.
“What’s going on?” Dylan whispered.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” said Total. “Have they been taking freak pills? Because they’re all acting strange.”
“Hey, guys,” I said, a little too loud. “Everyone okay?”
Nobody moved, not even my mom, who, of all people, I thought I could count on to lead the Max welcoming committee.
“Mom?” I said, walking over to the couch where she was resting. “How’s your arm?”
She looked at me, and I felt… empty. I mean, my mom was the person who had taught me that people really can show love through their eyes. Maybe I was imagining things, but she just seemed… different.
“It’s okay,” she said. “How are you, Max?” She sounded like she didn’t care much one way or the other.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m sorry I stayed out all night. We decided to try to spy on the Gen 77 school, and—”
“Did you find Hans’s body?” she said, interrupting me.
“No. We looked, but we ended up finding these spider-eyed ’noid kids, who—”
“That’s great, honey. Can you scoot over a bit? I’m trying to watch the news.”
Angel, Dylan, and I looked at one another, like Okayyy, then we really took in the view:
Nudge, covered in bandages, was lying quietly on the floor by herself, looking miserable.
Gazzy was sitting at a table playing with Ella’s old Legos. He was making little people. Not making houses and then exploding them, not blowing things up. Just making little people. Quietly.
Jeb was on crutches, brooding, watching Gazzy from across the room. He looked distraught. Okay, I’ll give him a pass since he’d been one breath away from pancaking.
Ella and Iggy were sitting in the kitchen, putting peanut butter and jelly on saltine crackers. Ella was chatting up a storm, and Ig was nodding enthusiastically at her like a bobblehead doll, an idiotic grin on his face. Neither of them even acknowledged my presence.
My heart seized with sudden understanding: the flock was majorly peeved at me for ditching them in the desert.
Dylan sensed that I was on edge and stepped closer to support me. I was freaking out. It would’ve been so nice just to lean into his warmth…
Instead, I shot him a look that said “I will break your fingers like a nutcracker if you touch me right now” and turned to Angel.
“Ange? Powwow. Stat.” I said.
She nodded. I felt a pang of regret when I saw Dylan’s hurt face as Angel and I walked out onto the deck, but the flock was my first priority, regardless of those fluttery feelings I kept having that were severely cramping my style.
“Oh, my God,” I said as soon as we were outside. “Why didn’t you warn me? Is it just me? They’re totally giving me the cold shoulder, aren’t they? Are they trying to punish me?”
Angel shook her head. “Don’t worry, Max. They’ll get over it. They’re mostly just exhausted and in shock from everything. Something happened between Gazzy and Jeb out there, and I think Gazzy’s still reeling, but he’s okay.”
“But even my mom…”
Angel cocked her head as if she knew something I didn’t. “Yeah, something’s kind of up with your mom.” I tensed, but Angel continued. “I’m way more worried about Ella and Iggy, though.”
“Yeah,” I huffed. “Could they be any more annoying with all that puppy-eyed sappiness? It’s like a barfwich in there.”
“No, it’s more than that,” Angel said. “But I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s just—I can always dip into their minds. Not that I do, of course,” she added quickly.
“No, of course not,” I said.
“They just don’t feel like themselves. I mean, they haven’t been replaced with clever replicas or bots. It’s definitely them. But they’re a little—off.” She frowned.
“Okay,” I said, “Let’s find out what the deal is with the Stepford Flock.”
32
“MY FRIEND WAS on TV earlier,” Ella said, all up in my grill.
She licked peanut butter off her fingers and handed a paper towel to Iggy.
“Oh yeah?” I asked, backing up. “Which friend?”
“Someone from school,” she said. “They had this huge rally with all the schools from the district. We talked about the earth and everything that was wrong with it and all the changes that needed to be made,” she said, breathless. “You would’ve loved it, Max. Then we had to stand up and make a pledge if we cared enough about the world to take action, and I stood up, and then they paired us with new friends, and my friend was the best. He told me everything was going to be okay if we just followed his lead, and I believe him, Max. It’s going to be beautiful.”
“Hey, you know I’m all for fixing the planet,” I said. But Ella seemed a little… fanatical all of a sudden.
My mom looked up. “Was that the friend who brought the flyers by?”
“What flyers?” Dylan asked.
“The flyers are an invitation to change,” Ella said earnestly.
“Yeah, I can see you’ve already RSVP’d,” I said, eyeing her.
“It’s really amazing, Max,” said Iggy, waving a couple of bright sheets of colored paper at me. “You have to trust the message and take action. We need to hand these out to everyone we know, so they can join the cause.”
I raised an eyebrow. Cynical Iggy wants to “join the cause”? I was officially creeped out.
Angel, Dylan, and I all looked at each other.
“Yeah?” I said, feigning interest. “Let’s see ’em.”
“Sure,” said Robo Iggy.
I unfolded the magenta paper to find pictures of smiling kids and these words:
We know you’re special! We know you’re one of us.
We care about you. Come join us and learn about the message of the One Light.
Brought to you, with love and caring, by the Doomsday Group
“ ‘Love’ and ‘caring’ and ‘Doomsday Group’ don’t seem to go together,” Dylan said, leaning over my shoulder and making the hairs on my neck stand up. “Who’s this Doomsday Group, and what are they selling?”
“Basically, they make it sound like a big, ecofriendly glee club,” I said. “But it seems a little over the top.”
Nudge got up and slunk over, looking absolutely wrecked. “Ella’s been ranting about this all afternoon,” she whispered. “At first I thought Iggy was just being supercute and lovey-dovey and humoring her, but since that weirdo came to the door and talked to him, he’s started to seem really wonky.”
“It’s just for kids. This will set us free.” Ella’s voice, suddenly loud, made me jump. I looked into her glazed eyes, and a shiver ran down my spine. This was… eerily familiar.
“Just for kids?” I asked. She stepped closer to me and so did Iggy. I started to feel a little hemmed in.
“Yeah. ’Cause we’re the only ones who can be trusted,” Ella said, her eyes sparkling. “The group is meeting at my school tomorrow, and I really want everyone to come. Say you’ll come, Max. Please!” She was practically shouting at me.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “It’s just that, I mean, it’s not the best time for the flock. We’re kind of in the middle of something, you know? Hansy’s gone, everyone’s beat up, and Dylan and I found this hidden school of spider-eyed kids.” I couldn’t help looking at Dylan and remembering our night spent curled up together on the ledge…
“It’s really important that you come, Max,” Iggy insisted, and now even my name was starting to sound a little creepy. Ella held Iggy’s hand and nodded at him encouragingly, then said, “The One Light will set us free.”
“And what are you guys going to do with this group?” I asked, feeling like I wa
s talking to Pod People.
Iggy and Ella replied at the exact same time, in the exact same tone of voice. “We’re going to save the world,” they said, and stepped closer to us.
33
“I THINK I found something,” Maya said, looking intently at the computer screen.
The rest of the gang had gone out for lunch, but Fang had wanted to stay behind to research the Doomsday Group and update his blog. More news stories on the group had been popping up by the hour, and the Internet was exploding with posts about this hip new “earth cleanse.”
To his surprise, Maya had volunteered to stay with him.
“Check it out. These aren’t whitecoats, Fang. They’re kids. All of them.”
“No way.” Fang leaned over her shoulder, reminding himself to keep it light. They were just doing research. He didn’t have to think about her sweet smile or the sound of her voice.
“Seriously,” she scrolled down. “I’m getting hits for ‘Doomsday Group’ literally all over the globe. It’s gone viral on the Net just since yesterday.” She opened a new window. “And check this out. All these kids are posting about the enhanced generation. They’re babbling about a future world of clones,” she whispered. “It’s so messed up.”
Fang nodded, raising his wings a little. “I get it. Believe me.”
“You actually don’t get it,” Maya said, turning away from him. “You think we’re alike because we’ve both been genetically engineered, because we both have wings.” She got up and began pacing. “But I’m a clone. Can you even fathom what that’s like? To be made from someone else? Someone who still exists?”
Fang’s throat felt dry. What was he supposed to say?
“You are different, Maya. You can still be you,” he said lamely. She laughed bitterly—clearly, that hadn’t been the right thing to say.
“You mean I can be her,” she said. He started to protest, but she shook her head. “I’ve seen those brooding looks. And you know… you’re great.” Fang felt a pang. “But do you think I don’t know why you look at me that way? I know you want me to be her. Everyone has always wanted me to be her. But I can’t. I’m just… me.”
She looked up at him seeming totally vulnerable despite how amazingly powerful she was. But she was right. She’d always be a bit like Max to him. And Fang, despite his wrecked heart, almost couldn’t keep himself from kissing her. Thankfully, before he could screw up in such a royal way, the gang burst through the door, howling and armed with…
Cheez Whiz.
34
I TOOK A big step back and found myself against a wall. “Whoa!” I said, holding up my hand like a traffic cop. Pod-Ig and Pod-El stopped. I smiled. “Give me a little space here. Please. I need room to read this stuff.” I turned the flyer over, and they edged away.
“We’re going outside again for a sec. Maybe you guys should go tell Gazzy about saving the world,” I suggested. “He didn’t look totally convinced.” Ella nodded eagerly. I felt kinda bad for sicking her on the Gasman, but if he’d been immune to her brainwashing up till now, I figured he was safe.
I watched through the window as they drifted toward the kitchen. My knees were shaking, and I could feel my heart racing.
“So, we’re all agreed that the lovebirds are totally, like, programmed, right?” I huffed.
“Affirmative,” Total said, nodding.
I sighed, annoyed. “So basically, in the middle of all this other crap, we’ve gotta go take out Ella’s flyer-wielding ‘friend.’ I have a can of whoop-butt at the ready for the cool kid who sucked out my family’s brains,” I said.
“Agreed,” said Dylan.
“So, we should go to the school tomorrow, right?” asked Angel. “Ella said everyone was going to meet these guys.”
“Yep,” I said glumly. I mean, I don’t go to school voluntarily as it is. So to go so I could track down the people who had sucked out my family’s brains made school even less appealing, if that’s possible.
“And Max,” said Angel, ever the bearer of bad news. “There’s something else.”
“Something else besides this?” I didn’t know how much more I could take.
“Are you talking about that video?” Total asked. Angel whirled around and glared at him.
“What video?” I asked.
“Fang’s… blog,” Total whispered, licking a paw casually, the way he did when he was embarrassed.
My jaw dropped. “Someone had better start talking!”
35
“WHAT VIDEO?” I asked again, my eyes like daggers.
Total flopped down on his belly and rested his head on his paws.
“Angel?” I pressed.
“I may have seen something on Fang’s blog,” she admitted reluctantly.
“And you didn’t tell me?!”
“You made us promise never to mention his name!” she said. I hate it when they throw unhelpful details in my face.
Dylan stepped away looking a little wounded, and I actually had to keep myself from pulling him back toward me. As if I didn’t have enough to deal with—now my heart felt like it had been run through a meat grinder.
I gritted my teeth. “Show me.”
Angel went in the house to get our laptop, then brought it outside. I watched over her shoulder as she called up Fang’s blog and clicked on a video link. I held my breath while it played. It was grainy, poor quality, like it had been shot on someone’s cell phone. It showed a hotel room and several older kids sitting around, some watching the news on TV in the background. I stared at their faces but hadn’t seen one of them before.
Then Fang and someone else came into the picture. The camera panned up to reveal her face, and I gasped. There I was, in a strange hotel room! Fang was grinning in that slightly crooked way that made my heart beat faster, and I grinned back and aimed a can of Cheez Whiz at him. He playfully opened his mouth, and the other kids laughed. Then the on-screen me actually shot Cheez Whiz into his mouth. We laughed some more, then I shot Cheez Whiz into my own mouth.
Except that it had never happened. I had no memory of that day. Weirdly, on the TV they were watching, the date that had flashed in front of the news was… today. Just a few hours ago.
I stared at Angel. “And I don’t remember this cute little scene because…?” Then it hit me, before she even answered. And my stomach dropped down somewhere around my knees.
“Max II.”
Angel nodded and paused the video.
I stared at the computer screen, my face frozen, laughing into Fang’s face. He was looking at her exactly the way he used to look at me. I hadn’t thought I could possibly feel worse about the whole Fang fiasco, but I’d been wrong.
Not only had he left, but he’d replaced me. Like, immediately. Replaced me with an exact copy of me. How unfair was that? I mean, even if I could replace Fang with an identical but more reasonable copy of Fang, I wou—
“What’s that?” Dylan pointed at the computer.
I blinked, feeling like I’d been dipped into a fresh vat of pain. My gaze numbly followed his finger, then I saw the small TV screen in the background.
“What?” I could barely get the word out. I just wanted to go stand in a hot shower and not think.
“Look,” said Dylan.
“Oh, my gosh,” said Angel. She let the video resume.
I swallowed and tried to focus. Then I saw it: on the TV in Fang’s hotel room was a breaking news report. The headline was “The Doomsday Group: The Earth or Us?”
Fang pointed at the TV and said something I couldn’t make out. The other kids nodded.
Dylan, Angel, and I looked at one another. I felt like we were the only sane people left in a crazy, unpredictable world. Which means you should be afraid. Very, very afraid.
“What’s going on?” I wondered aloud, frustrated.
“Whatever it is, it looks like Fang wants to find out too,” said Angel.
I clenched my jaw. “Okay. Tomorrow. School.”
36
>
“BUT WHY ARE you going if we can’t go?” Nudge asked for the third time.
I covered my eyes with my hands, trying to relieve my throbbing headache. I had gotten practically no sleep last night, what with everybody acting like Pod People and then seeing Fang and his Max replacement living it up online. Plus, Total had insisted on staying at the foot of my bed, and he talked in his sleep—about his honeymoon. Frankly, TMI.
“You know why, Nudge,” I said under my breath. “I need to see what’s making the kids all Looney Tunes, get to the root of this Boom Boom Cult.” I saw Ella eyeing me from across the room. “I’m really interested in learning about their cause,” I said loudly, trying to sound sincere, which, let’s face it, is a stretch for me.
“Angel and Dylan are going,” Nudge pointed out.
“Angel can read minds,” I said under my breath again. “Might be useful for getting in. And I… need Dylan there. For support.” He gave me one of his dazzling smiles from across the room. I wolfed down a banana, ignoring the critical look on Nudge’s face.
“Nudge can come!” zombie Ella piped up. “Everyone can come. The Doomsday Group will set us free.”
“Yeah, yeah. Everything’s going to be beautiful. We get it. They’re not coming.” I turned to Nudge, lowering my voice. “Look, they got to Ella and Iggy. They could get to you too. It’s too risky if we all go.”
“But you already left us once,” Nudge whined. “Gazzy’s staring into space, all traumatized from almost letting Jeb die, and I don’t want to stay here alone. Please. I need you, Max.”
She sure knew how to rip my heart out and stomp all over it.
“I’m really sorry, kiddo,” I said, my voice softening. “I know you guys have had a rough couple of days. But you won’t be alone. My mom’s here. Jeb’s here. Gazzy’s here.”
“I’m here. What, don’t I count?” Total said, sulking.
“See, you’ve got Total too. We’ll be back soon,” I told Nudge. “Let’s jet, kids.”
Ella attended a local public school. The campus consisted of a bunch of one-story buildings painted white that were clustered around a big courtyard, with footpaths leading from one building to the next. As schools go, it wasn’t awful. I didn’t know what I expected to find, San Quentin? Considering our history with schools, that wasn’t much of a stretch for me.
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