Chapter 20 - Have I Got News For You

Chapter 20: Have I Got News For You Max POV “Look let’s talk about this on the way into town”, I said quietly “We don’t want to talk about something like this in front of the others, let alone in front of Will.” Fang and Iggy nodded, and we set about waking up Angel, Gazzy and Nudge. “Nudge, sweetie, rise and shine!” I whispered in her ear. She didn’t stir, and just stayed curled up in a ball. “Oi! Nudge, wake up!” I said, giving her push onto her back. Her eyes snapped open and she murmured incoherently. “Uuuuh, what time is it?” she moaned. “Morning time,” I smiled. ”You need to wake up, me Fang and Iggy are heading into town. We didn’t want you waking up not knowing where we were.” She took a moment to register the information. “Okay, cool.” She said, sitting up, wiping her eyes. I looked over at Iggy, who was jokingly kicking The Gasman awake, accidently forcing some gas out of his belly, and Fang, who was rousing Angel. I guess I would be waking up Will then. I walked over to him. He was sleeping a bit away from the rest of us, as he had been since we got out. I leaned down over him and said in a hushed voice “Hey, Will?” He opened his eyes, and tightened his hold around Emily, who was sleeping in his arms. “Me, Fang and Iggy are going to head into town to get some chow. Are you okay keeping an eye on everyone for us? We won’t be long.” “Yeah, that’s fine.” He replied sleepily. He sat up, careful not to disturb Emily. I was about to go back to the flock when he spoke. “Um, Max, can I ask you something too?” “Fire away.” I smiled at him. He didn’t return the smile. “Um, I’ve been doing some thinking.” I instinctively sat down when he said this, sensing my legs would get tired in this crouched position. “I, err, I want to go home. I need to know, for sure, whether my parents are... gone.” I nodded in agreement and said, “Do you want us to come with you?” “Yeah, if you want to. But what I wanted to know is, erm, if they are actually... dead,” he said, struggling to admit his fears. It was the first time I had heard him say it. “If they are dead, can I, err, Emily and I, can we stay with you? You and the Flock?” “Won’t you want to live with your relatives? An aunt or uncle or grandparents?” I frowned. Will shook his head. “I don’t have any. My parents were only children. My grandparents died when I was young. I haven’t got anywhere else to go.” “Me and the flock, we’re going to have to discuss it, but I think you should think about all of your options okay? Don’t give up hope just yet.” Will nodded to show he understood, and I got up and headed off after Iggy and Fang. “So, are we okay to talk about it now?” Iggy asked, as we were walking past the shops of the town centre. “We’ve been okay to talk about it for the last hour Iggy.” I sighed. “Well then why weren’t we?” he exclaimed. I merely shrugged and made the “I dunno” sound. “It’s because there nothing to talk about.” Fang said bluntly. “Will’s going to go home, and we can carry on with our lives, and we’ll all be happy. End of.” He had such a way with words.

“No Fang that’s not ‘End of’, are we gonna fly with him home, or just let him be on his way, agree to meet up later maybe? He told me he has no other family to go to, what happens if his parents are gone?” I argued. “He asked me earlier, if once he’d gone home, and found out for certain, if he could come back with us. I don’t see a good reason why we shouldn’t let him.” “What about when we were escaping?” Fang asked “What do you mean?” I asked back. “And which escape?” “The second one. Where you said he was acting strange. How did he know exactly where he was going hmm?” he retorted. “He said he’d broken out before.” I retorted. “He did.” Iggy chipped in. “Gazzy and I saw him. Well, Gazzy saw him at least. I was present at the time.” “You see Fang? We have no reason to doubt him.” I told him. “Besides, we kept from him that his parents were dead. We owe him.” “Err, no.” Fang said. “You kept from him that his parents were dead. You owe him. We didn’t know anything about that. You, Nudge and Angel managed to keep that happy little fact to yourselves dintcha?” I stared at him, hurt. “Why are you being like this?” “Being like what?” he asked frowning. “Being an asshole!” I shouted, causing some pedestrians to give me dirty looks. “Actually seeing as we’re in England, I think the word is arsehole.” Iggy pointed out. I ignored him, and the passers by. “What have you got against Will? You’ve been rude and nasty whenever he comes up. He’s done nothing to you!” I exclaimed. “Yeah, nothing that I know of...yet.” he added. I sighed and decided to just end this. “Yeah, well either way, ultimately it’s my choice.” “How’d you figure that?” Iggy asked. “Well, seeing as I’m the leader of the flock, I make the final decision. “ I said, smirking at Fang, who looked at me silently. “And that would be...?” Iggy queried. I looked Fang dead in the eye, trying to look as angry with him as I could. He raised his eyebrows and shook his head, mouthing the word “Don’t”. “He can st-“ Max! Help! We ne.......ray us! Will is.........Come back quick! Angel voice filtered into my head, cutting me off midsentence. Angel? Angel, are you there? What’s wrong? I didn’t get anything back. “Max?” Fang asked, frowning. “Is something wrong?” “Something’s happened back at the field. We need to go back now.” I said urgently. “Up and Away.” “What?! Here, out in the open?” Iggy gasped. “In front of all these people?” “Yep, now.” I said, unfurling my wings, causing the people in the street to step back. I jumped in the air and began flapping. Looking down I saw Fang look around wide eyed, frantically at the people, who had stopped and were staring. He tapped Iggy’s hand and jumped up, after me. The people below were in awe, some had started applauding, presumably thinking it was some kind of magic trick or stunt. One screamed melodramatically whilst others had grabbed their camera phones and started taking pictures. Great, just what I needed. No doubt this would be all over the news tomorrow. “You better start talking Max!” Fang said angrily, flying beside me. “This had better be really fucking important!”

Fang POV We landed in the field five minutes after taking off, too find Will holding his head in his hands, slumped with his back to a tree, Emily sitting quietly by his side. Angel, Nudge and Gazzy ran over to us as we landed, tears streaking down Angels cheeks. “Report!” Max shouted urgently. “What happened, what’s the matter?” “It’s Will!” Angel sobbed into her arms. “He’s bad. He wants to hurt us.” Max looked up at me, astonishment in her eyes. I looked over at Will. He hadn’t moved. “What do you mean he wants to hurt us? Did he hurt any of you?” I asked Nudge and Gazzy. They shook their heads. “He’s going to!” Angel cried. “He wants to split up the flock!” “What do you mean?” Iggy asked confused. “Why would he do that? He said he wants to stay with us!” “He made a deal with Jeb! He gets set free, if he can split us up.” Angel said quietly. That was all I needed. I started striding over to Will. “Fang, wait!” Max called, but I ignored her and carried on towards Will. He looked up, and scrambled up quickly when he saw me coming, his back to the tree still. “Fang, please you don’t understand!” he said hurriedly. “If you just let me-“ but I was upon him, and grabbed his throat and held him up, choking him. Emily began screaming, and hitting my legs. “Fang... wait...” he choked. “Who do you think you are?” I hissed in his face. “You come into our flock, we take you in, we trust you, help you get your sister back, and this is how you repay us?” “Fang, stop it...” He wheezed. “If you don’t... I can’t... control it sometimes...I don’t want... to hurt... any of you...” My hands were getting colder. The same feeling I had back in the fight in the cave. I looked in his eyes, seeing his pupils begin to widen, a red tinge come into his eyes. I’d seen that before, when he had hit Ari. Before I had time to let go of him myself, Max was beside me and hit my hand away. “Fang, stop it!” she shouted at me. “You have to let him explain before you try and kill him!” “What’s there to explain?!” I shouted back. “Angel said he was going to hurt us, and split up the flock! You heard her yourself. If Angel knows its true, it must be!” Max ignored me, and asked Angel, “Can you tell us exactly what happened Angel?” Angel nodded, her crying having subsided. “We were playing hide and seek, and then Nudge asked me to help Will where he knew The Dr. from. I read his mind, but he tried to stop me. He knows him from when Jeb was talking to him about their plan. They were gonna split us up, and then Will could go back to his old life.” “Will.” Max said calmly, before any of us could speak. “Is this true?” He hesitated before saying “Well, it’s complicated. It was-“ “Will! Is this true?!” Max shouted at him, looking at him sadly. “Well, yes, it is, but you d-“ “You see! He admits it!” I exclaimed. “This is exactly what I said was going to happen Max.” “OKAY!” Will screamed at me. “I was going to do it! And I felt terrible for even considering it! But it was the only way at the time I could get Emily back, and get us out of the Facility. The whole escape was staged, and planned. But

only because I agreed to go through with it. Without me, we all would still be there! But once we escaped, and Max told me about my parents, that they were dead, that I had nothing left, everything changed. I don’t want to hurt any of you! I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t...” Will paused, tears trickling down his face. “I couldn’t do it, because I needed you. Because if I did it, I wouldn’t have anything left at all.” “But you were still going to do it?” Iggy asked quietly. “You were going to try to split up the flock?” “Yes.” He said bluntly. “Then there’s no way we can trust you.” Iggy said. Will looked around at the others, hoping one of them would say something to defend him, but no-one said anything. Nudge and Gazzy just looked at him, hurt, avoiding looking him in the eyes, Angel looked down, and Max stared right into his eyes, showing him just how much he betrayed us. “Gazzy, if it was Angel who was taken, and you were in my place,” Will said to him, “Could you honestly say you wouldn’t have done the same thing?” The gasman thought for a second, and then went to reply, but Max spoke first. “Don’t put Gazzy, in that kind of position! He’s not in your shoes; he shouldn’t even have to think about that!” she said sternly. “You need to go now Will. Go home, wherever that is now. Go home, and don’t come back.” I told him. He looked at me, and then at the flock again, before hanging his head. He picked up Emily, who had stood by his side quietly this whole time, and began to walk away. He had to brush past me, and as he did, I stopped him and whispered in his ear, “If I ever see you again... I will kill you.” He nodded softly, and walked out into the field quietly, grabbing his and Emily’s packs as he walked, our gaze following him the whole way. He spread open his wings, and looked back at us for the last time. “I... I’m sorry. I never...” he broke off and sighed. He looked up at the sky, and took off, flying out towards the town centre, and away from our lives for good. Will POV It was the day after I had left the flock. Emily and I had slept in a wood on the other side of the city that night. Well, Emily did. I didn’t sleep at all. I felt terrible, but I was also annoyed with them. I had just tried to do what was necessary to get my sister back. I was sure they would have done the same thing in my shoes. Once Emily had woken up, we ventured into town. I prayed to myself that they had moved on, in case I ran into them. I had a small amount of change in my rucksack. Enough for a sandwich and drink each from a bakery at least. As I was leaving, I saw a discarded newspaper on a table in the bakery. The headline read: NEW SIGHTINGS EMERGE ON EMILYS 3RD BIRTHDAY. Beneath it was a picture of me and Emily, taken about a year ago. I stared at it for a moment, before grabbing it, and walking out the bakers with Emily. I found a small park a few minutes away, and sat down on a bench, and handed Emily her food and quickly began reading the newspaper. It turned out our disappearance had turned into a massive nationwide search. The article spoke about the brutal kidnapping from our home 9 months ago, which quickly became national news. There were numerous false sightings reported all around Europe and America, until 3 months ago, when CCTV footage in a small town in California, USA showed images of a teenager my appearance, with a group of 6 other children.

The name of the town was the same as the one near where we camped after first escaping from the school. After that there were no developments until 2 days ago, when people in a Fast food restaurant in Birmingham reported a group of children fleeing from police, two of which matched our appearance. Grainy CCTV pictures of the restaurant were pictured next to the article. Although blurry, I could easily tell it was Me, Emily and the flock. The article went on to say that the Parents of Will and Emily had issued a statement, saying these reports gave them fresh hope, on a day that would otherwise have been a sorrowful one. They urged anyone who had any information to contact the police. I looked at the article in awe, rereading one line. “The Parents of Will and Emily had issued a statement”. The Parents. They were alive. I quickly put the newspaper in my pack, and said to Emily “Come on, we’ve got to go.” She nodded, and having eaten her food, took my hand. I began to walk to town with her. “Where are we going now Will?” she asked sweetly. “We’re going into town. I’m going to try to find the police station.” I replied. “Oh.” She said confused. “Are we not going to see Tick soon?” “Who?” I asked, still walking “Tick! From that place with all the doctors.” She said innocently. “Do you mean Max?” I asked confused. Because we’re not going to see her for a –“ “No not Max!” she cut me off. “Tick! And Syke, and Iain, and Charlotte! From the house.” I stopped and looked down at her, frowning. “I liked Tick. You liked her too. Until she, erm...” she stopped, trying to think of the word, and brushed her hand across her forehead. “Until she headed...?” I guessed. She shook her head and wiped her hand across her forehead again. I shrugged. She then brushed her hand across her bottom. “Wiped? Until she wiped me?” “Yes!” she exclaimed. I looked at her bewildered. “Okay... No we aren’t going to see them. We’re going to the police station, and then we are going home, Okay?” “Home? Back with Mummy and Daddy?” she asked happily. “Yes,” I said smiling at her. “Back home with Mum and Dad.” I continued to walk back to town, holding Emily’s hand, when I remembered something. I stopped again, and knelt down to Emily, and kissed her forehead, making her scowl, and said softly “Happy Birthday Emily.” After asking for directions from a pedestrian, I found the police station. I walked through the doors, Emily’s hand firmly grasped to mine. On the wall to the left there was a large notice board. On it I saw missing children posters for me and Emily. I wandered how long it would take for someone to recognise us if we hung out next to it for a bit. Instead I walked up to the receptionist, who smiled at us kindly through the glass. “Hello there. May I help you?” I instantly tried to think of a way to say this, my mind running over filing a missing persons report or asking if she recognised us. “Hi, err, yeah you can.” I laughed. “My name is William Hayes. This is my sister, Emily Hayes.” She looked at me, and then to Emily, frowning. Then she glanced over at the notice board, realisation coming to her face. “I think you might be looking for us.”