Hi guys! My many many apologies for the uber lateness of this…but I tried to make up for it with a really long chapter?

Disclaimer––Max and Flock and et cetera are owned by James Patterson.

Claimer––Kayden and her Flock and et cetera are owned by me.

Chapter 5

Kayden Pov.

Three minutes. Angel said we will be arriving in three minutes to Nudge and Iggy's house. I couldn't be any more inthralled to be meeting some members of the infamous Flock! Even if it isn't Max that I'll be meeting, still . . . in three minutes I am going to be meeting Iggy and Nudge.

But yet, I still have this undeniable keenness and desire to find out more about this Fang guy. There was so much secrecy and questionability shrouding him.

"Alright, guys. This is the house, right down there." Angel nods towards an adequately sized home down below us and we descend into the woods behind it.

We walk up to the back door, and Angel knocks. A young woman with tan skin and thick hair opens the porch door, her eyes wide. "Angel!" She embraces her old friend genuinely.

"Mom?" A little girl behind her tilts her head, and a boy beside her frowns at the sight of us.

Nudge turns toward a man with strawberry blond hair next to her; they exchange glances. "Cameron, take your sister over to the park."

"What's going on?" The young teenager has a look of confusion on his face.

"Cameron." The man turns harshly toward his son. "Take Brooke to the park. Now. Come back back in an hour."

"You want us to stay at the park for an hour?" The boy folds his arms.

The man, whom I assume is Iggy, sighs, and pulls out a small wad of cash from his pocket. "Fine. Here's money for ice cream, or . . . something. Now go."

The young boy, finally somewhat satisfied, suspiciously leads his buoyant sister outside. Nudge smiles at her guests. "Come on in."

As she leads us into her living room I hear Nudge talking to Angel. "I can already tell which one is Kayden." Nudge glances at me.

"I know. The resemblance is shocking. Did you call Max?" Angel sits down beside her.

Nudge nods. "Yes, I called her as soon as I got your note."

Did she just say 'note'? How did Angel get her a note? That makes no sense. We've been with her the whole time, and she was in a Dome?

"When should we expect her?" Nudge asks.

"Her and Caroline are in Virginia, and they left as soon as I called her––"

"Max is bringing Caroline?" Angel asks in shock.

"Yes, well, something came up, and she had to bring her. Anyways, I think we should be expecting her early tomorrow morning." Nudge explains.

Angel lowers her voice. "And still no Fang?"

Nudge shakes her head. "Still no Fang." Then she frowns. "But . . . we did get something in the mail the other day. It was of some importance, perhaps. I'll show you later tonight."

Iggy clears his throat. "Perhaps you two would like to incorporate our guests in some conversation?"

Nudge's eyes widen. "Oh, of course! I am so sorry. I get carried away when I talk sometimes."

Iggy gives a snort of laughter; Nudge glowers at him briefly.

"Anyways. I'm Nudge, and this is Iggy." She implies. "Does your flock have a leader?"

Matt stands up and shakes her hand. "I'm Matt. I'm the leader. This is Kayden, Eli, Jennalie, Ryker, Morrie, Ray, and Shawn."

"Wow," Nudge whistles, "large flock, you've got there."

"I was thinking we should wait for some explanations until Max gets here." Angel adds.

Nudge concurs with a nod of the head. "I agree completely." She turns toward us. "If you guys have some questions, we can try to answer them, but there are some things we aren't going to answer until Max gets here."

That perks me up a bit. Max was, indeed, coming!

"Who's Caroline?" I immediately ask, referring to whom they were saying was coming with Max.

"Caroline is Max's daughter. She's a little younger than you; fourteen."

"This is so crazy." I say in disbelief. "I've always dreamt of meeting the Flock, and now here I am! And you all have children and . . ." Something suddenly dawned on me. "Wait . . . if you guys took down Itex, then why are they reopened?"

"Good question." Nudge scratches the back of her head. "You know how there's always one lamb who strays from the shepherd? Dr. Charles Carter. He wasn't involved with Itex at the time. I don't know how he seemed to escape and disappear right under their noses, but he did. And he took a group of clientele and white coats with him. This group kept growing and growing, and they basically reinvented Itex. Its not called Itex, anymore, but we still refer to it as Itex."

"And it sure didn't take them long to reestablish themselves." Iggy scoffed, his arms crossed.

"What did––" Matt shoots me a look that says shut up and let me do the talking.

I close my mouth unwillingly. Matt was the leader. I had to respect that, even if I didn't agree with it.

"Why didn't you try to bring them down again?" He asks.

"Well, we hadn't realized they were even trying to reestablish themselves until Max's first daughter was born." Iggy explains.

"Caroline?" I ask earnestly.

"No." He shakes his head.

"So Max has two daughters?" I question.

Iggy puts his head in his right hand and shakes his head. Nudge stumbles for words. "You could say that."

"Why is she only bringing one with her?" I query.

"Enough about Max." Matt shoots a glare at me again.

Angel looks at me, a blank expression on her face. "Its complicated." She turns back toward Matt. "About when we realized they had begun trials again, our Flock kind of started to split up. It started with Fang. And you know how it only takes one person to rock the boat." Her blank expression is replaced with a melancholy one. "Its a really long story. But that's kind of what we're expecting you to accomplish."

"We're supposed to take down Itex?" Eli exclaims in amusement. "Oh, that's a good one."

I look around at the rest of my Flock. Matt is getting an irritated demeanor. He obviously wanted to be the only one talking. What a shame; he didn't used to be so conceited.

Ryker is staring at the ground. His usual solemn look concreted permanently onto his face. He glances up when he sees me looking at him, and our eyes meet only momentarily before he turns away.

Eli and Morrie are looking a tad bit confused, and Shawn and Ray aren't exactly playing attention, but instead, having a thumb war. I know, what appropriate timing. I am thoroughly shocked that Matt hasn't caught on and yelled at them for it. Since he seems so fond of yelling lately.

Jennalie and I share an exasperated gaze, and then turn back toward Angel, Nudge, and Iggy.

The door opens and Cameron and Brooke walk inside. "Back so soon?" Nudge says sweetly.

"Its eleven o'clock. The park officer said we had to come home." Cameron states boldly.

"Gracious! Is it really that late?" Nudge exclaims. "Well, you guys have had a long journey. How about we all head to bead, and then we can talk some more once Max gets here tomorrow?"

"Auntie Max is coming?" Brooke blurts out in utter excitement.

"Yes." Nudge smiled at her daughter.

"Is Caroline coming?" Cameron asks, his voice still rather monotone.

"You bet!" Nudge ruffles his hair, causing him to scowl and fix it right back in place with his fingers. "Now, Angel, of course you can have the guest bedroom. Morrie, you can stay in Brooke's room on her bunk bead. Shawn, Ray, and Eli, we can get you some sleeping bags and you can stay in Cameron's room."

I can see Cameron's upper lip twitch in irritation.

Nudge continues, though, either completely unaware, or trying to ignore it. "Kayden and Jennalie, these couches pull out into beds. And . . . hmm . . . Ryker you can take the couch over there. It doesn't turn into a bed, though. And Matt, goodness, I have never had to sleep so many people in this house! We can pull you out a blow-up mattress and you can sleep on the floor in the living room here with the girls and Ryker."

Everyone disperses into their assigned areas, and I collapse on the my couch/bed. This seems so surreal. I was going to get to meet Maximum Ride! I can hardly contain my excitement. Though, of course, I still wish I can meet Fang. I sigh inwardly. Perhaps, in time, I will be able to.

Jennalie comes and sits down next to me. "Has the suspense killed you, yet?"

I smile at her. "Just about."

"They explain everything so secretively." She shakes her head.

"I've been dying to ask about this Fang character. But Matt won't let anyone get a word in."

Jennalie shakes her head. "I know. I wonder what's gotten into him."

I laugh quietly. "Pride."

"By the by, I'm starting to worry about him." She gestures toward Ryker in the corner on his couch, staring up at the ceiling. "I think he's depressed."

"Don't we all?" I snicker.

She tilts her head. "I'm serious, Kayden."

"Don't worry about. I think he's fine. He's always been like that. Since he was a kid. He was like that when he was five." I shake my head.

"Really? How do you know?" She inquires.

"Yeah. Ryker and I were the first of our Flock who were kidnapped, remember? I basically grew up my whole life with him." I have already told her this . . . but Jennalie is so air-headed sometimes.

"Oh. Oh, that's right. I totally forgot. And then came Matt."

"And then came Matt. Followed by you, and so on." I reply.

Jennalie looks over toward Ryker. Hmm . . . I sense intimacy and/or longing!

After a small silence, she breaks the tacitness, "Its late. We should probably get some sleep tomorrow. I have a feeling we have a long day ahead of us."

"I have a feeling you're right." I agree.

She stands up and goes over to her pull-out bed. Ryker looks toward us because of the stir of our movement. Was there something going on between he and Jennalie? But he wasn't looking at her. He was looking at me. "Night." I mouth to him.

He nods, as if to say 'likewise' and then turns over on his side.

I take a deep breath and hope for the best. Who knew what tomorrow would bring?

There ya have it! Review! Do I have your forgiveness, readers, for the crazy lateness? ~Kristen