Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

62

In the morning, Fang and I broke up.

And just to set the record straight, I left him. A split second after he left me.

He told me he wanted to do his own thing, follow his own mission, as he put it. He wanted to act on leads that people were sending in to his blog.

I stared at him. "You're basing your plan for human salvation on e-mail?"

He looked back at me. "You're basing yours on a Voice inside your head. A Voice that isn't actually just you talking to yourself. Right?"

Well, when he put it that way...

I just couldn't comprehend what was happening.

And then we had to tell the kids. I went over a hundred conversations in my reeling head. What would they say? How could we explain this?

"I've decided to go my own way," Fang told the flock abruptly. He cast a glance at Ari, then went on. "Almost anyone's welcome to come with me."

Go with him! Over my dead body.

"I think we should all stick together until Fang comes back," I said calmly. Because if any of you pick him instead of me, I'll kill you.

Four pairs of flock eyes, one dog, and Ari stared at us, back and forth.

"Holy crap," said Total.

"You guys shouldn't do this," said Nudge, looking worried.

I shrugged, my face flaming. Fang was the one doing it.

"You crazy kids," Total muttered. He paced back and forth on his short legs, then went and sat on top of Angel's feet. She reached down absently and stroked his head.

"We have to choose?" Gazzy squeaked. He looked at Fang, then at me. Then at Ari.

Crap, I thought.

"I'll go with Fang." Iggy's face was expressionless, but his voice hurt my heart. Shocked, I was glad he couldn't see my face.

I swallowed, unable to talk.

"I'm going to stay with Max," said Nudge unhappily, putting her hand in mine. I squeezed it, but I saw how she looked at Ari out of the corners of her eyes. She didn't trust him, didn't want him with us.

"I'll go wherever Angel goes," Total said. "If I must."

The Gasman and Angel were silent. Angel must have been communicating with him telepathically because he shook his head and looked like he was concentrating hard. Finally Angel nodded her head decisively and nudged Total off her feet to come stand next to me.

"I'm going with Max," she said.

"Yeah, whatever," said Total grumpily, flopping back onto Angel's feet.

"I'm going with Fang," said Gazzy. I stared at him in astonishment.

Ari was the only one left, a glaring outsider to our family.

"No-brainer," Ari mumbled, coming to stand by me. His face was starting to heal very fast, the way our wounds did. "Max."

Please, please, don't let me regret this, I prayed to a higher power. I mean, any more than I already regret it.

"Fine," said Fang, slinging on his pack.

"Fine," I said, tilting my chin up, wishing with all my strength that he wouldn't do this, and making darn sure he couldn't tell I was wishing it.

And that was that. The flock was split in two. And I really had no idea if I would ever see Fang and his group again.