d. Back before Angel disappeared.
In the middle of our embrace, someone tapped on Ella’s shoulder and she turned around to see Iggy, looking shy and totally lovestruck. Her face lit up in a huge grin and she leaned in and kissed him, right there in front of all of us, and then Iggy wrapped her up in a long, tender hug.
Watching them, I was drunk with love and hope and happiness all at once, and as the other mutant kids on the cliffs started cheering, I looked at Fang standing beside me, silent and strong. His fingers found their way to mine and his smile said everything I couldn’t.
We were finally, truly home.
77
THEN THE PARTY started.
We walked into a hidden cove with lush green foliage surrounding a breathtaking waterfall, just like my mom had promised. I was waiting for unicorns to come galloping out and fairies to start singing.
Nudge waded into the water, grinning as two girls her age chatted her up, their wings unfurled proudly around them. She looked so happy, so comfortable in her own skin.
Iggy did a perfectly executed back dive with a half twist off the cliff, slicing the shallow water next to Ella with minimal splash, and I thought she was going to faint right there.
Even Angel was looking more like her former self, laughing and splashing with Total and Akila as the Gasman torpedoed into them underwater.
Fang and I were seated with Mom and Nino Pierpont at a wooden table off to the side, watching the festivities. Pierpont looked impossibly cool in his deliberately rugged, undoubtedly expensive trekking outfit as he watched us wolf down a huge meal of braised pork and paella, prepared by his bustling team of private chefs. If there is a way to our hearts, it is definitely though our stomachs—which is why I was getting a little nervous.
“So, what’s the catch?” Fang asked, obviously thinking the same thing.
I housed a giant bite of sausage, wanting desperately for there not to be a catch, for once.
“Hmm?” Mom asked, too innocently.
“Like, is this how it all ends?” I asked. “No more experiments? No more running? Happily ever after, sleeping under the stars in our beautiful tree houses, living carefree in our island paradise?”
My mom smiled, but her eyes said something different.
“I wish, Max… I hope. God, I hope.” Her glance flicked to Pierpont, who was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “But…”
“But what?” Fang asked accusingly, tensing beside me.
“This is your new world. Your new community,” my mom said. “But it’s a community for…”
“The ones who will survive,” Pierpont finished her sentence gravely.
“Wait,” Fang said, dropping his fork. “The ones who what?”
I looked at my mom in alarm, and she nodded sadly. I’d been hearing about the world ending for so long, had been preparing for this moment for years, but it still hit me like a rock falling out of the sky. “Can someone tell us what’s going on?” I asked, my voice rising. “Can someone, for once, please just be honest with us?”
“Where do I even start?” My mom sighed.
“How about with the part we know—that the 99 Percenters want to save the earth and its environment through the genocide of… well, almost the entire human race. So, what exactly is their plan?”
My mom took a deep breath. I knew this was going to be hard to listen to, and I took Fang’s hand.
“They’ve been working for years on developing a form of avian flu that has a terrifying ability to quickly mutate and has been manufactured to mimic other, even deadlier, viruses, ebola among them.” Mom looked me in the eye, letting her words sink in. “The virus is called H8E, but it’s known among the 99 Percenters as ‘The Finisher.’ ”
“So we’re more susceptible to it because we’re bird kids?” I asked.
“No, actually,” Mom said, smiling. “It seems counterintuitive, but because of your mixed DNA, you kids have a natural immunity to it that we haven’t seen in any other species. Of course, Ella and Nino and I, and some of the other enhanced kids—and Jeb, of course—aren’t immune.”
My heart jumped into my throat.
“And if, by some fluke and despite our precautions, the virus spread to this island and we became infected, and the virus then mutated after evolving through the simple human system—”