142
Needless to say, there was a tearful reunion, stories exchanged, hurts examined and gotten mad about all over again.
We grabbed our stuff and flew south until sunrise. Then we dropped down into the Everglades and found a patch of dryish land to sleep on. We felt exhausted and wrung out and yet deeply happy to be together again. To have won again.
Iggy, the younger kids, and Total crashed immediately. They curled up together like puppies, filthy and ragged, and I was so happy to have them all in one piece that tears leaked out of my eyes and ran down my bruised cheeks.
Fang sat next to me, and we split one of our last warm Cokes.
“Breakfast of champions,” he said, raising the can in the air.
“Did you see what happened to the other Max?” I asked him.
“No, actually I didn’t,” he said. “But maybe she escaped.”
I drank the warm soda, feeling it run down my parched throat. Never would be too soon to see the other Max again. But I couldn’t make myself destroy her. Killing the fake Max would be like killing the Eraser Max who looked back at me from the mirror sometimes. Besides—it would just be wrong.
I was exhausted, beyond exhausted, but the last time I’d gone to sleep, I’d woken up with my mouth duct-taped shut and then gotten put in an isolation tank. So I didn’t want to close my eyes anytime soon.
The tank. I shuddered just thinking about it.
“Was it bad?” Fang asked quietly, not looking at me.
“Yep,” I said, not looking at him, and took another swig of Coke.
The sun was higher, the air heavy and warm and growing warmer. It was December. We’d been on the run for what felt like forever. I didn’t know how much longer I could do it. I was ragged out, and between the tank and the Voice, I felt like I was losing my mind. I still wasn’t sure how the Erasers were tracking us. I remembered Angel campaigning to be leader and didn’t know what to think.
“Did you know that wasn’t me, the other Max?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Right away.”
“How?” I persisted. “We look identical. She even had identical scars and scratches. She was wearing my clothes. How could you tell us apart?”
He turned to me and grinned, making my world brighter. “She offered to cook breakfast.”
A second later we were laughing so hard it brought tears to my eyes all over again. Fang and I leaned against each other and laughed and laughed, unable to speak, for the longest time.