Angel_ A Maximum Ride Novel - James Patterson [42]
“Whoa!” Holden said next to Fang, scanning the crowd. “When we got here, everyone looked weird and happy, but pretty normal, you know? Now look around.”
Fang quickly studied the gathered assembly.
“Oh, my God,” Maya said slowly. “Where did they come from?”
“I guess they must have been drawn in by the crowd,” Fang replied. “They must have been hiding their… freakiness, at first. Kind of like you and I hide our wings sometimes.”
“We’re different, but we’re okay,” said Star. “But these guys…”
“What happened to them?” Kate asked. “The same thing that happened to us? Will we become like that?”
One of every ten kids in the audience was… genetically altered. Growing up in the School, trapped in their dog crates, Fang and the flock had seen lots of genetic combinations that didn’t turn out as cute kids sporting big wings. And he was seeing it again, right here.
They weren’t horrible disasters—they could breathe and walk and talk. Some of them even looked pretty human, except for, say, scaly skin or lizard eyes or claws for hands. But others were definitely freakish, and a bunch of them looked as though their combinations were not meshing entirely and breaking down.
“Will you join me in a song?” Beth asked over the frenzied roar. She stood center stage and began to sing. Gradually, the audience stopped chanting and began singing.
“I didn’t know where I was going
I didn’t know where I’d come from
But then one day I got the message
That I could save the world.
The One Light has shown me the way.
Because we’re Gen 77
The skies will be blue, the seas will be green
But to get there, the blood must flow red.
We will become less, we will become more
We’ll kill all the humans
And we’ll save the world.”
“Cheerful little ditty,” Fang said. Maya nodded solemnly as she sang along. Then a noise overhead made Fang look up, in time to see thousands of colorful flyers dropping out of a helicopter. One floated close to him and he snatched it out of the air.
“The Enhanced People’s Manifesto,” he read.
All around him, the crowd began chanting: “Save the planet! Kill the humans! Save the planet! Kill the humans!”
Onstage, Beth beamed lovingly.
49
BACK AT THE hotel, Fang pored over the manifesto.
“I can’t believe they’re saying this stuff in black and white,” Kate said, her eyes wide.
“Can’t they be arrested for this?” Holden asked.
Fang frowned. “I don’t know. They could say that it’s just talk, not an actual threat. There’s no evidence that they’re really prepared to do any of it.”
Maya waved the manifesto in the air. “Do we need more evidence than flyers saying they’re going to kill everyone? It’s all right here!”
Fang sighed. “I know.”
The manifesto fit on the front of a single sheet of paper, but it was a doozy. It stated that the Doomsday Group planned to take over several countries, kill their populations, and then repopulate them with enhanced people, the so-called Seventy-seventh Generation.
It said that the apocalypse was coming—no news there—and offered tips about what to do when it hit.
It talked about a dark period of chaos and peril that would give way to a paradise in which all enhanced people would live together in peace and harmony.
“I’m so sure,” Maya said. “Not unless everyone’s going to be tranquilized forever.”
“They just might be,” Fang cautioned, and she frowned. “If they’ve managed to brainwash this many people, then who knows? They could easily tranquilize whole populations.”
“Look at this,” Star said, pointing. “They really do mean only enhanced people. It says here that people who fly shouldn’t risk landing on top of tall buildings.”
“ ‘Those of you who might lay eggs,’ ” Kate read, “ ‘will need to prepare a safe incubation container. Go to our website for sources.’ Oh, my God. These people are crazy!”
“There were truckloads of those Gen 77 kids at the rally,” Ratchet said. “I’ve never