The mutant girl was one of two children, spies for Itex, whom the Flock encountered in Florida.
History[]
She was from somewhere in New Jersey, kidnapped by Itex sometime during August and held captive for months.
Story[]
While the Flock is camping in a swamp, Angel senses people approaching. Two small children emerge from the woods slowly. They were apparently attracted by the smell of the Flock’s food. Max gives them hot dogs, bread and candy bars and they devour them messily. The girl licks her lips at the sight of the Flock’s cooking fire.
They seem to be starving, but after eating become drowsy and unafraid.
The boy explains that they are not related, but were both kidnapped from south Jersey, and the girl adds that they happened to end up in the same place. They escaped a couple of times and once made it to a police station, but were quickly recaptured. The kidnappers even filed missing child notices.
The girl lies down first, and Max realizes that they won’t get much information from them.
Angel senses that their thoughts are weird “flashes of grown-ups and darkness and water,” indicating that they really were experimented on by the School. However, they are neither Erasers nor normal kids, leaving Angel unsure.
Near daybreak, Max – who is on watch – notices one of the kids start to get up, and pretends to sleep. The girl gets up, shakes the boy awake, and they slip away so quietly that not even Iggy notices.
Max follows them to a spot about three hundred yards from camp, where she sees them crouch down. The girl takes out a pen-like object, actually a transmitter, and begins speaking into it when Max grabs her.
As shown in Max Ride: Ultimate Flight
The girl immediately begins sobbing loudly and apologizing. She says that “they made us do it.” Max throws the transmitter into the swamp. The girl is still incoherent but finally manages to say that her kidnappers forced them to track down the Flock. If they failed, they’d be left to wander around lost in the swamp until something killed them. Max understands that the kids are, like the Flock, just trying to survive.
While the Flock prepares to leave, Max quietly threatens the girl and demands to know who her kidnappers were. The girl glances at the boy, who nods, and then she says that it was a company called Itex. She doesn’t know anything else.
She and the boy were left in the swamp, lying on the ground, when the Flock flew away. Max drops a few protein bars and hard candy next to them, and they stare at her.
They were presumably picked up by operatives of the School, following the coordinates from the transmitter.
Appearance[]
Both kids are very small and skinny, dirt and big-eyed. They seem severely malnourished, with their bones visible. The girl is wearing dirty and ragged clothing, and has dark eyes. She seems human and shows no outward signs of being a mutant.
Trivia[]
- While in DC, Max hears a TV broadcast talking about the recent disappearances of several children in the area. The kids in the swamp could have been part of this phenomenon.