“ | My mom was right: If you looked up “paradise” in the dictionary, this would be it. | ” |
In Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure, the flock is taken to a tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific. Although it has no official name, Dr. Martinez and the flock prefer to call it "paradise".
It was designed as a community for the people with the best chance of surviving the apocalypse. Dr. Martinez and Nino Pierpont have been working on it for over fifteen years. The island itself is isolated from the rest of the world, so the chances of being infected by H8E—a virus created by the 99 Percenters that was believed to be the reason for the apocalypse—would be very low. However, the island is still hit very hard by the apocalypse.
The Rain Forest[]
The island has a rain forest, which is first explored by the Flock shortly after they step off of Nino Pierpont's plane. According to Max, "Vines snaked up towering trees fuzzy with neon moss. Birds twittered and trilled all around us. Through a window of branches, we could see distant cliffs falling sharply to a beach of bleached sand and turquoise water."
The Treehouse Village[]
In the rain forest, there is also a village of tree houses built specifically for the flock. They are well camouflaged and, due to their location high up in the jungle canopy, can only be reached by flying.
- Each flock member has their own—Nudge's "was the most chic-looking of all the tree houses: ultramodern, with sleek, clean lines. It was minimal—almost delicate—and seemed to be held together by nothing more than sap."; Total's comes complete with "glorious arches" and "Grecian lines", and is "Plush, with understated elegance and seaside charm" according to him; and Max's is a hollow banyan, with a ceiling made of "thick protective glass", located at the top of the tree. The furniture in the tree houses looks "like the tree itself had just grown naturally into rough, chairlike shapes" and the houses themselves have balconies at the very top.
The Hidden Cove[]
After showing the flock the rain forest, Dr. Martinez walks with them through the jungle to the cliffs on the north side of the island. There, she shows them a group made up entirely of "enhanced" children. They have a party in a hidden cove "with lush green foliage surrounding a breathtaking waterfall…"
The Underground City[]
As a last resort, an underground refuge was built beneath the island, protected by a high-tech force field. A "complex system of passages" would help everyone inside live comfortably. The caves are equipped with a watertight food vault and high-tech computers that monitored news and satellite connections.
The entry tunnels, which are mostly underwater following the apocalypse, open into a large complex. The walls are made of carved shells, with pillars and balconies. The ceiling is hundreds of feet high and made of glass, allowing people to see the water overhead. In one area, some of the water was left over after the floods, forming an Olympic-sized pool where people could swim safely.
Post-Apocalyptic[]
During the apocalypse, all the other mutants, save for Max, Fang, Angel, and Dylan, are herded into the refuge. However, three months later, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, Total and Akila are all aboveground, despite the fact that the most of the tunnel system has apparently apparently collapsed. In a tsunami that followed, everyone in the caves drowned except for the Aquatics. Pierpont barricaded himself in the food vault to avoid drowning, but had died of dehydration by the time the water receded enough for the survivors to open the vault. The surrounding ocean is full of ash and man-eating eels.
Ironically, most of the meteor fragments landed in the Pacific. After the apocalypse, the island is a "charred wasteland" filled with swirling ash. Half of the island, including the entrance to the underground refuge, is buried underwater; the other half is made up of "unreachable cliffs and towering trees," most of which are charred. Thermal pools are being formed out of cracks in the earth's crust.
At first the island seems salvageable and Fang plans to rebuild the treehouse village. However, three months later, it is nearly uninhabitable. Angel has lost telepathic connection with the people in the caves, and believes that everyone is dead. They salvage whatever food they can find and store water jugs at the lake, but most of their supplies are destroyed in a volcanic eruption, along with their temporary home. They stay briefly at their meeting place, a cave on the cliffs on the northern side of the island, but this is still vulnerable to gales and acid rain. By the time Nudge and Max return to the island, the air is so toxic and full of smoke that they can’t even fly inland.