1
I had lost track of how long we had been here, I stopped counting after 6 months. We had lost Angel and Gazzy a couple months ago, they're fragile bodies just couldn't take the abuse any longer. I was sill trying to recover but I was slowly losing the battle. Nudge had given up, Iggy coming dangerously close. I was trying my best to keep their spirits up and to stay hopeful but by this point everyone was too exhausted to care. Fang and I had been locked in separate cages the entire time, I couldn't tell how we was doing.
Iggy sat in the corner, his knees up to his thin chest as he tried to keep warm. Nudge paced back and forth in front of the glass wall, I stood in the corner keeping watch. I monitored the guards as they watched us, trying to see any weak points in their plans. It was the beginning of another Monday morning and I was dreading what they had in store for us this week.
"Get the male." I saw him mouth, our cage being sound proof to what went on outside of it. I panicked, glancing over at Iggy but they instead walked over to Fang's cage instead. I saw them pull out the syringe and Fang moved to the very back of the cage. They opened it up and two grabbed his arms, pulling them back behind his back. One kicked his knees out, dropping him to the ground, the third stabbed the needle into his neck. Fang went limp instantly. I watched as they threw him to the ground, landing on his back. He looked so vulnerable laying there, his thin and frail body struggling to get up. He rolled over, pushing on the ground with his hands but they gave out on him, he fell back down. He lay on his back again panting, his ribs showing through his worn shirt. We were all desperately thin, I didn't know how much longer we could deal here.
"Move it!" the man said, kicking Fang's side, making him scramble to get out of the way. Fang barely made it to his feet but a hard shove from the whitecoat sent him to the ground again. He lay there, too exhausted to move.
"Leave it, it's already in the right area anyway." Another said, shutting the door. Fang was in an arena like thing, obstacles everywhere. I could see that Fang was unconscious now.
"Why don't they just kill us already?" Nudge sighed, slinking down into the corner of the cage and laid down. I looked over at her and sighed. We were too weak to really break our way out of here, we needed a miracle.
…
It was the next morning before Fang even woke up. He staggered to his feet when he did, looking around confused. He looked horrible now that he was closer. I hadn't seen in over a month and now he looked ten times worse. He was incredibly thin, his ribs obvious through his shirt. Cuts and bruises littered his arms and face, a limp in his left leg, his whole frame lightly shook from either stress or cold. A sudden bang made us both jump, him looking over to watch a whitecoat walk into the room with a gun. He motioned to the obstacles in the room. Fang looked over at them, then back at the whitecoat. His body vibrated again, him slowly lowering down to one knee and laying onto the ground. The whitecoat shot the ground next to him but Fang didn't even flinch, closing his dull and lifeless eyes. The whitecoat cursed something, and left the room.
"Come on Fang, get up." I whispered to myself. Fang lay there, his chest hardly rising or falling with each breath. I knew he had given up now, anything could happen to him at this point.
3 whitecoats ran into the room and surrounded Fang, picking him up and dragging him away to a cage next to ours. I instantly ran over as they tossed him in, him barely catching himself. He lay on his back. They slammed the door, locking it. They left.
"Fang?" I whispered, reaching my hand through the wire mesh part of the cage, lightly touching his shoulder. He felt cold and thin. Fang didn't respond either, his eyes slowly closing as he went in and out of consciousness. It was terrifying to know that the toughest person in our group was giving out. He was always calm about everything, fought through everything he could, but now here he was, beaten and broken on the floor of this cage.
"He's not gonna make it." Iggy murmured behind me. I looked back at him alarmed. "He's got maybe a couple hours."
"He'll be ok." I denied and looked back at Fang. He was barely breathing, his pulse barely there as I held his wrist. I leaned against the wall, getting as close to him as possible.
…
As a few hours passed, Fang continued to go in and out of consciousness. I looked down to see his dark eyes looking up at me. They weren't there usual calm and strong look. What I saw was absolute fear, pain, loss, and sadness. It broke my heart to see him so helpless, laying there to weak to even sit up. He lightly squeezed my hand as I rubbed it, trying to soothe him. I had a horrible feeling that this was gonna be his last few moments, I was panicking inside. I looked around at my broken flock. Iggy leaned up in the corner as he tried to sleep. Nudge lay on the ground next to me looking similar to Fang. It broke my heart.
"We'll die in here, just like Angel and Gazzy." Nudge sighed, closing her eyes. "There's nothing left to fight for."
"So long as there is breath left in me that is not gonna happen." I said as strong as I could.
"Come on Max, let's just try to live out these next few days knowing that we tried everything we could." Iggy said, crawling over next to me.
"Everything will be ok." I said and hugged him. He lay down next to me and closed his sightless eyes again. I looked over at Fang again as he lightly touched my hand.
"I love you." He whispered, barely even able to talk. Tears were welling up in my eyes.
"I love you too." I said, squeezing his hand again. A faint smile lifted his face for a few seconds. His eyes closed, taking a strained breath. I cried my heart out that night.
…
I stayed up that whole night, holding onto Fang's hand, hugging Iggy and Nudge. But when morning came and the suns gentle golden rays flickered through the bars of our cage, I already knew that nothing would be the same. I let go of Fang's hand, brushing some of his black strand of hair out of the way of his closed eyes. I couldn't see the small rise and fall of his chest, couldn't find the steady beat of his heart. I leaned on the wall of my cage with my heart torn out of my chest. Life couldn't get much worse for us, I welcomed death. Iggy and Nudge cried with me right up until the whitecoats came to take Fang away for the last time. I watched them pick him up and carry him away, knowing that it would be the last time I would see him. I closed my eyes, waiting to wake up in heaven. A place where you could eat as much as you wanted, where everyone you ever loved would be, a place where not a danger in the world could ever touch you again…