(A/N): Hey Guys! Oh wow. I've had this story on my laptop for ages, I finished this chapter a month or two ago, but I must have forgotten about it. My old ebook, the one this was on, ran out of charge and I couldn't recharge it so I had to wait until a few weeks ago when I got a new laptop to actually manage to charge my ebook and getting all my stories off it, and change them over to my new laptop. Also, my microsoft word is acting up and won't let me copy, paste, type or edit anything, so I had to stuff around with it for a while before I could open this story, in Notepad, which you all know is a notoriously bad writing tool. It has not spell check or word count, and I had to edit this chapter twice so it wasn't just one really big chunk of writing without quotation marks or anything. Not quotation marks, no apostrophes and no full stops until I just edited it, so I hope you enjoy this chapter and please, please review! Also, Could you please check out some of my other stories?

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC Anni and any additional changes she makes to the story line.


Fang

Sitting at the breakfast table the next morning, I glanced over at Anni, who was letting Iggy handle the cooking today.

"I want to go pick strawberries today. They're ripe now!" Angel said before scooping a large forkful of eggs into her mouth.

"Okay Angel, I'll go with you." Gazzy said before letting one of his...unfortunate gaseous explosions rip.

"Oh jeez Gazzy!" Max scorned disapprovingly, try to wave the stench away with her hand.

"Gas mask!" Iggy gasped, collapsing to the floor dramatically.

"I'm done." I said, quickly rising from the table and rinsing my plate in the sink.

"Yeah Angel, I think the fresh air will do us all good. I'll go too." Nudge said with a smile.

"We'll all go." Max announced with a smile, helping Angel and Nudge with their plates.

Outside, the sun was shining brightly on the soft green grass and tall pine trees, birds flying through the air chirping happily. It all looked like a painting one might see in the home of an elderly woman with thirty cats, but the sun was nice, so I didn t particularly care.

I glanced around and noticed Anni was missing, panicking for a split second before I looked behind me. There she was, her long, golden blonde hair, slightly wavy and shining in the warm sunlight, her pale blue eyes shining as she smiled at a squirrel that ran past her. Her skin was only slightly darker than alabaster pale, and smooth, mostly free of freckles.

Slowing my pace I fell back beside her, not looking at her, just looking around. Anni and I had been best friends from birth, her quirky and curious, me pessimistic and brooding. We had always been an odd pair, but recently I had noticed she was less talkative, more cautious, She had started changing after Jeb left. Maybe it was grief related, or maybe she was just growing up, but I was still worried about her. Chancing a glance over at her, I saw that she was no longer smiling. Her face was thoughtful, but full of badly hidden fear and worry. She wasn t looking my way, but instead at the rest of the flock. They were a few feet of us, carrying baskets just like we were, ready to collect some strawberries. Angel was skipping about in a zigzag pattern in front of the other, swinging the basket around on her forearm, her blonde curls bouncing as she did so.

"If you make cake, I can make strawberry shortcakes." she said happily.

"Yeah, that ll be the day, when Max makes a cake." I heard Iggy say. "I'll make it, Angel."

"Oh thank you! Okay, I m not a fabulous cook. But I can still kick your butt, and don't you forget it!" Max threatened. Iggy was laughing, holding up his hands in denial. Nudge was trying not to laugh, Anni had a smile on her face, and even I was grinning. And the Gasman looked mischievous.

"Was that you?" Max asked Gazzy scoldingly, looking like an angry parent as she did so. He grinned and shrugged, trying not to look too pleased with himself.

The Gasman had been about three when I realized he could mimic just about any sound or voice. I d lost count of how many times Iggy and I had almost come to blows over stuff Gazzy had said in our voices. It was a dark gift, and he wielded it happily.

In front of us, Angel froze and screamed. Anni and I shared a look before racing forward, reaching the others just as a group of Erasers burst from the tree. Since I hadn t stopped when I reached the flock, I used the momentum of my run to leap into the air and land a hard roundhouse kick to the first ones chest, sending him back, wheezing. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Anni race at the next Eraser, but I didn t have the second it would have taken for me to panic. Bending at the knee she ducked to avoid the Eraser s thickly muscled arm as he swung at her. Without a choice of weapons, she swung the thick sided wicker basket at the Eraser s face, grinning wickedly as it made contact, the side of the main impact breaking open a hole in the side where his head had burst through. Ouch, he was going to have a concussion at the least.

Abandoning the basket to hang around her preys neck, she hit him with a well-placed kick to the stomach, leaving him groaning on the ground. As I glanced around, I saw Iggy fighting an Eraser capably, but another was sneaking up on him from behind. Racing over, I grabbed him from behind, ignoring his struggling as I locked my arms around his neck and snapped it. Hearing the snap, and probably my slightly irregular breath, he quickly spun to look my way. Of course, turning attention away from his fight caused him to get punched in the face by a full grown Eraser. Nothing we can t handle, I assure you. I punched an Eraser full on in his wolf-like face and felt the bones in my hand shriek in protest.

Two more Erasers ganged up on me, charging at me the same time the first one did, and I was slammed tot he ground, all air escaping from my lungs as they started hacking at me with their clawed hands. The first Eraser went down as one of my friends punched him in the spine, the second grabbed from behind. I forced my legs underneath the last Eraser and kicked him off of me before launching at him, laying into him with all I had. As soon as I had an opening, I snapped his neck and he fell to the floor, dead and motionless.

"A little help here?" A voice said from behind me. Underneath a flailing Eraser was Anni, her slim but strong arms capturing him in a full nelson hold. A proud smirk blossomed on my face as I started towards her. I was too far away to stop the Eraser though, when he had slammed his arm back into Anni s face, forcing her to let him go as her nose started to gush blood. As the Eraser started to charge towards me, I sunk into a fighting stance, stunned out of it when he suddenly dropped to his knees, and then to the ground, a butter knife sticking out of his back where his heart would be. I raised my eyes to meet Anni s and she nodded slightly before grabbing what looked to be a napkin from a small black backpack she must have brought with us. Using the material to staunch the blood, we made our way over tot he others, who were crowded around Max, who was lying on the ground, bruised and bloodied.

"Max?" The Gasman asked worriedly, receiving a horrid, pained moan from the collapsed figure of Max. I edged closer to Anni, whose gaze flicked to me before she returned it back to Max.

"Let me see your nose." I ordered her, fighting the urge to raise an eyebrow as she rolled her eyes at me.

"I already know it s broken." She said before taking the now bloodied napkin from her face to let me look at it, Tilting her head slightly upwards and to the side, I noticed that she was correct, her nose was broken. She swatted my hand away as Max sat up.

"I'm okay." She said before glancing around. "Where's angel?" My expression darkened as everyone lowered their eyes.

"She's gone, they took her." The realisation dawned on Max s face and I saw the sorrow hidden behind her eyes. I was interrupted however, by a sickening sound, a mix between a grinding and the sound you got when you twisted a loose tooth. Turning towards the sound I saw Anni re-positioning her nose so that it would heal straight. Turning her head to the side, she spat bloody spit onto the forest floor and cleaned what blood she could from her face.

"We have to- we have to find her." Max stuttered, leaning against me for support as she swayed on her feet slightly.

"Is anyone hurt?" She asked quietly, looking around at us all, one by one.

"I m up for it." Iggy said, his voice made thick by the split lip he was sporting, from where the Eraser had hit him.

"I'm good." Nudge said in a teary voice, lifting her head, trying to be strong.

"You know I'm in." Gazzy said with a grimace. Of course he was, Angel was his little sister.

"I'm in." I announced quietly, silently thinking how scared Angel must be.

"I think I'm good to go." Anni said, pushing the bloody napkin inside the backpack she now slung over her shoulder.

"Where'd you get that?" Max asked, curious despite the situation.

"I brought it from the house. I was actually planning a picnic." I grinned, probably surprising most of them.

"I still think it s cool the way you killed that one Eraser with the butter knife!" Max raised an eyebrow in Anni's direction.

"How did you-?" Iggy cut her off by way of shushing her and tilting his head slightly, listening. Listening closely, I could hear it too.

The thick grumble of a four-wheel-drive vehicle.


(A/N): Please Review and/or check out some of my other stories! Also, I'm going to be entering a competition at my school. You have to write a two page persuasive argument on why someone should read a book you've read, and I could win an ipad. Wish me luck! This chapter has 1,660 words without the Authors Note, by the way!