CHAPTER FOUR

At some point Fang must have dozed off, which was rather hard to do considering the circumstances, because when he opened his eyes the whitecoats were gone. The aftereffects of the previous experiment had faded away. Thank goodness. He wanted to feel relieved or at least a bit grateful, but his gut and common sense wouldn't allow it. Something told him this wasn't going to be a one time event. It wasn't like them, they always came back for more. So this time Fang and Nudge needed to be prepared.

He gazed at Nudge who was curled despondently in the same position she had been in when this mess started. Her head was bowed, her eyes half-open as she gazed lifelessly at the floor. She looked so spaced out, he doubted that she even noticed him wake up. Fang knew there was nothing he could say to make her feel better, nothing that wasn't a lie anyways. There was no way of telling how much time had passed, they were trapped in this stupid metal box, and if Max and them had escaped by now there was no way to be sure they were coming. The whitecoats had made it quite clear that they would be dealt quite a bit of pain. Something he wasn't looking forward to. They said only the good died young, but he wouldn't mind having a couple of extra of years on hand. Then the doors opened again, instead of whitecoats, erasers filed in. Oh Sht.

Max's POV - 10 hours earlier after Fang and Nudge were taken.

"What the hell! Come on you big furry bastards!" Max screamed against the bars as she rattled the cage back on forth. Why did the director want them? What kind of stupid fantasies would be carried out behind those walls. She knew that Fang and Iggy could withstand the pain, for awhile longer anyways, because they were older and had been at this longer. The younger ones were a completely different case. When Angel was taken, she'd nearly had a heart attack, the flock had immediately rushed to save her. The dread in the flock's eyes, thinking of what would happen if they didn't get to her in time, was something she never wanted to see again. But it was evident in Gazzy's wide eyes and it was obvious in Angel's eyes, even Iggy sightless ones were filled with it. Because as much as they hated to admit, Nudge wasn't as strong as she should be, she wasn't cut out for the torture. None of them were, but she had always seemed to be more affected by it.

When the oldest members of the flock were introduced to her back in the School Days, she was selectively mute. Nudge never made a sound. Not when she was experimented on, not when she was alone, not even when they talked to her. Nothing. Period. It was only after Gazzy and Angel came when she opened up. It killed her to see her flock like this way and it made her very, very angry. She banged against the cage again.

"Max." Iggy called out calmly. "Max. I hate to interrupt your tirade, but maybe we should start coming up with a plan." Max sighed frustratedly and leaned against the cage.

"This is the part, where you conveniently come up with a plan." Iggy said after it became apparent that the silence was going to go on.

"Let's face it. Max doesn't have a plan." Angel's six year old voice piped up. Damn. Screw Angel and her power games. Whatever happened to hope.

"Whoa. No Max always has a plan, Angel. Right Max?" Gazzy's nine year old childish voice piped up. Max smiled her little trooper, she wished she could say that it was true. But she couldn't bring herself to say the words.

"See Gazzy. The fearless leader doesn't have a plan." Angel said tauntingly.

Max saw red, why did Angel always have to play the bad guy in situations like these. Suddenly an idea popped up in her head. "Angel, could you tap into their heads? Just to let them know we're here. See if you can see where they are." Angel's mouth opened and closed, probably trying to find a retort, instead her eyes went blank as she just silently complied. The remaining flock members stared anxiously at her, waiting for and update on their friends. None of them were prepared for what happened next.

Angel's eyes visibly widened for a fraction of a second before her scream pierced the air. It echoed around the empty room, but it didn't stop there. Angel shot back in her cage, almost knocking it over as she continued to scream. "It's burning! It's burning!" she yelled now backed up into the rear end of the cage. "Make it stop! Make it stop!"

Gazzy and Iggy were yelling now, as well, frantically trying to find out what was wrong, but to no avail. Why the heck does everything bad always happened to them. As quickly as Angel's spazzout had begun, it ended. "Are you okay?" Gazzy asked agitatedly.

"Y-yeah." Angel stuttered out. "Max-x. It's bad. We need to get out of here. Now." she said looking into Max's eyes. "They're coming back and it's not gonna be pretty."