Wow! It was a stretch to write this chapter! I wasn't sure if it was going to get done or not because the past two days have been insane for me (thanks to one of my horses decided to cut his leg open clear to the artery yesterday. Don't worry! He's fine, the vet came and gave him stitches but UGH!) but I got it done! I'm really proud of the way this chapter turned out, so I hope you guys enjoy it too! I'd like to thank MissMintCoffeeMocha for being the ONLY person to review the last chapter. What's going on? Why the sudden silence from you guys? Please let me know how I'm doing.

XOXO,

Girlreadsalot

I swore to god if I had to stomach another gas station hotdog I was going to scream.

It had been about two days of subpar motels and taking potty breaks in bathrooms with unidentifiable slime on the floor. That wasn't even the scariest part.

The most horrifying thing was the fact that the further we went, there seemed to be fewer and fewer people. Less traffic, nobody on the streets, nobody in parking lots, no cars, just…nothing.

It's always said that the world was a big place, but you don't really realize how big it was until you didn't see hardly anybody in it.

"Max," Angel spoke to me, interrupting my doom and gloom thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Your mom is going to check into the hotel a few miles up the road. She said Ella isn't feeling good."

"Is she okay?" Iggy asked, gliding over to Angel. His strawberry blonde hair had been getting a little to shaggy to begin with and it was now sticking up in disorderly tufts due to the wind.

Angel looked down at the SUV below, thoughtfully. "She says her stomach hurts really bad."

"It's probably just the flu, Ig." I assured him. "She hasn't had a run-in with any of the Croats. She'll be fine." But I felt a little flicker of doubt.

The parking lot of the hotel we stopped in had been vacant, which wasn't that big of a surprise. There were hardly any cars in parking lots anymore. All of the lights were off and the doors were locked.

Luckily, us bird-kids had no remorse for breaking into buildings that were locked up tighter than the President's desk.

"I'll go with Dylan," Fang said.

I couldn't help but give him a surprised look. The two of them weren't exactly the best of friends. The last time the two of them had been alone together for an extended period of time, (if I remembered correctly) a couch ended up in flames.

"We'll behave, Max." Dylan assured me with a big smile before slinging his arm over Fang's shoulder in what was meant to be a brotherly gesture.

Fang returned the gesture with a glare that made me shudder in fear.

It had the desired effect and Dylan dropped his arm to the side. "We'll take the right half of the building, all three floors. You and Iggy okay to take the other half?"

We nodded.

Please, with Iggy's super awesome hearing we'd hear a threat before the threat heard us.

I knew Dylan and Fang would be okay because Dylan had exceptional eyesight and Fang was a great fighter.

Iggy and I took the left wing.

It was nearly impossible to see with the electric out. I was thankful that Iggy was wearing a white t-shirt. I could see his outline, but not much past him. Even with my super-duper eyesight.

"It's so dark in here," I muttered before I'd realized my mistake.

"Welcome to my world, Max. Welcome to my world."

I swatted at the back of his head, but he must've heard the air moving because he ducked and my hand went over the top of his stupidly tall head.

"Play nice, Max." Iggy chastised.

We walked through the halls carefully, but Iggy hadn't heard anything suspicious and nothing seemed particularly Croatoan-y.

On our way back down the narrow stairwell the pitch-black was illuminated by the lights. Fang and Dylan must've found the breaker box.

"Oh thank god," I said, "I can finally see."

Iggy exclaimed, "Me too! Oh wait…no I can't."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"I can practically hear you roll your eyes, Max."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you actually could."

We all got settled for the night, splitting into groups of two, taking up ten rooms on the same floor. I ended up sharing a room with Sydney and that was okay with me considering I knew she could swing a tire iron like she was Babe Ruth.

While she was in the shower, I laid on my bed so I could relax for a little bit.

That lasted about ten whole minutes.

"Max?" My mom called pounding on the door to my room. She sounded a little flustered and it made me nervous because Ella was sick.

I jumped up from my bed and yanked open the door, "Yeah? Is it Ella? What's wrong with her?"

My mom put her hands on my shoulders while the words escaped me in a rush of breath. "Ella…she was hurting for a while, but now she's fine." My mom let out a relieved laugh and hugged me. "She's not infected. She was cramping."

I stared at her a little dumbly. "Cramping?"

"Cramping."

"Cramping."

"Ella started her period today," My mom said.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, relieved that it was nothing worse than Mother Nature making another young adult's life awful. "Well, that's a good thing right? She's not infected."

"The thing is…when we were hastily packing all of our stuff we never thought to pack the, erm, items needed for this situation."

"Oh! Ella needs tampons."

My mom nodded. "Would you mind flying to town and finding some for her?"

I nodded, assuring her it wasn't a problem. I went down the hall and knocked on the Fang's door.

Iggy opened it, his hair mussed from the pillow and sleep in his eyes. "What?"

"Where's Fang?"

"Passed out, sleeping like a rock." He answered, his voice cracking with sleep. "Why?" He brought a pale hand up and scrubbed at his blind blue eyes.

"You up for a little flight?"

He nodded, "Lemme put some shoes on."

"Great, I'm going to get Dylan." I moved a few doors down and pounded on the door that the bird-kid in question was sharing with The Gasman.

"Max," He said opening it up and looking around. He frowned, "What's going on?"

"You, Iggy, and I are going to town. I'd like you to come with me. We could really use your eyes."

"Yeah sure," He said with a nod. "Let me put a shirt on."

"You do that."

Fifteen minutes later we were landing in the small city about ten miles away from the hotel we were staying in. It was dark, only the streetlights and traffic signals were working. It was also empty and extremely creepy.

We moved as silently as we could.

I was super paranoid and peering through the darkness as far as my enhanced eyes could see, looking for any movement or signs of Croats.

Bringing Iggy was a pure stroke of genius on my part. With his awesome hearing he was able to take alternate routes, avoiding all contaminated and infected people in the process. He was also really handy for picking the lock in the convenience store.

With all feminine hygiene products placed securely in my pack, we were ready to takeoff again.

I was a four strides into my running take off when I heard a blood curdling scream. It halted me right in my tracks and I nearly face planted onto the uneven sidewalk.

"Help! Somebody please help me!" The voice shouted desperately.

Dylan looked at me, unsure of what he should do. "What should we do?"

I opened my mouth to tell him we were going to ignore it and keep going but the desperate cries for help cut me off. "It's my son! Please, somebody help me!"

After hearing that, I'd made up my mind and took off in the direction I'd heard the woman yelling. I rounded the corner and stopped when I saw the woman kneeling under a streetlight, a small boy cradled in her arms as she sobbed.

"Ma'am?" I said taking a few tentative steps towards her. "Hello?"

Dylan wrapped his hand around my arm and stopped me. "Don't, Max." He wasn't looking at me—or her, for that matter—he was looking past her, into the darkness that surrounded her.

"Why not? She needs help."

"It's too dangerous."

I followed his gaze, a protest on my lips but it never escaped.

From the darkness and the shadows, a few of the infected started to appear. They walked unnaturally towards the woman and her son.

"Please help me," The mother said to the nearest figure. "M-My son, he's been infected. It's starting to take effect."

It didn't take long before they had her surrounded.

"No!" She clambered to her feet, holding her limp son's body close to her chest as if she could protect him from what was about to happen. "No!"

Then, like sharks feeding in chummed waters, the Croats lunged for the woman. Her screams weren't quite covered up by the hungry and angered snarling. She screamed and screamed and screamed until they stopped with a garbled wet sound.

I couldn't tear my eyes away as the Croats tore her apart, eating whatever parts of her they could get their hands on.

I swallowed the vomit rising up in the back of my throat and made the motion for Dylan and Iggy to take to the sky while the Croats were still distracted.

I couldn't erase the woman's tortured screams, the sight, and the smell of her blood from my memory. It'd be a miracle if I slept at all that night.