Chapter Eleven

Relief flooded through her as her feet touched the ground. Ginger slowly slid down from Mars' arms. She glanced around the empty building and her tension returned.

"Where are they?" Ginger asked quietly.

"I don't know."

"They're dead, aren't they?" she asked disappointedly and sank to the floor.

Mars crouched down in front of her, "No, baby. They're probably not here yet… or they found somewhere safer to stay. We'll find them, I promise."

A black furry figure shot out of the darkness, knocking Mars off the edge of the building. Ginger screamed and scrambled away from the figure that had stopped in front of her. He grabbed her by the arm and threw her over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed and pounded her fists on his back.

Mars tried to spread her wings to slow her descent, but she couldn't. They were slack, immobile. She noticed a needle in her arm and yanked it out, but it was too late. The drug had already taken affect. All she could do was watch Ginger helplessly and wait until she splattered onto the sidewalk. A tear escaped her eye. She had failed. She had lost another member of her flock.

Suddenly, arms enveloped her and she stopped falling. She looked at the person who had caught her It was an Eraser. The only way she was going to help Ginger would be to find the rest of the flock and rescue her from the School. First, she had to find the others.

She pulled the knife from her shoe and stabbed it straight into his heart. His arms released her and she took the knife with her as she fell from the sky. Thankfully, she didn't have far to fall. She landed in the middle of an almost deserted backstreet road. A car slammed on its brakes as it almost ran over her.

-----

"Wow!" Sam slammed on the brakes, as a girl dropped from the sky in front of the car. The boys both scrambled out of the car to see if the girl was all right. The girl slowly sat up and rubbed her back. Sam and Dean exchanged glances as they saw a pair of chocolate brown wings.

She stared at them strangely; they didn't seem that shocked about her wings. Then the thought occurred to her that they could be Erasers. They looked handsome enough. She quickly got to her feet and began to run.

"Wait! Do you know Rogue?" one of them yelled.

She stopped and turned around. "How do you know her?" Erasers didn't know the names the Flock called each other. They called them all freaks. They couldn't have been Erasers.

"We picked her up hitch hiking."

Mars rolled her eyes. That was Rogue, no regard for her safety. She walked back to them after she had had a debate with herself whether to trust them or not. "Where is she?"

"Um, we don't know…… I'm Sam by the way," he put his hand forward for a handshake.

Mars glanced at his hand then his face, but didn't take his hand. "Mars," she answered, "And you?"

"Dean, his brother. You're the girl Rogue mentioned."

"She told you about us?" Mars exclaimed slight surprised and aggravated.

"No really. She wouldn't tell us who you were, she just accidentally said you're name."

"Oh….Why don't you know where Rogue is?" Mars asked Dean with a dark glare.

Dean backed away from her as if her glare would harm him. He pointed a finger at his brother, "Sammy lost her."

"What! It's not like you were much help, all you did was lie on the floor unconscious," Sam argued.

"Okay, okay," Mars interjected, "What happened?"

Dean explained, "Well, we were at a motel and Rogue was explaining to us about these wolf guys, called Rubbers or something-"

"Erasers," Mars corrected with an annoyed sigh.

"You weren't listening, were you?" Sam asked Dean then finished explaining. "An Eraser," he shot Dean an irritated glance, "showed up and took her."

"And you just let it?" Mars yelled.

"No! I tried, but he was going to break her arm if I didn't put down the weapon."

"What was your weapon?"

"A bottle."
"Ooo, a bottle. No wonder he was so afraid," Mars taunted, "Anyway, it didn't matter if he broke her arm, she's had worst. Most of which was her own fault."

"Look, we're sorry. But she told us to come here, we don't know why. Probably to meet you, and we want to help."

----

The man had visited Rogue ten times since she had arrived. It was always the same man – the one that had kidnapped her from the motel – and he always punched her and kicked her and tortured her for answers. The first two times she didn't say a word she had just stood there and took was she was given, but the last time she had almost talked. Her self-control was deserting her. She didn't know how long she had been there, but she did know she couldn't last much longer.

The door swung open and he entered again. This time he was gripped a child's arm. Rogue couldn't see her face from the light behind the pair of them. He threw the child on the ground in front of Rogue.

"Gotta friend for you," he growled and slammed the door shut as he left. The child sniffed and looked up at Rogue. It was Ginger. Ginger ran to Rogue for comfort, tears streaming down her face.

"I want to go home," she cried, her voice muffled from Rogue's jumper, "I don't want to be here."