Disclaimer: Don't own anything!

Chapter Eleven

Everything was really dark. I was surrounded by tall, close-knit trees. I was walking, not knowing where I was going. I kept tripping over vines and roots.

"Fang." I called out, looking around for him.

It was unnaturally quiet, which made me nervous. I started walking faster.

"Fang!" I shouted out to the forest.

And I saw him. He was up ahead, facing away from me, walking slowly. I started running towards him.

"Fang!" I called louder. He didn't turn. He made no indication that he had heard me.

I was sprinting now, despite the fact that I was stumbling every so often. Why didn't he turn around?

"Fang!" I finally reached him, slightly out of breathe.

Still he didn't turn. I grabbed his shoulder and yanked him around to look at me.

"Fang." I said, only this time, it came out as a strangled whisper.

He stared at me with vacant eyes. It was like he wasn't there.

But, of coarse he was here! He was standing right in front of me.

"Fang?" I asked quietly.

"Max." he said in a monotone, and started turning away from me.

"Hey, wait!" I said, grabbing his shoulder again. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." He replied with no emotion. But he actually started to fade, his outline blurring slightly. And that scared me more than I would ever admit.

"You promised!" I said at him, holding onto his shirt. "You promised you would never leave me! You promised nothing would happen!" My voice had slowly risen until I was shouting at him.

He just stared at me, empty and expressionless.

I remembered Omega, and what Jeb had said about him not having a soul. I remembered the emptiness that had been in his eyes.

And the emptiness that was now in Fang's.


I jolted upright in bed, causing searing pain to shoot through my side.

I was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and my breathing was a little uneven. I hadn't had a nightmare in a long time. And this one had been slightly more unnerving than any other one I've had.

After the fight with the Flyboys earlier this morning, my mum and Jeb had rushed me to the doctors that were at the refuge. They had removed the bullet from my side and patched me up, and the flock had had to donate some blood.

The flock hadn't seen me get shot and they hadn't seen what had happened to Fang. One second he was there, fighting, and the next, he just…wasn't.

What really made me mad, was the fact that the rangers at the refuge wouldn't go look for Fang in the dark. They just said they would start looking in the morning. They mentioned something about 'wild animals' and 'thinking logically'. Like that was going to calm me down.

What was even worse, was that they wouldn't let me go search for Fang myself, because I was 'critically injured'.

I didn't care if I was injured! One of my flock was missing.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to charge off to look for Fang, because they gave me something to 'relieve the pain' that conveniently made me really drowsy, as well.

So, here I was a few hours later, back at the safe house, in my room, the anaesthesia and pain killers gone from my system.

It was still dark outside, and the pain in my side was almost crippling.

Pain is just a message, I told myself, taking a few deep breathes.

I glanced at Angel, sleeping in her bed. There were dry tear tracks on her cheeks, and it was obvious she was having a nightmare.

I got up and went over to crouch by her bed, ignoring the pain when I moved.

"Angel." I said quietly, shaking her shoulder gently. "Angel, sweetie."

Her eyes shot open, and she looked around the room, panicked. She looked at me, and fresh tears started streaming down her face.

"Oh, Angel." I said, climbing onto her bed and pulling her into my lap. "It's okay, Angel. It was only a bad dream."

"I didn't want him to die, Max!" she sobbed into my shoulder. "I miss him so much, already."

"Fang's not dead." I said firmly. "You don't know that. We'll find him, don't worry." I told her soothingly.

Angel only sobbed harder.


"Why can't I help with the search party?" I asked my mum.

"Flying would put too much strain on your body." She told me.

It was early morning, and Jeb had organised a group of people to go out and look for Fang.

"I'll stay on the ground, then." I said.

"Max, what you need now is rest." My mum said.

"No, what I need now is to find Fang. And they would find him sooner if one of the flock goes with." I explained.

"No." she said firmly. "Jeb hasn't found out where those robots came from. It's too dangerous for any of you to leave the house.

"But-"I said.

"Max," she interrupted me. "You need to heal. You can't do anything until then. The rangers know that forest better than you do. They're the best chance of finding Fang." She told me.

"It's not a case of finding Fang, or not" I said, a little agitated. "I know we'll find him. It's just a case of how long he'll have to be out there."

My mum looked at me with a weird expression on her face, but then she gave me a small smile.

"I know." She said.


"I know we're all worried, but everything will be fine." I told the flock.

We were all sitting around the living room, looking miserable.

It had been a long day of doing absolutely nothing, and I was going crazy because of it.

"I'll be healed enough tomorrow, and we can join the search party. I don't care what anyone has to say about it." I said. "I think you guys should go to bed. The more energy we have for tomorrow, the better."

"You won't have a lot of energy if you don't sleep, Max." Angel said from the couch, where she was curled up next to Nudge.

Her eyes were red and swollen.

"I will sleep…later." I lied. "Now, come on, bed time."

The flock all filed out of the room and off to their bedrooms. Iggy hung back.

"Do you really think Fang is okay?" he asked me.

"Of course I do!" I said. "Don't you?"

"I don't know." He said quietly. "Are you going to sleep?"

"No," I said, thinking of the dream I had the night before. "No, I'm not going to sleep until Fang is back."

I looked closer at Iggy. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he looked absolutely hopeless.

"Fang is coming back." I told him firmly.

Iggy looked down at the ground he couldn't see.

"You should try to get some sleep." He said, before leaving the room.

Review!

(when I started writing, I never thought reviews would make me update faster, but they do! :P)