HIVE: Otto's Past 2: The Maze

"Wakey wakey!" someone shouted in Otto's ear. He opened his eyes just as the Eraser kicked his cage. Otto's head smacked into the wire mesh, making his teeth rattle.

"Ugh," he groaned. He already had a pounding headache. The pain was focused at his left temple, and every time it throbbed it made his vision spin.

"Where are you taking them!?"

Max's frantic voice brought him back to reality. He looked up to see that the Erasers were dragging Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Angel and Gazzy from their cages. Fang lashed out at his captors, but a swift blow to his head kept him from struggling further.

"Where are you taking them!?" Max repeated, clutching the bars of her cage. "Tell me!"
The Erasers sneered at her.

"Let's just say that you won't be seeing them again," one of the Erasers said. He smiled at Max, revealing his long canines.

"No!" Max yelled, pushing against the cage door. "No!"

Otto could only watch as the Erasers began to drag the Flock from the room. He could feel anger boiling up inside him, but he was too weak to do anything about it.

"Max!" Angel cried, her eyes wide with fear. She reached out for her big sister, hoping to close the gap between them, but the Erasers bundled her out of the door.

"You bastards!" Max screamed after them. She sat back and kicked the cage door again and again and again.

"It's no use," Otto said, surprised at how weak he sounded. The morning's experiments had taken their toll. "The cages were designed to cope with our strength."

Max punched the cage with a hiss of frustration, before slumping against the side, breathing hard. "I hate them," she said quietly, her eyes burning with rage. "I hate them all."

Otto's eyes stung and he bowed his head. The bars of his cage swam before him, but he couldn't tell if that was because of his headache or his tears.

He'd only discovered his family a few weeks ago, and already he was losing them.

xxXXOtto+MaximumXXxx

As soon as Fang saw it, he knew what their fate would be.

Below the balcony where him, his family and the Erasers were standing was a maze. It had been built at the back of the School, a complex structure formed of towering concrete walls, dead ends and booby traps. It stretched out for a hundred metres in both directions, forming a perfect square. A net covered the entire maze, designed to keep anything that could fly – namely them – from escaping.

"No..." Nudge said softly. She was staring down at the maze, and all the colour had gone from her face.

"Don't worry," Fang said gently. He had to bend slightly to put an arm round her shoulders. "Everything's going to be all right."

"What is it?" Iggy said nervously. "What can you guys see?"

"The Maze," Fang said. "They're going to put us in the Maze."

They all knew what the Maze was. Fang himself remembered seeing it when he was a toddler. He used to watch from this very balcony as failed test subjects were put in the maze, acting as prey for the Erasers. It would only take minutes for the Erasers to hunt them all down.

That was how the School trained their Erasers.

"But why?" Gazzy said, his voice quavering. "Why are they putting us in there? We're not failed experiments!"

"No, but you've become redundant."

Fang spun round.

Ms Loom, their mother, was standing in the doorway, surveying them with her cold, dark eyes.

"You see," she said, walking over to join them, "the School is expanding. We're bringing in new test subjects every day, and we're starting to run out of space." She frowned. "And to make things worse, the government has cut some of our funding."

Fang gritted his teeth. "So that's it then, you're disposing of us?"

Ms Loom smiled and patted him on the head. "You're a clever boy."

Only the Erasers kept his fist from connecting with her pretty face.

"We only need Maximum Ride and Otto Malpense," she continued, "because they're prime examples of what happens when you add 2% or 1.75% of Avian DNA to a human. The rest of you are simply the leftovers."

Fang balled his fists. "How dare you talk about us like that. We're people!"

She only gave them that sweet, red-lipped smile of hers. "Only 98%." Then she clicked her fingers at the Erasers. "Put them in. Make sure they're separated."

"Yes Ms Loom," one of them said. The Erasers pushed them into the corridor and down a flight of steps.

Fang couldn't help but notice that when the Erasers looked at them with their red eyes, they licked their lips.

xxXXOtto+MaximumXXxx

"We're here," Raven called.

Laura started up, all traces of sleepiness gone, and rushed into the cockpit. Wing and Shelby followed, just as alert.

Through the window they saw an expanse of forest. It stretched out before them in all directions, broken only by the odd mountain peak, a river, and the School.

Dread lodged itself in Laura's stomach when she saw it. Even in the fading light she could see the large, white building, which resembled a military compound more than a lab. High wire fences encircled the building, and the trees had been cleared for two hundred metres all around it, making it hard for people to sneak in unannounced.

Otto's in there, she thought, biting her lip. Please please be okay.

"Where are you gonna land?" Shelby asked Raven.

The assassin pointed towards the river, where there was a gap in the trees. "Beside that."

They fell into a nervous silence as Raven started to land the helicopter.

"Wing," she said suddenly, not moving her eyes from the window. "Open the crates at the back. You should find jumpsuits in one of them."

Laura followed Wing to the crates, feeling the need to help in some way.

"I'll open these," Wing said, pointing to the crates on the right. "You open those."

"Okay," she said, and starting undoing the straps. Most of the crates held food supplies, water, and stun guns – which would be very useful – but the last one she opened held a pile of jumpsuits.

"I've found them!" she said. She pulled one out. It was black – just like their HIVE uniform – but there was a button on one of the sleeves. She pressed it-

The jumpsuit turned invisible.

xxXXOtto+MaximumXXxx

"Iggy! Nudge! Gazzy! Angel!" Fang shouted, turning in a circle. "Are any of you there?"

Silence. All he could see were the stained concrete walls of the Maze, and the starlit sky beyond the net above him. An array of floodlights lit the Maze, so at least he wouldn't have to run around in the pitch-black.

"Iggy! Nudge! Gazzy...!" he started again, calling his family's names over and over. The Erasers had shoved them through different entrances, so they were scattered all over the Maze. Fang knew that their only hope was to band together.

Alone, they wouldn't stand a chance.

Suddenly, Fang sensed something beside him. He dropped to the ground just as a spinning blade shot from the wall, slicing the air above his head. His instincts screamed at him to move, so he rolled forwards as another blade spun through the air behind him. It nicked his right wing, making him gasp. He had to jump over the next blade. His wings automatically snapped out, but the Maze was too narrow; the edges of his wings slammed against the walls. Crying out in pain, he immediately folded them in and dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. His wings flared with pain. When he looked around he saw that the floor was littered with black feathers. Fortunately, the blades had stopped coming.

"Help!" someone screamed.

"Nudge..." he breathed, leaping to his feet.

"Help me!
"I'm coming Nudge!" he shouted, setting off at a sprint. He ran as fast as he could through the Maze, turning left, then right, then coming up at a dead end, then having to turn left again.

He heard more screams, as well as the growl of an Eraser. That sound made his heart clench with fear.

Come on... he thought as he backtracked after yet another dead end. I must be close by now...

He turned a corner and there she was.

"Fang!" she cried, struggling against her bonds. Thick, strong cables had sprung from the wall and now held Nudge in their grip, pinning her against the wall. An Eraser stood before her, a twisted smile on his wolfish face as he raised his claws for another strike.

No you don't.

Fang launched himself at the Eraser, adrenaline surging through his veins. If anyone else had tried to tackle a full-grown Eraser, they would have probably bounced off him, but Fang had enhanced strength, unusual height and insurmountable rage on his side.

His tackle sent the Eraser into the wall, denting the concrete. The monster snarled at him and tried to rake his claws across Fang's face, but Fang blocked the arm and elbowed him in the stomach. He heard a whoosh of air as the Eraser's lungs emptied, but he didn't stop there. Fang drove his knee between the Eraser's legs, making him howl, before slamming the heel of his palm into his nose.

There is nothing more satisfying than the clean snap of cartilage, or the hollow thud of a skull hitting concrete. Blood spurted from the Eraser's nose and his howling rose in pitch. Fang stepped back and watched as the Eraser swayed from side to side, dazed after his head had hit the wall. He didn't make any attempt to stop the flow of blood from his nose, which was now gushing down his chin.

"That was for Nudge," Fang said.

The Eraser fell flat on his face.

"That. Was. Amazing."

He turned to see Nudge staring at him, her jaw hanging open.

"It wasn't much," he said with a shrug. He began to untangle her from the cables. It took precious minutes, but finally she was free.

She hugged him, and he stiffened automatically. "Thanks Fang."

He allowed himself a small smile and patted her on the shoulder. "We're family. We look after our own."

She drew back from him. "Are we going to find the others and help them too?"

"You bet we are," he said, already scanning the walls for further dangers. "We're going to find each other, and we're going to get out of this place alive."