Hey guys. I think today's spiritual emphasis week's chapel might have been even worse than yesterdays. We went into the cafeteria. But this time instead of listening to a person speak, we were listening to some retarded TAPE of a guy speak. And there weren't enough chairs so three guys came to sit with us, oh joy, and guess what. They were three of the guys who moronically exploded ketchup on me a few weeks ago. I mean, any other time if guys would sit with us I wouldn't really care. Out regular lunch table is a mixture of guys anyway. But THESE guys . . .? I would rather not have my hair dyed red AGAIN, if you know what I mean.

Chapter 12

Max pov.

"Okay, so, where to?" Shane asks Ari.

"Just follow me." He goes to take off.

"Ari, not everyone here has wings." I explain quickly.

"Oh," He says disappointedly, "we'll then, I guess we're driving."

"Driving?" Heather raises an eyebrow.

"Yep." He motions toward a part of the woods and a big suburban come bursting through the trees.

"Uh, are we really that close to the road?" I ask, slightly annoyed that we didn't thoroughly enough check our surroundings.

He smiles and nods. "Yeah, it's a good thing too or else we'd have a heck of a time trying to get that thing in here."

The eraser driving gets out and asks, "Anyone got a license?"

"I do." Shane says. "So then, should we do the same as last time? Under thirteen you stay here? And we'll have all the erasers except Ari stay here. So then they won't know about 'em being with us just yet."

"I am not leaving the younger part of my flock with erasers. I'm sorry, Ari, I trust you, but them? Absolutely not." I shake my head reluctantly.

"Then what do you suggest?" Heather asks in irritation.

"We're all weaker from . . . well, from what they had to do to bring us back, we haven't gotten our full strength back yet. How about a couple you guys stay here with them? Like two people from the Tunnel Guard, and one from the flock, since the flock's smaller."

"Sounds fair to me." Shane says and looks at me for approval.

I think about it for a minute. I wasn't leaving a blind guy to watch the younger ones, I can tell you that much.

"Max," Iggy says, as if reading my mind, "I can do it. I know I'm blind, but I can still do it."

I stare at him. I knew Iggy was capable but . . . paranoia was my biggest problem.

"Then I can have Heather, Isabelle, and Blaze stay here too." Shane adds in.

I sigh. "Fine. Whatever. But if anything happens to any of them I will kill someone."

So then Shane drives, Ari is in the passengers seat giving directions, Me, Fang, and Scar are in the middle, and Trevor and Skye are in the back. Personally, I don't like this whole, younger separated from older deal they've got going on here, but I guess I can live with it for a while.

After about an hour we wind up in what looks to me like the outskirts of a bombed country after a war. Seriously, there's shrapnel, burnt wood, no trees or even grass in sight that's still alive, garbage, and even bullets lying everywhere . . . and not to mention a few skeletons. HUMAN skeletons. I gulp nervously as we pass a few of what look like military tanks.

And then we pass a large billboard sign that says, "Now entering a private land used for weaponry and explosive testing, all trespassers will be shot."

"We're now entering TDI property." Ari says quietly. "We need to ditch the car." He orders Shane to pull the car over directly in front of the sign. When he does Ari jumps out as fast as he can and runs behind the signs and we do the same. We sit there for not even ten seconds before I see a hatch on the sign pop open and something goes zooming through the air towards the car. Then there's a loud explosion. We all duck lower while the chunks of metal fly over us and are pelted with bomb scraps.

Ari counts silently to ten and then jumps up and says, "Follow me, come on!" We follow him to a small ditch in the ground about ten feet away. He pushes us in and then jumps in his self and counts to five before we hear another explosion. He stands up. "Okay, the bombs are for security issues. They're done now. But stay close to me so we don't trigger any other alarms. They should be sending guards out to see if we were killed. The destroyed car should tell them we were."

We start moving up toward TDI slowly while trying to stay down low. After a few minutes Ari tells us to stop and he drops to the ground. We do the same. I glance up to see a few white coats and guys dressed all in black. They run up to the still burning car. While they're occupied with it we make a run for it.

But we don't get far enough before we hear the crack of a gunshot and then a yelp as it hits someone in the chest . . .

Sorry, evil cliff hanger, I know we all hate it, but I had to do it. So if you wanna know what happens and who get's shot, I expect reviews. Can we try and get five this time instead of only three or four like all the other times? Come on people, let's make a record for my story here! -Kristen