13.
I'll tell you something, consider it a friendly warning: crawling through the air-shafts of a building inhabited by evil scientists and wolf-people isn't fun. Like at all. I had followed the voices directions and was now sat opposite Iggy, both of us either side of the grate that held the only chance of freedom.
"Are you sure about this, Max?" Iggy asked softly, his voice to low for any passing humans/robots/erasers to hear. "It just seems to…"
"Easy? Yeah, I know. But the voice hasn't been wrong before, and maybe it's time the world gave us a break." I muttered back before carefully unscrewing the grate. The two of us jumped down silently, and headed straight for the door. To my complete and utter surprise no alarms started blaring, there was no sudden appearance of a thousand erasers or white-coats; instead, the two of us walked straight out of the door, round the side of the building and launched ourselves into the air. I glanced around us, spotting the flock hovering not far from us, they caught sight of the two of us and immediately headed over.
I knew I must look terrible, covered in blood, gore and mud; my clothes ripped and my hair matted; the now-nearly-all-white feathers of my wings (apparently the tawny was a you'll-grow-out-of-it thing) covered dyed crimson; I probably looked like the looming angel of death. But right now, that didn't matter. Because I still had one more job to do. We still weren't free. I still had to drop the bomb that was gripped in my hand. Squeezing my eyes shut I flicked the 'activate' switch, the small noise was enough to give me away as Fang and Iggy both turned to face me.
"Max," Fang said slowly, as if he was talking to a child. "What are you doing?" He eyed the bomb in my hand with caution.
"9 seconds until activation"
"I'm sorry. I have to do this to keep you alive."
"8 seconds until activation."
"I had to." I whispered, and released my grip on the bomb. "I had to."
The flock and I all watched the small object drop, the distant countdown looming in my ears, it was now only 5 seconds until activation. But it wasn't the falling object that caught my eye, nor was it the flocks horrified faces, or the way the light glistened off the building below. No. It was the little girl headed straight towards the building. The building that was about to explode. I saw Fang follow my gaze and leap forward to try and stop me, but it was too late; I was already angling into a dive, closing my wings in tighter as I headed towards the ground.
"Three seconds until activation."