I like pie, and sherbet, rainbow sherbet! This chapter is about what happened while Max was asleep.
Disclaimer: 'nuf said

Chapter 13

Fang swooped up and caught Max, glad she wasn't still holding Angel, and stared at the gash in her shoulder. It looked bad, like REALLY bad, but not bad enough to risk going to a hospital. Fang yelled out to the flock plus Dylan and Maya,

"Maya and I saw a cave on our flight here, you guys follow me, if we go back to the hotel we'll be seen and they'll just send more nanobots" it probably should have been Iggy leading the flock but leading was becoming a habit to Fang. Not a fun one though, too much talking. For the hundredth time Fang wondered why in heck Angel always wanted this job?

There wasn't any better suggestions though so the flock did big wheeling turns to face Fang who was already flying west, out onto the red, hot, desert.

~~~~~~~LiNeBrEaK~~~~~~~

The group all came to a dusty stop in a small cave that carved into the large red rock sitting in the middle of nowhere. It was a good spot for eight birdkids to rest, you couldn't see it from above or underneath, you had to be right in front of the entrance to see anything.

Fang had insisted on carrying Max the whole time, much to Dylan's annoyance, and he gently set Max's limp body onto the rocky earth. Another look at Max's shoulder and Fang wanted to hurl, growing up at the school not much could do that, but seeing Max's arm was absolutely disgusting. It was hollow around the gash where the nanobots had eaten her from the inside and the skin was tinged green and limp. The bots had absorbed most of the blood but her face was so pale, even a moron could tell she had lost a lot of blood. The gash itself spread almost 15 cm (A/N I think that's 6 inches) long and 5cm wide (A/N again not sure, 2 inches?).

Fang called Iggy over, the kid was like a human x-ray. His pale finger brushed across her arm and he cringed as he felt the hollow area.

"She looks pretty bad, you sure we shouldn't go to a hospital?" Iggy sounded really worried.

"And say what? Oh we were just researching zombies and then there were suddenly nanobots everywhere and then our mutant friend suddenly was able to-"

"Yah, I get it, no hospital" that was probably the first time someone had had to cut off Fang. But with Max so hurt it was hard to find anything funny.

"I've taught you well young one" leave it to Nudge to try to lighten the mood. But she was only rewarded by a wry smile from Fang.

They sat in awkward silence for at least an hour before Angel woke up from where she was lying in Gazzy's lap, screaming bloody murder.

'Shh, sweetie, it's ok we're here honey, everything's gonna be fine' Nudge reassured Angel as everyone rushed to her side, trying to help.

After about ten seconds, Angel stopped screaming and began crying and shuddering, drawing in shaking breathes. Gazzy's arms wrapped protectively around his little sister, Nudge ran her fingers through Angel's blonde hair whispering reassurances. Iggy reached out and grabbed her small hand in his large, pale one. The whole scene only made Fang miss the flock even more and he almost felt like crying, almost, but dude's don't die inside so he just went over and caught up with his siblings.

When Gazzy was about to finish telling Fang about how Max had punched Dylan on the plane, in front of the stewardess, Angel drew a final shuddering breath and said,

"Fang?"

"Yeah sweetie" even if she had predicted his death, then basically killed him, she was still like Fang's baby sister.

"Why were you thinking-"

"nothing Angel, I wasn't thinking anything" Fang cut Angel off before she could blurt out the many curses he had been thinking towards Dylan.

Fang, why do you hate Dylan? Angel put the thought in Fang's head.

He replaced me, the little- wait crap, did you hear that? Um... he has nicer shoes than me? Fang tried to cover up his slip up as Angel started giggling,

"Since when did you care about shoes, and yes I did hear that" Angel said aloud, probably confusing everyone except Fang. He felt his usually impassive face tinged slightly pink and Gazzy burst out laughing,

"Fang, shoes, embarrassed!" the Gasman couldn't keep talking he was laughing so hard.

Fang shot an unamused look at Iggy who was rolling on the dirt floor, laughing so hard no sound was coming out and he was just sitting there clapping like a retarded seal. Yet another downside to Iggy being blind.

Trying to distract the flock, Fang said,

"Angel, what happened, we thought you were dead" this sobered everyone up quickly as they remembered the explosion and Angel's mangled shoe they had found in the rubble.

"I don't want to talk about it yet, but I will, I promise" Angel started shuddering again and buried her head into Gazzy's shoulder.

~~~~~~~LiNeBrEaK~~~~~~~

Ten agonizing hours of twenty questions, which was Angels favourite game for obvious reasons, Max started muttering in her slumber,

"No, no I won't, I don't care, too big a price, won't help you, we'll find other ways for Iggy to see" Max frowned in her sleep, her forehead creasing with stress. Iggy just sat there, unmoving, his mouth slightly open.

"This didn't happen, Max didn't tell us for a reason, she'll tell us when she is ready" Nudge finally declared after a few minutes of shocked silence. Everyone agreed.

"Well what does a girl have to do to get some food around here!" Nudge said eventually. Fang volunteered a grudging Dylan to go to the nearest town to buy food. Soon Nudge was ranting about who knows and Iggy was groaning every time Nudge started a new sentence. Gazzy was keeping watch with Angel near the mouth of the cave, he was showing Angel how to wire and de-wire a bomb in 60 seconds. As Nudge took a breath of air before she started another speech, Fang interrupted her,

"It's been 12 hours, when is she going to wake up?" When Nudge answered with her usual speech, Fang sunk into his usual silence and thought about their predicament. Five minutes of agonizing rambling from the Nudge Channel and Fang was ready to tie up her wings and push her off a cliff. Suddenly a fist flew out of nowhere and Max was lying on Fang's lap, her fist covered in blood from Fang's broken nose.

"What just happened?" Gazzy turned around when he heard the crack of Fang's nose.

"Oh, Max has just been plotting about how to hurt Fang for the last five or ten minutes, she settled on breaking his nose. Fang, she thinks you're a butthead," Angel said without even looking up from the ticking bomb in her fingers.

"And you just felt like telling us this now!" Fang said, rubbing his nose.

"What! You already know she thinks you're a butthead" Angel sounded confused.

"Not that! She's been conscious! And you didn't think of telling anyone!" Fang sounded angry, which was very unnatural to him, he usually kept his emotions under control.

"Well, she was plotting, I didn't want to ruin her plan" Angel said this like it was the most natural thing in the world.

AND END! Suckish ending I know, OH WELL, SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP!
"Would you please consider reviewing this chapter, please and thankyou" imagine I am saying that in a british accent.