Chapter Thirty-Eight: Ventilation Shafts

Jessica POV

"So. What have we missed?" I asked as we flew behind Angel. She was leading us in the direction she had heard the others' minds. We had been traveling for about ten minutes. Until I spoke, we had been trying to decide on a plan. "Anything important?"

"Well," Iggy said. "I fell asleep, Dylan fought with Fang, Max fought Maya, Angel played Dr. Phil, Maya left, and Nudge and Gazzy had a date on the roof."

"What?" Gazzy and Nudge exclaimed in indignation, faces ruby red. "We did not!"

"Sure you didn't. Sure... Anyway, we were in the middle of planning what to do next when we heard the explosion. Max, being Max, decided we would check it out. Then we found you," Iggy finished with a slight grin.

Race and I both tried to smile, but ended up grimacing. We were still in shock over Pyro's death, and we were having a hard time acting normal. We could tell that the Flock was a little shell-shocked, but not as much, seeing as they didn't know Pyro the way we did.

We were silent for another minute as we all flew on during an awkward lull in our conversation.

"So, what's been going on with you and the hooligans?" Fang asked.

I blinked. "Hooligans? What?"

"We gave Matt's flock a name, seeing as we already had 'The Flock' for Max's flock, and 'Fang's Gang' for Fang's flock. You guys are so strange, so we named you the Hooligans," Dylan explained, air-quotes included. I just gave him a look that clearly said 'you guys call us strange?'

"Weird. But anyway, after we disappeared from the pool-" I began.

"How did you do that anyway?" Nudge interrupted. I rolled my eyes.

"The school did something that let them do that. They didn't explain how. As I was saying," I continued, giving Nudge a very pointed look. I hate being interrupted. "We ended up in a room with the door unlocked. Me, Abby, and-" I gulped, "Pyro acknowledged that it was a trap. But Matt, Noah, Christine, and Race," here I fixed a very pointed glare on Race, who grinned without shame, "didn't believe us and" another gulp, "Pyro wanted an 'adventure' so they ignored me and Abby and went through the door. So we followed them because we didn't want to be split up." I paused.

Race continued directly after I stopped. "We followed a hallway down to another room. There some kind of mutant robot came up to us. Py-" Race cut off as she tried to choke out Pyro's name. "Pyro made him mad and he started shooting at us. We dodged and the whitecoat who had been in charge of the building that we – me, Jessica, and Pyro – were raised in came into the room holding a remote. She pressed a button and the three of us blacked out. We woke up in the other building." She trailed off.

I picked up after her. "They were trying to make us believe that we had never left and that you and Matt's flock never existed. We knew the truth and tried to break out." I was silent for a few seconds as I replayed the moments before the explosion in my mind. "Me and Race were by the window, but Pyro couldn't make it over to us." I paused as my breathing hitched. "He... He set off the bomb and we escaped out the window. And... And then you guys came..." I trailed off as Race and I started crying again.

We flew on in silence as the others tried to find a way to console us.

Finally, we reached a large building and we came to a stop about thirty feet away.

"They're in there," Angel announced.

"How are we gonna get them out?" Gazzy asked.

We were quiet once again.

"Hey, Angel?" I asked. "Can you hear them?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Can you talk to them? In your head?"

"Yes..."

"Ask Matt if he still remembers the vents."

"What?"

"The vents. He has an innate ability to know the ventilation shafts like the back of his hand, regardless of the building he's in. Ask him if he can locate a way for us to get in and sneak us out."

"Okay..."

Heyyyy guys. We're backkkkkk. Took a while, didn't we? Well, that's because school started again. So, Jessica here. I'm quite sad, we haven't gotten any reviews in a while.

Anyhoozles, do you remember how Abby mentioned Matt's "uncanny knowledge of vents in the School"? Yeah, I brought it back. WOO.

Lol, so, we're getting close to the end! Abby said she's gonna write an epicly long chapter, so BEWARE.

Haha yeah.

OH! Below, is a scene that is NOT a part of our story, it's completely UNRELATED but I'm adding it anyway. This is a JOKE.

Jessica POV

So, all of us were watching Up, cos Abby decided we should watch a sad movie.

"Does their mailbox say 'Carl and Ellie'?" Pyro asked suddenly.

"Yeah." I replied.

We were silent for a few minutes after that. Then Iggy spoke.

"So Ella ends up married to that weird mutant dude?"

Yeah, I was watching Up when I came up with that.

"What do gay horses eat?"

"Ha~ay!"

So yeah.

~Jessica