"Would someone please tell me what the heck is going on?" Iggy said.
"Angel just made a shark wave its fin at us," Nudge told him breathlessly.
"Uh - wha… ?"
Then three more sharks appeared in the shallow water around Angel. Together, the four sharks turned on their sides and waved their fins.
Angel was laughing. "Isn't that so great?"
Total trotted up next to me, his little feet kicking sand. "That's awesome! Make them do it again!"
My knees felt weak. I needed to sit down. "That was neat, sweetie," I said, trying to sound calm. "Now please ask the sharks to leave, okay?"
I looked around at my flock and saw Crater sweating and shaking, fists still out and ready but even she looked scared to take on the sharks. One shark, no problem. Four sharks, we might need and extra Crater.
Angel shrugged and talked to the sharks again. Slowly they turned and headed back out to sea.
"That was so awesome," Total said, as Angel splashed toward shore. He licked Angel's leg, then spit. "Ugh! Salt."
"So, Angel talks to fish, is that right?" Iggy said carefully. "And this is useful how?" Crater shrugged, relaxed now that the sharks were gone. "Dinner?"
We had to keep on the move. It was going to be dark soon, and we needed shelter. Most kids my age would be bummed about their next math test or that their parents cut their phone calls short. I was more concerned with shelter, food, water. The little luxuries of life.
We were over northern Florida now. All along the coast we saw a million twinkling lights of homes and stores and cars moving in threads like blood cells in a vein. If blood cells had, you know, weensy little headlights.
But there was a huge unlit area below us. In general, dark = no people. I looked over at Fang, and he nodded. We started to descend.
A few minutes' reconnaissance informed us that this was the Ocala National Forest. It looked like a good place, and we dropped down out of the twilight and aimed ourselves carefully through small gaps in the umbrella of treetops. And landed in water.
"Yuck!" I was calf-deep in muddy water, surrounded by cypress knees and towering pines. Looking around, I saw land a couple yards away and slogged over to it. "To the left!" I called, as Nudge and Iggy swooped in. Crater whispers softly beside me as she slopped around. "Take it back now y'all."
"This is good," I said, looking around in what was rapidly becoming the pitch-darkness. "Easy to get out of, straight up through the trees, but almost impossible for anyone to track us overland."
"Home, sweet swamp," said the Gasman, and I smiled.
An hour later we had a small fire going and were roasting things on sticks. I was so used to eating this way that even if I were, like, a grown-up making breakfast for my 2.4 children, I would probably be impaling Pop-Tarts on the ends of sticks and holding them over a fire.
Crater kept lookout and I had to poke her with a stick to remind her that she needs to eat too.
Now Fang pulled a smoking, meaty chunk off a stick and dropped it onto an empty Baggie, which was Nudge's plate.
"Want some more raccoon?" he asked.
Nudge paused in midbite. "It is not! You went to the store. Didn't you? There's no way this is raccoon." She examined the meat critically.
Fang shrugged. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Oh, maybe you're right," he said seriously. "Maybe this is the raccoon, and I gave you the possum."
Nudge choked and started coughing.
"Stop it," I told Fang, reaching over to pat Nudge's back. He looked at me innocently.
"He's just kidding, Nudge," said the Gasman. "Last time I checked, Oscar Mayer wasn't making squirrel dogs." He held up an empty package, and Nudge wheezed a bit and swallowed.
I was trying not to laugh, and then I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. I glanced around - we were all here. But I felt like someone was watching us. I see incredibly well in the dark, but the fire was too bright to see much beyond it. Maybe I was imagining it.
Next to me, Angel straightened up. "Someone's here," she whispered.
Or maybe not.
Crater's sharp eyes looked around as she gave her food to Gazzy. Standing up tall, using her height as intimidation.
Well, it had been a whole day without an Eraser crashing - literally - our party.
I snapped my fingers softly twice, and five heads turned toward me, alert and tense.
"Someone's here," Angel repeated softly.
Fang kept turning things in the fire, but his back was taut and straight, and I knew he was reviewing escape plans.
"What are you getting?" I asked Angel out of the side of my mouth.
She frowned, her blond curls glinting in the firelight. "Not Erasers." She cocked her head to one side, concentrating. "Kids?" She looked puzzled.
I got slowly to my feet, scanning the darkness around the fire. Moving to the edge of our little circle, I peered intently into the woods. Then I saw them. Two small, skinny forms, inching toward our fire. Much too small to be Erasers. And human, not animal.
"Who's there?" I said strongly. I stood tall and put my shoulders back, making myself look bigger. Fang got up and came to stand next to me. Crater stood on my other side, her hulking height casting a huge shadow.
The two little forms slunk nearer, more quickly.
"Who are you?" I asked, sounding mean. "Come closer, where I can see you."
They crawled into our small area, two dirty, skinny, big-eyed children. I mean, all of us bird kids looked really long and slender compared to other kids our ages, but our bones didn't really stick out. Theirs did.
They gave us all wary glances but seemed riveted by the fire and the smell of food cooking. One of them actually licked her lips - they were a boy and a girl.
Hmm. They didn't seem like the biggest threat I'd ever seen. I leaned over, put some hot dogs onto a paper bag, and placed it in front of them.
Yo. I thought Gazzy and Iggy were repulsive eaters. I made a mental note to not ever let them get this close to starving. Those two kids fell on the hot dogs and virtually shoved them whole into their mouths. It made me think of a TV special I'd seen that showed hyenas ripping apart their prey.
I put two slices of bread in front of them, then two more, then two more, then two more hot dogs. They all disappeared in instants. After that I gave them candy bars, and their eyes widened as if I'd just handed them - uh … candy bars when they were starving. Finally their chewing slowed. Now they seemed to savor every bite. Fang passed them a canteen of water. They drained it.
They crawled closer to the fire and sat in front of it, looking sleepy and unafraid, as if it would be fine if we killed them now, because they weren't hungry anymore.
"So - what's your story?" I asked, wanting some answers before they nodded off.
"We got kidnapped," said the girl, her dark eyes reflecting the flames.
Well, okay, I hadn't seen that coming. "Kidnapped?"
The boy nodded tiredly. "In south Jersey. From two different places - we're not related."
"We just ended up in the same place," said the girl, yawning.
"And where was that?" I asked.
"Here," said the boy. "We escaped a couple times. Even made it to the police station."
"But both times our kidnappers were already there, like, filing missing-kid notices. They just found us again, real easy." The girl sighed heavily and lay down on the ground, curling into a bony clump. We weren't going to get any good answers out of them tonight. Crater stood at the very edge of our circle and walked around looking for anyone else.
"So, who were your kidnappers?" Fang tried.
"They were, like, doctors," the boy said sleepily, lying down too. "In white coats."
He closed his eyes, and within seconds both he and the girl were asleep.
Which left the rest of us wide-awake, frozen in terror, staring at them as if they carried the plague.
Fang took the first watch with Crater who, beyond my best efforts, refused to sleep, so I hunkered down close to the fire and tried to relax. Which was about as likely as Florida freezing over. Angel snuggled up to me on one side, and Total curled up next to her.
"So, what are you picking up from them?" I whispered to her, rubbing her back.
"Weird images," she whispered back. "Not like regular kids, like the ones at school. Like, flashes of grownups and darkness and water."
"Which I guess makes sense if they were kidnapped and experimented on by whitecoats," I said softly. I raised myself up on one elbow and caught Fang's eye. Using sign language, I reminded him to keep an eye on the strange kids. He used sign language to say "No freaking duh." I shot him the bird. He grinned.
"Do you think they're mutants?" I asked Angel, lying down again. "They look pretty human."
She shrugged, frowning. "They're not Erasers. But they're not like regular kids either. I don't know, Max."
"Okay." Maybe we would figure it out tomorrow. "Try to get some sleep. Total's already snoring."
Angel smiled happily and pulled him closer to her. She just loved that dog so much.
(Crater)
I looked around the darkness and sniffed for anyone else that might spring up on us. I looked over at Fang who kept moving his head around every seven seconds and I walked over to him.
"Hey," I said awkwardly as I say down a bit of ways away. He just nodded and I rubbed my arm.
"So cousins?" I nodded.
"Yep,"
"When did you know?" He asked and I thought back on it.
"New York, saw your papers and realized that they fit right in with my dad's family picture." Fang nodded and kept his eyes on the fire.
"So you're older?" I shook my head then thought about it. "By a few months, I think. Pops mentioned it once. Don't recall the date or other stuff. Sorry."
Fang just gave me another nod and I pulled my hood over my head.
I looked over at Max and the cut on her arm. "So do you know anything about the others?" Fang asked and I shook my head.
"Nope, just 'bout you. Your ma was a sweet gal, teenager just like the papers said." Fang looked over at me, still keeping an eye out.
"So cousins?" Fang asked again but with new meaning. I nodded and stood up. "Yep." I walked back to my post and continued to keep a look out.
(Max)
I had third watch with Crater again, from 4:00 to 7:00 a.m. or whenever everyone else woke up. I never minded night watches. All of our sleep patterns were permanently screwed, so it wasn't like I needed my forty minutes of REM all together. I woke instantly as soon as Iggy touched my arm. And why was the blind guy on watch, you might ask? Because a cockroach couldn't come within fifty feet of us without his knowing it. Iggy on watch meant I could relax, or at least relax as much as I ever did. Which, okay, is not that much.
At five I put more wood on our small fire. The slight smoke seemed to be keeping mosquitoes at bay - I had expected them in Florida, even in November. I left the firelight and walked the perimeter in the darkness of the woods. Everything was cool.
I looked over at Crater who was still standing at the edge of the darkness and the light. Her back was to me and I sighed. An ear twitched and she glanced over at me. She silently made her way over and sat down next to me.
"Sleep well?" I gave her a look and Crater chuckled. "Yeah, 'ah figured." She threw in a few leaves and watched them burn. I tried to think of something to say but I came up blank. I reached for her hand and she looked at me with a smile.
"You can do this Max," She said and I sighed and leaned against her.
"How can you be so sure, I'm just a kid." Crater chuckles and wrapped an arm around me.
"Whoever said I was gonna make you do it alone?" I looked up at her to see her sea-green eyes burning something brighter than the fire in front of us. The green and the red seemed to fight in her eyes, her scruffy dark hair was like a curtain of darkness. Lips stretched out into a smile.
"Max, I'm always gonna be here for you, ya hear? I said what I said and I ain't saying otherwise Max."
I thought about what she said at Anne's and I couldn't help but smile.
"Thanks," I ounched her shoulder. "Now go sleep. We need our guard dog awake, not half asleep during a fight." Crater chuckled and got up.
"Alright, alright. I'm going."
At daybreak I was sitting against a pine tree, which seemed even more popular here than in the mountains of Colorado. I was watching and being. The thing about watch is, it isn't the time to work through problems or write sappy poetry. As soon as you do, you're not paying attention to your surroundings. You basically have to sit and just be, be totally alert to everything around you. It's really kind of Zen. man.
Anyway. I was leaning back, being all Zen, when I saw one of the strange kids stir and sit up. Instantly I closed my eyes to the barest slits and let my breathing become deeper and more even, as if I were sleeping. Tricky Max, that's me.
The girl sat up and looked around at all of us: the Gasman sprawled out, one arm thrown across his backpack, Fang lying neatly on his side, Nudge and Angel curled up around Total, so that they made a heart shape around him. Crater was in a tight little ball.
Ever so quietly, the girl shook the boy's shoulder, and he woke up, startling out of sleep, already tense and on guard, the way kids are when waking up often = bad news. He glanced around also. I looked so asleep I almost was asleep. But I saw the two of them slip off into the woods so silently that not even Iggy twitched.
I waited several moments, as they made sure they weren't being followed, and then, just as soundlessly as they, I got up and began tracking them.
I moved stealthily from tree to tree, and though they glanced back a couple times, they didn't see me. About three hundred yards from camp, they crouched down. The girl took something from the dirty pocket of her ragged jeans. It looked like a pen - except she started speaking into it. A transmitter.
It took only a second for me to reach them with huge, bounding leaps. They stared up at me, stunned and afraid. I crashed down and knocked the pen from the girl's hand. Then I grabbed her shirt and hauled her to her feet.
"Ordering a pizza?" I snarled.
It's funny how different people are. If I'd been this kid and someone was snarling "Ordering a pizza?" at me, without even thinking, I would have snarled back, "Yeah. You want pepperoni?"
But not her. She stared up at me in horror and then immediately burst into great heaving sobs, her hands over her face. Next to her, the boy dropped to his knees and also started crying, without even trying to hide it.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the girl gasped out, and I lowered her to the ground by her shirt-Crossing my arms over my chest, I scowled down at her. "Sorry for what? Be specific."
The girl pointed to the transmitter blinking on the ground. "I didn't want to!" she sobbed. "They made us! They made us do it!"
I picked up the transmitter and threw it out into the swampy area. It landed with a small splash and sank out of sight. "Who made you?" I demanded, knowing that the clock was now ticking.
For several moments the kids only sobbed. I nudged the girl with the toe of one sneaker. "Out with it!" I said. Yeah, I know: bully Max. It wasn't that I didn't feel sorry for these kids. I did. It was just that I valued our lives more than theirs. I know some people would be all, Oh, every life is precious, everyone is equally valuable. And maybe that's true, in Pixieland. But this was the real world, my flock and I were prey, and these kids had ratted us out. That was the bottom line, and in my life, you'd be surprised how often the bottom line is the only one that matters.
"They did," the girl said, still crying. By this time the noise had woken the others, and they were making their way through the trees to us.
I knelt down to the girl's level and took hold of one wrist. "Tell. Me. Who." I squeezed her wrist slightly, and her eyes widened.
"They did," she repeated, starting to hiccup. "The guys who - the people who kidnapped us. They've had us for months. They took me in August."
"Me too," said the boy, raising his face. Tears had made streaks through the dirt on his cheeks, and he looked stripy, like a zebra. "Those guys - sent us to find you. They didn't feed us for two days, so we'd try hard. And we did. And you gave us food." He started crying again.
"They said if we didn't find you, they would never come get us. We'd be lost in the swamp until something killed us." The girl was shuddering now, calmer, though tears still dripped off her chin. "I'm sorry. I had to." Her face crumpled again.
I understood. They were trying to survive, just like us. They'd chosen themselves over us, which was exactly what I would have done.
I turned to Fang. "Get our stuff. We're gone."
The flock hurried off to dismantle our rough camp. I put my fingers under the girl's chin and raised it so she'd have to look at me. "I understand," I said levelly. "The transmitter will bring them here to find you. But we'll be gone, and you won't be able to tell them much. Now I'm going to ask you one more time: I need a name, a place, a logo, something. It's the difference between them picking you up alive and them finding your bodies. Get it?"
Her eyes widened again. After a moment, she barely nodded. She shot a glance at the boy, and he gave her a nod. "Itex," she whispered, then sank down on the damp ground. "The company was a really big one called Itex. I don't know anything else."
I stood quickly. No doubt people were on their way to the transmitter's coordinates. We had to get the heck out of here. The two kids, filthy and exhausted, lay on the ground like bodies at Pompeii. I reached into my pocket and dropped some protein bars and hard candy on the ground by their heads. They stared up at me, but I was already gone, flashing through the woods. I met up with the flock and then we were airborne, on the run.
Again.
An hour later we were almost a hundred miles away. I had no idea what would happen to those kids.
"So, Itex," I said to Fang.
"I told you it was like a deer," Angel said.
"That's ibex," said Nudge. "And they're more goatlike than deerlike."
"Whatever," said Angel.
"It's not ringing a bell," said Fang.
"They have long horns and live mostly in mountains," Nudge explained.
"No, I mean Itex," Fang said. "They said it was a big company, but I've never heard of it. Which doesn't mean anything."
"Yeah, I guess your education has a few gaps in it," I said. Except for the past two months, none of us had been to regular school, ever. Thank God for television.
"Can we look it up somewhere?" Iggy asked. "Like at a library? Are we close to a town?"
I looked down at the incredibly flat land below us. I saw the tiny buildings of a small town, about fifteen minutes away. "Yeah. Good plan. Twelve points west, everybody."
So it turned out that Itex was actually short for Itexicon, and it owned, like, half the world. It wasn't just a company. It was a huge multinational, multifaceted conglomerate that had its fingers in virtually every type of business there was, including food, medicine, real estate, computer technology, manufacturing, and even book publishing - so heads up, whoever's reading this.
The more info we found on the Web, the more I started remembering the Itex logo. Now that I recognized it, I realized I'd seen it on a million things in my life, going all the way back to the School where we were created. It had been on test tubes, pill vials, lab equipment - you name it.
I logged off the computer and stood up. "Let's get out of here."
I'd seen enough.
"No."
"Please, Max," Nudge begged.
We were airborne, heading south. On the Web we'd found an address for Itex headquarters. It was roughly between Miami and Everglades National Park.
"No way. It's too risky. The whole place is fenced in. There's a million people there. We'll be in crowds."
"Fang?" Nudge wheedled.
Fang shrugged, as much as he could shrug while flying. He held up his hands as if to say, Talk to the boss. I'm just the hired help.
That wiener.
"Pleeease, Max?" The Gasman added his voice.
I stared ahead stoically, refusing to look down at the tall water tower wearing mouse ears. Of course, we had to pass right over Orlando.
"Max?" Nudge said.
I didn't respond. I knew what she was trying to do.
"Oh, come on!" said Total, from Iggy's arms. "We're not going to the Magic Kingdom? How lame is that?"
I glared at him. It didn't faze him.
"A couple rides?" Angel asked wistfully. "Splash Mountain?"
"Maaax?" Nudge said again.
I made the supreme mistake of looking at Nudge. Shoot! I winced and looked away but not quickly enough. She got me. She had given me Bambi eyes. Now I had no choice.
I gritted my teeth. "Fine. A couple rides, some cotton candy, and we're out of there."
Everyone cheered. Fang gave me a look that said, You sap.
"Who let whom have a freaking dog?" I responded.
He chuckled.
And we were on our way to the land of the Mouse.
Carter giggled and high-fived Nudge, I sent her a dirty look but she just gave me that damn smile of hers.
(Ari)
"Disney World?" Ari felt like his head was about to explode. "Disney World?" His gravelly voice rose into a harsh shriek. "They're not on vacation! They're on the run! They're running for their lives! Death is following them like a bullet, and they're on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad?"
He snapped his teeth shut so hard the impact jarred his skull.
This was the end.
He would show them what a freaking Small World it was. There was about to be a rain of destruction on Main Street, U.S.A.
(Max)
Disney World. You've probably been. I'm assuming that most of America has been there, because you all seemed to be there the day that we went. All of you at the same time.
When the gates opened, we poured in with the rest of the crowd and found ourselves on Main Street, U.S.A. It was, well, adorable. I admit it freely. Old-fashioned storefronts, an ice-cream parlor, a trolley line in the middle of the street - all painted bright, cheerful colors. Everything was pristine, everything in perfect shape.
"I want to go in every shop," Nudge said, awed. "I want to see every single thing."
"Don't these people have jobs?" Fang muttered. "Why aren't these kids in school?"
I ignored him. If he had backed me up, we wouldn't be here.
"We need to pick the most important things," I said, as we headed toward Cinderella's Castle. "In case we can't stay too long."
"I vote for Pirates of the Caribbean," said Total. He was wearing a small leather halter and a special vest that said "Guide Dog at Work. Do Not Pet. Thank You." We'd bought sunglasses for Iggy, so the two of them had quite the team costume.
"Ooh, Swiss Family Treehouse!" said the Gasman.
"Yeah!" Angel agreed.
Nudge stopped and stared up at the castle. "It's so … beautiful."
"Yeah," I said, smiling at her. Inside, of course, I was wound tighter than a yo-yo. All these people - we were horribly exposed and yet contained within a crowded space, so I was twitching like a water drop on a hot skillet.
Avoiding the worst of the crowds, we headed for Adventureland.
"Yes! Pirates of the Caribbean!" Total said. If he could have made a fist, he would have punched it. Crater smiled brightly at little thing she saw and tugged on my sleeve like a little kid when she saw something cool, which was every two seconds.
Being in a dark, enclosed, watery place with a bunch of strangers sounded like a nightmare to me, but as usual I was in the sensible minority. We got in line, and actually, it didn't take too long to get onto a boat. I was trying hard to keep it together for the younger kids, but my heart was pounding and sweat broke out on my forehead. I glanced at Fang and saw that he was just as twitchy as I was. Because we were the only two who had any freaking sense.
Please, I begged silently, please do not let my last moments on earth be me crammed into a tiny boat in the dark, surrounded by mechanical singing pirates.
Yes, that would be cruel, my Voice said snidely.
I ignored it.
As I tried not to go crazy in there I suddenly left a hand in mine as Crater gently took it, her eyes reflected the water a little and it was like she had the actual ocean in there. She was smiling happily and turned to me mouthing, "This is so cool!" Maybe I could hold out a little longer.
"I want my own treehouse like that," Gazzy said around a mouthful of cotton candy. "I mean, for all of us. Wouldn't that be so cool?"
"So, so cool," Angel agreed, ice cream dripping down her wrist. "Can we do the Swiss Family Treehouse again?"
I handed her a napkin. "Maybe after lunch." Biting off a piece of my ice-cream sandwich, I did another 360 sweep. No Erasers. I couldn't say for sure we were the only mutants here because, you know, Disney World. But so far no one had morphed right in front of us.
"We could make one," Iggy said. "Find a humongous tree and build our own treehouse."
"Yeah!" said Gazzy, pushing another wad of cotton candy into his mouth. "We could do it! I know we could."
I rubbed his shoulder. "Okay. I'll put that on our list of things to do. Try not to eat too much junk, huh, Gazzy? I don't want you hurling on Splash Mountain." He grinned at me, a lighthearted child's grin that tugged at my heart. Yeah, yeah, if only.
"This way to Frontierland," Fang said, pointing to a sign.
I scanned the crowd again, then looked down at my map. "First Frontierland, and then - looks like the only good thing in Liberty Square is the Haunted Mansion."
"I want to see Mickey's Country House," Angel said.
"That's in the Toontown Fair place," I told her. "We need to go through some other stuff first. But we'll go."
She shot me a beautiful, innocent smile, and I tried to put all thoughts of our country's government out of my head.
"You know what's creepy?" Nudge said, eating caramel popcorn. "A chipmunk that big." She pointed at an adult-sized costumed chipmunk who was waving and strolling around.
"Who is that?" Total asked. "Chip? Or Dale?"
"Don't know," I said. "As long as he doesn't turn into a huge, chipmunky Eraser, I'm good. Yo - look. There's Splash Mountain. Line doesn't seem too bad."
"Is your dog talking?"
I turned around. A sunburned child was looking at Total suspiciously.
I laughed. "Our dog? No. Why? Does your dog talk?" I gave her a patronizing smile.
"I thought he was talking," she muttered, still staring at Total.
I said to Gazzy, "Jason, have you been practicing your ventriloquism again?"
Gazzy shrugged with the perfect amount of bashfulness and nodded.
"Oh," said the girl, and looked away. I narrowed my eyes at Total, who pulled his lips back over his teeth in an embarrassed, ingratiating grin. Not amused, I glanced over at Fang. He smiled, lighting up our immediate area, and offered me some Cracker Jack.
(Ari)
He had them. Ari took a bite of his ice cream bar, feeling the thin chocolate crunch between his teeth.
He'd seen them go into Splash Mountain. Now he was sitting on a bench at the exit, waiting for them to come out. It had taken a long time to find them in this place. He couldn't fly here, and he couldn't unleash a huge crowd of Erasers to sweep the joint. Too much commotion.
But now he had them. They would be out any minute. He had radioed six backup teams, which were less than five minutes away. Ari smiled. The sun was shining, the weather was great, he was eating ice cream, and all his dreams were about to come true.
A small crowd of people momentarily passed between him and the ride's exit, and Ari moved so he could see around them. He knew that people were staring at him. He looked different. Even different from other Erasers. He wasn't as - seamless. He didn't look as human as the rest of them did when they weren't morphed. He kind of looked morphy all the time. He hadn't seen his plain real face in - a long time.
"I know who you are."
Ari almost jumped - he hadn't noticed the boy slide onto the bench next to him.
He frowned down at the small, open face. "What?" he growled. This was when the little boy would get scared and probably turn and run. It always happened.
The boy smiled. "I know who you are," he said, pointing at Ari happily.
Ari just snarled at him.
The boy wiggled with excitement. "You're Wolverine!"
Ari stared at him.
"You look awesome, dude," said the boy. "You're totally my favorite. You're the strongest one of all of them and the coolest too. I wish I was like you."
Ari almost gagged. No one had ever, ever said anything like that to him. His whole life, he'd been the dregs in everyone's coffee pot. When he was really little, he'd idolized the bird kids and they'd ignored him. He'd loved Max, and she'd barely known he was alive. It would have been great when they disappeared, except his father had disappeared too. Ari still tasted ashes when he remembered realizing that his own father had chosen them over him. Ari had been left behind, with strangers.
Then they'd started augmenting him. At first Ari had been glad - he would be an Eraser, be one of them. But he wasn't. He was too different, too patchworky. The others had all been made Erasers as infants, as embryos. When they were human they looked really human. When they were wolves they looked really wolfy. Not Ari. He was stuck in a partially morphed state, never all human and still less than wolf. He looked weird. Ugly. He didn't fit in anywhere.
"You're, like, a total celebrity," the boy chattered on. "I mean, who cares about SpongeBob SquarePants? I'm sitting here with Wolverine!"
Ari gave him a tentative smile. It didn't matter that the kid had mistaken him for somebody else. This kid thought he was cool. He wanted to be like Ari. He was impressed.
It felt so good. It felt amazing.
"Gosh, could I have your autograph?" the kid went on, starting to look for a piece of paper. "My mom wanted me to get Goofy's autograph. Like, I'm so sure. Goofy! But you - here, can you sign my shirt?"
He held out a black marker and pulled on his T-shirt to make it taut.
Ari hesitated.
The boy looked uncertain. "I mean - I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bug you. I know you're famous, and I'm just a little kid." His face fell.
"No, that's okay, kid. Hope your mom doesn't mind," Ari growled. He took the marker in one pawlike hand and signed "Wolverine" with a flourish.
The kid looked awed and thrilled. "Gosh, thanks, mister. I'll never wash this shirt again. You're the best. I can't wait till I get back to school and tell everyone I met Wolverine and he signed my shirt! This is the best day of my life!"
Ari's throat ached and his nose twitched. He swiped one hand across his eyes. "No prob. You better get on back to your folks."
"Okay. Thanks again! You rock!" The boy pumped a fist into the air and ran off.
Ari sat for a moment, dazed with emotion. Suddenly he straightened. The flock! Max! Where were they? His eyes raked the trickle of people passing through the exit. The bird kids were nowhere to be seen. Six minutes had gone by - they must have come out. He'd missed them!
For God's sake! That dumb little kid!
You need to stay focused, Ari, said his Voice. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Ari strode off to meet his backup teams, which were now in sight. Yeah, he knew he needed to stay focused. He was all business.
But inside, part of him still smiled and held on tight to that warm, wanted feeling.
(Max)
"God, I'm soaked," I moaned, pulling my wet sweatshirt away from my skin. I shook my hair out of my eyes, sending drops flying.
"Go with the flow Max," Crater said and she shook her head quickly, spraying both Fang and me.
"Ack! Crater!" I snapped and she laughed, Fang grumbles and shoved her lightly.
"That was so great," the Gasman said happily.
"Splash Mountain really lives up to its name," Nudge said, bouncing a little.
"I hated that ride." Total sounded grumpy. And he'd hardly gotten wet at all.
"Let's go again!" Gazzy said.
We were almost all the way through the exit when I saw him: Ari, sitting on a bench. A little kid was talking to him excitedly. I froze, and the others bumped into me.
"Turn around," I said under my breath. "Bandada - nayshapay."
"No - oh, no," Gazzy whispered. "I can't believe it. Not now."
But I was already pushing them back through the exiting crowd.
"Sorry, kids," the attendant said. "You have to exit out that way only."
"No, no," I said urgently. "We left our digital camera in the log! Mom will kill us! We just need to run back and check . . ."
The attendant paused for a moment, and in that moment I forced us all past him. "Excuse us, excuse us, coming through!"
Then we were back inside the ride. A walkway, almost concealed by false boulders, ran along one wall. We zipped down it, hearing the attendant calling after us.
"Here!" Fang said, stopping suddenly. I'd almost passed the door completely - it was practically invisible. Quickly we shot through it and found ourselves in a long, dimly lit corridor. Child's play. In seconds we had raced to the end of it and out its exit. We found ourselves behind some large shrubs.
"Come on," I said grimly. "Over to that fake mountain and then an up-and-away."
Three minutes later we were airborne, fading into the setting sun, leaving Disney World far behind. Nudge had tears running down her cheeks, and Gazzy and Angel both looked bitterly disappointed.
"I -," the Gasman began.
"What?" I angled one wing slightly and pulled closer to him.
"I wish we could have gone into the Haunted Mansion," he said. "It's supposed to be awesome."
I sighed. "I know, guys." Everyone was flying steadily, but each face was a mask of disappointment and frustration. "There were a bunch of things I'd been hoping to do too." All involving seeing mouse ears in my rearview mirror. If I had one. "But you know we had to go." Flock, one. Ari, zip.
"I hate stupid Ari!" Gazzy said. He punched and kicked the air in front of him. "He always ruins everything! Why does he hate us? It's not our fault they turned him into an Eraser!"
"It's not that simple, sweetie," I said.
"His dad left him," said Iggy bitterly. "Just like all of ours. Then they Eraserfied him. He's a walking time bomb."
"How does he track us so easily?" Angel asked. When she'd seen Cinderella's Castle, her face had looked as though it were made of sunlight. She was still young enough to really get caught up in the magic of an enormous, all-powerful marketing juggernaut.
"I don't know, Ange," I said. That was the ten-thousand-dollar question, in fact.
Below, the landscape was a spongy green, with nothing but a carpet of treetops to look down on. The trees ended abruptly, and beyond them we could see huge refineries or some kind of water-treatment plants or something.
I heard a faint buzz only a split second before a buglike helicopter popped up from behind the trees. It was pointed a bit away from us but almost immediately turned and headed in our direction, like a curious insect.
"Okay, guys, scatter and zoom," I instructed quickly. "Meet up in fifteen minutes, same heading." I angled my wings sharply and peeled off to one side. From a corner of my eye I saw the rest of the flock split up, zipping off in all directions. Crater was a little off on the zoom, we really needed to fill her in.
The chopper hesitated. It had News 14 Florida painted on the side. So maybe not an Eraser chopper, maybe just a news cam tracking traffic.
But they'd seen us. I arched my back, pointing downward, then dropped into a screamingly fast descent. I rocketed toward the ground at two hundred miles an hour, which meant in less than a minute I had to angle out of it and swoop up again so I didn't squish like a mosquito on the windshield of the world.
Who said poetry was dead?
When I finally looked back, the chopper was nowhere in sight. A few minutes later, I saw various-sized dark specks coming at me. My flock.
Fang arrived first.
"We need to get out of the air," I told him.
"Black Ranger to Feather One," Total said softly. "Coast is clear. Come in, Feather One."
"Total, I'm right here," I whispered. "We don't even have walkie-talkies."
"No, but we should," Total whispered back. "I should have one, and it could -"
I put my hand over his mouth, looking at the mountains of rusted metal, ancient appliances, and empty car husks that stretched for acres around us. I signaled over my shoulder, and Fang, Gazzy, and Nudge scampered past me and crouched next to a bunch of doorless refrigerators.
There had been only one guard, who looked as if he couldn't guard his way out of a paper bag. We'd left him in front of his oil-drum fire clear on the other side of this enormous junkyard-chop shop. Or at least I assumed it was a chop shop, given the suspicious number of relatively late-model cars that were tucked away in an airport hangar-sized building.
Which was where we were heading.
"Okay, now, the last time we were in a car…," Fang whispered in my ear.
"That was different," I said impatiently. "Anyway, we're not going to steal a van."
"What are we going to steal this time?" Iggy whispered. "Can I have a turn driving?"
"Oh, ha ha," I said drily, and he smothered a snicker.
"That one," I whispered, pointing to a low, sleek, sporty number.
Which turned out to have no engine.
In fact, every one of these stupid cars had some huge problem with it: no steering wheel, or no wheels, or no dashboard, or no seats. An hour later I was ready to smack something in frustration.
"What now?" Fang asked in a low voice, crouching next to me. "Public transportation?"
I gave him a sour look.
"Max?" Nudge's voice was uncharacteristically quiet. She brushed some long curls out of her face. "I've been thinking."
Oh, here we go, I thought tiredly.
"If we take the seats out of the Camry, and the wheels off the Bug, and the battery out of the Caddy, and then we get the steering wheel from the Accord, and we drop that engine back into the Echo and hook up a new air filter, we could just take the Echo and be good to go." Her big brown eyes looked at me anxiously. "Don'tcha think?"
"Whoa," said Total, sitting down. Crater blinked and tilted her head confused.
"Uh," I said.
"There's its air filter right on that table," she added helpfully.
"Since when do you know all this?" I asked, flabbergasted.
"I like cars. I always used to read Jeb's annual car issue from Consumer Reports. Remember?"
"Huh. Well, I guess that sounds like a plan, then," I said. "Everyone clear on what to do?"
Even the loser guard would have heard an engine starting, so we had to push the Frankenstein car out through the junkyard gate and a couple blocks away before we could even see if any of this worked.
When we were far enough away, Fang slid behind the steering wheel, and I applied my talent to hot-wiring the car.
The engine actually fired! True, it sounded rough, and the car backfeed several times like rifle shots, but we were running, baby.
"Everybody in!" I said.
Which was when we discovered the final problem.
Little Echos aren't designed to hold seven, count them seven, larger-than-average-sized children.
And their wings.
And a dog.
And a Crater.
"This is like a clown car," Total grumbled front my lap in the front seat.
"Why does the dog get to sit in your lap?" Gazzy asked plaintively, as we rattled and banged down the dark streets. "How about a kid?"
"Oh. 'The dog.' Very nice," said Total.
"Because you're not allowed to have people on your lap in the front seats," I explained. "It's not safe. If a cop saw us, we'd be stopped for sure. You want Total back there?"
Everyone in the back screamed no at the same time.
"Let's just deal, people," I said. "Only for a little while. We're going to stop as soon as we find a place to sleep."
" 'The dog,'" Total muttered, still mad.
"Shh," I told him.
"Are you saying you're not a dog?" the Gasman asked. He was tired. We were all tired and hungry and cranky. Crater seemed fine though. Honestly, I'm pretty sure as much of a powerhouse as she was, even she had to knock out at some point.
"Okay, you two," I said sternly. "Enough! Everyone quiet, okay? We're looking for a place to sleep. Just chill."
Fang glanced back in the rearview mirror. "Does anyone want to sing 'Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall'?"
We all screamed no at the same time.
That night we hid the car in some overgrown brush on an abandoned farm and slept in the trees, swaying gently in the pleasant breeze. We weren't attacked or ratted on, so it was an up night for us. I practically had to tie Crater onto the tree to get her to sleep.