Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Maybe it was the heat, the sun bearing down on us with its unforgiving wrath. It drained my body of every ounce of precious fluid I had in me. I was amazed at how much sweat was rolling off of me, drenching my skin in salty waves of perspiration. My mouth had long since dried up and my swollen tongue felt like sandpaper, stuck to the roof of my mouth. My throat burned for the relief of something cool to drink, threatening to close up any moment if I didn't provide.

Perhaps it was the strain on my body. My wings were broken, and they hung limply from my back beneath the smooth lacy fabric of the robe. The ends dragging on the hot dusty ground as I walked, making every step feel like my wings were being ripped from my back all over again, and again, and again. My legs felt like wet noodles. I don't know how long I went without using them, then suddenly I kick and run and jump all in one day. It was a miracle they were keeping me up at all. Both of my arms had innumerable scrapes and bruises from the torture of my last couple of days, and my wrist, my broken wrist was healing all wrong. If I put any pressure on it at all it felt like it was breaking all over again. I had to bite my tongue, making it bleed, to keep from crying out whenever I accidentally brushed my hand against my side. And then there was the unbearable pain inside. Between my legs, but just a little higher. Every movement I made had me nearly doubling over. It- It felt like someone was scraping out my insides, little by little, with an ice cream scooper. And I knew I was bleeding. I could feel it, slipping slowly down my inner thighs, crimson trails wrapping around my calf and drying on the curves of my ankle. And now the full effects of withdrawals were settling into my body. I felt myself tremble uncontrollably, feeling like the whole world was spinning, and my heart pounded furiously against every inch of my skin. But there was nothing I could do about it. About any of it.

Then again it could have been my own sick thoughts. Dark and twisted things that slithered into my mind. I tried to keep from remembering the events of my last few days. But trying only made it worse. I tried to forget about Fang, and only ended up thinking about him more and more. I saw his face, wherever I turned, no longer the handsome, gentle rock I once knew, but contorted and angry, and sick. Like when he was raping me. And I think about it and my stomach drops and churns inside me. All this pain, he did this to me. How could that be? And when I ask this question, I find my mind wandering through my memories of him, trying to pick out something I missed, something that led to this. But even my fondest memories of him seemed distant and long past. And they faded into what he had become to me now, I had to fight the waves of nausea like I was fighting for my life… He had always been there for me. Not just for me, but for the Flock. Oh god, the Flock. My babies. Their faces flashed before my eyes and not even I could keep the tears from spilling over. Little perfect Angel, adorable trooper Gazzy, perky lovable Nudge, sweet genius Iggy, even smart mouth Total. I had no idea where they were. Were they dead? Did they abandon me? Not knowing made everything seem so much worse. But I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Either way they were gone, and I couldn't help but feel it was my own fault.

"¿Estás bien?"

"What?"

"¿Qué?"

"Yeah."

Oh, of course it might have been that I was walking aimlessly with no clear destination in the middle of god forsaken nowhere (Aka: Mexico) with the girl I just busted my ass to save, who, get this, doesn't know a lick of English. Yeah, but that was more annoying than anything else. But I didn't really have the energy to get upset about it. Besides, it wasn't her fault. In fact if it wasn't for her I'd probably be stuffed inside a crate in the back of van on its way to the River Styx. I guess, the reason I was so determined to help her was because... When I saw her… I saw Ella. My sister. My baby half-sister. I saw her with her big brown eyes and long dark hair, and I saw Ella's eyes and Ella's hair and Ella's big wide grin, and that's what kept me going. Out of everything that was dragging me down, I looked at this poor girl, and I saw Ella in her situation, in my situation, and the fire ignited inside me and I pressed forward. Because even if I died, as long as this girl lived, everything would be o.k. If I saved her, then at least one good thing came from all this, and the world was just a tiny bit better, because of me. That was my job after all wasn't it? To save the world. Well right now… this girl was my world.

And quite possibly it was everything I just mentioned all mashed together like a ball of mud left out in the sun to dry and flake away in the wind. Awesome metaphor, right? Cause that's how it felt. The heat, the pain, the nausea, the emotion, the stress, all rolled into one giant rain cloud dragging me down and dulling my senses until I could barely stand on my own two feet. And yet I kept walking. I didn't know where I was going. Away from there. North, I think. I just kept walking, and the girl followed me faithfully, probably a bad idea, but she did anyway. Before too long I let my legs take me where they willed, not even paying attention to which direction I was going. It was like my body had a mind of its own, and I was on the outside, watching myself struggle.

"Por favor, espérame." Something in her voice told me to stop just then, and I turned to her. I stared at the girl. She looked as bad as I felt. Her long black hair tied up in knots, her arms all discolored with bruises, and her hands trembling, with fear, from withdrawals, maybe both. But deep within her dark dull eyes I could still see a small light. Probably the only thing that was keeping her alive. She trusted me, I saved her and now she had faith that I'd get us out of this mess, alive. She was so sure of me, while I stood there, dazed and confused, and doubting I could ever live up to what she saw in me. Fortune cookie nonsense would have been a big help just then, if not for their knack to annoy the crap out me and get my mind off my problems, but just for some kind of comfort that I wasn't alone. And I longed for the one thing I felt would right this mess I had made of myself. But the Voice was gone and even that small strand of foundation had been ripped from beneath my feet. How was I still standing?

"Nosotras necesitamos descansar." If I could understand what she had just said I'm sure it would have become my voice of reason. But alas I was at a loss. I stood there and stared at her not understanding. She seemed just as troubled by the language barrier. She reached out for my right hand and took it in her left. The instant she touched it pain reeled up and through the muscles of my arm and this time I didn't have time to bite my tongue before the agony reached my vocal chords and I cried out pathetically. When I did the girl jumped, startled, and dropped my hand and I cringed as I let it fall to my side.

"Lo siento! Lo siento! ¿Estás bien?" An apologetic look of concern on her face. The only indication of what her words meant.

"Yeah, I- I'm fine." I assured her giving her my best fake smile I could muster. As I expected, I'm sure she understood, but she looked skeptical. She looked down averting her eyes to the ground. There was a long awkward silence then. Neither of us felt the need to hurry on. We weren't in any immediate danger any way. No one had tried to follow us when we escaped the trading checkpoint, and since we left that place, half a day behind us, we had been following the only road within a fifty-mile radius and hadn't seen a single soul indicating life on this stupid planet other than ourselves. Finally, she looked up at me again and I came back to her out of my train of thought.

"¿Cómo te llamas?" It sounded like a question, but I had no idea what she was asking. I looked at her still confused. She looked back at me desperately trying to figure out how to communicate with me. She raised her hand to her chest. "Me llamo Esperanza" She pointed to herself and repeated. "Esperanza" Then she moved her hand in the space between us and pointed to me. I took a step back instinctively, but she didn't seem to mind. "Te llamas...?" She trailed off as if she wanted me to finish her sentence.

It took me a moment, but finally what she was trying to say to me registered. My name! She wanted to know my name! She had given me her name, Esperanza, and she wanted mine in return. I pointed to myself like she had and told her. "Max, my name is Max." I tried to recall what she had said to me in her language. "Te llamas Max." for some reason this made the girl giggle.

"Estoy encantado." She replied with a small innocent smile that could light up a room. Here she was, in this hell of a situation and she was smiling. And behind that smile I knew there was pain, and yet her eyes were so deep with hope and some kind of unworldly wisdom. "Gracias Max." she whispered softly.

"You're welcome." I said softly back, out of nowhere. I guess it just felt like the right thing to say, and I guess she understood because nothing more was said. And then we kept walking, because there was nothing else to do but walk, hope, and pray we made it out of this, alive.

The dream was different from the other dreams. Before, everything felt so real, so vivid, like it was really happening right there in front of me. But not this one. The others seemed to have been a snapshot of certain period in time, just one event. But this one was different. Time passed like sand through a hourglass, each grain, each vision, a different event in time. The images I saw in my head were faded and fleeting, I only caught glimpses of things, things I was sure were important. A shadow here, a silk robe, a dark hallway that seemed more like a maze, some movement over there, a plane, the darkness, the pain, and the confusion. Then there was a girl, two girls, they had to be important. A-and then the sun, I think it was the sun. There was a building, a sign, a window, a truck, the heat, the stench, the fear. I saw a flash, a loud earsplitting crack, and then a road, a long endless road, and I was running, running for my life, with nowhere to go, on and on until it was dark, and everything was black. Max!

"Fang wake up!" the loud desperate voice shook me back to consciousness and I jumped with a start. I was already in a sitting position, leaning against a tree. The back of my shirt was soaked through and sticky with my sweat and it stuck to the bark of the tree as I tried to sit forward. I could feel my hair plastered to my face and drenched with that same sweat. For some reason my heart was racing like mad, and I was panting, my hands, trembling. I looked around to see the worried faces of the remaining four in my flock, all staring at me from the different angles of their various positions in the tree. Even the blind one had his fierce blue eyes glued to me. I quickly regained composure, evening out my breathing and slowing my pounding heart, I clenched my fists to keep them from shaking.

"What?" was my clever and endearing response.

"You were having another bad dream." Iggy informed me. Thank you, captain obvious. I clenched my jaw and didn't reply.

"Was it about Max again?" Nudge asked fearfully. My eyes snapped up to her where she was sitting on a branch just above me. The sun was just barely peaking its way over the horizon and the warm colors of dawn provided just the right amount of light to see her clearly. The tainted light shadowed her already shadowy tan face making the worry look even deeper. How could I explain to them about my dreams? The nightmares I had been having the past four nights since Max has been gone. The ones that kept getting progressively worse up to now and then this one that made no sense at all. I couldn't even tell if this last one was even about Max.

"I don't know." I answered truthfully averting my gaze to the thin line that separated the Earth from the sky. I had made a promise to Max before we left on this disastrous vacation that I'd take a break from my blog, and I left my laptop at Dr. Martinez's house. Now I wished more than anything I hadn't. At first, I thought it was because I needed to get my mind off of her. My blog had always been the perfect escape, I didn't have to think about Max or how troublesome she was when I was blogging. Then I realized, not even my blog would help me in this situation. I needed to use it to get the word out to keep an eye out for her. I was never big on begging, but I'd even consider an attempt to plead with my readers that if they saw her, to at least let us know she was alive. With over four billion readers someone was bound to see her. In fact, that's exactly what I was going to do. As soon as we got back to Arizona, if Max wasn't there, and I had a growing suspicion she wouldn't be, I'd march straight on up to my room, open my computer, and send out a global alert. Help Us Find Max!

Maybe you don't have to. Maybe you already know, exactly, where she is.

My head snapped up from my daze. What was that? I turned to Angel on a branch next to me eyeing her suspiciously. What do you mean by that? I asked her. A confused expression spread across her innocent face then.

What are you talking about? I didn't say anything. She insisted. My eyes widened and it suddenly felt like the world was spinning, revolving around me in that one instant of realization. Oh no. I thought. I'm going insane.

You're not going insane, Fang. Came the voice inside my head again. Slow down, think about it. You already have all the information you need. It's time to use it.

My heart began to pound inside my chest again. What? I asked as if I expected answer. When none came, I felt desperate. "Wait! I don't understand! What the hell does that mean!?" All eyes widened and stared at me. Crap, I thought.

"Fang? Are you ok?" Gazzy asked cautiously. I closed my eyes trying to think. What just happened to me? It was like I was talking to myself, but the voice was not mine. It wasn't any voice that I recognized, and yet, it still seemed so familiar. My eyes snapped open, and my mind suddenly reeled with a new revelation. Did Max's 'Voice' just speak to me? That Voice inside her head that she's always talking to, the one that led us through the sewers of New York and around every disastrous corner since then? That Voice!?

Now you're getting it. You know where Max is, Fang. Go to her.

"Fang?" Nudge's voice called me back.

Fang what's going on? This time it was no mistake that was Angel talking in my mind. My head was starting to hurt with all the voices and information swirling inside my brain. I rubbed my temples with my thumb and middle finger of my hand trying to ease the ache and sift through all the confusion. But it was no use.

"Stay here," I ordered climbing to my feet and letting my wings out. "I'll be back." And without another word I jumped from the tree, pushing down hard with my wings, and feeling them fill with air as I dropped a couple feet and then lifted up into the air, out of the trees. I knew they wouldn't follow me this time. I guess it was just that intuition Max always seemed to have as a leader, kicking in. They knew I needed to figure something out, and I knew they'd listen to me. It was a silent connection we all shared. Especially with Max. Now it was my turn.

I flew as high as I could over the small town on the border of Colorado and Nebraska. We had gotten this far when the strain of everything became too much. And without Max there to keep us moving, I had no choice but to give in and let us rest for the night, despite the urgent need in the pit of my stomach to keep flying. To find Max. I hadn't expected I'd get any sleep that night. Not that I wasn't used to sleeping in public parks in the branches of a shady tree. Can I get a big round of applause for those tree huggers? Where would bird kids like us be without the trees to make our temporary home in? God, now I was even starting sound like Max.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. I needed to think.

What did the Voice, and I still find it creepy that the Voice had come to me, mean when it said I already knew where Max was? Obviously, that couldn't be true, or I'd be with her right now! Or at least on my way to her. How could I possibly know where she was?

The Voice said I already had all the information I need. But how? What did I know so far?

Max was missing.

It was probably, no, it was undoubtedly my fault.

I'm going insane.

I had Max's Voice in my head, feeding me useless riddles, and then there were those horrible nightmares I keep ha-

The nightmares. Suddenly it hit me. The dreams I had been having, weren't just my paranoid subconscious getting the best of me, they were visions. Visions of Max. Of what she was doing, what was happening to her, and where she was.

"Oh my god." I mumbled out loud to myself. I suddenly felt very sick, and I wavered a bit in my flight pattern, nearly falling right out of the clouds. I prayed with all my heart to whatever deity cared to listen at the moment, that my conclusion was wrong. But I knew deep down in my heart, and unfortunately my stomach, that I was right.

No! I thought, my mind whirling, as I forced myself to make an emergency landing on the roof of a nearby apartment complex. I stumbled clumsily down and lost my footing and fell hard to my hands and knees, not even bothering to pull my wings in. I just let the black feathers fall around me. I struggled to breathe, my body trembling as it felt like I was being kicked hard, over and over again in the stomach. I closed my eyes and fought the urge to retch what little food I had forced myself to eat the night before. My head was spinning with this new realization and I could have sworn the world was coming to an end right then and there. I let myself empty the contents of my stomach and then collapsed to my side, breathing heavily, like I had just gotten the crap beat out of me.

"Fang!" came the cries of four extremely worried and frightened bird kids. Apparently my leaderly intuition was off a smidge and they had decided to follow me despite my orders after all. I knew they would. I forced myself back up, lifting one knee up and draping my arm over it to rest while the other one was supporting my weight behind me. I was still breathing relatively hard when they all landed and swarmed around me. I pulled my wings in on some last attempt to stay in control of the situation and stared at the ground beneath me trying to gather my thoughts. But the ground seemed like it was miles away and my head was still spinning too fast to think straight.

Calm down man, pull yourself together. This time it was my own voice inside my head, mentally coaching myself like I was sure Max did on more than several occasions as desperate as this one.

"Fang for god's sake tell us what the hell is going on!" Iggy demanded, crouching at my side, and putting a hand to my shoulder, ready to support me if I faltered again. He let his fear of the situation take over and his eyes were clouded with desperate worry. I did the first thing that came to mind. Without even looking up I just closed my eyes and reached up giving him a good smack upside the head. To be honest I think it was more for myself than anything else.

"Don't curse. You know how Max feels about that." I reprimanded him uncharacteristically, my eyes still closed and my head still spinning. Iggy seemed infuriated by this, but not because he was angry, because of something else, deeper, more personal, something guys don't usually talk about or admit to feeling.

"Look around you Fang! If you haven't noticed, Max, isn't here! She's gone! She's been missing for four whole days now while we sat around on our asses and did nothing!" He shouted at me. Suddenly, that same neanderthal emotional defense mechanism that triggered him, started to take me over as well. I glared up at him angrily.

"I said watch your mouth!" I growled in a threateningly low tone, finally opening my black eyes, and raising my narrowed gaze to meet his blind ones. Our faces were mere inches apart and the tension was thick enough to cut with a freaking hack saw. Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge all seemed genuinely scared now and began to back away from Iggy and I, still crouched on the roof of that apartment.

Iggy used the hand he had planted firmly on my shoulder to shove me back hard, and had I not already begun to tense up, instinctually bracing myself for battle, I probably would have toppled right on to my ass. He pushed himself to his feet and stared sightlessly down at me with hatred. He had gotten so strong, no longer the twig of a bean stalk bird kid, awkward and dangly. He had bulked up quite a bit even just over the last few months, he was probably an even match for me now if we were to really go at each other. "Don't tell me what to do! You're not Max and you never will be! Quit pretending something isn't wrong and find her already, damn it!"

That was it. I snapped. Now I'm not usually one for losing my temper, I've been known to keep my cool in situations even Max herself struggled with. But Max was gone, and I was still trying to digest that the dreams of her torture and rape, had actually happened. And I just sat around after watching it happen with my own two eyes and did nothing. Iggy's completely honest and one hundred percent words of truth being thrown at me like a slap in the face were the final straw. And that was quite possibly the longest statement I have ever said. I guess scary things like losing the woman you love really changes a guy.

I pushed myself up off my knees and lunged at Iggy without warning, my balled fist of fury catching him square in the jaw. There were gasps all around and I think I even heard Angel whimper. While Iggy was reeling back and then regaining his balance, I planted my feet and squared off, breathing heavily, and glaring at him angrily. I watched Iggy rub his jaw then wipe away the blood that had trickled from the corner of his lips with his sleeve. He turned his head to spit the blood from his mouth and then faced me head on, his blind eyes searing into mine with all the hatred we both felt in that moment. He was only a couple centimeters taller than me, but I was far from intimidated.

"That feel good Fang?" He asked in a suddenly calm voice, and I couldn't help but catch the venom dripping from every word he spoke. "Got it out of your system yet?"

"Maybe." I growled back sarcastically. Before I could think twice about how close I was to him he lashed out and returned my punch, his perfect almost scary aim hitting me in the nose. I stumbled back. One thing about Iggy, whether he was building a bomb or fighting a battle, he knew exactly how much power to pack and exactly where it should be focused to accomplish his goal. And he knew exactly which wires to cross to make his 'opponent' tick. So, it didn't surprise me that he only hit me hard enough to cause minor pain and minimal bleeding. Though I'm sure he wanted to hit me harder, break my nose if he was really feeling it, but he didn't. And he knew if he could get me to say even one word he'd catch me off guard. And it just so happens I was off my game anyway. But all this didn't make a lick of difference to me. As soon as I had regained my footing, I went back at him.

"Fang no!" I heard Angel cry desperately as Iggy and I started into a full-blown fist fight. I caught him in the jaw again and he stumbled back a few feet before lowering his head and barreling into me knocking the air from my lungs and tackling me to the ground.

"Iggy, stop! This is stupid!" Gazzy yelled at him. But neither of us were listening. He had the upper hand now, straddling me and assaulting me with a series of well-placed punches to the face. But he was easy to throw off balance and I quickly had him flipped face first into the ground. I pressed the side of his face into the rough concrete with one hand pinning both his arms between his back and my legs.

"Give up?" I yelled at him and he snarled angrily in return.

"Never!" he spat and did something fancy with his legs throwing me off of him. I was on my feet immediately.

"Stop it!" the others were crying. By now Angel was in tears burying her face in Celeste's matted fur and Gazzy looked like he was about ready to jump into the fight himself. But it was Nudge that moved between us at the last second just as Iggy got to his feet and used his momentum to clumsily throw another punch my direction. I saw where this was going right away.

"Iggy, wait!" I shouted as Nudge raced in to stop the fighting. But Iggy couldn't stop now and his punch, which was supposed to land on my stomach, was poorly aimed and coming in way too high anyway, and it wasn't me who took the brunt of it. Nudge fell when Iggy's fist made contact with her shoulder, and her cry of pain mixed sickeningly with an all too familiar crack. Had he been aiming for a shoulder the punch would not have had the force it needed to knock the wind out of a large powerful bird kid like myself, but it did, and it hit Nudge hard. Everyone froze. Nudge fell and curled instinctively into a ball her good arm gripping her shoulder tightly and her face screwed up in pain.

"Nudge!" Gazzy and Angel cried out in unison and came rushing to her side. Iggy had heard everything, from the sounds of Nudge's shuffling footsteps arriving to try and end our fight, to the bone rattling crack of her shoulder popping out of its place, to her cry of pain and the thud of her body hitting the ground. He stood frozen and horrified. His trance only lasted a few moments before he was on his knees at her side, and so was I.

"Nudge! Oh god, Nudge I'm so sorry!" he said frantically. "I- I didn't mean to honest! I- I-"

"I know you didn't Iggy." Nudge said to him her voice strained as Angel and Gazzy helped her to sit up. She was a strong girl and already she had regained her composure. If this had been a fight for our lives, she wouldn't have needed Angel or Gazzy, she would have been on her feet again, ready to take on the next sorry ass who dared to challenge her. She gave him a weak encouraging smile that was lost on him, but the tone of her voice wasn't. "I'm fine." She insisted.

"This never would have happened in the first place if you and Fang hadn't started fighting!" Gazzy exclaimed balling his fists protectively. Iggy turned his face away from them and I could see how ashamed he was for not only hurting Nudge, but for fighting with me. I felt just as bad. Iggy hitting Nudge was just as much my fault as it was his. But none of this needed to be said. We all were thinking the same thoughts, and they all knew we were both sorry. What mattered now was helping Nudge.

"Here, " I muttered. "Let me see." I gently replaced her hand with my own on her shoulder and tried to move her arm. Right away when I touched it she cringed with the amount of pain that would make most girls her age cry. And I could feel from the movement of her shoulder, it was dislocated.

"We're going to have to pop it back in place." I told her, though it wasn't necessary. We had all had similar injuries and Nudge knew what had to be done. Her good hand flashed out and grabbed Iggy's hand tightly as I positioned my own hands to relocate her shoulder. Iggy held her hand back just as tightly as she held his. "You ready?" I asked, and before she even had a chance to nod in reply I pushed down on her shoulder and popped it back where it belonged.

Nudge gave a small cry, clamping her eyes shut and then tightening her jaw while the pain slowly subsided. Iggy squeezed her hand and she squeezed back.

"Here," Angel said holding out her bear and the rope she had used to tie it around her waist. I nodded my thanks to her then gently placed the teddy bear under Nudge's arm and tied her arm securely against her body and across her abdomen so it wouldn't move too much. Then we all just kind of sat there, in silence. I could tell by the look in their eyes their minds were wandering, thinking about what had just happened and calculating what it meant. I needed to tell them about Max. But it wasn't me who spoke up.

"Fang." Angel said quietly, breaking the silence. "You know where Max is, don't you." She stated more than asked. All eyes looked to me in surprise. I nodded.

"Yes…" I said and suddenly all those nasty feelings from before came flooding back. If I had ever found it hard to talk before, it was nothing compared to this. "I-" I didn't have any idea how to explain it to them.

I'll tell you what I've always told Max… Start with the truth. The Voice echoed in my head.

Oh yeah right, I am not going to tell them I saw Max being- I mentally stopped myself before it slipped out of my mind and into Angel's who was surely listening in to my thoughts. I heard a chuckle, or at least I think it was a chuckle, if it was even possible to chuckle in someone else's mind.

You and Max are so alike. You were destined for each other. I sighed inwardly at this. That was the last thing I wanted to hear right now. If I was so perfect for Max, then how come I sat back and watched her go through hell, and still did nothing to save her from it?

You can't change the past, Fang. You can only do what you can to influence the future. I was beginning to understand why Max was always so frustrated with this thing. It never said anything that made any sense at all!

"Fang?" Nudge's voice brought me back down from whatever cloud I had been floating on, the one that comes way before cloud nine. The one at the very bottom. I looked over to her. She looked back at me desperately. "Please," she begged. "Tell us what's going on."

I had to tell them. I couldn't keep them in the dark like this. It would only end up causing more fights. If we were going to find Max, we needed to pull together on this one, and stick together. Which was easier said than done, without Max, most everything seemed to fall apart.

"The past four nights since Max left, I've been having visions of what she has been experiencing." I began. Everyone but Angel's eyes widened at this.

"Are you saying you knew where Max was all along!?" Gazzy exclaimed jumping to his feet ready to start another fight. Iggy quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. "No," I said, then shook my head. "Yes… But I didn't realize that's what I was seeing until now." Nothing more needed to be explained. I didn't need to explain the details of what I saw and frankly, they didn't need to know. All they needed to know was that I knew where she was now and that we were going after her.

"So…" Iggy trailed off. "Where is she?" he finished looking to me expectantly. I tried to call up my last dream. I had pieced together most of it the best I could. From what I had seen up till then she was being held somewhere cold, probably back in Minnesota. But this last dream was of her being transferred. She was moved somewhere much brighter and much warmer in climate, but at the same time so much darker. I recalled seeing a sign in the window of a building, and again on the side of a big white van.

"Mexico." I told them as I remembered the words. 'Mexico Trading Inc.' I don't think I wanted to know what it was they traded in that dirty, muggy place. I was afraid to find out, but I was certain I already knew.

"Mexico?" Nudge asked. I nodded.

"Max is in Mexico, and from what I can tell she was able to escape whoever it was that had her." Their eyes seemed to brighten at this. "But, if we don't find her soon, she'll die." And then came the bomb, everyone was scared all over again.

"Well what the he-" Iggy cut himself off before he finished the word. "I- I mean, what are we waiting for? We need to go find Max. Like, now!" I couldn't have said it better myself.