A sharp ping came from his backpack, catching his attention. He wondered who would be messaging him now. They were almost there, and he doubted they had wifi. He quickly pulled it out and went to his messages. He tapped on the newest one titled We Need Help but it froze on the loading screen. He cursed under his breath and kept hitting the refresh key.

"You know there's no internet towers here," a girl stood in the doorway of the bunk room.

He frowned at the screen, "I know."

He felt her eyes on him, making him sigh and close it up. He wouldn't be able to reach whoever sent the message now. But it seemed... urgent or something. He almost always gets messages from his fans, but never anything like that. Were they in trouble for protesting? Or was it something else?

"Fang?"

He sighed and set it back on his bed, knowing he would have to wait. Saving the world came first, at least, in her mind. He already put up a post for telling people where they were going to be, and what they could do in the meantime. He hoped they were okay.

"Hello? Bridgette said she wants to talk to us," she crossed her arms over her chest, clearly shivering from the cold. He couldn't hold back his smile. She never liked the cold. She was a warm beach, sunny skies girl. She narrowed her eyes at him, opening her mouth to speak but he cut her off:

"I'm coming, I just got another message," he tightened his coat around him.

She huffed and looked at him, "You have crazy fans." He didn't reply right away so she stopped him from leaving, "Everything okay?"

He nodded, "It's probably nothing." He started walking towards the front of the ship, her in tow. He had a feeling it might actually be something, but he couldn't do anything. He heard her sniff and mutter under her breath behind him. Smirking he turned to look at her, "Saving the world means starting at the bottom, Max."

She punched his shoulder and entered the hull of the ship, "Shut up."

I'm not going to explain the entirety of the ride to Virginia, it was pretty boring overall. Well, it was more nerve wracking than anything. Speck managed to score us a credit card and we were able to get seats for multiple trains along the gorgeous Midwest. And I have to say, it was pure gorgeous. When we got to Chicago, we walked along the pier and ate ice cream and saw the Giant Bean statue. We stopped in Ohio for a night, and I had to fend off a wild dog who got into one of our bags. Speck thought it was hilarious and named him Zeke. Now we were just hopping off the train just inside Virginia's borders.

Once we walked up out of the subway, I had to stretch. It felt incredibly cramped throughout the ride, and I was itching to spread my wings a little bit. My skin also felt incredibly dry, and I assumed it was because of the fish thing. Speck was too, she was starting to shed a little bit around her wrists.

"Can we eat? I'm starving," she said, scratching around her hands.

"We should find a lake or something first," I grabbed her hand to stop her. "Your skin is drier than mine."

She groaned, knowing full well I was right, despite our ever-hungry stomachs. We walked over to the kiosk standing next to the subway's entrance. We looked and saw a blue blob just a few blocks away. As we walked there, Speck awed at the sights around her. The buildings were more old-fashioned, and some of the side roads were cobblestone. She was fascinated that they didn't even think to update them, finding it quite interesting since there were still gas lamps along some paths. I chuckled at her, thinking of how my birth parents would think about keeping her too. If they didn't accept her, I couldn't stay. I couldn't bear to think of her being thrown into the foster system. ITex would surely grab her with ease. I tried not to think about it and laughed as she started skipping down the path.

Once we hit the lake, my insides tensed up at the amount of people around it. Some were fishing, others were jogging, and a few were just strolling around holding hands. A girl glanced in our direction when we paused right on the jogging path and stared at the water. I wanted to get out of there, but my body craved for the water. I felt Speck tap on my hand and point towards the other side where a cluster of trees were. I nodded and we followed the path, circling the lake and carefully sauntering into the trees. We set our stuff down not too far from us and stripped down to the bare essentials. I quietly slipped into the water and let out a happy sigh of relief. Making sure nobody was watching, and realizing nobody was even nearby, I relaxed my wings under the water. The water weaved through the feathers, making me close my eyes and dip even lower, up to my nose.

"Amb-"

"Shh," I bubbled, trying to relax.

"No- Amber, look," I opened my eyes to see her pointing at the opposite end of the lake. It looked like some officers were talking to the people there. At first glance it looked harmless, but then they started to point in our direction, and I don't know if it was a trick of the light or not, but I swear I saw one of them with yellow eyes.

"We should go-"

"Yep!" Speck quickly started wading back to shore, kicking water back in my face. My wings were wet and dripping, and they just made my back even more wet. How was I going to dry them? We quickly went back to our bags, and I literally shook my body like a dog. Best bet. My wings puffed up and I reached to comb the feathers to the best of my ability. Speck threw my jacket and bag at me, and we quickly walked back out of the forest, onto the path, and right into the officers. I froze at the looks they had on their faces. Crap!

"Excuse me kids," one of them said. He had a deep voice and I instinctively stepped forward, putting myself between them and Speck. There were two of them, both fairly tall and burly, and they both had short cut hair. They did not have the same air of regular officers, and looked ready to kill than protect.

"There's a no swimming rule, and we have reports of you two swimming in the lake?" the other looked us up and down. There was no doubt we were, we were sopping wet. My hair was dripping. In any regular situation, as any regular kid, I would feel embarrassed and try to weed myself out of it. But no, we were mutant runaways fearing the hellhole we escaped. I had to act like any other kid, or we wouldn't be able to get out of this.

I thought of the most embarrassing thing I could imagine in order to make myself blush, "A-Ah um... y-yeah we were..." I glanced at Speck whose eyes were wide, clearly wondering what I was trying to pull. I gulped and looked at my feet, "W-We didn't see the sign... s-sorry officers..." I wiggled my fingers to get Speck's attention and follow suit. I heard her murmur a sorry as well. Good.

I continued to stare at my feet, but peered through my overlong bangs at the officer, ready to attack as they discussed what to do. I felt small fingers grab mine, and I squeezed them in reply. If this went south, I would have to bolt it, no way would we be able to fight them off. One of them looked at their watch and I gulped again. Please let us go, please-

"Alright, just don't do it again. This is a warning for now."

I let out a shaky sigh, hoping they didn't notice. They looked at us again as I grabbed Speck's hand to walk off. My insides were churning and once we got out of sight I doubled over to catch my breath. I could've sworn they had yellow eyes, something any of those horrid Erasers would have. They even looked to have enough bulk on them to be one.

"That was too close," Speck breathed, leaning against the side of a building with her arm outstretched. "Good thinking though."

I half-heartedly laughed, "When you look like any average kid in trouble, you act like one." Thank god they didn't ask for IDs or anything, we were too young to have one. That air and look of them still made me tense; why weren't they Erasers? They could've easily been. "They felt off... didn't they?" I asked Speck.

She lightly shook her head, wringing out the hem of her shirt to the best of her ability. Her hair shined a bit in the light as she turned to me, "They did... but how could they be Erasers? Aren't they dying off?"

She had a point. "Right... hah-" I chuckled a bit. "I must be going crazy or something."

Speck narrowed her eyes at me like I offended her, "You're not. It's just instincts."

"Instincts? Wow- I would've never guessed," I retorted.

"You know what I mean," her face fell again, making me worried I said something bad. Her eyes stared at the ground where droplets landed from her jacket. Once I caught my breath and gave her another once over, about to put a hand out to her shoulder, a low gurgle-growl erupted from my stomach. She giggled and pointed at me as I hugged myself to shush the growling, "Told you we should've gotten something to eat!"

I rolled my eyes, "Alright fine, you win. Winner decides where we go."

She thought a bit, her mouth making dimples in her cheeks as it twisted all cute like. I honestly wanted to squeeze her cheeks right then and there, but I knew she would slap me for it. "I don't know..." she sighed. She glanced down the street and saw a bustling restaurant where waiters served something delicious to their guests. "I want to sit down and eat. I'm tired of walking and eating," she pouted.

Raising and eyebrow, I bent down a little to her level, "Really? A restaurant? A closed environment where any ITex goons can come in, barrel down everyone and easily corner us in a heartbeat?"

"No!" she piped back, obviously frustrated. "I mean the ones where you can sit outside." She pointed towards the same place as before, where customers sat under billowed umbrellas and sipped their coffee. "If something happens, we can just up and run." She crossed her arms and looked at me.

I copied her as I stood back up, "I'm not sure Speck, that's a lot of people to face."

"We face a lot of people every day, not everybody is evil," she pointed out, clearly referencing the officers we talked to. I wanted to punch and run from them, but they were just ordinary people. Ordinary. Something we could never be, yet Speck wanted a dose of it. But sitting down at a restaurant? It was tough enough to even get seats, let alone ones outside. And what about service? Other people there? What if we sat next to a cop, or were asked to see our ID's? The more I thought about it though, the more I thought of the positives. They would have better food than the vendors we kept frequenting. Plus, we would get a break from walking. It would be like we were normal people.

Sighing, I gently nodded and she jumped up and down in glee, "I'm going to eat everything on the menu!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey y'all! I'm so glad you're liking the story so far! I know it's been a while since an update - my life has changed a lot over the past year and I was unable to do anything. I deeply apologize for the wait, but don't worry! There is still a LOT to come with this story! Thanks again my avid readers! ^^