The six of them crept down the metal staircase slowly, wincing every time a loud creak came from the rusting steps. However, no whitecoats came to shout at them, and no Erasers were there to tear them apart, no matter how many creaky steps they set foot on. They reached floor three soon, the floor with the control room, the floor they had been on before the alarm had gone off.
Max looked through the door, the hall was empty. She gave a thumbs up to the flock before stepping into the hall way on tip toes, followed slowly by Fang, then Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge who had the niche of a back-up guard. Together, they crept towards the control room, flattening themselves against the wall.
"Footsteps…" Iggy whispered in Fang's ear, which passed the message on to Max. They stopped, and pushed themselves harder against the wall. A white coat came from a second hallway, he had large spectacles, which he used to study the clipboard. He passed the flock, not even noticing them as he intrigued himself with the writing on the clipboard. Once he rounded the corner to another hallway the flock let out the breath that they had unconsciously, been holding.
They continued, only to be stopped again, not by Iggy, but by Nudge.
"Hey guys," she whispered hoarsely so all could hear "Look what I found" she held up a white lab coat that was tall enough to fit her. She gestured to a storage room they had passed.
"Good Idea" Gazzy whispered as he pulled a lab coat on, only to find that the sleeves went over his fingertips by an inch as with the rim. Soon they were all fitted with white coats; Nudge had found a clipboard and some glasses she used as she pretended to read the clipboard, just in case a white coat came by.
They were ready, and now they walked down the hall in quick strides, with a confident look on their faces since now, they did not have to lean against the wall. They reached the control room in no time at all. Nudge handed Fang the clipboard before proceeding in, shrugging off the coat and flexing her fingers, preparing to type a marathon.
Angel was the first to follow her in, then Gazzy and Max, Fang and Iggy stood watch at the door, Iggy all ears, Fang all eyes.
Nudge started to type in codes once Max shut the door behind her. Nudge spotted a tool bar, and typed in the word 'Eraser'. Files started to pop up, all with names, like John, Jake, Bill, et cetera, until she reached one, which had the word 'Failed Experiment' imprinted on the name section.
"Here it is," she whispered. Max came by her side to see the document.
"Failed…?" she said, looking at the picture of an Eraser in wolf form.
"It says that they put twice as much lupine DNA in this one, thus meaning this Eraser also got the personality of a wolf, rebellious, loyal, protective, all that" she said, her eyes dancing over the screen "She was born in Arizona but the doctors reported her dead to the parents. She was taken to the School to be experimented on. They figured out that she could go on for days without food and only a few gulps of water, can travel for many days without tiring, a wolf's stamina, has enhanced senses especially sense of smell, and-" She broke off when she heard an unfamiliar voice out side the door.
"What are you two doing here?" A whitecoat asked either Fang or Iggy, but he didn't wait for an answer.
"You two should be back in the lab"
"Yes sir" that was Fang. Two sets of uneasy footsteps were heard from the door, both heading in a different direction and fading.
"What were they guarding anyway?" The whitecoat asked him.
The doorknob turned "They seemed to be uneasy, on edge, nervous" The whitecoat continued to speak to himself as he pushed on the door. Suddenly the alarm sounded, causing the whitecoat and the avian kids to jump. The whitecoat had only gotten the door to budge when the alarm rang. Angel stood next to the door, her hand pulling down the trigger to the fire alarm.
"Good heavens!" The whitecoat cried "Not another fire!" His footsteps were lost in the alarm.
Nudge hit the print button and papers spewed out of the printer. Gazzy collected them before rushing out the door and towards the exit sign, like last time, but this time he gave no hesitation to join the sea of evacuating whitecoats and Erasers. The rest of them immediately followed, Nudge pulling her own lab coat back on before following the pink highlighted hair of Max. Ever since the whole makeover thing in New York she had gotten used to seeing Max with pink highlight even though they were fading, and used to seeing Iggy having his ear pierced with golden ring and his hair spiked, a flaming red, with black tints at the edges, as if he had been electrocuted. The pink hair made it easy to follow Max, which was carrying Angel in her arms. Fang was waiting at the exit door, and ushered the flock into the stairwell.
"Hurry!" Max shouted behind her as she ran up the steps, tearing away her lab coat and dropping it to the side.
Nudge, Gazzy, and the rest of the flock did the same, before following Max. They burst out of the door and immediately took flight once they breathed fresh air. Once in the air Max shouted her orders
"Everyone hold on to each other!" She shouted. They all hesitated before linking arms, wondering what was to happen. Once Fang linked an arm with Max, they all knew what was to happen
"Hold on!" Max's body started to burn as she spread her wings and used her ability to fly at the speed of light.
It was all a blur, at first the city passed below them, than Disney world, forest, lake, highway, border patrol, then it all stopped.
The flock was at a high cliff with a cave engraved into it. They were somewhere in Georgia and they were all dead tired, especially Max who slipped into the cave and almost instantly fell asleep. Then she realized, to her horror, Iggy was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Iggy?" Gasman interrupted her before she had the chance to cry out.
"Where is he!"