Chapter Seven

By now, the sun had long since sunk to slumber. The flock had, once again, broken into Itex, dressed as whitecoats, and had searched the building top to bottom. They discovered that most of the scientists didn't pay attention whilst they were in the halls meaning the flock was safe from being recognized. Most of the Erasers were in the labs, watching the whitecoats find something amazing only to find that there was a dust speck on the slide. They hadn't found him, he wasn't roaming the halls nor in a lab, he wasn't in a cell and he wasn't under any camera that they could see in the control room. He just wasn't there, in Itex, in its property, simply, nowhere. He had disappeared without a trace, but whatever had happened after they had left, something had gone on. Now Erasers were carrying large and small guns, all of which were loaded with silver bullets. They were armed with many daggers and one was roaming the place in wolf form, his teeth coated in a shiny metal. They checked the documents of what had happened the previous day and all it said was that the fire alarm was false and nothing else, no spotting of a blind boy with wings anywhere. Nudge had searched the whole database and had come up with nothing, nothing at all, Iggy was gone from this place, but where? Where was he, who was with him, was he dead or alive? There were so many questions but no one cared to answer as they lulled through the sky, their bodies aching from running all around Itex, avoiding scientists even though they weren't Jeb, and typing in codes to secret rooms and the whole searching process. They were indeed tired, and their wings were stiff from being curled against their backs the whole day.

Max flew ahead, simply wanting to reach the cave soon so she could get a good night's sleep. Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy were practically asleep while flying and even Fang looked tired around the edges of his eyes but other than that, gave no notion of a longing for sleep. Max was slowly closing her eyes then abruptly opening them, trying to stay awake, but the warm Florida-Georgia wind tempted her to sleep, it was the voice that kept her up.

Now, Max, you know what happens when you sleep in the air

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me Max retorted, wishing that the voice would just shut up for once.

Just have fun, which should keep you up

Fun? Remember what happened last time you said that? Angel influenced a person to buy a bear for her, a 40$ bear, just for her.

Stay up, Max, have something to keep you up

Like what? Counting sheep? I think I'll pass

The voice fell silent, for once, and for a good reason to. Now that everything was silent, she could hear the voices below.

"What is it?"

"Meat, you're the transportation device here, can't go to sleep while flying cause I don't want to get killed by a car because you're flying to low and because you don't got enough energy"

"I thought you said you couldn't die less the weapon was silver"

"I didn't say that, I said silver was my weakness, I could get my throat sliced with an iron knife and I'd still die, just because I can't heal that fast. Could you just eat now?"

"Well why you don't eat"

"I'll last"

The conversation below was getting closer, and it intrigued Max. Apparently, Fang had heard it as well, and had roused the dozing Gazzy, Nudge and Angel and had told them to be quiet, so they were, though Nudge seemed about to burst with questions.

"Fly…?" Gazzy cocked his head, before realizing whose voice he heard that was dry from dehydration.

"Iggy!" He bolted down into the forest.

"No, wait!" Max shouted after him, worried that the other person with Iggy was an Eraser holding him hostage, or something of the like.

Gazzy ignored Max and bolted through the branches, weaving in and out of them, glad that he had a smaller wing span then Max and Fang. He came to a clearing that had a small fire in a stone circle. A tall red and black haired boy was sitting cross legged on the ground with a blank look. There was no one else in the clearing but Gazzy didn't take heed of that.

"Ig!" He shouted before flying right into him. Iggy grunted as he was thrown back "Geez Gazzy" he said "Work on your landing" He sat up, and sensing that the eight-year-old was near, ruffled his hair.

Max and the rest of the flock came crashing through the trees.

"Iggy!" Angel shouted when she saw him. Total made a somewhat human-sounding bark, Nudge started to talk a mile a minute about how they had searched all of Itex to find him and how worried she was. Fang, of course, was silent as he stood away from the whole reunion. Max stood on the side lines, grinning and feeling filled now that she had found the missing member of her flock. But then her smile faded, there was something… different about him, like he knew something the others didn't, not even herself, then she remembered the other voice. She looked around the clearing, and only saw kids with avian DNA, there was no other person there that didn't belong to the flock.

Max cleared her throat, the flock looked at her, suddenly silent "Ig… that other person that was here" she looked around the clearing "where-"

"Is she?" he interrupted her. Max lifted a brow and nodded, Iggy usually didn't interrupt very often and usually only when someone was at a loss for words, Max, however, had not lost her words.

Iggy seemed lost in thought for a moment, before putting his hands around his mouth "Fail!" He shouted, his voice echoing in the forest.

"Fail? That's not-" Nudge began but was cut off with a cold, rough, voice. It seemed to be coming from all around, in no general direction did it come or go, which made Max on edge, now that she was unable to pin point the person's location.

"Well the flock sort of got my instincts kicking" a chuckle, who could chuckle at a time like this? Max looked at Gazzy, suspecting that he had emitted the voice since he had a natural art of mimicking voices. He just shrugged, meaning- Max looked at Iggy who had a smirk on his face.

"So this is the rest of the flock eh?" The voice asked.

"Yeah, now could you meet them eye-to-eye"

"Isn't just a glance good enough?" The voice responded with a low but non-menacing growl.

"Does anyone have silver, just, anything made of silver?" Iggy asked. Max stared at him, why was he so talkative? Above all asking for silver, it was as if his personality had changed in an instant.

"Okay fine!" A shadow like figure suddenly dropped from above, from the trees, the canopy. It dropped right next to Iggy, causing everyone to jump back from the flock member they had just been reunited with.

There, standing before them, was a girl, about Iggy's own age, and stood at about 5'8" and had lanky arms. Her nails were black and curved slightly and her skin was as pale as death, from lack of sun. She had dull and dark, boyish short hair with a chunk of it covering one eye. Her eyes were a dull orange and she herself, seemed to be a walking skeleton. Her shirt was a sleeveless gray top that was tight around her torso, revealing ribs and bone. Her pants were like cargo pants with many pockets, but the majority of the pockets were torn open by some unknown force. She had a gaunt face, with cheek bones that were clearly visible. She reminded Max of the walking dead minus the soggy skin, scars, and, wait- Max noticed a scar over her wrist bringing a thought. Was this girl… suicidal? She threw away the thought when Iggy started to introduce her.

"Max, Fang, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, meet Fail" he said "Fail, meet Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Fang, and Max" Fail nodded to each of them in turn.

"So… Fail?" Nudge began, unusually cautious "What kind of a name is that?"