Chapter Eleven
The flock had been staring at him for at least five minutes as he went on, speed-talking. Right now they were sure he had reached a record of wpm, words per minute, which had usually been Nudge's job to beat. Gazzy was making wild gestures, all pointing to the black eye that was beginning to form around his right eye. Then when he finally took in a deep breath Max stopped him from continuing
"Slow down, Gazzy, where is Iggy? What happened to you?" Gazzy gave her a simple glare before taking in a deep breath, let it out, then repeat the process till he calmed down.
"Iggy is what happened to me" he finally spat out "he punched me! Right here!" He pointed to his eye.
"Why would he do that? He can't even see you"
"Well he could hear me, and pinpoint my location by my voice. He's getting better at telling where people's location is by hearing, I mean, remember when Angel's wings went all spazz, and he caught her, he could sense these things now" he was beginning to speak fast. Max turned to Nudge
"Translation...?" she asked, receiving daggers from Gazzy's eyes again.
"Okay... I'll talk slower" he said, making an effort and making it audible in his voice.
"Iggy punched me, made me unconscious, don't ask where he is cause I don't know" he said, studying the expecting faces of the flock, except, of course Fang who just wore his usual look.
"I think he went after Fail" he said, breathing heavily now.
"Why... what makes you say that?"
"Well... he's been with her longer than all of us, I mean, for all we know she could've poisoned him or something" he said, frustration cracking his voice.
"Or... maybe because he thought she wasn't like any other Eraser" Everyone turned to see Fang, who simply shrugged at probably his longest sentence he'd ever spoken willingly.
"Reasonable" Max said, returning her gaze to Gazzy "But why didn't he tell us?"
"Because we would've held him back" Gazzy retorted "We would've held him in chains, probably dragged him to Itex just to keep him away from her. That's why, because he knew what we would do if he told us he didn't believe she was bloodthirsty and-" he was interrupted by the sound of something large tearing through the forest. The flock rushed to other side of the clearing from where they heard the noise come from. They stared into the darkness of the trees, before a large gray beast emerged from it. Then they were looking into the glowing eyes of the new and improved Eraser, of Fail.
Max instantly stepped forward, rage once again coursing through her body.
"Why are you back?" She hissed "What have you done with Iggy?" Fail narrowed her eyes at Max
"I came back because I need your help and-" she raised her voice to overthrow the words building up in Max's throat "I've done nothing to him"
"Liar!" Max stepped forward. She was angry that she didn't know where one of her flock members were, again, and the same one to be lost before, and the fact that this Eraser could've done something to him, when he trusted her, believed in her, when she could've just turned around and stabbed him in the back and laugh the whole time life left his body. But when Fail stepped forward, she froze at the horrendous sight. From Fail's waist down, her fur was matted in mud, above there were many claw and teeth marks and her muzzle was soaked with blood. When Max stepped forward so did Fail, and she bared her teeth, that reflected in the fire light and showed that they too were covered in blood.
"I am no liar!" She growled.
"How can we trust you?" Max replied "When you maycarry blood of one of the flock"
"Take a good look Maximum!" Fail shouted. Max faltered a bit, she didn't know Fail knew her full name, but she quickly met Fail with a stern gaze.
"Obviously one of your flock didn't do this to me!" She shouted, frustration and anger breaking her voice.
"As far as I can tell you don't have the teeth or claws to do this and-" She immediately broke off when Max stepped forward and back-handed her. Her head spun to the side and she put her hands on the ground to stop the impact of Max's hand from causing her to fall.
She looked at Max, then growled, her ears flat against her skull.
"Why the heck did you do that?" She rose on her hind legs, towering over Max a good two or three feet.
"We need proof" Max said defiantly, though Fail could smell the fear scent emitting from her skin. Fail wanted to punch her then and there but that wouldn't help her, or Iggy for that matter.
"How do you expect to get proof? I can only give you my word and physical features of battling with eight winged Erasers and-" she broke off when Max looked at Angel and nodded.
She suddenly had a glazed look in her eyes, and her fur bristled, slightly when she heard a voice in her mind, a familiar voice, that caused her pain so many times.
"Well now, F0873" A whitecoat scribbled on the clipboard in front of him as he looked over the Eraser standing before him.
"I've been told this would be your first test other than your stamina, IQ and all that" Experiment F0873 snapped back
"Just cut to the chase" she growled. The whitecoat wore an amused look on his face once she growled at him, baring her teeth which looked awfully funny in human form, but her teeth were indeed sharp no doubt.
"Well... then I'll get to the point" he flipped through a few papers on the clipboard before speaking again.
"Aha... this'll be your first weakness test"
"Is that supposed to mean something to me" F0873 snapped, at the current age of eight she preferred to get to the point and for the point to mean something to her.
The whitecoat chuckled and drew a gun "It means this" he pulled the trigger and pain rocketed through her body as the bullet dug itself into her side.
Fail went rigid when the flashback echoed in her mind. She arched her back and gripped her head in her hands, not minding her claws.
"Get out of my head" she barked "Get out! Now!" and was met with an amused look from Max.
F0873 was now at the age of twelve, and in a cell. She had a thick metal collar around her neck, shackles on her ankles and wrists with chains leading to the wall. She was lying on the ground with claw marks raking the side of her face and a bullet wound in her knee. She had a purple bruise over the side of her face where the claw marks were and she was in pain, great pain she wanted to scream, but the pain she felt was pain that silenced her.
A light beat into her eyes as a door was opened and a whitecoat stepped inside with two Erasers behind him. F0873 shielded her eyes before the door closed and she could see who was there. It was Jeb, with Merc and Claw on either side of him.
"Come on, F0873" said Jeb, unlocking a shackle on her wrist, then the other. She groaned when he dropped her hand. He was just unlocking one of the shackles on her ankle when he said something that made her want to strike at him.
"We still haven't discovered your true weakness and today we'll be testing with emerald bullets and daggers"
She lashed out at this.
"No!" She yelled, kicking Jeb, knocking the key out of his hand "I'm sick of this! Sick of getting shot and getting stabbed! I'm tired of being only an inch from death and being your shooting target" She grabbed Jeb by the collar of the shirt with both her hands and lifted him up off the ground
"I'm sick of it Jeb" she said in his face "someday I'll get out of here to see the last remains of life fade out of your eyes"
She felt pain in her side but ignored it, even though the sound of the gun being shot beat painfully into her ears.
"I'll kill you someday Jeb" she said feeling another pain in her shoulder and the second ring of a tranquilizer gun be fired
"I'll be the one to see you die, and then I'll be free to kill all your precious Erasers with wings" she spat in his face before dropping him. She leaned against the wall as the full effect of the tranquilizers came into her bloodstream and tackled her mind into unconsciousness.
Fail let out a blood-chilling howl as pain echoed throughout her body
Fail was five, on her knees, with tears staining her face as she looked at the burned down orphanage with bodies littering the ground.
She faltered, stepping back and her head close to the ground and her spine visible through her blood matted fur.
F0873 was running through the halls of Itex, at the age of thirteen, with several claw marks in her skin. She turned the corner only to freeze. She was looking down the barrel of a gun, a powerful gun at that, and on the other side, was Merc, grinning widely as he pulled the trigger.
Then she saw it, the one thing she wanted to protect, and she immediately lashed out, mentally.
"No!" She growled and put up a mental wall around her mind.
Angel who had previously been standing was now on her knees, crying, the tears washing away the dirt that covered her face making red streaks along her face. Max instantly turned around to look at Angel. Gazzy was already comforting her, with his arms around his little sister. Nudge was also nearby and muttering words of comfort to her. Fang was looking at her with wide and confused eyes, then he looked at Fail who was so close to the ground and so much in pain she thought she was experiencing those six years of near death once again.
Max, on the other hand, whirled around "What did you do?" she growled.
Fail just looked at her, and shook her head, tears of pain soaking the fur under her eyes. Max pointed to the forest "Go" she said sternly.
"Leave us be-" she was broken off by Angel.
"No" she said through a sob "we can trust her, I've seen it, seen what they did to Iggy and what she did and-" she choked, and then burst into the tears she was holding back.
"We can trust her" was all she could manage to say through the tears that flowed so openly.
Max turned on Fail with a scowl. She crossed her arms over her chest as she looked up to the Eraser
"Fine" she growled "but that doesn't mean I have to trust you"
Fail looked at her and grinned "Doesn't mean I have to trust you either" she replied coolly, nodding her head before morphing back into human form, wincing slightly in pain.