I couldn't breathe. Seriously. I was suffocating and I didn't know why. It was as if I was being tied up and two grizzly men were pulling on the rope. I thought I heard Roc say something in the background. What it was I couldn't really tell and I didn't care.
"PC?" I whispered as quietly as I could.
"Don't talk, just listen. I need you to tell me where Gozbud went into hiding after I sent you that message." It took me a minute for the request to register in my brain. "BREE!" PC snapped over the phone. "Don't zone out. Where is Gozbud?"
"YC…NP." I responded.
"Yamnster County…Nature preserve?"
"Yes."
"Alright thanks."
"…I..."
"There isn't anytime to talk. When you hang up the phone …shut down and relocate yourself. I don't know if this line is tapped. Do you understand?"
"Yes…please be careful."
"I'll be fine…Now hang up." I slammed the phone down on the receiver. I didn't want too but I had too. I felt tears peeking out from my closed eyelids. When I heard his voice it was almost as if PC were right there in the room with me. Hanging up made me feel like I had lost him all over again.
"Who was that?" Roc asked.
I wiped the seeping tears from my eyes and said "A friend."….

I sighed heavily and suppressed the knot in my throat. Clouds were rolling in from the east, the sign of a future thunderstorm. I hurried back to the car. Raf sat on the passenger side and he looked worse off than he had been before. Light from the gas station hit the beads of sweat that collected on his face making his skin look almost white and his head hung forward.
"PC, I see colorful spots in my vision…is that bad?" he said a monotony voice.
I turned the car on, "Make sure you have your seatbelt on." Raf's claws groped the strap to make sure it was secure. As I put the car into a reverse, I saw crimson glitter on the back of Raf's chair. Gathering what bit of serenity I had left, I sped out of the parking lot. I had been to Yamnster County before, so this was a blessing that I knew where I was going. The nature preserve was huge though and the trouble would be trying to find Gozbud with limited light, natural hazards, and a storm heading that general direction. It would take patience on my part, endurance for Raf and a heck of a lot of luck. It took me 15 minutes to get to Yamnster County, due to the fact that I was driving a little bit over 100 MPH, which took the lives of several squirrels and a bunny…they will be sourly missed….OK back to the story…
As I pulled up to the entrance, I saw a hulking figure standing there in the moonlight. To my surprise and relief it was Gozbud. I parked the car and got out as he approached. "Bree gave me a call…she said you were stopping by for a visit," he said coolly.
" That's right…my partner, Raf, He's hurt," I said gesturing towards the car. There was something strange about Gozbud's demeanor something gloomy, but I didn't question it, that would have to wait. I helped Raf out of the car and Gozbud then picked him up like he weighed nothing.
"Follow me," he said. Gozbud's new safe house was almost exactly identical to his first; it was big, well stocked, and underground.
" What was he stabbed with?" Gozbud asked examining Raf's wing.
"A piece of pipe." I replied…as I thought about what, Lyle had done. I would have probably acted the same way Raf did.
"The damage doesn't look to terrible. He won't be able to fly for a while."
" That's…fine…I hate flying anyway," Raf said weakly. Gozbud's eyes widened in surprise and looked at me momentarily. "If you will excuse us, PC…I need to get him fixed up," Gozbud said. I nodded and left the room. As I waited I couldn't shake the look in Gozbud's eyes. He knew something and I hated not knowing what. Surprisingly there were no cries of agony being heard from the room I had left. I assumed that Gozbud probably put Rafmire under, but I wasn't sure. An hour or two passed and finally Gozbud came out.
" He's resting now…hopefully there aren't any problems that I didn't spot." Gozbud said sitting down next to me. I nodded and ran my fingers through my hair. "I am going to make him some food…are you hungry?" he asked...

"Yeah."
" Follow me." Food…food is great. It had been a while since I had gotten a cooked meal from somebody that I recognized. Gozbud made beefaroni and it was… Awsome, it was nice and gooey with chunks of venison in it. Deer were easier to find where Gozbud was and it spared him the trouble of sneaking into a closed grocery stores to get food. Gozbud took some food to Raf and then sat back down with me in the kitchen. He laced his fingers and watched me eat.
"Why does Raf hate flying?" Gozbud asked.
"I don't know….I didn't know he even had wings until a couple days ago. He doesn't tell me much about himself and by the same token neither do I."
"What have you told him?"
"About my contract with Jeb and the Network."
"Do you think it's wise telling him about us?"
"He's my friend."
"FOX was a friend too."
"Whatever…" I grumbled. I hated admitting that I had made a mistake. " Raf is good at keeping his mouth shut, though."
"I trust your judgment…most of the time. Just be careful who you talk to PC."
"Don't worry, none of the lunatics at Lab 7 know about my connection with the Network."
"What about Fox?" Gozbud asked.
"Fox is dead," I said.
"When did this happen?"
"When Lab 7 started producing those new Erasers with a 99 obedience rate. Fox was one of that 1 that was difficult to control." I said gravely "But enough of that…How have things been going … while I've been away?"
"Fine, although as you probably know, the School has been working double time to ruin our cause. They've been sending out more and more collectors everyday."
"That's no surprise."
"Have you any new information?"
"No…everything has been stable …they still haven't come up with a suitable avian Eraser. They were almost successful at one point but it failed…do to some uh…tweaking on my part," I grinned.
Gozbud snorted "You've been with the School for three years and it hasn't changed you a bit it seems."
"Hey, I said I'd work for them… I never said I would change for them," I said pointing at Gozbud with my fork.
"You better tell that to Reynard."
"Reynard? …Is he complaining again?" Reynard was a fellow Ghost and a royal pain in the butt.
"As always…he says you'll betray us all someday," Gozbud replied.
"Reynard is full of hot air…he'll get over it." I said dismissively, popping a chunk of venison into my mouth. I looked at Gozbud closely; a flash of hidden sadness could be seen behind those emerald eyes of his.
After several bites in silence, I couldn't take it anymore I had to ask.
"What's wrong Gozbud?"
"Hm?"
"What's wrong …you look like someone died."
Gozbud seemed hurt by the comment and for the first time in a while I saw him frown. "Someone did die…," he said with a knot in his throat.
"Who?"
"My little brother …Lyle."……

I swallowed a steaming hot ball of beefaroni and tried to keep a straight face as it traveled down my esophagus and fell boiling in my stomach acid. "What do I say?" I thought to myself...my thoughts turned to Raf… "OH NO! Gozbud will kill him! He'll kill me!...this is bad…no better yet this is FREAKIN' TERRIBLE!" I thought. Fortunately for me while all this conflict was going on inside my head, I was as cool as a cucumber on the outside and then proceeded to act like it was a total shock. A little tactic I picked up from my "training".
I sighed heavily and shook my head "I'm so sorry, Gozbud." I wasn't sure if I was being sincere or not…but one thing was for sure I wasn't going to tell him the true, like I would have normally done.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Collectors…," he growled tears in his eyes. "He wound up with a belly full of glass shards and a pipe in his back…h-he…he never meant anyone harm ..." Alright I didn't know what to do. I had never seen a hulking alligator hybrid become a nervous wreck.
"It'll be alright…Gozbud." I said soothingly. "I will kill the ones that did this to your brother."
"You will?" Gozbud looked up at me.
"You have…m-my word," I said, my act almost slipped when I made my fake vow. I was able to catch myself.
"Thank you PC." Gozbud replied. I swallowed the last bit of beefaroni and then took my dishes to the sink. "If you don't mind I would like to talk to Raf…in private…You going to be alright?" I asked looking over my shoulder before leaving.
Gozbud nodded "I'll be fine." I nodded and left. I needed to cut the conversation short. Even though I had been trained to keep a passive demeanor through any situation, I feared that if the conversation went on I might have snapped. The hallway was cold and unusually quiet and I felt sick...really sick…I tried to ignore the tumultuous churning in my stomach. Suddenly, an image of Lyle's mangled corpse flashed in my mind's eye and that was the final straw. Before I reached Raf's room, I veered off to the bathroom on my right and heaved. I puked for what seemed like an eternity. Then after I thought I was done…I puked some more. Warm tears came into my eyes and I quickly wiped them away.
"Focus…" I muttered. I closed my eyes and tried to make my mind draw a blank or at least sort out my emotions. "Focus…Focus…." I spit up another froth of partially digest food. I fell to my knees and began to breathe heavily some how puking your guts out makes you tired…but then again I was still tired out from our fight with Lyle and hours in the car.
"Something wrong?" a voice said. I whipped my head around and saw Raf leaning on his good shoulder in the doorway.
. "Oh Raf…its you," I said. I quickly reached for some toilet paper and wiped my mouth. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Is there something wrong?" Raf inquired. I threw the wad of toilet paper in the toilet and flushed my vomit down the drain. I slowly got to my feet
"Yeah…we need to talk…Why are you out of bed?"
"Why are you puking?"
"Right, come on," I said sullenly……

Raf and I walked out side of Gozbud's safe house. The night was cool and the dark storm clouds were closer than ever now. Raf sat down on a rock cradling his shoulder.
"So what's up?" he asked placidly. I hated Raf's ability to distance himself from anything and everything. It was a talent I was bad at and it scared me at how well Raf could do it. "Lyle…Is Gozbud's brother," I replied starting to pace slowly. Raf whistled and brushed some of his hair away from his face "That is bad."
"You think! ...GRAHH! How can you be so calm? We are in deep…deep."
"Trouble?"
"EXACTLY!"
"You mean you are…I'm not, After all, he's your comrade."
"Well you were the one that had to freak out and stab his brother with glass."
"He was going to KILL YOU!" Raf retorted, wincing as he made a sudden move with his bad shoulder. "If you would have preferred it, I would've let him pound you."
I snorted and paced faster. "Do you have any suggestions?"
Raf followed my movements with eyes several times before answering.
"No I don't," he sighed, "…the only thing that instantly comes to mind is getting as far away from here as possible."
"We can't do that," I said.
"Why not?"
"Because…No wait we could actually."
"Hm?"
"I promised, Gozbud I would kill the ones responsible for this." Raf made a strange noise that I assumed was his version of laughter, because he was smiling and shaking his head.
"I wonder how you are going to pull that off."
"Shut up," I snapped. "That fake promise was more beneficial than I thought. Gozbud won't suspect a thing if we left tonight…but that all depends, Raf…do you think you can travel?"
"I'm not sure… I don't get injured very often…Given the circumstances I think I can handle it."
"Alright then, once we spilt we can take up residence somewhere else. I think I could sleep better if I didn't have to worry about a 500lb. gator hybrid."
"I would have to agree," Raf said standing up with a smile. We turned to go back inside, but instantly froze as we saw Gozbud standing in the doorway…

Oh no…this couldn't be good. I remained calm, there was no real way to know for sure wither or not Gozbud heard us.
"Hey Gozbud," I said. He said nothing and glared at me. "What's wrong?" What a stupid question. He snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. I held my breath.
"You mind telling me why I found traces of vomit in the bathroom?"
"Sorry, I guess I ate to fast," I said still holding my breath. Gozbud then threw a rag to me and said " Be kind and clean it up. You're not the only person that comes to visit."
"Okay, okay I'm on it."
"Uh huh, I'm going to sleep. I trust you two can look after yourselves," he replied exasperated. I continued holding my breath until Gozbud was out of sight, then I exhaled.
"That was close." I said relieved.
"Yeah too close," Raf said. We ventured inside and I cleaned up the mess I made in the bathroom. Sleep didn't come easy that night. I didn't know if it was guilt or just the fact that my body still ached, which kept me weaving in and out of sleep.

Crows…I dreamed of them often…their black silken feathers and their shinning beady eyes. They were flying all around me in a large feathery whirlwind, letting out coarse cries to the dull grey sky that loomed above me…I was…crying and I looked very young. I didn't know why...but I was bawling. I was pressing myself against something soft and warm that was slowly going cold and stiff. Among the sound of beating wings and crow cries I heard a voice very harsh and commanding.
"STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP THIS NOW RAFMIRE!"
"NOOO!" I screamed clutching the something that was now cold.
"We can't get through! Not with all these birds!" I heard a voice say. A few moments later I heard shots being fired and crows slowly started to drop. I felt rage boil inside me and the crows descended on the distant voices. Surprised cries could be heard along with gun fire. I closed my eyes and hugged the cold something…it and only it gave me comfort. I opened my eyes slightly to see what was going on. I noticed that I could see through the flurry of black feathers and saw three people, one who I recognized. When I saw him, I felt like I had been stabbed. Then I looked at the fallen crows. The sight of their small battered bodies stirred up my ire even more. Raising myself slightly I let out a scream and the remaining crows joined my cry. They rallied together for one final attack. Then suddenly something struck me in the side of the neck and I collapsed.….
My eyes snapped open and I instantly began to survey my surroundings. The room was dark and I could hear PC purring in the bed next to mine…what a dork. A pain was burning down my right side and I realized that I had been sleeping on my wounded shouldered. I opened my mouth in a silent scream and slowly turned over on my left shoulder while mouthing obscenities. After I was in a comfortable position again and the pain had subsided I fell back asleep…dreams don't scare me…reality does….

I woke up with a bitter taste in my mouth…I must've slept with my mouth open. The room was still dark, but there was light creeping in from under the door. I looked over to see the bed next to me was empty.
"PC must be up already…I wonder how long I've been asleep," I muttered. My shoulder throbbed as I positioned myself to get out of bed. After getting dressed, I went out to see where PC and Gozbud were…

The early morning was bright and the air was still cool. After eating my ritual burrito and coffee I had decided to walk around the safe house to sort some things out in my head. The butterflies in my stomach never completely went away, ever since Gozbud revealed to me that tiny bit of information about Lyle being his brother…MAN! What were the odds of that! We took a big risk coming here. The risk was so large that it made me sick to think about what would happen if things didn't run smoothly. My life had never run smoothly since my parents betrayed me. The memory was like a wound that was never stitched. If I had the chance to rid of myself of that dull ache that gnawed at me on some nights when I wished I was back home…I would. I never asked myself if I some how found my parents again if they would want me back. It didn't matter though I was already old enough to take care of myself. If I could meet them again I would want to know why they gave me up. My mind shifted gears back to my current situation and I was hoping that Rafmire would wake up soon so we could get out of here. The guy sleeps like corpse and to wake him up, was just as risky as calming him down when he had glass under his control. I tried to act natural every time I saw Gozbud, make eye contact smile and nod…Lying was a not as painfully acquired as some of my other skills. I could fool the polygraph machine and not even break a sweat. I could portray and suppress any emotion I chose…That faltered yesterday. I had no problem lying to a complete stranger, but to a friend…one that was close…that had saved my life more than once…it took guts to say the words I said. I just hoped that I would never have to tell Gozbud the truth.
"PC." The hair on my neck stuck up. Controlling myself I made every effort to turn around naturally as if I had known that Gozbud was behind me the whole time.
"Hey," I said with a smile.
"You're up early," Gozbud commented.
"I always am. It's a habit I guess…by the way, Raf and I will be leaving today." "Today? But Raf's wound hasn't completely healed, you can't possible expect him to travel." I looked at him, eyes half lidded. "He was fine last night. I don't see anything wrong."
"What if he needs to fly?"
" He won't, Gozbud, Raf is not like other bird kids in case you hadn't noticed. He hates the sky…he goes out of his way not to look at it."
"I still think you should wait one more day…at LEAST."
"I'm telling you that we—."
"We are leaving today," Raf said as he stepped outside...

"You should be in bed resting." Gozbud said sternly. Raf ignored him as he passed and stood near me.
"We need to go, Gozbud." I said again. "This is for your own safety."
" Safety? What do you mean?" My mind went into overdrive fabricating a network of white lies, half truths and so on. But before I could open my mouth a burning sensation began to slide down my spine. I tried my best to remain straight as if nothing was wrong. Suddenly I heard gun fire and Gozbud roar in surprise as a dart with enough tranquilizer to put out an elephant buried its point into his thick hide. I saw Jawz crawling out of the wood work. NO! HOW DID THEY FIND US! They were closing in on Gozbud .NO THEY WEREN'T TAKING HIM. My emotions broke through my training and my judgment and I charged in. I felt Raf's clawed hand close around my wrist, but I yanked it away and charged the first Jawz in my path. It whipped around and threw a punch. I dodged it and with all the strength I had punched it in on of its weak points, a soft area directly beneath its rib cage. It grunted and let out an annoyed snarl and socked me in the jaw. I heard Gozbud roar and hiss, snapping his jaws at the Erasers, killing two of them with his powerful tail. I advanced on the same Jawz that had punched me, he back fisted me in the throat with his muscular arm and I fell back coughing and gagging. Raf rushed in and pulled me away.
"PC! Help me!" I heard Gozbud cry as he was being overwhelmed with the effects of the dart and the Jawz trying to chain him. I was getting ready to engage them when Raf clamped his hand around my wrist, he had a surprisingly strong grip.
"Don't…If you want your secret to be safe. Stay put," he whispered. Suddenly cars and vans and a truck arrived on the scene. Lab 7 and School personnel were all over the place and we just sat there and watched as Gozbud was finally brought down. I clenched my fists as I saw him being dragged away.
"Rafmire PC,"Dr. Risa shouted as she walked towards us.
"Ma'am?" I said formally.
"Are you two alright?" she asked. For a moment I thought I saw a flicker of concern in her ancient features, but it soon disappeared.
"Not really." I said. "One of your Jawz attacked me and Raf has been injured too." Dr Risa took a quick look at Raf's wound and then said "Alright you boys come with me. We will let them wrap this up." We followed Dr. Risa to one of the cars. I looked at the truck that they had stuffed Gozbud in and then got inside the car closing the door with a SLAM...

The car ride back "home" was long and it took everything I had to pretend that what had occurred back as the safe house was just another experiment capture. Rafmire seemed to be handling it pretty well, but then again he had bigger things to be concerned with, his wing for instance. It seemed to be a surprise to Dr. Risa that Raf had wings. I wondered how he was able to conceal them so well. You could easily spot a bird kid in a crowd, because they either had slits in the backs of their shirts or you would see a small hump on their back, if you looked at them from the side. But if Raf's you couldn't see a hump or even slits…it was cool but bizarre. As we arrived at Lab 7, I began to think about what repercussions Gozbud's disappearance would have on the Network. No doubt with me and Gozbud "out of the picture" so to speak things were bound to get chaotic.
After the Whitecoats had patched us up, we were given a decent meal and were allowed to enjoy the rest of the day. I spent most of my time in my room lying on my bed like a sack of potatoes. I may have looked lifeless, but my brain was still ticking. I knew the Whitecoats were watching me at all times inside my dismal suite and I wasn't about to give them something interesting to observe. So I just laid there and stared at the ceiling. I heard a Whitecoat remark once that I was the laziest and most boring subject they had ever observed. In my mind I was trying to figure out where I went wrong to get Gozbud caught and how the heck I was going to set him loose without getting in trouble. It was risky business and it was something I would discuss with Raf later, once I was able to concoct a plan that would somehow work. I stared at the watch that sat glittering in the light of my lamp and then it hit me… OF COURSE! YOU IDIOT! I glared at the tiny piece of hardware and resisted the urge to throw it across the room. How could I have been that STUPID! THAT CARELESS! I racked my brain beating myself up mentally without even having to punch myself once. Images of Bree kept popping up in my head. Was she safe? Did she get caught? I wouldn't know for sure until one of her birds arrived with another message for me. But I had a feeling deep in my gut that Bree was still safe. After a few more minutes of chewing myself out, I massaged my temples and put my mental energies to work to come up with a plan to free Gozbud …..