What a way to start the day…getting hurled off the road into a tree. I had pity for the bird kids we were hunting, but after I punched out most of the dents in the car and hauled it back onto the road…they lost major pity points from me. Before moving on, the others and I dug into the first aid kit and patched each other up. I was relieved that none of us was seriously hurt, because despite our various opinions there was one thing that we could agree on and that is we didn't want to be under a Whitecoat's scalpel ever again, not even for the treatment of our wounds. We were on the road again at 9:00 a.m. …according to Kane, we should've been gone hours ago, but given the circumstances, she said that she would let it slide. We stopped at a fast food place and ordered our food –to-go, because we were getting strange looks…I don't blame them it's not every day it's not everyday you see a disheveled bunch of teenagers pull up in a car that looked like a mutated California raisin.
"How far are we from Garner Springs?" I asked chewing irritably on a biscuit.
Raf placidly sipped his coffee and eyed the map, "Not too far…I think we will be there in the next hour and a half."
"Good." As Raf drove Kane and I were quiet. I had a horrible headache so I couldn't think of any good comebacks even if I wanted to start an argument with her. The remainder of the journey was going smoothly and I was happy when I saw the sign that indicated that Garner Springs was only 2 miles away. Then it happened. The car began to make strange noises and then stopped all together.
"Come on…" Raf muttered trying to get it started again.
"Uh! This trip couldn't possibly get any worse." Kane cried throwing herself back in her chair.
"Oh I'm sure it could," I said sarcastically.
"Ho—."
"SHUT UP! You're going to jinx us," I said.
"You know, I 'm beginning to think that Kane is a jinx," Raf commented.
"Might as well …we never had this much trouble …until SHE came along."
"Are you suggesting that this is my fault?" Kane said narrowing her eyes at me.
"Oh I'm not suggesting Kane…IT IS your fault."
"THAT'S IT!" Kane reached out to strangle me. I slapped her hands away and dodged a fist, bumping into a Raf and that seemed to be just enough to spark his pent up irritation. Soon we all began to argue, screaming and shouting, saying every curse word from to A to Z. There was a two minute break for us to catch out breath and then for the next ten minutes, more finger pointing, shouting, cursing and swearing ensued. We kept this up until we tired ourselves out and none of us could speak above a whisper. Lying back in our chairs, we listened to the sound of each others breathing and enjoyed the scenery, which included forest on both sides and liter that came to life when the wind blew.
"Well that was fun," I said hoarsely, rubbing my temples. My headache had grown worse.
"I think we needed that." Raf commented.
"I agree," Kane wheezed.
"Let's see if we can get this thing going again… before another car runs into us." Raf said. He sat up and began to try the car again, nothing. "Please…please," he crooned between his teeth. After it didn't work, Raf slammed his foot on the accelerator out a frustration and just then our car rocketed forward only to stop suddenly and scare the daylights out of us.
"That was interesting," I muttered. Raf cautiously pressed his foot on the accelerator again and then the car rocketed forward and stopped.
"I guess this is as good as we are going to get….getting thrown wasn't the best thing for this car.," Raf said.
So we launched forward and stopped the last two miles into to town. It was lunchtime by the time we got there…as usual this did not coincide with the schedule. We were relieved to leave the damaged vehicle in a Taco Bell parking lot. Then we proceeded to stuff our faces with as many tacos as we could …well at least Raf and I did. While we ate, Kane stood outside and called one of the Labs nearby. By the time we had finished eating, an identical car was in place of the damaged one, outfitted with basic amenities that suited our kind of work. Did I neglect to mention that this car is also BLACK!
We took our new wheels for a spin, as we searched for our target flock for the rest of the day. Our hopes were high that we might find them in this town. But no signal was detected on the Finder. After making several rounds through the entire town, Raf finally pulled into a parking lot and turned the car off. We all groaned in unison and Raf leaned forward and tapped his head on the steering wheel, "This is exasperating…I guess we will just have go to the next town."
"Grrr…That won't do us any good, we could be hopping from town to town forever! No, they HAVE to be here," I growled cracking my knuckles. "Maybe we should search the town on foot. Perhaps we will have better luck."
"What? We can't wonder the town looking like this," Kane complained.
"What choice do we have, Kane. We can't return empty handed and I will be darned if spend the rest of my life hopping from town to town searching for these snot-nosed brats!" I exclaimed, slamming my fist on the dashboard.
"After what we've been through I'm willing to give anything a try," Raf said.
Kane sighed and looked at the schedule, then crumbled it up, then looked at her watch. "Fine we will meet back here in two hours."…

We split up…to cover more ground. Each of us was equipped with a Finder and a cell phone. We weren't sure how we would handle this flock once we made contact. Kane reminded us that she was not going to get involved if the encounter turned violent, which it usually does. Honestly, if someone approached you and said that they were going to take you to a top secret facility in Death Valley, where they would conduct ungodly experiments on you…are you going to come quietly? I think not! Anyways Kane reminded us of her task of recording data, but she did offer to drive the car to where ever we were for easy pick up. I wandered the streets. It had been a while since I had the privilege of wandering alone. Although with that Ring attached to my wrist, I was never alone. I wanted to smash that little piece of hardware, but I resisted the urge. Suddenly group of teenagers sitting at a picnic table across the street sharing a pizza caught my attention. I smiled, it reminded me of the times when I was completely human and I had a life of my own to live. All I needed to worry about was getting to class on time and making it to graduation and then college. A sense of longing and loss filled me… that USED to be me. I continued to walk on and saw my reflection pass from window to window and sighed, Kane was right …even if I stayed in human form all the time…it was only a disguise. Why did they…WHY did my parents do this to me! I never had that question answered and I didn't know why I never perused the matter. Maybe I was afraid to find out the reason. I forced the thoughts aside and concentrated on the task at hand. I ignored my reflection and walked on and hoped that the Finder would get a signal soon, because I needed to vent. Then all of a sudden my wish was granted. My cell phone rang "Yeah."
"PC, this is Raf… I've found them. Meet me at the supermarket on Coon St. and quick." "I'm on my way." After hanging up the phone I broke into a run, searching frantically for Coon st. . Fortunately for me It was only a block away. I walked into the store so to not rouse any suspicion. You know us, experiments we are all paranoid. I found Raf in the produce aisle casually admiring a large stack of potatoes.
"Hey, where are they?" I asked. Raf pressed a finger to his lips and pointed to the potatoes. I snuck a peek and saw four young people with a cart stacked to the brim with food, just a few feet away.
"oh," I whispered, my Finder began to vibrate. I gestured for Raf to follow me behind a bunch of rutabagas that were further away.
"How do you want to play this?" I asked softly.
"I don't know…I never expected them to be all in the same place."
"Well that is what flocks they stick together."
"So that must mean that they knew we were tracking them."
"Probably…" I smiled "Which means these poor kids think we're dead….perfect." "What are you thinking?"
I pulled out my cell phone and dialed, "Hey Kane, We found them. …no not yet…listen to me…just do what I tell you….Meet ba—…What? No…." I held the phone away from my ear and then when it was safe I held it close.
"Uh, PC they're moving off," Raf reported.
"Just give us a few hours…I'll call you." I hung up the phone.
"What was that all about?"
"Nothing I'll explain later…come on they're getting away"…….

I decided that in order for this to work I need to explain a few things to Raf so we walked toward the pasta aisle,which was out of ear shot for our flock, but not far enough away that we couldn't track their movements with the Finders.
"Alright listen up, I can sum this up in three words Mingle…Trust….Capture."
"How are we supposed to " Mingle" they know what we look like."
"Ah we only assume that they do." I said taking off my glasses and polishing them on my hoody. "But there is a slight possibility that they haven't"
"Need I emphasis the word "slight." I handed Raf my glasses "Put these on and quit being cynical."
"What about you?"
"Don't worry," I extended my right arm and transformed it, paw like hand and black claws. "The injuries we got from their little assassination attempt will help our cause. Now when we make contact we have to act like we don't know our way around things. We just escaped got it."
"Yeah."
"Alright then." I looked at the Finder for reference and found that our targets had moved to the snack aisle.
Raf and I walked toward them, but then casually changed course and became extremely interested in box Twinkies for $2.29. I began to clutch my transformed arm in a futile attempt to hide it. Then we began to whisper to each other, but we made sure to be loud enough so that our targets could hear us.
"Do you think we could afford these?" I asked. Raf looked at me quizzically. "Play along," I mouthed.
It took him a minute to get the hint. "I dunno…let me see." He began to fumble with a few dollar bills.
"Hurry up…an ERASER could show at any time." Once I said "Eraser" I knew we had this flock's attention and they cautiously began to approach. That's it come this way.
"Excuse me," one of them said. We pretended to be startled and Raf instantly grabbed a box of Twinkies and held it close. The member that addressed us was a young guy with spiky brown hair, wearing a pair of ratty jeans and a black hoody.
"You guys aren't by any chance from the…School." He whispered.
I appeared to be surprised and nodded. "Yeah we escaped a couple days ago." "Oh…What's your name?"
"My name?"
"Yeah you have a name don't you? My name is Storm," he said then pointed to a tall girl with long blond hair tied in a pony tail. She wore jeans and a blue hoody.
"This is Nia." She smiled and waved to us. Storm then pointed to a tall, muscular, boy with dark skin "This is Torrin."
"How are you guys doing?" he said. Torrin was an intimidating sight, he was younger than me yet he was taller, he wore a yellow sleeveless hoody with jeans.
"And I'm Voice," said a younger girl with short red hair and big blue eyes. She wore jeans and instead of a hoody wore a regular t-shirt. Voice used her wings which were a grayish blue with white tips, to form a feathery poncho….Cute…NOT.
"Pleased to meet you, my name is Seth and this is uh…"
"Black," Raf said.
"Well Seth and Black it's nice meet you. We were just doing some stocking up; we had to retreat from our home in Red Lake because of Collectors. "
"Collectors!" I exclaimed.
"Yeah, you've heard of them?"
"Of course." I said.
"There were two Collectors in town. We knew what they were because they drove around in this black car with tinted windows, when you've been free as long as we have you tend to notice these things."
"I was scouting for Storm and I couldn't get a good look at them, But the car spoke for itself I think." Voice commented.
"But we memorized the license plate number" Storm continued.
"And we got them before they could get us," Torrin said slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand.
"That's pretty smart," I said.
"Yeah it is….Why don't you two come with us. There is safety in numbers you know," Storm said.
"I don't know… what do you think Black…Black?" I looked over and saw Raf stuffing his face with Twinkies. He stopped eating and nodded. "Okay, count us in."….

If you can't beat them join them and then beat them later. That was the plan. We left the supermarket and followed Storm and his group back to their hide out. Raf and I straggled behind the group.
"Black? What kind of name is that?" I asked Raf.
"It's my favorite color."
"I thought grey was you favorite color."
"It is, but black is my second favorite and besides it was the first thing that came to my head…it's what I'm wearing and what about you? What kind of name is Seth."
"It's my name stupid."
"Since when?"
"Birth."
"Oh."
Voice slowed her pace and walked beside me.
"Hey, Seth I like your bracelet," she said fingering it.
"BE CAREFUL!" I blustered out. Voice looked at me bewildered. "It's fragile," I said with a grin.
"Oh, where did you get it?"
"A friend gave it to me…a long time ago."
We walked in silence as we followed our flock to an old house in a quiet neighborhood. According to Storm this house was for rent and had once belonged to the Martinez family….who ever they were. There Raf and I helped unload the food that the flock had purchased and stored it. After doing so we spent most of the afternoon talking and swapping stories. This flock was a colorful group having many different back grounds and experiences with the School and Whitecoats. Raf and I, weaved together stories that were partly fact and partly fiction, so you couldn't say that we were complete lairs. As the hours crawled by something bad started to happen. I was beginning to become attached to the flock. This wasn't good and I wandered if Raf felt the same. These kids had lives of their own now. To do what they wanted when they wanted and not having anyone to answer to…If you take this from them you are no better than …STOP IT! I almost said it out loud. But was quick to catch myself and luckily I turned it into a laugh as Voice told a joke. Later on we had pizza for dinner, afterwards while every one was cleaning up , I couldn't stand to look at the bird kids anymore and told them that Raf and I were going for a walk.
"Why are we here, PC? We should have bagged them hours ago."
"It's not that simple, Raf. This flock is strong…If we confronted them head on they would CRUSH us… and I am trying to make this capture as painless as possible. The only way to bring this flock down is to separate them….and I'm having trouble bringing myself to do that."
"I understand how you feel…I feel the same way. But the ugly truth of it is …this is our job and THEY" Raf said pointing to the house in the distance.
"Are our ticket to prolonged freedom as well as our bread and butter…"
"Freedom and bread isn't what I want Raf. I'm doing this for Bree."
"Than do it for Bree…but we've come too far to throw it all away now and you know it."
"I do." I shuttered at the memory of being crammed in cage or in the darkness of an isolation chamber and worst of all being tied down. Yelling and fighting but in the end I knew that NO ONE was coming and no matter how much I screamed they would never stop. There is an ominous chill that comes over you when you know that everything is beyond your control and all you can do is go with the flow….I hated it… and that along with the memory of Bree and the Network kept me focused on what I needed to do. "You're right," I sighed heavily and shook my head. "Fine… When everyone is asleep I'll make the call…you nab Voice."…..

As we walked back it was night and in a couple more hours our little charade would be all over. Suddenly I heard Voice screaming. This couldn't be good. As we approached the house, an Eraser in human form was dragging Voice out of the house.
"Where are the others?" Raf muttered.
"Those darn Erasers they are going to ruin everything!" I snarled. Fortunately for us it was only one. I ran up and tackled him to the ground and then bit his hand. The Eraser howled and let go of Voice.
"Black get her inside!" I shouted. Raf wasted no time in pulling her into the house. The Eraser head butted me and pushed me off. He then transformed and pounced on me before I could get to my feet.
"Trying to be a hero punk?"
"Back off this is not your flock," I snarled.
"What did you say?"
"Look at my wrist see that? That's my Ring …NOW GET OFF OF ME!" I shouted bring my legs up under him and kicking the Eraser in the stomach.
He grunted and moved off, " Not very strong in your human form are you?" the Eraser panted, getting to his feet. Angry, I hulled back and slugged him in the jaw. The Eraser let out a yep and clutched his lower jaw .
" Strong enough for you?" I asked.
" I guess," he replied.
"Get out of here…I've worked too hard to let you and your cronies ruin everything…where are the others?"
"I don't know. When I arrived, she was the only one there."
I slugged him again "Okay, now move off…before I get really angry."
The Eraser smiled devilishly at me and said "Good luck," then scurried off into the night. I let out a large sigh of relief.
"Seth you okay?" Raf called from the door way.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I followed Raf inside to the living room, where Voice was crying on the couch, with a glass of milk in one hand and a cookie in the other.
"This place is a wreck. What happened here Voice? Where are the other?" I asked. I was beginning to think that that Eraser had lied to me.
" T-they had ….g-gone out…t-to get information about s-s-s."
Raf sat down beside her and rubbed her back gently, "Come on…take it easy. What happened?" Voice took another gulp of milk and finished the cookie in two bites. As she chewed Raf tossed me a look that seemed to say "This is a good opportunity." I gave a look that said "Wait."
"Storm and the others went into town to gather information from some other flocks in the area. They said that some collectors arrived in town."
"And they left you here alone?" I asked in mock surprise.
"Yeah…I'm a big girl now, I'm almost 13."
"Well even at age 13 you're still vulnerable. Didn't Nia or Storm teach you not to open the door for strangers?" I asked.
"They never taught me what to do if the stranger rams the door open."
"Ah good point."
"I'm so glad…you guys showed up when you did. I was in trouble. Thank you," Voice said hugging Raf and then getting up and hugging me. That's it. I looked over at Raf and he understood. Quietly, he snuck up behind Voice and covered her eyes and her mouth. She gasped.
"What the heck happened?" Storm's voice resonated from the enterance.
"Guess who?" Raf whispered playfully.
Voice began to laugh "Black." Raf let go just as Storm and the others entered the room. "Voice what happened? This place is a mess!" he scolded her.
"Maybe we should be asking you the same question. What kind of flock leader leaves the youngest member behind and alone!" I snapped with both mock and real anger. I was angery at Storm because if he hadn't left. The Eraser wouldn't have shown up to ruin my plans. The guy was close to blowing our cover.
"She's 12," Storm retorted "She needs to take care of herself, because we might not always be here. And I don't think you should be yelling at me. Because you weren't here either."
"Oh yes he was!" Voice shouted. "Seth saved me from the Eraser."
"Did he?"
"Yeah, so Shut up Storm!"
"Voice," Nia said surprised.
Storm gave Voice an angry stare and then said "Let's all get some rest."
"What about those collectors?" I inquired.
"What about them?"
"What did you hear?"
"Nothin', they seemed to have disappeared," Storm replied. I didn't press him any more. As we walked further into the house into the rooms. I looked at the clock on the wall that had been knocked sideways…it was almost Showtime...

It's almost midnight! Where the heck are they! How long does it take to bring down one small flock. There are flocks that are bigger than this one. I hope PC calls soon so I can give him a piece of my mind. What could be keeping them? They better not have turned on the School…No they can't do that…not with those Rings on. Even if they managed to smash them, the School would know instantly…

PC:

I rolled around on my temporary bed restlessly. There was no way I could fake sleeping. So I laid there in bed watching for any movement outside my door. Nia got up a couple times once to go to the bathroom the other to get a drink of water. Storm woke up several times too and paced the halls…I guess he couldn't sleep. I had the strangest feeling that Storm knew who we were. Why he didn't reveal us when he had the chance is beyond me. Maybe he was trying to be clever, but if everything ran smoothly tonight, Raf and I would get out of this without a scratch and Storm would look like a bigger idiot than he already was. There is a certain amount of joy that comes with knowing you have the upper hand or in our case that you are fooling everyone and they are too blinded by camaraderie to know it. Ten minutes before midnight, I changed my ears to cat ones and listened for any one moving inside the house. I heard four individual breathing patterns that indicated sleep and one other that indicated someone was awake…most likely Raf. After listening a moment more I quietly slipped out of bed and changed my ears back to human and headed for the room Raf was sleeping in. Fortunately my assumption was correct and he was awake.
"You ready?" I whispered. He nodded . We crept out his room and parted ways. Raf disappear around a corner and then I headed for the door…..

Houses are spooky…at night I mean especially if there are no night lights in the hallways. As I stalked the halls, I prayed that I didn't trip over something or run into a wall. My ability to see in darkness was pretty bad and PC's is even worse, even with corrective surgery, courtesy of the School. I controlled my breathing, so that it would be light and almost inaudible and moved toward a shaft of moonlight that illuminated the hallway. The light came through the open door of Voice's room. As I approached I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched. When you are trying to be unnoticed and quiet it always seems like every move you make can be seen and heard. Voice's room was large and dusty with a lonely bed in the right hand corner where, the girl laid curled into a ball, her wings acting as an extra blanket. As I got closer, my heart pounded so hard it fell like it would go through my chest. I took a deep breath and exhaled as softly as I could, then in one swift motion placed my hand over her mouth. Voice's eyes snapped open and at first I think she thought I was playing another game with her and she tugged at my hand gently. But when I didn't remove my hand it began to dawn on her that I wasn't playing anymore. She began to struggle and she let out a muffled squeal. I shook my finger at her and said softly "I'm going to take my hand away and you are going to be quiet. Nothing will happen to you if you do exactly what I say. You got that?" Voice didn't nod and just stared at me angrily. I didn't blame her. Then her furrowed brow changed as her eyes shifted position to look at something over my shou—….

I sighed to myself and folded a corner on the page of a magazine I had picked up at one the stores while I was searching in town. Garner Springs is a nice place the people are really friendly and everything is pretty affordable…. AHHHHHHH! Where are they! It's midnight! I'm going to strangle PC! I'm so bored. Suddenly, my phone began to ring. FINALLY! I instantly reached into my pocket and snapped it open….Hello?