Hey, sorry for the long wait, once again. I had a family reunion and other things you don't care about, so here's the chapter, I hope you like it:
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I woke up early the next morning. Immediately, I started my regular duties- making the fire, cooking (or burning) the food, and pretty much everything else.
After the smell of fried bacon had joined the smoke in the air, I shook the others awake, getting some amount of resistance from certain people I won't name. As we sat around the fire, listening to the quiet crunch of the roasted food, I contemplated our next move. Where were we going to go?
"Max, why do we let you cook?" asked Iggy as he tried to separate the edible pieces of his bacon from the inedible parts.
"It tastes better when it's crunchy," I defended myself.
"Hey, shut up," Fang ordered. As Gazzy turned to Fang and started to tell him to shut up, I noticed what Fang was doing and covered Gazzy's mouth.
The Gasman looked up at me questioningly, but he stayed quiet, so I put my hand down. With nothing but the crackling of the fire in our camp, I could hear a quick chopping sound coming from somewhere nearby. I turned around, and suddenly, a completely black helicopter flew up over the rocky mountain.
I jumped up to my feet. "Run!" I ordered the others. We quickly through our things into our bags and leaped into the air. My wings pumped hard and fast as I tried to gain altitude.
I watched as the others flew, making sure they were keeping up, and trying to control my own flying. We lowered ourselves into the treetops, where the leaves were plentiful, and tried to give ourselves some cover.
Finally, after many tiring minutes of full-speed flying, we landed. "I think we lost them," I told the others.
"Yeah, that's what people on TV say right before whoever was chasing them sneaks up and slits their throats."
I turned and stared at him for a few seconds. "Well, aren't we optimistic today," I muttered, looking away. "I guess we'd better get going if we don't want our throats slit." We started off through the forest at a hurried walk, giving our wings a rest.
"Max, where are we going?" asked Nudge.
"We're just getting away from the helicopter," I told her. "We'll stop soon." We continued pushing our way through the bushes, until the trees were thick with vines and the forest was looking more and more like a jungle. As we pushed our way through the greenery, the pines and oaks were being replaced by unnamable, luscious green trees filled with strange fruits I had never seen.
"Does anyone else think this is getting weird?" questioned Iggy, after we had literally run into a lime green bush, causing a swarm of rainbow-colored birds to flood the air just over our heads.
"Yes," replied Fang, as if there could be no other answer. "Definitely yes."
I shoved my way through the bush and almost tripped on a vine in front of me. I stomped on the vine and frowned in disgust as I heard a sickening squish. A dark liquid was now oozing out of the vine- only then did I notice its strange color. It was a light brownish green, with thick, dark circles decorating the skin. I slowly pulled my foot back, eyes wide in fear. Just then, a hissing sounded from above me. I froze, hoping that the others would do the same. They did. Sadly, it didn't help.
I slowly tilted my head up and what I saw made my eyes widen even more. A giant snake was descending from the branches above. I backed away, inching to the safety of the trees behind me, and always keeping an eye on the snake as it lowered itself.
After what felt like hours, we were no longer in the serpent's striking distance. I sighed and turned to the others. They all had an expression of shock plastered on their faces. Of course, Fang's expression of shock was just a slight raise of the eyebrows. I guess he was still following the Fang Rules.
"Are you guys alright?" I asked. They all nodded in turn. I looked at them, Iggy in particular. He had heard the hissing, but it must have been really confusing for him. He did look paler then usual. We would have to settle down soon- in a place without snakes that could swallow us whole.
"Come on. We need to get out of here," I continued. We started walking again, at a slower pace then before. After a few minutes of walking, I noticed that the trees and shrubs were disappearing. I glanced at Fang. He had noticed it too. I quickened my walk, hoping we'd find a clearing we could rest in. Then, I was forced to stop.
Once again, a bush was in our way. After checking for gigantic man-eating snakes, I pushed through the bush and climbed out on the other side. When I looked up, I drew in a sharp breath.
There was a small village before us.
Rows of small houses lined the clearing. Overall, there were about twenty. I stepped forward so the others could come out. One by one, the flock appeared behind me, gasping as they came through.
"Okay, first a monster snake tries to eat us, then we find some kind of civilization in the middle of a jungle that's not supposed to be here. This is insane. Why don't we just leave," suggested Fang. He grabbed my shoulder and tried to pull me back.
"Fang, no," I ordered. "We have to find out what this is."
"Max, this is stupid," Fang continued as I walked forward. "Let's just go." I kept going toward the houses until I was on the edge of the small camp. Once I knew the flock was behind me, I moved to the door of the nearest hut. I slowly reached out and turned the doorknob. Taking a deep breath, I stepped inside.
The house looked normal- or at least, what I'd always imagined as normal, because I hadn't been in many houses before. It had a living room, which also served as a kitchen, with a couch and even a TV on one side, and an oven, microwave, and table on the other. Three doors (not including the entrance) led out of the room. Two went into simple bedrooms with two small beds, a desk, and a lamp in each one. The last door led to a bathroom; there was a toilet, shower, and sink- no mirror.
As we explored the house, I wondered what kind of people lived here. Suddenly, as if in answer to my question, I noticed a single picture frame on the desk in one of the bedrooms. I hurried over to it and looked at the picture inside.
There were four people- two boys, two girls. They all had tiger stripe tattoos across their faces.
"Fang!" I called. "Come here." I studied the picture as the flock filed into the room. Just as I was about to hand the photo to Fang, a crash sounded from outside. I dropped the frame on the desk and ran out of the room, bursting out of the door we had come in through.
Blinding light filled my eyes. People were everywhere. What was going on? Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight and I could see what was going on around me. The rest of the flock had followed me outside, and people now surrounded us. They weren't normal people; they were the people from the picture- the people who lived here.
Their faces were covered in the tattoos, but underneath, they were pretty. It was an Eraser-like prettiness, cold and cruel, but the tattoos seemed to give them a warmth that no Eraser had ever had. I looked down at their hands and saw that their fingers were rough, their fingernails sharp. Turning back up to look at their faces, a boy, probably a year older than me, grinned. It was a twisted grin, not one of those happy, giddy grins that the Gasman always got, but that's not what I first noticed. The boy's teeth were sharp, sharper than a dog's even. They were long, and I was surprised that they even stayed under his lips. But, looking at the other people around me, I saw that they didn't. All of the people had sharp, pearly-white points coming out from under their upper lip. I just hadn't noticed it before. Once again, I studied the tattoos. They ran not only over the people's faces, but down their arms and every other visible place on their bodies.
Suddenly, I realized something. The tiger stripes that these people all seemed to have weren't tattoos. They were real.
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Ooooh! What's gonna happen? Okay, I've already started the next chapter, so I'm REALLY going to try to update quicker than I have been. Thanks for reviews, ideas, and just reading. You guys are awesome. R&R, please. Thanx- Dringer