Chapter 36

I don't feel too good, Skye thought suddenly.

She rose up off the ground where she collapsed, rushed over to a corner of the warehouse and began to throw up. The shock of killing someone wears off very quickly. The other Erasers had disappeared a few minutes ago, leaving Blaze behind.

By the looks on their faces, Skye thought still holding her hand to her stomach; they would rather face the Academy's punishment, than face me. I wouldn't blame them.

When she was feeling better, Skye returned to the rest of the flock who were preparing to leave. Drake had Blaze on his back, making sure that he didn't interfere with the wings; they would be able to handle the extra weight.

"You feeling better Skye," Drake asked, "we need to get Blaze away from here before more show up. They probably followed us by tracking the GPS in the bracelets before we melted them."

"I'm fine," Skye replied, "we need to find another place to stay, one that isn't easy to access but would be fine for us to get to."

"You mean like a cave on a rock face?" Falcon asked.

"Yeah," Skye replied, "something like that would be nice."

"Then we better get started," Drake said.

Drake went to the now smashed doorway and spreading his wings, pushed off from the ground and became airborne. Skye followed him out, spreading her wings to catch the wind and lifted off the ground. Slowly rising into the air, Skye looked around to see Terra and Falcon following close behind. She noticed that Falcon had a cut above his temple that was bleeding lightly and Terra had a slash mark on her right shoulder.

We were lucky that was all we got, Skye thought, it could have been much worse.

A few minutes later, they were travelling over a forest heading out towards the shore line, the ocean not quite in sight yet. Skye rode a thermal up higher and folded her wings back. She closed her eyes and let herself drop, feeling the rush of wind through her hair and feathers. Skye felt the breeze against her skin, relaxing her, freeing her from her recent memories for a brief moment in time. Trusting instinct, Skye spread her wings and felt the brush of trees against her wingtips, feeling the thrill of a near fatal collision. Opening her eyes, she was greeted by a sea of green. A sight she thought she would never see under the true warmth of the suns rays. She thought she would never be free of the Academy, now she finally was but she didn't know how long it would last before eventually someone else would die. The images of Damian's lifeless body entered her mind again but she blocked them out.

Skye saw a glint of light out of the corner of her eye and twisted her head to get a better view. The glistening waves of the ocean greeted her eyes. Above the waves, slightly inland a flock of birds, actual birds, flew in a loose formation, hunting for food. Along the shoreline over to the right of the flying birds was a small mountain range, littered with holes, caves that they could hide in until they had some sort of plan, because without one they would be captured again, that was for certain.

Chapter 37

Skye watched Blaze's unmoving from. He had been unconscious for just under twelve hours. The Eraser attack was just after dawn, so it would be approximately around six seven at night, the sun was still up, daylight saving hadn't finished so they still had a few hours left of light. Terra and Drake had left to scavenge for food, hoping to find something to keep the group alive for a while longer.

Their heightened metabolisms were both a blessing and a curse. They allowed quick healing of wounds as well as the strength to fly, but the problem was more food was required to maintain the energy levels. Skye was worried about Blaze, while he was unconscious; Blaze would not require much food to maintain his energy levels, but even so, he would require food in the next few hours, otherwise he might never wake up. Skye walked over and knelt next to Blaze. She brushed a stand of his brown streaked hair off of his face, he was cold, his body temperature had dropped lower than it should be. He looks so peaceful, Skye thought, will we all look like that one day, when we are ready to leave this world? Skye gazed at Blaze, she felt attracted towards him, she would admit that, but now wasn't the time to be thinking about things like that. Even so Skye stayed by his side while she waited for Drake and Terra's return from their scavenge for food.

I was walking down a dimly lit corridor, somewhere deep underground. I was walking along a steel catwalk, yet I was making no sound, even when my feet touched the metal catwalk. It was as if I was there but I wasn't. An ice blue light glowed from the walls, giving the installation a creepy feeling about it. I looked around and saw I was in a narrow corridor, two tubes full of a pale blue liquid travelled along the wall; the flow of the liquid was going to my right, so I followed it.

I walked down the corridor, not a single sound was being made. It was like the place was deserted. I walked down the seemingly endless corridor, keeping an eye out for a doorway, corridor, anything that would lead me to a different place to where I am now. I heard the sound of an Iron door being opened. I twirled around and watched in horror as a whitecoat walked out into the corridor and headed in my direction. I looked for somewhere to hide but it was too late. They would see me. The white coat looked up and continued walking as if he couldn't see me. He came closer and closer, we were going to hit each other. Next thing I knew was he was walking right through me.

How the heck did that happen? I thought, I'm not dead am I?

I followed the whitecoat down the corridor. After about five minutes we stopped at a huge bulkhead door, one you would see in a bunker or something. The whitecoat pulled out a pass key and entered it into the electronic lock on the door. A hissing sound followed the insertion of the key, and the door began to open, a white mist spreading from the doorway. I noticed the whitecoat pulled on a mask from hooks next to the door, a sign above it saying 'warning, cryonic area, mask required.'

Cryonic area? I thought, a frozen room? What do they need that for?

Chapter 38

I walked into the room after the whitecoat. The fine white mist was all around us in here. I could see little icicles growing off of outcrops in the wall. The air full of small frozen particles of water, an atmosphere that was deadly for most people, it would freeze your lungs in a matter of seconds. The whitecoat with the mask walked into a circular room with five tanks in the centre.

"How are the experiments doing?" The whitecoat shouted through his mask into the fog.

"Surprisingly well considering that they are being kept in this frozen environment," A voice shouted back from the fog.

"It's kept cold so that their state of mind doesn't get interrupted," The first whitecoat said, "they need to stay in the cyber world, we can't have them gaining consciousness can we?"

I listened to their conversation as I walked around the chamber, the tanks were the main feature, there were five of them, all hooked up to a series of wires and computer systems. I took a closer look at the tanks. They were filled with the same pale ice blue liquid I had seen in the corridor. I tried to wipe the frost away from the tanks to find my hand went right through the glass. I could just make out a figure inside the tank. The figure had wings like us experiments. I explored the other tanks to find that each had a similar figure in the tank. All the tanks had experiments like us in them, people with wings. I walked over to the last tank, the one in the centre of the other four. On the tank was a sign that said 'NEXUS control.' This tank was larger than the others and had more wires connected to it than the others. I could see a figure inside this tank as well. I placed my head up to the glass, not quite going through it. I could sense who it was. Flame was the figure inside the tank.

How did she end up here? I thought. Then a voice entered my head.

Wake up.

Chapter 39

I awoke to the twilight of the setting sun's last rays shining into the cave.

Cave? I thought, how did I end up in a cave?

I looked around the cave slowly, my head still hurting from hitting the floor.

How long has it been since I passed out and my head still hurts?

The cave was pretty spacious, large enough for the entire group to have some privacy from each other. I sat up and felt the blanket wrapped around me, it was wrapped tight, constricting my wings. At first I began to panic, a natural instinct reaction to the situation. The more I struggled, the more I found the blanket came loose. It was not meant to keep me from flying, but to keep me warm. I stood up on uneasy legs, walked slowly to the opening of the cave and looked out upon the setting sun, feeling the rays of light warm me. I walked outside the cave and found that I was on a ledge hanging from a steep mountain side.

This is definitely a safe place, I thought, I wonder who found it. I sat on the edge and pulled out my journal and pencil and began to write.

Journal Entry 5: It has been a long time since I wrote in here. My life has been turned upside down. I don't know what to think about life anymore. Is it really worth living when you are being hunted like an animal? I'm going too far into the negative side of life. I'm still trying to figure out what my dream/vision was all about. Too many questions and not enough answers. I'm fed up with living in the dark, why is it that we experiments are always the last to know things? We are people. Another thought, why do I keep referring to us as the others or the experiments? Mental note to self: figure out a better name for our kind.

The sign keeps bothering m, the one that was on Flame's tank. NEXUS control. I knew Flame was able to control technology with her mind, but being able to enter cyberspace as a conscious being? I couldn't believe it. The conversation I overheard helped me understand what was going on. They were keeping Flame and the other four in cyberspace for an undetermined time. I wanted to know what they wanted to find out and why they were keeping them in cyberspace. Argh, these thoughts are going to drive me insane sometime in the near future. I can tell.

The cave we are staying in will come in handy if we wish to hide from the Erasers. Thankfully they can't climb in wolf form, and we would be able to hear them in human form. The problem would be food. My stomach is already telling me it's hungry. How are we going to get food without the humans seeing us? Steal it? Scavenge food from bins? Our Life was going to only get tougher. We could survive it, if we stay together. Again my thoughts return to Skye. Since our first meeting, I had had feelings for her. Now since I had gotten to know her my feelings for her had grown.

I stopped writing as a shadow loomed over me.

"Nice to see you up," Skye said from behind me, "what are you doing?"

Skye leaned over my shoulder to get a closer look at my journal; her hair brushed my face, sweet smelling and soft. I closed my journal, not wanting her to read my private thoughts.

"I'm writing in my journal," I replied, "I didn't see you when I got up, where were you?"

"I must have fallen asleep," Skye replied. She sat down on the ledge next to me, watching the sunset. "I was worried about you," She continued, "you're our leader, the one that has kept us alive long enough to see this. Blaze… I… I…"

She blushed and hid her face behind her curtain of golden hair.

Stuff this. I had picked up on Skye's thoughts accidentally.

I turned to her slowly, knowing that she felt a little uncomfortable. I was getting the feeling that whatever she was about to tell me wasn't easy to just come out with.

Suddenly she leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I pulled back in surprise, as this was not what I was expecting. Skye looked embarrassed. I think she took my surprise to be something else.

"I'm sorry," Skye apologised, "I should go."

As she was getting up I reached out and grabbed her wrist pulling her back, pulling her close to me. Before she could protest or know what was going on, I kissed her back passionately on the lips. She hesitated at first maybe thinking I would pull away and say this was all a mistake, but gradually she relaxed and started to kiss me back.

As we parted I whispered softly into her ear. "Do you know how long I have wanted to do that?"

Skye's cheeks blushed crimson at that comment; I pulled her close and kissed her again. Suddenly out of the blue we heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. We broke our kiss and turned our heads to see Falcon standing there with an armful of firewood…

Chapter 40

"Are you guys going to help me with this firewood?" Falcon asked, "Or continue kissing each other?" Flacon asked with humour in his eyes, as he heaved the pile of firewood into the cave. Skye and I started laughing as he walked passed us. He was taking this pretty lightly.

"Aren't you surprised at all with this?" I asked, lifting part of the firewood pile into the cave.

"Not really," Falcon replied, "You two always seemed to like each others company. Skye was actually worried about you too. That was a big give away. You weren't as easy to figure out." I laughed again at this comment.

"I'm used to hiding my emotion," I finally said, catching my breath, "I keep all my personal thoughts in my journal, that's why I'm so hard to figure out."

"Really?" Skye asked playfully, "Then let's have a look shall we?"

I glanced over to where Skye was to find she was holding my journal.

"Hey," I shouted, "give that back. I'm telling you to give that back."

I rushed over and tried to get my journal back. We tumbled around, falling over each other in a mock fight as I tried to get the journal back from her.

"Hey Falcon!" Skye shouted, "Catch!"

She threw my journal to Falcon. I chased him around the cave as he read out my private thoughts about Skye as she sat on the ground listening to my thoughts about her, blushing when I said something nice, pretending offence when I mentioned a bad habit, like she fiddles with her hair when she's bored. We had a great time. For once in our lives we forgot about our worries and were truly happy. Even if the jokes on me. That illusion was soon broken. Falcon looked up at me from the journal. I snatched it out of his hands and saw he was on the page I had just finished writing. Skye must have sensed something was wrong because she came up to me and snuggled into me.

"Blaze," Falcon said, "When were you going to tell us about your dream?"

"I would have told you when everyone was here." I replied.

"What dream?" Skye asked puzzled.

I handed her my journal and she read the entry about what I had seen. About the tanks and the cryonic room. About Flame in the tank labelled NEXUS control. Skye's face was shocked so I pulled her close and held her.

"I have to do something to help her." I said, "She's my sister, Skye. She needs my help."

"I understand Blaze," Skye answered after a moment of silence, "I have a sister as well. But what can we do? You don't even know the location of the place. We need to make a plan first."

"I know Skye," I replied, "I know."

We sat down next to the fire that Flacon had set up and let ourselves get warm as the sun set below the horizon. A few minutes later I heard the flap of wings outside the cave. Drake and Terra had returned with the food. It was time to fill them in.