haha okay I am a loser

It is probably not a good idea to get grounded for three months. Not fun. Do not recommend.

Chapter 45

"Daisy!" I yelled. The poor girl didn't look so good. We had to get her out of here, pronto, before the Erasers could do anything else to her. Or to us.

"What about Daisy?" Iggy asked. "Where is she?"

I grimaced, my hand that wasn't in Iggy's clenching. "They're the ones that took Daisy," I muttered under my breath. "She's tied up. Looks almost dead. We need to get her and leave."

Iggy's eyes widened. "O-okay."

"Too much talking!" one the Erasers called out, advancing slowly towards us. "Let's just kill you and get this over with. Surely our boss will reward us greatly."

"You're not killing either of us," I snarled, letting go of Iggy's hand and putting up my fists. "I'll kill you first!"

"No, we can't kill them," a second Eraser said, a bit sadly. "The boss wouldn't be happy with that. He wants them alive." He grinned at us, a grotesque wolfy grin. "But that doesn't mean we can't have fun with them!"

Suddenly, he lunged at Iggy, knocking him to the ground. "Iggy!" I screamed, leaping on top of the Eraser and pounding on the back of his head. It didn't hurt him, but it distracted him just enough for Iggy to roll out from under the Eraser. A small stream of blood was dripping down the side of his face.

"Run, Iggy!" I yelled at him. "Go get help!"

He shook his head. "I'm not leaving you alone!"

The Eraser I'd attacked was starting to stand up, with me still clinging to his back. "You little pest!" he said, trying to knock me off, but I hung on tightly, clinging to his very dirty and smelly fur.

"You don't shower regularly, do you?" I asked. This seemed to infuriate him more.

Meanwhile, Iggy was managing to hold his own against one of the other Erasers. The third Eraser was standing guard over Daisy, partially hidden behind a tree, although I wondered why. They didn't seem to have any intent of keeping her alive.

My eyes widened. It could be a trap – if anyone else tried to help Daisy and didn't see the Eraser waiting to attack, they'd be in trouble.

"Crap, where's Fang when you actually need him?" I muttered under my breath, leaping off the Eraser's back and snapping my wings out. Iggy, hearing me do this, did the same. He flew over to me by hearing the beating of my wings.

"Okay," I said, breathing hard. "We need a plan."

"Duh," Iggy said. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Hey, you cowards!" one of the Erasers yelled at us. "Get down here and fight, or we'll kill your little friend!"

I somewhat exchanged a concerned expression with Iggy. My suspicions were confirmed – they weren't planning on keeping Daisy alive, even if she was the daughter of their boss.

The daughter of their boss. That was it! "Hey, won't you be in trouble if you kill Daisy?" I yelled down at the Erasers. "He'd have your head!"

The Erasers didn't look at all phased by that. "I'm sure the life of his daughter would be a small price to pay if we were able to catch such successful experiments."

I sucked in my breath. Daisy's dad definitely won the prize for worst dad of the year. Next to me, Iggy tensed. I figured he was reacting to the Eraser's comment, but then he whispered, "Max, I think Fang is coming. Keep stalling."

I nodded, surprised. Iggy's hearing was really great, though, so I shouldn't have been surprised.

"Hey piggies, are you going to come fight soon? I'm getting bored," the first Eraser said, tapping his wrist as if he had a watch there.

"Don't you ever get tired of chasing us?" I asked. "You guys are from the School too."

"Yeah, but this is kind of our job, little piglet," one the Erasers said, smirking. "We-"

That was the last thing he said before a huge BANG rang out and the Eraser dropped to the ground. I stared in surprise.

"Was that a….gun?" Iggy asked. "What happened?"

"One Eraser dead," I said. "But-"

"Stay away from my friends!" a familiar voice yelled. I turned and saw Jaz standing with a gun in her trembling hands. Despite having just shot one of the Erasers, she looked like she was about to burst into tears. I wondered where she'd gotten the gun.

"Jaz, get away!" I yelled at her. "They'll hurt you too!"

"Not if I can help it," Fang said from behind me, quiet and calm as always. I hadn't even realized he was there yet. He calmly raised a gun and fired it at the other standing Eraser.

"Hey!" the last Eraser yelled, running out from his hiding spot. Fang just calmly shot that one too.

"Fang, you freaking idiot!" I yelled, grabbing the gun out of his hands and tossing it as far as I could. "We're not supposed to have guns! Where did you even get that?"

"You're welcome," Fang replied, rolling his eyes. "I stole them a while ago. Just in case."

"Just in case we want to be arrested for murder!" I shouted at him.

"I shot them in non-fatal places," Fang said casually, as if he went around shooting people in non fatal places all day.

"No more guns," I told him.

"Bows and arrows? What about knives?" Iggy cut in. "We should get weapons."

"No!" I protested.

"Guys!" Jaz yelled from the ground. She'd dropped her gun and was peering into the place where the Erasers had tied Daisy to the tree. "I think Daisy needs help! We need to call the police! Or 911 or something!"

"If we call the police, they'll think we're a bunch of psycho kids who shot some adults," I pointed out as we landed near her. The Erasers, in their weakened forms, had transformed back into fairly-normal looking people. Well, normal looking supermodel people.

"We need to get help somehow," Jaz said, looking panicked. "She might die! She might be dead already!"

I put my hand on her shoulder. "I know, but we can't call the police. Maybe we can take her to the hospital ourselves."

"And how are we going to do that?" Fang asked.

"Let's steal the bus!" Iggy suggested. "Drive to the hospital or something."

"No!" I said. "We need a cover story. Like that she got attacked by a bear or a wolf or something. That's kind of close to what happened, anyway."

That was when Daisy slowly opened her eyes. "Daisy! You're alive!" Jaz said, bursting into tears.

I looked at my map of the park. "There's a ranger station nearby. I think we can take her there," I said, relieved to see Daisy was not dead. "They can probably call an ambulance from there."

Slowly, we helped pick up Daisy. Fang put her on his back and we set off towards the ranger station.

Daisy looked completely stunned. I didn't blame her. "Don't worry Daisy, you're going to be alright now!" Jaz assured her about fifty times in a row.

Daisy smiled slightly. "That's…. good."

I shook my head. "You don't need to talk. Just rest."

Daisy shook her head. "Max… you…saved me."

"What about me?" Iggy asked. "I helped!"

"Me too!" Jaz cut in.

"I'm the only one who did anything!" Fang added, sounding annoyed.

"That is so not true," I protested, glaring at him. "Iggy and I were doing perfectly fine without you there."

"Right." Fang just rolled his eyes.

Daisy laughed slightly. She looked in pain when she did that. Her eyes focused on me again. "You… you're a hero."

My face felt red. "Uh… thanks."

As we headed off towards the ranger center, I brought up the rear of the group, looking at everyone. We were a dirty, bloody mess. No doubt everyone would be pretty suspicious of us.

You're a hero, Daisy had said. I stared up at the sky as we walked, wondering if that was true.