It's a new decade and I'm back at it again! I'm serious guys, I really will finish this story one day. Maybe 2020 will be the year we all finish our uncompleted Maximum Ride fanfics (I still have plenty in store for this one though!)

Chapter 57

Fang followed closely behind me as I made my way to the edge of the clearing. I paused at the edge, peering out into the darkness of the woods. What could be out there? Knowing our luck, it was probably Erasers, roaming the forest, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

For a moment, I actually kind of hoped Nudge was right about the whole bear thing.

With a tiny click, the steady stream of light from Fang's flashlight snapped off. I glanced at him, and he shrugged.

"Don't want to give ourselves away."

I nodded. The less obvious we were, the better, and besides, I was pretty sure our sharp vision worked better than that dim flashlight.

"Well, fearless leader?" Fang asked, and even in the darkness, I could see a tiny smirk on his face. "Lead the way."

I rolled my eyes, elbowing him. "You're in a pretty good mood despite the fact that, oh, I don't know, our lives could be in danger."

"Sounds like a regular Friday night."

I resisted the urge to elbow him harder. "Whatever. Come on."

I pushed my way through the bushes that lined the edge of our campsite, slipping in between the densely packed tree trunks. Despite Fang telling me to lead the way, I wasn't even sure where I was leading us. Like I'd admit that to him, though.

I could just barely hear the crunch of fallen leaves under Fang's feet as he followed closely behind me. We cautiously pressed onwards silently for a few minutes, but finally, I heard his quiet, low voice saying, "So what's the plan?"

"Huh?" I flinched. It was like he could read my mind. Hmm. Maybe Angel wasn't the only mind reader in the flock.

"A plan. Unless it's your plan to walk in circles for the rest of the night?"

I stopped and glanced back at him, rolling my eyes. "Of course I have a plan."

Fang arched an eyebrow silently in response.

I grimaced at him. "The plan, Fnick, is to figure out what exactly made Girl Scout Lady Laura freak earlier. I'm sure there are Erasers camped out somewhere in these woods, and we-"

Fang held up a hand in an attempt to silence me. "Uh, yeah. But what's your actual plan?"

"I was just getting to it!" I shot back at him as I tried to formulate a plan in my mind. "They have to be close by. So we find them and take them out before they can do the same to us."

Fang looked as if he was seriously doubting how well thought-out my plan was, but he didn't say anything besides "Sure."

"So let's get moving," I commanded. But before I could take another step, the howl of a wolf pierced the eerie silence of the woods.

The hairs on my arms stood up and my fists clenched. Beside me, Fang tensed as well.

"Erasers," I hissed, pressing my back against his.

Fang cocked his head, listening. I glanced at him – his face was as serious as ever, but his eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. "Yeah. Don't know how close, though."

"Iggy might know," I murmured, almost wishing we'd asked him to come along too.

Fang nodded back silently.

The lone wolf's howl cut through the forest again, making me clench my fists harder. It was closer this time. My whole body was tense as I listened, trying to tell where it was, if there were more, if they knew where we were. My natural instincts told me to run, to get out of there. But we had to protect the flock – and the other kids on the trip. And even Annoying Girl Scout Lady Laura.

"They're getting closer," Fang muttered. He still had his back to me. I scanned the trees, looking for any sign of the horrible wolf mutants, trying to be ready to fight.

And then came the howl a third time – incredibly close. Too close.

I heard a rustle in the bushes to my left, and jerked my head in that direction just as a gray wolf darted out, baring its teeth at us with a low growl.

"Guess we found the Erasers," Fang commented, holding his fists in front of him.

"Erasers?" I asked, mirroring Fang's ready-to-fight position as the Eraser slowly advanced towards me on all fours. I kept my eyes on it as I added, "There's only one."

Fang shook his head, and I glanced away from the Eraser briefly to see several other wolf-mutants crawling their way out of the woods on all fours. There was at least a dozen, and I sucked in a breath. Fang and I were strong, especially when we fought together, but I was starting to think our odds of winning weren't so good against a whole pack of Erasers.

"Up and away?" Fang murmured under his breath.

"No," I hissed at him. "We have to fight."

Fang arched an eyebrow at me like he was also thinking about how the odds were against us. But all he said was, "Fine."

I glanced around at the pack of Erasers that had now surrounded us – a circle of wolf mutants, with me and Fang at the center. And it was then that I realized something important.

"They're not transforming," I muttered.

"What?"

"The Erasers. Whenever we fight them, they're always in that – you know, that half-wolf, half-man state. But why are these ones still just wolves?" I glanced at the Eraser closest to me, and as if in response, it bared its teeth and growled. "They're not attacking," I went on.

And then the gray wolf directly in front of me sat back on its haunches. It tipped its snout to the sky, opened its mouth, and let out a long howl. All around the circle, the other wolves echoed it, howling into the night sky.

Fang and I just stared as we remained in our fighting stances. Then the wolf in front of me – seemingly the leader of the pack – stood up. Without looking back at us, it turned and darted back into the darkness of the woods. The other wolves raced after it, leaving me and Fang standing alone in the middle of the forest.

I turned to look at Fang, who arched an eyebrow. "Normal wolves?" he said.

I let out a sigh of relief, relaxing my arms and uncurling my fists. "That was weird. I totally thought they were going to be Erasers."

"I guess that solves the mystery," Fang said simply.

"Yeah," I murmured, glancing out into the darkness of the woods. "Maybe Girl Scout Lady Laura just ran into a pack of wolves or something." Still, though, I couldn't relax completely. I hoped it really was just ordinary wolves out here and nothing else.

"I'm surprised they didn't attack, though," Fang said. He eyed me with a slight frown. "Wonder why they surrounded us like that."

I shook my head. "Let's head back to the campsite. Before that annoying lady figures out we're gone and gives me even more chores to do."

Fang nodded silently, unzipped his jacket, and unfurled his wings. With his dark feathers, he nearly blended into the pitch blackness of the forest. I yanked off my windbreaker, tying it around my waist, and extended my own wings. It felt amazing to let them out after holding them tight against my back all day long, and I grinned at Fang. "Let's fly."

I leaped into the air, beating my wings hard to keep me aloft, and Fang followed closely behind as I cleared the treetops. I closed my eyes for a second as we flew high above the forest and through the chilly nighttime air.

"So far, this is the best camp activity yet!" I called back to Fang, and I could almost see a hint of a smile on his face.

Soon, my raptor-sharp vision picked out a cluster of tents in a clearing below, and I waved to Fang, gesturing downwards. He nodded as we circled down towards the ground, landing between a patch of trees several yards away from the campsite. I pulled my wings back in and tugged my windbreaker back on, and we crept back into the campsite. Annoying Girl Scout Lady Laura's tent was dark, and I desperately hoped she was a very deep sleeper.

Fang nodded his head towards his tent, and I waved to him as we went our separate ways. I made my way back to the tent I was sharing with Nudge, Daisy, and Jaz, and unzipped the flap as quietly as I could.

We'd made it back safely.

Or so I thought.

"Max!" Nudge blabbered loudly. She was sitting up in her sleeping, her eyes wide. "You're back!" She leaped out of her sleeping bag and threw her arms around me tightly. "Did you sneak out? I was so scared when I woke up and saw you weren't here! I thought you got attacked by a bear or something and I wanted to go look for you but I was so scared that I would run into a bear and-"

"Nudge!" I slammed my hand over her mouth. "Shut up!"

"What's going on?" I heard a girl from the neighboring tent say.

Daisy sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Is it morning already?"

"Shh, go back to sleep," I hissed at her. I glanced at Jaz, who was still passed out and drooling on her pillow. Of course.

"Maxine Ride?" a familiar, annoying voice said from outside the tent. "What is this I hear about sneaking out?"

I unzipped the tent to find Girl Scout Lady Laura glowering down at me. Who else?

"Nothing," I lied quickly. "N- I mean, Tiffany-Krystal just had a bad dream, didn't you?"

Nudge nodded up and down rapidly, her eyes huge and her lower lip protruding. "Yeah! Yeah, that's definitely what happened! And then I woke up and-"

"Enough!" Laura the Girl Scout Lady interrupted, and Nudge actually went mute for once. Laura looked down at me as if she was trying to decide exactly what punishment to give to me, and other girls nearby peeked their heads out of their tents, watching curiously.

But to my surprise, all she said was, "Keep it down. You're going to wake up the entire campsite."

"It looks like that already happened," Nudge pointed out unhelpfully. I glared at her, holding my index finger up to my lips.

Girl Scout Lady Laura was already walking away, though. I breathed a sigh of relief as I zipped the tent back up and pulled off my shoes, climbing into my sleeping bag.

"Where did you go, Max?" Daisy whispered curiously as Nudge climbed back over a still-sleeping Jaz to get back to her sleeping bag.

I shook my head. "Shh. Go back to bed."

"Tell us! Tell us!" Nudge chanted.

I made a be-quiet gesture by slicing my index finger across my throat. "I'll tell you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," Nudge replied sadly, laying back down in her sleeping bag. I had rested my head on my pillow for not more than five seconds before I heard her say, "Max, you're sure there's not any bears in these woods, right? Because I was so worried that-"

"Nudge!" Daisy and I said at the same time.

"Sorry," she replied, but I could tell she was dying to say more. I pulled my sleeping bag further over my head, closing my eyes and vowing to tell the rest of the flock tomorrow about what Fang and I had encountered in the woods earlier.

~~::~~

"You guys were seriously about to fight some regular wolves?" Iggy burst out laughing as we ate breakfast the next morning. "Really? That would have been hilarious."

I shot a glare at him as I took a bite of my bacon – and of course, my glare was lost on him. "You know you would have done the same if you were there. It felt like we were in danger."

Iggy just continued to laugh, and I rolled my eyes, ignoring him.

"I'm just glad you guys are okay," Nudge said. "Good thing you didn't run into any bears! I would have been so scared if I saw a bear!"

"Nudge, you've literally fought half-human, half-wolf mutants and you're only eight. I don't get how you're so scared of bears," Iggy commented.

"Bears are scary!" Nudge insisted.

"I bet I could take on a bear," the Gasman said thoughtfully as he chewed his bacon.

I rolled my eyes. "Bet you couldn't."

Fang glanced at me as he silently scraped some scrambled eggs off his plate. That was when Jaz ran up to us with her paper plate piled high with eggs and sausage. "Fnick!" she cried. "They just ran out of bacon! Can I have some of yours?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You know we tried to wake you up about ten times this morning, right? It's your fault for missing out on the bacon." Jaz had refused to budge from her very deep sleep, so Nudge and I had left her passed out in the tent. Daisy, meanwhile, had disappeared before we'd even woken up – I guess she was an early riser. She'd already finished breakfast and was helping Girl Scout Lady Laura with the dishes.

"I'm just glad that Laura lady forgot Max was supposed to be on cooking duty today," Iggy commented as he finished off his eggs. "Otherwise she would have burned all the bacon and none of us would have gotten any."

Jaz giggled and even Fang cracked a small smile.

"Not funny," I told Iggy with a grimace.

The Boy Scout Leader Dude clapped his hands suddenly to get everyone's attention. "Alright, finish up, everyone!" he called. "Let's clean up so we can head down to the lake!"

"The lake!" Nudge said excitedly as she stood up from the log she was sitting on. "What do you think we're going to do at the lake?"

"I hope we're going swimming!" the Gasman said, shoving his last bite of eggs into his mouth.

"I hope not," I commented. The last thing I wanted was everyone trying to figure out why we were swimming in regular clothes – I didn't have a swimsuit since it wasn't exactly like they covered my wings.

After we'd all finished cleaning our dishes, both troops followed the Boy Scout Leader Guy – I still didn't know his name – down to the lake. All around me, the flock had happy smiles on their faces. Nudge kept talking about how she hoped we were going sailing, and the Gasman was saying he wanted to sail his own boat – no way that was happening, since he would definitely crash it. Fang and Iggy were too far behind for me to hear what they were saying, but Iggy had a grin on his face as he whispered something to Fang. Even Fang looked like he was actually enjoying himself.

Jaz skipped up from behind me. "Me and Daisy are going kayaking!" she sang, grabbing my arm. "Want to come with us?"

I glanced at her. "Huh?"

Jaz peered at me curiously. "Max, you look like you have something on your mind. What's wrong?"

Truthfully, I couldn't stop thinking about the weird encounter with the wolves from last night. Was that really all that was in the woods? What about the lumbering footsteps we'd heard right before Girl Scout Lady Laura came back to the campsite last night? What about that scream we'd heard? I couldn't get those things off my mind.

"Max?" Jaz's voice came again, breaking into my thoughts. "I said, I can show you how to kayak! I'm really good at it! I went last summer with my mom, and-"

"Uh, sure, Jaz," I found myself saying, despite what was probably my better judgement.

"Yes!" Jaz cheered, pumping her fist into the air. "I'll tell Daisy!"

She skipped off ahead towards Daisy, who was at the front of the group chatting away to Laura.

"Kayaking?" Nudge piped up, beaming at me. "That sounds fun! I want to go kayaking! What's kayaking, anyway?"

I shook my head as we finally reached the edge of the lake, wondering just what I had gotten myself into. Stupid Jaz.