Max's POV:
I couldn't allow the Flock to sit around and do nothing but mull over the day's events. No, I needed a plan, the Flock needed some sort of action to remind them that maybe home wasn't such a bad thing.
I called a Flock meeting. "Okay," I tried my best to keep my voice cheerful and upbeat. "I've made a decision, we all need to learn more." There was a collective groan. "Oh, come on, we'll learn more about the world and about anything we'd ever need to know about. It'll be like homeschooling." No one argued, but no one seemed to be a fan of the idea.
The next few weeks passed in a blur of museums, field trips to historical sights, and hours spent searching the Internet and reading. While Fang had yet to go back the Fang I once knew, things were beginning to normalize and the Flock was falling into a routine.
That was until Angel suddenly jumped up from her seat on the couch. The Flock was gathered around a TV, watching some sort of documentary. Her eyes misted over a bit as she stared off into nothingness. "Angel," I waved a hand in front of her face. "Angel!" No response.
Gazzy was prepared to tackle her when she slowly began to blink and take in her surroundings. Her voice was calm, but fear showed in her eyes. "Fang, grab the phone." Fang quickly jogged to the kitchen and picked up a burner phone we had bought for emergencies. "Okay, now what?" Fang asked. "Dial this number."
3 Hours Earlier, Skylar's POV:
Stepping off the plane into the sunlight was a wonderful feeling. My hands were aching with ice and fire. I stretched my wings, flames flickered at my palms. Dylan was watching me carefully, although I didn't notice Dr. Guntherhagan's eager stare at the display my powers. I had tried my best to hide them, or at least not draw too much attention to them.
"Come this way," the doctor ushered us into a car parked along the runway. I ignored how familiar this was to when the Flock and I flew to Argentina. Only now I was with Dylan, in Alaska. Reluctantly, I got in the car. I wasn't thrilled with the thought of getting into another small enclosed space, but I could endure.
We drove for almost two hours straight, which was nothing compared to the flight from Germany to Alaska. In the few months I had left the Flock, I had seen more of the world than I ever had in the past. Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, Shanghai, Seoul, Budapest, Rome and too many other places that I couldn't remember the names of. I had Polaroid photos of all of the places tucked away in the backpack sitting on my lap. My train of thought was halted when I saw where we were driving to.
Ahead of us, a large building towered with hardly any windows and no cars parked in front of it. "Doctor," Dylan apprehension was audible in his voice. "Where are we going?" Chills ran down my spine as I realized the answer, "A School."
"Skylar, Dylan," Guntherhagan began slowly. "Skylar has powers, very rare powers that could benefit all of mankind. Do you know the progress we could make with just a few more samples of DNA?" "No," Dylan stated. "You can't do this." Rain began to patter on the windows of our SUV.
I unbuckled my seatbelt, and grabbed for the doctor. "Let us go!" I fumbled for power over the steering wheel. "Skylar," I didn't pay attention to Dylan. "Skylar!" Before I knew what was happening, the car was swerving off the side of the road, down towards a forest of trees. "Skylar," Dylan yanked me back into him. I heard the airbags in the front inflate and heard a painful crash as the car flipped. Dylan clutched me to him as we collided with a large tree trunk. Unhooking his seatbelt, Dylan and I dropped onto the ceiling of the car, which was currently dented and resting against the ground. No movement came from the front of the car, I assumed Dr. Guntherhagan was dead.
"Come on," Dylan yanked on the car door until it busted open. He crawled on his stomach until he was lying on the forest floor, I followed suit. The ground was wet with rain and I felt a shiver run through me. "You're bleeding," he reached up and touched my temple. A sharp stinging sensation struck me and his fingers came away bloody. I glanced over him, looking for any injuries, he was fine.
"We'll worry about that later," I told him. "We have to go, if that was a School, then eraser's will be after us in minutes." Dylan helped me off the ground and unfurled his wings. "No, we can't fly above the trees or else they'll see us," I warned. A dizzy spell made me sway on my feet. I had forgotten how much head wounds bleed.
"Are you sure you're-?" I interrupted him, "I'm fine." Launching off the ground, we flew around the trees, several branches scraping my wings and legs.
The trees only provided cover for seconds, before we knew it, we were faced with a large open expanse of field. Luckily, far off in the distance, I saw the tall buildings of a city. "Come on!" I grabbed his hand and we soared quickly to the urban landscape, cities were good for blending in.
Landing on the outskirts of the city, we tucked in our wings and I pulled two sweatshirts out of my backpack. I yanked up my hood so no one would notice the blood running down my face. I let my long silver hair out of it's tight bun and pulled over my shoulders so only half of my face was visible. By that time, the rain was coming down hard enough I was completely drenched. I leaned into Dylan's side for support, I was growing dizzy. I didn't know how long I had before I collapsed.
Dylan dragged me down roads until I didn't know where we were, and hopefully no one else would. We were passing by a line of pay phones when one rang. I didn't know if it was the blood loss or a lack of judgement but I pulled Dylan with me towards the phone and answered it.
Weakly I said, "Hello?" "What are you doing?" Dylan mouthed. I didn't have an answer for him. "Skylar?" A familiar voice sounded over the line. "Fang?" It couldn't have been. It was. "Skylar is that you?"
I gulped, "Yeah, it's me. His voice was low and confused, "Are you okay? You sound bad."
Dylan had been leaning over me, listening to the conversation. Snatching the phone from my hand he responded, "Guntherhagan tried to take us to a School. He wanted to study Skylar's powers."
"He what?" Fang's voice sounded of thinly controlled rage, although maybe that was my imagination playing tricks on me. "You heard me," Dylan snapped, he was exasperated but with what I didn't know. "But Skylar crashed the car into a tree and we flipped over. I think the doctor's dead. But Skylar hit her head, it's bleeding, she keeps almost falling over. Eraser's might be after us, we're not sure."
Fang inhaled deeply, "Where are you?" "Like I'm telling you that on an open line, where anyone could be listening," scoffed Dylan. "Then why have you told me all of that as well?" Fang asked, suspicion coloring his tone. "I-I," Dylan didn't have an answer. Sighing, he gave Fang the address and hung up the phone.
Dylan pulled me to him and we walked into the nearest building, a hotel. Keeping me behind him, he approached the front desk. I may have looked awful, with bloody scratches marking my legs and black leggings torn. But Dylan was as charming as ever, flashing the hotel employee a smile, he was handed a room key.
I was out of it by the time we reached our room. I could feel myself being carried then sat down on a table. My backpack was slid off my shoulders and I could hear Dylan rummaging through it. He tossed back my hood and tucked my hair, sticky with blood behind my ear.
Suddenly, I felt something cold pressed against my cut and an excruciating pain shoot through my head. I tried to jerk away but Dylan held my head in place. "Stop moving," he told me through gritted teeth. I did as was told.
Trying to focus on something else, I managed to ask, "Why did you tell Fang where we were? Why did you tell him everything?"
Dylan sounded hurt as he replied, "Because you haven't been happy without him. I can tell, you get this far off look when you think about him." "I don't think-," I argued but he cut me off. "You do, and you look like this horrible mix between sad and happy when you do."
I closed my eyes, I didn't want to face Dylan anymore. "You loved him, you still do. Yet you stayed with me, even if that meant your own happiness," I hated the way Dyan spoke about it. Like I was some selfless hero, I wasn't. I was selfish and I was weak. I thought I had hid it so well, my sadness. Instead all I had done was made Dylan feel guilty.
"I was still happy with you," I said, as if it made everything okay. "Maybe, but you aren't fully happy, not like you are with him. I saw you with him for all of less than a day, and I knew that you loved him and you were happy with him. Did you ever tell him that?" He asked. I had no answer.
Dylan worked in silence for a while, "I did as best as I could, but the first aid kit in your backpack was very limited. Although the bleeding's stopped a lot."
"Thanks," I smiled at him. He looked up at me, "Get to bed." I slipped into one of the two queen sized beds, not taking off my shoes and clothes, and closed my eyes. For once, I didn't have dreams of Fang.
XxXxX
I woke to a large crashing sound outside my window. Dylan was already up, the fear in his eyes told me what it was, Eraser's. He opened the window and punched out the screen. Outside it was still dark and the night sky was covered with rain-dripping clouds. Grabbing my hand, Dylan jumped out the window, taking me with him. We unfurled our wings before hitting the ground of the alleyway below us. Landing, we took wary glances around us. Eraser's surrounded us.
"Sure," I muttered to Dylan. "Let's jump out the window. Great idea!" I lamented sarcastically. He didn't laugh, and as I took a glance at the eraser's around us, I understood why. One of them had a gun, and it was pointed at Dylan. I screeched, "No!" Before jumping in front of him.
At first there was nothing, then there was a blinding pain in my side. I collapsed to the ground. I was vaguely aware of fighting sounds around me as Dylan stood defensively over me.
My breaths were coming out shallow and my vision began to grow blurry and black spots began to cloud my sight. Dylan nudged me towards a brick wall with his foot and I leaned against the cold, hard surface. I heard the sweeping of wings.
There was more sounds of fighting and grunts of pain. I could feel my head loll to the side. A hazy image of Fang stood before me. "Skylar?!" Everything went black.
Author's Note: Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed that chapter. It really was one of the most fun chapters to write out of all of them. if you have any thoughts please tell me in a review. Thanks. XOXO- Skai.
