A/N: Thank you for all of the lovely reviews! They make my day, you have no idea. Now, for capitulo numero diez y ocho….. (That's chapter number 18 for all of you non-Spanish speakers). I changed the quote around some, but it's basically the same, for those who got one.

"Two, four, six, eight! Who do we appreciate? Sweden! Sweden! Yay, Sweden!"

I rubbed my temples in exasperation. Nudge had been singing random tunes for the last half hour. "Nudge, please be quiet," I said with exaggerated patience.

"Sorry," she said, grinning sheepishly up at me.

Yes, we'd arrived in Sweden, in case you hadn't guessed that already. We'd landed last night, exhausted from flying extra fast to make sure that Itex wasn't on our tails. Angel hadactually begun to fall asleep in mid air. I decided to crash in some abandoned woods for the night. After bullying Fang into getting some sleep, (hello, the guy is sick?) I took first watch. Now, we were in town at an insanely bright and perky grocery store, I was on edge because I thought Itex was right around the corner, and, as usual, my flock didn't notice anything and was hyper. Well, except Fang. He doesn't get that hyper.

Fang shivered. "I'm cold," he stated.

"We are standing by freezers," I replied without turning away from the frozen food display. "But you're also sick."

"I'm not sick."

"You have a fever. You're sick." He rolled his eyes at me and stuck his hands deep into his jeans pockets.

"Max, can we get chicken sticks?" Angel asked me, shoving a box of them in my face. It would be her, after all, that used mind control to make the cashier give us the food since we didn't have Swedish or American money. Plus, I was freaked about using the Maximum Ride bank card and leaving something that Itex could track us by.

"If you can cook them over a fire, fine," I answered. "But nothing perishable, we're going to be in hiding for awhile."

"Soda?" asked Gazzy, holding up a six pack of Pepsi.

"Water," I said firmly. "Or Gatorade or something."

"What about Propel? It's by Gatorade."

"Okay, fine!" I was getting sick of this. You know the movie Cheaper by the Dozen? I can't imagine going shopping with twelve kids. Five is bad enough.

"I hate this place," Iggy grumbled. "There are too many echoes and I can't tell where anything is." I looked at him sympathetically, but it was lost on him. I doubt that it would have helped anyway.

Total dumped a box of Beggin' Strips dog treats into the cart and remarked, "I hate dog food, but these things really taste like bacon! The smoky flavor, the tangy goodness…" he trailed off in his memory of the taste of dog treats.

Kill me now.

I dragged my flock away from the ice cream display and to the check out. The great thing about neutral countries was that we could watch the unbiased news. The world news was currently on the T.V. above the register, and I listened in for the report on the war that was supposedly brewing between Canada and the U.S. It came on after a few seconds – I guess it was huge news here.

According to the Swedish newscaster (and her English subtitles) our previous save haven country had broken the ban on nuclear weapons, and rumors of bombs were heard of. This was worse than I had ever thought of. Would Itex stop at nothing?

Actually, don't answer that.

After we'd finished our shopping nightmare (well, my shopping nightmare), I hustled my flock to a secluded spot in a pasture far away from human eyes. Cows lowed at us from where they were grazing, but I saw no sight of a bull. I hoped one didn't decide to pop over for a visit, because Gazzy conveniently was wearing a shirt with red stripes.

"Okay, pack the food into your backpacks and let's get going!" I ordered, antsy to keep moving.

"Where are we going?" Fang asked me, running a hand through his long black hair impatiently.

"I'm thinking," I replied. Which I was, thank you.

Iggy froze. "Max?"

"What?" I asked immediately, my senses going on red alert.

"I don't think we're going anywhere." Dread rose up in the pit of my stomach as I whipped around, doing a quick 360.

Itex had gotten smarter. The cows in our harmless, secluded pasture had disappeared, to be replaced by Flyboys. Unfortunately, these were the new models – the ones with hands that converted to guns, and bodies that apparently could transform into cows. Their arms were pointed directly at us. They were everywhere, and more were dropping down from the sky, surrounding us in 3D.

We were trapped. We hadn't been missed by the radar last night after all. They'd just followed us here.

Nudge's breathing was coming quicker as she took in our situation. She must have known that there was no way out of this at all. Her right hand curled into a fist, but then dropped back to her side. She'd admitted defeat. Already her normally bright brown eyes were dull.

I pulled Angel behind me instinctively, in case they tried to hurt her to get to me. Fang and I glanced at each other. His look was angry, but resigned. All of us realized what was going on. We were going back to the School – or some place worse.

"We will take you by force if you do not come quietly," said the closest Flyboy, who was directly in front of me. I might have known that there was no hope, but coming quietly was definitely not in my vocabulary.

"Like hell we will," growled Fang, reading my mind. "You'll have to kill us before we go quietly with you." I automatically dropped back into a fighting stance, muscles coiled and tense, waiting to fight or fly. I glanced up for a split second. Flyboys still hovered low above us – guess it would be fight.

"As you wish," said the Flyboy in a flat voice, and raised the arm with the gun. My blood ran cold. I couldn't do anything against that, not even kick the gun out of its hand. "Come with us or we'll kill the little boy," he warned. I heard a cry from behind me, and turned my head so fast it hurt. Another of the countless Flyboys held Gazzy tightly, and his gun was aimed at his head. The Gasman's blue eyes were wide with fear, and he was taking in huge gulps of air in an effort to stay in control.

There was no other decision to make.

"We'll come quietly," I said, my shoulders sagging. I closed my eyes briefly. I didn't want to see the dreaded robots swarming all over the place. I didn't want to see my family at gunpoint. I wanted to be somewhere safe where they would never find us – but that seemed to be non existent.

I could hear the distinctive sound of a chopper coming toward us, and my eyes opened again. The Flyboys were in a tighter circle around us now, and Angel was squeezing my hand. I made sure not to think of anything depressing, or she would get upset. Wish I could think of something happy right now. It's kind of hard when you're about to get on the helicopter of death.

The chopper landed, and one of the Flyboys pushed me forward with a gun. "Move, little bird girl," he said, sounding like something out of a bad action move.

"Move out of my way, hunk of metal," I retorted. "And please – you call that thing a gun? Try water pistol." I patted the gun gingerly, shaking my head in fake exasperation. "They really need to update you. Were you unloved?"

My only response was another shove in the back. "I'm going, I'm going," I muttered. I went first with Angel into the helicopter. The wind blew chunks of hair hard across my face, making it difficult to see. Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy followed behind. Total stayed wisely in Iggy's backpack before the Flyboys could catch sight of him.

We were in the back of the helicopter, obviously, smashed like sardines in a can. We were going back. We couldn't go back! We flew all those miles, went to all that trouble….but since when was our life fair? I heaved a sigh and took deep breaths, willing myself not to cry. I. Would. Not. Cry. Not in a million years would I show that kind of weakness. I was tough. Tough girl, leader Max, and leader Max did not cry.

Maybe Just Max did. At least, she wanted to.

A Flyboy leaned over me and put a bag over my mouth and nose. I held my breath for as long as I could. I began seeing dark spots dancing across my vision – I was about to black out. Involuntarily, I gasped for the much needed air. As soon as I did, I felt light headed, and everything slowly receded down a dark tunnel that I was falling through.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o

My eyes fluttered open, and then snapped shut again. It was too bright! Where was I?

I forced myself to open my eyes again and took in my surroundings. We were in what looked like a hospital room minus the IVs, television, and bad food. I knew better. We were in Itex's version of a lab.

I tried to sit up and realized that I was strapped down to a table by metal restraints. I craned my neck to see if they were jointed anywhere, but they were smooth titanium. They had obviously expected me to try to break out. My head rolled to the left. There was a bunch of surgical equipment, a speaker, and a camera. On the right, there was Fang. He was still out cold.

Where was everyone else?

I began to panic and my breathing sped up. I looked around the room again. There was the door, there was Fang, there was another table…but there were four missing members of my flock. My brain conjured up images of the worst possible scenarios – dissection tables, horrible tests, executions…I shuddered. Were Fang and I the only ones left?

No. We couldn't be. I'd feel it. Wouldn't I?

I heard a groan from beside me and looked at Fang expectantly. He was stirring, his face contorted as his body attempted to shake off the remains of the drug. His face was as pale as death, even worse than before. Had they done something to him already? Or was it just the drug or his sickness? His eyes opened, closed, and then opened again. They focused on me immediately.

"The School?" he asked me tonelessly.

"I don't…I'm not sure," I answered. "Maybe…"

He turned his head, looking around the room. He looked back at me with the same horror as I had felt. "Where is everyone?"

"They were gone when I woke up," I replied, glancing back toward the camera. He got the hint and moved his lips as little as possible, in case they were watching.

"They could be okay," he said. "They might just be somewhere different." I saw the flicker in his eyes as he said that, and I knew he didn't believe it himself. It was hard to believe that anything would be okay when you were strapped to a table in a hellhole.

I could hear footsteps coming down the hallway and tensed. Fang turned away from me and towards the door expectantly. What fresh torture had they managed to cook up this time?

I could hear something being scanned and a click as the door unlocked. It was pushed open, and a whitecoat strode inside. She – yes, it was a woman – looked around twenty four or so, and she had brown hair and blue eyes. The whitecoat surveyed me carefully and came over to my table.

"Are you experiment 000593?" she asked me in an official tone, looking at the clipboard she was holding. The number rang a bell. It was the number I was branded with on Itex's site. I refused to answer her and just stared. I hoped she could tell that I hated her freaking guts.

She sighed, already frustrated. "Max?" she tried again in an exasperated tone.

"I might be," I answered. "What's it to you?"

Her eyes narrowed. "It is to me that I know where your flock is. You will know if you come with me."

"I'm not leaving Fang," I said immediately.

She frowned. "Do you mean 000594?"

"No, I mean Fang," I corrected. Wasn't she supposed to be smart? "Our names are words, not numbers."

She raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. "They did say that you were intelligent," she said, slightly mockingly. "Fang, or whatever vulgar name you call him, is staying here."

"Then so am I," I said curtly. This lady really pissed me off. And she was a girl. Aren't we supposed to have more common sense or something?

"No, you're not."

"While we're standing here arguing like five year olds," I said loudly, "actually, you're standing, I'm – oh, yeah, strapped to a table – you could just do what I say and let Fang come with us. It'd save you so much trouble."

She breathed in deeply through her nose. I tended to have this effect on all of the whitecoats I came across. Who knows why? "Fine, 000594 – Fang – can come. But not without precautions."

"Precautions?" I asked. "Like what kind of precautions?"

She grinned. She won the year's Evil Grin Award, that was for sure. "You'll see."

A/N: NOOOO! They're back at the School! Why must Itex be so cruel?

Hey, that rhymed. Anyway, my good and faithful readers, I know that you are once again screaming at me to say what's wrong with Fang. One more chapter to read, and then – YOU WILL KNOW! But in the meantime, please review. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, what I can improve on, anything. I reply to all!