A/N: Am I doing something wrong? There are a ton of people who still have me on alert and favorite stories, but only around 6-10 review each time out of about 75 alerts. PLEASE, guys, review and tell me how I'm doing! And just a warning, the T rating will be taking more of an effect from now on…
EDIT: Only part of the chapter got posted last time, so here is the FULL one!
"Number of whitecoats ticked off today," said Fang, scratching two tick marks into the wall with a scalpel, "Two. Not bad. We really need to step it up, though."
"I know," I agreed. "We're not nearly at the usual quota. I mean, don't we normally have about five down by now?" I took the scalpel from him. My skin was crawling from just touching it, but I'd put it to a better use. I reached up and carved 'The Flock was here!' into the wall. I underlined it three times and leaned back on my heels, admiring my work. Gorgeous.
Iggy nodded. He was lying on his back on a table, swinging a leg over the side. "You know, normally we've pissed off a couple Chinese, an American, maybe a…um…what country is dear Roland from again?"
I shrugged. "Switzerland? Austria? He never figured it was important enough to tell us."
"He never thought about it either," piped up Angel from the floor. She was playing some sort of improvised game with Nudge. "Maybe he doesn't care."
"Yeah, because the country you're born in probably won't matter if they carry out that plan of theirs," I said sagely.
"We're still planning on stopping them, right?" asked Gazzy. "We won't let them win, will we?"
"Of course not!" I said indignantly. That hurt my pride. "We're going to get out of here, and then we're going to find a way to stop these plans."
"We do have one advantage," Nudge said out of the blue. I glanced down at her.
"What?"
"Itex is cocky," she answered. "They don't think that we have what it takes to beat them. They'll probably figure that we don't have enough brains to do anything. And they don't know that we know what they're planning to do."
I raised an eyebrow. "Good point," I said approvingly. She really did have a point there. We could definitely use that to our advantage. I mean, what if Itex thought that we couldn't do anything? They could accidentally give us the missing pieces of the puzzle!
Now that would be pretty sweet.
"First off, though, we've got to get out of here," I said, snapping back to business. "Look for anything that could be a clue to get us out of here. Pat down the walls, look for someplace hollow. Anything." I followed my own directions and began feeling the walls, sliding my hands over them slooowly so I wouldn't miss anything. Now that I stopped to think about it, I couldn't believe our luck. They put us in a room, didn't strap us down, didn't put any restraints on us, and we were free to do what we wanted!
On the other hand, we had a camera watching our every move. There's a downside to everything, I guess. No dark without light and all that.
The rest of the flock spread out to search the room as well. Total did his job by searching the floor since he was lowest down, not without grumbling of course. He could catch any unusual scents that were there, too. Finally, the dog was making himself useful! You know I love the stupid thing, but you've gotta admit that he gets under your skin.
I found a bump that was out of place in the wall and frowned. I tapped it lightly, and it made a slight buzzing sound. There was a mike hidden in that wall, I bet. I knew they were listening in on us somehow. They wouldn't leave things as 'important' as us alone.
I caught Fang's eye and motioned with my head for him to join me. He crossed the room and I held a finger to my lips to signal for him not to talk. Like he would have talked a lot anyway, but whatever, you can never be too careful. I took his hand silently and guided it to the spot on the wall. "Feel that?" I asked in an extremely low tone, even though they'd probably still pick it up.
He nodded once. "Mike," he said, just as quietly.
I picked up the scalpel from where I'd dropped it on the floor. I held it in the direction of the mike with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Maybe we should just get rid of this little threat we have here…
The corner of Fang's mouth twitched upward and he nodded as well. Nudge had noticed what we were doing and asked, "Max? What's up?" Damn it, Nudge! Three words could mess up everything. I dug the scalpel into the wall before they figured out what I was doing. They had probably seen it on the cams already, but oh, well. I pushed the tip in until I reached the little bubble that contained the miniscule mike. I reached in with one finger and scooped it out, dropping it to the floor. I lifted my foot and crushed the microphone beneath my heel, crushing it into the floor. It sparked and died.
"Oops," I said, grinning, talking now that the mike was crushed. "There goes a priceless piece of technology. Dang, that felt good." I looked at Nudge, who now looked slightly guilty for talking. "Don't sweat it, Nudge. I just didn't want them to hear what we were doing," I reassured her. The poor kid looked as if she'd just signed our death warrant or something. Well, actually, she might've, now that I think about it. Crap.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to say anything. They won't hurt you for breaking that, will they?"
"No," I lied, because they probably would. "And even if they were going to, they would even if you hadn't talked. They'd still know that we totally busted them." She smiled at that.
"So are we done searching?" I opened my mouth to answer her, but the door swung open. It was Hollywood back again, and he was pissed.
"What did you do to the microphone?" he asked through clenched teeth. His face was turning red. Wow, it didn't take long for them to figure out what I did.
"What microphone?" I asked innocently. Then I opened my mouth in a wide O and lifted my foot to show the remains of it. "You mean this thing? It's a mike? I thought it was a bug! Couldn't you hear me screaming? It really scared me, so I skooshed it." I smiled at him. "I'm sorry. I don't have training in technology. How'm I supposed to know what a microphone looks like?"
"That's it," he growled, taking a step toward me. "You're coming with me." I could feel Fang shift his weight slightly next to me, ready to jump in front of me or at the macho man standing in front of us. "Let's go, bird girl," Hollywood continued.
I sighed in exasperation and rolled my eyes, trying to stall. "Doesn't anyone remember? It's Avian American! Say it. Avian. American. Not bird girl, not experiment 409 or whatever my freaking number is. Got it?" Hollywood's hand formed a fist. He took another step, then stopped and smirked. He turned on his heel and left the room, closing the door behind him.
"…That was weird," said Iggy after a pause. "Did he just leave without doing anything?"
"Yep," I said, tensing. "But he won't be gone for long, I bet you." I could already hear footsteps coming back down along the hall. The door swung open again, and this time Hollywood was flanked by two Flyboys, both with guns aimed at me.
"Come with me. All of you," he threatened. "Or this one dies." I knew that if he killed me, he'd just have the Flyboys keep shooting at the rest of the flock until we were all dead. There was no point in resisting. I put my hands in the air slowly, and took a step forward.
"You got me," I relented. "We'll come." But I don't have to like it.
This is where rash actions get you, Maximum. Jeb said in the corner of my brain that he'd roped off especially for himself. You're out of the frying pan and into the fire, and you're burning up.
Of course, it would be too much effort to try and spring me, wouldn't it? I thought snidely, keeping an eye on Hollywood, who was moving closer. His hand reached for my hair, and I jerked away, glaring at him. I stepped back into Fang on accident, who wrapped a hand around my wrist. "I said that I would go, not that you could touch me," I spat at Hollywood.
"You'll do what I want," said Hollywood coolly, calm now that he was back in control. "I'm the one with the firepower. You are unarmed." He looked at the rest of the flock, sizing them up. He smirked again. "Actually," he said slowly. "I don't want all of you. I want this one and the black girl." His gaze landed on Nudge. Her eyes grew wide and she looked at me for help.
"Just take me," I said immediately. "Don't hurt her." Fang's grip tightened on my wrist, and I knew that I'd get an earful from him later. That was if I lived to see later.
Hollywood grinned. "Maybe I will take just you," he said, looking me up and down. I heard the double meaning in his words and flinched. Fang's hand left my wrist and instead wrapped an arm around my waist, both holding me back and trying to calm me down. I was pulled up against his chest, glaring. Hollywood looked at him, frowning. He looked from me to Fang and back again. I could tell that he was trying to figure out how Fang felt about me, and I could tell when it finally clicked in his thick head when he smirked. I could feel Fang's heartbeat pick up through his shirt.
"No, I'll take both you and the black girl, like I said. And then I'll take just you to get to Goth boy behind you. It seems like he likes you a lot, bird girl. See the way he glares at me?" He grinned again as Fang's grip tightened. "Yeah, this'll be fun. I get you, I can do whatever I want with the black one, and I'll break Goth's spirit. Perfect."
I was beginning to have second thoughts about going with him, but if I didn't, he'd kill the flock and I'd be forced to watch. Nudge and I would find a way out of there. It wouldn't be that hard, would it? Just one human against two bird kids trained in fighting. Right. Okay.
"But first," he said, some of the air going out of him, "you two are going to pass a test."
My heart rate tripled. I'd heard those words way too many times for comfort, and they never meant anything good. "Come with me," Hollywood continued. He motioned for one of the Flyboys to train its gun on Fang's head. "Now."
I closed my eyes and gently pried Fang's arm off of my waist. I turned to face him, trying to tell him with my eyes that everything would be fine. "Don't do this," he whispered. I stepped away from him.
"Better me than you," I said back. "You know what to do." I took one last look at him and turned away, back towards my new enemy. I could have sworn I saw a flash of something that I couldn't quite place in Fang's eyes, but there was no time to think about it. I took Nudge's hand and squeezed it. Hers was shaking. She looked up at me, eyes wide. "Come on, Nudge," I said reassuringly. "We're just going to go for a little walk, okay?"
Hollywood grabbed my wrist and pulled me away, dragging Nudge behind us. Once we were free of the doorway, the door slammed shut, locking me away from the rest of my flock. It locked automatically behind me. I was going to have to find a way to get back in. Once I got out of this, I'd have to save the rest of my flock.
He dragged us down endless hallways until we came to a room marked, DANGEROUS. DO NOT ENTER. I mean, of course we get that room. It's only natural that the people that were supposed to be (cough) improved are going to the most dangerous room, right? Right. And whatever happened to being improved anyway?
He pushed open the door and shoved us inside. In the white-walled room was a table with a package wrapped in brown paper on it. It looked like UPS had just dropped it off. He went through another door in the wall to my left and disappeared. The door seemed to vanish as soon as it was shut. His voice came over a speaker in the left corner of the room. "You. Nudge, is it? You're a technopath, correct?"
Nudge could only nod, scared to death.
A section of the wall slid back to reveal a digital timer with red numbers. "There are ten minutes on that timer. Do you see that package on the table in front of you? In there is a bomb. You have exactly ten minutes before that bomb blows the both of you up. All of the walls are bomb proof, so don't make the mistake in thinking that the bomb will affect the rest of Itex. You and your self-proclaimed leader will die, and you will be proved unworthy to be improved. Do you understand?"
Nudge nodded dumbly. Her breathing quickened. I was freaked too. That was beyond wrong, people! They were forcing her to deactivate that freaking bomb before the both of us were killed. And if Nudge did manage to deactivate it, I'd probably be raped. Lovely.
Where was Iggy when you needed him? Not that I doubted Nudge, of course.
"Oh, and by the way, to increase the…urgency of the situation," Hollywood continued, "if you fail, your entire flock is considered a failure. They will die because you failed." Nudge's breathing hitched, and my fist clenched, itching to be sunk down Hollywood's throat. "You have ten minutes," Hollywood repeated. "Go."
The timer flashed once and began to count down.