Chapter Nine: Invasion
When everyone is rested and awake, we take off and start to fly towards the center of the Everglades. This time there are no waiting Erasers in the air waiting for us to take flight; that's a relief. I watch everyone seem to relax just slightly once we see that there are no Erasers. We fly smoothly for an hour before anyone even talks.
Guess who talks first. "So, no Erasers were waiting for us. That's good. I saw everyone relax once we saw no Erasers, so I guess I'm not the only one relieved. What's the plan? Do we even have a plan? Has anyone thought about this, or am I the only one? Come on, I can't be the only one who is thinking about what we are going to do when we reach the center of this swamp. Guys, why am I the only one talk-humph." Yes, Nudge talks first. Thankfully, Iggy saw it a good idea to cover her mouth…Again.
Iggy then says "My ears are bleeding Nudge, can you please be quiet?" She relaxes and he removes his hand from her mouth. "Man, Nudge, we can all hear you just fine. I've been thinking those things, but you don't have to make my ears bleed." Iggy frowns. "I've been wondering the same thing, Max. What are we going to do?"
The other Max and I look at each other and she shrugs. Great, it's up to me to decide and tell. "We are going to the center of the Everglades, and then finding the scientists or whatever is waiting for us there, and kicking some major butt." I give a sharp look at everyone and they all nod, realizing I'm asking them to put in anything else if they want to.
We take off and fly in the direction Angel is telling us to go. After flying for three hours, I see Angel concentrating on something. After a minute of doing that she suddenly bursts out, "Down there! It's down there!" We all look where she is pointing and see a normal area of trees, surrounded by more swampy water. I see Frannie, Gazzy, Nudge, Peter, and Wendy all turn to look at her. They are all glaring at her with frowns on their faces. She doesn't shrink back, and I realize that Ozy looks a little confused.
"Um, guys? She's right. There is someone, or a lot of people, down in those trees. Except that they aren't trees. They are a building in disguise." Everyone turns to stare at Ozy except Angel, Fang, Max, and me. I had believed Angel from the second she had said that because she's always good at that type of thing. I think Angel is finding it hard not to laugh at their faces, because I can see her smiling very smugly.
"Okay, guys, it's time to land. Go to the tops of those 'trees' and land on them. That should be a roof if I'm not mistaken. We find a hidden entrance, and sneak in. We want to destroy this branch of Itex." Everyone nods. Good, they're with me all the way. There's only one thing nagging me. I thought that we had destroyed Itex back in Germany, so why is this branch still alive and running? I guess that's on my 'try to find out' list that always seems to grow.
We all dive down towards the camouflaged roof of the Itex building, barely opening our wings in time to slow ourselves down enough to hit the roof quietly. We all look at the roof for a trapdoor, or hatch that we can open to get in. We see five vents but nothing else that leads inside. We all look at the vents, at each other, back to the vents, and everyone looks at the other Max and me to see if we are going down them. I look at the other Max and we both nod at the each other and then to our Flocks.
We all walk to a vent and realize the vent is bolted shut. The other Max, Fang, Matthew, and I go to all of the sides and pull at hard as we can. After thirty seconds of pure pulling as hard as we can, we have it open and I motion to Angel to go first. She nods and slides in silently. Gazzy, Ozy, Frannie, Wendy, and Peter follow her, just as silently. I go over to where Iggy is standing while the other Max goes over to Icarus and the two of us show them where the vent is. Iggy goes in first, followed closely by Icarus.
The other Max and I look at Fang and Matthew, and they just stare right back at us. They don't want to go until we do, but we both want to go last. Eventually, Matthew gives up. Fang doesn't. He's being too stubborn, and it's not helpful. I continue to look at him, and give him my 'if you don't go now I'm going to hurt you' face. After keeping that up for another minute, he finally gives in and goes down the vent.
I sigh and look at the other Max. She's giving me a 'does he always do that?' face. I nod, hating the fact that he always does that sort of thing. I motion for her to go first, and she does. At least she goes without having to have a long stare down which costs us time. I jump in silently and slide down, following everyone else. When I get down there everyone is standing by a corner right by the vent, so I go over to them.
They all look at me and I notice that the other Max is at the front. I go next to her and we start to lead our Flocks down the next hall on our left, all of us listening carefully. We pass by glass windows that show us the rooms. Some have Erasers being trained while others have experiments in cages that have electricity along the bars. Most are empty testing rooms, but a few of those are full with the scientists testing the experiments, and they seem to be built like Omega had been. I'm kind of hoping we don't have to fight those if we get caught.
We also see some five-year-olds that are doing many different things: one is on a computer creating DNA projects; another is at a blackboard writing and solving science equations to what the scientist next to her is telling her; a third is hitting a punching bag and every time he hits one off the chain another appears, with a pile of at least 30 bags already there; the fourth is drawing diagrams with a scientist checking them; and the last is using pipe cleaners and clay to build models. That room got the younger kids to stop to stare, and Iggy, Icarus, Matthew, Fang, Max, and I had to drag them away.
We kept walking after that, only looking into rooms for a quick glance. Suddenly, Angel freezes for about five seconds, and then pushes everyone into the room that happens to be on our left. We go in and find it empty. Angel keeps the light off and closes the door.
Angel, what the heck was that about?!?!
There are scientists coming down the hall, and Erasers are with them. I'm not sure if they are looking for us, but there are a lot of both types, and it will take a few minutes for everyone to get through this hall.
Oh. Thanks, but next time, warn us before you do something like that.
Sorry. I will.
Just pass the reason on to everyone, and let us know when we can leave this room.
Okay.
Oh yeah, Angel?
Yes Max?
Stay out of my head until they are gone, got that?
Yes. I'll stay out.
Hopefully she means that because I don't feel like having her in my mind all the time. I feel Max stiffen beside me and that's when I realize that everyone has been restless since Angel pushed us in here. One by one everyone stiffens and then tries to relax. That's when I think about one thing: everyone stiffens, and that includes Ozy. That makes what Angel had said a few days ago come to mind. "Our powers are stronger and more matured, which helps us."
Now that I remember that, I realize how that might mean something, it gets me thinking. Does what she had said mean that he has a harder time reading minds without trying much at all? I think I should try to figure this one out.
Ozy? No answer. Hello, Ozy, can you hear me?
I… guess.
Do you have a hard time hearing and talking to people's minds?
I hear a very quiet sad sigh. Yes and I really get annoyed by that fact. Do you think Angel can help me maybe?
Ask her yourself, and tell her I say it's okay if she does, but I don't speak for her, sorry.
Okay. I'll ask her right now.
About a minute later I get a question from Angel. Do you really mean it when you say I can help Ozy control his powers better?
Yes, Angel, I do.
Thanks Max!
Start telling him with your mind now, but pay attention to what's going on around us too.
Okay.
That might help us find things out what the scientists in this building are thinking. Having Angel teach Ozy is a good idea, but I'll have to tell Fang and Max later. That or… I could have Angel tell them now. Nah, I'll tell them myself later.
I start to lean towards the door to hear better so I can see if anybody is still walking past our door, and I hear at least fifty people walking with about half talking to others. After listening for about five minutes, the hall is suddenly quiet. Just as I start wondering when Angel is going to tell us the all clear, she does.
Guys, everyone is far enough away that we can sneak out now.
I just nod and open the door enough to see outside of it. I don't see anyone, so I go outside and everyone follows. Max and I lead the group in the direction we had been heading in before, but this time we are even more cautious. Angel and Ozy both freeze at the back of the group, and everyone turns to see what's wrong. Suddenly, Angel points behind us and we all spin around at the same time to look…
…it's my old friend Omega, and it looks like he brought his Eraser pals. We all turn to run the other way, but remember that group that passed by our door? Well, they passed by it just so that they could come back at us from behind. For those of you that are slow, that means we are trapped here, surrounded by Erasers, and their 'wonderful' leader Omega.
I do a quick calculation and decide there are about a hundred Erasers on each side of us, making a total of two-hundred, and then Omega. Max and I look at each other, nod, and our Flocks stand back-to-back. My Flock is taking on the half with Omega in it, and her Flock has the other half. That's when Omega starts to talk.
"You shouldn't bother to fight us; we will defeat you and then capture you. That's why you came, correct? Good because that's what is going to happen to you all." I hate the way he sounds so sure of himself. I think his mother has been giving him bad lessons again. Oh well, I guess I'll have to re-teach him again, just like in Germany. He must have been thinking the same thing because he says, "That little trick from last time has been programmed into me, and so it won't happen this time." He shows no emotion, just like last time.
Just as he finishes talking, both of the Flocks move and start to attack the Erasers. I can't see what everyone else is doing, but I hear Erasers hitting the ground as I fight ten at once. I punch, kick, and sweep Erasers as much as I can, when suddenly I hear Ozy, Frannie, Angel, and Gazzy yell out slightly. I punch one more and look around to see a tranquilizer dart in their legs and them unconscious on the floor. Suddenly, Wendy and Peter are on the ground, closely followed by Iggy and Icarus. This won't end well…
It's only the two Flock leaders and their seconds; not good. Well, if I know anything, it's that the four of us aren't going down without a fight! We all start to fight again, after we have all seen the rest of our group down. After fighting for another three minutes or so, I hear Matthew yell out in pain, and then I hear a slight thump telling me that he was now unconscious. I chance a quick glance at him, and see that he got clawed across his face, but I didn't have enough time to register anything but that.
Fang is fighting right by me when suddenly, he falls to the ground, unconscious. Seeing that, Max and I start to fight even harder, and at a faster pace. We punch and kick at the Erasers, taking each one down with two hits at the max. After fighting like that for around ten minutes, I hear Max yell out almost silently. I turn to look at where she was fighting right by me. She has a dart in her leg.
I guess I stared at her for five seconds too long. The next thing I felt was a little pressure in my right leg. I look down at the dart thinking, 'I should have kept moving'. Next thing I know, I'm unconscious.
When I got to the end of this chapter, I started to get a block on my mind. I knew what I wanted to write, but it took me forever.
I'd like to thank MFINGA, DalDal, and Jenny Telrio for reviewing on pretty much every chapter. I'd also like to thank FIGGY MAX again for the critique, it helped a lot. For the rest of my reviewers I didn't say, thanks for reviewing! For all of my readers, thanks for reading, even if you don't review.
STR97: Good question. Weston is big enough to be on a map of the 3 biggest counties in South Florida. The Everglades also has a big Air Boat dock by it, and that dock is one of the biggest ones. Overall, it's pretty normal in size in Broward county (That's the county it's in). That was a really good question.
I have a poll on my profile, so if you have an account, please vote in my poll because it about my chapters. I want to know what you all want me to do since I'm having a hard time writing. Plus this will be overall, even after I can write more again.
Now... I'd like another 7 reviews over this weekend before I post chapter ten. By the way, Chapter Ten will be written in a different point of view, so if it isn't as good, stick with me please. It's not that easy. I tried my best.
I know this was a long Author's Note, but I'm finally done. Now then, click that button below and review!
Edited: 10/10/09