Chapter Seventeen: Being Captured is Interesting

Within ten minutes, we are caught and being put in a huge dog cage, again.

It's in its own room yet again and this time we all just sit there waiting to find out what's going on. That's when Angel gasps and sends us all a message, Max and her Flock have been captured also!

Normal POV

Everyone turns to stare at Angel. "What?!" We all whisper yell simultaneously.

In your heads, guys. I'll tell everyone what the other is saying. Now… I just got a message from Ozy saying that he and his Flock have been captured. I was about to ask him something when he lost consciousness. I only know they are captured, nothing else.

Tell the others we need to pretend we don't know about this, and that's an order!

Max orders that we pretend we don't know about them being captured and I agree with her.

Thanks Angel, but did you have to put it in my mind too?

Sorry, but I wanted you to hear too.

It's okay.

Suddenly she turns towards the door and I hear her whisper into my mind, We have company… Everyone turns to look at the door with us and we wait to see who is coming in. The door opens and I hear a gasp or two while I force myself not to gasp. It's the Director!

"Hello Max, Flock. It's so nice to see you all again." All of us glare at her. "I see you all are happy to see again too." Happy? She calls getting glared at happy?! No wonder she's hated so much if she uses sarcasm to her advantage…

I'm still glaring at her when I see Angel's eyes light up out of the corner of my eyes. What could make her happy? That's when the door opens again. This time a white coat comes in with a box in his hands.

We all watch as he walks up to the Director, whispers something in her ear, she replies, he puts the box on the ground in front of her feet, and he leaves. The Director looks at us and smiles and evil smile. She picks up the box and walks over to where Angel is standing in the cage.

"We thought you might like to be reunited." She hands Angel the box and goes back to her original spot.

Angel opens the box, takes one look in it, and says very loudly without screaming, "TOTAL!" That, of course, got the rest of us to crowd around the box where Total really is.

"Thank god! I thought you had all let me get captured and then forgotten about me, or just didn't even care!" Total's voice is a mix of relief, happiness, and fighting not to cry. Angel has a few tears falling down her face, which surprises me.

"How could we forget or not care about you anymore, Total?" She asks him, sounding very hurt.

Before Total could answer I send Angel a thought. I know you've missed him, but we have a 'guest' in the room that we have to take care of first. Plus, I want to know how she survived that fire.

Instead of answering me, Angel faces the Director like me. The rest of the Flock catch on and face her too. She just looks me in the eyes, and I think she's trying to decide if I'm going to talk first or not. I just look her back in the eyes, saying in them 'Go ahead'. She glares at me and has a slight frown on before talking.

"Now that you are all somewhat reunited, onto business. Let's face it, you are all a nuisance and you know it. We are tired of chasing you down, capturing you, and having you escape. This time we are going to finish you off.

"I know it's a surprise I'm actually saying it, but you guys should know it's very possible. I mean, I survived that fire from your bombing in the Everglades. If I can survive that, don't you think we have ways to kill you without us dying? I hope you all like running, because you are all going to be running very, very soon.

"Now, any questions?" She looks around at us expectantly.

"Two. How did you survive that fire, and what do you mean we are going to be running?" I want to kick Nudge right now for actually asking the Director for answers.

"You experiments thought that after Germany we wouldn't expect you all to try to destroy more of my precious Itex buildings? Ha! Shows how silly and stupid you all are. We have special ways to escape or hide now. You all just gave us a chance to test them, and they worked to perfection!

"About you running, I don't want to spoil the surprise do I? I'll just say this: You can run away from the challenge, but loose your friends in the progress. You'll see what the challenge is later. Good-bye younger Flock. Enjoy the last hours of your life."

She leaves the room and all of us look at each other, worry in all of our faces.

Older Max's POV

I wake up and groan, trying to figure out why I hurt so badly. Then I suddenly remember Omega II, whoever he is, and how we got captured. My Flock! I look around me to see the rest of my Flock starting to sit up as well, all groaning and rubbing their eyes.

Just as I'm about to ask everyone how they are, the door opens and in comes that Director from Florida. What is she doing here? I thought she had been in that building that we bombed.

"I see you are all just waking up. Good, the perfect time to tell you what has changed since you all have been here.

"We still do the same things as the School you used to live at, but we don't use experiments for workers anymore. We also are more advanced because of the time that has gone by. Otherwise, we still create mutants like you using different DNA. Max and her Flock are the last ones we have used bird DNA on because they caused us enough problems.

"You all may or may not be glad to hear that those experiments from the Hospital have never been done again, and no one is thinking of doing it again. You all closed that one down for good."

I start to growl slightly because that brings back memories I don't want to remember. The Hospital had changed all of our lives, but mine the most. I lost Ozymandias because of those idiots!

"You all just met one of the experiments from the newest generation, Omega II. We took Omega's failures and fixed them while creating this better Omega which not even the 'Great Maximum Ride' can defeat now. The newest generation is the best one yet. They can do so much more than anything you all have seen from us before.

"Now, to tell you what's going on. We are getting tired of you. We left you alone for years and now you come and attack us! We don't want to do this to some of the oldest experiments, but we have to. You shall be running, running for a long time. All I can say is that you can leave, but you will be leaving your friends behind. Enjoy your last few hours alive."

She left the room just like that. I look at my Flock and see them all looking at one another, worried. There's no point in asking them if their okay, they are too frightened or worried to care about themselves physically.

Director's POV (A Few Minutes Later In Her Office)

Those experiments are worthless. I don't see why I hadn't done this sooner. It's time to get rid of them for good.

I hear a light knock on the door. If it's another idiot scientist coming to tell me they can't handle something on their own, they're fired!

I walk over to the door and open it enough to see who it is. Ah, Omega II. He really does come quickly when I call.

"Come in Omega." He follows me to his normal seat while I sit behind my desk.

"You called?" He asks in his normal, emotionless voice.

"Yes. I have a job for you." I reach into my pocket for my map and realize it's not there. Oh well, I'll just grab another copy. I open a desk drawer and pull out another copy of my map of the world with all the Itex facilities there. "I would like you to go to a new building, to follow me orders as I give them since I can't be in one hundred places at once."

I open the map on my desk and we both look at it. "I'd like you to go to this facility." I say as I point to a building in the eastern part of the world. "Take charge for me and show those idiots what to expect if I have to go over there. If you need orders, call and I'll give them to you gladly."

Omega II just nods, takes the map when I offer it to him, stands up, and asks, "Anything else?"

"Yes. Order two waves of Erasers to be placed on opposite ends of the forest to the west. Then, order scientists to knock out the Flocks and put them in their same Flocks on opposite ends of the forest. Make sure they only get enough to knock them out for half an hour. Then order the Erasers after giving them an hour to find their way." I think about my orders for a moment. "The Flock is to know no more than I told them earlier."

Omega just nods and says, "I'll do this on my way to the plane."

"Dismissed."

Omega leaves and I get the moment to relax knowing that those two Flocks won't want to leave the other. Ah, this will be wonderful. The Erasers get their exercise, and I get the Flocks killed.

Normal POV (Just After The Director Left)

We all just stand there after the Director leaves. Angel has Total out of the box and in her arms, stroking him. The rest of us are just staring at the door. We don't know what she meant, or what to do. We are all silent for five minutes before Iggy breaks the silence.

"The Director dropped something just beside the cage – by Max."

I look outside the cage at the floor and see a piece of folded paper. I reach through the bars of the cage without touching them and grab it.

Once I have it, Fang comes over to see what it is. I open it and both of us gasp. That makes everyone come over to see except Iggy who says, "How nice. The blind guy finds you a piece of paper, and you won't tell him what it is."

"Iggy…" I say, my voice shaky. "It's a map. A map of the world and on it has every Itex branch. Even the destroyed ones which have a red 'X' over the building."

He just stares at me before saying, "This is the key to destroying Itex!" I just nod, unable to speak anymore.

Suddenly Angel says, "Someone's coming. Hide the map!" I fold the map up tiny and slip it into my really small pocket. I look up just as a scientist comes in.

"Time to go."

Translation: Time for our death.

As most of you can probably tell, my writer's block is gone and I'm able to write. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm just saying now that I know what I want for the next two chapters and I will most likely post Chapter Eighteen on Sunday.

For all of my Christian readers, Merry Christmas!

For all of my Jewish readers again, Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Holidays to anyone who doesn't celebrate either of those.

Now, Please Review!!! 101 Reviews and over 1,200 Hits!!! Can you all aim for 110 Reviews or more this time? It will make me write faster. All you do is click the button below and write your message. Anyone can do it!

Edited: 10/10/09