Hola. I'd normally wait for a couple of reviews, but I decided I'd give you more now. I'm trying to get to the good part. Almost there, guys. Almost there.

Chapter Eight

"Yes."

"No.

"Yes."

"No." Shut up...please? I thought as Nudge once again started the whole back-and-forth thing. I was disagreeing, but she didn't seem to get the message.

"YES!"

I didn't answer. It was getting old. Nudge had once again decided to fly next to me. I think it was because I was one of the few people who didn't try to shut her up as soon as her mouth opened. Not that it ever closed or anything...

I simply chose to ignore her. Except sometimes she'd bring up some absurd point and I'd have to say something. This was one of those times. Nudge had decided to point out that I had suicidal problems.

I may be an adrenaline junkie, but saving Angel doesn't count. She was really perfecting the whole falling asleep while flying thing. I had gone straight down, wings closed and everything. That led back to our conversation.

"...yes?" she asked worriedly, not realizing that I was simply ignoring her. Oh crap. She really did think I was suicidal!

"Nudge. Listen to me. I'm not suicidal." I said, the exasperation clear in my voice.

"If you say so..." she said, shrugging infuriatingly.

"He's not!" I heard a voice say angrily. Turning, I saw Angel, an uncharacteristically angry look on her face. Nudge looked taken aback, and I was just plain shocked. "Just stop it, Nudge!"

"Angel, calm down! She was just kidding!" I said quietly, frowning. What's going on? Angel isn't usually like this...

She shot me a look, and I knew that she had heard me. I shrugged, or at least I tried. It's hard to shrug while you're flying! "Well, it's true." I told her.

"It's just annoying..." Angel said, breaking off to join Fang near the front. I held my wings open as I caught a warm updraft and floated up. I may not have been a six year old mind reader myself, but I was pretty sure that Angel hadn't told us the complete truth. I wasn't sure, but something that felt a lot like instinct told me that she was lying.

I felt someone's wing tips brush mine and saw Iggy rising at the same speed as me. I figured he was going to talk to me, so I just waited in silence.

Here it comes...

"How did you escape?" he said, in a weird voice. I glanced at him and let out a breath. Crap.

"I'm not actually sure. It happened really fast," I started, "They were behind me, and I had to keep running. I think they didn't expect me to fly." I was leaving things out. Stuff like the fact that I was pretty sure that they had let me escape. "I just kept on going..."

Iggy nodded. He understood what I was saying. Most of what I told Nudge was true too, I had just left out the tank and the training. They had actually tried to force me to change once. It had hurt so much.

I had almost gone under too. Then I remembered Katie, and how she fought till the very end. I had to stay strong. For her memory. For myself.

"Wolf, did you grab anything to eat at the mall?" Nudge asked me. It was getting dark, and my stomach was roaring.

"Don't remind me." I groaned, trying to keep myself from eating my new jacket or something.

"Max, I'm starving!" Angel called, her wings brilliant in contrast to Fang's and mine.

"Me too." Iggy said, somewhere in front of me. I could barely see anything 'cause it was so dark. I was even having trouble seeing my wings. And for those of you that spend all of your time locked up somewhere, my wings are kind of (how do I say this?)...attached to me.

"Me three!" Nudge called.

Max looked back, then down out at the ground. "Ok...there's a town there. We'll land and grab something to eat and maybe find a place to sleep." I nearly sighed with relief. I needed sleep.

She turned and dove, going faster than the rest of the flock. Curious, I followed, trying to match her speed. She saw me and grinned, pulling ahead. Oh no, you don't. I laughed and folded my wings, falling.

My vision zeroed-in on the ground below me and, just like that, I was ahead of her. C'mon...a bit faster... Snapping my wings out, I glided instead of stopping. Hey! That didn't even hurt! I realized with a start. Touching down, I pulled my wings in all the way and waited. A moment later, Max landed.

"You're faster than me!" she exclaimed, panting. It looked like she wasn't really used to that.

I shrugged, "Guess so..." It was no big deal for me. I had gone faster before without breaking a sweat. It took about ten minutes for Fang to land. Everyone followed after that, in quick succession.

" 'Kay, guys, let's grab some food!" Max called, and everyone brightened up real quick. I found that the bird part of the Flock had a bigger impact in them than me. When we found the McDonald's nearby, they each had about three burgers each. Along with fries and milk.

I admit, it was kind of scary. I had a Big Mac, a large fries and Coke. Angel had double that. But I think it may have had something to do with that fact that I had to eat more often. What the heck was that about?

Whatever. By the time we had finished, Nudge was half asleep, Angel was asleep, Gazzy's eyes were closing, and I was yawning.

Max just carried Angel as we looked for a place to stay. I stopped in front of a huge building. It had lions on either side of the entrance, and I really wanted to check it out. I wanted to go in even more when I realized it was a library.

Nudge was about to walk into the front doors when I pointed out that there were no lights on or anything. I was right. It was locked. Instead of coming back down the steps, she just sat down and leaned against the stone.

"I'll go see if there's a way to get in." I offered. Max nodded, and after making sure no one was in sight, I unfurled my wings and jumped up. The building must have had about three stories, 'cause it took me a bit to get to the top at normal speed. I saw a couple open windows, but there were no handholds and no one except for Total and maybe Angel would have fit through them, anyway.

When I finally reached the ceiling, guess what I found out? They were in the process of adding skylights. As soon as my feet had touched the blue sheets, I was running, I didn't know if it would take my weight for too long, and I didn't want to try and find out.

Stepping onto a metal rail, I made sure it was firmly attached to the building before walking across to the edge of another sheet. Yep. It was loose. After taking out a few nails, I slid inside and closed it behind me, remembering to open my wings at the last moment. I landed on the top of a shelf; just in case.

It was completely silent, and I had the insane urge to say something loud. But...I didn't. Instead, I glided over to the door and unlocked it.

"After you, your Tiredness." I mocked, bowing as I held the door. Nudge scowled at me and went inside. Finding the couches like a sixth sense, she collapsed, letting out a sigh. Once everyone was in, I closed the door and locked it again.

It would've been so incredibly stupid if the Erasers could just walk in through the front door. Actually, they'd probably be too stupid to figure out the fact that the door was unlocked...

Wolves. I googled it and clicked on the first link that appeared.

Since we were bunking in a library, and they had computers, I decided to give it a shot. It had been easy to hack into the administrator's account. I yawned again as the web page loaded.

Endangered...blah...

Who cared about how they marked their territory? I thought, trying to stifle a laugh. It didn't really work. Max, who was on watch, shot me a look. "Sorry." I mouthed.

On an impulse, I decided to google The Institute for Higher Living. It was something I'd heard about at the school. It sounded like another lab to me. It was also a database.

I got 9,268 hits.

Crap. How was I supposed to sort through this? Then, smart as I am, I found the advanced search option. It took me awhile, but I narrowed it down to about a hundred. Selecting the first one, I started to skim. Stopping at anything that resembled what had been done to us, I kept going. Then I found some links. They were all password protected.

I decided to come back when Nudge was awake. She might have been able to figure it out. I wasn't a genius at computers. I could do the basic stuff; low-level hacking and whatnot, but add in some high-tech stuff, and I was as good as gone.

Then I realized something was different about the next page. The only link that I hadn't tried earlier wasn't password protected. It was all about other institutes that were all part of one research program.

Research program? Yeah...right.

"Other institutes?" It was almost startling, but I had heard her breathing a second before Max had spoken. My superhearing was turned on again. What was with that?

"They're all over the place." I whispered, pointing out places on the map. There was a dot in one of the square-ish states. It wasn't labeled, but I was pretty sure I knew what it looked like. I probably even knew what it smelled like.

Yep, you guessed it. The School.

"We have to check them out."

"All eight?" I asked. That would take awhile.

"Yes. We'll split up."

I heard a light footstep the second before Fang spoke. It was enough of a warning. "For what?" His voice was barely even a whisper, but I could hear the tension. Max jumped, backing into him. I just pointed at the screen. He saw the dots, read the title, and put two and two together.

He didn't even answer, but somehow, I knew that he was itching to destroy each and every institute in the whole freakin' world. Probably 'cause I felt exactly the same way.

"Ok, guys." Max said, addressing the Flock. Nudge was awake and already hungry, Gazzy was trying not to fall back asleep, and Angel was sitting on a couch next to me. Iggy, I assumed, was awake. His eyes were closed, but he was nodding.

Fang, who was nowhere in sight, had already heard all of this after I tried to sleep. He and Max had started talking after they figured I couldn't hear, but of course, the stupid superhearing had started again.

"Wolf found some stuff online. There are more institutes." She paused, and I could see traces of anger in everyone's faces. "They're scattered all over, but if we split up for a while, we should be able to check 'em out."

"Split up." Iggy echoed. I could hear the question.

Max looked at him, and I could see how much she hated to do this. "Angel, you can stay with me." Angel nodded but stayed sitting. "Iggy and Gazzy; don't blow anything up unless it's absolutely needed."

Whenever my superhearing clicked near Iggy, I could hear the materials rustling quietly in his bag. I knew what would happen if any Erasers snuck up on him.

"Wolf, Nudge. I think I can trust you two to get in and out fast. Just get information. Try not to let them know that you're there." Nudge and I looked at each other and nodded. I looked at Max. All this left Fang.

"Then me." He said, jumping down from the roof onto a shelf. He tossed each of us a several burritos and stayed up there, eating one himself. Even though I was kinda hungry, I decided to save them for later. After all, you never know when it'll be a bad idea to land.

Please review. Especially since I was nice and gave you two chapters!!

-Dreamer