Fang's POV

Great. They just took Max. So it's almost my time. Yesterday, I had to run 'til I dropped. No, literally, 'til I dropped. But they didn't stop there. They picked me up, gave me half a cup of water, and made me run again. Barefoot, the whole time, on a special treadmill that zaps your feet with oh so pleasant electric charges the moment you slow down or stop running.

Now, I'm looking out the window. Since the first time we saw the wolves attack the monkeys, there have been several other incidents just like that one. Max tries to keep the others away and occupied when it happens. Ig doesn't care, since he can't see it anyway, so I stare out the window at them and tell him about it later. The others are more than happy to stay away.

"Fang," Jeb calls, just loud enough to reach my ears on the other side of the room. Iggy and Angel have already been taken for their times. We call them 'our time'. What else are we gonna call them? Time to go be brutally experimented on? I think not.

Max didn't wake up 'til it was her time. She completely missed Angle and Iggy's departure. She usually says good bye and hugs them before they go. Not just them, all of us. Well, except me. She says goodbye, we don't hug. I wish I could hug her, but I just don't do that. Let's just say, it'll ruin my image. She's like their mom. Well, how I picture a mom. Heh, a nine year old mom. I make my way over to Jeb.

Okay, let's go," he says, walking out of the room in front of me. He doesn't try touching me because he knows how I'll react. Max trusts him, but I don't. He's still one of them. He walks next to me in the corridor but gives me my space. He knows that I won't run. I don't know where to run. I couldn't leave Max or Iggy. The others maybe, well no, probably not even them. Even if I ran, they keep this place on pretty high security. They even keep those wolf things prowling around like guard dogs. They're huge and buff. I heard the white coats refer to them as Erasers. Gee, I wonder why. We saw them 'erase' a whole group of Orangutans.

We walk in silence down the familiar corridors. It's not long before we get to my least favorite room. LM-2. The maze room. Not just any maze room. This is a big one. The second biggest here. I've done it a few times. I've never done LM-1, nor do I want to. It's the biggest and most dangerous. At least, that's what Jeb says. I'll take his word for it.

Jeb types in a code. 3 - 5 - 5 - 3. He walks in, leaving me in the corridor. I start to turn back the way we came, but an Eraser jumps in my way. He folds his arms over his chest and grins smugly down at me. I hear another one behind me and I whip around, balling up my fists. I'm nine, I can take 'em!

"Fang," Jeb calls from inside the room, not bothering to look up from his clipboard. "Just come in and they'll leave you alone."

With a sidelong glare at my attackers, I ease into the room. I stare at the makeshift walls that make up the maze. Notoriously popular for their dexterity in changing the shape of the maze. Stupid walls. I wish I could just knock them all down so I could just get to the exit as quick as possible, but they reinforce them somehow. I go to lean against a wall when two massive Erasers, not the same as my attackers, grab my arms and haul me to the entrance of the maze. What's with all the hostility?! I look around so I can glare at Jeb, but I don't get the pleasure as a third Eraser wraps a blindfold around my eyes. Great! How am I supposed to do this now?! Iggy can do it. Right. I guess it's possible, but it's gonna take me forever. I feel a hairy paw/hand take mine and wrap a device around my arms. I try to yank my hands back, but can't. The metal device holds my arms out so that I can't bend my elbows. Crap.

I hear a buzzer and two clawed paws push me into what can only be the entrance of the maze. I trip over the door stop and fall onto the hot coils. Ssss. That is the sound of my flesh being slowly cooked to a crisp. I grunt angrily as I pick myself up off of the floor. The door seals off behind me, as I hear people laughing outside. I start to run forward. Thunk! OW! Idiot, put your hands out in front of you! You can still move your shoulders! I start to maneuver myself through the maze, more cautiously this time. Aaargh! Now I have a bruise on my forehead from the stupid wall, and a crisscross burn pattern on the side of my face! Probably looks like I've been beat up. And I have, by a maze.

The white coats probably had a grand 'ol laugh over that. Idiot. You just gave them two more reasons to criticize you. It's not enough that you have huge clunky wings that weight a thousand pounds each. You have to go and give them a few more chances to laugh at you. Okay, I'm not one to exaggerate, but these wings do weigh a lot.

How many walls have you run into now? Thirty? Probably, if not, more. How big is this one anyway? I haven't actually done this one in a while. Months, maybe. I've been stumbling through here for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes! I think it only took me nine point six minutes last time. Then again, I wasn't blindfolded. I have to hand it to them, this certainly has put a new twist on things.

Did I mention that the floor coils get hotter the longer you stay on them? No? Well they do. I look like a freak. I know. Running through a maze with my arms locked up, stretched out in front of me, bloody feet, and blindfolded face. Yeah, total laughing stock. Jerks. I hate being humiliated. Hate it. When I get older they are all so dead. Why wait 'til I'm older? I'll escape and tell everyone about them, and then, they are sooo dead.

My feet are going to fall off. First, my toes, then the rest of my foot will just die and fall off. Then, I'll just be stuck, lying helplessly on the scolding hot floor, while the burning coils eat through my whit shirt and gray shorts. And I won't even be able to see it. Because my eyes will still be covered. All I'll see is black. I guess that bit's okay. I like black.

But I don't think that my feet will really fall off. Burn to a crisp, maybe. So I keep running, leaving that gory image in a dead end behind me. After twenty five total minutes, the right side of my face hits cool air. I turn toward the cool air, and walk towards it. My feet hit cold tile and I let myself fall. The floor feel so good. It's icy cold.

I feel the blindfold being taken off. Then blinding light floods my eyes. Ah, even that feels good. I look down at the devices on my arms. They're quite simple really. A metal ring around my forearm and one around my bicep. Three thin metal bars reach from the bottom ring to the top ring. They take those off too and I bend my elbows. That feels really good. Heck, everything feels good now. 'Cept my feet.

I look at them, they are hideous. The bottoms look like they've been flogged. They are bleeding all over. I scowl as I look at them. A white coat comes over and pours anti-septic all over them. OOOOWW. I wince ever so slightly, so as not to give them more reason to mock me. She bandages my feet, as I hear a voice over the loud speaker.

"That's enough for today." The white coat that bandaged my feet, taps my leg to let me know she's done. I get up, on terribly unsteady feet. My eyes water at the pain shooting up my legs. Jeb meets me outside. He leads me back to my empty room. The rest are all gone for the time being, no telling when they'll be back. Once inside, I plop down on the couch and fall asleep, thankful to leave the pain.