Chapter 3: Childs Play

Max POV

It had been 4 days since Will arrived. For the 1st 2 days, since he saw his sister, he was very quiet and mostly kept to himself. On the 3rd day, he started talking, asking us questions about flying and the whitecoats, and we told him, in return for some answers about him. After another couple of days, it stopped becoming questions, and started to become conversations. We told him how we have been here before but escaped and how a few months ago they found us again and stuck us back in here.

He told us about how he just finished school (the normal kind), his family and how he was attacked. It turned out he was from England. I was wondering where his accent was from. How he got to America I don't know, and he didn't either.

I felt sorry for him. He had no real idea what was going on still. How he got here or even where here was. We didn't reveal that much. He seemed fine but we didn't know enough to trust him yet. I think he was thinking the same thing.

We thought it was late afternoon but, truthfully, we had no idea. We were in a small room with no windows. Only a bare bulb gave us light and that was usually off or very low. Since Will had arrived it had been left on. There was peeling yellow wallpaper on the walls but it was very dirty. We think before us they kept actual dogs here before us. We were all in spate cages, spaced around the room. Angel was on one end with Iggy on the other, with Will in a separate cage a few over from Iggy.

I didn't know what to think of Will, he hadn't shown us his true colours yet, that was understandable, but I was sure he would soon. I often found myself just staring at him for hours when I was on watch while he was asleep, waiting or him to do something, analyzing him. I was a usually a good judge of character, but I didn't know what to think about him. His scars looked like he had been in the wars, and they looked too much of a part of him to be from any testing the whitecoats had done. His hair was overgrown, and he was generally dirty, as if he hadn't washed in months.

Could he be a mole? After a week I was sure he wasn't but often some nights, I heard him talking to someone. When I asked Iggy to listen in, he told me he was talking in his sleep, mostly saying his sister's name over and over.

I wasn't surprised that I thought he was a mole. 8 years of being tested on and ten being on the run for a year will make you quite paranoid. But I knew I shouldn't have done. Angel confirmed that he knew nothing ages ago, but it was possible he was brainwashed or something. The white coats had tried crazier things...

After about an hour I heard someone coming towards the door. In walked a whitecoat. Everyone woke up and looked, or in Iggy's case, listened, at her. She just walked past us all, without taking notice of us, and headed to Angels' cage. Will started shouting at her. "Where's Emily?! Let me see her! Bring her here right now!" but the whitecoat just ignored him and went over to Angel's cage. She unlocked it and took her out, but still ignored her too, not looking directly at her. She was smart.

"Where are you taking her? Tell me! Tell me now!" I demanded. Angel was silent. She knew there was no point struggling, she was too small to fight. The only way she could get away is if the whitecoat looked her in the eyes. And this one wasn't going to from experience. Last time she did, she ended up nearly letting us all out.

She went out of the room with Angel in tow and I heard the door lock behind her.

Will POV

I was at home, sitting on the sofa with Emily, watching Doctor Who. I'm surprised she wasn't frightened. Even I was a bit frightened. Those angels were pretty freaky. Then, suddenly we were angels, or at least like them. Flying through the sky, over some cliffs, and out to sea, watching Ferries trundle along a half mile below. I don't know how we got here or what happened to Doctor Who, but for some reason I didn't question it.

Behind us were the rest of the flock, slowly flapping their wings, looking around as if they were trying to find something. Then Emily was falling. I was calling out to her but she just kept falling. Suddenly, I heard a door opening. I turned over and woke up.

One of the whitecoats walked in the room, walking straight by our cages and towards Angels'.

"Where's Emily?! I shouted. "Let me see her! Bring her here right now!" but she just blanked me. What a bitch.

She opened Angel's cage and took her out. She didn't struggle, or trying to get away. Why didn't she? It's like she had lost all hope. And why didn't the whitecoat look at her, looking at the wall all the time?

Max shouted at the whitecoat. "Where are you taking her? Tell me! Tell me now!" The whitecoat just ignored her and walked out the room with Angel. I heard the door lock behind them.

The flock was silent. "Where do you think they are taking her?" I asked.

"They've never taken only one of us before." said Gazzy worriedly. "They always take a few of us when they do tests. Do you think she'll be ok?" He looked scared. I'm not surprised. Although he was younger than me the feelings always the same when your little sister gets taken away from you.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." said Iggy confidently. "She knows how to handle herself."

"It's been hours now, do you think she's ok?" asked Nudge worriedly. No-one had said much since Angel was taken. I was worried. I had grown attached to her over the last few days. She was sweet, and she reminded me a lot of Emily. But I wasn't half as worried as the others.

Although they were hiding it well, you could tell they were very worried.

"I'm sure she's fine. Like Iggy said, she knows how to handle herself." said Max who didn't sound very confident about it.

"They are probably doing some run of the mill tests" said Fang. He sounded confident enough, but you could see in his eyes he wasn't. Over the last few days, out of all of them, Fang seemed to trust me the least. He was very secluded, didn't say much, but when he did, it was usually something that helped, something that would comfort or assist in some way.

Suddenly there was a noise outside the door, it opened and Angel and a whitecoat cam in, followed by, Emily!

The whitecoat, looking fairly distant, just walked up to each cage and started to unlock them, and opened the doors. When mine opened I quickly ran towards Emily and hugged her.

The others were more cautious of the whitecoat. They all looked each other, and Max nodded to Fang. The he suddenly leapt out of his cage landing in front of the whitecoat; spread his large jet black wings wildly. He grabbed the dumbfounded whitecoats arm and twisted it violently behind him with a loud pop. The whitecoat fell to the door screaming, when Max smashed her foot into his head, leaving him unconscious. Whoa, these guys know some moves!

"Come on, time we got out of this place!" said Max.

Angel POV

"Where are you taking her?!" Max shouted. "Tell me! Tell me now." But the whitecoat just ignored her and walked me out the room. She ignored me too. But she'd slip up sooner or later. She locked the door behind us and walked me down a corridor. It was very clean, not spotless, but it was like a hospital compared to the room I'd been in the last few months, and quite dark with only the odd bare bulb every now and again.

We were walking for what seemed like an age, until finally I plucked up the courage to ask "Where are we going?"

Still not looking at me she replied "You are going to have a play."

"Play?!" I said happily. I had never had proper play! Hopefully this time it would not be with the Erasers. We were going in a different direction, so I was hopeful.

After many twists and turns down different corridors, all of which looked the same, and after walking past countless rooms, the Clone Room, Genetics Department, Dead Experiments were just some of them. I had no idea what any of these meant but they didn't sound good.

We finally reached the Nursery. This is where they kept me on the odd occasion when I was small. She walked in, and beckoned me inside. I reluctantly followed, knowing I didn't really have a choice. In the middle of the room, was a small girl with long blonde hair, sitting and playing with some puzzles.

"Angel, we'd like you to play with Emily." She said, still not looking at me.

"Ok" I said.

The whitecoat walked over to another whitecoat sitting behind a desk in the corner of the room, and they talked in hushed voices. The one behind the desk seemed to be a guard. I made out the whitecoat saying, "Don't look her in the eyes", to the guard, before she left me with Emily and the guard, and walked out the room, locking it behind her.

I walked over to Emily. She had her back to me.

"Hello." I said timidly. She turned around and smiled. She looked up and smiled nicely. "I'm Angel".

"Hi Angel" she replied. "Do you wanna play?"

"Yes please." I replied, grinning eagerly. This was going to be fun...

We ended up playing together for hours. We played tag, hide and seek and I even taught her how to hover using her wings, although the guard put a stop to that pretty quickly. I made a friend. I had never made a proper friend before and although she was only 2 1/2 she acted like a four year old. She was very smart for her age, just like me. I liked her.

The guard was reading a book, looking up at us every now and again. He hadn't tried to talk to us much or interfere apart from when I taught her to hover, but he hadn't looked up in a while. The guard was off guard.

"Wait here I have an idea." I said to Emily, who was playing with some Lego, and walked over to the guard.

I walked over to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and said "Excuse me we need some help?" He looked at me and fell for it. He looked straight into my eyes and that's when his body relaxed and his eyes drooped. I focused my mind to his and I said "You are going to take me and Emily to where The Flock is being kept, back to the cages. When we get there you will open the cages and lead us out of the building. When you have done that, you will come back here and wait. Do you understand?"

"Yes." He murmured slowly. "I am going to take you two back to the cages now, unlock the cages and then lead you all out of the building, come back here and wait."

"Excellent!" I chirped. I loved this power.

"Come on Emily" I called.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"We're going to see Will." I said kindly. She grinned and came over and held my hand. "Go." I

said to the guard, who walked over to the door, took out his keys and unlocked it. We walked out and followed the hypnotized guard back to the cages. The walk seemed a lot shorter this time

and in what seemed like no time at all were outside the room.

"Hurry up." I said and the guard, who started to move a lot quicker. He opened the door and ran in and

began to unlock the cages.

Me and Emily then ran in and straight away Will was hugging her after being one of the first out the cages. The others were more suspicious. Fang looked at Max, who gave him a nod. Then Fang jumped out his cage, unfurled his Wings and dislocated the guards arm. The guard came out of his trance as he fell to the floor, screaming, but he wasn't for long as Max then kicked his head and he fell unconscious.

"Come on, time we got out of this place!" said Max.