Chapter 24: A Spot of Bother
Will POV
"Now, if you don't mind..." I said scornfully, pushing Fang off me and getting up. "I have some mourning to do."
I turned my back to him and walked up the slope, the sun beginning to shine over the top. I didn't blame Fang for what he had just tried to do. He had warned me, and I knew it was coming, but I genuinely thought he would do it. He had always seemed dark and mysterious to me. Out of anyone in the flock, I would have pegged him as the killer. Apparently I was wrong.
I made it to the top of hill, and then I saw them. Helicopters and Flyboys, about 2 miles away to the west, and heading straight towards us. Then I saw the others, another group of what looked like flying erasers, about the same distance, coming from the north. Not to mention The Erasers on foot, a group of about 20, a mile towards the north.
"Shit..." I uttered under my breath.
"What, did you forget something?" Fang sneered from behind me.
Momentarily forgetting what had just happened, I replied "Err, you might want to see this."
I heard him fly into the air so he was about 10 feet away from me. I looked up at him, and he at me. "Yep..." he sighed. "Shit. We need to go back. Now!"
"Look at them!" I said, staring back out at the Erasers. They were heading our way fast. "They don't look like they're here to talk. They look like they want to end this."
"Yeah, and that's why we need to go back now Will!" Fang shouted as he landed next to me.
"This could be it..." I said to myself.
"Be what?" Fang asked, frustrated.
"This could be the way to end it. They look like they want to kill us... Kill me..." I pondered quietly. I began to walk out towards the Erasers, who had closed in about half a mile now.
"Oh no you don't!" Fang shouted, stepping in front of me and pushing me back. "If I can't kill you, I'm defiantly not gonna let them kill you. This looks like it could be pretty big Will, and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm going to need you if this gets ugly, the flock's going to need you, and Emily is going to need you Will. So you stop what thinking about what you're thinking about, and get your butt out of here!"
I stared at him, and then back at the oncoming enemy. The helicopters were not far off now, the flyboys not far behind. "But I can't do this anymore! It's too hard! I don't get how you guys do it! You can't be normal, yet you don't want to be like you are! In my eyes there is only one other option." I cried, the sound of the choppers sounding out now.
"We do it, because we have each other! Just like you've got Emily. Don't give up Will. Keep her alive. Keep her alive by helping us all, now!" He shouted to me over the sounds of the helicopters which were directly overhead.
"Fine!" I shouted. We began to head back towards the woods on foot, unable to fly because of the helicopters. I looked up, and saw something drop from one of them. I landed with a thud and embedded itself a few inches in the grass. A grey orb of some kind, about the size of two clenched fists, with green lights flashing around it.
"What is that?" I asked Fang, stepping towards it, watching the lights begin to go out.
"I've been around Iggy and Gazzy enough to know what that is. That's a bomb!" he shouted pulling me back, as the lights went out completely. We had about 5 seconds of running away, before it exploded, the shockwave pushing us about 15 feet through the air, and into the woods, luckily avoiding the trees.
I looked back and saw a massive crater through the dust and dirt that was in the air.
"What the hell kind of bomb doesn't make any fire?" I asked Fang as I picked myself up.
"I don't know, but I don't want to stick around to find out. Come on." He said getting up himself. I began running back to the camp. I heard Fang behind me, keeping up, and behind him, the sound of many footsteps chasing us. After a few seconds I could see the campsite through the trees.
"RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!" I shouted as loud as I could. "GO! RUN! GET OUT OF HERE! COME ON RUN!" I saw them just standing there, Max holding Emily, dumbfounded.
"Come on Max, do what he says! GO!" Fang shouted to her, as he helped Gazzy and Angel. I ran over to Max, and took Emily off her, who was crying. I picked up our stuff and slung it on my shoulder.
"Will?! What's going on? What was that?!" Max asked me, confused.
"No time!" I said to her, picking up her backpack and shoving it in her arms. "Just go!"
Max POV
I saw Will get up. He had been tossing and turning all night, but I wasn't sure if he was awake, or just having bad dreams. "Will?" I asked him. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I just can't sleep." He replied quietly, so not to wake the others. "I'm going to stretch my legs."
"You want me to come with?" I asked him, knowing full well what his answer would be.
"No, I think I'd be better if I was alone." He said, and walked off into the woods.
I waited until I was sure he was out of earshot before I said to the flock, "Okay guys, he's gone." I watched as they all got up. It was evident that Iggy and Angel hadn't slept, as they both got up straight away, whereas Gazzy and Nudge took longer and were genuinely asleep.
Emily was curled up near the fire, sound asleep.
"Okay then," I said as we all sat down in a circle.
"Wait." Gazzy said. "Don't you think Fang should be here?"
"Fang'll come back when he's ready. We all know where he's going to stand on this anyway, so I don't see the point in calling him back from his little nest up in the trees." I replied loudly, hoping he'd hear me.
"Actually he's not in the trees anymore." Angel yawned, wiping her eyes. "He's just gone after Will. He wants to kill him."
I looked at her for a second, wondering weather I had fallen asleep on watch and was dreaming. "Erm, what?"
"Its okay, Will knew he was in the trees, the same as you. He knew that Fang would come after him. He's not afraid." She said, very nonchalantly.
"You know Angel, sometimes the whole being able to read minds thing is sometimes just plain scary." Iggy said after a few moments of silence.
"It doesn't matter anyway." Nudge piped in groggily. "If he is going to do it, we won't be able to catch up and stop him now anyway. Right Max?"
"Yeah, you're right, but just in case he doesn't kill Will, we should still decide what we are going to do about him anyway."
"Well how are we going to decide? We don't really have time for a debate or anything." Iggy asked.
"Okay, let's start of simple. Raise your hand if you think we should let him stay." I said. No-one raised their hands. "Raise your hands if we should make him leave." Again, no-one raised their hand. "And if you have no idea at all?" All four of them put their arm in the air when I said that.
"Great." I mumbled.
"I'm going to go ahead and presume that no-one is sure what to do." Iggy said.
"Yep." Gazzy replied simply.
"Well," I began. "This might take a whi-"
All of a sudden, there was an almighty booming noise coming from the other side of the woods, followed by a whooshing sound, and then a massive shockwave, which knocked us all on our backs, and blew out the fire.
I jumped up on my feet, looking out over the trees, expecting to see a massive fireball, but there was none, just some mud and grass falling to the ground. I saw the sun was beginning to rise, and could see it shining through the trees. I now realised I could hear the sound of helicopters, from the other side of the woods.
"What on earth was that!?" Iggy shouted.
"Was that an explosion?" Gazzy breathed. "That was massive! Where is the fire, and the smoke?" Emily had understandably woken up, and began crying.
I ran over to her and picked her up, trying to comfort her. "Hey, hey, it's okay. Don't-"
"RUN!" I heard Will's voice shout from the trees. I looked up and saw him and Fang, running as fast as they could towards us, waving their arms to get us to move. "RUN! RUN! RUN! GO! RUN! GET OUT OF HERE! COME ON RUN!"
"Come on Max, do what he says! GO!" Fang shouted as he ran towards Gazzy and Angel, handing them their backpacks he had picked up as he ran past, and pushed them towards the cliff, urging them to take off. Nudge and Iggy, grabbed their stuff and followed.
Will ran up to me, and took Emily off me, and picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. "Will?! What's going on? What was that?!" I asked him incredulously.
"No time!" he replied, shoving my backpack into his hands. "Just go!" and he ran off to the cliff and took off, following the others. I looked back into the woods, and instantly headed towards the cliff when I saw the silluhettes of Erasers through the trees running towards us. Above us, I heard the sound of helicopters, and jumped off the cliff, letting the wind catch under my wings.
I looked up in time to see a grey sphere being dropped onto our campsite, flashing green lights coming from it. The next thing I knew there was an almighty noise behind me, and I was thrown through the air like a fly in a wind tunnel. I recovered just in time to see our campsite, and a fair part of the woods, falling down, the cliff collapsing, and falling into the ocean.
"Max!" Nudge shouted to me. "What do we do?!"
"We get away from them!" I shouted back to her. "We go as fast as we can!"
Nudge POV
"Max!" I called to her after watching the cliff collapse into the ocean. "What do we do?!"
"We get away from them!" She shouted back urgently. "We go as fast as we can! Let's go!"
We all ducked our heads down, and flapped our wings as hard as we could, heading south, toward France. I could hear the sound of the helicopters behind us, and I turned around just in time to see them dipping their nose, the rudders pushing forward, threatening to chop us up.
"Look out!" I screamed, and everyone turned their heads, and immediately stopped flapping, letting ourselves drop twenty feet or so, as the helicopters flew right over us.
Now we had stopped, I realised how many of them there were. About twenty choppers, all with men with guns in them, around a hundred flyboys buzzing around them, like flies. And now we had stopped, they bared down on us.
"Quick, formation B!" Max ordered us.
"What's formation B?!" Will shouted as he stared at the Flyboys coming ever closer.
"Just get in a circle with your back to everyone else!" Max barked frantically, as the Flyboys reached us, and began throwing their mechanical fists.
I dodged and ducked, kicked and hit, and managed to knock four of them down, before I took my first blow. A mistimed kick by me, led to my left being open for a few seconds. Unfortunately, that was a few too many seconds, and one of them got a punch in, square on my jaw, making me see stars for. I recovered quickly and was luckily able to push it back, blocking off others from getting to me.
I could see Angel too my left, holding them off sufficiently by making people jump from the helicopters above, and land on the flyboys, taking out as many as five at a time. To my right, Will had let Emily hover in the middle of the circle behind us, but was struggling to take many out. As an Avian-Human hybrid, he was stronger than a regular person, but he was untrained in combat.
"Will!" I called to him over the sound of the helicopters rotors above. "What are you waiting for? Use your power!"
"No!" he shouted back. "I'm not going to use that again. Not until I... I'm just not going to use it okay?!"
All of a sudden, the flyboys dispersed, falling back to the back of the helicopters.
"Report!" Max shouted behind me.
"Fine!" I called back along with everyone else. "Where are they going?"
"To deal with a greater threat." Fang said calmly, nodding out to the Flying Erasers who had caught up, and were heading for us.
"What? Why would they attack them?" Will gasped, regaining his breath.
"They don't work together, the Erasers have gone renegade." Iggy replied, wiping blood from a cut on his forehead.
"Well that's just stupid, their practically letting us go free. It's not like we can't avoid a few helicopters." Will said confidently. Almost as If they were listening, about half of the Flyboys broke off from their group and banked back round to us. "Oh." Will sighed.
"Quick let's go before-" Max began but stopped as she saw a wall of helicopters surrounding us to the south. "Ah. Okay then, the helicopters are going to form a wall? So are we. Fang top left, Will, Gazzy, below. Nudge, top right, Iggy and Angel, either side of me." She ordered. Will, held Emily's hand and led her behind the wall, protected from harm. In the distance i saw The Flyboys and Erasers clashing.
"Will, please, say your going to go into your "Super-strength mode" this time?" Max asked.
"No, not until I've... Not until I've got my own back. I just, can't." He replied.
We got into formation, and then the fight began again, as fifty or so Flyboys slammed into our wall. Angel was now using the few Erasers who had managed to reach us to attack the Flyboys, although some of them seemed to be doing it willingly. Fang was coolly knocking heads off them left right and center.
I looked down in between punches to see that the helicopters were now below us as well, and watched as the fallen Flyboys fell into the rotors. "Ew." I thought to myself as I kicked an arm off one of them.
Behind me I felt something brush past me quickly, and was lucky enough to have a break in the fighting so that I could turn around and see what it was. I managed to glimpse the form of a fully morphed Eraser, swooping down from above. Before I could call out to the flock below, it had arched into Max, shoved her forward forcefully, and carried on down, clipping Emily and knocking into Gazzy.
"Gazzy!" I called out at the exact same time as Will shouted "Emily!"
I watched in horror, as Will made to grab Emily from the air, missing by inches as she fell, and seeing both her and Gazzy falling down, towards the spinning blades of the helicopters below.