After the night in a quite crappy hotel in Texas, the Flock took off again, this time, only for a 3 hour flight.

After most of the time, Angel started doing tricks, and being happy. Then all of a sudden... "Fang! Down there. I here bad thoughts.... like about us..." after a few more minutes, she gasped again, "Max is there!" she squalled.

The Flock did a nose dive formation and got to level ground quickly. Angel landed running, and was at the entrance of the large building quickly.

"Angel, be careful!" Iggy said, in a commanding voice.

"But... Max!" she said, her face pink.

"We need to find a safer way in..." Fang murmured, reading the sign on the door that said, "This is private property, please do not enter at your own risk. Lasers and guns standing by."

"Fine...." Angel said, letting her wings out. "Not like they'll have traps in places that people can't go.... normal people can't go in." she corrected herself.

"Yes, you're right." Gazzy said.

Nudge nodded, and smiled, standing on her own two feet again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ After they found a way to get in ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Nudge led the way through the air ducts. Angel was telling her where to go, though.

"Next right, I hear Max's thoughts there." she said.

Nudge took the next right in the air duct, and looked down in the vent. It smelled like the normal Itex smell, death and flesh... "Mmm-mmm." Nudge said, nodded and pointed down.

"Open the vent, and go in the room, duh!" Gazzy said, in a rushed voice.

"Oh, God, Gazzy!" Iggy said, covering his nose.

The rest of the Flock mimicked Iggy's gesture, while nudge messed with the latches on the vent. To her, Gazzy's smell was better then the smell of the room below them.

After a few minutes of messing with it, Nudge got the vent open, and struggled to the other side of it, to let the people with wings go first.

Angel fell through first, and as she landed, she did a 'shhh' gesture up into the vent, telling them to be as quick as they could.

Gazzy was next, followed by Iggy. Then Fang, who helped Nudge down as well.

Once all five were down, the looked around, to see where Max was.

She was in the corner, curled into a ball, and she was a mess. Her hair was a big blond knotted rat on her head, her skin was black and purple, topped with blood, and her eyes were swelled shut. Her wings were hanging out behind her, with her feathers in painful angles and most of them were blotched with blood.

"Max!" Angel cryed, in a quiet voice, running over to her, "Max! Are you awake? Wake up! So much has gone on since you disappeared... C'mon, we have to go before..."

"Quiet..." Max whispered in a grinding voice, that sounded like she had done nothing but scream for months.