The Disbanded: Divided We Stand-Chapter 46

By MyNameisCAL

---Max's POV---

It was almost surreal, being back at the school. As expected, it had been abandoned. There was a room with empty filing cabinets, scorch marks on the floor. They had burned evidence, but hadn't burned the whole building down. I walked down an isle of cages. They were all empty. I touched one, remembering how it had been us in the cages, struggling.

It was clear we were all a little anxious to be here. Fang leaned heavily on his crutch, staring at this once cage. I realized he was staring at the cages we had been in so many years ago. Even now, I could still remember how we had become friends. Those nights of being afraid to sleep. He may have been the silent one, but when he did speak, he meant it.

"I thought we would never come back here," he whispered almost. "To think that there may have been hundreds of experiments tortured here since we had left. And what happened to them?"

Yet his question was barely a question. I knew what he was implying. The thought made me cringe.


---Gazzy's POV---

I didn't tell them, but this place had been up and running a year ago. Itex covered their tracks fast. In fact, this was the first place where I had found Angel and Nudge. Out on a whim I had come here and it was just luck that they were here. They had been several places before I found them.

To walk the hallways in this horrid place again made me jumpy. Maybe Jeb or Marian Janssen would jump out and grab me, force me down some underground tunnel, and I'd end up alone again.

"It's strange being here," Iggy remarked. "It's empty though."

The cages are the most haunting. Max and Fang stood by one of them and I realized it was where we had been held. I couldn't bear to look at them. It hurt too much. Instead, I turned and went down the hall, Iggy following. Most of the rooms or empty or there's damaged equipment. It looked like some things had been raided, as if everyone was in a hurry to leave. And they probably had been in a hurry to leave.

Mike and Eli were fiddling with an old computer. They took it apart. I looked around them and realized they had taken apart all the towers.

"I think we might be able to salvage this one," Eli frowned. "The others are toast, literally."

Mike began to unscrew a few things. I continued to pass the room.

"I still have nightmares about this damned place," Iggy admitted.

We reached the end of the hall. "Me too."


---Fang's POV---

This place was beyond creepy. The fact that the cages were still here scared the shit out of me.

"So this is where it all started?" Chuck asked.

Max shrugged. "For us at least."

"I can't believe they would keep you in cages like that," Cal seemed shocked. "How could they be so cruel?"

We stood in silence. I had stopped asking that question to myself years ago.


---Max's POV---

It took us a few hours to search the old School top to bottom. Most things left were useless or broken. Nothing gave us any information. But it appeared that it hadn't been long ago since Itex had been here. The computers had been fairly new. Mike and Eli were now in the van, trying to get information out of the hard drives they pulled. We sat, legs hanging out of the van, eating some sandwiches we had bought on the way here.

"You gotta eat," I begged Fang.

He took the sandwich I held out to him, almost reluctantly.

"After you're all finished, we're going to start heading to Washington," Ted hopped out of the other van. "Mike said he can get us on a plane to Alaska and then back to Nevada."

"Really?" Gazzy seemed skeptical.

"There's unused FBI plans there," Ted explained. "We could probably fly it around the US if we wanted to."

Iggy laughed. "Is the government really that insecure?"

"Everything's a fucking conspiracy these days," Cal grinned.

Ted sighed as he sat down next to Cal. "Must you have such a colorful vocabulary?"

Cal punched Ted lightly. "Yes, I must."

He suppressed a smile and started to eat his own sandwich.


---Gazzy's POV---

Everyone in the van was asleep except for myself and Cal, who was now driving. Fang had an arm around Max, her head rested against his chest, his head rested on hers. They looked peaceful. Maybe sleeping was the only time Fang relaxed.

The radio was on, playing quietly. Cal hummed along, singing the words every now and then. Ted had his head rested against the window, snoring. Iggy was slumped over, letting out a loud snore every now and then.

"So what keeps you up so late?" Cal questioned, turning off the radio.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Why are you up?"

"I don't sleep much in college."

"Don't you have to go back?"

Cal chuckled. "I'll get back eventually. I don't go to class anyway. Just show up for tests and exams."

"Really?"

She continued to laugh. "Yes, really. But I don't recommend it. Ted certainly doesn't approve."

"I've never been to school. I wouldn't going to college for a while," I said.

"Ah, that's true," she replied. "Well, if you ever go to college."

"Thanks," I nodded.

"Mhm." She turned to the right. "We're going to be stopping at a motel soon."

I started to wake everyone up. It would be nice to sleep in a bed tonight.


Thanks for reading!!!