Hey everyone! Hope you had a great 4th of July. Mine was pretty good. Now, before I get on to this chapter, I have some stuff to say to you guys. First, I still want you guys to draw characters from my stories. The rules are, it has to be a character that I made up or a scene from one of my stories. Wings or no wings, it's up to you, whichever is easier for you guys. Okay, I would also like ya'll to read 'NeoFlock' and 'Deadline' by Talon666, 'Of the Night' by Sonya Rivers, and 'Dark Blue' by Madeline Cullen. They are awesome stories by awesome reviewers. I also want to thank you three a lot. You give me the most reviews and make me feel awesome. Okay, now I have some story news. If you all will check out my profile, I have summaries for the new stories I will start posting soon. There are two Maximum Ride ones, a Twilight one, and a Harry Potter one. After you read all of the summaries, you can vote in my poll and choose which one you want me to post first. Okay, enough of that. You guys are probably ready to read my new chapter, so here it is. Hope you like it.

After two hours of flying in the dark, I noticed Jewel was losing altitude. I looked over my shoulder at her and noticed that her eyes were drooping and that she was yawning. I decided it was time to land for the night.

I signaled to Jewel and Skye to start descending. I figured we were far enough away from the School and what better place to hide than in the woods.

Once on the ground, I started thinking up things we needed for survival.

"So, Madame Know-It-All," Skye began, "what's first?" He folded his arms, expectantly, and waited for me to start.

"First, we need to make a fire." I said. "Fires scare away animals, keep people warm, and can be used to cook food." I crouched down on the ground and picked up anything I could find to burn.

"Okay, now to make the fire." I said, reaching my hand into my pocket.

"So, how do we do that?" Jewel asked, stifling a yawn.

I smiled, pulling a lighter out of my pocket. I tried not to laugh at the expression on Skye's face.

"But…but…where did you get that?" he asked, dumbstruck. "How?"

I chuckled and said, "Nicked it during testing. Those whitecoats really need to learn not to leave their cigarettes and lighters lying on tables where any genetic hybrid who was planning an escape could get them." Idiots.

Jewel started laughing. "Nice one Mel." she said as I started the fire. She tucked her hair behind her ears and made a face. "Stupid hair."

"Want me to cut it?" I asked, dragging a couple of logs and a rock around the fire so we'd have some place to sit. "Here Skye." I added, tossing him the lighter. "You'll need that later."

"How are you going to cut it?" Jewel asked me, sitting down on the log.

"Yeah. How?" Skye asked, pocketing the lighter and looking at me suspiciously.

I pulled a pair of scissors out of my pocket. "With scissors. How else?" I asked, standing behind Jewel. "So?" I asked, picking up her hair. "How short? To your ears?"

Jewel nodded and I began cutting. I tried to make it as straight as I could and I don't think I did half bad.

"There." I announced holding up her hair. "Feel better?" I asked Jewel.

She nodded then gestured to her hair. "What're you going to do with that?" She began playing with her new shorter hair. "It feels so weird." she mumbled to herself.

"Toss it in the fire." I said, shrugging. "What else can I do with all of this hair?"

"Heck no." Skye said, wrinkling his nose. "Do you have any idea what burnt hair smells like?"

"Okay, so what do you suggest we do with it?" I asked. Since you know everything. I added in my head.

"Just toss it somewhere." he said simply.

"And that's why I don't listen to you." I said, throwing Jewel's hair in the fire.

Skye made a face as the hair started to burn. "Great. Now I can't breathe."

"Oh cry me a river. Just breathe through your mouth." I said, disgusted with him. "Now, Jewel are you hungry?"

"Yeah, but what're we having?" Jewel asked.

"You didn't steal a turkey and stuff it in your pocket did you?" Skye asked me, causing me to roll my eyes.

"No. I saw a lake not too far from here. One of the reasons I decided to land." I said, spreading my wings. "I'll be back with dinner. Make sure to keep the fire going. You might want to find some more firewood."

Jewel nodded. "Sure Mel. We'll get right on it."

I nodded, knowing that Jewel could handle it. I took off, in search of some food, some real food.

It only took me five minutes to get to the lake. I descended on the bank and pulled off my shoes and socks. I rolled up my pants; I was going fishing. I waded in the water and bent over, waiting for a fish to come by.

It didn't take long and soon I was on my way back to our camp with a nice fish. I couldn't wait to see the look on Skye's face when he saw what I caught. His eyes were going to pop out of his face.

I landed a few feet away and hid the fish behind my back. I walked up to Skye and Jewel, who had their backs turned, and cleared my throat.

They both turned around and Skye smirked. "I knew you couldn't get food."

Jewel looked slightly disappointed, so I said, "Oh yeah Mr. Skeptical." and shoved the fish right under his nose.

He backed up quickly. "What is that?" he asked, surprised and I had to suppress a laugh.

"What?" I asked. "Are you scared of a little fish Skye?" I smirked, probably looking like my mom and Fang. It was uncanny the way I could do that.

"We're supposed to eat that?" he asked, over top of Jewel laughing her head off. "You can't be serious. That's disgusting. There is no way I'm eating that. It still has eyes." He threw more wood on the fire and sat down.

"What happened to 'We can't afford to be picky here Princess.'?" I asked, pulling a pocket knife out of my pants.

"Shut up." he muttered. "What're you going to do with that?" he asked, motioning towards the knife.

"Well, this is a knife and I'm going to chop off the fish's head and then gut and cook it so we can eat." I sat down and began my work while Skye started gagging and Jewel laughed at him.

Soon I had the fish clean, fried, and ready to eat. "Well, dig in. This is all we're getting 'till tomorrow." I took a bite of fish. Not as good as my dad's, but it was still pretty good.

Skye made a disgusted face but ate the fish anyways. I noticed a slight change in his facial expression as he scarfed down the meal as fast as he could. He seemed to actually like it.

Jewel had a look of delight on her face. "Mmm Mel, this is delicious."

"Thanks." I said, smiling at her. "I try." I finished my fish and wiped my hands on my pants. "It was pretty easy to catch. You just have to wade in the water, bend down, wait for a fish to come, and grab it."

"I don't know how we'll do this stuff without you." Jewel said, moving beside me. She sighed heavily, sounding pathetic.

"I think we'll manage somehow Jewel." Skye said, burping rather loudly.

"You're not helping." Jewel said, staring daggers at Skye. "Mel, please stay. We need you. There is no way Skye can do all of this…by himself. Besides, we don't know how to survive out here. You were brought up by the legendary Flock. You have to stay." she begged me, giving me Bambi eyes. I wondered where she learned that from.

I couldn't resist the Bambi eyes. They were just too powerful. "Well, I don't know." I looked at Skye, who was just looking at the ground, uninterested. "I really miss my parents and the rest of my family. On the other hand, it's nice to have friends who actually care."

"Come on Mel. Please." Jewel begged. "We really do need you. Maybe we can just take a slower trip to your house. You know, make some stops." She made Bambi eyes at me again.

I sighed. "Well, I guess you guys do need a leader."

Jewel glommed onto me. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" she squealed. "Mel, you're the best!"

"Hold up." Skye said, getting into the conversation. "Who died and made you leader?" he asked. "Why can't I be leader?"

I folded my arms. "Two reasons. One: You weren't raised by the flock and don't know the first thing about surviving. Second: You'd have to gut and cook the fish next time and every other time."

He looked at me for a second and threw up his hands. "Fine. You're leader. Happy? So, what do we do about sleeping?"

"Since it's really late, we'll only have two watches." I said, getting into Max mode. I had to think about what we were going to be doing until we got to my house.

"Watches?" Skye asked.

"Yeah. We have to have watches, otherwise anything could happen." I said. "The School could find us and capture us all while we're asleep."

"Speaking of which," Jewel said, sounding worried, "something's been bugging me. Why didn't Willow and Tanner chase us down? Why'd they just let us go?"

I had been thinking about that. Ter Borcht had been mad when I got away, but something had made him even madder. He had been shouting at Tanner and Willow and I thought I heard him say something about the Director.

"Oh no." I whispered, coming to a realization.

"What?" Jewel asked. "Did you figure something out Mel? What is it?"

"Tanner and Willow didn't chase us, because the Director told them not to." I told them.

Skye looked at me, skeptically. "That makes no sense. Why would she tell them to let us go?"

That was the part that frightened me the most. I breathed heavily. "She wants them to hunt us. It's to test them and us. She wants to see how much we can endure. Her mother did it to Max and the rest of my family. It's like a game to her." I explained.

Jewel gasped and Skye frowned. "Are you sure?" he asked, sounding…scared.

"Uh, yeah kinda. It's the only thing that makes any sense."

We remained silent for a few minutes before I decided to speak again. "Uh, Jewel you should probably get some sleep." She nodded and laid down on the ground, close to the fire.

I turned to Skye. "Uh, I'll take first watch. Set your watch for three in the morning ok." He nodded and laid down near Jewel.

I stayed in my seat on one of the rocks and stared into the fire. I had a long night ahead of me. There was no way I could go home now. I'd put my family in danger, but how was I going to tell them?

So, did you guys like that chapter? In the next one, it's the next morning and Mel is in for a small surprise. I will say nothing more. Okay, like I said above, I still want you guys to draw my characters or a scene from one of my stories. Also, check out the summaries of my new stories on my profile and vote for the story you want me to start next. Read and review this story and check out the other stories I mentioned above. Bye-bye.