Fang POV'
Iggy and I worked furiously to try and save Nudge. I was scared out of my mind even though I tried not to let it show. I heard Angel scream with fear for Nudge and Max yelling for Gazzy to get Dr. M on the phone and crying out in frustration and desperation when it didn't work. I tuned it all out and focused on getting air into Nudge's lungs. We didn't lose hope when we passed three minutes and she hadn't moved or showed any signs of living. We just kept on going because nothing had gone right in our lives and this was the one thing I was not going to screw up.

No, no.... take me instead please not Nudge, not our Nudge. Please, please..... I chanted in my head over and over. Iggy and I exchanged a worried glance, like really worried glance. This was not good.

Then the windows exploded.

Out of nowhere Erasers started pouring in through the window and door. The twisted, evil kind that hunt us... Not the little pink things that you find on the tops of pencils. I continued to try and save her while the rest jumped into fighting crouches around us in a semi-circle of protection. I heard grunts and groans of pain and some serious butt-kicking action being carried out. When I heard Gaz cry out in pain I yelled for Iggy to 'cover for me, man' and leapt into the fight.

The minute I dove in I could tell we weren't going to win. There was too many of them and too little of us. I punched one in the face letting all my worry, anxiousness and anger out at once and then spun around to cover Angel who was trying to take three at once and mind control seven. I hit and ducked and dived for what seemed like eternity. It was in fact only around eight minutes.

I felt the hairy arms wrap around my arms and I freaked out. But before i could scream I felt ten more restraining me. A frantic glance at the others showed the rest being held back and a cursing and yelling Iggy being dragged away from a still motionless Nudge.

Nudge... No!

We were all crying out in fear and desperation for Nudge. I roared my loudest when the hairiest one roughly stuffed her small limp body into a black sack and flung it over his shoulders.

'No! Damn it.... Take me instead please! Let go of her you filthy bast-!' I was silenced by a dirty hand-paw-like-thing slapped onto my mouth. I couldn't let them take her! I bucked all my strength and fought with a frenzied panic visible in my eyes. I could see Ig and Max doing the same. Angel and Gazzy had given up though. They stared at the bag with a sadness and loss in their eyes that no eight or six year old should have.

'No! Don't take her damnit! Max, Fang, anyone just do something, save her.... I'm blind! Let go of me you filthy dog! C'mon guys do something!'

'Shut UP! The freak's DEAD! D-e-a-d do you hear me?' The one holding my neck growled in an attempt to get us to stop struggling. The leader holding the sack gave it a hard kick and then threw it roughly against the wall to prove his point. The sack remained still, without a single movement.

'Let me go you idiots! Nudge isn't dead... STOP! Give her back to us! Nudge, honey, fight back, please c'mon! No you can't be dead! N-N-Nudge!-' Max broke off sobbing and fell limp in her captor's arms.

I also stopped fighting my Eraser's tight headlock... there was simply no point, Nudge was dead and I had failed to save her. That was all that mattered. My failure.

Iggy however, was still raging and out for blood. He heard us give up and that seemed to fuel his strength. He bucked, fought, kicked and twisted in a frantic attempt to save Nudge.

'Don't give up; it's going to be fine! NUDGE! Come back!' Iggy yelled in a desperate attempt to get us fighting once again. 'C'mon guys! Don't let them win!'

But my body felt numb and I couldn't bring myself to fight knowing I'd failed. The one thing I'd vowed not to do wrong and I couldn't even do that. I practically killed her myself. I was such a failure.

Max POV:

As Ig kept struggling without stopping, one Eraser morphed back and produced five long syringes filled with a purple solution.

Oh no.... Purple is always a bad colour!

The evil creature, in beautiful human form, advanced on the two smaller members of the flock who were sobbing uncontrollably in sadness and fear. I tried to yell out but my throat was closed up in anguish. They screamed with pain as he shoved the needles mercilessly into their arms. Angel slipped into unconsciousness quickly but Gaz took one long desperate look at the sack where our Nudge lay before his eyes too rolled into the back of his head.

Next it was Iggy, he heard the footsteps coming his way and guessed what was happening. 'I love you Nudge!' where his final words before he too was thrown roughly onto the floor out cold.

Then Fang... he resisted the sedative for as long as he could before he too was knocked out. I saw him mouth the words I'll always remember you Nudge at the lifeless sack that held our favourite African-American-mocha-coloured-eleven-year-old-bird-kid in the whole world.

Then there was me... To my surprise I wasn't injected like the rest. I had to endure something much worse than the remaining flock. The monsters tied me to a chair with a special form of string that was super strong and left a special type of scissors to cut it just out of reach. They arranged my flock around the bed so when they woke up the first thing they would see would be the empty bed with a few splattered bloodstains.

My punishment was one of the worst things I have ever gone through in my life. They dragged the chair over to the window and then, painstakingly slowly, flew away waving the sack at me. I cried for hours, cursing my life and raptor eyesight that allowed me to watch them taking my baby's body far into the distance, further than a normal human would have been able to see. I couldn't look away because they tied my head onto the back of the chair, forcing me to watch the horizon and eventually the sun setting with streaks of bright red. Red like the blood of the person we just couldn't save this time.

Fang was the first to wake. I heard stirring to my right but I couldn't turn my head to see who it was but I knew it was him the same way a mother knows her baby's cry. I just knew my flock. They were my best friends. They were all I had. And now one was gone forever.

He moaned before stirring and when I heard his almost inaudible gasp of horror I knew he had opened his eyes and seen the horrible scene. He stumbled over to me and I just stared at him with blank eyes. I was too numb to cry or do anything. I felt his fingers tremble as he tried to break the string with his hands.

'They took her. They took our Nudge. S-s-she's gone...' I whispered, my voice coming out cracked and strained from my hours of crying. 'They made me watch them take her away... I couldn't save her Fang.'

Fang found the scissors and cut me free. 'None of us could...' His voice was raw and full of emotion. He helped me up and as if I was on auto-pilot, I went round and checked the others who were still out cold. Iggy woke up when I was checking his breathing and started to struggle. When he realised it was me he stopped and the details of the last twenty-four hours began to sink in.

'Nudge... No! Damn it, is she gone?' He asked in a tortured voice. When I didn't reply, he grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard. 'Is she gone? Damnit tell me... I'm blind I can't see!'

'S-she's gone Ig...' Fang said quietly.

He released me and sat breathing heavily for a few minutes before he got up and punched the wall, leaving a hole. 'Nudge.... Why. Did. They. Take. You.... Damn. It.' He yelled punctuating each word with a punch, leaving the wall looking like a family of gofers lived there. He then let out a roar of pain and loss so loud that I had to cover my ears. Iggy then 'deflated' and clutching his head as if in great pain, he slid down the wall until he was on his knees. Then he started to sob great heart wrenching sobs that ripped my soul in two. Normally I would have teased him but this was different... We all felt the exact same.

I turned away so he wouldn't think I was intruding on his moment of weakness. I lasted about twenty seconds and then I couldn't hold it any longer. I rushed over to him and flung myself on him and started sobbing like there was no tomorrow. He resisted at first but I felt him soften up and hug me back tightly. A few minutes Fang joined us, wrapping his strong, muscled arms around me, supporting me. Angel and Gaz were still unconscious so I treasured the moment with the two people on earth that probably knew me better than I did. We all cried with no one was denying the fact that we were all hurting so bad inside.

When I heard Gaz start to stir, moaning a little bit, I tried to get it together. I was flock leader. I was supposed to be invincible and know everything. I was supposed to save my flock when they were in trouble. But somehow I failed with Nudge...

We all somewhat pulled ourselves together and when Gaz opened his eyes his head was in my lap and he was embraced into a tight hug. After a few minutes Angel was pulled into my arms. I wish I could say that when Ella walked in a daze and when mom came home we were all fine. But I would be lying. Don't get me wrong I lie all the time. It's one of my best skills.... I could put it on my CV, if I had one. But this didn't seem like the kind of thing I should lie about.

Anyway we were all wreaks and it took mom and Ella a week to find out the proper details of Nudge's death. It was very obvious that something was terribly wrong when they walked in on five birdkids sobbing their eyes out and the guest room covered in blood. The couch had large crimson pools of dried blood added to its white leather exterior and all the upstairs windows were smashed in. We were all huddled around the two beds squished together and the walls were filled with gopher-like holes due to Iggy's extreme grief.

Oh Nudge...

And that's another chapter gone! Thanks to all reviewers for the last chapters.... Especially you, Constant-Rae-of-Sunshine!

Please REVIEW any new people..... I swear it makes me write faster! Feel free to leave suggestions, corrections, things you want to see happen... ANYTHING!

I probably won't be able to update tomorrow because it's my cousins christening –I'm godmother! - And I'll be busy.... So until next week!

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