We Were Strangers in the Dark – Chapter 8
By MyNameIsCAL
BANG!
I rolled off the couch, and Fang grabbed me by the arm.
"Grab the laptop." He pulled me up. "We gotta run."
"You think you can run from us?" The smell of wet dog accompanied that statement.
It was those wolves again. Although Gazzy and Iggy had referred to them as Erasers. Well, right now, I guess the biggest problem was that it was pointing this huge shot gun right at Fang.
"Max, go!" Fang froze, staring into the barrel.
Iggy and Gazzy were already making their way out of the window, but I took a chance, throwing myself into the Eraser. The gun went off, but into the ceiling, and dust came showering down on us. Fang grabbed me by the arm again and pulled me out, the Eraser chasing close behind us.
"We've got to fly!" Gazzy exclaimed.
Fang's hand slipped into mine and we took off into the bright lights of New York City. The Eraser fired one more shot at us, but by then we were out of reach.
We didn't stop flying until Gazzy pushed forward and asked Fang where we were going. I realized that we had just been going with no direction really.
"Well…" Fang trailed off for a moment. "I know another place we can hide out for a while."
Gazzy nodded, falling back behind us with Iggy.
"Do you really?" I asked.
"Well, yeah. A few places here and there scattered throughout the city." He let out a breath. "I just sorta liked the idea of flying for a while though."
Fang was silent for the rest of the night. From the time we landed and up until I fell asleep leaning against him on the floor of some abandoned warehouse. He had his arm around me though, and although it had only been hours before we had been shot at, I felt safe again.
Fang had something planned, but he wasn't exactly sharing it with us. Partly because I knew he didn't want Gazzy or Iggy to find out. We spent another night at the warehouse, and then we moved to a motel room which Fang paid for under a fake name, sneaking us in through the balcony.
He sat on the balcony alone as the rest of us got ready for bed. The couch pulled out into a sofa, and Iggy and Gazzy slept on it, keeping pillows between themselves so they wouldn't end up kicking each other. They fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. It wasn't a surprise considering we hadn't slept in days.
"Hey, it's getting late," I said, taking a seat next to Fang.
He looked out at the parking lot. "I know. I need to talk to you about something."
"Of course."
He closed the sliding door. "I'm going to purchase train tickets to get us to Arizona. Enough for you, me, Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge, Angel, and your brother. We'll leave the tickets with Gazzy and Iggy and leave them at the station tomorrow night. Then you and I will go to break the others out."
"Why Arizona?"
"Because your mother is there." He closed his eyes. "And I need to get you all away from here before I come back to save the others that are left, the ones that I haven't even seen, the rest of the people on that list."
"I want to help you though."
He let out a sigh, taking my hand, fingers laced between my own. "You've still got a family out there. I don't want to ruin that chance for you to be happy, Max. All my life I've cared about people who didn't really care about me, or understand that I was lonely. And then I suffered all those years trapped and waiting for my death, and then you showed up, and I feel like everything's changed suddenly."
"But they're out to kill us, Fang. You can't go alone. I won't let you."
The sides of his lips curved upwards, briefly. "I'll come back for you, Max, I promise. But I'm not going to let you, or the others, get hurt again."
We sat there for a long time without speaking. I held his hand, not wanting to let go. He finally stood.
"I have to go buy the tickets. You stay here and rest." He gave me a small smile. "I'll be back soon."
He didn't let go of my hand until he unfurled his wings and took off in the air. I watched him in awe for a while before going inside and settling into the bed. When I woke up in the morning, he was sleeping beside me, arm around me.
We stood in front of the train station with Gazzy and Iggy. Fang handed them their tickets.
"Promise me," he said before letting go. "Promise me you will not follow us. Promise me that you will get on that train no matter what and get far away from here."
Gazzy nodded reluctantly and Iggy mustered a weak "I promise, Fang."
After watching them walk into the station, Fang and I went down an alleyway and took off into the air. The sun was starting to go down now. By the time we reached the facility, it would be dark.
Getting in had been easy.
And then they released the Erasers on us.
"I know a way out." Angel turned the corner.
Fang followed after her, and I brought up the rear with Nudge in front of me. She led us into a room and we broke through the window, our wings shooting out. We swooped down before ascending towards the trees. There was a lone Eraser chasing after us below.
"You can't run forever!" A husky voice shouted.
There was a gunshot.
"Get into the trees!" Fang shouted.
We hit the ground running. At least the trees would provide some protection. We wove through them, zigzagging back and forth. For a moment, I thought we had been heading back towards the facility, but we broke through the tree line, arriving at the edge of a lake.
"They'll shoot us if we fly," Nudge said, glancing over her shoulder.
"Then we'll swim." Angel dove in and Nudge followed.
Fang started after them and then another gunshot went off.
"MAX!"
I didn't even know what was happening. Suddenly I was in the water. A set of big hands came and pulled me up. When I refocused my vision, I was face to face with an Eraser. I began to struggle, trying to free myself.
"Well, well, well." I could feel its claws digging into my skin. "I've missed you, Max."
His eyes met mine and I stopped struggling. Those eyes...
"Ari?"
He growled, dropping me to the ground. "You see what they've done ot me, Max?"
I winced as I tried to sit up. "Then come with us!"
He let out a laugh. "Dad's not dead, Max. You should come with me instead of running around with Mr. Pretty Boy."
"What?"
Ari let out a sigh. "Then we're going to have to kill you."
I braced myself, ready for him to hit me, but he didn't. Ari had turned his attention to Fang.
"Ari!" I screamed. "Ari! Stop!"
There was a moment of hesitation as Ari raised his now human fist. Fang threw a punch, hitting him in the stomach, and scrambled out of the water.
"For the longest time," Ari coughed, "I've lived always being a disappointment to our father, Max. But he's so proud of me now. If only you understood."
"You could have grabbed me when we were escaping," I said. "You had plenty of chances to kill me and to kill the rest of us. Even now, you're not putting up much of a fight."
He turned to face me, and I could finally catch a glimpse of him in the moonlight. His face was badly scarred and he looked as if he had aged a good twenty years.
"You were always good to me, Max." Ari turned away again. "The others aren't really ready to leave the facility. They're afraid of the outside world because they don't know it. Just leave. Leave before I change my mind or before someone comes and finds out I've let you get away again."
Before I could say anything else, he ran towards the woods, blurring into a wolf-like figure and disappearing into the darkness.
And like Ari, the rest of the night was a blur. Fang had wrapped my shoulder with a piece of his shirt and then bandages we had stopped to get quickly at a convenience store. It started to downpour just as we reached the city, and Fang insisted we catch a taxi to the station, that we would have enough time.
"You're shivering," he murmured, wrapping his jacket around me.
"I'll—I'll be fine."
"Where's Gazzy and Iggy?" Nudge asked.
"At the train station waiting for us," Angel whispered.
I felt too weak to question how Angel knew anything. It only dawned on me later that she could read our minds.
Fang had his arm around me, and I found myself leaning against him. He had been attempting to make the jacket stay around me, but instead he ended up holding it himself, trying not to jostle my shoulder in the process.
"We're almost there." He said quietly.
The taxi stopped in front of the station. Fang paid him with now soaked cash and we hurried inside. The few people around looked at us and then away.
"Max!" I saw Gazzy dashing towards us, Iggy shuffling behind him looking, well, a little lost as you can imagine. "Angel! Nudge!"
I closed my eyes, just for a second.
"Max…" Fang grabbed me by the arm. "C'mon, let's sit."
The room was spinning as Fang led me towards a bench. I closed my eyes as he guided me to sit.
"Fang, what's wrong with her?" I heard Iggy whisper.
There was a moment of hesitation. "She got shot."
He lifted his jacket, examining my shoulder.
"It's not bleeding anymore. Not really anyway." That was supposed to sound assuring, but it barely came out that way.
"We can't do anything until we get onto the train," he muttered. "There are too many people around."
"I know this isn't a good time," Gazzy cleared his throat. "But we're really hungry, Fang."
Fang's eyes met mine for a moment and then he turned to the others. "Alright, I'll go get us something to eat. You all stay here with Max, alright?"
"Yeah, of course," Gazzy nodded.
We watched Fang walk off, the other sitting down around me. Angel was telling Gazzy about our escape, although Iggy seemed quite disinterested, talking to Nudge quietly. I closed my eyes, hoping to feel less queasy.
Fang came back with a plastic bag in hand. He dished out some junk food, muttering that the food stands were closed since it was too late already. They ate hungrily, but I shook my head to the bag of chips Fang had opened.
"At least have some water." He reached into the plastic bag producing a bottle.
I sipped it slowly.
"I got some Advil too." He put away the bag of chips. "Maybe they'll have real food on the train."
The hour passed by slowly. Thoughts and images of Ari circled my head. Fang had his arm around me, eyes fixed onto the floor. Finally, we boarded the train, trudging into a compartment with two sets of bunk beds.
The night was far from over though.
Alright, a lengthy chapter compared to the usual ones I write. I'm working on the next one already, so look out for that some time next week. My summer vacation has arrived, so I'm hoping to write out a bunch of chapters for my different stories so when school rolls around, I'll be able to update still.
Thanks for reading!