In just a few seconds I caught up with Fang, and we angled ourselves down towards the truck, which hopefully held the rest of the flock. Our exact target was the metal roof of said semi truck, and we were there in what seemed like an eternity, but was actually far less than that. Time was slowed down, it seemed, as we raced towards the truck. And the distance was far less than it appeared.

We were there in moments, though long before that we spotted dozens of them, clustered all around the truck.

Erasers.

But the Erasers were dead, so these were something else.

Brium may have been right. This may be something worse.

They looked almost just like Erasers; the newer Erasers, anyway. These dudes had wings.

And even blanker expressions than the norm.

They didn't move, even as we flew right over them. I was waiting for the world to go black, signifying my death, but that just didn't happen.

We landed on the trailer of the truck with two loud thumps, and Fang took up a defensive position, covering me.

I banged on the roof with my good right hand, knowing how pointless this all was. We had known we were flying into a trap, and we did it anyway on the offhand we'd make it out.

Even though we knew we wouldn't.

There was no point living if we weren't all together. And I was willing to die for that once chance to rescue my flock.

I pounded on the roof.

"Is anyone there!?" I yelled, as Fang muttered a string of curses somewhere off the my right.

"Max!"

It was Iggy's voice. Muffled to an extreme by the metal between us.

"Iggy!" I shouted back. "We're getting you out!"

"Best of luck!" I heard Iggy yell.

I didn't know what to make of that one.

"Max," a voice said from below.

I knew who it was; I recognize that voice anywhere.

I stood up and glanced at Fang; his face was set with concentration, and he was in a slight crouch ready to spring into action.

And then I turned to where the voice had emanated from.

And there Jeb was, looking solemn.

And also badly hurt.

Angel stood next to him, smiling.

I guess she had implemented the plan of her "switching sides" that we had come up with just in case this sort of thing transpired.

Either that or she had actually switched sides.

I shuddered a bit at that thought.

I looked down at Jeb and Angel, the dozens of starnge Erasers standing all around, as frozen as stone and staring back.

"Hi, Jeb," I said as off hand as possible. "How you doin'?"

I mentioned Jeb was hurt, right? If my blood hadn't been pumping as hard as it was, I may have wondered just a little more about that.

His left hand was completely encased in a cast, and his arm was slung to his chest on a medical sling. In his other hand, he held a crutch which he used to prop himself up.

There were several smaller bandages on his face as well.

What the hell?

Jeb sighed. "Well, Max," he said. "How are we going to do this?"

Angel just smiled at his side.

"The regular way," I replied. "We're not in the business of giving up, Jeb."

I cocked my head a bit and gave a smile. "What the hell happened to you?"

Jeb's face reddened visibly. "Please just come quietly, Max. Angel as you can see has done the right thing. If you just give it up, we won't have to harm you in any way."

This speech was awfully familiar.

I opened my mouth to give what I hoped would be a witty, Max-ish reply, but I was beaten to it.

Not by Fang, who was being Fang and staying quiet, but by someone else.

"I wonder Jeb," a calm and cool voice said, "if anyone believes your word anymore."

I was looking at Jeb, and I had what a moment of surprise that had to crack the top ten… no make it five all time biggest surprises in my life.

And, as you're aware, I've lived a life so full of them that a top five addition was no small feat.

Jeb face went from its normal calmness to complete shock in such a small amount of time, I doubted it was possible at all.

But Jeb looked like he was seeing the impossible, and I felt as I watched him do so, that I was seeing the impossible, too.

Jeb looked… afraid.

"Does anyone, Jeb?" the voice continued. "You've lied so many times, I wonder if even you yourself believe what you say. Or if you even care. Ignorance is truly bliss."

Jeb whispered one word, just as I recognized where I had heard this voice.

Jeb whispered that one word so softly, that, had I been a normal person, I wouldn't have heard it at all.

But I was me, so I did.

"Brium..." he said.

And with a thud beside me, he was there; he had come from somewhere behind us.

I jumped a mile as he furled his wings back to his body and pointed a small gun squarely at Jeb.

It was him. The boy we had left back at our ruined camp.

Brium.

I looked back at Jeb, who looked even more shocked than he did moments earlier.

I turned back to Brium, who was smiling.

"That's the problem with having an unpredictable variable, Jeb," Brium said. "You never know what it's going to do next."

The Eraser replacements all moved in unison to attack stances.

"If any of you lot move, Jeb dies. I doubt very much any of you are faster than this bullet, so I'd take my word for it If I were you."

Brium raised an eyebrow. "Does that compute?"

"Don't attack!" Jeb ordered, staring and Brium and the gun he had that was trained on him.

"Good call, Jeb... I see you've recovered some. Did they manage to reattach all of your fingers? I was worried for a moment that I was too rough."

"What the hell is going on?!" I shouted looking back and forth from Jeb to Brium.

Talk about being left out.

"Long story. Over tea sometime, perhaps," Brium replied, not taking his eyes off Jeb. "In short, Max, I did that." Brium gestured at Jeb.

Huh?

"Can you fight with your hand like that?" Brium asked, as Jeb puzzled over what to say next.

I blinked, and resolved myself to being as touchy and me-ish as possible. "Yes!" I hissed. "I'm fine!

How did he even know about my hand?

"Fang? You ready? This may get bad," Brium said.

"I'm ready," Fang said.

I looked at Fang, and saw he was grinning ear to ear. It was the biggest smile I had ever seen him adorn.

"Good," Brium smiled. "We have forty-one of these robotic fellows, five of which appear to have some sort of dart gun. Probably tranquilizer. Be careful."

I blinked again. It was going to be a fight.

"Max! What's going on up there?" Iggy's voice drifted up to me. I thought I also heard Nudge, Gazzy and even Total as well, talking excitedly down there. They were all right.

Now it was time for us to do our part, I guess.

I looked at Jeb again, and then at Angel, who wore a confuse expression. I was just contemplating what that could mean when Brium spoke to me again.

"I suppose you still don't trust me, do you?" he said.

"Not really, no," I said back, looking down at the overwhelming force below us. "I mean, obviously not! No duh!"

"Okay, then," Brium gave a more grim smile.

"If it's any consolation, Jeb," Brium said, raising his voice so the man could hear him, "this one isn't personal."

He lowered his voice. "I sincerly hope you two are ready."

And Brium shot Jeb.