Yes, I know this chapter is a little rushed, but with a mixture between school and total drainage of energy, I just wanted to get it over with. I might edit it with some better material so yeah lol.
Chapter 8: Stupid Party Crashers
I stood there for the rest of the afternoon, clenching and unclenching my fists with music blaring in my ears until the kids came out of the lake, looking quite hungry. I smiled at them, although it was forced, and said there was some more fish by Fang. I saw some shoulders slump down slightly, and I grinned in spite of myself.
I was getting really tired of fish myself. I would soon have to get my laptop and leave...but even this thought saddened me.
I had grown attached to the flock, including Fang, even though he was an idiot for touching things that didn't belong to him and annoying me with his constant staring. But they were so...so close; like a family. It felt good to stay there and watch them as they cracked jokes at each other, or when they stacked their fists together, as if to symbolize a never-ending bond between them. It always made me think of what I had, before I was taken away...
"Hey" said Fang as he came up behind me. My teeth clenched, but I kept a calm facade while taking my headphones out of my ears. There was a slight ringing and I laughed to myself.
Note to self: don't blast music in your ears in an attempt to drown out the world, I thought to myself as I turned to face him.
Fang seemed cool, laid back, relaxed, but his eyes said something different, like excitement...and fear."Thanks for letting me use the laptop. I still might need it though, so if you don't want to stick around and eat more fish, you can leave it with me" he said as he shrugged his shoulders. I crossed my arms as I leaned on my left leg, my eyes narrowing at him slightly.
"Sorry. I don't plan on changing my mind any time soon" I replied. He smirked and I scowled at him, trying to stay calm as I walked past him.
"So...the pictures in your notebook...they're nice" Fang said, his lips curling up.
And that sent me off the edge.
As I stood there standing next to him shoulder to shoulder with me facing the camp, my hand materialized right in front of his face, pushing him down to the ground with quite a lot of force, if I do say so myself. He looked up at me, his eyes wide with slight shock, with one hand behind his head.
I knew he had read my notebook, but the fact that he had snuck into my stuff to look at it, possibly reading some of my entries, angered the living soul out of me.
"Do you have some kind of problem with other people's stuff and not touching them?!" I asked, feeling my cheeks getting hot; my hands balled into tight little fists. Fang stood up calmly, his hand still rubbing the back of his head.
"What's so important in there that you have to hide it?" Fang asked accusingly. My teeth clenched together so tightly I was sure my jaw was going to pop.
He was challenging me; trying to get me mad enough to actually spill something.
As if I would. It was my book; he didn't have to know anything.
And right then and there, I knew he had won.
Not because I couldn't come up with a retort, because trust me, I could. I was even planning on setting his pants on fire, but I knew Angel was trying to read my thoughts as we spoke.
The only reason why I admitted defeat was because every ones eyes were on me, waiting for my next move. I hated being under the radar of peoples' stares; it made me uncomfortable. So I sighed, letting out all of my hot air and pent up anger, and shouldered my way past him back to where my belongings were.
"At least I dont snore" I mumbled, but I knew he heard it.
"I don't snore" I heard him say with a slight acidic tone. I could hear the rest of the flock snickering as I climbed a tree branch.
"Sure you don't" I replied with a small smile forming on my face.
"Whatever" Fang said. He helped everyone get settled for bed before putting out his fist for the rest of the flock to stack theirs on.
In a matter of minutes, everyone was fast asleep, except Fang, who was watching me watch him. I guess he was waiting for me to go to sleep or something so that he could draw on my face. Or he didn't want to go to sleep just in case he really did snore. The thought of that almost brought me on the verge of a chuckle, which made him scowl at me before looking away into the fire.
And then I heard it.
The sickening sound that brought back horrible memories.
And just when I thought I had found paradise... I thought to myself as I stood up on my branch and climbed to the top of the tree. The canopy was ridiculously high, but I finally managed to poke my head up out of the top of the tree for a quick glance. I scanned the streets below to find them empty except for a few passing cars.
But then again, I knew that wasn't where I should have been looking.
My gaze slowly shifted to the sky and my heart sank into my chest. A cloud of Erasers and Flywolves were coming straight towards us, and it seemed like there were more than a good four dozen of them. I quickly dropped from the tree and landed in front of Fang gracefully. He gave me a look of confusion when he read my expression.
How could he not hear the ear-deafening screech that they are making? I thought to myself. I looked over at Iggy, who was curled up in a tight ball with a slight look of concentration on his face, his body twitching every once in awhile. He must barely hear them... I thought.
"Time to go" I said to Fang simply, listening to the screeches getting louder in my ears.
"Why?" he asked, getting up quickly while doing a 360 scan. I grabbed his hand and we suddenly ended up near the top of the tree that I was on. He looked down, his eyes widening because he was caught off guard. "How did you-"
"Shut up and look" I said. He was wearing out my patience, and we were running out of time.
I jumped down again and woke everyone up, still surprised that they couldn't hear the roaring that was splitting through the night air. Fang came down soon after, his face determined, as he briefed everyone on what was going on while he packed the small belongings that he had. I grabbed my laptop just as Fang did the same. Our eyes met for a second before I let it go. I gave him the "you can take it but I'm still coming with you BECAUSE it's mine" look. He seemed to get it because he rolled his eyes at me.
I would have chuckled if we weren't about to run for our lives.
We finally flew out of the clearing and into the sky, and I knew that they saw us because I heard, "Hey, there they are! Let's rip them to shreds!". I saw Total pop his head out of Iggy's backpack and look behind us.
"Holy crap! We're gonna die!!" he yelled before popping his head back inside, most likely to curl into a little ball. I flew next to Fang and glanced back, only to gaze in horror as the black cloud gained on us.
"What's the plan?" I asked Fang, but the look in his eyes told me everything. We didn't really have one.
"We need to shake them off" Fang said.
"We can't lose THAT! That's nearly impossible! " I heard the Gasman say.
"Impossible is a state of mind" I replied, trying to calm him down a bit. I saw Fang glance at me but before I could say anything, I heard Iggy shout.
"They're shooting rockets at us!"
"Split up!" ordered Fang, and we flew in different directions as three rockets blasted right where we were only seconds ago.
I'm glad we have the blind kid... I thought to myself before feeling a sharp pain in my back. I turned around with a round house kick, which ended up right into a flying Erasers face. I looked around me to notice that I was surrounded by a whole group of flying Erasers and Flywolves alike. I glanced behind them to see that the flock was holding their own.
Angel was making them drop out of the sky one by one, the Gasman and Nudge were kicking butt, Fang was uprooting anger that I never thought he had, and Iggy was kicking butt and taking names. But I was the only one with the biggest group surrounding them. I felt anger build up in me and I sprung into action, snapping arms, kicking stomachs, karate-chopping necks, and using every pressure point and fighting skill that I had ever learned.
And then I saw it, but only because Iggy was in my line of vision. I'm sure this didn't happen often because he had a surprised look on his face.
But then again, he probably never faced Flywolves AND flying Erasers with decent flying skills at the same time.
It all went in slow motion for me as I watched an Eraser's claws barely miss his back and his wings, but catch the straps of his backpack. The bag dropped like a ton of bricks and I saw him look down with a look that said, "Did i just lose like 100 pounds?".
I heard Angel scream in horror.
And then my body just moved.
I jumped over a Flywolf and dived down, knowing fully well that Total was in that bag. I couldn't breath or think as I pushed out every bit of speed that I had.
God, I cant catch up to him! I cant catch up to him!! God, think, think, think, THINK! OK, I have to use it and I have to use it now! C'mon, you've done it before! Use it now...USE IT NOW!! I screamed at myself.
And then I saw it.
A huge, gigantic light purple hand with its palm face up appeared underneath the falling bag and stopped it. I almost started laughing with hysterics as I rushed down to the hand and almost ripped open the bag to see a shaking, terrified, and wide-eyed Total.
"Total, say something" I said, now a bit concerned that he was going mute or something.
"That's the SECOND TIME that I've been dropped from the FLIPPIN' SKY! I'M GONNA KILL YOU ERASERS!!" Total screeched. I picked him up and held him in a deathly hug, tears almost coming to my eyes.
"Oh, God, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I heard Angel say to me in my head. I smiled to myself and just happened to look in Iggy's bag.
"I can't believe you trust yourself to stay in a bag filled with handmade bombs!" I said to Total as I picked one up. "If this fell to the ground, fire started or not, you would have been blown to bits...". Total's eyes widened, as if he just realized that he could die that way.
"Watch out!" I heard Angel yell in my head and I instantly looked back. I had almost forgotten that we were fighting Erasers. I quickly formed a plan as I took out a couple of bombs and stuffed them in my pocket.
"Can you stay in the bag?" I asked as I looked at Total.
"Only if you won't drop me..." Total mumbled. I gave him a reassuring smile and promised him that I wouldn't before I carefully placed him back into Iggy's bag. I then grabbed it and held it tightly in my arms before taking off into the air again. I glanced back, only to notice that more than half of the flying Erasers, or Eraser 2.0 as I called them, and the Flywolves that were left were following me. It also didn't help that as soon as that hand disappeared, I gained a splitting headache that made my vision blurry.
"Fang!" I called to him as I flew above him. He kicked an Eraser hard in the stomach before looking up at me.
I carefully passed him Iggy's bag and heard Total say, "I SWEAR if you drop me again I WILL HATE YOU FOR LIFE!".
I smiled before saying, "Don't worry. You're in good hands".
Fang and I exchanged a glance and he sent a "what are you gonna do?" kind of look to me. I tried to smile, but it came out more as a smug look.
"Get the flock as far away from here when you get the chance. Trust me this once" I said before quickly diving out of the way as a bullet whizzed past my face. I shot straight down near the clearing that we all were in no less than half-an-hour ago at most; when everything was slightly peaceful. I grounded my teeth together at the memory and took Iggy's small bombs out of my pockets."C'mon, follow the leader, douche bags!" I yelled behind me as I sped towards the trees. I screeched to a sudden stop, almost toppling head over heels to the ground, and was soon surrounded by more than half of the vicious snarling cavalry...well, the half that wasn't dead. My ears were ringing as I threw the small, harmless looking bombs on the ground.
I didn't know how effective a blind avian-boy's homemade bombs were, but I was about to find out.
"Hope you like fire, 'cuz you're in the kitchen" I said with a smirk.
Note to self: if I survive this, don't ever say that again, I thought to myself as I set the bombs on fire.
I quickly sent myself underwater and as soon as I did, I felt the Earth shake. Seconds later, an Eraser's head crashed right in front of me in the water, and I let out a scream before covering my mouth and swimming to the surface. I let out a choking gasp and climbed out, my wings drooping by my sides. As I coughed up water and gasped for air, I looked around.
Those small, harmless looking bombs completely obliterated the trees that were closest to it. The rest of them were charred black. There were mini-fires on the branches and I quickly put out all but one which was on the ground. There were Eraser guts all over the place, but I ignored them so that I wouldn't start feeling sentimental. It was either me or them.
I stood up and looked at the sky, only to notice that the fighting hadn't ceased. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and imagined that hand came and swept away all of the Erasers.
I have enough energy for this... I thought as I opened my eyes. But my vision was already beyond seeing anything, and I soon felt my eyes close again as I slipped into unconsciousness.
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