I ran through the trees, too afraid to look behind me to see if they had caught up.

I hadn't run this fast in my entire life. I had to be running as fast as Fang or Max, which is an impressive feat if you've seen either of them run. But I wasn't about to congratulate myself now. I could feel the prickles and sharp rocks scraping my feet as I ran, but I willed myself to ignore it. Focus, I thought to myself. You can esape this.

I could see an opening from the dark forest that surrounded me. I knew that if I could make it that far, I could unfurl my wings and fly out to the meeting place that Max has told us to go to if we split up. I hoped they were okay, but I couldn't sit there and worry about it now. I just needed to get away from these Erasers.

I guessed that there were about five behind me. I would have flown out, but there wasn't enough room in this dense forest to fly. Fortunately, the Erasers were having more trouble running through the thick bushes and trees than I was. I could never have outrun a fullgrown Eraser otherwhise.
But I could hardly consider myself lucky.

I leapt out of the forest and braced myself to land on my feet and let out my wings, but I found that I just kept falling. I had landed right in a hole.
I seemed to fall in this pitch black for a long time. I panicked and tried to open my wings, but my wings hit the edges of the hole and I continued to slide downwards into the dark. I landed on my stomach, knocking my breath out with a loud oof.

I pulled myself to my feet and looked around. I couldn't see anything around me, and it was too dark to see my hand in front on my face.
Don't panic, Nudge... I thought quietly. What would Max do? She probably wouldn't have gotten herself into this mess. But where am I? I wonder if there's a way out of this hole. Will I be stuck here forever?

I realized I was rambling in my mind, so I clamped off my thoughts and tried to figure out a way to get out of there. At least I wasn't being attacked by those Erasers. I hoped that they weren't going to follow me down here.

Just then, a light appeared a little ways away. It was a doorway, and someone seemed to be standing in it.

Should I move towards it? I didn't have much of a choice. So, I took a couple of slow, deep breaths, and walked carefully towards the doorway, where the dark outlines of a person stood waiting.

As I neared this person, I could tell that he was male. He was tall, and too skinny to be an Eraser.

Finally, recognition entered my brain.

"Iggy!" I exclaimed, now hurrying towards him, relief flooding me. But before I got to him, another figure entered the doorway.
It was an Eraser, and he held a knife to Iggy's throat.

"Come with us if you want this mutant to live!" the Eraser commanded, backing out of the doorway.

I could feel my eyes widen, and I wanted to turn and run. But I couldn't let them hurt Iggy. We would escape somehow, but I couldn't possibly leave Iggy behind.
I walked through the door and my eyes felt overwhelmed by the light.

While I was trying to adjust to the light, an Eraser came up behind me and grabbed me. I started kicking with all my might, and all the swear words that I knew came pouring out at him. Thanks to Max for my wonderful vocabulary. But he wasn't letting go, and I eventually stopped, too tired to fight him.
Iggy and I were taken down a hallway. I looked over at him. His face showed no emotion, but his jaw was tightened, and I could tell how upset he was. I wished at that moment that I could send him a reassuring look.

We passed door after door, and I wondered where we were. Was this an underground branch of the School? Were they planning on experimenting on us again? I really hoped not.

But there was no denying it. The starch white walls, the Erasers, and worst of all, that antiseptic smell that lingered... they all pointed to one explanation. The School.

Finally the Erasers stopped at one door, opening it and pulling us into the room. We were roughly thrown onto chairs and left in the room. I looked around, and I saw the most relieving sight in front of me.

There was the rest of the flock, all sitting on the chairs as well. I knew that I shouldn't be happy that the rest of the flock had been captured too, but it was great to see them all in front of me.

Max gave me a reassuring smile, the one she always gave me when we were in a tough spot. "Great of you to join us, guys!" she said sarcastically.

"Oh, Max! I was so scared!" I started, "I saw Iggy after I fell into this hole but they caught us! I didn't know where any of you were or if you were alright! I was"
Fang gave me a look that said 'Nudge, you're rambling' and I immeadiately shut up.

"So... what now?" Gazzy asked. I noticed he was scraped up pretty bad. He must have fought really hard before they caught him.

Max looked over at Fang. They were having another one of those conversations with their eyes that no one understood. I sighed silently, wishing we were back in our home in the mountains, or with the hawks by Lake Mead. Even the subway tunnels of New York would be better than this!

Max looked at each of us and said, "Well, guys, there's not much we can do yet. We need to stay here quietly, and wait for them to slip up, and we can get out of here"

I frowned. Stay here quietly?! This was the real Max, wasn't it? The Max I knew would get up, break down the door and kick Eraser BUTT!
She seemed to be reading my expression and gave me a reassuring look. I had learned to trust that face. I trusted her with my life. "Trust me, Nudge," she said.
But I couldn't just sit here! I was ready to fight for the flock. I didn't want to spend my life in another dogcrate. I was sick and tired of being chased and captured! Enough is enough, people!

So, I leapt from my chair to head for the door. But before I could get to my feet, I felt a wave of pain shoot through my feet and right up my spine. I got extremely dizzy and I fell back into my chair.

Max gave me a look that said 'I told you so', and I stuck my tongue out at her.

"What just happened?" Iggy asked, looking in my direction.

"Nudge just got zapped by the chair..." Gazzy replied.

"Remind me not to get up then," Iggy said, looking surprised.

I crossed my arms, angrily trying to come up with a plan. Max was our leader, the glue that kept us together. But I couldn't just 'Stay here quietly'. I'm not a quiet kind of person.

Nudge, Max is right. We need to be patient. Angel thought, reading my mind.

Get out of my mind, Angel! I snapped. I wasn't in the mood for this.

I saw a tinge of hurt in her face when I thought that, and I instantly felt bad for being so harsh. I had to keep reminding myself that she was only six. She just seemed older than that. I guess we had all grown up, being on our own for so long, fending for ourselves like we had.

Just then, a whitecoat came through the door with a needle in hand. I felt a shudder reach my bones. I wasn't going to go through this. Not again.
Ignoring the pain, I leapt from my chair and launched myself at the white coat. It hurt so much that I felt like I was going to black out, but my will to be free was stronger.

I punched the whitecoat in the nose, and he yelled as blood came out of his nose. I kicked him in the gut and he fell onto his knees.
I noticed something in his pocket. I reached into it, and the whitecoat was in too much pain to notice.

It was some sort of remote. I realized I must be for the chairs. I hit the power button and all the chairs the flock sat in made a clicking noise.
They all sprang up and we dashed out the door. Together, we ran down the endless hall, back the way Iggy and I had come. Maybe we could climb back through the hole I had fallen in. We could fly to safety, and go get some food. Man, was I hungry.

The alarms started wailing and I knew they had discovered we were missing.
I recognized the dark doorway I had entered in, and I yelled, "To the right!" Everyone turned into the doorway. Gazzy and Angel first, then Iggy, Fang, me, then lastly Max.

But Erasers had been waiting for us in the room. It had been a trap.
Even though we all had great sight in the dark, it was still too dark for us to realize this before it was too late. We were all held tightly by the Erasers, each one with a knife to our throats.

It was then that I realized they were going to kill us. I wasn't going to give up without a fight. There was no way I was going to die in an underground School.
I started kicking, biting and struggling with all of my might.

"Nudge, give it a rest."

Max? It sounded like Max, but she sounded different. She sounded defeated. My eyes adjusted to the light and I could see her face. She didn't have that same determined look in her eyes that I had learned to trust in.

"What?" I managed to say.

"It's over, Nudge..." she said softly. "It's time to face reality."

"Any last words?" one of the Erasers growled to Gazzy. I looked at his dirt-streaked face. He was crying. It was rare that Gazzy cried. He was always so tough.
Gazzy managed to smile. "Yeah. Let 'er rip." And then he let out one of his special gifts.

Then the Eraser slit his throat.

I cried out, tears streaming down my face. "Gazzy!! Oh Gazzy..." I burst into sobs.

The Eraser holding Fang shook him slightly. "Last Words?" he asked, tightening his grip on the knife in his hand.
A lone silent tear fell down his face. I had never seen him cry before. Not ever.

"No," he said, his emotionless face remaining.

Then the Eraser slit his throat. He let Fang's body drop face first beside Gazzy's.

This was too much! Two of my friends were gone. Two of the only friends I ever had!

The Eraser holding Angel brought the knife up to her throat, and I could see the tears going down Angel's cheeks.
Goodbye Nudge. I love you, she said in my mind.

Angel! I love you too! You're like the little sister I never had! I said back.

But the Eraser didn't seem to care that he was killing my little sister. My mind went numb when I saw Angel's eyes lose their life. When she fell to the ground, I had no tears left to cry.

I looked to Max. Her eyes were dead. She looked straight ahead, not looking at me.

"Max, how could you give up? How could you let them kill us? You were supposed to protect us, Max! Please, Max, snap out of it and get us out of here!!" I was screaming at this point.

But I knew that even if we did get out of here alive, our lives would never be the same. Without the Gasman, Iggy would be nothing. Without Fang, it would be like part of Max was missing. Without Angel...

But we had to escape! I didn't want to die yet! There was so much I still wanted to see, and so much I wanted to do!

"Sorry, Nudge. This is the end..." Max said. I had never heard her give up hope before. This was Max! She always had a plan. And now, the one who gave us all hope had lost her hope.

Then the Eraser slit her throat, and she fell next to the others.

Then it was just Iggy and me. He seemed to be staring at me, though I knew he wasn't.

"Iggy, we can still escape..." I said quietly.

"Bye Nudge," he said simply, closing his sightless eyes.

"Iggy NO!" I cried, fresh tears forming.

But the Eraser slit his throat aswell.

The Eraser holding me let me go, and they all seemed to fade into the background. They left me with my dead Flock, a pool of blood surrounding them.
I kept screaming Iggy's name. Over and over. Why didn't he stay? Why did he have to leave me in this stupid world all alone! They should have just killed me. Anything would be better than this.

I was all alone in the dark, surrounded by death, and no one in the world cared.

A/N Hi! What do you think? I still have more, don't worry. This is not the end! Please review. I would love that :D

Kiwibree