Book 1, Missing Angel; Part 5

Digi found that flying was somewhat easier now, his large wings caught the air easily, letting him glide through the skies. It was freeing, having the wind in his hair, seeing the city grow smaller and smaller, the lights turning to little pin pricks.

After about half an hour, they landed at a long stretch of beach.

Digi unzipped his duffle bag shortly after landing, handing out some snacks, and stood, staring off into the horizon. He saw Max lying down, taking a much deserved nap.

He’d only seen the ocean through images, descriptions. It was so beautiful though. He couldn’t help but stare at the waves crashing into the shore. He took a deep breath in, barely noticing that Fang was standing with him as the others played around in the sand.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Not a lot. Thinking about how beautiful this place is. I’ve always wanted to travel the world. I think about how a few days ago, I was stuck in an endless routine of being a lab rat and now… I can’t recognise myself anymore.” Digi admits.

“It’s only natural. For bird-kids like us, nothing will ever remain the same. So long as we’re on the run, we’ll always see new things.” Fang replies, watching Gazzy and Angel start a sand castle.

“I hope we’re not always on the run, but I hope we also get to see new things all the time.”

They don’t say much else, they don’t need to.

Angel looked over briefly, and smiled for a moment.

A few hours later, after Nudge and Max had returned from a quick supply run, Digi found himself eating cookies with the older kids.

Fang smiled, watching Nudge run around after taking a dip in the ocean. “They’re happy here. ”

“What’s not to like? Fresh air, peace and quiet, the ocean. Too bad we can’t stay here.” Max replied.

“What if we were safe here?” he asked. “Like, we just knew no one would hassle us. Would you want to stay?”

“I would wanna stay.” Digi said quietly, a serene look on his face. “Someplace safe, no erasers, no bad guys…”

“We have to find the Institute,” Max said. “And if we find out anything, the others will want to track down their parents. And then, do we find Jeb and confront him? And who’s the Director? Why did they do this to us? Why do they keep telling me I’m supposed to save the world?”

Fang worried his lip, not looking at her at all. Instead gazing slightly at the newest member. “What if… we forgot about all of that?”

Digi and Max blinked, before looking at each other. Max was shocked, jaw wide open. Digi, not so much.

“What are you—?” Max started but stopped when Gazzy ran up to her with a live hermit crab. She looked like she had more to say, but dropped it for now.

The next morning, Fang appeared with another newspaper. ‘Mysterious bird-children nowhere to be found’.

“Good for us! We’ve gone two days without causing a major commotion and ending up on all over the news.”

Nudge pulled Iggy up to go swim, and Max watched Fang and Digi eat from a can of peanuts and read the paper.

Max frowned a little, but then quickly smoothed her face back out. What was wrong with her? Ever since she’d noticed those two growing closer, she felt… something. She didn’t have feelings for Fang, that’d be weird. He was practically her brother, and they were only friends.

So what in the world was wrong with her? Was it worry? Was it… jealousy? That Fang had made another friend? Friend wasn’t the right word though, their relationship seemed different somehow. She shook her head.

Thinking about it too hard would upset her, about what he’d said yesterday, about how Digi had agreed, how they’d looked into each other’s eyes—

She thought about the Erasers, how they hadn’t found them just yet. She wondered if she really did have a tracking chip in her, and if that answer really was yes, why hadn’t the school dragged them back yet?

Was everything really a game? Just like Jeb said it was? Obviously she was a major player, not trying to be egocentric or whatever but that really seemed to be the case.

An awful thought struck her then. What if there were more than two sides? What if everyone wasn’t on the same side?

Max looked towards Fang, who looked up from the funny pages of the newspaper. He shot her a small smile, before returning to whatever whispered conversation he was having with Digi.

Watching him smile and laugh with someone else… kinda hurt especially since they were supposed to be besties.

She looked away from them, heart clenching. She looked towards where Gazzy and Angel were splashing around in the water.

She took a deep breath, head in her hands.

“Is your head hurting?”

“No, just thinking.” She looked towards the water again, but couldn’t find Angel. Gazzy looked confused, searching the waters. And a cold, blood curdling realization dawned on her. Angel hadn’t come back up yet.

She sprang to her feet, sprinting towards the water. “Where did she go down?” She said, ignoring how cold it was.

She heard more splashes, as the rest of the flock also joined the search for Angel. The only thing she could hear was the crashing of waves, and the sound of everyone calling for Angel.

Digi saw nothing but sheer panic on Max’s face, and began to look harder.

Minutes felt like hours, a creeping horror coming upon them. Angel might be gone for real this time.

After about half an hour, Max looked up, and began running towards the shore. Angel then stood up in waist high water, waving. They collided, Max holding Angel close to her. “Angel! Angel, where were you?”

“Guess what? I can breathe underwater!” She replied as if she hadn’t nearly given everyone a heart attack.

The flock leader said nothing at first, just holding the little girl tightly.

Digi honestly couldn’t make out what they were saying after that. Something something Angel can breathe underwater. But all of his nerves were alight, the tips of his fingers beginning to itch.

He took a deep breath, willing himself to focus, and yet…

A feral part of his mind told him about the wolf creatures coming their way. His danger sense very rarely went off.

His hands twitched as he watched his flock. Danger danger danger! Even as they went to bed, the alarms were still going off.

This sense of his had never been wrong before, but what if this was a false alarm?

Digi woke up quickly the next morning, far earlier than everyone else. Fang was up not too long after. Light sleeper and all that.

He said nothing, eyes dilated, hands curled, not quite fists.

Fang looked over at a moment, and genuine concern crossed his usually blank face for a moment.

Digi’s tongue felt leaden in his mouth again, he hated, hated, speaking like this. “Danger, coming very very soon. I can sense it.”

But before either could say anything else, a low, soothing voice filled their ears. “Look whose come to the seashore.”

Max was up at the words, but was immediately pushed back to the ground by Ari, who ground his booted foot down on her chest.

Iggy woke up in an instant, jumping up quickly.

Max used her free arm to wake Nudge, and Angel woke up as well, hearing the commotion.

She removed herself from most of the danger by hovering over twenty feet in the air.

“Get off of her!” Shouted Fang, leaping up and launching himself at the Eraser.

Iggy, Max and Digi went to help him, but two of them were held back. Due to his comparatively small size, Digi dodged and leapt into the fight.

“Nudge, Gazzy, U and A!”

Without question or protest, the two rose into the air to join Angel, avoiding the hungry snaps of furious Erasers.

Ari looked between the two opponents before him. “Two against one? Not a fair fight.”

“When in the world have you ever fought fair, you monster!” Fang said.

They may all be unnaturally strong, but Fang and Digi were out matched big time. They landed smaller blows but it was clear they were struggling against Ari.

Ari bared his teeth, reeling back and catching Fang upside the head. He was down in moments, and Digi screamed.

Before the Eraser could deal anymore blows, Digi swiped at his chest, and deep red lines welling up with blood appeared.

“What the—!” Ari yelped again, backing away. “How did you do that?”

Digi looked at his hands, discovering he’d grown two inch long claws. The tips of his fingers had ripped open to reveal long bird claws. All the anger, all the rage, every emotion he’d been suppressing for years due to all the drugs that had been pumped into him welled up at once. And he made an awful noise, causing several Erasers to cover their ears. “Stay away from him!” He screeched, before lunging.

Caught off guard by a pissed off bird-kid, Digi was able to land quite a few good scratches, making Ari look like he’d been attacked by well… a pissed off bird-kid.

“Kick his ass Digi!” Max shouted, struggling against the wolf-men holding him back.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have much combat experience, flailing wildly and getting in whatever hits he could. Ari finally caught his wrist, and then he was grabbed by the neck, and slammed down on the ground.

Ari snarled at him. “You’re just some nobody! Someone no one cares about! A part of the flock that can be cut off, and I don’t even have to remember your name.” His massive hand clamped down around his throat, squeezing. “Let’s see how fast they move on from you.”

Digi couldn’t breathe, and he knew that if the Eraser squeezed harder, his neck would be broken. He struggled, desperately trying to pull his hands away but failing. His vision began to swim as he got weaker.

Fang stumbled up, and saw what was happening. “Let go of him! Leave him alone!”

He shoved Ari as hard as he could, making him loosen his grip.

Digi coughed weakly, breathing raggedly.

Ari was just about to lunge forwards, about to close the short distance between him and Fang’s neck, but was stopped by a loud shout.