Angel POV

Mind control wouldn't work on these guys; they were smart, adaptive, and were true to their mission. Any show of resistance and you were dealt a nasty punch to the gut or a blow to the head. They forced handcuffs onto us, keeping our arms in front so that they could also strap restraints onto our wings. We were then shoved hastily forward into the back of a small armored truck, the doors slammed shut and locked securely. In the dark, cold, steel floored truck, we sat down in the farthest corner from the doors. It was pitch black but our eyes quickly adjusted.

"We were trying to get there anyway." I whispered to Fang as the truck jerked forward, bumping over ruts and potholes.

"Not as prisoners. We need to find Max, not get trapped ourselves." He stood carefully, keeping his body against the wall for balance. He moved towards the locked door and inspected it carefully.

"There's no use." I said quietly. The truck jarred violently, causing Fang to stumble onto his knees. "These guys are taking every precaution."

"When we get there, they'll most likely separate us." Fang sighed, leaning against the wall, keeping his wrists leveled on his knee. "If they do, try to find Max. Don't worry about me."

"I'll find her, then come back for you." I told him, but he didn't react.

We had been bumping along in the back of this van for what felt like hours. We were both shivering, freezing in the unairconditioned space exposed to the winter climate outside. My joints ached and my head pounded. The hard, steel flooring provided no comfort or protection from harsh bumps along the way. We sat against the back wall, my head leaned against Fang's shoulder. I could feel him shivering but he remained strong and quiet, listening to the men talk in the cabin behind us. They spoke of random things, such as what they planned on doing that weekend, how much they would be paid for delivering us, even boasting about their tracking abilities. No one revealed just how they found us, however.

I must have fallen asleep. I opened my eyes upon feeling the truck grind to a halt. The men clambered out of the cabin and slammed the doors, but didn't move towards the back of the truck. I searched their minds, terrified of when they actually came for us.

"They're stopping for the night." I informed Fang, who only nodded. We would be stuck in here overnight, where the temperature dropped even further. I inched closer to him, trying to conserve warmth best I could. My wings were numb and my muscles stiff and sore from the cold and constant position. Our breath came out in clouds in front of us. The metal handcuffs felt like heavy blocks of ice on my wrists. I shuddered once more.

Neither of us slept very much that night. The cold made that nearly impossible. The men finally returned to the cabin and the truck sputtered back to life. We resumed the jarring journey towards the school. I estimated that the next time we stopped we would have arrived.

"You two still alive back there?" A man shouted, banging against the metal wall behind our heads. We both jumped but said nothing. My heart was pounding with fear and anticipation. We hadn't been to the school for a while, thanks to Max's constant paranoia and precautions, so I really feared what had changed there. We had been trying to get to Death Valley for nearly a week now. Anything could have happened to Max and the flock in that time.

Max POV

Gazzy was fine in the morning, thank god. My first priority was to go back to the river and get more fish, hopefully avoiding any more creatures along the way. Second, was to return to the dome I had cracked with a rock. If I could crack it, I could break through it. It might be our only way out.

I looked over each of the flock as we flew. Everyone was quiet, even Nudge, and that alarmed me. Between trying to avoid the creatures in here, building the shelter, and rescuing Gazzy, I hadn't noticed everyone else taking a turn for the worse. Iggy's pewter wings were weak against the cold wind, Nudge was abnormally silent either due to hunger or exhaustion, and Gazzy panted hard with the effort of flying only a few miles. We were all incredibly thin and the cold weather only exacerbated the problem. I didn't know how much longer we could keep going in here like this. I hope Jeb was proud of himself.

Finding fish had been a chore as well. The river had frozen over more than the night before, and chopping through the thick ice was a lot of work. We only managed to scrape out a few fish as well. Now I stood over the frosted dome from before. A whitecoat was inside, watching me carefully. She was silent, held no clipboard for notes, and just stared. Her face was sad, as if she held pity for us. I held the rock in my hands tightly.

"Max, it's bulletproof most likely." Iggy said quietly as I smashed the rock against the dome. It bounced off with no evidence of damage. They had since replaced the dome since my last episode. I turned and chucked the rock, it breaking apart in the frozen earth. I jumped into the air and flew towards Dunderville in an emotional wreck. I landed clumsily on the roof of a partially gutted office building. I bit back tears and tried to control my breathing. I glanced up at Nudge and Gazzy as they landed inside the church balcony. I heard soft wingbeats coming up behind me and I turn to see Iggy gliding carefully to land next to me. His thin frame touched down lightly and his wings remained open to balance.

"You doing ok?" He asked, his voice sounding tired. His once beautiful ashen wings were now tattered feathers and a dull color. They folded against his back neatly but I could see just how thin he really was. His arms were thin and lanky, his jawline sharp, and his hips bony. I glanced down at myself and realised that I was in the same state.

"Spectacular." I chuckled, glancing back up at him. Even his crystal blue eyes were now dull and lifeless. He put his hands in his pockets and sat down next to me, the wind ruffling his blonde hair. "You?"

"Never better." He said tiredly.

"I don't see a way out of this, Ig." I admitted, feeling my voice hitch in my throat as tears threatened to spill over. I swallowed hard. "I don't even know where Fang or Angel are, or if they're even safe." I looked down at the rubble below and squeezed my eyes shut. I felt Iggy's arm wrap around my shoulder and pull me into a hug against his chest. Surprised but thankful, I hugged him and leaned my head against his thin shoulder.

"Fang would never let anything happen to Angel, you know that." He said quietly. I could feel his heart beating fast, just like the rest of ours. "As for us, Jeb isn't gonna let his 4 favorite specimens waste away."

"He already is." I said, noticing just how pronounced Iggy's ribs were. But then I remembered the bracelets we all were wearing. Iggy let me go and I looked down at his wrist, seeing the metal band still blinking. "These wristbands, they transmit into the school?"

"Yeah, pretty sure they relay vital signs." Iggy said, feeling the band with his fingers lightly.

"But if we damage or even remove them?"

"Then the whitecoats would think we were dead." Iggy's face broke into a grin that I hadn't seen in weeks.

Angel POV

I could see the school, through the minds of the men. We stopped at the security gate that surrounded the facility, they checked us in, and we passed onto the property. I did my best to contain my growing panic and dread, holding Fang's hand tightly. The facility looked like a giant factory, with huge locked doors and no windows to be seen. We passed into a courtyard, the same courtyard that I had been through at least a dozen times. It was time to unload.

"Just be calm. Do as they say and you won't get hurt." Fang whispered as we heard them unlocking the doors. I nodded and squinted against the light as it flooded into the truck. It was dull light, evening time. Normally by this point we would have made a break for it, but with both our wings and hands restrained, it would only cause pain. The door fully opened and my eyes adjusted to see three whitecoats with gloves and catch poles at the ready. Two medium sized cages sat behind them open and ready. Fang grit his teeth and stood up as the men began to enter the truck. One reached for me with a hooked pole, grabbing onto my handcuffs roughly and yanking me forward.

"You there, get down." One man shouted at Fang and raised his pole. His was different, with a wire loop at the end. I was yanked away and forced into the cage before I could see what happened to Fang. I just heard the crackle of electricity and a hiss of pained breath. I squirmed around to see Fang being dragged out of the truck, the loop around his neck and a hook around his cuffs. The whitecoats were laughing.

Trapped in the cages, they wheeled us inside. We entered a short hallway with cages on either side. I could hear the tormented souls inside screaming, scratching at the walls, and howling in excitement as we passed by. They were new Erasers, just before they were trained to hunt efficiently. More often than not, we were used as the bait. We passed through another set of doors and this time, the whitecoats split. Fang's cage was wheeled in the opposite direction of mine. I began to panic, turning to watch him go. There was nothing we could do.

"In here." The whitecoat ordered to another, roughly placing my cage on the floor in the next room. One grabbed my cuffs with the hook and forced my hands through the wired cage. Someone reached in and removed my wing restraints to my relief. Then another clasped a metal band around my wrist and then unlocked my cuffs, pushing me back again. I felt the band nervously, hoping it wouldn't be a tool to deliver shocks in the future. The whitecoats moved around the room quickly. Some were at desks filling out paperwork, another was on the phone, while more were standing in front of me with more clipboards. My cage was then loaded back up onto a trolley once again and I was wheeled further into the school.

We stopped at a large metal door that had at least three locks on it. They opened each with a computerized code and the door swung open silently. It was night now, and I could see the stars in the clear dark sky. It was also freezing, and I felt the cold breeze blow inside the room, bringing flurries of snow along with it. My cage was dropped outside in the snow and the door was unlocked. I jumped from the cage and went airborne, turning to see them grab the cage and shut the enormous door again. I was so confused, but I didn't care. All that mattered was that I was free!

"Oof!" I grunted a sharp pained cry as I hit a solid object above me. Spiraling out of control, I fell back towards earth. I snapped my wings open again just in time to glide back down to the snow covered ground. Dazed, I looked back up at the night sky. There was nothing that should have been in my way. I stood and looked around at my surroundings once more. To my surprise, the door the whitecoats had opened was no longer visible. It looked like I really was in the middle of nowhere, outside. I closed my eyes and scanned the area for any other signs of life. Fish in the river close by, and the confused minds of several other beings. As well as 4 familiar minds. I snapped my eyes open and looked in the direction I had sensed them. I jumped back into the air and flew as fast as I could.

Below me was a small, ruined town. Broken buildings, shattered glass, and destroyed roads dotted the landscape. Confused and concerned, I tried to push through. I could see a tall church tower with faint light escaping it. Excitement filled my heart and I flew towards it, seeing sheet metal surrounding three of the four sides. Just as I got close to the open side, a figure leapt from the balcony and collided into me at full speed. We fell towards the ground for a short ways before the being let me go and its huge wings opened up, breaking its fall. I barely managed to catch the wind before I hit the bricks below.

"Iggy!" I shouted as I recognized his pewter wings in the moonlight. He paused, hovering above me for a few moments, his head cocked.

"Angel?" He called down, surprised. I saw three more heads look out from the church tower, recognizing them as Gazzy, Nudge, and Max. They all jumped from the tower and coasted down to me.

"Angel!" Max shouted, landing next to me. She grabbed me in a huge hug, followed closely by Nudge and Gazzy. I watched Iggy land choppily and then join the group hug. "I'm so glad you're alright!" She let me go and looked me over, searching for injuries. She spotted the bracelet.

"Where are we?" I asked, shivering as snow flurries melted against my face.

"Come on, we'll talk by the fire." Max said and took off. Her wings blew snow from the roof and I quickly followed her.

We sat around the firepit inside the church tower. I had my wings spread slightly, enjoying heat at last. I had been cold for what felt like years. Max sat next to me, stroking my hair gently. Nudge and Gazzy were half asleep on the other side of the fire, and Iggy lay out on his back, hands behind his head.

"This is a 10 mile wide dome, controlled by the school." Max said quietly. That explained my collision into nothing. "They're watching us and taking info down through these bracelets."

"How long have you been in here?" I asked nervously. She looked down at Iggy. I was shocked to see just how thin he was. His ribs and hips were clearly visible under his jacket, his arms thin, even his face seemed rather gaunt. I glanced around at everyone else and realized they all looked that way.

"At least a week." Max's voice was quiet. She prodded the coals in the firepit so they wouldn't extinguish. "The whitecoats have been watching us through glass domes dotted throughout the area."

"You guys look horrible." I whispered. I thought that Fang and I were in rough shape.

"There isn't really much to catch here." Gazzy sighed. "Maybe a few fish, but that's all we've managed."

"So they're just watching you starve?"

"Basically." Iggy sat up, ruffling his feathers as a chilly breeze lightly blew in. "But we have a plan. These." He raised his wrist with the bracelet.

"The bracelets have a signal going to the school, which the whitecoats are watching." Gazzy grinned. "Which means if we cut that signal,"

"They come in after us, thinking we're dead." Max finished. I nodded, understanding. "That's when we can make our getaway."

"Max, this dome is in the heart of the facility. I traced my pathway through the school to get here. Even if we do get out of the dome ok, it's a maze back out to the real world."

"I think we might have a friend on the inside. One of the whitecoats seems to have taken a liking to us." Max said and Iggy turned to look at her confused. Gazzy and Nudge did the same, their faces weary and afraid.

"How do you know?"

"She watches us through the domes, clearly upset about the situation. She seems to have a heart. If we can use her to let us out of here, or even guide us out of the facility, we'll have a chance." Max said. I shook my head, frowning.

"It's a ridiculous plan. You don't even know if that's true." Iggy voiced, clearly irritated.

"Not if we have you." Max looked at me. "If she's already hesitant in her work, you might be able to convince her."

"You mean control her." I said and Max grinned.

"We need to get these bracelets off so that they can open the door. But before then, you need to talk to that whitecoat." Max said quieter now. "It's the best I got."

"But what about Fang?" I asked. Max's grin disappeared. "He's further inside, they're doing something awful to him." I said, truly convinced. I felt tears pricking the backs of my eyes.

"He came here with you?" Iggy asked. I nodded as Max held me closer. I felt the tears starting to drip down my cheeks. "Where is he?"

"I don't know." I sniffed. "They took him somewhere else from me." Max looked over at Iggy, her face afraid. "He told me to find you, and to not worry about him."

"Sounds like Fang." Gazzy tossed a piece of wood into the fire.

"It's also not gonna happen. Don't worry, we'll find him." Max tried to reassure me. Nudge moved over next to us and rubbed my shoulder, smiling sweetly.

"It's Fang. I'm more worried about the whitecoats than him!" She chuckled, which made me smile. Gazzy sat down next to us as well. We all rested by the fire, enjoying its warmth and tried to get some sleep.