"See me after practice, Naomi," Daniel called. I nodded. My adrenaline was pumping. For the first time, I had beaten Gregg. Sure, he had immediately beaten me three times after that, but I had won. I felt like I was flying. I would know.

Twenty minutes later, I walked up to Daniel. "Yes, sir?" I asked.

"You will be joining me tonight for watch duty," he said. "Plan to sleep right after dinner. I've find it to be easiest."

I blinked a few times. "Of course," I said quickly. This is what I wanted.

"Overnight shift is usually extremely boring, so be aware. 10 p.m. If you are late, you will never be asked again," he said. I nodded.

He left and I immediately raced over to the clinic. "Berry!" I called once I got in. She looked up and trotted over. Amy looked up and regarded me carefully. "Do you have the list?" I asked. She nodded and smiled.

"This is all over the counter stuff, so you should be able to get it easily. I didn't put the pregnancy test on it... Well, I think we should prioritize the important stuff."

"Berry, the pregnancy test is important. I'll make sure they're in the purchase."

"Who will be bringing it over?" she asked.

I smiled sadly. "No one we know, unfortunately." Her smile dampened.

"Well, either way, this will be great for the clinic. Thank you. And thank Damien."

"Of course," I said. I grabbed her list and read it over a few times. Then, I headed over to our room and began to draw up my plans. I grabbed Berry's backpack. Was I really going to do this? I glanced down at the stack of cash in my hand. The pack had emergency leave bags, full of supplies that would come in handy in case they needed to escape to a human town. The money in my hand was just one of the packs. Hopefully it would be enough.

After dinner, I was going to fly out to the nearest town and pick up what I could. After my incident with the Eyeless, Daniel forbade me from flying outside of pack lands. But Berry needed to pregnancy test. And the pack needed medical supplies. Who knows? Maybe they might like me a little bit.

And now I knew Daniel would be sleeping after dinner. Perfect.

Dinner came and went quickly. I waited an hour, chatting with Berry. At 6, I told her that I was going to go for a flight.

I left and immediately went over to one of the aloe plants where I had stashed the backpack. I grabbed it and slid it on my front. Wings and backpacks did not work well together. I made my way to the edge of the base and took off. My landed starts were still rough, but I could make it.

I gained altitude and began flying over to the dunes. The sentries could see me, but once I was over the dune, they had no idea where I was. If I flew long enough, I might be able to escape unnoticed for a couple hours.

I flew over the dunes and dipped low. Flying had almost become automatic. I continued low until I knew I would have been out of sight of the sentries. I climbed higher and higher. The sun was beginning to dip lower into the sky, casting the entire world into brilliant colors. As beautiful as it was, I missed my mountains.

I continued to fly until I caught lights and activity below. I couldn't just fly straight into a town. Anyone outside would see a flying girl and that would be problematic. I circled high, trying to figure out if this small town had a pharmacy. There were only five buildings. I squinted and then almost squealed as my eyes dialed in. Suddenly, everything was magnified. I opened them wide, and they zoomed out. Eagle vision? That was new.

And suspiciously handy.

I squinted and saw a truck pulling into town. From this distance, no one would know I was anything but a vulture. I watched the truck pull into a spot. The truck had a cage on the back.

I quickly went over to where the driver was stepping out and my heart stopped. It was the Eyeless. They all clambered out. We were only ten or so miles from camp. I watched as they entered one of the buildings. The leader came back out, dragging a woman behind him. She was older and looked as though she had been beaten down to the point of not caring. She allowed herself to be moved across town into another building. What were they doing?

I blinked to return my vision to normal. I had to tell Daria and Daniel. I had to.

I pulled back and shook my head. Medicine and pregnancy test. I continued to fly in the same direction, careful to make several swirling circles like I saw the vultures do when they were over our camp.

Half an hour later I came up to a much larger town. Several paved roads crisscrossed in the town. I glanced down and was relieved to find that everyone had eyes. I flew down maybe a mile outside of town. I climbed up a dune and over. Inside the bag I had shoved a sweatshirt. I pulled it over me, hiding my wings. Hopefully the fabric was bulky enough to hide suspicion.

I walked for about fifteen minutes before making it into town. Everything was moving slowly. No one was in a rush.

"Excuse me?" I asked a woman passing by. "Where is the pharmacy?" I asked, proud that I knew the word.

"Oh dear, right behind you," she chuckled. I turned and saw a huge building with "CVS" across it. "Long day?"

"Oh, my bad," I said. "Thank you."

She smiled at me and did a quick one over my outfit. A sweatshirt in the blazing heat and a backpack across my front. As she hobbled away, I slung my backpack over my back. Stupid; I should have done that earlier. The slight bulge of my wings wouldn't look weird with a backpack on them.

I stepped inside the CVS and was greeted with cold air. I almost melted. I had been continually hot for weeks. I wanted to live here. AC was something I took for granted in Redwood.

I walked around, shocked at how much was in this store. Food, clothing, toys. I was almost frozen at the mass of choices. I quickly grabbed a wheeled cart that I saw people with and pulled out Berry's list. Near the back, I found the medicine.

I found pregnancy tests pretty quick and put a few in the giant wheeled basket. I was doing the math for price. I wrote them down and began adding the items on her list. When her list was finished, I started doubling and tripling up on medication until I hit the limit.

I wheeled up to the front desk, which was empty. I glanced around. Finally, a hurried woman rushed up, wobbling as she did. She peered into my basket. My heart was pounding. She had eyes, I reminded myself in relief.

"Are you going to put that up here so I can scan it?" she asked in amusement.

"Oh, sorry. Long day," I said, stealing the old woman's excuse.

"A lot of medicine you've got here," she mused, scanning each one and putting it in a plastic bag. I nodded.

"Big family," I said truthfully.

She laughed. "Sure. Look, honey, I don't care what you do with this. I'm not one of those sticklers." I stood in silence as she finished scanning. "$324.02," she said. I looked at her blankly and looked down at my piece of paper.

"It should be "$299.33." Unless I did my math wrong," I said.

"California tax rates are just short of evil," she agreed.

"I've only got cash," I said. "Only $300."

"Well, let me take some of this off," she said. I watched as the number on the screen went down to $300 as she pulled our duplicates.

"Thank you," I breathed. I handed her the money. I should have brought more, I realized.

She gave me my change and handed me the bags of medicine. I took them and quickly exited. I walked back to where I had landed, trudging along, distracted by the sand.

My heart almost stopped.

Tire tracks.

There were tire tracks in the sand.

I whirled my head around quickly.

The Eyeless were here.

Where did they go? Each dune was a potential hiding spot. I dropped my bags down and tore off my sweatshirt as fast as I could, leaving it on the ground. I was panting as I shoved as much as I could into the backpack. My hands were shaking as I looked around. Any moment, I could see the front of a truck and Eyeless men with guns.

My original plan was to put everything inside the backpack. However, plans had changed. I shoved as much as I could and held the rest in the flimsy plastic bags. 

I extended my wings and quickly took off, constantly looking around. I flew higher and higher and turned back toward the town.

A bullet flew past me, and I nearly screamed. There they were.