Forevermore

11: The Plan

After falling asleep peacefully, I know it wouldn't last. But I wake up to silence. I look up, seeing Fang's cell door open. Erasers were tying his hands behind his back, keeping his mouth covered.

I slowly stand and walk over to the bars. "What are you doing?" I say, in my angry, but sleepy, voice. They pretend that I never say anything, and drag Fang out of the room.

I slide my back down the wall and sit back down.

"Angel?" I think to her, not actually sure if it would work. I'd never tried before.

"Yeah?" She thinks back, sleepily.

"You can control the whitecoats minds, right?"

"Sometimes. But I have to be strong to do it. It takes a lot of energy."

"Well, what about this?" I tell her my plan.

I can hear the smile in her voice as she thinks back "I think I have enough strength for that."

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A whitecoat comes in a few minutes later. The Erasers still haven't brought Fang back. Angel got the whitecoat's attention and he looks over at her. His eyes get a glassy look in them, and he walks over to her. She whispers something and he nods. He hands her a pair of keys and says in a robotic voice, "I'll be back in ten minutes." Then he leaves the room.

Angel unlocks her cage with the keys, and comes over to unlock my cage. When my door is open, she falls to her knees.

"Angel?" I pick her up. She wraps her skinny arms around my neck, her legs around her waist.

"I'm okay," she whispers. "Just tired. Get the others."

I get the keys and unlock the rest of the Flock's - plus Kenzie and Alex's - cages. I had to kick some of them lightly to wake them up. But a few minutes later, we were running down the hall, looking for Fang so we could get out of here.

We go down the hall, opening door after door. Some rooms were empty, but others were filled with mutants. Some of them I've never seen before. But others, I talked to them, or was even friends with on the island. I would take a deep breath and close the door. I was worrying about keeping my Flock safe, not anyone else.

We come to a room that was just a maze of cages. "Look through the cages." I say and start searching for Fang. After minutes of not finding anything, I was about to go back and look in another room. But then I turn the corner. I see a dark figure, curled up in the bottom of a cage. "Guys, over here!" I yell.

Kenzie got there in a matter of seconds. She took Angel out of my arms and into her own. I bend down and fumble with the lock on the cage. Iggy shows up, followed by Nudge. Iggy kneels beside me and picks the lock in 28 seconds.

I look up. "You all go on. Start towards the island. I'll get him and meet you all out there in five." They all leave the room and take off down the hall.

I see Fang tense up when I open the door. "Fang?" I whisper. He holds onto the bars in the cage so tightly that his knuckles turn white. "Fang, c'mon. We have to go," I lay a hand on his shoulder, and he lets out a blood curdling scream. I take my hand off him and scoot back a little. He falls silent. "Fang, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. And I won't let anyone else hurt you." He looks in my direction. I hold out my hand towards him, and he slowly takes it.

I help him out and stand up. I look over at him. He can't stand up straight. I see bruises forming on his arms and his face. He has a black eye, dried blood coming out of his nose and mouth, and what looks like a broken nose. His shirt is torn along his abdomen, and I see marks on his stomach. But they don't look like claw marks from Erasers. They're straight and thin, but deep. He has a strange, far away look in his eyes. He looks empty.

"Fang, it's okay. I promise." I squeeze his hand and he slowly nods. We go out into the hall and find a busted window, I'm guessing the one the Flock jumped out of. We jump out of it as well and are soaring through the sky in a matter of minutes, Fang's screams still playing in my head.