Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

20

Before Fang took the computer with him, and before they'd almost gotten nailed by robot Erasers, Nudge had been reading camping recipes online. She was tired of Ding-Dongs and hot dogs on a stick.

She'd found out that you could do amazing stuff, like cooking whole meals wrapped in foil in the embers of a fire. She decided to get a frying pan next time she had a chance. It wouldn't be too hard to carry around one little frying pan, would it? And if they had a frying pan, Iggy could make almost anything. Just thinking about it was making her stomach rumble.

"That smells good," said Angel, coming over to kneel by the fire. "Is that what that foil was for?"

"Uh-huh," Nudge said, poking at the foil package with a stick.

The next second, the waning sun blinked out.

They both looked up in surprise, and Gazzy and Iggy stopped playing tic-tac-toe.

Angel drew in her breath so fast it sounded like a whistle. Nudge felt like her own breath had turned to a chunk of concrete in her throat, because she couldn't make a sound, couldn't move.

Hundreds of those robot things, the things that Iggy called Flyboys, were covering the sky above their canyon and coming in both ends. Nudge guessed the few that had survived the earlier fight had gone to get reinforcements. There must have been ten times as many this time.

The flock was trapped.

"Dinner's ready," said Angel. "And it's us."