Originally, this was supposed to be a one-fic. Then I started writing, probably got too detailed, and it wound up being more 12 pages long, on notebook paper. And I'm not even done with it. So, it really, in spirit, is a one-fic, but it's gonna be split into sections. You'll see why the title is the title in a later section.

Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters, settings, objects, etc., are not mine.

Fall

Chapter(Section) 1(ish):

BEING ON THE RUN.

Such fun.

Especially while hauling around five other people.

And you're in charge.

"Max, where are we sleeping tonight?" asked Nudge.

I thought. I really had no idea...But I couldn't say that in front of the flock. We had quite a bit of money left, drawn out from the Max Ride bank card. We could stay in a motel. Or maybe we could fly around, look for a treehouse. Fang and Nudge had said they were good hideouts, for a night's sleep. But there aren't many treehouses in The-Middle-Of-Freaking-Nowhere, Nevada. Darn. Not many trees to sleep in either...

I guess we'd have to find a motel.

"Come on, guys, let's find the nearest town. We'll get some food, and find a motel to hunker down in for the night. That sound okay?"

I was answered by cheers of 'Yeah!' from the younger three, while Iggy muttered 'sure' and Fang just looked at me and blinked.

I took that as a yes.

"`Kay, let's head East a few miles," I directed.

A couple miles, and a few unfortunate "gifts" from Gazzy later, we found ourselves in the freakishly small town of Fanford. It could only hold about 300 people, at most, I assumed. But there was a motel, and a McDonalds.

"Do you guys want to sit down and eat or eat on the go?" I asked, hoping they'd pick the latter.

They didn't. But, whatever, majority rules. Freaking five against one...

So we headed through the doors and up to the registers.

There were two registers, both of them busy.

"I'm giving you each ten bucks, buy what food you want with it. But get real food, don't get all sugar." The last thing I needed was a flock of sugar-high kids.

After giving them all their allotted cash, we all got in line. I went to the back, so I could watch over them, see what they were ordering, make sure they got proper nutrition.(Proper nutrition? At McDonald's? Who am I kidding?) Satisfied with what they got, I stepped up to order.

The cashier, already startled by the amount of food everyone else had gotten --seriously, what six year old eats three hamburgers, two ten piece Chicken McNuggets, and a large order of fries in one meal?-- warily asked me, "Can I take your order, miss?"

"Yes, I'll have two Big Macs, one McChicken, hold the lettuce, two large fries, a Crunchy Chicken Salad, and an Oreo McFlurry?"

The Cashier stared wide eyed at me. She seemed out of it.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face, and she came back to life.

"Umm...do you need anything else, ma'am?" she asked, while she looked over my shoulder, probably looking for a crowd that would more appropriately need the amount of food I was ordering. At least to her eyes.

"No thanks, that'll be all," I replied with a smile.

I saw her give me a weird look, she probably thought I'd miss, before turning around to check on the flock while my food was being "made". (More like being rescued from a vat of grease.) They were sitting in the back, inconspicuous as possible, given the amount of food they had. Angel and Nudge were laughing heir heads off at something Gazzy had done or said. I could tell because Gazzy was as red as a cherry.

Which may have increased their laughter.

"Here's your order ma'am," the cashier --I read her name tag--, Brittany, said. "That'll be $10.28.

Hmm. I went 28 cents over. I mean, I'm the leader, I can go 28 cents over if I want to. But that isn't very fair...

Oh well.

I handed her the $10.28.

I carried my food over to the table. We were using two of them; Angel, Nudge, and Gazzy at one, Fang and Iggy at the other. Because there was no way in hell all our food, let alone all of us, could fit at one table. I slid in beside Iggy, across from Fang.

"So what're the sleeping arrangements?" asked Iggy.

"OOH, OOH! Me and Angel want to share!" said Nudge. "Right, Angel?" Angel nodded enthusiastically.

"I call Fang," said Iggy. Hmm. I better keep an eye on those two if they're bunking together. Who knows what they could plot when alone? I didn't want to think about it.

"Guess that means you're with me, Gazzy."

"Okay," he answered, and smiled.

But behind the smile, I could tell he felt a little bit hurt. I know he wanted to be with Iggy. That he expected Iggy to pick him. What could I do to cheer him up? Hmmm...

"'Kay, now that that's settled, everybody hurry up and eat. I don't like being in the open like this..." I told them, then hastily began eating, myself. (A/N: See, this is where punctuation saves lives. What if I had left out that comma? It would have said 'Then hastily began eating myself'. EATING MYSELF. Let's not kill Max...or anyone else, with incorrect punctuation!)

Once we were done, we walked out, fed and happy(ish), onto the empty road.

We headed towards the Super 8, bellys full, hopes high.

That was, until Iggy froze in his tracks.

"I hear something, it's buzzing, like erasers, approximately five miles away, North, maybe fifty, sixty of them?" he whispered to Fang and me.

I was impressed at his ability to detect that much from that far away.

Okay, I thought to myself. Fight or flight? (Pun intended.)

I looked at Fang, as I always do in situations like this. He clenched his fist. Fight.

I raised my eyebrows, meaning "Are you sure?" He nodded.

I took a deep breath, before speaking. "Guys, get ready to fight. Iggy says there are about 50-60 Erasers. That means we each get about ten, okay?" They all nodded.

We shot up into the air.

We could clearly make out the wave of Erasers coming from the North. A greusome site, to say the least. And I don't usually say the least, come to think of it. They were about a mile away now.

We got in our fighting stances, ready for battle.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Review button's right there. Tell me what you like, what you didn't like, something you think I should add, etc. Next section should be up tomorrow. By the way, to all Twilight fans out there, I have a Jasper/Bella fic (purely platonic) called Radiant, and I haven't worked on it in awhile (I know, shame on me) but I might be more encouraged to do so if someeone reviewed, got my pumped and inspired to write on it some more...