Yeah, you're not delirious. You get an Eye Patch POV. Don't you just love it? I know he's your favorite character.

Eye Patch scrambled after Von Crooken towards Snitch Gravel's office, shaking with fear. The boss just arrived at the compound and found out the Grants escaped. Whatever followed wasn't gonna be good.

Von Crooken strode towards the office and burst in without knocking. Eye Patch dragged his feet and stopped in the doorway. Snitch Gravel sat behind his desk, watching his hands as if expecting them to mutate right in front of his eyes.

"Two men are in the infirmary, the other two are being carried there right now. A total of four men were eliminated tonight, two of them standing a few inches from each other," Von Crooken raged. "And the worst part is that we've detected their escape hours after it happened!"

"My dear Nicholas, where are your manners? You forgot to knock," Snitch Gravel said calmly, still contemplating his hands.

Von Crooken slammed his fist on Snitch Gravel's desk. Eye Patch flinched, but Snitch Gravel didn't even blink.

"Didn't you hear me? Those brats escaped again! Don't you care?"

"Ah, by the way, why did you capture them without my express order?" Snitch Gravel asked on the same pleasant tone that sent shivers down Eye Patch's back.

"Because you wouldn't do it. If you won't, I'll make sure they're dead," Von Crooken yelled.

Snitch Gravel stood from his chair, his hands clasped behind his back, watching his two men as if they were two office chairs he considered buying.

"My dear, dear Nicholas. At what point did we, or should I say you, decide my opinion doesn't matter? I was under the impression that I'm the 'big scary boss' and you are my 'big scary right-hand man'. Do you believe I'm the 'little, not scary at all, weakling ex-boss'? Because, if you truly believe that..." Snitch Gravel looked at the ceiling and let out a disappointed sigh. "You're in for a rude awakening. Eye Patch, shoot him in the head."

Eye Patch pulled his pistol out at once and pointed it at Von Crooken's head. He cocked it and waited for the confirmation of the order. He wouldn't be too sad to pop one into old Nicholas' head.

"Boss, please," Von Crooken moaned, his hands raised and shaking.

"Oh, so now I'm the boss." Snitch Gravel no longer seemed amused or condescending. There was raw disgust on his face and he watched Von Crooken as if he were a big pile of dog shit on his clean carpet. "Now when you realize that if you told Eye Patch not to shoot you, he wouldn't give a flying fuck."

Both men flinched. Snitch Gravel didn't swear and it was that more than anything that had Eye Patch tightening his grip on the gun. He might actually get to do some shooting.

"I should skin you alive for disobeying orders," Snitch Gravel said between his teeth. "You're lucky I might still have some use for you. You know why I didn't capture the brats? Because I knew they would escape, as usual. They're much smarter than you, especially Sam. So I decided to let them think I have no intention of killing them and strike when they don't expect it. That plan went to hell." Snitch Gravel turned around and looked out the window.

Eye Patch continued pointing his gun towards Von Crooken's head, waiting for the order, but it never came. Snitch Gravel turned towards them again and waved his hand. Eye Patch immediately lowered the pistol, but kept it out.

"I'm sorry boss, really sorry," Von Crooken moaned still eyeing Eye Patch warily. "But you could have let me in on the plan, too."

"Oh, I also thought I told you to stop the experiments at the lab. I want the research files burned immediately," Snitch Gravel went on as if he hadn't heard Von Crooken.

"But boss, the experiments have proven highly useful—"

"I said shut them down!" Snitch Gravel yelled for the first time, causing both his men to step back. "Don't dare disobey my orders again, because I'm this close to killing you with my bare hands," he warned and with a wave of his hand, dismissed his men.

Von Crooken rushed out immediately in case Snitch Gravel changed his mind, but Eye Patch lingered in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, I never meant to disappoint you, boss," he said clumsily.

"I don't blame you, Eye Patch, though I expect you to think for yourself a bit more in the future. Now go." Snitch Gravel waved him away bored. "Ronnie, get in here!" he called out.

Ron stepped into the room, bumping into Eye Patch.

"You!" Eye Patch pointed his gun at Ron. "What's this traitor doing here?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "You idiot, I was spying on those brats and I was making important progress until I ran into you clowns. You ruined the whole plot."

"Stop it, Ron. Get out, Eye Patch," Snitch Gravel said, once again waving Eye Patch away.

Eye Patch threw one last confused look towards Ron, but left the room and closed the door behind him. He leaned his ear against it, curious out of his mind to know who this Ron was and what his rank was.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" he heard Snitch Gravel ask.

"I didn't want you to know," Ron mumbled. "I hope you understand, but I really wanted to do this on my own. Anyway, I though Von Crooken told you."

Silence followed and Eye Patch pressed himself against the door, afraid to miss anything important.

"What do you think?" Snitch Gravel suddenly asked.

"I... I don't know. They drank toxic water from the river and it really screwed them up and Kyle... Okay, forget it, I'm not making any sense." Footsteps indicated Ron moving across the room. "I got what you asked."

Damning all sense, Eye Patch crouched and peeped through the keyhole to see Ron hand a small black box thing to his boss.

"Excellent." Snitch Gravel tossed what turned out to be a sound recorder in the air and caught it.

Eye Patch scratched his head, but no one said what the sound recorder was for.

"What does my mangy brother think about his children?" Ron suddenly asked.

Snitch Gravel huffed. "He thinks they're nothing special. He thinks they're like him."

"They're not like him," Ron interjected.

"I know," Snitch Gravel answered. Two pairs of steps headed towards the door and Eye Patch hurried away and around the corner.

He leaned against the wall trying to get his head around what he'd just heard. Had he gone crazy, or was Ron actually related to the brats?

*

Sam looked at the big tree in front of him, wondering if he should wait for William to get back to normal and draw him a map or wing it. The only way to make sure they wouldn't get lost would be to use the edge of the forest as a safety rope, but that would take freaking forever. He'd rather go in the general direction and climb every tree possible to make sure they weren't straying. They had to get home before their parents came back.

And before Christine started to worry. This was the first time Christine came to his mind in over a week, and the thought of her warmed him up. He looked back at Tom who was talking to Billy. He hadn't spoken to him since their fight and he'd noticed that Tom and Angie had started avoiding each other, too. He felt like kicking Tom for being so childish and getting mad at Angie for taking Sam's side.

Shaking his head, he turned away from the tree, just to bump into Kyle.

"Have you decided, oh, mighty leader?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You're still mad at me," Sam noticed.

"Of course I'm mad at you. You're being an asshole," Kyle replied turning away from him.

"Listen, I'm sorry," Sam started, trying to get in front of Kyle, but his brother turned on the spot and stayed with his back at him.

"You should be apologizing to Tom."

"I should apologize to you, too, for thinking I could order you around," Sam said.

To his joy and relief, Kyle turned to him, smiling weakly.

"You're on the right track, kid," he said ruffling up his hair and heading towards the rest of the group. "Listen guys, we're winging it. Pray for dumb luck."

"Amen!" Jerry and Jimmy both said equipping their rucksacks.

And they were off.