“You cannot be serious!” Nana exploded. “Do you know what you’re risking going back out there???”
“Yes, I do,” Gerard said seriously. “But I’ll be fine. They won’t even know I’m there.”
“No, no, you can’t do this! I won’t let you!” the old woman stated firmly.
“We need to know what’s going on out there!” Gerard grumbled stubbornly. “And what if I find people who are hiding away in fear, because they don’t know about this place? I can still save lives. I can’t make a plan without knowing what’s going on. Come on, Nana. Please.”
The old woman sighed, suddenly looking a hundred years older.
“I’ll return safely,” he assured her.
“And he won’t be alone,” Rae interjected, joining their conversation.
“What?” they both asked confused.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you go back out there alone, did you?” the red head questioned.
“It’s not safe out there,” Gerard pointed out.
“Exactly.”
Gerard was about to object, but realized that this was one argument he wasn’t going to win.
“You see, Rae will be there to take care of me,” he tried, talking to Nana again.
“I’m not going to give you permission to go, but you do what you think is best,” she told him, turning around and walking away from the pair.
“Let’s get going. We do not want to be out there longer than necessary,” Rae said, dragging Gerard along.
Soon they were walking through the narrow tunnel. Several minutes later, they were outside looking around at the ruins surrounding them. Gerard made sure to keep a firm grip on Rae’s hand, keeping them both invisible. They walked quietly, stepping over live wires, jumping fires or large beams and having trouble keeping their footing on all the loose rubble. It seemed as if nothing was left. There wasn’t a living being in sight as they walked along. The pair reached a building that was still intact and they cautiously approached it. The door was open and they snuck inside. The building was eerily silent. It also seemed to be empty. Rae kept close to Gerard as they crept along. The door suddenly slammed shut behind them and both of them jumped in fright. Rae was unable to keep from laughing as they nearly merged with the wall in an attempt to avoid whatever had caused the door to close.
“Shh…” Gerard tried to make her quiet down, but failing.
“We’re such idiots,” she laughed. “I swear if someone saw us freak out like we just did, they’d be in a fit of hysterics.”
“Like you are now?” he questioned.
“Oh, come on. It was funny,” she said, looking into his eyes.
A smile spread across his face and the redhead smirked victoriously.
“I’m still the one person who can calm you down,” she said quietly. “The way you exploded yesterday, it was kind of sexy.”
“You like it when I’m angry?” he asked amused.
“No, but you look super hot when you are,” she whispered, pulling him down and kissing him.
“You know, now isn’t exactly the time or place to be doing this,” Gerard breathed against her lips.
“I don’t care. They can’t see us anyway.”
“They can hear us,” he pointed out.
“That’ll give them something to think about,” she grinned, reconnecting their lips and pulling him down to the floor with her.

*

Annabel sauntered along the abandoned streets. She had no idea where she was going or what exactly happened. The Rebellions attacked so suddenly that no one ever saw it coming, but then everyone just disappeared. Una seemed to be completely deserted. A strong wind blew against her and she shuddered. Fear clung to her insides and she could only hope that the Rebellions wouldn’t come out again until dark.
“Bellz?”
Her head turned sharply at the call of her name.
“Arin!” she gasped, running towards the boy and flinging her body against his. “You’re okay! I was so worried. I couldn’t find you or Chelle. I didn’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay. You’re safe now. I’m here,” he tried calming the sobbing girl. “What are you doing out here anyway? The Rebellions can come back at any minute.”
“I didn’t know where to go,” she replied, wiping away her tears. “What are you doing here?”
“I hid out back there,” he said, pointing in a direction behind him where some buildings stood. “It’s the first hiding place I found after the Rebellions attacked.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” she stated, wrapping her arms around him again.
“Okay, but we can’t stay here. It’s not safe. We need to find a place to hide in case they return,” he said, looking down at her seriously.
“If only we knew where everyone else went,” Bellz said, looking around.
“Okay, but until we do… Let’s go this way,” he suggested.

*

“Hm… It seems that you have the talent to heal,” Nana noted, looking intrigued.
Chelle looked down at her confused. She understood what Nana was telling her, but it was completely unexpected.
“That’s awesome,” Frank muttered in awe.
“Let’s try it,” Nana suggested, finding a sharp object.
“Whoa!” Frank yelled shocked. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to… What do you plan on doing with that?” he asked cautiously.
“Hold still, Chelle. This will only hurt a bit,” the old woman said.
“Wha…” Frank gaped in shock.
The brunette winced as the sharp object slid across her hand, cutting through the flesh.
“Ah, crap,” Frank muttered. “She’s bleeding.”
“Give it a few minutes,” Nana said, getting up to fetch some water.
She returned after a while and started to clean up the teen’s hand. As soon as all the blood was removed, Chelle’s hand was back to normal.
“No way!” the boy exclaimed wide-eyed.
Nana smiled at the two teens.
“There you have it. Chelle, you have super fast recuperating cells. You can heal.”
Chelle was staring down at her hand, speechless. Seeing was believing and yet it was still so unbelievable.
“You know, I really wish I can do that at this moment,” Mikey said, from where he lay in bed a few feet away.
Everyone chuckled at his statement, but believed that he would want to be able to heal, because he was in a terrible physical condition and he didn’t get a chance to recuperate, because the Rebellions would just attack again every time.

*

Bob sat alone to one side of the underground cavern; his head resting back against the cold stonewall. His eyes were closed as he thought of the events of the past week. The Rebellions weren’t playing around anymore, that was sure. If only they knew what they wanted.
“Hey, am I bothering you?” Ashley wanted to know, sitting down next to him.
“Go ahead,” he told her.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
“You know, when I turned around yesterday and saw that that thing had his claws on you… I wanted to kill it with my bare hands,” he told her in all seriousness. “Your scream reminded me so much of…” he stopped mid-sentence. “How are you feeling?”
“Bob, what happened to you?” the brunette wanted to know, ignoring his obvious attempt at changing the subject.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, getting up and walking away.
“Talk to me,” she said firmly. “I know you have broad shoulders, but you can’t carry everything on your own! You don’t have to.”
He suddenly stopped and she nearly ran into his broad frame. His reluctance to talk about the subject was clear as he lead her to a darker corner and sat them down on the ground.
“I was… I…” he stopped, unable to find the right words.
“It’s okay. Take your time,” she told him, placing a comforting hand on his arm.
He looked up into her hazel eyes and nodded.
“My dad was a very angry, abusive man. Normally people like him had the excuse of being violent alcoholics, but my father just enjoyed hurting my mom and me. He enjoyed beating us until we couldn’t take it anymore.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “He especially liked to hit my mom. I’d come home after school and my mom would be on her knees cleaning up the broken glass and scrubbing the fresh blood stains from the floor. One night, things got out of hand. I was eighteen. I realized that if he carried on, he was going to kill my mom. I always tried to protect her, but that night was different. He’d completely lost control. I tried to stop him. I don’t remember much aside from the kicks and punches to my head.”
She was speechless, but wrapped her arms around him in a comforting hug.
“I promised myself that I would never be like him. That’s why I’m so overprotective of Gabby and Mikey. I don’t want to lose them. And you… I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but you’re very special to me, Ash,” he said, lifting her chin with his finger so she would look at him. “You are so beautiful,” he breathed before kissing her.

*

“This will have to do for the night,” Arin announced, moving some more leaves to create better shelter. “It’s nothing special, but it might keep us alive one more night.”
“It’s perfect,” Bellz assured him, grateful that she wasn’t alone anymore.
Arin lay down on the soft brush and motioned for Bellz to join him.
“You might want to stay close, because it tends to get cold out at night,” the teen informed her.
She slowly lay down next to him and he wrapped a protective arm around her.
“Go to sleep. We’ll continue to look for the others tomorrow,” he whispered, placing a kiss on her head and closing his eyes.