“Can we get going, because I don’t want to stay out as late as yesterday. I still have other things I need to do,” Gerard told Rae as he waited patiently for her to finish breakfast.
She nodded, “Just give me a minute.”
“Chelle and I can always go out and look around,” Frank offered casually, because he was actually dying to see what was going on outside.
He hated being stuck down here. It might be safe, but it was no fun at all. There was absolutely nothing to see or do and nowhere to go. Besides that, the place was terribly overcrowded. Honestly, the teen was amazed by how big this underground city was, but it wasn’t nearly big enough to house all of Una’s population; it was just impossibly cramped.
“No way!” Gerard said firmly. “There’s just no way that’s happening.”
“Come on!” the teen complained. “Why not? You said that you and Rae found nothing. We’ll be fine.”
“Uh, have you spoken to Mikey lately? When was the last time you went to see Ray?” the older male wanted to know.
“I get it!” Frank snapped. “But I can handle it. You can’t do everything yourself! You have more important matters to attend to down here, but you can’t do that while you’re running around on the surface. I’ll just go up, look around and run away if it comes down to that.”
“He’s right, Gerard. You have too much to do all by yourself,” Bob’s deep voice said, announcing his presence. “Frank and I will go back up to look around then you can get to matters down here.”
“They can take care of themselves,” Rae agreed. “I’d pay to see a Rebellion take on Bob and they can’t catch Frank even if they wanted to.”
“Okay, alright,” he conceded grudgingly. “But if you’re not back by four, I’m going up there to look for you guys, got that?”
“Yes, we’ll be back,” Frank hurriedly assured him, before heading towards the entrance.
“Hold up!” Bob called after him. “We’ll be back,” Bob said to Gerard before running after the teen.

*

“Okay, so you go this way and I’ll go that way,” Frank said once they were back on the surface.
“I don’t think so,” Bob started, but the teen cut him off. “We’ll cover more ground if we split up. That’s the only way we’ll be back by four.”
“You’re smooth,” the blonde male noted. “But you have a point. However, you’ll be going this way and I’ll go that way.”
“Fine,” the boy grumbled, turning in the direction he was headed.
He didn’t even wait for Bob to finish talking before he set off.
“We meet back here at three thirty!” Bob called after him, and shook his head sighing before heading in the opposite direction.
Frank jogged along, keeping his eyes open. Gerard and Rae weren’t lying when they said that there was nothing left. Ruined buildings stood as far as the eye could see. Nothing was burning anymore, but smoke still hung in the air. There wasn’t a living thing in sight. He stopped at a large pile of rubble and tried to clear it, but stopped as soon as he realized that there was nothing there. There obviously wasn’t anything around for miles and he decided to set off at full speed. His entire face showed pure excitement. He was honestly happy to be running around outside again. The teenager tried to go even faster. He jumped rocks and edges along the way. A short distance ahead, there was a black hump and he just made to jump over it when the thing moved. Frank completely lost all concentration, because it could’ve been anything. His foot got caught on the thing and he fell forward. He hit the ground, rolling over and his feet touched the ground again for a split second before he crashed into the ground with full force.
“Ow, fuck!” he groaned, choking and coughing from the dust and smoke cloud that his landing had caused.
His hands were scraped and there was a lump against his head where he hit it. Then he remembered the movement and he looked towards the black object. It was on its feet now and it was actually pretty small. Frank sighed in relief, because he did not want to face off with a Rebellion at this moment. The small frame clutched its head.
“Sorry about that,” Frank apologized assuming that that’s what his foot hit – the little creature’s head. “Are you okay?”
The being cowered away from him, not letting out a sound.
“Whoa! I’m not…going…to hurt you,” Frank assured it, slowly inching closer.
“What is this place and who are you?” a voice croaked out.
At least now Frank was sure it was human. Its short raven-black hair stuck out in all directions and its face was covered in soot and dirt. It wore a black coat, making it look almost like some kind of serial killer. He forgot about the fact that Souls were still showing up on Una despite what’s going on. Where else will they go?
“I’m Frank,” the hazel-eyed teen carefully introduced himself. “Look, I know how you must be feeling right now. You’re scared and hungry and just really, really lost.”
The small figure nodded.
“You have nothing to be afraid of, okay?” he said, offering the small being a comforting smile. “You’re also really, really dirty.”
A pure white smile appeared in the black little face and Frank grinned back.
“Come with me and you’ll have nothing to worry about. However, it’s a bit of a long way back to civilization and I want you to keep your eyes opened for any moving thing. If you see anything, anything at all, I want you to tell me immediately. I have a question, are you a boy or a girl?”
“I’m a girl and my name’s Felix,” she said.
“Okay, Felix, a girl, let’s get going,” Frank chuckled, starting back in the direction he came from.
“Where am I?” Felix asked again, her almost black eyes searching Frank’s face for an answer.
“That is a very long story, but like I said, we have quite a long walk back, so…” he said, starting to tell her the whole story.

*

Bob made for his house first. To his surprise, the house was still standing, completely untouched. He grabbed a few things before heading out again. The world was eerily silent. It was quite a change from the usual. Normally Una was bustling with people, but now it was empty. It was actually sad. He was almost back to his starting point when he stopped dead in his tracks. He could’ve sworn that he heard something to his left. He pulled away some bushes and his eyes grew wide in honest surprise…

*

A long line of people waited to speak to Gerard. He was trying to build an army, but without much luck.
“What’s your Talent?”
“I can jump very high,” the man told him.
“I’ll get back to you,” Gerard said, looking at the next person.
“I can talk really fast,” a girl rambled.
“No kidding,” he replied, rolling his eyes.
“I can fly.”
“I read minds…”
“My hands glow.”
It felt like forever before Gerard finally couldn’t take it anymore and told everyone left to go back to their families.
“This isn’t working,” he complained defeated. “It’s useless. I’ve spoken to almost a hundred people and none of them can do anything useful. Everyone has a talent, but nothing that can help.”
“What exactly are you looking for?” Rae wanted to know, leaning against the table next to him.
“We’re going to war, but it’s like we have no weapons other than broomsticks,” he said, making the redhead chuckle. “We’re not going to kill Rebellions by jumping high or running fast or flying. We need something that can do damage. How about some guns?”
“Okay, slow down cowboy,” she chuckled. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but aside from anything the Rebellions do, Una has a crime rate of zero percent. We don’t manufacture any weapons. That would just be stupid anyway, since one nuclear bomb would blow us all to smithereens.”
“I guess you’re right. Hm… What can you do?” he wanted to know.
“Me? Well, nothing that’ll be useful to you,” she said, slowly lifting up off the ground.
“You can fly?” he asked incredulously.
“No, I can levitate,” she replied.
“Maybe I can help,” Gabby said, coming closer. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to kill them, but I might be able to do a bit of damage.”
“Twirling around the Rebellions really won’t do anything except maybe piss them off,” Gerard muttered, not really taking her seriously.
Before he could blink, he was soaked in water.
“I take that back,” he spluttered. “What was that??”
“I can produce water,” she told him, turning her palm up and making water flow from it like a river.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said impressed. “That can help, quite a lot actually.”
“Look what we found,” Frank’s voice reached them and they all turned in his direction.
Bob and Frank were approaching the group and Arin and Bellz were with them, along with a smaller unknown figure.
“I found them and they were actually alive,” Bob said.
“So was Felix,” Frank added. “She’s a new soul. I already filled her in about everything that’s happening. Can we maybe get her a place to sleep? She really needs some space,” he said, looking down at the small girl beside him.
“Of course,” Rae nodded, walking forward and leading them towards a sleeping place for Felix.
“Wow, I had no idea this place existed,” Arin stated, looking around in awe.
“Nana is quite the genius,” Gerard nodded in agreement. “Well, make yourselves at home, you two. I’m really glad you’re okay.”
“It’s all thanks to Arin,” Annabel informed him. “He took really good care of me.”
“That’s his job,” Bob chuckled. “I’m off. Do you know where Ashley is?”
“She’s with Tati and I assume she’s with Ray,” Gerard shrugged.
“Let’s go find ourselves a place to sleep,” Bellz suggested. “I’m kind of exhausted.”
“Me too,” Arin agreed, taking a hold of her hand and the two of them started towards an empty corner.