Okay. Here's another story. It's not the sequel to my first one, but it has pretty much the same characters. It's an entirely different plot though. Atleast, I think it is. Anyways, the story is: Lathenia won the battle! Yay! Let's rejoice! And basically everything the same happened in the Key. Okay, so anyways, the Guard is basically a rebellion group in hiding while Lathenia is the great and evil dictator of our world. Mwahahahaha! I mean...oh no...

Ethan

It's nice to finally see some sunlight again. I hold a hand above my eyes in attempt to block out some of the sunlight that seriously is almost blinding me. To my side, Dillon does the same. I take a deep breath, but I cough all the air out as I do. The air is so polluted now. You can see the smog clearly in the sky exhausted from all the factories and vehicles.

"I still can't believe she won," Dillon says. And I agree.

It's been only six months but she has managed to wipe out a good amount of the human, animal, and plant population. We've been hiding in an underground city, similar to Veridian, but this one is not known by the Order. They think the Guard is gone, but we're just in hiding, waiting for the perfect time to attack. A few people pass by and Dillon and I quickly make our way into a cafe nearby, it's too cold to just stand on the block and we look strange just staring at nothing as well. The Order has many spies walking the streets and you never know who they're watching or what kind of weapons they are carrying with them. Previous Guard members have observed the new way of life and it's basically the same except for the fact that everyone has these sort of identification cards that they can't do anything about. Dillon and I had fake ones made and pull them from our pockets as we enter. We both order a coffee; a drink we used to never drink but we do now because of all the stress. The cafe is surprisingly clean. Actually, the inside of all the buildings are clean. It's just the air outside and the tight security system that really changed. Oh and of course that new 'secret' dictatorship thing has changed the world. No one knew someone could really take over the world, but it did happen and no one but the Guard and Order knows who really did it. The normal citizens only know that they've got to watch their backs because some insane person took over the planet. Our drinks arive.

"I can't believe it either. But you know this is not the time to talk about it," I whisper. Hopefully no one in the Order around us has extrasensory hearing. I take a look at the surroundings analyzing it more. Seven other people are in the cafe and four are at the counter. It's pretty empty. I get up and take a newspaper lying on the empty table near us.

"So what's in the news?" by his voice, I can tell he is expecting the worst

"Nothing really. Just the normal stuff: fire in this house, a kidnapping on this block, and a threat from the dictator," I chuck the paper back to its previous location. I sip the lasts of the coffee and get up seeing as Dillon has already finished his. We leave and brace ourselves for the cold outside. It's almost as cold as the Underworld. It's getting close to being the same temperature even. Snow gently falls and for a second, the world almost seems serene. However, a strong wind blows unexpectedly and almost knocks me off balance. Several papers littered on the ground fly up and speed past us.

"Damn. It's practically the Underworld. Except the sun is still shining and the people here are still...people,"

"I know," once again, I agree. The Guard members have practically the same exact view as one another. A girl passes by just as another wind blows and actually knocks me down.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Dillon helps her up and she practically bows (twice) with her hands clasped together as if she is in Japan. I guess it's just she's scared of hurting anyone, someone who could be one of the dictator's spies.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it," I brush off some of the snow on my jacket.

"Truly! I am sorry. I really didn't mean it. I wasn't looking and well, I was running. But not for a bad reason! I was running becau-"

"Seriously. Don't worry about it. I won't report you or anything and there's nothing wring with you running. I want to get out of this cold just as much as you. I might even run, myself,"

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry. Still, I knocked you over," she actually smiles since I accepted her apology. She extends a hand, "I'm Nicole,"

I take her hand and shake it, "I'm Aaron," the name is the same as the one on my card.

"And you are?" she directs her questions to Dillon

"I'm Andrew," he shakes her hand in turn

"Both A names. Cool. Maybe I'll see you some other time, but I have to go now. I'm sorry for my rudeness, but it's an emergency,"

"That's okay. Nothing to worry about," Dillon and I say simultaneously. She waves goodbye and returns to her sprinting down the block

"I didn't expect there to be any nice people, let alone polite, left in the world,"

"Me neither. Where should we go now?" I ask

"Maybe we should go check out that apartment," he suggests

"Oh yeah," Matt had told us that the Guard had bought an apartment for us and any Guard member that needed it for their assigned missions was welcome to use it. Dillon and I were on one of those missions so we would be staying there the time we were here. It's strange how we've switched from going to missions in the past to simply going on missions above ground. However, Matt did say we'd be going into the past soon. Once the Order figures out the Guard is still active and it should be pretty obvious that we are since the world has not yet succumbed to the darkness, a process that should have been over by now. We take the subway there, a ride 10 minutes long then walk 5 more minutes to the building. There are no more houses now, only buildings, the Order does not exactly want anyone to live on their own property. They probably think the people may form a rebellion. But no one is a match for the Order. Atleast, no normal citizen is. The building is large and the apartment, is large as well, proportioned to the size of the entire building. We pass a few of our neighbors on the stairs which we have chosen to take since the elevator was too crowded. Dillon searches through his backpack for the key.

"Got it," he slips it into the door, but has to jiggle it a bit seeing as the lock has pretty much rusted

"Need help with that?" A girl approaches, somewhere around our age. She has long raven hair and deep, dark blue eyes, a color I do not often see. Usually, a person has light blue eyes, but no, hers are dark. She also has a manicure, noticed by me because of the way she extends her hand for the key.

"Uh-thanks," Dillon says dropping the key into her open palm. I'm not sure if we should trust her, but it would appear suspicious if we did not give her the key. She opens the door with ease.

"You should really oil that lock," she says handing it back, "So. You're our new neighbors?"

"Yeah," Dillon replies

"Have fun in that apartment. It's haunted you know,"

"It is?" I ask. I doubt it.

"Yeah, people are always moving in and out of it,"

"Oh. Well,"

"You don't believe me? Well, I don't believe the story either. Ha. It's just a bunch of crap people say to have fun with the new tenants," she smiles, "I'm Meredith," she is the second person to introduce herself to us. We reply with our names and shake hands again. She leaves for her own apartment, two doors down then Dillon and I enter the room where the furniture has already been provided. Well, of course it's there already. The Order provides us everything. Anything they don't make can't be used. Talk about paranoid.

Don't ask me where I'm going with this cause I'm not sure either. It's just an idea that I might not even continue with. So tell me what you think! Idk if I should really get into this but if I do...one of my stories might suffer since I have two. But everyone else seems okay with having more than one story out so...