I don't understand this rating system so I used T since there is some violence and stuff in here. (it would be stupid to rate M since i'm 15 myself)
This is my first attempt at a story. :S Please review and tell me if you think it's worth continuing. ^^

~ Prologue ~

Dace Sawyer looked up from his tabloid newspaper, momentarily forgetting its overblown stories of sleaze and scandal, to quickly scan the deserted streets. Not a person in sight, but then why would there be on a day like this, he thought, taking a sip of his lukewarm instant coffee. Putting down his paper he let his eyes wander over the empty tables of the small, gloomy café, its tattered 80's wallpaper, its chipped, grubby tiles, the 'Out Of Order' sign scrawled in large red letters, hanging lopsidedly on an apparently broken vending machine, and finally over the chest of the young, blond waitress sitting at the counter reading 'Soap-opera Digest' and painting her nails a lurid shade of pink. What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Drinking the last of his coffee, Dace began to leave but was stopped by the jingling of bells above the door, eager to announce the arrival of a new costumer. A large bald man entered, in a long black coat, black shoes, and a plain grey tie. Dance sat back on the hard, plastic chair with a dull thud as the man approached.

"Dace Sawyer, I presume," said the man, in a gruff English accent.

"Yes," said Dance, in a small voice. He hadn't been expecting someone so imposing.

"I m an agent of Novus, I believe we have some business to attend to."

~ Chapter 1 ~

Agent Lisbon drove her team, Kimble Cho, Wayne Rigsby, Grace Van-Pelt and their consultant Patrick Jane, down the narrow deserted road. They had been assigned a case in Arromouth, a short one hour drive but had been driving for over three. Turning yet another corner, they came to a long stretch of scrubland, broken only by the dusty road they drove on. As the track became increasingly narrower, rocks and sand started to fly off the track and hit the windscreen.
Cho, who had been intently reading a 'Stephen King' novel with a characteristic stern expression, looked up from his book and leaned over towards the driver's seat.

"I don't think this is the right way."

"Thank you for that helpful insight Cho," replied Lisbon, not taking her eyes off the road. The team remained quiet for a few moments. Cho went back to his novel, Rigsby and Van-pelt continued to pretend they weren't staring at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking, and Jane remained slouched in the passenger seat. His eyes were closed but Lisbon suspected that he was more awake than any other team member, including herself. Feeling her eyelids droop, she widened her eyes and stared once again at the now almost non-existent road.

"If you're tired Lisbon, I could drive for a while," said Jane, neither turning to face her nor opening his eyes.

"I'm perfectly capable of driving, Jane," Lisbon snapped, before suppressing a yawn.

"Your body suggests otherwise."

With a sigh, Lisbon turned to the consultant. She studied his profile, his smooth jaw line and blond, curly hair. The top button of his shirt was undone and his jacket lay discarded next to the case file on the dashboard.

"Must you stare at me whilst you're attempting to drive?"

"Shut up, Jane."

"That's hardly professional now, is it?"

"Oh, and I suppose you would know, Mr. Conventional."

"I wasn't the one staring inappropriately at a colleague." 'The Smirk' had now appeared on Jane's face. It appeared so often that it had even been assigned its own name. Lisbon, who had allocated a name to the expression long before it became commonly known, preferred to call it Jane's 'I'm a smug, arrogant basted and I rule the world' face. However, it was known by the majority of the CBI more simply as 'The Smirk' and, by any name, it did nothing to help Lisbon's mood.

"Dear God Jane, don't anger It." joked Cho from the back seat, although slightly nervous that Lisbon might tear out her own hair in order to strangle Jane, leaving him to choke on his own arrogance.

"Jane, if you..." Lisbon's next sentence was cut off as the car suddenly lurched, the engine spluttering and gurgling.

Cho's first thought was that Lisbon really was about to tear out her hair and was almost surprised when he heard no ripping and mildly disappointed when he heard no choking Jane. The car continued rolling for a few moments longer before finally coming to a halt in the sand.

"What happened?" asked Van-Pelt, apparently having stopped staring at Rigsby long enough to realise they were no longer moving.

"Well, we appear to have run out of gas," replied Jane, who had now opened his eyes and was sitting up in his seat. Leaning over to check the fuel gage he continued, "I can now confirm, we have in fact, run out of gas."

"Does anyone know where we are?" asked Rigsby.

"According to the map there aren't any towns anywhere near this area," sighed Lisbon, running her hands over her face and rubbing her eyes. She really did look exhausted, thought Jane.

"Well according to the map we should be in Arromouth by now. The map isn't always right," he said. "Come on, the nearest town can't be that far."

Before Lisbon had a chance to argue, Jane had already left the car and was walking out ahead of it, gesturing for them to follow. Looking at the vast desert surrounding them, Lisbon grumbled something incoherent and climbed out the car herself, soon followed by Cho, Van-Pelt and Rigsby.

***

The team had been walking for just over an hour and the sun had gone down long before. Even Jane, although still striding at least 7 metres ahead of the rest of them, was beginning to feel tired.
"How do we know we're not just walking in circles?" asked Van-Pelt, who was trailing at the back of the group with Rigsby.

"Yeah," said Cho, "We are following Jane after all."

"I heard that," called Jane, but then he stopped. "Hey Lisbon, come and take a look at this." Bending down, Lisbon could see that underneath the dust was a sign. It was scratched and faded but she could just about make out the words. 'Augcansire – 20 kilometres', Maybe there was a town around here after all.

"Augcansire, sounds German," said Jane, as the others gathered around the beaten sign.

"Well, wherever it was, it's either a long way away or long gone by now. There's nothing here but desert," said Rigsby.

"Obviously there was, maybe part of its still left. It's getting dark and we do need somewhere to stay, even if it isn't exactly a luxury accommodation," said Van-Pelt.

"Hey, I think I can see the road," said Cho, walking ahead.

"Yeah, I see it too," added Rigsby, "and it's getting clearer."

"Maybe we haven't been walking in circles all this time."

The Team continued walking, at first with slight optimism, but it soon faded and left the familiar dread they had all come to expect with this job. The hot summer weather was beginning to weaken, allowing the cold bitter winds of the desert to bight at their skin. The road, although it was now at least 70% tarmac, still seemed to stretch out over the desert like a flat, gray rainbow that they would never reach the end of. As the last of the sunlight diminished, swallowed by the horizon, Jane squinted at a distant shape, so small it could barely be called anything at all.
"Do you see that?" Jane asked Lisbon, gesturing with his head at the grey spec in the distance.
Lisbon was about to retort that she could see nothing, when something caught her eye. The team walked slightly faster and with purpose towards the unknown object, which now seemed to be approaching them rapidly though they could see it was not moving. It was quite close now and some features were starting to become visible. The object was a dark blue colour, and it had windows, and lights, and wheels...

"It's a car!" said Jane, satisfied with knowing the identity of his unidentified object. Maybe they weren't the only ones lost in the desert, but then he noticed something odd. He knew that colour, those widows, those wheels and that was his jacket lying on the dashboard alongside their case file. The car belonged to them.

"How is this possible?" asked Van-Pelt.

"I don't know," Jane and Lisbon replied in unison.