TLH 1

Corie moved her head slightly out of her cover, to see if any patrols were close. She heaved a sigh of relief as she found that the recent patrol for this street was not in sight before holding tighter on to her backpack and making a dash to the large building on the other side of the road.

She slipped in and closed the door behind her, immediately jamming the heavy locks into place. She took a moment to recover before turning on her heels and walking up the dusty marble steps, coming to a halt at the top and staring around the small lobby. Like usual, there was no one hanging around in the lobby, she knew they were all in the main rooms of the old library.

As she walked into one of the rooms, she didn't make any eye contact with anyone on her way, nor did she exchange greetings with any of the civilians she past. There was a time for that and she didn't have it at that moment. Corie headed through another set of wooden doors before she came to where she was meant to be.

Everyone in the room stopped whatever they had been talking about once they heard the familiar creak of the rusted hinges that held the doors to the wall. Their heads all shot up or turned to face the 14 year old and she nodded at them, moving closer into the room.

She sat down on one of the couches everyone had been crowded around and passed her backpack to a man that looked around his mid-fifties. He nodded in appreciation and looked through the bag. While he rummaged, another man started to talk to Corie.

"We were just saying, it's been almost two years that Loki has been running everything for." Corie let out a low whistle, it felt like longer due to the hardships the had all faced. She had to grow up much quicker than a fourteen year old girl should have.

To everyone else, they knew that Corie was fifteen. But Corie had been spending a lot of time thinking that thought over in her head. It was almost as if once you turn fifteen, you are older and more mature when in reality you're almost exactly as the same that you were when you were fourteen.

Corie tuned back into what the man was telling her. "...but that's that. Anyway, Corie, Rivens was looking for you, he's in the pad." She nodded and got up instantly, heading straight for the room that they called the pad.

The pad was basically just a small room that was once used as a small gym, but now it only contained a few mats and a single non-electric running machine. While most of the survivors hidden here missed the old machines, Corie had never used them so she couldn't miss them.

Unknown to everyone that didn't live in the old library, it was used only for Corie and Rivens with the occasional other person coming and going to help with the young girl. If anyone had any suggestions, they were allowed to try and help to see if they could do any change.

Corie was respected very highly amongst everyone in the building. Mainly because everyone seemed to believe she was the only one left who had any chance up against Loki. Once the Avengers had fallen, the Earth had lost all hope but then they all discovered Corie. In fact, Corie too had discovered herself.

Corie had what some people deemed as a talent, others saying it was a skill and more saying that it was a power. She didn't know what it was herself but she knew it was useful at least.

Corie was able to produce fire from her body. It had started as just the palms of her hands but after Alender, one of the younger men who had recently left the army, had suggested a way for her to control it a bit more, she was now able to have the flames up to just past her elbows.

The most amazing part about her gift was that even though it was real flames and it burned anything or anyone that touched it, somehow it never burned what she was wearing or herself. She wasn't sure why but then again she wasn't even sure how she could do it in the first place.

Everyone in the building knew that Rivens had been training her to be extraordinary. Somehow, when some of the men and a few of the woman that had gone out to get food, they had came back with a bow and some arrows, and two handguns. Due to the fact that there was a retired craftsman also being housed in the building, Corie always had arrows to train with and as there was almost a full army squad here, she also had unlimited ammo.

So that's where Corie currently was, with Rivens in the pad and training once more. Only her and Rivens knew that her training was almost up, it would be time soon. There wasn't much more she could do and if she failed then there wasn't any hope anyway. As she let the fire travel up her arm, she jumped as her arm tingled. She immediately stopped what she was doing with the fire as Rivens moved forward to talk to her.

"Hang on, that was almost like an electric current. Try it again but imagine like you're producing electricity not fire." Corie nodded and gave it her best shot like always. Surprising to both of them, it happened again but Corie didn't flinch this time round. They both let out a yell of delight and he pulled her into a hug, their excited laughter being so loud that the door opened and various people looked in.

"Everyone okay?" Some woman asked and Rivens nodded excitedly before dragging Corie out and into the other room to show everyone her new trick. Everyone was overly excited, this just added more fuel to the fire that burned with a strong sense of hope, no pun intended.

As everyone spent the rest of the night celebrating the new discovery, Corie shared many glances with Rivens which only confirmed what she had expected now that they all knew she was even more powerful than they all originally thought.

Tomorrow, Corie was going to start her journey of saving the world but what worried her was that she had to do it all by herself.