YAY! New starkid fic!

After 9 hours of driving the starkids let out a unanimous sigh of relief as the tour buses finally rolled to a stop. Joey raced to the front of the bus and flung the door open, inhaling a deep breath of fresh air, before being shoved forward by the rest of the starkids.

"So where do we go from here?" Jaime asked looking expectantly at Julia as she stepped down on to the sidewalk.

"Well the bus can't take us in to the city any further so we'll have to get the Metro to get to the hotel. I think Darren is meeting us there."

"Ugh are you serious? I thought I would have a few weeks free from subways and creepy people touching me while we were on tour," Meredith moaned resting her head on Brian's shoulder, "one time this women tried to but her gum in my ear."

Julia ignored the whining and set about organising the transport of baggage and making sure they had everything. Darren was currently filming scenes for Glee in Washington and seeing as they had no Apocalyptour show scheduled for that night, they had arranged to meet up before driving down to New York. Julia did a quick headcount and stopped as she realised she was one short,

"Wait shh… guys, where's Lauren?" she shouted above the buzz of voices.

"I'll check the bus," Joe volunteered and rushed back on board. A few seconds later he emerged with a sleepy looking Lauren trudging along behind him. Lauren squinted as the sunlight hit her face and buried her head in Joe's back to shield her eyes.

"Here take this," Joe offered removing his baseball cap and placing it on Lauren's head.

"Thanks Walks," she yawned before looking around at her friends while zipping up her hoody,

"So? Are we going or what?" she questioned. Julia gave Lauren a patronising look before continuing,

"Yes we better, otherwise I'll be getting a thousand voicemails from Darren telling us to hurry up...Ok we're getting the red line from here to Jefferson Street," she called out while examining a tattered map.

As they descended down the grimy steps to the underground platform, Meredith sighed in obvious disgust. Brian put his arm around her lovingly and her mood immediately brightened,

"Don't worry, I won't let any creeps near you Mere," he whispered giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Meredith blushed and slipped her hand into his. Behind her she could hear Joey and Lauren messing with one another and smiled as she realised how lucky she was to be able to spend time with these people.

"Lo put your hood up, and you could be rocking the gangster look with that hat," Joey teased falling into step alongside her.

"I don't need a hood to establish my awesomeness Joey," Lauren responded with a cheeky smile, only to stumble into Charlene, who had stopped abruptly in front of her, seconds later. Joey grabbed her before she could fall face first on to the ground while completely failing to hide his laughter,

"Yep, you're the coolest Lo."

"Shut up."

Brian looked around and noticed a burly male figure watching them. He was dressed entirely in black clothing and Brian felt an uneasy feeling settle in him. He tightened his grip on Meredith's waist and pulled her closer to him. He tore his eyes away, however he could feel the man's stare bearing down on the group. He glanced over to where the guy had been standing, however their darkly clad observer had disappeared.

A deafening rumble echoed through the underground platform and seconds later a train came screeching to a stop in front of them. The automated doors slid open and the waiting crowd surged forward against an equally large crush of people stepping off.

The Starkids squeezed in and most of them managed to get a hold of one of the poles before the train lurched into motion. Lauren gripped Joe's t-shirt and he wrapped his arm around her tightly, making sure she was secure. He glanced down at her. She was so small sometimes he couldn't help but worry for her safety, especially over the last few weeks where they'd experienced crowds of fans engulfing them consistently.

He looked up and caught Dylan staring at him with an amused smirk on his face. Joe had learnt at the beginning of the tour that apparently his little crush on Lauren wasn't such a secret and the guys had been teasing him about ever since... it was how he would tell Lauren was the problem. What if she didn't like him back? As they neared their stop the crowd on the train began to thin out a bit.

"Just two more stops before ours," Julia informed them and rolled her eyes as Meredith let out an exaggerated sigh of relief .

Meredith, similar to Lauren, was relying on Brian to keep her upright, although it was easier now that they had more space. Jaime shivered and brushed a piece of stray hair from her eyes. Suddenly the lights began to flicker and the carriage took on an eerie glow in the half light, as well as quietening considerably.

It was just a little darkness, yet an ominous feeling had settled. Jaime caught the eyes of a little girl who was sitting next to her mother, gripping a tattered blue teddy bear. The girl's eyes were wide and Jaime gave her a friendly warm smile.

Without warning she felt herself flung forward as the train was plunged into complete darkness and sharply came to a complete stop. Sub-consciously the starkids found themselves huddled in a tight circle. They could hear the confusion and panic in the voices of people surrounding them. Lauren blinked a few times and slowly her eyes began to adjust slightly to the dark,

"What should we do? Should we try calling for help, or maybe there's an emergency button?" she asked stepping forward tentatively and feeling her hand along the wall trying to locate one,

"My phone's not getting any signal," Meredith announced.

"Mine isn't either."

"Nothing."

Lauren watched as everyone's heads shook from side to side, confirming they had no method of communicating with anyone outside the train.

"Look it'll be fine, another train will come along and see we're in trouble and alert someone," Charlene pointed out, and for a moment everyone seemed to relax.

"These trains go up to 85 miles an hour, what if they can't stop and ram into us?" Dylan spoke from the back of the group.

The feeling of fear returned and Jaime turned around as she heard a few soft sobs coming from the little girl she had smiled at earlier. She'd almost forgotten how many other people were actually around her and suddenly she began to get the sickening feeling that this 'breakdown' might not be an accident.

The worry of another train crashing into them was suddenly abolished as a deafening bang sounded. Julia felt the ground tremble causing everyone to grab hold of whatever was nearest them. She felt her ears pop painfully as the pressure waves pushed her ears to the extreme. Eventually the ground became still again.

"Mom, was that?" the little girl stuttered, clinging to her mother's blouse. Her mother hushed at her daughter softly to calm her and stroked her hair reassuringly. The overhead speaker began to crackle and the train fell into complete silence. Brian could hear Meredith's rapid breaths and squeezed her hand reassuringly. Suddenly a male voice began to speak loudly over the intercom,

"Passengers, apologies for the inconvenience however I'm afraid this train will go no further….and unfortunately neither will the people on it. You happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. We promise… your deaths will be quick."

The speaker cut off and for a minute no one uttered a sound, before the screaming and wailing began and panic set in. The realisation hit everyone like a gunshot to the stomach.

How could this be happening? Joey stood still as he tried to process everything in his head. Only an hour ago he'd been playing Angry Birds on his iphone and now he was the victim of some kind of terrorist attack? He felt himself slide down the wall and put his head in his hands. Surely this wasn't the end?

What will happen to the starkids next? Will they make it out alive?

x x x until next tim