Chapter 1

Charlie and Jason were on the last border patrol of the night before they settled down to rest at the rebel base, town, whatever they wanted to call it. There were three other rebels with them and it was a very quiet night. They saw nothing of interest amongst the trees. Before they went back to the town Charlie and Jason stopped whilst she bent over and tied her laces.

"You don't have to wait you know." She laughed.

"No, I want to." He said back.

"Why? I mean it's not as if we've seen anything scary? Or is it that you're scared of the dark?" She chuckled.

"I'm scared that you'll disappear into it."

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you scared, for me?"

"God, Charlie isn't it obvious? My father tried to shoot you, so I threw you off the train so he couldn't torture you and then I gave Miles a warning, before that I helped Miles save you from the crazy man with the attack dogs at the fairground, I warned you that they were going to attack the rebel bases and then I joined the rebels! Charlie I didn't think I'd have to tell you!" He sighed.

She stood up and moved closer to him. "Jason, are you saying what I think you're saying?" She asked quietly.

"If you're half the intellectual I thought you were I think you know I am." He moved closer to her so that they were stood toe to toe. "Please don't shoot me and don't let Miles murder me."

"Why would I shoot-" He cut her off by brushing her lips with his. It took her a minute to get over the surprise, but she didn't move from where she was. She felt her lips meld with his without thinking, it felt natural, perfect. It was only a gentle kiss and they broke apart after a few seconds, their eyes meeting. "Jason?" She said quietly.

"What is it?" He replied.

"It took you long enough." She laughed as she pulled him in again. This second kiss was stronger, more passionate than the first. They broke apart when they could go without air no longer.

"I think we need to go back to town before they think we've been taken." He said.

"Moment killer." She laughed as she jabbed him in the chest with his elbow as they walked.

"Don't worry; I'm sure we'll have some more moments." He laughed.

"Oh, of course, but we may need to be careful around Miles, he might shoot first and ask questions later." She laughed, but both knew that the outlines of what she said were true. They walked back to the town closer than they'd stood before.

The next morning Miles and Nora got out of bed and headed down to the planning room. It was early so they worked slowly, spending more time touching each other than any form of plan.

"Miles?" Nora asked when they were actually looking down at a few maps.

"Mm?" He responded.

"Charlie and Jason. Don't tell me you haven't noticed." She chuckled.

"What about them?" He asked stupidly.

"He looks at her the way you look at me." She laughed.

"Oh yeah? What way would that be? He laughed.

"The way that means the chemistry is explosive." She whispered.

"Well, you are the explosives expert Nora. You explain it to me."

It was around an hour later that Charlie and Jason came in along with a few other rebels. "Today is a normal day. We've got no plans or raids to go on so everyone just rest." He said to them all. The rebels all left, but Charlie, Jason, Miles and Nora all stayed.

"How long has it been since we haven't had to pack up and leave to raid somewhere or rescue someone or stop a scientist from making anthrax?" Charlie asked, she had intended it as a joke, but nobody laughed.

"Charlie, would you mind going up and watching the warning bell for a few hours, I don't trust some of these untrained idiots." Miles asked.

She mutely nodded and headed out.

"Ni- Jason, will you come supervise fight training with me? You seem to be able to handle yourself in the fight."

Jason nodded, too shocked that Miles Matheson had complimented him on his fighting skills. There was then a knock at the door and one of the rebels came in. "Can I have a hand today? We've got a bit of supplies to ferry in." He said.

Nora immediately raised her hand. "I'll help you." She said as she followed him out of the room. After Nora had gone Jason and Miles left not much afterwards.

Charlie was in too much of a good mood to let her boring task of sitting with two other rebels on the roof of the town hall bring her down. She sat on the floor, feet hanging over the edge of the building, yet she was still safe, even though she knew that Miles probably wouldn't approve.

The other two rebels were sitting at the other side of the roof, both chatting idly with each other, but Charlie didn't know either of them particularly well, so she sat alone and she was happy about it.

It wasn't long before she found herself getting fidgety. She spotted Miles waving at her from below and he shouted something up, that he had to repeat three times before she caught onto what he was saying. She took her bow and quiver off of her shoulder and then, lined it up with where he'd set up a heap to catch it and let it fall. It was a long fall for her beloved bow, but it landed perfectly and Miles picked it up and it seemed in perfect working order.

She watched as he, Jason and Tom all took charge of a group of about sixty rebels to help them fight. They were having more fun than she was, but she knew why Miles had put her up here. He knew that there was a high threat of Monroe finding and attacking them and he also knew that the sentries that were always posted up here didn't take the job very seriously because the scouts always spotted soldiers first, but Miles must have known that she understood the precarious situation they were in.

After a few hours she started to get warm and was contemplating taking her break, but she knew that she had to wait until the other two came back. They had disappeared back into the building what felt like forever ago and she hadn't seen heads or tails of them since. She was having to seriously consider leaving the bell unmanned for just a little while whilst she grabbed a bite to eat from inside or visited Jason down on the training area, but then she spotted the helicopter on the horizon.

At first she thought she was hallucinating, but then she heard the distant rumble from more than one helicopter and she saw one of the small outbuildings that was only about a mile away from the town burst into flames, the helicopters were carrying bombs and they were coming directly to them.

She scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping over the edge of the building, but she managed to keep steady on her feet and run to the large, church-like bell and she rang it. She could practically hear the silence that followed. All conversations were abandoned as everyone froze, nobody really knowing what was going on, so she kept ringing the bell, until she was hit with the realization that she was standing on the roof of the target building.

Upon hearing the bell, Miles instantly stopped the training; he knew that there was no way that Charlie would ring the bell as a joke. He glanced up, but couldn't see her, but he did manage to spot the copter flying in their direction, dropping bombs everywhere.

"Everybody move!" He ordered. "Jason, get them out of here!" Jason looked like he was going to argue, so Miles just glared and that caused Jason to sigh and lead the confused soldiers away from where they were. Only Tom and Miles remained where they were.

"Tom, how do they know we're here?" Miles snapped.

"Well, it seems we have got a bit of trouble on our hands." Tom replied as he slung his gun over his shoulder. The two men looked up and saw that the copter was nearly directly above them. Miles was about to run into the building and all around the town to find Nora and Charlie, but Tom grabbed his arm. "I'm not going back to Georgia and telling Foster that her best fighter got blown up because I let him run back into the danger zone." He snapped at him. "Now move!"

Neither had any time to debate, they ran and then the building behind them, the main building in the town, was reduced to flying bricks and burning furnishings. Tom and Miles were blown off of their feet and both men crashed onto the hard ground with a thud, keeping their heads low to the ground as rubble descended around them.

After a few minutes they stood up and wiped away some of the dust that had got stuck on their clothes. More explosions shook the town, but none of them as close as that one, so they didn't feel it as much. It only went quiet when nearly every main building in the town was on fire, or not where it used to be at all.

Miles glanced round the area they were standing in. They were surrounded by a lot of big chunks of rubble and then he spotted an all too familiar dark head of hair. He ran over there, worry in the pit of his stomach that she was dead. When he moved round so he could see her face he was relieved that she was awake and just trapped.

Without pausing for a second he moved the rubble off of her, freeing up her legs. "Nora, are you alright?" He asked desperately.

"I'm fine, Miles." She whispered as he crouched down beside her. He helped her sit up and then moved her hair gently out off of her face so he could check a bleeding wound for her. "Nora, were you with Charlie?" Nora looked at him blankly, obviously having no idea what he was talking about.

"She was ringing the bell…" Nora said slowly as she turned her head and looked at where the building used to be. The huge building that had once stood at least fifty foot high was now reduced to a twenty foot tall pile of rubble.

Miles felt all the colour drain from his face and he swore.