Fan Fiction - CHERUB/Gone

Desert Dessert

Hey, thanks for the reviews guys! :) Anyway, as you can see, we have changed the story a little, Astrid is already Sam's girlfriend and Kerry is dating James. Sorry if you don't like this. We skipped the part at the beginning of gone because that's in the book and you probably don't need us to repeat it. :) Enjoy!

Sam, Astrid, Edilio and Little Pete were wandering through the desert trying to see whether there was an end to the FAYZ wall.

"Bit dark, eh?" murmured Quinn.

There was a muffled sound coming from the expanse behind them. Astrid spun round.

"What was that?" Astrid whispered.

Sam turned round and followed her gaze. "Nothing." he decided.

Sam turned back around but Astrid stayed staring trying to figure out what it was. In the distance she saw two black shapes. She couldn't tell who, or what they were but one definitely looked like a person.

"Sam, look at this," she called behind her.

Sam and the others turned and looked across the desert, out onto the sunset.

"They look like silhouettes," Edilio pointed out.

"Yes," Astrid agreed. "But whose?"

"Should we check it out" Edilio asked this question but mainly addressed to Sam.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, they might be adults, though, I highly doubt it."

Astrid nodded in agreement, Edilio looked as though he's planning out certain possibilities in his head, and Quinn just looked like he was going to pass out. Astrid looked down at Little Pete who is sitting down, absorbed in his game.

"Maybe we should wait until they get a bit closer." suggested Astrid.

They all decided that she was probably right, sat down and waited patiently for their esteemed guests.

5 OR SO MINUTES LATER

"Owwwwww!" James moaned.

Kerry and Lauren were still managing to carry him across the desert.

"Well...You guys want the good news or the bad news?" Bruce queried.

Kerry, Lauren and James exchanged glances.

"Bad news" Lauren answered. Then she saw the looks she was getting from James and added "Oh come on! Everyone knows you choose bad news first!"

Kerry nodded.

"Fair, owwww, enough." James winced at every step he took with his bad leg.

"Right...so...the bad news is... I can't see a single suitcase anywhere. I think its fair to say... we're in the middle of bloody nowhere!" Bruce informed.

James let out a painful groan.

"Great!" Lauren said with false happiness. "And what was the good news?"

Bruce faltered. "It was...hey guys! Is that people I see?"

Lauren and Kerry perked up.

"Say what?" Kerry asked, not believing what she had just heard.

"People, there are people up there!" Bruce cried. "Well, at least I think they're people..."

"Who cares! Let's go and see whether they have any bloody pain killers!" said James who was white form pain.

Kerry looked at him with sympathy and annoyance. "No swearing, not around other citizens."

"This is shit painful! Give us a break!"

"Oh come on! Get over yourselves, please! The quicker you stop moaning and get moving, the quicker we'll get there!" Lauren shouted.

After that, James and Kerry really didn't want to test Lauren's patience again, so shut up and kept moving.

The dark objects grew closer and ti was now obvious that they were people, they were sitting on the ground.

"Ooooh! Owww! Shit shit shit shit shit!" James was still crying out, Kerry and Lauren were still dragging him along and Bruce was still just swaggering along beside them.

"Come on guys! We're nearly there!" He encouraged.

"Easy for you to say!" Kerry argued.

"You're not the one dragging a bloody heavy lump for miles in the desert" retorted Lauren.

"Excuse me? I am right here you know. Seeing as I can't move a bloody fraction!" said James.

Kerry looked reproachfully at James. "Stop swearing or I will personally make sure that you are in the worst pain imaginable, OK?"

James ignored her and continued moaning and groaning until they reached the group of people sitting on the desert floor.

Kerry and Lauren gently dropped James to the floor, next to the blond girl.

"Ow! What the fuck was that for!" James yelled.

The blond girl looked disgusted by James's language but James didn't care a damn, he was in pain.

"That, was pay back, for having to drag you several hot miles through a desert!" Kerry answered cheekily.

Lauren sits down and tries to catch her breath back and Bruce dumps his parachute on the floor next to a tawny hair dude.

"Oh my God! That was sooo not fun!" And he lay down on the desert floor and shut his eyes.

"Hey, I'm Lauren." And she stuck out her hand to the blond girl.

She took it reluctantly, obviously noticing the sweat and dirt. "Hi, I'm Astrid. Where did you come from?"

"England originally, but just now? Oh um... it's kinda hard to explain... You?"

Astrid looks slightly lost. "We all come from Perdido Beach. Some where in that direction.." She pointed behind her. "Who are the others?"

"Oh, umm... that thing." She points to James, who is awkwardly sitting with his broken leg, clutching it. "Yeah, that's my brother, James."

"Oww. T'sup."

Lauren pointed over at Kerry, who was sitting next to him. "That's Kerry, his girlfriend."

"Unfortunately, yes." Kerry teased.

James smiled but then winced in pain. "And that leaves the skinny dude over there, that's Bruce."

"Hey. I'm James's pal. How's life?" Bruce introduced himself.

"So, how about you guys?" Lauren asked the blondie.

"Well, that little guy over there is Petey, he's my brother. He's autistic, so... yeah... That's Quinn." The girl was pointing at the boy with the tawny hair.

He just smiled slightly, then turned to being grumpy.

"That there is Edilio, he's Mexican."

"Hey! I'm Honduran, not Mexican!" Edilio corrected.

"And finally, this is my boyfriend Sam." Astrid smiled.

"Hi." Sam said while grinning, he too had blond hair. "It's not safe here, we should stick together, you never know what's gonna happen."

Everyone murmured in agreement.

"Do you know all the adults, well, everyone above the age of 15 has kinda, poofed?" Sam inquires.

"What do you mean?" Lauren asked.

"Yeah." Bruce put in.

"Well, we were all in school and suddenly, all the teachers had disappeared. It was so weird. Then, we went outside, and all the adults and everyone over 15 had too."

"Then we got dragged out to find Astrid's 'lil bro and now, well, we're stuck in a dessert." Quinn added.

"Shit!" James snapped and everyone turned to him.

Kerry put her hand on his arm. "Are you all right?"

James nodded. "Just moved my leg, that's all. Ow!"

"Are you ok dude?" Sam asked, getting concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine, ow." James replied stiffly.

Kerry rolled her eyes at James. "What he was mean to say was 'No you stupid bull, what does it look like! I've broken my bloody leg for crying out loud!' then I'd kill him cause he swore out of campus..."

Quinn, Sam, Edilio and Astrid all seemed pretty shaken by Kerry's rude out burst but weren't very good at disguising their disgusted expressions.

"That's some strong language for such a small girl." Quinn murmured.

"I may be small, but I can kick hard, wanna see?" Kerry threatened.

"Nuh uh. You don't wanna, trust me." Bruce reassured.

Quinn winced slightly at this comment and sat back and shut up. There was a short while of awkward silence while everyone pondered over this fact.

"So how did you break your leg exactly?" Astrid asked, breaking the silence.

Suddenly Bruce, Kerry and Lauren all had their eyes on James. James winced in pain as he went to answer. "I jumped out of a helicopter and landed badly." He replied bluntly, ignoring the looks that he was being given from his fellow CHERUBs.

"What do you mean, a helicopter?" Sam asked while Quinn and Edilio listened in with curiosity.

Kerry lent in and whispered something to James. "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed. "You can't tell them anything otherwise you'll be kicked out!"

"Well, at this moment in time we're stuck in the so called FAYZ where there are no adults, I've broken my bloody leg and we're stranded in a fucking desert. I think there can be some exceptions!" James snapped back in a whisper.

"Fine! But I soooo had nothing to do with this! Don't tell them everything though." Kerry warned quietly.

James turned back to face Sam. "We were flying to California on a helicopter and the pilot 'poofed' and the helicopter spun wildly out of control. We all panicked..."

"And had a swearing contest, which I lost... again..." Bruce cut in. James threw him a look which said 'Talk when I talk again and I'll personally rip your balls off!'.

"Yeah, and then we grabbed some parachutes, jumped out of the helicopter and landed in the desert." Lauren continued because the boys had started a stare-off.

"OW! And then I landed badly and broke my leg." James concluded bitterly. Then added "Good God, Mr Large wouldn't be god damn pleased, would he?"

Astrid took all this information in, filtered through it and came to a conclusion. "You must have been trained to do all that, no one is born to just jump out of a helicopter and not die."

James thought about how to answer this without giving away too much. "Yes, we are, well... that's one way of putting it..." His answer was brief, making Astrid want to know more.

"What do you mean? 'That's one way of putting it'?" She asked. Bruce, Lauren and Kerry were on the edge, they had no clue what James was going to say next.

James sighed. "Under usual circumstances, I would be in deep shit for telling you this, but I think this is, considering our current situation, one of the, maybe the only, exception to the rules..." James thought allowed. Astrid gawped at him, trying to understand what the hell he was trying to say.

"Oh God, here we go." Bruce exclaimed as he lay down stretching with his arms behind his head.

"We are all secret agents for a secret government society. You don't need to where it is, or what it's called, but we are." James said, calmly and slowly, so everyone could take it in.

"Secret agents..." Astrid murmured in awe.

"How do we know your not just talking complete bull shit?" Quinn asked.

James turned on him. "You wanna have a punch up with one of us, see whether you can win? I don't advise it, you could get pretty bashed up..."

Quinn looked aggravated, scared and didn't really know what to say. "Your not gonna do much damage with that leg brah." Quinn stood up to show that he wasn't going to be the one to back down.

James obviously didn't stand up but shifted his position slightly and he winced in pain. Kerry stood up and walk right up to Quinn, he was taller than her by about an inch or two but Kerry still managed to get right up in his face.

"He maybe busted up but I'll gladly kick your butt for him! No one insults my boyfriend." Kerry snarled.

James smiled proudly, Kerry looked sooo sexy when she threatened people other than himself.

"Whatever, I believe you, just checking!" Quinn laughed nervously to break the ice. "Why don't we get a move on, you know, before it gets dark!" And Quinn started walking purposely off into the desert.

Sam shrugged. "I guess we should probably follow him..." And Sam got up, along with Edilio and Astrid, who helped Little Pete and they all started to follow Quinn.

Bruce and Lauren shared a glance, shrugged and soon followed. Leaving a worked up Kerry to carry James.

They hadn't walked far by sun set and the desert was starting to get cold. Lauren, who had left her jumper on the helicopter, was shivering in her shoes.

"Ooooooh m my d dead g g god!" Lauren shouted while furiously rubbing her hands up and down her arms. "I'm b bloody f freeeeezing!"

"D ditto." Quinn muttered irritably.

"Hey look!" Sam pointed in a direction, nobody could really see which, since it was so dark, but they all followed him when he started to change direction. "I see light."

"No f freaking way d dude!" Bruce exclaimed.

The light turned out to be a house/hut kind of thing. Whatever it was, it meant, food, warmth and light for all of them.

Sam was just about to knock on the door when the bushes started rustling behind them. "Okay, either there's something there, or it's the wind." Edilio decided, not really to anyone in particular.

"It can't be the wind, we'd feel it." Astrid thought logically, like usual.

"That means there's something out there." Bruce stated obviously.

"No shit ow sherlock!" James grumbled sarcastically.

Petey was still playing his video game, so hadn't really noticed anything. Suddenly out of nowhere a pack of about ten barking objects jumped out at them from behind the bushes.

A wild array of phrases were all blurted out at the moment of the ambush, including "Whoa!" "OH MY GOD!" "What the hell!" "Cuuuute!" and "Bloody hell!".

The objects turned out to be coyotes, and they were growling fiercely as they circled around the group of teenagers, well, teens and kids.

"To be honest, I'm surprised there are bushes in the desert, anyways." Bruce claimed, who seemed very confused about the matter.

James shot him a strange look. "Dude, seriously! Now? Out of every moment you have had to mention that, you chose now!"

Bruce smiled apologetically.

"I am pack leader. Pack leader hungry." a voice spoke.

"Am I going crazy, or did that coyote just speak?" Edilio asked quietly.

"No. it just spoke." Sam reassured. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Good. I was starting to think I needed a psychiatrist." Edilio chuckled nervously.

The speaking coyote launched itself at Sam, who started blasting light beams widely. Everyone else hurried into the hut. Sam only just managed to get inside and shut the door before getting ripped apart, even though he did get wounded.

Sam lay unconscious on the floor. The coyote had torn some of the flesh on his chest and Astrid was kneeling over him, examining it.

"He needs help." A voice spoke from behind them. Everyone turned round to see who it was, apart for Little Pete, who didn't seem phased by this fact.

It was a girl, she had pale brown skin and long black hair.

"No freaking duh." Quinn muttered sarcastically. The girl thumped him. "Hey!"

"Get out of my way, I can do it." the girl moved forward and bent down to Sam. "He's your boyfriend, isn't he?" she asked Astrid quietly.

"Yes." Astrid whispered between sobs.

"Ok, this will be quick." the girl reassured as she placed the palm of her hand into the bloody mess which was once Sam's chest.

The wound started to close up and there was less blood flowing from it. The girl continued until the wound had closed up completely and the only blood left was the stuff that had stained his shirt.

"Done. He'll wake up soon."

Everyone looked at the girl in amazement. "Whoa, you got healing powers, haven't you?" Astrid asked civilly.

"Yeah. Wait, you know about powers?" the girl asked dumfounded.

Astrid nodded. "Sam's got one too." Quinn stared at her pointedly. "What? There's no point hiding stuff from these guys anyway." She indicated to Bruce, Lauren, James and Kerry. "They told us their secret."

"What's your name by the way?" Bruce asked the girl who seemed to be living in the house they just broke into.

"Lana, my name is Lana." she answered. "You got attacked by the coyotes, don't worry, they give up eventually." Lana peered cautiously out of the window.

"It's strange, we all heard it talk. Well, the Pack Leader did anyway." Edilio recalled.

The group nodded with consent, well, apart from Little Pete. "They do, and yes, it is strange, very strange indeed." Lana confirmed.

"We've seen some other strange things too, remember? The flying snakes? That was very odd." Astrid added.

Quinn, and Edilio shared a knowing glance.

Sam started to stir and Astrid stroked the side of his face gently. Lana walked over to the fridge. "Any of you guys hungry?"

Everyone told her they were and ran to the fridge to find something to eat.

"My dead God!" Lauren exclaimed. "I haven't had desert dessert in ages!" This caused everyone to start laughing, even Lana.

"SHIT!" James cried put. Kerry gently rubbed his arm to try and clam him down. "Can you do that healing thing to my leg please? Ow!"

Lana nodded and walked over to James, bent down and placed her hand over his leg. James could feel the bones correcting themselves, it was quite a painful process.

"Ow!" He winced. After a few minutes Lana stood back to admire her work.

"How does it feel?" she asked concerned.

James nodded and moved his leg freely. "God! This feels amazing, I've never expressed how much I love doing this! Woooooo!" James jumped wildly around the room, making the most of his newly improved leg.

"BOOO YEAH!" he shouted. "Kiss me baby!" and he ran up to Kerry and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips.

Kerry blushed furiously because of this, but smiled because James was healed. And with that, everyone joined in the mass consumption of desert dessert.