SEPARATE PATHS

"...She hid around corners and she hid under beds

She killed it with kisses and from it she fled

With every bubble she sank with her drink

And washed it away down the kitchen sink..."

Tori woke up at the sound of music, she wiped her tired eyes and payed more attention. She knew the song, but couldn't remember who was the one singing it or the name. She got out of her sleeping place; an old, rusted chevy pickup cabin, to find Freddie and Robbie examining an old map of L.A., Cat and Leah counting and reading cans of food and Sinjin writing a list of what the girls got out of the few boxes.

The shed the mechanics used to fix/dismantle cars was now they storage and nursery, in there the sick and injured slept and fortunately now was occupied just by Burf. Tori took a can of campbell's passing by Leah and Cat, saying her good mornings and got it to the shed to check in the guy inside.

"Hey Burf, are you awake now?" She asked, looking for a can opener on the shelves.

"Hi Tori. Yes I am. Sinjin came and told me the news last night" said the guy, sitting straight, "old Sikowitz is out there then".

"Yes he is" said Tori, finally opening the can and giving it to Burf with a spoon. "There, mushroom cream will be until we find something with pickles or cucumber to spoil you. How is your leg?"

Burf took the can of Tori's hand with a smile and took a spoon of the cream soup. "I can manage without pickles or cucumbers. To be honest I do not miss them but I would not reject them either and it is better. Whatever those guns are, what they did was to give me a lot of pain and a black leg" answered the boy.

His leg had been shot by a casper, the gun looked a lot like a toy and if they had not been aware of the situation, they would have thought it was a film with laser weapons. Burf had to be carried by Freddie and another guy called Simon while they were looking for supplies. Once back in the subway tunnels, where they were staying that time, Leah examined him and said it looked like nothing she had seen before. Burf couldn't move it and two days later was recovering its normal color but a week later now, was still paralyzed. "You don't have to do that, you know? Looks kinda gross and I can do it by myself"

Tori was checking blood flow the way Leah taught her and cleaning the couple of blisters Burf's leg had got because of just laying down. "It's okay, I lost sensitivity for gross with Trina, she used to make me pop her pimples" said Tori with a little laugh, falling to seriousness once she remembered her sister was lost. "We might be moving soon. Do you think you can handle a little trip?"

"I can stand up for some minutes, and I've been giving some steps. I think I can handle it" said Burf, finishing his food.

"Awesome, but first of all, we need to talk with everybody and to see if they agree to go and find our old teacher"

"Tori? Can you please come?" Cat said from the entrance "I... I want to ask you something"

"Sure" Tori answered, standing up and giving Burf one last look "I'm asking someone to get you some water" and she met Cat at the entrance. "What's up, Cat?"

Cat was wearing a cap, staring at her feet, speaking in a low voice and playing with a lock of hair. "I heard Robbie and Freddie were going to one of those drug stores outside L.A... You know, the ones abandoned... And, and see if they found something usable"

"Yeah, they said they're going to try something with the vending machines" said Tori, looking to the place both guys were setting their backpacks and whatever they needed for the trip. "You want to go with them?"

"No, it's not that" Cat said immediately. "I'm still tired of yesterday's trip is just... I... My hair is going back to its normal color and I... Can I ask them to get me some hair dye if they find some?"

Tori felt bad for Cat. Her friend loved her red hair and she couldn't remember one time Cat's brown hair had been showed, but now you could see at least four inches of it, and Cat looked really sad about it. "I... I am not the one to ask, Cat" and she was not, Tori didn't want to be a leader, but she was the one the others came to for advice, or help, or just an opinion. Maybe it was her caring about every one or who knows? But she was always asked before anything was done. "You know? I think you can ask Robbie that favor. And if they find some of your hair dye they can bring it, I don't see the problem, but ask him and Freddie. I'm sure they'll be happy to help you" Tori finally answered, knowing it was, after all, Robbie and Freddie's choice.

"Kay! Thanks Tori!" said Cat, before getting away hopping. She saw Freddie and Robbie smiling to Cat, apparently accepting for the redhead's petition before going their way out, nodding their heads for Tori before going out.

Tori saw Sinjin passing by her and carrying an old microphone along with some other things "what's all that for?" She asked.

Sinjin stopped for a moment smiling to the girl "I had an idea, I'm going with Burf to see if he can help me. If it works I'll let you know" he said.

"Oh, okay. Oh! Can you get him some water?"

"Of course! I'll get it for him once I drop all of this" said Sinjin, rushing -as much as he could- his way to the shed.

"Hey Tori? You might want to come and listen this" called Dana, one more girl in the group, calling Tori from behind and pointing to the radio, still in the station of last night, with the same position. The music the tanned girl heard when she woke up was coming out of the device, and now a distortional voice or at least not Sikowitz's was coming out.

"Old ~ yard... Violated fence... ~ to inspect zone"

"It sounds like interference..." Said Dana.

Tori's face color dropped, thinking the worst with the few words coming out of the radio "It doesn't sounds good... Turn it off... Where are Simon and Derek?"

"They're in the back of the yard, they're checking the car you brought last night and looking for tracking devices since they did not do it yesterday night..." said Leah, standing besides Tori. "What's going on?"

Tori stared at the radio with a scared look before answering, "I hope I'm wrong, but sounds like a patrol is coming this way. Go tell everybody to hide, to do not make a sound. Sinjin is in the shed with Burf, hide him, hide everything!" said Tori before storming out to the back of the junk yard.

"Where are you going!?" yelled one of the girls Tori just left.

"The part of the fence that was violated is in the back!" Tori yelled back, running towards the place she remembered the orange car was. "And Simon and Derek are in the back" said to herself, running through high piles of broken cars and junk.

Before she could even decelerate, Tori stopped suddenly right in front of a pair of caspers examining the orange car, handing mechanic tools and looking at them (or that's what it seemed to Tori) and instantly turning their attention to her, with their black smiley faces. Tori always wondered how could they see with that mask? It covered all their heads like a balaclava but had no holes for eyes or nose. While thinking, the couple of caspers started to approach her, tilting their heads, with their hands over the guns in their belts, waiting for her to make a move so they could shot her.

They were eight feet away from her and getting closer. Tori could swear one of them giggled with every step he/she/it gave and it sounded horrible. She tried to give a step back but that simple move made them draw their weapons and point to her.

"What now?" she tought. "If I move, they shoot me and take me with them, if I stay still they'll capture me and probably they'll shoot me anyway"

Four feet away, Tori shut her eyes and her hands closed, clenched fists giving up. "At least if they take me, the rest will be safe?" She thought. A thud came and the sound of metal falling to the floor, then a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders. "Open your eyes, Victoria" said a voice and she did.

"Simon! Oh my god, thank you!" She said, hugging the boy in front of her. "I thought... I thought I was..."

"For art's sake, calm her down!" said a blue haired boy, who was picking the caspers' guns. "What in the hell were you thinking? Standing there like an idiot"

"Derek, don't~"

"Don't what? She just stood there like an idiot!" said Derek, looking at Simon and then going back to look at Tori. "Why didn't you run? You had a chance to run and hide. What a great leader we have, who freezes as soon as sees one of this stupid smiley dudes" he said, kicking one of the bodies.

"I am not the leader! I... Are they dead?" said Tori, looking at the caspers on the floor.

"No, they're just knocked out" said Simon. "Why did you come running like that? We heard the car out the fence and hid, and then we saw you running in front of us"

"They... I think they were talking to their base or something. The radio was on and their communication interfered with the signal. It was hard to understand everything, but they mentioned a yard, the violated fence and said 'to inspect zone' and Leah told me you were here so I told them to hide and came here to warn you" said Tori, running her hands through her hair. "I feel like I'm going to puke"

"Good warning, boss... One thing is sure now" said Derek, still looking for anything in the caspers' pockets. "We need to move. This place is not safe anymore. Good thing? We have another car, lets just take off the tracking shit and we are done"

"We can't go now, Robbie and Freddie are out looking for supplies" said Tori, helping Simon to move aside the bodies and hopping in the orange car to move it to the front of the yard where everybody else was, but stopping with one foot inside when Derek took her arm.

"Look, pop star. If they don't report anything in at least twenty minutes, their base will send more masked. I'm taking the other car and we're going to ask them if they want to move or if they want to stay and wait to see if "Frobbie" comes back before more caspers come"

Tori hopped in the car and drove to the front side of the yard, she didn't really notice before the long distance she ran. Once in place, she called everybody out. Minutes later, Simon and Derek appeared in the white patrol car with the caspers tied on the back.

Once out Derek stepped in the middle of the group, even Burf was out with the help of Sinjin, and stared at Tori. "Can I talk, boss?" He said mockingly. Tori just rolled her eyes and looked other way. "As I said to our beloved leader, we have to move now, right now. If those two caspers do not report anything in some minutes, they're gonna send back ups. So if you guys agree, we better go and take as much as we can take in the cars"

"We can't leave without Robbie and Freddie, Derek. Is not fair for them, they're out there looking for meds and food and~"

"And hair dye" interrupted Jeremy. "Unless I misheard what the little one there said"

"That was just if they find some, their priority is~"

"So now besides looking for meds or whatever, they have to check twice so they don't miss Cat's hair dye? So they could be here sooner if they weren't looking for freaking hair dye?" Tori was interrupted again by Alana, Jeremy's sister. "You know, I'm with Derek. We have to move now. They just send one patrol per zone and the one of this zone is down. We better move before more of them come"

Jeremy and Alana stood up besides Derek, who was smirking to Tori.

"I'm not leaving without them. If you guys want to, then do it. I'm staying till they are back" said Tori moving aside the orange car and crossing her arms. Alana and Jeremy started to get supplies and getting them into the white patrol car with Derek after getting out the two what appeared men and dragging them to one side of the way. Dana did as well, started to get food cans and other stuff. Burf and Sinjin approached Tori, Cat was already beside her with Leah and Simon was standing between both vehicles.

"I'm going with them" said Burf, getting the attention. "If I go with them now, and you make it later then we'll be all safe. If I stay and caspers come before Freddie and Robbie I'm going to delay you"

"Good, but if you come, Leah must come with us too" said Derek.

"I am not going with you" said the blonde girl, but Derek cut her off.

"You are a nurse, he is injured. If you don't come he doesn't either. It's a rough world, and I'm sorry Burf but we couldn't know how to treat you" he said.

Tori smiled to Leah, this one sighed and started to pick up her stuff. She helped Burf to get in the front of the car. Before hopping in the car she gave Tori a book. "I taught you as much as I knew. This could be useful for you. I'm sorry"

"It's okay. He's as scared as we are, but doesn't like to show it. I hope we meet again" said Tori, hugging Leah and wishing her the best of lucks. Simon was now leaning against the orange car watching Derek ripping out the tracking device, Leah and Burf already inside and Alana and Jeremy closing the trunk.

"We didn't take everything. If you make it, then good. If you don't, we'll come back for the rest of the supplies. We just took the half" said Jeremy looking to Tori, whose head was down and just nodded.

Derek closed the hood and straightened his arms. "We are ready. Simon~"

"I'm not going with you, Derek. I can't leave knowing is just the three of them here" he said. The blue haired boy wasn't pleased with his -lately- best friend's choice, but didn't say a word. He got in the car and drove away. "We must keep going too. Let's take a look to the map Fred and Rob left and we'll go find them. We can't wait here" said Simon, he and Cat took the rest of the supplies, the old radio and everything left usable for them.

Sinjin took a paper sheet and handed it to Tori. "This is what came to my mind this morning. Burf got some things and he'll find whatever he needs. We were thinking about a HF radio to try to contact Sikowitz. If he makes one and I manage to make one too, we could communicate with them"

Tori, still head down, smiled a bit and sighed. "This shouldn't have happened, but however... Let's go find them and I don't know. Drive until we find somewhere safe" she said.

Simon tapped Tori's shoulder and motioned to get in the car. "We'll keep the radio on, in case that Sikowitz man you know says something. I have the route the guys took. Lets keep going"

Simon took the wheel and drove by small street until he made it out of the urbanized zone of L.A. They were starting to get worried since the deserted part of L.A. was showing. It was not a sand desert, it was a zone full of empty and abandoned houses and buildings, dinners, locals among other things. Hours passed and they had no clue of Robbie and Freddie. Sinjin suggested to go back to the junk yard and see if they were back, but now the place would be filled with caspers, and now the curfew was really close.

"We are having so much luck by not being seen with this bright orange car, we have to find a safe place before the curfew" said Tori, speaking for the first time since the left the junk yard.

"We are sorry for the lack of words since this morning!" Said Sikowitz from the radio. Simon parked the vehicle and they all listened. "We had some issues but fortunately we found a TechMan who helped us to fix it. I do repeat, we found a TechMan who fixed the imperfects. And not only that, our TechMan got with him a show of puppets! What a good day to be alive! A TechMan and a Puppet Master! The only thing that would make this better could be a Strike of Silence or maybe a Lady who sings! But please not like a Banshee!..."

"Oh my god!" Was all that Tori said in an undertone.

"So, no matter what, if you are hungry then eat! I've heard donuts are out of circulation now but hey! If you find coconuts make sure to bring them to the closer RV party!" and the signal got lost.

Simon took out the map and according to the route of Freddie and Robbie, they drove to the closest RV camping, but they found out the only place with RV's was the feeder at the entrance of a hiking park. Being that their only hint, they drove right there. They all got out of the car and walked to one of the RV's, trying to hear anything from anywhere. They were losing hopes when Robbie came out of under a diner place and called their names.

"Oh my god!" Said Cat, hugging the skinny boy.

"How... How did you find the place?" asked Tori.

Robbie started to talk. "We were looking for supplies as we said, and then someone ran into us. She was carrying a bag full of cans and lots of things and she cried when she saw me! And hugged me and told me she was with Sikowitz and others and..."

"Shappiro! Are they here already?" said a very familiar voice coming out of under the same RV Robbie came. Tori almost fainted when she saw her annoying sister standing up, shaking the dust of her knees and hands. "Sikowitz told you to not be out here more than five minutes and... Tori?"

"Oh my god, Treen... You are okay!" and Tori ran to hug her sister, tears streaming down her face, crying and laughing at the same. Once inside/under the RV, they were in a bunker, a really big one and according to Robbie it was not known since apparently some paranoid man build it before the government opened the place as public. The bunker seemed like a house underground, with rooms an stretched hallways. The Vega sisters were holding hands the whole way to the big room where their old half bald teacher and Freddie were waiting.

The place had a desk and an old radio transmitter. A wall was filled with lots of cd's, vinyls, cassettes, and even iPods. There were lots of paintings and pictures. Tori watched a picture of the HA gang and Sikowitz in their ping pong uniforms. There were a lot of devices, there were all kind of movies stacked in another wall. Classics, comedies, dramas, romantics, sci-fi, everything. Lots of books, some had their covers burned, some where intact. Somehow, Sikowitz had a piano down there and drums. Guitars, keyboards, many instruments. And on top of everything, Rex was sitting on top of a shelve full of dancing shoes.

"Robbie! Is Rex!" said an excited Cat.

"Yeah, it is. He looks better up there, I guess" said Robbie, not giving importance to it, not as much as Tori thought he would.

Sikowitz glanced at Tori and smiled, a warm smile. "That's how I knew how much damage all of this has done" he said. "I never thought I'd see the day Robbie would leave Rex on a shelve. It makes me so sad to see how much of yourselves has been lost. I'm so sorry"

"Don't be" said Tori. "Let's celebrate we found each other and let's fill each others up with what we've been doing!"

Tori walked straight to her teacher and gave him a hug. Things went from good to bad when she heard the caspers on the radio, to worst when the group got apart, to scary when they thought of losing Robbie and Freddie, to much better when they found each others again. And the hope went up when she saw her sister safe and sound. Maybe out there Jade, Beck, Andre and her parents were okay too. And maybe she'll find the others again and convince them to go there and be safe again.

End of Chapter 2

Well, that was all. Some of the characters are originals, the story of how they met maybe will be tell later, maybe not. Just so you guys know what they were or did before, they were all students, I'll leave a list with their names.

I still don't know if this is going to be Jori since someone told me I write Jori mostly, so I thought it would be cool to ask you, what do you think? Let me know.

Leave a review and make me happy :)

Tori - Singer/musician
Cat - Singer/musician
Robbie - Tech
Freddie - tech
Sinjin - tech
Burf - tech
Leah - nurse
Dana - actress/waitress
Simon - tech/actor/athlete
Derek - actor/athlete
Jeremy - musician
Alana - musician

all of them students

Song: Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine