Chapter Twenty-four: but keep the faith, love

Elijah, Nik, and Jeremy scour the area for survivors and supplies, but they come up with nothing. Everything is ruined. Nothing is left for the taking.

"We should find a cliff to drive off of," Jeremy suggest rather seriously. "It'd be quicker than waiting it out."

Elijah and Nik turn around to face him, both wearing opposite reactions.

"The boy has a point," Nik says.

"We aren't driving off any cliffs and we're not waiting anything out," Elijah says. "We only have to keep looking, find a few survivors, and everything will be all right."

Jeremy scoffs and shakes his head. Unbelievable. Elijah's even more delusional than Caroline. Survivors? There aren't any survivors, and even if they are then they're nowhere near here. They all saw the sign. Rural. Country. Everyone's probably fled to Kansas and the Midwest and further south. Perhaps they even passed some along the way and didn't even notice. Maybe Mystic Falls really was their best bet after all.

"Then what do we do, brother?" Nik ponders aloud. "Because I don't particularly see us ending up anywhere but dead either way."

Elijah straightens up his posture and tilts his head to the side, narrowing his eyes. "You seem to be forgetting you have a child on the way."

"Yes, a child who would've had a better chance of survival in a protected camp."

"Listen to yourself, Niklaus," Elijah says bitterly. "Have you gone so completely daft that you've lost all sense of hope?"

Hope? What hope? There's never been any hope. "You think I'm crazy, Elijah, yet I'm not the one constantly spouting off whatever nonsense plants itself in my head. Perhaps you should start thinking a bit more realistically."

"Realistically?" Elijah questions. "Or are you just too afraid—"

"Too afraid to what?" Nik hisses, cutting Elijah off.

Jeremy gulps from the almost palpable tension in the air. He's witnessed Damon and Stefan come to blows many a time even before the apocalypse happened. Most of the time it was over his sister where Damon had managed to cross the line or say something out of turn and Stefan was always willing to take it outside because he cared so much about the Persian rugs. Yeah. The rugs. If it was one thing that the Salvabros could agree on, then it was to not get the rugs dirty. Mary bought them after all.

Elijah narrows his eyes and cocks his head to the side. It's not even worth it, to be honest. It's like talking to a brick wall. There isn't a point anymore and he isn't exactly sure if there ever was one to begin with. He brushes past his younger brother, bumping hard into his shoulder, almost as a dare for him to make a move. Because if he does then Rebekah isn't here to stop Elijah this time.

She remembers in the mausoleum when she asked him if there was nothing when they got to Rhode Island what they would do. He had told her, his breath laced with whiskey and his eyes dreamless and blurry, that they'd find a boat and sail away. He told her that it would be a beach. And she believed him too. Yes she did. Oh, how she did. Caroline believed him because it sounded nice and it was a dream and what was the point of being alive if you couldn't even dream anymore? She believed him because, even if he hadn't thought much of it and only said it to appease her, it was threaded with every inch of hope in his entire being. She believed him because when he told her, he looked her clearly in the eyes and said they would not sink. She believed him because he was saying they wouldn't become just another statistic like the rest of the world. They were going to make it, one way or another, and if Caroline can just continue to hold onto what he said all those months ago, then she can make it. They all can make it.

"This is far from the beauty salon I envisioned," Rebekah sighs, lifting her legs and crossing them on the dashboard of the RV.

Caroline leans back in the passenger seat and turns her head sideways, smiling. "It's out there; we just haven't gotten to it yet."

Rebekah rolls her eyes and Elena falls on her back from her seated position in the middle. "Your optimism is killing me, Caroline," she moans. "I know we were getting on Rebekah about it earlier, but that was before. We're here now. We didn't have a plan B. Or C."

"Who says we don't?"

Rebekah and Elena both shoot her a look.

"Just think about it," Caroline begins to explain. "We have so many options here. We can either look around some more, which is logical. We can also go inland like the sign said. There are probably more scattered around with more information, you know? This might not even be the place."

Rebekah groans and rolls her eyes. Not this again. She had thought Caroline had gotten out of the denial stage, because this was most definitely the refuge. Well, what was left of it. After Caroline had stopped pacing the RV and the boys had went out to scour the area, Rebekah and Caroline had managed to get her to sit down and take a breather. All that pacing and stressing and overthinking wasn't going to do anything but hurt her in the long run. So Caroline relaxed for, like, ten minutes and now she's back to her old refusing-to-believe-it until the end of time self.

"And even if there isn't another refuge or camp somewhere, we can always head to the shore," Caroline continues. "We can drive along the coast and search through all the beach towns. We can find a boat and sail out to an island or something."

Elena sits up on her elbows. "We'll run out of gas long before we even make it to Maine," she states. "Don't get me wrong, Care. It's nice to dream and have hope, especially since…you know—" her eyes glance down to Caroline's belly, "but what are the chances? Of course, we'll do everything to keep you as safe we possibly can, Care. You come first in this, but right now…"

"Would you quit being such a Debby Downer? Jesus Christ, Elena! I'm going to rip my hair out," Caroline exclaims.

"We'll decide what to do when the boys get back," Rebekah concludes. "There's no point in getting your knickers in a twist."

"That was the most British sentence I've ever heard in my entire life," Caroline laughs. Yes, laughs.

Elijah, Nik, and Jeremy return about an hour later with nothing more than what they left with, but it's not hopeless enough to sour Caroline's mood anymore than it already is. The three of them enter the RV, empty-handed and silent. Elena instantly gets up hug Jeremy, annoying him with questions that he's okay and that they didn't have any close calls. He should be used to it by now. Ever since their parents died over two years ago, Elena had gone into maternal overdrive. Technically, they had been placed under the care of their closest surviving relative, Miranda's much younger sister Jenna. However, Jenna wasn't the most practical guardian you could ask for so Elena took over most of the time, mirroring Miranda in everything she did. She became a helicopter mom, always hovering over Jeremy and even giving a Yes or No to who he could date.

"Vicky Donovan?" she asks, disgusted. "Really, Jeremy? You want to date a druggie?"

Jeremy collapses on the couch, rubbing his face in his hands, not even bothering to get out of this lecture. It isn't even that he is asking her for permission, because if he wants to see Vicky, then he damn well will. He just doesn't like keeping things from Elena because she'll find out eventually. By telling her, he figures that her wrath would be that of Eleos than of Lyssa.

"You come home smelling like pot just about everyday, Jeremy," Elena goes on, exasperated. "And you tell me that you're hanging out with Vicky Donovan? She's not even your age! She's, like, twenty and you're, what, fifteen?"

"Sixteen. I'm past the age of consent and I really don't need your permission to do what I want."

"You know, just because Mom and Dad are gone doesn't mean you can just break every freaking rule in the world, Jeremy!" she hollered. "I'm trying to be responsible and I only wish you wanted to do the same."

"No, Elena. Just because Mom and Dad are gone doesn't mean you get to control my life!"

And six months later, Jeremy wishes nothing more than to be back on that couch arguing with Elena over Vicky Donovan.

"Where will we go?" Rebekah asks Elijah as he gets back behind the wheel. She slides into the passenger seat, ignoring Nik's spoiled child glare from a few feet away.

Elijah pulls out the map from beneath the radio console and flips it open a few times until it's completely expanded. "We either keep going North, or we try our hands at going West. We don't have many options here, Rebekah." His fingers trace over a few exes Nik crosses out as Elijah was driving earlier. If they turn around and retrace their steps so to speak, they'll find a few farmlands in Connecticut. They hadn't stopped to check if there was anything worth taking, but from the looks of it they looked pretty much abandoned, which only leads him to grow even warier of the idea that everyone at this camp ran away to some farm or the rural. He figures that at least some people would be there, but along the way the appearance of any survivors was completely zero.

So, at this point, he's just taking a risk. Taking a chance and, really, that's all he's been doing this entire time.

"What do you think?" he asks Rebekah and she sits back in the seat, propping up her legs on the dashboard and crossing her arms. She looks out the window and huffs, rolling her eyes. Hell if she knows.

"Coast," she answers absentmindedly. Caroline said it earlier and if that's what she wants, then why not? It's not like it can actually get worse at this point. "We go along the coast…north…and maybe find a boat."

Elijah looks at her blankly. She's lost her mind. "A boat?"

She merely nods. "I've never been to the ocean before."

He smiles at this and for a split second, she catches a glimpse of the Elijah who bandaged her cuts and scrapes when she fell off a swing or landed on an unseen rock at the bottom of a slide when she was four.

"Very well," he settles, starting up the engine. "To the ocean it is, sister."

Because Rebekah is in the passenger seat, laughing over something with Elijah, and Elena and Jeremy are sitting at the table speaking in hushed tones, that leaves Caroline and Nik with the couch. Honestly, one of them can lie down, but Caroline refuses every time he tells her she should.

"I've slept enough today," she says, her voice not giving anything away. She won't give him the satisfaction of knowing that she's enraged and disconcerted. No, because he should know and expressing her emotions anymore won't even matter anyway because he's a douchenozzle who doesn't give a shit about her anymore, and probably never did to begin with so there's that.

"How about you go lie down?" she suggests, cocking her head and her voice still even. "You've been doing so much today. You know, bitching and moaning must take an awful lot out of you."

Nik scoffs and shakes his head. Unbelievable. She's really unbelievable. Is this her best shot at being spiteful?

"You're acting painfully immature," he laughs.

"Sorry, but in case you haven't noticed I have a life growing inside my uterus that I'll be forced to push out, most likely without any anesthesia, in a matter of months so I think I can afford to be a little moody. You on the other hand, not so much."

Nik doesn't have a comeback for that.

Caroline smirks. "That's what I thought." She wants to stop talking now; wants to pretend that he's not here and she can't hear him breathing or feel the warmth radiating not even a foot away from her. One little bump in the road and she'll bump right into him and she most definitely doesn't want that. Not when she's angry and so super pissed that he's so super pissed with her for seemingly no reason at all because it's not like Caroline planned to get pregnant. Like this was all an elaborate plan to tie him down and then get married so she could get better tax refunds. This isn't a fucking episode of Maury or Jerry Springer. No, it's the motherfucking apocalypse and there is an actual human in her abdomen, taking all her nutrients like a goddamned parasite and she's still getting shit for it. It's been like over a day now. She's moved on and Nik should too.

"If we get somewhere and it's a camp or village," she says, not really thinking, "I think we should separate." Because it's what he wants and it's what she wants too.

He cuts a glance at her, trying to read her expression but she's not giving anything up. Did he just say what he thought she said?

"What are you saying?"

She presses her lips tightly together, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly. "I don't know how I can say it any clearer."

He stares at her completely dumbfounded. Is she serious? She can't be serious. "You want to keep my child away from me?"

Caroline shrugs. "You don't want her, him, whatever it is anyway. What difference does it make if you're there or not?"

"No," Nik tells her. "Not a chance. You can't do that."

"I'm pretty sure I can do whatever I want," she states matter-of-factly. "The rules don't apply anymore. I just want to be as happy as I can be, Nik. You can't be happy. Ever. You have so much…anger and resentment towards everyone, especially this baby and me. I don't want to be around that and I most definitely won't raise a child in that setting."

"Oh, as if you could ever survive without me," he retorts. "You wouldn't even be here had I not taken you with me."

"So why did you?"

she questions, tilting her head. The more she thinks over it—remembers that day—she figuratively offered him nothing. He could've just left her there after he drove off the Mikaelson estate. But he didn't and she doesn't know why, but sometimes she wishes he did just leave her.

Before Nik can even begin to fathom up an answer, the RV stops. Elijah comes out from the front and crouches below the kitchenette sink, reaching for the two gasoline cans.

"We could use a fill-up and this might be the last gas station for miles," he explains, "I'm not entirely sure if this place has diesel, but it's worth a shot."

"Jeremy and I could scope out the store," Elena says, springing to action.

Elijah finds himself smiling softly. "Yes, well perhaps you should stay here with Caroline while Rebekah, Niklaus, and Jeremy go inside."

Elena shakes her head. "I'm going with my brother."

"I admire your concern, Elena, but—"

"Come on, Jer!" Elena calls, cutting Elijah off completely. He finds her initiative more endearing than annoying.

Nik gets up and follows Elijah out of the RV while Elena and Jeremy follow after. Rebekah comes over to Caroline and sits down beside her, a solemn smile playing across her lips.

"I heard," is all she says. "And I totally understand why you would want this, if we ever were to find a refugee camp, but—"

"It would be for the best," Caroline mutters.

"But would it be what you want?" Rebekah asks.

Caroline chews on her lip and twiddles her thumbs. "What I want is to go back to the way things were; where it was just us three and you kept giving me the evil eye. Things were simpler two months ago."

Rebekah can't argue with her there, but she happens to like having a friend. "Just think about it again. Nik is an arse, but as much as I want to hate him…I can't."

Elena's pretty handy with a gun, which is a surprise. She's only shot it once, a zombie that seemed to come out of nowhere as she rounded an aisle, but it was a perfect headshot and Jeremy swears that if this were a 360 game that his sister just unlocked an achievement. She laughs hysterically like she can't believe she just shot a gun, but then the pain sears through her shoulder from the recoil so her victory is quite short-lived. It was epic, though.

Jeremy is the first to go to the back of the store where the inventory would be kept, but he doesn't find much of anything. Nothing except…

"Guys," he hollers back to the group.

Elena is the first to appear and then Nik and Rebekah right behind her. "What?" Elena asks quietly.

Jeremy points his flashlight down to a large square box in the floor. It looks like a manhole or something similar since there's a handle over the top of the lid, yet no one moves to even try and open it.

"Well," Rebekah inquires, "who's going to be the brave one?"

No one says anything.

"Fine," she states, pushing past Nik and bending over in front of the hatch. She grips both hands on to the handle, twists and pulls with all the power from her back. It opens within second, an eerie silence looming over the room as the creak from the door comes to a stop. Jeremy flashes the light down the hole to see a ladder that looks more like stairs as it goes down a slight angle and each step is more protruded from the wall. When he flashes the light directly down the hole, he doesn't see a bottom.

"That isn't creepy or anything," Elena laughs nervously. "Maybe we should just go back."

"And risk everything that could possibly be down there?" Nik asks in disbelief. "Are you mad?"

Elena rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, shifting her weight to one leg. Honestly, what did Caroline ever see in this guy? Yes, you don't need to get drunk to sleep with him, but that's about it.

"Move over," he says to Jeremy. "I'm going down."

The three of them watch as he finds his footing and begins to descend, holding his thin flashlight between his teeth.

"Shout if you see anything," Rebekah tells him.

He mumbles something incoherent, but it was most likely snark.

There's an uncomfortable silence that settles among them as the sound of Nik's shoes hitting the metal comes to a stop and when Rebekah calls for him and he doesn't answer she wants to die.

"Nik!" she yells down the hatch, but she still gets no answer. Panic arises in her chest as she looks back to the Gilberts and then to the tunnel. "Get Elijah," she orders. "Something's wrong."

"Rebekah," Nik's echo sounds, seeming to be miles and eons away.

"What's going on down there?" she shouts back, peering as far into the dark depth as she can without falling. "Nik, answer me!"

"You won't believe this," he yells and there's this weird sound of elation in his voice that is the strangest thing Rebekah has heard in years. "You won't believe this!"

Rebekah looks back to Jeremy and Elena who are hugging and just all smiles, laughing maniacally as if they've just won the lottery.

"I don't…" Rebekah starts to say.

"Don't you get it?" Jeremy asks her eagerly. "It's an underground shelter. People have them built for hurricanes and tornadoes. Or even apocalypses, but still! It's a shelter!"

Rebekah blinks slowly, suddenly feeling woozy and like she'll pass out any moment. Actually, she thinks just might do that.

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A/N: One day you're all just gonna be like "You know what? No. Fuck you, Angel. Fuck you and your story that you can't even keep up with because you're a lazy little shit EUGH!"

But I have reasons this time! First of all, this story is actually really draining. There's so much angst and darkness with the last couple of chapters, and once I publish it I'm just like "Wow I feel like rolling off a cliff now bye"

AND TVD is also really annoying me to no end. I've switched fandoms and everything like I just can't take it anymore. So when I open this up in Word, I just get so angry and I couldn't bring myself to write it.

AND my favorite band in the whole world broke up in March and they like saved my life and their music helped me plot out a great deal of this story so I'm still pretty much in a funk about that tbh

BUT I think it's safe to say I won't be taking anymore abrupt hiatuses. I'm so close to finishing this I can just taste it! Which is why I need baby names! Give me your best boy and/or girl names and I'll name the baby my favorite!

Thank you so much and hopefully I'll see you soon!

Oh and you can officially count this as happy times for at least the next couple of chapters whoops ;)