Dear readers:

I would apologize for the inexcusably late update, but as these are the last two chapters that I am posting, I figure it pointless. There will never be another late update. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have in writing it.

Without further ado, here are the last of my story.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR—Alan Quatermain

Where was that boy? The dark and quiet of the coffin had obscured what was left of Quatermain's sense of time. It had been a long time since Sawyer had come for him, yet still Allan sat in his coffin, needing only a breath of fresh air to be reanimated. He supposed that he could reach out to Sawyer again with his mind, but that took time…and if he was dug up during that time, he didn't know what would happen. The powers of the otherworld were denied to the living.

He had stopped shifting between his body and Sawyers after a few days, finding it easier to take semi-permanent residency within Sawyer. He'd expected a comment from Sawyer about how his head wasn't a hotel, but Sawyer hadn't seemed to mind. His optimism was unshakeable, and he avoided the others for the sole purpose of speaking with Quatermain. In a bizarre way, Sawyer seemed to understand how lonely death was.

And now, here he lay: the great Allan Quatermain, dead in a grave…but not dead. Just in a hole. Most annoying.

Finally, the sound of scraping earth was heard. He'd been buried deep, but if he could hear it by now, then they must have been close.

"Stop this, Sawyer," a voice said, somewhat muffled through the coffin, but clearly belonged to Mina.

"Just hang on a minute," Sawyer replied, surprisingly close.

"He's dead," she said harshly. "You need to move on."

More footsteps approached.

"Almos' there, Tom?" Skinner inquired. "I would 'elp you, but, you know."

Quatermain remembered Skinner's condition well, and wondered how he'd made it this far inland on a crutch. The steady sound of Sawyer's shovel was joined by another shovel. Allan speculated that it was Nemo who had jumped down to help. It obviously wasn't Mina, who had either fallen silent or walked off, and Jekyll…well…

"Too much of a wimp," he thought candidly.

Time passed slowly, and the steady sound of shovels faded into a melancholy rhythm. Then finally:

"Alright, let's get this thing out," Sawyer said. A sound was heard as both men outside scrambled up the sides, and Quatermain could feel his coffin raising out of the ground. It was opened.

Alan took a breath of air and sat up quickly. Mina, who had stood away from the group but not stopped watching, stifled a scream. Quatermain coughed several times, shook his head to clear it (dust and dirt were shaken from his hair), and cleared his throat.

"What'd I miss?" he asked hoarsely.

"Not a thing," Sawyer said, beaming. Although he was soaked with water and sweat and covered in dirt, he hugged Quatermain. Behind Sawyer, he saw Nemo, who was impeccably clean. A bit surprised, he looked at Skinner, still partially bandaged and on a crutch. Then at Jekyll, who was covered in dirt and sweat. Only the faintest traces of mosquito-bite scars left any indication of his ordeal.

So, then, it had been Jekyll who had helped dig him up.

"Shall we go then?" Nemo asked. He didn't seem phased by the miracle of reanimation.

"Well, good tah see you, too," Quatermain replied gruffly. He barely managed to spit out the words; his throat was dry and scratchy.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen walked away from the now-empty hole in the ground, and walked away. Quatermain had thought that he would walk with Sawyer on the way back to the ship, but the two had talked so much and been so close in the past few days that very little was left to say. Mina, instead, walked with him. There was a strained silence for a minute, before Mina spoke abruptly.

"What was it like?" she asked.

"What was what like?"

"Death."

Quatermain realized that his question would come up, and had wondered if it would come from the immortal. "I don't know," he replied. "I wasn't dead."

"You were in that coffin for over a month."

"I wasn't dead."

Mina seemed disappointed, but walked a bit faster until she was no longer walking with him.

So Quatermain walked alone until he got to the ship. He wanted to be alive again…he would eat and sleep, take a shower, and then get back up to the top deck and shoot a few rounds.