Several months passed by uneventfully. Katie attended classes like the rest of the students, and save for the occasional odd look, she fit in fairly well. She would admit that she hadn't particularly made any friends, but she didn't care. Most of her time was spent up in her dorm room, alone. Sometimes she would walk around the school grounds, but not often.

But today was one of those rare days. She had found her way down stairs, via an elevator of sorts. Katie was both curious to explore this new, unheard of section of the school, but she was terrified of the thought of Xavier finding her down here. The old man looked nice, but it was clear you didn't want to be on his bad side.

Her footsteps echoed as she walked down a long corridor. As she continued forth, she began to remember vaguely being in a hall like this when she first came here. Her pace quickened as she also began to realize she was lost.

She darted in behind a closed door, and closed it behind her. Cautiously, she flipped on a light switch. What she found was not exactly what she had expected. Instead of a room of high-tech gadgets, or training, or just hostile mutants, the room was filled with papers. Boxes, and crates of papers and files. Two computers sat pushed up against the wall on an old wooden desk.

Though instinct told her to give up and try and find her way back to the surface, Katie slowly approached the computers and sat down. She hit the spacebar and the screen lit up. Words scrolled across the screen, first welcoming her then it gave her two options to proceed. One was to view files, the other option was to add. Katie clicked on the option to view. Suddenly, the screen changed. Miniscule folders filled the screen. Rapidly, she began to scroll down. More and more folders filled her sight. Randomly, she selected one, labeled only with a string of numbers. Within the folder were easily sixty files. Katie opened the one on the very top. It opened to reveal a bank statement. Her jaw dropped slightly. Xavier had been loaded. Building this place must have meant virtually nothing to him. She closed the file and went back to the main screen. Her eyes skimmed through the file names, looking for something of interest. One folder caught her eye.

It was simply labeled, 'H. Sapiens', but Katie found it to be a bit odd. With a brief moment of hesitation, she opened the folder. Only eight files were displayed. Her eyes gazed at the titles in shock.

CloningI.

CloningII.

Alterations.

Modifications.

Endeavor.

Inconsistencies.

Further Research.

Identified Humans.

Katie swore loudly. It no longer sounded like Xavier was trying to help her, or Neil for that matter. He needed them for genetic material. Her hands were shaking as she opened the first file, entitled 'Cloning I'.

CLONING I.

FINAL REPORT FILED: SEPTEMBER 29, 2005

All attempts made for a successful human clone have failed. We were unable to extract and modify enough mutated DNA to make a complete strand...

Katie stopped reading. She thought she heard something outside. She hastily turned the computer off and walked cautiously towards the door. She cracked it open and saw no one. She let out the deep breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding. She turned off the light and walked out, making sure to close the door behind her.

"Boo." A voice said suddenly yet flatly from behind her. Katie spun around, terrified; and came face to face with an older man, whom she did not recognize.

"I…I got lost," She stammered, taking a step back. The man laughed.

"That happens a lot around here," He said. He extended his hand. "M' Name's Logan." He stated. She shook his hand and explained that she was new. To that, Logan merely nodded his head and showed her the way back upstairs.

Once they were upstairs, He excused himself, simply saying he had to talk with the professor. Katie headed back towards her room, her thoughts unwillingly drifting back to what she had seen. It bothered her, and it also made her remember something Neil had mentioned previously. But what?

The dramatic entrance of Jubilee interrupted her thoughts.

"We're going into town," She called out in a near singsong tone. "And you're coming with." She stated. Katie opened her mouth to protest, but Jubilee cut her off.

"The professor said it would be good for you." She said, turning to put her arm around Katie. "C'mon, it will be fun. You haven't left the place since you came." And with that, Jubilee led her towards the garage.

Nearly an hour later, Jubilee, Katie and another student were approaching the nearest town.

"There isn't anything closer than this?" Katie questioned; a bit surprised Xavier's mansion was so secluded.

"There used to be," Jubilee began to explain. "But after the war there were a lot less people. So, logically the locations of towns were altered. The one that used to be only a few minutes away from the mansion had only two or three people left after what happened." She continued.

Katie just stared out the backseat window as Jubilee kept talking.

"But, you know, not that much changed afterwards. Life goes one." She mumbled, realizing no one was really listening to her anymore.

The car went over a hill and a relatively small settlement came into view. A rusted and dirty green highway sign came into view. In bold white print it read 'Welcome to Sayreburg. Population: 460.'

"When I first came to the school, there were nearly ten thousand people living here," Jubilee commented.

After a moment, Katie spoke up. "Doesn't it bother you?" She questioned.

Jubilee cast her a glance. "What?"

"That your professor killed them." Katie replied coldly.

Jubilee's eyes shifted forward. "We don't talk about that." She replied.

"Why?"

"Because they are dead, okay? It wasn't his fault." She declared hotly. The car was silent for the rest of the ride into town. Jubilee wordlessly parked the car on a nearly deserted street, and got out. The other student and Katie did as well.

"Okay," Jubilee said cheerfully after she had locked the car. "Let's go," She stated, walking towards the shopping center. Katie quietly followed the two other girls, more interested in looking around than shopping. It was the first time she had really been in a town without worrying about somehow inadvertently exposing herself.

The shopping center was probably quite large and active years ago, but today, about half the stores were empty. There were still people milling about here and there, but not what one would have expected in a world prior to the war.

Katie caught sight of a dimly lit bookstore and excused herself from the other two mutants. They were more than happy to leave her, and swiftly set up a meeting time when they would regroup and head home.

Katie slowly entered the bookstore and began looking around. A bored looking woman in her thirties manned the register, while the rest of the store was deserted. A lot of the books were old and dusty as well. But there were a few shiny, newer editions scattered through here and there. She walked over to the magazine racks, and found only a few familiar, big-label magazines still being produced. She had never noticed these things in her previous stops for groceries.

A newspaper caught her eye and she kneeled down to get a better view of it. It was an issue of the New York Times, a Sunday edition. It was Thursday today, so it was a few days outdated. She picked it up and began flipping through it, curiously reading through.

"Ya gonna buy that?" The clerk called out from behind the register. Katie snapped up, paper in hand. She wordlessly walked over and placed a handful of change on the counter and walked away. She folded the newspaper in half and tucked it under her arm. She kept walking on aimlessly; arms crossed and pace lackadaisical.

She passed a few clothing shops, the fashions were pretty much the same as they were years ago. In fact, about half of it looked like it probably was from several years ago. A grocery store closed up on end of the mall with an old, burnt out Macys sign hanging above the store's own sign. Pretty much everything else was empty and dark. If anything, she was amazed this is what Jubilee had made such a big deal about visiting.

Bored, Katie left the mall and headed back to the car plenty early. She didn't have much trouble finding it in the empty street, as there were only four other cars parked in the area. She then remembered that she didn't have a key to let herself in. With a sigh, she carefully pushed herself up into a sitting position on the hood. The new, red paint was warm from the sun. She made herself comfortable and withdrew the paper. She slowly unfolded it, taking her time. Katie then began to carefully study the front page. Someone named O'Meara had been elected president. The fifteen members of the Senate were coming up for re-election by the regions. France had invaded Spain. Winthrop predicted another stock market crash. None of it really made sense to her, but she figured it was a start.

"There she is," She heard Jubilee call from several yards away. Katie immediately refolded her paper as the two students approached. She forced a smile and they all got into the car. Jubilee and the other girl chatted on and on about what they had done over the last hour or two while they began the long ride home.

And hour later, Jubilee pulled up in front of the mansion and let Katie and the other girl out so she could go park the car. Katie quickly retreated back to her room and dropped off her paper. It was close to dinnertime, so she guessed everyone would be eating. She nonchalantly found her way to the elevator and went down. She wandered around trying to find the room where she had been earlier. After twenty minutes of searching, and when she was just about ready to give up, she found the door. She slowly pushed it open and reached in a hand to flip on the light. When she did though, she stopped. Much to her dismay, the room was empty. Completely empty. Shocked, she quickly turned and retreated back upstairs to her room.

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A/N: First one of these in a while! Okay, first off, thanks everyone for the reviews!

Only Human – In response to an early review, nowadays the space shuttle lands on the ground, in Florida, I believe. Possibly Houston or just outside Los Angeles for special conditions, but in this case let's just say Florida. And also don't worry about any erm…interaction romantically between Katie and Neil. Just not gonna happen. Thanks for the reviews too, by the way. Also, I'll try and keep the chapters progressively longer – unless they are really really unessential to the plot, and more just for little bits.

DZ Dillinger – Wow. Just, just, wow. THANK YOU SO MUCH! That's about all I can say to that fabulous review!

Crystal113 – Thanks for the review. Don't worry, more about everything is going to be coming soon.

Pendragon4- Glad I brightened up your week! ;)
Everyone else, love the reviews, please keep 'em coming!