Chapter Fourteen
Echoes.
From deep within the underground, scuffling and hushed voices reverberating from tunnel to tunnel.
As the sound reached them, four rebel companions took up their positions at the entrance to a derelict station. They waited in their line until they heard the footfalls clearly; three sets of feet, possibly four.
The four heard an exclamation and then suddenly there they were; dirty, dishevelled, Ga Ga gear torn and barely recognisable. Three of them.
Meat looked them up and down in amazement. Did we look like that, once? she wondered. She smiled understandingly as they eyed the rebels with approval, and beckoned towards the old locker room.
"Want me to fix you some new gear?"
Big Macca, nodding, was the next to step forward. "Yeah, we're all rebels here. Make yourselves at home."
All three newcomers now grinned and gazed around hungrily. At long length, one of them – a man, stocky, clumsy-looking – spoke to his friends.
"Looks like we finally found our Heartbreak Hotel."
Heartbreak Hotel. Britney's mind suddenly raced. Words from the past. If these people knew remnants from the Rhapsody…surely, somewhere, the Dreamer was waiting. It was all a matter of time, yet time that they did not have.
"So," the voice of one female newcomer cut through his thoughts, "why, exactly, have we been called here?"
"Why?" Britney cried, before the others could answer. "Because the Text chose you! You're the start of a Bohemian Resistance! Rebels who'll fight with us to make the past the future! And it begins right here."
Right here. Here didn't sum it up, Britney thought. Here was his home - all their homes, and the home of more to come – and a haven in which to relive the past until the Dreamer came.
Heartbreak Hotel, he realised, really did fit perfectly.
"So," he announced, spreading his arms wide with new confidence, "welcome to the Heartbreak Hotel!"
END
Well, that's the end of 'Resistance' for now. Of course, there are always possibilities for future extension, but at the moment, I'm quite happy with it as it is. Thanks for reading my longest fic yet!
