One Year Later:
"Brock, we need to start moving faster." Starla said. "We left London a year ago and we are no where near Northumberland."
Brock looked at Starla and forced himself not to roll his eyes. "Starla, we didn't make an exact time frame for our travels."
Alice looked up from the palm pilot she had found a few weeks earlier. "We also have no idea what the migration patterns of the dragons are. We spent one week in Wood Green, three days in Arkley, and ten months here in North Harrow."
"Stay out of this Alice." Starla snapped.
Alice glanced at Ricky, a young Irish girl they found when they first reached North Harrow. Ricky rolled her eyes and went back to the rip in her shirt that she was mending.
"Starla, Alice has a point." Quinn said. "Do you really want to go running out there somewhere, where there could be hundreds of dragons?"
Brock held up his hand to stop the debate. "We've been lucky here. We haven't seen any dragons in six months."
Starla threw her arms up in frustration. "So, you're taking the word of a fifteen year old and an eleven year old, just because they can use a few big words."
Brock didn't give her the satisfaction of an answer. Instead, he climbed to his feet and left the room. Alice and Quinn watched him until they could no longer see him, and turned their eyes back to Starla. Starla stared back at them before standing up and heading for the front door.
She passed Creedy on her way out, making the teenager have to jump out of the way, or risk bodily injury. "What was all that about?" Creedy asked, handing Quinn, Alice and Ricky their dinner.
"Starla's pissed off at your dad because we've stayed here so long." Quinn told him.
"Why shouldn't we stay here? We've got it good." Creedy said, sitting down next to Alice.
Quinn shrugged, but Alice kept staring in the direction that Starla had stormed off in. "Hey, what's up with you?" He asked, glancing at Alice.
"You don't think she's going to do something stupid, do you?" Alice asked.
"I don't know. I certainly hope not." Quinn said. "Besides, what's the worse she can do, run off and get eaten by a dragon?"
"I don't know, it could be the best thing."
"Creedy!" Ricky said as Alice choked on her soup.
Ricky thumped her on the back a few times. "Thank you." She said to her. "I can't believe that you just said that!"
Creedy grinned at her and wrapped his arm around her. "You know you were thinking it."
Alice blushed and shook her head. When Creedy and Quinn moved away to talk to Brock Ricky moved closer to her. "You like him don't you."
"Who?"
"Creedy."
"I don't know, Brock seems a little old, and I'm only 11."
"You're 12, your birthday was yesterday." Ricky said.
"Was it? Huh, imagine that, how did you know?" Alice asked.
"Calendars are a marvellous thing."
The two girls stopped talking and glanced to their left. Quinn and Creedy were standing, staring at them. "What?" Alice asked.
"I still don't understand how you two can talk like that." Quinn said, shaking his head and sitting down beside Ricky.
"It's called a conversation Quinn. You and Creedy just need to learn how to have them." Ricky teased.
Creedy shook his head and reached under a pillow. "Come on guys, kiss and make up, we've got a game to finish."
The four of them played cards until their eyes grew heavy. Since they were always sitting on their beds, they had moved them to form a small square where they always ate and played cards to help pass the time.
Alice was settling onto her bed when Brock appeared and whispered something to Creedy. When he left she continued to stare at the ceiling. She was tired, but at the same time she didn't want to sleep. The anniversary of her brother's death was only a few days and every time she closed her eyes she saw Cid being scooped up by the dragon.
She sat up and wrapped her blanket tightly around her. She pushed her back against the stone wall and began running scenes from movies that she used to watch through her head, something that she did whenever she couldn't sleep.
She was struggling to remember certain details when the room flooded with light for a brief moment. She quickly laid down when she saw Brock sit up and mutter a curse. He woke up several others and they ran up the stairs to the surface. Alice quickly crawled across the cards that they had left out to pick up in the morning and shook Creedy.
"Creedy, wake up." She said, shaking him harder. He muttered something and pushed her hand away before resuming his sleep. Alice sat back with a frustrated sigh and bit her lip. "Dave!" She shouted slapping his cheek as hard as she could.
Creedy sat up with a start and Alice had to duck in order to avoid the fist that came flying at her. "Jesus Alice, what was that for?" He exclaimed, rubbing his still stinging cheek.
Alice clamped a hand over his mouth and pointed to the window. Creedy gave her a weird look before climbing to his feet and crossing the room. He had to climb up onto a shelf to be able to look out the window.
"Oh, Christ!" He muttered, jumping off the shelf.
He pulled Alice to her feet and the two of them ran up the stairs to the door. Alice pushed it open slowly and silently, just enough so that they could see and hear what was going on. There were several jeeps parked in front of the shelter. They could make out Brock and a few other men, standing with rifles and talking to someone in the first car.
"How many are you?" A man's voice demanded.
"It's just the four of us and three more men inside." Brock told them. "We were just spending the night here before we keep moving."
"Really and why would you be moving?" The man asked.
"In case you haven't noticed this whole area is infested with dragons, we're trying to get the hell away from them." Heath said.
"They're lying!" Came a familiar voice.
"Starla! That bitch!" Alice muttered.
Creedy pulled Alice away from the door. "Come on, we need to get everyone out in case they come in here."
The two of them ran back down the stairs and quietly woke everyone up. There was a door hidden behind the large generator. It took Creedy, Quinn and three others to move it. When they reached the surface behind the house, everyone ran in different directions. Alice was suddenly flooded with memories. Creedy stopped and looked back when he noticed that Alice wasn't with them.
"Alice come on, we have to keep moving." He said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along behind him.
They had run for quite a while when an explosion behind them made them all turn. Alice grabbed on to Creedy and was dragged several steps when he moved to run back towards the fire. How she managed to get one of her legs around his to make him trip, she still didn't know.
"Dad!" Creedy screamed over the roar of the flames.
"Jesus Creedy, stay down." Quinn cried, grabbing onto his friends legs, helping Alice to keep him pinned to the ground.
The roar of a dragon sounded and the large silhouette passed through the black smoke. They climbed to their feet and it took the three of them to move Creedy away from the scene. They ran until they were deep in the woods, away from the dragon and the fire. They could see the smoke still rising and the occasional burst of flame.
Alice collapsed beside Creedy, gasping for breath. Her lungs were burning from running, and her heart was racing. She glanced at Creedy and saw tears running down his face. She was surprised; she had never seen him cry before, even when he had dislocated his ankle six months earlier.
"Creedy," She said, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. "You know that Brock wouldn't have wanted you to go back and put yourself in danger."
Creedy turned and pulled Alice to him. He buried his face in her neck and let his tears flow freely. Alice looked at the other two who were respectfully looking away and rubbed his back, letting him get out his anger and frustration.
"So what do we do now?" Ricky asked after several long minutes.
"We have to keep going. Maybe some of the others will be smart enough to head for the next town." Quinn said. "I just wish that we had some maps or something."
"We'll worry about that in the morning, for now we need to get to some shelter and get some rest, or we'll never make it anywhere." Alice said.
The others nodded their agreement and they climbed to their feet. Quinn and Ricky led the way, and with one final look back at the acrid smoke, Creedy and Alice followed, Creedy leaning on Alice for support. Something that she was willing to give him for as long as he needed.