A/N: HI! Sorry I haven't updated for a while. I'm just getting caught up again with all my stuff. I was kind of banned from by my mom so...yeah. ONWARD!

I'm too lazy to thank all of my reviewers personally, but THANKS! It means a lot to me that you actually listen to my provoking at the end of every chapter:) YOU GUYS ROCK!

Disclaimer: Me no own no ASoUE or notin'. Get it, punk?

The Notebook Brigade

Chapter Three

Regroup and Remains

"You kids should come back to the station," on firefighter said to Duncan and Isadora, who were huddling together on a few abandoned car tires. The siblings looked up. When they had finally gotten to the neighbor's house, they had called 911. The two adults there had been kind enough to wrap Isadora's ankle.

"No, our uncle to pick us up," Duncan lied. The firefighter gave Duncan him a queer look, but didn't argue. He walked away with the rest of the squad to help the few passer-bys who had tried to help their parents and Quigley. Before long, the siblings were alone outside their smoking home.

"So everything is gone," Isadora whispered hoarsely, wiping another tear.

"Well, not everything," Duncan said, reaching into his pants pocket. He pulled out two notebooks. One was pitch black, and one was dark green. He handed Isadora her's.

"Our notebooks!" she gasped. "But how Duncan?"

"I'm special," he responded. Isadora instantly flipped open her notebook to write her latest couplet:

Wishes come true if you believe

But just believing doesn't always succeed

"I'll admit it's not my best," Isadora said, tucking her notebook away in her skirt pocket. "But it's true." Duncan patted her shoulder.

"I think we should search through the remains. Maybe something survived," he suggested. Isadora nodded in agreement. The two siblings took each other's hands, and began to trudge through the black, charred wood.

Throughout the whole search, they managed to recover little; a hand mirror, a tray, a brass doorknob, their father's reading glasses, one of their mother's necklaces, but that was all. "This was the ballroom," Isadora said sadly, looking down at her feet.

"And hat was the library," Duncan said, pointing to another corner of the rubble. Isadora sat herself down on a partly uncharred piece of wood. Duncan plopped down next to her.

"Duncan?" Isadora asked. "What did Quigley last say to you?"

"'Hike,'" Duncan replied. "What did mom last say to you?" Isadora thought about this for some time. She hadn't given a second thought to what her mom had last told her. She had been too preoccupied with her first command, to jump out of the window. Her mind traveled back to that moment.

"She told me to find the fourth," Isadora said. "What ever could that mean?" Duncan's expression was most peculiar. He shrugged.

"I have no clue," he admitted. The two siblings were silent. Then a most intriguing sound came upon their ears.

"Duncan! You ate half your cake! How could you possibly be hungry?" Isadora asked incredulously.

"That wasn't me Izzy!" Duncan defended. "Anyway it sounds more like..." Duncan took a second or two to listen to the sound. "...someone knocking on a door. Not my stomach," he concluded.

"Duncan," Isadora said gently, "If it hasn't occurred to you already, there are no doors here."

"But there's dust," Duncan said, pointing to the spot where the library used to be. Duncan sprang up, grabbed Isadora's hand, and rushed over to the spot he was pointing at.

"Duncan! Not so fast! OW!" Isadora screeched, reminding Duncan of her sprained ankle. As they approached, Isadora could see an enormous amount of dust (more likely ash) rising up from a certain spot on the ground. And the closer they got to they ashen cloud, the louder the sound grew.

"There are (cough) too many (cough, cough) ashes!" Isadora exclaimed, using her pitch black notebook to brush away some of the ashes in the air and on the ground. To the siblings' surprise, under the ashes there was a trap door,

"Why didn't we ever notice this before?" Duncan queried.

"It was probably under the carpet," Isadora responded, "And the carpet burned away." She brushed more and more ashes off the door, "Hey!" Isadora had brushed away enough ashes to see that there was a rusty bronze handle. The sound was now less muffled and along with the pounding, there was yelling.

"Help!" a vague voice called.

"Izzy, we've got to open this!" Duncan said, taking hold of the bronze handle. Together, the two siblings yanked open the door. Isadora fell backward into the ashes from the effort of yanking open the heavy trap door.

"CRUD! My ankle!" she shrieked. Duncan stepped back, coughing like crazy, due to the newly arisen ashes. Both quickly picked up their notebooks and made an effort to fan away the ashes. And as the air began to thin, Isadora and Duncan realized there was another notebook waving away the ash.

A purple notebook. And attached to that notebook was an arm. And attached to that arm was a body. That body belonged to Quigley Quagmire.

For the longest five seconds of their entire lives, the siblings just stood and stared at each other in total and utter shock. Then Isadora stood and wrapped her arms around Quigley, who only a few hours ago she had believed to be dead. Duncan followed suit. He was the first to speak up.

"How did you get down there!" Duncan asked, gesturing to the trap door Quigley had just climbed out of.

"When dad took me into the house, he led me straight to this room," Quigley explained. "He started ripping books from the shelves, until he came to one book that wouldn't come off the shelf. It opened this little utility drawer, and out of that he took a pocket knife. He made this huge square cut in the carpet (where the door was) and then ushered me under." Quigley let his siblings take this all in before continuing. "There's a whole lot of stuff down there. I think it's important, and I thought you two might want to look at it." Quigley led Duncan and Isadora under the trap door.

The room under the door was littered with an innumerable amount of papers. Some were newspaper clippings, some were printed from the internet, some were just notes scrawled on notebook paper. Quigley went over to a pile of papers. "Here's all the stuff I thought you might want to see." He took one paper and began to read aloud. "'If in any case of emergency (bombing, kidnap, fire, ect.) the parents of the family are unable to inform children (including hidden child) of the information in section H, two measures must be taken. 1) At least one unhidden child must escape and with 2) at least one clue to where the HC (hidden child) might be.'" He read.

"That's what mom meant when she said 'find the fourth'!" Isadora exclaimed.

"There's more," Quigley said, and picked up another scrap of paper from the pile. He handed it to Duncan.

"'Requirement 34 states that each V.F.D family must now have a HC (hidden child) who will be the "secret keeper" for the family. Depending on the age of the other siblings, they may have their memories cleared.'" Duncan looked up.

"So it ends there?" Isadora asked.

"Yes," Duncan said, handing the paper back to Quigley, who stuck the paper in his notebook.

"So we could have a sibling," Isadora continued, "who we don't even remember?" Quigley and Duncan nodded. Then took out one last paper and held it up for them to see.

Replacement Family for Quagmire:

Baudelaires

"They're supposed to take us in!" Isadora exclaimed.

"So why haven't they?" All was silent until Duncan took a closer look at the paper.

"There's something else here!" he said. "'If in any case the family described hasn't arrived in two hours of the accident, all surviving members must arrive at blank in a single week, where the family's hidden child has also been transferred.'" Duncan turned to Quigley. "There's no name of a place," Duncan said. "Just latitude and longitude. You're the mapmaker Quigley," Duncan handed the paper to Quigley. He took one look at the paper and grimaced.

"We have to travel across"-Quigley gulped-"two states, in one week."

"Oh come on!" Isadora said in disgust. "This V.F.D should provide us with some sort of transportation!"

"If we go now," Quigley continued, "we should get there with one day to spare!"

"Then let's go!" Isadora said, piling their notebooks and the few items they rescued upon the silver tray (which was one of the items they rescued, if you remember). The siblings lifted the tray, and looked around.

"Which way Quigley?" Isadora asked.

"West," Quigley instructed, and the three siblings, heads held high, headed off into the setting sun.

TA DA! I AM AMAZING! I UPDATED! It gets interesting, trust me. And when you do review (which I hope you'll do) I need you to vote on what the quadruplets name should be! Vote for either Irene, Elise, Suzanna, or Olivia. If you have another idea for a name, I'm open! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE, review! That little purple button is waiting. ;)