Chapter 7

"Home, sweet home," Gwen cheered as they reappeared out of the trees close to where they had originally entered at the start of their journey.

"Or as close as we are going to get right now," Mickey muttered under his breath.

"We need to find Allie," Bean acknowledged, bringing the team back on track. "By this time, she's probably at the church."

"Is anybody else hungry?" Mickey complained.

"We just ate a couple hours ago," Gwen reminded him.

"Which means it's about lunch time."

Gwen rolled her eyes, exasperated already from the conversation. "The school is in the opposite direction of the church."

Grizz sighed, getting irritated as well. "Look, why don't you guys head to the cafeteria and get something to eat. Okay?" He then gestured to Jace and Alec behind them who were both waiting with amused expressions on their faces. "I'll take these two over to the church and look for Allie."

"Let me take your bag then," Bean said, reaching towards Grizz. "I'll drop it off in the gym. We can sort through it later."

Slipping the straps off his shoulders, he handed Bean his pack and watched the three teenagers head in the direction of the high school.

"Come on," Grizz said, waving for Jace and Alec to follow him across the small field and towards a few of their business buildings that still sat about a football length away from them.

"So, this is West Ham," Alec stated as they made it to the sidewalk and continued down the street. "Where is everyone?"

New York may have been a lot quieter than usual, but they still had quite a few people left in the city. Compared to Brooklyn, West Ham was practically deserted.

"Most people are probably working the shifts that they have been assigned from Allie and her committee," Grizz explained as they walked. "There really isn't a lot of us here now. Everyone has had to start pulling their own weight."

The few people they did come across gave Jace and Alec perplexed looks as they walked by.

"Everyone sure seems real friendly around here," Jace noted, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Ignore them," Grizz advised. "It's been months since any of them have seen someone besides their classmates, let alone an adult. Besides, if you think they are friendly, just wait until you meet Campbell. He was diagnosed as a psychopath."

Shock passed across Alec's face at this news. "You have a teenage psychopath living amongst you?"

Grizz nodded once. "Afraid so," he mumbled under his breath.

They walked in silence for a while, before Alec spoke again. "What is everyone doing?"

"We got a handful of people working in the cafeteria, preparing the majority of the food we all eat here everyday," Grizz explained. "A few of the cafés are open at least a couple hours a day, and we have people stationed at the grocery store and the smaller ones around town just to help keep an eye on how much stuff people are taking off the shelves. We even got people assigned jobs at the library."

"The library?" Grizz didn't need to turn around to know Jace was scowling behind him. "Why bother keeping that open?"

Grizz glared back at him over his shoulder. "The TVs don't work anymore," he reminded him. "We need some way to keep ourselves entertained outside of work. Not to mention to research any information we may need since the wifi isn't working either."

"Grizz!"

Spinning around at the sound of his name, Grizz smiled warmly at the sight of Becca running over.

"You're back," she cried, coming to a stop next to them before raising an eyebrow at the two men that had been following him down the street. "Making some new friends?"

Grizz chuckled. "Something like that."

"What happened out there?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

He shrugged. "We're not alone here, Becca." Grizz quickly filled her on what his team had found in the woods. "This is Jace and Alec." He gestured to his companions. "Alec is one of the co-leaders in Brooklyn. They're here to talk to Allie about possibly setting up a trading system between our two districts."

As Grizz finished up his story, he noticed Becca sending uncomfortable looks between him and the two men as she fidgeted and gently bit her lip. He quickly got the impression that she wanted to talk to him about something but was hesitant to bring it up in their current company.

"Sam told you. Didn't he?" Grizz asked, guessing where the young woman's thoughts were going.

Becca raised an eyebrow in surprise at how nonchalantly he had brought up the boy's name and glanced back at the strangers one last time, hesitantly.

"Alec is gay too, Becca. It's fine."

"Wait . . . Too?" Jace stammered, looking between the two boys in front of him in turn. "Grizz is–"

Grizz gave Alec a confused look. "Alec didn't tell you?"

The brothers had appeared to be pretty close with each other, and he hadn't specifically instructed Alec not to tell anyone after the conversation they had the other night. Honestly, Grizz wasn't surprised how little the idea of Magnus or Jace knowing about his sexuality bothered him. After all, he already knew they accepted Alec.

"You said you were still in the closet." Alec shrugged. "It's not my secret to tell."

"Sam has been worried sick about you, Grizz," Becca admitted, falling into step beside him as they continued towards the church which they could now see in the distance. "He hasn't slept much in the past week, and he was crying yesterday."

"He was crying?" His stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought of his boyfriend crying all alone, not knowing if he was alive or dead.

"One of us died out in those woods a couple months ago, Grizz. Of course Sam has been worried about you." Becca let out a heavy sigh. "I wish you had been more mindful on your timing."

"What do you mean?"

Becca sent him a disapproving look out of the corner of her eye. "You had to confront him about your feelings just a few days before you left on your trip?" she chided him. "Look, Sam is my best friend, and I'm glad he's found you. Ever since he came out as gay, he has been scared that he wasn't going to find anyone that would accept him, but . . . You knew you were going to be leaving. You had to know how hard that was going to be on him right after hooking-up with you."

Grizz cringed at the word. "Can you not refer to it as a 'hook-up'? That makes it sound like a one-time thing, and that's not my intention at all."

"Glad to hear it." She smirked at him. "I just wish you had waited until after you had returned to talk to him about starting something up."

"Is he okay?"

"He hasn't been sleeping or eating much," she admitted, shaking her head. "I'm sure he'll snap right out of his funk though when he hears that you're back."

"Where is he?" Grizz asked. By now, the group had reached the green plaza in front of the church. From here, he could make out the image of Luke, Clark, and Jason sitting on the steps in front of the red-bricked building, guarding the entrance while their Mayor was inside.

"He's still on his shift at the library. Do you want me to let him know you're here?"

Grizz smiled at the thought of seeing his boyfriend again. "Yeah, but this meeting with Allie will probably take an hour or so."

Becca gave a quick nod. "His shift should be over by then, anyways. I'll tell him to wait for you outside of the church."

With a wave in goodbye, she turned back to the sidewalk and continued on her way downtown.

Luke and Jason were sitting on either side of Clark, looking over his shoulder at something on his phone as Grizz approached them with Jace and Alec close behind him. Grizz couldn't help but take note of the goofy grins that were plastered onto both Jason and Clark's faces.

"Grizz!" Luke greeted happily. Getting to his feet, he gave Grizz a hug, patting his back. "Good to see you're back."

"He lives," Jason exclaimed, drawing out the last word in the similar fashion as Mushu did in the Disney movie, Mulan. This was quickly followed by him and Clark bursting out in a fit of laughter at Jason's idiotic attempt at a joke.

Grizz shook his head at his friends, but he couldn't hide the smirk that slipped onto his face. "Dorks."

"Ignore them," Luke advised with his own shake of the head. Then he caught sight of the two men standing behind him and his eyes went wide in surprise. "Who–"

"This is Jace and Alec," Grizz said, interrupting his friend before turning to glance over his shoulder at his new companions. "These are my friends. Luke, Jason, and Clark. We call ourselves the Guard. We're basically the town's makeshift police force," he explained.

"Curiosity abounds! Please, where do you come from; how did you get here; what is your favorite color; and do you wish to be my friend?"

Grizz stared at Clark in utter confusion. He could have sworn that was another quote from a TV show, Teen Titans maybe.

"Are we supposed to answer that?" Grizz heard Jace speak up behind him.

Ignoring the blonde man, Grizz turned to Luke who was still glaring stupidly at Jason and Clark, who had both returned to laughing like idiots in front of them. "Are they feeling okay?"

"They may be a little high," Luke admitted slowly, refusing to look at him.

"Did you give them something?" Grizz demanded, glaring at the back of his friend's head.

Luke spun around at the accusation and waved his hands in denial. "If they got it from anyone, it was from Campbell."

"How does Campbell still have drugs to sell?"

"Raided the pharmacy?" Luke guessed before turning his gaze away again. "Hell, maybe he's growing it now. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if he was."

After one last concerned look at the two teenage boys sprawled out on the steps, Grizz let the matter drop for now. "Problem for another day. I need to update Allie on what we found in the woods."

Luke nodded. "Right. Come on." He turned to head up the church stairs before calling over his shoulder to their friends. "You idiots don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

Luke pushed open the church door, making his way inside and started up the wooden staircase that was to the right of the entrance. To Grizz's surprise, Luke suddenly paused at the landing and trapped him against the wall.

"We have a problem," Luke informed him, an intense look on his face.

Grizz stared back at him, still shocked from seeing his friends high in the middle of the day. "What happened?"

"Harry and Campbell. They followed us to the park after lunch yesterday," Luke explained, gesturing back down the stairs. At this, Grizz assumed he meant Clark and Jason who were waiting outside and not Jace and Alec who were waiting, extremely patiently, a few stairs below them. "Apparently, Campbell is tired of the way Allie has been running things, and he wants Harry to take over as Mayor."

"Well, Allie was thinking about holding elections," Grizz reminded him. "If Harry wants to run–"

"Allie has decided to hold off on elections," Luke explained. "She wants to wait until we have this food shortage under control."

"Okay . . ." Grizz groaned, not sure where his friend was going with this.

"Campbell wants to help Harry take charge by force," Luke stated straight out and Grizz's eyebrows rose as this information began to sink in. "Campbell knows that he could never get elected, which is why he wants Harry to be the face of the whole thing, but you know Campbell is really going to be the one behind the scenes, pulling the strings the whole time. They want us to spy on Allie and report back to them."

"Does Allie know about any of this?"

"Not yet," Luke admitted, folding his arms across his chest. "I haven't had the chance to be alone with her yet without Tweedledee and Tweedledum following me. They are actually considering Campbell's proposal."

"Proposal?" Grizz asked, ignoring Luke's jab at their friends. "Does that have anything to do with the drugs Campbell is supplying them?"

"That and there are a few specific ideas that Clark and Jason have in mind that they would like implemented. Campbell promised them that if they help him out, he would be open to their suggestions."

"But Campbell is a maniac! Can you imagine what he would do if he was the one pulling the strings around here?"

"Shit," Jace voiced from below them. "You guys got problems." Alec elbowed his brother to shut him up.

"I know," Luke spat out, irritation growing in his voice.

"Look, Jason and Clark are waiting outside. We can decide what to do about them later, but Allie needs to know what is going on with Campbell and Harry. You need to warn her."

Luke bit his lip as he contemplated the situation. Grizz completely understood his friend's hesitation. Allie was dealing with a lot right now. She might be their town's Mayor, but she was still a teenager just like the rest of them. She was already under so much pressure. A potential coup was the last thing she needed added to her plate right now.

"I know . . . I know," Luke groaned before sighing in defeat. "Fine." He gestured towards Jace and Alec. "Which one of us should go in first?"