Apocalypse by SLynn

Summary: Three years have passed since the explosion and life has drastically changed for everyone. This isn't the world they imagined they'd be saving.

Spoilers: Up to 'Fallout'

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing and will return them all when I'm done, virtually untouched.

Chapter 11: Blessings

D.L., Ando and Hiro were a safe distance from the facility having found their way to the roof of an abandoned apartment complex. They were close enough to watch it via binoculars, but far enough away to not draw attention to themselves. They'd been there for hours and still hadn't decided what they were going to do.

They didn't know if Matt and Claire were even still inside.

Hiro had wanted to go in alone, but D.L. and Ando had temporarily talked him out of it. There was a lot they could surmise without risk; a lot to be learned from watching.

So far, they knew that the compound was in chaos. Militia men were running in and out of the place, loading trucks and positioning guards. Despite the hustle, they didn't seem to be accomplishing much. It was a frantic kind of confusion; more show than action.

It wasn't until that night that the trucks actually went anywhere. They seemed to be working in teams, patrolling. This was enough to make D.L. extremely nervous that they might be caught, but from their vantage point they'd at least see them coming. And they appeared, at least at a glance, to only be searching the houses in the immediate area. So far, they were safe.

Shortly after midnight there was another resurgence of men in trucks.

Two hours later they began to return, all of them. It was a slow trickle, one or two trucks at a time. There was no hurry now and D.L. couldn't believe that meant anything good.

"Do you see that?"

"Where?" D.L. asked Ando in return, briefly lowering his own binoculars to see what the other man was watching.

"That one truck pulled up next to the door. I think they have prisoners."

"No," Hiro corrected, "not prisoners."

Once D.L. spotted it for himself, he understood Hiro's unusual pessimism.

The truck was about as near to the building as the man driving could place it. A few men had come over and lowered the back, getting ready to transport whoever was inside. But it was obvious now, whoever that was, they were no longer alive.

They had two body bags.

"Is that…" Ando started to ask, but couldn't bring himself to finish.

"I'll go," Hiro said with determination. "I'll go and see. We have to be certain."

This time neither of them argued against it.

"It's going to be a long ride if you don't talk."

Claire said nothing, just continued to stare out the window as the scenery whipped by.

"I'm a pretty good conversationalist," Jacobs continued, "but I can't just talk to myself the whole way."

"I'm thinking."

"Care to share those thoughts?"

"I'm just trying to decide what to do now," Claire said softly.

"Don't you have friends waiting for you up north?"

Claire nodded, but it obviously didn't cheer her.

"I thought you'd be going with them?" Jacobs continued to question.

"Why?" she asked with a momentary spark. "So they can keep risking their lives to hide me? Protect me?"

"Claire…"

"No," she interrupted, dejected again. "I think I've done enough. I think I've killed…"

Claire suppressed an involuntary sob that rose in her throat.

"The way I see it," Claire continued after a moment, "is that I've got two options. I can either ask you to stop right now and drop me off so I can turn myself in."

"Or?"

"Or," Claire said more resolutely, "I can just disappear. Once we get to the colony I can just… just go I guess."

"You have another option," Jacobs said kindly.

Claire shook her head roughly.

"Yes," Jacobs pressed. "You do. We can protect…"

"I don't need protection! Do you know how ridiculous that is?" Claire asked, growing more and more upset with each word she spoke. "Do you? How pointless?"

She turned to him now fully for the first time since they'd begun heading towards New York. Her eyes were livid and bright with tears.

"They can't kill me," she nearly yelled. "He knew that and still… Why did he do that? I keep replaying it over and over in my head and I didn't even think about it. I just let him stand between me and them."

"It's not your fault."

"That's not the way it feels."

"Claire," he said, "I may not have known Matt as long or as well as you did, but I am certain he wouldn't want you to do this. That he wouldn't want you to run away or hide or blame yourself."

Claire said nothing, just resumed looking out the window.

"Giving up is not the answer."

She continued to stare off into the distance, but his words had gotten through. Claire knew he was right. It wasn't really in her to give up, but she felt so defeated and alone.

It was like New York all over again.

When Peter had died Claire felt like her world had shattered. It had never been said, but he had been their leader of sorts. Peter connected and encouraged them all. He'd been the first one to teach her about purpose. That there were things more important than ourselves; that doing what was right wasn't easy.

Now Matt was gone too. After the explosion, the loss of it all, he was the only one she'd really ever let get close again. He had protected her, laughed with her, held her when she cried and talked with her when she needed a friend. Sometimes more of a father, others more of a friend; Claire had fooled herself into think he was an invincible as she was.

She wasn't sure if it was ironic or poetic that she was now heading back to the place it had all really began. The city that had forever changed her life; changed the world.

Claire thought again about what Jacobs' had said and wondered if she hadn't already given up long ago. If she even had it in her to make a difference.

Steeling her resolve, she was decided. Claire knew now what she had to do. To do anything other than fight was a disservice to them both. They'd be ashamed if she quit, or ran, or gave in to it all.

Claire promised herself that she wouldn't let that happen.

"How much further?"

Hiro got as close as he felt comfortable to the facility before freezing the world around him. D.L. and Ando had wanted to come with him, but Hiro wouldn't risk it. After losing Matt and Claire, going alone was much safer. He didn't want to be responsible for that type of loss again.

Besides, alone he would have much more time to look around. Hiro wasn't sure exactly how long he could stop time for himself, he'd never tested it, but it always felt endless. Almost like he could live a lifetime while the world waited to bat their eyes.

Endless time or not, he was in a hurry. Hiro wanted answers, needed to know his friends' fate.

He entered the building at the same point the men had brought the bodies only to discover what looked like a kitchen attached to a cafeteria. Sure he must have been mistaken, Hiro went back outside and rechecked the entrance, but he'd been right. This was it.

Heading back inside Hiro recollected what Micah had told them about the area, that this had once been a university. Looking around the kitchen Hiro understood. There would be no other place to keep a body or two but in a walk-in freezer.

Hiro opened the door to the first with some trepidation. He knew this had to be done, that there had to be no doubt, but it didn't make the doing any easier.

The bodies were there, side-by-side on the floor, completely encased and covered by the bags.

Hiro breathed out a sigh. Just by looking at them, at their shapes, he felt like he had already found out.

Slowly he knelt next to the smaller of the two, took one last breath in and unzipped the bag just enough to see the face.

One glance was enough, it wasn't Claire.

The woman, whoever she was, had dark brown hair and despite being similar in size and shape to Claire, they looked nothing alike.

Hiro quickly zipped the bag back up and felt relief. If the first one wasn't Claire than he was near positive the second would not be Matt. Matt would never have left her side, nor Claire his; under no circumstances.

Still, to be certain, he checked.

It was just as he supposed, the other body was that of a man Hiro had never seen before.

Getting back to his feet, after returning everything to order, Hiro was anxious to get back. He knew that no time had passed for D.L. or Ando, but he was still in a hurry to let them know the good news.

And it was good news. Sure, they still didn't know where Matt and Claire were, but at least they knew that they weren't dead.

It was a blessing; a small one, but still a blessing none the less.

The silence was heavy.

He'd never felt anything like this; there was absolutely nothing. It had been a slow drift down followed by a complete void of light, sound and movement.

It was almost peaceful.

Then the familiar began to reemerge, slow and dreamlike at first, but quickly gaining speed. Faster and faster his body began to revive, to mend. He could hear his heartbeat build, the blood moving through his veins, the sound of the night around him.

He gasped.

He gasped as he opened his eyes, startled at how little pain there was. Startled by a lot of things. Not sure what had happened, or how, or even why.

Disoriented, he struggled to his feet and looked around.

He was standing in a puddle of blood, likely his own, but he didn't have to check to know there was no longer a wound. He'd felt it stitch itself up.

Taking a few hesitant steps he was suddenly blinded by a flood of light.

"Get your hands up!"

There was no arguing, not even a faint thought of escape. Not now. It wasn't possible. Even whole again, he was still weak. Too weak to run and too weak to fight.

So he did as he was told.

"Is it him?" he heard another man ask from somewhere in the shadows.

"Definitely," came the answer.

'He looks like hell,' was the lone thought he picked out with ease.

"Well," the man with the questions started again, "what are you waiting for? Take him down. We have to get him to D.C. before sunup tomorrow."

He felt the brief sting, saw the dart and then it was all darkness again; dark again, but no longer silent.