Chapter 6 – Word Travels Fast

A/N: I just wanna say a quick thank you to everyone who has reviewed, you all really motivate me to keep writing this! And if you're keeping up with Final Destruction and haven't reviewed yet, send me your thoughts! I'm always open to constructive criticism, ideas, and I might even give away some spoilers for plot twists to come if you send me your theories ;) thanks for reading, enjoy the chapter!

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"Katherine! Katherine I swear to God if you are putting on more eyeliner I will personally – "

Caroline froze as she rounded the corner at the base of the stairs only to see her friend sitting on the bottom step, her white dress flared around her as she sat with her head in her hands. Caroline crept forward slowly, her black high heels clacking against the floor loudly echoing throughout the empty mansion.

"Kat?" She asked cautiously. "Are you okay?"

Katherine snapped her head up quickly, shocking Caroline with a rare display of emotion, tears welled up in her eyes.

"Do I look like I'm okay?" She asked sarcastically, chuckling sadly. "I'm a mess Caroline. Look at me! It's my wedding day and I am an absolute wreck."

Starting to shake with sobs she refused to let out, Katherine put her head back in her hands.

"Oh Kat." Caroline murmured, walking over and sitting next to the bride-to-be, careful not to step on her pristine white dress. "You're not a mess. Well, you're hair is a little messed up, but – "

"Caroline!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." She assured with a laugh, content when she saw Katherine mustering a weak smile. "You look beautiful. More so than usual of course. Elijah's going to pass out when he sees you walking down that aisle."

Katherine didn't say anything, choosing to look down at her hands and play with her fingers.

"You are walking down the aisle, right?" Caroline asked slowly.

The girl in question took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, chuckling bitterly.

"I don't know, Care." She said honestly. "I just…I'm not ready for this! I'm not ready for marriage! Hell I can hardly commit to a hairstyle, how the hell am I supposed to commit to another human being for the rest of my life?"

"Well it's not just any human being, Katherine. It's Elijah, you love him."

"Yes, I do." She agreed instantly. "I love him so much which is so wrong of me. Elijah is so kind, he's so…good. And I'm the complete opposite of good. I'm not compassionate, I put my own needs above everyone else's."

"That's not true – "

"Yes it is Care!" Katherine interrupted harshly, staring at her friend. "I'm selfish in every aspect of the word."

"But you're not selfish with him." Caroline said sternly, taking her friend's hand in her own and looking her right in the eye. "Katherine, being happy doesn't make you selfish. In fact, allowing someone else the privilege of loving you is one of the most selfless things you can do."

Katherine was silent, bottom lip quivering.

"Thank you, Caroline." She finally whispered, reaching forward and wrapping her friend in a tight hug, which was immediately returned.

When they separated Katherine took a deep breath, pulling herself up off of the bottom step and looking into the mirror on the wall beside them.

"Well then, you were right. I guess cold feet really did mess up my hair."

Caroline laughed, happy to see her friend back to her normal catty self again.

"Here, let me fix it."

Katherine stood still except for the occasional biting of her lip while Caroline put her hairpins back into place. She looked diving, her wedding dress strapless and cinched at the waist where it flowed out behind her in a beautiful lace pattern. Her makeup was heavy, as always, but she looked stunning and fierce, also as always. Once Caroline finished fixing her hair, it looked perfect, up in a comprehensive updo with small curled tendrils framing her delicate face.

"Oh yeah." Caroline said matter-of-factly, looking Katherine up and down. "Elijah is totally gonna pass out when he sees you."

Katherine smirked. "Well he better, or I'm turning around and walking down the aisle again to make sure I get the right reaction. But hey look at you! Klaus is going to be the one having a hard time controlling himself."

Caroline rolled her eyes, looking down at her own modest pink maid-of-honor dress, her hair in light curls. Katherine was adamant about none of the bridesmaids trying to outdo her, the spotlight was to be hers and hers alone. And Caroline was only the maid-of-honor because Elena was walking Katherine down the aisle, their father not invited to the event.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Caroline mumbled. "Come on, Katherine Pierce soon-to-be Mikaelson. Let's get you to your wedding ceremony." She said brightly, looping her arm through Katherine's.

"Katherine Mikaelson." The bride said slowly, testing the name on her tongue and grinning. "Oh yeah. I like the sound of that."

######

"State your full name please."

"Katherine Pierce-Mikaelson."

"And where are you from Miss Mikaelson?"

"It's Mrs. Mikaelson." Katherine spat at the man taking her information inside Whitmore. "And I'm originally from Mystic Falls, Virginia. Resident in New York City, but was in Chicago during The Outbreak."

When the group had made it to the outside of Whitmore's walls, they were immediately met by about ten men with automatic weapons that looked ready to kill. Once Enzo had convinced the patrols that they were clean, one of the leaders of the town, Richard Lockwood, had come out and cleared them all.

Once inside the walls, they and their belongings were thoroughly checked by a team of nurses to see if they were Infected or had brought anything that could pass on the Infection. Normally, the majority of them would have pitched a fit about the blatant violation of privacy, but they were all too busy being so completely entranced by what they saw within the walls.

Whitmore was astounding. There were several buildings, a few modest houses, stands set up all along the dirt walkways with fruit, vegetables, and buckets available for the well in the center of the enclosure. Children were running around playing, classes were being held outside, there were benches along the pathways where couples were sitting and enjoying the day together. Horse drawn carriages were coming in and out of the walls at their leisure with hunting parties bringing back their kills, supplies from who knows where, gathered grain from the fields nearby. And every time someone came inside the walls they were checked for Infection.

Once the group went through their own wellness check, Richard Lockwood's wife Carol introduced them to the community. They would each be assigned a small room in one of the housing buildings, two people in each room. Obviously the two couples would room with one another, and then it was Jeremy and Alaric, and Katherine and Caroline together.

The Lockwoods were allowing them all three days to settle in, but by the end of the week everyone had to find a way to contribute to Whitmore. Whether that meant teaching, nursing, farming, or hunting, it didn't matter. But in order to use the community's resources, they had to pay their dues.

Now, as the sun was going down, they were each individually talking to a different town leader, giving them their personal information just for the sake of knowing population, life experience, that kind of thing.

"Look, I just need you to look up one person." Katherine pleaded yet again with the man in front of her, annoyed that he wasn't just doing what she asked. "His name is Elijah Mikaelson, he's my husband and I just –"

"I'm sorry ma'am." He cut her off, making her annoyance skyrocket. "I'm not at liberty to give you that information."

"Not at liberty?" She asked incredulously. "We're in the freaking apocalypse, what does liberty have to do with anything? Just tell me if he's here or not!"

The man looked around nervously, Katherine was obviously making him anxious.

"Miss Pierce – "

"Mrs. Pierce!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Pierce, even if I wanted to help you, I can't. I don't keep this information, once I finish with the questionnaire I hand it off to the Lockwoods to keep in the community's records. However…" He trailed off. "I can tell you that I've been checking people in like this for the past three months and I don't remember anyone with the last name Mikaelson. I'm sorry."

Katherine gulped, gritting her teeth to keep her face void of emotion.

"Oh. Well. Thanks for nothing." She murmured, spinning on her heel and walking over to Caroline, who was looking up at the walls in awe.

"Can you believe this?" Caroline asked quietly as Katherine slipped up beside her. "Can you believe that this wall right here is capable of keeping us alive at night? That we can all go to sleep without holding a knife under our pillow?"

Katherine chuckled. "Oh I'll still be sleeping with my knife." She said bluntly, looking behind her. "Some of these people creep me out. They're too…nice."

"Yeah well, when the only human contact you've had besides us in the past eight months has usually been with people trying to kill us, I guess kindness can seem a little creepy." Caroline looked at her with a smirk.

Katherine eyed her friend with a confused but also amused expression.

"What's with you?" She asked slowly. "You're acting all…not homicidal."

Caroline laughed yet again, surprising Katherine even further. She hadn't laughed like that in ages.

"That's because I'm not. Homicidal, that is. I mean look around us Katherine! We're here, this place is…it's real! No Infected can get in, and we don't ever have to go back out if we don't want to! I don't know I just…"

She trailed off, turning back to look at the bustling community fondly. Seeing people walking without knives in their hands, or rucksacks on their back, and no flaky skin or red eyes in sight, it stirred something inside her. She saw Damon holding Elena's hand and pointing at one of the vegetable stands, making her laugh hysterically about something. Kol and Bonnie were leaving the check in station together and Kol picked his girlfriend up by the waist and spun her around ecstatically. Jeremy was bent down next to a little boy that was asking about his tattoos, and Alaric was talking to some woman carrying a bucket of water.

They all had their shoulders relaxed, their weapons were safely sheathed, they looked…safe. And that was something Caroline hadn't seen in a long time.

"Over the past eight months," Caroline began to say, "I refused to think about…Klaus, for one very specific reason. If I started to think about him, I would never stop. I would worry about him and where he was and if he was alive more than I would worry about watching my back for an Infected, or making sure I had your back from an Infected. I couldn't afford to be distracted, so I stopped thinking about him completely."

Katherine nodded, understanding what Caroline meant.

"But now that we're here," She continued, "It's like…I don't have to not think about him. I can remember him and now that I am…I'm remembering myself too."

Katherine smiled fondly at her friend.

"That's good, Care, that's really good. You know for a while there I thought you were trying to steal my title of fiercest bitch this side of the Mississippi River." She smirked.

Caroline laughed yet again.

"Oh I would never. Oh by the way, Enzo told me that he had to go meet up with someone, but that if I wanted to find out if Klaus or Elijah or really anyone we know is here, to go talk to Mr. Lockwood, that he would help."

"Great! Let's go find him now." Katherine said instantly. "We can – "

"Katherine! Caroline!" Elena shouted, jogging over to the girls. "Hey, they're showing us to where we're staying now, come on."

"Actually Elena we're going to – "

"No." Elena cut off Caroline with a wave of her hand. "I just told Damon and Kol both that we're going to go to where we're staying, wash the dirt off our face, and brush our teeth with real toothpaste before we go looking for anyone."

Katherine started to object to her sister but was silenced as well.

"We have been barely surviving for the past eight months." She said seriously. "I know you two want to find out if Klaus and Elijah are here as soon as possible the same way that Damon wants to find Stefan and Kol wants to find all three of his siblings. But it's my job to take care of you guys. Now come on, just give me a couple of hours to make sure you guys don't have things growing in your hair. Please?"

Katherine and Caroline looked at each other for a few seconds and sighed dramatically, nodding their head and following Elena to where they would be staying that night and indefinitely thereafter.

The rooms were modest, as was expected, it wasn't the Ritz after all. Even inside the safest place in America, it was still the apocalypse. The buildings were more like two story huts, side by side, with paper thin wood walls. Each room had a square hole for a window, and the cots were thin and looked to be army issued. But not a single person complained because it was an actual bed to lay on at night.

A few kind women who had been at Whitmore for a while brought the girls some buckets of water and homemade soaps for shampoo and body washing. They were also given new clothes, a couple pairs of jeans and t-shirts apiece that they were in charge of washing and air drying for themselves.

When Caroline finally finished scrubbing all of the grime from her skin from head to toe, had washed her hair, and dug out the crusty dirt and blood from under her nails, she felt like an entirely new person. She looked at herself in the cracked glass in their makeshift bathroom (really it was just a small tub and a latrine they had to empty themselves), she couldn't believe what she saw.

She looked…dare she say, normal. It felt like she were looking at herself after a long, hard day of classes and not a long hard eight months of fighting zombies. Granted, she was much tanner than she had ever been, the bags under her eyes were outrageous, and she had lean muscle where she used to have more curves. She didn't look the same, but she certainly didn't look so different anymore.

When she had finished changing into one of her new sets of clothes and throwing her hair up into a ponytail, Caroline looked back to ask Katherine where they should start first only to see her friend laid out on her cot out cold. Caroline chuckled, she must have laid her head on that pillow for two seconds before she fell asleep. She considered waking her up to go looking for Richard Lockwood with her, but Katherine needed the sleep. Well, so did she, but she couldn't do that until someone told her whether or not Klaus was inside the walls.

She made her way out of the small room, chuckling when she saw Damon and Elena, and Kol and Bonnie each asleep in each other's arms as well in their respective rooms. Alaric and Jeremy weren't in their designated room, and she assumed they were out talking to the patrol force, both having expressed an interest in keeping the walls safe from Infected.

When Caroline stepped out, she was met with the brisk early October night air and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The sun was just starting to go down, and a habitual pang of anxiety shot through her chest before she realized that she was going to be okay tonight, she didn't have to find anywhere to hide because she already was somewhere safe from the Infected.

The dirt pathways around the community were still fairly busy, people walking around greeting each other, trading plants and other items, eating dinner outside, those kind of things. If she didn't know any better, Caroline might think she was back in Mystic Falls.

But she did know better, so she set off to the nearest person she saw, which happened to be a woman who seemed in her late thirties that was checking on tomatoes in one of the small garden plots.

"Excuse me," Caroline said kindly, making the woman look up at her with a smile, "I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of Mr. Lockwood."

"You're new, aren't you?" The woman asked.

Caroline nodded shyly. "Yeah, my group and I got in today."

The woman smiled even wider, seeming genuinely kind. "Oh well don't fret too much sweetie, I was overwhelmed my first day too. But don't worry, it'll become home soon enough. Sometimes I even forget the zombies exist until I hear them at night."

Caroline's smile dropped a little bit, the woman's statement setting her on edge for some reason.

"But the man you're looking for is right over there, unloading that carriage."

Caroline looked in the direction the woman pointed, seeing a group of three men pulling bags of feed from a carriage. If she had to guess, it had just got in from looting a store somewhere in the vicinity. The man she had pointed to had on a red long sleeve shirt and was wearing faded wash jeans, his back to Caroline.

She thanked the woman briefly before walking over to the men with determination in every stride.

"Mr. Lockwood?" She asked, shocked when the man turned around to face her, seeing that it was definitely not the same man that had greeted them outside the walls earlier. "Wait, you're not Mr. Lockwood."

The guy chuckled, wiping his hands off on his jeans. He was attractive, a sharp jawline and messy dark hair, so dark it was almost black. His eyes were dark as well, his face tan, broad shoulders and defined muscles.

"Well that depends on which Mr. Lockwood you're looking for." He said with a grin and a cheerful tone. "There's three Mr. Lockwoods in Whitmore. My Uncle Mason, who is head of patrol around here. My dad Richard, who is probably who you're looking for if I had to guess. And then me." He extended his hand with a warm smile. "I'm Tyler, Tyler Lockwood."

"Uh, hi." Caroline said slowly, cautiously accepting the handshake. "I'm Caroline Forbes."

"You from the group that just got here?" He asked, chuckling when he saw her accusatory glance. "Yeah, sorry about that. Word travels fast around here. You came in with Enzo, right?"

"Yeah." Caroline replied. "But he disappeared as soon as we got here, I don't know where he went. But he told me that Mr. Lockwood – your dad, I guess – he told me that he could help me find someone that I'm hoping might be here."

"Well firstly, Enzo is probably with Dr. Maxfield, there's no telling when you'll see him again."

Before Caroline could ask what Tyler meant, he kept talking.

"And secondly, my dad could tell you if someone is here or not because he knows the name of every single person inside these walls. But fortunately for you," He smiled yet again, showing off his perfect teeth, "So can I."

"Really?" Caroline asked disbelievingly.

Tyler chuckled, putting his hands in his pockets and kicking his feet at the dirt.

"My dad, my mom, and my uncle were with the original group of people who started to build the walls. I've been here since the very beginning, so trust me. I know the name of everyone who has come inside Whitmore and the name of everyone who has left and not come back."

She cocked her head at Tyler, studying him. He seemed genuine enough, and didn't have much reason to lie to her.

"Alright fine." She finally said. "Klaus Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson, Stefan Salvatore, Lexi Branson, Matt Donovan. Any of those names sound familiar?"

Tyler slowly shook his head, pursing his lips.

"Nope, none of those people are here. Sorry."

Caroline swore under her breath, turning on her heel and putting her hands on her head, trying to keep the tears at bay. She should've known better than to put too much hope in the one to a hundred chance that all of her loved ones were there. They were all most likely dead, or even worse, murderous Infected.

"Where were they from?" Tyler asked sympathetically, making Caroline look over her shoulder at him. "Only our scouts that went west and north have come back, so if they were east of here – "

"They were." Caroline interrupted him quickly, spinning on her heel and taking a step closer to him. "They would have been heading this direction from New York City."

"Oh, then they would have probably ran into Rose and Trevor." He said. "They haven't gotten back yet, maybe your friends on their way."

"Yeah, maybe." Caroline whispered, looking down at her feet.

"Hey." Tyler said softly, making her glance up at him. "Don't give up hope. I know that's easier said than done, but Rose and Tyler are our best scouts no doubt. They went south a few months ago and brought back twenty-eight survivors, which doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me it is." He smiled. "So keep your head up. Maybe the next group that comes in will be all of your friends. I've seen tons of happy reunions around here, yours could very well be next. Until then just try to acclimate to Whitmore. Have you gotten a job yet?"

Caroline laughed, looking up at the pink and purple splattered sky from where the sun was going down.

"No, not yet."

"Well what did you do before The Outbreak?"

"I was in college. A fashion design major. Lame, right?"

"No that's not lame at all." Tyler said instantly, surprising her. "I mean, I was living at home because I lost my football scholarship for drinking, so you were doing better than me."

Caroline laughed despite herself, which brought yet another smile to Tyler's face. It was disconcerting that she had made him smile so much in such a short amount of time after just meeting him.

"I don't know what I'll do." Caroline said honestly. "Maybe teach? But I'm not really good with kids." She bit her lip in thought before looking back up at him. "Oh! I know, I used to volunteer at the hospital back in my hometown when I was in high school. I could do like nursing maybe? Do you guys have anything like that?"

"Yeah, we have a clinic beside the well where they do basic bandaging up and stuff like that. But actually," he crossed his arms and rubbed his chin, thinking. "I'm pretty sure Dr. Maxfield needs a new nurse in his lab."

"Lab?" Caroline asked incredulously, chuckling. "You guys don't have running water but you have a lab?"

"It's…you'll have to see it to believe it." Tyler said offhandedly, confusing Caroline further. "But I can take you to talk to him in the morning if you want?"

"That'd be great." Caroline said genuinely. "Sunrise?"

"Yeah, sure." He grinned, reaching beside him and throwing the last bag of feed over his shoulder. "It's a date." He said with a raise of his eyebrows before walking away from her before she could get a word in edgewise.

Two questions immediately ran through Caroline's mind. 1) Did Tyler say that as a teasing quip, or was he serious? And 2) why the hell did the name Maxfield sound so familiar?

######

"Should I go and check on her?" Elijah asked worriedly for what felt like the hundredth time in the past fifteen minutes. "I should go check on her she might be – "

"Elijah." Klaus grumbled, grabbing his brother's shoulder and pulling him back to the altar next to where he, Finn, and Stefan were standing in their tuxedos as groomsmen. "Katherine is fine, she'll be coming out any second now, just relax."

Elijah attempted to comply, straightening his suit coat even though it was already perfect like always. Klaus wanted to laugh at his big brother, never having seen him so flustered before. But it was his wedding day after all, as ridiculous as it was to admit.

Never in a hundred years would Klaus have pictured his big brother Elijah getting married to a woman like Katherine Pierce, he the picture of sophistication and she the epitome of 'wing it.' They were like night and day: calm and collected versus wild and stubborn. And yet at the same time, Klaus couldn't see Elijah marrying anyone else other than Katherine now that he had seen them together.

But weren't he and Caroline the same way? Night and day; where he was cruel she was kind, where he was hardened she was soft. They balanced each other out perfectly.

"Psst." Klaus suddenly heard, looking up from the ground and at the double doors that led into the plantation home where the ceremony was being held outside of. He couldn't help but grin when he saw Caroline poking her head out and trying to get his attention. "Tell the band to start playing." She mouthed.

Klaus chuckled and winked at her, earning a smile in return as Caroline disappeared into the home again. He turned behind him and signaled to the string quartet to begin playing, Elijah looking at him in confusion as he did so. Klaus said nothing, just straightened his posture with a smirk as the music began.

The double doors opened slowly, everyone quieting where they had been having idle conversation waiting on it to start (of course Katherine would make everyone wait for her own wedding). The first person to walk down the aisle was Sage, just starting to show her baby bump and wearing a light pink dress that went horribly with her red hair. Katherine's doing on purpose no doubt, she wasn't a big fan of Finn's wife.

Finn met Sage halfway, taking her arm and escorting her down the rest of the aisle, the two of them separating as they reached the front.

Next was Rebekah being met by Stefan and she looked like she was trying not to laugh for some reason or another, Klaus didn't want to know.

And finally, the maid of honor stepped out.

She looked radiant. That was the only way to describe Caroline in that moment, positively radiant. Her dress was a darker pink than the other bridesmaids, and she wore high heels to accentuate her already long legs. Her makeup was light, her lips a glossy shade of pink that made Klaus thank whoever had invented the damn stuff she was wearing on them. Her hair was curled around her face and he just wanted to run his fingers through it as he kissed her senseless.

As Klaus began walking up the aisle towards her, never breaking eye contact, she winked at him and he could have fallen to his knees right there. He knew it was technically Elijah's big day, getting married and all, but Klaus would swear up and down that he was the luckiest man in the world at that moment.

Once they reached each other, Caroline looped her arm through Klaus', transferring the bouquet to one hand. They walked down the aisle slowly together, Elijah smiling at the two of them.

"You know if I didn't know any better love," Klaus whispered, "I'd say an angel just winked at me at my own brother's wedding."

Caroline snickered, biting her lip to keep from laughing out loud.

"Oh Klaus." She murmured, turning to face him as they reached the altar. "How many times do I have to tell you that your charm doesn't work on me? Even if I am your girlfriend."

Without another word, she leaned forward and kissed him lingeringly on the cheek, spinning on her heel and walking over to stand in front of Rebekah, who was once again trying not to laugh.

Klaus stood stunned for a moment, looking at the feisty beauty he called his. Elijah cleared his throat and brought him back to the present though, chuckling when Klaus cursed and walked back to his stand as best man.

Everyone in the ceremony stood from their seats as Katherine emerged with Elena, who was escorting her down the aisle in place of their father. Klaus would admit that she did look beautiful, and Elijah's jaw parted in awe as he stared at his bride-to-be.

The ceremony went flawlessly, as expected since Caroline had doubled as the maid of honor and the wedding planner. Everyone said the right "I do's" at the right time, no one fell on their face, it went smoothly.

But Klaus' favorite part was when during the vows, Caroline made eye contact with him across the aisle and mouthed his three favorite words.

He grinned back at her.

"I love you, too."

######

"We need to keep moving." Stefan murmured as he bent down next to the creek and filled up his canteen. "Those clouds are going to be over us any second now and we're out in the open."

"Yeah well we won't be going anywhere if our horses die of dehydration." Liv shot at him rudely, leading the animals to the water.

Klaus scowled at the young girl from where he stood next to the carriage, leaned up against it with his arms crossed. The twins were disrespectful as hell, and it irked him. They had been travelling nonstop for the past ten hours, the carriage they were in actually making good time. If he had to guess, Klaus would say they had travelled about fifty miles. Which meant they had only about twenty or thirty left to get to Whitmore. To get to the possibility of seeing Caroline again.

"What are we going to do when those clouds get over us?" Matt asked, sauntering up towards Klaus. "We're not near any freeways, there's no cars or empty buildings to try and hide in."

"I suggest we keep moving." Elijah spoke from where he was crouched next to the creek, staring at the water mindlessly, no doubt thinking about how close he was to perhaps seeing his wife again. "With the speed of the carriage we can outrun most Infected, and even if we're not faster we can much better defend ourselves from the wagon."

"Wait you want us to travel through the night?" Luke asked incredulously, jumping down from the wagon himself. "That's suicide!"

"We're travelling through fields of nothing but grain." Rebekah smarted off to him. "There's probably not any Infected around for miles, they tend to stick to urban areas since there are buildings to hide in when the sun is out."

"She's got a point Luke." Liv said to her brother, hooking one of the horses up to the carriage. "The sooner we get to Whitmore the sooner we're safe. We shouldn't waste any more time. Not to mention there's way more of us to fight any Infected off if they do show up."

"Fine, fine." Luke grumbled, holding his hands up and jumping up onto the carriage again, grabbing the reigns with a scowl. "You guys want to travel at night, we'll travel at night, whatever. See if I care. Just remember that I warned you when we – "

The boy cut himself off as everyone stilled, looking up at the sky where a large, ominous cloud was covering the sun, taking away their best sense of protection from the Infected. The sun was their greatest asset, and days where there was cloud cover or rain were the most terrifying days of all. Because those were the days that the Infected had an advantage.

The darkness swept over the field slowly and nobody even dared to breathe. Stefan stood up deliberately, canteen in hand, Elijah mirroring him. Matt clenched his fists and Liv hopped up on the wagon next to her brother.

Klaus stood up straight, jaw clenched firmly. Rebekah was still standing next to him and she reached out and grabbed his wrist, startling him.

When Klaus looked down, he saw Rebekah smiling weakly at him, her tanned face seeming to pale slightly. She was terrified, yet still trying to comfort her big brother, the man who tried to kill her fiancée just a few days ago.

He managed to muster a smile in return, thinking briefly that Caroline would have laughed at his pathetic attempt of cheerfulness if she were there.

"Alright then." Elijah spoke up once the cloud cover was fully upon them. "We need to start moving."

######

A/N: GUYSSSSSS, THE KLAROLINE AND KALIJAH REUNION IS JUST TWO CHAPTERS AWAY! REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN! xoxo