AN: Yes, another one up :D I'm tired and it's almost tomorrow so I'm kinda loopy right now :)

Hope you like it, I do it's very different from the other chapter 2, as you will soon find out

OMG IT'S TOMORROW! XD

REVIEW! I love you but you gotta review! Reviews are like cookies and springtime and hot cocoa and Stephen King and zombies and sugar and Megadeth and everything good in the world in one!

Reviews = LOVE, no reviews = no love = sad writer = too depressed to talk let alone write and update stories on fanfic = suicidalness and therefore one of those stories that's on here for 2 years and read before noticing the update time and you are banging you head on the desk asking WHY? because you really wanna know what happens but you WON'T cus the writer is DEAD cus there weren't any REVIEWS!

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Cookies :D

CHAPTER 2

I awoke groggy. My head was pounding and my limbs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. I delicately lifted my head off the armrest of the couch.

Big mistake.

Red spots popped into my vision. I let out a cry of pain as my head felt like it was tearing in two.

The man in the suit came rushing through an open doorway. I guessed that was the kitchen or something like that.

"Hey guys, she's awake." He called up the stairs (Huh? This place was bigger than I had thought...) to his friends.

He chuckled slightly and walked towards me. "Sorry, doll. Name's Nick."

"Zoey."

"Well, Zoey, there isn't a man around here somewhere I could talk to by any chance?"

I glared at him. "Oh boo-hoo, I don't know what to do. Go to hell, Colonel Sanders."

He smirked at me, "Got a feisty one here, eh? That's great cupcake." He grinned wide and shot me a wink. Wow, I didn't think anyone could get on my nerves so fast. This place is just a myriad of firsts, isn't it?

I heard three separate sets of feet pound down the stairs. My head rattled and I moaned in pain.

Ellis was the first to reach me. He crouched by my side, pushing Nick out of the way. "You alri' darlin'?"

"My head."

"She probably needs water," A woman's voice came from behind the couch. "You're lucky, sweetie. You lost a lot of blood when that Witch got to you. Good thing Coach here patched you up nice and tight. Shouldn't be bothering you too much longer." She stuck out her hand and I shook it weakly. "I'm Rochelle. Call me Ro," She added with a smirk. "All of them do."

"Nice to meet you guys," Ellis returned with a bottle of warm water, presumably from some crate somewhere. Once again he pushed Nick out of my line of sight. "I'm Zoey."

It was odd how Ellis was looking at me. On his face was a look of almost . . . awe, or something like that. I don't know, maybe it was just a trick of the light, my mind going into overdrive. It was all in my head, like I hadn't heard that enough . . .

A large hand on my shoulder pulled me out of my head. "Zoey? Girl, can you hear me alright?" A booming voice sounded near me.

"Huh?" I answered. I did that sometimes, got so deep into my own thoughts that my other senses abandoned me. The doctors said it was normal for someone with "my condition."

"You alright there, sweetie? You didn't hit your head or nothing when that Jockey got you, did you?"

As she rushed to my side to fuss over my head, I could sense the motherly side of her. I knew that feeling well. It had been the same way with me and my team.

No, stop it. Don't think about them.

I nodded inwardly. Thinking always made things worse . . .

"I'm fine, really. Sorry Coach, what was that?"

"I asked where ya came from girl. You can't have been alone for very long, have you?"

I just chewed my lip, trying not to let the feelings come back. If I couldn't even hold it together thinking about it, how could I possibly tell them what happened? "Umm," was all I could manage at the moment.

Rochelle obviously sensed my hesitation and came to my rescue, "We don't have to talk about it now sweetie. We can wait until you feel better to talk." I smiled at her. Seeing the way she doted over these men, it was all I could do to not think of my team. But I couldn't appear weak, not while I still had something to prove to these people.

You don't have to prove anything to them. What's the point of proving yourself when they're just going to leave you for dead? Just like the others.

Stop it. Go away. You're not real, you're not real.

I'll never leave you. I promise.

I snapped back to reality with the sound of a pistol shot ringing out. Nick was at the safe house exit, his gun pointed through the bars. "We should be able to stay here a day or two, at least until cupcake here can heal up a bit."

I was trying hard to remember their names; I knew it would save my life very soon. My mind started to wander and I closed my eyes, pretending to sleep.

"Think it's safe to move her upstairs?" Ellis

"Not sure, maybe one of us should stay down here with her tonight, just to be safe." Rochelle

"I'll do it!" Ellis and Nick?

Rochelle sighed, "Ellis, you can take first watch. Yell if you see something you can't handle, okay?" Well he's better than Nick at least.

I heard a mutter from the corner, "Damn kid . . ." Wow, asshole much Nick?

I drifted off into a light doze, waking fully when I heard an upstairs door slam, most likely Nick's. The lights were off, and it gave me an uneasy feeling. The dark hadn't brought comfort to me in a long time.

There was silence for a moment, then "Pssst! You awake Zoey?" came from the floor directly in front of the couch.

I smiled a little. What, were we five again? "Yah, Ellis?"

"Umm, I-I wanted ta ask you somethin', but I don't wanna sound like some crazy stalker or nothin'."

I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "What is it?"

There was a small pause. "I think I know you." That did nothing to cure my confusion, but how is that stalkerish? Maybe he'd seen me around campus and graduated earlier than me, or knew my family or something.

"That doesn't sound crazy. Did you go to Penn state or something?"

Another pause. "I've never been out of Savannah in my life. I-I mean, I know you but I've never met'chu."

It was my turn to be silent. I honestly didn't know how to respond to that. "Wha-what are you talking about?" My mouth hung open like an idiot and I was actually glad it was so dark for the first time in who knows how long.

"I-I mean I know about'chu. Y'see, I like ta read those writin's on the walls of the safe houses, 'n I saw all the ones you wrote 'bout how you been goin' fer a while now 'n, I mean, I figure it was you writin' those cus there ain't many people 'round anymore 'n there ain't that many Z names anyway so I jus' sorta figured it was you, but I mean I could be mistaken . . ."

He trailed off, obviously expecting some sort of answer, but I could barely keep my jaws firmly together, let alone explain my whole story. "That . . . depends, I guess. What did you read?" It was barely a whisper.

And he started going off on an insane story. My insane story. Everything from the crash, to my note in the last safe house I stopped at. Well, not exactly everything. He left out how utterly hopeless I felt when I came to and didn't find Francis there watching me sleep. And how I damn near threw myself in front of that Tank when I heard Bill's final scream, and how I changed my mind when I remembered that he did it to help me escape. And how I had decided that was my last note because I was never going to find Louis or Francis, never going to make it out anyway.

I steadied my quivering lower lip long enough to utter, "Yah. That-that's me." Apparently that was all he was looking for, because he started going on about who the hell knows what. I couldn't handle it, he was asking all these questions about things I never wanted to think about, bringing back ghosts I thought I had buried. And I couldn't take it.

"'N then that part 'bout you 'n Bill with that Tank, hoo-hoo I could jus' picture it -"

"Ellis."

"How you was fightin' 'n he tried leadin it away -"

"Ellis, please."

"'N then when he got caught in a -"

"ELLIS!" I can't take it, I can't take it.

Yah, they're really gonna help you . . .

Shut up.

"Yes, darlin'?" Such innocence in those two little words. He had no idea the hell I was in.

"Just stop. Please."

"Wha's wrong? What did I do?" He sounded genuinely worried, but that didn't make it any easier on me, didn't calm my hurting thoughts.

"It hurts to think about. Please, just don't say any more." I felt a little tear crawling down my cheek. My chin quivered. "It's bad enough when it's just in my head," I added quietly. I don't know if he heard.

"I-I'm sorry, darlin'. I didn't think- I didn't mean ta-"

"I know."

"Can I make it up to ya?" I could hear him shifting around on the floor. I think he was sitting up.

"I just want to sleep." I turned so my back was to him and I was facing the back of the couch.

"I'm so sorry." I could feel the heat of his hand at my shoulder. I shifted a little before he touched me.

"And Ellis?"

"Yes darlin'?"

"Don't call me that." The heat from his hand left.

"Oh, o-ok. Goodnight, d-Zoey."

He resettled back into the sleeping bag on the floor.

"Goodnight, darling girl."

Goodnight, Francis.

Hmm, so was my insane tirade up there entertaining?

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crickets?

:'(

REVIEW DAMMIT! 3 :)