"Duncan?" Courtney asked, approaching her husband. "Duncan, are you okay?" She looked at him with concern, unsure what he was going to do. He looked at her again, a steely determination in his eyes.
"I'm fine." he said. "Let's get back to the hotel. Abigail needs to know what happened."
Courtney nodded. She wanted to press the issue, but didn't. Duncan lifted Thomas' body and headed for the roof exit. Courtney, Gwen, and Trent followed in silence. They returned to the hotel to find it buzzing with excitement.
"What's going on?" Trent wondered aloud. He looked at the others, who looked just as perplexed as he did.
They headed up to the rooms, and found the source of the excitement. Tyler and Cody were back from the hospital. They were still both messed up, but it was obvious healing had taken place. There was another surprise, one even more stunning than Tyler and Cody's return, Owen, Eva, and Ezekiel were back as well. Apparently another guest had seen them when they had been brought back dead, days earlier, and that same guest had somehow discovered they were back from the dead. The news had spread through the hotel like wildfire. Hundreds of fans had come to welcome them back to the world of the living. Chef saw Duncan enter with Thomas' body. Unfortunately so did some of the fans, who struggled to get a better look.
Sensing the oncoming shit-storm, Chef took control of the situation. "Alright, everyone who's not a former TDI contestant or host get the fuck out!" he bellowed. "We have personal business to attend to."
Reluctantly the fans began to file out, herded by Chef, D.J., and Geoff. Once they were all gone, Geoff turned to Chef and asked, "What personal business?" Chef pointed at Duncan, who had placed Thomas on one of the beds. Geoff's eyes widened, and he hung his head.
"What happened?" Chris asked, looking at Duncan.
"He sent me another message, asked me to meet him." Duncan replied. "I did. It was trap, but I went anyway. Dorian was there. He tried to make Thomas kill me, he had the chance, but he turned on Dorian instead. I guess he was on our side all along?" He buried his face in his hands and cried. Abigail approached him, placing an arm around his shoulders.
"I'm glad you were with him when he died." she whispered, tears falling from her eyes as well. "He considered you a son, he told me just before he left."
The others stood in silence, watching this tragedy unfold. Noah stood, fidgeting with a pen, wanting to explode with rage. Trent noticed this and asked, "Noah, you have something you wanna say?" Noah looked at him, his mouth twitching.
"Yes." he said, after a moment's hesitation. "How can you say he was on our side all along after what he did to Gwen? What he did to me? He stabbed us in the back and now that he's dead you're all kissing his ass. Well fuck that. I'm glad he's gone, I hope he burns." It was clear that he was not the only one who felt this. "Why should we shed a tear for-" Duncan drilled Noah in the face, sending him sprawling.
"FUCK YOU!" Duncan roared, glaring at Noah with a hatred like no other. "You weren't there Noah! You didn't see him die! Thomas Locke is fucking hero and he's the only reason any of you ungrateful shits is alive again. You hate him for what he did? You think I'm kissing his ass? How bout you shut the fuck up and kiss mine. Or you could just go back to being dead, I liked you better that way." He stood, breathing heavily, shaking with rage. No one moved, no one spoke, they all just stared, unsure what to do.
Finally, Owen broke the silence. "What do you mean we're alive again because of Thomas?" he asked, looking at Duncan.
Duncan turned to Owen and, after taking a deep breath, spoke. "He made a deal with David Luminous." Duncan said. "He promised Luminous his and Dorian's souls in exchange for restoring any of ours, should we die for any reason."
"Wait, what?" asked Cody. "He gave up his soul for all of ours? When did he do this?"
"After Gwen's funeral." replied Duncan. "I know what you all are thinking, how can it be true? I believe him, I mean, it makes perfect sense and he had no reason to lie. He was dying when he told me, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the dying do not lie."
"Alright, I'm sorry for exploding like that." said Noah, wiping blood from his nose. "It was uncalled for and I apologize."
Duncan nodded, to show he excepted the apology. "Thomas gave me this." he said, revealing the disk. "It contains all the secrets of Dorian's organization, the DuValls, and everything else we've been searching for the last few months." He looked at Tyler, Cody, Owen, Eva, and Ezekiel and said, "By the way, it's good to have you all back."
Owen smiled and said, "Let's find out what's on that disk."
They popped the disk into Beth's computer and hit play. What they saw shocked them more than they anticipated. It turned out Dorian's real plan was not to merely gain revenge on Chris and Chef, he was planing to take over the world. His company had developed various biological and chemical weapons, which he intended to use to force the world into submission. He had intended to use Camp Wawanakwa and TDI as his testing ground, but after Chris and Chef kicked him off the show, he began selling his weapons to hostile governments and terrorist organizations. He now intended to unleash his most terrifying weapon, a virus dubbed the Reckoning, upon the world, thus wiping out the human population.
As the former campers watched this, they realized that their war had now gone beyond just personal vendettas. The fate of the world was at stake, and it was up to them to save it. Dorian had to be stopped, if not for their protection, than for the world's.
Hours later they put Thomas to rest. They decided to give him a hero's funeral by burning his body. They took him out to a forest clearing, and after building a wooden platform, burned him. They remained, paying homage to their fallen friend, knowing that they all soon may be joining him. Duncan stared into the flames making a silent promise to himself, no matter what happened, the others would live. No matter what happened to him, they would see the end of this nightmare.
A/N: Okay, I know I went a little cliche with the whole saving the world thing, but I wanted to make this about more than just the TDI characters. I wanted to give them a reason to fight besides themselves and well, you all have read this, you know what Dorian is like. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. And, like I said last chapter, we're nearing the end, so be ready, cuz it's gonna be good.
