Meghan had not moved an inch from her position against the door. She was still in shock and couldn't make any part of her body move.
"Meghan?" Quinn said softly sitting down next to her.
"I told him I wouldn't let anything happen to him," she said without looking at him. "I told him I would protect him. I promised him. I promised I would protect him."
Meghan's body began to shake with sobs, so Quinn put his arm around her and allowed her to sob into his chest just like she had when she had first come to the castle. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm in a comforting manner. He realized that he was not nearly as uncomfortable with this as the first time.
Katy came and sat next to them and hugged Meghan while she continued to cry in Quinn's arms.
Eventually, Meghan fell asleep in Quinn's embrace with Katy next to her. Quinn stayed awake to keep watch and every now and again, he could feel tears drip down his cheeks as he thought about Creedy and Jackson.
He looked over at Meghan. Tear streaks rested on her cheeks that would no doubt be there for quite some time. Even in unconsciousness, her face looked pained. The poor girl had already been through so much…
Quiet noises made Quinn turn his head to the door. Then there was a light bang.
"Jared," Quinn said firmly. The noises and Quinn's movement made Meghan and Katy wake up along with the rest of the inhabitants and they all looked over as Quinn and Jared went to the door.
Quinn began banging on the door as hard as he could. "We're alive! We're in here!" He and Jared pushed on the door in an attempt to get it to move.
"Back away!" a voice on the other side called.
The door got opened and Meghan saw that it was Alex and some other Americans who had come back to the castle. And then Van Zan showed his face and Meghan felt a rage build up inside her that she had never experienced before.
"You were right," Van Zan said to Quinn.
Meghan stood up and walked briskly over to the man before slapping his face. Hard. "Because of you, Jackson, that little boy you spoke to, is dead. And so is Creedy," she spat at him.
"Meghan," Quinn said softly, gently pushing her back next to him.
Everyone inside the shelter slowly exited and walked around the remains of what they used to call home. Meghan felt more tears spring to her eyes and held her head in her hands. Katy came next to her and the two of them walked out of the castle together.
Van Zan and Alex came up next to Quinn and tossed him some weapons as Quinn finished loading up a shotgun.
"I salvaged what I could from your armory," Van Zan said. "We got one rifle, two automatics, two crossbows, and explosive heads."
Quinn cocked his gun and if looks could kill, Van Zan would've died from the face Quinn gave him. Meghan saw Alex tense up a little bit before Quinn said, "You, me, and Alex. Down the coast in the chopper. Stay tight to the cliffs. The Thames will take us right into the heart of London. I know where he lives. Magic hour. You say that's when they're the weakest. We'll see."
Meghan stepped next to Quinn. "I'm coming with you," she said firmly.
"No, you're not. You're staying here with everyone else."
"No, I'm coming with you. I need to do this for Jackson. Please."
Quinn looked her in the eyes and knew exactly what she meant. He was doing this for Creedy and seeing as she had been closest to Jackson, she deserved some closure. "Alright," he finally conceded. "But you do as I say without hesitation."
"You're going home," Van Zan said to Quinn.
"Jared!"
"Yeah, Quinn?" Jared said as he brought Quinn's horse forth.
"You keep them safe."
Jared nodded and the four of them began to pack up. Katy ran up to Meghan. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "You told me I wouldn't lose you."
"You're not. The four of us are going to kill that thing. I have to do this, Katy. Please understand."
Katy sighed and grabbed Meghan into a very, very tight hug. "Please be careful."
"I will."
Meghan then set off with the others to go hunt down Jackson's killer. The four of them loaded into a chopper and to London they went to kill the male of the species.
When they got to the city, it looked absolutely awful. Aside from the dragons, there was no sign of life. Several dragons stood on top of the buildings and roared loudly.
"Well, this town's down to nothing," Quinn remarked.
"They must have heard us coming," Alex said.
"What's stopping them?"
"It's not us," Van Zan answered. "Either way, we gotta get in there."
"Come on, guys," Alex pleaded. "We're outnumbered hundreds to three."
"I know this city from the sky down, and I know it from the bottom up. If we can get in quiet, I can sneak us into some tunnels. That should get us close."
The dragons roared and hundreds of them took off into the air. It was perhaps one of the most frightening things Meghan had ever witnessed. Then one huge dragon, the one that killed Jackson, flew over the land and ate one of its own.
"Did he see us?" Alex asked. Quinn shook his head in response.
"They must be starving," Quinn said. "They're eating their own."
"Oh, we're dead."
"Look on the bright side. Now we've got him outnumbered 3 to 1."
"Now, you ready?" Van Zan asked the women. They both nodded their heads. Van Zan looked over at Quinn. "Quinn, you lead. We follow."
Quinn nodded and they all ran beneath the city of London. "There's an underground passage! Leads to the construction site! Down here!" He helped Meghan and Alex down a hole in the ground and Van Zan followed. The men lit flares so they could see ahead to make sure they were in the clear, then kept moving.
"Four tunnels meet at this shaft," Quinn explained. "Leads up to a square. There used to be buildings up there. If they're still around, could be good coverage."
"Yeah, if it goes to the street, that's what we take," Van Zan answered. "Alex, give me the sticks." Alex handed him some arrows and he began making explosives out of them. "Quinn, these are highly volatile heads. You fire them with your crossbow. Now, when you—" He was cut off by the roar of a dragon. "He knows we're here. Okay. How tall is that shaft?"
"150 feet," Quinn told him.
"All right. Here's the plan. When we get to street level, we gotta bring that bull to the ground, and I'm gonna take care of that. Now, one shot's gonna kill him, and it's gonna be with this. He only exposes his chest before he breathes fire. Now, these are magnesium-tip C-4 arrows, and they only fly about 50 feet. So, when you fire, you gotta be standing in the furnace. So do not hesitate. If you do, we die."
Alex looked about ready to have a panic attack and though Meghan was also nervous, she was more furious at the dragon for killing the little boy she had been so close to. That erased a lot of her fear.
"Ah, he's playing hide-and-seek," Van Zan whispered.
"More like cat and mouse," Quinn whispered back.
The four of them started climbing up the elevator and Meghan noticed Quinn kind of space out for a minute. That's when it hit her. The article she had seen in his room. This was the place where he was the only survivor. This is where his mother had been killed.
"Quinn!" Van Zan shouted, breaking him out of his reverie. "Use it!"
Meghan assumed he was talking about the rage and anger Quinn felt at that moment. It was certainly how Meghan was getting along. They continued climbing out of the shaft and they finally made it above ground.
"Oh, he's eating it up," Van Zan said. "I can't see a thing, Quinn. What am I looking at?"
"This is an enclosed square. It's about 100 meters across. There's a building right in the middle. That chimney looks down over the lot of it. What do you think?"
"I don't know yet." Van Zan looked at Alex behind him. "Hey…you scared?"
"No," Alex answered shakily.
"It was your idea to come to London."
"Yeah, I thought I'd be at 3,500 feet."
Meghan couldn't help but feel a little angry at that comment. Alex was only willing to help if she was in the air…where she could fly away from the dragons. How was she going to help if she was too scared to do anything on land where she couldn't just fly away?
"Yeah, I thought I'd have over 200 men right now. Life's got a funny way of turning out different, though, don't it?"
"Yeah…"
"See that railcar? It'll give us a better view. Move." They all ran quickly to the railcar before they were seen. "Drop your packs. Weapons only."
Quinn, Alex, and Meghan got all the weapons ready while Van Zan went to the top of the railcar and looked at their surroundings.
"Okay," he said when he came back down. "We're gonna have a window. Every ten to twelve seconds, he makes a turn, and we're gonna use it."
"How?" Quinn asked.
"We're gonna split up. We stay together, take a hit, and we're gone, so we gotta use every angle. Now, Quinn, you're gonna take that west wall. Don't lock and load till you get there. You got it?"
"Okay. What about you?"
"I got the north. Alex, I need you and Meghan to stay right here. Now, when Quinn and I make a move, it's gonna draw him off, and I don't think he can count. Now, he's gonna make
another turn. When he does, I'm gonna tell you to go. One at a time, you're both gonna run to that east wall. Don't think about it."
Quinn took a sip from the whiskey bottle Van Zan was passing around to everyone. As soon as he took a sip, he spit it out. "It's water!" he exclaimed.
"Keep it. You're gonna need it." While Quinn gave some to Meghan, Van Zan continued, "We have paid a terrible price. And now we got a chance to make a difference. We will."
Meghan's heart plummeted at the sound of the dragon roaring. They watched as he released some fire and then flew up and turned.
"Now, that's our first window," Van Zan said. "Quinn…Move!"
The two men took off while the women stayed in the railcar. After a couple minutes, they were sure that the men had gotten to their respective places.
"Alex!" Van Zan screamed. "In about eight seconds, we're gonna have a window! Now, when I tell you to go, you run straight to the base of this chimney! Are you ready?! Go! Go!"
Alex paused for a second then took off, leaving Meghan alone in the railcar. She watched Alex run to the chimney as the dragon chased after her. It flew up the chimney to where Van Zan was and then there was an explosion of fire. But the dragon was still flying which meant that the arrow Van Zan had used did not work.
Meghan watched in horror as Van Zan leapt off the chimney brandishing his axe. The dragon flew up to him and ate him in one quick movement. Van Zan was dead.
Meghan could just barely see Alex limping along, evidently having injured herself in the run. She took off outside the railcar, making sure to watch the sky at all times, and grabbed Alex. Quinn reached them at the same time and he helped Meghan get Alex inside one of the burnt buildings.
"You alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she answered. "What are we gonna do?"
"I lost the explosives. We're gonna find them."
The dragon breathed fire where they were so Quinn pushed the two women and they took off running.
"Keep going!" he screamed. "Go around the other side! I'll slow him down!"
Meghan helped Alex limp around to the other side of the building where they were out of the dragon's sight. After a few seconds, Quinn bolted up next to them
"He's not moving," he said to them. "He's waiting for us."
"Quinn," Alex said quietly. "By the truck. The arrow. By the wheel."
Quinn looked over at Meghan with fear in his eyes. Without thinking about it, Meghan took his head in her hands and kissed him hard. When she released him, she pushed him in the direction of the arrow. "Go!"
The two women watched as Quinn retrieved the arrow, but was having trouble getting it inside the crossbow. Alex ran out into the dragon's sight, blasting her shotgun. When she had gone far enough, Meghan followed and pulled the dragon in the other direction away from Alex.
"No!" Quinn screamed. He got the crossbow loaded and shouted at the dragon, pulling its attention away from Alex. Meghan ran to Alex and joined her in her hiding spot. They watched the dragon breathe fire, forcing Quinn to duck behind a piece of dislodged building. When the fire had cleared, he came back out and aimed the crossbow at him. The dragon opened his mouth and then Quinn fired the crossbow. There was a thunderous explosion that forced Quinn back and Alex and Meghan to duck. When they looked back up, the dragon was motionless. Quinn had successfully killed the monster that had killed Jackson.
Meghan came out of her hiding place and ran to Quinn as fast as she could. She nearly tackled him when she hugged him.
"He always thought you could do it," Alex said as she limped over. "And you did. Come on."
"Wait," Meghan said. She went up to the dead dragon. Using one of the tools they had brought with them, she yanked out one of its teeth and stuck it in her pocket.
Then the three of them went back to the castle grounds to begin rebuilding everything. When Meghan came back to the castle, she pictured Jackson running up to her and calling her a hero again. Unfortunately, that was just a fantasy.
But Katy came out to meet her. She ran up to Meghan and the two girls shared a long and very tight hug, exchanging no words because none were needed.
Later on in the day, Meghan found a nice secluded spot and began stacking up several bricks with a piece of wood sticking out at the top. Using some dirt, she wrote "Jackson" on the wood.
"Hey, buddy," she said quietly, tears beginning to pool in her eyes. "I, uh, I got something for you." She pulled the dragon's tooth out of her pocket and laid it down in front of the bricks. "I told you I'd get you one, and I wanted to keep at least one of my promises. It's from the one that…that attacked the castle. I knew you'd want it."
She turned around at the sound of footsteps behind her and saw that it was Quinn. He kneeled down next to her. "He was one of the best kids we've ever had."
"Yeah. He told me…he told me he loved me. You know, the day before he…" Tears fell down Meghan's cheeks at a fast rate.
"His short life hasn't been for nothing. You know that right?"
Meghan nodded and gave a little laugh through her tears. "He actually…wanted us to get together. He kept asking me if we were in love."
"Then shall we show him?"
Meghan nodded and Quinn pressed his lips to hers. The kiss they shared was so much better now that they weren't fighting for their lives.
Neither of them doubted that if Jackson were there, he would've been overjoyed that Meggy and Mr. Quinn were finally admitting that they were in love.