(Thanks to MentosgoBoom, jamesss, angie2282, Zro-Kemrui 9t6, alexTheMortal, Can't Get Any Better, zackt2010, and Lance-dusk for your reviews! I took a risk, and it paid off, awesome! Right, one last chapter before I go on my christmas break, by the way. So I'll be back in January to continue what I consider my best story yet in my series. This chapter, we meet some faces mentioned and new, read on!)
The tunnel was long and straight, the only light being the dim ones on the ceiling. Initially, every ran for a solid ten minutes, before they slowed down to a jog, and finally a walk. It took what seemed like a day to get to the end, although it was actually two hours.
Paige's face was slightly red as she let out breath through her teeth. All through the two hours, images of Mila execution by Trent flashed through her mind, as if someone was constant hitting 'replay' on a controller. 'She was so close...' Paige thought, grabbing the first rung of the ladder. Paige shook her head, and started to climb the ladder. It was long, but after a long five minutes a hand reached down to help her up.
Paige took it, and felt herself hoisted up with surprising strength. When her feet hit the solid ground, she stared straight into a face of a handsome young man. His hair was curly and his eyes a solid blue. Paige estimated he was around 21, and he smiled awkwardly at her. "Hi, my names Roger. Is there anyone else behind you?"
"No." Paige said. 'Mila would have been... Trent...'
Roger nodded, pursing his lips, and moved behind Paige, shutting and locking the hatch. While he dealt with it, Paige looked around. She appeared to be in some kind of basement, but a large one. Crates and barrels filled the one, lining the walls and corners. Two wooden beams were stuck in the middle, separated by around 10 foot of space. The wood was well worn, yet very stable, and the walls were made out of grey stone.
"Where is everyone?" Paige asked, just as Roger turned around. Paige couldn't help but notice his muscles clearly defined underneath his white vest and arms; yet, they were not bulging.
"They are up the stairs." Roger said his voice quiet. "Follow me; our house can be quite confusing. I get lost even now when I'm not concentrating."
"Our?" Paige repeated.
"Me and mum." Roger said. "Her name's Gabrielle, I look much more like her than dad. I'm sure you are wondering where you are, you are in one of the only safe places left in America, or indeed the world. Others include Buckingham Palace in England, the White House here in America, and the Taj Mahal in India. There is probably at least one safe place in every country, or at least, the most recognisable countries. Places like Qatar won't have any. Of course, another safe place was the Base, but after all the generals attacked, no one has survived apart from everyone here."
"You seem well educated." Paige said, listening as she looked around. They were now at the foot of wooden stairs, but polished and grand. Chairs, plants and pictures were all around the room, with doors leading to other rooms.
"Yeah, I find Geography so much more interested that battling demons and the like. I suppose you could say I'm like Oracle in Batman." Roger said, shrugging.
"You a comic fan?"
"Used to be. But not even Superman, if he existed, could stop this. The world is dying, a virus spreading and spreading until the human race is extinguished. In fact, there probably isn't even a million people on Earth any more, and even that's stretching the count. We wanted to stop population growth, but I doubt this was the way they wanted it. Oh! I forgot to ask, what's your name?"
"Paige... Paige Callaway." Paige said as they climbed another set of stairs.
"Nice name. Got a nice, calm ring to it. I always find names reflect personalities." Roger continued. "So, are you one of the Ability users? You don't have a Dome number on you."
"Yeah... I think so. I don't what it is, but apparently it's based around healing."
"That's not bad. Healing as in Claire Bennett?"
"Claire Bennett?"
A blush rose slightly in Roger's cheeks. "Oh, she's a character from a TV Series called 'Heroes'. My favourite character, actually."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I used to love watching TV and playing games and learning. But now, all I have is old recordings of cartoons my mum recorded when she was younger. And the only game I have is Chess. Mind you, we have Chess the board game as well. Loads of board games, actually. Cluedo, Checkers, draughts, you name it. Learning is the one thing I can keep on doing, although weather isn't as interesting now. My weather forecast for tomorrow: Dark, bleak, cloudy with possibly a sprinkle of demons."
Paige involuntarily let out a giggle and clamped her hand to her mouth, blushing. 'God, I'm acting so ditzy around him. Since when do I giggle?'
Roger finally stopped outside a large wooden door. "Here we are." Roger opened the door, and motioned for Paige to walk in.
When Paige did, she was surprised. She counted only 19 heads. "Where is everyone else?"
Lauren Halperin spoke up from the head of the table. "This is everyone else Paige. Take a seat, please."
"What!" Paige exclaimed. "18 people? That's all that's left?"
"19, technically, counting you." Rose said, shrugging. "That's right. We had roughly 5000 people at that base. Now, it's only us. I'll make the introductions. Obviously, the Blood Type X's you know. Also, all people from the meeting with Leardel, apart from Carter Banks, Amy Walker, and Rose Leardel herself."
"Well, that's 15 people I know." Paige said, finally sitting down next to Leslie, who nodded. Paige noticed his hand clamped firmly on another man's hand, which she could only assume was James. He was much different form when she had seen him almost ten years ago.
"Then there is James Brown, who you know."
James shook Paige's hand, smiling at her.
"This is Gordon Helmsly." Rose said, motioning to a man with a ponytail and a slight moustache. His eyes were a striking green.
"And finally, Paul Beretta" Paul Beretta as a tall, thin man, with a scar running down his eyes. His jaw and cheek lines were thick, and his baldness only added to the determined man in front of him.
"Hello, young lady." Paul said in a deep, soft voice.
"Well... I'm not particularly young."
"To me, you are."
"Actually, we have two more introductions to make." Fred said. "To introduce those letting us into their humble abode. Roger over there is my son."
'Son?' Paige thought. 'He looks nothing like Fred!'
"And standing over there." Fred said, pointing to a beautiful woman standing firmly by the wall, her arms crossed over her chest. She wore a simple brown dress and her raven hair was curly and fell down in bouncy locks. "Is my ex-wife, Gabrielle Michelle."
Gabrielle stiffly nodded at Fred, but smiled at Paige.
Fred shrugged. "She still kind of hates me... but you can't have everything in life."
"Sure can't." Gabrielle said, her voice pure.
Fred rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair.
"Wait..." Paige said, slightly conscience of all the eyes staring at her. "I remember now... you were in the will you wrote."
"Yes." Fred said. "I left them my money, and they definitely got a good house here."
"Enough!" Miguel snapped, a fresh cut across his eyebrow. "This is stupid, conversing like this. We need a plan of action, a plan of what the hell we should do! What happened in the Base was a goddamn massacre! How did we not see this?"
"Ever heard of a surprise attack?" Gordon asked, glaring at Miguel.
"Ever heard of shutting the hell up?" Miguel asked in return. When Gordon didn't respond, Miguel looked smug. "Good, so you have. We have security camera's, right?"
"Of course." Rose said. "But they were quick."
"Quick or not, you had time to warn us, didn't you?" Miguel asked incredulously. "Or were you too distracted by these Blood Type X's? It's their fault we were bloody attacked like that anyway. Death probably heard about that 'seeing into the future' by Carlson. If so, I blame him were saying it so directly. Even if Death didn't hear about it, that just means Carlson's 'premonition' was wrong."
"It's probably because something happened to change the course of the premonition." Paige said. "Though what, I don't know.
"Whatever it is, I think I will place the blame firmly on Carlson." Miguel said, with a pout.
"Hey!" James exclaimed, standing up. Miguel floundered a bit, being much smaller that James. "Leslie is not to blame here! Are you not the Leader of the Hunter Squadron, you cowardly dog? Why weren't you out there doing your assigned job?"
"And you are in the Front Line, correct? Surely you should all be killing yourselves to help us survive!"
"ENOUGH!" Paul suddenly bellowed his voice loud enough to stop the arguing. "This will do us no good, you fool. Every single person in the base is to blame, but that is not a bad thing. Let us not dwell on mistakes, but what we need to do in the future! We have to combat these generals sooner or later; otherwise Earth will be completely taken! Is that not our ulterior objective? To stop Death? So let us plan, not argue."
Silence followed Paul's speech.
"Thank you, Paul." Rose said, nodding to Paul. "What he says is right. What will we do? Our forces are all but gone."
"I know what we need to do." Leslie spoke up, causing all heads to turn towards him. "Tally. We need to rescue Tally. She is still alive, and she managed to warn me beforehand. I was unable to tell anyone though, as it was already going on when she did. This means she is alive though, and Death is using her for something, although I do not know what. Her ability is key, and I believe we may have a chance. But we have to get her back."
There was a murmur of agreement around the table.
"That's that then." Rose said, rising from the table. "But, we will talk about this plan tomorrow. For now, I think we all need sleep. Let us think upon what to do, and come back with fresh minds tomorrow."
(Well well well, what DO we have here? Roger and Gabrielle are alive and kicking, and are surviving in these dreadful times. I thought it would be best to submit a complte list of the twenty survivors, as well as Roger and Gabrielle. So, here you go:
Blood Type X's:
Conner Shepard
Paige Calloway
Lorraine Matthews
Christine Jenkins
Leslie Carlson
Zeke Kurosagi
From the Base:
Gordon Helmsly
Paul Beretta
Rose Milano
Jenna Weissler
Chris Walker
James Brown
Jake Milligan
Tanzi Sakamoto
Fred Point
Lauren Halperin
Emma Jones
Camille Drew
Miguel Custado
New Characters:
Roger Point
Gabrielle Michelle
Gordon Helmsly
Paul Beratte
(So, Happy Holidays, and I'll se ya in January!)