Disclaimer:This story is based on
characters and situations created and owned by Michael Grant, various
publishers including but not limited to Harper Collins Publishers. No money is
being made and No copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Literally
he owns it I don't, Enjoy!

Chapter 3 – Bad upon Worse upon Absolutely Horrible

Sam turned to continue his conversation with Astrid but all he saw was the crowd parting and a wave of golden hair running far away. From him.

Astrid kept running she didn't know where she was going but she knew she had to get away from the scene that had ruined her night and probably her relationship with Sam.

As Brianna took her shoes off she winced at the sight of her poor feet. The sole of her black plimsolls had completely burned out mostly because they weren't designed for the wearer to run at such high speeds.

She examined her feet which were covered with various cuts and burns then sighed trying to relax before tensing again. She couldn't remember a time when she had felt so confused or stressed or was in so much pain. She clearly remembered what had been said during Jack and Dekka's argument but it still didn't register.

Jack had said something about Brianna occasionally acting cocky then Dekka had tried to defend her but the argument just turned to them throwing blind insults at each other. Soon Brianna had gotten sick and tired of their arguing so she'd yelled at them to stop. That was when Dekka had confessed. Suddenly it had become all too much so Brianna had done the first thing that came to mind.

She ran.

She'd only gotten as far as Clifftop when she'd suddenly felt excruciating pain in her feet then realising her mistake. Although she'd actually hadn't planned on running tonight she'd still found a situation where in her (burned out) shoes running was required. She now sat in the Clifftop foyer, trying to figure out the best way of getting to a room without causing herself too much pain.

Astrid had gotten tired of running and now just slowly wandered across the cliff edge towards where Orsay was rumoured to be prophesising to kids through their parents' dreams. Astrid was starting to feel tired and was wondering where she could stop to rest.

Even though it was night time and really dark because there was no streetlights, Astrid could just about make out the distant shape of Clifftop hotel. Mindset Astrid knew she was most likely to spend the night there while trying to clear her mind of the night's memories.

She was just about to enter the parking lot in front of the hotel when she heard a distant voice calling her name. When the small figure reached her he bent over to help catch his breath but when he looked up again he had a solemn look on his face.

"Astrid I just wanna say I'm so sorry for what I'm about to tell you, I mean no one has to go through what I'm about to tell you especially while in the FAYZ.." he sadly stated, for a small boy he spoke as if he was 30yrs older than everyone else." I'm Wayne, but most people call me, Wayne the Wise but that's beside the point." He sighed ad met Astrid's eyes "Astrid, I'm sorry but Orsay looked into many parents dreams before deciding to tell you."

"Orsay?"

"Yes"

"But don't loads of people say she's a phoney?"

"Yes but I noticed that is only when Nerezza* is around."

"Soooo. "

"So, we distracted Nerezza, sent her off somewhere and let Orsay do her thing."

"Soooo."

"Astrid there is no easy way to say this so I'm just gonna come out with it"

"And?"

"Your father is dead." Wayne bluntly said.

"W-w-w-wh-what? How? I-I-I mean WHAT?"

"Astrid, please just hold on a minute ok? Your father, he worked at the power plant right?" Astrid slowly nodded. "Well the adults reckoned they could dig themselves into the FAYZ so they set to work. They'd already worked out (like many others) that the power plant is the centre of the FAYZ so they took many power plant workers down into the tunnels with them. But yesterday the tunnels collapsed and it took the remainder of the day as well as all of last night to dig out the missing worked but by the time they found them many works were dead and . . . your father was among the fallen, I'm sorry." Wayne said occasionally glancing around then back to Astrid. Whereas Astrid just stared, not really looking like she could hear Wayne or was registering the information he was giving her.

"Thanks Wayne, I mean, yeah, Thanks." Then she turned and walked away, head held high but when she turned the corner she burst into tears big, chest heaving, tears . . .

*Ok I know this story is set after Hunger and doesn't include what happened in Lies but Nerezza is too important to be missed out : ]

So there's Chapter 3 . . .

Hunnybunny