Chapter 42

Pick-Up

"David sure has a temper…" Nick muttered, leaning against the white-washed walls of the morgue. "I wasn't expecting that. But I guess the bond between him and Dorothy are tight."

"I don't care about that! Joshua stole the car!" Lisa fumed, pacing back and forth. "And I hate cabs. Hate. Them."

"You want us to walk?" Nick raised an eyebrow. "I'm not exactly keen on walking across half of New York to our hotel."

Lisa just growled, flexing her fingers. Completely ignoring Nick, she merely muttered, "He could have at least let me go with him."

"Hey, we need you here." Nick said with narrowed eyes. "Without you I doubt anyone would be alive at this point."

"That's a lie. If anyone is making people survive, it's that man over there." Lisa pointed towards Richard who was on his mobile phone with an intense expression on his face. "He's useful. He could go at any time, but instead he chose to work with us."

"I wonder what his motives are…" Nick murmured, drawing Lisa's gaze.

"Motives? What are you saying?"

"Oh come on, seriously, who would help us in this situation. I dunno why it's now I'm suspicious, but hasn't he been helping us a tiny bit too much?" Nick watched as Richard shook his head to an unheard question.

"He's just a nice guy." Lisa shrugged before letting out a devilish grin. Nick grew slightly worried. Whenever Joshua showed that grin, something irritating was about to happen. Like mother like son he guessed. "And slightly attractive, too. I mean, look at that jaw. He dresses like a slob but he's obviously got some kind of muscle. And that stubble… ooh…" Lisa faked a shiver.

"What!? But he's just an old man!" Nick protested, before suddenly putting a hand on his mouth.

The grin only widened on Lisa's face. "Oooh? Are you jealous?"

"What? I – You, no!"

Lisa giggled. "Look at you! You're unmarried, aren't you? I bet you're a virgin too!"

"Hey, you-"

"You know…" Lisa licked her lips seductively. "Why not go to a hotel with me… alone? I'll make you happy…"

"What are you doing?" Richard's stern voice echoed slightly as he paced towards a laughing Lisa and an embarrassed Nick.

"Having a bit of fun." Lisa shrugged.

Richard raised an eyebrow. "Fun? I didn't think that word existed in your vocabulary."

"How rude!" Lisa protested. "It's not like you have any fun either!"

"I don't have fun while working." Richard simply replied.

"That's bull. You never have fun." Crossing her arms, Lisa shook her head. "Someone like you probably lives in a messy apartment and lives on take-out food. I mean, you hardly shave! Look at that!"

"I keep meaning too…" Richard shrugged. "When I have time. Anyway, what's the plan?"

"Plan? We do what we've been doing." Lisa shrugged. "We haven't had any clues yet."

"Isn't that strange?" Nick asked. "I mean, Dorothy died a week ago. We should have got clues about Jeremy by now."

"Well we haven't, so we can't do anything." Lisa shrugged. "Let's go anyway. I figure we may as well tell Lukas that Joshua has gone so he can stop being so stiff we us."

"He'll probably tell us to go away again." Nick sighed.

"True, but hey, what else can we do?" Lisa asked, before setting off to circle around the morgue and in turn the hospital until they were in the front of the building.

As the automatic doors opened, Nick was first to walk in and as such was first to hit the person in the doorway.

"Sorry." Nick grunted automatically, his eyes shifting to the person he had knocked into it. "Oh."

Nick looked awkwardly at Jeremy who was leaning on a walking stick. Jeremy just smiled. "Don't apologize, it's my fault. I still haven't got used to this." Jeremy motioned to his walking stick.

"How are you doing?" Lisa asked, crossing her arms.

"Fine… Fine…" Jeremy sighed softly. "I heard about Dorothy. It's a shame… she was… she was nice." Jeremy paused for a moment before closing his eyes. "I… I'm sorry, guys."

"Sorry?" Nick raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

Jeremy paused again before suddenly blurting out, "For making you do this on your own." Jeremy bit his bottom lip and motioned with his free hand. "I mean… Ever since Dorothy died I've been thinking… that… we've just let you three do it all by yourself. I know you've been looking out for us." Jeremy glanced behind him before leaning forward towards Nick. "Chloe and I have been talking recently since Dorothy's death. We want to help. We want to come back into the group."

Nick opened his mouth in surprise. "Really?"

Jeremy shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "Yeah. It's not fair on you guys. I mean, if the others were helping Dorothy might've been saved."

"It seems you've found them already."

The four turned towards a van which had pulled up in the parking lot. Chloe was leaning in the driver's seat, facing Jeremy. She had changed a lot, the make-up was gone from her face and her hair was let down naturally. She was even wearing a casual t-shirt and jeans rather than the fancy clothes she wore before. Chloe smiled at Jeremy. "Good work on finding them."

"Well, they found me… really…" Jeremy shrugged. "Coincidence."

A movement from beside Chloe drew attention to the passenger seat, where Riley was sitting with crossed arms. He was wearing a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, revealing the scars on his arms. The new scar on his cheek was vivid but didn't affect his look. "Coincidence or not, it's good."

"What are you doing here?" Lisa asked, surprised.

"What do you think?" Riley asked. "Chloe called all of us."

"All of you?" Nick echoed.

"Well… all of us other than the obvious. And Lukas."

"He's still a pain in the ass." Chloe grunted. "I mean, Joshua wasn't even the cause of Dominika's injuries. "
"Wait…" Lisa put up her hands. "You've… gotten everyone together?"

"As we said." Chloe nodded. "After Dorothy died, everything got so real. That was the first time someone had properly died from the list. Tyrone is missing so nobody knew what happened to him. But Dorothy is completely gone. I mean, the evidence is right over there." Chloe half-shrugged. "I guess I felt guilty, so I talked with Jeremy and we decided to contact everyone. We've all agreed to meet today at a hotel. Riley came with me to pick you guys up, so get in the back." Chloe motioned to the back of the van with a thumb.

Finding a smile growing her lips, Lisa shook her head in disbelief. As she, Jeremy, Richard and Nick climbed into the back she couldn't help but wonder what an anchor Dorothy had been. An anchor not only in life, but now in death. Because she had died, everyone had gotten back their senses and wanted to help again.

We can do this. Lisa thought to herself. If we all work together, we can do this. I wasn't too keen on survival rates with just Nick and Richard, but now with everyone here…

XXX

Watching the van leave from the shadows, a young man flipped open a mobile phone and took a picture of the number plate. The young man sighed and stroked back his hair before dialing a number.

"They've left as you predicted."

"Good. We'll let Death go through the list again. Once the list has been repeated, we'll make the next move."

"What about Jason and Jennifer?"

From the other side of the phone, Gerald Myers grinned to himself. "Make sure they are fed and watered, but otherwise, keep our… pets under lock and key. Lisa will start getting worried when no more messages are delivered." With that, Myers clicked off the phone and chuckled to himself.

A/N: Thanks to Bookreader2010, Gabe-Girl-Forever and… 'guest' for the reviews! I'm back, and I have written a HELL of a lot. In terms of to the end of Act II. I've also finalized the plans for the final act. So I got a lot of stuff down on my internet-less escapade.

Although one thing is really hard to do – killing characters off. But, it's fair to say I've written more than one death scene.

'Till next time!