Outside, pouring rain slammed against the grocery store as thunder boomed in the distance, cold air wafted through the empty aisles as the group settled in their spot.
Taking shifts, each one kept watch for loners, soldiers, whatever fancied coming through the grocery store for something during the storm, though thankfully it's been relatively quiet that they're able to breathe easily.
"Is she still whispering?" Paul inquired as he sat across from Edgar.
Slowly nodding, Edgar says that it's all she can do, the scientists are merciless.
"Why can't she get rid of them herself?" Paul questioned how the Zone couldn't rid them despite her raw power and Edgar informed him that the Zone tried, but there's a balance she followed.
As the fire cracked, Edgar explained, "She abides by her rules, as you abide yours, if she abandoned them, then there would only be chaos and no peace."
As he nods his head, his chestnut hair stiffly moving, Paul inquires how the Zone felt being the only living example of a universe within a universe.
Edgar shrugs as he replies that the Zone was like a newborn when it came into existence, lashed out as it didn't understand what was happening, before growing older and wiser, and it only wanted one thing.
"What's that, Edgar?" Paul grew curious.
His glassy eyes lit up from the crackling fire, Edgar says, "Peace."
The Zone knows her existence can be questionable, but she wanted to live as much as Edgar or Paul.
She defended herself as either men would, but she didn't want it to be this way, she only wanted to live in peace with the others, but unfortunately as Paul became aware, it didn't happen the way she wanted.
"Once we stop the scientists and the soldiers, what then?" Paul questioned what the Zone planned once he and the others dealt with them.
Shifting in his spot, Edgar responds that when they do, the Zone will take the time to fortify her control, protect herself against further trespass, heal her wounds most of all.
"What'll happen to you and Anya?" Paul pressed what the Zone had in mind for them.
Watching Edgar move in his spot, Paul sees emotions behind those glassy eyes, like he's having a silent conversation with the Zone over that.
When he spoke up, Edgar responded that the Zone will tell them in time.
Unable to get anything else from Edgar, Paul sighs as he listened to the pattering of the rain and the lighting flashing through the boarded-up windows.
Rubbing her eyes as she settled in her spot, Taylor hears the crackling fire, the wood pouring into it by Wilhelm, Anya softly snoring in her spot as she laid out.
She hadn't seen the hallucinations of her mother again, no loss of limbs, or seeing the group turn into monsters.
Maybe the mutant finally went away for good, the Zone managed to keep it from going after her, soldiers or other killed it, it's hard to know, but the fact it knew how to get to her was unsettling.
How candied Wilhelm was about scientists using prisoners for their experiments, well it only served to further caution Taylor on how dangerous the Zone can be to those unaware.
It was a miracle anyone could survive in the Zone, the way innocuous things can turn deadly, seemingly on a whim, and how the Zone itself is alive and aware of their existence.
Settling on her side as she stared at the fire, Taylor felt her eyes growing heavy, incapable of keeping them open, slowly they closed.
Wilhelm began nodding off himself, laying on his side, his heavy eyes closing and softly snored as he fell asleep despite his numerous attempts staying awake.
Before he moved to join Taylor's side, Paul heard Edgar cryptically say, "… Machine… the blue machine…"
Alarmed, Paul sharply turned his head as he proceeded to ask Edgar in a hushed tone, "Where did she take it?"
Only Edgar could provide those answers.
He continued to mutter until Paul touched his arm, saying, "Where is it?"
His glassy eyes falling to the crackling flames, Edgar mustered, "She's telling me…"
He trailed at the end as his glassy eyes shot up and he says, "Waits for you…"
In hushed tones, Edgar tells Paul that the TARDIS is waiting for him, but couldn't tell him where it is, instead hinting the Zone feared that the scientists would want it for themselves, and hearing how acutely aware the Zone was about how unusual the TARDIS is, it didn't surprise Paul that the Zone's afraid of it ending up in their hands.
He understood what the Zone felt, as he felt the same, having scientists like them studying and somehow using his TARDIS would be terrifying.
"I don't want it in their hands either, but I may be able to rid them, please, can she give it back?" Paul pleads for the Zone to release the TARDIS.
There's silence before Edgar informed him that the Zone won't give the TARDIS back to Paul.
Not yet.
"She says… it'll be waiting for you… at her heart…" Edgar remained cryptical as he says that when the time came, Paul's TARDIS will be at the heart.
Baffled Paul asks, "Her heart?"
Affirming with a nod, Edgar stated that the Zone's keeping the TARDIS close to her heart, to protect it against the scientists and the soldiers.
Even they couldn't reach her heart.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Paul questioned this.
Edgar sums, "She will tell you, Doctor, in time."
Until then, they should sleep, and Paul stood up from his spot as he went around the campfire before he carefully laid down next to the sleeping Taylor.
Slowly his arms wrapped around Taylor's waist, gently pulling her close to him as he closed his eyes.
Didn't know how long he slept, but when Paul opened his eyes, it was dark outside, still, Wilhelm stretching his neck out to look, Edgar softly talking to himself, Anya and Taylor mystified.
Pushing himself up from the ground, Paul quickly asks what was wrong, and Wilhelm told him that it's 10 AM.
Yet, as he moved to the side for Paul to see, there's the full-moon.
"Darkness, is our cover," Edgar stood up as he insisted that everyone gather their things, they needed to make headway to where the scientists are hiding.
Edgar says the Zone had been launching attacks against the soldiers, hoping it would give them time, but Edgar then admitted that there's a chance that the soldiers tear through every beast the Zone sends their way.
"It's enough for us, did she tell you how to get there?" Paul gestures as he inquisitively asks Edgar.
Quickly nodding, Edgar insisted that the Zone gave him everything he needed.
Turning his head, Edgar calls out to Anya, asking if she's ready.
Slowly nodding, Anya meekly gestures that she is, but remained unsure.
"She waits for you, Anastasia," Edgar remained cryptic.
Regardless how Wilhelm felt about this whole thing, he was willing to see it through, making sure everyone had everything, weapons trained, Anya and Edgar in the centre of the group.
"Oh, I hate the nights!" Wilhelm showed his displeasure in going outside at night.
One of the earliest lessons he ever learnt since coming here, that the night is one of the worst things for anyone to get caught in.
Having a torchlight would be suicidal, since the unscrupulous wanderers that made the Zone, their home would see it and the beasts that come out only at night.
Yet without one shining would prove fatal, since the twisted fauna, the anomalies that become harder to spot in the darkness, and ones that only appear at night.
Those ones, no one's sure what they do, only that nobody ever lived to tell.
And Wilhelm didn't want the experience of finding out.
However, Edgar insisted that they'll be fine, the Zone was on their side, she won't let anything happen to them.
"Come, we must hurry, while they're distracted!" Edgar insisted that they stop dawdling and out they went through the door into the darkness.
