I promise you, I swear on my life that hell freezes over before I let them take our baby away from us."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Olivia wasn't sure how long they had sat intertwined, but finally Elliot's low, short grunt as he moved caused her to open her eyes and lift her head from his shoulder. She wiped the last tears from her cheeks, cleared her throat, and before the air around them became too dense, she opened her mouth:

"So… What is our plan?"

"Our plan A?" Elliot grimaced as he shifted. "Get the hell out of here."

Olivia snorted. "Well, yeah, but how? We can't even get out of this room. Judging by everything, we are in the middle of nowhere, we have no food, no water, and therefore we have no energy to go stumbling through the forests."

Elliot bit his lip in thought. "The van. I bet it's still here."

"But what about that gate? It looked so solid that the old van would crash into pieces if we tried to drive through it."

"Maybe we can get around that gate? Maybe the whole yard is not fenced, maybe..."

However, his pondering was interrupted when they saw movement in the corner of their eyes, and the people who had been lying motionless on the ground until now began to move almost at the same time, as if someone had given them some sort of command. For a moment, Olivia already thought that some kind of new seizure had started, she felt her partner tense up next to her, but then a faint voice was heard:

"W-what… Did you see that?"

"Yes," another voice answered. "That was horrible! The world was on fire, there was death everywhere, and then I was here, and I felt how I had been saved."

"I saw the same!" Someone exclaimed, and then one by one, heads began to turn towards Elliot and Olivia. "Did you see it too?"

"I…" Olivia hesitated for a moment but then nodded. "Yeah. You were right, we are here for a reason."

Heads nodded around them. "Yes! As we said, Father would not lie to us. We have seen it ourselves, and we must fulfill our purpose."

"So…" Elliot stood up slowly, his face twisting in pain, but then he straightened his back and began to take slow, thoughtful steps, as if he was making some sort of plan. "Now that I've seen what's coming, I know what our purpose is. We must multiply and replenish the earth, right?"

He turned his gaze to the people sitting on the floor, who, to their surprise, began to nod their heads. For a second, Elliot's eyes met Olivia's, but then he nodded and continued walking.

"Right. But I don't see any children, where are they all?"

"They are in a different place," one of the women said. "Father takes care of them and educates them because they are the future of humankind."

"Do you ever see them?" Olivia asked, a tight feeling in her throat, and suddenly the woman's expression changed, and she looked down. She didn't answer, but Olivia could read the answer in her face. "No? Why?"

"Father says that it is not good for the children to spend time with us. They are part of a new generation, and they have to grow up and get used to a different environment and circumstances."

"But why us?" Elliot's voice made them turn their gazes towards him again. "Why exactly have we been chosen for this purpose? What is different about us?"

"I don't know," one of the men shrugged. "Father says that he has seen a vision, and we were there."

"I see."

"How many kids have been born here?" Olivia asked, and a sudden silence descended on the room. She quickly glanced at her partner, whose jaw had tightened, and she continued: "1? 2? 5?"

"Fifteen."

The blood froze in Olivia's veins.

"Fifteen?!"

"So far."

"Is there coming more of them?"

"I guess," one of the women nodded. "We are proud of each of them."

"So how…" Elliot cleverly hid the trembling in his voice that only Olivia noticed. "How does it happen? I mean… Do you make the kids… Naturally or…"

"It depends," one of the men answered. "We are not allowed to reproduce however we want, but Father chooses the pair. We get to decide how we do it, but the insemination is controlled."

The nausea started to grow inside Olivia, and she had to consciously take deep breaths. Elliot had also closed his mouth, and with a slow nod he walked back to her side and slowly sat down. The other people were engrossed in their own conversation, the topic clearly being their newest visions, and Olivia shook her head.

"I'm not gonna have sex with you in front of some pervs."

"I know, and we won't," Elliot answered quietly, his elbows resting against his knees. "We are going to get out of here before it happens. If we just managed to go outside and look around..."

Olivia nodded, but then the door suddenly opened, making everyone in the room jump to their feet. The man standing in the doorway threw in two bundles that looked like clothes, and then announced boredly:

"Newbies, here are the clothes for you. Once you're dressed, it's time to go outside. Knock on the door five times when you're ready."

And then the door closed again, and impatient eyes turned to them.

"Hurry up!"

"We don't have all day!"

Olivia picked up a piece of clothing from the ground, and gulped when she realized it was the same kind of gown other people had.

"I don't…"

"You heard what he said!" One of the women exclaimed and took a step closer. "So put it on or I will do it for you!"

She glanced at her partner, who bit his lip, but then shrugged in surrender and began to unbutton his shirt. Olivia looked down at her own gown, and suddenly the gazes of the others in the room felt almost burning on her skin as she thought about undressing in front of them. But since she had no choice, she grabbed her own shirt, hastily pulled it over her head and pulled the gown on. The fabric was quite thick, thicker than hospital clothes, and contrary to what she had thought, it was actually quite warm. Then she pulled her pants off and dropped them in the same pile as her shirt.

In the meantime, Elliot had gotten the buttons undone, but when he tried to take the shirt off, he grimaced in pain, and Olivia moved to help him. At the same time, she quickly glanced at his wound, which seemed a hint redder than before, and worry swept over her.

"You need to show that wound to the doctor."

"Yeah, and at the same time I'll probably give permission to do some kind of procedures which has nothing to do with the stabbing," he snorted and grabbed his gown. "So could you please just help me with this?"

Knowing that protesting was futile, she grabbed the gown from his hands and helped him slip it over his head. Then she stepped back and shook her head as despite the circumstances a light grin began to spread across her face.

"What?"

"You look absolutely ridiculous."

"Is that so?" Elliot crossed his arms as he threw his pants to the floor. "You look like quite a princess too."

"I know," she spun around so that the hem of the gown went up a bit, at the same time waving her hair, which felt as if someone had poured a bottle of cooking oil into it. "I'm going to my first prom, and I hope to find my own prince Charming."

But before Elliot could answer, there was a knock on the door, and it opened again. The man standing at the door pointed a gun at them this time, and the smile died from Olivia's face.

"Okay then, let's move!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Even though they had walked outside for a while, escorted by armed men, their plan had not progressed, on the contrary. The van had not been seen, but they suspected that it had been taken to an outbuilding, as the man who had kidnapped them had also been outside. The gate had been closed, and as far as they could see, the whole yard was surrounded by a strong stone fence, about a meter high, through which it was not worth even planning to drive.

So, if they wanted to escape by car, they would need a key to open the gate. And since that wouldn't be hard enough, they should also be able to escape the room, and the house for that matter, find the keys to the car, get the car out of the building where it was kept, get enough of a head start that they couldn't be followed by some other vehicle, find the right route to the highway, and call 911 with a phone borrowed from a third party.

When they had returned to their "cozy" room, they had sat down, and almost simultaneously brought up plan B, which was to steal a phone from somewhere that they could use to call Cragen directly. Hopefully they would manage to maintain the phone connection long enough that the phone could be located.

They had also been given water and bananas, and they had watched other people eat for a while, but when they didn't have a seizure this time, they had dared to eat themselves. Two bananas each wasn't nearly enough to satisfy their burning hunger, but it had been enough that sleep had begun to creep into Olivia's limbs almost immediately. She had leaned against her partner, tried to fight sleep, but in the end, she had lost the battle, and drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She was running.

Panic prevented her from breathing properly and tried to glue her feet to the ground.

But she didn't care.

In front of her she saw a small child, wearing pajamas, squeezing a plush toy against her chest. A small girl, brown hair, blue eyes, cheeks wet with tears.

"Mommy!"

She quickened her steps, tried to shout, but no sound came out. And even as she ran, she felt that the distance did not shorten at all.

"Mommy!"

Suddenly an unknown woman appeared from the shadows, stopped next to the girl, turned to look at Olivia, and she tried to scream again, but to no avail.

And then she grabbed the girl, lifted her in his arms, and began to carry her away. The girl screamed, the plush toy fell from her hand, and Olivia's legs stopped despite her commands, all she could do was watch, panic raging inside her, as someone took her daughter, took her away from her…

She woke up with a start, her heart felt like it was going to explode in her chest, and the gown she was wearing was damp with sweat. The room was dark again, but she could feel Elliot leaning heavily against her, and suddenly a vague feeling that everything wasn't right flared up inside her.

"El."

No answer.

She shifted, raising her hand to shake her partner's shoulder, but her hand touched his neck, causing the blood to freeze in her veins.

Elliot was burning hot.

No no no no no no…

Without hesitation, she slid her hand under her partner's gown, carefully over his wound, the cause of the fever become clear as she felt the hot and swollen skin.

The stab wound was infected.