Disclaimer: All characters and settings are owned by Stephanie Meyers. Except for the obviously original characters.
IMPORTANT Context: Paul is technically 41 (just like Bella is 42), but because werewolves only start aging mentally once they stop phasing, he's 29 in 2031. When they first phase, they mature to 25 and stop. He stopped phasing in 2027 for his wife.
Run
2031
"Come on. Come on." Bella pants, forcing herself to run faster and go further. She could hear the short pants of the wolf next to her pushing himself to extreme lengths. Her disbelief and grief over what had just occurred distracted her.
How did we not see this? How did they manage to do this? How? How? Her hysterical thoughts were interrupted by the gray werewolf calling her attention. She looked back and saw that he had rested against a tree on his paws, with his head facing her. She slid heavily down against a tree a little further up. Paul winces at the shrill scraping of her body, facing him. She takes deep, unnecessary breaths.
She looked at him in question; she wanted to know what made him stop and rest. The wolf gestured to the space in front of her. Turning to look behind her, she realized what he had seen: 1000 meters away, the trees gave way to a massively open field.
Turning back to him, she understood. They were going to have to travel faster than their broken bodies already did so that their profiles weren't found. The woods were a perfect cover, scent and sight-wise. That field wasn't.
Leaning against the tree again, she sighed and a sob came out of her, covering her mouth with her arm to muffle the sounds. The memories flooded her mind.
"Mom," Bella turns to the whisper after making sure Petra burned, and her body ices over as Renesmee looks down at the hand coming out of her chest.
"No!" Bella's cry alerted her mate, distracting him and Bella ran across the reservation to her daughter just as the hand pulled out of Renesmee. Gage runs off to his next victim, her distracted mate, chuckling. Bella catches Renesmee as she drops to the ground, trying to hold her daughter's chest together.
"You're fine, you're fine," Bella repeats. She doesn't know who she's trying to convince: Renesmee or herself. She lost her son Jake, she wasn't gonna lose her daughter too.
"I love you, Mom, always. Go. Fight with Dad. I'm gonna be fine. I'm going to be with Jake," Renesmee says, tearing up. She raises her hand over her mom's cheek and stares, smiling at the last sight she sees before her hand drops and her eyes glaze over.
Bella heard her final exhale and wailed, her chest burning a fire so fierce; the sound only a mother who lost her only child could make. Studying the field, she mourns the burning dead bodies of the Quileute tribe and her coven.
Bella gets up abruptly and runs to her mate, whose arms and legs have been torn off. She silently thanks the grey wolf who threw Gage out of the way. She slid under Henry and Gage, going between her mate and the wolf, building a dome-like shield around them.
"You're okay, just let me. Let me put you together. It's only Gage and Henry left. We could– could do this. We have Paul. He's the best fighter, you know this," turning towards Paul in desperation, Bella realized he was looking across the field to a stack of burning bodies. Twisting his head towards her, he nodded.
Thuds made them jump as they saw Gage and Henry trying to tear down the shield.
"Love, look at me," Bella turns towards Edward, "Run." He whispers. Bella is shaking her head vehemently.
"You have to. I am only going to hold you back. You and Paul run and save yourselves. Bella, don't shake your head. You know you would want me to do the same. Please. Bella, look at me." Bella looks at him with tears in her eyes and sees the determination and love in his, she knows she wasn't going to convince him to come with them.
"I love you," Bella whispers giving him one final kiss, preparing to run.
"You are my life," Edward replies. She sobs harder, her entire body shaking as she looks away from her love.
Locking eyes with Paul, who crouches into a running stance, he nods again. With the last of her power, she projects the shield onto Henry and Gage throwing them onto the ground and trapping them. Bella and Paul run into the forest, leaving behind everyone and everything they've ever loved.
Meanwhile, Paul is having a similar flashback of having to transform for the first time in 10 years since retiring.
He smelled them before he heard the screams. Running outside, he turns to his wife, "Rachel! Grab Ahyoka and run!" Paul says. Shielding himself from the fire blazing a couple of feet away.
He turns away only to be thrown into the tree next to his house. The back of his head hits the tree, stars burst in his eyes as he falls and blacks out for a few minutes. Hearing a muffled scream, he gets up from the ground grabbing his head from the searing pain. The screaming becomes clearer, and noisier, making him clutch his head even more. Soon, his vision and hearing clear.
Looking up, he sees Rachel on the ground, crying pleadingly to a vampire who smirks and grabs his daughter's heart straight out of her chest. He didn't think twice before phasing, running to the vampire. The vampire, to edge him on, grabs Rachel's head and bends it, the crack signaling her end. The vampire drops the body next to his other victim.
Paul reaches the vampire grabs his leg and attempts to remove it. A fight starts, with both opponents fighting to their last breath. Paul finally gets an advantage when the vampire suddenly turns away and screams "Petra!" Paul throws the vampire down, managing to remove a leg before the vampire escapes. Paul searches around the reservation looking for the vampire.
Taking in the horrible massacre that happened: the smell of blood, rotting bodies, and burning flesh burned his nostrils. The sound of ripping marble pulls him out of his despair as he sees Edward's body being torn apart. If he can't save his family, he sure as hell will save someone else's.
Bella's dry sobs pull him out of his grief as he lifts his head towards her. He stands up in a ready stance. We have to go if we want to live. He didn't want to. He wanted to die but his promise to Rachel echoes in his head. I will honor your promise, Honey.
Bella gets up from against the tree and wipes her hands on her clothes. Her hair was full of blood and grass. Clothes torn and filled with blood and dirt. She looked at Paul, who was practically unrecognizable because of all of the leaves, dirt, and blood on him. The sheer horror of the massacre that they experienced was evident on them.
She nods and they both, once again, run as fast as they can. Her shield was at the edge of her range meaning Gage and Henry could soon free themselves and track them.
They reach the field and Bella stops suddenly halfway through it. Paul, realizing this, turns to her and beckons her to move again.
"Paul, feel the ground, it feels different," She looks to the ground and curls her feet.
"Paul, come here. No just trust me please, come here and tell me what you feel," Bella says, feeling around with her feet. Paul impatiently goes to appease her and stops abruptly.
"Exactly, there's nothing underneath here. I don't know how but it's like there's no Earth underneath—"
The ground opens up dropping Bella and Paul into a black tunnel. Bella and Paul desperately attempt to grab anything that might stop them from falling. Looking down, Bella sees a light growing bigger and bigger. With a loud thud, both of them fall to a metal floor. Bella breaks the fall and Paul falls on top of her. Rolling off of Bella, Paul phases and groans. He covers his eyes with his hands and moves his head away from the blinding light. The tunnel closes and they hear rumbling for a few seconds before it stops. Bella gets up to look around.
This… shelter from what it looks like, isn't like anything she's ever seen. They appear to be in a storage room: filled with canned food, medical supplies, clothes— basically, everything needed to build a doomsday shelter.
Hearing a system alert, they turn towards the round modified smoke alarm, where the button named "listening" is red. Hearing footsteps come out of the alarm, both of them freeze, holding their breaths.
"Where did they go?" Bella hears Gage say faintly, "Their scents stop here," Henry mumbles too quietly for Bella and Paul to hear. The two vampires run away, their footsteps becoming fainter and fainter until they can't hear it anymore.
Releasing relieved sighs, they stood there and asked themselves the same question, How did they not notice the complete lack of Earth like we did?
They began to look around at their surroundings once again. Paul looks for clothes, while Bella carefully takes a step out into the hallway. Hearing the TV on a couple of feet away, she stops, holding a hand out to Paul to stop his movements. Paul, wearing sweats he found in a dresser in one of the rooms and looking around the shelter in confusion, notices Bella's warning towards him and stops. He hears the TV and goes to Bella's side. Turning their heads to each other, Bella motions towards the sound in question. Breaking the glass and grabbing the hatchet next to the fire extinguisher, he starts forward cautiously with Bella walking beside him.
They walk towards the sound of the TV, entering a high-tech living room with a state-of-the-art computer by the far corner of the room. In front of it, a ton of surveillance screens that give a view of the field. On the other corner was a decent-sized bookshelf with books neatly organized by genre. A metal circular chair next to it, with feathery cushions. The walls were metal, as was the floor. In the center of the room, straight ahead was a static TV.
Moving closer, Bella sees a CD on the computer desk with the title Play Me. She puts it on the computer and plays it. Both of them move towards the TV as the screen changes. On the screen was a man they had never seen before, around late 40s to early 50s. The screen had the date and time in the top corner. This video was made a little over 10 years ago.
Video
The man in the video wiped his glasses, sighing at the same time. He looked like he had the burden of the world on his shoulders. Putting on his glasses, he looked directly into the camera, his blue eyes teary from exhaustion, "It is currently November 3rd, 2021, approximately 10:17 pm. I finished the mission that my daughter entrusted me with. This is my last day here in this god-forsaken place." He says gesturing around to the shelter.
"Why would you build a shelter if you have no intention of ever using it?" Bella questions, turning towards Paul. Paul shook his head, looking as confused as she did. Both of their heads snap up in shock as the next sentence floods their ears:
"If you're watching this, then my daughter sensed your doom and saved you, vampire and wolf."