Collin sat on a high rock, over looking the barren landscape. Behind him, his friends slept peacefully. The sky was pink with hazy purple clouds stretched along the horizon. Collin gazed out at them, lost in thought. A slight rumbling make him blink and come out of his daze. Squinting at the horizon Collin cocked his head and frowned. He slowly pulled back from the rock and slid down to the bottom to his friends. He looked about silently until he found Demus’ bag. He rummaged through it until he found the keypad and proceeded to go to work on it. He frowned as it made little beeping noises as he scrolled through options on the screen. The wanderer lifted her head and blinked sleepily.

“Hey Collin.” She said softly.

“Hey.” He answered. She sat up and looked over at him.

“Wha’cha doing anyway?” she asked curiously. Collin sighed as he reached the final page and scrolled down.

“Checking something…” he muttered. “These skies don’t look too good.”

“Hm? What are you talking about?” the wanderer asked. By now Tella and Demus had awakened and were sitting up. They muttered good mornings and looked over at Collin.

“The skies shouldn’t be clear in the wastelands…” Collins said, “They never are… except right before a storm.”

“A storm?” Tella asked. Collin nodded.

“I’m checking weather reports for this area but… It’s hard to find.”

“What does it matter, if it storms?” the wanderer asked.

“It matters a great deal wanderer.” Collin said. “Storms around here aren’t your average thunder storm. You see this land has no trees or anything? It’s not just the chemicals. The storms here make that one we had back at the Arean base look like a drizzle. Most storms average a few tornadoes, with almost constant lightening, and pounding rain…” he sighed. “Ah! Here we go.” He said studying the screen. The other drew up around him, peering over his shoulder. Collin cursed.

“We’ve got one… Coming from the west…” he groaned. “See it?”

“That’s a storm?” Tella asked unbelieving.

“That’s… nearly half the size of Hailia…” Demus gasped.

“A little of it will dissipate, but what it loses in size, it will gain in strength.” Collin said. “No one survives storms out here. We need to move. It will be here by noon, if not sooner.”

“What do we do about Will?” Tella asked, glancing over at him. “He’s still out…”

“We’ll have to carry him.” Demus said.

“That’s going to slow us down…” Collin groaned.

“It’s not like there’s any place we can go,” Tella said. “We’ve still got a long ways to go before we get out of these wastelands.”

“Yeah.” Collin said wearily.

“Well, let’s go.” Demus said grabbing his bags.

 

They walked as quickly as they could. As the hours passed the sky grew darker and darker until by eleven o’clock it could have been night. The wind had picked up and thing were not looking good.

Will had been tied to Demus’ back, where he had slumped over, still unconscious. Collin paused by a rock shelf and looked out over the barren wasteland.

“We’re dead.” He choked. “We can’t go any farther… There’s nothing!”

“Hey stop that! Come on!” Tella shouted, “We’re going on alright! Hey wanderer, light your staff so we can see.” The wanderer fidgeted and pulled out her staff.

“I hope this works…” she said and squeezed her eyes shut. The end of the staff lit, putting out a golden glow.

“If we aren’t already enough of a beacon…” Collin said, though in truth he was just as glad for the lit as everyone else.

 

 

Fairien had been watching the storm with growing anxiety. This was just a little too big for him to handle alone, in his present state. He sighed and decided to look in on his traveling bunch of mortals, as Azrael has called them. As he did he was surprised to see Will still unconscious. He frowned and moved off, to join Will.

Will lay there, still sleeping. Fairien gritted his teeth in annoyance. He had trusted that Will would have woken up on his own, but apparently not.

“Will!” he shouted Will jumped, making a loud groaning noise.

“Mpph…” he muttered. “Leemealone…”

“Will! Get up!” Fairien shouted. “What are you doing!” Will opened his eyes and turned to see Fairien glaring down at him.

“What?” he asked sitting up.

“It’s way past morning,” Fairien said, “You’re friends are having to carry you, and not only that, their in great danger because of a freakishly large storm and your slowing them down!”

“Okay okay!” Will said. “I’m sorry. But you should have woken me up!”

“Me?” Fairien shouted, “I- ug! I’m not arguing with you. Wake up!”

“I don’t know how to do that!” Will shouted back. Fairien growled in impatient and lunged forward. Will flinched back, wondering if Fairien was going to hit him. However, all Fairien did was touch his forehead and then…

Will blinked, finding himself suddenly very heavy. He straitened up, realizing that he had been slouching a great deal, and felt his back pop.

“Are you awake?” a voice asked. Will made an unintelligible noise, not sure if he was awake or not. Everything was still pretty dark… except there was a really bright golden thing…

“Hey Will.” Tella said looking over at him. Will blinked again, everything coming clearer to him.

“Hey…” he said groggily. “Mm, what’s going on? And…” he frowned, squirming, “Why am I tied up?”

“Because we had to carry you somehow.” Demus said turning his head.

“Ehg…” Will flinched, realizing he was tied to Demus’ back.

“S-Sorry…” he said. Demus nodded, untying the knots and let Will fall to the ground. Will rolled his neck around trying to get the kinks out while observing what was going on.

“Why’s it so dark?” he asked. “I didn’t sleep through the day did I?” the others paused looking down.

“It’s a storm.” Collin said.

“A… Storm?” Will asked.

“A really bad storm.” The wanderer said. “It-” she started but was interrupted by a flash of white light and a deafening roar. They all gasped, crouching back.

“Wanderer!” Will shouted, his voice high and frightened, “Get that staff down! You’ll draw the lightening!”

“What?! O-Okay…”the wanderer stuttered, pulling her staff back and putting it away.

“What are we going to do?” Tella asked softly. More thunder rumbled in the distance, making her shudder.

“E-Everything is flat around here…” Will said.

“And we’re the tallest things so…” Demus began. A drop landed on Tella’s shoulder. They all watched as the dust around them jumped, here and there… Then it danced wildly as the rain began to pound down and more thunder rumbled.

“We have to move!” Collin shouted over the rain.

“Where?! There’s no where to go!” Tella shouted back. The wanderer suppressed a shiver as she squinted through the rain, looking out into the darkness. As she watched she saw a very strange sight. One small light lit, out in the distance, then another and another.

“Over there, look!” the wanderer shouted. “See those lights?” the others turned, and by now, with so many lights it was impossible to miss.

“Providence seems to be with us.” Demus said. “Come on!”

“No way!” Tella shouted. “This is Area! Anyone we meet here will kill us!”

“But we can’t stay out here!” Collin protested.

“Come on Tella,” Will said looking up at the sky, “If we stay out here we face certain death, if we go there we face almost certain death. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather face almost certain death.”

“Will…” she glared at him.

“Come on! At least let’s check it out.” He said shrugging.

“Yes. We’ll look in first.” Collin said as they began running toward the lights. After running a few minutes, they could see that the lights came from a group of huge buildings. Collin looked up at them in confusion.

“What is this Collin?” the wanderer asked. Collin shook his head.

“I have no idea.” He said. “There should be anything this far out. Especially something this big…”

“Look!” Tella said stopping them. “Someone’s out there!” they stopped and got down low to the ground, inching forward to try and see what was going on. The lone figure stood out against the building side seemingly working on some kind of post in the ground.

                “They won’t be able to see us out here in the dark… Their eyes will be to use to the light.” Demus whispered. They huddled behind a clump of dried out bushes and peered out at the person working. They could see now that it was a female, dressed in a long white coat. Collin squinted and moved forward, making the brittle bushes shake and crackle.

                “Collin!” Tella hissed. But Collin paid her no attention. He gasped softly muttering,

                “I don’t believe it…” then before any of them could stop him, he stood up and ran forward shouting,

                “Abbey! Ms. Abbey!” The woman jerked her head up and stared at Collin with wide-eyed severity. She had short blond hair and thinly framed glasses, which only served to increase her severe expression.

                “Collin?” she gasp. Collin smiled and stepped forward.

                “I-” he began but cut off, realizing his friends had stood up behind him. Abbey’s eyes widened upon seeing them. They all stood in complete silence, staring at each other, fearfully.

                “Abbey…” Collin began. She jerked back toward the door and looked at them.

                “Come here! Hurry! All of you! Inside! Now!” she said, keeping her voice low. Collin looked back at his friends who stared at Abbey hesitantly.

                “Come on!” she said raising her voice a bit, “Get in now or I can’t help you!”

                “Let’s go.” Will said.

                “No! We-” Tella started.

                “Let’s go.” Demus said pushing them forward.

                “But!” Tella squeaked.

                “Hurry!” the woman said as they entered the door. “Come with me.” She walked quickly down a long dark hallway, ushering them along into a room filled with lab equipment. They all stared, wide eyed at the shiny things on each table.

                “In here.” She called, opening a door in the back. She switched on the lights as they entered and closed the door behind them. It was a small room, with five or six cots piled around its walls. They sat down on the cots and looked up at Abbey who stood at the door.

                “Oh,” she said and took out a small black device with an antenna. Tella gasped, realizing it was a communicator. Abbey flipped the switch on and spoke into it.

                “Quad Four Secure. Wall up. Over.” She said. The device crackled and a young voice spoke back.

                “Affirmative. We’re reading it here. Over and out.” Abbey nodded and flipped the switch off, putting the communicator back in her coat.

                “Abbey…” Collin said.

                “Collin!” she shouted. “What you did just now was very dangerous! You could have gotten yourself killed and your friends too! Don’t you ever do anything like that again!” Collin blinked and nodded. She turned to them and smiled apologetically.

                “So I suppose you would be the outlaws that Collin is supposedly traveling with?” she asked.

                “How did you know about that?” Collin asked.

                “It’s in the news.” She said. Collin froze and looked down.

                “Abbey… Please understand…I didn’t do it.” He said softly.

                “Collin! I know that!” she said glaring at him. Then she stopped, pausing and caught her breath, “… But Bran is dead then?” Collin nodded. The others sat in awkward silence.

                “Umm… Who are you?” Tella asked, changing the subject. Abbey paused a moment, looking at her.

                “I’m Abbey Winters… I’m… A friend of Collin and Bran’s from way back.” she said.

                “Abbey, what is this place?” Collin asked. She smiled and pushed her glasses up.

                “Well, it’s a top secret lab of course.” She said. “Which, I happen to be in charge of.”

                “Really?” Will asked. “You’re in charge? And you’re not going to tell everyone we’re here?” Abbey nodded and sighed.

                “No, I won’t tell anyone you’re all here but you have to leave as soon as this storm is over.”

                “Of course.” The wanderer said.

                “Now, I won’t ask you anything about what you’re doing but,” she paused, “… Well, never mind.” She rose and moved to the door, “I have to get back to my students, or they’ll start wondering where I’ve gotten off to.” She said. “Please stay in this room and don’t talk loudly. This wing of the building is merely for storage and no one comes down here… so you should be safe… I’ll be back in a few hours…” she slipped outside and closed the door.

                “You think she’ll tell?” Tella asked.

                “No!” Collin said.

                “Oh come on Collin! How can you be sure?” Tella asked. “She’s a higher up Area obviously, she runs this place. Of course she’ll tell. Someone that high up wouldn’t risk losing everything just to help us!” Collin made a face at her ad gritted his teeth.

                “You don’t understand.” He said. “She… She wasn’t just a friend of my master’s...”

                “What do you mean?” Demus asked.

                “They… Well… Abbey was… going to be my mom.” Collin said softly. “My master, Bran Wilhelm, adopted me when I was about three… He and Abbey were going to get married… Back when we all lived in Avrai.”

                “So… something didn’t work out between them?” Tella asked. Collin paused a moment then shook his head.

                “It wasn’t them.” He said softly. “It was me… We… We had to leave… we had to go to Betamy… and Abbey couldn’t come.”

                “What? Why’d you leave?” Will asked. Collin shook his head.

                “We just had to.”

 

 

They sat in that small room brooding for a few hours. It was incredibly boring, but at least they were out of the storm. Most of them lay down and slept, if they could. Tella sighed and opened her eyes, realizing that she couldn’t just doze off, like the wanderer and Will. Will… She had forgotten about him. She reached down, shaking him awake. He opened his eyes and lightly glared at her.

                “Umph? Whadda want?” he grumbled.

                “Will, care to tell us what happened yesterday with Mahito?” she asked. Will blinked, the color slowly draining from his face.

                Oh no. Not this… I knew it was coming… he thought. The others were looking at him now too, curiously and even… Will bit his lip, seeing a shadow of fear in their eyes.

                Their remembering. Up until now, survival had taken priority and they hadn’t asked questions… But now, they’ve remembered what I’ve done… Will shivered under their eyes and looked away.

                “Will…?” the wanderer asked.

                Fairien, what do I say? Will asked.

“Will…”

                “I can’t tell you.” Will said softly. “I’m sorry.”

                “You’re sorry?!” Tella said frowning, “Come on, we can’t just ignore this.”

                “I know.” He said. “But you’re going to have to trust me.”

                “Will… We do trust you…” Demus said, “But… What we saw was a bit… odd… and… we need an explanation.”

                “We’re in Area now.” Tella said, “One false move and we’re dead. If this… ‘something’ affects this mission, which it does, we clearly saw that, then it is very much our business.” Will swallowed hard and pulled his knees up to his chin, looking up at them fearfully through his bangs.

                “I’m sorry.” He said softly. They watched him with hurt expressions then looked away. The room returned to silence, but now it was much more awkward. Will sighed softly and lay down again.

                Well that didn’t go well. Will thought gloomily.

                I know… Fairien said softly to him. Will shivered as he felt warmth spread through him. Thank you… Fairien whispered. I’m sorry…

                Will froze as he felt someone touch the top of his head, ruffling his hair. He looked up to see the wanderer looking down at him. She smiled slightly.

                “Hey, cheer up.” She said, “It’s okay. Whatever’s going on, it saved us. So, thanks.” Will looked up at her dazed at her words for a moment, then smiled in return.

                “Yeah, we can’t really deny that.” Tella said shrugging.

                “Yes. Just be careful Will.” Demus said.

                “I’m very grateful that you were able to do what you did... otherwise… who knows…” Collin said smiling.

                “Thank you.” Will said, “I’m sorry… I just…”

                “Hey, shut up! We told you it’s alright.” Tella said. Will smiled gratefully at them and lay back down to sleep a bit more.

                … You have good friends. Fairien said softly. Will smiled and closed his eyes.

                Yes I do.