Sunday, March 18th, 2029

JOHN

I am sitting in darkness. There is nothing around me but the solitude where my mind was thrown away. It has been dark for as long as I can remember and as long as I will remember. I see a spark in the darkness above me, the slightest amounts of illumination. I look at it in wonder as it ignites, letting off light like a sparkler. An older man’s face emits from the light—cloudy gray eyes emanating. There is a look of wonder on his face.

“Jonathan, is that you?”

“What’s the deal with everyone calling me Jonathan? It’s just John. And who are you, one of his figments of my imagination?”

“I’m so sorry. I’ve been such a terrible dad.” The anger inside me suddenly dissipates. The light lowers to the ground beside me, the light continues to fill the rest of his body in, and then leaves him sitting there.

“What do you mean…Dad? My parents are dead, killed by Micah.”

I look into his eyes, his mirror my own, his hair kept short and dark.“I…I…those weren’t my real parents.” I realize all at once. “You...”

“I am so sorry, John. I never meant for you to become involved in this. I see what you’ve been through and realize my judgment has been misguided. I had thought that Peter and Tonya would take care of you, I had believed they’d give you everything you’d need.”

“What do you mean…you saw what I went through?”

“I’m dead, John. An accident borne from grief, but it happened nonetheless. But now I can be here for you to tell you that no matter what has happened I have always loved you.”

“It is kind of a little late for that,” I say.

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness, I know this. I know you’ve been through so much without me around, and I cannot apologize for it enough, I thought I was keeping you safe by getting you away from him.”

“In the end it didn’t really matter, huh?”

“I’d say it did. You met with Sarah, managed to find the other people who were fighting the very same battle you’re fighting. They’re all good people, and they’re coming to stop Jack’s madness.”

“Does he know you’re here?”

“He knows, but he can’t interfere. I put the equivalent of a soundproof barrier around us, we’re free of his talking for now.”

“Is there anything you can do? About what he’s going to, I mean.”

“I can’t alter anything in the physical world because I am no longer a part of it. The only reason I have influence here is because you are locked away deep in your subconscious now.”

“Are they okay? Coming here, are they okay?”

“Gavin and Lindsey are down. Gavin was able to kill Micah, but he couldn’t save himself. Though…We do seem to handle death differently now that our DNA has been changed. Like, I’ve been able to visit Sarah in a dream she had because of our mutated DNA, the links we’d been coded into our system. Maybe there’s something else for Gavin’s mind? I don’t really know.”

“My real mother, what was she like?”

“She was kind...loving. She was strong, and all of her best qualities shine through in you.”

I stare at him—the man who gave me life. I can’t help it, I want to be mad at him, I want to be angry that he never cared enough to come back for me…but I can’t. Throughout it all it finally starts to make sense. I can make sense of where I came from.

“What can you help with?”

He smiles. “I can help your willpower.”

“What'll that do?” I ask.

“You can win this fight.”

ANDY

The center of the peninsula is approaching. It is a large circular bit of land that sticks out into the Salton Sea…or as it is called now, The Acheron. The Acheron had been a river that flowed through the underworld in Greek myth, I suppose that it is only fitting our journey ends here. I feel like we're entering Hell. The van slows to a stop, Jake stands up, he nearly topples over. “Are you sure you’re okay enough to be walking?” I ask.

“I haven’t been on the drugs they were using me to keep me alive in a while, so I’m going to be a little disorientated, but I’m good.”

“Disorientation can mean the difference between life and death in a fight.”

In the next second I see the ceiling of the van begin drooping as if some invisible force was yanking it down. Jake has to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed.

“What the hell is this?!” Iris screams.

“Jack, it must be Jack. We have to get out of this thing now!” I say.

Jen kicks open the back door and slides out of the van, rolling onto the ground. I have to worm around the ceiling which had disproportionately caved into the floor of the van. I run and jump out of the back, Sarah and Iris are next. Jake swipes the duffel bags on the way out and slides out of the van.

In another instant the van collapses completely on itself. The metal grinds upon itself and it is so overbearing I have to put my hands over my ears. The van explodes, sending debris and scrap metal flying into the air. Behind the remnants of the van among the fallen Statue of Liberty I see a single figure standing, staring out towards us. I need no introduction to know who it is standing there. I begin sprinting towards him, the man behind all of our problems. I’m running faster and I’m about to cross into the circular jut of the peninsula, but as soon as I do I slam hard into a wall, completely invisible to the naked eye.

“Hey! What the hell! Open this up you coward!” I hear footsteps behind me, I realize it is the others catching up. John stands out at the center, a dark look in his eyes. He is smiling out towards us about fifty feet away. Beside him I can see the broken remnants of the Statue of Liberty up close.

“Why, hello Andrew, it’s good to see you again. The gang is all here.”

“Let this fucking wall down so I can rip you to shreds!” I yell, pounding on it.

“My, there isn’t any need to be antsy. The barrier before you is only a testament to my new power, what can be achieved once we are pushed to our limits. I have made an exception, I made it impossible for any but those with my blood to enter. And, if I’m recalling right, there are two of you here,” he says, scowling.

I look to Sarah and Jen, they seem to be looking at each other.

“I had to code it so my blood could enter and exit, or else I’d be here forever! Of course, that would mean that you two, my blood-spawn can freely enter between.”

“And you’re telling us…why?” Sarah asks.

“How else would I get to have a reunion with my girls?” He smiles softly.

“If we come in there, we are fully prepared to do everything in our power to kill you,” Jen says.

He smirks. “I expect nothing less. You are born of me, after all.”

SARAH

“The world plan my father left me coincidentally drops off here. I think he wanted these events to be a surprise—or maybe he couldn’t bare to tell me the truth of what would happen. So, I figure we shall find out ourselves. We’ll truly see here who’s will is stronger.”

“You’re leaving this up to chance?” I ask.

“I only have one chance at this good-bye, and if it were lackluster I would regret it for the rest of my days. In the end nobody wants to be disappointed.” I look to Jen and she looks back to me. We both walk across into the encircled area. Jack smiles and lifts up his arms. “And I’m surely not—not with you both here,” he grins.

“You are no father of mine, my family is here, everyone here but you,” Jen says.

“I’ve had enough talking, now it is time to decide who is-”

I don’t wait another moment. I hold up the pistol and feel the world around me slow down. I line up my line of sight and hesitate slightly. I see John’s face with a look of surprise, but I remember what is at stake. I pull the trigger and close my eyes. A few seconds later I open them, expecting to see John’s body on the ground, but instead I see him in the same pose as before, but now the bullet is floating right before his eye, unmoving.

“How…” I begin.

“I have the power of a god,” He says smiling. As he does the bullet falls to the ground.

“You aren’t a god, you are only a weak man who has to hide away inside the body of a teenager to feel safe,” Jen says, stepping up. She’s thrown off her feet against one of the piles of rubble.

“You will know your place!” He yells. She then flies upward, grasping at her throat. I take the opportunity to fire another bullet. Jack drops Jen and looks right to me as he catches it in midair. “You are so predictable. Playing the same tricks isn’t going to work, dear,” He says with a terrible emphasis. I recognize he's speaking through John's voice now. “Oh, what, Sarah? Too afraid to hit me now that I'm sounding just like him?” His eyes shift upwards slightly and I see the bullet begin flying in the opposite direction. I jump out of the way, it just narrowly misses its mark. I land hard on my stomach, the gun slides out of my hands. I rush to grab it, but I see it shake and then fly off of the ground. I turn to see it fly straight into Jack’s hand.

“Now you will realize the error of your mistakes,” He says, walking towards me, the gun aimed straight at my face. There's a loud smashing sound as I hear what sounds like glass breaking and I see the burning remains of the van land right between Jack and me. I turn around to see Andy rushing in, a chunk of the metal in his hands that he molded into some makeshift sword.

“Your barrier's weaker than I expected, Jack!” he calls out, running and jumping to the side of the burning mess.

I stand up as he continues past the van out of my field of view. I pick up a gun that fell out of Jen's satchel as she flew back and run around the mess as well.

There's a loud crack that sounds out as I catch up with the fight. I see Jack double over in pain. I turn to see Jen, kneeling on one knee with a large revolver in her hands. She must have had another with her. She’s breathing heavily, and she must’ve shot him. I look towards him, and he’s smiling, laughing even.

“What now?” I call out, standing up.

He bends over laughing, I can see the blood run down his side, he puts his right hand over the bullet wound and a green light emits from his hand. Jen doesn’t waste any more time and shoots him some more, three bullets, two of which hit their mark. Andy catches up to him and pushes him back with his telekinesis. The bullets reach and catch in his right shoulder and the other hits him in the gut. He laughs as the light keeps flowing out of his hand. He doesn't seem phased by any of it. “You don’t understand, your bullets mean nothing to me. Any wound you make I can stitch back up as good as new,” He says, laughing even harder.

The first bullet falls out of his body and I can see the wound closing up. He places his hand over the wound in his shoulder and it does the same. “Is…this it?” Jen asks, lowering the gun, a scared look in her eye.

Jack finishes healing the last wound and then turns to Andy, “And you, my old friend, do not scare me with your new tricks.” He looks towards the van, to which I can see the fire rising out from the mess and it sprays outward. Andy raises his arm instinctively to block the flames, some of them reach his arm before being blocked away. He then grabs a hold of Andy and lifts him into the air, then looking over to Jen and doing the same. They're both in the air and can't move. “Oh, how little chance you actually stood,” he says. “Jay isn't here to save you now.”

I look back, Jake is helping Iris get to safety. It's good he's helping her get safe, but at the same time now it's just him facing me.

“Ah, now we have some time alone, my dear,” Jack says.

“I saw your father, Friedrich.” I say.

“Then that means you know entirely too much. Shame you weren't Megan, or else I might have let you live,” he cocks the pistol in his outstretched arm, “This is the end of your story.”

I close my eyes and wait for the gun to fire. Seconds pass, nothing happens. Hesitantly I open my eyes. I see Jack standing before me with the barrel of the gun hanging right in front of my eyes. I don’t even dare breathe, but I also see that his hand, Jack’s hand is twitching. I look up and notice he has a look of aggravation on his face, like he’s gritting his teeth. His whole body then begins to tremble and he looks down, I can see his lips quiver as if he wants to say something.

“…S…Sarah,” he says. It's in John's voice, but it isn't in Jack's harsh inflections, it’s a tone I only know that comes from one person.

“John?! Are you in there?” I ask.

He looks up to me, he’s breathing heavily and his expression is gaunt.

“You…you need to continue your art.”

“John?”

“Continue your art, Sarah. Please, I wish…to see more of it.”

He then struggles with his arm, but then he manages to turn the gun on himself, and I know what he’s planning to do.

John shakes his head, but it is Jack that answers, “No! No, this will not end with you! You are nothing! You are weak and insignif-” He begins shaking some more, I can see that his hand is shaking violently. It begins glowing with a weird light, not unlike the light that healed his wounds.

“Sarah...this future...save it.”

His eyes go wide, he stands there with the gun pointed at himself. His mouth hangs open and he looks as if he were studying everything in front of him, if he’s even here now.

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“I...I understand,” he says, but I'm not so sure it's John.

“What do you mean? John, is that you?” I ask, standing once more.

“I see…that this…is necessary, for the birth of a new era. For complete...”

“John? Jack?”

He pulls the gun close and aims it just before his throat and pulls the trigger. Time slows to a near halt. The gun is overcharged with the light from his hand, the bullet looks entirely like a tiny sun as it exits the chamber. The bullet flies up through his jaw and exits through his skull, a horribly beautiful display of blood and the multicolored liquid sprays out from the single shot. I’m screaming as his body falls to the ground and crumples like a ragdoll. Andy and Jen fall to the ground beside him. There’s a terrible silence as the air escapes my lungs like a vacuum.

John’s body erupts into a brilliant crimson light—but then I realize that his body is succumbing to the Radical-9—he’s exploding, but somehow—someway he’s containing it within himself. He screams before melting and reforming as a solid sphere—the multicolored Radical-9 swirling around inside like a viscous thunderstorm.

Everything is quiet.

ANDY

The second John’s body dissipates I fall over, my arm burns from the fire he hurled at me. Sarah is in hysterics, she has tears running down her face and she can’t seem to get her words out. Iris and Jake go to look at Jen, who seems to be bruised but otherwise okay. I walk over to Sarah.

“JOHHNNNNN!!” She breaks down, falling to her knees, cradling the sphere in her hands. It’s a sound of pure despair.

I think she’s letting herself feel everything, now. I kneel down beside her. “It’s over...he’s just like you said—out of pain.”

She slowly nods, “I...I still am.”

I let out a deep sigh and place a hand on the sphere, “Yeah, I know. Me too.”

There’s a strange feeling coming from the sphere, and I know that she feels it too because we both look up the second it appears. It’s almost like it’s...

“Pulsing...” Sarah says, “Almost like a heartbeat...”

We remove our hands from it and see that in pace with the feeling from our chests the sphere flashes white—each beat flashed.

“What...”

“I think this is the remains of the explosion—solidified out of John’s will to keep us safe. There was enough Radical-9 in his body to level this half of the country—seeing it in a physical form is...daunting.” I say.

“Should we destroy it?” She asks.

“I don’t think we can—without letting all that energy out at once—I can’t think of anywhere that would be safe to set it off and be okay—not to mention the Radical-9 fallout that would occur afterward.”

“So we protect it, then?” She asks.

“I think so. We can’t let anything like this happen again.”

Sarah sighs, “John’s up there with his family now.” She says.

“Jack too. I do think that the Jack who signed up to be a part of the Prometheans was somewhere locked away—kind of how John was. The Radical-9 really messed with him—I’d like to think that he’s got some way of realizing his mistakes up there and reconnecting with his family.”

“I don’t think I could ever see him as my father,” She says.

“That’s fair, I don’t think I could either. But he had a life before Radical-9—family he loved before he succumbed. I’d like to think that they’d miss him.”

“Well, he can try, but the important thing is his stupid goals were stopped.” She stands, holding the sphere in the both of her hands, turning to the others who had been talking among themselves by the ruined van.

“Oh, and Sarah?” I ask. “You should also do what John asked—keep up with your art,” I say.

She nods and sniffs a bit, wiping her nose, “Every day, I’m going to work on something every day for him to see from above.”

“That’s the spirit.”

She let’s go and Iris walks over, pulling her into a hug. I let them be and I walk over to Jen who’s in a similar motion with Jake.

“I’m so glad that you’re safe.” I say. “I can’t believe he ushered you into the final battle and not me.”

She opens her eyes and smiles. “You’re the one who always called me the fighter. We’re not in Elysium any longer, dude. Remember that,” she winks. She lets go of Jake and nods at him, then pulls me tight into a hug that almost sends me off my balance.

“It’s over,” I say. “It’s really over.”

“I’m so sorry about what happened to Lindsey, I wanted to say it earlier but I didn’t want to bring it up right before all of this,” she says.

“And Jay, and Gavin, and now John. All of them lost to this...” I turn back to Sarah, fixated on the glowing pulse of the sphere. “And it all leads up to that.”

She follows my gaze, “Do you think it’s really over?”

“With Jack? Yes. I don’t see how he’s coming back from that...”

“But...?”

“I don’t like that thing. I don’t like that it could blow at any second without warning or anything. I don’t think we’re truly done until we find a way to make sure it’s safe—or find a way to destroy it without releasing the energy inside.”

She nods, rubbing her chin. “Looks like we’ll have to do some research of our own.”

“That might need to take a backseat—our country is really sort of in a pickle now. Especially now that there’s nobody left to give orders,” I hear Sarah behind me.

I turn to face her, “What do you mean?”

She cocks her head to the right and I see half a torso sticking out from underneath a large section of debris on the other side of the land.

“Is that…President Avery?” I ask.

Jake walks up behind me and nods, “It is. Jack didn't give two shits it seems.”

“Now look at him, crushed for his beliefs,” Iris says, holding herself tight.

“So, what do we do now? We have no leads.”

“We move,” I begin. “We search for whatever we need to find, and we find it. We travel the country, we get these people who are rioting and we stop it.”

“Are you sure we can do that? We’re just only a few people,” Iris asks.

“I think...I think I know what our next move is,” Sarah says. “Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to be good news.”

“What do you mean?”

“There's one thread in all of this that has been held tight behind the scenes—one we’ve been avoiding even when it’s been in plain sight—England’s influence.”

“W-What?” Andy asks.

“It’s not a coincidence that President Avery—an English Official—was second in command in this whole thing.”

“Or even Hal Valhart,” I say, remembering the things Gavin told me about the ex-president. “You think England’s in on it all?”

“Last night I had a dream,” Sarah says, “I saw my grandfather doing all these terrible experiments on people in Germany after World War II. I believe they were the first Radical-9 tests done in history—all the subjects died except for one.”

“Really? I’ve...never heard anything about this,” Jen says.

“It was a girl—early twenties she looked like. Her name was Sonja Von Kleist. My grandfather turned her into the world’s first automaton—she was like Gavin. My grandfather was executed for his crimes in 1999—but Sonja was never found.”

“That’s crazy—do you think she’s out there somewhere?” I ask.

“I...I’m betting on it. I don’t think this is truly over until we stop her. It’s likely she escaped to England and gotten herself to a position of power.”

“You can't seriously be suggesting that we take on an entire country?” Jake asks, “No offense, but we’re not organized fighters or vigilantes. We barely made it out of this terrible situation alive.”

She takes a breath, clutching the sphere closer to her chest. “Not right now, no. We're much too small in number, you’re right on that end, but something needs to be done. We need to reunite this place, this country,” she says.

“There needs to be a revolution,” I say, looking up to her.

I hear a voice in my mind echo. I instantly flash back to my time in Elysium with Lindsey. We’re facing each other in that small bed where we shared our dreams with each other.

“What if...we don’t go back?” She asked me.

“What?”

“If I stay in here I don't have to be in the same world as my father, I don't have to be scared anymore,” she said.

“You could die in here.”

“People die out there all of the time! At least in here there's no blood and no mess.”

“I’m afraid I can’t abide by that. I can't sit around and pretend like everything is okay here, there are hundreds of players in here that want to get out.”

“You know that things will never be right out there, right, with how the country is fucked?”

“Things can get better, they will get better,” I said.

“How are you so certain?”

I look back into her eyes, I caressed my hand against her cheek. “Do you remember in the old cartoons where they'd always bring out that large stick of TNT?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“They'd always focus in on the little spark that lights the fuse. That teeny-tiny little spark that causes the huge explosion. That spark is me.”

“You?”

“I guess I haven't thought on it much recently, I was too down in the dumps to, but yes. I am that spark, I want to be that spark that ignites the bomb that changes our world. I remember a time when it wasn't the way it is now, and I want to bring it back to that point again.”

“You really think that you can make a difference?”

“I do.”

We both stared into each other. She turned toward me and leaned closer before whispering, “I want to join you. I want to make a difference with you,” she says.

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll follow you anywhere.”

I’m back in the present looking at Sarah, Jen, Iris, and Jake. I start to nod, “There needs to be unification. There needs to be truth, and light, and hope. There needs to be a spark for change, and we can be that spark.”

Sarah looks to me, smiling, “You...think we can?”

“Can?” Iris asks, and pounds her palm, “You guys have me all inspired—we just took down the baddest villain that there ever was, apparently. The next logical step is the big bad home of the Queen Bee.”

Jake sighs, giving in, “Well, we’re not waging war, at least not yet. We have a lot of things we need to do—I have some connections down at the NYPD. I can enlist their support to work with us on this. A few of them are still a little…uh, afraid of me over there,” Jake says.

“We’ll fix that, too,” Jen says, her arms folded. “It didn’t really occur to me to think what we’d do after—but I’m all for it being this.”

“We could start a rally! And Andy can be our President!” Iris says.

“President? I couldn’t be the president…” I say, shaking my head.

“You know the law the best out of all of us, being an attorney and all,” Sarah says.

“Yeah—but Jake also—”

Jake shakes his head, “No, sorry. I just played the part for a bit. I’m hanging up the suit—law’s got a bad taste in my mouth now. Hope you understand.”

“Ah...right,” I say. “But that still doesn’t mean I’m automatically the best candidate for president! We’d need to have elections and—”

“I’d vote for you,” Jen says.

“Yeah, me too.” Sarah nods.

“Vote number three right here,” Iris says.

“Just so the people outside think it’s a fair vote I’ll vote for Jen, but looks like you’re in the majority, Cress.” He nods curtly.

“C’mon dude, you are a fuckin’ spark,” Iris motions with her hands. “That’s a president’s slogan if I’ve ever heard one!”

Lindsey’s voice echoes through my mind and I grit my teeth. I...I’ll do it for you. This world wasn’t ever fit for your kindness. I’ll make it a better place.

“I am a spark,” I say, turning to Jake. “I’m in, I’m all in. We're going to do this.” I catch another glance at the sphere in Sarah’s hands. The flashing hasn’t slowed down any, but it hasn’t gotten any faster. It looks at me, ominously, but I force my head away. I face the island where the Statue of Liberty once stood, and I look at the debris all around me—broken chunks of the effigy that had sunken themselves into the land.

“My first order of business,” I say, lifting the pieces into the air. It’s gotten so much easier to visualize the pieces as they once were, and at once they reform and replace the statue that once was—the sword it once carried stuck for good inside the Acheron. “Is to fix this to a symbol of peace and unity—not war.”

Not war...not yet.

SARAH

So, Andy is going to be our new president. That’s...not a sentence I thought I’d be saying anytime soon. Of course, it’s not going to be an immediate thing—it’s going to take time and effort to get people to come together and see him the way we do. Maybe his charisma and a little help from his ability to find the truth out will help him in the long run. We’re just getting ready to head out from the peninsula—with our van totaled we’ve got a long walk ahead of us, but I think it’ll be okay.

I’m holding the sphere that was John’s body. I know that inside is enough energy to wipe us all out, but I feel a sort of strange warmth from inside—it’s almost like he’s left me a gift behind to remind me he’s always with me. The pulsing is a reassuring feeling against my own heartbeat—like a duet that nobody can hear.

Just then I’m watching with my eyes closed—daydreaming the sight of John and me in some strange forest—I’m wearing a red dress. He’s wearing the clothes I last saw him in. I think...this was his last dream. We’re passing by a huge statue of some monster. I arrange myself as if I were watching a program on the television. I feel someone grabbing my arm, and then I hear Iris.

“Hey, what’re you doing? We’re getting ready to leave.”

We’re now walking into a cave of some sort. “No, wait a second…” I say, pushing Iris away. I see John crossing a long dark pathway, I assume that we’re still in the cave. Next it is my turn to cross, but I fall halfway, and John’s worried face…how much I’d give to be able to see that face animated again here in the real world. I pick myself up and finish over to the other side. He grabs my hand and we fall on the other side of the chasm, lying on our backs. We stand up, it seems to be moving in fast forward for a second, but I hone in on him saying something. I can’t hear it, everything is mute here. He looks down to the ground and then up to me, his entire body lit in a purple glow from above. I look at him and smile and say something back. He seems to ask something, he rubs the back of the neck with his hand and looks expectantly. I reply with a smug look on my face, a grin above all else. What could we be talking about?

He looks disappointed for the slightest of seconds, but then I give him a wry smile, and he smiles back, and then we kiss. I can feel a tear stream down as I watch it, the final dream John had on this earth is what I’d wanted all of this time…

“Sarah.”

I blink and then it is gone, it fades from my view and then I’m looking back at the sphere. I’m staring at him with the sole tear strolling down my face as if it were just a person taking a walk through the park. The park. I think back to my first meeting with John, how awkwardly adorable he was.

“Are you going to be okay?” Iris asks.

I look up to her and take a deep breath. I nod slowly and swallow. “Y-Yeah, I’ll be just fine.” Iris offers her arms open again, and I stand up and walk into them again, letting the tears flow once more. This isn’t fair, any of it.

“Okay, we need to move. The way I see it, the faster we get our country back up and running, the faster we can get to relaxing on that beach.” Andy says.

I laugh, a bit of it is some of my tears working their way out of my system, but the majority of it is the thought of finally being free of my father’s poisons. I mean, sure, we have to fix and entire country and that is no small task, but we can really do this, I believe so.

Andy begins walking, “You guys might want to get a move on, our car kind of got wrecked remember?”

“I hope you had insurance on the ZX,” Jen says, laughing.

“I hope the Aurora PD doesn’t mind one of their vans is a giant tin can now,” Andy replies.

Jake laughs. “We’ll explain it all, we’ll make sure that none of this is forgotten. I mean, I don’t know how many people will believe it, but we’ll try our hardest,” he says.

“What are we going to actually do about transportation, though? I sure am not walking across this country,” I say.

Iris perks up, “I…actually know where we can snag a car, providing someone knows how to hot-wire a car.”

“I…know how to,” Jake raises his hand, embarrassed.

“You do?” Jen asks, looking towards him.

“Yeah, being the son of a police officer makes the rebellious phase a little awkward,” he says.

“Alright, fair enough,” Iris says.

“Where are we headed?” I ask.

“Back up where Gavin and I were staying, there was a parking garage that was across the street.”

“I remember seeing that garage, the entrance was completely encased in debris, how do you manage to get in?”

Iris thinks it over for a second and then smiles. “I have a shortcut,” she says, and then takes off running. I look to Andy and then to Jen and then Jake, we’re all sharing the same confused face, but then shrug it off to follow her. In the distance I see the sun rising, a new beginning. A new dawn.