Angel Of Clinia

23. Occupation Station

Ezra and Dean seemed tense towards each other. Dean went ahead to scout for a rest stop on the way by.

"How are you?" Ezra asked me, his arms stretched in the air held behind his head. "I'm alright," I reply, "what about you?" "Better now." He chuckles heartily.

I have to be interpreting them wrong. First Dean is oddly friendly and Ezra just seems all over.

I have to be not understanding them correctly.

A large group of scorpions gather together and walk towards us. I scream and hop into Ezra's arms. "Afraid are we?" He smiles.

Sparrow and Dean go to step on the scorpions. "Just regular insects around here." They shrug.

Their crunching bodies makes me throw up in my mouth. I start to turn green. "Stop!" Ezra yells towards Dean and Sparrow after noticing my disturbed face. He carefully sets me down and with one swoop of the leg- he launches the scorpions so far away and high into the air, we never see them come back down.

"Thank you!" I give him a hug, but realize that's weird and let go, clearing my throat.

"How did you-?" Dean looks at him in amazement.

"Awesome." Sparrow says in awe.

We come across a large sand dune that has a metal piece sticking out the top of the drift. "What's that?" I ask, jogging over to the piece. "Probably nothing," Sparrow suggests, "you'll find stuff like that all the time around here."

I poke it, and as a result of doing so the wind picks up suddenly and the sand begins to shift. "What's happening?" I yell over the loud noise of what seems to be an upcoming sand storm. The others put their arms over their faces to cover their eyes. I do the same in panic and try to run over to where the group is. I stumble and fall. I roll down the sand hill as I scream.

The heavy wind stops and I open my eyes. I'm laying at the feet of the others. I look back and there is a large metal building with a giant gate in front of us.

"Is that it?" I stand up. "No, we aren't even close, and I have to admit, I know most things around here but this would not be one of those times I do." Ezra places his hand on his cheek and he raises his eyebrow.

"Hey I think that's a sign, what does it say?" Taylor squints. I walk over and rub the engraved sign. "Occupation Station?"

"Like a job searching place?" Sparrow tilts his head in confusion.

"I suppose so." Ezra replies to him.

"Well then, let's move on, we don't need to go here." Taylor waves it off and keeps walking.

"No Taylor, we just came across a building that just got uncovered by sand, we have to investigate it at least somewhat."

"Mar, the world is literally ending! This isn't a time to go on tiny little kid adventure!"

"We have enough time! You also have to be somewhat curious!"

"Sure, but like I said, the world is ENDING! It's almost like you want it to end! Almost like you would be selfish enough to want to drag us all down just because your family is gone."

"Yours is too! How dare you suggest that, without me you would be nowhere, Taylor."

"We don't need you here! If you won't come with we can all leave without you. You aren't as important as you think!"

"Fine! I'll stay here and look around, whoever wants to join me can come and if you want to go with Taylor- that is fine by me." I growl as I stomp my feet through the sand covering up to my ankle.

The rest of the group is silent. Without a word Sparrow starts to walk with Taylor, who has already started making her way. Ezra tosses the map to Sparrow and then he follows along with me. Dean stands still for a minute unsure of which way to go, but ends up following along with me.

"How are we supposed to find our way after they leave us behind?" Dean meekly asks. "None of our concern." I state flatly. "I mean, it kind of is." "I know the way just fine, I studied the map on the way here." Ezra, who towers above me in height says as he pats me on the head. Normally that would make me upset, but something about it was calming, almost like it reminded me of something Leo would do.

We open the doors to the building and step inside where we find a person sitting in a chair turned around.

Then they spun around to face us.