World's End

Chapter Six

Jax led them back up the tunnel and into the windowless workshop and placed his hands on the double doors that had brought them into his world. Marissa stood at the front of the little group, Ellie Rae to her right and Lincoln on her left. Jax raised an overconfident eyebrow and grinned.

"Ready to be wrong?" Marissa shook her head.

"I'm rarely wrong." She shot back. Jax shrugged and then pushed down on the handles and allowed the cool fresh air to fill the room as it filled the workshop. She took a sharp breath as the frigid air bit at her face, and she shivered slightly. It was the middle of summer; it shouldn't have been this cold.

Jax leaned against one of the doors, warily casting an eye out into the Expanse, watching for any hungry animals that might see four humans and decide they would be a tasty snack.

Marissa stepped forward, shivering more as she stepped outside onto the edge of the workshop floor and looked up at the sky, squinting at the dark clouds that had formed. It was not so bad. Just a bit cold and cloudy-

That was when a hailstone the size of a tennis ball hit the ground in front of Marissa, causing a loud shriek to come from her mouth. She stepped right back into the workshop, heart pounding as she stared at the hailstone. But that was just the beginning. As soon as the first one fell, another one crashed into the ground, which was followed by another, then another. Soon enough, the ground was covered in hail, and they were starting to bounce into the workshop. Lincoln slid past Marissa and grabbed one of the doors and helped Jax close them, sealing them inside and cutting off the wintery air, the room instantly warming Marissa up as the doors were shut.

Jax turned around and grinned, arms crossed over his chest as he took in Marissa's surprised but mildly stormy expression.

"Shall we get ya'll set up for the night?" He clapped his hands together. Marissa scowled and wrapped her arms around herself, hugging herself as Jax walked past with a spring in his step. Lincoln shook his head at her.

"Knew you shouldn't have taken that deal." Lincoln scowled. Marissa shot him a glare. "We could have stolen the stuff from him and then just disappeared in the morning before he even woke up."

"Lincoln!" Ellie Rae said sharply, disapproving of what he had said. Lincoln just shrugged and turned back to Marissa, who had closed her eyes to try ward off the killer headache that was forming at the base of her skull.

"He saved us from getting killed!" Ellie Rae argued, her cheeks going red, as she got angrier.

"We would have been fine!"

"You left Marissa and me!"

"I did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Can you two shut up?" Marissa snapped, opening her eyes, and glaring at the two of them. Ellie Rae seemed to shrink, and Marissa felt only a small pang of guilt for snapping, but she was too tired and annoyed to listen to them. "Lincoln, Ellie Rae is right. You did leave us and the only reason you came back was because you heard Jax come and get us out of the mess that we should have been in together. Yes, I should have known where we were, but things don't exactly stick in the brain when you're stressed. So shut up and move on." Marissa glared at Lincoln. He sucked in his cheeks and looked down at his feet, his ears going a bright red. "And you, Ellie Rae, do not need to hold on to that little nut of information! Yes, he is an idiot. Yes, I do not like him and wish we could just leave him here, but we can't. I shot him, it's partially my fault that he's here but that doesn't matter now. The three of us can keep each other alive, no matter how much distaste we hold for him, kapeesh? Once we find a safe place to be, we can go through all this again and be mad." Marissa looked between the two of them and relaxed when both nodded. "So, if this means helping Jax, so be it. We are a team now, okay? You understand?"