World's End

Chapter Nineteen

The five of them sat around the dining room table, the air very sombre as Marissa informed them of what had passed. She laid out all the information and was discussing the options everyone had when Daniel dropped a bombshell of information.

"I can get us to the Citadel." Everyone exploded. Demands of how, when, why.. Everything under the sun was thrown at him. He just shook his head and pulled a map out of his pocket.

"I found this on one of soldiers on the battlefield. That's where I went when I left you guys. I wanted to see if I could find anything of use. I pulled this out of a guy's pocket and it's got different sections circled in different colours- I think that yellow one is for the Citadel." He laid the map out on the table and pointed to a circle on the other side of the continent. Marissa clenched her teeth as she looked between the map and Daniel.

"And you didn't think to tell us about this map earlier?" Daniel gave her a look.

"When did you want me to tell you? When we were running or when you were unconscious? Because I don't see either of those being very effective." Marissa scowled. Jax rubbed his face with his hands and looked down at the map.

"Okay so now we know where to go." He said, rubbing his fingers together now. Marissa looked down at the map and noted the distance. They were so, so far away. "And we have a car."

"Yeah, about the car. It's not going to die on us, is it? If we get in it, it's not going to run out of gas?" Jax paused his hand rubbing and seemed to be counting, mouthing something as he moved his head.

"I mean... It should get us some of the way there?" Lincoln narrowed his eyes.

"And how far is some?" Jax gave him a look.

"As far as it needs to, granted you don't destroy it." Lincoln started to react to that but Marissa put a hand on his arm and cocked an eyebrow. He looked at her and shut his mouth but glared at Jax. "It's not like we have any equipment anymore- it's just us. And I mean, five of us is a lot but I think this baby can take it." There was a mischievous look in his eye that made Marissa question the sanity of his thinking. And the safety of either one of the boys that Jax held some disdain for.

"Okay..." Marissa said slowly as she looked back down at the map. She frowned and pointed the multitude of smaller circles that were on the map, a lot of them within the distance they had to go. "What are these?" Daniel shrugged.

"I don't know. They could be areas the soldiers have been as they've made their way through. They could be hot-spot areas for something or maybe they are places they avoided? The options are endless." He shrugged. Marissa nodded.

"Okay them so we avoid these areas because we don't know what they mean." It sounded stupid, even as she said it. The circles were close together and all over the place, it wouldn't be surprising if when they tried to slip between two circled zones and ended up dealing with whatever they meant.

"Look, the circles are different colours so maybe they mean different things." Ellie Rae pointed out. And she was right. There were blue, white, black, and grey circles over the area.

"So one colour could resemble a safe zone while another could mean danger? Isn't danger usually red?" Jax asked. They all looked at the map for a moment.

"Well, there's no use staring at it. Maps don't talk, we'll just have to find that out for ourselves. Marissa pushed her chair back and got to her feet. "This is ya'll's last chance to back out of this. If you don't want to do this, there will be no judgement." Jax stood up, scoffing. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her, grinning.

"Ain't no way I'm backing away from this. I'm ready to kick some Horsemen ass." Marissa nodded at him, eyes crinkling as she smiled. Ellie Rae stood next.