Firehouse Oasis 118

41. Athena

Athena hadn't thought things could get much worse than they already were. If anything, she'd been starting to think they'd actually work out when she'd seen Eddie rush past her towards where Christopher had apparently been in the arms of some girl.

She and Maddie had followed Eddie over to where he and Chris were now tearfully reuniting on the floor. It was a heartwarming sight, really, only magnified when she caught sight of Buck watching the reunion from over by the trains with the softest smile.

So yes, they were all alive and in the same room, so she'd thought that things would work out. She'd been a fool.

She watched as Eddie looked back up, towards Buck, with the most awestruck and reverent look known to mankind. (He and Bobby had that look in common, say what you will about Catholics, but god do they know how to worship.)

She watched as Bobby, Hen, and Chim fought their way through the crowd over towards Buck. Had thought it was a good thing that they were because the kid looked about ready to drop.

She'd heard Maddie gasp as she'd followed both Eddie and Athena's gazed and spotted her brother for the first time in years. Hands flying to her mouth as she breathed out his name.

She'd watched as Buck actually did start to collapse, watched as Maddie took a stumbling step forward.

She watched as one of the men who'd been over by the train was the one to catch Buck. Not Bobby, Hen, or Chim who were still a couple steps away.

Then she watched as that man, without a second glance, had tossed Buck carelessly into the train car before grabbing the boy who'd been standing next to Buck and doing the same to him.

She'd just barely made out Hen screaming, "Buck!" As it happened.

She watched as only a couple seconds later Bobby, Hen, and Chim had thrown themselves into the already full train car.

She'd started pushing her way through the crowd right alongside Maddie after that.

Only a couple seconds later the man slid the train car door shut.

She and Maddie pushed through the crowd harder, she could hear Eddie behind them, trying to keep up with Chris in his arms.

They didn't make it to the platform before the train started to pull out of the station. With their friends onboard.

"Go to the firehouse. We'll find you. I'll find my way back to you." Bobby's voice echoed in her head, her feet stumbling as she sucked in a breath in surprise.

And then that was it. That was the last they saw of Bobby, Chim, Hen, and Buck. Just like that, their friends were gone.

Not that she'd accepted it that easily.

"Where is that train going?!" She'd immediately asked Maddie.

"I don't know." Maddie answered, shaking her head as tears pooled in her eyes.

"What do you meant you don't know?!" Eddie had demanded.

"She means she doesn't know." The girl from before, the one who'd had Chris, said, "It's a safety measure. No one person knows the destinations of all the five trains. That way no one can give up the intel of where everyone ended up in the case of an emergency."

"God fucking damn it!" Eddie swore, a testament to how stressed he was considering Chris was right there in his arms, "What do we do? How do we find them?"

Athena took a shaky breath, "We don't." She said, already hating it, "We go back to the firehouse, and we wait for them to get back to us."

"What?! We can't do that! We have to find them!" Eddie exclaimed, "Buck is-"