Done For You (Black Veil Brides/Legion of the Black)

16. Victory Call

I looked around the room I'd shared with Andy, one last time. The remnants of the Legion had returned to gather their things, and were currently packing them to take to the City. My bag was packed, and sat at my feet. It hadn't taken me long. Even though I was glad we could stop hiding, I was sad to be leaving my home, and, if I was honest, a little frightened.

Most of Legion shared my feelings on our permanent return to the City. Only a few had lived there, most having been born in the desert, or brought out by their parents when they were so young, they could barely remember it.

The surviving Wild Ones had unanimously agreed that we couldn't leave the City nameless. The whole reason F.E.A.R. had done so in the first place, was to inspire the fear of not belonging. Jamie had done some digging around for the few records he could find on the time before F.E.A.R. had ruled. He'd been able to discover – based on a lot of research involving calculations and climate – that we were in what was once known as the United States of America. He'd pinpointed our location to the state of California, and was fairly certain that the City stood in the place Los Angeles used to be. We'd decided to name it "New Hollywood", after the most famous part of Los Angeles.

We had already begun to repair the damage F.E.A.R. had done to society. The Palace and the majority of government facilities had already been demolished. The materials from the buildings were being used for new housing and facilities. A fair amount of laws had been abolished – such as it being treason to not worship every night at the church, or unlawful to have no religious beliefs – and we had started to recruit new teachers, and plan a new curriculum for the schools. Alexander, the boy from F.E.A.R.'s prison had been elected as the new leader. Andy had told me he had enough of being in charge to last a life time.

Andy, Ashley, CC, Jake and Jinxx had decided to start performing Andy's songs for everyone. Jamie said he thought he could find a way to use F.E.A.R.'s broadcasting equipment to record some of their performances.

The sombre atmosphere was partly attributed to the losses we'd suffered during the battle. As we'd expected, we hadn't come out unscathed. When the bodies had all been counted, we'd lost around forty people, including Summer, Hazel, Allison and Angelo. They'd been buried by the camp yesterday, and of course, we were all still grieving.

'You ready to go?' Andy asked, appearing in the doorway. I nodded.
'I'm going to miss this place,' I confessed, quietly. He gave me a sad smile. Andy had been raised in the rebel camp. It was going to be just as hard, if not harder, for him to leave this place for the City.
'I know.' He embraced me, and we slung our bags over our shoulders, before leaving the room. We walked through the tunnels for the last time, hand in hand. There was a hovercraft waiting for us, amongst the silos. We were one of the last of the group to leave. The tunnels wouldn't be closed off. Too many of us wanted to come back for various reasons and occasions for that. But I doubted I'd be back for a long time.

We boarded the hovercraft and Andy and I stood by ourselves, in front of one of the windows. The sky was painted in purples, pinks and oranges in the sunset. I was leaving the desert almost the complete opposite way of how I'd arrived. I was no longer alone, and I had a family again. Instead of fearing for my life, I now couldn't wait to live it.

'I love you, Andy.'
'I love you, too, Danielle.'

And it seemed fitting that I would I would enter this new chapter of my life in the City, as Danielle, again.