There's Only This (Sequel to There's Only Us)

A Small Favor

Click clack click

It filled the small, sparsely furnished white walled room, creating more anxiousness and mild frustration amongst Ethan, Tyler, Jack, and Signe as Amy paced back and forth across the white tiled waiting room floor of the hospital, her shoes the only thing making noise.

"You should sit down." Signe suggested gently with a rough edge in her tone. She was sitting in one of the plush white chairs beside Jack, reassuringly holding his hand while his leg bounced up and down.

Click clack click clack

"You're making me anxious by just watching you." Ethan joked weakly in attempts to lighten the dark mood hovering in the air like a thick storm cloud.

No one laughed.

"You're able to go visit him now." A nurse meekly walked through the swinging double doors, holding one of them open for everyone as they briskly walked past her into the hallway, pausing so the nurse could lead them to his room. The nurse escorted them down the hall until she abruptly stopped at room twenty-seven.

"Before you go visit him," the nurse stepped in front of the door to prevent them from entering. "I have to tell you that he's already..." she trailed off, a nervous expression on her face.

"He's already what?" Amy folded her arms across her chest, her tone dangerously calm.

"He's already dead." The nurse cringed, as if expecting to be hit. Instead she was met with stunned silence.

"Why didn't you let us see him sooner then?" Ethan asked softly, unshed tears glittering in his ocean blue eyes.

"You...you wouldn't want to see him. You shouldn't even see him now." The nurse spoke slowly as if speaking to children.

"Like hell I'm not seeing my dead friend!" Tyler shoved her to the side with enough force to make her fall over as he swung the door open with a bang, stepping into the room. The others silently filed in behind them, none of them sure what to say.

Only the hospital bed was empty.

"I'm glad you all could come."

Immediately everyone whirled around. Standing in the doorway was the Queen, a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Where's Mark?" Jack demanded, earning a smack on the arm from Signe. "Your highness." Jack added hastily.

"He's already been taken care of. Right now I need to ask something from all of you." She sat down elegantly on the edge of the bed.

"What do you need?" Ethan frowned.

"I need you all to go back to America." She said softly.

"You can't possibly expect us to go back there." Amy scoffed in disbelief

"No one else has seen the landscape and survived. Every plane that tries to land crashes for mysterious reasons unexplainable to anyone." The Queen sighed.

"So what, we have to go back there and everything will be fine?" Jack snapped, his eyes betraying his fear

"What's left of it?" Signe ignored Jack

"There's only this." The Queen pointed  to a location on the map.

The room went deathly silent like a bomb was dropped in front of them.

They were all going back to somewhere painfully familiar.

They were going back to LA.

"Of all places to survive a nuclear bombing." Tyler muttered to himself, shaking his head with a small smile.

"How are we supposed to get there if all the planes crash?" Signe examined the map as if in a daze.