The Underworld Plan

Chapter 2

Five years later:

Whump! I leap up, trying to figure out what attacked me in my sleep. I see the fluffy pillow sitting on the floor by my bed and instantly give Jessi, my roommate, a death glare.

"Why, Jessi? Why did you have to wake me up on a Saturday at eight in the morning?" I whine, flopping back down in my bed.

"They need us to come in to work," she explains quickly, already getting dressed.

"But today's our day off! They can't do that," I complain.

"Apparently an entire Saturday expedition group didn't show up today and the expedition they're going on is too dangerous to go on without a full team. They called me to see if we're free and, since we have no lives, I offered up us, Jake, and Dalton to fill in. We get paid double," she tempts me. I'm already putting on my uniform at the mention of extra cash.

"I was going to go see my family today, Jess," I grumble, although in all honesty, I didn't want to go. Things have been rough with my parents since the day Casey died. We never did find Hailee, and my dad completely blames me for ditching that day. and even though my mom defends me, I know she feels the same way. I do, in part, blame myself. But I know that Hailee and I never hung out during school and my being there wouldn't have stopped her from disappearing.

After that day, the CGOTW made The Underworld Plan their priority. They had people, including my family, moving down under within a week, and sealed off the entrances three weeks later. Everything went fine for a few years. It was almost exactly like life up above, except there wasn't any sun and we lived in metal buildings connected by metal tunnels.

Right around the time I graduated was when the government realized they would need people to go above and get resources. I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life, there was no way I was going to get into one of the underground colleges (each one is more prestigious than an ivy league school had been before. Colleges are rare now, and only the best of the best get in), and I neded to move out. So, when they put out the request for expedition members, I gladly signed up.

It was actually a really smart move on my part. Expeditioners make almost as much as college graduates, get free housing with a roommate, and get two days off a week. Expedition groups are made up of four people and are the groups we will work with for the rest of our lives. My expedition group is made up my my roommate, myself, and our neighbors, Jake and Dalton. After working together for almost three years, we consider each other family and spend the majority of our free time with each other.

"One of us needs to go wake up the guys," Jessi mumbles hopefully.

"Oh no way, hun. I saw how much they drank last night, getting them up is going to be a pain in the ass. You volunteered us without asking, you can go face the wrath of the guys," I instantly crush her dreams. Dalton won't be bad, despite the major hangover he's going to have. Jake, on the other hand, is harder to wake up than I am, and that's saying something.

"Jake going to kill me! Please, Cass, he likes you better," she begs.

"Nope. Maybe you can try waking Dalton up and seeing if he will help you get Jake, but there's no way I'm helping," I reply. She groans and walks over to their room, muttering about what a terrible friend I am. All is quiet for a few minutes, and I use the time to finish getting ready. I'm just putting my hair brush down when I hear the extremely loud, extremely pissed off, screech from Jake.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, JESSI?!" Yep, Jake is definitely awake, I run over to the boys room, fearing for my roommates life. The sight as I run into the room, however, is enough to make me stop and instantly burst out laughing. Jake is standing at the edge of his bed, his face and hair dripping wet, with a look of pure rage in his eyes. There's a large glass tossed to the side, Jessi is cowering behind Dalton's bed and literally shaking, and Dalton is leaning up against the wall by the door, chuckling.

"You weren't waking up and I couldn't come up with anything else I'm sorry," the words come out of Jessi's mouth so fast I can barely tell what she's saying. I'm now at the point of leaning against the door because I'm laughing so hard, but Jake doesn't seem to find the situation humorous at all.

"So you decide to dump a glass of ice water on me? What in the world could be so important that you had to wake me up in such a cruel way on a hangover day?" Jake roared.

"We got called into work and I said we could go in please don't be mad we're getting double the money," Jessi squeaks out another almost inaudible sentence before ducking behind the bed entirely.

"I'm assuming you refused to help her?" I murmur to Dalton, who's standing next to me, looking just as amused as me.

"Well, I helped her a little. I gave her the glass to dump on him when she almost gave up," he replies, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Did you say double the pay?" Jake asks, suddenly a lot less mad.

"Yes?" Jessi says, slightly hopeful.

"Fine, I'll get ready. But I'm going to get you back eventually, Jessi. Watch your back," he threatens, and she lets out a sigh of relief. "Oh, and hey Cassandra," he finally acknowledges me.

"Hey, Jake. Go for a morning swim without me?" I ask, pouting. Instead of answering, he just whips off his soaking wet t-shirt and throws it at me. I step to the side, dodging it easily. Unfortunately, it ends up hitting Dalton in the arm, and the twinkle in his eyes tells me Jessi and I have about five seconds to get out before we get caught in the middle of a war.

"Run," we scream together before sprinting to our room, leaping on our beds, and cracking up.

"Did you seriously pour a glass of water on him?" I ask, between laughs.

"Well, more like threw a glass of water on him, chucked the cup, and dove for cover," she explains, sending both of us into another fit of giggles.

"You are so dead when he comes for you," I tell her once we finally calm down.

"I know," she groans, before giggling again and getting out of bed. "They're probably ready," she adds, nodding to their room.

"Yeah, we should go before we get in trouble on our day off," I grumble.

We make sure we have everything, walk out of our room and lock the door, and walk over to Jake and Dalton's room. Dalton is ready to go and Jake just needs his uniform shirt. Perfect timing.

"Ready to go?" I ask as we walk in, even though it's obvious that they pretty much are.

"Yep," Dalton replies, walking out and talking to Jessi.

"Let's go," Jake growls, spinning me around and walking out of his room, closing and locking the door behind him.

"You sound happy," I chuckle.

"Oh yeah, I'm so excited about being woken up on my day off with a glass of ice water being dumped on my head just so that we can go to work," he mutters.

"Hey, it could be worse. We could have a boring job or something," I reason.

"Yeah, I guess. Or I could be stuck working in an all boy group instead of working with you," he flirts. I roll my eyes, even though I can feel the blush coming on.

"Jake," I warn lightly.

"What?" He acts innocent, even though he knows what I'm about to say.

"You know how I feel about relationships and work and flirting and work," I try.

"Do explain," he replies, the glint in his eyes telling me he doesn't want to let it go.

"I don't think a relationship with a coworker is a good idea," I mumble.

"Who says I want a relationship?"

"Your flirting says you want a relationship!"

"Oh, Cassandra, you're so easy to mess with," he murmurs. He then quickly leans in, kisses my cheek, and runs to catch up to Dalton and Jessi before I can say anything.

A/N: So, do you guys like it so far? I'm just trying to introduce everything right now, but it will get to the real drama pretty soon. I have lots in store for this story, so you should be excited! Please vote, comment, and share! It would mean the world to me!