The 5th Wave | The Aftermath | ✔️

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Ben

I LEAVE MARIKA and Nugget and Megan in the Wonderland room. I don't know where Cassie would be. There's a whole base. It could take a day to find every hidden room and find my way back. I don't even know if Cassie's alive.
I clear the first part of the base in two hours. No Cassie. No survivors either. Marika fried every single recruits' brain.
After two and a half hours, I'm clearing another hallway. Except this hallway has no doors. End of the hall, nothing. I press my head against the wall at the end of the corridor. No sound. Nothing.
I begin to retreat back to the hallway when a little voice tells me, go back. Go back, Ben. Go back. I go back.
"Sorry, but there's no door!" I say to no one but the little voice in my head.
"There is a door. You just can't see it." Someone says.
I feel my feet leave the floor, I twist around.
"Marika! What the hell!? Why'd you do that?" I yell.
"I knew you would need help." She says.
"You didn't have to sneak up on me like that! What about Nugget and Megan?" I ask, out of breath.
"They're here." She says, pointing around the corner.
And sure enough, Three small heads (including Bear) pop from around the corner.
"One more thing, Zombie," Marika starts, I raise an eyebrow. "Never call Sam Nugget again. No more Nugget. No more Zombie. No more Ringer." She says.
"Why?"
"One: Cassie. Two: You shouldn't keep a name the Other's had given you."
She's right. It's dumb.
"Okay. What do we do?" I ask.
"We have to think outside the box. There is no such thing as a corridor that leads to nowhere." She replies.
"Yeah. You know in movies, the villain has a secret lair. To get to that lair, they have to press their hands in certain spots in the wall, and BOOM! The secret door opens." I say, crossing my hands over my chest.
I almost see Megan roll her eyes. The dummy!
"That's in movies, Ben."
"So? We never thought aliens would come down on Earth. Did we?" I shoot back.
She shakes her head. Looks at the floor. Looks back up.
"Cassie. Just before she left me, she chopped off Vosch's thumb."
I cringe. "Eww."
"She might have used the thumb to access her way throughout the base."
I blink. Twice. 
Sammy walks up to me, pats me on the arm and says, "Cassie used Vosch's thumbprint to go through this wall that isn't a wall, Zombie."
Samuel Jackson Sullivan. The six year old kid who knows everything. Knows more things than a decently educated seventeen-year-old.
"He's right, Ben. That's why I brought this."
Marika's holding a severed thumb. I know who it belongs to straight away. Finally, I get it.
"We're gonna use that to get through this wall." I state the now obvious.
"Yep." Marika replies, holding it up in the air, like its a trophy she just won.
She hands it to me, the blood leaks onto my hand, tickling my skin. I feel a wave of satisfaction. Vosch is dead. Yes!
I press the pad of his thumb against the wall, we hear a Ding! Then the wall splits down the middle, completely clean.
The light on the other side is blinding. Reminding me of when I woke to see the athletic dark-skinned girl and Dumbo who-wasn't-really-Dumbo.
When my eyes adjusted to the blinding light, I see a huge hatch, where I know, a ginormous pod used to be.
I get it before Marika does.
"Cassie's not here." I begin, turning to face Marika. She gives me a look. She nods when she gets it. "She's in Dubuque."

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Sorry for not updating in so long. I've been more focussed on my drawing, music, school and MLB lately and haven't had the time to continue this story. But if you have fallen out of interest with this story, please check out my other stories on my profile!
And if you are a Miraculous LB fan, check out my story: CRUSH - A Miraculous Ladybug FanFiction! Or even check out EdenDaphne's amazing artworks and stories such as: Under Lock And Key (a completed Miraculous story) or Discordant Sonata.
Thank you for helping this story reach over 200 views!!! I am really appreciative of that! Thank you!
I will try to upload more regularly, see you soon!

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