Journey

Elijah

It didn't take to long for them to let us out again. When I got back from the last day of this torture Lorelei is sleeping. Makes sense. She stayed up all night making sure I slept. However she must be hungry so I wake her up. She looks a little confused for a minute.

"Wait Elijah aren't you supposed to be down there?" She asks me.

"No. They ran out of people to exploit."

"Oh." She yawns.

She looks about ready to go back to sleep.

"Come on," I say pulling her up.

"Where are we going?" She asks me.

"Lunch."

We walk to the cafeteria where everyone is pigging out on food. We were allowed one meal during the sin telling thing. I gave half my plate to Lorelei. She wasn't used to this yet. During the time we spent there I think I lost 10 pounds. Not in a healthy way obviously. We go sit at our normal table where America, Alaina, Alivia and Indiana are already sitting.

"Well. I am never going through that again," Indiana exclaimed.

"Well I was kicked out so I'm not going," Lorelei laughs.

"Wait why were you kicked out?" Alivia asks.

"Hold up I was awake for this part. Lorelei completely blanks on what to say and the priest comes over and is like 'What's the problem?' and Lorelei doesn't say anything. So priest was like 'Tell me about yourself. Surely we can find something wrong.' So Lorelei is like 'I'm fifteen. I came with my boyfriend and foster son.'

Then priest was like 'get out of this holy place you unbaptised limb of satan!'" Alaina exclaimed.

"Seriously?" America asks.

"Yep she got it all. Well except for the 'beg God for forgiveness' part." Lorelei explains.

"Did they kick Elijah out too?" Alivia asks.

"No I had to sit through every excruciating moment," I sigh miserably.

"We are all in agreement to not go again right?" Indiana asks.

"Agreed," Well all say.

We eat until the thought of food makes us queasy.

"Hey where was Tove during all of this?" Alaina asks.

"She was drying out in some closet somewhere," Lorelei laughs.

"Did I miss something?" Indiana asks.

"Oh right. We found Tove. She had this cute little camp about three miles outside the city limits. Me and Lorelei were tasked with finding her and we did but she was wasted." I laugh.

"Poor Elijah. She kept vomiting on him," Lorelei giggles.

"That was horrible," I say shivering at the memory.

America laughs.

"Oh boy I couldn't go near him for a week," America exclaims.

"Is that why you spent the whole day in the showers?" Indiana asks.

Elijah turns red.

"I didn't smell that bad," He said embarrassed.

We all laugh. Then the alarm goes off. It's deafening. The screens in the cafeteria are blood red and blink "TAKE COVER!" in silver. Everyone scrambles to their feet and runs to the lower floors. The stairwells are overcrowded because they turned off the electricity. We reach the bottom floors of the building and huddle together in the darkness.

"Where did Alivia go?" Indiana asks me.

"I don't know," I tell him.

No need in getting his hopes up for nothing.

"I'm sure Alivia is okay," Lorelei tells him.

Darn you Lorelei. We sit in the darkness for a long time before the door open again. We breathed a breath of relief until we saw the glowing lights in the doorway. Lorelei clutched me against her. I held her just as intensely. Indiana was frozen. Then the first shot was fired. It was a glowing purple ray that illuminated our terror filled faces. It hit someone in the front. The glowing figures started towards us and we had no room to run so we stayed praying we would be forgotten. Many people had no such luck. The glowing purple rays hit people with such accuracy that person after person dropped dead. They were getting closer.

My heart pounded loudly throughout the dark room. Lorelei screamed. I looked her over. She wasn't hurt.

"Lorelei get behind me," I scream over the noise.

She shuffles her way behind me. The screaming intensifies. It becomes unbearable. I want them to just shoot me and get it over with. Lorelei is sobbing behind me. I turn around and press her against me.

"Lorelei, I love you," I whisper into her ear.

A tear trickles down my face. If this is how I'm going to go I'm glad I'm with Lorelei. I kiss her forehead. A glowing figure stops in front of us and drops a cylinder on the floor. It rolls toward us.

It's the end. I know it.

"I'm glad we met," I whisper to Lorelei.

The room fills with a gas and the world around me gets fuzzy. I fall to the floor. I look up at the ceiling. The last thing I will see.