A Different Path

Chapter Four - A Mix of Emotions

Thomas gasped as he looked around the underground terminal. He hadn't believed Sonya's description of it, but now he knew she wasn't exaggerating when she said it was the perfect place to stay. The group had made their way down the two staircases, they now stood next to the extravagant but inactive fountain in the middle of the terminal. Thomas thought of all the resource they might find here, of how lucky they were they had found the station in the first place. He thought of all the things they had been through in the last two months, of what was yet to come.

"So, where's the pizza place again?" Minho grinned, and Sonya led the way to the Italian restaurant. She blinked the flashlight on when they entered the kitchen, walked straight to the cupboard where she had found the cans and opened it.

"Jackpot," Thomas whispered as he saw the cans. He counted at least twelve of them in the first row only, and he could see there were a few more rows. Sonya started to empty the cupboard, leaving Thomas even more amazed. The cupboard held so much more than just pizza-in-a-can, there were bags of uncooked pasta, bottles of tomato sauce, packets of dried cheese and jars of pickles.

"Pickles?" Thomas wondered. Then he smiled and shrugged. "Oh well, why not." Everybody grabbed a pizza can, beaming because of their lucky findings, except for Teresa. She was inspecting her can, looking quite concerned.

"Guys, there's one small problem," she said. "According to this package, we need to bake the pizzas before we can eat them."

Thomas watched as Minho walked up to Teresa. He gave her the look of a thousand deaths.

"You," he growled. "I don't know what your problem is, and I don't want to know. They," he pointed at Thomas and the rest of the group, "don't want to know either. So don't bother us with it."

"But the package says-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT THE PACKAGE SAYS!" Minho was done with her, Thomas could feel it. He walked up to Minho and grabbed his shoulder, trying to snap him out of it.

"I know what you're planning on, and you're not going to distract me," Minho said, calmly pushing Thomas' hand away. "But you," Minho turned to Teresa again, "you are distracting me. And not in a good way."

"But I was just trying to point out-"

"I wasn't done talking," Minho said adamantly, folding his arms. "I won't let you ruin this. If you feel like you're too good for cold pizza, you and your princess attitude are free to leave. You know the way out." Thomas didn't quite know what to do, and he was not the only one. The whole group stayed quiet, waiting for what might happen next.

A chuckle broke the silence. It was Newt's chuckle, Thomas could recognise it anywhere.

"Teresa, can't you ever be content?" Newt giggled. "Besides, there's enough wood in this restaurant alone to burn the whole place down, so we could just put some of it in that bloody fountain and make some flames. Then we'd all snuggle up by the fire, have some dinner, and be a merry little company. Wouldn't that be nice?" Teresa nodded in response.

"Good that," Thomas said to prevent anyone from fuelling the argument again. "I'll go look for something we can use as tinder."

Thomas walked out of the kitchen, back into the restaurant. He looked around the dim room, hoping to find something flammable. A bit more light would have been nice... he thought. He fumbled about in the darker part of the restaurant, but it was impossible to find anything useful in this darkness. Thomas made his way to the back wall and put his left hand on it not to lose the way. Suddenly, Thomas' breath caught. He had flipped a switch on the wall, and he had no idea what it was for. All at once, the light in the restaurant flicked on. Thomas let out a small cry in surprise. There's electricity here? But how?