"What did you have in mind?" Dan questioned warily as Sean scanned the area around them.
There wasn't much around them except the husks of burnt buildings and broken pieces of rubble scattered across the ground.
"I know how to get to my base from here! I hadn't recognized the place before because last time I was here, everything was intact." Sean explained, his voice tinged with sadness as he tore his gaze away from the desolate landscape.
"Anyway, follow me quickly." Sean instructed as he took off towards the destroyed city.
The two Brits glanced behind them to make sure that Mark wasn't following before they took off after Sean, forcing themselves to not look back again for fear of being unable to continue if they saw their ruined base that had protected them for years.
"Why is it just Mark anyway? He has other gang members, but where are they?" Phil wondered aloud as he and Dan caught up with Sean.
"I dunno either, but let's just be glad that it's just him." Sean muttered.
The trio walked in silence for a moment as they trudged on, occasionally looking back for signs of Mark before focusing on the road ahead.
"So, how did you guys end up here?" Sean asked the Brits to break the uncomfortable silence that started to form.
"We thought that we'd be safer here. Clearly we were wrong." Dan growled bitterly with a scowl.
"Yeah, me too." Sean sighed wearily, his thoughts turning to the life he had left behind back in Brighton.
The day that everything changed was still clear in his mind, the memory painful to recollect, yet too important to forget.
The feeling of warm sunlight shining in through the window.
The smell of sizzling bacon in the kitchen.
The sound of some song on the radio playing softly in the background, Signe humming along.
The sight of Signe's beautiful face as she greeted him with a cup of coffee and a kiss.
Then the news came through the radio.
Nuclear warfare was beginning, and Europe was the next target.
"What made you come here?" Phil spoke up, pulling Sean from his thoughts.
"I wanted to protect Signe and my friends, and I thought I could do that by coming here. I thought we could rebuild our lives here, pretend that the world wasn't going to hell..." Sean trailed off as he closed his eyes, wishing he could hold Signe in his arms again.
"We had a friend in Brighton, but we never heard from him when we left. We just assumed that he died in the bombing." Dan added in a soft tone.
"His name was PJ." Phil stated somberly.
"Wait, as in PJ Liguori?!" Sean exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yeah, why?" Dan countered with a confused frown.
"He's at my base, and last time I was there he was okay." Sean told them.
Smiles lit up the Brits' faces as their eyes widened in surprise, their pace faster as they eagerly followed Sean to his base.
"Here we are!" Sean declared as they stopped at the airport, the energetic Irishman already bounding up the steps to reach the door of the plane.
The door opened before he could knock, revealing an all too familiar face that Sean wasn't fond of.
"What is up my cranky crew?" Ethan greeted the trio cockily, assault rifle in hand.
Sean managed to look past Ethan to see Signe and Robin inside tied up back to back on the ground, gags stuffed in their mouths.
They looked to be unconscious, but both seemed alright otherwise.
"You got them?"
Sean whirled around to see Tyler approaching from behind, also armed with a gun and his usual cold expression.
"How did you find us?!" Sean demanded fiercely despite the panic building up in his chest that threatened to overtake him.
"Your Swedish friend was out looking for you. It took a bit of...convincing, but he talked eventually." Ethan answered casually.
"C'mon in, we're all going to wait right here until the boss gets here." Ethan stated as he motioned for the trio to go inside the plane.
Should they allow themselves to be captured?
Or
Try to escape?
