***

The position Alex was in was a very uncomfortable one. The gun pointed at her by Mister was being jabbed into the side of her head. Mister had an arm wrapped tightly around her neck to the point it was hard to even breathe. Alex clawed at the man's arm at first but found her struggling to be useless. He was way too strong for her. All the redhead could hear was the whimpering of the children, her pounding heart, and Mister's breath beside her ear. Alex opened her eyes to see everyone staring at the two of them with horror.

Taking a deep breath, Alex spoke up, "Has anyone ever told you that you're a really fun guy?" Her voice was strained from the lack of air. She could hear the sigh that came out of Ray's mouth. She knew exactly what he was thinking too. Something along the lines of, 'Of course she had to say some snide remark to the person who literally had the power to kill her at any time.' It was the only way she wouldn't freak out so she had to.

"They might have mentioned it," Mister replied to her. He turned his attention back to the terrified kids, "Well, then. Hand over the pen and get out. Or y'all gonna die right here," That was... Comforting... Alex could see Ray clutch the pen tighter as he thought about what to do. "Come on. Fork it over already. I'm tired of your faces," Ray scowled at Mister. Mister only stared back at the boy with a bored stare, "Well?"

The room started to spin for Alex. If this man kept cutting off her air then she was going to pass out. Alex straightened up and said, "Yeah, I'm not liking that idea too much," A small smirk appeared on her face, "Sorry in advance." Before the man could even ask what she meant, Alex punched Mister in the crotch. Mister made an expression of pain which the others found amusing, but they were still shocked by Alex's actions.

"Wha-" Ray started to say.

"Ouch-" Don's eyes were wide.

While Mister huddled up into a ball, Alex ran away from him. She could hear his groans of pain as she coughed. Ray grabbed her hand and drug her over to the others, "Alex!!" The girl could feel relief take over by her finally being back with the others. She would never admit it with Mister in the room, but having a gun pointed at your head was terrifying.

"Are you okay?!" Emma inquired. Alex nodded while holding her neck. It wouldn't be surprising if there was bruising around her throat since he was holding her tightly. She was scared of passing out from the lack of oxygen at one point.

"Quick, get out of this room, everyone!" Gilda ordered.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Alex commented. She would rather be anywhere else but here at the moment. Everyone started to make their way out of the room while Mister was distracted. Alex held her neck in pain, "Man, that really hurt. He was almost choking me." One more minute of that and she probably would have passed out. Mister had a really tight grip.

"You idiot!" Ray was not happy with the girl at all. Rightfully so. Who would be happy when one of their friends was being held at gunpoint? Still, it wasn't like Alex asked for it to happen. She just so happened to be right there when he reached out and grabbed her like that. "What are you even doing?!"

"Right!" Gilda agreed. "What if he'd pull the trigger?!"

Before Alex could even defend herself, Emma spoke up, "But he didn't!"

This was enough to stop everyone in their tracks. They all turned back to look at the man who was still hunched over in pain. Expressions of surprise and confusion could be seen on all of their faces. Alex nodded in confirmation, "Emma's right. He didn't pull the tricking because he was just bluffing. The only thing that he actually wants to do is chase us out. He doesn't want to kill us," A bullet suddenly shot past Alex at top speed. It grazed her cheek and blood started to pool out. The redhead could hear Yvette and Anna call out to her Alex just winced at the shot of pain she felt, "Like I said, fun guy."

"Like hell I was bluffing." Mister had his gun up, a painful expression still on his face.

Alex only smirked, "You proved our point."

"You just missed again," Emma finished. This stunned everyone into silence. They couldn't believe what was going down right in front of them. "You don't want us around... But you don't really want to kill, either. That's why you're trying to make us leave."

"She's right..," Nat raised a hand to his chin in thought, "If it's all the same to him, he could have just killed everyone from the beginning... What's more, by kicking us out, he's risking that we make a ruckus and end up leading the demons here."

"Bullcrap!" Mister exclaimed. He sat up with his gun still up and ready to fire. "I don't wanna deal with sixteen bloody corpses in my home, that's all!" All of a sudden, Mister stood up on the table. "I couldn't care less 'bout you stupid brats... Don't think you're worth a damn. Next one ain't for show!" He pointed the gun at them, "I'm serious! For real this time, get outta here or I'm gonna blow your frigging head off!!"

The constant yelling and complaining of the man was starting to get on Alex's nerves. She finally decided to just yell back at him, "No! We're not leaving! We came all the way here because we thought it would be safe!" And it was for the most part... If you don't count the trigger happy old man. "Why would we leave it when we just got here? The pen belongs to us so you're not getting it, either. And another thing, my family is not dead weight like you said it was. They are so much more than that," The group watched Alex speak with smiles on their faces. Mister, on the other hand, didn't seem too happy with what she was saying. "You might have given up on other people, and hoping, and caring, but we haven't. They're important to us so we won't give any of it up!"

The room went silent once more. After a moment, Mister's whole body suddenly started to shake. This caught Alex's attention immediately. She narrowed her eyes in confusion at the man. Mister then dropped to his knees while grasping at his head in pain. Just what was up with him? He was fine a moment ago so why was he acting like this now? What could have gotten into him? None of them seemed to have a single clue as to what was wrong with him.

"Hey..." Don took a step forward.

What came out of Mister's mouth next was unintelligible. It was so quiet that they could barely even hear it. The next few things he said were clear as day, "Stop... That's not it... That's not it..," Mister turned to the side and aimed his gun at seemingly nothing. "You shut the hell up, Lucas!" Lucas? There was no one else here. That's what Mister had told them. Mister grapsed at his head again, "No... No... Goddammit!" The man huffed and stood, "They're... Really... Awful."

Mister started advancing toward the group, but collapsed before he could get close enough to do anything to them. His body thumped onto the table and his eyes were shut. It looked like he had just passed out. The other walked toward him slowly to see if he was unconscious or just faking it. Emma placed the man's coat on him, "He's not faking it... He's out for good."

"What's with him all of a sudden?" Don inquired.

"Dunno..." Gilda responded.

A plethora of questions started to come in one by one. Nat had asked who was the Lucas that the man had mentioned. A few others asked if he was alright and what happened to him. The last question was what stuck to Alex's mind the most, "And who does he mean by 'they?'"

That's what she was worried about. Who was this 'they' he mentioned? Could it be them? Or was it something else entirely? Something horrible maybe... Alex straightened up and said, "I say that we just leave him here and go check out the rest of the place, okay?" There was no point in dwelling on all of this now. She could do it later.

The group decided to tie Mister to the table so he wouldn't try to possibly attack them later. They all left the room and Ray took charge as soon as they left. Ray had a compass, the pen, and a notepad in hand. He spoke up, "Well then! At any rate, our colleague here is out of the game for now. In the meantime, let's go ahead and gather some information."

"Ray..." Emma trailed off with a certain look on her face. It was probably meaning something like, 'You are digesting all of this incredibly fast and moving on like nothing even happened.' It was true. Ray was always the one to not be fazed by much.

"This shelter was set up by Minerva," Ray continued, "But, contrary to what we expected, he's not around to meet us. Therefore, we'll search for any leads about him, and about the outside world, too. Starting with the archives."

"Right." Emma nodded.

"Sounds like a good plan." Alex smiled. They would get a lot of information from the Archives. It could fill in all the empty blanks that they had. They didn't know everything yet... Hopefully the Archives would help them with the stuff they didn't know.

"Archives?" Rossi asked.

"You heard the guy mention it, right?" Ray grinned, "That this shelter has materials and information about the world. Emma, Alex, and I will try to find the Archive room. Don and Nat, you keep guard on that man, please."

"Got it." Don and Nat said in unison.

"Everyone else, look for rooms where we can sleep and rest safely." Ray ordered.

"Okay!" Everyone chorused.

Alex smiled at the group,"We'll meet up later!" The group then went their separate ways so they could all do their jobs. Alex had a good feeling about this bunker. It was going to help them out a lot.