Click clack click

It filled the small, sparsely furnished white walled room, creating more anxiousness and mild frustration amongst Ethan, Tyler, Jack, and Signe as Amy paced back and forth across the white tiled waiting room floor of the hospital, her shoes the only thing making noise.

"You should sit down." Signe suggested gently with a rough edge in her tone. She was sitting in one of the plush white chairs beside Jack, reassuringly holding his hand while his leg bounced up and down.

Click clack click clack

"You're making me anxious by just watching you." Ethan joked weakly in attempts to lighten the dark mood hovering in the air like a thick storm cloud.

No one laughed.

"You're able to go visit him now." A nurse meekly walked through the swinging double doors, holding one of them open for everyone as they briskly walked past her into the hallway, pausing so the nurse could lead them to his room. The nurse escorted them down the hall until she abruptly stopped at room twenty-seven.

"Before you go visit him," the nurse stepped in front of the door to prevent them from entering. "I have to tell you that he's already..." she trailed off, a nervous expression on her face.

"He's already what?" Amy folded her arms across her chest, her tone dangerously calm.

"He's already dead." The nurse cringed, as if expecting to be hit. Instead she was met with stunned silence.

"Why didn't you let us see him sooner then?" Ethan asked softly, unshed tears glittering in his ocean blue eyes.

"You...you wouldn't want to see him. You shouldn't even see him now." The nurse spoke slowly as if speaking to children.

"Like hell I'm not seeing my dead friend!" Tyler shoved her to the side with enough force to make her fall over as he swung the door open with a bang, stepping into the room. The others silently filed in behind them, none of them sure what to say.

Only the hospital bed was empty.

"I'm glad you all could come."

Immediately everyone whirled around. Standing in the doorway was the Queen, a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Where's Mark?" Jack demanded, earning a smack on the arm from Signe. "Your highness." Jack added hastily.

"He's already been taken care of. Right now I need to ask something from all of you." She sat down elegantly on the edge of the bed.

"What do you need?" Ethan frowned.

"I need you all to go back to America." She said softly.

"You can't possibly expect us to go back there." Amy scoffed in disbelief

"No one else has seen the landscape and survived. Every plane that tries to land crashes for mysterious reasons unexplainable to anyone." The Queen sighed.

"So what, we have to go back there and everything will be fine?" Jack snapped, his eyes betraying his fear

"What's left of it?" Signe ignored Jack

"There's only this." The Queen pointed  to a location on the map.

The room went deathly silent like a bomb was dropped in front of them.

They were all going back to somewhere painfully familiar.

They were going back to LA.

"Of all places to survive a nuclear bombing." Tyler muttered to himself, shaking his head with a small smile.

"How are we supposed to get there if all the planes crash?" Signe examined the map as if in a daze.

"We'll drop all of you off on the outskirts, you'd have to walk into LA." She explained casually as if they were being dropped off at school.

"You can go back home so you can pack only what is necessary, then we'll go." She continued, standing up and leaving the room.

"She can't be serious, right? I mean she's basically sending us off to our deaths." Ethan said with a huff of anger.

"I wish she wasn't.....it's not like we can ignore her anyway, she's the Queen." Amy sighed in defeat.

Together the group walked back to Jack's car and clambered in, no one speaking a word since there was only one thing on their mind. LA.

Once they arrived back home, they all quickly started packing what belongings they could fit into their suitcases, making sure to travel light.

As soon as Amy walked into her room she shared with Mark, everything that happened caught up with her as she sank to the floor on her knees, holding Mark's red and black flannel close to her as she silently sobbed, her shoulders shaking as teardrops splattered onto the shirt, soaking into the fabric. It still even smelled like him, the scent of his deodorant still lingering. Stray strands of dog hair from Chica were still attached as well. She carefully folded the shirt and managed to stuff it in her pocket, as well as her phone. She made sure to change into a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt before going out to wait by the door.

By the time she finished, everyone else was finished up as well. Signe dressed similarly, as well as Tyler and Ethan. It looked like they were waiting to be executed instead of a helicopter.

Chica was already moved somewhere else so she was still taken care of while the were gone.

A couple moments later, a helicopter touched down in front of the house, blades whirling loudly as the group boarded the helicopter. Jack squeezed Signe's hand to comfort her and himself as they climbed into the back, Amy sitting next to them while Ethan and Tyler sat in the middle.

"My name is Jordan and I'll be your pilot on this pleasure cruise." The pilot joked as he glanced over his shoulder to look at the morose group staring longingly at their home as the helicopter took off, making the house nothing but a black dot below them.

He had short, buzz cut brown hair, his eyes a forest green mixed with splashes of caramel brown, his face clean shaven.

"Anyone want a Jack Daniels?" Jordan held up a brown bottle glistening with perspiration in the fading sunlight.

"Me." Jack held up a hand, taking the bottle offered to him and opening it, draining half the bottle in a couple of gulps.

"I thought you hated getting drunk." Signe confiscated the bottle from him.

Jack didn't reply.

Rolling her eyes, Signe handed the battle back to Jack, wiping the water off on her bare arms, goosebumps rising once the cold water made contact with her skin.

"You're Irish, right?" Jordan asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Yeah." Jack shrugged, taking another swig out of the bottle.

"I've always wanted to travel the world, that's why I became a pilot. I'm American, but I've lived in London for a long time now, even though I'd prefer to be in Ireland. Less crowded and more green." Jordan remarked, wanting to make conversation.

"I was from LA, but now..." Tyler trailed off with a quiet sigh.

"I can't even imagine what you guys have gone through...it must be rough." Jordan shook his head.

"It was, yet we're back in the fire." Amy laughed coldly.

"Oh yeah, before I forget, use this to contact me when you're ready to be picked up." Jordan abruptly changed the subject as he handed Ethan a black old fashioned radio. Ethan nodded as he stored it in the pocket of his bright orange hoodie.

"How far away are we?" Signe interjected quietly so as to not wake the sleeping Irishman laying his head on her shoulder, the now empty beer bottle hanging loosely in his hand.

"Not too far now, this helicopter's pretty fast." Jordan patted the dashboard with a small smile.

Suddenly the lights went out with a boom, red emergency lights immediately bathing everyone in its crimson glow as alarms blared.

"What's going on?" Jack shouted over the chaos as he woke up with a start, instantly alert.

"I don't know!" Jordan frantically yelled back as he hastily began fiddling with the controls as the helicopter took a sudden nosedive.

The ground was inching closer and closer at a rapid pace while everyone grabbed their luggage and tensed up, bracing for impact.

It didn't come.

The alarms ceased blaring and the regular lights were back on as Jordan pulled the helicopter out of the nose dive. They could make out the crumbling shells of skyscrapers and destroyed homes.

"That was close." Jordan panted, sweat beading his forehead while his hand shook.

"Can we just land here?" Signe's voice shook, betraying the fear she felt.

Jordan glanced back over his shoulder and opened his mouth to reply.

He never got to start his sentence.

The helicopter smashed nose first into a building, the rotors whining as they snapped off, sending the rest of the helicopter plummeting down toward the ground.

"Hold on to each other!" Tyler instructed loudly, grabbing Ethan's hand. Everyone else quickly followed suite.

"Jump!" Tyler leapt out of the helicopter, snagging onto one of the bent rusty support beams while the helicopter continued its descent until it exploded in a ball of fire beneath them.

A whimper could be heard from Jack as everyone scrambled for purchase on the unstable building. It was a miracle that it didn't collapse.

"Everyone okay?" Ethan yelled, looking down at the others.

"I'm good!" Amy replied.

"Fine, I'm not sure about Jack." Signe said worriedly. He had gone even paler than usual, his entire body shaking as he clung onto Signe like a life preserver.

"Everyone start slowly climbing down." Tyler dropped down to the next support beam with a grunt.

Jack remained frozen, his eyes fixated on the fiery remains of the helicopter.

"I-I-I-" He stuttered, paralyzed.

"I'm right here babe, I'm not letting go of you." Signe told him soothingly.

He swallowed hard before dropping down to the next support beam. Even though he was closer to the ground than the rest of them, he was still terrified of heights. They were about two story's up.

The agonizingly slow process took until the sun was completely out of view before they jumped down onto the ground, skirting around the flaming wreckage.

"I wish we could've helped Jordan." Ethan whispered sadly, the fire reflecting off of his blue eyes.

"Me too." Amy agreed with a sigh.

"You okay Jack?" Tyler gently nudged the Irishman.

"Booper dooper!" He exclaimed with a large smile, flashing a thumbs up. Signe was relieved to see color return to his face now that they were on solid ground.

"Shh, listen!" Amy hissed, holding up a finger. They heard something they thought they'd never hear in a place like this. Music.