"What do we do?" Aulia asked; her head whipping towards me as did the rest of my team. However, everyone else was, of course, looking at Bradly. Bradly's gaze flickered towards me for a second before turning towards the worried faces of the rest of the students.

"The second barrier should hold for a while." He said. "We need to trust that Mr. Andrewson's estimate is correct. We have at least another hour before they break through this second barrier, three if we are lucky."

I nodded at his estimation – those are reasonable assumption give that we were told both barriers would give us five hours combined. The attack from outside must be more severe than we thought. My mind drifted to the scenes showed by the Time Guardian and shuddered.

"Let's go and see Mrs. Tam." I said to my team, gathering myself up from the ground where I was checking one of the catapult's wheels. My team all begun to dust themselves and Diego shook hands with Bradly.

"Tell them to hurry." Bradly sighed; I could tell he was starting to fee wary of the situation's outcome. I nodded and we waved goodbye to his team, making our way back into the Academy.

"Lab is this way." Diego began leading us and I was starting to feel like everyone knew about my lack of direction. No one spoke as we navigate along the deserted halls, the general atmosphere was relatively down and I knew I had to say something.

"Don't worry, the second barrier is harder to crack." I reassured my team, "We couldn't have got in without the password."

"Password?" Grace asked as the mood lifted slightly and everyone looked at me. probably recalling the hilarious situation, Viktor and Casey laughed and even Diego stifled the smile spreading on his face. So I edited out how I found the password and told them about our fair-game style of entering the code.

"Fascinating!" Aulia exclaimed, her eyes darting towards the second barrier through the window. It looked the same as it was five minutes ago and I was glad to see there wans't a sigh of attack on it yet. "What are hieroglyphics?"

Before I could answer, Viktor started to launch into a speech about this ancient Egypt civilization that was alive a good four, five thousand years ago. Everyone was looking at him, wide eyed as he explained that human history actually stretched as far back as that and how there were what people believed to be magic and gods.

"Right." Ivan snorted, waving off Viktor as though he was telling a folk story, which in a sense he was. "I don't believe in those nonsense. Unless they were POE too."

I shook my head. I didn't for a second believe that there were POEs as far back as five thousand years ago. Because if there were, shouldn't most of us be POEs by now? However, what tugged at my mind was the word that Iris used. Mystic. There was certainly something different about the second barrier, something that even POE powers and advance technology combined couldn't explain.

Taking the next turn left, we arrived at the door of the Academy's mechanical lab and Diego knocked on the door swiftly. A voice called out for us to wait, followed by a series of what sounded like small explosion and startled scream from some. Sharing a look with Diego, he began to attempt to pull the door back when someone slid the heavy metal doors open and a huge cloud of smoke came out.

Coughing and covering my eyes, I waved my free hand around trying to disperse the smoke. A squeal came from the door side.

"Oh, I am so sorry, I didn't realise how smoky it is!" A girly voice shouted, though the face was still nowhere to be seen behind the never ending stream of cloud. "Wait, you are not the enemy, are you?"

Almost choking on my own saliva, I went into a coughing fit so Casey answered for me. "No, we are here to ask how everything is going, the first barrier just fell and we need to set up the defense as soon as possible."

"Oh, right!" The girl shouted and the smoke had finally dissipated enough for me to catch a glimpse of the girl's face. She was wearing a pair of safety goggles pushed onto her forehead and a mess of soft brown curls escaped from the untidy bun on her head. Her face was covered in soot and she was sporting a lab coat. She looked to be about fifteen and on seeing her, Aulia rushed forward and started wiping her face.

"Amery, what have you been doing?" She asked and the girl stuck her tongue out at her, her hazel eyes sparkling with mischief. Stepping aside, she gestured for us to go in.

Sensing the rest of my team's reluctance, I took a huge step and crossed the threshold into the mad lab (its nickname) right behind Aulia, who obviously knew Amery and was giving her a lecture on keeping herself clean. Amery shrugged and turned towards me, her eyes sparkling like sea glass.

"You are Abigail!" She exclaimed, looking me up and down as though I was a celebrity. "Did you really have to break in? How was it? What happened in the Qualification test? They wouldn't tell us anything and now we are getting attacked! Isn't it all so exciting?"

Smiling at her, I tried to answer her questions as best as I could. She reminded me a little bit of Dan, who must be ten by now. She didn't seemed to understand the kind of danger we were in either, which made me exasperated but also a little jealous.

"We were testing some of the explosive bombs and it exploded." She clasped her hands together, startling Ivan and Orla. We were weaving our way through a room full of stainless steel tables, each littered with some mechanical parts and bits and bobs that I had no idea exist.

Ahead we could see flashes of light and the sound of machinery coupled with people shouting at each other. Amery skipped ahead, doing a little twirl on her way over to the group of mad scientists.

"Mrs. Tam?" I called out tentatively and no one responded at first. Each seemed to be doing something completely different and I had a hard time keeping my eyes from darting all over the place and taking all these things in. I heard some rustling and saw that Viktor had started involuntarily moving towards the machineries and no one seemed to stop him.

"Is this a?..." He began, then trailed off as his head tilted at different angle rapidly to study the machine in front of him. A boy who looked about seventeen nodded at him and the two of them started speaking in mumble jumbles.

"Mrs. Tam?" I started again, looking around to see if I can catch a glimpse of our kind teacher. I caught Amery's eyes and she pointed towards the far corner where I spotted Mrs. Tam and another student inspecting a sleek looking thing that, for lack of a better description, looked like a cannon.

"Just a second dear." Mrs. Tam shouted and pressed a button that caused the entire machine to glow. Taking an involuntary step back, I could feel the air humming around us and the cannon's mouth, which was facing us, started to glow.

"Get out of the way!" Diego shouted and jumped on top of me, the two of us landing on the floor right underneath the cannon just as a ball of light shot out from its mouth. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck rising and the air around me sizzle. Diego was yelling something but my ear was ringing so much that I couldn't make out a word. Still shielding me underneath him, Diego cautiously raised his head up while keeping a hand on my head to keep me down.

"Let me up." I huffed and struggled up, pushing his hands aside gently and surveying our surrounding尸. The room seemed to be brighter than it was but steadily going back to normal and as far as I could tell no one seemed to be harmed. My ear was still ringing hard and I looked up to see a basketball size hole on the roof of the lab catching the classroom interior on the floor above.

"It worked!" the boy that was working with Mrs. Tam leaped up and did a fist pump, then spun himself around and jumped again. Mrs. Tam had a smile on her face too, as she pushed her googles up.

"A little warning would be great." Casey grumbled as she stood up and dusted herself off. I noticed with satisfaction that Viktor had grabbed her and tucked the two of them under a metal work table when the cannon fire. The rest of the team was a little further away so they all had more time to react. I turned to look at Diego and was glad to see that he, too, were okay, save from the singed hoodie.

"Sorry about that." The boy apologized, scratching his head, "I pushed the button a little too early."

"Is this what we are going to use to defend ourselves?" I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat. I was glad that this cannon thing was effective, but honestly the idea of firing this and incinerating my enemy didn't have me giddy with excitement. Sure, they were the bad guy that are attacking us, but killing them from a wall behind a weapon while my life is not in immediate danger just didn't sit well with me.

Sensing my unease, Mrs. Tam tapped on the cannon, which had returned to a normal colour and smiled at me. "This bad boy can cause a lot of damage," She started, as the rest of the students continued to hustle around as if what happened was the most mundane thing in the world. "But it can also just be used to momentarily blind your enemy."

Giving her a grateful smile, I wondered how she could tell my discomfort at the idea of using it. It was a little childish and I knew that if Gerald was in my place, he wouldn't hesitate to fire at all. But knowing the alternative option had made me better – and when the time come, I knew that I would fire it to protect the innocent behind these walls.

"How many of these do we have?" Viktor asked, running his hands up and down the cannon and I raised my eyebrow at his use of the word we. Since when did he considered himself to be one of us?

"About ten. We have several prototypes that we could potentially upgrade and use, but we are missing some crucial parts." The boy replied, pushing his goggles back too. I didn't recognize him at all, but evidently Casey did because she frozen and stared at the guy.

"Hey Casey." The boy nodded at Casey as though seeing her in the lab preparing for war was the most natural thing in the world.

"Karl." Casey said through gritted teeth. "You were supposed to be at home. What are you doing here?"

"I got back just before the lockdown." Karl shrugged and replied casually. And that's probably why I had never seen him before.

"Who's this?" I asked Casey and she did her best to pretend like seeing Karl hadn't shaken her up.

"He's the guy that got discovered along with me. We went to the same school." Casey replied, "He's two years older, so he graduated already."

"I was escorting some new POEs back." Karl said, pushing his goggles off his head completely and I was surprised to see how cute he was. I turned back to look at Casey and wondered if these two had a history together. Sometimes during times of hardships is the best time to talk feelings.

As though she could sense what I was thinking, although it was most likely my face that betrayed me, Casey threw me a glance before huffing and turning away from Karl childishly. Fortunately, Amery decided to bounce back towards us at this precise moment to save us from dying of awkwardness.

"We better get going." I interjected quickly, watching Aulia and Viktor entertained the younger girl with small talk as the rest of the lab occupants wheeled the weapons out. Diego stood by my side and I was starting to feel like he was my bodyguard.

"Hey, you are Amelia, right?" Karl appeared next to me and gave me a harmless smile, which matched quite well with his boy next door appearance. Diego suppressed a smile and I tried not to roll my eyes.

"It's Abigail." I said, extending my hand towards him, "Nice to meet you."

"You too." Karl said, then paused awkwardly and I could tell he wanted to say something but was working up the courage to. Wondering if I should just save him the embarrassment, I opened my mouth just as he finally spoke. "I want to know if Casey's doing okay. I mean, she's always been..."

"She is not seeing anyone." I replied, cutting him off and Diego almost choked on his own saliva behind me as he broke into a coughing fit. An embarrassed look appeared on Karl's face, followed by a knowing look. Giving me another awkward smile, he fled out the door, no doubt trying to find Casey. However, I doubted he would have the courage to tell her how he feels.

"That was unexpected." Diego said, finally calmed down from his coughing. I nodded, putting my hands behind my back and mentally patted myself on the back on doing a good deed. Viktor didn't seem to return any of Casey's feelings, so why not see how this one goes.

Turning around, Viktor was yelling from the other exit that Mrs. Tam, Aulia, Amery and he were going to see if they could salvage some parts to make more cannons. This left Diego and me alone in the lab.

Just as I was ready to head off to the field to help set up the cannon, Diego pulled me to a stop. Surprised and a little bemused, I was about to make a funny remark when I saw the serious look on his face.

"Diego, it's everything alright?" I asked, facing him properly now and my heart sank as his face became more and more like the Diego that I ran into that day in the hotel at Pax.

"Gail." He started, then stopped again. He seemed to be struggling to get his words together and I had to fight the impatience that was building inside me. I wanted to be out there, helping others to set up and prepare for the fight that was coming. But I knew that this was my chance to get Diego to open up and tell me what really happened.

"Is it true?" He suddenly asked and I blinked, not sure what he was asking me. Sensing my confusion, Diego actually blushed. But then I quickly realized why. "About you and Tom."

Now it was my turn to blush. Talking about feelings was never my forte, and I had talked enough with Casey last time when I had my little mental breakdown. But I knew that if I wanted to get an answer out of Diego today I would have to answer this, and he was my friend.

"Yes." I answered, feeling my face heat up even more. "We are together."

I couldn't read Diego's expression. He seemed disappointed, but on the other hand relieved. He looked around for a second, as though he was clearing his thoughts before turning back to me.

"Have you ever thought that we would work well together?" He finally asked and I was completely taken aback by the question. Looking at his face, I could tell his question was 100% serious and I wondered what prompted him to think that. I couldn't deny that Diego was a very handsome guy, and on many levels he was easier to deal with than Tom and we had always been very compatible. To be honest, it had crossed my mind once or twice whether I had any feeling for Diego, and wouldn't we be a better match. But the truth is it didn't matter; because what I felt for Tom out weights the possibility of anything better that I could have with him. And even if he and I would be better together, I wouldn't want to be with him. Tom was the one I want to spend my life with.

"Diego," I started, but Diego could already feel what I was going to say, another example of how well we matched together. He didn't look too upset about it, but rather it felt like a weight had been lifted off him after he asked me the question.

"It's okay." He said, settling down on the nearest table and covering his face. Moving to sit next to him, I tentatively put my hand on his arm.

"What's wrong?" I urged, "You know you can tell me anything."

Sighing, Diego's face and he seemed to have reached a decision. "Please don't hate me." He started, running his hands through his hair as his shoulders slumped. I had never seen him look so dejected before.

"I am the reason why people were taken at the test." He said, burying his face back in his hands. "I am part of the Apocalypse."

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And here, folks, we have it - the reveal of who the mystery guys were at the prologue. Honestly, why would any of you think it was Tom? He's really not traitor material. @randie and @BookSuggester - you two have got it right, congratulation!

So I am going to officially shift the update day to Thursday here - sorry guys, wednesday and I doesn't seem to work out.

I also recently have my wisdom teeth on the left side taken out - and it hurts so much that I am eating nothing but congee all day. It's so bland that I am begging my sister to buy me a smoothie. I don't think she will though.

Anyway- just so you all know that my interview with @SciKick is due out soon, and if you don't know already - SciKick is a group of 11 Sci-fi authors (including me) coming together to promote Sci-fi as a genre, so go show us some love. I have been talking to these awesome people on online for a week or so now and I love them all. It's such a great community! 

On another side note - it's my birthday in five days! I am getting old :(

Oh and @_milifeinwords_ I hope you like your character :)