Jax watched as his friends wandered on up ahead, oblivious to the fact that he had lagged to the point that he could only hear Marissa laughing but only because when she did laugh, she threw her head back and laughed loudly. He didn't know who had said something funny, but he would be happy to place any food rations on Ellie Rae. Because to be completely honest, Lincoln's sense of humour was about as dull as a butter knife trying to cut through concrete.

He waited a few moments longer and then, when Marissa's laugh was further away, did he turn around and look for the one thing he had noted earlier that had given him a sense of mild panic. It had been a few blocks from where they were now. Ellie Rae, Marissa, and Lincoln hadn't even noticed Jax almost tripping over his feet when he first saw it because they were too busy talking about how Ellie Rae had somehow charmed the stupid lion that had haunted Jax every day for the past 5 years and of course, they were from the suburbs and Marissa? She only ever ventured into the slightly deserted city that was close to her home. Apparently, a bunch of fancy ass ninny's loved high above the city, safe from predators and civilization.

Jax approached the wall closest to him and lifted a bunch of vines that had been growing over the wall. Nothing. He hummed to himself as he started to slowly examine every inch of every wall of every building that was along the street. He knew that signature was going to be somewhere. He could feel it in his bones.

Even though he continued to search, he tried to keep his distanced pace with the group. He didn't want to lose them because trying to find them in the Expanse would be impossible. Jax looked at where the three of them walked, somewhat lazily from what he could tell. He wondered if they had realized, he wasn't walking right behind them and staring at the lion that was walking ahead of Ellie Rae, growling at every shadow. Jax shook his head and looked up at the sky, the intense heat seeming to be wavering as dark clouds rolled across the sky.

"Come on, where are you?" Jax muttered as he brushed more vines off the walls. He kept searching until he made a noise of success. "Ha!"

The black mark on the wall was peeling slightly, the circle with what looked like a knife and a gun crossed in the middle of it. It looked like it had been stamped there a while ago, but it would be no surprise if there was another one nearby that was more freshly applied to the walls.

"Oi, Jax! Where are you?" Jax heard Marissa yell. They must have finally realized he wasn't joining in the conversation with some little quip or flourish of words.

"I'm coming!" Jax yelled. He took another look at the sign on the building wall. He nodded his head and started back from the wall and went into a jog. The three had come to a standstill, some distance away. Ellie Rae's lion was nowhere in sight, probably somewhere up ahead, hoping to munch on Lincoln hopefully. "Sorry, got distracted." He puffed a little when he finally caught up to them. Marissa had her arms crossed over her chest; eyebrow raised as she waited for him to catch his breath. Ellie Rae un-looped her water bottle from around her shoulders and passed it to Jax. He declined and grinned.

"What did you get so distracted by that we almost lost you?" Marissa queried. Jax wiggled his eyebrows.

"Just something I thought I recognized."

"It wasn't an automobile store, was it?" Lincoln quipped. Ellie Rae slapped his arm quickly and he winced. "What, it's a genuine question."

"Yeah but it's not helpful." Ellie Rae fired back as the four of them turned around to keep walking. Marissa snorted as she pushed her hands into her pockets, the gun across her back hitting her back slightly with each movement.

"But seriously, what did you find?"

"Just something that reminded me of some old friends."

"You have friends?" Lincoln muttered the question to himself. Jax flung an arm around his shoulders and looked at him while they walked.

"My dear Lincoln, I think it would be wise for you to rethink who has friends here, considering you destroyed my car." Jax squeezed his shoulder just as Lincoln shrugged him off. The girls laughed quietly at that. Lincoln muttered something else under his breath that Jax didn't hear but he had no doubt that it wasn't polite.

All talk quieted down for a time as they walked, the lion coming back to Ellie Rae's side after some time, licking his maw as he padded along beside her.

The sky was continuing to get dark as what looked like rain clouds rolled over. Jax figured it was probably the right time to say something about getting somewhere to sleep, away from the rain.

It was at this time that the ground began to rumble beneath them.

"Earthquake?" Lincoln asked, brows furrowed. Marissa turned around, scanning their surroundings.

"I don't think that's no normal earthquake."

"We really need to discuss this whole end of the world feeling thing, don't we?" Jax muttered and there a chorus of agreements.

"There!"

"Holy crap." Ellie Rae was pointing down the street. Marissa felt her heart drop in her chest. It was like the first time she had seen the black horse with its fiery eyes, but this horse did not carry the same rider. This rider was dressed too, in black but with him he carried a scythe.

"Well, this can't be good." Marissa grabbed Ellie Rae's hand and pulled her along. "Come on!" She yelled at the two boys. Jax was the one who shook himself into action first and grabbed Lincolns arm, pulling him with him.

The four of them ran, hearts thundering in their chests as they moved along the streets. Ellie Rae looked behind them to see the horseman was still thundering down the street, waving his scythe in the air, sending dark clouds up and around him.

"You cannot escape Death!"

"Okay we definitely have to chat about this later!" Marissa yelled. Death? War? Their earlier discussion about the end of the world was coming back to her mind. Myths? Marissa was starting to get the feeling that these guys weren't myths anymore.

The four of them ran down the street, Marissa was puffing when Jax pointed to something and yelled something she couldn't hear due to the blood pounding in her ears.

"What?!"

"That way!" He was pointing to a building that looked somewhat run down. No glass in the windows. Mildly convenient.

The four of them raced towards the building, Jax in the lead. He leaped over the windowsill and skidded out of the way as the three followed suit. Marissa landed heavily on the other side of the window, ground shock going up into her knees. She stayed close to the ground. The others had dropped to the floor as well, pressing their faces the filthy floor as they held their breaths and waited for the hooves to pass them by. The sky outside got darker as the hooves got closer.

"What the hell is it doing?" Lincoln hissed. Jax kicked him in the shoulder to shut him up. The sound of the hooves slowed down outside the building they had disappeared into.

"Great job, Lincoln." Jax hissed in return.

"Shut up!" Marissa said through gritted teeth. The sky was still dark, getting darker still but the horse hooves had stopped outside. Marissa cursed under her breath. She looked back at her friends and started waving for them to start moving. Jax started to army crawl away and kicked at the Ellie Rae's shoulder, getting her attention to get her moving. Marissa saw Ellie Rae grimace and make a ride gesture at him, but she quickly followed suit, copying his movements as she started shuffling behind him. Marissa waited for Lincoln to follow suit, but he didn't move, he was looking at her.

"What are you doing?"

"What are you planning?" Lincoln whispered back; eyebrow raised.

"I'm not planning anything."

"Sure." Outside, they heard horse hooves smack down on something metallic and a strange clanging rang through the air. Marissa covered her ears with her hands as it rung in her ears, wincing. The air tasted metallic as well, causing Marissa to pull a face as she moved into a crouching position so that she could have a better view of the Horseman and his horse. Her mind was ticking as she tried to come up with plan to both ensure their safety and to make the dark clouds that were swirling from the scythe go away. Only one seemed possible and it looked like it was getting less and less likely as time went on. There was a tug at Marissa's leg, and she turned her head to see Lincoln pointing at where Ellie Rae and Jax were supposed to be.

"Where'd they go?" She had to raise her voice as rumbling from the surrounding builds started to become louder, making her brain feel like someone had out it on vibrate. Lincoln shrugged, looking just as lost. Marissa cursed. Now she had three problems.

"Okay! We must go now. Whatever you were thinking is not going to work." Lincoln finally yelled and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand aware from her ear and causing her to briefly lose balance. She managed to steady herself in time, but it didn't stop her from catching her hand on broken class and causing a small series of cuts to cause her hand to bleed. She winced and bit her tongue to keep from letting a yelp of pain out.

"Of course it's going to work," Marissa stated through gritted teeth. "When have my plans never worked?" Lincoln reached over and grabbed her by the scruff of her jacket and pulled her away from the edge of the building and away, struggling to both crawl and drag her. Unfortunately for Marissa, Lincoln's grip was too strong on her jacket to break free, and it would be more inconvenient for her to get out of the jacket. The dark clouds were spreading upwards and into the buildings above, the scythe creating more stormy dark ones that were beginning to spread further along the road in front of the horse. "Okay you might be right." Marissa started crawling behind Lincoln, barely noticing as the glass in her hands dug deeper into her bleeding palms. Of course, this was not their main concern.

A blood curdling cry filled the air just as Marissa and Lincoln slid behind one of the stone columns to hide them from view. They cupped their ears as the scream increased, followed by the sound of metal scrapping against rock. Marissa coughed as some of the loose dust from the ground puffed up and into her mouth. More screams filled the air as Marissa coughed and Lincoln looked around the concrete column to see what was happening. Lincoln barely manged out a muffled "shit" when the sound of iron against rock grated through the air. The world seemed to shudder to a stop, the cries of the high-rise livers briefly ceasing as the tang of metal rattled the air. There was a groan that came from all around them, and Marissa gasped for air as she looked around Lincoln to see that the Horseman and his horse had disappeared, leaving a plume of black smoke filling the air.

"We have to move." Marissa managed to choke out, the building dust having left a dry coating in her throat.

"Ya think?" Lincoln snapped back at her. Marissa narrowed her eyes and grabbed Lincoln by the wrist and started to pull at him.

The sound of the metal against rock had led to the buildings in the proximity of the Horseman having large black gashes through the support structures. What once had been stable buildings that had stood for centuries, were now precariously balanced on one another. The weight of the buildings now stood on almost nothing. The air was beginning to fill with the sound of creaking and groaning, concrete grating on concrete. Marissa tugged on Lincolns arm again and he seemed to get the idea. He began to follow her, pulling his arm out of her hand and interlacing his fingers with hers and together, they ran for the opposite side of the building, hoping, and praying that the building wouldn't collapse before they got out.

Things began to fall around them as they went- wooden support beams, vents, ceiling plaster. An employee's entrance that led to a stairway was blocked and Marissa got a glimpse through the small window present a gaunt face. It was like the world slowed down temporarily, ironically. This always happened in dramatic moments in movies. It was a woman, but her face was... not normal. The skin had shrivelled on her face, making her look skeletal and her eyes.... Where there should have been eyeballs, there were empty sockets. Her mouth was open as if in a scream as she somehow seemed to watch Marissa and Lincoln run past. Marissa's heart thudded as she watched the 'woman' almost seem to sigh. Then, time sped up again.

Lincoln, who has longer legged than Marissa, was the first to reach the opposite side of the building. Marissa was close behind him, mainly because they hadn't let go of other hands. Lincoln was the first to let go and got down on a knee and cupped his hands together. Marissa looked up at the wall they needed to get over and took a few steps back. Without saying a word to each-other, Marissa ran at Lincoln, placed her foot in his cupped hands and pushed up, allowing the extra momentum from Lincoln to get her to the top of the wall. She grabbed the ledge and pulled herself the rest of the way up. Straddling the wall, she waited for Lincoln to make his running start and half ran up the wall, wincing when his bad knee hit the concrete hard. Marissa reached down and grabbed his hand as he ran up and winced when she had his full weight. Using both hands, Marissa worked to pull Lincoln up the wall to the point where he could grab the ledge and pull himself up properly. She grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and helped him up as he straddled the wall as well. The two of them sat there, breathing hard. They watched as the buildings started to fall inwards towards the street. Eyes wide, they watched as the buildings fell and the sounds of fearful cries filled the air.

As the first building collapsed, a wave of cement, dirt, dust, and pieces of glass flew into the air and created a wave like effect. Lincoln saw it coming before Marissa did and without thinking, grabbed her arm and hooked his leg around hers and threw them off the wall, landing behind it and avoiding the worst of the building collapse.

Marissa landed on her stomach and felt the air leave her lungs. She heaved and she tried to breathe, vision going blurry as the world around her shook as the buildings fell. She managed to cover her head with her arms as debris fell around them. She couldn't move anything below her chest out of pain, the fall having taken it out of her with her air. She managed to look to the side to see Lincoln on his stomach, eyes closed and nose bleeding. She reached for him and tried to move towards him but there was a ripping, fiery pain in her leg. She let out a scream and stopped moving, pressing her head to the ground as she tried to blink back the tears of pain. She gritted her teeth and looked up again, struggling to breathe as she looked behind her and at her leg.

At some point, a sharp piece of metal had sliced into her shin and appeared to be pinning her leg to the ground. She gagged at the sight of it. Turning her attention away from it, she looked to Lincoln.

"Lin.. Linco..." Marissa rasped, trying to get his attention. "Lincoln..." She moved her left arm a fraction of an inch towards him but the pain that flared from her chest into arm was too much. Her arm fell to the ground and Marissa looked to the sky. Just before she passed out, a shadow fell across her face and Marissa let the darkness roll over before she could feel anymore.