They didn't have a good way to track time while they were traveling through the underground passage but if Marissa were to have a guess, it had taken them at least three days to go from one side to the other. The only way she could guess that was by the way her feet hurt, the fact that they had stopped at least twice to get some sleep and the biggest factor of all, was the smell of sweat that rolled off the five of them. It was pongy, making Marissa's nose hurt from the smell. She could not wait until they were in fresh air. The sour stench of five unclean people was enough to make her wish for home again, where at least she would be able to shut herself off from smelly people.

And it was only a little bit disappointing that when they did make it out, the air smelt just as wicked as it had when they were underground. As they stepped out of the tunnel and could see the sky and the stars, they all breathed in and regretted it immediately.

"Cor blimey, what the hell is that smell?" Lincoln pegged his nose. Marissa gagged. Ellie Rae was stood behind her, hand over her mouth. She was looking around, taking it all in. She stopped when she looked at Daniel, concern etched into her face.

"Daniel?"

"Somethings wrong." He muttered. He flicked his torch off and grabbed his gun, finger on the trigger. Marissa swallowed deeply and held her breath, trying not to breathe in what she was smelling. She knew that smell. So did Lincoln and Ellie Rae.

It was the smell of a funeral pyre.

Marissa managed to bring out her handgun, heart thudding in her chest. The smell of burned hair and charred flesh did not bring back happy memories. She looked over at Ellie Rae, knowing very well that the last time she had been anywhere even close to a pyre was when her parents died. Marissa took a few steps back to be beside Ellie Rae and placed a hand on her arm. Ellie Rae looked at her and nodded her head, keeping her mouth and nose covered with her hand. Marissa nodded at her in return before moving forward, following Daniel as he stepped into the wider surrounding area.

The further they got from the building they emerged from, the more they saw that they wish that hadn't seen.

There was clear evidence of a fight, a combination of unknowns with gang insignias burned into their skin and soldiers with the golden emblem on their uniforms lying dead on the ground. There were fires everywhere, some dying down, some alight on the bodies of those dead. Marissa stopped right before a dead solider who had an arrow through their throat. She knelt to turn the body over and gagged again when she saw that the body was not quite a body anymore. The skin was leathery and blackened, clinging to the skeleton as though anything of substance had been drained out of her. Marissa took a quick step back and surveyed the area.

"Uh, guys? What the hell?" Lincoln called from a few feet over. He was looking at a similar situation. "What the hell happened?"

"I... I don't know." Daniel picked up one of the patches off the ground. "This was Pancholi's territory. They must have been hit first and they worked their way through to us." Marissa stepped over another body and came to stand by him. He had the gold emblem in his hand. Marissa held her hand out to him and he passed it to her without question. She looked it over and sighed.

"Where does this come from?"

"The Citadel. They're the self-appointed, self-righteous bastards who decided to take control of everything a while ago. They are the most well-established place in the continent." He huffed. Marissa frowned and took it back from Daniel and turned it over in her hand.

"If they are so well-established, how have we never heard of them?" He looked startled when she said that.

"What do you mean?"

"She means, we've never heard of the Citadel. Ever." Lincoln came up beside Marissa, looking a tad green in the fiery light.

"You must have been quite isolated then, to have never heard of them. They were the ones who ran the gang negotiations. And monitored who came in and out of the Expanse. Basically they run our lives."

"Obviously their power doesn't extend much further than The Expanse."

"Clearly they thought we weren't a problem so they didn't get involved in our lives." Ellie Rae said through her hand. Her voice was muffled but they got the just of what she said. Marissa nodded. They all looked at Jax who pulled a face and shrugged.

"I've lived underground my entire life. Pretty sure the only time I saw those guys was when I was breaking into places I shouldn't have been." Daniel frowned and went to say something but Ellie Rae shook her head at him. She removed her hand from her mouth long enough to mouth the word 'later' and he shut his mouth, refraining from whatever it was he was going to ask.

"As pleasant as this place is, if we stay here any longer, I'm going to be sick and turn to vegetarianism. So can we go? Now? Please?" Jax queried. Marissa nodded her head eagerly, keen to get out of this place. Daniel stared around for a few more silent moments; eyes unseeing as he looked out on the masses of dead bodies.

It was Ellie Rae who got his attention. With her free hand, she came over to him and gently grabbed a hold of his hand. He jumped slightly at the touch but visibly relaxed when he realized it was Ellie Rae. She looked at him with wide eyes and tugged at his hand, pulling him away from the masses and onto the path that would hopefully lead them out.

"So where do we go now?" Marissa asked, mouth dry. All of this... For what? What would be the cause for such destruction?

And the more she thought about it, the more only one answer came forward.

"We go to the Citadel." Lincoln said, as if reading her mind. She looked up at him and his face was grim. He looked down at Marissa and she nodded.

"As much as I love this whole planning thing we have going on here, I would really, really appreciate not smelling what we're smelling. I would rather go back to smelling us than this." Jax was grimacing. "Because I am going to hurl."

"Daniel, which way to get out of here?" Marissa asked. He took no notice of her, his jaw set as he looked around at the dead. Marissa looked at Ellie Rae who tugged at him again.

"We need to go." She said quietly. He looked at her and for a moment, said nothing before sighing and nodding his head.

"You're right. We go this way." He pointed to his right. "That should get us out of here and get us to a safe place we can rest for the night." He squeezed Ellie Rae's hand and she let him go, allowing him to take the lead. Marissa came to stand by Ellie Rae, narrowly avoiding standing in a person's skull.

"So, do you trust him?" She asked Ellie Rae. She was like a lie detector and Marissa knew that after this encounter, Ellie Rae would know whether to trust Daniel. Ellie Rae watched him quietly before looking at Marissa.

"Yes." Simple. Straight to the point. Marissa nodded her head and readjusted her gun.

"Let's go then." It didn't take them long to catch up to the boys. Lincoln and Jax had been walking more slowly than Daniel, waiting for them to catch up. They followed behind Daniel, weapons at the ready. Even though everything appeared to be dead, there was no knowing what else could be out there.

They walked slowly, Daniel shining his torch on the ground as they walked. Even though the fires that burned around them lit up the environment, that extra bit of light helped them wind their way out and towards what looked like a bridge, leading directly into the Expanse. Daniel stopped at the beginning of the bridge and narrowed his eyes towards the horizon. The sun was beginning to rise.

"I guess now is as good a time as any to cross over?" Marissa asked him, confused as to why he had stopped. Daniel shook his head.

"No. We need it to be pure daylight to cross the bridge. The thing has worn down over the years. When the sun comes up properly, we cross." Marissa frowned.

"That doesn't make any sense when we have torches." Daniel looked back at her and cocked an eyebrow.

"You really want to be responsible for your friends' deaths when they miss their step and tumble into the water below, never to be seen again?" Marissa put her tongue in her cheek, choosing not to answer. The only words that were begging to come out of her mouth were sarcastic and unhelpful. She huffed and Daniel looked back towards the bridge. "Take a few hours to rest. I'm going to go scope out the area and see if I can see anything." He pointed to a dilapidated building close to the bridge. It still had its roof intact and would keep them hidden for the few hours.

Daniel didn't say anything. He just turned around and disappeared in the direction they had come from, gun at the ready. The remaining four watched him go.

"Who died and left him in charge?" Lincoln snorted as Daniel disappeared around the corner.

"I have no idea but he's awfully bossy." Marissa rolled her shoulders back. "Come on, we better get in that building before he comes back and shoots us for being dis-ordinate." Jax snorted. She didn't have to look at Ellie Rae to see the look of disappointment on her face.

"He's just trying to do his job." She said as they walked. Jax turned around to look at her, walking backwards as he did so.

"That doesn't mean we need him to boss us around. We have Marissa for that." Marissa feigned shock. She pressed a palm to her chest and shook her head.

"Jax, I am hurt. And it's called leadership skills." Lincoln tilted his head back and laughed.

"Yeah, sure. Is that what we're calling it now?"

"It is if you don't want to be shot in the leg again!" He rolled his eyes, still laughing. Ellie Rae sighed like an old mother hen but was clearly amused. Her eyes twinkled a little when she looked at Marissa and said,

"I wonder how my beaver is doing." Marissa was confused for a short moment before groaning and face palming her gun to her head.

"The bloody thing has probably peed everywhere!"

"Bags not cleaning it up when we get home." Despite the sombre moment that came with the connotation of home, Marissa couldn't help but laugh.

"You did say you wanted new carpet in the lounge- its' pee should be dry by the time we get back." Ellie Rae groaned. "That's not what you meant?"

"Nooo." They made it to the building that Daniel had told them to go to, still laughing and joking around the beaver and the fact that they would probably need to either chuck the carpet or cause a flood and deal with water damage instead of animal piss. Lincoln and Jax were clearing glass off the floor as the entered the small building and the four of them sat on the floor in a circle, finally realizing how tired and sore they were.

"How's the leg?" Jax asked, poking Marissa's foot. She made a noise. It hadn't been in the forefront of her mind the entire time they had been going, adrenaline too pumped up in her veins to notice any aches.

"Stingy. Still attached. How's the throat?" There were some bruises around his throat that had appeared from when Tavvy had grabbed him by the throat. By the looks of them, she was surprisingly strong. Jax rubbed his neck.

"Honestly not that bad. I've had worse, only from much more... enjoyable situations." He wiggled his eyebrows. They groaned as he continued to do that, Ellie Rae covered her eyes to prevent hearing him say anymore.

"That is too much information, my guy. Far too much."

"This coming from the guy who blew up my car, I will make you listen to any story I tell and you will take it." Jax unhooked his bag from his shoulders and leaned back on it. His stomach growled, starting off a chain reaction of everyone's' stomachs growling in response.

"Who had the food bag originally?" Lincoln asked. They all looked at him pointedly. "What? Mar made me take the caffeine pills and we divided up the food!" He made an o shape with his mouth as he realized. Taking his bag off his back, he opened it up and pulled out some jerky and the caffeine pills. Marissa gave a small laugh and did the same, pulling her bag off and opened it and got her own food. Everyone did. And it was Ellie Rae who was eyeing up the caffeine pills. Marissa grabbed the bottle and moved it out of her line of sight.

"I don't think you'll need those just yet."

"Yet?" Ellie Rae inquired, smiling as she opened a can of soup and opened it up. "Are you telling me that I might need to go off my rocker again?"

"I'm saying we might need to take them to keep ourselves awake if we're going to go through that ridiculous place." Marissa chewed her food. Ellie Rae pulled a face.

"Last time I had those pills, I felt like that one time someone decided to make their own booze and I went off my rocker." Marissa choked as she recalled that moment. Jax looked over at them.

"Someone say booze?" Ellie Rae grinned and began to retell the story of how one of the neighbours of their little home had decided to try and make moonshine.

The only trouble was, instead of making the moonshine from the recipe they had found, it had ended up as a concoction of energy drinks from the previous years. Ellie Rae and Marissa had been fourteen at the time- very naïve. Ellie Rae had been the one to eagerly take a sip. Marissa and feigned drinking it.

They both got grounded regardless of who did and who didn't drink it. They very quickly became ungrounded though- Ellie Rae's parents died shortly after so that put a big damn hole in their lives. But it was hilarious when they found out that it wasn't alcohol but a poor concoction of home brew sugar filled drinks with caffeine (which was not disclosed to them on how it was sourced).

"Well, if we ever find ourselves back at my workshop, I'll introduce ya'll to the Darren Special. It's good stuff. Cleans your insides." Lincoln stopped mid-chew to give him a look. Jax grinned. "Really good when you're constipated."

"And I think I've had enough food." Lincoln swallowed the jerky that was in his mouth, grimacing at Jax. Ellie Rae yawned and stretched her arms over her head.

"I might have a nap." She rubbed her eyes when she was done yawning. Marissa nodded, feeling the fatigue settling in.

"We have a few hours, right?" Jax nodded. "Do we want someone to keep watch or should we just screw it and if we die, we die?"

"Solid plan. I can roll with that." Lincoln stretched out on the ground and propped his head on his bag. He closed his eyes and was softly snoring within minutes. Marissa rolled her eyes and pushed her bag against the wall under the old windowsill. There was a cool breeze flowing in and by situating herself under it, her face wasn't getting cold but the rest of her body was able to stay cool. She felt like she was on fire and her leg was starting to burn a bit more now. Their brief periods of rest in the tunnel wasn't enough to help her body heal. Her ribs hurt as well. She closed her eyes briefly, only to open them to see Jax getting himself into a similar position as her. She smiled as she closed her eyes.

"Don't get too comfortable, I've been told I don't make a great pillow." Jax snorted and she felt him kick her foot.

"There's only one person I would want as a pillow and right now? I'm not sure I'll ever get to have that pillow again." Marissa cracked her eyes open again and turned her head to look at Jax. He was staring at the ceiling, face sombre. She reached over and squeezed his hand.

"Riley will be okay. And I know this because Riley's a smart kid." Jax looked over at her.

"You think so?"

"I know so. Only smart people spend all their time blushing at you."

"Jeez, you must be real stupid then." Marissa shoved him and chuckled. "Thanks, Mar."

"For what?"

"Being reassuring. It's nice to not have to reassure myself that things are going to be okay." Marissa took a deep breath and thought for a moment. She had never always been the most optimistic person out there but if there was one thing she had always known to hold on to, it was hope.

"Hold on to hope. Hope and faith that everything will work out is all we can." There was no response from Jax.

And a few moments later, Marissa allowed herself tofall into the darkness of sleep.