It's Dangerous Business

The clock was showing 02:14 as Miles still rolled around in his bed, not finding any sleep at all. After a lot of sighing and turning he turned on the lights and got out of the bed. The room was quite hot and so he opened up a window. Fresh, cold air waved in as he enjoyed the small breeze on his face. The city streets had got awfully quiet though, as no human was to be seen on the walkways nor cars on the road. Strange... From what he knew the city could be just sleeping or taking safety measures concerning the zombie apocalypse. Miles sighed again, turned off the lights and went back to his bed. He thought about the meeting they would have this day. Will Piero even be there? What if he saw on the news that there's all that shit going on? But then again, Chicago wasn't hostile yet so. The man hoped the Piero really had the answer, for he actually doubted it. If only there had been a hundred percent confirmation. They could've called him, could've warned him about their visit. But now Miles just had to lead the way and see them to arrive there. Miles shook his head and looked over at the clock again. 02:45. "What the?" he mumbled, thinking time went faster than he liked. But then again, ain't it always? He grabbed his hair in annoyance and then tried to lie in a comfortable position he then chuckled, "oops the lights..." and so he turned them off. The man almost finally was asleep when a few sounds were heard from the outside. "Oh come on!" he grunted, pulling the pillow over his head. Suddenly a scream and a gunshot was heard and Miles couldn't ignore that. What in the world was going on? As he located himself in front of the window again he saw a female running away with another man hand in hand. When he tried to locate what they were running from he couldn't believe his eyes. It seemed a few 'zombies' made their way into town, and here the rest is all sleeping. "Damn!" he hissed now turning on the lights again and grabbing his gun and sword. Clothes were pulled on and he then opened the door. Should he awake the rest of them? Will they be harmed? It seemed safer that he just provided a bit of a lookout for any other snitches trying to get into the hotel. Street roamers wouldn't be exactly a threat. With this thought he ran downstairs and the receptionist was outside probably looking for the sound she might have heard earlier as well. "Ma'am I strongly suggest you come back inside." Miles already said, grabbing her arm. "Something wrong?" she asked confused while Miles slammed the door shut and looked around for something to barricade it with. "No, nothing at all!" he said sarcastic. "You can help me moving these couches up to the door now." and so they did.
"Let's hope they really don't get inside now." he mumbled, pulling out his gun and guarding the door. "Miss, take your evening off and sleep somewhere in one of the rooms, I don't think you might get any sleep any time sooner." the woman shakily nodded and took one of the keys from the counter and took the lift. Miles now was secretly grateful he couldn't find any of his precious sleep. Al tough his friends their life's are now, kind of, in his hands. "As soon as none of these buggers find their way in."

The evening had been a very chummy and delightful one so far, Bridget was more than enjoying her friend's company for she hadn't talked to anyone close in a very, very long time. In fact, the last time she had talked about her feelings and other more intimate things had been two weeks before she had decided to get her tattoo done. She had been talking to her best friend Sarah but then again this was the other life, her life as a nurse, which she was actually still living at the very moment. Or was she?
"Something wrong?" asked Rubi slightly drunk and took another sip out of the bottle.
"Nah," Bridget shook her head and smiled, grabbing the Tequila and emptying it in one gulp. "I was just thinking."
"I see" responded her friend and immediately layed down on the bed, her arms crossed behind her head while she pulled her socks off with her feet which looked rather awkward considering she was hulf drunk and had slight difficulties in coordinating her muscles.
"My god, I can't look at this" exclaimed Bridget laughing, before she stripped the pair of socks off and threw them on the ground, leaving a giggling Rubi who was playfully moving her released toes. "That's better."
"You got a foot fetish?" asked Rubi, with her eyebrows raised high and a somewhat disgusted look.
"God no! Well, actually..." the woman with the eyepatch responded and started laughing again. "Why are we even talking about that?! It was a nice evening with high-class conversations until you started your strip show!"
"Me?! Who started undressing in front of me all of a sudden?" gasped Rubi, overly theatrical and then burping loudly afterwards, leaving a destroyed atmosphere in the room.
"Pig..." mumbled Bridget, still smirking cheekily, and then took off her watch and got up to put it on the little desk next to the window before she threw herself back on the bed, causing Rubi to almost fall out.
"EARTHQUAKE!" said killer suddenly yelled and rolled around like a lunatic before she bumped against Bridget's head and both friends cried out in pain before it changed over into laughing out loudly. The black haired woman faced Bridget directly now and there weren't more than five inches between their faces anymore. The nurse could literally feel Rubi's soft breath on her skin and her glassy eyes stared right into her mind. What was she thinking? Did she feel the passion between them, the lust, the longing, the love?
Bridget grabbed Rubi's hand and dragged it closer to her chest making her friend feel her fast heartbeat. They had been staring into each other's eyes for a few minutes now and the longer they stared the more intense Bridget's heart was beating. She felt like it was going to jump out of her chest any minute, bumping into Rubi's beautiful face and causing her to fall out of the bed once again.
Bu'dump, bu'dump, bu'dump.
As Rubi was starting to lick her lips, Bridget couldn't hold it in any longer, her head snapped into her friend's direction and an intense and intimate kiss between the two was shared. It lasted a few minutes, minutes in which Bridget didn't feel or think anything at all, she merely lived the moment and put all her passion into that one single action.
As the two calmly backed off, none of them said anything at all. Rubi even moved back a bit and they almost simultaneously started blinking heavily as if coming back from a state of trance.

A few gunshots were heard and Raylan thought at first it was in his dream, when he slowly opened his eyes and realized it was happening outside he slowly got out of bed and went to the window. What he saw there was something he never expected to see. Zombies, still not hordes but they were roaming the streets that's for sure. "Shit." Raylan turned around and turned on the lights. Raylan just chuckled in his mind when he heard the duo grunting and Richard even moaning that he should turn the lights off. "No, no can't do," he answered picking up his clothes and got dressed. "Not if you wanna be eaten by one of those useless zombie things." he continued, now feeling quite satisfied when he put his hat on his head yet again. "What?" Elena said, while she tried to get out of the arms of Richard whom just held her tighter. "No, no probably something to get us out of bed with, Don't go now just- Whoa!" Richard got dragged out of bed by Raylan and he put them in front of the window. "Does that look like a joke?" he hissed, now looking over to an amazed Richard whom waved to Elena of signing she must see this too. She gasped and after that two gunshots were heard. Two zombies on the street fell down with a head shot and Raylan thought it was time to join whomever was already down there. "You two make yourselves ready and the duo nodded.
Raylan ran through the hallway when suddenly he realized he should wake up the rest of his companions. "Oh God which numbers where they in. Rubi!!? Isabela!?" he already knocked on some doors but he didn't got any answers. "Damn," he sighed. "Piers! Bridget!" he continued just running through when a door opened and Piers stood there. "Can you just calm down? Have you been drinking or what!?" he said to Raylan. "No, I just want you to shut up and rendezvous with us downstairs. We've got a situation here." the man in the hat said and Piers frowned then closed the door and from what Raylan could hear he was hurrying himself. One down four. to go. "MILES!" he then yelled harder than before, not knowing he was already battling the creatures downstairs. He knocked on Piers' door again whom opened it with a sigh, "I am hurrying!" he hissed and he was about to close the door. "Hold up! Where are the others sleeping?" "Numbers 108 and 109 not so hard now is it." and Piers slammed the door when also a female voice was heard from the inside, Isabela must've been there. Raylan rolled his eyes and went up to the doors with the required numbers.
"Bridget! Open up! Just open the door dammit!" and he knocked the door with force but no one opened. "Good gracious!" and he then kicked the door and turned on the lights. "No one?" and he looked around and saw a few stuff lying around that was Miles' "Miles?" no answer. "Right, then 108 is left." he mumbled, now knocking on this door. "Wow Raylan are you on a dead march!?" Bridget said when she only had a t-shirt on and an underwear. "No, I am not but surely the creatures downstairs are." "What are you talking about?" and Rubi joined with the same 'outfit' as Bridget. "Zombies on the street, now get ur asses down there if you want to stay alive." he then demanded and the duo looked at each other shocked. "Sir, yes sir." Rubi joked and Bridget closed the door and then laughter was heard. Raylan also chuckled a bit and then ran downstairs.
"Ah! Figured when one of you was going to show up," Miles said with a relief, looking over to the street again where five of them already lied dead in front of the doors. "I thought, let's barricade this shit up." Raylan nodded in approval and got his gun ready. "You empty yet?" he asked Miles and he shook his head. "Got nine rounds left in this one plus fourteen in my spare magazine." again the man with the hat nodded and took his place the opposite of Miles. "You woke the rest?" He asked. "Yeh, I did." Raylan answered, while wondering how these things got out just the night they had to be here. "They're coming done in a few minutes." "Good, we should then shoot a few of them down and hurry the hell over to that madman." Raylan agreed while he successfully entered a bullet in the head of one of the zombies.

"Trouble?" Isabela asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up on the bed.
"I guess. Although ... all of them are trouble anyways, our "friends" as well as the zombies, if you ask me," Piers answered somewhat grumpy but as Isabela chuckled over his tone of voice and little joke, he smiled a little himself. He grabbed his gun and threw Isabela's bag in her direction. The female soldier caught it easily and took out some fresh clothes she had taken with her from the camp, before they had left. She threw herself in them, knowing a shower would be too much to ask for and readied her holster and gun.
"Downstairs?"
"Yeah. Raylan ran in here all hasty and anxious, saying something about zombies."
"I wonder if BSAA soldiers are gonna show up?" she asked, more to herself than to Piers. He just shrugged and they both headed down the stairs. Luckily Piers had the better sense of coordination and they found the exit quickly. Raylan and Miles were already there, holding guns ready and shooting at upcoming zombies. There were more than Isabela had thought. She cussed silently, aimed and fired her first shot. It hit the zombie in the head and he dropped dead on the cold street. It had started to rain lightly and they heard thunder in the distance, as well as an ambulance and a police car.
"Zombies here, too?" Isabela asked, shooting another shot.
"Obviously," Miles answered, loading his heavy gun. Piers, right next to Isabela, fired a shot, too. Her ears rang from the loud sound.
"Any signs of BSAA soldiers?"
"Not yet, but there's a bunch of police cars coming up."
"Uh! One just drove over a zombie! Awesome!" Miles exclaimed and Raylan shook his head, smiling amused.
"What's going on here, Sir?" one of the police men, who had stepped out of one of the cars, asked them as he was approaching the little group.
"I've heard gunshots and looked out the window, seeing those zombies chasing after a couple, so I came down to help them, y'know ... being a nice guy," Miles joked with the officer who didn't move a single muscle in his face and just stared back at him through his glasses. He moved his hat a little and blinked at Raylan for having the same kind. Raylan smiled friendly. "Nice hat."
The officer shook his head. "You have a license for these guns?"
Piers and Isabela showed him their badges which reassured the man that they were soldiers, he nodded approvingly. Miles had a badge to show as well, a carrying permit. Raylan had none ... well, he used to, in his former life. He sighed.
"Come on. We're shooting zombies, not people. Well ... not really. They're no people anymore, right?"
"Well, new gun control rules from our dear president, Obama."
Somebody behind them spit out - Rubi had joined them. "Yah, see? I told you guys that guy was a looser!"
The police man seemed to like that and grinned, nodding at her. Rubi liked him already.
"I'll pretend to look the other way, so you're good kid," he then decided on Raylan and got back in the car. The other police men were checking the corpses and secured the area. Some called for back up and ambulances and spread the news of the zombies having arrived in Chicago.

They've hurried after Raylan had showed up before their door, all out of breath and anxious. Bridget said it had to be serious, although Rubi was tempted to stay in their room and get another bottle of Tequila from somewhere. The blond woman had just chuckled over Rubi's never ending thirst for alcohol and fun and persuaded her into getting dressed - although she kinda disliked that part herself - and now here they were. Locked and loaded. Ready to help. Just that the threat has been eliminated already. Fortunately it had just been a little wave of about ten zombies that had approached the hotel.
"They'd have never bothered us had you not tried to play the hero, Miles!" Rubi exclaimed, stemming her hands against her waist.
"You, ma'am are drunk. Now tell me again why I should listen to you, deary?"
Rubi just made a grunt and blew a few hair strands out of her face. Her hair was a mess, well ... so was she, after all.
Bridget nudged her side and shook her head in amusement.
"You got it under control?" she asked Raylan and Miles. Elena and Richard finally caught up to them, too.
"Yup, seems like it. The police men are here now to secure everything, so we should be save for the rest of the night. As should the hotel," he answered and told them to wait while he was gonna go look for the hotel lady, to tell her that the situation was clear and safe.
"So zombies here, too, ay?" Elena joined in, looking at the corpses on the street.
Nobody said anything, they all knew - if the BSAA guys didn't hurry, who knew what would happen to the rest of the US and the world.
And they had to get to Piero, soon. Real soon. Maybe he also knew a way to take the virus back? Rubi was a realist, neither a pessimist nor optimist. And quite frankly, she didn't care what happened to the world. But for the first time in her life, she had something worth fighting for. Worth living for.
She looked at Bridget next to her, who was looking out at the street, like the others. A breeze was making her messy, blond hair dance a little.
Rubi smiled the slightest and took her hand gently, looking out at the scene before them with her.

The sun had been starting to rise slowly and mist spreaded through the streets, making it hard to spot any other possible opponents. Police and ambulence sirenes still echoed through the empty streets, a single scream here and there. The very typical zombie apocalypse ambience.
A few people from the hotel had gathered behind them in front of the reception already, others were walking up and down the stairs, waiting for the escort team to pick them up while Isabela had been busy to explain to them why it took the BSAA so long to arrive for a couple of minutes now. She had promised them she would stay for as long as a rescue squad would appear because it was her duty as a BSAA soldier.
"You regret it already?" asked Piers quietly, leaning against the open door and guarding the hotel together with the rest of the group.
"Regret what?" Isabela responded as she walked up to him and left her protegés with the woman from the reception. Miles smiled at the BSAA soldier as he realized they were starting a conversation and he left both of them by the door, headed to another one of the windows where the rest of the group had gathered.
"Telling them you'd say" explained Piers and crossed his arms, looking down on Isabela.
"No, I promised. We can't just-"
"We had that debate before, Isabela. We agreed that we wouldn't care about people unless it was absolutely necessary. And I don't see how this is anything urgent. We have contacted the team several times now, they're on their way."
"Yes but what if there's another hord of zombies out there? There are children here, Piers. We can't just leave them to their fate. That's not our job."
"Our job, Isabela, is to find out what those folks are talking about and I'm pretty sure I wanna know how to stop this mess once and for all as much as you do."
Isabela looked to the ground and shook her head, sighing. She turned around to look at the group of hotel guests, most of them had sat down on the stairs, the sofas in the lobby or the ground by now. Then she looked back up to Piers.

Richard was glad the street was a bit empty. This gave him some time to think and see where the rest of the group was. Bridget and Rubi were in the lobby of the hotel, good safe. Elena, where was she? A shock went through his body but then he saw her helping some of the people whom got hurt over to some ambulances. Safe too that's very good. Richard smirked. Raylan was talking to some cops along with Miles and The two mercenaries were, from what it seemed like, in an argument. The man sighed for he looked over to a street which wasn't barricaded yet. Still, he couldn't believe this was his doing. He must pull through, and also give it an ending. He must take action, now. He ran through a few streets over to where he parked the van. But then, of course, it was all barricaded by police and firemen. "Excuse me, sir?" he asked to a cop whom examined him from head to toe. "Whaddaya want?" he exclaimed, very rude. "My van, it's parked in this underground parking lot, can I-" "No you can't" The policemen said becoming more grumpy. Without further a due, Richard didn't question him. He instead looked around if he could go around them, avoid them. He saw a building which was actually above the parking lot, which meant there must be a door towards it. He ran inside and it luckily was emptied by the police. Although they still were patrolling for people whom were left behind. Richard chuckled, this meant he had to sneak past them and that always made him think of these epic video games. Whilst he was tip-toeing through the hallways, he only had to avoid one simple policemen. He went down through the stairways and found the sign 'parking lot.' As happy as Richard was by this, he still had to avoid the barricades... maybe drive through them. "dammit!" he hissed to himself, opening the door and seeing two policemen in front of it, with the back to him. Richard got out his gun and looked at it, rolled his eyes and slammed it against one of the police patrols. The other one looked up and he made a gasp aiming the gun at Richard whom shot him in the leg. "I'm sorry!" he said with guilt while he also took the magazines and other guns from them. "I really am" and with a final look on the policeman grabbing his leg in pain, he ran to the van.
Once inside he made a big sigh, looking at the barricade. He hoped the van will make in through. Richard turned on the car and pushed the pedal. A loud noise was heard and the car moved almost at it's full speed. The grumpy policeman from before looked behind him and saw the white van coming closer. "Everybody move away! Look out!" Richard heard him yell, only pushing the pedal in further. He closed his eyes ready for the impact while he boasted through the barriers. "GET AFTER HIM!" the policeman yelled. But everybody was too much in shock to care so Richard chuckled in his success. He drove back to the hotel and pulled over. "Hey everybody! Get a move on already!" He yelled when everybody stared at him. "Richard what the!?" Elena said already running over, whilst the others were just staring. "Come on! Peiro ain't gonna help us if we aren't there now is he!?" and so Raylan, Rubi, Miles and Bridget also moved over to the van, however, Isabela and Piers seemed to have second thoughts. "You comin'!?" Richard yelled while the whole street still stared at him like he was crazy.

Why was she helping these people?! She didn't even know them, they didn't know her. If they did, they would probably look down on her, like they always did. Judge her. Abuse her.
She lowered her head, staring at the ground for a moment or two, noticing how clean it was despite the zombie attack. Guess they had done a pretty good job of protecting it, she smiled a little over the thought and lifted her head again. She looked straight at Piers for a few seconds, who was still intently looking at her.
Then she let her eyes wander through the lobby. The woman behind the counter making calls, police men trying to calm everyone down and keep order, parents soothing their children, couples holding each other. They all had one thing in common - they were scared. All of them.
Maybe that's all it took. All they needed to be, for good people to save them, despite all their flaws.
A loud crash, honk and screaming however, pulled Isabela out of her thoughts and prevented her from thinking any further.
"Richard! What the heck! And I thought Rubi was the only crazy bitch in the group!" Isabela exclaimed, granting herself an evil look from the mentioned crazy bitch who just jumped into the little bus. Bridget laughed but Isabela could barely hear her over the shouting police men and the babbling that had started in the lobby.
"You comin?!"
Isabela glanced at Piers, who looked around just as nervously as herself, just hiding it a little better - just not from her.
She smiled lightly and grabbed him by the arm. "Well, here's our chance."
Without a comment he let her drag him after her and get on the bus.
Without further hesitation Richard punched the gas, shooting through the police men.
"Can we shoot them?"
"No! No shooting them!"
"But sir!"
Rubi, who had overheard the police men's argument somehow, grinned and shook her head. Only Bridget, who sat next to her, knew of whom she was thinking and grinned as well.
A few minutes later, they were on a highway, heading to Piero.

"That was pretty cool, man! I guess you do have balls after all!" Rubi grunted, patting Richard on the back.
"Sit back down, you crazy bitch," Richard counter attacked, grinning.
Rubi just snorted and spit out the window before heading back to her seat next to Bridget, who was looking out the window.
"We there yet?" Raylan asked, looking around as well.
They've gotten off the highway after the second exit, where it said it would lead them to a more isolated part of Chicago. Rubi had only been here once on a mission, a contract. She had not the slightest idea where they were. But then, she usually didn't anyways. She was a good shot, that's all she needed to be.
"I don't know," Miles mumbled, his face hidden behind a big map that he twisted and turned all the time, making Isabela a little sick as she was watching. She didn't like long car rides.
Piers didn't seem to mind. He didn't seem to mind anything ... But he did give her a little smile.
"What, you don't know ... man you drove us through a bunch of police men who are now probably forwarding us to a Marshal or something, I have to know, remember?" Raylan answered, looking over Miles shoulder.
"Let's try this place. Seems like it could lead us to Piero."
"Looks ... grunchy ..." Bridget commented.
Outside the windows they saw a small, narrow dark street they were driving on, people just as dark as it, walking on it, around it, running across the streets, not caring if a car was approaching.
Richard shook his head over the behavior and honked his horn a lot.
A few gamblers and beggars were sitting at the sidewalk, begging for coin or drugs, cigarettes and other unhealthy addictions.
"Maybe we would be faster on foot?" Elena suggested.
"I'm not too sure we wanna be on that street ..."
"Well we are, technically," Rubi commented. "But we are in a bus, which is ... convenient."
She saw several people carrying knives, baseball bats and guns with them.
"Hey! What's that!" Richard asked, pulling over and stopping at the sidewalk which showed a worn down, hardly readable sign.
"Piero's elixi ... elixi ... something, elix ... maybe that's his name? Some drug?"
Bridget made a facepalm. "It means elixirs, drinks, potions, you big dummy."
Rubi pulled a sad face.
"How do we know how accurate this sign is?"
"Well, it's the only and best lead we've got," Miles commented, shrugging over his own bad skills of reading a map, which he had thrown on the bus's floor.
"Let's follow it then," Elena mumbled and Richard did as he was told.

The crowd of people was suddenly far behind them, but the street view didn't got any better at all. Pages all around the floor, buildings half burst and caved in. This was a part of Chicago the rest of the group never heard of. But Miles, Isabela and Piers do, since it's their universe. "Well, welcome the sight of a once half fallen city." Miles then said frowning a bit. "Before the good ol' days ended..." he then mumbled a bit. "What happened?" Elena asked quite shocked to see all these buildings and the mess on the street also barricaded doors and streets. "You've been in a zombie apocalypse before here?" she continued asking. "No," Isabela answered. "We did had something else.." she admitted. "Yeh, might sound weird to ya, but have you guys ever heard of the plague?" Richard almost stopped the car in shock and looked over to Miles. "You mean the disease, virus thing?" and Miles nodded. "Broke out this half of the city, good thing we fought it off and it stayed within this part of the city," he sighed. "Who knows what might have happened when it would've spread." "You indeed have no idea..." Bridget mumbled. "Look, over here more signs." and indeed another 'billboard' was shown above a door. "Can it be there!?" Rubi said relieved. "Please let it be there I am sooo sick of driving!" and she already stepped out onto the street. Her footsteps echoed through the empty streets and it looked as even she was scared for a moment. "Why did you never rebuild this part." Richard then asked, shutting down the van and opening the door already. "Governors said it wont be smart, might still be some traces left, he said." "And most of the society of the whole earth agreed to it actually." Piers mentioned, giving everybody a hand whilst they all got out. "So, there might be a chance that we get it?" Richard continued to ask with a worried face. "Might be, who knows. It's quarantine zone. Or whatever you call it." Piers added and then the group set off to the door. The building itself looked rather empty and impossible to live in. Windows were burst and broken, even the place itself looked like it was crumbling down any minute. "Well, from all the places we drove past this must be the worst..." Rubi said kicking against a small wall near their destination, and the wall crumbled and fell over. "Oops..." she said with a tone of innocence in her voice and the rest chuckled a bit. "Got to know your own strength, my dear!" Bridget said, making Rubi slightly blush. Lucky no one saw it for Miles was already knocking on the door. No answer. "You sure he might still be here?" Raylan said looking up, inspecting the windows. "Since you all said it was a quarantine zone?" "Nah, a fellow like Piero is to stubborn to leave. He must be here." and so Miles banged on the door. Raylan however, looked over into a small alleyway and saw a fire escape. "Or we can try via this way?" and he pointed to the stairs. "Genius..." Piers said grinning at Miles whom shrugged. "Isn't that a bit like, not polite at all?" Elena said crossing her arms and then frowned. "Well, he aint opening, I don't see another chance, dear." Miles said and already ran up, but only finding another locked door. "Damn!" and he slammed on the door very hard. "Well, guess knocking is out of the question." Raylan and he kicked the door in. "RAYLAN!" Elena yelled out of disapproval. "Had to be done." he grinned and stepped into the house with a gun in his hands. "Look who's his old self again with his sassy hat." Richard then said and Elena grinned and shook her head. "Come on, let's go in." and the duo followed the group inside the residence of Piero Joplin.

"So you're telling me that there was a legit plague going on around here?" asked Bridget as the group made their way trough the bad-lit house. The big window didn't let much of the sunlight - or what was left of it after the black clouds had gathered in the sky - in, it seemed as if it hadn't been cleaned for months.
As some of the friends tried to find a light switch, Bridget included, she discovered a dusty little counterdesk in the corner, some shelfs and cupboards behind it and on them a few groceries and bottles that looked like they contained medicine in straight rows.
"Yeah," Isabela answered as she somewhat bumped into a standing lamp in the middle of the room, interrupting her answer with a short Ouch. "You wouldn't know. I figure there are lots of things going on in our world that you guys don't know anything about."
"Cheery" said Elena, delivering a possible comment on either the conversation of the two or her finally finding the switch that she carefully pointed her finger on as if she tried to check if the device was current-carrying.
The lights went on and as Bridget looked for the source, she and the group noticed the big and noble-looking chandelier right above them on the high ceiling.
"Now he doesn't exactly seem to be poor" commented Rubi and put her hands against her hips.
"Didn't keep him from leaving" said Piers and Bridget looked up to him, noticing that he went over to the counter she had seen before.
"Huh?" she asked and walked up to him, trying not to knock anything over as she realized that various items, books and strange-looking devices, reminding her of the cyborgs, were scattered all over the ornamented carpet on the floor.
"He left a note," the soldier went on and turned around. "Look for yourself." The rest of the group gathered around the two.

"Gimmi that." Raylan said, trying to rip the paper out of the mercenaries' hand, instead he literally ripped it in two pieces. "Well done..." Miles said annoyed. "okay, gimme the other piece." Raylan also said annoyed. While holding the two pieces of paper together a neat handwriting was seen and Raylan read it out loud. "Dear... Well whomever who will find this," Richard started to frown. "Lately the plague in this part of the city has been taking a toll on all of us here. I might even consider leaving my dear home, even though I am not kicked out so fast... But I feel this house might be coming down too any minute now so I might work on a cure later at my new apartment." Piers nodded in approval and waving his hand to Raylan to read further. "As I might have considered it to myself, I will have myself a wonderful place at Lake Michigan. I always loved to live at a lake..." Now the whole group started to frown. "He really is straightforward is he?" Rubi said sarcastic and rolled her eyes, already started to scavenge the area. "If you supposedly need my assistance, which I really recommend for my genius mind might help you with the problems you have, I've hidden the address somewhere in this apartment." "Oh, no... we're not going to puzzle now are we?" Bridget said annoyed and rubbed her nose. "Shh, hold on here's the clue!" Richard said excited and pumped to investigate. "Read on Raylan!" "Okay. I the basement, if you can still reach it by this time, you will find a piece of paper. You'll actually notice it because it's blank." "... What?" Miles said re-reading the sentence and scratching his head. "Hold on, there's more!" Richard already looked around the house and touched every painting he could find. "In the attic, if you can still reach that as well, you might find some liquid to read what is on this paper." "haha! genius! As if we have time for this!" Piers said and Isabela smacked him on the back with an amused face. "Ah, come on this is actually kinda fun!" "Last but not least," Raylan read on. "The number on the paper might fit a safe where a paper is being held with the exact address which will lead you straight to my house at the wonderful lake. Be careful, this safe it well hidden." "He means this safe?" Richard said opening one of the paintings and Rubi even started to laugh. The rest chuckled. "Well, that's one thing we are less to worry about!" Elena said and patted the male on his shoulder. "Now come on Sherlock, let's see if we can reach the attic." "Alright, Me, Miles, Isabela and Bridget are heading up into the attic." Raylan said, already pointing down to a door that might lead them up . "Alright, good luck to you finding the piece of paper then." "And you with that weird liquid" "Sure thing, see ya in a bit." And the group split up to search for the required items.

"Jesus do we look like we have time for that?" mumbled Rubi while she kicked some pages around the room, tearing books out of the shelves and flipping things over. "I already don't like that guy. How is he supposed to help us anyway?"
Everyone remained silent and Elena rolled her eyes, knowing that Rubi had her I-hate-everything-phase again and that doesn't even want her questions answered. As Richard raised a finger, preparing a response, the reporter put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head with a smile, telling him to keep on searching.
"Okay let's see," she started again and wiped some strands of hair out of her forehead. "Where would you put a piece of paper with clues on it?"
"Well," responded Rubi and walked up to the journalist. "I would probably hide it away from anyone who would try to find it. So they can never find it. Ever." The killer turned around and sat down on the desk in front of the window and sighed angrily.
"So you're in stand-by mode now?" asked Piers as he watched her sit back with his arms crossed.
"Don't" said Elena and shook her head, slowly becoming sick of having to keep her black haired friend calm.
"Look at yourself, I don't exactly see you doing anything either!" Rubi hissed and jumped down off the counter again before she got back to picking the scattered pages up from the floor.
"None of my business anyway" Elena heard the BSAA soldier whispering to himself as he walked into another corner.

Rubi sat back in the same position as before glancing at Piers, whom now tried to calmly look for the paper in the corner he went to. Although Richard actually felt the same. This place was a mess. blank piece of paper? in this paper mess? He could barely see how many papers there were in total. "pff..." This might be the hardest job yet. Suddenly Richard just went down on his knees and started to pick up a pile of papers, going through them. Weirdly enough all the pages he came through all had the same text on it. "The boldest measures are the safest," he said out loud. "What does that mean?" "Man I have no clue!" Rubi hissed and made herself smaller on the chair now placing her foot on it too and clapped her arms around her legs.
"Where is it!" Slowly the group grew more impatient and started to throw piles of papers over to the other side of the room. "Ah man, I guess we need to get through all of them one by one..." Elena sighed. "Are you fucking kidding me!?" Rubi said bouncing her head in frustration between her knees. "Well, sorry Rubi but you are still not a big help." Richard said getting a shrug of Rubi back as a reply. "Okay, why is she not freaking out to you!?" Piers said waving over to Richard whom just stared back as if he was a lunatic. Rubi just sighed and tried to sit comfortable again.
She notices a piece of paper stuck on her boot. "Get off you fucker" and she whipped off the paper. "Hold on." Piers said walking towards Rubi. "Don't you fucking come near me!" she hissed again, looking angrily towards the mercenary. "No, wait." and he bend down picking up a blank page, now with a boot print of Rubi's on it. "The blank page!" he said actually quite relieved and so were the rest of the group. "Alright! One more!" Elena said in a happy mood. "Although it was kind of easy wasn't it?" Richard said. "I thought it would've been harder." "Well, lucky I sat down here then!"

"Guys!" said Elena and went up the stairs enthusiastically with the piece of paper in her hand.
"Jeez... how can she be so happy about a blank page some nut job left us in his... hell what the fuck is this place anyway?!"
Piers rolled his eyes as he passed the temperamental woman and followed Elena and Richard upstairs to regroup with the others. As much as he couldn't understand why Rubi hated him that much he shared the same amout of disgust for this place, or rather the situation. He was hoping that they could just ask Piero about what was happening and then they would find a solution.
He hadn't completely given up about curing the virus yet either, he was still thinking about sounding the scientist on a possible cure, a serum or at least a clue on how to defeat the outbreak or fight back. Anything to keep more people from turning into monsters.
"Had any luck yet?" asked the journalist as she walked up to the others who were seperated all over the first floor. To Piers' surprise it looked a mot more comfortable than the horrid basement. A few more windows allowed the dim sunlight to enlighten the room that was entirely made out of dark wooden planks along with some rusty steel hinges and frames attached with black screws. The soldier assumed it was one of Piero's laboratories hence the amount of desks with different chemicals, test tubes and other experimental devices on them.

"Number, number ... " Isabela mumbled as she rummaged through everything she could find.
The attic was pretty small, therefor easier to search than - according to Rubi's never ending complaints - the basement.
Raylan, Miles and Bridget were doing there best looking around as well, although Rubi's interference pretty much took Bridget out of it, since the black haired killer kept bugging her blond friend if she had looked here yet, or there, or over at the shelf, or under the carpet.
"NUMBER!" Isabela suddenly yelled and clapped once cheerfully, spinning around and holding up a piece of paper, a proud expression on her face.
"That's ... a shopping list," Elena pointed out, who had been leaning against the wall, like Piers.
"Oh, well ... " Isabela turned the paper around to look at it, disappointed.
"Oh God! There!" Bridget exclaimed and snatched the paper out of the soldier's hands.
"Hey!"
"No, look! On the back! He has written the numbers on the back!" Bridget explained further. "Five, nine, seven and one!"
"Good job!" Rubi patted her friend and lover on the back, and pinched her butt, gaining herself a somewhat angry little look from the blond woman. "I am not into pinching." Rubi just shrugged and did it again. Isabela shook her head amused. "Alright, you two. Let's head to the safe."

"What a dumb, fucking way to do things!"
"Hey! Now you sound like Rubi!"
"I cuss better than that!"
"Oh shut up, you three!" Richard snapped over his shoulder as he was driving down the narrow road, trying to get back onto the highway. Miles - again - tries his luck with map-reading, but this time Elena was at his side to help him. At least she could read the names of the streets correctly.
"Well, they are really small, you know!" Miles defended himself, the journalist just patted his shoulder.
"We there yet?" Rubi blurted out.
"You've been asking that every five minutes ever since we got in the damn bus!" Piers grunted.
"Ya? And? Are we there yet?"
The group sighed and kept ignoring the black haired killer, only Bridget patted her leg sympathetically.
"Oh look a deer!" Isabela exclaimed as they drove past a little area with a forest. But just as the others turned to look in enchantment over seeing such a dear creature in a place like that, they saw how someone shot it and ran up to go claim their prey.
Isabela blinked.
Nobody said a thing and went back to what they were doing.
"What a place," the soldier mumbled and leaned her head on Piers' shoulder.

"At least it's not far away," Bridget commented, looking out the window and trying to be of help by reading the street signs and directions. "Look! Right there!" she exclaimed, pointing at the sign they just drove beneath. "Lake Michigan, 2 miles... well ... what the heck?!"
"I told ya that guy was an idiot!"
"Okay, well Lake Michigan is big. We have to follow the address, not just go to the lake," Richard explained as the group was still trying to figure out how to get there.
"Let's just drive around it," Rubi suggested smartly and earned herself a pat on the back from her Bridget.
"That would ... take a while," Miles answered, still reading the map. "It's the biggest lake in the US ... I think."
"Geography," Rubi grunted, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.
"Yup, not your strongest point, for sure," Bridget teased and grinned at her killer, who stuck her tongue out to her. "Watch yourself, I might do something with that tongue."
Piers almost chocked on the sip of water he had out of a bottle and Isabela burst out laughing. The rest seemed to be more used to their friends' behavior.

"Alright. There it is!" Richard yelled happily and woke Bridget up, who had drifted off into a little sleep.
"His house!"
"Quite fancy!"
"Old-fashioned," Rubi commented bluntly.
It was a rather big mansion, made out of wood almost black. It was close to the lake and had a breath-taking view on it, once you drove up the hill, and stopped in front of the house's main door. Richard parked the bus and they all got out. It was almost night now.
"I have to pee," Rubi snorted.
"There, pee behind this tree, I will keep watch," Bridget said, almost like a mother to a child. Rubi rolled her eyes.
"But I have nothing to ... you know, I can't just ..."
"Ah, that's no biggie. Here!" Isabela handed the friend a bag of tissues. Rubi started at it for a moment or two, as if she had never seen such a thing before, then smiled and disappeared behind the tree.
"Shall we go on?"
"Let's knock this time!" Elena exclaimed loudly, her arms crossed before her chest, bending over to Miles, who just gave her an innocent smile.
"Wait for me!" Rubi shouted and ran back up to the group.
"All good, lil sweetie?" Bridget teased and earned herself a punch on the shoulder.
Piers meanwhile had gone up the few stairs and knocked on the big door. Everyone waited excitedly ...

They have been waiting for almost half a minute now though nobody said a thing. Some birds were singing there songs in the distance and the wind blew some leaves around, whistling into everyone's ears.
Suddenly footsteps were heard and as they were getting louder it was pretty clear that Piero was approaching the door. And indeed, just a second later the wooden door opened to the inside and an elderly looking man with round old-fashioned glasses and a black wintercoat stood in front of them.
So that was the infamous Piero Joplin? The scientist that nobody took seriously.
"Ahh, welcome," he greeted the group with his witty British accent. "I've been expecting you." He smiled a bit, then he stepped back and made a gesture, signalizing the friends that they were supposed to come in.
"About that," said Miles as he walked past the scientist. "How... exactly have you been expecting us?" He frowned and waited for everyone else to enter Piero's comfy countryside-residence.
"That's part of the long story I am going to tell you in a few moments" answered Joplin and closed the door behind Rubi who was the last one to enter.
"I have a question" Bridget started and raised her finger.
"Everything at the proper time" the man fobbed her off and grinned before he turned away from the frontdoor and aksed everyone to follow him into a large open area that looked like a living room from the distance.

"Lovely home..." Miles said a bit grumpy, not trusting the whole thing yet. "Why thank you," the strange man said, already walking over to the living room. "Please, don't hesitate to join," and he waved the rest over to the empty couches. "take a seat." he then said as if the gesture wasn't enough. Rubi didn't hesitate and immediately dropped down on one of the couches and dropped her feet on the table. Piero didn't see surprised at all by her behaviour and Miles was actually quite disturbed by this. He saw the man smile towards him and he he just smiled and nodded back while sitting down. "So, Mr. Joplin." Raylan started but Peiro just raised his hand. "No need to say anything Mr. Givens." and the group just was weirdly surprised by him knowing his name already. "What?" Richard said. "How did you-" "I'll explain in a minute. Just give me some time to get things straight." A silence fell and everyone just looked at each other while Piero just stared at them one by one examining them and smiling. "Yes, okay you are all here," Miles just nodded just having to accept that he knows who they are and why there might be here. Rubi however just sat there with her jaw almost open wide. The rest also just had the same attitude as Miles, specially Isabela and Piers, because they also heard about this weird guy before like Miles did. "Alright, now I can continue my story." Piero said highly amused. "It all began with a few dreams I had here."
"Oh, this is gonna be rich..." Miles sighed licked his lips. Raylan snorted, "Come on give the guy some credit. You got a drink here?" he then asked Piero whom seemed still highly amused. "Sure, Mr. Givens, bourbon's in the highest closet in the kitchen, glasses in the most right," Raylan frowned, seemingly still suprized. "And get some beer from Miss Malone as well." The group was even more astonished. "A beer sounds good indeed, funny to have a man over here who knows my needs." and she grinned slightly not trying to look a Bridget, whom suspiciously avoided Rubi's stare as well. "Well I'll start now, Raylan will be back soon and he wont miss any important details anyway." And so the rest of the group already made themselves comfortable for the story.

As everyone began to sit down and focus on what Piero had to say, he started walking up and down the living room with his arms crossed behind his back like a military trainer delivering a speech for his company. Reminded of that image Elena unintentionally looked over to Piers for a second and then shook her head smiling amusedly.
"So, my friends" started the man and looked at everyone that was gathered in the room when Raylan entered with a bottle of beer in his left and a half emptied bottle of bourbon in his right hand.
"Missed anything?" the cop interrupted as all eyes were on him now.
Elena grinned again as he walked up to the couches and sat down on the free spot between Rubi and Miles on the big brown leather sofa in the middle of the room, right in front of a dark wooden table with some notes and newspapers and a notebook on it. "No," she said and crossed her legs, sinking deeper into the armchair next to the entrance she had taken place on. "We were just about to begin. Well, Piero was."
"Thank you, Miss..." responded the scientist and stroked the beardstubble on his chin.
"Fisher. Seems you don't know us that well after all. I'm relieved."
Piero smiled before he averted his eyes from the journalist and walked back to the table. Everyone else remained silent as Raylan handed Rubi the beer and they both chinked glasses.
"Everyone of you is probably wondering why I expected you or why I wanted to talk to you in the first place" said the man as he rolled up his sleeves. "Well, I have to say it is probably quite overwhelming for you so I will keep it as short and logical as possible."
"You know, we may or may not have been in contact with what you consider to be quite overwhelming" stated Elena in order to hint at the group's former contact with the supernatural in the form of dreams and transcendental experiences.
"Is that so?" Piero asked. He looked quite surprised so Elena was certain that there were indeed some things he didn't know about them after all. Perhaps he had read the things he knew about them in newspapers but then again how could he? It was not like they were as internationally known as they may have been in their past lives.
"However, to start off with, I have, just like you, lived before. In a world that was... quite different to this one. Dunwall. That was the city I lived in. I was an engineer, mechanic, scientist, phycisist. I was lots of things. But most importantly I was special. I had an ability that only specific people were capable of."
As Piero explained an uncomfortable silence filled the room. It was so quiet you could've heard a pin drop and the tension rised. Elena bended forward without even noticing and Raylan had put the bottle on the table already.
"I was able to talk to the Outsider. Not only I could talk to him, I could even summon him." His eyes were glassy and teary as he dropped his gaze to face the dark parquet flooring.
"The Outsider?" asked Miles who seemed to be the only one that wasn't completely affected by the spell that Piero seemed to have casted on everyone.
"He was... he is something I am still trying to understand. Back when I was able to talk to him, back in the other world, he was something like a god. I think I have figured out by now that only a handful of people had actually seen him."
"And you were one of them?" asked Miles.
"Yes. And quite frankly I think he is the reason we're all here right now. I think he has a plan. I think he is the reason for a lot of things that are happening right now."
Elena was confused by what the scientist was trying to explain. How could a godlike figure in another universe be able to gather them now? In a time that might be centuries ahead of what Piero had lived in.
"The dreams you had are what eventually connects us in this world. I have had the same dreams not too long ago. And ever since then I had been trying to figure out what they mean. After almost a month of research, dreaming, more research, experimenting, building things and more dreaming I was finally able to come to a conclusion."
Piero cleared his throat and finally sat down on the last emtpy chair on the opposit side of the table, looking into everyone's face for a few seconds. "The Outsider walks among us."
Elena saw Bridget whispering something into Rubi's ears and Isabela and Piers seemed like the man was completely nuts. As for the journalist, however, she had been starting to understand what the scientist wanted to tell them all along. That man, that entity he was speaking of, was the reason they were dreaming and remembering things from their past life.
"And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I wanted you to come here. I wanted you to understand that we have things in common. And that together we might be able to find out what's going on here."
"That's all super awesome and great but what's up with all those lives and universes?" asked Rubi and Piero looked over to her.
"Universes? You are also using that term? I find it interesting to speak of these experiences as universes because in fact, I think, that's what they are. Different worlds that have existed or may still be existing in between."
Rubi looked over to Bridget as if she was asking for help because she didn't quite grasp what the chemist wanted to tell her.
"If only I was still in contact with the Outsider. That is the only problem there is. If we were able to contact him, he could bring us into the loop, tell us what's going on." Piero put his head back and sighed.
"But you were saying that the outsider is what made us dream those dreams, right? Wasn't that the way you contacted him back in that other life?" asked Elena.
"No... no. Those weren't the same dreams. I talked to him in person. Right now, we all have blurry conversations over time and space. But back then, I was able to see him, feel him. He was present in a different way."
"You know," Bridget now carried on. "We have had some trouble with a woman called Carla not too long ago. She more or less caused the outbreak that's going on right now and she had that interesting thoughts about what connected catastrophes like this throughout the ages. We have set forth this idea of hers and we figured that there has always been evil in our world. Something that last for a a certain time period and then vanishes."
"Something that is only temporarily existent" Elena went on. "Now transfer that thought to your theory of different universes; bad things happen, caused by bad persons but then there is always someone to stop them. But they never remain stopped. They come back, even worse, even bigger, they kill even more people and leave even more damage. Crusades, World Wars, the Holocaust, viral outbreaks... we had to fight an entire army of cyborgs in our past life, like a plague of rats infesting mankind."
"A plague," repeated Piero and jumped out of his chair like something bit him. "A plague! There was a plague. It eradicated the entire city of Dunwall, even the entire continent." As the man talked Elena could literally see the memories coming back to him. He looked like he was permanently struck by electroshocks as he spoke.
"Then I lost contact. I wasn't able to summon him anymore. He stopped responding...." Piero slowly sat down again, breathing heavily as his chest moved along.
"Then what happened? Why did he stop speaking to you?" asked Raylan.
"I don't know. I can't remember. This is all I remember" answered Piero.
"So let me get this straight. There was one point in history of universes where the evil took over? Where nobody was around to stop it?" stated Elena as she averted her eyes from the scientist to look into the faces of her friends. Some of them nodded, others looked to the ground.
"You're right. Maybe this is why the Outsider stopped responding? Maybe he vanished with all good in the world? Or rather in that world?" said Bridget and got off the sofa as she continued walking in small circles through the room.
"I believe we have some research to do" said Piero as he also stood up from his armchair and headed to another door.
"Where are you going?" asked Bridget as he walked past her.
"Follow me, I have written down every single thing from my dreams and from what I could remember in the past month. Letters I read, music I heard, conversations I had. Maybe we can find out more about the Outsider and why he is trying to contact us."

The whole group followed the mad scientist into a new room, which was basically the basement. They walked down the stairs as the rest just remained silenced and the tension was rising. The silence could tell that everyone was processing the things Piero just said, and so was Raylan. Trying to think and make sense out of it all. But it just would not fit. Yet. The scientist walked over to a door and he got out a keyring which looked like it had more then a few keys on it. And rare enough, all unmarked. But nothing actually surprised them any more since he got out the right key in one try and he twisted it making the lock open. "I once made a joke about making snow flaked keys," Piero said out of nothing and even in the small darkness a blush was seen on his face. "That I can remember..." the door opened and the room was filled with more darkness. But with a little light switch, the room lit up and what they saw was actually quite astonishing.
Papers on every wall, some of them even lined up with wires of things which may have connections with each other. Red, green, blue, every colour of wire was there. The room itself was big as well and the stuff around really was neatly organized. Also a few desks were in place with telescopes glass jars filled with weird liquid and closets filled with any kinds of weird stuff they didn't recognized. "So, I have a question first." Raylan said while he impressively looked around and got his hands on his hips. "Go ahead, Raylan." Piero said and already walked over to the wall with the papers, photo's and wires. "Well, you said the outsider stopped having contact." "Yes I did." he then reacted kind of irritated. "What if it was because of you, solving the problem?" "That could be something as well." Piero said. While Elena vaguely looked towards Raylan. "But the good in the world stuff seems legible still as well doesn't it?" she then said, making Raylan nodded. "Actually this is the explanation in a nutshell." The rest of the group looked at them as if they were crazy. They let the duo discussing the matter further and so they walked towards Piero. "I am just applying more options, Elena." and the journalist nodded. "I know, I know." and Raylan smiled. "I also only try to understand the matter around here, by suggestion more options as well, nothing critical by asking right?" "Yes, okay, Raylan. Come on they're waiting for us." Elena grinned and patted the marshal on the back and Raylan thought she had an idea of how he actually had a bit of a hard time trying to understand all this supernatural stuff. Also, that this is chosen to happen to all of them. He hoped he could handle another speech of the scientist for his brains were already having quite the overdose of data.

Piers really couldn't make anything out of all the things Piero had told them. Past lives? Yeah, sure, he got that by now. Parallel universes? Alright, why not? The Outsider? You got to be kidding.
"You okay?" asked Isabela as she walked up to the soldier, her arms crossed. He stood in front of one of the several walls covered with papers, notes and pins. What was going on in this man's mind? "You look rather baffled.."
Piers looked over to her and saw her chuckling over his confusion. "Don't tell me you actually understand all that stuff." He averted his eyes and focused on the documents again. He was quickly flying over all the texts and figured they were the conversations written down Piero had talked about.
"Well, I'm just having a hard time understanding how we got into all this. That is all" explained Isabela and turned around to look at the rest of the group.
"Yeah... processing all the things that happened isn't that easy. It all went so fast and now we're here listening to some nut job telling us things about past lives. I will probably never forgive you pulling me into this."
"Me? Who wanted to go after Carla no matter what?" asked Isabela and faced her comrade again.
"Carla is another story. I mean their," he nodded into the direction of the others. "Problems. I'm okay with taking a break from zombie-killing and rescuing civilians but this isn't exacty what I wanted to end up in."
"Are you two joining in? I know you don't exactly belong to us but you might be interested as well. Apart from that, I'm still quite surprised you're sticking with these people, I mean, you probably don't have any idea what's going on. I didn't have any dreams about you either so I take it you don't even believe in what we are talking about.... oh boy, this must be quite grotesque for you" said Piero and Piers rolled his eyes before he went up to the others again, Isabela following him.

Piers joined in and Piero soon examined his wall. Going with is finger to one point to another and followed the lines. "And here we are." he said pointing to a few photo's which to the group kind of were familiar. "This is us in your other place!" Richard said amazed. "But how it was-" "Just a few hours ago, I know." Piero said. "I've been tracking you guys ever since you were here and known of your existence here." "But there weren't any camera's!" Bridget said, totally amazed. "There were a few, covered up in the dirt and bricks." He answered and Rubi looked at the picture. "Nice, it took it right when I was yawning..." and she ripped the picture off almost ripping it apart. "Hold on!" Piero demanded. "I need that!" and he pulled the picture right out of the killer's hands. "It's the only picture I got of this event, I need this for the track of your time." "Track of our time?" Elena asked. "Well, you see even before you guys knew whom you really were I've been tracking you, since of the dreams." and he pointed over to the other side of the room. "There it all started." Richard walked over, to the other side of the room, while looking back to the pictures which represent their current history. He saw himself driving, then he saw himself shooting the officer in the leg, even way back when Raylan was 'shaving' his moustache when they just met Isabela, Piers and Miles. He followed his line further shocked by what he saw next. The rest was also looking for their 'timeline' and it seemed he was the green wire and Raylan was above him, having the blue one. He gulped looking back to his darker days. Even a picture of him with Carla back in the restaurant thing they met. He shook his head, looking over towards the rest of the group. Raylan already was ahead of him and chuckled a bit cause of a picture of himself with coffee. A few seconds later his chuckle went over to a laugh and he dragged Richard along. "Haha! See your angry face and my innocent one after I tripped over your feet and got coffee all over your suit!" Richard chuckled nervously he just wanted to forget all that and that hideous moustache of his. After letting them examine their timelines, Miles asked a question Piero actually already said towards Piers. "Why aren't we in here, I mean, Piers, Isabela and me?" And so Piero gave him the same answer. "Like I said, no dreams about you three." Miles shrugged.
Piero then waved them over back to the other side where they all rendezvoused before. The group was a bit of stroke but they kept their cool. "So, why us? Do you already know what we've been through?" Elena asked now keeping up a notebook and trying to keep track of all the info. "Well, not before you got your consciousness back in this world and started to recognise each other. But I did knew you were important." Piero said. "Of course I had no idea why you people being an office man, two nurses, a drug lord sort of speak," Richard looked down in shame once again. "And a tattoo artist," Rubi bowed down as if she was very fond of doing that before. "But then things got interested when you, like I said before, got your consciousness back." "That makes us quite relevant to you then?" Raylan asked, and Piero nodded. "I have no idea what the Outsider wants with me this time, of if he's even involved but I really want to find out." Soon the question was asked everyone actually wondered. "uhm, but who is the Outsider exactly?" Richard asked. "A person?" Piero nodded slightly. "He is a mere person whom we considered a 'God'." and again Bridget and Rubi lost it, both chuckling a bit, but Piero didn't mind. "He only contacts the one relevant to his cause and the people whom he finds 'interesting.'" Richard thought about this, though he never had strange dreams before, but how would a person like that even wanting to have an interest in them? "So you actually are desperate to contact him again?" Elena asked, like she was interviewing someone. "Well, I do want to know what the reason is that you are here, is it the virus now roaming the States cause of our mutual friend here?" and he pointed to Richard, whom angrily stared back and Piers made a small grin. "Or is it the fact that indeed more of the universes you mentioned are in danger and we're to rescue it?" "So it can also be that the Outsider is actually someone whom is also in a greater cause? To determine their fate?" Isabela asked pointing over to the group. "And we're just pons to help them finding their way?" Piero nodded. "That can actually make some good sense."
"Well, we did have other companions before." Raylan said and Elena nodded slightly. "Yes, we did."
"What I actually want to ask you, as for you 'travelled' to this universe," Piero started. "how did you do it? Do you remember anything before you started to get your conscious back here?" "Well, I do remember a flash of bright light." Richard admitted and the rest quickly agreed. The trio who felt really left out were staring at each other. Miles mumbling to the two mercenaries and they nodded in respond.
"So, something or someone must've caused that bright light to appear and smacked you right inside this world." Piero summed up. "Maybe it was death? Maybe it was just some sort of machinery or maybe it was an unknown force." He started to touch some of the bottles with weird liquid in it. "Can you maybe tell me what you do remember of that past life?" he asked and the group stared at him. "You mean everything or important details?" Rubi asked. "The details please." he said, placing more and more bottles on one of the desks. The group started to think. "Just a side note." Piero said and made a sign over to a bottle he just found. "If you might want to give your memory a boost this might help, if you need it."

Rubi had her arms crossed and tabbed her left upper arm with her right hand fingers, watching the old scientist put the bottles up on the table before them.
Bridget next to her took a deep breath and let it out in a silent sigh, crossing her arms as well, glancing over at her beloved for a moment. Everybody's demeanor had changed, as soon as Piero had started to gather bottles before them and tried to convince them of them helping their memory.
Rubi looked at all the others, waiting to see any signs of further action, for she didn't know what to do or if to even trust all this.
"We barely know you and are just supposed to drink strange liquids? What if, after all, you're just some crazy guy with crazy ideas - and one of them is killing crazy people like us?"
Piero smiled. "Well, that's up to you, I am afraid, whether to trust me or not. But what choice do you have?"
Rubi frowned and leaned back in the leather couch, sighing.
"I'll do it," Bridget volunteered and caught everybody's attention.
"You're kidding, right?" Rubi grunted, not bothering to sit back up straight. Bridget just looked at her for a moment or two. "Well, if you do it. I do it. I'm not gonna let you do crazy shit without me!"
Bridget grinned a little and tried not to chuckle. As did some of the others.
"Alright, if you two do it, we all do it," Elena joined in.
Pretty soon, they all held a bottle. The bottles all looked the same and had the same weird, black liquid in them.
"Do I wanna know what's in it?" Rubi asked daringly but Piero just smiled.
The killer sighed and drank it down in one sip.

She saw Sarah right in front of her, holding a shotgun. Her shotgun. The shotgun she had held when they had first met her, too.
Within a second she was gone however and a cyborg stood in her place. Rubi tried to lift her arm, shoot it straight in its forehead but she couldn't.
A scream.
Then she saw Elena and Richard holding each other as they were thrown into the sea. Or was it the ocean?
No, a black pit.
Nothing.
It was nothing.
Black.
Then something green popped into her view. It was Jade.
Jade and her weird ... pig uncle. And then the cat people. Other humans. And the ones wearing the weird, heavy armor.
Mutants. Suddenly. They came from nowhere.
Cyborgs.
She stood in front of Carla. Carla smiled.
Carla cried.
A thick tear.
It dropped into something.
Something Rubi couldn't see.
A man.
A man with creepy eyes.
She had never seen him before.
He grinned. "So good to see you, Rubi Malone. How have you been?"
A shot. Somebody had fired a shot.
She saw Piero, he was younger. He was in a run down, old, open facility. And above everything, she saw a sign. The Hound Pit.
A man with a mask. A creepy mask. And rats, many, many rats. Some of them were part machine.
Cyborgs.
She saw zombies storming Piero's facility suddenly.
Then there was nothing again.
And then she relived the whole drug dealer story. Everything. Of how they had met, how they had found out about the drug lord and their long journey of finding him, hunting him down. Going through all of his employees, his thugs and hired mercenaries. The scientists. Was Piero one of them? For a moment, remembering, she saw him. He was one of them.
It must have been another live.
But?
What?
She saw Bridget.
Sarah again.
And a man. The man with the creepy eyes once more.
"It's been ... very entertaining, Rubi."
That was the last thing she heard before she fell into darkness. She fell.
She fell forever.

Isabela glanced over to Piers, who was just sitting there, like herself, watching everything.
He did not look at her. Didn't nearly blink. He just stared at all of them, after they had drank Piero's weird drinks.
He would have never done that.
No, not true. He would have. If just to see Chris one more time.
She leaned back in her seat and took one of the cookies Piero had brought. It tasted stale. Old. Run-down.
The female soldier sighed.
As soon as the others had drank the strange liquids, they had fallen in some sorts of sleep, comma. But it seemed restless.
Elena's legs twitched quite a bit, and Richard kept moving his head ever so often. Rubi's arm twitched, and her finger as if she tried to fire shots out of a pistol.
Raylan kept trying to adjust something on his head and managed to knock his hat over, he didn't notice, of course, he was asleep. He was somewhere else. They all were.
Just Isabela, Piers, Miles and Piero remained.
"You do play a part in this, you know," he suddenly said, quietly.
Isabela looked at him and he handed her a photograph like one of those in his basement.
It showed Piers, standing in front of Carla, kneeling before him. Piers was about to kill her.
Isabela looked at it intently. She knew Piers did, too.
She noticed a rat, somewhere behind one of the barracks.
"Carla was a ... clone, was she not?' Isabela whispered. Without looking she knew Piers was nodding.
"Doesn't that make her something ... somewhat of a cyborg?"
Piero and Piers fell silent.