Addison grasped Zed's hand tightly as they all carefully descended the old metal stairs. They seemed stable enough, but the steps creaked and groaned with each step, having grown unused to the weight and fluctuation of people walking on them.

The floor was polished cement, coated with decades of dirt and debris. Each of Addison's steps kicked up a small cloud of dust. Though she didn't want to, she couldn't help but glance inside some of the cages as they made their way past. There were gouges ripped into the concrete, looking like the desperate clawing and scratching of strong hands trying to escape something. Disturbing stains marked the floor in some of the enclosures. She felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably, and wrapped her arm around Zed's side. If it was horrifying for her, it had to be doubly so for him and the other zombies.

As they navigated their way through the maze of cages, the sound of the rain on the rooftop increased as thick rainfall battered the windows and roof. It changed the ambiance of the space from silent and creepy to roaring and tense. Addison shuddered lightly, feeling the light chill of her still-damp clothing in the cool stillness of the room. In the corner, the shrouded moonstone still seemed to sway slightly in a phantom wind.

The rain roared on all around them as they made it past the last row of cages. Approaching the stone, Addison began looking around for a way to get it down from it's suspended position on the ceiling.

"Maybe someone could climb up?" Wynter asked doubtfully, pointing at a loose section of rope hanging down and almost dragging the floor.

"Do you think it's stable enough?" Addison wondered, arching an eyebrow as she looked up at the tattered rope. The rope may have been holding up the moonstone, but it still looked old and frayed.

In the distance, thunder rumbled, causing the windows to shake and the floor to vibrate gently.

"Zarugala!" Bonzo said, his voice booming over the roar of the rain as it pelted the exterior of the structure.

Against the far wall, behind the shadow cast by the suspended moonstone, was a second section of rope, this one pulled taut and tied to metal piping against the wall. It seemed to be what was holding the stone in place.

The group of friends rushed forward.

"Okay guys," Willa said, grabbing everyone's attention in the authoritative voice of a true werewolf alpha. "We should be able to hoist it down gently with this. Everyone form a line."

Addison and the others followed her instruction, lining up as Bonzo began to work at untying the tangle of knots. Qamar and Aruna stepped forward to help him manage it, their white hair glowing dimly against the oppressive gloominess of the space.

As they worked at unbinding the knot, Addison's gaze wandered up to the large, shrouded object. It looked like it was roughly the size of the old hope chest in her parents' bedroom. They stored antique quilts in it, and a few other items that had been in their family since her ancestors first came to Seabrook. This was definitely smaller than the wolves' moonstone. It was wrapped loosely in a canvas tarp, and it looked like the tarp had been hastily placed around the stone after the ropes were already attached.

Lining up, Addison and the others prepared to take on the substantial weight of the stone as Bonzo, Qamar and Aruna untied the last of the knots. Standing in line between Zed and Wynter, she braced herself for the sudden heaviness of it. With the loosing of the final knot, the stone rapidly dropped by a few feet as they took on the force of its weight. Everyone huffed or grunted with exertion as they began to slowly lower the moonstone to the ground. As it descended, it danced back and forth like a pendulum.

With a heavy thud that was partially muted by the tarp, the moonstone reached the concrete floor.

Dropping the rope, everyone rushed to crowd around it. Willa and Wyatt immediately began to unwrap the large shroud. Impatiently, Wyatt took a sharp, well manicured claw and began to slice into the tarp. Working quickly, and with a sound of ripping fabric, he scratched a line along the length of the stone. Wynter moved forward, helping them to pull the torn lengths of fabric away from the stone.

As the tarp fell away, they all stood for a moment in silence.

What?

Addison examined the grey boulder, similar to many she had seen during her walks through the forbidden forest. For a short second, they were all frozen as expressions of confusion spread from face to face. This definitely wasn't a moonstone.

Then, she understood.

The moonstone had never been here.

Charon had tricked them. He had put that vision into their heads intentionally, to throw off their search.

And they had fallen for it completely.

Next to her, Zed ran a hand restlessly through his hair, releasing a muttered curse in zombie tongue. Wyatt growled in frustration, kicking at the torn section of tarp with his boot, while Mayar stood staring with her mouth hanging slightly open.

Addison could taste the growing realization and shock as everyone gradually figured out what had taken place. They had come all this way, only to learn that they were no closer to finding the moonstone than they had been a week ago.

As she stared forward, Addison noticed a flash of something shiny and black at the edge of the tarp, along the smaller section of the stone. It didn't look like it was made out of the same material as the boulder. Frowning, she moved forward as the others continued to react. Reaching down, she slowly pulled the frayed section of tarp back and away. Her movement revealed a small, black plastic box adhered to the side of the boulder. And on the front of the tiny box was a digital clock, green numbers steadily counting down.

37, 36, 35...

Oh, no!

"Trap," She gasped, trying to find the words to articulate the panic now growing in her chest.

"What?" Said Willa, looking down at Addison with an intense gaze.

"Trap!" Addison shouted, suddenly finding her voice. "It's a trap, it's going to blow up!"

Instantly, her head filled with confusion and then a crippling fear as everyone around her registered what was happening. Before she could process what he was doing, she let out a tiny yelp of surprise as Zed grabbed her by the waist, hoisting her into his arms and running for the stairs.

"Run!" Someone shouted as the entire group erupted into chaos. Qamar instantly scooped up Bucky in a fireman's hold as the cheerleader let out a hysterical scream of panic.

"I'm too important to die!" Bucky shouted, his voice fluctuating up and down with each of Qamar's rapid steps.

Eliza and Willa were running together, Willa's black and white hair cascading dramatically around her head and shoulders. Mayar, Wyatt and Wynter were directly behind them, all of them with matching expressions of wide-eyed terror.

"Zed!" Addison screamed. "We aren't going to make it!"

"We will!" He shouted back, and she felt his determination as it ran through her.

The group sprinted up the stairs, Bonzo and Bree trailing behind at the back of the chain of people. Addison stared forward as they ran, ignoring the desks and notebooks in the observation room as it quickly disappeared from her sight. She felt her teeth clack together hard as Zed pounded down the stairs, followed by the others in a sort of frantic procession.

They were running out of time.

"Zed, get down!" She cried.

Leaping forward, Zed tossed her roughly to the dirty tile floor of the hallway, then fell on top of her. She felt his arms encircle her tightly and felt his face pressing into the back of her hair, shielding her body as much as possible with his tall frame.

I love you, Addison. He whispered fervently into her head.

Then, the bomb exploded.

ZzZzZzZ

"Zed!" Addison cried into his ear," Get down!"

He reacted immediately, dropping her to the floor in a rush and immediately jumping on top of her. Zed pulled in her arms and legs, wrapping her petite frame safely within his own.

I love you, Addison. He thought fervently, knowing that she would hear him, and hoping that his body would shield her. He tucked his head down over hers, trying to cover as much of her as possible. For a short moment, he could hear nothing but his own frantic breathing and Addison's panicked pulse thumping in his ears.

Then, a boom louder than any thunder reverberated through the hall. Zed felt the breath being knocked out of him as what felt like a gigantic wave crashed over him. The pressure made his ears pop, and he shouted out as brick and plaster pelted his back and thick dust obscured his vision. There was a strange roaring sound in his head. He heard Addison yell out something, but couldn't make out what she was saying. Behind him, he could hear the shouting and screams of his friends, and a pit formed in his stomach as he cowered there helplessly.

With another deep rumble, the building shuddered again and grew gradually still.

A cloud of dust continued to fall thickly across Zed, coating the inside of his nose and mouth. He could hear the sounds of groaning and coughing around him, and opened his eyes. He blinked against the layer of powder that covered his face, and sputtered out a thick cough as he looked down to Addison. She had craned her neck around, and was looking up at him with a face coated in grime. Even her eyebrows and eyelashes were covered with a layer of dust. But her eyes were clear and blue, and gazed back at him with a look of intensity that stole his breath.

"Are you okay?" She asked, and released a rattling cough of her own as she attempted to clear the dust from her lungs.

"Yeah," Zed gasped. "You?"

"I'm fine. Is everyone-" she coughed again. "Is everyone else okay?"

Zed rolled off of her, gasping as sharp pain spread out across his shoulder. At this rate, it was probably never going to heal quite right, but he wasn't particularly worried about it at the moment. He reached back, taking her hand and slowly pulling her into a sitting position next to him. His limbs felt like rubber, and his ears were still ringing slightly. He turned away, spitting out a mouthful of dirt.

A few feet from him, Qamar and Bucky were also rising into sitting positions, as Qamar shook the dust from his hair like a dog shaking off water. Eliza, Willa and Wynter were a little further back, groaning and pushing small sections of debris away from themselves. Eliza seemed to have a bloody lip, but that was the only injury he could see from his seated position on the floor. Aruna reached out behind her, moving a section of plaster and brick that should have been too heavy to move with one hand, revealing a dusty and bruised Wyatt and Mayar.

"Is everyone alright?" Zed asked, coughing and spitting again as he spoke.

The partially demolished hallway echoed with responses as everyone replied that they were alright, though he suspected some of them would still be needing some medical attention. A dark line of blood was coating Eliza's lip and chin, the deep purple-red contrasting sharply with the white and grey dust that coated her face and hair. Wyatt had a large abrasion across his cheek, which was swelling rapidly as he checked Mayar over for non-existant injuries.

"Charon sure is a fan of pyrotechnics, huh?" Wyatt mumbled aloud as he brushed a large chunk of brick from his shoulder. More groans resounded in the hazy hallway in response.

"Guys?" Zed started, a sudden sinking feeling spreading through his chest. "Where's Bonzo and Bree?"

Around him, eyes widened as they surveyed their surroundings, finding no sign of their two friends.

"Bonzo? Bonzo!" Zed shouted, releasing another deep, hacking cough. "Bonzo!"

"Bree!" Addison yelled, a high note of panic causing her voice to break.

Silence greeted them as they all stared back towards the stairway, which seemed to have collapsed in a twisted heap of brick, metal and plaster. With a grunt, Zed began to stumble to his feet, trying to make his way towards the demolished stairway. His rubbery legs didn't want to work yet, and he immediately collapsed to his knees as he called out to his friends again.

"Bonzo, Bree! Can you hear us?" Eliza called out, her voice slightly slurred by her increasingly swollen lower lip.

The pile of rubble suddenly shifted, and a short roar resounded through the dust-veiled hallway. Then, Bonzo burst through the pile, debris flying as he released another roar. Black veins spider-webbed across his arms and up his neck to his face, where red-rimmed charcoal eyes glared back to the group through the haze of powdered dirt and plaster.

Around his shoulders and waist, Bree clung to him in a strange sort of reverse piggy-back. Grasped tightly in her hand was Bonzo's Z-band.

Bonzo shook his shaggy hair, sending chunks of plaster and brick flying in all directions as he carefully lowered Bree to the ground. Tear tracks left dark streaks down Bree's face, but she was smiling as she carefully wrapped Bonzo's Z-band around his wrist, holding the broken clasp in place as the veins quickly receded back down his arm.

Zed could hear the uncomfortable crackling sound as Bonzo's body readjusted to it's normal state, and he watched as Bonzo grinned broadly down at his girlfriend as his large hand encircled her own over the broken Z-band. Then to his shock, Bonzo spoke aloud in accented, but clearly understandable English.

"I guess I'm braver than I thought."

"My hero." Bree smiled up at him, and he leaned down to offer her a short but tender kiss.

"Zalbry vara zah." (Anything for you) Bonzo responded.

Zed finally made it to his feet, slipping a little on a busted section of tile on the floor.

"Are you guyth okay?" Eliza asked Bonzo and Bree, a lisp becoming increasingly apparent as her lower lip continued to swell.

"We're fine." Bree replied, her brows arching down in worry. "But you don't look so good, Eliza. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, ith juth a busted lip."

The space suddenly echoed with the sounds of nearby sirens.

"We need to get out of here," Addison said. "Or the Lunites are going to be outed whether they want to be or not."

"Good point." Said Mayar, who exchanged worried looks with Qamar and Aruna. "I don't think this is exactly what our elders had in mind when we discussed revealing ourselves to the citizens of Seabrook."

She gestured rather unnecessarily around her at the rubble surrounding them in the ruined hallway.

Zed looked around, seeing that the window they had entered through was still intact.

"Come on," he called out. "Let's go!"

Everyone rose to their feet, grunting or wincing but otherwise seeming generally okay.

Together, they took turns clambering back out of the window and into the heavy afternoon rain.

The raindrops felt good as they rinsed away some of the dust that was caked on each of them, and Zed raised his face to the sky as he attempted to wipe away some of the grime from his eyes, nose and mouth. After a minute, everyone had successfully made it back outside, and they took a second to bask in the excellent sensation of the cool rain.

"Come on everyone," Addison said insistently. "We need to-"

"STOP" a voice boomed suddenly behind them, causing the group of friends to jump and quickly turn to face the road. Several Z-Patrol vehicles were there, tranquilizer dart guns already trained on them as firefighters rushed towards the back of the structure.

"Put your hands behind your heads!"

"Uh-oh." Zed gulped.