Chapter 2: Time for Timekeepers

Amelia watched as they took refuge in one of the buildings across the street. She figured they were trying to get off the street it wasn't safe to go out at night. There group never traveled at night. Amelia yawned as she stared out the window. "Go ahead I'll watch and I find someone when I get tired." Debbie added taking up Amelias spot.

Amelia walked down the hall looking for the room she claimed earlier. She looked around the small room setting her gun on the dirty night stand. She punched the pillows a few times to get the dust off. She took the edge of the blankets and raised them up and snapped it down firmly trying to rid it of the excess dust. She coughed and sputtered as the dust flew up in her face. "Should have seen that coming." She mumbled through her coughs.

After she saw it was acceptable she changed out of her day clothes and into an oversized shirt and soft running shorts. She slipped under the covers letting out a soft moan as she relaxed into the mattress. She was out in a matter of seconds. She had been asleep for a few hours when she heard a loud bang come from the main room where everyone was sleeping.

She shot out of bed, grabbed her gun off the nightstand and ran down the hall.

Anna

She had woken up a few minutes earlier and walked to the common area. She chuckled at the bodies strewn across the floor. She moved around the bodies and over to Debbie who was sitting by the window staring at something out in the street.

"What are you looking at?" she asked glancing where her attention was focused on. "Amelia spotted two or three people in the street last night. They took refuge in that building." Debbie answered pointing to the building directly in front of them. "Really?" Anna mumbled looking for signs of movement. It's still too dark for them to be able to see anything. They'd have to wait for sunrise.

"I'll bring you some water." Anna smiled touching her shoulder. Debbie smiled "Thank you." Anna brought her back water and dismissed her to let her get some sleep. She had been there for almost an hour before she saw movement from the building. She was alert watching them carefully. One seemed to be fighting with the other two. Suddenly they darted across the street heading straight for the motel. Anna brought out her gun aim straight for the door.

The door slammed open against the wall with a resounding boom. The people in the doorway immediately froze when they noticed they weren't alone. She could hear the others in the other room stir and groan at being woken up with hangovers. Anna didn't have to look to know the quick patter of feet was Amelia and Fortis coming to her aid.

Amelia

When she got to the common area she noticed most of the people awake but very delayed in their response. Alcohol was definitely not a good idea. She could hear her father right behind her as she approached the door. Her mother had three men at gun point. It was hard to see anything with out any lights. The glow from the clocks cast an ominous light around the room.

"Who's there?" One of the three mens voice sounded panicked. He reached out searching for someone in the darkness. Amelia was caught off guard when a hand wrapped around her wrist yanking her forward. He put his wrist to hers. "You're going to give us all the time you have. Starting with this one." His voice was filled desperation as he addressed the group in the dark. She glanced at his faintly glowing clock, he had minutes. Amelia chuckled darkly "I think you picked the wrong hostage." She whispered harshly. She could feel him trying to take her time, feeling the soft tug become more violent as his fear increased. "What the hell is going on? You said these people could help. There not helping." He shouted at the two men standing in the doorway. Before anyone could respond his clock hit zero and his body made a soft thump as it hit the ground.

Amelia brought her gun up as she stepped away from the timed out man on the floor. "Don't shoot he wasn't with us. We came to stop him." Amelia recognized the voice. "Jeremy you know better than to sneak up on us in the dark. We could have shot you." Her mothers calm voice chastised. "Nice place I'm glad I caught up." He chuckled trying to ease the tension and avoiding Anna's comment. Amelia could see the sky getting lighter as the sunrise approached. That was when she could faintly make out the man in doorway. He was average height, she couldn't make out any features yet but she could tell he had stubble on his face, blonde maybe. She didn't realize she had been staring until his eyebrow raised at her in question.

Her face flushed as she realized she had been staring and that in the excitement she forgot what she was wearing. "I'm going to go change." She mumbled as she pushed through the group that had crowded around the door. "You really don't have to I like what you're wearing." Roth jabbed shouting down the hall. She could hear the the distinct sound of someone being hit. She assumed her father had smacked Roth upside the head. She smirked at the image.

She changed quickly and headed back down the hall. It was a few minutes after sunrise casting bright orange light into the common area. Amelia saw Patty talking to the new ex-timekeeper, flirting was more accurate. "My names Timekeeper..." But before Patty could continue Amelia who was passing by interrupted "There are no timekeepers anymore Patty. Stop trying to live in the past." She stated blankly as she moved away from the two. The blonde timekeeper stared after her. Patty glared but stayed quiet before turning back to the blond timekeeper and smiled. "Well as you heard my names Patty that sour bitch over there is Amelia..."She continued introducing each person. "What's your name?" She finally paused long enough for him to answer. "My name is Kors." He replied shortly. Patty continued to float around him as he tried to prove his worth to the group.

He was helping with the heavy things for most of the day and stayed near Jeremy still having no real connection to the group other than the hyper active brunette, Patty. The group had decided to stay another night to sleep off the hangovers. They sat around the common area preparing for dinner. "I haven't had anything this good in a while. How did you manage to get your hands on this?" Kors asked after taking a bite of canned peaches.

"We were living on a farm up until a year ago." Amelia replied walking by and sitting across from him. "What made you leave?" He asked carefully. "Someone burned our home to the ground." She replied blankly, he could see the tension in her shoulders which put him on alert. The tension between them became thick. A strange look flashed over her face before she continued. "We had people come and go all the time for almost 20 years with no real problem and then this one man came, threatened my family and burned our home. It wasn't the first time we had been threatened sure but there was something about this one man. We would have just rebuilt, until my parents saw his tattoo. It was in the shape of an hour-glass." She murmured lost in thought. The tension between them becoming thicker. Kors could remember vaguely something in the news almost 20 years ago mentioning something about a group with hour-glass symbols. They sat in silence before Patty broke the tension between the two when she sat down next to the blond timekeeper.

Patty chatted with him but he was more interested in the quiet girl in front of him to really pay attention to her. Amelia ate quietly zoning in and out of the conversation. She was replaying the day they left over and over. The fire, the man and the hour-glass. All this was swirling around in her head until Rondo came over and distracted her. She failed to realize Kors had been staring at her the entire time.

"Cheer up kid we're sleeping on matress' again." Rondo he smiled tapping her shoulder with his. A small smile broke out on her face. "Yeah I know, it's just...I hate constantly moving." She stated before taking a bite of food. "You and me both kid." He stated before getting up again, she wasn't offended he always did that. Her mom would swear up and down that he had to be a.d.d, whatever that was. She shook her head at a random memory but was smiling fondly of her home and the times before all the chaos.

Kors watched her closely and he had to admit her smile was kind of cute. His thoughts were pulled away when Patty poked him in the side to get his attention. "Sorry, what was that?" He asked politely not sure what she said. He heard Amelia snort not even bothering to try to hide it. He heard Patty huff at Amelia but turned to him and put on a smile. "I asked if you wanted take watch with me?" She asked playing with her hair watching him closely, trying to give him the puppy dog eyes. He wasn't too fond of spending more time with her but her shift was next and he wanted to learn how this group operated if he ever hoped to stay with them.

He shrugged his shoulders "Sure." before he took a bite of his food finishing it and standing up. Amelia seemed a little put off by his answer but stayed quiet. Patty's eyes shone with excitement as she stood up looping her arm with his chatting his ear off. He wasn't concerned with that he was more concerned with the quiet girl sitting in front of him. Patty started to pull him and Amelia stood up she moved to walk away and paused turning around slightly with a smirk "Good luck." A smile spread across his face, before he turned to see where Patty was dragging him. Amelia stared after them feeling slightly deflated. Patty always drew the good-looking ones toward her. She liked his smile...not that she would admit that to anyone.

She failed to notice her mother watching the exchange with a raised eyebrow and a smirk plastered across her face. Anna was going to have to keep an eye on this new addition. Amelia moved over to the minutemen group and chatted with them.

Kors spent the next few hours trying to drown out Patty's voice as she talked about all the things she missed. He would catch useful information here and there but he mostly tuned her out. When it was finally over he headed back to where the voices were in the main room.

What he saw almost made him stop. Amelia was talking to Rondo and he had her in a hug and they were murmuring something before Rondo pulled back and kissed her forehead. Kors watched as Amelia left Rondo's arms and headed her room. Kors looked after her and then back and Rondo who had already gone back to doing something else, and it irked him as he wondered what had just taken place.

Kors saw Fortis coming out of the corner of his eye and he was ready for the worst, but surprised when he spoke in a calm voice. "Be ready to move out in the morning we have a lot of ground to make up for." Kors wasn't sure where they were going or why but he would be ready.

After Amelia watched Kors go off with Patty she spent those hours with the people she grew up, the minutemen. They laughed, shared stories and joked about stupid stuff they did when they were younger. Amelia was lost for most of it but it was fun to listen. As the night wound down she decided to head to bed. Rondo got up the same time she did. He pulled her into a hug "If you have anymore nightmares you come to my room okay?" He whispered. She nodded into his shoulder "Don't worry about me so much, but if it makes you feel better...if I get nightmares I'll come find you." she murmured into his shoulder smiling slightly. "I always worry. Sleep well." Rondo pulled back and kissed her forehead. She pulled away and headed for her room out of the corner of her eye she saw Kors coming back from his watch with a weird look on his face. She saw her father approach him and thats when the hallway cut off her view.

She wasn't sure why they were in such a hurry to get where ever they were going but as long as she had food and a place to sleep it didn't really matter anymore.

Okay I'm super sorry this took so long but I lost my mojo for this story and truth be told this chapter will probably be the only for a while because I'm still having this story on hold. I apologize for being kind of an ass, but I don't want to give you forced chapters because those suck, mine especially. So hold on to the fact that I do have a layout for how I want it to go, it's just finding the right flow is what's catching me up. I'm sorry again. Review or message me with any questions, concerns, to bitch me out for taking so long or anything in-between. Thank you for continuing to read the story even though I'm slow. :) Hope you enjoyed it and sorry for any grammar mistakes.