ONE

74 hours, 59 minutes

What Orsay Pettijohn hated the most was the pain. The terrible, horrible, unendurable pain. The pain that was in her stomach because she had not eaten in what seemed like years. The burning in her throat from when her best "friend," Nerezza, had tried to choke her to death.

She no longer felt those types of pain anymore since they had died out long ago. However, her anger still remained. No matter how many months ago it was, Orsay was still furious. Furious that she had survived a near-death-experienced, only to return to Perdido Beach and get kicked out in an instant.

Caine Soren, the proclaimed King of Perdido Beach, had lectured her, stating that nobody wanted a girl who lied about what was on the outside of the FAYZ wall to live along with them.

So she was forced to leave Perdido Beach and go to Lake Tramonto, where the brave and imperfect Sam Temple resided. Sam and the other people that lived at Lake Tramonto with him had welcomed her back, happy that she was alive.

She remembered being confused why Caine Soren was king and why the FAYZ was split into two, one half living at Lake Tramonto and the other half living in Perdido Beach. Sam had informed her about what had happened with Zil and his human crew, how Mary Terrafino took the big one-five, about the plague that had hit.

Wow, she remembered thinking. I sure did miss out on a lot of things.

All of the things were mostly tragic, but, most of all, the one that broke her heart was Mother Mary accepting her disappearance. Mother Mary had been perhaps one of the most important people in the FAYZ. She had taken care of all the littles and had been the hardest-working person she had ever known.

Though there was hardly any good news in the FAYZ, Orsay was glad that the scars on her neck were finally going away from Nerezza's choking, thanks to Lana Arwen Lazar, a girl she was grateful for. The Healer. That was what they called her.

When Orsay had been healed by Lana, she first thought she wanted revenge. So she went around the FAYZ, asking everybody if they knew where Nerezza was. Sadly, every person told her that Nerezza just . . . Disappeared the day that Mary took the jump.

All of these thoughts, complicated thoughts, and all of these problems, especially the fact that Diana Ladris was pregnant by Caine Soren, filled Orsay's mind as she walked in the Stefano Rey National Park.

There weren't too many people that hung out here, so that was the reason she came. The infamous people were here, usually ones without powers. The ones that weren't "freaks." All the important people like Sam Temple and Albert Hillsborough were never here.

What looked to be a gothic girl, who Orsay could easily identify as Sinder, was sitting at the park bench next to the playground. Orsay always sat at that park bench, but she didn't say anything because she didn't want to be rude.

"Hey, Sinder, do you mind if I take a seat here?" Orsay asked.

"Sure, sure," Sinder agreed. "No problem. So what's been up lately, Orsay?"

That was question Orsay didn't want to reply to, but did anyway because Sinder was a nice girl. "Still trying to look for Nerezza."

Sinder nodded in agreement. "Yeah. She was pretty cruel. She had been planning to take over the FAYZ. And then she almost killed you . . . That's probably why you want to get your hands on her."

Orsay touched her scarred neck. "See that? Nerezza did that to me. Her fingernails went into my neck so deep that blood was gushing out. Afterwards, they were just gashes. Thanks to Lana, the scars are becoming a lot less noticeable."

"That's good."

There was a long silence as the two girls just stared at the park where the kids were playing. John Terrafino was looking worried, having to keep up with every kid. He took over after his sister, Mary, disappeared. Now there was a lot of pressure on him.

Laughs filled the cool air as the children danced everywhere. Sinder and Orsay watched them, interested at their performances. That was one thing the two girls had in common: they had a good patience for anything and were easily fascinated. And, although they didn't know it, they had a lot in common.

"Yeah, well, I would take those scars if I could have Roscoe back," Sinder said, breaking into a sob. Orsay scooted closer to her, wrapping her arms around Sinder in a comforting gesture.

"I know," Orsay agreed. "I'm sure if my brother were to have died by a plague, I would take these scratches, too."

Sinder hugged Orsay back, something that was strange for the girl: she was unpopular, and she never showed any emotion whatsoever. And, even though she did give Orsay a hug, Sinder didn't cry like a normal person would when talking about a brother who was eaten from the inside-out by what was nicknamed as "Greenies."

Orsay sighed, patting Sinder's back. "You know, Sinder, I don't have too many friends here in the FAYZ because they all think that I am full of crap. But, out of the few who don't think bad of me, and are my friends, I would say you are my favorite."

"So that would mean I am your best friend?" Sinder inquired.

"Yes," Orsay replied, feeling sort of awkward. "I guess so."

"This is going to sound even more weird," Sinder said, "but you are my best friend, too. My only friend, now that Roscoe is gone."

The two girls looked at each other and smiled.

Sam Temple's new house near Lake Tramonto wasn't all that great. A lot of people had helped contribute to building houses next to Lake Tramonto since there were not any. At first, people didn't do anything, except expect that somebody would build their houses for them. But, once they found out that wasn't how it really was, they built their own houses. Sam lived with Astrid Ellison, his religious, beautiful, girlfriend, who was in a deep, dark depression after throwing Little Pete to the bugs.

"I killed him!" Astrid would say. "I threw him. It was me. I am never supposed to sin and what I did was practically murder!"

Sam would always have to assure her that it wasn't. He had finally made up with her. She had forgave him and yet, when they were a couple again, everything almost seemed to fall apart. At least their love was stronger than ever: when Sam told Astrid that he had decided sex wasn't what he wanted if it meant losing her, she had broke into tears of happiness, despite the loss of Little Pete.

Right now, Sam was sitting in the living room, staring into Astrid's elegant, blue eyes. Now that Sam had a lot of pressure off of him by Caine declaring himself King of Perdido Beach, he realized that he wanted to be with her more than he had known. He also realized that he was a very social person.

"What are we going to do today?" Sam queried.

Astrid shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we can go somewhere . . . This house is the only place we are ever at. It gets kind of annoying."

"Lets go see someone, maybe?"

"Fine by me," Astrid said.

"Maybe we can just, you know, walk around and talk to whoever we see that we want to," Sam said. "I wanted to see how Edilio's doing and it's been a long while since I have talked to Quinn."

Astrid sighed. "Ah, Sam, you know that going to Perdido Beach would only make Caine suspicious. And, if Caine becomes suspicious, he will probably jump to conclusions . . . Inevitably, it will lead to a fight."

"Oh, come on, Astrid!" Sam said. "This is exactly why you are called Astrid the Genius."

She kind of smiled at that. "People tend to know who is smart and who is not."

Sam grinned, too. "Wow. I didn't know Astrid the Genius had a sense of humor . . . And I thought I knew everything about you."

"Please," Astrid said. "You don't even know my middle name."

Sam frowned at that one. "Uh . . . I didn't know you had a middle name."

Astrid gasped. She was acting as if she were kind of angry, although it was her own joke. "I can't even speak to you right now!"

She stood up and pretended like she was leaving the living room.

"Astrid, wait!" Sam called. "I'm sorry. You should have told me!" He had gotten to his feet and was now following her.

Astrid spun on her heels, leaning her head to his and pressing her lips to his. She moved her tongue onto his and they kissed. Sam interlocked their fingers, the both of them holding hands.

With the hand that wasn't holding hers, Sam moved it towards her back. His left hand went from the nape of her neck to the lower-back. His hands grabbed at her butt and that's when she pulled away, a smile on her face.

"Maybe this is the day we go for it," Sam said.

Astrid shook her head. "Not today, Sam. For the millionth time, I have to resist my urges because I want to remain abstinent. Is that so hard to believe?"

He pulled her tighter to where her chest was touching his. "Yes, Astrid, it is."

Sam had been surprised that she hadn't pulled away, but when she finally did, he had been expecting it. "Stop it," she said. "You're making it difficult for me to say no."

"All right, all right," Sam forfeited.

"Now, how about we go out and have a fun day?"

Authors Note: This is planned to be a full-length novel, most likely longer than any other Gone novel. I wanted most questions to be answered in this story, so please ask any questions you want to be answered and I will put a part of the story answering it. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.