Chapter 2. Hope you guys like it. Thanks so much for reviewing. They really, really made my day. Seriously.

Chapter Two: Desertification

They were in the middle of a desert. There was no sign of any sort of life, except for the four people in the taxi.

Leslie pulled a bag of sweets out of her bag and opened them.

"Sweet?" she offered to Jack. He reached his hand in and grabbed a handful. Leslie rolled her eyes.

"Thanks." He said, his mouth full of sweets.

She then turned, kneeled up on her seat and held the bag out to Sara first. "Sweet?"

"Yes. Thank you." Sara smiled, taking a few and eating them one at a time.

"Seth?" Leslie then offered. As much as she wanted to be as bitchy with him as he was with her, she at least wanted to be some sort of friends with Sara so tried to be polite with her pain in the ass of a brother.

Seth took one or two and muttered a 'thanks'. Leslie scowled at him, even though he wasn't looking at her.

Leslie sat back down and looked around. "You two have to be joking. Do you guys really live in the desert?" she asked. She then looked to Sara for an answer, since she knew she would probably get a glare and something snappy from Seth.

Sara smiled at her and opened her mouth to answer when Seth cut her off. "That information is has nothing to do with you." he told Leslie, his voice cold.

"I wasn't asking you, so butt out." Leslie replied, matching his tone, or possibly colder. She's had a lot of practise, so it was hard to know.

"Leslie." Jack hissed at her, while Sara was subduing Seth's temper.

"What is wrong with you? You were polite to her previously." she asked her brother.

"That was because I didn't speak to her. I can't. She infuriates me. She isn't like the other human, but she still manages to annoy me." Seth replied, his hands clenched into fists. He didn't meet Sara's gaze, but was conscious of what she was saying.

"She only asked a question. She meant no harm. Stop fighting if we are to arrive to our location." Sara said, looking at him meaningfully.

"No promises." Seth muttered.

Sara looked out the back window, and saw a car approaching.

"Jack Bruno, judging by the speed of the vehicle behind us, I suspect that they will reach us in less than a minute. They are indicating a pattern of pursuit." she informed him.

Leslie sat up from her iPod and looked out through the back window. The car did look familiar.

"Relax, nobody's following us. I'll just let them overtake is all." Jack reassured.

As Sara had said before, the car, which was actually an SUV, was right behind them in seconds. Jack rolled down his window and put his arm out, waving the driver on. "Go ahead! It's a free road!"

The SUV moved out to the other side of the road, and began to slowly began to pass the taxi.

Seth tried to peer in the window, but they were all blacked out, making it impossible to see through.

It continued to drive and pulled across in front of the taxi, keeping pace with it.

"Jack, those SUV's look quite familiar." Leslie told Jack, sitting up properly and putting away her stuff.

Jack turned to his niece, only remembering now that she was there when Wolfe's two had visited before.

"Jack Bruno!" Sara yelled, Jack's eyes snapping to the road. The SUV had braked, while two other SUV's pulled up on each side of the taxi, fencing it in and beginning to crash into the sides.

"Get down!" Jack yelled, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

The three teenagers put their bodies down to their knees.

More banging hit off the side of the taxi, throwing Leslie from side to side. Jack rammed them back, and managed to shove them off after a fight. The car began spinning, but Jack quickly righted it.

"Seth. No." Sara pleaded with her brother.

"I have to try." Seth told her stubbornly. He concentrated, and slipped through the back of the car onto the road in front of the approaching SUV. He braced himself, his anger strengthening him, and took the impact of the speeding truck. The engine and bonnet crushed around Seth's form and flew into the air, landing nearby on all four wheels, but it was in a horrible state.

Sara controlled the gears on the taxi, and the car reversed back towards the broken SUV.

"What the hell?" Leslie cursed. Seth slipped back into the taxi when it stopped just before the destroyed SUV.

"Are you ok?" Jack asked when the taxi halted.

"We are..." Sara started.

"Fine. We should just...go." Seth replied, sounding like he was short of breath.

"Stay here." Jack told the three teenagers, and got out of the taxi, crowbar in hand.

Leslie looked out the back window to see what was happening. Jack was really, really pissed with the guys in the SUV.

After a few minutes, Jack got back to the taxi and took off again down the road.

"You ok Jack?" Leslie asked.

"Yeah. You?" he asked. She nodded.

"How about you two? You two holding up ok?" Jack asked again, looking in his rear-view mirror at the two siblings.

"We are fine Jack Bruno." Sara repeated.

Silence enveloped the car as the journey continued on.

"We are here." Sara announced, pointing to a wrecked shack down below them.

"Here?" Leslie questioned. "There's nothing here."

"Is somebody waiting for you guys?" Jack asked as he pulled up to the house. There were no lights on inside, and no cars were outside except for the taxi.

"Don't worry Jack Bruno. Soon we will be reunited with our relatives." Sara smiled.

Jack cut off the engine and looked at the total amount due. "Ok, that'll be seven hundred and twenty dollars and fifty cents, but after what happened back there, how about I-"

"Here." Seth cut off, shoving the huge lump of cash into Jack's hand and running from the taxi towards the house with Sara.

Leslie looked up to Jack, who was still looking at the cash in surprise. He then got out of the car and called out to the siblings. "Hey! You guys overpaid!" Leslie buzzed her window down, waiting for one of them to come out.

There was no reply, but a smash was heard from inside. She got out of the car, in case they called for help and needed someone to go in for them. She strained her ears to hear anything coming from inside.

Jack began to walk toward the house, and Leslie followed him since he didn't protest.

They entered the house, and the whole place was dull and unlit. The entirety of the house was trashed and looked like it hadn't been lived in in years.

Jack grabbed the leg of a chair and snapped it off the seat to use as a weapon.

Suddenly, Jack whipped the chair leg around and went to hit something, but it went right through Seth's chest and hit the crate.

"What just...?" Jack questioned Seth, not believing his eyes.

Leslie walked over and sat on the ground on the other side of Sara. "Hey." She greeted.

"Ssshhh." Seth cut off. Leslie narrowed her eyes and closed her fists, but Sara but her hand on them and shook her head.

"Fighting is not the answer." She said to her, but made sure that Seth heard too.

"Jack Bruno and Leslie Bruno, you should not have endangered your life by following us." Sara said to Jack and Leslie.

"Why?" Leslie asked.

"I suggest you both return back to your vehicle. Your services are no longer required." Seth said sharply, his jaw tight.

"Seth, they're only trying to help." Sara pointed out to her brother.

"We don't need their help. Somebody's already been here looking for it. We can't trust anyone Sara. Just us." Seth told her, almost pleadingly.

Sara nodded. "My brother is right Jack Bruno. Neither of you can assist us no further." Sara told Jack and Leslie.

"Got it." Seth suddenly exclaimed. The two were suddenly up and running away from the crate.

"Hey, hey!" Jack called.

Leslie was already up on her feet and was following them.

They stood at a fridge, which Seth placed some sort of device on. Whatever it did, it worked and the main shelves of the fridge swung back, revealing a corridor. Leslie followed Sara, who followed Seth down through it.

Seth done the same on a large bookshelf, which slid open to a cave. The cave was lit by a glowing blue, rather than lights.

They went further down that again, until they arrived at an opening to a jungle looking place, which was completely glowing.

"What is this place?" Leslie whispered.

There it is for now. I'll update on Monday. Well, I'll try to anyway. Please review. They make me really happy.

Mistali