About an hour later:
After playing various strange acting games to try and forget about what was happening outside.
"Guys." Robbie spoke up.
"What?" Jade snapped.
"I need to pee." Robbie gulped.
"Hold it." Jade said back.
"For how long?" Robbie replied hastily, crossing his legs. "We could be in here weeks."
"Weeks?" Cat squeaked.
"Oh just pee in this." Tori shoved an empty can towards the curly haired boy.
"In a can?" Robbie looked appalled by the situation.
"You wanna go out there and face that green gas?" Beck said.
Instead of replying, Robbie turned away and pulled down his zipper. "Wait!" Tori yelled. "I've found something on the news." She spun her PearPhone to the rest of the group.
"'Real life apocalypse?'" Jade read out, snatching Tori's phone away from her. "'After an experiment in the Nevada desert went wrong, an explosion of thick, green radioactive gas was sent into the air. The gas spread across the south-west, covering most of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and thousands of homes within the hour. The further from the testing sight, the thinner the cloud, but nevertheless still as harmful.'" The news article said. "'Reports from those outside of the gas field claimed that they saw zombie-like humans emerging from the cloud. Citizens around the gas zone are being told to vacate their homes and move towards the East Coast immediately, and everyone inside the gas area is presumed dead or 'infected'." Jade finished reading, all this information being too much for even her to bare.
Seeing his girlfriend's distress, Beck took the phone and continued to read the article. "'Armed Forces have been sent to scout the area via helicopters. The gas seems to be already clearing and would be breathable within the next week, though due to 'infected' people, returning would not be advice to anyone. An official statement from the Government is that the area will be sectioned off and left alone until the 'infected' can be dealt with.'"
"Dealt with?" Andre replied, shakily.
"Killed is my guess." Beck said bluntly, running a hand through his hair nervously.
"Do you think anyone would come and find us?" Cat spoke up suddenly, her voice wavering.
"I'm not so sure Cat." Beck replied honestly. "But for now, we've got everything we need in here." He motioned to the various things around the room that they'd shoved into there during the panic from an hour ago.
"What do we have?" Tori asked, looking at the strange array of stuff they'd grabbed.
"It's from Cat's room." Andre said. "It could be anything."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cat yelled suddenly.
"Nothin Lil' Red." Andre tried to recover.
"Kay kay." Cat replied, her voice back to her calm and normal one, emphasising her drastic mood swings.
"Who threw in a box of Cat's clothes?" Jade asked after pulling open the cardboard box. "They'll literally only be able to fit her."
"I did." Said Tori. "It was labelled 'large hoodies'. I thought maybe they'd fit." She muttered.
"Oooh yay." Cat beamed, pulling clothes out of the box. "I love these things, I only wear them around the house though."
"Wait." Robbie said, picking up one of the hoodies. "This is one of mine."
"Oh yeah." Cat giggled. "So it is."
"How the hell do these fit you?" Jade asked, holding one of Cat's hoodies up against Beck. "He's 5ft 10 and it looks like it'll fit him normally."
"I wear them like a dress." Cat giggled, throwing one of the hoodies over her petite frame, it was long enough for the hem to hit her knees.
"I take it back Vega, good idea grabbing this." Jade said.
"Thanks ." Tori smiled slightly at the rare complement from the goth.
"What else we got?" Jade moved on quickly, grabbing the blanket off of the floor. "I'm using this for the night." She commanded, ignoring the annoyed looks from the rest of them. "What? I'll be sharing with Beck so it makes sense."
"Alright, fine." Tori rolled her eyes. "I get this pillow though." She grabbed the fluffiest pillow from the pile of 4 that had been thrown in there.
That Night
Tori POV
There isn't a person alive who doesn't fear being closed in, fear being trapped in darkness, fear the monsters who cage us with fear itself. There isn't a person alive who doesn't love the light of a warm sun upon their face, love the breeze in long grasses, love the sight of new blooms. There is always a fire in our hearts burning for the open air, freedom, the ability to dance in any way we wish. Claustrophobia isn't rare, it's ubiquitous, it's just a matter of the degree you feel it. I feel it really badly, loathing the idea of not being able to escape.
It felt like the walls were closing in on me as I forced myself to close my eyes in an attempt to welcome sleep. I felt like I couldn't breathe- what if I run out of oxygen? My heart rate began to speed up, and so did my breathing.
No POV
"Tori?" Cat whispered to the brunette girl who, like her, was curled up in one of Cat's massive hoodies with her head resting on a pillow.
"Yeah." Tori replied, her heart-rate still beating 50 miles an hour.
"I'm really scared." The redhead cried out.
"Me too Cat." Tori said back, trying to calm herself down. "We're just super lucky we found this safe which somehow stopped the gas from coming in."
"Yeah, lucky." Cat said darkly. "Everyone we know and love are dead or 'infected'."
"Wow." Tori breathed, shocked at the girls drastic out-of-character comment. "They might have got out of it... like we did." She huddled closer to the redhead and laid her arms over the girl's frame in a comforting way. "It'll be okay Cat."
"Thank you Tori." Cat mumbled, huddling against the half-Latina's body. "You're the best."
"Just close your eyes, the sun is going down" Tori began whisper-singing the chorus of the Taylor Swift song 'Safe and Sound'
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."
"Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire" Cat snuggled even closer to the half-latina as she sung.
The war outside our door keeps raging on
Hold onto this lullaby even when the musics gone, gone
Just close your eyes, the sun is going down
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound
Just close your eyes, you'll be alright
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."
As she finished, Tori noticed Cat's breathing had softened and a small snore was coming from her mouth. Slowly she herself closer her eyes, and joined her friend in a peaceful slumber.
"Well well well." Jade West smirked, looming over the two girls the next morning. "Look what we have here."
"What're you on about Babe?" Beck asking, slowly sitting up from the floor bed which he was sharing with her before she'd gotten up.
"Look at Cat and Tori." She replied, her loud talking waking Robbie, but somehow the girls both still slept, along with Andre.
"Morning." Robbie yawned, stretching out his arms and clicking his back as he sat up from the floor. "What's happened?"
"Awe." Beck said, standing up and seeing Cat wrapped in Tori's arms. "Cat was probably scared in the night."
"Yeah right." Jade rolled her eyes and then loudly screamed in an attempt to wake them.
"AH!" Andre yelled, quickly jumping up to his feet at his rude awakening. "What? Why? Where?" He stuttered, looking around for the cause of the scream to see Jade West pulling her famous evil smirk. "Argh Jade."
"Jade?" Tori asked, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Why did you scream?"
"To wake you."
"Well thanks." Tori replied sarcastically. "Why're you all looking at me?"
"Hi hi." Cat said, looking around the roof from her place beside Tori. "Did someone scream?"
"No." Jade lied. "Did you two have a nice sleep?" She smirked.
"Yes I- wait." Tori stopped herself. "Why are you being nice suddenly?"
"She was pointing out that you two were cuddled up super close I think." Robbie commented.
"I was scared." Cat said innocently.
"See, told you." Beck pointed out.
"What did you think was happening?" Tori said, shock in her voice.
"You tell me Vega." Jade raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing was going on!" Tori yelled, standing up to confront Jade.
"I was just scared." Cat replied, now sat upright but not standing.
"Let's eat." Andre moved one of the large food cans into the centre of the floor in an attempt to change the subject.
"'Mango Slices'?" Tori read off of the can, noting Andre's attempts. "I'm up for mango."
"Oooh." Cat clapped happily. "I love mango."
A while later
"Aaaannnnd I'm bored." Tori sighed, slumping against the wall of the room.
"Bored, bored, bored, bored." Cat added.
"Can't be anymore bored." Beck commented.
"Don't think you can be." Jade cut in, sensing the pattern.
"Each of those started with the next alphabetical letter." Robbie noted.
"Funny." Andre replied.
"Game of Alphabet Improv?" Tori asked.
"How about no." Jade said.
"Ironic, you still continued the theme." Andre pointed out.
"Jee, I didn't notice." Jade replied sarcastically.
"Can't you-" Cat started before realising 'cant' didn't start with a 'K'. "Oh, I'm out, keep going."
"Kay kay." Robbie replied, using Cat's own catchphrase against her.
"Let's see how long we can keep this going." Tori said.
"Might be forever." Beck replied.
"Only until- Oh damn it!" Robbie said, slumping to the floor dramatically at his mistake.
"Not possible, if two people are already out." Tori continued the game.
"Oh yeah."
"Pessimistic." Jade snapped.
"Queen." Andre said suddenly, frantically searching for a Q word.
"Random." Beck said sceptically.
"I'm out. This is boring." Jade said.
"Same here." Tori said. "Wait, that wasn't meant to start with an 'S'."
"How long are we going to stay in here?" Jade groaned, already bored of staying in the room.
"The news report said it seems like the air will be breathable in a week." Robbie reminded.
"And then what are we planning on doing?" Andre asked. "If you'd forgotten, there are 'infected' people everywhere."
"We're going to have to set up base somewhere, like a supermarket." Beck suggested. "Then make a plan from there, maybe try to escape and go to the East Coast."
"I doubt we'll be accepted with open arms, they'll probably think we're infected." Tori pointed out. "It wouldn't surprise me if we were killed so soon as we're seen trying to escape."
"Killed?" Cat squealed, huddling her body closer to Tori's in fear, making Jade raise an eyebrow at them.
"We'll be fine Cat." Tori stroked the girl's red head comfortingly, ignoring the goth's judgement. "We've just got to be smart about it."