"What do we do now?" Carrie asked.
I didn't reply. Neither did anyone else. I hadn't thought this far ahead, and now I'd brought it on myself to have a one-step-ahead plan to please the others.
"How about we try the phones?" Rainey suggested optimistically.
Everyone immediately rushed over to the phones in reception, stabbing at the numbers frantically.
"Th-there's no answer at home…" Rina said, her voice shaking.
"None at mine either," Esmé added bluntly.
I looked around at the others, who also shook their heads in worry.
"What the hell are we going to do?" Emma from the other group yelled.
"We wait, and we DO NOT panic. Bad things happen when people panic, and it could end up nasty." I replied, managing to keep a cool tone of voice.
As we yet again sat around, an uneasy atmosphere filled the room. Hardly anyone spoke, and the aura of shock and disbelief still lingered. When I noticed that everyone wasn't looking to me to see if I had a plan, I too tried my home number quietly, not wanting to make a fuss. The continuous dial tone hit me harder than I thought it would. The longer I held the phone to my ear, the more scared I felt.
"Erin? Erin…?"
I snapped out of my moment, and saw Kyle pointing to the window that Emily came through.
"What?" I asked, a little bitterly.
"We should cover up this window with something," he suggested.
"Go ahead then," I replied coldly. The fact that he asked me before he went ahead and did something, and a long with all the questions I'd been getting from everyone, seemed that they saw me as some kind of initiator- or a leader? I was not looking to be a leader. I was just trying to make sure no-one turned into a psycho from the sudden disaster and fed us to those things out there.
As I walked away from the phone to sit by myself against the windows looking out to the fountain- and these windows were the ones where no-one could see inside- I heard some people talking about what they were going to use to cover up the windows, and going to help Kyle. Finally, they were beginning to work as a team and actually took a role in helping out our situation. I didn't feel like everyone was against me anymore. Gwen came and sat opposite me, followed by Jo and Charlie.
"Are you OK?" Gwen asked me, concerned.
"I'm just glad people are finally taking seriously the situation we're in." I replied.
"Yeah, they are, but no-one here is ever going to come to terms with it, including you," She said.
"I know…" I replied, looking out the window.
"Everyone's gonna be looking to you for our next course of action you know," Jo said, tilting her head towards the others.
"Everyone?" I said in denial. "I'm not sure everyone will be," I said, hinting at a small minority of people.
"Well Leigh, Cass and Connie have always been difficult. It's just the way they are, Erin. They're just scared. We all are." Charlie added, trying to make me feel better.
"Now, what are we gonna do about the food problem? Coz I have to say, all this cheating death stuff is making me hungry." Gwen said, changing the subject.
I smiled, as did Jo and Charlie. I got up to take a look at what Kyle was doing with the window. He had used sheets of printer paper to cover up the windows, with cellotape sticking them in place.
"That's a pretty good job," I said, trying to sound nice as possible.
"It'll do for now," He replied, eyeing up his work to make sure there was no gaping holes and all was tightly secured.
Moving away from him, I stood in front of everyone awkwardly, it felt odd- like I was a dictator of some kind.
"I've been thinking about what we are going to do about food."
All their faces listened intently.
"So we've got the kitchen across from us. I say, we collect an amount of food from there- as much as we need, and a group of us will go there to get it, while some of us hold the door open and the rest keep a lookout." I proposed my idea clearly.
"Wow, no objections?" I asked sarcastically.
"And what do we do when-" Cass began.
"I take it back," I mumbled under my breath.
"…When the food runs out? My guess is there's only a days worth of food in there- maybe not even that. And what do we do then?"
I stood there gathering my thoughts for a while, do they expect me to have another plan for every possible plan that goes wrong? I can't win with these people.
"Then we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I don't wanna sound big headed, but my plan to get us here has worked so far hasn't it? So just trust me. I'm bound to eventually conjure up another. Thank God for me." I announced very sarcastically.
A couple of people sighed bitchily and rolled their eyes.
"Seriously, does anyone else have a better idea?" I asked coldly, fed up with their constant jibes when they hadn't ever come up with anything themselves. No-one replied, perhaps by the tone of my voice they could tell that I was ready to engage in a very awkward argument and they seemed to understand that this was not the time, and it would not make things any better.
"We should do it now, get it out of the way," Rory said, standing.
"OK, who wants to get the food?" I asked everyone.
"Maybe you should risk yourself this time, since it's your idea, or are you all talk and no action?" Esmé proposed bitchily.
"I couldn't care less if I'm the one to do it, Esmé, your being so fucking petty. But if you wanna play it that way, then maybe you should join me. Or are you 'all talk and no action' ?" I turned the tables on her. If she wants to fight dirty, I'll give her one.
"I'll help," Rainey volunteered, trying to veer from the argument.
"Yeah, me too," Rory agreed.
"OK, so me, Esmé, Rainey and Rory will get the food, the rest of you will HAVE to keep the door open, and the others must keep a VERY keen lookout. I'm not going out on a limb to prove myself just to fall dead at the end of it. I don't care who does what, just do it right."
As the four of us made our way to open the door, a crowd of others went to the windows, each of them lined up looking intently. Gwen, Jo, Charlie, Leigh, Rina and Kyle guarded the door. We opened it slowly, peeking around it quietly. My heart was in my mouth.
"Go," I whispered.
The four of us ran to the kitchen opposite, I looked back at the others, they firmly held the door open, so one of the worries was off my mind. As we entered the kitchen, the few chairs that were in there turned over and the room was eerily quiet. We raided the cupboards and the fridge, where we found a bunch of grapes, juice, milk, bread, yoghurts, chocolate bars, crisps and biscuits.
"Hey, may be a good idea to take this, just in case," Rory nodded towards the smallest first aid kit I had ever seen, perched on the table.
"Yeah, grab it." I said, juggling with the juice and yoghurts in my hands. We finished rummaging and quickly made our way to the kitchen door. I looked behind to make sure everyone was ready to go.
"Esmé?" I asked in a hoarse whisper. There was only me, Rainey and Rory at the door. Panicking, I went back inside to look for Esmé.
"You guys go back, I'll be there now- Oh, and don't shut the door." I told Rainey and Rory, emphasizing the last point.
"Esmé, this isn't fucking funny! Get the hell out here now!" I demanded in frustration, but still managing to keep my voice quiet.
I went further into the kitchen, and noticed a door was slightly open at the end.
"Oh this is just great." I said sarcastically.
I approached the door carefully, and kept looking behind to make sure nothing was going to sneakily jump out and… well, kill me.
I came right up close to the door, and reached out with my hand to push it open. All I had to defend myself with was a pot of yoghurts and juice, very Milla Jovovich.
"Esmé…?" I whispered again, gritting my teeth. I slowly poked my head in to get a better look.
BAM.
"Jesus Christ! Esmé you stupid shit!" I yelled, with my hand on my chest.
"I thought we'd better get extra toilet paper just in case. Nice of all of you to check I was with you." She replied, with no sign of an apology.
"What do you think I came back here for- didn't you hear me calling you?"
"Obviously not."
"Come on." I rolled my eyes.
We made our way back to the reception, our footsteps quickened until we had practically jumped upon everyone at the door.
"What did you guys find?" Sian asked eagerly.
We poured out our goods onto the reception tables in a jumble.
"We're not gonna last very long on fruit juice and biscuits…" Leigh said, deadening the mood.
"Oh, I'm so sorry we couldn't find any vegetables or cooked meat for you." I said sarcastically, grinning.
"The way I see it," I began, projecting my voice to everyone, "You can either eat this stuff, or risk getting killed at the canteen. If this isn't good enough for you, then we may aswell split- RIGHT NOW." I gave them my ultimatum.
No-one said anything.
"That's what I thought."
I went back to my seating place at the window, watching some of them stare at the food and talk amongst themselves. I looked up at the clock.
4:28 PM.
All the traumatic stuff we had gone through, from start to finish, had lasted just over 4 hours. It felt more like 10 minutes- which is what I'd usually want a school day to feel like. I felt myself nodding off, and closed my eyes without anymore thought.
