"Alright, last one for a week. We don't want to start a forest fire." Grizz said, holding his joint out for a light. Nina Visser and three boys in letterman jackets stopped beside him. Jason pulled out a second joint and his lighter and passed both to Nina, who lit the joint and passed it back to Jason.
"Hey." said Luke, who Nina affectionately dubbed 'Jock #1'. "What's that?"
He pointed up at some graffiti on the brick wall of the church and the four other high schoolers looked up.
"Graffiti." Clark, aka Jock #2, answered. Nina laughed.
"Yeah, I know it's graffiti, man. But when was the last time you guys saw graffiti in this town?" Luke asked.
"About three seconds ago." Clark said. Nina laughed again and Clark grinned at her, assuming her laughter was because he was being funny and not because she thought he was legit stupid. Jason passed her the joint and she took another hit.
"It's the writing on the wall." Grizz said.
"Yeah, no duh." Clark said, giving Nina a 'can you believe this kid' look. Grizz rolled his eyes.
"That's what it's called. 'The writing on the wall'. From the Bible, book of Daniel." Grizz explained. "Mene mene tekel upharsin."
"Is it supposed to be ironic?" Nina asked. Her brother shrugged in response.
"Why do you always know shit I don't know?" Clark asked Grizz.
"It's probably all the weed you smoke." Nina told him. She patted Clark on the chest in condolence and Jason laughed.
"It's nonsense." Jason said, blowing on the tip of his joint to keep it from going out.
"It's Hebrew." Grizz corrected. "It means you've been weighed in the balance and found wanting."
"No. It means someone was definitely fucking high last night." Clark says, his own eyelids weighed heavy by the weed he just smoked.
Clark started walking towards the busses, Jason and Luke slowly following him. Grizz stayed back to look at the graffiti one last time and Nina waited with him. A few seconds later, he pulled Nina away from the wall and towards his friends by her backpack and the two of them walked past the throng of parents bidding their children goodbye.
Nina and Grizz had already said goodbye to their parents. Including their moms twenty minute speech about being good and eating vegetables and how she and God love them and God is watching. Always watching. Especially you two. Because Jesus loves you. So be good. It was almost as awful as the time she made Grizz quit dance class because good Christian boys play football or whatever.
The only thing Nina got from the speech is that she's going to be parentless in the Smoky Mountains for ten days and she can't fucking wait. No overbearing moms. No emotionally distant fathers. No guilt trips about how much she's disappointing Jesus by wearing mini skirts. Just lots and lots of weed, beers, and hot dumb jocks. Nina loves hot dumb jocks. The only things holding her back from going on a full Smoky Mountain bender was Grizz and Helena. She didn't have much time to think about it though because with a combination of the weed and being smooshed between Jason and Grizz, Nina was really sleepy. She fell asleep shortly after the buses passed the 'You are now leaving West Ham' signs.
Nina woke up to a blinding light. Okay, not blinding so much as dull and flickering but still. She groaned, trying to pull her hat over her eyes before she remembered that she wasn't wearing a hat and the 'hat' she was trying to pull over her eyes was a letterman jacket. She wasn't sure who it belonged to. The buses screeched to a stop and the students around her started waking.
"Change of plans." The bus driver announced boredly. "Rock slides, road is closed. You're back home."
The bus drivers couldn't wait to kick all the kids off and leave them standing in the middle of the empty park. They pulled away from the curb as soon as the last student stepped off the bus and into the misty night. Grizz pulled Nina into his side and tucked his arm around her, a nervous habit he'd had since they were little kids. The three jocks from earlier, plus Helena, joined them in the middle of the group of confused students. A few people pulled out their phones and tried to call their parents but no one answered.
"Maybe everyone's asleep?" Helena offered as an answer.
No one seemed to buy it but they didn't have any other ideas. The mist was quickly turning into a thunderstorm.
"Maybe someone is home." Grizz suggested, pulling Nina tighter into him when the wind blew.
"Yeah." Helena agreed. "Let's just go home."
She gave Luke a look and he nodded, slipping his letterman jacket over her shoulders and grabbing her backpack. Cassandra Pressman agreed with Helena and quickly, everyone followed their lead. Kids wandered off to their own houses and the park cleared out. Grizz and Nina walked to an empty house on Main Street.
Once they got home, Grizz unlocked the door and started looking around for any sign of parents. Nina grabbed a towel and started ringing the rain out of hair, waiting for Grizz to find their parents and explain everything. Her phone started blowing up with texts from the cheer squad, Helena, Kelly Aldrich, and even Elle Tomkins, who Nina had barely talked to since she quit ballet. No one could find their parents or any explanation for where they went.
Grizz trudged back into the living room, phone in hand, and sat across from his little sister.
"None of the guys know where their parents are either." He told her. She tried to keep the worried look off her face. Grizz was always anxious and she didn't want to cause him more stress. Nina's phone went off again.
"Kelly wants to know if you have any data."
"No." Grizz focuses on his texts too. "We're supposed to meet at the gazebo."
The walk back to the gazebo was much faster than the walk home. It had stopped raining and everyone was trying not to freak out. Clark met Nina and Grizz half way and they walked to the park together. There was already a small crowd when the three of them showed up.
"Hey, so who decided we needed a flash mob?" Grizz asked as soon as they were in earshot of the crowd.
"I did." Cassandra Pressman said.
"What the fuck, Cassandra?" Grizz asked. Nina gave Clark a 'can you believe this bitch' look and he laughed.
"Better than 200 people sending texts." Cassandra pointed out. "Has anyone been able to reach anyone?"
"No." Said pretty much everyone.
"No-one? Well… there's… there's definitely a simple explanation." Cassandra said.
"Like what?" Jason asked.
"Like… Um. They, uh- they were evacuated. After we left. And there was a miscommunication, and we were brought back here by mistake." Cassandra supplied.
"Someone would still answer a phone." Kelly pointed out.
"Maybe they're asleep." Cassandra countered. "I don't know. Maybe they're some place without reception. They're in a shelter with no reception. In the morning, someone will answer a phone."
"Maybe it's not safe for us to be here, if they all left." Elle said nervously.
"A couple hours isn't going to make a difference." Cassandra said. "We'll figure this all out in the morning. Right now we should just go home."
"So, you made us all come out here just to tell us to go to bed?" Nina asked.
"Yeah. We should all just go home. And if anyone doesn't want to be alone, they can come back to our house." Cassandra said. Allie nodded along.
Cassandra and a few other people left but most of the students stayed in the park, not wanting to go to empty houses but not knowing what to do.
"Well, fuck it." Clark said loudly. "No parents? I say, let's fucking party."
Clark got a small cheer in response and he turned back to Grizz and Nina.
"I've got beer at my house. Wanna grab some?" He asked Grizz. Grizz nodded and turned back to Nina.
"Do you want me to walk you home first?" He asked.
"And miss out on drinking all of Clark's beer? I think I'll stay." She answered with a small smile. Grizz gave her a nervous look in return but Luke and Helena overheard and Luke pulled Nina over.
"We've got her, Grizz. No worries, man." Luke assured him. Nina rolled her eyes at Helena and Helena gave her an amused smile. Clark dragged Grizz down the road toward his house, leaving Nina with Luke and Helena. Nina gave them an annoyed look and Helena laughed.
"He treats me like a five year old." She complained.
"He's just worried about his little sister. It's sweet." Helena said.
"It's Clark's fault." Luke explained. When Nina and Helena gave him confused looks, he explained further. "Remember that Homecoming party at Harry's last year? Clark and Jason started making bets about who could get you into bed first and the angrier Grizz got, the more jokes they made. I'd never seen Grizz so mad at them before. They thought it was hilarious."
"Well, that's super patriarchal and gross." Nina said, unimpressed.
"Where were you when they did this?" Helena asked Luke accusingly. Luke smiled awkwardly.
"This isn't one of those stupid pacts that ends up with me not getting laid 'til I'm like, 30, is it?" Nina asked. Luke shrugged. "That's such bullshit. I'm gonna kick all their asses."
"Who's asses are you kicking?" Jason (Jock #3) asked. He threw his arm around Nina's shoulders, the six pack of beer in his hand knocking into her chest.
"Yours." Luke told him. Nina took a beer out of the six pack and Jason gave her a fake glare.
"I'd like to see you try, Visser." He joked.
"Please don't encourage her." Helena begged. "We all know how this is going to end."
"Yeah." Nina agreed, popping open the can. "I'm going to beat up the entire football team and everyone will crown me queen of West Ham."
"More like you're going to get wasted and try to fight Clark until both of you end up bruised and passed out and Luke has to carry you home." Helena said. Nina scoffed but everyone else laughed at Helena's likely outcome.
"Sounds good to me." Jason said, cracking open a beer for himself. "I love drunk Nina."
"Drunk Nina's the best." Nina agreed. The two of them cheers'ed their beers and started chugging. Helena sighed and Luke gave her a 'what can ya do' look before taking a beer for himself.
Kids started trickling into the park with their parents liquor bottles in their hands. If the parents are MIA, they can't get in trouble for drinking all of moms vodka, can they? Even Helena was two beers deep when Clark found out the church was unlocked. The party moved inside, despite Helena's disapproval of getting plastered in a sacred space. Nina didn't like upsetting her friend but she also didn't feel like standing outside in the dark alone so she moved inside with everyone else.
If there was one thing the kids of West Ham could do, it was throw parties. It was probably a rich kid thing. Never ending funds meant never ending beer and there was never a fear of getting arrested when basically everyone's mom was a lawyer. Someone found the PA system in the church and started blasting dance music. Nina's only hope was that beer was good for your hair, as boys started pouring bottles of the stuff on everyone they could. Even Grizz partook in a shotgunning contest with Nina. She won. She was in the process of celebrating her win and hounding her brother over his loss when Kelly finally got Nina's attention.
"Hey! I've been looking for you." Kelly shouted over the music. Nina hopped down from her spot on a pew so she could hear her friend.
"What's up?" She asked.
"Have you seen Harry?" Kelly asked. Nina looked around but her height didn't give her any advantages so she stood on the pew again, this time with Kelly's help. She found Harry groping some girl drenched in beer and hopped down from the pew.
"He's uh… over there with Hannah." Nina said awkwardly, pointing in the direction of Kelly's soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend. Kelly huffed and stormed over to them and Nina slipped through the crowd in the opposite direction.
"Nina!" Grizz had to shout over the beer chugging contest to be heard. Nina whipped around at the sound of her name and Grizz forced his way through the crowd.
"What's wrong?" Nina asked, her words slurring together.
"The writing on the wall is gone." Grizz said. Nina frowned.
"Is that like… a metaphor?" She asked confusedly. She suddenly grinned. "Or a quote! You love quotes."
Grizz rolled his eyes and grabbed Nina's arm to lead her out of the church.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Taking you home." Grizz explained, clearly annoyed at his younger sister's antics. Nina huffed but didn't stop Grizz from dragging her out of the church. She was sleepy.
"Will you carry me?" She asked as the two of them stepped into the cool night air.
"Nope." He answered.
"Please."
"No."
"Pretty please." She begged. Grizz groaned and squatted so she could jump on his back, mostly to shut her up. Nina cheered on hopped up, letting Grizz carry her all the way back to their house.
Nina woke up to an incessant buzzing sound. Every time her phone stopped vibrating it would start again within a few seconds. Her head was throbbing and her eyes were burning and to top it off, she forgot to eat last night so she felt too sick to stand up and get breakfast. Her phone started buzzing again.
"What the fuck do you want, Gareth?" She snapped. Grizz made a shushing noise on the other end of the phone that stabbed directly into Nina's brain.
"Did you eat yet?" He asked. Nina groaned at the thought of food and Grizz took that as an answer. "I left food on your nightstand."
Nina hadn't actually opened her eyes all the way yet. The cloudy gray sky was shining too brightly through her curtains. But when she looked at the nightstand she saw a large glass of water and a box of cereal.
"Okay." She said, closing her eyes again.
"Eat it and meet us at the bridge." Grizz told her.
"Why?"
"Just do it. It's important."
Grizz hung up before she could complain again and Nina rolled her eyes. She still felt awful but the stressed tone of her brother's voice made her get up. She took off her beer stained clothes from the night before and put on some clean ones before grabbing the box of cereal and taking it with her. She munched on the food as she walked to the bridge.
Grizz was waiting for her, along with his friends, Kelly, Allie and Cassandra, Gordie and Bean, Becca, Sam, and Campbell. They all looked worried. Probably because the road was suddenly blocked off with dense forest that wasn't there yesterday. Nina had to force herself to keep walking towards it but she couldn't quite convince herself that it was real. The group greeted her with tight smiles and nervous looks.
"What the fuck is that?" She asked quietly. It was the only thing she could say. No one could give her an answer and Grizz pulled her into his side.
"I mean… there's only so many options." Gordie said, trying to work it out in his head.
"Maybe we're dreaming." Allie offered. Nina had the same thought but it would be weird for them all to have the exact same dream. Maybe she's the only one dreaming and she just needs to wake up. Shit, maybe she's in a coma or something. "It's the best option."
"Maybe this is just some elaborate fucking game." Harry said. "Like someone built an exact replica of our town and put it in the middle of nowhere and if we just walk… like, this way or that way or any way, eventually we'll get back to the… the real world."
No one seemed to buy Harry's option.
"Who has that kind of time? Or money?" Nina asked, her hand still digging in the box of cereal.
"I'm not saying it makes any sense." He defended.
"There was a smell, and then it went away, and it came back, and the busses came for us." Cassandra said. Nina rolled her eyes and Grizz took some of the cereal to stress eat.
"You're gonna just work this out, Cassandra? Like some logic problem? I mean, not a flicker of a doubt?" Harry asked.
"The world doesn't just turn upside down without a reason. We're not in some play-within-a-play. Okay? Clever is not the same thing as true. There is a point to everything and there are answers." Cassandra said.
"That's right." Helena agreed. "God doesn't just play games with people for fun."
"Alright, look, Grizz and I will get a group together and we'll go hike out of here together through the woods, okay? Like a search party." Luke said.
"I think that's a good idea." Helena said, agreeing with her boyfriend.
"Do you think that's safe?" Cassandra asked.
"Yeah, sure." Grizz said.
"Yeah, Grizz knows what he's doing. And if there's people out there, we gotta find them, right? You know, to get help." Luke said.
"I'm leaving. I'm hungry." Harry said. He started getting in his car, probably planning on leaving everyone else on the bridge, when Allie stood up to stop him.
"You're leaving?" She asked.
"Yeah. I've got a house with a refrigerator with food inside of it, and I'm gonna go eat it." Harry said like Allie was stupid.
"You can't just leave." Cassandra said.
"Well, what are we supposed to do instead?" Harry asked.
"We have to figure out what's happening to us." Cassandra said.
"You're not student council president anymore." Harry said.
"God, you really need to get over that!" Cassandra said. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Are you coming with, Kel?" Harry asked. Kelly looked at the ground.
"No." She said.
"Jesus Christ, just get in the car." Harry told her.
"Leave her alone." Will said, standing up for Kelly.
"Hey, fuck off, Will." Harry said. He looked down at Kelly but she didn't meet his eyes and he got even angrier. "Fine. Who gives a shit?"
Harry got in his car and sped off. At the same time, Campbell whipped out his phone and snapped a picture of the blocked road. Cassandra begged him not to send it and he sent it to everyone in town with a chaotic smirk.
"We should get out of here, before everyone starts swarming." Becca said, signing as she spoke so that Sam could understand. The group agreed and started walking back towards town. Grizz still had his arm firmly around his little sister, mostly to ease his anxiety. He kept squeezing and loosening his grip on her shoulder and it was starting to hurt when he suddenly let go.
"Luke and I will get our group together and leave this afternoon." He decided. Luke and Helena nodded along. "We'll get enough food for five days, that'll give us time to walk to… New Haven, probably."
"That sounds good." Cassandra said.
"You're staying here." Grizz told Nina.
"Why?" She asked. She didn't actually want to walk through the woods for a week but she hated being told what to do.
"Uh, because last time you went camping you tripped over a stick and broke your arm." He said.
"I was six." She pointed out. Grizz shrugged.
"There are no doctors here." Grizz said. It was only meant as a point to keep Nina in West Ham but it made everyone uneasy.
After Grizz left that afternoon, Nina was lost. She didn't want to admit it to anyone, especially herself, but she was scared. She tried calling her parents but the line would just ring and ring until she couldn't listen anymore and she had to hang up. Her house was eerily quiet. She couldn't go to the grocery store without getting trampled. She was grateful when Helena finally called her and asked her to go to the church. She arrived late in the afternoon, armed with trash bags and Clorox wipes.
Helena was thankful enough that Nina helped her clean up the trash that she didn't even mention Nina's help in making the trash. The church reeked of stale beer and the scent was starting to make Nina's hangover come back when Helena's phone rang with a call from Grizz. She took the call outside and looked worried when she came back in.
"What did he want?" Nina asked. Helena dropped her arms to the side and sighed nervously.
"I don't know. He didn't say. Just that they're coming back tonight and they want everyone to meet here." Helena told her.
Nina was worried. The only upside she could think of was this if Grizz was calling, he wasn't hurt. But that made her think that Luke was hurt and she really liked Luke. She started stress cleaning the pulpit and almost had it sparkling by the time the rest of the town arrived. Allie quickly grew tired of Nina's loud scrubbing and pulled her into a pew so she would stop. Instead she took out her phone and stared at it, waiting for news from her brother. Helena did the same, calling Luke and letting the line ring when she got no response.
"Anything?" Cassandra asked.
"He's not answering. Neither is Grizz." Helena said. She tugged on the cross necklace she always wore and shoved her phone away.
"They must be headed back here. That's why they wanted us together." Harry reasoned.
"So fast." Kelly said. "Twelve hours. They must have found something."
"Or maybe they found nothing. Why wouldn't they say if it was good news?" Helena asked.
"Grizz wouldn't just come back if they found nothing. He would keep looking. Something must have happened." Nina said. Helena took a sharp breath and Nina felt bad. She offered Helena her hand and she gripped it tightly. Cassandra stood up.
"Listen. Hey, listen up!" Cassandra got everyone's attention. "While we're all here together, there are some things we ought to figure out. Before we rip this place apart and maybe… you know, start hurting each other."
Nina squeezed Helena's hand and Helena squeezed back.
"I don't know what is going on." Cassandra continued. "Maybe Luke will come back with some good news."
"Maybe? Of course he will." Elle said. Nina remembered her old friend as being inherently pessimistic, maybe she'd changed.
"Yeah. Why don't we just wait and see, Cassandra?" Harry asked, always taking any excuse to disagree with his childhood enemy.
"Because I would rather prepare for the worst before the worst happens." Cassandra explained.
"What does that mean? Prepare?" Kelly asked.
"I don't know specifically. I think it means we agree not to just take things when we want. Until all the food is gone and we starve." Cassandra said.
"Well, I'd agree to that." Allie said. A few people mumbled an agreement.
"This is bullshit." Harry complained.
"Jesus, man. What is your problem?" Will asked. Nina rolled her eyes at the two boys who constantly fought and leaned her head against Clarks shoulder.
"What are we agreeing to?" Harry asked. "Which one of us gets to decide who gets what? Your friend?"
"It's called democracy." Becca said.
"I'm not a fucking idiot." Harry said back.
"How do you want us to decide things?" Cassandra asked Harry. "Every person for themselves? Then we're back to where we started. Maybe you want to flip a coin to see who decides? You don't like democracy? How about random fucking chance?"
Cassandra pulled out a quarter and Harry scoffed.
"Call it, Harry. Call it." She taunted.
"I'm not gonna do that." Harry said.
"No? Okay. Okay, I'll call it for you. You get heads." Cassandra said. She flicked the coin into the air, caught it, and set it on her other hand. "It's tails. Still think it's unfair? Best two out of three."
Cassandra flipped the coin in the air again. Tails. She flicked it again. Tails. And again. Tails. She started to look scared.
"Do it again." Harry said. She did.
"Tails." She whispered. She flipped the coin three more times. All tails. Harry swore. Cassandra flipped the coin again and let out a sigh of relief.
"Heads." She held up the coin and everyone let out a collective sigh. Helena's grip on Nina's hand loosened slightly. Cassandra looked around at the worried faces of her fellow students and knew she had to say something.
"It's all up to us. There's no civilization here, not until we start one. So, what are we going to do? First, I think we have no choice but to share. Share food. Share resources."
"Houses?" Harry asked.
"Maybe." Cassandra said.
"Fuck you." Harry scoffed.
"Really? How much electricity do we have?" Allie asked Harry. "Until it's all used up and everything goes dark. I think 225 people in 200 houses doesn't make sense."
"Keep what's ours!" A boy in the back demanded.
"What is yours?" Cassandra asked him. "Do you have money? Who you gonna pay? The things that you need to live: food, clothes, the stuff in stores, no one owns them."
"Are we gonna fight each other over food?" Will asked sarcastically. "That's fucking crazy."
"That's because you have nothing. And some of us have things that others want. Right, Will? Like houses or girlfriends." Harry said.
"Don't be a dick, Harry." Nina said before she could stop herself. Will ignored her outburst.
"Right, I have no house. The place that I used to live in is outside of town. It doesn't exist. You want me to just live on the streets?" Will asked. Harry smiled.
"You can live wherever you want. Just not with me." He said.
"You can stay with us." Allie told Will.
"I don't have to listen to this. Not anymore." Harry said, standing up and walking towards the door. Cassandra walked after him.
"Harry, this has nothing to do with you-" Cassandra was cut off by a gunshot echoing through the church. Everyone dropped to the floor except for Campbell Elliot, who held the gun proudly in the air.
"Well… fuck this." Campbell announced boredly. He let the gun hang loosely at his side and sauntered up the main aisle. "Harry's right. No one elected you king, cousin. Did anybody vote for her? Did they? Anybody elect her on their behalf? No?"
Cassandra stood up nervously and held her hands out towards Campbell.
"I- I… I don't want to be king." Her voice was calm but Cassandra stuttered.
"That's not what it looks like. Is it?" Campbell asked. He raised the gun and aimed it at Cassandra's heart. Allie stood quickly and stepped between her cousin and her sister but Cassandra pushed her out of the way.
"I've thought a lot about dying. I've almost gotten used to that. But I don't like to be afraid. Do you want chaos? Fucking shoot me." Cassandra said. Campbell laughed but the cold look didn't leave his eyes.
"I don't want to shoot you." He dropped his arm again. The way he held the gun so casually made Nina nervous. "I just wanted to get everybody's attention. This meeting's obviously over. We'll be back when Luke gets here. Until then, if anybody else is tired of listening to her, you can follow me."
Harry stood, giving Cassandra another glare. A few other people stood as well and started to follow Campbell out of the church but were stopped when the doors opened from the other side. Grizz was back, along with the rest of the exploration group. Luke was holding the body of one of the girls. Everyone froze and stared as Luke carried her to the front of the church and set her body on the table. It was clear, then, that she wasn't breathing. Nina stood and pushed through the crowd to get to her brother. She clung to his arm. Everyone was silent, waiting for an explanation or some guidance.
"She died from a snakebite." Luke said, his voice thick with grief. "Her whole body just shut down. We did everything we could but we couldn't save her."
"So, we're gonna bury her tomorrow. Before it starts to smell." Grizz said. His face was stained with tears and Nina pulled his arm around her and hugged him. Grizz hugged her back while he spoke. "So, I'm gonna need a couple guys. Clark?"
"Yeah. No problem." Clark agreed, He set a comforting hand on Nina and patted Grizz.
"There's nothing out there, guys. Just a whole bunch of… just woods that go on forever. We're all alone. This isn't our home." Luke said.
A few people stepped towards the girl, saying goodbye. Helena prayed for her before comforting Luke. Allie and Cassandra were the first to leave. Everyone else slowly followed, trickling out in silence. The gravity of their situation weighing on them as they walked back to their homes.