Thank you so much to all those who have made it here! You have no idea of how much this means to me! Plus, thank you to Kreuzer! You gave me the persistence I needed to complete this chapter and the next!
By shower, rather than the hot steamy one that Raine would've preferred, it meant an ice bucket challenge. No wonder why the others had laughed when she mentioned that. "Ah!" she shrieked as Eve, Talia, and Cyndi dumped the third bucket of cold water onto her and her soaked clothes.
Just before she could appreciate being in her summer clothes, rather than her winter clothing, somebody really ice-bucket challenged her with a bucket full of water and ice. Raine shrieked and tackled whoever was behind her and punched him on the chest with every ounce of might in her. Only when it ended with laughter from him, it left her in confusion. Raine had no idea of how much damage her fist did, due to how numb she was. Her clothing was soaked to her skin and as she tried to get up, she stepped on a pile of ice, agonizing her foot. She shrieked and fell like a damsel in distress, but rather than losing more brain cells, she was caught in her flight and her prickly hair was brushed out of the way by someone's hands Raine lamented, as she still couldn't see anything, due to the water obscuring her view.
A towel was draped around her, and Raine rubbed her face with it, clearing her view. Devin already had his arm around her, ready to help, as Marie, Ani, and Candi snickered in the corner.
"I told you that her reaction would be priceless," laughed the troublemaker, Marie, as Talia tried to decide how to eat a cupcake that she found. Raine wished intensely that she had nice, dry clothes to wear as the autumn chill seeped through her clothes. She despised the squishy noises that her soaked shoes made as her teeth chattered together, ready to break into broken glass shards at any moment. Her hair plastered together like dark icicles as she felt the warmth of Devin by her side.
She looked up, and abruptly, before her eyes, Cyndi held her arm up and a dark warp hole whirled in the air and vanished. Clean clothes now lay neatly in a pile in front of Cyndi.
"Oh thank you!" gasped Raine as Cyndi shoved the clothes into her arms without a word. Then Cyndi trembled and marched off, her hair shielding every feature of her face except her dark lips that were rosy-pink a moment ago.
"Um, okay," replied Raine as she thought, "Did I do something wrong to her? I hope not."
Soon after, Raine was still shivering as Devin led her to their new, completed bedrooms. Along the way, the door to their meeting room was ajar, and they caught a glimpse of Eve and Fern inside quarreling noisily. They crept by and finally arrived to the sleeping quarters. Raine gasped, it was quite the workmanship for a couple of teens within a few hours. Four bedrooms stood on the right , two storage rooms on the left, and even a balcony! Each room could allow two people to sleep at maximum and some even included work spaces. Raine counted the beds and noted, "We're four short."
"Ya, we ran out of lumber, but three will be on guard duty."
"And the one left?"
"Sleeps on the balcony."
"And who will that be?"
"Me."
"But... no, it'll be so cold."
"I don't think that guys need their beauty sleep," laughed Devin.
"But you do need your energy."
"Well according to science, energy isn't wasted, it's just transferred into a different form."
"Still..."
After a short quarrel, Devin triumphed, and Raine trudged to her bedroom. That night, Melody, Talia, and Ani went on guard duty as the others rested in their beds and Devin in his sleeping bag... or well, what was once a potato sack, but now with some blankets and pillows. The darkness had swept over the hallways now and someone's snoring could be heard in another room as someone stopped tossing and turning.
Raine just lie in her bed, feeling too distraught to get a wink of sleep. Next to her, Marie snored comfortably. "How could that girl sleep in jeans?!" she wondered. Besides Marie's snoring, only faint sounds could be heard from the other rooms. Fern was roomated to Eve, Cyndi by herself, and to the pair's joy, Tai was partnered up with Candi. Raine lied in her bed, and stared at the door. Guilt hung inside her that she didn't win the debate against Devin. "Poor thing, he must be so cold," she conjectured, "You want to know what, I'm not going to let him die out there!" With that, she trudged out of bed, reached for the door handle. The door creaked, and Devin, still wide awake, swung around to find Raine, dragging her blankets along with her.
"Couldn't sleep?" he enquired softly.
"I think you're going to die from frostbite," Raine snapped.
Devin just smiled in return as if he wouldn't mind if he did for her, and remarked, "It's quite beautiful tonight isn't it? Never thought that being stuck here felt more like reality."
Raine peered up and gaped, millions of stars twinkled above their heads, and she laid now besides Devin. "Wow..." was all she could say.
"Gorgeous isn't it?"
Raine nodded, and spontaneously their fingers intertwined. Both of them gasped at each others' touch and held their hands up in the moonlight. Then their eyes met and they broke into a smile. After counting their 2,000th star, Raine drifted off to sleep.
[A while later…]
Thump, thump! Thump!
That sound aroused Raine. Raine groaned and turned over to her side.
"Shhhh..." someone said.
"Huh?!" cried Raine who leapt to her knees as more doors leading to bedrooms creaked open and revealed a part of the group standing in the hallway. She searched around in the darkness and found the silhouettes of Talia, Ani, and Melody surrounding their only exit... which was also their only entrance. Were they trying to trap them?! "What are you all..."
"SHH! Whatever you do, don't turn on the lights nor make a sound," commanded Talia, but Melody decided to do both.
"Ahhhh!" They all shrieked at the sight of the shadow towering above them.
Talia cried, "Wait, it's you Fern! What are you doing up so late?"
"Thanks for ruining my sleep," grumbled Marie.
"Phew, at least it's you though," gasped Melody, "It could've been worse."
"Ya..." responded Fern, who tiptoed out of the light and the moment her face grazed the shadows she pounced onto Melody, with a malevolent expression, and caused the flashlight to turn off, and with another thump, she sent it tumbling.
Shrieks erupted from all around the dark room as items thumped all around.
"Where's the flashlight?!" someone shouted as someone picked up Raine and tossed her across the room and away from harm. Raine shrieked and landed besides the balcony. Then, her fingertips felt something. It was the flashlight! She fumbled it around until she felt the switch and turned it on. The light landed directly on Fern immediately, who dropped Ani from her clutches as Melody shrivelled from pain on the floor.
Fern trembled at what she had done and retreated to the side of the room.
"Keep the light on her," ordered Talia, her voice trembling with fear, "Check Ani and Melody for any blood, for I fear for the worse."
"What happened?" Tai questioned from beneath the ladder. He had taken Candi downstairs to keep her away from harm, but had found an army of waiting zombies, which he had sliced down.
"I think that Fern is infected," replied Talia as Fern's eyes appeared with tears. Then, Talia gasped as a thought hit her, "Remember when we found her arguing with Eve and then Eve was gone a moment later?! Well... what if Eve bit her?! Remember when we saw that zombie in that bicycle helmet hit her? Well what if that thing bit Eve?! We didn't check her properly, so if he infected her, then she could've spread it to Fern! Since Fern is in the early stages of this infection, she might have a malady where if she's not in the light then she won't turn into a... a monster, but if not, then what just happened will happen again. She- she even led zombies right to us!"
A few people gasped, and a mad discussion began as Marie kept the light on Fern, and sighed. Fern was another one of her closest friends, and it just hurt, knowing that she had almost lost Candi, but now Fern.
Meanwhile, Raine just sat there though, lost in her thoughts.
Before Raine could come to her conclusion, Fern decided to speak up, her voice trembling as she shook her head and said, "It wasn't Eve that infected me; it was Cyndi. Cyndi is the traitor."