"Well this will be an interesting few days..." Edward sits down on the edge of my cot as I sketch on a sheet of paper.
"This isn't your home room, Cullen," I tease.
"No, I'm right across the way." He points across the hall at his cot, which is positioned just like mine in the doorway there. I can see it from mine easily.
"Did you do that on purpose?" I ask.
He leans in and smiles. "Maybe."
"Have you talked to your parents?"
He nods. "Yeah, got through to my dad a couple of hours ago. He said he offered to lead the team that's supposedly coming in here to run the second tier quarantine, but they wouldn't let him."
"Why not? He's the best doctor I know."
"Conflict of interest, I guess. When your son could be a patient, I suppose that can mess with your head."
"Guess so." I shrug, and shade in the leaves of the tree I'm drawing. "I can't get through to my dad. It just keeps going to voicemail."
"I'm sure he's busy. He'll call soon." He bumps my shoulder with his, I'm sure trying to make me feel better, but I still just want to talk to my dad. I should call my mom, but she is going to freak out. I'm sure she'll hear about it soon enough. I wouldn't be surprised if we're all over the national news by tonight. I decide to send her a quick text to let her know I'm okay, and expect her to call the moment she receives it anyway.
"Yeah."
"Do you want to go grab some food?" Edward asks.
"Sure." I turn to Angela. "Do you want to eat?"
"No, I'm good. Has Jess texted you yet? I was going to go find whatever room she's in." She looks up from her phone.
"Not yet. She might be stuck in the line outside, it was pretty long." I glance at the clock. It's been five hours since the assembly, but the line was bad. I wouldn't be surprised if people were still trying to get through.
I tell Ang I'll keep an eye out for Jess, and Edward and I head to the cafeteria.
It's filled with students, but far from a normal day. No one is throwing food at their friends across the table. Or making jokes. No loud music or people just being stupid. Everyone is in small groups, sitting quietly at their tables while they nibble on food.
"What do you want?" Edward asks.
I look around, imagining eating this cafeteria food for every meal for the next few days. It's hard enough to deal with once a day.
"Maybe just a salad." I'm not that hungry anyway.
I scan the room for Jess as I make my plate, but I don't see her. I find Jasper and Alice, settled into a booth on the other side. Emmett and Rosalie are just walking in, hand in hand.
Edward and I find a table in the corner by a window, still covered to prevent us from looking outside. There's a small corner of the paper that's pulled back and my curiosity gets the best of me.
I pull it back a little farther and look outside into the parking lot.
Mike's car is still in place, sitting along with the rest of our cars. Beyond the parking lot, a tall fence, barbed wire at the top, lines the way. More tanks, just like the ones I saw earlier, are behind that. I can't see beyond the tanks because there are crazy bright lights shining onto the fence and toward the school.
"World still moving out there?" Edward asks, taking a bite of his burger.
"I don't know," I whisper honestly. And I really don't.
"Hey," he says, softer. "It's going to be okay."
"Yeah. I don't know, I'm just..." I shake my head. "It's really freaking me out."
"Try not to think about it."
"What else can I think about?" I ask. It's a little hard to think about anything else, when death could be staring you right in the face.
"Think about me," he says.
"What should I think about you?" I ask, allowing myself to laugh.
"You can think about how handsome and amazing I am." He leans back and winks at me, and for a few moments, the seriousness of the situation melts away and I feel like I can take a breath.
"Ha," I tease. But he's right. I've always known he was handsome, but I can't say I always knew he was this amazing, simply because I really haven't known him until recently. Maybe it's the gravity of everything going on around us, but I'm starting to feel such a genuine connection to him that it makes all of this more and less scary at the same time.
"I want to take you out on a date," he says.
"Uh. Okay, can we make it out of here alive first?"
"No. Why wait?"
"Because..." I laugh. "We're stuck at school, and sleeping on cots, and who knows when we can get a good shower and change of clothes..."
"And what if we don't make it out of here alive?" He asks. "What if this is all we get?"
"You want to spend one of your last nights on Earth on a date with me?" Sounds like a lame way to say goodbye to the world. I'd go with something like streaking through a crowded street or lighting fireworks off the roof. But we are a little limited, I suppose.
"Absolutely."
I sigh. "Okay, then. Let's go on a date."
"Pick you up at your place at 8?" He smirks and slides out of his seat.
I pick at my salad for a few more minutes before I clean up and head toward the courtyard to see if I could find Jess. When I find the courtyard empty, I head the office and try to see if they can tell me what room she's in.
All of the teachers, secretaries, and other faculty are a mess. I can tell they're trying to hold it together, but they're darting here and there, on phone calls, talking in hushed voices.
I'm just about to ask them about Jess when my phone rings. Mom.
I exit the office and start back toward my room.
"Hi, Mom," I answer.
"Bella! What is going on, I just saw the news. Are you at that school?" She's talking fast, barely letting me get a word in.
"Yes, I'm here. We're fine. They're just quarantining us a precaution. I'm safe."
"Are you sure? Did you know the girl that died?"
"Not really. Knew of her, but didn't really know her." I stop by my locker to get a book and continue on to my room.
"Have you talked to your dad?"
"No, I tried to call him earlier and got his voicemail."
"I called down to the station and he wasn't there. Talked to Deputy Dane, he said he'd try to get ahold of him."
"He's probably busy taking care of all this."
"Do you have your phone charger?" She asks.
"Yes, in my locker. I should be good."
"Promise me you'll keep checking in, do everything they say to do, okay?"
"I promise, Mom. Love you."
"I love you, honey."
I hesitantly hang up and slide my phone into my pocket. Even at nearly eighteen years old, sometimes you just want your mom.
When I get back to my room, they have a TV set up and the news is on. We're one of those breaking news scrolls that keep rolling across the bottom of the screen.
Washington High School under quarantine as fear of deadly illness spreads...
Great.
I lay down on my cot and find myself glued to the newscaster as they go over the same information for the next two hours. I find out the following information:
They don't know what it is.
They don't know how it's transmitted.
They don't know all the symptoms.
The CDC is studying all of the evidence to learn more about it.
They don't know how long we'll be stuck here.
As soon as that new piece of information was broadcast, the TV is shut off and put away, indefinitely.
Either the news was exaggerating, which wouldn't be surprising. Or we're being lied to and we're going to be stuck here for a lot longer than three days.
A/N: Thank you so, so much for reading! I'm thrilled so far with the response to this story. I know it's definitely different, so I wasn't sure what to expect and I'm blown away. So thank you! :)