Chapter 6: Starting from Scratch
(April 5th --- 1 day after Outbreak)

"Uuugh," Jacen uttered as he sat up in his bed in and looked around. The bed made sharp crinkling sounds as he moved, glancing down he noticed it was covered in a thick type of paper. Why the hell am I sleeping on paper, he asked himself. "For that matter why is this room so annoyingly white?" he added out loud.

The noise caused a figure to stir in the corner. The figure, who Jacen knew was obviously female due to telling physical attributes, had long copper-red hair which, at the moment, was covering her face. Finally awake enough, the girl looked over at Jacen and gave him an impish smile. "Well, well, looks who finally decided to wake up," Kelsey said teasingly.

"So… where am I exactly?"

Kelsey stood up and walked over to Jacen's bed. "Oh, well you're in the nurses office," she said, beginning cheerfully then switched to a lower tone, "Melissa brought you here after the…err, incident."

The words sparked remembrance in Jacen, the memories from the last day flooded back into his mind. "How many?" he asked solemnly.

"What?"

"How many people went to their death on my orders?" Jacen snapped back.

"Jacen do you know how many more would have died if you hadn't organized everyone…" Kelsey said, trying to avoid the point.

"Damn it Kelsey; how many?"

Kelsey lowered her gaze before responding. "We lost ten outright in combat and twenty one later due to infections from getting bitten by the creature. More than half of the dead died after the fighting was over," she said sadly. "I was talking about it with my biology teacher earlier; she said that it was much too fast and added taht as a precaution we should burn the bodies to protect ourselves..." Kelsey finished, trailing off as she found that Jacen was not paying attention to what she was saying

Jacen looked at his hands and started to tremble. "Thirty one…" he began, almost whispering, "I killed thirty one peop-"

That was as far as he got before Kelsey slapped him hard across the face. "Damn it Jacen! Stop wallowing in self pity and get it together," she yelled angrily; her impish grin now replaced with a scowl, "and if you don't get it together now, all their deaths will have been for nothing!"

Shocked, Jacen rubbed the side of his face where Kelsey had hit him. "W-what do you mean… why me?"

"Jacen, you're a hero." Kelsey replied in a soothing voice. "You're a hero for alerting the school, a hero for rallying us, a hero for…" she trailed off.

"A hero for killing five of those things if a murderous frenzy?"

"Yes," she said flatly, "that too; and as the schools hero everyone is expecting you to take the charge and continue to lead us forward."

"Well when you put it that way," Jacen began somewhat wearily as he stood up; working against the burning pain in his limbs, "I suppose I have to; if for no other reason than making the sacrifices of those who died mean something."

"What about sanitation?"

"What about it?" Jacen asked quizzically as he looked at the speaker at the other end of the table. It was Kelsey's biology teacher, a young woman in her mid twenties called Mrs. Lipinski, who was one of a total of nine people that Jacen had assembled in the science office -three hours ago- to figure out how exactly they where going to survive. It was a painstakingly slow method but they where making progress.

"Now that we have secured the school, our biggest enemy is going to be bacteria," she said matter-of-factly as she pushed her glasses up with her index finger. "Think about it; once the water pressure goes we will be left with no way to bathe or to go to the bathroom."

"Yes, that would be a problem," Jacen stated dryly. "So what would you propose then?"

Mrs. Lipinski sat up in her seat and folded her hands together on the table. "I suggest we turn the indoor swimming pool under the auditorium into a communal bath. It would be a relatively simple task; all you would need to do put up a divider. The only issue would be heating the wat-"

"I think I know how to deal with that," an old man next to Mrs. Lipinski blurted out. "We could wrap a section of the pump system with Nichrome wire. Run an electric current through it and the wire will heat up; causing the water to heat up as it goes through."

"Do we have Nichrome wire Mr…. umm it's Mr. Smith, correct?" Jacen asked, impressed by the amount of ingenuity the teachers where showing thus far.

"Yes, and to answer your question, no we do not have any Nichrome wire, but we do have Nickel and Chromium, which Nichrome is made of. It would be easy enough to make, but would require most, if not all of the schools supplies of the stuff to make the amount needed."

Jacen let out a long sigh, that's one problem down. "Good. Now that that is out of the way let's focuse on weapons and armor. Mr. Spada, did you make that dagger you lent me?"

"Yes," he replied flatly, getting horrified looks from the other teachers in the room.

One stood up and pointed accusingly at the metal shop teacher. It was Mrs. Petri, the vice-principal. "What the Hell where you doing making weapons in a school! I should fire you right now."

Why did I invite her? Jacen asked himself. Oh yes, I didn't invite her; I only invited useful people, she just showed up at the door and insisted that she be included. Jacen never liked her much; as vice-principal she had been in charge of disciplining students and treated all who entered her office like ex-convicts. "Mrs. Petri, may I remind you that you can not fire him, because to be totally honest you have no power with which to do so," Jacen said in a deliberately mocking tone.

"That's it! I will not allow you, a student, to run this school," she began angrily and then pointed at Mr. Miller; he had been invited here for his knowledge of political science, but he also happened to coach the football team. "You; take him out of here and see to it that he is locked somewhere where he can not cause trouble."

Mr. Miller didn't move and acted as if she wasn't there. Frantically Mrs. Petri began looking at the other teachers in the room, searching for support. One by one they averted their gaze as she rambled on.

They let her go until it became clear that she had no intention of stopping anytime soon, at which point one teacher stood up and glared firmly at her. "That is quite enough Vicky!" the environmental sciences teacher yelled in a booming voice. "This boy has done a good job thus far, and I see no reason why he should not continue to run things as long as he exercises good judgment. Now sit down and be quiet or I will personally escort you out of the room!"

With her attempt at a takeover an utter failure, Mrs. Petri sank back into her seat. "Let's continue, shall we?" Jacen began, trying to refocus the group. "Mr. Spada would it be possible to begin producing a significant number of weapons?"

"It is possible; we would need a forge -I can probably make one- and materials. I believe that the junkyard in town would provide all that we could ever need."

Jacen nodded approvingly. "The Junkyard will be a problem since we do not have direct access to it, but it isn't undoable. What about armor; and more specifically, chain mail?" he added.

Mr. Spada shook his head. "I could make chain mail, but it would take one person a week to make a single suit."

"What if you took on apprentices?"

"I was getting to that," he began positively, seemingly pleased that Jacen was thinking along the same line is him. "I actually have two apprentices already; they approached me this morning and where very umm… enthusiastic about learning the ropes. Im going to teach them first and then they can help me teach others. We can probably have around a dozen people going at it by August."

A few minutes later the meeting concluded after Jacen gave his support for various projects. Kelsey entered the room just as the last teacher was filing out. "How did it go?" she asked as she took a seat next to him.

"Rather well I think; overall the teachers seem willing to let me run things and we got a lot of needed planning out of the way…"

"But?"

Jacen chuckled to himself; she had always been good at reading body language. "I need to be officially in charge before I can really start doing anything."

"Assembly?" Kelsey asked questioningly after a short period of silence.

"Yes"

"No!" Jacen exclaimed as he stood waiting behind the curtains of the auditorium, "I will not wear the suit out there. If im going to end up leading these people, I need them to choose me because they believe in my abilities, not because they are impressed by a shiny suit of armor!"

"But…" Kelsey began, and then let out a stressed sigh. "Ok have it you're way," she pouted before stomping off, clearly upset that Jacen had chosen to wear long cargo pants and a slightly wrinkled dress shirt that he had snagged from the lost and found. As his self appointed PR manager he supposed he couldn't blame her for being upset but at the same time hoped she would come to understand his decision.

Almost time, Jacen thought nervously as he glanced up at a nearby clock. One hour ago after they had left the science office Kelsey had gone on the loudspeaker and announced that there would be an assembly to sort out some 'things'.

A blond girl approached Jacen hurriedly, clinging to a clipboard and wearing a headset with a microphone on it. "Two minutes Mr. Bennett, please be ready to walk on stage," she said before running off, yelling into her microphone.

This is all unnecessary, Jacen thought with a mental sigh as he took his place; his request for an informal setting had been ignored by the head of stage crew, who had insisted that Jacen at least make a dramatic entrance. I wonder if Kelsey had anything to do with that…

To his right a small red bulb blinked twice, indicating he had five seconds. "Showtime," Jacen mumbled to himself as he began to walk onstage, large lights illuminating the podium in front of him.

"Im going to go out on a limb and guess that he wouldn't use the chain mail," Melissa said, commenting on Kelsey's scowl as she stormed over and took a seat to her right.

"You would be correct," Kelsey replied, with venom in her voice and then sighed deeply in defeat. "He really has changed…" she added, trailing off.

Melissa snapped her fingers. "Damn," she began sarcastically, "so much for using him as a puppet."

"Melissa!" a quiet voice to her left snapped accusingly. "How could you talk about Jacen like that? He's our friend" Olivia continued, not catching the sarcasm in Melissa's voice.

Both girls looked at Olivia, astonished that she had yelled at anyone, let alone Melissa; Kelsey was the first to speak. "Yes; we are Jacen's friends Olivia, and so are you… though I do begin to wonder if you want to be more than that," she said, her impish grin back in all its glory.

"No, I--I don't like Jacen," Olivia exclaimed, waving her hands back and forth anxiously as her face lit up like a Christmas tree. You where never that good of a liar, Melissa thought, knowing her friend all to well.

Just then the massive lights in the back of the room turned on, illuminating the podium. The lights did what the stage manager had expected them to do, causing the whole crowd to quiet and give their undivided attention to Jacen as he walked up.

Blinking his eyes rapidly in an attempt to adjust his eyes, Jacen stepped behind the podium; wrinkled shirt and all. Speak of the lucky devil, Melissa thought; trying to imagine what Jacen and Olivia would be like as a couple, it could work… though he would need to learn to dress a little better.

Jacen cleared his throat loudly into the podium's microphone, indicating he was about to start. "Everyone, I have assembled you here for one main reason; I want us to leave this room united as one, under a government with laws and order," he began, getting off to a good start in Melissa's opinion.

"I understand that many of you would like me to run things and I will if you want me to, but before I take control I want to make one thing crystal clear: In order get us out of this mess I will need the power to authorize what is needed and I cannot have that power unless you support me; listening to me when times are good or bad, even when you don't fully understand the reasoning behind my decision," he finished, pausing for a moment to catch his breath. "Now I ask you; will you let me do what is needed to turn this school into a nation?" The crowd erupted into cheers of approval.

"Was that a campaign speech or an acceptance speech?" Melissa asked in genuine puzzlement as she leaned over the arm of her seat so her best friend could hear.

"I--I don't know," Olivia replied sounding slightly overwhelmed as she continued to look wistfully at Jacen's form up on the stage.

"Long live Lord Bennett!" a voice yelled from behind them. It caught on like wildfire and soon the whole crowd was repeating it. "Jacen is going to kill me, but look at his expression and tell me that's not funny." the voice said in a much more quiet, yet amused voice.

Turning around Melissa say a slightly overweight boy wearing a navy blue shirt which said "rouges do it from behind" on it. He was talking to another boy next to him who she recognized from a track meet. "Excuse me," Melissa said, trying to make her voice heard over the crowd, "do you guys know Jacen?"

The one who had yelled stopped talking to his friend and looked at her. "Why yes, Jacen hangs out with us a lot at my place and plays my X-Box," he replied kindly. "My name is George, and my silent friend over here is Alex… and I believe you're name is Melissa; you fit the description Dave gave me when he told me about what had happened."

"Description," Melissa exclaimed, her voice faltering slightly. "W--what did he say?"

George smile broadened. "I probably shouldn't be repeating this, but hell; by the time Dave gets to me I'll already be protected by a full body cast courtesy of Jacen. Ok so lets just put it this way, as he told me about you he used words like angle, cute, and…err, soft."

His smile grew even more as he recognized her reaction. "What are you smiling at now?" Melissa demanded.

Olivia, who had up until now been silently listening, leaned over and cupped her hand around Melissa's ear so the boys could not see what she was whispering. "Melissa you're blushing," she said informatively. What the hell? I don't blush, I just don't. Stop it, stop it, stop it! Melissa exclaimed in her head, which only caused her face to redden even more.