Chapter 9: The Radio - Part 2
(May 3rd --- 28 day after Outbreak)

"Wow," Mrs. Lipinski managed to say when Jacen and company arrived. "I know I said to bring some friends, but fourteen people… The more the merrier I suppose; just be nice to the technicians."

Jacen nodded gratefully and filed off through one entrance with Dave, George, Alex, Mr. Spada, Ben, and Joe the technician; while Kelsey, Olivia, Gina, the twins, Melissa, where being led by Mrs. Lipinski through the other.

"Up ahead is the locker room where you will stash all your clothing before continuing," Joe said as they walked, assuming the role of tour guide; finishing just as the hallway widened out into a room filled from wall to wall with lockers.

"Where are the stalls?" Ben asked hopefully as he entered the room. Jacen had to fight to keep himself from laughing at the kid; trying to keep in mind that Ben was young, given that he had skipped a grade level. Since the outbreak Ben had essentially become his adoptive younger brother. Jacen did his best to check in on him from time to time -when he could- but hadn't seen much of him as of late.

Joe waved a hand dismissively in the air while he continued to a locker. "There are no stalls," he said and then began to take off his shirt.

"Oh…"

Finished taking off his shirt, Joe stuffed it in his locker and turned around. "There is a bathroom in the hall we just came down; if you want you can change in there."

"Thanks," Ben replied happily before running down the hall.

Five minutes later they where all ready to enter so Joe called them over and pointed at one of two thick doors. "The one to the left is the entrance to a small chamber where you will find a hose; hang your towel up and spray yourself over quickly, then proceed to the bath once you have retrieved your towel… yes?"

"Why do we have to go through that chamber?" George asked after Joe saw his hand in the air.

Joe sighed loudly, visibly annoyed at being interrupted. "You go through the chamber because you are all dirty; if we let people just jump in without at least washing off the initial layering of dirt than the bath would quickly turn into a pit of mud. May I continue now?"

George nodded. "That is the exit," he said flatly as he pointed to the other door. "There are two rules to remember when in the bath: first, no rough-roughhousing, you can play around just don't ruin the relaxation of others…"

"Aanndd?" Matt asked questioningly.

"And if you piss in the pool…" he began darkly, pausing for dramatic effect. "We'll cut it off."

"Well everyone," Mrs. Lipinski began as she started to take her shirt off, "Lets hurry up so we can continue."

"What are you doing?" Olivia exclaimed in horror as the teacher continued to disrobe, covering her eyes with her hands. I thought we where supposed to be wearing bathing suits! She thought anxiously, beginning to hear more ruffling noises as everyone else began to disrobe as well.

Now covered by a large towel, Mrs. Lipinski walked over to Olivia and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's ok, we're all girls here," she said kindly as she user her other hand to push her long black hair out of her face. "Tell you what: since this is bothering you so much, all of us will look away while you change; right girls?"

"Right," they all said, more or less in unison, before turning around. Taking the opportunity, Olivia began to take off her cloths hurriedly.

Why does she have to be so… so damn curvy? Olivia asked herself in one of her rare angry moments, while listening to Mrs. Lipinski as they waited next to the door, I want curvy! She didn't hate the teacher, in fact Olivia found her to be very sweet; she just felt intimidated by the grown woman.

"Hurry up Olivia," Melissa called as she waded into the murky white water. Looking around she couldn't help but notice how steamy the room was, not in the sense of heat -though it was well heated- but in the sense of physical steam which had the effect of blurring details. Olivia should like this; she noted mentally, I can hardly see my feet through the water.

Olivia rushed out of the chamber in a flash of speed, dropping her towel off and jumping into the pool before anyone noticed the door had been opened. She waded next to Melissa and lowered herself down so that only her head stuck out of the water.

"You know you really shouldn't run like that; you could have slipped and cracked your head open." Melissa said absently as she settled into a corner.

"I'll try to remember that…" Olivia began as her head bobbled above the water. "So how was your day? Im sorry I wasn't able to meet up with you at our room but I was out getting a better job."

Melissa, who up until now had only been partially focusing on the conversation, looked over at Olivia questioningly, "You got a new job? You quit being a librarian?"

"Not in that order but yes, yes I did." She replied proudly.

"So what are you doing now?"

"Im sorta... umm Jacen's assistant," Olivia finally managed to get out, before proceeding to lower herself into the water more until it was up to her nose.

Bracing herself on the wall, Melissa prepared to propel herself at Olivia and hug her in congratulations but then thought better of it; Oh yeah the naked thing…she would possibly pop a capillary with all the blood that would rush to her face. Melissa eased back into her comfortable corner and gave a knowing smile, "Congratulations!"

"T-thanks, but I don't even know what im doing… all I did today was force him to eat and get some rest," she replied meekly, surfacing to her previous height.

Melissa's Jaw dropped in astonishment. "You forced him?" she asked rather loudly, unintentionally alerting everyone else that something interesting was happening. Everyone made their way closer to Melissa and Olivia, except for Mrs. Lipinski who was relaxing in her own corner.

Olivia began to tell the story of her day, and when she finally finished everyone was staring at her in shock; Kelsey was the first one to recover enough to speak. "So when are you going to ask him out?" she asked bluntly.

Olivia waved her hands back and forth frantically, "This is all a big misunderstanding; all I did was got a job as his assistant; what does that have to do with romance?"

"HA!" Mrs. Lipinski exclaimed from her own little corner. "If I had a dollar for every time a boss became romantically involved with his assistant… well lets just say I wouldn't have been a teacher when the outbreak hit."

"You never said you weren't going to," Melissa commented jokingly, wagging her index finger in the air; then instinctively she jerked around until she was facing the door, which had just slammed open.

Tom hadn't stopped running since he heard the message over the radio, and when he finally made it to Jacen's office, he wasn't there. The door was locked and there, taped on the doorknob, was a note card which said "Gone swimming." Where the hell would he go swimming? Tom asked himself as he caught his breath; we haven't even had any extra water to bathe… That's it! Still gasping for air, Tom continued on his quest to find Jacen; speed walking as he waited for his second wind.

The second wind he had been hoping for came as he reached the communal bath; when he got there, Tom had found four people guarding the entrances. I have to make a run for it, he decided; but which door?

Left, he guessed, and ran for his life. Taking the guards by surprise, Tom made it past the door and continued running; not daring to look over his shoulder. Up ahead he saw a thick door and barged through it, knowing that at any moment the guards would catch him.

"Lord Jacen!" he yelled as the door rotated on its hinges and slammed against the wall. Then Tom stopped, instantly recognizing that he had made a horrible error in judgment. "You're not Jacen…" he said, sounding very disappointed for a boy who was in a room full of women without clothing.

For the most part, Jacen enjoyed the bath quite a lot and hoped that he could stay in forever, but that hope was cut short when a worried looking police officer entered. Damn and I was having so much fun too! "Umm… I think you should come with me," the officer said anxiously. That's odd, Gina's officers have a bit of a reputation for being tough, but this guy looks like he's about to wet himself. Jacen had given Gina the job of running the police because she seemed to be just the badass he needed to keep a school full of hormone driven teenagers in line, and in hindsight -so far- it still looked like he made the right choice.

"Am I under arrest?"

The officer shook his head vigorously. "No, not at all Sir; its--its just that there has been an incident," he replied; Jacen waited silently for him to go on. "You see, a boy intruded into the girls bathing area… and Commissioner Gina was in there at the time. She's mad, really mad and I felt it my duty to inform you -Against her orders- because I honestly don't know what she will do to the poor fellow."

Jacen's initial reaction was to let the guy get taught a lesson by Gina, but he had never actually seen the girl angry and was angry himself that she had tried to keep him in the dark about anything. "What did he think he was doing?" Jacen asked out loud as he stepped out of the water and headed for his towel.

"I believe he was looking for you Sir." The officer replied; seemingly relieved that Jacen would be around in case Gina went postal.

"Crap… Well let me get my cloths on and then we can head out." Now fully wrapped up in a towel, Jacen made his way towards the exit, hearing a dripping noises coming from behind him as others followed suit.

A half hour later everyone re-met in Jacen's office to hear Toms side of the story. The guy had a black eye from his initial encounter with the girls, but was otherwise unharmed; although Jacen wasn't sure that it would have stayed that way if he had not intervened.

Tom told them what happened as best as he could but Jacen decided it would be best if they all heard it for themselves and sent Alex to get the archaic radio; a short time later Alex returned and plugged the device into a boom box that they had commandeered from the dance room. Taking a seat in front of the device, Tom made sure that the radio was tuned in to the exact same channel that he had heard the voice on, and then twisted the power knob.

The boom box hissed to life; immediately playing the voice:

"-breached and we are being forced to -Damn it Walters; speed it up! -
We are being forced to fall back into the basement and will hold there.
Ammunition and supplies are running low; all we can do is barricade the
door and pray help arrives soon… Please, there are children and families
among us-"

The voice ended pleadingly before it was cut off by another. "Sir, all the civilians
are down below and the men are falling back; its time to go."

"Very well," the voice conceded, followed by the sound of a switch being thrown.

"This is Captain Mendez of the 20th Special Forces Group stationed out of
Pittsburgh. I, along with nine squad members and twenty nine civilians are
holed up in the National Guard recruitment center in downtown Bestine and
require immediate assistance. The initial perimeter has been-"

Tom turned the radio off. "It just keeps looping after that."

"That's what I pardoned you for?" Gina asked angrily. "A month old radio broadcast!"

"You're presuming too much Gina. There is no way to know when that was initially transmitted; it could have been last week for all we know!" Melissa exclaimed.

Gina glared at Melissa; she did not like being corrected. "Why does it matter? Its not like we are going to do anything about it," she looked at Jacen accusingly, attempting to force her will on him. "Are we?"

Everyone looked at Jacen, waiting for him to respond. Jacen was conflicted himself; the whole time he had been listening to the radio, he couldn't help but think back to all the lives that where lost just securing the school. The loss of life had weighed on his conscience ever since, driving him to turn this school into something that made their deaths mean something; every time his stomach rumbled or his eyelids got heavy he would think of those thirty one lives and continue working, ignoring his own physical needs. Am I really ready to send more people to their deaths…

…but if I refuse to help now I would be deciding on the fate anyone else from the outside who asks for help; how can I say one life is more valuable than another? "Dave, what do you think of all this?" Jacen asked, as one side of his internal struggle won out. Dave was head of the Defense Forces; he ran all zombie related activities.

"You can't be seriou-"

"Not another word Gina! You overstepped your boundaries when you tried to get around me so you could punish Tom here; you where going to hurt him!" Jacen yelled angrily doing his best to control his anger. "You have voiced your opinion; so shut up and listen!"

Wearing his paintball camouflage outfit, -which had become his uniform- Dave stepped forward. "The Defense Force is up to the task; I have twenty men who I would deem fit for combat," He said proudly. Dave took his Job very seriously, doing his best -with the help of melissa on the side- to turn a hundred semi-trained volunteers into soldiers of the Intrepid Defense Force.

"I need you to choose your eleven best out of those twenty," Jacen began, cooling off now that he vented at Gina. She deserved it, police officers aren't supposed to use their power for their own personal agenda.

"Why eleven?"

Jacen pointed towards the twins. "They have twelve swords, which make eleven for the troops… and one for me."

Dave's features tightened, clearly upset by Jacen's choice. "NO! There is no way I am going to allow you, the ruler of Intrepid, to run into the meat grinder," he protested assertively.

"As a ruler, I can not and won't ask others to risk their lives if I am not doing the same; also I am worth a handful of people with my shark suit, which, may I remind you, is specifically designed for me," Jacen added as he turned and faced Kelsey, who knew how he felt from their encounter in the nurses office. "Kelsey, in my absence I want you and Olivia to run things conjointly; you can handle the political aspects, and Olivia can keep things organized."

Jacen removed a key from his pocket and slowly walked over to a locker in the corner of the room and placed the key through the lock. "We leave at dawn," he declared as he pulled open the locker door, looking upon his shark suit for the first time since the outbreak.