Chapter eight:
Rodger opens his eyes as his alarm clock goes off making him groan shutting the alarm off and getting up. He gets ready for the day then heads to the cafeteria knowing that at least one child will be up at this time though the others will start to wake up.
Near has always beat him to the cafeteria every morning and sometimes Mello will as well.
But as he enters the cafeteria its empty showing no signs of either Mello or Near or any orphan at all! The only ones there are the chiefs that get up a little earlier to cook breakfast.
"Weird." He mummers to himself wondering why no one else was in here yet. He pushes it aside as not everyone can always hold a specific time to get up… though Near has only done this if he was sick or too injured to walk to the cafeteria. Rodger grabs breakfast and sits at a table digging in though the worry of why Near or Mello are not here yet is not sitting in his gut right making his appetite fall to less than usual. "I swear one of the kids will be the death of me." He sighs softly as he continues eating.
As he begins to finish eating orphans begin coming into the cafeteria either too tired to care that Mello and Near are missing from the scene just going to get food or are glancing around confused about where the two are before going to get food.
Rodger finishes his food then after he puts his tray and everything in its respected location he leaves the cafeteria unable to stop thinking about the strange absence of Mello and Near. He goes to the library checking to if one of them decided to go into there for some early studying. He however finds the door locked waiting to be opened by the librarian so there's no way they could have snuck into there this early. He goes to the play room not seeing anyone so he checks the common room still finding no one.
This makes his worry spike as he continues looking for the two only to let it be to wait to see if they will appear for class.
He heads to his office and tries to get some work done to try to get his mind off of things.
Awhile later some teachers come in, all of them are those who have morning classes that include Mello, Near and Matt since classes are organized by intelligence level unless it's an option course the orphans can take.
Rodger looks up at them seeing their worried faces making his heart drop.
"Rodger Mello, Near and Matt have all skipped my class this morning." A slightly older female teacher lets the older man know.
"Yes. They did the same for my class." The youngest female teacher agrees.
The other teachers in the room mummer their agreement.
"The three of them skipped?" His eyes widen with worry.
Sure Matt wouldn't be surprising if he skipped and sometimes Mello will too if that day's lesson was something he didn't need to sit through but Near and the three of them all skipping especially at the same time? Now that's a whole other story.
Rodger jumps to his feet. "I want everyone to look everywhere! Get as many adults as you can looking unless they have class. Also inform the students to tell an adult if they have seen Near, Mello or Matt. Go!"
The teachers nod and race out of the room to begin the search.
Rodger also quickly leaves the room starting his search at the rooms of the three boys. He knocks on Near's door first but when no reply comes he tries again only to get the same response. He grabs the door handle opening the door going into the room. "Near?" He looks around the boy's room.
There is absolutely no sign of Near being currently in the room locking himself away from others as he does sometimes but he's nowhere to be found in his room today.
Rodger turns to leave when a teacher quickly steps into the room.
"Rodger. Mello and Matt are not in their rooms and so far there isn't any sign of them." The teacher reports looking really worried.
"Same for here." Rodger sighs worriedly. "We'll have to keep looking." He says as he leads the teacher out of the room only for them to split up to cover more ground along with the others looking for the three missing orphans.
"Rodger." Linda's voice speaks up behind him making him stop and turn to one of the artistic girl orphans.
"Linda have you seen Mello, Matt or Near. Maybe you heard something that could help us find them?" He asks the brunette.
Linda nods softly. "Yesterday they said they were going to the rumored haunted forest just a little outside the orphanages grounds." She reports to him. "They were going there to have a competition to see who could last the longest. I wasn't close enough to hear what Mello had to said to Near but the way the two moved and Mello's words when he went back to Matt told me Near agreed. I was only close enough to clearly hear Mello and Matt if they were standing where Matt had been standing. I don't know when they left but that's all I know. Near wouldn't even give me any information when I asked." She reports. "Do you think they're alright?"
Rodger smiles at Linda kindly. "We'll find out when we find them but they should be. Thank you for your helpful information. Now go to class and we'll handle the rest." He turns away from her grabbing his walkie-talkie from his waist band raising so he can speak through it. He tells the other teachers what Linda told him and tells them to have some teachers waiting at the front doors for him so they can go to the forest to find the boys. He puts his walkie-talkie back to his waist band when done then makes sure he has his cell phone before heading to the front doors to meet up with the teachers.
They just have to hope they'll find the three alive and at least alright.
A man cruising along the road that is kind of by a forest, the forest Mello, Matt and Near went in, humming and taking his time as he is no rush along with in the slow lane. He has his windows rolled down as he feels like to listen to the sounds of nature if he can hear them from his car as he drives.
Besides he is the only one on the road right now.
Suddenly screams for help, pleading for someone to come help, coming from the forest catch his attention.
He stops humming looking at the forest as he slows his car down to a stop as he looks for any sign of who had called for help but doesn't see anything plus the screams stopped. He begins to wonder if it was his imagination and checks the radio finding that all music and radio things in his car are off so he looks back to the forest. He wonders if he should just continue on but then the screams and pleads for help are heard once more. He quickly moves his car to the side of the road turning on his hazards then gets out shutting and locking his car with his keys in his pocket. He then dashes towards the forest. "WHOEVER YOU ARE KEEP CALLING OUT SO I CAN FIND YOU!" He shouts as loud as he can as he tries to find where the screams were coming from. "PLEASE WHOEVER YOU ARE! I AM HERE TO HELP YOU! SO HELP ME FIND YOU!" He shouts out when there is a pause in the screams of the one in need.
"OVER HERE! PLEASE HELP!" The scream is heard again slightly behind the man.
The man turns making his slightly long auburn hair move as he moves. His hazel eyes determined as he races towards where the one screaming for help is calling from. He finally reaches where the one calling for help finding a blonde haired blonde with blue eyes holding an albino looking boy in his arms, the two are in a clearing and not to mention dirty from their adventure most likely.
The blonde stops screaming and looks to the man as he comes into view. The blonde's cheeks clearly show where his tears fell down and his eyes look like they haven't slept for one night along with showing signs of crying a lot. His gaze is so broken, worried and scared it almost makes the man's heart break. "He's hurt. He needs help!" The blonde's broken voice cracks slightly as he speaks to the man without raising his voice.
The albino looking boy has a badly injured side that has a lot of blood on it and he is unconscious along with looking pretty pale. He doesn't seem to be breathing though his baggy clothes may be hiding the very small breaths he's taking.
The man quickly moves over to the two boys picking up the albino boy's wrist looking for a pulse. He finds a very soft one that is dying out. "We need to get him to the hospital right away." He tries to carefully pick up the small unconscious boy but the blonde quickly picks the boy up being careful of the wound as he holds the smaller boy bridal style. He stands shakily obviously exhausted.
"I can take him." The man gently offers receiving a slight glare from the blonde so the man lets the boy carry the unconscious male as he begins to lead him to his car.
They are stopped before they can make it.