Chapter 5: 22nd July 2016 -02:12-
Johnathan "Johnny" Schultz (Boy #3) shifted listlessly in place and stared across the room, from his perch atop the dining chair. Despite the dim lack of light he could clearly pick out the features of the petite girl currently sat huddled on the wide leather couch.
Stephanie Abbott (Girl #3) sat with her knees pulled up under her chin, hugging her legs protectively close to her chest. Her small form seemed even tinier, with her diminutive posture, although that hardly seemed possible. At under five foot, the girl was the shortest person in their grade. There likely wasn't anyone that tiny in the grade below either. Or above, for that matter.
Her chin rested on the crook between her knees, showing off her strikingly pretty (at least Johnny thought so) features. Stephanie's skin was pale and clear, save for a small red spot on her chin, and her nose was slightly upturned. A small stud decorated the left side of her nose.
Moonlight seeped through the window behind her and fell on her glossy chocolate brown hair, pulled tight behind her head in a ponytail, save for the shorter locks of her full fringe. A shine glinted off of the two piercings through her right ear.
Realising that his gaze was lingering far too long, Johnny averted his eyes.
He was glad that he had been able to meet up with her — someone who hadn't completely lost their mind to fear.
Lingering outside the entrance of the community centre, Johnny had waited for her. Two minutes had felt like an eternity, the fear of being attacked from behind by a deranged classmate creeping and building slowly, until he finally saw the small girl emerge from the building.
It had taken him almost another two minutes to convince her that he wasn't playing. That he was looking to get a group together to try and figure out a way to escape (though how exactly they would do that was lost on him — the Program seemed impossible to run from). Even as he spoke, he realised the absence of substance in his words. He had nothing to offer her as an anchor of trust; could say nothing to convince her that he wouldn't just kill her in her sleep, or when her back was turned.
That was when another girl had emerged from the building.
Johnny could still hear her rummaging through the shelves of the kitchen, one room over. The girl with dyed black hair, and lipstick and eyeliner to match.
While not from his own class of 3A, Johnny wouldn't have been able to forget her in a hurry. Ivory Whitle (Girl #4) was their grade's resident expert on all things dark and spooky. Once upon a time, back before he was rotated out of 3C, Johnny had sat next to the girl in Math class.
Despite their past interactions being little more than her (in Johnny's opinion) purposely trying to freak him out, at that moment he could have kissed her full on the mouth. Ivory's interruption of his desperate ramblings to Stephanie was exactly what he needed: Another person.
If you were in a pair, there was no guarantee that the other person wouldn't stab you in the back. But with three people that all changed. There would always be two people watching out for one. It would leave less opportunities for betrayal. And with every person added, that number would continue to fall.
That was what he had been trying to say, but was previously too tongue-tied to get out.
The next student to depart, however, had thrown a spanner into the works of Johnny's plan. Sky Rochmil (Boy #5) had fled the second he stepped out of the community centre. The poor boy was traumatised; covered in the blood of Jacob Silver, who had perished right in front of him.
Johnny had been lucky: Sitting in front of him had spared him the gruesome visage of Jacob's collar exploding. Sky, on the other hand, was privy to a front row seat.
Driven by terror, Sky had sprinted through the streets of the small town, away from Johnny and his comrades. Their calling after him had only made it worse. Every word they shouted out, comforting or otherwise, spurred the boy on until his frenzied strides carried him out of their reach.
And by then it was too late. The building's all looked the same; the curse of cheap mass produced houses. Finding their way back to the community centre would have been a pointless endeavour. In the dark they had no way of identifying the boundaries of zones, on their maps. They didn't want to waste time searching, only to accidentally wander back into the starting point's zone, after it had been designated "dead". They had all seen what happened to Jacob, when his collar activated, and weren't prepared to run that risk.
So they elected to find a house. Walk as far as they could, and hunker down somewhere where they could assess the situation.
Which is what brought Johnny to his current position: Sat awkwardly beside an abandoned dinner table, staring over at his companion and struggling for something to say.
At least Ivory had something to keep her occupied. She insisted on searching the kitchen for canned food herself, leaving the pair to their own devices in the conjoined living and dining room.
Johnny moved his tongue about his mouth, as if trying to coax words out from hiding behind his teeth. Nothing formed, though. Not a single sentence.
In the end it was Stephanie who broke the silence.
"Do you think my friends are alright?" she asked, looking across the room at Johnny.
"I'm sure they are," he replied, tweaking his mouth into a half smile. Even as he said it, though, Johnny felt doubt creep across him.
He had no way of knowing who, if anyone, was playing. No way of being able to tell if anyone had even died.
At least until Mr Freeman broadcast their names at 6am, which already seemed a lifetime away.
"I just..." Stephanie took a breath, in an attempt to compose herself before continuing. "What's happening to everyone else? Everyone who isn't lucky enough to have met up with someone?"
"I don't know," Johnny admitted. "Honestly, I don't know... Shit, I didn't even know what to say, when I first tried to get you to come with me. I was panicking then. I can't imagine what all those guys alone out there are like now."
"Do you think we'd be able to get anyone else to join us?" she asked, this time turning her eyes away from him, as if staring at her own ideas of the future, in the distance. "Or... Or will it be too late? What if everyone is as scared as Sky?"
Johnny didn't know what to say. Words were lost on him as, for the third time that night, he realised just how futile his plans of escape were. But he couldn't give up hope.
He offered a comforting smile and tilted his head to the side.
"We'll find someone else," he said, only half believing his own words. "Your friends. As long as we're in a group they'll trust us. Then when we're all together we can figure this out. People are stronger than we give them credit for..."
"I hope you're right..." she whispered, under her breath.
"Stephanie," Ivory said, stepping around the doorway that led to the kitchen. "Can I ask you something?"
"Effie," the small girl corrected, before answering the question. "Sure... What did you want?"
"I'm sorry for being so upfront about this, but..." the pale, dark haired young woman paused out of a sense of compassion. "Have you checked your bag yet?"
Effie blinked a few times as the question hit her.
"Hey, there's no need for that," Johnny said, turning towards Ivory. "What kind of question is that?"
Ivory tucked her chin in to her chest and crossed her arms, defensively. "Sorry, but we need to know... What if someone attacks us? We have to know what we can use to defend ourselves."
"What do you mean 'If someone attacks us'?" he replied, harshly. "They're just scared kids! What, if they attack us, are we going to kill them?"
"I'm not saying that," Ivory responded, her voice level and calm. "I know that everyone is scared. Nobody in our grade is a killer; they don't feel like it. The energy is all wrong. But..."
"No 'buts'." Johnny could feel himself turning red as incredulous feelings brimmed inside him. "People being scared is why we shouldn't be holding weapons. I mean, what if they think-"
"No, no, it makes sense..." Effie said, speaking up. "Some people might be too out of it to reason with... Sorry, I just... I didn't even think to check my bag. No— maybe I just didn't want to know what the weapon was?"
Johnny settled down and felt the heat drain from his cheeks. A tightness gripped his chest as he listened to Effie speak. He was struck by just how brave she was being. How level headed both of the girls were. They weren't letting their emotions get the better of them, unlike him.
Ivory watched as her companion bent down and retrieved her assigned duffle bag. The rolling sound of the zipper filled the air.
"Don't you want to see my weapon?" Johnny asked, making a point of taking the attention away from Effie. He didn't want her to feel self conscious, with them both staring at her.
"We already saw it." A lock of jet black hair fell over Ivory's right eye, as she cocked her head to the side. "When I came out of the hall, you were waving around that blowtorch like you didn't know what to do with it."
Johnny cast his eyes down, embarrassed. He had been so short strung that, when he attempted to talk to Stephanie, he forgot entirely that he was holding his weapon.
He didn't bother asking Ivory what her weapon was. She was smart enough to know that she would be expected to reveal what she drew. In fact, if Johnny remembered correctly, Ivory was one of the smartest students in the school. He recalled seeing her name topping out the league tables, along with that of a boy, also from 3-C.
Across the room, Effie gasped as she hefted her designated weapon out from the bag. Long and extremely top heavy, it consisted of a curved wooden shaft, tipped with a sharp wedged head.
Spying the weapon in the corner of his peripheral, Johnny lifted his head and turned his attention back to Effie. "What is that, an ax?"
It was. The kind used by lumberjacks to fell trees.
Seeing Effie holding it in her tiny hands made the weapon look all the more intimidating. Like it was taking her over.
"God..." Ivory whispered under her breath. Almost like she couldn't believe what she was looking at.
Effie stared at the weapon for several seconds, as if she didn't even know what it was. Stress ticked through her face as the clockwork of her mind set at a slow pace. As it all came into place, she began to shake.
Quickly setting down the ax, Effie pulled back her trembling hands and patted across the black material of her school jacket. Feeling around her inside breast pocket, her face twitched into an expression of relief.
Just as Johnny was about to question what she was doing, Effie spoke. "Sorry, sorry... I just... I need this."
Reaching into her jacket, Effie fumbled with a pack of cigarettes. When she finally managed to fish one out, her twitching digits moved slowly over the wheel of a cheap disposable lighter. The flint sparked three times before she eventually managed to catch the flame.
"I didn't know you smoked," Johnny said, watching as the orange light of the flame illuminated her features.
Her cigarette lit, Effie extinguished the lighter, leaving the afterimages of the red tinged tip as the only source of light in the room. "Yeah... Yeah I've smoked for a long time now. Not a lot... Just... Just when I'm stressed. About grades and my Dad and... And..." Tears welled in her eyes. "This."
A overwhelming urged filled Johnny to go over and hug her. He held himself back, however. He didn't know her; it would have been too forward.
What he didn't know, though, was that it was exactly what Effie wanted.
Dragging the cigarette all the way down to the filter, she exhaled a thick cloud of smoke from her nose. It swam through the air like coloured dye in a water tank, ringing around her head and obscuring her features. Casting down the spent butt, she crushed it under her foot and took a moment to compose herself.
Brave girl... Johnny found himself thinking, admiring her surprising resilience. Despite the horrible feelings that probably gripped her, Effie had managed to stop herself from having a complete breakdown.
Ivory walked over to her and crouched down beside the sofa. Reaching out, she placed one hand on her shoulder and offered Effie a comforting smile.
Johnny regretted not going over and giving her a hug.
Her comrade now settled, Ivory reached for her own bag and dragged it towards her. "Now it's my turn," she said, definitively, pulling down the zipper. The motion was slow and restrained as, despite her self-assurance and logical actions, nerves began to grip her.
Johnny held his breath in anticipation as Ivory's slender fingers delved into the bag. A strand of red hair, falling out of place from his pompadour, dropped into his vision.
A metallic flash glinted through the dim room, reflecting from the surface of the weapon that had been pulled past the zipper. In her hand, Ivory held a Colt M1911. Matt black, save for the brown crosshatched grip, the firearm was dense yet surprisingly slender. A .45 calibre semi-automatic pistol, it looked huge in her lithe hand.
Ivory swallowed had and set the gun down on the floor beside her. Reaching back into the duffle bag, she also pulled out a box of bullets and a thick book.
Eyeing the publication, Jonny lifted one hand and pointed at it. "What's with the book?"
Turning it over in her hands, Ivory examined the cover. "It's a manual... For the gun. I'm guessing in case someone doesn't know how to use a gun."
"That's... Weirdly thorough," Effie muttered, looking down at the other girl and knitting her brows.
"Well they need to make sure the kids actually know how to kill each other," Johnny said, bitterly. Then he cast his eyes to the side. "If they're not too bugged out on fear, and think to check their bags for more than the obvious."
"That's sick..." Effie muttered, looking away from the weapon.
The gun held some kind of repulsive force to it, that stopped Johnny from looking directly at it. Perhaps it was what the weapon stood for that was affecting him? A blowtorch and an ax could be used for other things, besides killing, after all. But a gun's purpose was to take life. The sight of it resonated with something in him, leaving him feeling nervous and afraid.
When he finally looked back at the two girls, he realised that Ivory was holding the weapon out to him. The handle of the gun jutted into the air, ready for him to take it.
"I think you should take this," Ivory said.
Flustering for a moment, Johnny again felt the oppressive force of the weapon. "No, no... It's yours. You shouldn't-"
The black haired girl interrupted him. "No. Take it."
"Why?" he asked, reaching out with hesitation.
"Because you don't want to kill anyone," Ivory said, smiling for the first time since Johnny had met up with her. "You have a good energy. And I trust you."
Johnny took the gun and caught himself wondering if the entire time she had been testing him.
[A/N: Do you feel like keeping up with the students? Keep track of the landscape and the Dead Zones with a handy map! I will be including the link to an image for the map on my profile!]