AN: I am slowly moving towards the end, do not worry readers, this story will not become one of those annoying unfinished ones.
Day 20, 1311 Hours, Storage Room
"You have no idea where you are, do you?"
Ferris looked back at Atsuko, who was standing behind the chemist looking over a nearby shelf, being pointedly nonchalant. John looked at them from where he was standing by the shelf opposite the one Atsuko was pretending to examine. Ferris had dashed directly past the desk with the Shi-ru offering the cord like lines that led back to the entrance of the room. Paris had stopped to get one, and the penguin had leapt down and hooked it to one of her belt loops. It was at this point that Ferris had yanked John and Atsuko into the shelf maze and they had lost track of Paris. John had tried yelling out to her when Ferris had stopped dragging him, but there hadn't been a response.
"I know exactly where I am!" the chemist countered.
Atsuko held up a finger to cut off further argument and said after a second, "Do you know where the entrance is located in comparison to your current location?"
Ferris automatically opened his mouth to respond, but quickly shut it with a slight clicking noise. The chemist looked up towards the ceiling, mumbling to himself for a second his smile still in place. Finally he shrugged, looked back at Atsuko and said, "I've got diddly squat on that front."
"Hmm," hummed Atsuko, still pretending to inspect the shelf as an excuse to not look at Ferris directly.
"Heh, we haven't even found anything useful yet, and there are still plenty of places to check yet. This place is huge!" Ferris said turning around to continue browsing the shelves.
Atsuko sighed, pinching her nose as she began actually looking at what was on the shelf. John looked back to his side, once again going over the clutter. There was so much crap in here, Rubik's Cubes to chess sets, cook books to notebooks, pretty much anything. There were marked areas that contained things that could be used to kill, helpful signs bearing Monokuma's face hanging in the aisles.
"I wonder what this was for," John said.
Atsuko and Ferris turned to him, before they all circled up in the middle aisle to talk easier to each other.
"Yeah, it does seem strange that a school would have such a stockpile of things," Atsuko said crossing her arms.
"Is anything about our situation not strange?" Ferris said chuckling.
"Yeah," John said scratching his chin, "but, this doesn't really fit up with what Monokuma's been doing, this seems like a stockpile to survive the apocalypse."
"Yep, certainly have the variety down," Ferris said with a grin that differed slightly from his usual, "even mimicked the ark with the whole pair thing."
"Ugh," Atsuko grunted, covering her face.
"Wait," John said, "We're missing several years of memories right? Who's to say the apocalypse hasn't happened?"
There was silence for a minute before Atsuko said, "There's something I don't get."
The other two remained silent, letting Atsuko say her piece.
"Shouldn't we have realized something was wrong, I mean, wouldn't we have realized something about our bodies was different."
"They erased our memories, why not alter them?" Ferris said, "If they're already poking around in our head why stop at simply removing memories, I know I wouldn't be able to resist poking around someone's head."
Atsuko grimaced, nodding in acceptance.
"So, apocalypse would explain why no one's helped us then, probably too many things on fire," Ferris said philosophically.
"It would," John said, blowing out air.
"I suppose the question now is do we continue trying to find an escape," said Atsuko after a pause.
Silence found them at that moment, and joined them, making its presence known. It stayed for a while as the trio thought through what Atsuko had said. It fled though when Paris's voice rose up through the aisles of shelves. Atsuko looked towards where Paris's voice was signaling her presence, and started yelling in response, moving towards the other.
John lingered for a moment noticing that Ferris had yet to move. Looking to the chemist, John saw that his eyes had slid shut and he was standing there almost as if he was asleep. John thought about nudging him when Ferris opened his eyes with a sigh.
"If this was supposed to be a shelter, then I think Shi-ru was supposed to be in charge, and Monokuma usurped him somehow," the chemist stated.
"Makes sense," John said, "but it doesn't help now."
"But that means he knows us better than we do, Shi-ru I mean, I wonder what he thought of us," Ferris continued, winding off into his own thoughts, "I'm curious to know if he's disappointed in us right now."
John remained silent at this, wondering if they might be able to pump the penguin for information, but his thoughts were interrupted as Ferris began moving and John followed him, tracking the girls down a few units away where Paris greeted them, the line trailing off behind her.
"Wouldn't that get hooked on something?" Ferris asked her after a moment.
"No, S-shi-ru said that another one of him would make sure it didn't," Paris said, "Although, he d-id say that h-he might not always move fast enough and I might have to pause and wait every so often."
"Well, at least we can get out of here now," Atsuko said, pointedly shooting a look not in Ferris's direction.
"Oi vey, if you keep flirting like this I might get ideas you wouldn't like," Ferris said letting his eyelids slid partially close.
Atsuko sputtered for a second before, laughing and punching the chemist in the arm.
"As if you don't flirt already," she countered.
"Of course I flirt, I am the master flirt, actually I'm the master of social awkwardness but I like to think that flirting renders a situation awkward for anyone else so it lands in my wheelhouse."
"Weren't we leaving or trying to find something useful?" John said, rolling his eyes.
"Perhaps, maybe the whole reason we came here was a ploy to get you and Paris together, I certainly ship Jo-ris!" Ferris countered, Atsuko giggling behind her hand.
John gave the chemist a flat look while Paris blushed horribly and tried to hide her face. Ferris ignored John's look and waggled his eyebrows. Rolling his eyes John decided that trying to reason with Ferris was like reasoning with a toddler, they might seem to listen but the actual chance of them taking anything to heart was low.
Turning to Paris John asked, "Did you find anything interesting?"
The girl looked at him from between her fingers and said, "I f-found a-a-a-, AN, area w-with electronics, i-if that's h-elpful."
"Any radios or such, something that might reach the outside world?" Ferris said, leaning towards the stuttering girl.
Paris bit her lip and leaned away from Ferris before nodding, and managing, "I w-walked a-round the a-isle s-o I c-could f-find it a-again."
"Ha-ha! Smart! Okay then! Let's retrace your steps!" Ferris said before darting away after the line that led back to where Paris had been.
Atsuko laughed and moved after Ferris at a more relaxed pace before groaning and taking off into a run after he vanished from sight. John rolled his eyes and began following them Paris at first trailing behind but them speeding up to much his pace.
"T-they seem to be get-ting along well," she observed as they followed the line back.
"Yeah, they seem to be the only ones beside us and Rowland and Mary still following the buddy system," John responded.
"That's still half of us," Paris countered, "at…this…point."
She grimaced as she came to fully realize exactly what her words implicated.
"It's not your fault, seem as it isn't anyone else's except Perdita," John said.
Paris nodded, still looking glum before suddenly knitting her brow together and saying, "I wonder what Monokuma said to her, before he killed her."
John shrugged and said, "I don't speak German, so Ferris is probably the only one who knows, although Rowland might be multilingual now that I think about it, it would go with his talent I guess."
Paris nodded, letting out a small grunt when the cord yanked her forward suddenly.
"I bet Ferris is trying to tell us to hurry up," the soccer player grumbled, "no patience at all with him."
"Hey, death is a very real thing for him," John said, "frankly it's kind of reassuring he's so energetic about living instead of becoming depressed."
Paris laughed, and said, "It is a good thing when you say it like that; lets' hurry then and see what he wants then."
Speeding up, they reached the aisle Paris had been talking about, piled high with various electronics. Atsuko was standing with Ferris standing on her shoulders, trying to reach the upper reaches of the shelving.
"Ah, finally you guys show! We're trying to reach that radio up there, help us get it would you?" Ferris said, wobbling lightly as he shifted in his attempts to reach higher.
John followed Ferris's line of sight and saw the radio system they were talking about. It looked like a compact ham radio. It was also several feet above where the chemist could reach.
"You see a ladder anywhere?" John asked, looking at Paris.
Shaking her head Paris said, "Want me to look for one?"
"Nah," Ferris called down from his perch, "just have John get on my shoulders and we'll be able to reach."
"Wouldn't it make more sense to put Atsuko on my shoulders?" John asked.
"And have you look up my skirt? No way," the lucky student responded.
John rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't do that."
"On purpose probably not but I'm not going to even let there be a chance that you do it by accident."
John sighed and said, "Alright, why not have Paris stand on my shoulders and have Ferris on her shoulders?"
Ferris paused for a moment before saying, "That could work, it would make even more sense to have the athlete on the bottom so why not I stand on your shoulders and you stand on hers."
"Sure, why not?" John said rolling his eyes.
Paris sighed before crouching down so John could step onto her back, straightening up slowly as he maintained his balance using the shelf as a support. Ferris transferred himself from Atsuko to Paris before climbing up John's back to reach for the radio. After a few seconds of swiping listlessly at it, Ferris managed to grab it. Crying victory, he tossed it to Atsuko and jumped down from John's shoulders, throwing off the everyman's balance and sending him toppling to the floor taking Paris with him as she tried to keep him from falling from her shoulders.
"Oops," Ferris said when he looked back and saw the two sprawled on the floor.
The chemist then proceeded to help John up while Atsuko assisted Paris, the soccer player sending Ferris a glare as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Can you tell if that thing even works?" Paris asked rubbing the back of her head.
"Yes! It doesn't," Ferris said, "no batteries."
"He's right," Atsuko stated, "but we should be able to get some from the store."
"Then we should head back," John said, the others nodding before they all began to follow the line back to the entrance.
The path winded, showing how long Paris had tried to find them, wondering the shelves after they had been separated. It went for some time before they passed a door set in a wall that read 'Cold Storage'.
"Wonder what's in there?" Ferris asked, "Can't be food since that seems to be kept in the kitchen."
"But not all of it is, remember it gets restocked," Atsuko countered.
"If you're really curious we can check it out quick," John said, Paris nodding in agreement.
Ferris's smile broke into a grin and the chemist quickly swung the heavy door open and vanished inside, Atsuko following him. John and Paris went inside, and found a dimly lit room that contained boxes mainly. A few did have food labels on them but others had more sinister labels such as 'virus' and 'toxin'. Ferris and Atsuko were digging through a box of something, and John went to join them, Paris getting distracted and wandering towards the wall. As John was about to look in to the box there was the sound of something opening and coming out on wheels followed by a shrill scream.
Whipping around, John moved to where Paris had fallen, Ferris and Atsuko joining him, abandoning the box they had been inspecting. When they reached her, John saw why she had screamed. The thing she had opened had been a drawer in which had been stored Amelia's body. The sheet over it had not covered the destroyed head.
Ferris quickly shoved the drawer back shut, while John and Atsuko did their best to console the hyperventilating soccer player.
"I-I-I-, I-," Paris tried to speak between gasps for air.
"Ah! I see you found your classmates!"
Eyes darted over to where Monokuma was now standing perched on a box marked 'Perdita' which was stacked on a box marked 'Adam'.
"What kind of psycho are you?" Ferris stated after reading the boxes.
"What? You mean for not wasting two drawers on a pile of ashes and a pile of bones? That's not psychotic just good space management, upupupu."
Ferris gritted his teeth, before grabbing Paris and hauling her to her feet, the soccer player stumbling slightly. As Atsuko went to protest, Ferris gestured to the exit, before pushing her and john towards it, Monokuma still laughing. Pausing to only grab the radio, the four fled the storage area, Monokuma's laughter chasing after them.