Eve
I stand up and start running, the alarm is still working and i don’t want someone to find me here. I headed downstairs and pass one of the connecting doors as i hear a second one. I stop and listen, someone is inside, shit.
I look arround, trying to find out from which direction the person would come
CORIN:
wendy and I are on our way home to eat something, when a couple of younger kids, a blonde boy and girl, run up behind Wendy and , shouting my name.
“CORIN! CORIN! There is an alarm going off at the high school! Can’t you hear that?” It’s the blonde girl who addresses me, with a snotty tone in her voice…I immediately (by her posture and tone)realize that she thinks she is important.
The boy doesn’t say anything, letting the blonde girl take the lead. She walks in front of him and does all the talking for them both it seems… but I can see that he is staring at my cousin as they approach.
I know when someone is staring on purpose, having a bad habit of doing that same thing myself.
I dont like the way he is staring at her. She’s my cousin, and I look out for her. She’s my only family.
All this rushes quickly through my head as they close the last few yards between us. I look at Wendy and see her blushing. I’m immediately on the defensive, feeling suddenly overprotective and tense.
They come to a stop in front of us, out of breath from apparently running here from the school.
Listening now, I hear the sound.
“Whoa, slow down…yes I can hear that now…what’s happening?”
But I don’t wait to hear her reply.
I grab Wendy by the hand and push between the two kids, dragging Wendy with me back the way we came. She doesn’t protest, moving along with me. Once we get fully past, we both break into a run back towards the high school. I just hope that Wendy has her keys. That alarm might draw unwanted people to our town. We are isolated out here, and it’s better not to attract the attention of roaming gangs of kids. The worse The City gets, the more kids will come our way. We are not ready for that.
“DAMNIT!” I yell out and push myself to a faster pace, hoping that Wendy is keeping up with me. She is fast, but I can feel adrenaline moving me beyond my own normal speed.
WENDY:
<running towards the school>
Corin is running ahead of me, outdistancing me. I try to keep up, but he is tall and his stride is twice mine.
I can’t believe this! I should have just locked the gym! I berate myself, feeling that this is all my fault.
The two blondes are pretty far behind me now, jogging slowly. They are definitely back there though, following us to the school. I bet everyone in town is there by now.
The Sound of the alarm grows louder and the school comes into view.
Corin has stopped and is turning around to wait for me to catch up. I hear him ask me if I have the keys?
I nod that I do, out of breath and unable to reply verbally. I lean over breathing hard with my hands on my knees.
“then let’s get inside and turn off the alarm. I will watch your back. You lead.” Corin says.
He knows I explored most of the school already, and I know where the main breaker boxes are to the building due to my snooping.
I run ahead of him now, up to the school. Suddenly there are a bunch of kids around us, all talking at Corin. He stops, and I look back, he meets my eyes.“GO” he mouthed the word silently to me.
I slip away from the sudden crowd around Corin and enter the school quickly, barely opening the door enough to squeeze through.
This time I lock the door once I get inside.
“Sorry, Corin.” I say to the locked door. “You handle them…I’ve got this.”
I turn and head down the hall, not knowing who I might find in here.
I put my hand on the knife I found, drawing it from its little sheath. I hold it in front of me as I move further into the school…knowing it’s not very sharp, but that it does afford a small measure of protection.
GENESIS
I get to the school in time to see someone entering the school and Corin being crowded by a curious mob.
Damn. I was too late to investigate ahead of him. I smirk as our town savior is bombarded with question after question. I can’t understand most of them with the noise of the alarm drowning them out, but mostly I hear fearful voices.
I’m not afraid. I stopped being afraid of most things when the virus claimed my grandfather and cut through my family day after day like wildfire.
“Alright, alright, give the man some space!” I shout from the back, taking pity on Corin. Fear of the situation could be deadly if he let them carry on. “How’s he supposed to answer anything if you’re all talking at once?”
CORIN:
As soon as we arrive to the school, I am surrounded by frightened and anxious kids, all looking to me for answers. I’m trying to calm them down, but it’s all one big roar of noise, the Alarm, the multitude of voices, my own inner voice yelling in my head trying to figure this out…Wendy went on inside the school…I hope she gets that alarm turned off quickly I think to myself desperately.
Suddenly, one strong female voice cuts through the other noise, calling the group to order by force of tone alone it would seem.
I recognize the speaker as Genesis. I’m so relieved to see her, I push through the other kids to where she is, pulling the attention of the crowd along towards her.
I reach her location and turn to the group. Just having her stand beside me makes me feel stronger, gives me more direction of purpose. I need to protect her. To protect them all…but to protect her first.
I put my hands in the air and shout out “EVERYONE, LISTEN!” between Genesis and myself, we seem to have calmed them down enough to listen.
“Someone has gone in to shut off the alarm. Everyone please stay calm. Does anyone know what happened?”
Everyone starts talking at once again. I try to put my hands up again in another call for silence, but they are all back to squawking chicken mode, blabbing about where they were when they heard the alarm.
I look down at Genesis, who is still by my side, and plead with my eyes for some help.
VERN
It takes a moment before I can hear anything over the alarm, but then I hear running footsteps. I hesitate, asking myself why I even went in here. I prefer keeping to myself, but here I am, running into the school I was relieved never to have to go to again (the one upside to the virus), looking for whoever set off the alarm.
I’m annoyed with myself as I continue inside, hearing the door behind me as I hurriedly round the corner, spotting a girl I don’t recognise. Judging by the look on her face, I say she’s definitely responsible for the alarm. I don’t wanna scare her though, and I’m not really bothered if she was trying to take anything from the school, it’s a public building afterall, so I stop where I am. I don’t say anything though, glancing back down the hallway to see that we’re not alone.
“Don’t suppose either of you know how to turn this damn thing off?” I ask loudly, to be heard over the alarm.
GENESIS
A thousand eyes turn to look at me, but I only see his two. Oh God, don’t come over here.
Too late. Obviously. He’s pushing through the crowd and at my side quicker than I can blink. I stand tense watching as his voice resonates. They’re comforted knowing the alarm will go off, but only for a minute, then he’s looking at me.
Typically I like to not be seen, but I showed a little compassion and it’s gotten me into this pickle. I take a deep sigh, sticking my pinkies in my mouth and whistle the way my grandpa taught me. “CHILL OUT!” I command once I’ve got their attention. “The guy will answer questions when the alarm is off.”
That ought to buy him some time to get his speech together.
Eve
i Spot the guy and for a moment i stare at him, not really sure why but i can’t take my eyes of him. Then i noticed his look at the another direction. Someone else is there? I run over to him and and see Wendy. ohoh… i don’t want her to know that i have done it. … she couldn’t see me coming from the higher levels so maybe i can deceive her. I stop next to the guy and look at him " please don’t betray me to her, it was an accident"
OCC: hey everyone I’ve been sick. I’m reading through what’s been said now
Sabrina
Devon winks at me and I giggle. ”Hrm maybe after this meeting”
I smile at Devon thinking of how kind he’s being to me with all this. I start to worry about what he and Genesis might exactly be getting into.
” I need to make sure Devon… that you fully understand what you’re getting into…”
I trail off trying to figure out what to say next
Devon
Before i can answer her, i can see that she takes a breathe to continue speaking, so i close my mouth again and look at her. Suddenly there is a niose outside, quiet but there.
" Do you hear this?" I look at her wondering and stand up, walking ver to the window
Sabrina
I’ve figured out how I’m going to word what I want to say. ”Wel…”
Devon starts speaking and walks over to the window. I’m unsure what he’s talking about at first so I listen carefully and I can hear a subtle high pitched noise. ”I have no idea. It sounds like some sort of a alarm almost.”
Devon
An Alarm, how can there be an alarm without power and why now?
" I would check on this. Can you stay here with the baby and we talk later?"
Sabrina
I debate what Devon says. I know he’s just trying to be kind and I know I need to look after Fenella but I just have this feeling that there isn’t that big of a threat.
I don’t want to let Devon how I feel but I will not be staying behind.
”Okay be careful!” I smile at Devon
Devon
I nod at Sabrina " will i" and leave the house. I start running down the street, seems like the sounds is coming form the old gym. I follow the sounds till i reach the gym and the little crowd in front of it. I also spot Genesis and Corin, trying to calm down the crowd. I catch their look, lookinf at them questionly
Sabrina
As soon as Devon leaves I grab an extra blanket to swaddle Fenella in and start heading towards the alarm.
CORIN:
Genesis quiets the crowd with the loudest sharpest whistle I have ever heard out of a girl…out of hardly any men I had met for that matter. I am impressed.
They seem to accept what she tells them…turning to each other in smaller groupings and huddling together, speaking into each others ears to be heard over the whine of the alarm.
I’m grateful for the save. Genesis bought me a little breathing space. I turn to her and smile. I mouth the words “thank you”
I just want to find a reason to be alone with her. But I can see a couple of my friends and their girls headed this way across the schoolyard.
They will corner me for sure, and the girl I’m interested in will slip away for sure.
She seems to hate my friends. I guess I can’t blame her. They are a little thick, the school athletes mostly… and their girlfriends all kind of annoy me.
But they have been friends for too long to totally ditch, especially now. We need each other now.
Although sometimes, like right now, what I need to do is get away… I really dont want to deal with them. I still have to make sure Wendy is ok, and the Alarm hasn’t stopped which is making me more worried every minute.
Worried that someone will hear the noise…worried something happened to Wendy…damnit!
Genesis seems to be looking at one of her own friends who just joined the crowd, a kid I have see her with before.
When Genesis looks back at me, I lean in, my head close to hers in order to speak so she’ll be able to hear my words…(and if I’m being honest, I’m damn happy to have an excuse to get this close to her)
My lips are close to her ear, and I tell her “I’m going around the other side to check it out, wanna come help me look for my cousin?”
I lean back and stare into her eyes a moment before turning and heading in the opposite direction as where I see my regular group arriving from.
I just hope she follows me…but it’s hard to believe she will…there isn’t much reason to hope, especially now that she has a friend here that she can join up with.
I’m too proud or scared to look behind me while I march at a quick pace around the side of the building, ignoring the groups of kids who moments ago were looking to me for answers. They will get some, as soon as i have some myself…
Let them wait it out…they are safe enough when they are in that big of a group.
((OCC: is the alarm still going at this point or has it been shut off? Sorry I know it’s a silly question 
))
((Ooc: Alarm is still ringing…probably for at least 10 minutes now…shoot where the heck is Wendy! That girl needs to shut that thing off already!
)
Sabrina
I never catch up to Devon but I see him in the crowd when I arrive at the school. I decide not to go over to him but search for other people I recognize.
I walk through the crowd and I make eye contact with someone I didn’t want to. Oh no! What’s she doing here! I thought she left for the city! I nearly forget I’m holding Fenella but get a a jolt of fear when I zone back into reality. With Fenella being okay from the jolt I continue walking swiftly through the crowd.
With luck I spot Genesis and Corin. Corin looks like he’s about to walk away. "Hey Genesis!’'
GENESIS
The crowd is handled, I nod at Corin who is mouthing a “thank you.” I don’t know why I’m helping him. Where’s his groupies? Shouldn’t they be helping him?
I look for them, scanning the crowd coming across Devon in my findings. I can’t pretend I didn’t see him he’s looking dead at us with a ‘what’s going on?’ look about him. I only shrug. He knows what I know. There’s a crowd worried about the same thing. Why’s an alarm going off?
I’m stuck on whether or not to go to him. I look back at Corin who seems anxious. “Someone is cutting—” I start to question him about the truth but am cut off by his proximity. He’s too close again, like yesterday, and I almost take a step away but he’s saying something into my ear.
He wants help looking for his cousin. My help. Or at least he is asking if I’d like to help. He locks eyes with me but doesn’t wait for my answer, taking off away from the crowd while they’re all distracted.
I stand in place. Who does he think he is? I’m just supposed to follow him because he’s asked? I do want that alarm turned off though. It’s starting to give me a headache.
Hey, Genesis! My head snaps into the direction of the call. Sabrina is walking towards us, Fenella in arms. “Hey!” I greet her. “Perfect timing. Please, follow me.” I give her no chance to question me, taking off slowly in the direction Corin went. Maybe Devon would follow too. The more the merrier. I wouldn’t feel so awkward being alone with Corin.