Endless Recess

Shining Star| part 2

Rushing through the hallway Emma reaches the stairs and quickly runs to the roof.

Opening the door she looks around and sees everyone near the edges of the roof, pointing to the sky in the distance.

For a moment, her heart seems to stop.

Even if her body was filled with adrenaline, now she could only walk to join the others.

Could it be true? It had been two months now since the outbreak, not a sound had been heard in the city ever since the beginning.

She approached the group, everyone was quiet, lacking any words to express what they felt.

Could this...finally end?

She thought.

All the pain, all the dread.

The sacrifices, the difficulties.

All of it, could it be it was at an end?

"Emma" Mathew said turning to her, his face in shock "Emma you can see it too, right?"

"Yes" She said with barely any breath.

Mathew turned to watch the sky again.

The snow fell gently all around her, while the calm wind moved her short hair like grass on the plains.

The food smelled nice, waiting for them at the tables, Miss Juliet wanted to make it special for such a day.

And in the silent dead city they were trapped in.

The sound of a helicopter flying far away in the distance was all that could be heard.

And far away, a white dot slowly hovering above the streets, flying away.

"T-there are people! there are others!" Miss Juliet said covering her mouth with excitement.

"Do you think it was the military?" Brook asked Jason who stood nearby.

"Too small to be a military-grade helicopter, and those are not white..." He wondered as Brook jumped with excitement.

"A police helicopter" Emma whispered, feeling her heart quicken at the realization "That was a police helicopter, my dad is a police officer, I have seen them!"

"The police?! Does that mean we can get saved?!" Joshua pushed his bible close to his chest.

"What about it?" Gabriel spoke up.

Turning around, Emma saw Annie and her group sat calmly on the tables, the only ones in fact and they were filling their plates with the stew as if nothing at all was different.

"We could get saved from this place!" Vanessa yelled at him, tears in her eyes.

"What assures you that inside that helicopter there is a police officer? hm?" He asked stuffing his mouth with the food.

"Someone could have taken it from someone else, whoever is driving that thing could be a murderer" Jonathan spoke knowledgeably.

"Raiders, heh" Owen added as Audrey sat on his lap and took a plate in her hands.

"Slavers? crazy lunatics? escaped inmates?" Audrey said colloquially taking a spoonful to her mouth.

"What?" Heather said looking at the group annoyed "The f**k are you all talking about?! Our ticket out of this place just flew by!" She turned to the group "We have to make them see us!"

The group raised their fist in support.

"A bonfire! we can burn the desks and books to make smoke!" Mason said joining Heather.

Heather and Mason looked at each other briefly, but she soon turned around and rushed inside the stairs with many others, Mason joining in too.

Emma was about to go down when she noticed that Mathew hadn't moved.

Looking at him, she saw the puzzled expression of someone more confused and troubles than excited or shock.

He looked at her with his eyes filled with uncertainty, as if waiting for instructions of any kind.

"Mat...Really, what is going on with you?" She asked again in a low tone, standing closer to him.

"I-" He looked at someone behind Emma "Let's talk later, okay?"

The Mathew she knew seemed to be back, and as she turned around to see who he had glanced at, she already expected to know the person.

Annie.

It was enough, she felt her blood boil, their eyes met and Annie felt surprised when Emma didn't even hesitate to quickly walk up to where she sat.

Even after Owen and Gabriel stood up aggressively when seeing her approach, she slammed her hands on the desk directly in front of her, shaking the bowls and spoons resting on it.

"What have you done to him?" She brushed off Owen's hand when he tried to grab her arm.

"Calm down girl" He said threateningly.

"It's alright Owen, I like this one" Annie said placing her bowl on the desk and calmly standing up.

For a moment she felt some of her courage falter when she was forced to look up at the imposing height and sight of Annie, but just as her spirit seemed to question her actions, a newfound sense of purpose rather than emotion filled her.

She was not there because she disliked Annie, she was there because she was worried about her friend.

Her friend, who a couple of minutes ago stared at her like a completely different person, so strip off his emotions that she felt threatened by him, his best friend, the kindest, calmest, and the most harmless person she had ever known.

And she knew she had something to do with it, before she may have approached her out of anger, but while she was upset, she was more concerned for him than anything else.

"What. What have you done, to Mathew?"She met Annie's belligerent eyes with her defiant stare.

"What makes you think I have done anything at all?" Annie frowned slightly, displeased by Emma's lack of fear.

"W-wait, Emma" Mathew walked up close to her.

"No Mat! You know something is different with you!" She said looking back at him before returning her stare to Annie "And I know she is responsible for it"

"Why should I be held accountable by whatever path Mathew chooses to take? and why are YOU so against people taking a look at their surroundings?" She crosses her arms and derisively looked at her.

"I-" Emma's eyes widened for a moment before they squinted at her "I have nothing to answer to you, this is what you do Annie, you play with people's minds and try to always have the upper ground in any discussion you have, you think I wouldn't notice? If you actually engaged someone in a debate, all your arguments would fall flat!"

Annie's smirk grew larger, as her eyes became wider as if challenging her to hold the stare, and Emma accepted.

"Very well! I will give you what want Emma, it's your turn to ask, let's see if your point of view makes more sense than mine" She steps back and pulls the desks apart until she and Emma are no longer separated by anything "Let's debate, Emma"

Annie's group stared at Emma with amusement, in a way supporting the alpha, expressing how none of them believed she had any chance of winning.

"This ought to be good" Audrey said sitting again on Owen's lap, who had seated closer to Gabriel.

The snow fell calmly, the wind too moved their hair with care, as the coldness of the world threatened to swallow everything, Emma and Annie stared at each other with the heat of a wildfire, their very spirits clashing for the first time directly.

"Well? ask! or has the cat bite your tongue?"

"E-Emma..." Mathew said softly behind her.

And she turned back to see him, he looked like a scared puppy.

"First, answer my question, what have you done to Mathew?" She gave one step forward.

Annie looked down at her feet and after a few seconds of silence emulated her, getting closer to her, they stood four feet apart.

"I have spoken with him a great length of time and I have shown him the truth of this new world, the truth that all of you children refuse to see. He took a glimpse at it and now sees as I do" She spoke with complete security in her words.

"And what do you see?"

"Where no one else seems to, ahead" She remained in silence for a few seconds, letting Emma fully grasp her words " All of you really believe that things will slowly just return to normal, can't you see what is so bluntly apparent?!" Her arms stretch to her sides "Just look at the world, Emma!"

And once again, she did.

Behind Annie hundreds of lifeless buildings, the view she had grown so used to already, each morning when she woke up, every night when she fell asleep.

The suffocating view of a dead world.

But things were different now.

"We just saw a helicopter, Annie, you have forgotten the world is not as big as your view can reach, it stretches, far beyond what you see and what we just saw it's a prove of it, things may be dark in here, but elsewhere, they might be the brightest"

"You speak of a possibility and nothing more, I guide my thoughts on what I can see. Thinking about what might, will only blind me and deprive me of the now." Annie lowered her arms.

"So this is what you have become? just an animal that goes after whatever it sees shiny in front of it?" Emma gave a step forward.

Annie's smirk vanished, as her interested stare gradually became more and more hostile.

"We are all animals, Emma, we do as our bodies need to, we are slaves of our needs. It is that stupid notion of Hope that turns our most needed instinct against us, We forget the need to survive" Annie gave one step forward.

Now they stood two feet apart, looking at each other with clear animosity.

Mathew stared at them nervously, while Annie's group seemed overjoyed at the possibility of the two fighting at any moment.

Emma felt the full weight of Annie's dangerous and overwhelming presence as she gave that step, the already thickening snow on the roof had muffled some of its noise, but it still was heard clear and sound how heavy that step was.

But more than anything else it was her eyes, Annie's eyes threatened to cut a hole in her very spirit, to penetrate her and find a weak spot to exploit.

However, Emma didn't step back, because she knew that behind her Mathew was listening, he needed to know that Annie, even if spoke nicely and passionately about what she saw as her undeniable truth, was flawed.

But...HOW?

She thought. How was she supposed to win this argument against Annie?.

Annie spoke with conviction because it could be seen all around her, the world that had turned its back on them, the world that wanted to swallow their hopes and consume them.

More literally than figuratively.

She was starting to feel cornered, Annie could provide solid proof, but where was hers? that was the tricky part of her belief, how prove something that hasn't happened yet?

For now, the smartest thing was to keep her talking.

"H-How can we forget about survival? It's what we have been doing these past two months!"

"You are wrong, you have been wasting time, what was the other day? History? are you really having classes in the apocalypse?" Annie said mockingly.

"What?!" Audrey practically yelled in shock before bursting in very nasal laughter.

"They are having class? like, actual classes?" Owen asked looking at Audrey for answers, he seemed legitimately confused.

"Seems like this bunch of clowns still do homework in the weekends" Gabriel said and threw his spoon at Owen's head.

Owen laughed and then frowned at Gabriel after the spoon hit him right above the eye, Audrey once again laughed loudly.

"Even I know that's dumb" Jonathan added, hunched over the desk eating another bowl of stew.

"See? anyone BUT you bunch of stupid children think that having classes would be a good idea, what purpose does that accomplish? and you Emma, I know you are trying to make tools, but instead of weapons or protection, you are making bed frames?" Annie said looking at Emma absurdly.

"But-"

"You could be trying to make spears for everyone, or shields, join forces with Luca and find a way to make some actual protection from the corpse's jaws, but instead of doing anything useful for the group, you want to do furniture"

Emma lacked words to fight back, Annie's group chuckled and stared at her like a joke.

She lowered her gaze for a moment to scramble a good comeback and then realized that she had given a step back.

When she raised her eyes and met Annie's it no longer felt like a few minutes ago, it felt completely different, it was instead reminiscent of the first time they spoke.

That predatory gaze, she was losing and she knew it.

She desperately needed something she could use against her because if she couldn't prove Annie was wrong...then that would mean she was the wrong one.

And if she was wrong, hope would be wrong as well.

Annie smiled triumphantly as she looked down on Emma, then she spared a glance at Mathew, finding out to her great displeasure that he wasn't even looking at her, his eyes were fixed on Emma.

Her fleeting joy was turned into irritation.

"Come on now! speak! have you run out of words?!" Annie shouted crossing her arms again.

Emma jumped and gave one step back.

"Or do you realize now how wrong you are?! this world is dead! it does not matter if I can't see it all! I don't need to! anywhere else you will ever see IF you survive long enough will be equal to this or WORSE" She gave another step forward and Emma another step back "I told you the first time we spoke, adapt, this is only the beginning of our struggle and if we fail to adapt we will die!"

Then, something seemed to make sense inside of Emma's head, she prayed it would still seem like that when it abandoned her lips.

"You are right, you have told me that before" She said softly "So now I see" Her voice raised " I see that you are afraid!"

Annie looked at her in complete confusion, going as far as to step back, but then she threw guffaw laughter soon joined by her group as well.

"I'm serious, Annie" Emma took the opportunity to regain some ground and step forward.

They were three feet apart.

"You talk about the futility of hope, about how if no one does as you say and sees as you do everyone will die...but you are not saying that for us, you say it for yourself" She pointed at Annie, who only then stopped laughing.

"Have you lost your mind, sugar?"

"You repeat again and again that if we believe things will get better we only fool ourselves, but in truth, you fear that if we are right, then your world will crumble!"

Annie's smile disappeared once again, she opened her mouth to speak but Emma knew better than let her push her around.

"If we believe that things will go back to normal and they do, your world crumbles, because it will prove that not everyone is as wretched and evil as you think, that not everyone will only look out for themselves" She steps forward and Annie back " That's why you can't stop saying those things! If we are proven right while we listen to you, all we will see will be a fleeting moment of peace in a life of misery! as long as your words plague our minds, we will always doubt anything good that happens to us, like the helicopter!"

Emma spoke loudly and firmly, white mist escaping her mouth with each word, her eyes now lit with a fire that Annie's presence couldn't extinguish, the more she spoke, the more convinced she got that for the first time, It was Annie who lacked the words to fight back.

"As soon as we get the tiniest amount of hope you want to twist it and extinguish it! because if that helicopter does help us and takes us away somewhere safe, where our lives can move on, then you are wrong and you are terrified that if hope has value, then you have not other excuse to be hopeless than your own corrupted world view"

Emma gave two steps forward, they are now one foot apart.

She looks up at Annie, defiant, firm, and fearless.

In turn, Annie looks down on her, filled with anger clenches her fists.

The two of them remain like that for a few seconds, then the door from the stairs is open with a kick, and Emma steps back to look at who joins them on the roof.

It is Mason and Jose carrying a bunch of broken parts from the wooden desks in their arms.

After they rush ahead and drop the piles on the roof the rest of the group appears, some carrying more wood and most carrying backpacks filled with thick textbooks.

"Why are you all still here? help us bring as many things as we can to burn!" Mason shouted at Emma and the others as he rushed down the stairs again.

Emma looked at Annie once again.

"Are you gonna help us?" She asked crossing her arms like Annie.

Annie scoffed at her and turned to her group.

"Let's go down everybody" She said as she walked away.

Her group then rapidly got to their feet and followed her to the door, she stops right before entering and turns around, looking at Mathew.

Emma too looks behind, but when she does so he is already looking at the ground.

Looking back at the door she only sees Jonathan walking down the stairs, Annie and her group leave the roof.

"E-Emma" Mathew whispers.

She turns to face him and they look at each other, after a moment of silence Emma smiles at her friend and he seems to let out a relieved sigh.

"I'm sorry for worrying you...I don't know what was going on in my head, these past few days have been just, so rough"

Emma walked to her friend and did what she should have done long ago.

She embraced him, giving him a warm hug to help with the cold winter, a firm hug to hold him in place when he was falling all around.

It took him a second but he too hugged her.

"I'm the one who is sorry, all this time and I just keep leaving you alone, ever since Layla left us I've been so busy with my own head, that I never wondered if you had problems to hold your own in place...But I'm here now, I will always be"

"Thank you" Was all Mathew said.

Eventually, Emma broke the hug and stared at her friend face to face.

"Now, let's commit some arson!" She yelled raising her fist.

"The daughter of a police officer! The quiet ones are always the worse" Mathew answered squinting his eye.

"Don't you dare patronize me! I've seen your browsing history" She said the last thing whispering as she too squinted her eyes.

Mathew gasped dramatically and the two soon burst into a hearty laugher.

They smile at each other one last time before rushing downstairs.

Everyone but Annie and her group makes a big pile of wood and textbooks, then Mr. Asher lits up a piece of paper and carefully sets the pile on fire.

The black smoke begins to rise and with the help of a few jackets and hands waving them, the fire rages even stronger, the smoke goes dozens of meters up above them.

All that was left was to wait.

And they did.

For three entire hours, they bring more books and extra desks to keep the fire going, at the beginning a few of them sit around the fire and talk, but as time goes on, they grow anxious.

It's already four of the afternoon and there is no sight of the helicopter ever coming back.

Emma watches how one by one, they lose hope.

But then.

"There!" Mr. Landon shouts.

Everyone rushes to where he stands, at the other side of the concrete shack that leads to the stairs of the second floor.

And coming from inside the city, the white helicopter hovers above the buildings moving far away from the school.

"I-It's not coming here! they won't see us!" Brook says rushing back to the pile of fire and waving a heavy jacket desperately to raise its smoke.

"We need some way for them to see us!" Mason said under his breath looking at the ground, thinking.

Emma heard him and she too joined in deep thought to find a way to get their attention.

Every time she glances up she sees the helicopter fly further and further away, she grows nervous and notices she is biting the skin of her thumb.

Bringing her hand down to her pocket she holds her cellphone.

Her cellphone.

Her eyes widen and she rushes to the pile of trash at the back of the shack, she climbs it and then gets on top of the roof of the shack.

She pulls her cellphone and begins to turn on and off the flashlight pointing at the helicopter.

Please...please see it!!.

She thinks desperately as she turns the flashlight on and off.

She turns the flashlight on and off several times but the helicopter simply keeps on moving in a straight line off to the distance.

Until it stops.

And everyone's hearts too.

The helicopter turns around and faces the school, Emma, with all the adrenaline rushing through her veins, turns on and off the flashlight several times, realizing that anyone with a cellphone in the group mimics her action.

And she sees it.

A light turning on and off, from the pilot's window.