Endless Recess

Warming up| Part 2

"And why do you care to know? Your little secret is out already."

"You say you want us to adapt, to change to this new world, why would you keep it a secret too?."

Annie placed a finger on her lip and looked at the roof as if wondering the same thing really hard, of course, it was all exaggerated.

"At what moment did you saw it? I was the only one awake in the room that night" Emma pulled a small towel from the cabinets under the sink.

"What makes you think I was in the room at all? There are many windows you know?."

Emma got the towel wet and began to clean her body carefully and slowly, looking at Annie the whole time as she did it.

Annie rested her back on the sink and crossed her arms, staring at Emma in an almost predatory way.

"I don't understand you Annie" She said looking away from Annie's eyes "what are you trying to do?."

"I have told you already, I want us to adapt to the current times, not play pretend like children" her last words coming off as irritated.

"We needed something to do and think about other than them, can you blame us?."

"for escaping reality? Absolutely!" She mockingly laughed "It's so pathetic that it hurts"

"What did YOU do then? Didn't you have a family to care about? Or friends? Anything that you miss?" Emma stared once again at Annie, annoyance in her eyes.

Annie's smile disappeared for a moment.

"I've always lived surrounded by the dead Emma, that never changes no matter where I stood. Home, school, parties? Everyone there was like one of the shambling bodies outside, so mechanical in their actions, so meaningless their lives."

"And you were different? You are seventeen for God's sake."

"And I have lived more than anyone in here" she said giving a step closer, her heavy black leather boots making a loud sound on the ceramic floor.

Emma's body wanted to instinctively move away from her, but she forced it to remain in place, something Annie realized.

"What have-"

"Why so scared sugar?" She interrupted her taking another step closer "I won't bite unless that's why you are here right now?."

Emma's face turned to a mixture of aversion and fear, this time giving in to her body and giving one step back away from her.

She couldn't comprehend what made her so terrifying, so imposing.

Maybe her tall size coupled with her croaky voice as if she had a sore throat, maybe the rumors of her life outside the school. Emma tried to rationalize the person in front of her, she was a human, not one of them, she shouldn't be afraid.

"You aren't my type anyway" Annie said giving a step back and looking at her reflection.

"What are your type? Crackheads and gangsters?" Emma tried to show bravery, but her courage disappeared as soon as Annie stared into her eyes with visible irritation.

"No" her eyes relaxed and her sly smile returned "I like them insecure, fearful, and with an inferiority complex" she winked at her and licked her lips.

Annie then began walking to the door, Emma's body turning as she walked as if Annie was a wild beast trying to jump at her from the back and snap her neck.

"And you know what's the one good thing in this pitiful group we are in?" She said as she rested her hand on the handle of the door, not bothering to look back at Emma "I already found someone like that."

And she left the bathroom, Emma stood in silence for a moment and when she felt calm and certain that she wouldn't come back she turned around to face the mirror and raised her towel to keep washing.

Then she saw how shaky it was, angrily she held her wrist with the other hand and squeezed it hard to force it to remain still.

"In the end, I got nothing" she whispered, upset that she got no answers from Annie.

After letting out a stressed sigh she went on with cleaning herself.

She did so without actually thinking about it, instead, her mind analyzed the words of Annie, trying to put together a puzzle that maybe wasn't even worth it.

She said someone had picked her interest and Emma ran through all her memories with everyone she knew.

Three names pop up, Luca, Joshua, and Harley.

Neither of them had the three traits she seemed to look for, but they had at least two.

She didn't know why, but she felt that stopping whatever she was planning to do with one of them was important.

Annie had many rumors going around about her, but something she never had was a couple. Girl or boy, she had always been alone.

So she picked one of them, had to mean she wanted to use them somehow.

But what? Why? Her whole "adapt to the new world"?

Emma couldn't figure her out, no matter how long she tried, Annie's mind seemed way out of her reach.

But something was certain, she would not let her have her way.

The door knocked three times and Emma was startled, letting out a tiny scream.

"Emma? It's been half an hour, I'm gonna catch a cold girl!" Sarah's voice came from the hallway.

"S-sorry! I'm done!" She had been thinking for too long, didn't even realize that time had passed so quickly.

Sarah entered the bathroom shivering and barely dressed.

"What?! You haven't even washed your clothes! What were you doing in here?" Sarah asked genuinely confused.

"I forgot about that" Emma replied looking at her dirty clothes "I will wash them after you are done."

"Forget about that, go to my room and pull out the pants in my backpack" Sarah walked to the sink next to Emma and pulled out another small towel "you are lucky I always came with an extra pair of clothes for boxing."

Emma tried to argue but Sarah shut her down and pointed at the door.

"Get the hell outta here before YOU catch a cold" despite her annoyed voice she gave her a friendly smile.

Unable to fight back, Emma smiles back and thanked her, leaving the bathroom and walking through the hallway to Sarah's bedroom.

In the hallway leading to the stairs she opened the third door and walked inside, the place was mostly empty except for a sort of bed frame made with the sits of desks.

There were magazines and a big plastic jar of protein powder near the makeshift mattress of clothes where Sarah sleeps.

Emma didn't have to search long for the backpack, Sarah's was blue with her name on the back.

She pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans and put them on, realizing how they fit her a little too baggy, something that she felt much more comfortable on.

Taking off her dirty tank top she put back on all her other clothes.

Stepping out of the room she stretched a little bit only to be hit by the sore muscles in her arms.

Looking at the stairs she noticed Joshua sitting in front of Layla's improvised memorial.

Determined, she moved forward to speak with the praying religious teen.

Waiting for a moment until Joshua was done with his prayer Emma sat next to him, for a moment they stared at Layla's memorial and Emma stretched a hand to grab one of the origami flowers resting on the floor.

"I didn't know Luca knew how to make these, it was very sweet of him" Emma said softly as she stared at the flower.

"No one spent much time with Layla besides you and Mathew before all this, but we all cared for her equally" Joshua grabbed a flower himself.

Emma got lost in her emotions for a second, as the guilt and blame of taking her friends out that night kicked in once again.

Instinctively her mind grabbed any thought that could occupy her mind and realizing the objective of approaching Joshua she returned the origami flower to its place as she turned to face him.

"Can I ask you something?."

Joshua seemed a little taken back by her seemingly out of nowhere serious tone, yet he nodded kindly.

"Shoot" he said making a gun with his fingers.

"Has Annie spoke to you recently? Or at all?"

Joshua stared at her with confusion first and then shook his head.

"Not at all, I have barely seen her. Somehow she managed to remain away from everyone's sight even before we took over the second floor."

Emma wondered if she had chosen the wrong person to ask that, but she wanted to be certain Annie wouldn't try to speak to him soon.

"How are you feeling Joshua? With all that's been going on?."

He lowered his eyes and stared at the flower on his hand.

"It's tough of course, everything changed in a single day" his eyes then fell on the Bible on his other hand" but I keep my faith in a higher power, that at the end everything will be alright, that keeps me going."

Emma understood that moment that Joshua was way too faithful to fall for any of Annie's games, or at least she hoped he was.

"And you Emma? Don't you believe there is a higher power watching over us?."

She felt a little awkward immediately as the images of them appeared in her mind.

"I don't feel comfortable to think that something with endless power would let all this happen" Emma briefly glanced at Layla's memorial before looking back at Joshua, discomfort in her eyes "when l think about it, I only feel anger."

Joshua seemed to acknowledge her point of view and returned the flower to its place next to Emma's.

"We can think about it together one day, letting some things out of your chest could help you feel better" Joshua stretched his hand to grab Emma's shoulder, but she brushed it off a little too fast.

"N-no, no. I'm fine."

Now both teens stayed quiet as the air turned dense and the silence unbearable, no longer comfortable to be there Emma stood up and cleaned her knees.

"Well, I better be going, good to talk with you Joshua" she said as she left the hallway.

He waved at her as he tried to put on a neutral expression, yet the disappointment was still visible.

Emma remembered why she had never really approached Joshua before, it made her remember the religion and ethics teacher that went to her when the divorce of her parents was just starting.

How any all problem she commented to him he would say "Put your faith in God and everything will be alright"

And she had tried, but soon realized how nothing got better for her, watching other people who seemed to find calm and peace in their daily struggles through Him as she kept failing made her feel even worse.

At least Annie had not approached Joshua, so with that in mind, she decided to find another one of the possible candidates.

She walked up to one of the classrooms made a bedroom, more specifically to Luca's.

Knocking on the door a couple of times but getting no answer she opened the door and walked inside.

Similar to Sarah's, the room was almost devoid of desks, a makeshift mattress of jackets on the ground.

As she walked closer to the "bed", she saw that resting nearby Luca had a multitude of empty backpacks that seemed broken apart into different pieces.

Kneeling next to them she saw a sewing kit resting on the floor, grabbing one of the pieces she noticed that it was several pieces of the sturdy backpack cloth sewn together, making it thicker.

She analyzed the presumed work of Luca with curiosity wondering what purpose could it accomplish.

Suddenly, the sound of chatter between Jose and Luca made her stood up for a second, getting nervous for suddenly breaking into his room without permission or invitation she let the mysterious work on the ground and hide her hands in her hoodie pocket.

"Yeah I've been thinking 'bout the same thing" Jose voice was heard as she could see the silhouette of one of them through the covered up door window.

Luca opened the door and stared at Emma with surprise and confusion, in turn awkwardly waved at him with a shy smile.

Jose leaned in before they could say anything and seemed overly shocked, he then grew a massive mischievous smile.

"Jeez Luca! Didn't know you were killin' it with Emma in your free time!" she shoved him on the stomach before stepping into the room.

"Oh no! I just came here looking for Luca!."

"What's that?" Adam said as he appeared from the hallway and walked inside the room too.

"Luca it's getting it on with Emma!" Jose said pointing at both supposed lovers with his index finger.

Adam's eyebrows raised as he exchanged looks with everyone in the room, he then gave Luca a thumbs up.

"Godammit don't go saying that Jose! Someone-"

Emma's words for cut off as Mason entered the room, one eyebrow raised as he looked at her.

"I don't know what's this, but Luca you wanted to show us something" his serious expression directed at the red-faced teen.

Luca messed up his hair with one hand as Jose laughed and caught him by the neck with one arm.

"I was just messing with you man!."

Emma rushed out of the room passing by Mason who stood at the door.

Looking back she saw the door of Luca's room close with everyone else inside.

"what the f**k!" she shouted under her breath.

She was between laughing and shouting angrily for the stupidity of her reaction, had she stayed in the room for a second everything would have probably dissipated, but once Mason had walked in she felt too much pressure and simply fleed.

Now they were for sure going to start bothering with it.

The inner struggle finally laying on irritation she let out a stressful sigh and walked away, Luca now busy she wanted to move on and find Harley.

But that wouldn't prove to be any less stressing, as to get to Harley she would need to first get through Heather and her wasps.

Now loudly grunting at the idea she stomped the floor with her right foot. But she was not less determined.

So she walked to where the group always hanged, Heather's room. Or to be more precise Mason and Heather's room.

She went back to the hallway where her bedroom was and walked up to the door of what used to be the boy's room. Now taken by the couple.

She recalled the initial disagreement between Heather and the teachers, but after Mason's crucial involvement with gathering the food and securing the second floor of the school, they felt it would be unfair to deny him of something like that, as he agreed with the arrangement.

A burst of laugher from the group of friends made her take a deep breath as she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?!" Vanessa shouted with noticeable annoyance.

"Emma, I wanted to speak with Harley."

She could barely heard the group exchange some words before she heard the loud sound of a desk getting dragged on the floor right next to the door, seems like they didn't want unwanted company.

The door cracked open enough to let Harley's head through, she had her face mess up with silly makeup and a d**k on her forehead done with red lipstick.

"W-what?" she was embarrassed.

Emma contained her amusement in fear that it would make Harley close the door on her.

"What?!" Harley shouted now impatient while dragging the "what" for longer than usual.

"sorry, sorry" Emma said before coughing "alright, can you step out of the room? I would like to speak in private."

"are you NUTS?! My face is not the only thing painted! I'm not letting anyone look at me like this!" Harley looked past Emma to see if anyone appeared from the corner of the other hallway.

"it will be just a second! I swear."

"No!" Harley then tried to close the door but Emma stopped it.

"It's very important! Please, Harley! We can go to my room if it bothers you so much."

Harley tried to push the door harder and Emma had to stand her ground even as her face contorted in pain due to the soreness of her muscles.

"It will be just a second, it's a private thing!- Emma shouted at Harley."

"What?! Need a pad?! Ask Hope!" Harley said pushing the door close with more strength, as the girls behind her laughed.

"N-NO!! JUST COME WITH ME A SECOND GODDAMIT!" now Emma growing impatient, she put her whole weight on the door, slowly winning ground.

Then, Harley was taken back and the door was held by Heather, who took her place and held the door.

"She said no, so whatever you have to do with her wait until the game is over, now f**k off."

Heather then swiftly closed the door shut in one motion, proving that she was stronger than Emma.

Who gave a couple of steps back from the door and stared at it with surprise and anger.

"That's the gymnastics leader for you I guess" she muttered as she angrily hid her hands on her hoodie pocket.

Walking to her room she pulled out one of the few desks outside into the hallway facing Heather's room and sat on it.

Intending on waiting until Harley came out she rested her head on the desk.

She looked around for something to entertain herself, she quickly thought of one of the many books she had taken from the lockers resting near her bed in her room, so she stood up and walked back.

Grabbing one of the bunch of books lying around she rested her eyes on her cellphone, it was resting on the jackets.

Feeling her heart quicken she thought of her father's voice message, cautiously she grabbed the phone as well and went back to the desk.

Once sitting, she held the phone with her hand and stared at it.

She frowned as anticipation and denial mixed into her.

Emma was no fool, her father worked as a police officer, and by the time she received the calls the whole city was falling into chaos.

He must have been at the front of the outbreak and that placed his chances of being alive very, very low.

Taking a deep breath, she turned it on.

Once it worked again, immediately the pop-up notification of a voicemail appeared. Her finger slowly moved to it, stopping just above the button.

The hesitation was fleeting, she ignored the message and went straight to the gallery.

Even if she felt an overwhelming need to hear her father's voice. She was more afraid of what would she listen to in that one minute and thirty seconds.

Too long for a "Call me back", she thought.

Clutching her chest lightly she tried her best to focus on anything else, so she went over her pictures.

Images with Layla, of Mathew and their time outside when the world was not dead.

Despite her sadness and grief, Emma smiles fondly at the memories of their times together.

Feeling more at peace, she turns off her phone once again, leaving it on top of the table with the screen facing down.

It was at that moment that she noticed paper inside her phone case, taking it out with care she remembered the piece of a letter that Layla wrote for her.

And with it, the fact that it's missing pieces still were out there somewhere in the school.

It felt like Layla's last will, an unfinished business within the two of them, and Emma felt that if she didn't find the missing pieces she would be betraying her.

But then the obvious struck her mind. The missing pieces were very likely down the first floor, where the horde is.

And with that came another realization.

Tomorrow they would need to go out, down to the first floor.

The thought of it almost managed to eradicate any semblance of tranquility that Emma had at the moment. But she managed to steady her heartbeat.

She didn't tell Sarah, because she always tries to put everyone else in front of her, but Emma was afraid.

More than afraid, mortified.

They managed to survive ONLY because Mr. Landon was there with them, he held back the horde of them twice.

Now that he was sick, it was in their hands to get the medicine and come back alive.

But how? She commented that they could make a sound to make the horde move elsewhere, yet she didn't have the slightest idea of how would they make a sound loud enough without giving away their group.

Going one by one? What if said person did a mistake and found himself in the middle of them?

There would be nothing they could do to save them.

Her father, the teacher, her friend.

Breathing became erratic and hard to control, her hands twitched and her legs moved up and down out of control.

They could die tomorrow, she could die tomorrow.

And the horrifying images of Layla's last moments came in the worst of times as she was forced to take air in through her mouth, desperately trying to get a hold of herself.

Then, laughter.

From Heather's room, the group was still playing and having fun.

Emma's emotions had a sudden turn, her fear turned to anger.

While she was about to lose it due to having to go out tomorrow, Heather was having fun with her friends.

She has not lost any of them, never has put herself in danger for others, and yet, she is the one who can laugh and ignore the world around her with ease.

She could see Heather happily stuffing her mouth with two servings of stew that day, while Emma had tried to eat as little as possible to make the rations last.

Why could she eat more than her if she did nothing? Why did Emma have to suffer to make HER happy?

She should be the one to go tomorrow.

Emma's eyes widened in shock.

She had just thought about how convenient would it be if Heather never came back from tomorrow's trip.

Then she saw Annie's macabre thin smile came to her mind as if mocking her for having those thoughts.

"No."

Emma whispered to herself as she shook her head, it was the fear trying to take over her.

One part of her felt that she was in the right, but another feared it.

She didn't know what Annie was aiming for in the long run, but her words stuck with her.

"adapt"

Then something seemed to make sense.

Annie spoke of adapting to the world, yet she was the only one who seemed to share those thoughts, not even Mason, the most outspoken person in the group ever said anything of adapting to the world.

He only spoke of survival and accepting the change, the last parts seemed similar but when used differently, they could be used in different ways.

Someone insecure, fearful, and with an inferiority complex, in other words, someone that can swallow her words of adapting to the world.

Annie wanted to make someone think like her, she wanted ideological allies.

For what? Companionship? That couldn't be it.

Emma's mind could only think of the most extreme reasons for Annie to try and indoctrinate someone to think like her.

Maybe she wanted something with the group, or the group itself. Maybe she wanted to get out and needed a meat wall to reach a vehicle.

Either way, Emma couldn't let Annie make people think like her. They had barely spoken before the outbreak but even then, she always managed to make her feel in danger.

Annie was dangerous.

"You seriously stayed here waiting for us?."

Heather's voice made Emma turn to see her stepping out of her room with her friends, Heather had a bunch of obscene words on her face, one of them, in particular, caught her attention.

"b***h" written with impossibly beautiful grammar, very likely the work of Gally.

A smirk appeared on her face as Heather's already irritated expression only worsened, as the group of friends walked in front of Emma in the direction to the bathroom the two rivals flipped off each other.

Then once the group was out of her sight her smirk turned to a genuine smile.

She was not gonna let this world change her, she would never let Annie win.

Now her mission was clear, to try and remain true to herself, she cared for everyone in the group, even Heather, so she decided at that moment that she would stand between Annie and her objective.

Standing up from the desk she almost forgot her cellphone, looking at it she could feel the pain and sadness coming back, but she forced it away as she always had, there was no time for that, she needed to do other things.

A couple of minutes later the bathroom door opened with the still laughing group of Heather, now their faces clean.

The lioness however stops at the sight of Emma, resting on the wall in front of the door with her arms crossed.

"May I speak with Harley now?."

Heather looked at her with a taint of disgust as she waved her hand at her as if telling her to leave her sight and walked away towards another hallway.

"Harley has her own mind you freak, ask her" Heather said not paying any care on even looking in Emma's direction.

Harley seemed a little nervous about what to do, but then her feet stop moving.

"I will see what she wants okay?" she tried to sound as if saying she was gonna do that, but even with her best effort it came out as a question for Heather.

"I said do whatever! Don't take long or her creepy self may stick to you."

The group snickered as they left the girl behind.

Emma was already pissed off at that moment, but it left her body fast as she walked up to Harley.

"Just so you know, I'm not lesbian" Harley said staring at Emma suspiciously.

"What? No! I didn't want to ask you that" Emma said in between laughs.

"Why do you wait for me then? It's really f*****g weird Emma."

"I know, I know. Sorry, but I wanted to know if Annie has spoken to you recently, or at all."

Harley seemed momentarily surprised, if not slightly concerned, but she quickly tried to cover her reaction, very poorly.

"A-Annie? Why do you ask? Has she said anything?" nervous, Emma gives a step closer.

"So she has? What has she told you?."

"No! She has not! I'm just curious why you ask?" Harley gave a step back

"Don't listen to anything she says alright Harley? I have reasons to believe she wants to brainwash someone."

Then Harley's face became genuine confusion as she leaned forward.

"Say what again?, You have not spoken with Annie about me?"

"I have, but not about you."

Harley looked relieved and slightly mad as she allowed air into her lungs.

"Oh Lord! I thought she had spoken with you about me!"

"So she hasn't?- now Emma herself was confused."

"oh hell NO!, She REALLY dislikes Heather and I'm always with her."

"Oh, I see" Emma stared suspiciously at Harley, still wondering her unexpected reaction the moment she spoke of Annie "Just if she ever tried to, don't listen to her, okay?."

Harley laughed for a second and then confidently crossed her arms.

"As if! But after what happened with Mason she will never-"

Harley's face turned back to shock, she covered her mouth and looked at Emma, who was surprised she brought up that name.

"Not a word" Harley said pointing at Emma.

The girl turned around and fleed the scene before Emma could do anything, leaving her with more questions than answers, a running theme it seemed that day.

Annie had interacted with Mason? in what moment?

While Annie had always been difficult to pinpoint at any given time, Mason always hanged out with his friends, worked out, or stayed with Mason.

Who in turn always had her groups with her, in other words, there was no way that they could have to meet up in the day.

But what about the night?

Just like it happened with her, Mason seemed to agree to meet her with no questions that night, would he do the same for anyone else?

At that moment the idea came to her head, Is Mason the person Annie spoke of?

It couldn't be, he was brave, secure, and had very clear ideas. He was never someone to be pushed around at any moment, if anything he was the one doing the pushing.

However Mason had changed, she knew it. Something had changed in him that made him more distant, colder.

That was something that maybe Annie was trying to make use of.

A door opened behind her as she was caught up in deep thought, she turned around to meet Hope, who was waving at her from the room where Mr. Landon was resting.

"Mr. Asher told me you wanted to see Mr. Landon when he woke up, he is awake now."

Emma was forced to store her questions for another moment, nodding at Hope she made her way to her.

For now, she wanted to see how bad was Mr. Landon.