ZI Chapter 24

Chapter 24- The Result

In the robotics room, I struggled to get up on the far table without crying out in pain. Nevertheless, I ended up on my 'bed' where I lie shaking uncontrollably from the adrenaline. Gingerly, Dan held my ankle up off the table while Matt tucked rags from under the table under my head for a pillow.

"We need to keep your foot elevated." Dan told me, "Good thing tending sprains was one of our first units."

"No kidding." I grumbled through clenched teeth.

"Here, use this." Matt said, unzipping his hoodie, revealing a grey t-shirt underneath. He tossed his sweater to Dan who bunched it up and shoved it under my lower calf. He proceeded to untie my shoe and slip it off which of course was very painful. Then, he looked up at me with a worried glance.

"I'm gonna put it down now." He informed me, annunciating to make sure I understood. Pretty much right after he said that, I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands, my elbows sticking up into the air.

"Do it." I whined through my palms, knowing that no matter how Dan went about doing this it would still hurt a lot.

Pain moved through my whole foot and up my ankle like a hot wave, sending a pitiful whimper from my mouth- and Dan was still holding my foot. Slowly, he let it rest on Matt's sweater, and it hurt more and more as the weight of my foot rested gradually on my ankle.

"Can you put something under the back of my heel to support my foot?" I asked feebly before Dan let go. With a bit of adjusting, Dan was finally able to let go of my foot, and I moved my hands away from my face and rested my balled fists on my chest.

"How long do I have to lie here before I can walk on it again?" I asked quietly, staring blankly up at the dusty ceiling.

"A week at least, but we can probably built you a crutch." Dan sounded hopeful, making me feel hopeful too. I may be injured, but I have a whole group of people to protect and look after me. I just hope I don't become a hindrance.

"Dan, could you give us a moment alone?" Matt suddenly asked. This shocked me, and my eyes widened involuntarily.  I lifted my head off the pillow to see how Dan was reacting. At first, he seemed shocked, and then a grin crawled up his face- a sick little grin. He turned and went for the door to the hallway.

"It's not what you think!" Matt shouted after him as the door shut behind Dan. He then turned to me, "I hope he heard that."

"Heh." I snickered, "So Mike's group hasn't made it back yet I see."

"That is precisely what I was going to talk to you about." Matt nodded, hopping up on the other table behind him.  

"Is that what you expected?" I asked, "Them not coming back?" There was a brief pause as Matt looked thoughtfully to the side.

"Nah." He looked back at me, "I actually expected him to come back and rub it in my face that he's leaving and I'm not."

"Well, give them time- they have all day to come back."

"That is true, but knowing Mike he wouldn't con.. con..."

"Contemplate?"

"Contemplate- yes- for very long. When he sees a chance to do something, he goes without thinking."

"Hmm." I concluded, but then I thought of something else, "Doesn't it worry you that you let a bunch of people run off with him?"

"No." Matt answered immediately, "They chose to be with Mike and that's final. I'm not going to waste my time convincing them that staying with Mike is a bad idea when in their eyes I'm the enemy."

"It's a shame really," I began on a more sorrowful note, "Mike seemed like such a nice guy when I first met him."

"I'm glad you don't feel that way now." Matt said flatly, folding his arms. Behind him, the door spontaneously burst open, sending Matt onto his feet and me into a wincing fit as my starting made my ankle bite back. At the door, Markie flew inside, spun around and slammed the door on a tailing zombie, bashing it in the face.

"DENIED!" she yelled at it as its face slid down the small window on the door. When she turned around she obviously didn't know there were people in the room because her eyes flew open in surprise. I waved goofily at her, and Matt hung his head in relief.

"Oooooo..." Markie whispered slowly, "I'm sorry..."

"Don't worry." I said perkily, as Matt sat back down on the table. Markie walked toward me and stopped by my foot. She stared at it with a frown as she put her sword on the other table, Matt squirming out of the way to avoid being stabbed.

"What did you do to it?" she asked, still looking at my foot.

"Just a sprain." I answered casually, "I ran on it... sort of... so it's not that bad."  

"You sure running on it didn't make it worse?" Matt put forth, eyeing me.

"Quite honestly, I don't want to admit that." I sighed.

Later, Kaitlin, Daisy, Austin and Riley joined Markie in seeing me, queuing Matt to leave. Dan came back in to wrap my ankle and give me a snack sized bag of potato chips and a coffee mug full of water, which disappeared pretty much the second they got into my hands. Kaitlin said she herself would make a crutch for me and that they'd temporarily move the group's favourite spot to chat into the robotics room. Flattered, I thanked them and they left me to rest. I was just about to fall asleep when the door to the shop room flew open, and I raised my head to see a wide eyed Karen standing there in the door frame.

"Vanessa's back." She breathed, obviously very agitated. My palms smacked the table and I sat up.

"Really?" I asked in surprise. Karen nodded and helped me off the table. She handed me a thick dowel that I used as a cane and I hopped into the shop room. Instantly, I saw everyone crowded around Maxwell's house, and I heard Vanessa's voice amongst all the people.

"I went to open one of the doors but Mike swatted my hand away." Vanessa was just saying as Karen and I squeezed ourselves into the circle. " 'We need to get inside before the zombies get us.' I told him. He just looked at me and said to everyone else: 'We aren't going to the Wal-mart.' We all kind of looked at each other because we were confused and Mike was all: 'I'm not going back to the school. We have a chance to leave right now and they'll all think we got attacked' or something. Kristie asked where they'd go and Mike didn't give a straight answer. Soon he had everyone convinced that it would be better if they just ditched you guys and went off to live a better life. So I'm mad at this point and I say to him: 'Who do you think you are?' and he goes: 'I'm the leader here and if you've got a problem you can get outta here'. I don't know why I didn't at first, because I followed them to the overpass behind the Wal-mart and halfway across I changed my mind. I wasn't going to follow this idiot! I had Karen's backpack so I went into the store, battled a corpses, got some stuff and headed straight back here."

"So they're heading east." Matt concluded, keeping a stern eye on Vanessa. She coolly leaned back on her elbows against Maxwell's house's roof.

"Yes-sir-ee." she answered, before she added bitterly: "They aren't going to last a day."
There were mixed reactions to all this as the people around me broke out in a loud, babbling outcry. Some were saying the Renegades deserved to leave, some said it they're actions were dumb, but most people were saying:

"Matt, shouldn't we do something!?"

"Like what!?" Matt seemed taken aback at what people were saying, and I'm sure it didn't help that there was a sea of faces staring at him, "They chose to leave and they did. End of story." Predictably, everyone spoke at once, and I joined in to make it seem like I was shocked by the circumstances as well.

"Okay, okay... shush. Stop." Matt coaxed, until he put his hands on his hips in an irritated way, "ESTAR TRANQUILO!!"  Our mouths slammed shut faster than a bear trap, "Thank you. Now, why should we go after Mike's group and convince him to come back if he wanted to leave in the first place? Hmm?"

"But he doesn't even know what he's getting into!" Austin exclaimed.

"Oh he knows what he's getting into- and so do the people who went with him. Mike just wants to have freedom-"

"That's no excuse to let then run off like that!" Karen interrupted, quite angered, "They could get killed!"

"They're not, coming, back." I stated sternly, before anyone else could throw more fuel into this fire, "I know this, and I've known Mike and his egotistical, dogmatic ways for a shorter time than you guys. He's not a follower- not even in a zombie apocalypse! So why not let him go and live a dream? Why not let a group of followers build up trust for him. Or, the Renegades might fall apart in a day or two. They've made their decision, and the only when they come crying to us about how stupid it was to leave our group, will they have changed minds."

The room was silent. At first, everyone was looking at me, until their eyes began to drift to the ground in realization and shame. There were a few sniffles, a few scoffs and slowly the circle broke away. I was just about to turn away when Vanessa suddenly spoke up.
"One more thing." She spoke clearly, making sure everyone could hear her. We all turned to look at her in surprise and curiousness, and she had a slight smirk on her face. She must've been enjoying the attention, because she kept us hanging.

"What?" Rob snapped, "What is it?"

"The flame's lit." Vanessa said ominously. What happened to me was a bit hazy once she said those three words. I was shocked for sure, and dumbstruck too. I almost didn't believe her.
"What?" Matt gasped, glaring unyieldingly at her to make sure she was not lying. Vanessa simply nodded.

"The flame's lit. On the tower. I saw it from the overpass- bright as stars." The way she spoke was not unlike a person talking casually about some food they ate. I had not yet come to the conclusion what Vanessa was saying was true. It couldn't be true. The Calgary Tower was outfitted with a huge cauldron that held the Olympic flame during the games, but for it to be lit now was rather unusual. Besides, who'd be there to light it anyway? Everyone else was thinking the same thing.

"Maybe you saw something else?" Daisy put forth, trying, like me, to wrap her mind around what Vanessa had said.

"It was the flame on the tower for sure- I'm not an idiot." Vanessa spat back.

"But... but..." Austin stammered. Vanessa shot a glance at him.

"But what? Why don't you guys believe me? It's not impossible for the flame to be lit! We are in a city- there are people around to light the tower." Her balled fists showed that she was becoming frustrated at our ignorance. I wasn't the only one who noticed this, because we all started to shift uncomfortably on the spot.

"Now you're sure..." Rob clarified.

"YES!" Vanessa's shout was loud enough to wake a dormant volcano.

"Well, I don't see why what Vanessa said can't happen" Ben said modestly, "It's not like we're the only ones left in the city."

That thought was alien to my brain. Ben was right, but having such little contact with what was going on outside led us to believe we were the only ones here. For the longest time
Kaitlin and I felt that way while we were living in the Foods lab until we dropped in unannounced on the Shop room gang. For the past few weeks, we'd been living without seeing the bigger picture that there is a world beyond the Zellers and Wal-mart.

"So, do you think we should, you know... go out there?" Dan played around with the idea, timidly speaking in apprehension of how we'd react.

"You mean downtown?!" Rob gawked, "No way in HELL! It's dangerous out-"

"Let's not get carried away, Rob." Matt soothed, holding up one hand from his crossed arms position in a gesture of silence. Rob didn't yield his babbling, however.

"Dude, there are friggin' ZOMBIES out there!"

"Rob."

"And, and crazy people we don't know!"

"Rob."

"... Plus there's no place to sleep!"

"Rob!"

"...no food!"

"ROB!"

"WHAT!?"

"Shut up!" Matt begged, hands clasped together in prayer. Once Rob put his hands behind his back in defeat, Matt continued in a more neutral pose, "Now, Rob is right. There are dangers out there and some can't even be anticipated. But, if we want to get out of here we need to take matters into our own hands."

"Aren't you supposed to stay in one spot when rescue is trying to find you?" Riley asked, obviously not pleased with where Matt was going with this.  

"They've had more than a week to find us. It's time we find them." Then, the next words that came out of Matt's mouth will be forever imbedded in my memory: "I say we leave."

"Uhm... uh... but what about Michelle!?" Terra suddenly spoke up, pointing at me with a tense finger. She was obviously not agreeing with Matt, "She can barely walk!" Gee, thanks for my daily dose of degrading comments, Terra.

"Michelle?" Matt looked at me, wondering what my thoughts were.

"Um, well I guess in a few days I can put my weight on it." I figured, "Just as long as it's wrapped up."

Matt switched from me to Terra with a conclusive look, and Terra just rolled her eyes and crouched down by Maxwell.

"Who votes we stay?" Tom suddenly burst out, shooting his hand into the air. Quickly, several hands raised until the total was seven.

"And leave?" Karen asked, putting her hand up. The rest of us voted, until we counted seven more hands. Wait a second... There are fifteen of us here.

"Dan!" Kaitlin puffed in frustration, in sync with everyone else's sighs and scoffs.

"Sorry, I can't decide." Dan said quietly, playing with his fingers humbly.  

"Let's just vote again." Rob said with a shake of the head, "Stay?" seven hands touched the sky, "Leave?" seven hands, once again went up. There were more sighs.

"I told you already!" Dan protested, "I can't decide."

"Dan," Matt muttered after he drew his hand exasperatedly down his face, "We can't have a tie."

"I know, I know. It's just, I can go either way." Dad admitted with a shrug. There was a wave of hopelessness that rushed across the room just then. We aren't getting anywhere with this, and feeling as if anything else we tried was futile, I turned to go back to the robotics room. Sometimes I wished it was just Kaitlin and I in the foods lab again. We'd draw on the board, mess around with the wheelie chairs, play cards... My head shot up. I instantly turned around to see the circle of people dissipating and I stopped them in their tracks with two words:

"Signal, anyone?"

"What?" Dan asked, baffled like many others.

"Now's not the time for a card game." Kaitlin informed me.

"No no. We can play a game against people who want to stay and people who want to go and whoever wins will give us an answer!"  I explained.

"Where are we going to get-" Rob began, very sceptical.

"Right here!" Kaitlin was one step ahead of him, pulling a tiny deck of cards from one of her magical pockets on her sweater. She and I walked over to the tables, everyone else in tow.

"What game is it?" Karen asked.

"Signal." Austin replied, "It's pretty crazy."
Once we got to a table, Kaitlin ran off to get some chairs with Daisy and I turned to face the group.

"We need two people for the 'stay' side." I told them. Heads moved from side to side as people looked around for someone who'd step up. The first to burst from the crowd was Rob.

"Oh you guys are so going down" he challenged.

"You don't even know how to play yet!" Kaitlin barked at him as she set down the last chair on the opposite side of the table.

"There's no way I'm missing this." Daisy established, sitting down on one of the chairs on my side of the table. I gestured Rob to the chair across from Daisy's and I took my seat in the chair next to Daisy, Kaitlin across from me.

"We'll need a dealer." Daisy called. Everyone's eyes switched to Dan, who sulked over to the head of the table. Kaitlin passed him the tiny deck and he started shuffling them.

"Signal is a partner game, id est, the person sitting across from you." I began to explain as everyone else settled themselves around the table to watch, "The objective is to get four of the same card, like four kings or four eights. In the beginning of each round, four cards are dealt to each person. Then, four cards will be laid face up on the table. Once the fourth card is laid down, it's a free for all. If you see a card you want on the table, you must discard one of the cards in your hand onto the table before you swap it for the card you want. There should always be four cards on the table! Once everyone is happy, the four cards will be swiped away and will not go back into the deck.

"Once you have all four of a kind, you have to inform your partner by using your signal, which is thought up before the game begins. If you see your partner doing the signal- which is not allowed to be something hidden under the table like tapping their foot- you say 'signal' and you and your partner win.

"However, if the opponent is doing something suspicious and you think it's their signal shout out 'block' and if they were doing their signal the round ends. If they weren't the game continues. Kapish?"
  
Rob nodded, and Dan began to deal. As card after card flew onto the table before me, I leaned over to Kaitlin and discussed our signal.

"How about leaning back in your chair?" Kaitlin proposed silently. I nodded and we sat back. I looked over at Rob and Daisy who were talking in hushed tones like we did. They parted and picked up their cards. I picked up my hand. An ace, a nine, and two threes. Good hand. I looked over my cards at the four that were being placed on the table in a rectangular pattern. My eyes instantly darted to the third card that was placed: a nine. Dan put down the last card and I threw my ace down and snatched up the nine. Daisy went straight for my ace after she tossed away a two. Kaitlin and Rob didn't move a muscle.

"Discard." I told Dan as I organized my cards. With a quick swipe of the hand, Dan cleared the table and laid out four more. Kaitlin threw out her queen and dove for an eight. Rob still didn't move.

The next four cards were laid out and I instantly threw down one of my threes in exchange for a nine. Now I had one three, three nines. All I needed was one more nine and I could do our signal. I checked over at Kaitlin to see what she was doing and she was sitting straight up. I then eyed Rob, who had barely moved the whole game. He must have three of one kind, and is just waiting for the final card.

"Mine!" Kaitlin shouted as the put down a seven and gobbled up a king. Knowing that there was already a three in the dispose pile, I threw away my last three and picked up a five. Then, the cards were swiped...

The game kept going for four more deals until I spotted my nine. It was the first card to be laid down and I put my finger on my jack, ready to toss it. Once the fourth card's back hit the table, I went for it, but to my surprise everyone else went for a card too. My hand ran into Daisy's arm as both she and Kaitlin went for a king. Rob was going for a four, and managed to push my nine away in the process. I let go of the jack and slapped my hand over the nine. Scooping  it up, I shoved it into my hand and instantly leaned back in my chair.

"Darn it!" Kaitlin hissed as Daisy pulled the king away from her.

"Give it back!" I teased Daisy, speaking to draw attention to myself. Then, that lovely word rang out:

"Signal!" Kaitlin shouted. I instantly put my cards down, showing my four nines. Rob, Daisy and Kaitlin put their cards down too and pushed them towards Dan.

"Best out of three." Matt suddenly said, "This is too good."

The next round started and I was angered to see that my hand was a mix match of cards. A jack, a three, a five and a seven stared back at me, and it stayed like that for several deals. Then, on the fifth deal, one of the best deals in you could deal in Signal popped up. Three aces and one six lay on the table, and Rob and I both lunged for them. I put down three cards and ran my hand over the aces, faster than Rob could.

"Curse you." He muttered. Daisy picked up my seven that I threw down, and we cleared the table. Dan got to lying down the second card when Rob cried:

"Signal!" and Daisy showed us her four sevens, one of which was mine. Darn. Luckily, Kaitlin was paying attention when I wasn't.

"I saw your signal." She told them, throwing her cards to Dan, "Scratching your ear. You have to make a new one." And with that, Daisy and Rob leaned in and whispered away. It took them a while, probably a minute before Ben approached them and whispered something at them. They grinned and sat back in their seats. Uh oh. I have a bad feeling about this round.

Again, I got an assorted hand with one eight, one two, a king, and a four. This round was a little more aggressive too. I broke one of my nails on the table as Daisy and I jumped at a four. Kaitlin's finger made a loud pop as Daisy crashed into it over an ace. We drew blood when Rob's hand collided with my nail. Signal is not one of those cool card games you can play in a dark basement. It's more like a full blown war taking place over a table.

The eight of clubs didn't stay on the table for long as Kaitlin swooped in a grabbed it. Knowing she was going for eights, I tossed out mine and snatched the nearest card, not even paying attention to what it was. Kaitlin gobbled my eight up, and then I saw it. She plopped back in her chair, the back bouncing a bit as she did so. I didn't wait a moment longer.

"SIGNAL!"

We all tossed down our cards, but Daisy did a bit more vigorously than the rest of us. I can understand why: she had a hand of all queens.

"ROB!" she shouted, "I was doing the signal whole time! I had three queens in the beginning and I picked up the fourth on, like, the third deal!"
Rob, shocked, said the only thing you could say after hearing you let down your partner in a game of signal:

"Sorry."

"Good game guys." I eased the tension a bit. Dan collected the cards and handed them to Kaitlin.

"Rather violent if I do say so myself." He sighed, before he added mischievously, "I like it."

"So it's settled then?" Kaitlin asked, "We're leaving?"
Matt moved from his spot and folded his arms neatly across his chest.

"I guess we are."