Maybe After Tomorrow (Hatchetfield)

Chapter 18

The next morning, Emma audibly groaned when her phone started to vibrate against her pillow, waking her up. She reached behind and felt around for a minute before she got it and pulled it out. Her eyes were still adjusting to the light and she couldn't read the number, so she just pressed the green button.
"Hello?" She said sleepily, her voice slurring.
All she could hear was faint rustling.
Tempted to hang up, she put her phone down in front of her and lay on her side, putting it on speaker. "Is anyone there?" Her words were still slurred.
The rustling continued for a second before she heard a voice, quiet, high-pitched and trembling. "Emma?"
"Who is this?"
She didn't dare let herself think it could be...
"Emma, sweetheart, is that you?"
She was ripped out of her sleepless daze instantly and sat up, holding the phone in front of her face, still on speaker. "Paul?"
"Oh my god, it is you, thank god. Emma, I need your help."
She didn't hear a word they said. "Paul, oh my god, you're alive."
"Yeah."
"Oh my god! I was so worried!" she said tearfully.
"So was I. I wasn't sure you'd pick up."
"I love you so much," she said quietly.
"I love you too." He matched her volume, "But I really need your help."
"One thing first: Have you seen anyone else?"
"Yeah, there's a lot of us here."
"Okay, what about Alice's girlfriend? Or Tony Green?"
"I saw Tony. I think I saw someone who looked like Deb but I'm not sure."
"Thank god."
"Where are you? How are you alive?"
"Professor Hidgens."
She gave him a quick run down of who was there and how they had gotten out.
"Wow, anyway, I don't have much time. I'm not even meant to be talking to you."
"Where even are you?"
"I have no clue. But I need-"
Then there was another voice in the background.
"You need to get back to your room! We told you that you weren't meant to-"
Then it was Paul again, "Please, I need to-"
Another voice. "We told you, nobody else survived and nobody can know what happened here."
"But-"
Then the voices stopped.
"Paul? Paul, honey, are you there?"
Emma threw her phone down on the bed.
"No, no, no," she whispered to herself as she cried. She guessed it was mostly from relief.
Paul was alive.
Then she sprinted to Bill's room and started hammering on the door. "Bill! Bill, are you awake?"
He opened the door looking exhausted and irritated. "Well, I am now." His irritation was replaced with concern. "Emma, are you-"
"Paul's alive."
"How do you know?"
"They called me."
"It was-"
"It was him. I know it was. It was him. They're alive."
"Oh my god. Where are they?"
"He doesn't know."
"We've gotta find him."
"Why didn't I think of that?"
The irritation returned.
"I'm sorry. I'm just..."
"I know. It's fine. Should we, like, tell the others?"
"Oh! Yeah. They said he might have seen Deb and he definitely saw Tony."
"Ethan's father is alive?"
Emma nodded.
"I'll get Alice and tell her about Deb. You tell Ethan his dad's alive!"
"Okay."

"Alice! Alice!" Bill was trying not to shout as he woke her up.
"Dad... What time is it?"
"Doesn't matter. Paul called Emma. They said they think they might have seen Deb, wherever they are."
Alice's eyes widened and tears started to slip out. "What?"
Bill explained the story to Alice, who was fully sobbing by the end of it.
"Dad, could I have a minute? Alone?"
"Yeah. Sure. Are you okay?'"
She nodded. "Yeah."
So he left. And she cried. A lot.

"Guys!" Emma walked into Lex and Ethan's room, careful not to wake Hannah.
"Emma?" Lex said, "What's going on?"
"I have some news."
A ball of dread grew in Ethan's stomach, "Is everything okay?"
"Yes. Yes, everything's fine. Ethan..."
He just looked even more scared.
"Your dad's alive."
His jaw dropped, as did Lex's. "H-How do you-"
"Paul called me. He doesn't know where he is but they've seen your dad."
"Oh my god."
Ethan didn't remember when Emma left, or when he ended up with Lex's arms around him crying into her shoulder. But that's where he was a few minutes later when Hannah woke up.
"What's going on?" she asked worriedly.
Ethan looked round at her, drying his eyes and trying to smile. "Everything's fine, kiddo."
"But you were crying."
"It's good. I promise."
"What is it?"
Ethan couldn't say it, so he looked to Lex.
"We just found out that Ethan's dad is alive."
"Oh. Where is he?"
"We don't know yet. But we're gonna find him and everything's gonna be okay." She looked at Ethan as she said the second part, smiling encouragingly.
He nodded and the corners of his lips turned up slightly.

Sensing that Ethan would want to be alone with Lex, Emma had decided to go talk to Tom, Becky and Tim about the phone call.
"Wow," Tom said as she finished.
"Yeah," Emma said, still tearing up slightly when she imagined Paul's voice in her head.
"When are we gonna be able to see them?" Tim asked.
"Hopefully soon."
They all looked up to the door to see Henry and, much to Emma's disgust, Ted.
"Bill just told us. We're gonna do everything we can to find everyone," Henry continued, making everyone smile hopefully. "Come down for breakfast soon."

After an entire day of Henry and Ted being locked up in the study, Alice and Hannah having their monopoly rematch (and four more games, all won by Hannah) and everyone else sitting thinking about the phone call with movies pointlessly playing in the background, Henry finally called them all to dinner. He said they had an announcement.
"Now that you're all here, Ted and I believe we may have found the place where everyone else is. We're trying to figure out exactly what's happened but that's proving quite difficult. Anyway, after we've done some more research and had out theories confirmed, we can start really looking for everyone."