Radioactive

Chapter 5

The cabin had filled up with teens at an incredibly quick pace, a large number of kids filled the cabin and yet, the deathly silence persisted, hanging over the room like a dark storm cloud. It clung to the room and choked any sound that tried to escape, apart from a few coughs and the shuffling of feet. The silence was deafening and Ari had the strong desire to break it but she knew that would attract too much attention towards her and though her skill was talking before crowds. She wasn't in much of a mood for using that ability, she'd much prefer to be Kale at this point.
Ryan hadn't returned in the past while, he had been coming in relatively even intervals before but this was taking too long. Ari had the sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't be coming back now. Ari remained in the crippling silence, awaiting some brave soul to save her from this plight.

One of the males who mentioned he was from China approached the door, he pressed down the handle and the door opened easily.
"Let's go. Ryan isn't coming back. We should go. Now."
His voice was lightly accented but it was hard to tell he was from anywhere outside of the States, Ari stared at the boy. Everyone did, he was the first to make a move so it was reasonable to wait for them to move before anyone else did.
The boy closed the door once more, light had poured in but now, darkness filled the room once more.

"I suppose introductions are in order, my name is Yao Wang. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Yao gave a small, respectful bow, his eyes were slightly arched and his skin lightly tanned. He smiled in a sly manner, Ari shivered. She was slightly distrustful of this boy but they were the best in the countries, she had no choice but to cooperate with him in order to assure her survival. Yao's gaze fell upon Ari and he smiled, it was a lot more friendly than his previous smiles and Ari felt a hint of recognition at the back of her mind.

"Arianna? Don't you remember me?"

Ari got a curious look, she exchanged looks with her brother who shook his head in response. Ari observed Yao as he approached her, familiarity in his step. He stuck out his hand for her to shake, it was a greeting Ari was familiar with so she gladly accepted the handshake, Yao heartily shook her hand and smiled.

"I'm afraid I have no knowledge of who you are, I apologise."

Yao shook off the apology, his eyes were sharp and they seemed to be slanted in an odd way, his sly smile returned to his face. Ari could compare him to a fox, the more she thought about it, the more similarities she found.

"Ah, that's fine, I hope you will remember eventually as, it appears we will be together for quite a while."

Ari found her distrust towards the boy before her returning and she frowned at him, his grin widened at her expression, Ari was concerned it would stretch from ear to ear. Kale had suddenly appeared by her side and was glaring at Yao, it was like a switch had been flipped in Yao and he was now on defensive.

"Now, now, I only bite if you bite first."

His tone had gotten a sinister edge but Kale didn't answer, he simply tugged his sister out of the situation, Yao watched them as they made their way back to merge with the crowd before they lost sight of them, Kale let out a breath of relief. Ari wondered when he was holding it.

"Anyway, I apologise for that, introductions aren't necessary at the moment, we should branch out into groups to find out who will be finding food, water, shelter, etcetera."

Yao's voice was strong and confident, he was obviously quite able in terms of leadership but as Ari finally managed to catch sight of him again, he seemed unwilling to be up there, unhappy and unwilling. It was odd, he was a good leader yet he didn't want to prove it to everyone in the room, something told Ari that this was unlike him.
Yao opened the door once more, everyone walked out this time, feeling much more confident with their strong leader to lead them, Yao followed after everyone had exited the cabin, he stood for a minute, counting everyone and mumbling numbers under his breath.