The Last Twenty

Chapter One

        “Oh my gosh oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” I hear Gisella say from the next hallway over. I can hear the distress in her voice, even from this distance. I finish cleaning up and quickly start towards her quarters. The hallways are lonely and empty, everyone must be in their rooms. The white walls are made of some strong metal, so that we’re protected. The Commanders, Jedd and Vivene, say that nothing can break through it, I have my doubts, but I trust the Commanders. They’re supposed to protect us from them. And I mean, they were made the Commanders of our group for a reason right?

          Gisella is standing outside her room, pacing back and forth. She always does this when she’s freaked out, usually over something small. I approach her but she turns towards me before I reach her.
          “Did you hear?! Oh god,” She wails. I haven’t ever seen her this worried before, maybe her anxiety is just getting the best of her. But, as a good bestfriend I decide not to say that.

          “No, what’s wrong?” I ask. She walks into her room, identical to mine as well as everyone else’s and I follow her inside. She sits on her bed, dangling her feet off the side of it.
          “Okay, so I was talking to Paton earlier, and he said that Jedd was watching the monitors… and that, well, he thinks they’re closing in on our location…” She trails off as a tear runs down her cheek. I can’t believe my ears… I bite my lip and fight back tears.

          “No, t-that… n-no it can’t be…” I stutter, trying to regain my thoughts.

          “Noelle, Jedd is almost never wrong,” She points out like Reggie always says. Reggie is one of the other Twenty here. Reggie hates Jedd with a burning passion, he says that Jedd shouldn’t be the Commander. At this, I faintly smile.

          “Maybe we should go ask Jedd or Vivene, to confirm it,” I suggest. Gisella shakes her head.

          “I can’t, you can if you want. I’m too afraid to know the truth. If it’s good, tell me. If otherwise, I’ll just wait until they get me,” She says laying down on her bed. She closes her eyes and turns on her other side.

          “I’d like to cry in private if you don’t mind. I’ll see you at dinner, Noelle,” Gisella says quietly and I leave her room.

          I try to decide whether to go back to my room or to talk to one of the Commanders. In my confusion, I take a walk. I chose hallway and start walking down it, there’s plenty hallways to walk down. As I’m walking I think to myself, what if they are coming for us? What will we do? We aren’t prepared… I look up and realize whose room I’ve arrived at. The door opens revealing a gorgeous pair of blue eyes with great hair.
          “Hey Noelle, what are you doing here? I mean, n-not that I don’t want you here,” Matty asks.

          “I was just walking, and thinking, trying to clear my head honestly. I just stumbled here,” I laughed. I was trying to make it not seem as creepy as me just standing outside his door.

          “Well, can I walk with you?” He asks.

          “Sure,” I smile and we start walking down the lifeless hallways. As we’re walking, we don’t talk for the first couple of minutes. I’m just awestruck by the fact that Matty Ferrera wanted to walk with me. Any girl would kill to be me right now. Hopefully not literally, but you get the point. Matty caught my eye the second we first arrived here. Sadly, I think he was on everyone’s radar the first couple days. But instead of acting like I had a thing for him, which I have established that I do, I took the ‘I’m-going-to-try-and-become-bestfriends-and-maybe-you’ll-fall-for-me-like-I-did-for-you’ route. It’s happened in movies, so why couldn’t it happen here?

          “What’s bothering you?” He asks stopping and breaking my trance. I turn around, puzzled.

          “Nothing,” I say. He raises an eyebrow.

          “I know you, Noelle. You’re one of my bestfriends, something’s definitely bothering you,”
I shrug.
          “Fine, you got me,” I say, forcing a laugh and walking back towards my room. He follows me.

          “So are you going to tell me or what?” I laugh and so does he this time. His laugh is so cute, wait no Noelle. This is a life or death matter and you’re obsessing over a boy’s laugh. I’m pathetic.

          “Well, Gisella told me that Jedd thought they were closing in on us, I’m scared and I can’t think straight,” I finally say. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. When I open my eyes, Matty’s tan complexion has turned pale white.

          “W-wait, what?” He asks, just like I did when Gisella told me.

          “I reacted the same way, Matty,” I say quietly. I see even more color drain from Matty’s face.

          “Matty I’m sorry… I really shouldn’t have said anything,” I say sincerely.  Without saying anything, Matty embraces me. We stand there for moments and I’m totally fine with it. When it’s over he says,
          “I’m scared too, but we’ll survive… We haven’t even seen them before,” I nod. When we go to leave my room, the big screen in the middle of the intersection between hallways is flashing the words:
EMERGENCY, MEET IN THE COMMANDERS ROOM NOW.

I look at Matty, fear in both of our eyes, we can assume what’s happening.  They’re coming for us.