Undead School

Chapter 11: Ignite the Flame

"Evelyn! Wake up!" I heard shouting, shuffling everywhere, something happened... I needed to get up.

"Evelyn, get up right now!" Drake and Will were shouting at me, everyone else shouting at nothing in particular. I could smell burning. Something was burning. They needed me.

Hardly awake, extremely groggy I pull myself up and let my eyes flutter open. Horror fills me and I feel completely sick. In the middle of the gym was a large fire, flames leaping at least 6 feet into the air. At the base of the flame, you could see what was burning. Clothes, food, supplies...

At least half of everything that we had was lost. Gone, destroyed... I clenched my fists and stood there in shock as people shouted around me. We had people on guard all night. No matter what, I knew there was one explanation. There was a traitor in our midst. One of my friends were not who they said they were.

"Someone must have broken in! We need to secure the exits and have more guards." Rae suggested. Bags were under eyes from staying up with Will. They kept glancing at each other like they wanted to wrap their arms around each other but didn't want everyone to know.

Everyone else started talking at once, until I decided to stand on top of a chair. "Everyone quiet!" I shouted into the gym and people stopped talking. "Two things we need to get straight here. Number one, we need to get this cleaned up immediately. People need to get started on that. Number two, this was no outsider. This was one of our own. We had guards posted all night, meaning it was either a guard, or someone else."

Everyone shuffled uncomfortably at the accusation but people started nodding like it made sense. No one wanted to believe it, but they knew that it was the truth. In a daze, people started throwing our precious water on the fire. Who the hell would have done this? I thought searching everyone's faces.

"Evelyn, about this traitor..." Will started saying to me quietly. "I just want you to know that it wasn't Rae. She was up with me on the watch so it couldn't have been her."

"Or it was both of you." I retorted, searching Will's face for any sign that he was lying. He just looked hurt that I accused him and presumably his girlfriend, but he didn't try and defend himself. "I want to be able to trust you, Will, but right now everyone is a suspect."

Will nodded and went to help clean up. I from Rae to Carmen to Drake. Everyone had been so helpful and happy lately, it seemed impossible that one of them was only wearing a mask. A mask a hatred if this is what they decided to do.

We wasted almost all of our water, lost most of our extra clothing, and were left with maybe a meal of food. I wanted to cry. We spent the past week trying desperately to survive and managed to do a decent job of it. Why would someone hinder all of our work?

I tried to remain strong, and once the fire was cleaned up, addressed the group again. "Checking out our stocks, we don't have enough food or water to even get through the day. Most of our extra clothing was burned for kindling. We need to scavenge more than anything right now- just keep an eye out while we work. For all we know, each and every one of you is the traitor."

People kept shooting nervous glances at each other, but nothing that screamed traitor. Damn it, I was hoping to put enough pressure on the traitor to make them break. I needed a better plan but without anyone to trust it was a little difficult.

Will seemed sincere enough, but how could I be sure? I let everyone split themselves into shifts for getting water and shifts for getting food. I stayed out of the groups so I could spend the day dealing with the danger of our traitor.

While people were preparing, I told each and everyone of them in private that I trusted them the most and would be consulting them for help catching the traitor later. That would put the real traitor feeling more secure.