When All The Adults Were Gone

Chapter 8 - Leader

The talking, even laughter, grew louder. The mass of kids grew closer. Tom, Jamie and I looked to each other, astounded at how many of us actually lived on the base. There had to be over a hundred children stampeding towards us as we stood silently in the middle of the road. Sam, who was in the lead gave us a smug smile and a large wave. Jamie jumped up and down excitedly on the spot waving back.

When the crowd reached us they formed a large circle around the three of us so we stood in the centre. Sam stepped forward and spoke to Tom and I, "This is everyone. Not everyone believed us. But they still followed when we walked away." I did a 360 turn and looked at the closest faces who were on the edge of the circle. Looking at so many faces made me feel extremely nervous. My mouth went dry and my stomach churned as I realised they were expecting me to speak.

"Hello..." I said to the large crowd. "Umm... Well, it looks like it's just us left. We need a plan. If we've been left like this forever we have to have to have some sort of routine." I was pretty sure my nerves were showing in my voice. It quaked and was quiet. Heads turned to look at each other and people began to whisper. "But where have all our parents gone?" A voice called from the midst of the crowd. My confidence began to grow as I realised they were all looking to me for answers. Like some sort of leader. "None of us know. But we plan to find out. First though, we have to work out how we can all live together. It's our turn to be the adults." My voice was stronger, louder, I was more poised so I stood up to my full height. "Not all of you can see me and I'm pretty sure not all of you can hear me", I called to the crowd, "Let's go to the school, that way we can have some sort of structure." I took a step forwards. To my surprise the crowd began to part so I could pass. I took Jamie's hand, nodded to Tom, Sam and Darcy to follow me and walked through the parted crowd.

Jamie and I lead the procession to the school. We walked down our street and turned left onto General's Way. I turned my head to look at the long block of bodies following us. It was quite surprising how, me, an ordinary fourteen year old, would be leading the entire population of children on the base. Even the older ones.

When we reached the school gates, we reached our first obstacle. They were locked. I began to feel like a failure. I had led all of these people to a problem. That was until I heard fast, heavy footsteps. I turned around to the sea of people. A short, skinny boy was running around the perimeter of the congregation. He stopped towards the left of me and waited as the crowd once again, parted to let him pass to the centre. He jogged towards us in the centre holding out a large set of silver and bronze keys. "Here. My mum's the head here. These keys were on her desk at home." He handed me the heavy chain of keys. "Thank you so much!" I said to him, gratitude filling my tone. I peered at the lock, then to the keys. I felt so relieved when I saw that  the keys were labelled. So I found the key that said 'Gate' and inserted it into the lock.