Subjects

29- Friendship Rolls

Ben leaves to go get Angie while the three are heading to the dinning hall in the hope that there is still some food. Everybody on the ship are busy with their tasks and the hallways are packed with soldiers walking around doing their everyday missions.

Eva thinks about how Ben handles everything. Some times it seems like he is normal again, like before they knew how bad things are. Other times Ben looks like he is just not there.

"Did you know?" Emily asks Eva and brings her back to reality.

"What?"

"Did you know about Leo?"

"I only found out yesterday," Eva says.

"Why didn't he say anything?" Emily tries not to sound accusing but isn't too successful.

"He was having a hard time, it took him time to... Take it all in."

"He still could have told us," Emily says.

"He did!"

"Weeks after!" Emily breathes. "I am only saying that he shouldn't have kept it. He could have told us right away. We walked around for weeks thinking that Leo is still out there. We made a promise to Angie that we will get her back to him! He knew it wasn't possible."

"So what? Do you think that it was easy for him?" Eva bursts.

"We could have helped," Roger says.

"Like you are doing now?" Eva is so mad at them both, especially at Emily. "Are you helping now?"

"We are trying to help!" Emily says.

People around them are looking at them suspiciously. They walk into the dinning hall where the workers are already cleaning out the breakfast foods and preparing to serve lunch. Linda, the head of the kitchen staff, sees the three walking in.

"Do you kids want cinnamon rolls? I have some in the kitchen. They're fresh from the oven," she offers them.

"Yes, thank you," Eva accepts.

They go into the kitchen. Ben has already been there once when he was filming and Angie went inside every time they were in the dining hall to say hello to the staff, but this is the first time for Eva, Emily and Roger.

This is the largest kitchen they have ever seen. Eva was once in the school cafeteria's kitchen when she had detention and it wasn't half as large as this one. About twenty kitchen workers are busy chopping, washing, mixing and frying all sorts of things. At the back of the kitchen they can see three things that must be ovens but look more like huge metal boxes.

There are so many smells and sights, for one moment the three of them forget the fight they just had. It's true what they say, food really does bring people together.

Eva follows the smell of baking cinnamon to the back of the kitchen and Roger walks after her, slightly nervous to be intruding this place. Emily is so focused on the two cooks making trays of vegetables to go in the oven that she doesn't notice the two going away.

"Hi, Linda said we can take some of the cinnamon rolls," Eva says to one of the cooks who is putting icing on the fresh rolls.

"No problem," he says. "I wish she'd let me take some but we always get the leftovers." He takes a paper bag and gives it to Eva. "Here, you can take some for the girl too and tell her Jerry says hi."

"Which girl?" Eva asks.

"How many girls do you know in this place? Angie," he says.

"You know Angie?"

"Everyone knows her here, she's the sweetest girl I ever met," the guy who's name is apparently Jerry says.

Eva puts a few of the crispy goods in the bag and thanks Jerry before leaving. On the way out they see Emily discussing seasoning with one of the cooks.

"My mom grows most of her own herbs," Emily says. She misses home made food more than anything. "She has do much basil she had to sell some of it."

"Emily," Roger calls her.

She turns around, "are we going?" Roger nods. "It was nice meeting you," she says to the cook.

The second they exit the dining hall Eva splits the prize and they all enjoy the sticky treasure.

"I think cinnamon rolls taste even better now that I know what VEPP tastes like," Eva says.

"Everything tastes better," Emily says.

And then they hear something.

People. Screaming.

The screams are getting closer and closer and then they see people running towards them from the lower deck.

"Run!"

Eva, Emily and Roger freeze as the five hysterical soldiers run past them.

"It's coming!"

They look at each other, not sure what to do. Then they hear the growls. Something was running in their direction. They don't stay to find out what.

They run.