The dark corner of the basement was the perfect place for her, Natalie mused. Quiet, out of the way, and somewhere no one would bother to look. The stacks of chairs provided a natural barrier, and by tucking herself into the side of them, she melted into their shadows in the dim basement light.

It had been a restless few hours since they had been saved from the craft shop. Natalie had purposefully hid at the back of the group of girls she was with when Jeremy and the others had returned from their impromptu rescue mission to the boathouse. While she was relieved to see that Victoria and the other girls from her cabin had made it to safety, the residual shame of leaving them to their fate had nearly strangled her. Luckily, the other members of her cabin didn’t seem all that interested in finding her, especially after the ordeal they had been through, which suited her just fine.

Due to the number of campers being brought back to Andromeda, Natalie and her group had been asked to wait in the craft shop while they delivered the others to safety first. It had been an easy way out of meeting them by hanging back, and by the time her own group had been delivered to Andromeda safely, Natalie’s sullen silence hadn’t done much to engender her to the group she had been rescued with. After checking in with Katsuki, it had been easy to slip away from Zoe and her group unnoticed and hide in the back of the room.

Natalie shifted her weight slightly, sore from sitting on the hard cement flooring for so long. She rubbed at her cold feet, trying to warm her toes up, her body heat leaching into the floor. She had tried laying down earlier to try to sleep, but it had been intensely uncomfortable and she had given it up as a bad idea after an hour or two.

The quiet, shuffling activity of more campers arriving and being sorted by the staff had kept her attention for a while, but when the frequency of groups returning had petered to a halt, her focus went instead towards the staff members. Their hushed conversations and nervous glances hadn’t done much to reassure her of the state of things. Combined with the fact that there were definitely a huge number of people missing, it was obvious that they didn’t have control over the situation, much as they seemed to pretend in front of the campers.

Several staff had taken to comforting the campers, doing their best to keep them calm as they meandered amongst the small groups. But the majority of activity had been the motions of those entering and exiting the triage area near the staircase, as well as the majority of the sound that echoed in the cavernous basement.

Even now, the sounds of the lifeguards frantically doing their best to help the dying repeated in her head, a mix of calls for assistance, pained gasps and wheezes, and cries of despair that all blended together. The campers closest to the triage area had all long since covered their ears the best they could, weather with their hands or extra articles of clothing, anything to muffle the sounds of the dying and injured. Natalie didn’t bother trying to block it out, the death she had seen was seared into her memory, and no amount of extra noise could top the grisly scenes in her mind.

Deaths she could have prevented. Deaths she had caused.

Natalie shook her head, trying futility to clear her mind once more. She turned her focus on the campers, trying to block out the memories. Most of them had the same, shell-shocked expression on their face, a mixture of nervous disbelief at their current circumstances with sheer exhaustion from being unable to sleep. A few had tried to create makeshift beds out of the hard, plastic chairs, but virtually no one she saw actually looked like they were able to sleep.

Most of the campers were circled up in their cabin groups, whispered conversations mixing together into one, indiscernible noise. No one had needed to tell them to be quiet, the nervous glances at the basement stairs and the ceiling were clear indicators of their thoughts. Despite being assured they would be safe in the basement, no one could quite shake the gnawing uncertainty, the possibility of another attack somehow getting through to them.

Natalie didn’t see a need to worry about it. If it happened, there was nothing they would be able to do anyways. They were sitting ducks in the basement, but if the beasts managed to get down there, then there really was nowhere safe on campus anyways.

“There you are.” Natalie jumped and looked up, her heartbeat suddenly racing. Zoe peered down at her from around the corner of the chairs, and Natalie sighed in relief.

“Uh, hi.” Natalie could have punched herself. Hi? That was the best she could do? Zoe didn’t seem to notice her discomfort as she stepped around the stack, hands resting on her hips.

“What are you doing back here?” Zoe asked. Natalie squirmed, looking down at her bare feet.

“Just...Uh...Needed some space.” She stammered, a sudden chill running through her. She hugged her arms around herself, suddenly acutely aware of the myriad tears in her threadbare pajamas. At least other people had the time to get dressed, and she was suddenly very jealous of Zoe’s flip-flops and sweatpants. At least Zoe didn’t have to worry about cold feet on the concrete floor.

“I get it. That was some tough shit out there, don’t blame you from wanting to get away from it all.” Zoe mused. Natalie blinked in confusion for a moment. Tough shit? That was how she put it?

“Uh...yeah.” Natalie struggled to figure out what to say. Was she supposed to be contributing to the conversation? What did Zoe want from her? They had barely spoken other than her panicked rambling outside the staff cabin, where most of the people other than Zoe’s group had met their unfortunate demise. Natalie had to take a deep breath, trying to shift her thoughts away from that topic as her stomach flipped in on itself.

“Look, I wanted to say thanks since we didn’t really have time earlier. You really saved our asses with that warning. We’d have been dead too if it wasn’t for you.” Zoe said. Confusion whirled in her head again. Thanks? For nearly getting them all killed? For getting all those other people killed?

“Thanks, I guess…” She mumbled. Zoe’s eyebrow arched, and Natalie’s stomach flipped again as the other girl’s eyes narrowed at her.

“You guess? I’m serious here, if you hadn’t warned us, we’d have been dead like the rest of them.” Zoe breathed for a moment, her eyes hard and flat as they pinned her to the ground.

“No! I mean, I didn’t mean it like that, I...Uh…” Natalie stammered, the other girl’s ire boring into her as she squirmed. Zoe let out a sigh, her eyes softening as she stepped closer. Natalie’s heart raced, and she curled into herself as Zoe dropped to the floor next to her.

“Sorry, didn’t mean it to sound like that. What I meant is that I really appreciate what you did for us. You could have left us behind and run without telling us what was coming, but you didn’t.” Zoe said.

“But I didn’t...” Natalie’s throat closed up, and Zoe turned her head to look at her.

“Go on, say your piece. I can tell you’ve got a lot whirling around in there.” Zoe urged. Natalie looked at her, then back down at her feet. She took a long, shuddering breath as she hugged her knees to her chest.

“I...I could have done more.” She whispered. Zoe hummed to herself.

“The way I saw it, the rest of them weren’t going to leave without trying to dig through that staff cabin. You did you best, you told them what was up, and much as I hate to say it, it’s their fault for not listening.” Zoe replied. Natalie’s heart twisted.

“It wasn’t just there...That cabin in Orion-”

“That wasn't your fault, that was all of us. We all led that other one through that campsite, we had no way of knowing it wouldn’t just try to chase us around the building.” Zoe sighed, scrubbing at her scalp.

“I could’ve done more, I could’ve-” Natalie hiccuped, the sight of the boys being crushed on the main field flashing through her vision, the terrified scream of her cabin mates echoing in her ears. Her throat closed up again, and she struggled to breathe.

“Hey, hey, none of that. You did what you had to to stay alive. It wasn’t your responsibility to save anyone else, yet you did anyways! You saved me and my cabin. That takes a lot of guts.” Zoe soothed.

“I didn’t mean to save you, I was panicking. I thought you all were going to get me killed.” Natalie argued.

“So? I probably would have done the same. It doesn’t matter your intent, just that you did what you did.” Zoe pressed, turning her body to face her fully. Natalie leaned away, deeper into the stack of chairs beside her, nervous under Zoe’s intense stare. After a moment, Zoe sighed, her ramrod straight back slouching into itself as she rubbed at her eyes.

“Look, I just came over to say thanks. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” Zoe pushed herself to her feet, and suddenly Natalie felt a wave of shame washing over her.

“I’m sorry, I didn't mean to… I’m just…” Natalie cursed herself again as she struggled to find the words she meant to say. Sorry she was a terrible person? Sorry she could never find the right words to say? Sorry that, despite all her efforts to try and reach out to people, as soon as they did the same for her she ended up driving them away instead, leaving her completely cut off and alone and desperately wishing that someone would just-

“Hey, it’s all right. I know I can come off a bit...intense, some would say. You should ask some of the other girls in my cabin what it’s been like living with me.” Zoe grinned down at her, and Natalie’s heart eased slightly. “If you’re more comfortable over here, that’s fine with me, but if you ever want to come join me and the others, you’re welcome to. I know they feel the same.”

Natalie’s heart twisted into itself again as she shook her head. Much as she would have liked to take her up on her offer, Natalie knew what the outcome would be. She’d be a third wheel, perpetually on the outside of the group, and without a meaningful connection to them in order to integrate herself into the group, she’d be stuck there forever, unable to fully bridge that gap. And eventually, whether it took a few hours or a few days, they’d come to resent her presence and find a way to cast her out of their little group. She’d been through that song and dance a few times before, and it wasn’t worth going through it again with a group of people she’d probably never see again.

“Suit yourself, the offer’s open. By the way, have you seen anyone over in medical for those cuts? Might want to get them looked at.” Zoe waved as she turned away, and Natalie looked over herself.

Sure she had a few cuts here and there from their mad dash through the trees, courtesy of the low-hanging branches. They mostly got her arms and legs, a few having torn through her shirt, but none of them were anything more than slight annoyances. She gingerly touched her face, finding one having slashed through her right cheek, just an inch underneath her eye. Lucky that one hadn’t hit any higher.

None of them were anything serious, already having stopped bleeding a while ago. Sure, some antibacterial ointment and band-aids would probably be a good idea, but considering how serious the other injuries the staff were dealing with were, Natalie didn’t see a need to bother them with hers. The few lifeguards she had seen throughout the early morning had looked exhausted, their energy spent doing their best to save the lives of the injured campers and staff depending on them. Natalie was just glad she hadn’t managed to slice open her feet during their mad dash through campus, even though they hurt like a bitch for a while afterwards. She had practically hobbled her way to the truck and down the stairs, and she wasn’t looking forward to trying to put any weight on them anytime soon.

As her eyes wandered away, they froze as they passed over her cabin group. Richard and two other boys she didn’t know were still with them. Victoria and Jessica were huddled together with one of them and conversing quietly, while Rebecca had practically draped herself over Richard as he embraced Emily. Diane sat beside the other nameless boy, both of them not really participating in the group dynamic either way. The two boys she didn’t know must have been the other surviving members from the Taurus cabin they had gone to party at, and Natalie suddenly realized Dustin and Caleb, two of the boys with them earlier, weren't with them. Her stomach dropped, realizing the both of them must have been two of the three she watched being killed in the main field.

She ripped her gaze away from them again, trying to control her breathing as she closed her eyes. Just deep breaths, and focusing on something else, anything other than the horrible memories of the night.

Her eyes latched onto a few staff members as they came downstairs, one of the lifeguards and one of the craft shop staff. A quick conversation with a few other staff members and three of them went back upstairs, leaving the lifeguard to head back into the triage area. There had been a few flashes of action like that throughout the morning, quick conversations between staff members as they went upstairs, only to come back a little while later. Probably wanted to make sure none of the campers overheard them for whatever reason.

Natalie shivered, her arms and legs developing goosebumps. Much as she wished otherwise, it was clear the staff didn’t have a good handle on the situation as she had once hoped. Then again, who could possibly have a handle on a situation like this? No emergency plan could have foreseen a need for a plan that dealt with demon shadow creatures attacking the camp and killing handfuls of people in seconds.

Another staff member descended the staircase, making a beeline over to a small huddled group in the center of the room. The older woman, who seemed to be the center of the group, exchanged hurried words with the newcomer. Not for the first time, Natalie wished she could be a fly on the wall, listening in to what was going on in their hushed conversations. Being left in the dark to what was going on above them had her anxiety doing funny things to her guts.

“All right, listen up!” Natalie’s head shot up as the newcomer’s loud, clear voice rang out through the basement, immediately silencing everyone else with the sudden noise. He looked around for a moment at the campers surrounding him.

“In case you don’t know me, my name is Katsuki. You can call me Kat if you like. I’m the Nature Center team leader, which is probably why many of you have never seen me before.” A few muffled giggles greeted his proclamation, and the Asian man grinned. “With me here is Ruth, and she’s the Head Gardener for the Farming classes at the Nature Center.”

“Call me Ruth, don’t got no fancy nicknames here.” The old woman called, and another round of nervous giggle popped up from the campers.

“We’ve got an update from topside for you. First off, Jeremy, Yasmina and Brian, who some of you met on your way here, have confirmed that the camp is clear of danger.” A ragged, throaty cheer erupted from the campers as Katsuki smiled and raised his hands. Natalie’s heart lifted with the noise.

“Yes yes, that’s all good. Currently, they’ve gone off to see about getting some help from the town nearby, but that may take a little while to get here. In the meantime, I’m sure many of you are hungry.” As if by magic, Natalie was suddenly aware of the gnawing hunger in her stomach, exacerbated by the meager meal she’d had the night before. Her stomach let out an audible growl as more of the campers cheered.

“I’m going to head over to the dining hall to get some breakfast to bring back, but I can’t carry enough for everyone by myself. Therefore, I’m asking for some volunteers to come with me. If you feel up to helping me with getting food and helping to bring it back here for everyone, please meet me over by the basement stairs. While I’m gone, Ruth here is in charge.” Katsuki explained.

“Why do we have to bring it back here? What’s wrong with eating at the dining hall?” Someone asked, and Katsuki turned to smile at them.

“Nothing is wrong with that, but we have a good number of people who can’t leave the basement right now. Also, we want everyone to stick together to make it easier to coordinate once help arrives, so it’ll be better if we bring things back here rather than need help to split up when they arrive.” Katsuki replied.

“Are you sure it’s safe to go outside?” Someone else asked, and Katsuki turned again.

“I trust Jeremy when he says it’s safe. They’ve been making rounds without seeing any more of them for the past hour. That being said, if you don’t feel comfortable going outside, I understand. I’m only asking for volunteers.” Katsuki replied. Natsuki breathed a sigh of relief, settling back into the corner. At least they weren’t making anyone go. There was no way she was going out there anytime soon, even with her stomach seemingly eating itself from the inside out.

“All right, you heard the man. Those of you who aren’t going, gather round close with your cabin mates, we’re taking attendance again, so don’t try to sneak by. We’re going to keep ourselves occupied with something else while the others go for food. Make ourselves useful. And yes, that includes everyone.” Ruth overrode the groans as Natalie’s heart froze. Group with her cabin mates? Which was worse, going outside, or being stuck back with them? Natalie glanced towards Victoria and the others, who were slowly inching towards Ruth with most of the other campers. A few others peeled off towards Katsuki as he headed towards the staircase, and she watched as Zoe and her cabin group stood and headed that direction.

“Hey, you heard her, let’s join the others, all right?” Natalie jumped as a staff member approached her, a gentle smile on her face. Natalie scrambled to her feet, and anxiety twisted in her stomach. Outside, or Victoria and the others? Which was worse?

“Uh...Actually, I’m going to join Katsuki.” Natalie stammered. The staff member frowned, looking up and down her body.

“Are you sure? You look a bit ragged, maybe you should stay here.” Natalie glanced towards her cabin group, and her eyes widened as her gaze met Victoria’s. The other girl’s eyes widened in shock as Natalie tore her gaze away.

“No, I’m sure. I mean, I’m good, I’m….going.” Natalie turned, her bare feet padding across the cement towards the group clustered around Katsuki. She sighed in relief as the staff woman let her go without another comment.

Zoe turned to look at her as she approached, a pretty smile splitting her face.

“Well look who it is! To be honest, I thought you were going to stay behind. Like I said, you got guts, girl.” Zoe said, putting an arm around Natalie’s shoulders before she could blink. She blushed as the other girls from Zoe’s cabin turned to look at her as well, small smiles gracing their faces as well. Natalie’s stomach twisted as she looked at her bare feet.

“All right, give me your name and cabin as you head upstairs so we can keep tabs of who is coming with me.” Katsuki called as one of the other staff members with him headed up the stairs. The group slowly filed past him as he checked them off on his clipboard, and Natalie glanced back at the campers staying in the basement. She cringed as she caught the gazes of her entire cabin staring back at her, their eyes wide in shock.

“Name?” Natalie turned as she reached Katsuki, just as he looked up at her and frowned. “Hold up, are you alright? You look-”

“I’m fine. Natalie Dhalmer, Ursa Minor, cabin A.” She interrupted. She could feel the gazes of the rest of her cabin burning into her back as Katsuki gave her a once-over.

“Are you sure? You should get those cuts looked at first.” Katsuki turned, and panic gripped her.

“If she says she’s good, she’s good, man. I’ll vouch for her, she’s tough.” Zoe said, and Katsuki looked at her.

“And you are?”

“Zoe Freeman, Draco, cabin B. Natalie’s a fighter, she won’t let a couple little cuts get in her way.” She replied. Katsuki eyed the two of them as Natalie’s gut twisted. After a few moments, he sighed, looking back at his clipboard.

“All right. Honestly, we need all the help we can get.” He muttered, checking them off on the list. “Go on up, just need to hand this off to Ruth before we go.” He stepped around them as they headed up the staircase. Natalie breathed a sigh of relief as they got to the top and rejoined the others. At least she didn’t have to face her cabin for another little while.

“Hey Natalie, I know Zoe already said it, but I wanted to thank you too. We would have been goners without you.” Natalie jumped as one of the girls from Zoe’s cabin came towards them, and Natalie’s mind raced for a second, trying to remember her name. Her thoughts fled as the other girls from Zoe’s cabin all joined them at once, overwhelming her.

“Yeah, uh...No problem?” She stammered. Zoe huffed beside her.

“Ease off, girls. Don’t go crowding her. Here, introductions. We never really got around to that with everything else going on.” Zoe said.

“I’m Harriet.” The girl who thanked her held out her hand, and Natalie hesitantly took it.

“Um, hi? Natalie, oh, but you knew that already.” Natalie cringed as Harriet smiled.

“Nice to meet you, Natalie. Well, for real this time, not when we’re running for our lives.” She replied. Natalie grimaced slightly, and Zoe groaned from beside her.

“How about you not remind her of that right before we go outside? Geez, Harriet.” Zoe said. Harriet laughed nervously.

“I’m Jenna, and sorry about her. Harriet’s mouth runs ahead of her brain sometimes.” Jenna apologized as Harriet nodded in agreement. Natalie shook her head. She only wished her brain was fast enough to come up with something for her mouth to say in the first place.

“My name’s Courtney, and this is my best friend Sophie.” The next girl said, and Sophie turned on her.

“Hey, I was going to introduce myself!” Sophie fumed, and Courtney rolled her eyes.

“You took 10 minutes to introduce yourself to the cabin when we arrived, I was just expediting the process.” Courtney replied. Sophie huffed, glaring at Courtney as Natalie looked between them.

“Don’t worry, they’re always like this. And it was over twelve minutes, I started a timer on my watch when Sophie started telling us her life story, after telling us all about everything she likes and dislikes.” Zoe stated.

“I just wanted to make a good impression!” Sophie whined.

“Yes yes, you certainly did that.” Zoe drawled as several of them giggled.

“Don’t forget us! I’m Erin!”

“Amber.”

And I’m Pheobe.” The last three girls in the group rattled off after each other, and Natalie blinked as she looked between their identical features.

“Yes, they’re identical triplets. Good luck figuring out which one is which, they love switching themselves and their names around at a whim. To be honest, I’ve given up trying.” Zoe sighed.

“That’s because it’s fun!” Amber replied.

“And lets us get away with taking each other’s tests sometimes.” Erin added.

“That trick only started working recently in junior high, could never quite figure out how to make that work when we were all sitting in the same class in elementary school.” Phoebe continued.

“You really shouldn’t be doing that, you’ll fall behind and eventually it’ll catch up to you when you least expect it.” Jenna interrupted.

“Like what if the one of you who is good at math is sick on that test day? You’d all fail instead of just one of you.” Harriet continued. The triplets looked over to them and Erin shrugged.

“We don’t do it all the time. We’re straight-A students anyways, so it doesn’t matter too much either way.” She replied.

“Then why take each other’s tests?” Jenna asked.

“Mostly because it’s funny. Plus, We do still have subjects we prefer, so I’m fine with sitting through three science exams if I don’t have to do a history one.” Amber replied.

“Then how can you be sure you’re all straight-A students?” Natalie asked. Her stomach dropped as the triplets looked at her, their brows furrowed. Immediately, Natalie remembered they had already answered the question, but she hadn’t been able to keep up with the conversation and, as usual, she was making a fool of herself.

“Like I said, we don’t do it all the time. Plus we help each other study, so we’ll know if one of us is falling behind.” Erin repeated. Amber and Phoebe nodded along with her, small grins on their faces. Natalie’s cheeks burned in humiliation. It was already beginning again, making herself look like an idiot in front of new people. Natalie wished she could bury herself in the ground outside. At least then she wouldn’t keep fucking everything up.

“In any case, we’ll try not to mess with you too much, Natalie. It’s all in good fun anyways.” Phoebe said.

“And that’s everyone. Good timing, looks like we’re about to head out.” Zoe said, and Natalie turned to see Katsuki emerging from the basement steps. He looked over the group for a moment before clapping his hands together.

“All right, listen up! Thanks again for volunteering to help out. If anyone’s had second thoughts about going outside, now’s your chance to go back downstairs. No hard feelings.” Katsuki waited for a moment, and grinned when no one moved out of the group. “For those of you who haven’t met them, we also have Joshua and Morgan with us from the Outdoor Sports staff. And over there at the door is Kevin, he’s agreed to join us with Jeremy’s blessing.” Natalie turned, her heart dropping slightly at the teenager by the door nodding back, his rifle held on his shoulder. A few muttered whispers broke out amongst the group, and Katsuki clapped his hands again.

“Why does he have a gun? Shouldn’t the staff have those?” Someone piped up, and Katsuki frowned slightly.

“Given that he was with Jeremy and Brian out doing their best to defend the camp from those beasts, I think we’re in good hands with Kevin here. Kevin’s with us just in case we run into any unexpected trouble, so I expect that each of you will be grateful for his presence as we go about our business. From what Jeremy’s told me, he’s quite an accomplished marksman.” Katsuki replied.

“Shot the eyes out of several of them as they charged.” Kevin boasted.

“If that’s everything? Then let’s get going. Don’t want to keep everyone waiting, and the faster we get back, the faster everyone can eat.” Katsuki siad, and turned towards the door.

Natalie’s feet felt frozen to the wood flooring as the group moved towards the door. Her heart beat faster, the sights and sounds of the night pushing their way into her head, threatening to-

“Natalie, you good?” Zoe’s voice shook her out of her thoughts, and Natalie nodded, stepping forwards towards her. Zoe smiled as she caught up to them, and Natalie took a deep breath as they passed through the doorway.

The morning sunlight was warm on her skin, dispelling some of the chill of the basement. Despite the anxiety churning in her stomach at being outside, it felt good to be outside, instead of cooped up underground. Her feet and legs still ached from all the running she had done in the past twelve hours, but it felt better to be moving than sitting. The hard packed dirt underneath her bare feet was just starting to warm up, and Natalie wished that it was sand so she could bury her feet in it’s warmth for a while.

As the group turned towards the dining hall at the crossroads, she was surprised to see one of the other boys from Jeremy’s group standing at the entrance to the health office. Kevin waved at him as they went by, the younger boy waving back. Natalie wondered why he was there, but her question went unanswered as they approached the dining hall.

The whole group had to cover their ears as they passed by the generators, and Natalie frowned. If the power was still out, how much longer would those generator’s last before they died? If the generators died before power came back, it would only be a few hours before the temperatures in the refrigerators and freezers would start to rise past acceptable limits. Hopefully the camp had insurance for power outages, having that much food spoil would be an undeniably large sum to recoup and restock. The last time it happened at the restaurant, it had spoiled thousands of dollars worth of food, and Natalie had heard about the problems that caused for days.

They stopped at the entrance to the dining hall as Katsuki unlocked it, ushering them all inside once he opened the door. Her ears still rang slightly as she peeled her hands away from her ears, shaking her head to try to get rid of the noise.

“So we’re looking for foods that are easy to carry. Boxes if you can find them, or bags should be fine.” Katsuki said as he led them into the kitchen.

“Where should we be looking?” Harriet asked.

“Well...Around? Sorry, I haven’t been back here before either.” A chill ran over Natalie as she looked around the empty space, something suddenly occurring to her.

“Where’s the dining hall staff? They should be here by now for meal prep.” She wondered, before suddenly realizing she had spoken aloud. Katsuki turned to her, an unreadable expression on his face as she shrank backwards.

“We’re not sure. It’s possible they got stuck on their way here. In either case, we need to do it ourselves, so let’s hop to it.” Katuski said. The group of campers and staff began to spread out, and Natalie’s brow furrowed as she thought to herself. That didn’t sound right. Something odd was going on. Why was he acting no nonchalant at the dining hall staff being missing? Wouldn’t that mean it was likely they were dead too? Or had something else happened-

“Hey Katsuki, what’s in here?” Natalie looked over to where one of the other campers was trying to wrench open the walk-in freezer door, and her stomach dropped.

“Don’t open that!” Natalie yelled, and all activity around the kitchen ceased as everyone looked at her. Natalie shrank backwards into herself as the boy in question looked at her in confusion.

“Why, is it dangerous?” He asked. Natalie shook her head.

“No, that’s a walk-in freezer. But with the generators running, if you open them… We shouldn’t go in there if we can help it, if we let the warmth in and the generators stop, the food in there will spoil quicker.” Natalie rushed to explain, words tumbling out of her mouth.

“Ooookay. Fine.” He stepped way, and Natalie breathed a sigh of relief as most of the group turned away. Natalie stepped over towards the sink as her mind raced, trying to figure out what to focus on. Should she help out with trying to find what would be best to take? How many people were there to feed?

“Whatcha doing, Natalie?” Zoe appeared next to her, and Natalie jumped. She looked down, a bit startled to notice she had begun washing her hands and arms without noticing.

“Oh, uh...Clean hands. Shouldn’t be prepping food with dirty hands. Have you seen any gloves around?” Natalie asked, grabbing a bottle of soap from a nearby shelf. Zoe eyed her for a second.

“Sorry, no. Have you worked in a kitchen before?” Zoe asked. Natalie nodded as she scrubbed her hands.

“Yeah, my mom is the head chef at a local restaurant. I kinda wormed my way into working in the kitchen with her over the years. Long as I didn’t have to deal with the customers, that’s dad’s job.” Natalie replied. Zoe looked at her, her eyes wide as Natalie dried her hands. “What?”

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile.” Zoe stated, and Natalie felt the small smile on her face suddenly fall away, her cheeks flushing again. “Sorry, didn’t mean that in a bad way. You got any idea of what we’re looking for here?” Zoe asked.

“Not really. I’ve never been in this kitchen, each one is different. The staples might be the same, but otherwise, I wouldn’t know where to find anything.”

“Can you cook? I’m sure that a bunch of campers would be a lot better off with something cooked instead of just fruit and cereal.” Zoe pressed. Natalie shrugged.

“I’m sure if the ingredients are around, we could get a batch of pancakes going-”

“KATSUKI! C’MERE!” Zoe roared, and Natalie jumped out of her skin. The Asian man reappeared as if by magic form around a corner, a slightly bemused expression on his face.

“Something wrong?” He asked. Zoe grabbed Natalie around the shoulders and brought them closer, even as Natalie folded into herself.

“Natalie here has experience at her family’s restaurant. I’m sure she’d be more of a help than just scrounging around here for whatever we get our hands on.” Zoe urged, and Katsuki looked at her.

“Well then Natalie, what would you suggest?” Katsuki asked, and Natalie froze. What would she suggest? Obviously, the campers and staff needed something filling, most of them had been up for almost the entire night, and replenishing that energy would be important. Pancakes would be a good start, but some kind of protein would be needed as well. There had been ham slices in previous breakfasts, there could be more of that in the refrigerators-

“Good, good, what else?” Natalie looked at Zoe, suddenly realizing she had been speaking her thoughts aloud again, and her cheeks flushed as Katsuki smiled at her.

“So, uhm...Pancakes and ham wouldn’t be too hard to get going, especially if the ham is pre-cooked. Fruits, obviously. How often does food get delivered here?” Natalie asked.

“We get a new truckload twice a week, one on Sundays before everyone arrives, and another on Wednesdays.”

“Which means we should be pretty well stocked from yesterday’s shipment. There should be boxes of apples and bananas, that should be good for fruits. We’ll need drinks too. Sugary drinks might actually be better, especially if they have electrolytes, i’m sure a lot of people are running on fumes and the carbs and sugar will get them going again before the proteins get digested-”

“Okay, good. Everyone, gather round!” Katsuki called, and suddenly Natalie realized she was the center of attention. “How do we begin?”

Natalie’s face burned as she looked around at the expectant faces around her, and she breathed deeply as Zoe patted her on the back and gave her an encouraging nod.

“F-first, everyone needs to wash their hands. I’m sure a few of you still have b-blood and dirt on them from last night, no need to contaminate the food.” A few kids looked at their hands and winced, hiding them behind their backs. “From there, we need to divide the labor.”

“So who’s doing what?” Zoe asked.

“Yes. Uhm. Anyone have any experience cooking on a flattop?” Natalie asked. She wasn’t too surprised when no hands went up. “That’s fine. If a few of you can get the pancake batter mixed, I’ll take care of that.”

“Pancakes?!”

“Yes! Can we grab syrup too?”

“Hold on, let her get through it, we’ll get the details sorted later. Go on.” Katsuki urged.

“Okay, uhm. You three, after you wash your hands, there should be a dry goods storage area somewhere, things like rice and beans and so on. You should find pre-made dry pancake batter somewhere, a place this big wouldn’t mix it by hand. Find it and find some big mixing bowls and bring them back here.” Erin, Amber and Phoebe saluted and moved over to the sinks as she turned.

“Harriet, Jenna, in the walk-in fridge there should be some pre-cooked ham in baking pans. The night crew would have had to prep that ahead of time to get it cut and ready, so all the morning crew would have to do is pop it into the hotbox. Be quick when you open the door, try to make sure you don’t let too much cold out.” Natalie continued. The duo moved off, and Natalie turned to the rest of the group in front of her.

“Courtney, Sophie, and...you four? What’re your names?” She asked of the three boys in the group.

“Shawn, Luke, Greg and Isaac. Sagittarius.” One of them introduced, and Natalie nodded.

“Sorry if I forget, I’m much better with faces than names. Can you all go look for boxes of fruits? Bananas would be best, apples are good too. Leave anything with a peel where it is, like oranges or grapefruits. Only easy to eat fruits, got it?” Natalie moved onto the last few as they also headed over to the sink..

“Joshua, Morgan, can you look around and see if there’s any gloves? We’ll need a box or two, they shouldn’t be too hard to find, we go through a lot pretty quickly in the restaurant, they’ll be somewhere easy to find. See if you can find some aprons as well, I’d rather not get hot pancake batter on myself.” The two other staff members nodded and went different directions as Natalie turned to Katsuki and Zoe.

“Anything else?” Katsuki asked. Natalie fidgeted for a moment.

“Sorry, I have to ask. How many people are we looking to feed? I need a number.” Natalie asked quietly. Katsuki’s face grew grave for a moment, as Natalie expected it would. The ever-present reminder of the number of people they had lost hung over them, and she was sure that the staff was trying to keep the actual numbers quiet from the rest of the kids. Still, if she was going to get food prepped, she needed to know how many mouths she had to feed.

“We’ve confirmed 121 campers and 23 staff alive. Make it 150 total to be safe, might have a few stragglers come in.” Katsuki kept his voice quiet to the small group around him, and she heard a soft gasp from Zoe as her stomach dropped. She closed her eyes, willing the tears away as she took a deep breath.

“150. I can work with that. Do we have a time limit?” Natalie asked.

“Not particularly, obviously getting people fed sooner rather than later is better. But there’s no need to rush yourself to the point of injury.” Katsuki replied. Natalie nodded, looking around the kitchen.

“Any idea how long those generators will keep running for, by any chance?” Katsuki shrugged.

“Sorry, your guess is as good as mine there. They’ve been on since at least around 1 AM or so, and I’ve seen them run for over half a day before, but I’ve never been in a situation where they’ve run out of gas before the power came back. Not something I’ve personally had to worry about before, and I don’t interact with maintenance too much outside of my own work capacity.”

“No worries, just trying to see if we had a rough estimate. Best to assume they could go down at any time then, unless we get information otherwise.” Natalie replied.

“Xavier might know more when he wakes up, hopefully he’ll be able to answer when we get back.” Natalie nodded.

“Natalie, will this work?” Natalie turned, and her eyebrows raised as Morgan came back, a black chef’s coat folded over her arm.

“Actually, that’s much better. Don’t suppose there were any pants to go with those? Darn. Well, this is good, I was getting tired of running around in just my PJ’s anyways.” Natalie blushed as she took the coat, throwing it over her head as she shrugged it on over her pajamas. It was much too big for her, the hem falling halfway down her thighs and the sleeves past her fingers, but at the moment, Natalie was just happy to have something more to wear. She still acutely missed having shoes, her feet cooling on the linoleum floor.

“Natalie, we found the pancake stuff!” The triplets bounded back towards her, and she grinned at their enthusiasm.

“Perfect. Let’s get to work.” She said as she rolled the sleeves of the chef’s coat up to her elbows.

The familiar motions of working in the kitchen swiftly reclaimed her as they worked, the other members of the group helping her as she directed them through the various preparations. The hot sizzling of the pancakes on the flat-top had her stomach growling as the smell filled the kitchen, and she was certain that there were quite a few finished pancakes stolen by the others as they worked. Natalie didn’t mind too much, people generally worked better when they could focus, and having hunger pangs didn’t really help much. Zoe had forced her to eat as well, nearly stuffing an apple into her mouth to make sure she didn’t faint.

The sound of cooking, talking and sporadic laughter echoed through the kitchen, and Natalie's heart lifted as she continued flipping pancakes. It felt good, being able to do something good for a change. The past few days had been rough on their own, let alone the horrors of the night, and being able to sink herself into something familiar and worthwhile…

“Okay, that’s probably good. Have we got plates and utensils ready to go?” She asked as she started taking the last batch of pancakes of the flat-top, shoveling them into a nearby baking pan.

“We found some disposables, not sure why we have them but they’ll be easier to carry than the regular plates and flatware.” Morgan replied, hefting a box towards the growing pile at the door.

“Are we going to be able to carry all this?” Phoebe asked, looking at the pile. “Boxes are one thing, but we can’t really stack those serving pans too high.”

“There’s a golf cart out back, we can use that for the heavier stuff. It’s small though, so we’ll still have to carry most of this.” Joshua replied, heading towards the loading dock.

“How’s that oatmeal coming? Did we find any bowls for that?” Natalie asked.

“Looks done to me. Good call on that by the way, some of the injured people might not stomach anything too heavy just yet.” Katsuki replied. He hefted the pot off the burner across from her, adding it to the array of serving pans beside her. Natalie’s eyes scanned across them quickly checking her math as she finished scraping the last of the pancakes into a serving pan.

“Looks good. We’ll have to serve the plates ourselves, we don’t have an unlimited amount, so this isn’t going to be all-you-can-eat like normal. Two pancakes, a slice of ham, either a banana or an apple, and oatmeal, plus a bottle of water. Did we find the gatorade mix you were looking for?” She called.

“Got it, and it’s in the pile. We’ll have to be careful with it, since it’s a big container. Found a funnel to put it into bottles, but I only found the one jar, so unless we find more, this is it.” Sophie replied.

“That’s fine. Anyone still working on something, or is that everything?” Natalie asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm.

“I think that’s everything. Good work, everyone, let’s get things out to the front, Joshua should have the golf cart out there by now, we’ll load up and head back.” Katsuki replied. Natsuki watched as the group all crowded around the pile of boxes first, a chain of people picking up the closest box and disappearing through the kitchen doors into the dining hall proper towards the exit. Natalie turned off the flat-top behind her, quickly scraping down the excess spatters of burnt pancake batter scattered across it.

The anxiety that had melted away as she worked quickly twisted in her gut once more. Heading back meant confronting the rest of her cabin, now that they knew she was alive. She knew what was coming, the inevitable anger and disgust at her for leaving them to die. Word would spread quick amongst those they talked to, she knew the type all too well, gossiping and conniving and doing their best to drag her down, to crush all her hopes at fitting in, or at the very least going unnoticed. Hell, they were probably already doing it, Victoria and Jessica first poisoning the minds of the rest of her cabin mates and the boys they were with, then the whole group infecting everyone they came in contact with, the story and rumors for her abandonment of them spreading like an insidious disease, like wildfire, burning any possible shred of goodwill and peace she’d have for the rest of their stay-

“Natalie, you coming?” She jumped as Zoe came up beside her, hefting the big pot of oatmeal. Natalie froze, the anxiety forming a knot in her throat as she looked back, and Zoe frowned. “Hey, something wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. I didn’t startle you that bad, did I?” Natalie shook her head, and Zoe looked at her for a long minute as she fidgeted.

“Sorry, I just...I don’t…going back...” The words caught in her throat. Zoe put the pot of oatmeal down, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“You don’t want to head back? Why not? Seemed fine out there on the way here.” Zoe looked perplexed, and Natalie shook her head again.

“Outside isn’t the problem, it’s...I don’t...uhm…” Natalie scratched at her head, frustration bubbling up inside her. How could she explain it? Zoe and her cabin seemed like they got on well together, would she understand her anxiety at seeing her own cabin group again? How could she explain it in a way that made sense?

“Look, whatever’s eating you, you got it bad. I get it, but whatever it is, it can’t be as bad as those bear things, right? We’ve got this.” Zoe stated. Natalie’s heart sank as she nodded, reluctantly picking up one of the serving trays. There just wasn’t a good way to explain why she didn’t want to go back, but it wasn’t like she had much of a choice. She briefly entertained the idea of asking Katsuki if she could stay behind in the kitchen, but quickly wrote it off. As much as she would've liked to, his insistence earlier on having food brought back to Andromeda would definitely overrule her desire to stay away from her cabin mates. Hopefully she would figure out some way to avoid going near them during the walk back.

She wracked her brain as the group headed outside, falling to the back of the group as the golf cart, loaded up with the heavier boxes, began trundling forwards. Her arms ached slightly from the serving tray in her hands, full to the brim with pancakes. At least the tray itself wasn’t hot, or they’d all need oven mitts for the trip back. Corners had to be cut in this case, having the trays outside was a big no-no for one, let alone the fact that there’d be no serving wells on the other end to keep the food warm. Then again, they’d be serving everyone up right then and there, not leaving the food out for people to come take when they arrived.

Doug accosted Katsuki the moment he returned, and they disappeared over towards one of the other meeting halls where a red truck was parked as everyone else began unloading the food. It was quick work, setting up several folding tables in the main meeting hall and getting the food laid out on them in a facsimile of the dining hall’s serving lines. The boys left to guard the building were the first to be served so they could get back to their posts. The other members of the group were placed behind the line in order to keep the serving lines going and ration out the food appropriately, leaving Natalie at the end with the stacks of water bottles. Morgan and Joshua went downstairs to start bringing small groups upstairs to be served when Natalie had a brainwave that sent her heart soaring.

“Zoe, can you handle both the bottles and the gatorade? Someone needs to bring food down to the people that can’t come upstairs.” She asked, grabbing a ladle from the small leftover pile of serving utensils. Zoe turned to her, nodding an agreement.

“Sure thing, I’ll handle this. Are you sure you can do it yourself?” She asked.

“I’m only starting with the oatmeal, and I’m sure the lifeguards will help me out with getting them fed. I’ll be good.” Natalie gabbed a small stack of paper bowls from under the table, setting them on the lid of the oatmeal pot as she jammed a large handful of plastic spoons into the pocket of the chef’s coat.

“All right, just let me know if you need anything.” Zoe replied. Natalie nodded as she hefted the pot of oatmeal off the table, being careful to keep the bowls stacked on top from sliding off. She had to wait at the basement door as a group of campers were led upstairs, and she was relieved to see that it wasn’t her cabin. Natalie quickly hurried down the stairs when they passed, and crossed over to the triage area, keeping her eyes forward and away from the huddled mass of campers in the center of the basement. One of the lifeguards noticed her as she crossed inside the hanging sheets, and walked over to her.

“Need some help? What have you got there?” He asked.

“Oatmeal. For the injured.” Natalie huffed, setting the pot down on a nearby chair. The lifeguard grinned at her.

“Good thinking, thanks. I’m Russell, and you are?” he held out his hand, and Natalie took it.

“Natalie. I’ve got bowls and spoons, can you and the others start passing these around to those that can feed themselves? We’ll get to the ones that can’t afterwards.” Natalie took a bowl off the top of the stack, ladling a portion into it before handing it to him. Russell nodded.

“Sure thing. Give me a minute and I’ll round up the others.” Russell walked off, and Natalie breathed a sigh of relief. She found something to do, away from where the rest of her cabin group would be at. Hopefully, as long as she made herself useful here for a while she’d be able to avoid seeing them anytime soon.

Natalie contented herself with working to serve up the oatmeal as the other lifeguards came over, thanking her as they began distributing the food. At least for now, she could push off that problem for a little bit later. Right now, she had people to feed.