Allison’s feet were heavy as she made her way back towards Andromeda and the group of campers standing outside. She could see that they were starting to get antsy as they anticipated their new roles, and Allison couldn’t blame them. Being signed up against their will to work jobs they had very little idea how to do? Allison could relate to that all too well. At least each of them had someone they could ask questions of for directions. Allison felt like a sailboat without a rudder of a daggerboard, aimlessly adrift and subject to the whims of the wind.

“Orion C, you’re with me. We’re headed down to help the rest of my team. Everyone here?” She asked, and a group of girls turned to her, their eyes wide and face pale. Her heart sank as she looked at them. Two or three of them looked older, but the majority looked like they were still freshman at best.

“All of us except Chelsea, she’s still downstairs.” One of them spoke, and Allison nodded.

“When we get downstairs, I’m going to turn you over to Jack for a bit. He’s my second, so please listen to him as you would listen to me. I need to tell the rest of my team what we just told you, and Jack will need help to look over the injured while I organize my team. Can you do that for me?” Allison asked.

The girls looked anxiously at each other. “I don’t know anything about first aid.” One confessed, and another nodded their head.

“Neither do I. Shouldn’t we have been put somewhere else?” The second asked.

Allison sighed. She knew these objections were coming, but doing her best to get the campers motivated to help out was going to be tricky. “Look, I know this is tough. But my team needs extra hands. We can’t help everyone by ourselves, we’ll wear ourselves out without you guys. Don’t worry too much, we’ll set up a rotation so we always have some lifeguards with you. We’re not expecting you guys to be perfect, just that you can help us and follow directions. Think you can do that for me?” Allison asked gently, and a few wary nods came back to her.

One of them raised a shaky hand, her face abnormally pale. “Are we going to have to...I’m not good with blood.” She asked.

Allison frowned, crossing her arms. “Possibly. We’ll do our best to do the hard parts, but I can’t be certain we won’t need you to help out with something you’d rather not. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Those kids and staff injured down there are counting on us, all of us, to help them. Like it or not, for now, we’re the only help they’ve got. I’m sure some of you have friends down there.” Allison replied, and a few more nods came her way. “All right, ready? Let’s go.” The small group followed her into Andromeda, gentle whispers as they talked amongst themselves floating to her ears.

She definitely understood their hesitation. Allison was pretty much in the same boat, just without the additional safety net of having someone above them to rely on for answers if something went wrong.

If only Madison would come back to herself, they’d have a much better chance at helping the injured down below.

Allison shook her head as she made for the stairs. They wouldn’t get anywhere just waiting for her to get better, and more people would die if they relied on her to tell them what to do. At least for the moment, Allison was in charge, and she had to do the best she could in order to make sure that the injured had the best care they could provide.

It was either that, or they’d see just how incompetent she really was, and blame her for the deaths of their friends.

Allison shook her head again. At least this time, her brain didn’t feel like it was on a tilt-a-whirl. The food they had been provided from the dining hall had done wonders, and she finally felt like she could focus again. Her cheeks burned as she recalled her breakdown at finding Madison. Like it or not, she was in charge, and that kind of loss of control couldn’t be tolerated again. The rest of her staff depended on her to lead them, and the injured depended on all of them for the best care they could provide, and they couldn’t do that if she wasn’t able to just do her job.

Travis met her at the bottom of the stairs, a concerned and curious look on his face. “Allison? What’s going on? Everyone else has left already, and they still haven’t told us what’s happening topside.” Travis asked as she led the group into the basement, and she could see the panic resurfacing in his eyes.

“I’ll explain in a moment. Can you get the rest of the lifeguards together, at least the ones who aren’t working on a critical patient right now? I don’t want to have to repeat myself a bunch of times, there’s a lot to go over.” Allison replied, and Travis nodded as he turned back towards the triage area.

“The rest of you, stay here for a moment. I’ll get Jack and introduce you so he can get you started.” Allison continued, looking back at the girls behind her. They nodded as Allison stepped towards the entrance of the triage area. She scanned the area, spotting Jack as he looked up from a patient, and she waved him over. After a few moments to finish what he was doing, he stood and made his way over.

“What’s up?” He asked as he drew near.

Allison motioned to the group of the Orion campers. “I’ve got some help for us. You know some of what’s going on, so I need some time to explain it to the rest of the team. Can you get these girls started on helping out? We might be a little while.” Allison replied.

Jack nodded as he turned to the group, a gentle smile on his face. “Hello girls. I’m not sure if I’ve met any of you, so can we go around and introduce ourselves before we get started?” Jack began, and Allison drifted away from the group, her eyes scanning over the injured.

Around half of them were awake, their injuries relatively minor. Mostly some lacerations and sprained or broken bones. Hopefully, the least injured of them would be up and moving within a day or so, and able to take their place helping out around campus. The ones who had to get stitches to close their wounds would take longer, and those with sprains or breaks would take longer still.

The dozen or so who were unconscious were more worrying. Their injuries ranged from more severe lacerations and multiple contusions, to severe blood loss, broken ribs, concussions and a myriad of other injuries they didn’t have the equipment to diagnose correctly. Allison still wasn’t certain if they’d catch some of the worst off before it was too late to help them, especially if any of them, the minorly injured included, had any internal bleeding. Allison just prayed to herself that anything they couldn’t see wouldn’t be too serious, but realistically, they were looking at at least a few more deaths by the end of the day.

Her eyes strayed to the row of bodies covered with sheets, and noticed Penny wasn’t there anymore. She turned to her team as they approached, nodding to Jack as he brought the girls of Orion C into the triage area. She motioned to her team to follow her, and made her way over to the middle of the basement, sitting heavily in one of the chairs. Russell and Savannah took seats close to her, Helena a bit further away, but Travis remained standing, his foot tapping irritably on the concrete floor.

“What’s going on, Allison?” Helena asked, and Allison took a deep breath as she began to explain.

It didn’t take long for their faces to go pale, their eyes fill with panic. It hurt more than she expected to see that. Just 24 hours ago, the most they had to worry about was the sporadic rescue in the swim area, and making sure the kids weren’t roughhousing on the raft. Now she was telling them that their lives were in danger, both from an unknown threat and from the slow threat of starvation should they be unable to escape in time. And on top of that, they were completely responsible for the health and wellbeing of the camp, something they barely had enough training in. Their modus operandi was to be the stopgap before real, professional help arrived.

“What the hell are we supposed to do, Allison? Help isn't coming, Owen’s dead, and Madison’s, well….” Travis trailed off as Allison shot him a glare, before closing her eyes and reining herself in. It wasn’t his fault, and she had to remind herself not to lash out.

“I know, I know. Believe me, if there was anyone else who could be doing this, I’d be all for turning it over to them. But we’re all they’ve got.” Allison looked past her team to the triage area, her heart heavy in her chest. “I don’t know about you, but I mean to do everything I can for them. Every little bit helps. We might not be able to fix everything, or save everyone, but we owe it to them to at least try.”

Russell nodded from his seat, his arm around Savannah as she trembled. Travis paced in place, his eyes still wide and unfocused.

Helena pushed herself off of the wall, standing firm and focused as she looked at her. “What’s the plan then, boss?” Helena asked. Allison smiled at her. At least one of them was able to set their own feelings aside for the moment, and hopefully with her example the others would follow.

Allison beckoned the rest of the group to follow her up the stairs as she talked. “We’re going to start by setting up a better triage area upstairs. Clear away the chairs and get the maintenance group to bring us mattresses, instead of yoga mats.” She pointed around the room as she talked, a layout of the room coming into focus in her mind as she talked. “We’ll see if we can rig up some privacy curtains as well, but that can wait until we’ve got people settled. We’ll have to get the rest of the supplies from the health center as well, I don’t want to have to keep going back and forth just to pick up what we need, especially if those bears return. I’d rather not have to run for my life for supplies again.” Allison tried to joke, but it fell flat against their somber moods, and she sighed.

Russell rubbed at his face, a tight frown slashed across it. “It’s going to be tough moving some of them upstairs. I don’t know if it’s safe for some of them.” Russell replied.

Allison nodded. “We’ll start with the ones who can move themselves, and evaluate the ones who can’t later. But this basement is no place for them to stay, the cold, damp and dark won’t do any good for them. Not to mention the dust.” Allison said.

Helena snapped her fingers, her eyes lighting up. “What about the supplies at the beach? We’ve got a backboard there, it might help us move some of them.” Helena asked.

Allison nodded. She hadn’t thought of it, being as frazzled and overwhelmed as she was. “We’ll get that too, but there should be one at the health center already.” Allison replied.

“Would be easier to move everyone if we had both though.” Russell said.

“We’ll need clean sheets too. Whoever goes for the supplies at the health center should stop by operations.” Helena added, and Allison’s heart dropped.

Allison’s heart dropped as the grisly scene she and the others had encountered while finding Madison reared its head in her mind. She shivered, trying desperately to push it aside. “Just....Don’t try to go into the office, all right? None of you need to see that.” Allison requested, and they all nodded, looking a bit queasy. They had been told about Owen’s death and the state of the room, and it was obvious none of them wanted to experience that themselves.

“How do you want us to go about this? Get the kids to start clearing upstairs?” Helena asked.

Allison nodded, thankful for the suggestion. “That's a good start. We’ve stabilized most of the injured for now the best we can, so we don’t need all of us down here. Helena, Travis, can you two organize that? We’ll need the chairs stacked against the back wall, and the floor swept as best we can. Bring the younger four kids with you.” Helena nodded, taking Travis with her as she headed back towards the triage area.

Savannah stepped up next, a hesitant and anxious look on her face. “What do you need us to do?” Savannah asked, her voice still shaky.

Allison thought for a moment. Letting Savannah get some air outside would probably help her re-focus herself. Allison had thought about going for the supplies herself, but letting Savannah and Russell take point on that would probably do them better in the long run so Allison could focus on organizing the team at Andromeda. “The health center golf cart should be parked around the side. If you two could take that and head back to the health center to grab the supplies, as well as the sheets from operations, that would be a good place to start. It’s only a four-seater and you’ll need room for the supplies, so you might need to make a few trips.” Allison replied. Russell nodded as they stood, and Allison groaned as she levered herself to her feet as well.

“Grab some of the radios from the health center while you’re there, maintenance is going to put someone on getting them working again, and I’d rather have them with us once they do. Don’t forget the charging docks as well.” Allison added.

Russell nodded, hesitating as Savannah looked ready to bolt outside. “You got it. Want us to grab our sets from the beach as well?” Russell asked.

Allison nodded, thankful that someone else had thought of it. More sets available for more people would do well, and constantly sending people out for just one thing or another would quickly eat into the time they had. “Once you get the Health Center and Ops rounds done, then yes, do the beach as well. Grab anything front here you think may come in handy. And lock the gate when you’re done, it won’t stop anyone from going swimming if they really want to get over it, but at least it’ll deter some people.”

Savannah gave her a nervous chuckle as she eyed the exit. “At least we don’t have to worry about buddy checks any more.” Savannah replied.

“Way I see it, everyone should be doing buddy checks all the time now. Don’t want anyone to go missing and have nobody notice.” Russel grumbled.

Allison nodded. “I’ll bring it up with security, see if they can put something in place. Maybe regular check-ins or something. Any other questions?” Allison asked, and both of them shook their heads. Allison nodded, and they turned towards the outside as she took a deep breath before heading back down to the triage area.

Jack and the remaining three Orion C girls were kneeled around the two swim instructors, Kendra and Alice. Allison watched for a moment as Jack finished demonstrating how to wrap a bandage around Kendra’s leg, with Alice encouraging one of the girls to copy his movements. Jack caught her eye and nodded at her before he got up and moved around the group to join her.

“How are they doing?” Allison asked.

“Good enough for the moment. Good call on having the younger kids go upstairs, some of them were starting to look a bit queasy. Sarah, Amanda and Brittany are doing all right though. Catching onto stuff quickly.” Jack replied, motioning towards the three girls around the swim instructors.

Allison watched Kendra and Alice help the trio around them for a moment. “They volunteer to act as guinea pigs?” Allison asked.

Jack nodded, pointing at Kendra. “Kendra had to have her bandages changed anyway, so she offered. Alice doesn't have a cut there, so I figured it’d be good practice for them to see how it’s done and get the steps down first.” Jack replied.

Allison’s eyes swept across the rest of the injured campers. “Good thinking. How’s everyone else doing?” She asked, trying to see if anyone seemed to be in need of help.

“As good as we can make them for now. We’re going to have to tell the ones who are up what’s going on sooner or later, you know that right?” Jack asked.

Allison nodded, her heart sinking again as she rubbed at her face. “Once we get them settled upstairs, we’ll go around. I don’t want to aggravate their injuries any more by having the group of them panic all at once.” Allison replied.

Jack nodded as he looked around the room as well. “We need to start thinking about how to make more supplies. We’ve run through almost everything we have here, and I doubt our supplies at the health center will last for too much longer.”

“We’ll have to make our own bandages. I’ve got Russell and Savannah going for the rest of the supplies, as well as fresh sheets from operations. We can turn extra sheets into bandages.” Allison replied.

Jack shook his head, a grim frown on his face. “We’ll run out of those too at the rate we’re going.”

Allison shrugged. He was right, but there really weren't any other options available to them. “We’ll have to see if we can wash them. We should have soap or disinfectant around, or see if we can set up a station to boil them. Dining hall should be able to help with that, so long as we don’t cross contaminate. We’ll have to re-use what we can at some point.” Allison replied.

“We’ll need more disinfectant too. Think Katsuki’s got anything in the farms that’ll do?” Jack asked, and Allison shrugged.

Allison shrugged again. She hated not having the information she needed, every question further exposing her inadequacy for the task at hand. “We’ll have to ask. I’m sure he’ll know of something. Guy knows all the plants around here like the back of his hand.” Allison replied.

“Jack, Allison, we’re set here. What’s next?” They both turned as Alice called for them, the group of girls all looking at them expectantly.

Allison glanced at Jack for a moment before walking over, crouching next to Alice to see the bandages they had practiced with. “Looks good to me. Kendra, you’re still down for now, so just rest. The three of us will take one of the girls each and we’ll make the rounds. I’m sure we’ve got some other injuries that could use a change. Jack, you take the left side, Alice, you take the right, I’ll take the center. That’s six or seven each. If they’re unconscious, check their vitals and make a note of the results, I want baselines to compare to to see if they’re improving or getting worse.” Allison instructed.

The whole group nodded, and they partnered up, Jack with Amanda, and Alice with Brittany, leaving her with Sarah. The older teen followed her as she made her way to the back of the room, kneeling next to an unconscious young boy with bandages around his head.

Allison began unwrapping the bandages around the boy’s head as she talked. “To start with, we’ll need clean bandages and gauze. If I remember correctly from earlier, his head has a gash on the side of his forehead, so we’ll need a good amount. Head wounds always bleed a lot. Grab something to write on as well so we can take note of his vitals.” Sarah nodded as she headed over to the corner where the remaining medical supplies were as Allison checked the boy’s pulse. The steady beat was weak underneath his skin, and Allison counted to herself as she figured out his heart rate.

“His heart rate is good, but weak. 66 bpm.” Allison noted as Sarah came back.

Sarah quickly shuffled through the supplies in her hands and wrote down the number. “Do you know his name?” Sarah asked, and Allison shook her head.

“We’ll figure that out later. The full roster is in admin, so we’ll get it when we have the time. Katsuki’s list only includes people who could tell us who they were, he didn’t have time to get the full roster. Label them by position for now, we’ll keep track when we move them upstairs.” Allison replied. She finished unwrapping the bandages around his head, pleasantly surprised that the wound had begun clotting already.

“Gauze here, please.” Allison instructed, and Sarah helped her replace the bandages with new ones as she re-wrapped his head.

It took some time for them to get into a rhythm, but Sarah was a good listener, and soon was anticipating what Allison would ask for and have it ready ahead of time. She was quiet, which Allison attributed to her focusing on absorbing as much as she could as they worked. Allison could see the gears turning in the teen’s mind as they went, her motions getting surer and more confident as they went.

“Like that?” She asked as they finished with another girl, resetting a rudimentary splint on her foot after re-bandaging the cuts around her ankle.

Allison looked at Sarah’s handiwork, gently tugging at the bandages. “Looks a bit loose around the top, re-wrap that bit and tie it off well. We don’t want her flexing her ankle and shifting the wrappings.” Allison instructed, and Sarah nodded as she undid the wrappings and tried again. “You’re doing great, by the way. I certainly didn’t pick any of this up as fast as you have.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and huffed dramatically. “Yeah, sure.”

Allison smirked. “I mean it, honest. It probably helps not having to do these on a plastic dummy in a classroom.” Allison tried to joke.

“I’d rather be doing it like that than this.” She responded.

Allison’s grin fell off of her face, sighing to herself as she realized she had put her foot in her mouth. “Yeah, so would I. I really appreciate you girls stepping up though, having just my staff team on this would have made things a lot harder on us.” Allison replied.

Sarah eyed her for a moment before nodding. “You guys look like you’re about to fall over.” Sarah stated bluntly.

Allison snorted, nodding at her. “Believe me, when I finally get the chance to crash, I’m going down for the count. Gonna sleep like a log tonight.”

The corners of Sarah’s mouth curled upwards. “Long as you don’t snore, we’ll be fine. I’m assuming we’re staying here in triage in case of emergencies?” Sarah asked, but Allison shook her head.

“You girls won’t be. I’ll be having the lifeguard team staying in here in case we need more hands, but you girls don’t need to-”

Sarah interrupted her, pressing closer to her with a serious look on her face. “What if you need more help? If something happens, you might not have the time to come get some of us before it’s too late.” Allison paused as Sarah stared at her, a dark gleam in her eyes passing by before Sarah wiped at her face and looked back at her task.

Allison sighed, sitting back a bit. “I won’t deny it. We could probably use you all staying here too. But I don’t want to push that on any of you if it gets to be too much. From what Madison has told me, live-in nurses have a pretty high turnover rate due to not really having time away. I’d rather not burn you guys out.” Allson replied, a pang going through her heart as she thought of Madison. She looked over to the corner where Madison had been put, Jack just having moved away from looking her over. She knew she couldn’t be objective if she’d been the one checking her. As much as it hurt to stay away from her, there wasn’t much Allison could do about her at the moment. Her team and the injured came first.

“What about you all though? If you guys burn out, where does that leave the rest of us?” Sarah asked, and Allison’s attention turned back to her.

Allison sighed, looking down at the finished splint and nodding. “We’ll do our best to take breaks too.” She agreed, and Sarah eyed her for a moment before gesturing back at the splint.

“How’s that?” She asked.

Allison tested the wrappings, satisfied with their tightness. “Much better.” Allison stood, stretching out her back. It ached from being hunched over the campers for so long.

“Allison?” Sarah’s voice was quiet, and she turned back to look at her. She had a troubled look on her face, and Allison crouched back down in front of her.

“Something wrong?” Allison asked.

Sarah hesitated for a moment, fidgeting in place before she worked up the nerve to speak again. “I...I just…Are we going to be okay?” The stoic confidence Sarah had portrayed so well earlier had melted away, leaving a scared, anxious kid, and Allison’s heart broke a little. She understood the feeling well, it weighed down on her constantly, trying to press her shoulders to the floor.

Allison scooted around to put an arm around Sarah’s shoulders. “We’re going to be fine. Me and the rest of the staff have a lot of ideas for what to do, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we all get out of this.” Allison promised. Sarah’s eyes still looked dark and doubtful, and Allison couldn’t blame her. It was an empty promise, filled with nothing by baseless platitudes. But it was all she could offer at the moment.

“Allison? Upstairs is clear, and maintenance is bringing the mattresses in. How are we organizing the room?” Helena called from the top of the stairs.

Allison looked over her shoulder towards the staircase. “I’ll be right up in a moment.” Helena nodded as Allison turned back to Sarah. “Are you good here?”

Sarah sighed and nodded. “Good as I can be, I guess. Looks like the others aren’t done on their rounds yet.” Sarah replied, pushing herself to her feet.

Allison nodded at her as she stood as well. “Join up with one of them. We’ll be starting to move people upstairs once we get the layout of the room figured out, so figure out who is ready to move and who will need help.” Sarah nodded and headed over to Jack as Allison left the triage area and headed upstairs.

The entire floorspace had been cleared, the chairs stacked neatly against the wall near the basement door. The younger girls of Orion were still pushing brooms around the floor, slowly working their way towards the front of the room, where a bunch of campers were stacking bare mattresses against the wall.

“So how are we going to lay these out?” Helena asked as she walked over.

Allison took a moment to visualize the space as she looked around the empty meeting hall. “We’ll need at least a few feet of space between each one to move around, enough space for people to work back-to-back on two separate beds. Possibly a bit more if we can figure out how to rig privacy curtains.” Allison replied.

Helena hummed for a moment, the gears turning in her head. “We could use the chair stacks. We’d just need poles going between them, hang sheets over that.” Allison eyed the stacks and shook her head.

“Won’t be enough of them-”

“There’s more in the other meeting halls, right? If those are being turned into where everyone’s sleeping, they won’t be needed there. I think we’ll have enough if we take those too.” Helena interrupted.

“You seriously want to lug all those chairs between the meeting halls? That’s going to be a lot of extra work.” Allison pointed out.

Helena shrugged, a defeated look crossing her face for a moment before she sighed. “If we ask these maintenance groups for help, it’s only a stack or two per person. We get enough people doing it, and it’ll go by quickly.”

Allison looked at the boys and girls carrying mattresses in and nodded. “Any idea who is in charge of this group? I’ll ask them.” Allison asked.

Helena motioned towards the outside. “Pretty sure I saw Connor a minute ago.” Helena replied, and Allison nodded as she went in search of the archery range manager.

Luck had it that he was helping coordinate the mattress unloading from the truck right outside, and with a bit of persuasion, Allison managed to convince him to have the maintenance group he was in charge of help move the chairs from the other meeting spaces into Andromeda. Allison threw herself into the task alongside them with Helena, Travis, and the other Orion girls. Helena was right, it didn’t take too long to get the chairs moved, and Allison measured out a grid pattern across the floor, directing the chair stacks to be set at the crosses.

Allison stopped Connor as he passed by her on his way back out of Andromeda to grab another mattress. “We’ll need some kind of poles to go between the stacks as well.” Allison mentioned as she pointed towards the group as they worked to lay the mattresses out.

Connor nodded, a thoughtful look on his face as he wiped the sweat off of his brow. “We’ll be working on some construction projects for defenses around campus, and we’ll probably be taking some trees down as part of it. We’ll get you something, but it won’t be pretty.” He replied.

Allison nodded, satisfied. “Doesn’t have to be pretty, just functional.” Allison said.

“Can do. Anything else before we get the second round of mattresses going?” He asked.

Allison shook her head after a moment, nothing else springing to mind. “Not at the moment. I’m sure to have something else by the time you get back though.” She replied.

Connor grinned as he saluted her. “Sure thing, just give a holler.” He disappeared out the door, stepping aside as Savannah and Russell approached, large bundles in their hands.

“We’ve got sheets.” Russell stated, quickly tearing open the plastic wrap on one end.

Allison took some out of Savannah’s hands, helping her move them towards other parts of the room. “Mattresses first. We’ll have something to hang the rest on later, but I’d like to get people upstairs as soon as possible.” Allison directed.

Savannah nodded, pointing towards one of the front corners of the room. “We overheard someone say the radios are working again, we put ours over in the corner with the medical supplies.”

“Perfect. Grab one before you head back out, I want everyone on duty to be in earshot of a radio from now on.” Allison replied as she walked over to the pile, grabbing a few from the stack. She twisted the knob on top, and was pleased to note that uninterruptible static wasn’t coming through it anymore.

“-need some more people up at Ursa Minor, both cabins are down up here, over.”

“Start with cabin A. Don’t touch cabin B for now, we’ve got confirmed deceased in there.”

“Roger that. Over and out.” Allison winced as she turned the volume down. If that was the kind of message being put over the radio at the moment, maybe it was better not to have them on until they needed them.

Allison headed back downstairs with an extra radio after passing one to Russell, mentioning what she had heard and to keep it turned low for the moment. She handed one to Jack as well, and he clipped it to his belt.

“So who’s ready to get upstairs?” She asked, and was surprised when quite a few hands went up around her. Jack grinned, and shrugged at her bemused expression. “All right. Don’t move just yet, we’re going to come around to help if you need it, but we’re keeping things organized, so go where we tell you, all right?”

Several heads bobbed at her, and she took the notebook from Sarah as she squinted at her writing. It didn’t take long to get some of them settled upstairs, mostly the ones with injuries on their arms or heads. Some had to be guided upstairs due to bandages covering an eye, but for the most part, it was a smooth transition. Allison frowned as she looked at the blood-stained yoga mats they left behind, making a mental note to have Connor come back at some point later on to dispose of them.

“That’s the easy part.” Jack breathed as he came back downstairs. “Everyone else is going to need help.”

Allison nodded, looking at the few people who were left downstairs, too injured to move themselves, or straight up unconscious. “Then let’s get to it. We’ll pair up to move each of them, no sudden movements. Leave the unconscious ones for last, we’ll need to put them on the body boards.” Allison moved towards a young boy with a broken leg, and he whimpered as she kneeled next to him.

Jack comforted the boy as he kneeled down beside him. “Don’t worry, we’re going to be careful. Just relax.” Jack said as they lifted him up off the ground and headed for the stairs.

“Gonna take a while with just the two of us.” Jack huffed.

Allison grunted, carefully maneuvering herself up the stairs as she kept an eye on her charge. “We’ll get Russell and Savannah to make a pair as well. Kendra and Alice can keep an eye on the rest while we move them.” Allison replied.

Allison lost track of the number of times they made the trip bringing another person upstairs. It seemed like the number grew with each person they moved, and they had to stop several times to catch their breath. The stairway was only made for one person to go up or down at a time, and trying to get three people up the stairs at the same time was awkward and tough.

Jack pulled her aside at one point to ask if she wanted him to move Madison, but Allison refused. Despite not trusting herself to provide adequate care for her, Allison wasn’t about to let them do everything for her. Madison was still her best friend, and she was determined to make sure that she was well taken care of. “I can handle getting Madison upstairs-”

Jack interrupted her, a serious look on his face. “You sure you want to do that? You’ve been avoiding her ever since we got her back here.”

Allison’s gut clenched, a wave of irritation flooding her as she turned to look at him. “That’s only because I didn’t want my feelings to get in the way of being objective to her care. I can at least do this much.” Allison protested.

Jack looked at her for a long moment before nodding, and they walked over to the corner where Madison had been put. Someone had taken the time to clean all of the blood off of her, and Allison silently thanked them as she kneeled down. She waved her hand in front of Madison’s open eyes, staring silently into the distance.

“Madison? You there?” She asked, and her heart clenched when there was no response. Allison sighed, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment to keep the tears back. “We’re going to get you upstairs, okay? We’ve got a bed for you there, with clean sheets, and fresh air. Doesn’t that sound good?”

Madison still didn’t reply, and Jack put a hand on her shoulder as she trembled. She took a long breath, steadying herself. She had to get Madison upstairs, that was the next step. She’d worry about what came next later.

“Let’s go.” Allison said. It wasn’t any less awkward, carrying Madison up the stairs, but her friend seemed so much heavier than the rest of them. The weight of responsibility, she thought to herself. Allison directed them to the corner near the door.

“There, you’ve got windows on two sides. More sunlight for you.” Allison murmured as they set her down on the mattress. Allison looked at her for a long moment before she turned away.

Jack looked at her with sympathetic eyes. “She’ll get better soon.” He promised. Empty platitudes once again.

Allison had to accept them though. Empty or not, it was all she had to go on at the moment. “Yeah, soon.” Allison replied, as they headed back downstairs.

Allison’s arms were ready to quit on her as they began using the body boards to carry the unconscious injured upstairs. At least the body board made things a bit easier, instead of handling the injured directly, they now had convenient handles to grab, and could go up in a neat line. The corner at the top of the stairs proved to be a bit tricky, but they managed to make it look easy after a few tries.

“That’s the last of them.” Jack gasped as they lowered the body board next to a mattress.

Allison groaned, rubbing at her shoulders as Helena and Travis helped unstrap the camper from it. “The last of the living, in any case.” She replied absently. The people within earshot all abruptly came to a standstill, and she looked at the group around her as they stared back.

“We’re moving the bodies too?” Travis asked.

Allison frowned, confusion dizzying her brain. “They can’t stay down there.” Allison replied.

A pained, unsettling grimace crossed Travis’ face as he looked at her. “Can’t the maintenance group do that? They’re already doing the bodies in the cabins-”

Allison interrupted him, angry at Travis for even suggesting that they offload the heavy responsibility onto the group of kids who already were exhausting themselves with other duties. “Look, we just need to get them outside, okay? We’ll call maintenance to bring whatever truck they are using to bring them to wherever they’re being buried, but I’m not about to ask a bunch of kids to carry the bodies of their friends.” Allison growled. “The volunteers digging out bodies are going to see much worse than we are, at least the bodies we have are covered.”

Travis looked green as he stepped back from her. “Sorry Allison, but I didn’t sign up for this.”

Allison sighed, rubbing at her face with one hand. “None of us did Travis. If it’s too much for you, fine. There’s only a dozen of them down there, I'm sure that we can handle it from here. Go make yourself useful.” She bit, and Travis fled as Allison struggled to get her heartbeat under control.

“That was...harsh, Allison.” Savannah moaned.

Allison sighed, rubbing at her forehead as she tried to calm the headache building there. “Sorry, it’s been a long day, and...Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I’ll apologize to him later.”

Allison forced herself to move, grabbing the body board and carrying it towards the staircase. Her feet felt like lead as she descended the staircase. The basement was empty, devoid of life, and it had never seemed quite so dark and eerie as in that moment.

Jack came up beside her, looking around the dark basement for a moment as the enormity of the task ahead of them weighed heavy on both their shoulders. “Are you going to be okay with this?”

Allison shrugged, leaning into him for just a moment. “I don’t know. We’ll find out when we’re done, I guess.” She whispered.

Travis put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a comforting smile. “You’ve done a lot already. Just let me know when you’re done, and I’ll take over for a bit, okay?” He asked, and Allison nodded.

“Let’s get this over with.” She trudged towards the back, towards the smallest body in the row. The one she knew would be the heaviest burden to bear.

“Sorry, Chrissy. I hope you forgive me for not…” Allison’s voice failed her as tears stung at her eyes. She forced them back, taking a deep breath as she lay the body board next to the covered corpse.

Allison’s hunch was proved right as they hauled her upstairs, the room going quiet as the first of the covered bodies was brought outside. Her arms trembled as they lowered her to the ground next to the wall and removed her from the board. Her hand seized as she grabbed the radio, flicking the volume back up.

“Allison to...Connor, I guess. Who is in charge of the..the volunteer group in maintenance?” Her voice shook as she thumbed the radio’s button.

“James is. Do you have bodies for him to pick up?” The answer came, and Allison’s heart squeezed again.

Allison thumbed the button once again. “We’re bringing them up now. Can...can he take them from here?” Allison asked.

“Can do, Allison. We’ll be there in a few minutes.” James’s voice responded instead, and Allison nearly dropped the radio as she tried to clip it back to her belt. After a moment staring at the small, covered body, she grabbed the board off the ground and turned back towards the door.

“You sure you’re good?” Jack asked, his voice low with concern, and Allison nodded.

“Let’s get this done.” She repeated. Whether she was trying to convince him, or herself Allison wasn’t sure anymore.

It was slow, getting the rest of the bodies out of the basement. By the time they got to the last one, James had arrived with a few older boys and were carefully lifting them into the bed of their truck. Allison’s heart squeezed as they took Chrissy’s body last, and her legs nearly went out from under her as the tailgate was slammed into place, sounding to Allison’s ears like a coffin lid. The truck slowly drove away, and Allison’s heart went with it.

“Allison.” She turned to look at Jack, and he brushed a few tears from her eyes. “You can be done for a bit. We’ve got it from here.” He said. Allison couldn’t find it in herself to argue, and she nodded. She slowly drifted back inside, looking around the room for a moment, before turning towards Madison’s corner.

Madison still stared at the ceiling, the gentle rise and fall of her chest the only sign she was still alive. Allison settled herself down next to her, taking one of Madison’s hands in hers. Her breaths came deep and shaky as she tried to steady herself, squeezing her eyes shut to rid them of the tears flooding them.

“Mads, I...I know you’re in there somewhere. I...I need you. Please, come back to me.” Allison whispered. The lack of a response didn’t surprise her at this point, and she sighed, leaning against the wall.

“Take your time, Mads. I’ll be waiting.”