Six (Countdown book 1)

Chapter 5

"Yeah, sure." Tony said excitedly. Andy muttered something under her breath and followed him into what was probably the kitchen, off to one side. About ten seconds later, they re-emerged with a dinenr trolley, with seven plates of food on it, and bottles of drink for the glasses that were already on the table. I realised that the food they handed out was pizza, garlic bread and chips and my stomach groaned with longing. I guess I was hungrier than I thought.

I started straight away when Tony handed me a plate. Everyone else dug in as well. I filled my glass with coke and drank nearly all of it in one gulp. "Tell me, Tony," Wyatt said suddenly. "How was the journey."

"Not too bad." Tony muttered. "We ran into some Hunters on the underground, but Eli delt with them, didn't you kid?"

I knew that he was calling me that to annoy me, and it was working. "Well, it wasn't... I didn't..." everyone was looking at me expectantly. Tony seemed to notice how uncomfortable I was, so he quickly launched into an explanation of what happened, not even missing out the parts where he got us caught and then tripped up on the stairs.

"That was good thinking, Eli." Wyatt said. "I'm sure you'll do well here." he smiled comfortingly.

We all finished eating pretty quickly. We stayed sat there for a long time, though, chatting happily, and explaining how everything worked around here. At some point, Wyatt handed me a timetable, which I stuffed in my pocket, barely looking at it. I only had time to notice that I had Saturdays almost completely off (except guard duty, which we each had four hours of a day). Wyatt explained that I wouldn't have to do guard duty for at least two weeks, while I settled in. Also, on each day, one of us would cook for the day. Today, Thursday, Wyatt cooked. I was penciled in for Tuesday, which was fine by me.

At around eight o'clock, everyone started going to bed, complaining about the homework Ben had set them that had to be in tomorrow that they hadn't done. I was the last one to go up, figuring I could work out for myself which way to go. I was talking to Wyatt for a long time. It turned out this was his family's castle. He told me it's whole history, and I loved to hear about it. Okay, I'll admitt it: History was my second favourite subject. I loved to hear about old stuff and people who'd done brave things and whatnot.

As I got up to leave, so did Wyatt. He called me back when I got to the door, though. "Eli? Could I ask a favour of you?"

I turned back. "Yeah, sure." I said. "What- oh." Wyatt nodded to the plate of stone-cold food next to his empty plate. I'd been so been chatting that I'd forgotten about Scarlett being late, and that made me feel bad.

"Can you take it up to her, please?" Wyatt asked. "I fear she is grieving the loss of Steve. But she should still eat." he smiled at me. "See if you can talk to her." he said.

"Oh." I said again. "She probably won't listen to me."

"She needs a friend, Eli." Wyatt coaxed.

"And I've known her for a day and a half." I said. "You should send Tony or Andy up there."

"Please, Eli." Wyatt said.

"Fine." I muttered. I reached over for the plate, then paused and filled her empty glass with coke. I put the knife and fork onto the plate, picked the glass up and headed for the exit.

After the third staircase and six lefts, I got lost. I tried to go back the way I'd come, but I just ended up outside in the main courtyard. I noticed a figure stood up on the top of the outer wall, and I figured it must be Tony because he was on guard duty tonight. I remembered Wyatt telling me that the only time there wasn't a guard on duty was at meal times. That was the only time everyone was in together, and even then, most of the time Ben didn't join.