BLACKOUT; JR [1]

3.4

With our plan organised, we jogged into the middle of town. I left the school feeling a little bad about what we had done inside the gym, but the further away we got, the more my guilt dissolved. It helped me knowing that they didn't have any of our information. 

Sam and Jake took off in another direction, making their way toward Sam's family home as we stopped in front of one of the town's phone-boxes. 

Felix stepped out into the ally, eyeing the ground furiously as I let out a dry laugh, noticing the dusty buttons; it was clear that we were the first people to use this in a long time. 

Andy stood there with his hands on his hips, his furrowed eyebrows accenting his confusion. "What are you doing?" 

"I'm trying to find a coin." The boy mumbled, never lifting his gaze from the asphalt. Andy looked incredibly sceptical when Felix reached down into the gutter and rummaged through the leaves, but when he revealed a silver coin and a huge smirk, Andy grinned widely. "My superpower." Felix winked at me, and I pushed him toward the booth.

Andy eagerly slotted the coin into the machine and dialled the number of his grandmother's restaurant. Felix and I stood behind him silently, listening in to the order he was placing. 

Felix perked up before Andy could hang up, but when he tapped Andy on the shoulder, he only swatted Felix's hand away. "Get some lemon chicken." He mumbled, a slight frown on his lips. When Andy was done, he returned the phone back to the holder and we all retreated out of the small booth.

While we were waiting, Andy told us something crucial about the delivery guy and took us to the news-agency; we waited across the road and stood behind a tree. I felt like a spy, and so did Andy, apparently.

"The ninja would observe their target for weeks, gaining intimate knowledge of their daily habits." He said quietly, his eyes narrowing as the delivery man approached the side of the road on his scooter. "Here he comes!" Andy exclaimed. He stopped his bike in front of the news-agency as predicted, not bothering to shut off the engine. "He has a crush on one of the ladies that work in there, and every afternoon, he sneaks her a little package of dumplings." Andy said with a smug expression as the delivery guy fished a bag of food out from the back of his bike and rushed inside.

"What now?" Felix asked, seeming to read my mind.

"A decoy is an essential element." Andy responded, holding up two bags identical to the bags we were about to steal, expect the only difference was that ours were full of rubbish.

We ran across the road when we were sure that nobody was paying attention to us. Andy stole the bag of food from the box, handed one to both Felix and I in a rush, and replaced them with the decoy bags. 

We ran up the street without looking back, feeling like rebels and laughing loudly as the adrenaline pumped through our veins. We didn't stop running until the shack came into view, and we were lucky enough to have met up with Jake along the way. Felix nearly pulled the door down in his haste and dumped all our food on our makeshift table. 

"We can't eat yet." I stated, still standing as the others sat down. They all looked at me like I was insane. "Sam's not here."

"We'll save him some." Jake shrugged. Despite my slight guilt, I sat down as Andy started handing out the food containers. Felix removed his lip piercings before he began eating, but once he started I was afraid he was going to choke; I'd never seen someone eat something so fast. When he was done, he mumbled a sentence that I couldn't understand and then went outside. 

Jake, Andy, and myself all shared mindless conversation in the moments before a chorus of loud banging took our attention. Felix hadn't been gone for two minutes before he and Sam started pounding on the door and screaming for us to let them in. 

Jake quickly tried to open the door for them, thinking that maybe it was just jammed and they were anxious we weren't going to leave them any food, but when Jake claimed that the door wouldn't budge, I suddenly felt so distressed I was worried I was going to choke up all the food I had just eaten. 

They sounded so terrified, and with their voices combined with the abrupt wind outside, it was hard to tell them that we couldn't open the door. 

"It's stuck!" Jake yelled, his words only just carrying over the howling wind beyond the wood.

"Pull the door open on three!" I shouted, Jake and Andy's heads snapping toward me as they nodded. "One. Two. Three!" We used everything we had, and the door flew open. Sam and Felix fell on top of each other as I slammed the door shut.

"What's going on?" Jake yelled as we all pushed furniture towards the door, blocking the entryway.

"There's something out there!" Felix cried, pointing at the only way out. 

"What? Like, a ghost?" I squeaked, staring at the Goth with wide eyes. When Felix didn't say anything, Andy's face turned white and his jaw fell open in both shock and fear. 

We all quickly gathered a random item from the floor of the shack in order to defend ourselves against whatever it was that was outside. In a line, we knelt down behind a few crates that we'd shoved together and pushed up the various items we'd collected; I held a broken broom stick in my hands, the spiked edge pointed at the closed door of the shack.

Andy suddenly began to speak, and at first I thought he was talking to me, when he was really trying to convince himself. "There's no such thing as ghosts!" He shouted, eyes closed tightly. "There's no such thing as ghosts!" He repeated, reaching around to grab my hand and squeeze it with a fierce grip. 

I stared at the shaking door with wide eyes and a lump in the back of my throat, genuinely thinking that we weren't going to live to see tomorrow.