"RISE AND SHINE," echoed thunderously throughout the loft. Caleb, emphatic as ever had arrived to graciously allow the newcomers leave of their sleeping quarters.
All four jolted into alertness with a start, and raised their heads for the express purpose of shooting Caleb sleepy but vicious looks; to which they received back only a simple, sly grin.
Still holding Harley in his arms, John pulled her close to him for just one more second and kissed her shoulder before loosening his grip, reluctantly allowing her to get up. Having gone to sleep with wet hair, Harley's alabaster locks were a tousled, tangled mess. John thought she looked adorable as she sleepily stood from the cot in her oversized T-shirt and awkwardly attempted to slip into her loner shoes.
"Gotta be at the mess hall by 0700 if you wanna eat!" Caleb announced, standing with his arms crossed near the stairwell.
At this, John finally rolled himself out of bed to join the rest of his group in getting ready to face the day.
As the foursome groggily made their way over to the stairs, Harley did her best to smooth her unkempt hair with one hand as Rebel rested comfortably in the other.
"Here love, I'll take him," John insisted as he lifted Rebel into his own arms.
Taking the lead, Caleb escorted John, Harley, Taylor and Edvin down to the main level of the building and out into a warm, sunny morning, making everyone who had just woken up squint in discomfort.
Walking quickly, Caleb guided the group down a brick walkway around the mould loft to the otherside where a clearer picture of Plateau began to take shape.
More old, warehouse- like buildings made of brick, metal and glass existed beyond the one they had just spent the night in, and all appeared from the outside to be at least half a century old. But between and around them grew vibrant trees and shrubs, some bearing colorful flowers and others even grew fruit and berries.
It seemed that all available space on the plateau had been put to good use.
The fouresome took in this new place. This new world apart from the world, where a community had learned to live and thrive, much like that of Wudinna and its little community. For Edvin and Taylor, Plateau made them long only for home.
"Here we are," Caleb announced as he strode up to the farthest warehouse from where they began and led the group directly through the threshold.
Inside was an enormous, open space with concrete floors, exposed metal framing and an impossibly tall peaked tin ceiling.
Rows of tables, chairs and no less than two hundred people occupied the center of the vast space. Some sat eating their morning meals and the others moved about, either looking for a seat or waiting in line at a makeshift concession stand at the far end of the hall, where workers dished out each person's humble ration of eggs and what appeared to be oatmeal.
As the group paced deeper into the space, led by Caleb, the residents of Plateau were made aware of their presence and a hush slowly began to fall throughout the mess hall. Those who had seen the foursome enter nudged those who hadn't in a procession until the whole place fell silent as they gazed at the newcomers.
Acutely aware of being observed, the foursome stiffened up awkwardly. Still they followed Caleb up the center of the hall, between the rows of tables and toward the breakfast line.
That was, at least, until the people began to clap their hands. Those who had been sitting stood from their chairs, and those holding their trays placed them down to join in.
Harley, John, Edvin and Taylor stopped in their tracks, feeling absolutely befuddled. The applause intensified within the gigantic, hollow space, the sound reverberating off the steel walls as more people began to clap.
Many of the people smiled brightly at the foursome as they applauded, while some others could be seen wiping tears from their cheeks with the backs of their hands.
Just then a little boy and girl, recognizable as Caleb's daughter came racing up the center of the hall, past Caleb and directly toward Harley.
She instinctively backed up a step, but before she knew it the two little ones collided into her, both wrapping their arms tightly around her waist. Beyond confused, Harley looked down at the smiling children attached to her hips then up at John searchingly. He offered her an amused smirk, entertained by her awkwardness.
Among the continuing applause, a few people burst out in cheers of joy, distracting Harley momentarily from her tiny predicaments.
Suddenly Caleb came striding back toward the foursome and gently pulled his daughter and the little boy away from Harley, "Don't hug strangers, you don't know where they've been," he said with a smirk as he shooed them away. At Caleb's decree, the kids skittered back down the center of the hall without looking back, Giggling cheerfully all the while.
Crossing his arms, Caleb gazed around the room at his people as they celebrated, then turned back to Harley with a grin, "Word got out that you're immune," he informed, having to speak loudly over the sound of clapping and obnoxious cheers.
"You believe us?" Edvin asked as he stepped closer.
Caleb shrugged, "Don't have to. Frank ran the tests. It's confirmed."
Harley studied the faces of the people surrounding her. Their bright smiles and tears of joy stirred something in her, something she couldn't ever remember feeling before. Despite having no choice in the matter of being immune, Harley felt a sense of validation from these strangers, and more than that, she felt a sudden and consuming desire to help them. She wasn't fooling herself into believing these people liked anything about her aside from her ability to help them, but like them, Harley was beginning to, in some ways, miss the world as it was before. And for the first time it truly occurred to her that she and she alone had the power to turn back the clock. It was all within her, and her entire shitty existence had moulded her into exactly what she needed to be to change the world. A survivor. A fighter with a gift to give. Not all people were good and deserving of a second chance, but if someone like John still existed in this cruel world, she felt like maybe it was worth saving after all.
Plateau, as the people liked to call the upper portion of the island, was an interesting and odd combination of old industrial and classic getaway, as the foursome would come to learn on their tour. The West entrance in which they had entered the Plateau looked nothing like the Northeast side, and in fact, could have been confused for a completely separate island altogether.
After passing two abandoned industrial silos, the landscape softened, displaying more leafy trees, bushes and grassy areas. The buildings themselves took on a far more comfortable and homey appearance, some with the Edwardian gable ends, balconies and multi panel sashes and casements and others, far more Georgian in design with shallow pitch roofs and stucco.
"Most of these were converted into museums as a visitor attraction back before the virus, but we needed housing so they've since been changed back into living quarters," Caleb enlightened as he and the foursome strode along one of the many paths that webbed themselves around the structures contained within the Upper Plateau.
"How many people live here on the island?" Edvin asked curiously.
Caleb answered easily, "two hundred and nineteen last count"
"Doesn't seem like enough space for that many people," John added, counting only five houses, some of which appearing unsuitable for living in.
"It's a little tight right now," Caleb admitted, "But we're working on getting the supplies we need to build more lodging"
Edvin found himself to be curious, "Do you leave the island often to collect supplies?"
Turning his gaze to Edvin suspiciously, Caleb squinted and asked, "Why do you want to know my comings and goings?"
"I don't. Just want to understand how you guys sustain yourselves here," Edvin answered feeling confused.
Caleb gazed at Edvin quietly for a moment before turning to continue walking, "I'll leave it to Margo's discretion to answer those kinds of questions," he uttered seriously.
Harley looked to John, who walked beside her and mouthed the name, "Margo?" questioningly.
"The woman we met yesterday," he reminded.
"The big, scary boss lady who runs the island- and our next stop," Caleb cut in without looking back at Harley.
With that, the group was quiet in thought and observation as Caleb led them to one of the houses nearby, ushered them past two armed guards with a nod of his head and escorted them inside. Harley looked behind her to see the guards following behind, MK 18's in hand.
Margo stood in the kitchen, leaning over a granite top island as she stared down at one of several spreadsheets scattered about, barely even noticing that she had company.
"Margo, I brought the prisoners you wanted," Caleb announced.
In usinson, everyone in the room gaped at him without speaking.
Caleb grinned, "Kidding"
Margo sighed, looking back to her spreadsheet, "I need you to go talk to Erin. The millet seed isn't adding up from last count," she instructed before picking up her paper and waiting for Caleb to take it from her hand.
Caleb nodded, "Got it," accepted the spreadsheet and moved through the group and two guards to exit the way he came in.
The foursome stood awkwardly as Margo grabbed a pen and started writing something down on one of the other sheets of paper spread around the island.
Edvin and John looked at each other, both wondering why they'd been brought to see a woman who clearly had no time for them in the first place.
Harley shifted Rebel from one arm to the other as he began to squirm for freedom. She wasn't sure whether he wanted to explore or do his business, but she was pretty certain that Margo wouldn't much appreciate a fresh puppy mess on her clean floor.
"I hope my son has been cordial with the four of you," Margo suddenly spoke without looking up from her writing.
"Caleb?" Taylor asked, furrowing his brows.
"The one and only," Margo replied, still jotting a note.
Edvin felt a grin hook itself into the corner of his mouth, "Oh, he's a gem"
"Glad to hear it," said Margo, either incapable of detecting sarcasm or fully aware of it; the group couldn't tell.
"Now," Margo spoke as she, at last, put down her pen and looked up at Harley, John, Edvin and Taylor, "I need you guys to convince me you're not part of a bigger group looking to Trojan horse my ass. Harley, I'll start with you. Follow me," Margo commanded.
One by one Margo brought each of them separately into an office on the second floor of her house for questioning. She snapped a photograph of them with a Polaroid camera she fished out of her desk and had each of them tell her their story from the beginning as she took notes.
When it was John's turn, he recognized her tactics as some of those used during a police interrogation. She began the questioning period by making small talk, simple things to make him feel more comfortable with her as well as to create a baseline of body language, facial expression and eye movement. She watched closely after each question and jotted down her notes right after.
As John got into actually telling his story, Margo would try to cause him to slip up by asking him to repeat a detail of his account which had been explained earlier in the interview.
John was impressed when she even went as far as to try to confront him about one of the others in his group having a different account of what happened during a specific incident they were both present for. Theme development came next. Margo created a scenario in which she could justify and understand why John and his group would want to takeover the Plateau. That they had nowhere safe to live and no food or decent shelter. That there were too many of them to simply share the island with her and her people. She watched closely to see if John liked the theme. Was he paying more attention than before? Was he nodding in agreement?
He knew what she was doing all along but feigned ignorance. He understood that she needed to feel safe in her review of the newcomers, that her expertise on reading people and finding the truth was what made her feel safe. If she were to discover John had been a cop, she would wonder if he had simply trained his companions to persuade her of their intentions.
After all four of the newcomers were thoroughly interrogated they waited with the guards on the main level for Margo to rejoin them as a group.
It was forty-five painful minutes before the big scary boss lady graced them with her presence.
"Well," she began, standing over them as they were all seated on the living room furniture, "I'm not going to shoot you all and have your bodies tossed into the harbor," she smiled, propping her hands onto her hips.
The room fell silent for a moment before Edvin piped up, "I can see where Caleb gets his sense of humor"