Her Compound

Chapter 5

I woke up to the sound of Willow's voice and the light that was overhead flick on. I immediately rolled over towards the wall, away from the harsh light, and shoved my face into the side of my pillow with an audible groan.

"Are you awake, Zoe?" I could hear her say as she hopped down from the bed above me.

Logan let out a laugh. "We probably could have let her sleep some more."

I groaned again and rolled over to face them. My mind felt foggy from just waking up and the light only made it worse.

"Woah," Matteo said from where he was sitting on the other side of the room on the bottom bed. "Did you not sleep at all last night? The bags under your eyes look way more prominent than before and your hair looks like a haystack. You look like a whole zombie."

A yawn escaped my lips and I rubbed my hand against my eyes as I sat up and swung my legs over the side of my bed. "My hair looks fine," I lied. "And I'm also gonna pretend that I didn't just hear you compare me to a zombie." I then dropped my hand and stared at all of them. "Why are you all even awake?"

Willow and Logan both stared at Matteo.

Matteo immediately took offense to the looks that he got and glanced at the two of them with wide eyes. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh, I have no idea," Logan said, staring down at him from the top bed above Matteo. "Maybe because a certain someone woke us up."

"What'd he do?" I asked with another small yawn.

"All I did was try and see if the door opened," Matteo replied with an eye roll. "And don't bother trying to do it. The door locks when closed and only opens on the other side."
My eyebrows raised. "So we're trapped in here?"

Matteo nodded. "Looks like it."

Willow looked away from Matteo and then sat down beside me, leaning close to my ear. "He didn't even try being quiet. He's like a bull in an antique store, I swear."

I pushed down the twisted feeling that the thought of being trapped in here caused, and a smile broke out on my face as Matteo glared at her.

"You do know I can hear you right?" he said to her with an arched eyebrow.

Logan hopped down from above Matteo and in one fluid motion, he flopped himself beside Matteo and pushed him over. "I think that was the whole point."

Matteo righted himself back up - the glare leaving his face - and then shoved Logan right back, a large grin replacing his features. "You are one annoying dude sometimes, you know that?"

"Aww," Logan said, with a laugh and a pat on Matteo's shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that's what makes me so enjoyable to hang around."

We all stared at him for a moment, large smiles on our faces, until Willow broke the silence. "Actually... I don't think that's how that works."

Our laughter suddenly pierced the air and I looked at each of them, soaking in this wonderful moment, wanting it to last forever.

I knew that it wasn't going to last long... but why not enjoy it while it lasts?

A movement then caught my eye and I looked toward the door as my laughing fit went away, being replaced by a frown. I could see a forehead and light blond hair through the small window. Matteo, Willow, and Logan all followed my gaze towards the door and immediately stopped laughing, their smiles falling from their faces just as mine had.

Zack then appeared alone on the other side, after opening the door, wearing a similar outfit to what he had worn the day before, his right foot propping the door open.

"Good," he said from the doorway. "I see you're all awake."

Willow gave him a scowl. "It's kind of hard to sleep knowing that death is right around the corner."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek and looked down at the floor.

Zack stared at all of us for a moment before letting out a small breath and then gesturing to the hallway with a wave of his hand. "We'll be getting the others and then getting you all cleaned up."

I could see Willow's and Matteo's hands both ball up into tight fists and knew we were all thinking the same thing. Were they gonna watch us shower like Ace had? Would I have to go through all of that again?

We all forced those thoughts out of our minds and followed Zack out of the room and down the hall to retrieve the other 16 teens from their rooms. As I followed behind Zack, walking at a decent speed, I could see a small black handle sticking out of the side of his pants and realized it was a knife. Did he think one of us was going to attack?

Once we collected everyone else, Zack led us in silence further down the hall towards the dead end that was shown on the map the day before. We then came to a part just passed where all of the lettered and numbered doors were, where two dark grey doors were. The left had a sign saying, "men's" and the right saying, "women's".

Zack stopped and turned towards us, glancing at his watch before speaking up. "I will give you all until nine o'clock to be completely ready. These here," he gestured to the two doors, "are the washrooms. Inside you will find the showers and there should be baskets on the benches in the middle of the room. Each basket is labeled with your name, so pick the one that is yours and you will find a few things that you can keep."

"Alright," he brought his watch up to look at again, "like I said previously, it's eight twenty-two and I want you all ready at nine. That gives you around thirty-five minutes to be showered and presentable." Zack's hand dropped back down by his side and he gave us all a half smile. "You may go now."

We were just about to make our move towards the corresponding doors when Lily spoke up towards Zack.

"You're not going to come in... right?"

Zack's smile faded from his face and he looked at Lily, confused. "Of course not." His eyes then found their way to my own for a split second before looking back at Lily. "How come?"

The boys and a few of the girls stopped in their tracks to listen in on the conversation, and listen to what Lily was going to say. I'm guessing that Ace was the only place that had done something like that. The teens that hadn't been in Ace's place looked shocked at Lily's next words.

"Well... the last few times we had to shower. The man - Ace - came in and watched us."

Zack looked completely shocked, as his light eyebrows shot up. He quickly composed himself and looked at Lily.

"You don't have to worry," he said down at her with a smile that seemed a bit forced. "We don't do that here."

A small bit of relief filled me at Zack's words. Along with his words, his actions and body language started to make me feel a little bit more safe than I had at Ace's. Well, not only that, but also the way his eyes flashed like a thunderstorm as Lily passed him, his jaw clenching as he let the anger flow through him.

I walked with the rest of the girls towards the washroom door, being the last one to enter. As I closed the washroom door behind myself I glanced once more at Zack and his rage filled eyes, before the door closed between us.