The Start of The End

Chapter 20- The unusual announcement

Today was the day. The day we would leave here. I was even more nervous today, hence why I woke up at 7:00 a.m. Kenji helped a little bit last night but not enough for me to not worry about Ruth and Forest getting caught today.
I sat in bed contemplating whether to wake Kenji up or not. I knew he wasn't a morning person at all but I was extremely bored and worried. And they are two emotions I didn't want to be feeling right now and I knew Kenji would be able to distract me from them.

I crawled up the ladder to his bed and started shaking him.
"Kenji please wake up!".
"Go away, Willow." He mumbled and pulled his blanket over his head. I fully climbed onto his bed and sat down beside him.
"I'm not leaving, now get up I want to talk to you," I said stubbornly, not daring to take no for an answer. But I realised quickly enough that Kenji was a lot like me, even if he hated to admit it, which meant that he was just as stubborn.
"Willow if you don't leave I will gladly kick you off my bed so you can fall to your death.".
"I wouldn't die if I fell from here because once Forest jumped off the bunk bed from this height when Ruth had that fight with Stephanie.".
Kenji screamed into his pillow and sat up and looked me dead in the eye not before saying
"Well Forest is much taller than you and not to mention a lot smarter which means he has a bigger brain that wouldn't be so easily smashed by hitting the cold concrete floor, now if you don't mind, leave me alone so I can sleep.".

I didn't want to die so I left Kenji alone and made my way over to Ruth and Forest. I was expecting them both to be asleep but to my surprise Ruth was awake, dressed and making her bed.
"Ruth! Thank god for your up, I couldn't sleep.".
"Me neither I have been up since five in the morning." She replied.
"Is it because you are worried about today?" I asked her. There was a long silence before she replied. But she finally said,
"Yeah, I am terrified about today. I mean if things don't go to plan and Stella catches us recording her I don't know what she will do, I mean we could try to think of some stupid excuse but we all know that won't work. And Forest and I are under so much pressure and everything is happening so fast, we just got here a few days ago and- sorry Willow, I'm just a bit stressed, but we will be fine. I know it.". Sadly I didn't believe Ruth on that last part. And she sounded like she didn't either. And after hearing what she said I realised she was right. Nobody was ready for what was about to come.

After breakfast Forest made sure to go over the plan with everyone including Stephanie, Bonnie, Brody and Justin at least one hundred times and then thought it would be a good idea to get everyone to recite the plan back to him.
"Okay Willow tell me, what is the plan?". "You and Ruth sneak into the staff-only area at dinner time and record Stella on the other side of the door.". "Yes, and then what?". "You come back here and show everyone the recording.". "Yeah, and what do you and Kenji do?". "Nothing," I replied. "Basically, but get your bags ready to leave.". "Then that's it, everyone knows the plan, the phone is ready and so are we." Said Ruth. Now we just had to wait for dinner time to roll around.

I watched the huge clock that sat on the wall, all day. It soon hit five o'clock, dinner starts at half six. Only a few more hours. It was safe to say we were all nervous. To calm myself down I decided to try to learn how to read from a book Ruth had brought here. It wasn't like the picture books my mother read to me, this one had no pictures at all. But that just meant there was more to learn, which was good.
After at least twenty minutes of staring at a page full of words I still didn't know, Kenji ran over to me.
"Kenji I need your help, you need to teach me how to read!" I urged him but he had other plans. He ripped the book out of my hands and threw it on the floor.
"Your sad attempt at reading can wait we have bigger problems, quick follow me." He said. It sounded urgent so I followed him. He led me to Forest Ruth, Stephanie, Bonnie, Justin and Brody who were standing among the group of people that had gathered in the centre of the room.
"What is everyone looking at, I can't see?" I asked Kenji while jumping up and down to try to get a better view.
"It's the president she is about to give some sort of speech or something.".
"How do you know?" I asked him.
"She is holding a microphone dumbass.".
"Oh.".

I hear her clear her throat and then say, "May I get everyone's attention please?". The room falls silent. It's like she had some spell on everyone that made them do as she says.
"Thank you. I just gathered you all here to tell you a quick message. A quite good one. Since you have all been so patient this past week I have decided that today's dinner will be different from your normal beans, I have got my hands on some gorgeous steak and vegetables and our amazing volunteers have cooked it all for you, so today you will be having steak. I would suggest you don't miss dinner today. Trust me.".
For some reason that last sentence sent shivers down my spine. Why was she doing this, why today? I wasn't the only one who found this off-putting as the others all shared concerning looks.

"Follow me," Bonnie said in a cold tone. We followed her back to their beds and all of us sat in a circle. There was an uncomfortable silence, a silence you only hear when everyone is at a loss for words. But silence doesn't last forever, someone has to break it and that someone was Kenji. "You don't think she is on to us, do you?".
"How would she be? I mean every time we have talked about our plan it's been whispered." Said Brody.
"Willow?" Ruth asked me.
"Yeah?" I replied slightly confused.
"You didn't tell anyone about our plan did you?" She asked me in an ice-cold voice I have never heard before.

"I.."

A/n
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Hey, I know I post chapters every Wednesday but I decided I would post the last three chapters today instead of waiting!
Enjoy!!!