"How many tattoos do you have?" Saleem asked, pointing to a blue splotch peeking out of Emilio's shirt sleeve.

  Matthew was firmly asleep, and Donovan was soon to follow. A silence permeated the cinema that left Saleem in the discomfort with his thoughts. He was willing to talk about anything.

  "Five," Emilio mumbled back. He was scanning the paper products and toiletries. "You?"

  "Just one."

  Emilio continued to count rolls of toilet paper.

  He rolled up the sleeve on the arm that didn't get cut. There was a heart with Arabic script inside. "It says Yamo. I thought it'd be funny to get the word my family uses for mum in a heart, you know, like those tattoos from movies?"

  Emilio looked unimpressed. "Did your mum find it funny?"

  "... She did not."

  Emilio exhaled a little air out of his nose. "Dickhead." He threw a roll of toilet paper at Saleem.

  Saleem lunged at Emilio and they began to playfight.

  "Oi, I got a war wound here!" Saleem said, as Emilio was clearly winning.

  "My ass!" he grabbed some plastic that the toilet paper had come packed in. "Eat it!"

  Saleem jerked his head around to avoid the plastic, laughing, "You want me to eat your ass? Ah!"

  Emilio finally got the plastic into Saleem's mouth. He flung around wildly, before they tumbled into Elizabeth's organised food storage, sending packets flying.

  Elizabeth and Gowan both jolted upright as they heard the noise.

  Saleem quickly took the plastic from his mouth. Both Saleem and Emilio held their lips together tightly trying not to laugh. They looked down sheepishly.

  "Sorry." Emilio mumbled.

  Elizabeth sighed, "It's fine."

  For once she was just happy that people were getting along. She'd started praying whenever the silence took over. Recently she'd had a squeezing feeling deep inside that it would be over soon. At least re-organising the pantry was something to do. She got straight to work.

  Victor walked over to the trio. He moved his head towards Donovan and Matthew who were still in a deep sleep. He lowered his voice, shaking his head. "You wouldn't have brought all this back for fun."

  Gowan let out a single snore before rolling back over.

  Victor was almost murmuring, "Tell me what you actually found."

  Emilio looked to Elizabeth and nodded.

  She sighed as she searched for the right words. "We think we've been here longer than 3 days."

  He looked worried. "Why do you think that?"

  Elizabeth opened her mouth, but Saleem interrupted, "We found an hour glass. An actual hour. Someone had been keeping track."

  "There's someone else out there?" Victor asked.

  Emilio shrugged, "If there was, we didn't find them."

  "I'm almost afraid to ask," Victor hesitated, "how long has it been?"

  "5 days. Maybe more." Emilio picked some stray plastic off the floor.

  Victor's face twitched. His eyes darted around. "That can't be right." His eyebrows furrowed as he looked down to Matthew. "Are you sure?"

  Elizabeth, Emilio, and Saleem nodded.

  "No. This can't be." He took a deep breath. "That would mean ..." He looked down to Matthew. "I need to do more reading." He began to walk quickly up the ramp.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "You can't go alone." Emilio whispered loudly.

  Victor walked back to Emilio. "You said it yourself. Whoever is out there is running away from us. The book store is the best bet for us to find out what to expect next." He gestured around them. "There's been no earthquakes. There's been no blood moon. We don't know what's dying outside. If it has been more than 3 days, there's got to be a reason."

  "Do you really think it's going to be in a retail bookstore?" Elizabeth asked.

  Victor looked down to Matthew. "It's that or we just wait in here until the food runs out." He started walking up the ramp again. "I just need to be alone."

  As he walked to the double doors, he raised his voice a little, "Don't wait up."

  Emilio looked to the others nervously. "Do we just let him go?"

  Elizabeth's eyes darted to Donovan and Matthew to make sure they were still asleep. "Our friend managed herself this far. The book nook is nowhere near Moss & Fire. At worst, if he goes for a wander he'll just find some fire, then get more evidence and a new theory."

  Saleem looked at Matthew. "And he's probably learned his lesson on attacking strangers."

  Donovan stirred. He rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath. After a moment, his eyes shot open and a look of concern crossed his face. "Did you say it's been 5 days?"

  Elizabeth waved her hands and shushed him. "We think. We don't know. The water clock was off. It could have been a crappy hourglass too."

  He ran his hand through his brunette hair, that had since lost it's style from the first day. "Shit," he murmured under his breath. "What do we do?"

  "We don't know," Elizabeth replied. She pointed a finger at him. "Do not tell Matthew."

  "No shit, Lizard."

  The ever-escalating whispers had woken up Gowan. It didn't take long for him to deduce the information bomb that just dropped. He looked around for Victor.

  "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac went to the library," Emilio filled him in.

  "Jesus," Saleem said, impressed, "That's a bloody niche reference."

  Emilio shrugged. "I'm a man of culture."

  "And you just let him go alone?!" Gowan's eyes widened.

  "What did you want us to do? If something was out there it would have gotten us by now." Emilio gestured around. "The only thing that got any of us were ourselves."

  "We've also always gone everywhere in pairs or more." Gowan's face was serious. He nodded to Elizabeth. "We should go with him."

  "That'd leave us with one candle," Emilio pointed out, "What if something happened and we needed to leave?"

  "The Book Nook isn't that far away. We can help him bring books back here instead of reading them there. Once he's back, we can all stop worrying," Gowan's voice was soothing. It was sensible. It was that of a leader.

  Gowan didn't want to show the others he was scared. He was worried. If there was one thing he'd always been good at, it was convincing others that he believed the words he was saying. He remembered only a few times as a child he tried to cry crocodile tears to try and manipulate his mother. Just little things like a later bed time or a dessert when he didn't eat dinner.

  His mother would take a trip to the outdoor shoe rack to grab her left thong, then bring it back inside specifically to hit him in the back of the head. There were only so many times he needed to hear "I know what you're doing, boy" to train manipulation out of him. It was a warning, knowing he was about to get the shoe. As he matured, relying on his words got easier. Integrity was always emphasised in his family.

  That made it easier in times where he needed to keep his chin up. Keep his chin up he did. He locked eyes with Emilio as if daring him to object.

  "Elizabeth, I think we should go now."

  "Lizard," a weak voice called from the floor.

  Donovan rolled his eyes and moved back to his partner. It was clear from the bags under his eyes that he was getting tired of having to play nurse. As he returned to the floor, he let out a groan of his own as his movements seemed to have gotten stiffer over the days.

  "Do you need anything?" Elizabeth asked him.

  "Only thing I can really take for cerebral palsy is pain meds." He gestured to Matthew. "Someone else needs them more than me right now. I saw there was diazepam, and I know some of my friends took that for theirs. It was in their spines though so I'm not sure." He took in a deep breath.

  She looked to Saleem and Emilio to make sure that they were aware of the new issue emerging. "Ok. Just look after yourself. Saleem and Emilio will help you out with anything you need, won't you, boys?"

  They nodded slightly.

  "Won't you boys?" she said more firmly.

  "Yeah, yeah." Emilio sauntered over to Gowan and grabbed his arm, pulling him aside. "Can you leave the knife? We only have one light source. The very least we can have is the knife."

  "There's another knife unaccounted for. Either it's lost, or those two have it, or Victor." Gowan turned his sites to Elizabeth kneeling down and rubbing Donovan's back comfortingly. "Right now I don't think those two are going to do much with anything."

  "What if someone comes in?"

  Gowan looked at Emilio like he was an idiot. "Well that would mean they'd have likely gone through us. You know. The people actually going outside? Last chance to change up who's leaving."

  Emilio shook his head. "At this stage, we might be needing to handle two bodies."

  "You can carry more books than us," Gowan pointed out.

  "If worse comes to worse, take the trolley. I just think you're wasting your time."

  Gowan's lips moved to one side of his face as if to say "as you wish". He challenged Emilio with his eyes. "Since when did waiting around get us anywhere?"

  Emilio's eyes narrowed. "Since when did following that kid get us anywhere?"

  They silently stared each other down until Elizabeth waved his hand in front of their faces. "Hello? Are you ready to go?"

  "Yeah." Gowan broke eye contact to look down at Elizabeth. His face softened. He smiled at her. "We'll be back before you know it."

  Gowan took one of the candles and began up the aisle.

  Elizabeth moved past Saleem and squeezed his arm gently. "Make sure Matthew takes his meds." Her face turned to concern as she watched Donovan hover over Matthew once more. "Keep an eye on him too."

  Donovan reached out a hand to stroke Matthew's fringe.

  She whispered softly, almost to herself. "Someone has to care about Donovan."