The food was consumed in comfortable silence. Not the tense, scared quiet from before, but the satisfied silence of a good meal.

  They remained around the table even after the food was finished, as Madeleine told them to do so. Twelve bodies arranged in an uneven circle. The Heinlein family's lush furniture made them look out of place. A bunch of disheveled teenagers in stolen luxury clothes, surrounded by gold-leaf moldings and velvet cushions.

  “First meeting!” Madeleine said, getting up. She was interrupted by Scott before she could even start.

  “You’re finally telling us what the hell is going on?”

  Madeleine sighed. “This meeting is not about that.”

  “But we want to know! Everyone here wants to know, and deserves to know.”

  Madeleine sighed.

  “The bunker is equipped with sensors that measure all kinds of things. Temperature. Air quality. Toxicity. Radioactivity. Once it has collected enough data, it will tell us what’s going on outside. It won't know the cause, or what exactly happened. Nuclear war. Fallout. Environmental disaster. Alien invasion. It won’t know any of that. But it will know the reason why we have to stay inside, and it could tell you your likely cause of death, if you were to leave. Happy? Good. Now let me tell you something that actually matters.”

  Madeleine swept the room with heavy, tired eyes.

  They looked tired too.

  Some didn’t look at her. Those who did, did so with varying degrees of attention. Some wary. Some blank. Some shrugged. Others were weeping but tried to do so quietly. Some carried hostility in their eyes.

  “What about Carmen?” she heard someone whisper but ignored it.

  "We need rules. Structure. Order. That is what this meeting is about. First—no one goes into restricted areas without permission. The systems that keep us alive are delicate. I know where things are, how they work. If you need something, ask me.”

  Scott leaned back, arms crossed over his chest. "And why exactly do you know all this?" he asked, voice light but eyes sharp. "That's the thing I keep wondering about, Mad Maddie. Did you have a premonition? Or have you been planning this little field trip for a while?"

  There it was. He was now openly attacking her.

  "I know because I studied," she replied coldly. "While the rest of you were wasting your time online, scrolling for hours, chasing clout or whatever, I was preparing."

  A ripple passed through the group. Piper let out a sharp exhale through her nose. Axel raised his eyebrows and looked away, shaking his head. Mate gave a tight little laugh, not quite amused, and muttered, “Okay, well, some of us were just trying to survive school.”

  "Preparing for what, though?" Scott pressed, and she could feel the subtle shift as even those who didn’t pay attention before leaned forward now, suddenly interested. "You knew exactly when to leave. You knew exactly where to go. You knew the code to a billionaire's private bunker." A thin smile. "That's an awful lot of studying."

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

  Madeleine. Focus. Ignore him. He doesn’t exist. He’s already dead.

  "Second rule—everyone works. No exceptions. Cleaning, dishes, maintenance, inventory. Everything the machines don’t do for us, we have to do. We all contribute."

  "What about Carmen?" Piper asked.

  "Carmen's not here," she said flatly.

  "Because you left her," Piper shot back, standing now. "She's still out there, isn't she? In that dressing room. We have to get her out."

  Two boys flanking Piper nodded. Axel and Damon—bulky idiots who’d chuckle if someone said dick, and who'd never spoken to Madeleine before today. Damon had a deep scratch down his cheek from running through the forest.

  "The decontamination process is over," Madeleine said, measuring each word. "Opening that chamber now would compromise the entire—"

  "Bullshit!" Axel cut in. "You made us leave her behind. You locked the door on her!"

  "I did what was necessary for survival."

  "For whose survival?" Piper shouted. "Yours?"

  "For all of ours," Madeleine replied. "Protocols exist for a reason."

  "Protocols?" Scott said, eyebrows raised. He looked at the others. "Listen to her. 'Protocols.' Should we salute too, Commander? Do we have to file reports whenever we take a shit?”

  Laughter rippled through the room—half of them were laughing at her now.

  Madeleine's fingers curled into fists at her sides. Don't waver. Don’t show weakness.

  "Who even are you?" Damon asked, his voice full of contempt. "You never said two words to any of us before today. And suddenly, you act like you’re in charge of things.”

  "Yeah," Piper seized on the momentum. "Three years in the same classes, and you couldn't be bothered to learn our names. Now suddenly you're giving orders?"

  Something inside Madeleine began to crumble. She’d always thought that leadership came from knowledge, from preparation. Just how wrong had she been. People didn’t care about leadership, they preferred a bad leader who could make them laugh.

  Secure bunker loyalty.

  When the system displayed those words, it sounded like a formality.

  "What the hell, yes!” Axel added. “Get the out of here, you fucking freak—"

  "Shut up," Madeleine snapped. "I'm trying to keep us alive."

  But they were beyond listening now.

  "You killed her—"

  “That whole family. There were children outside!”

  "Fucking Mad—"

  “Let's free Carmen!”

  "Some kind of God complex—"

  "Psycho—"

  The voices made her dizzy. Madeleine felt like the world spinning, felt like she’d faint. She was tired. Hadn't eaten. Had watched people die. Had caused someone to die.

  "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

  A voice from the back ripped through the insults.

  Everyone froze. Looking around.

  Mate stood, towering over the circle. "All of you. Just shut up, okay?" She turned, sweeping her gaze across the room. "You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. You'd be out there." She jabbed a finger toward the ceiling. "Burning. Suffocating. Freezing. I don’t have a fucking clue. But what I know is that you all would be dead.”

  Silence followed. Eyes darted between Mate, Piper and Madeleine.

  Piper was the first to speak, her voice less confident now that she was put in her place by one of the cool kids. "That doesn't give her the right to—"

  "To what?" Mate countered. "To save your ungrateful ass? She knew what was happening before anyone else did. She knew where to go. She got us in here. So maybe she knows what she's doing."

  Madeleine stared at Mate, surprised. She'd never exchanged more than a few words with the girl before today. And now she’s stepping in for her—and Madeleine didn’t know what to do with that. It made her feel something she hadn’t felt in years.

  "I'm not saying ‘no questions’," Mate continued, more quietly. "But maybe save the witch hunt for when we understand what's going on."

  Silence again. Eyes meeting. Shrugs. Whispers.

  From his corner, Scott watched. Still leaning back. Still with that half-smile. But his eyes had become sharper now, more focused, as they moved between Madeleine and Mate and the rest.

  He uncrossed his arms and leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

  "They have a point, Maddie, you know," he said, his voice cutting through the new silence. "About Carmen. About not knowing you." He paused, and every eye in the room turned to him. "But they also have shit for brains if they think they'd be better off without you."

  Piper opened her mouth to object, but Scott held up a hand and shushed her.

  "You think it's a coincidence we're alive? That of all the teachers, all the students, all the Bens and Jakes, and Saras and Ninas, and whoever the hell else was in that building, we're the ones breathing?" He shook his head. "Mad Maddie here knew something. And it saved us.”

  He stood up. "Doesn't mean we follow blindly, though." He turned to face Madeleine directly. "So how about it, Maddie? You want to be in charge? Then tell us what you know. All of it."

  What was that?

  A power play disguised as reason?

  I can turn them against you or make them follow you. Your choice. But you have to follow my demands. Was that what he was thinking?

  "The third rule," she said slowly, ignoring his question, "is that we stay together. That we are a team. If we have ideas, objections, whatever, we discuss them." Her eyes flicked to Piper and her companions. "You, you stay away from the decontamination chamber.”

  Piper crossed her arms and looked to the side, shooting air through her nostrils.

  "Final rule," Madeleine continued. "We do what I say—you can ask questions, bring up ideas. But I am in charge. Without leadership, we won’t survive. I promise you that.”

  Madeleine looked around the room. At Mate, standing beside her. At Piper and her friends, ignoring her with passion. At Crazy, hunched small in his chair. At Chef, thoughtfully chewing his lip. At Scott, watching her with those calculating eyes.

  Especially at Scott.