The bus was about three-quarters full of Sent with full satchels and other bags; many of them were using the Nelson’s branded reusable shopping bags. One boy seemed to have tied two of the big seasonal-themed towels around a batch of gear each, supported on either end of a broom. Danielle gave him a grin and a thumbs up. He looked a little confused at first, but when she added, “Brilliant way to make extra bags,” he reluctantly smiled back and returned the thumbs up.

  Sadie and Heather took a bench seat together, leaving Danielle to claim another by herself. She set her satchel on the seat diagonally, and sat with the backpack aimed in, taking up as much space as possible and ‘forcing’ her toward the aisle, so nobody would try to sit next to her. Still, people looked depressed, so she exerted herself to open conversations. “What’s the craziest thing you thought up a good use for?” she asked the people near her. She managed to draw in a surprising number of people with that one, though it took a while. When that died down, she tried, “What Class do you want to be getting stream-show-hero powers in when you’re level 5?”

  The bus filled up in the meantime, and as soon as all the seats were filled, the driver counted heads, radioed the number to some coordinator somewhere, and drove off. Another bus pulled into place behind them, and unloaded a new group of Sent. Danielle didn’t recognize anyone who got out before the bus she was on turned a corner and she couldn’t see the store entrance at all anymore. It seemed to be all guys, though; the busses coming in were divided but the busses going out had both boys and girls on them.

  The discussion of what Classes provided the best Skills (and what stream-show characters’ Skills might actually be real) lasted until they got back to the Sending Authority base and pulled in behind the building. Out front, a crowd with handmade signs on yardsticks and poster-paper bullhorns was presumably engaged in noisy protest, but the bus was still wrapped in some Skill or enhancement that kept out all outside sounds. The bus let them off at the far opposite corner of the building from where they’d been the night before, and they were directed inside with their bags.

  Sure enough, one of the first things that happened was that they were told to check in all their things. The agent guiding them explained that they would be moving around other Sent who hadn’t been to the store yet, or had been to different stores, and they didn’t want to risk fights or thefts. Danielle was somewhat reassured by the fact that they actually gave them lockers, with keys on spiral wristbands. Heather immediately pointed out that she’d “told you so” – several times. Danielle was pretty exasperated by the time they got to a large waiting room, but tried to keep her cool.

  The waiting room had lots of folding chairs in rows, but with several aisles breaking up the rows as well, so nobody had to be too far from an aisle when they got called. At the front, digital screens listed names and room numbers. As she stood with her dormmates trying to decide where to sit and what else to do, the display changed. “George Baier, report to visitation room 8” appeared in large letters across the middle of all the screens. On the fourth of five panels, “Tallulah Rivera” turned red in the room 8 slot, then flashed for several seconds before disappearing. A minor commotion near the front resolved itself with a boy shaken awake by friends, fending them off, and heading for the door under the displays.

  A girl came out just before he reached it, and he dodged around her and into the hallway beyond. She perched nervously on a seat near the far wall. The large message was replaced with a call for someone else to report to room 1, the name George Baier appeared in the slot for room 8, and a small message appeared at the bottom of all panels reading “Tallulah Rivera, report to east door for transport.” The nervous girl exited through a door, helpfully labeled with a large vinyl banner as “East Doors: Transport Loading,” and a few moments later the smaller message disappeared.

  Heather slowly turned all the way around while Danielle was watching the screens work. “So the door on the front wall is visitation rooms, the marked door on the left is east doors, we just came from “Arrivals and Storage Lockers,” and doors on the right both say “Emergency Exit Only.”

  “Both doors on the left are marked,” Sadie said. “The one with no banner has restroom signs lower down, beside it.”

  Danielle looked that way. “Well that’s a relief,” she said. “Hah, and look, that corner has a snack bar!”

  “You’re wrong again,” Sadie said smugly.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m glad to be wrong about this one,” Danielle said. “Let’s go see what they have.”

  The snack bar seemed a little bit health-food themed, which was a bit of a surprise after the fast-food breakfast with donut. There were baggies of granola, whole and cut fruit, cups of vegetable sticks – nothing that required utensils, though, and everything was in paper packaging, no plastic. There weren’t even spoons for the fruit cups.

  “Sorry,” the agent behind the counter told Heather indifferently, “you’ll just have to use the cup as a cup, instead of a bowl. We aren’t allowed to give plastic to Sent – there’s no recycling at The Rooms, you know.”

  “Actually, we don’t know,” Danielle said. “Can you tell us more about the rooms? Like maybe what kind of buildings they’re in, or – ”

  “Nope, sorry. I’m not here for questions, just for snacks,” the agent interrupted. “You want some fruit, too? Carrot sticks? Anything I’ve actually got?”

  Danielle took a granola packet, a fruit cup, and a cup of lemonade. Sadie took orange juice, carrot sticks, and granola. Both of them stuffed the granola in their pockets. Heather rolled her eyes at them and said she’d come back later if she was still hungry.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  They sat and ate their fruit (and carrot sticks). Little groups were forming all over the room, but so far they all had plenty of space between them. Danielle figured it was hopeful room groups, trying to figure out what to do going forward. Sadie and Heather were content to sit quietly, though, so Danielle pulled the little notepad out of her back pocket and started writing a list of everything they knew, as best she could. It wasn’t much. She sighed and looked upward. “How are we supposed to plan with no more information than this?” she asked nobody in particular.

  Then the displays caught her eye. “Heather Orellana, report to visitation room 1” they read in large letters – large flashing letters no less. “Oh – hey, Heather, you’re up. Room 1,” Danielle said.

  Heather looked up at the display. “Already? I – I don’t know if I can do this,” she said, her voice catching.

  “Why?” Sadie asked.

  “Because! This is where we say goodby to our families, maybe forever!” Heather said. She looked like she might be in danger of breaking out in tears right there and then.

  “Don’t think of it that way,” Danielle said. “We’re going to live. You’re going to come back in ten years as a powerful, confident, high-level citizen. Go make sure they know that, so they don’t give all your concert keepsakes away while you’re working on it!”

  Heather laughed. “All right. Toss this for me?” she asked, standing up and handing Danielle her empty cup.

  Danielle accepted the cup with a chuckle. “I dunno, I might hoard it while you’re not looking,” she joked.

  Heather rolled her eyes and headed for the door to the visitation rooms. Sadie eyed Danielle, and asked, “Hoard it why?”

  “Fire starter,” Danielle said. “It’s paper, isn’t it? I wasn’t serious, though; it’s wet paper, and awkwardly shaped for pockets. I might keep the granola wrapper, though.”

  “Ah. That makes more sense,” Sadie said. She started in on her granola. After a few minutes, she spoke up again and said, “I’m going to eat this and try to get seconds before I get called. If preparation matters, I want my System to see that I’m serious about getting food and keeping food.”

  “That’s a good thought,” Danielle said. “They gave us clothes – a minimum of clothes, really, but we can only carry so much. Shelter should be covered by these rooms, whatever they’re like; again, it might be pretty basic, but we can’t carry anything better (not unless they’re way worse than I think, anyway). So food is the big one out of the food/clothing/shelter set.”

  Sadie nodded. “Fire is all of those. I wish we’d found the grill lighters. Or flint and steel, or something.”

  “We have string, and we can find sticks. Isn’t that all you need to make one of the traditional fire starters?”

  “Yeah, but not the easiest one.” Sadie stared into her granola packet. “Better than nothing, though. I know how to make it. And use it. There’s a trick to it.”

  “Promise you’ll teach it to me?” Danielle asked.

  Sadie nodded again. “Promise.”

  Danielle nodded back, and started eating her own granola.

  Heather took her time in the visitation room – or maybe not so much, considering she potentially had seven family members in there. Time crawled, only a small time-and-date widget in the bottom corner of the display panels telling everyone how long it had been. Danielle wasn’t sure of the exact time Heather went in, but about half an hour later, her name turned red and started flashing. Another name came up on the middle section of the displays, instructed to report to room 1. Heather’s name continued to flash for one minute, two, five, then the whole room block on the display turned yellow.

  Less than a minute after that, Heather came out the door stumbling as if she’d been shoved, and crying. Danielle and Sadie glanced at each other, then wordlessly pocketed their nearly-empty granola packets and jogged up the aisle to join her. Danielle drew her aside from the path to the door, then spread her arms invitingly and said, “If you want a shoulder to cry on, I have two. You can pick!”

  Heather didn’t even chuckle a little, she just hugged Danielle and continued crying. Danielle hugged her back, while Sadie awkwardly patted Heather’s shoulder. They stood like that for several minutes – Danielle had no idea how long, really – until an agent in green approached them.

  “Excuse me, is this Heather Orellana?” she asked.

  “Yeah. She already has a Sent brother,” Danielle said. “I guess her family might be a little, um – ” she paused, considering and discarding ‘panicky’ and ‘expecting her to die’ and several things that might sound insulting, or set Heather off even worse, or both.

  “Overwhelmed?” the agent suggested. “Fatalistic?”

  “I don’t know that word – let’s go with overwhelmed,” Danielle said. “Um, what did you need?”

  “This sending is kind of overwhelming us too,” the agent said. “Aheh, not quite the same way it does families, but there are just so many of you, we can’t get everyone through our facilities fast enough. Um, so we’re taking people back to the schools to wait. You’re supposed to go as soon as your family visit is done, and you can meet up with all the other Sent from your school there. If your family comes before noon, you can even get lunch in the cafeteria. We, ah, do need people who have already seen their families to head out, though. Please come along, Miss Orellana. Your friends will join you when they’ve had their own chance to see their families.”

  Heather sniffed and stepped back from Danielle. “Can I get some water from the snack bar first?” she asked.

  “There will be water at the school, and snacks too,” the agent promised. “Come on, I know it’s a rough day, but it’ll be more comfortable there than here.”

  Danielle glanced up at the displays. Heather’s name was in a blinking “report to the east door” message, and below it was another east door message, for someone else that had presumably just come out.

  “Go on, Heather,” Danielle said encouragingly. “Talk to people there – see if you can find anyone with new information. We’ll be there when our families and the Authority get around to us, and we can compare notes.”

  Heather sniffed again, and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “OK,” she said, and the agent spared Danielle a grateful look as she led Heather away.

  “Wasn’t doing it for you,” Danielle muttered after her, once they were past the door and well out of sight and hearing.

  “What?” Sadie asked.

  Danielle shook her head. “Nothing. Just, I wasn’t doing it for the agent’s precious schedule, I was just trying to help Heather get herself focused on something besides,” a lump made itself known in her throat, “you know. Stuff we’re leaving behind.”

  “Ah.” Sadie shook the last of the granola out of her packet into her mouth, then carefully folded and pocketed the paper while she crunched.

  Danielle did the same. “OK, food source taken advantage of, fire starting material acquired. Refill the food next?”

  Sadie nodded. “You want to talk to lots of people after that?”

  “It’s better having something useful to do,” Danielle said. “I won’t make you talk if you don’t want to.”

  “Maybe I’ll lurk behind you and take notes,” Sadie suggested with a faint smile.

  Danielle laughed. “That works!”