Chapter 24

After many hours Kingsley emerged from the kitchen, announcing that the ether was done. Everyone stood up and looked at each other a bit confusedly.

“So… Do we test is or something?” Sasha asked

“I suppose we should. To see if it works.” Ridley said

“Any volunteers?” Dalton said

Everyone was silent.

“Uhm… No offence to your chemical skill Kingsley, but I don’t really trust this substance…” Asher said

“It’s the whole vacuuming hose thing that bothers me.” Sasha said. “God knows what might have been in there to mess things up.”

“All right. I’ll test it myself.” Kingsley said

Everyone followed him into the kitchen, where he took a towel and dipped it a bit in the surprisingly large container with ether. He sat down on a chair and put the towel to his face and started breathing through it. He nearly instantly passed out.

Dalton hurriedly removed the towel and gently shook Kingsley a bit. Kingsley came too and shook his head.

“That must have been purer than I thought it would be.” He said, looking very proud

“Ok, so I guess we’ll have no trouble sleeping for… The next twelve months.” Lance said and nodded towards the ether.

“Yeah, I suppose.” Dalton said

“It seems a bit excessive.” Ridley said. “Surely this whole thing won’t last that long.”

“I certainly hope not.” Mac said

“Uhm… Boys.” Asher said suddenly. He was standing at the window, peeking out through the blinds.

“What is it?” Dalton asked

“Come and see for yourselves.”

Everyone walked over and discovered what had caught Asher’s attention. In the field outside their building there were about fifty persons. They were mostly wandering about aimlessly and wore the telltale marks of being infected.

“I wonder…” Kingsley said

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Lance said

---

Drew, Kenzie, Aidan and Boris were still hiding in the far end of the field when suddenly they saw two persons bursting out from the building where Ridley and the others lived. They ran screaming straight towards the field and the mob of people in it. The people in the field stopped wandering about and looked up at the two madmen screaming at them. As soon as they started moving towards them the two persons started running quickly in a wide circle, effectively gathering up the infected people in a tight mob.

Then one of them threw what looked like a glass bottle high into the air that landed in the middle of the mob and broke. The two men kept running in a circle, and they moved much quicker than the mob. After a few seconds some of the infected started falling over, and within a minute they were all lying on the ground – not moving a limb. The two men stopped running.

At that point Drew and the others had emerged from their hiding place and were walking up to the men. They had finally recognized them as their dear friends Dalton and Lance.

“Oi!” Boris called out

“Boris!” Dalton said in great surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting Ridley, what are you doing here?” Boris asked

“Dito.” Lance said

“More to the point; what did you do with them?” Drew said, pointing at the lifeless mob

“We knocked them unconscious with ether.” Dalton said with a shrug

“Ether!?” Kenzie said. “Where on earth did you get that from?”

“Kingsley made it.” Lance said with a smile

“Kingsley is here too?” Boris asked

“Yeah, we met him on the airport.” Dalton said

Aidan had been standing to the back, not saying much at all, but now he felt it necessary to interrupt the friends from their chit-chat.

“Excuse me. Hi. I was just wondering; will they be all right?” He said, pointing at the pile of unconscious people

“Oh, yeah.” Dalton said. “The ether will have dispersed by now. They’re just sleeping.”

“Oh, ok.” Aidan said.

“I’m Dalton, by the way.” Dalton said and shook Aidan’s hand

“I’m Aidan.”

“Ah, from our neighboring country.” Dalton said, referring to the nationality of Aidan

“Yes.” Aidan answered

“I’m Lance.” Lance said and also shook Aidan’s hand

At that point Asher opened the front door to their building and called out.

“How’s it going?”

“Perfect.” Dalton replied. “Everything went according to plan.”

“Ok. Good.” Asher said. “Who’s that with you?”

“Drew, Kenzie, Boris and Aidan.”

When Asher heard this he left the doorway and came up to them. He looked at Drew and Kenzie.

“I thought you went to the safe-zone.” He said grouchily

“We did, but we came back.” Kenzie said

“I have a message from us all; You are all bastards.” He turned to Boris, “Hello Boris, nice to see you.” And then turned to Aidan. “I don’t know who you are; but nice to see you anyway.”

By now all of the people from the apartment had gathered up in the field.

“Hi all, I hate to interrupt; but what are we going to do with them?” Ridley said, pointing at the pile of infected

“We should probably get them to the hospital.” Sasha said

“Yes, I agree.” Dalton said

Kingsley went to the road and waved at a military patrol that happened to be passing by. He pointed at the people in the field and the military turned around and drove up to them.

Once they had surveyed the situation, they decided to call for ambulance transport for what turned out to be 56 persons. Needless to say neither of our friends felt it necessary to inform them of exactly how the mob had come to fall unconscious.

Ten minutes later the first ambulances arrived, and from all of a sudden Jackson and Shae arrived.

“Hey! How did you get here?” Kenzie asked

“Once I had my wound patched up,” Shae said, pointing at a band aid on her cheek. “the staff asked us for our address, and we told them we were living with you guys.”

“When they got the call for the ambulances, they brought us along.” Jackson said, and started hugging everyone

“Wow!” Mac said. “This is kind of great, we’re all gathered up!”

“And it’s Christmas!” Sasha said with a huge smile

“Yes! I believe it is!” Aidan said

Suddenly Boris started singing a Christmas song, and everyone joined in. The ambulance personnel looked at them with amusement and some of them even joined in. The military decided not bother about the transgression of the curfew these young people had made – after all it was Christmas.