"Come on, come on, come on," Ellie mumbled, watching as the printer spit out another sheet of paper.
"That's enough of them," Alex said. "Come on. We need to be the first ones there if we want to make sure to document every one of them as they're coming in."
"It won't help if we don't have all the sheets to work off of," Ellie said. She was ignoring the argument about whether or not Alex should even come. There were far too many sheets of paper to work with to not need the extra hands. She had actually been thinking of grabbing George and Eric while they were at it, and they'd still be stuck with tons of pages a piece.
"What are these anyway?" Alex asked. She crossed the small room from the door to Ellie's desk, barely batting an eye as she slipped past her. Ellie was sitting on the bed, reaching over the headboard to the desk, as had become her custom. Alex sat down in the barely used desk chair and picked up the sheet that was just coming out of the printer. "What is this?" she asked, again.
"They don't have a yearbook here. Not really. Not like they do in high school. So, I sort of--"
"You made yearbook sheets?"
"If I had had more time to work with, I would have done a better job. I don't know how they get like thirty people per sheet in those books and still have them clear enough to see who they are."
"Well, for one, they use better printers, better paper. They also don't put the names right under the picture most of the time. Oh, and they use both sides."
"Plus, there are a lot fewer students in high school than in U of C," Becky said.
"Where did you even get all these pictures from?" Alex asked. She flipped the sheet that she had picked up onto the pile. The printer pushed its latest printout underneath it. Once the printer spit out that sheet, it spun down and went silent.
"Finally," Ellie said, in a huff, as she picked up the full pile. It was about as thick as the pile of tests that her father had printed out on it barely a week earlier. "And where do you think I got the photos from?"
"She hacked into the school ID system," Becky said. "It was fun watching her work."
"Where was I when that happened?" Alex asked. Ellie wasn't sure what emotion filled her voice, impressed, admiration, or a feeling of being left out.
"You had your psych class that day," Becky said. "Which kind of made it the best hour of my week."
"Alright, stop it, both of you," Ellie said. "You're both pretty. We have all the sheets. We can go." She pulled the sheets into three stacks, not bothering to check if they were even, before handing them off to Becky and Alex.
"There are far too many pages here," Becky said, as she felt the weight of her stack. "You have twenty people on each page. Shouldn't there be like half as many as this?"
"I included the grad students. I wasn't sure where to put the cutoff for it. For all I know, some of the teachers are in on it. I just haven't seen all of them, so I have no way of knowing."
"It's fine," Alex said. "We just need to get over there and stake out a decent spot."
"Think we should grab the boys?" Ellie asked. She held open the door, letting Alex and Becky go first. Once they were in the hall, Ellie did her usual double check to make sure she had everything, even glancing over at her jacket on the chair before deciding to forego it. The evening was proving to be warmer than expected, and she figured her cardigan was enough.
"If they wanted to come, they would have been here by now," Alex said. "They knew our plans. We're not waiting around for them to get ready."
"We could probably use the help," Becky said. Ellie was only slightly surprised by her change in tone, obviously brought on by just how many papers she was carrying.
"Let's just go," Alex said. She dashed down the hall, leading the charge towards the student center. Halfway to the elevator, someone came out of one of the other rooms. Not bothering to look up the hallway, she stepped right out into Alex's path. Alex slammed herself into the wall to avoid running over her, but she lost a few sheets of paper in the process, watching as they rained down onto the other girl's head.
"Oops, sorry," she muttered, barely looking up from her phone as she continued down the hallway. Even in that furtive backwards glance, Ellie knew that the girl was one of them.
Ellie rushed forward, scooping up the few sheets of paper that had fallen to the floor, hoping that the girl hadn't seen them. Even if she had, there was no telling what she would have thought about them having photos of their classmates. They hadn't started circling any of the pictures, so the printout might not have seemed so suspicious. Still, Ellie eyed the girl as she continued down the hall, making sure she never turned back to look at them.
"What are we waiting for?" Alex asked. Ellie placed a staying hand on her arm, motioning towards the girl who was at the far end of the hall, waiting for the elevator.
"We'll take the next one," Ellie said. Alex looked between the two of them a few times until she finally got the message. The girl glanced over at them, a confused look on her face, before stepping onto the elevator.
"Was she...?" Alex said.
"Yea," Ellie said. "Let's go."
They had to wait for the elevator to make it all the way to the ground floor, then come all the way back up to them. It didn't take that long, but Alex fiddled with the papers the entire time, her eyes watching the numbers play across the top. As soon as the doors opened again, Alex jumped through them, though there was already someone on the elevator. Ellie stepped aside to let the three girls pass, thankful that all of their eyes were the much more boring brown.
"We're going to be late," Alex said, once the doors closed behind them. "I wanted to be early, but we're going to be late."
"It's not that big of a deal," Becky said. "We can slip in the back and try to be all hidden and everything as we try to see everyone."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know these pictures were of the backs of people's heads," Alex said. "Oh, wait, no, the fronts. Well, that changes everything."
"Alex, there's no need to be mean," Ellie said. "We'll get there when we get there. We'll get as many names as we can. Don't worry. If Becky's friend needs more, we'll get more."
"I wouldn't exactly say he's my friend," Becky said. "I only met him the once, when my mom died. But he gave me his card and told me to call him if I needed anything."
"How long ago was this?" Alex asked. "Does he even know what's going on here?"
"Well, no. I haven't heard from him since, and that was eight years ago. "
"Did it ever occur to you that his number might not even be good anymore?"
"Alex, please," Ellie said. "I'm nervous enough about all of this as it is. Let's just get this over with and hope that, whoever we hand this over to, they can handle it and let us go back to our normal lives. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"Yea," Alex said, as the doors dinged open. "Normal." She headed out through the lobby, taking a more manageable pace rather than the mad dash from before. Still, Ellie could see it play across her face, that she wanted to just run for it. Ellie wasn't sure if Alex just wanted to run to the meeting or run from everything.
As they passed through the quad, there was a large group gathering in it. None of them bothered to look in that direction, though. They were too intent on getting to the student center and the meeting they had been dreading all week. With as focused as Ellie was, she hadn't even bothered to look for the dark eyes in the crowd. She just figured that they'd all be at the meeting already, hanging around the refreshments table like before. When they approached the student center, Ellie was surprised to find George hanging around near the door.
"Hey," he said, simply, as way of greeting.
"Whatever," Alex said, before dumping half of her papers into his hands. "Come on."
"God, couldn't you go with something a little more paperless?" George said, as he fell into step behind Ellie. "I weep for the tree that had to die for this."
"I didn't like how they came out on the tablets," Ellie said. "It's too complicated to switch between drawing and fl
ipping through the pages. We're going to need to be doing both at the same time, quickly, and without being noticed. It's going to be difficult enough to do that with the pages."
"Besides, I'm sure we can recycle the sheets afterwards," Becky said.
"Where is the meeting again?" Alex asked.
"Top floor," Ellie said.
Alex let out a deep sigh as she started heading up the stairs. All four of them hugged their piles of paper to their chests as they started up, making sure not to drop any of them as they hurried towards the meeting. Of all things, it was Eric's smiling face that greeted them once they got to the top.
"Hey," Eric said, his smile only spreading.
"Did the meeting start yet?" Ellie asked.
"I don't think so," Eric said. "There are only five people here."
"What, other than us?" Ellie asked.
"No." He shook his head, motioning towards the doors to the all-purpose room. Confused, Ellie headed towards the door. Inside, the chairs were set up like they had been the week before, with the snack table set out in front. Only, there were no snacks, no one milling about by the table, and no one sitting in the chairs. All two hundred or so chairs were quite noticeably empty.
"What the..." Ellie asked, stunned.
"I don't know, your guess is as good as mine. I've been here for almost an hour now."
"Well, at least someone got here early," Alex said.
"Yea, only it wouldn't have mattered how late we got here," Ellie said. "I don't believe this. They said we were meeting again this week, didn't they? Why is it that no one else is here? Was there some announcement that I didn't get?"
"The least they could have done was put something up by the door," Becky said.
"Oh, please don't tell me we have to wait another week to get them all in one place again," Ellie said.
"Maybe not," George said. He was standing over by one of the windows that looked out over the quad they had just passed, pointing out through it. "I think I see Sam down there."
"How can you see him down there?" Ellie asked. "We're a few stories up."
"Well, he's on some kind of stage. At least, I think it's him. He does have a tendency to be running these meetings. Maybe he was double booked? He might have told you if you hadn't been actively avoiding him and everyone."
Ellie went over to the window, looking out to where George was pointing. They were pretty high up, but she could make out the familiar form of Sam, front and center on the stage. The crowds around the stage had grown quite steadily since they were in the building, spilling over the sidewalks that tried to contain the quad. She couldn't tell just who it was standing down there, or how many of them were the abyssal eyed people. But there was something telling her that this was exactly the place for her to go to see them all in one place at one time.
"Ah, crap," Becky said, as she came over to the window. "It's a stupid Remember Sami rally. Well, I think that settles it. These people are at best in a hate group and, at worst, terrorists."
"See?" Ellie said. "I told you so."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Remember Sami
By the time the five of them had gotten back down to the ground floor of the student center, the rally had already started. Every few seconds, every few steps they took, a fresh cheer sprung up from the crowd. However, it was only after they got out of the building that they were able to hear any of the words that the cheers were encouraging. Sam was up on the stage, a microphone in his hand. There were several bluetooth speakers spread out around the quad, all hooked up to the microphone, which allowed for more targeted sound distribution that just a single, loud roar from the stage.
"Now these creatures are asking for more," Sam said, his voice coming through clearly once they had left the building. "More than the stolen identities and stolen lives they had already taken."
"No, boo," came the jeer from the crowd.
Ellie stared around them, confused by the people that were there. The Remember Sami movement centered around the death of Sami Sanderson, the very public murder of the reporter on invasion day, the day that the demons had come to earth. Everyone had seen the video where, almost eleven years earlier, the demon came through the portal right behind her and stuck a blade through her chest, taking on her form while she was dying. It had caused a worldwide panic, even though the invasion had been limited to the pacific northwest. So far, for the most part, the demons had been limited to Washington and Oregon.
"They want access to the rest of the world," Sam called out. "There is a bill, in congress right now, that would allow them to leave their designated state, actually travel to other states, other countries. Are we going to allow that?"
"No, boo," yelled the crowd. The jeers of the crowd seemed to vibrate through the air, to resonate through it, through her even as far away as Ellie was. She tried to put it out of her mind, though. Tried to convince herself that it was just her imagination.
"Are we going to sit back and let them take over our world?"
"No, boo," Becky called out, right along with the rest of the crowd. Ellie just stared at her, in complete shock, for a few moments. "What?"
"Tell me you're not one of them," Ellie whispered, her voice barely audible, even to herself, over the cries around her.
"Of course not," Becky said. "But we can't antagonize these people. Not until after we get their names, right?"
"Oh, right," Alex said. She was standing in the doorway, as if she were too scared to leave the building. She pulled out the sheets of paper, quickly flipping through them as she tried to place some of the faces around her in the list of portraits in her pile. "Point out the ones that we would be documenting."
"Yes, but be discreet about it," Becky said, as she started flipping through her own pile. "I don't think we want to be attacked by the mob."
"It's not a mob," Eric said. "It's a rally. There's a difference."
"Spoken like a guy that's been to a lot of rallies," George said.
"Not all rallies are hate groups."
"Hey, who you calling a hate group?" asked someone in the crowd.
"Let's get inside," Ellie suggested, pushing Alex back through the door and pulling Becky behind her.
Inside, Eric held the door open, allowing the audio to still flit in through it. Ellie hadn't heard of the new provision, though it apparently was something that the democratic senators of Washington state were pushing forward. Sam accused them of being demon lovers, opportunists, and just wanting to get rid of the demons, all in the same breath. It would have been funny, if it wasn't so scary, to be so close to a group of people that would kill a demon given the chance, and sleep well that night.
Ellie started to point out the few people she could make out in the crowd. The rally wasn't limited to the abyssal eyed people, though. There was plenty of hate to go around, for the normal people as well. The crowd seemed to be an almost even mix between the two groups, easily numbering three or four hundred. However, with how many abyssal eyes she spotted in the horde, she had a hard time believing that even one of them had missed the rally. As the cheers got louder, she started to think that the Remember Sami movement meant more to them than the support group did. It was clear that, with word of the rally going around, no one had any interest going to anything else.
"Did anyone else know this rally was happening today?" Ellie asked. They had gotten all the people that were close enough to the building to see. The weaving flow of the people outside as they cheered allowed them to see some that had been blocked from view at first.
"I think there were fliers up earlier today," Eric said. "I didn't pay much attention to them, though. I mean, I sort of figured it would be like thirty people at most. How are there so many of these people here? They can't all have been from Washington and Oregon."
"I'm from Washington and Oregon and I'm not in this group," Becky said. "We're not all weirdos. I guess it makes sense that there would be weirdos in the group that aren't from the northwest."
"Well, yea, it's because they're demons," Alex said.
"Or possessed by demons," Becky said.
"If they were demons they would be for the bill, not leading the charge against it," Ellie said.
"But there's obviously some relation between the groups," Eric said. "Something we didn't know about before."
"Maybe they came through with the demons," Alex said. "That would make sense, right? Those portals were everywhere, and not all of them had been seen during the invasion. If something else came through, something that had been allied against the demons, whatever that animosity was could have been carried over to Earth."
"No, I don't think that's it," Becky said. "I don't think there was any other group against the demons at the time of their arrival. I would have heard of it."
"What?" Ellie asked. "Why would you have heard of it? Why are you so special?"
"Huh? Oh, no, nothing. Never mind. Forget I said anything."
Ellie just rolled her eyes at the comment. Becky had always been a bit on the weird side. It was one of her more endearing traits.
"What's next?" Sam called out. "What else can they possibly want from us that they haven't already taken? Wanting their spawn to go to school with the rest of us?"
"Pfft, can you believe this guy?" Alex asked. She seemed to have done a complete one-eighty on Sam since finding out about him. She was no longer defending him, no longer singing his praises. He was someone else, something else, to her, rather than the man that she had known before. "I would totally believe that he was some kind of hell spawn himself."
"Yea," George said. "Stupid... Sam... Guy. You're stupid, Sam."
A few members of the crowd looked back at them, back at George where he was by the door. Their reactions were mixed. A couple of them seemed overly offended, as protective of Sam as Alex had once been. They sneered over at George, as if they wanted nothing more than to come over there and beat him down. However, their glorious leader said something else, something about the pollution of the human race by those demon spawns, and they quickly lost all interest in George and the group.
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