I’m King

3) Forming The Council

Gia finished speaking to the Grade 11’s and junior school. The Grade 11’s would be looking after the Junior school and the Grade 10’s would get the classrooms ready for them to sleep in. Gia didn’t want them in houses because it would be chaotic and houses would be wrecked. So, until she could form her housing plan a bit better, this would be the situation.

Gia went into the bathroom furthest from everything. It was empty and she slumped down on the clean floor and took a deep breath. She wasn’t crazy. She wasn’t a mental lunatic. She was given such an important task.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. She unzipped her inside blazer pocket and pulled out her phone.

Matteo

It flashed across her screen. She quickly picked up her little brothers call.

“Gia,” his voice sounded so scared it made her heart squeeze, “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain it all to you soon,” she said back to him softly in an attempt to sooth him, “Where are you?”

“Still at school. They said we would all be walking to St. Andrews but I wanted to ask you first.”

“You’ll be coming here. Listen to the person speaking and follow what he says. I’ll meet you here and be waiting at the gate for you.”

“We’re starting to leave.”

“I’ll see you soon,” she closes her eyes and squeezes them tightly. The shock of what has happened starting to sink in while listening to her brother’s scared voice. “Love you lots.”

“Love you too.”

The phone went dead and Gia let her hand drop to the floor. She was responsible for all these people. Why had it been her? Why not the head girl or at least someone in a leadership position. She did not want to be a leader of any kind. She was a worker bee. Her goals in life had never been to be a CEO or start her own business like everyone else. She did not want to be anyone's, or her own for that matter, boss. And yet here she sat with all the information she had and knew she had been thrown in the deep end of a vicious ocean and was likely going to drown.

Her phone started to ring again.

“A lot of the schools have someone asking specifically for you.” Se said down the line.

“I’m coming.” Gia put the phone down.

She took a deep breath and stood. Her reflection gazed back at her in the mirror. She could do this! She was an overachiever in every sense of the word. All she had to do was put her mind to it and it would work. She would make it work! If for no one else than her brother. She would do this.

~

Gia had been told a lot of information over the weeks of her nightmares. Some of it had slipped her mind but most of it remained rooted and prevalent in her messy brain.

Her demon had told her two very important things:

1. That she would be the leader of the African continent

2. She would have a council that had been chosen for her

The council knew who they were and what they would be in charge of. There would be 12 council members. With Gia that made 13. An odd number to settle any votes. The council members would come from all over the continent. The ones needed the most would find her quickly. They will be the representative from a school but a representative was not the same as a council member. A council member would be special. Each council member would know to look for her.

As she sat in the board room from her nightmares, she felt both comfortable and uneasy.

4

There were only four people sitting in this room. Out of 12 council members there were only 4 sitting in front of her. Only 33%. You needed more to pass a maths test. It was strange to sit in front of them like this. No one had said a word to her as she’d lead them into the board room. They’d all sat down and just looked at each other. Gia had stayed leaning against the wall next to the door.

“So,” one of the boys spoke. Gia knew him vaguely. He was Katerina’s boyfriend, Conrad. She’d met him briefly when they all got together for Kat’s birthday or that time they went to the movies, “Perhaps we should start introducing ourselves while we wait for Gianna.”

He didn’t remember her. She found that very amusing and a smile graced her lips.

“I’ll start.” Conrad said matter of factly. “I’m Conrad van Wyk. From St. Benedict's. I am the Head of Defence.”

The person to his left went next, “I’m Aly from Bedfordview High. I am head of Domestic Organisation.”

“Shouldn’t that be a woman’s job?” The guy across from his said. Gia had to hold in her small laugh of disbelief by biting her lip.

“No,” Aly said. His voice was so soothing to her. She could see herself listening to him for hours on end. Maybe even having his voice as one of those audio night time books, or whatever their called, “It takes a great amount of organisation to come up with schedules and a great deal of patience to deal with everyone. I am well capable and honoured to do the task.”

“Well, I guess I have a manlier job of Head of Sanitation.” The sexist prick said, “Jared from KES.”

“I guess that leaves me,” the only other girl in the room speaks, “Kiki. From Reddam. I'm head of Power.”

Jared looked peeved. Probably because he had been given sanitation and a girl had been given power. It gave Gia some small sense of satisfaction.

“And you are?” Kiki turned her attention to Gia when she said nothing to introduce herself.

“Gianna,” Gia said to the room, “But you can call me Gia.”

“You are not what I was expecting,” Kiki said and gave Gia the once over.

“Trust me, I don’t think anyone expected this.” Gia said to no one in particular. “But nonetheless, here I am.”

“Do you not want to sit?” Aly asked her so kindly. She was going to like him.

“I’m too nervous to sit.” Gia said equally kindly.

“Thank God!” Jared burst out of his seat. “It’s not just me.” he started pacing the length of the room. She supposed she would eventually come to like Jared as well. He reminded her a little of her cousin. “This is f****d up right!”

“It really is!” Kiki joined in. “We’re just kids and they expect us to, what? Rebuild the earth? I call Bull!”

“It does feel a bit like we’re in a movie,” Ally said, “wait! What was that TV show?” he thinks.

“The society.” Gia says.

“That’s it.” Aly points to her.

“The what?” Kiki says.

Gia opens her mouth but Conrad beats her to it, “It's this show about a town of teenagers that get placed in this alternate dimension and basically have to look after themselves to survive. I always thought the concept was ridiculous and far-fetched.”

“Not so far-fetched now that were living it.” Kiki shivered. Gia’s gran had called it the grils. Her thick Afrikaans accent with the ‘g’ always gave Gia the grils.

“Not exactly,” Gia stepped in, “how much have you been told?”

“Honestly,” Jared paused his pacing to look at her and answered, “Not much. Don't know about everyone else but I was given the bare essentials.”

“Pretty much,” Kiki nodded.

“We were told you would know everything to guide us through this,” Aly said calmly.

“I know a lot but not nearly everything,” Gia admitted. She could see how it unsettle the other 4. even Conrad who had been staring at her intently since she had told them who she was, “But I do know how to get us through the next little while.”

“Your word is going to be our law,” Aly said and, to her surprise, Jared agreed.

“How is this going to work?” Kiki had an intense look about her.

“Well,” Gia swallowed and rested her forearms on top of the chair at the head of the table, “we can go about this in many different ways. One would be for me to individually tell you what I’ve been told about your job and my ideas on moving forward. But,” she looked at all of them, “I think the best course of action would be to discuss everything together. You are supposed to be the council. We should start as we intend to move on. My word shouldn't be law. We need to work together. I don’t know everything. We were all chosen for a reason so I think we need to all work together.”

“I agree,” Conrad answered, “So let’s start the discussion.”

~

After the meeting, Gia felt a lot more confident in her ability to do this. Her ideas had been taken very well. They only had limited time before the satellites went down so they all moved very quickly. Gia found Lethabo, who was the captain of sound and lighting at school, and got her to set up a call with the video camera and microphone.

By the time everything was ready, all of the high school’s that had arrived where gathered on the laws or where packed into the now cleared class rooms. The only people no here were the ones going through the houses but they were streaming everything on their phones. Most people had their phones out and were getting ready to start recording.

Gia took a deep breath before nodding to Lethabo.

“We are live in 4, 3, 2,” Lethabo gestured to her with a nod

“Hi everyone,” Gia started. She would have to get used to this public speaking thing real quick. “Welcome to all of the schools who have joined us. My name is Gia and I'm sure you’ve all been given the run-down of what has happening so I’m not going to bore you by repeating. I know a lot of you are in disbelief or shock but I need you trust me. What is happening is very much real. And myself and the council members,” Gia gestured to the 4 people standing behind her, “know what to do. The St Andrews Girls have given me until 10 this evening to prove that. 12 hours from the blackout, the cell signal will go down. We do have a plan for communication once that happens. We also have a plan for the next few days. As much as this scares us all, we will have to start working together to build our civilisation. So, Aly – The Head of Domestic Organisation – has come up with sign-up sheets. Everyone will be required to sign up for a task. Aly will explain more on these just now. We will start working tomorrow on figuring out how to keep the electricity going before the shut of time in 2 days with the Head of Power - Kiki - and The Head of Sanitation – Jared – will figure out how to keep the water in the taps lasting more than 3 days. There are a few ground rules that will be in place and these will be written up and posted around the school.

As much as we don’t want to think about, we are still at risk of attacks, specifically by those who don’t want to join us here. So, our Head of Defence, Conrad, will also be putting out sign-up sheets for anyone interested in joining Defence. You will be trained but at this stage we need people who are competent in hand-to-hand combat in any form and people who know how to use weapons like fighting knives and guns. I don’t want to scare anyone with this request but safety and survival is the top priority and we need to be thinking about that.

“The main rules at the moment:

Do not go wondering by yourself. We aren’t yet sure what is out there. If any animals are loose and roaming and we do not want any deaths.

Be careful within the community space. Tomorrow we will be starting to travel to the universities around us to start training doctors but until then, we don’t have anyone except the first aiders to help with injuries.

Next one is a little awkward, but links to the previous rule. No s*x. If anyone accidently gets pregnant, we do not have the medical capabilities to deliver a baby safely. This is a big one. If you are or think you might be pregnant, please come and talk to us as soon as possible. To really emphasise the importance of this rule, anyone who does get pregnant and whoever got them pregnant will be sent out of the community boarders and left to fend for themselves. Once we have the medical system in place, we will come out with birth control. Until then, no s*x.

No alcohol, drugs or parties for the same reason. I promise that in due time that will be allowed but we need trained medical staff in case something happens.

And lastly, everyone has to pull their weight. Sign-up sheets for duties will be posted shortly. Everyone needs to do their part and sign-up.

“If after the 12 hours you still don’t believe us or want to leave, you will be welcome to go. But we urge you to stay. We need everyone here to make this work. I’ll shut up now and let Aly walk you through the different duties and sign-up sheets.”

Gia took a step back and Aly stepped forward to start speaking. She didn’t hear anything as her hands shook uncontrollably. She felt a little wobbly and could feel herself start to sway slightly. Without a word, Conrad grabbed a fist full of her the back of her dress and steadied her.

Without moving his lips, he whispered to her, “it would look bad if you passed out now.”

“Thank you,” she whispered back.