Page 18 of The Compound

We all agreed, every single one of us, that we wouldn’t complete the task.

We were wrapped in a warm, companionable glow and when we went to the bedroom none of us went to sleep, but instead stayed awake for hours, sitting on each other’s beds, laughing loudly at every joke, exchanging flirtatious looks and friendly smiles.

Some of the girls had a pillow fight, and some of the boys were roughhousing.

Jacintha and I watched them fondly, while Candice plaited my hair the way I liked it.

I still wasn’t sure if Candice singled me out among the other girls because I was competition, or because she actually liked me.

That night, I felt disposed to be generous and kind to everyone, and when Candice told Jacintha and me that she was glad to have found friends like us I believed her.

I also felt an underlying smugness that we had resisted being goaded by the producers into banishing someone.

Time and time again I had seen contestants on the show throw their friends and lovers aside for the sake of a reward, for something that would make their life easier.

Right then, lying against Jacintha, with Candice working through my hair with gentle hands, and watching the boys, beautiful and strong, posturing for the equally beautiful girls, I felt confident that we would never get so brutal and senseless as to cast each other aside for material gain.

Besides, the big screen would reset in the morning.

There would be more opportunities for food tomorrow.

—

When I woke up the next day, Sarah and Vanessa greeted me in the kitchen with somber faces and handed me a banana and a cup of coffee. “Thanks,” I said. “I haven’t seen you guys up so early before.”

“We needed to make sure that no one stole any of the food,” said Sarah. “We’ve been here for hours.”

I looked at the crate of bananas. There were maybe two dozen left. The bread was gone. The vegetables, too.

“You didn’t clean the kitchen last night,” Sarah said. “We take our job seriously. You need to do the same.”

“Sorry,” I said, immediately chastened. “I meant to. I’ll do it now.”

“Get Becca, too,” Sarah said. “Don’t let her get away with not working, Lily. There’s no room for laziness here.”

Sarah had, apparently, found a personality in the last few days. I preferred her as the girl who no one remembered very well.

“Okay,” I said. “Sorry. I’ll get her now.”

“Have your coffee first,” Vanessa said.

Becca was still asleep, as was Sam. They weren’t touching, but they were facing each other in bed, their heads on the same pillow.

This small intimacy between them sickened me.

I didn’t want to wake them, but I knew I couldn’t let anyone else see that we hadn’t done our job.

Everyone had worked so well yesterday. I was filled with shame at neglecting our duties.

“Becca,” I whispered, touching her shoulder. Her eyes opened.

“Lily?”

“We need to clean the kitchen,” I said. “We forgot to do it last night.”

She stretched like a kitten, and I was tempted to let her sleep and do it myself, but she said, “Okay,” and swung her legs off the bed.

“Becca?” Sam asked, his eyes still closed.

“Go back to sleep,” she whispered. She grabbed a hoodie from the foot of her bed and put it on. She was one of the few girls in the compound who was openly self-conscious about her body. Of course, we all loathed how we looked in some way, but most of us were better at hidingit.

We cleaned in silence, as we always did.

I found it soothing; Becca, it seemed, did not enjoy the inane chatter that we had all become partial to.

I thought there was something fortifying about her quietness.

Once we finished, Vanessa and Sarah appeared again and produced a coffee and a banana for Becca.

We talked a bit, sitting on the counters, or leaning against the fridge.

It was the most open and chatty I had seen Vanessa and Sarah. Having a purpose clearly suited them.

Andrew emerged, his hair mussed from sleep. “I wish we had a clock,” he said. “It would make things so much easier. I can never wake up early without an alarm.”

“I can wake you when I get up if you want,” I said.

“Would you mind, Lily? It would be much more civilized if I could start the day nice and early.”

“Sure. No problem.”

“Thanks.” He turned to Sarah and Vanessa. “How are we doing on supplies?”

“Not good,” Vanessa said. “We have enough breakfast for everyone, and maybe a very small lunch, but there’ll be nothing for dinner.

” Sarah handed him a coffee and a banana, and he hesitated, then said, “Keep it. Save the banana for later, and give my coffee to Candice. She’ll be up shortly.

Thanks, guys. It’s nice to wake up to the smell of coffee.

” He smiled at us and his curls fell across his forehead, giving him an air of innocence. “Feels like home, right?”

—

A little while later, we all met in the living room.

It was Tom who spoke rather than Andrew, his face drawn and serious.

Whatever else you could say about Tom, when he entered a room you looked at him.

“We’re going to have to be ruthless today,” he said.

We were quiet. “We need to do as many tasks as it takes to get food.”

It looked as though Tom was going to speak further, but Andrew interrupted, eager to get a word in. “We can do this, guys,” he said. “We’ll put in the effort, and we’ll reap the rewards. And look, if we have to work into the night, so be it. We’ve got to eat.”

The first task was for every boy to lift their bedmate over their head.

It wasn’t a great start to the morning. Evan couldn’t manage it, as he was now sharing a bed with Vanessa, who was curvy and buxom.

Vanessa flushed as he struggled to raise her up, but it was clearly Evan’s fault: I didn’t think that there was any girl there he could have lifted, not even Becca.

He managed it after a half a dozen attempts, his arms shaking and Vanessa shouting down at him not to drop her.

When she was back on the ground, Susie smirked at her. “Big breakfast?” she asked.

Vanessa turned to her coolly. “Wasn’t that you last night, shitting in the yard like an animal?”

None of the girls engaged in the conversation lest a fight break out. We were all on edge; I was so hungry I felt liable to snap at anyone.

The big screen read:

Task: Choreograph a dance to the song “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. Everyone must sing and dance in unison

Reward: Lawn mower

It was the biggest reward that had been offered, except for maybe the freezer. I didn’t really care—at this point, all I was thinking about was food. Beside me though, Ryan murmured, “This is really going to make Yard Maintenance a lot more effective.”

Urgently, Tom called out, “Who knows the lyrics to ‘Uptown Girl’?”

It took us a long time. Becca, Evan, and I knew bits of the lyrics, so it took us sitting for what was probably an hour to get all the words right.

Candice and Susie worked on organizing the choreography while Tom paced impatiently.

We would have a verse figured out, but, with no paper to write it down, we sometimes forgot the words we had just remembered.

Eventually, when we had a couple of lines, Andrew would shout it out, and have a group of people repeat it over and over.

Candice and Susie kept the choreography simple, but still it took us hours.

We were slowed down considerably by a small number of residents, namely Marcus, Seb, and Jacintha.

Jacintha was particularly uncoordinated, and I could see that she was getting frustrated with herself, shaking her head in annoyance when she muddled the moves.

I tried to be supportive, but she was shockingly bad.

Halfway through, Sarah stopped and said, “Isn’t there a key change in this song?”

Tom looked as though he might snap somebody’s neck.

“That’s just the Westlife cover,” I said.

“Are you sure, Lily?” Tom said.

“Positive.”

Finally, we finished. Any giddiness that we had at the beginning of the task had disappeared.

Any enjoyment we got from the song and dance evaporated after the tenth time we tried, unsuccessfully, to get through it.

When we at last managed the routine in unison we were tired and irritable.

The boys loped to the delivery area to look at the lawn mower while the girls went to the pool.

Jacintha and I sat under a tree, away from the others.

“I’m the most pathetic dancer,” Jacintha said. “Fuck. I really messed that one up.”

“It’s over now,” I said.

“But people will remember how much I set us back the next time we vote to banish someone.”

It was true that people were likely looking for reasons to banish someone now that food was so scarce.

But I knew no one would banish Jacintha: at least, not yet.

“That’s not true. You’re the department of Repairs and Construction.

That’s, like, the most important one, except for Tom and Andrew’s department.

I just clean dishes,” I said, shrugging.

“Repairs and Construction,” she repeated, with an irritated jerk of her chin. “I haven’t even made us a proper door, yet.”

We were interrupted by the sounds of whooping coming from the side of the house.

We all turned to look. Ryan came around the corner of the house, riding the lawn mower.

Despite myself, I was impressed. It was enormous, oddly sleek, and a shiny red.

Andrew was on the back, standing, his arms spread wide, and crying out with happiness.

We laughed fondly at them, like mothers watching their children in the playground.