Chapter 39: The message

(Rody)

Rody stood up and scanned the living room. "It should be somewhere here…" he said, darting his eyes in all directions.

"What are you looking for?" Leon asked.

"I'm looking for the… there it is!" he said and walked up to the wall behind the dining table. A grey telephone had been mounted onto the right end of the wall.

"Of course, the intercom!" Leon announced, "Actually, I have no idea what you're getting at. What are you planning on doing with this thing?"

"This…" Rody said, picking up the receiver, "has a connection to every flat here in Prime. We can use this to find the other survivors, provided there are any left."

"So what's your plan exactly?" Leon asked, "You're gonna dial the intercom number of every single flat in Prime to see if someone picks up?"

"No, man." Rody said with a frustrated glare at Leon, "We're not the ones who'll be making the calls. All we have to do is put out some kind of signal that the people in this flat are alive. If there are any survivors left in Prime…"

"They'll call us once they see the signal!" Meghan realized.

"Oh!" Leon said with raised eyebrows. "Okay, that's pretty smart. What kind of signal?"

"Ahh… that part I haven't figured out yet."

"Hmm also," Meghan started, "even if someone sees our signal, what are the chances of them knowing Ray's intercom number?"

"Yeah," said Leon as if he knew the plan was flawed all along, "how do we know they'll even think of using the intercom in the first place?"

Rody pursed his lips. He didn't have an answer to these questions. He placed the receiver back in its place and sat down on one of the dining room chairs. He rested his chin in the palm of his hand and began thinking of possible solutions. Leon and Meghan sat down around the table as well. Together they began brainstorming for ideas.

A couple of minutes went by and none of them came up with any viable suggestions.

Rody then realized in that moment how integral Ray had been to their survival. He doubted whether they could have survived on their own if it hadn't been for him. Not only had he taken up the weight of all their lives onto his shoulders but he had also put himself at risk multiple times to ensure that none of them ever have to.

If possible, Rody wanted to take some of his burden away. But no matter how hard he thought, he just wasn't able to come up with an answer to their predicament.

"Ohhh wait, I thought of something." Meghan said, "What if we make a big sign with Ray's intercom number and hang it outside the balcony?"

Rody perked up in his seat, "Oh! That's great. The balcony would work perfectly!"

"Oh also," Leon chipped in, "we can draw a picture of an intercom on the side so it doesn't look like a random bunch of numbers."

"Sweet!" Rody said, "That solves both our problems. An image of the intercom and then the number next to it. Sounds easy enough to figure out."

"Where are we going to find a big enough piece of paper?" Leon asked.

The three of them looked at each other, expecting the other to come up with something. When no one spoke up, they resumed their brainstorming session once again.

"Can't we just tape together multiple pieces of paper?" Meghan asked.

"But that would make it very flimsy, no?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, he's right" said Rody, "We need something thicker."

"What's thicker than paper?" Leon asked, "Cardboard? Cloth?"

Rody's eyes widened. Leon's ramblings had just given him an idea. He leapt out of his chair and ran into the guest bedroom. Samantha was still sleeping with her back turned towards him. Being careful not to wake her, Rody opened up the wardrobe and found a few spare bed sheets stacked at the bottom. He sorted through them and pulled out an off-white sheet with a few red roses scattered throughout. He returned to the Living room with the bed sheet in his hands and showed it to the rest of them.

"We can write the message on this." He said, spreading it out. "It's definitely big enough to be visible from afar. I know there's a couple of flowers on this side but if you flip it over, you can barely see them."

"Ooh, wow. How did you know where to find this?" Meghan asked.

"I searched through the guest bedroom's wardrobe yesterday when I was looking for things I could convert into a weapon. I found a bunch of these spare sheets in there."

"Excellent!" Meghan said, "Alright, I'll go into Ray's room to see if I can find something to write with."

Saying so she stood up and moved towards Ray's bedroom.

"Try not to wake him up." Rody said, "He needs some rest."

"Don't worry, I'll only break like one or two things and scream for a few seconds."

Leon laughed. "She's pretty funny." He said just as Meghan entered the bedroom.

Rody unfurled the bed sheet onto the dining table and spread it out such that it covered the entire thing like a table cloth. He examined the size of the sheet and made a mental map on how the design should look like. He traced along the cloth with his finger, trying to get a better understanding of how big he could make the drawing and the numbers.

Meghan soon returned with a pencil and a few multicolored marker pens. She handed it over to Rody just as he finished visualizing what the message should look like in his mind. He then picked up the pencil and began tracing the basic outlines for the intercom. It wasn't a very fancy drawing. Just a rectangular box with an elongated oval on the left which was meant to be the receiver. He added twelve small squares on the middle for the buttons, another rectangle above that for the digital panel and a few squiggles at the bottom of the receiver to represent the phone cord.

Rody then darkened the drawing with the marker pens and leaned back to see if it had turned out okay. "Does that look like an intercom?" he asked the other two.

"It looks like a telephone," Meghan replied, "But people should get it when they see the intercom number on the side, right?"

"That's what I'm hoping for" Rody said, "What's Ray's number again?"

"So, F block is six." Leon started, "We're on the fourteenth floor and his flat number is five. It's six-one-four-five."

Meghan and Rody stared at Leon in awe.

"What?" he asked defensively, "Jeez, you don't have to look THAT shocked. I have my moments!"

"Okay," said Rody and focused his attention back towards the table. He wrote down the intercom number as big and clearly as the remaining space on the bed sheet allowed. Finally, he was done. He stepped back and examined their now finished sign.

"Not bad at all." Meghan complimented his work.

"The message is pretty clear, right?" Rody asked, "I'm pretty sure any resident of Prime will be able to understand what this is supposed to mean."

"Yup," Leon agreed, "Now all that's left to do is hang it outside. Since it's a bed sheet, those cloth pegs on the railings should definitely be useful."

Rody lifted one end of the bed sheet up while Meghan helped out with the other. Together, they moved past the glass windows and out onto the balcony. Rody counted down from three and then the two of them swung the sheet over the railings. Leon then collected the clothes pegs and began pinning down the sheet so it wouldn't fly off with the wind. After ensuring the sheet was held down firmly, he gave Rody a nod, telling him it was okay to let go.

The two holding the sheet released their grip and stepped back. Though the cloth swayed slighting in the open air, it didn't seem to be in any danger of falling off. Rody wore a smile on his face and gave acknowledging nods to the rest of them.

"Good work, guys." He said as they went back inside.

"What do we do now?" asked Leon.

"Now we wait…" Meghan said and sat down at the dining table.

Rody and Leon sat down as well. Several minutes of silence went by. None of them spoke, they merely kept throwing sideward glances at the intercom, expecting something to happen. Rody started bobbing his knee while looking around the hall at nothing in particular. He knew that they wouldn't get any results right away but the waiting part was slightly bothersome.

"Kinda anti-climactic, no?" he asked finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah…" Meghan replied, "Hey, wait! Do we even know if the intercoms still work?"

Rody looked dumbfounded. Her question felt like a slap in the face. He had been so engrossed in his idea that he forgot to check the most basic of things. Feeling stupid, he reached out, grabbed the receiver and placed it against his ear.

"I hear a dial tone…" he said, "But how do we confirm that it's actually working? We can't call anyone because we don't know if they'll pick up or not."

"Well, we can go upstairs to my flat." Meghan said, "We can check if we're able to make a call to this intercom using mine."

"You want to go upstairs?" Rody asked hesitantly, "Uhh—I'm not too sure about that."

"Oh, come on!" said Meghan, rolling her eyes, "It's only a floor up. I'll also get to bring back some essential stuff that I need. What's the worst that could happen?"

Rody sighed. He really wished she hadn't said that last part.

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