It's My Party

Mark frowned. Beta Sigma Rho had a campus reputation for being a magnet for professional party goers. "I'm surprised there were that many still on campus."

Fatima shrugged. "They were the second group of people to leave via the elevator. Almost everybody else in the line was a woman. We were all relieved when they left."

"But the elevator only holds eighteen," said Ashley.

Fatima paused to take a breath. "Yep, they made two trips to party #5, 2525. The elevator was packed both times." She looked around the empty room. "It's a pity Husna left. She knows the people who came here a lot better than I do, the people that came to It's My Party I mean."

Ashley looked bewildered. "Huh?"

"The first people in line were twenty students from the School of Nursing, all fifth years I think, eighteen women and two men. The Beta Sigma Rho boys almost picked a fight over using the elevator first, but the nursing students held their ground. My friend Husna negotiated a compromise. Eighteen of the first group got to ride first, and the remaining two men joined my group at the end of the line. The two men wanted to rejoin their nursing group, so my group picked It's My Party too, just to keep a fight from starting between the nurses and the frat boys. It all seems so ridiculous now."

Fatima looked around at her new friends. "And that's the way it worked. The rest of us in the line organized into groups going to the different parties. That's what took most of the time, deciding who was going where and typing in the stupid access codes. I think the elevator would return within a couple of minutes after leaving. I was very surprised my trip took so long, three and a half minutes. It was a little scary. There was no sense of motion at all. We all thought the elevator had broken. I was very surprised the door opened when our countdown hit zero."

Madison asked, "So the other parties got eighteen people each?"

"From the initial crowd, yes, the other four besides parties #1 and #5. People split up just to fill the slots and get out of the basement. There were four guys and eight other women with me in our ride to It's My Party. We were the last ones to leave the downstairs hall. There was no one behind us at the time. We got up here about 2:30."

Fatima adjusted her headscarf. "The eighteen women from the first ride were here. They were the only ones. They said they found this place deserted."

Jada and Mark glanced at each other. Jada asked, "Wait a minute. You're saying this place was deserted from the start? No one ever saw anyone from Kappa Alpha?"

Fatima shook her head. "No. The first group was upset by the elevator ride, upset with themselves really. None of them realized until they got here that there was no return code given for getting back to where they started. My group didn't think of that either. I guess none of us were taking the access-code business too seriously."

Mark nodded, remembering his own experience of typing in the code as a game. "It's not our fault for not seeing the danger. Being in a building that you don't know how to get out of is an unheard of experience. It's such a criminal violation of fire codes. No wonder we didn't recognize the danger."

Mark tried to picture the scene Fatima was describing. The University of Vermont had an intensive five-year nursing program granting RN degrees after four years and Master of Nursing degrees in five. He could easily imagine that twenty people who were already Registered Nurses and starting their professional careers would not put up with the childish and dangerous prank Kappa Alpha appeared to be playing. Mark wondered if the first group was also drugged. He asked Fatima, "Do you know if they ate from the buffet?"

She thought for a moment and then nodded. "I'm almost sure, yes. I saw a bunch of used plates when I arrived."

"Actually," Jada chimed in, "I suspect the drug was in the soft drinks at the other side of the elevator." She briefly described her experience making the trip. Emily backed up Jada's story and then prodded Fatima to continue.

"Well, we only met the women nursing students briefly. They all wanted out of here. I think they were only waiting for someone from Kappa Alpha to show up so they could yell at them, and then when we showed up they gave up. They left almost immediately, certainly before 3 PM, the two male nurses too, through the door by the elevator, saying they were going back to the parking lot."

"Tell them the last piece, what you told us last night," prodded Madison.

"One of the men mentioned they came in four Land Rovers."

Mark's sister turned to him and raised her eyebrows. "Sound familiar?"

"Yeah, I think I remember you making a comment. Weren't there four Land Rovers in the spots closest to the drawbridge?"

Madison nodded. "Which means the group never made it back to their vans, after an hour and a half of trying!" She whined at her brother. "Mark! What the hell is going on here?!"

The group stood in tense silence for several seconds pondering Madison's question. Then Hannah gave a small shriek. "My God, my God, my parents! They are absolutely going to kill me!" She ran and got her own cell phone and then stared at it in dismay. "Hell! Zero bars!"

Mark handed her his Leophone. "Here. Try mine."

Hannah spent the next few minutes dialing and redialing her home number, becoming more frantic with each redial. She finally shouted to the crowd, "Hey everybody, Listen to this!" as she redialed and put on the speaker phone.

The group heard a recorded voice say in a flat tone, "All satellite circuits busy. Your call can not be completed as dialed. Please try again later. Error code sixty-three G."

There was brief second of silence. Ashley pulled out her own Leophone and tried dialing. After a moment she said, "Hell. My dad spent a fortune for this phone. This is not supposed to happen." She added sarcastically, "But at least we know it's error code sixty-three G. That's something I guess."

Madison felt like snapping back with, "Oh, cool it Ashley!" but then saw Ashley's attempt at humor seemed to relieve some of the group's tension. Madison dialed Hannah's cell with her own Leophone. There was no response. Then she dialed Ashley's Leophone. It rang at once, and they briefly tested the connection. Then Madison tried dialing her own parents. Her grim face required no explanation. She finally closed her phone and said to her brother, "But we can dial each other!"

"Don't you remember? Leophones have local switching and walkie-talkie ability. Our phones are synching directly with each other, not going through the satellite at all."

Jada tried dialing 911 on Mark's phone and got the same error response. She handed the phone back to Mark. He took it and said, "It sounds like the satellite network is…"

"Down?" asked Fatima.

Mark shrugged. "I don't know. All circuits busy? What could cause that? Maybe clogged is a better word." He tried his phone for a moment, repeating Jada's attempt. "And 911 isn't working either."

"Yeah," Jada replied. "How can they not give priority to 911 calls?"

Mark sighed. "Oh, it'll handle 911 calls, but Skylands warns you when you buy the phone they're exempt from national regulations. It's an international phone, not a cell phone." He looked down and noticed his battery was almost drained. "Hey Sis, do you have your charger?"

"Sure do." She ran to her purse and got it. A moment later Mark's phone gave a happy chirp to indicate it was being recharged. No one else had spoken for the last minute. Mark looked around the lounge and then at the group of six women, wondering what they wanted to do next. Everyone seemed lost in her own thoughts. Understandable, thought Mark, but not very productive.

The realization brought him up short. What should they be doing? Try to get back to their cars? Of course, but how? Follow in the footsteps of the people who didn't make it? Or maybe they should they stay put for a while, concentrate on contacting the police. What should they do? Pondering the question, Mark wandered over to the bank of windows where the buffet used to be. He looked outside. After a few moments, the women followed him.

The bank of windows looked out from the corner of a trapezoidal park. The lounge room was on the second floor of a great two-story building which had the park as an enclosed courtyard. They were above the corner of a peaceful forest garden, with numerous pines and spruces and cobblestone walkways and even a few sturdy benches and tables scattered about. The park looked inviting, very pleasantly laid out. Mark sighed and looked up at the sky. Clouds were moving in. They had already obliterated the sun.

Hannah commented, "There was a weather report yesterday, we might get six to eight inches later this afternoon. Hell, can you imagine trying to drive through that awful forest road with eight inches of snow on the ground?"

Mark shrugged. "Right now I wish that was our problem. Don't worry about the snow. Let's see… I know I saw the sun coming through these windows when I woke up earlier. Let's call this direction east, which puts the elevator south and the kitchen to the north of us."

Ashley and Fatima walked across the lounge to the western windows. After a few seconds the rest of the group followed. It looked like another enclosed park, a mirror image of the trapezoidal forest park, but this one made entirely of sand. A few volleyball nets were set up nearby.

Jada gasped. "I do believe that is a genuine Olympic swimming pool. Amazing!" In the center of the sand mark was a stone perimeter around what was apparently a 50 meter by 25 meter covered pool, all bedded down for the winter.

Ashley squinted and called out, "Are those shuffleboard courts at the other end?"

"Yes, and bocce too I think!" replied Fatima. "This would be a very nice place to live."

Mark nodded. "I had no idea the residential areas would be so extensive. I thought this was mostly a shopping mall." He turned to the six women. "So, folks, what do we do next?"

Hannah stared at him. "What do you mean, what do we do? Isn't it obvious?! We leave this place. Now!"

Mark turned to her. "How?"

"Well, through that door of course." She pointed to the exit to the left of the elevator. "Is there another way? You want to try jumping out a window?"

"Well, not jump. We could probably make something to climb down though. It's a possibility. There's also a pantry and then a bath area beyond the kitchen, and a door out of that leading who knows where."

Hannah frowned and shook her head. "But that's heading north. Our cars are at the southern end of the mall, aren't they?"

Ashley chimed in. "She's right Mark."

"I know. But we have some evidence another group tried to leave by going south and didn't make it. Doesn't that count for something?"

Ashley gave a deep frown. "Well, I'm not going north. No way! Mark, it's the Christmas holidays. This place will probably be deserted for the rest of the year! I feel lost now, and if we start heading north now, it'll just get worse. We've got to head south and find your car before it starts snowing. We've got to get out of here!"

Madison spoke up. "We could split up, explore two or even three paths and keep in touch by Leophone."

"No!" said Hannah almost shouting. "I do not want us to split up!"

Ashley also shouted. "Well I don't care what you want! I am definitely not going north!"

"Excuse me people!" said Fatima loudly, "but I'd like to point out we are lacking something we badly need, something we have the power to find."

"A map of the mall?" asked Hannah.

Fatima gave a quick laugh. "Well, that would be nice too. But I was thinking of a leader."

The other six people stared at her.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not soliciting for the job. But I am a political science major. It's obvious to me we need a leader. We'll fall apart without one."

Most of the group seemed to take her suggestion to heart but Ashley gave a deep frown. "Oh hell Fatima, I don't know. Part of my reason for coming to this party was to get away from my parents for a while. Are you saying we should elect someone I'll have to obey?"

Fatima nodded, "Within reason, yes, as long as you want to be a part of this group."

"Well I nominate my brother," said Madison. "He was an Eagle Scout."

"Maddy…" whispered Mark with a grin.

Fatima shook her head. "Don't choose on survival skills, or even the person with the best sense of direction. That person can be our chief guide perhaps. But our leader should be the person with the best leadership skills."

Hannah looked interested but uncertain. "Which are?"

Fatima shrugged. "It's a complex skill set. Pick someone who can lead us, keep us working as a group and inspire us to do our best. Pick someone with good emotional stability, good negotiation skills, pick someone who can make level-headed decisions in an emergency."

"Do you want the job?" asked Hannah.

Fatima paused for a long moment. "Well, if elected I would do my best. It's a position of trust. Perhaps… Is everybody agreeable to having an election?"

"Secret ballot?" asked Jada.

"Oh, I don't know. Is that necessary? The important thing is we have to pull together as an organized group. We might find a better leader by explaining our choices to everybody. I think we should try to reach a consensus."

Mark nodded his approval. "That's a very good point. Let's try keeping the votes public."

Emily spoke up. "Fatima, how about you chair a meeting, with the agenda of us picking a leader by open discussion. Everybody agree?" There were quick nods all around.

"Okay, excellent," said Fatima. They took a moment to all sit down in a circle, and then Fatima cleared her throat. "This meeting is now in order. I am the moderator. To speak, raise your hand and wait to be recognized. Now, this may sound very formal, but I think the first thing we should do is appoint a recording secretary. Any volunteers?"

"Oh, I'll do it," Emily said immediately as she raised her hand. Fatima nodded and Emily got up and hurried to her purse. She came back and sat down a moment later with a small sketchpad and a pen.

Fatima continued. "I'll get right to the point. I am entertaining nominations for leader, and you can nominate yourself if you wish. Be prepared to say why you think your choice would be the best person to lead us. I'm going to start off being as liberal as possible, no time limits on speaking. Just have your say. Nominations are now open to the floor."

"Huh?" said Hannah looking down. "What does the floor… Oh, I get it. Never mind."

Fatima gave her a kind smile and reminder. "That's right Hannah, everyone here is the floor except me. And I can recognize myself if I want, step outside my role of moderator if I want to nominate someone. Raise your hand if you want to talk, wait for me to recognize you." Hannah nodded.

Madison was the first to raise her hand, and after being recognized stood up and said, "I'd still like to nominate my brother. He's a hell of a nice guy, very smart, and kind and considerate. He's a great listener, never bosses me around, and always gives me his full attention whenever I want to speak with him. And sometimes I even manage to change his opinion about something, which shows he has an open mind. He is absolutely unflappable in tense situations, extremely level-headed. We were right next to a car accident in Portugal a few years ago, and while other people were still screaming, Mark rushed in and helped a person out of a wreck before it caught fire. Vote for my brother, you won't be sorry." Madison looked at Fatima and sat down, nodding that she was finished.

Fatima nodded back her approval. "An excellent nomination Madison. Speeches like this are exactly what I'm hoping for. Mark, do you accept the nomination?"

Mark was blushing from his sister's praise, but he spoke with a calm voice. "Yes. I'd like to add that if I'm elected, I'll do my best to deserve your votes." He paused for a moment and noticed Ashley and Hannah were nervously holding hands together. "Heck folks, I don't know why those nursing students never made it back to their vans, but I'm still hoping we'll be back at our cars in a few hours. How difficult can it be?"

Emily wrote furiously and then waved her hand. After being recognized she stood up and said, "I nominate my roommate Jada. Everything Madison said about Mark, Jada is also. I think she is the wisest counselor I've ever met. I've come to rely heavily on her level-headed judgment. She'll be a fantastic leader, and besides…" Emily looked Mark directly in the eyes. "I don't mean to insult you Mark, but our group of seven is six women and one man. Can you imagine the reverse, six men and one woman electing the woman as leader? Can you?"

Mark frowned and looked at Fatima, who confirmed first with Emily that Emily was finished. Fatima then nodded that Mark could reply. He stood up and turned in a circle, making eye contact with the women for a moment and then clearing his throat. "I didn't create our culture. I try not to have a gender bias, not when it harms the rights of other people, but… But yeah, I know it's there." He took a deep breath. "I've got a few ideas of what we should do next, and I'm happy to share my ideas with whoever the next leader is. And I agree with you Emily. I think Jada would make a fine leader. I still want to run for the job though."

After he sat down Fatima asked, "Jada, do you accept the nomination?"

Jada looked at both Emily and Mark for a long moment before she stood up. "I do accept it, and like Mark I'll do be best if elected. I would also like to add that I'll be voting for Mark."

"What?!" shouted Emily.

"Out of order," said Fatima. "Emily, please wait to be recognized before speaking. I promise, I won't try to limit the debate." Seeing that Emily did not raise her hand, Fatima continued, "Are there additional nominations from the floor?"

She paused for a long moment. "Hearing none, do I hear a motion to close the nominations?"

"So moved!" said Hannah.

"I second!" said Madison.

Fatima called the vote on the motion to close the nominations and it passed unanimously. "Do I hear a motion to call for the vote for leader?" she asked next. A moment later they voted. Six hands went up for Mark, followed a few seconds later by Emily's. Seeing the unanimous vote, Fatima didn't bother for a show of hands for Jada. She asked instead for a motion to close the meeting.

"Wait?" asked Mark, waving his hand.

Fatima smiled at him. "The chair recognizes our leader Mark."

"I'd like to make a motion that Jada be second in command."

Fatima nodded. "Yes, a good idea. We have a motion to"

"I second the motion!" shouted Emily, again not waiting to be recognized.

Fatima let the intrusion go. "We have a second. All in favor?" The vote was again unanimous. Fatima then closed the meeting.

Mark immediately called the group around him to discuss their situation. He looked at each of the women for a moment, especially Emily, and was relieved to see her give him a respectful nod back. Taking a deep breath, he began to speak.

"Right, first things first. Phones! How many do we have, and how many do we have chargers for?" After a few minutes, they determined that Emily, Fatima, and Hannah had cell phones all reading zero bars, and Mark, Madison, and Ashley had Leophones that were all somewhat low on power. They only had one charger that would fit the Leophones. Mark asked his sister to plug in and keep dialing 911. He asked the others to turn off their phones to conserve power. He then addressed the group.