Chapter Five —
Conspiracy Theories

"I mean, there's only so many options."

After making the terrifying discovery that the woods had somehow grown ten times bigger overnight, trapping all of them in West Ham, Rosa and the boys had frantically called everybody they could possibly think of, hoping to get their perspective on what was going on.

"Maybe we're dreaming," Allie Pressman proposed, tugging on the golden star necklace around her neck. "It's the best option."

Rosa truly wished the answer was as simple as dreaming, and that they'd eventually wake up back home safe again, as if nothing had even happened.

"We'd all have to be sharing the same dream," Sasha pointed out to Allie. "Like shared psychosis, uh, foile à deux."

"Foile a what now?" Clark questioned, looking at her as if she was speaking an alien language.

"Foile á deux," Sasha corrected him. "Or, in this case, more like a folie à plusieurs – madness of several." She was met with blank stares from the rest of the group, causing her to sigh in exasperation. "It means, like, a group of people sharing the same delusion. So, a person forms a delusional belief, and it then forces onto other people."

"Ohhh."

"Wait, so how would we get out of the delusion?" Allie questioned with a frown.

Sasha shrugged cluelessly. "I don't know."

"Maybe this is just some elaborate fucking game," Harry suggested. Rosa caught his eyes, raising her eyebrows sceptically. "Like, someone built an exact replica of our town and just put in the middle of nowhere, and if we just walk like, this way or that way or any way, eventually we'll get back to the the real world." The surrounding teenagers shared unsure glances, unconvinced by his words. "I'm not saying it makes any sense."

"I mean, it could be some kind of social experiment," Rosa added on, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back against the bridge railings. If that were true, she would assume that everyone's parents would be in on it. Rosa's parents only wanted the best possible opportunities for her, and an experiment didn't exactly seem to fit that, so she couldn't imagine them simply handing her over. But maybe she was wrong, maybe she didn't know them as well as she thought.

"Yo, what if everyone's been Thanos snapped?!"

"Holy shit!" Clark exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as he pointed at Glenn. "He might be onto something."

Cassandra sighed in exasperation, clearly tired of the conspiracy theories, which weren't getting them anywhere. "There was a smell, and then it went away, and it came back, and the buses came for us," she listed each of the events.

"You're gonna just work this out, Cassandra? Like some logic problem?" Harry challenged. "I mean, not a flicker of a doubt?"

"The world doesn't just turn upside down without a reason," Cassandra argued. "We're not in some play-within-a-play. Okay? Clever is not the same thing as true. There is a point to everything, there are answers."

"That's right," Helena agreed, her eyes drifting over the group. "God doesn't just play games with people for fun."

"All right, look," Luke cut in. "Grizz and I will get a group together and we'll go hike out here through the woods, okay? Like a search party."

"I think that's a good idea," Helena agreed.

"Do you think it's safe?" Cassandra queried, looking to Grizz for confirmation.

"Yeah, sure," he replied.

"Grizz knows what he's doing," Rosa assured, placing a hand on her best friend's shoulder.

"And if there's people out there, we gotta find 'em, right?" Luke added on. "You know, to get help."

The group all seemed to be in collective agreement with the idea.

"Well, I'm leaving," Harry announced. "I'm hungry."

"You're leaving?" Allie asked in disbelief, getting to her feet.

"Yeah, I got a house with a refrigerator with food inside of it, and I'm gonna go eat it," he shot back sarcastically, pulling open his car door. "Luke–"

"You can't just leave," Cassandra interrupted him.

"Well, what are we supposed to do instead?" He retorted.

"We have to figure out what is happening to us," Cassandra tried to argue, but there was no use trying to reason with Harry.

"You're not student council president anymore."

"God, you really, really need to get over that!"

Harry shook his head in annoyance, ignoring Cassandra as he glanced over at Kelly, who sat quietly on the ground. "You coming with, Kel?"

A few moments passed before she looked up at him. "No."

Harry exhaled heavily in irritation. "Jesus Christ, just get in the car!"

"Leave her alone," Will stepped in.

"Hey, fuck off, Will!" Harry shouted. He turned his attention away from the boy, his stare lingering on Kelly, who refused to look up at him. Realising she wasn't about to go anywhere, he turned away. "Fine. Who gives a shit?"

Everybody watched silently as Harry got in the car, reversing away from them. The tension in the air remained, especially when Campbell Eliot began heading towards the woods.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Rosa asked him, watching suspiciously as he held up his phone.

"I'm just gonna send a text, let everybody know how fucked we are," he replied casually, snapping a photo.

"Campbell, don't!" Cassandra warned, hurrying over. "Come on, let's think about this."

Campbell turned back to face them with a smirk, his finger hovering over the send button.

Rosa straightened up, taking a step forwards. "Come on, don't be a dick about this–" she cut off as he made direct eye contact with her, the pleads from herself and Cassandra only seeming to prompt him further as he finally pressed send. "You asshole," Rosa uttered, shaking her head as she turned back to face the rest of the group, faces sullen, eyes weary and laced with anxiety about the situation they'd all found themselves in.

She couldn't imagine how the teenagers receiving the photo message from Campbell were going to feel now.

"The people need to know," Campbell taunted smugly.

Rosa turned back to him, narrowing her eyes. "Not like this."

Cassandra Pressman silently stepped between the two of them, hoping to put an early end to the growing tension before it escalated any further, knowing how easily her cousin could push people's buttons, and also knowing just how short Rosa Perez's temper could be at times.

Campbell ignored Cassandra's attempt, moving closer to Rosa, who held his stare, her expression hardening as he came to a stop right in front of her.

"Hey," Cassandra cautioned, moving between them once again, her hands held out either side of her. "That's enough."

Campbell smirked, eyes darkening as he watched Rosa. He then moved past her, brushing against her shoulder, the movement hard enough to cause her to almost stumble.

"Hey!" Glenn suddenly snapped, moving forwards. "What the fuck, man?!"

Campbell arched an eyebrows in amusement as he looked between them. "This your guard dog, Rosa?"

"Fuck off, Campbell."

Glenn placed a steady hand against Campbell's chest, purposely pushing him a step backwards. Campbell looked up at him, a smug smile curving on his lips. He glanced to the rest of the group, outstretching his arms, as if he hadn't done anything wrong.

"Go home, Campbell," Cassandra finally told him.

"Fine," he muttered, his eyes narrowing at Glenn and Rosa, neither of whom backed down from his stare. Eventually, he shook his head, turning to leave. "Whatever."

Rosa was tense as she watched after him, an uneasy silence beginning to fall around the group. Her phone buzzed loudly in her pocket, and a few text message dings began to fill the air, everybody pulling out their phones at once to see the mass panic caused by Campbell's photo.

And as bad as things seemed right now, Rosa knew that this was only the beginning.

A/N

I am both Rosa and Glenn, making film references in a time of crisis, and trying to fight Campbell.