Freeing Natalie and Ben wasn't as difficult as they had feared. When the others tried to explain to them what had happened they were confused and angry. Then they all crept back along the corridor into the green room. The girls in there looked up, confused at so many people breaking the rules of boredom, but they too were quickly freed. Since Ben had a torch as well, and Tom was able to retrieve his from his bag, they now had four. Charlotte, feeling better although still with a headache, came through to join them and they discussed what to do next.
"You said everyone else was in the auditorium?" Tom asked Charlotte. She nodded. "How many people?"
"Well, Ernest, Emma, Will, Sarah, David, Matt, Zoe, Rachel, Nick...and Emily's somewhere around."
"That's thirteen. And we're eleven," Tom said.
"What about Rick?" Ruth said. "And Claire?"
"And Rob?" said Adam.
"Claire went out to get food," Patrick said. "She's not part of all this."
"I think the others were in the auditorium too," Charlotte said.
"There's too many of them," Tom despaired. "We can't just go in and shine torches at them, they'll stop us before we can free any of them."
"Will used the room lights on us, didn't he?" Adam said. "Couldn't we do the same?"
"The stage lights!" Ruth exclaimed. "If we can use them then we could get everyone at once!"
"Does anyone know how to work them?" Charlotte asked.
"I do," Ben said. "What's the pattern we need to flash?" Ruth gave him the piece of paper where she'd written it down.
"I'll need to get round to the lighting desk at the back of the auditorium," Ben continued. "And it'll be easiest if we can get everyone onto the stage, then the lights are shining directly at them."
"Can we create some kind of diversion that gets everyone onto the stage?" Ruth asked.
"We've got to be quick," Natalie said. "There's only ten minutes of boredom left, and then they'll find out what's happening."
"Charlotte, you go in first, because they won't suspect you," Tom said. "Tell them that there is an order that they must all go down onto the stage. We'll follow you. If they listen to you, they'll come down to the stage, and if they work out what's going on they'll come down anyway to try and capture us."
"Ben, you try to get round to the lighting desk and flash the signal as soon as you can," Ruth said.
"Take the torches anyway, just in case we can use them," Tom said. "Everyone ready? Then let's go."
They went down the corridor and out through the side doors into the auditorium, Charlotte leading. Looking round, while trying to look as though she was still hypnotised, Ruth saw that the people Charlotte had named were indeed there. But someone was missing- Will. Well, we can deal with him later, Ruth thought. Maybe it'll be easier if he's not here now.
"You must all come down onto the stage at once," Charlotte said. "That is an order from our leader." A few people started to do as she said, but the majority looked suspicious.
"There are still five minutes of boredom hour," David said. "You are breaking the rules of boredom."
"What's happening?" asked Emma. "Why have we got to go onto the stage?"
"Uho," said Patrick behind Ruth. Emily, the other sentry, had appeared through the curtains from the backstage area.
"What is going on here?" she asked. "You are all breaking boredom! I will inform the Leader."
"Stop her!" Tom shouted.
"She doesn't know about any order- it's a lie!" David cried. "Stop them!"
Everything happened at once. Charlotte and Patrick grabbed Emily and began flashing the torch in her face. David, followed by most of the others who were still under the influence of Will's hypnosis, hurried down onto the stage towards those who were free. It was chaos. The stage became a struggling mass of cast and technical crew, of flashing torches and flying scarves- well, just one scarf.
Ruth looked up and saw that Nick and Matt had intercepted Ben as he was trying to get to the lighting desk. He was struggling, but he couldn't escape them.
Ruth tried to shake off the people she was struggling with and ran down the steps to the floor of the auditorium. She crossed the floor and headed up the steps to where Ben was struggling.
"Get to the lights," she heard someone shouting, but she didn't have a clue how to work the lighting desk. She glanced over her shoulder at the struggling crowd on stage. The free people were getting the worst of the skirmish, and unless they could do something soon their chances didn't look good. She pushed herself into the struggle between Ben, Nick and Matt, trying to give Ben a chance to get away.
Then suddenly a bright light came on over at the other side of the auditorium. It swept across the auditorium, growing brighter and changing size, until it was pointing directly at the stage. Ruth looked round, and saw that Tom had reached one of the twofollowspots they used for highlighting main characters.
Then it began to flash. Ruth realised that it wasn't being switched off and on, but that Tom was covering and uncovering the beam with a piece of board- she wondered where he had got it from until she realised it was a "No Flirting" sign that had been used to dress the set.
People on the stage had stopped struggling and were covering their eyes. Matt and Nick had momentarily stopped struggling to see what was going on, and then Nick started to run towards Tom.
"What do you think you're doing? You'll break the spot!" he yelled. Ben ran after him to try to stop him reaching Tom, while Ruth had got out her torch and was flashing it in Matt's face.
It was a struggle, but finally he swayed backwards, the look of waking sleep in his eyes replaced by confusion. She looked round. Ben was holding off Nick while Tom continued to wave the board in front of thefollowspot's beam. Down on the stage people were staggering back, looking around them in confusion, while others tried to explain what had happened.
Ruth helped Ben free Nick, then climbed to the top of the auditorium towards Tom. "Well done," she said. She looked around. Was anyone missing? She still couldn't see Will. And Zoe seemed to be missing too...
"What'?" she asked suddenly. A loud and piercing alarm had suddenly started whining somewhere in the depths of the building.
"It must be a fire," Tom said, hurrying over to a set of the emergency exit that punctuated the top of the auditorium at intervals. He pushed against the bar, but they wouldn't open. Ruth pushed aside the curtain of the window that ran around the top of the hall and looked out. By this time Matt, Nick and some of the others had joined them.
"What?" she said again. The lake that almost surrounded the hall was being drained, and quickly too. Already most of the water-if you could call it water- was gone, and the frames of rusty bicycles and the stump of the fountain which, for health and safety reasons, wasn't used any more, were visible. A few ducks and geese wandered about disconsolately.
"Come on," Nick said, and everyone raced down to the auditorium floor. The whole society, cast and crew, poured down the steps from the auditorium into the foyer below-
And stopped in shock. The foyer was as they had never seen it before.
"What!" Ruth said a third time, as the whole building began to shake.
The story continues in Episode 2...
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