Ulf rushed to the
service gates. With the contest running almost a third of the radios
were out of commission and key stations ran dangerously understaffed.
This was the critical phase of the festival, but he had prepared just
about everyone with scare stories about the twenty minutes when the
contestants took the stage.
Should have
told them about the two hours after that. With that thought he
continued to make certain the service gates were closed for entrance.
With the open grounds deceptively empty it was all too tempting to
let everyone inside, and that spelled disaster when the gym hall
eventually emptied.
Guests sitting at
the tables just inside the gates rose or turned when a roar erupted
from the gym hall.
That's
Christina for all of you. Ulf smiled as he ran.
Fifteen minutes
to count the votes, including all votes collected from ballot boxes
strategically placed around the school for those who wanted to make
their opinion heard but disliked crowds.
At the gates the
security patrol allowed more guests inside in exactly the
uncontrolled manner Ulf feared, and he pulled one of them aside and
handed her a paper slip with instructions.
She looked at him
with questioning eyes. Then she gave the relative calm around the
outdoor café a long gaze and stared at him again with even more
questions in her eyes.
“Just trust me
on this,” Ulf said. “We've packed fifteen hundred guests inside
the gym but sooner or later they'll go outside.”
She just shrugged
and joined the rest of the patrol. All of them pointed at Ulf when
queuing people asked what was happening as they closed the gates.
He waved at the
irritated queue and made a time-out sign hoping they'd understand.
After that he left an unhappy patrol who pointedly refused to look at
him. Even their backsides were unhappy.
Well, I'm the
better scapegoat. He smirked and went behind the gym. The back
door must have been closed to avoid letting daylight inside and he
stood knocking on it for a while before he realised the futility in
what he was doing. The cheering from the other side prevented anyone
on the inside from hearing him.
With a sigh he
prepared himself for a wrestling match all the way from the main
entrance to the stage and turned.
Red Rose? What
are you doing here?
The first strike
fractured both bones in his left upper arm. The second gifted him
with a concussion and sent him sprawling to the ground.
Before he lost
consciousness he felt two of his ribs crack as he frantically shouted
for help into his radio.
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