#0027 | 07/21 | 01:34 PM

I got an unexpected call this morning.

We've been using the Bandit's cell phones to communicate amongst ourselves recently (god forbid when our bars go dead) to great success.

I was walking back from my old house (I went for my fucking iPod and laptop, I can't believe I'd forgotten it all this time) and it rang. That's normal enough, it could be Henry or Hector checking in on us (Anna was with me today), you know, making sure we hadn't been shot by a crazed survivor or eaten by something unpleasant.

But the voice that had answered hadn't been familiar. It had been gruff, and unpleasant. Slick. Something vocally sleazy.

I checked the number and it was unfamiliar. But the words cleared up any confusion: "Boss. Boss. It's me, Larry. We've got two more of 'em. A broad and a brat! Boss... Boss? Ya' there, boss?"

This had been a fear since the first day. The Bandits had been using the auditorium as a communal bedroom of sorts, and we'd found mattresses spread around the room. There were 21 Bandits that died in all. But we'd found 23 mattresses in the auditorium. The boss of the Bandits, the sole female, had seemed to have a private room set up in a backstage set-up room, but that still left roughly three Bandits missing.

And I found them.

"Boss? Boss!"

I spoke a word then. Nothing too understandable, I was in slight shock then, but whatever I said, the Bandit might have mistaken it as some greeting. But it was obvious I wasn't the boss from my voice. He mistook me for someone called Evans, and demanded I give the damn phone to the Boss.

I gave the phone to Anna, and covering the mouthpiece, told her to act like the Bandit Bitch (how she referred to the Boss).

I was afraid this might be too much for her. She's started to open up little by little in the few days since her traumatic experiences, but I feared putting her smack back into the midst of Bandits might crack her a bit.

But she didn't. With remarkable quick wit, she caught on to situation fast with my stuttered and hurried words of explanation. We had an advantage. And we needed to push our advantage while we had it.

"Yeah. I'm here, stupid. What's up?"

Anna alone had been in close contact with the Bandit's Boss, she had explained to me last night. She talked a lot last night actually. In between tears and words, I learned more about her. And her ordeal.

And I talked a bit about my family. And what I'd been through.

The Bandit Bitch (she refused to call her anything else) had relished with audible happiness upon the sight of Anna. She slapped her silly as she lay tied on a clinic bed, and spit on her. Mocked her as the first climbed on her and robbed her of her grace.

The Bandit on the line talked a bit and hung up. Anna gave me the phone (she was shaking, shaking bad) and explained, calmly, from what she understood, a few Bandits (probably three) had been out on a "scouting, salvage, and capture mission" per say (their words, not mine). They were returning to the school today, and they had two hostages. A woman and a boy.

We rushed to the school.

And now we're waiting. Back like that first night that we we're all together. Back in the main office. Except Anna's with us in the room this time. And it's day. She's listening to my iPod Shuffle (Standing in the Rain by Forty Deuce judjing by the sound of my loud ass ear-phones).

We all had differing opinions on how to handle the situation but we all agreed that the Bandits needed to die. Immediately. Before they realized their comrades were dead.

Me and Sean wanted to station people on the roofs of the houses opposite the school's front entrance. When the Bandits showed, we could bowl them over with rapid fire before they realized what was what.

But Henry and Anna were against that. Henry argued that such rash actions could cause the innocent deaths of the two hostages. Anna pointed out that none of us were trained in any sort of arm. No matter how well that one particular night had gone in my favor, I wasn't trained, and I didn't have experience. Assault rifle fire was unsteady as far as precision was concerned, and thinking we might be able to snipe off the Bandits from a street away and have the Hostages come out unscathed was just foolish.

Hector was pushing a more subtle death trap. He wanted to station a person on the southern building (Anna, I think) with a cell and have her call up with the position of the Bandits and hostages. With that, we'd leave the main office door open and have one inside, with rifle pointed at the door, and another from behind, hidden among the bushes, to pick off any surviving Bandit from the first burst.

We'd probably end up going with that. And we need to prepare soon. They didn't give Anna any specifics, but they suggested they'd be here before nightfall. We needed to prepare our arrangement as soon as possible, as well a means to contend with any unexpected problems. Such as the Bandits getting wise before reaching the office.

Henry was still talking about the security cameras. Sure, they'd be a help, but he still hasn't worked out the system, and he wont be able to get it set up soon enough.

We're all just sitting around. We all have something we should be doing, but we all