History of the Trap: June Dreams Part 1

SYNOPSIS:  After being visited in prison by Morgan LaDona Tigh, Lance Martin has agreed to Dr. Duncan's request to detail what happened in the time that Lance is calling "the Trap."  Lance begins his journal by describing the morning before the trap fell, where we learn his father was the Principal of Loren High, that Lance is a Junior, and has a sister named Diane who is a sophomore.  After a couple hours at school that morning, where we see how different his relationship with Morgan is.  We meet Lance's best friend, Artie Pentler, and their gang. Just as Lance is ready to ask Ginny Estill out, the Trap falls, and they witness the horrible death of two P. E.students as they are caught in some kind of electrical storm.  The students soon realize, as April marches on, that the so-called storm is something more, and that they may be trapped at the school and it's grounds for a very long time. May involves grizzly murders of staff that remain unsolved, as Lance's father and staff struggle to come to grips with events.  They decide to schedule more activities for the students to become involved with, including sports,  a TV variety show, and the beginnings of the tunnel project. Lance realizes that Ginny has chosen Artie, and finds himself moving closer to the studious, pretty Lisa Carlton.

Chapter 5

June Dreams

1

I know what you're thinking.

Roughly seven weeks in with over 1,000 hormone driven teenagers trapped in a relatively small area, with few having parents there, and only a small adult staff to watch over them, why isn't there more ... well, hanky panky?

Several points regarding this, the first being that that is simply not the focus of my story to you, Dr. Duncan.  There obviously is a lot going on that I'm not telling you about, and I am trying to keep things as attuned to my experiences as possible, and provide an explanation for the events you already know about, and what led up to them.  It's not a tell all or a gossip journal.

That being said, there probably a lot less of that going on than you would imagine. This was owed at least in part to my Dad's efforts to keep us busy and organized.  And even though there were fewer adults, they did a good job of watching us and keeping us in group settings. 

But there were other things going on besides organized activities and adult supervision.  Rumors were quite strong that no girl had had a period since the trap fell.  It wasn't just student speculation; I had overheard conversations with my father and other administrators. Seven weeks in and no one had heard of any girl who had started her time. 

Could whatever is causing this be affecting the boys as well?  That was a little harder to prove or see, but the boys seemed a little less interested or as aggressive as you might think.  There was still interest there, as demonstrated by Lisa and myself, or (sigh) Ginny and Artie, or even Tom Bodell and Sue Boschman.  It just wasn't the all-consuming thing you might expect it to be.

I know what you're thinking.

How in the world did we still have electricity and water?  If we were that cut off, how were those things continuing? 

I don't know.  No one really did.  Maybe we were still connected to the grid somehow.  All I know is it continued for a very long time.  The fact that we weren't getting any bills was one of the few positives my Dad was experiencing.

I know what you're thinking.

How did we sustain enough food to sustain 1,167 people (by our latest count)?  More and more of our food came from the Fallout Shelter.  Why it did not get exhausted we did not know, at least at that time.  And we were rapidly beginning to grow our own food.  Some of us thought about the food situation a lot.  My Dad and Mr. Bruchow (our biology teacher) were obsessed with it.  Many did not think about it because there were no visible shortages or rations, although some were starting to complain about the lack of variety or fresh foods, with the exception of the unexpectedly large harvest of wild raspberries.  That made raspberries wildly popular, even among people who previously did not care for them.

I know what you're thinking.

We must have a good number of students who were addicted to substances, like cigarettes and drinking, who were going through horrible withdrawals.  Well, we did.  They weren't my immediate friends so I haven't dealt with it much, nor have I with people who needed prescription medication.  But there were problems. Problems that over the coming weeks, months and years would affect us all.