"Have you seen enough of me yet? Now do something," and a little softer, "I'll help you if I can. My name is Sammy, Samantha. You're Rod aren't you?"

"Yeah, I'm Rod. What do want me to do, they won't do what I say or what you say. Why should they? I'm not in charge here."

"Oh yes they will, they just want somebody, anybody, to tell them what to do. Then afterwards they'll complain about it!"

Rod saw a boy he had become friendly with at the training camps, he called, "Johnny, come over here, we gotta talk."

The boy came up to them. He too studied Sammy with interest. "Hey girl, I saw you at the training camps. My name's Johnny." He stuck his hand out.

Sammy looked at him and grinned, "Oh, aren't we formal for bare-ass naked people!" She shook his hand. "Hey, Johnny."

Rod said, "Sammy here thinks that we should somehow take charge and tell them what to do.' He gestured to the milling crowd. "Doesn't seem like anyone is going to meet us the way they were supposed to do."

Johnny stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle. There was a sudden silence and heads turned to see who was whistling.

Johnny shouted out, "This here is Rod, he's going to tell us what to do!" He pointed to Rod, still standing with his back to the wall.

Rod was a little startled. He had thought they would discuss it and makes some joint decisions; he didn't want all the responsibility. We wavered for a moment, and then stood a little straighter.

"Why don't you three," he pointed to three younger boys, "look in those lockers over against the wall and see if you can find something for us to wear." He turned and picked out two girls, "You two go with Sammy here and see if anyone still in the units needs any help." He looked at the blood streaking his arms, "and help them get the tubes out of their arms. Report back to Johnny here, he will coordinate everything." There was a silence. A voice from the back said, "Who put you in charge?" Rod snapped back real quickly, "OK, you don't like it? Then YOU take charge. You come up here and tell us what to do." The boy who had shouted lowered his head, "You're doing OK. Just don't get too bossy."

The two selected groups moved out. Rod looked at Johnny, "What else?"

"Clothes first - we aren't going to get anything done until we find something to wear. It's just too distracting, all these good-looking girls, it doesn't bother me much, but it bothers them not having any clothes. They're not going to lift a finger until they've got some clothes on."

There was a shout from one side of the compartment, "Clothes! We found some clothes. They're all coveralls, but they're better than nothing. And some work boots, we found some sneakers too."

Rod shouted back, "Give them to the girls first. They want them worse than we do." He added, ?and see that the ones still in the units get some when they wake up. You three," he pointed to three boys, "and you three," he pointed to three girls, "go over there and help them pass out the right sizes. If there is more than one size. Keep it organized, don't let them snatch and grab. And bring me and Johnny a pair of coveralls each, and some shoes, size nine if there are any, nine OK for you Johnny?"

Johnny said, "Yeah, nine's good. Food, we got to see if there's food, and water - and bathrooms, Rod my boy, we got lots to do yet!"

Rod shouted, "Sammy, get back here a minute, get someone else to take your place."

When Sammy arrived wearing an orange coverall and a pair of white sneakers, Rod beckoned them into a closer group, "There's a bunch of stuff we gotta do. We need something like a council or something, more than just us three."

Johnny said, "If we don't find any grownups, and it don't look like we're going to right away, we need some kind of a leader. Some of these guys, and the girls too, have pretty strange backgrounds. Crime and stuff. We don't want them taking charge. I think we need an election."