To put it simply, if you cram enough people in a room without ventilation and enough food, you will take out a good glob of disease. It was hot and damp, a nasty mix of air. Coughs were the most common, because the air was putrid and nasty, because we didn't drink enough. Next is stomach problems. Your grandma got this one, possibly because she was old, and couldn't get enough sleep with these strange surroundings. Luckily, your parents still have some pills they took from the house, but your grandma was weak anyhow.

Your grandma calls you to her, and you crouched over and found her hand in yours. You rubbed her palms soothingly, and whispered stupid jokes you know she liked. She was weak and strong at the same time. You found your eyes sting after awhile, when you stroke her to sleep and her breath steadied down.

In the dark, you can hear the asynchronous symphony of breathing and snoring. You try to discern which belong to who for amusement. You know you have begun to distinguish people from their voices, it only took a few days for that. Especially for the elders, and the little children. There was little Tanya, whose voice was shrilly and sweet, she was the daughter of Fried two blocks down the road. Mrs. Fried herself was a grumpy homemaker, she ravage about everything and just couldn't stop getting mad at her husband. You wondered how her daughter would turn up, just like her mother? There was also the Greens, who are quiet most of the time. But when Mr. Green spoke he had a heavy bass voice, vibrating, and attractive. Mrs. Green was also quiet, but you heard her sob sometimes when the loudest 'rain' flew by. The list goes on for about 20 more people. You surely couldn't manage to hear the rest of the people in the room.

You believe that when a lot of people think one thought or let's say wish, it will materialize. You read that somewhere. So you started wishing and thinking. 'This will stop, and we will get out of this hole'. Continue, multiply by 76 people who would want the same thing and your wish shall come true. The catch is, wishes come true in ways that you can't imagine. You can factor in this and that, but not everything. Why? Because you are simply not god.

First, it was silent. No more rain, no more hot oven air. Hopes were rising, you can hear mothers chatter to one another. They always chatter when they're excited. You waited, patiently. After a few hours, perhaps a day even - because you've lost track of time - you heard noises. Like machines, like drills.

The noise got louder after a few hours, the men were tense. It wasn't the procedure, once it was safe, there's supposed to be a signal, and there's a latch you can pull that opens up the stairs. Were we trapped? Perhaps a big concrete fell on the opening that we wouldn't be able to open the door anyway. Your father got up slowly, trying not to trip walking between the people, he reached up to the ceiling to feel the vibrations.

'Drills?', he muttered your thoughts aloud.
'By the time they reached us we'd already be dead at that rate,' snuffed your brother.
'Shut up,' you said.

An hour later, the noise was unbearable. It seemed to resonate through the whole room, like being stuck inside a tractor machine. Drrrrrr. Drrrrrr. It went on and on, and you thought the rain was bad enough. Then there was banging, clanking, all sorts of noise for another half an hour.

Then silence for a few minutes, a creak on the door in the ceiling, and light. Too much light. You supposed it was high noon up there. There was too much altogether that everyone shouted and covered their eyes. After a minute, you looked up to see the faces that granted your wish.

The wrong kind of faces.