A few minutes later Henry was sitting in a circle with most of the rest of the residents of Gladstone Lane 12. On the right of Henry sat Fiona Shelton, who lived on the top floor above Henry, she was still rubbing sleep out her eyes from behind her glasses.

Right of her sat Jacob, next to him an empty chair for his wife Linette who insisted on taking a shower first before coming to the meeting.

Next to the empty chair sat Kenelm, a younger man, with his phone in his hands frustratingly pressing the screen.

"It won't work man, tried everything already." Said Neneh, who was sitting right of Kenelm.

Kenelm ignored her.

Next to Neneh was the young couple that lived below her consisting of Anna, Garry and their now 2 year old son Jasper sitting on Garry's lap. Anna had a worried look in her eyes and Garry could not stop looking worried at his wife whilst their son was completely oblivious about what was happening.

"Here is the tea everyone, I am sorry I don't have any milk." Said missus Frost walking in with a tray full of cups and a big kettle. "Do you think we should have mentioned that before the meeting mister Belwick?"

"Oh, I believe we still have milk. Right dear?" Garry said.

"What? Sorry?" Anna said, clearly not paying a lot of attention.

"That we have milk downstairs."

"O, yeah, right, I'll go and grab it."

"Honestly, is milk the top priority right now?" Kenelm called out, still messing with the settings on his phone.

"It's not a problem really" Anna responded a bit absentmindedly, walking out the door of missus Frost's apartment.

"Right." Henry started. "Sorry to wake everyone up so early on a Saturday but it does seem we are all in a bit of a predicament. Now does anyone have an idea about why we could be in the desert?"

Everyone stared blankly at Henry not really knowing how to respond.

"So no ideas about what happened, check. Does anybody have an idea about how to get back?" Henry continued.

"With or without the apartment building?" Kenelm asked.

"Well preferably with." Henry stated.

"Why don't we call the city council? Take it up with them." Missus Frost said.

Henry took a deep breath processing that comment. "Missus Frost, we are not in the city anymore, like I told you earlier today. We are, and the whole building is, at this moment in the middle of a desert."

"That can't be right." She responded.

"Well then how do you explain all the sand in front of our house? Of behind is? Or on the left and right of it where other buildings used to be?" Jacob responded, clearly having less patience with the old lady then Henry.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Well surely something went wrong with the building, so much I can gather by everyone being quite upset. It is fun to have this much company today, I'll go see if I have some cookies." She said whilst standing up to make her way back to the kitchen. "But all I am saying is we are still part of some city who's council we can call to fix this."

"And how do you figure that?" Jacob snapped back at her.

"Well for one, mister Hodgson, the water is still working and the lights are still on."

"Well yes, we have solar panels on the roof don't we?" Jacob answered.

"And the water?" Fiona asked.

"Well fair I have no idea about the water." Jacob admitted with a sheepish look on his face.

"Well let's just be happy the water works and try to find out how to bet back before it stops working." Neneh said. "Does anybody have any suggestions?"

"Well I do have biscuits." Missus Frost said cheerfully, walking back into the room with a round tin in her hands. There was a ring at the door. "O great, missus Moss must be back with the milk." She dropped off the tin and immediately went back out of the room.

"Well, for suggestions, how about we figure out what desert we are to start with?" Fiona said.

"The Sahara?" Neneh asked. "I don't know, are there a lot of deserts?"

"Are we still close to the same time zone we started in?" Kenelm added. "Also to answer your question, yes there are more deserts than just the Sahara, I'm not sure how many but I know that there are more."

"What does a time zone have anything to do with it?" Garry asked.

"Knowing the time zone relative to ours could narrow down how far we moved, also preparing for night and day circles could be useful." Kenelm replied.

"Sorry, we also don't have any milk. I am absolutely positive that I bought some yesterday but it went bad." Anna said in a sad voice, entering the room followed by missus Frost. Her eyes a bit red.

A small silence fell in the room.

"So, how are we going to figure out the time zone?" Gerry asked, grabbing Anna's hand with his free one, using the other to hold the child on his lap.

"Well, we'll figure out the time and count back using the clocks we have, I suppose." Henry said. "Anybody happen to have a compass?"

The doorbell rang again.

"O that must be misses Hodgson" missus Frost said happy, jumping out of her seat again.

"I got a compass, well somewhere at least" Neneh stood up. "It should be somewhere in my apartment so i go look."

"Do you happen to have a long stick as well?" Henry asked.

"Wait, what are we talking about now?" Asked Fiona with a confused look on her face.

"A compass and a stick. I also have no idea but Henry sounded like he had a plan and that is better than what I have at the moment so I'm going to look." Neneh said, walking towards the hallway.

"What did I miss?" Came from the hallway, a chubby woman in a pinkish dress and blond short hair entered the room. "O, you're leaving already? The meeting is not over is it?" She asked Neneh who almost bumped into her.

"The meeting is not over yet, I'm just going to grab something from downstairs." Responded Neneh in a monotone voice whilst passing Linette.

"Great, so. What did I miss?" Linette asked, staring at her husband.

"Not much hon, we are able to make tea but all the milk has gone bad and Kenelm wants to know what time it is." Jacob responded.

"So what is the plan? And where are we?" Linette asked, still staring at her husband like a mother staring at a child waiting to confess a bad thing she knew it committed.

"No plan yet and we are in the desert." Fiona said. "Now please take a seat so we can continue coming up with something. By the way, where is Robbert?"

"Well excuse me." Linette responded, taking a seat next to her husband.

"Robbert didn't answer the door, at least Neneh knocked and she said there was no response." Henry said. "Anyway we have got to make a plan about what we are going to do."