They were quiet for a moment, the squealing tires in the cloud of dust behind them making all the noise. And finally Sebastian coughed awkwardly. “Knock … knock.”
“Who‘s there?” Said Hunter.
Sebastian, suddenly giggling. “Woo?”
Hunter took off his hat and rubbed his face. Then he quickly set his hat back on his head and glanced over at Sebastian. “Really?” He turned a hard right turn into the little cross street of the trailer park. The silver singlewide up ahead he’d been to a half dozen times, as Helen often hit her husband with a frying pan.
“You gotta say it.” Said Sebastian with a grin.
“Woo who?” Said Hunter, starting to giggle.
“Woo hoo! Don’t get excited, it’s just a joke!” Said Sebastian. He glanced over at his brother-in-law. “Look, the world is falling apart a little bit. I only took your car, because it’s the end of the world. I still know right from wrong. And… I was hoping you were in it. I was looking for you.”
Hunter turned another hard right, spinning past the doublewide that housed two sisters in their eighties. They are the two that would keep an eye on Helen’s situation and send in a call if the shouting got too loud. They both knew he wasn’t really mad at Sebastian, Hunter nodded, “good point.” The herd of people behind him were slowing down, starting to rock one of the trailers back and forth.
Sebastian nodded. “Ah, where are we going?”
Hunter had a determined look on his face. “We’re trying to get my children from the school.” He glanced in the rearview mirror, and the herd was rocking the pink singlewide. He hoped nobody was inside. His plan had worked just fine, a large section of the herd was stranded in the catacombs of the trailer park… For now.
The school was five more miles away. Hunter wondered if he should try to go as fast as possible, or slow down and make a plan. “The school has its own herd. Francis is with Jack in the kindergarten classroom.”
“So the zombies…” Said Sebastian.
“The sick people.” Corrected Hunter. He glanced over at Sebastian then back on the road. “Most viruses are gone in seventy-two hours.” He was making up the statistic, but he was hoping that Sebastian would understand his point. “I think the people who have survive that long, will come back to normal. If they can wait out the virus, everyone will be normal.”
“And the fatally injured ones? The die. And stay dead.” Said Sebastian, with an eyebrow raised. “Do you really think that’s reasonable?”
“I am not going to pretend the world has ended, not yet.” Said Hunter and he reached up and straightened his hat with authority. He threw his shoulders back and perked up considerably.
Relief washed over Sebastian’s face. “The military still exists?” He asked as he moved his dark hair passes eyes.
Hunter nodded with a grin. “I’m sure it does. We just have to save whoever we can, and we can make a meet up point. You got any ideas how we can remove a herd from the school?”
“The inside, or just outside?” Asked Sebastian as he crossed arms and concentrated.
“I know that the school is on locked down. So I am hoping the herd is outside. I’ve been in that school at least couple dozen times. And you’ve been going there since you were five. How do you think we can get them out of the classroom?” Hunter said then the cruiser hit a pothole, making it shudder.
He’d taking his eyes off the road for a moment, his kids needed him in one piece. He glanced up the road for the potholes, and then checked out the street for the infected. He didn’t see any. That did not make Hunter feel any better.
Sebastian shook his head, “Kindergarten is on the second story.” Sebastian told him. “Too bad you didn’t bring a fire truck, and we could get them out the window.”
Hunter frowned.
Hunter wish he’d driven the fire truck to the school.
“We can’t go to the fire station.” Said Sebastian, “there’s too many infected back there, and I don’t know about you…” He glanced at his brother-in-law. “But I’m surprised that you and me are alive.”
“Me too.” Said Hunter, he coughed. Then glanced down the road, the school was finally rising in the horizon. “Maybe we can’t catch it, we’re immune or something.”
“I certainly hope so.” Said Sebastian, as Hunter hit the brakes.
The school ominously rose up on the horizon. There were thousands and thousands of people pressed against it.
Hunters heart was caught in his throat. “Have you ever seen so many people?”
It was like the entire town of Burns Junction was pressed against the school.
Francis was sitting with little Jack on her lap, in Jack classroom. The other two girls were playing with a puzzle, one was Amy, and the other was named Apple. Francis couldn’t help but think that Apple was going to have a very difficult life ahead of her, what with a silly, trendy name like that. But, what did she know? She was named Francis, which was barely even a girl name.
“Where are the other kids Jack?” Francis asked, glancing at the long line of empty hooks where backpacks should have been.
“Oh, Mrs. Graham said they got the chicken dots at orientation.” Jack said, he was coloring a picture slowly.
“Okay.” Francis said. She was trying very hard to keep the three kindergarten children entertained, while Mrs. Graham was supposed to be getting some snacks together. She turned to stare out the window to the parking lot. “Are you almost done?” Francis said to the teacher, her back still turned to her. It seemed absurd that her father hadn’t shown up yet. She reached in her pocket and glanced at the time.
It was one fifteen.
They had been delaying, and playing, and reading and doing crafts all day. She was hungry, and they had already taken a break for lunch. They had not been putting much thought into conserving food, because they assumed rescue was just an hour away. Francis was starting to worry, what if dad was longer than an hour away?
A day …. A week … A month … A year?
Francis, shook the though away, these people couldn’t wait a year outside of her school, they’d be starving after a few days.
Why were people here, in a mob? Whatever they were protesting … Whether it was gun-control or something else, surely, surely it would be over in the matter of a day. Maybe they’d have to call the SWAT team to break up the riot.
Francis assumed it was a riot. A strange riot.
She scratched her head and contemplated the herd going straight across a lake. Francis had been in that lake many times, but she had never been able to swim across it yet. She was impressed that so many people could. Was this a bizarre riot-marathon?
Francis shook her head again, a marathon would not require a lock down. But they hadn’t heard more news, so all she had was her mind, spinning.
“Francis?” Said Jack, as he put his hands on both side of her face and made her look at him. He climbed into her lap as he had done thousands of times.
“Yes, Jack?” Francis replied, trying to shake off the ominous thoughts that were weeding through her mind. They were safe, all they had to do was wait. She had already determined that breaking the window and climbing out the side of the building was a possible course of action. After all, it didn’t seem like there were people out there, not on that side.
Jack let go of Francis face and pointed to her teacher. “Mrs. Graham’s drooling.”
Francis turned around and saw that Mrs. Graham was, indeed drooling. In fact, she had stopped mid-step to the snack cabinet and had frozen in time, saliva running down her face. Francis slowly lifted Jack off her lap and set him on the alphabet rug. “Mrs. Graham?” She said tentatively standing slowly.
Alarm bells were running in her head, but she wasn’t sure why.
Why did she feel like danger was imminent?
Francis tapped Mrs. Graham on her shoulder, but she didn’t move. Instead she just kind of twitched a little and then stayed frozen. Her eyes were completely vacant. Mrs. Graham look
ed like she had died, her skin was growing pale. Before Francis knew why she was so scared, she shouted. “Kids! Into the cupboards.”
Immediate panic was flowing through her. She grabbed one of the small plastic blue chairs with the metal legs. She lifted it up and held it between her and Mrs. Graham. “Now!” She screamed, and Jack and the two little girls started to cry as they crawled into a cupboard and shut the door.
Francis frantically looked around the classroom. “Mrs. Graham, can you hear me?” She asked. What was her plan? She had a strong feeling that she should tie up Mrs. Graham before she got worse.
But she was running on instinct, Francis was letting her gut do the talking. That seemed like an idiotic plan. Francis didn’t even know why she was so scared. All three children were crying behind her. But she froze, because she wasn’t even sure why Mrs. Graham was a threat yet, just that every instinct inside her body was telling her so.
“Mrs. Graham! Tell me what’s wrong.” Said Francis, fear trickling through her voice. Her chair was shivering, the legs pointed at Mrs. Graham.
Suddenly the teacher turned. Her eyes looked even more ghastly in her mouth clicked open and shut quickly. Her arms slowly lifted from her side and reached for Francis. “Don’t come near me!” Screamed Francis, to no avail.
Mrs. Graham started to push towards her.
Francis couldn’t help herself, the fear was so thick in the room that she started to scream as she shoved as hard as she could, trying to keep Mrs. Graham from touching her. She was losing ground, Mrs. Graham suddenly seemed stronger than ever.
The chair was between them.
Francis stepped backwards pushing and fortifying herself. Mrs. Graham was between the legs of the chair now her hands were tugging and pull at Francis’s sweatshirt.
The little kids in the class screamed out in fear.
Saliva dripped from Mrs. Graham’s mouths as she made a biting motion. Francis took a deep breath and shoved with all her might and suddenly she managed to knock Mrs. Graham’s backwards.
A second later Francis had pinned Mrs. Graham against the window.
The chair’s legs were pressed against the glass firmly.
Mrs. Graham was tearing at her hair, grasping her arms. But she couldn’t pull them close enough to her mouth.
“Are you trying to bite me?” Screamed Francis, her whole body shivering. She was in a fight for life with a teacher of all people, and she didn’t know why.
“This is crazy!” Francis yelled, her lungs bursting full of life. “Stop! Stop. I’ll help you. Stop.” Tears were running down Francis face. The fear was more than she could bear, and she couldn’t think of anything else to do. She was paralyzed.
Mrs. Graham took advantage of Francis weakness and grabbed Francis sleeve. Then pulled up towards her mouth.
“I’m sorry.” Whispered Francis she backed up slightly and then charged harder. The chair legs hit the glass, tapping against it. Small spiderwebs started to form where one of the legs hit. Francis relaxed slightly and did it again. Letting Mrs. Graham push forwards just enough that she could slam her weight back. “Please stop.” Begged Francis, hoping that she wouldn’t have to continue her plan.
Mrs. Graham didn’t seem to care that the window was breaking behind her. She didn’t seem aware of anything, other than her desire to bite Francis. The window was covered in long thin cracks. And Francis knew that she would have to hit incredibly hard now.
She let Mrs. Graham take one step further and then she shoved with all her might. The window suddenly shattered. Mrs. Graham was flung backwards, her head sticking out the window. She was like a seesaw, teetering and almost able to come back in.
Francis shoved harder, becoming precariously close to the open window herself.
Then Mrs. Graham and the chair were so far outside the window that they fell. Mrs. Graham hand gripped around Francis’s wrist dragging her out of the window. Francis caught herself, her knees trying to hold on to the window frame.
Francis was dangling precariously balanced outside of the window. She looked down at Mrs. Graham and she was snapping, and clicking her teeth. She was still clinging to Francis, her legs pushing on the sill below her, she wanted to taste Francis fresh flesh.
Beneath them there was thousands upon thousands of people, staring, with clicking jaws. Their arms were raised reaching for them.
“Jack!” She screamed. Francis just barely able to catch herself. Mrs. Graham was trying to climb up her arms. “Jack!”
Jack stuck his little eyes out of the cabinet. He saw Francis leaning outside the window. “Francis?” He said, with nervous terrified tone.
“Pull me!” Screamed Francis, her head still dangling. As her feet scooted closer to the window. “I’m falling, help!”
“Apple! Amy!” Yelled Jack as he ran towards his sister.
The two little girls their heads out of the cupboards too. Jack wrapped his arms around his sister’s waist. As he got close, he saw their teacher dangling from his sister. “Mrs. Graham?” Jack said, terror laden through his voice. “We need to pull her back in.”
Both of the girls came running, each of them grabbing a leg of Francis. “How did she get out the window?” Asked Apple.
“She is saving Mrs. Graham, will have to pull.” Said Jack. “On three, one. Two. Three.”
The three tiny kindergarten students pulled hard on Francis.
At the same time, she started to slip her sweatshirt overhead.
Mrs. Graham was holding fast to the sweatshirt, and as it popped off Francis, the teacher fell. She didn’t scream, her mouth opening and closing slowly in the air. Francis stared, wide eyed and breathless. Thankfully Jack yanked one more time before she saw her hit the crowd.
Francis burst into terrified tears.
“I thought you said she was saving Mrs. Graham, where did she go?” Said Apple. She stepped near the window, and Francis grabbed her by the sleeve and sat her down.
“Nobody can go near that window. I don’t know what happened, but something bad is happening. Mrs. Graham’s safe, she got out. We just…” Said Francis, trying desperately to think of a way to phrase it to sound less scary. How could she function with three terrified kindergartners? “We just can’t go out, the same way she went out. She’s getting help, she’s getting help.” Francis was nearly saying it a third time. And she knew that this is what shock was like, panic. Her mind, stuck in a loop.
“Jack, Apple, and Amy. Would you guys make us a snack… But not a big one.” Said Francis. She sat on the floor shivering from adrenaline, blinking back tears, while three kindergartners got to work.
“There’s too many of them!” Said Hunter. He slapped his hand on the steering wheel. “How are we going to get in there?”
Sebastian was silent staring at the massive crowd of people in front of them. “How did you get away from the last herd? I’ve just been going around them.”
“Well… The way I got them away from the church…” Said Hunter, but Sebastian cut in.
“Is mom and dad okay?” Said Sebastian, the first hint of fear entering his voice. “Are they okay?”
“Yeah, your parents are fine. Your dad… He didn’t want to tell your mom. So he got her working on a Christmas play.” Hunter grinned. “All morning, she’s been working on a Christmas play.”
Sebastian started to laugh. “Seriously? Like … songs and stuff?”
“Yes! She gave Francis a part, and Jack… And probably you were gonna be in it.” Said Hunter with a big grin.
“Probably.” Said Sebastian with a smile. “Okay… How did you make them leave?”
“You know the church bell?” Said Hunter as he thought back. “Well, the problem was the bell rang, and the whole herd came running out of the city. And so I went out the zip line.”
“No way. Is that thing still up?” Sebastian was totally surprised.
“Yes it is! It’s pretty beat up.” Said Hunter with a smile. “In fact, I think that’ll be the last time it�
�s used. It was falling to pieces when I landed. So then I got a fire truck and I wedged the gas with a hatchet, the sirens on and send it down the road. That pulled most of them away.”
Sebastian stared at the mass of people in front of them. “Well, we have a cop car. Why don’t we turn sirens on and draw the crowd away? I’m sure we can use a brick, or something on the gas pedal.”
“I think there’s too many of them to do that. Where could we even send them?” Said Hunter staring into the distance. The town was too close, and on the other side of the school was the lake. It wasn’t exactly another way to send them. Sending the herd towards the town would make it even harder to rescue his wife. Or towards the lake… Which seemed like a reasonable alternative- Except he didn’t know how to make a cop car drive across a lake.
He considered the other things that he had done to control the herd so far. “I did try to trick them all and falling into a hole. But they… They figured it out. Somehow.”
“I say we build some sort of tank, we can just run them over. Just grind the whole pile of people up.” Said Sebastian. He mimed running them over with his hand.
“We don’t want to kill them. This is a virus, like the chickenpox, and they will get better…” Said Hunter.
Sebastian raised his eyebrow. “Or die?”
“Yes, and if they die then we will have mass funerals. But we are not mass murderers. Not now, not ever.” Hunter said straightening his hat. “So what’s your next plan?”
Sebastian bit his tongue, he knew that Hunter was not one to be messed with, and that there was going to be no talking sense into them. End of the world or not, they were an ethical family. But it was the end of the world, and they needed to save Francis and Jack. And these people weren’t… well they weren’t allies. That part was for certain.
“Okay, I got your plan. We need a carrot.” Said Sebastian.
They Are Zillions (Book 2): Zurrounded Page 4
