Rise of the Mudmen

by Thompson, James FW

  Most of those friends weren’t in school that day; they had come down with the flu that was making the rounds. In fact, almost half of his class—seemingly half the school—was on the sick list. At first, he was worried. He’d heard some kids talking about some kind of “hyper-AIDS” recently, but he quickly dismissed that as idiotic at best. It was just a particularly contagious strain of the flu, that’s all.

  David was working on some extra-credit math assignments, having completed the regular class assignment in a matter of minutes—something the few students who were healthy enough to show up that day were all struggling with—when an announcement came over the PA.

  “Attention all students and faculty: this is not a drill. A state of emergency has been declared in the city of Sydney. Everyone gather up your things and head to the foyer in a calm, orderly fashion. Students and staff will be bussed to the nearest designated safe area.”

  Everyone else started chatting. David could hear kids in the hallway. One said they heard machine guns, and another said he heard an explosion. David had heard neither, so he figured the kids were lying to sound cool. Outside the window, everything looked perfectly calm. A lot of cars were pulling up, but no one was panicking—not the way they would if a bomb had gone off or a machine gun was fired.

  Before he could pack up his things, a bus pulled up and David was surprised to see a group of adults in it. A man in a bland green military uniform got off and met with the somewhat frazzled-looking principal on the sidewalk. The colonel—David did a Social Studies project on military uniforms in Grade 7—said something David couldn’t make out, but he assumed it was something along the lines of “keep everyone calm.” He wondered where the safe area would be, and if Nicole would be taken to the same one.

  The nearest safe zone for David was his old school, Colby Elementary. It was strange, though—extending from the far door on the east side of the building was a large plastic tube; a tunnel, just like the one they used in ET: The Extra-Terrestrial when they wanted to keep Eliot and ET separated. This tunnel connected Colby to St. Joseph’s, the Catholic school across the street. “Someone’s God is gonna be pissed about that,” he heard his English teacher say as he entered Colby. Barricades were being set up on the street on either side of the tunnel to keep it safe from traffic.

  Other than that, the school hadn’t changed since he attended. Upon entering the front door, there was the option of going left—to the principal’s office and staff room, going right—to the staircase leading upstairs to the older kids’ classrooms, or going straight—to some lower grade classrooms and the school gym. The colonel, however, removed all options when he led the group to two sergeants who took them to the gymnasium.

  When they had arrived on the bus, David saw a row of desks lining the parking lot. Through the small classroom-door windows, he could see why: other people in uniforms were setting up tables, cots, and other emergency furniture. Earlier, David hadn’t expected to stay too long. Now he wasn’t so sure.

  As he passed through the hallway, David noticed a man in another uniform—more like a hospital uniform than military—standing in front of the back door. The door that, thanks to the brand-new plastic tunnel, connected Colby to St. Joseph’s. Evidently, they were not letting people pass through.

  When David entered the school’s gym, there were about two hundred people inside.

  Within an hour, there were nearly a thousand—way above the fire code limit.

  David sat on the edge of the gym’s stage, watching the crowd. He knew some of the faces, but not many, since this wasn’t his neighbourhood any more. He wondered if he had been at home, would he have ended up here, or would he be placed somewhere else, or—

  “Is there anything to drink around here, spaz?”

  “You used to go here, too.” He played it cool, despite Nicole startling him. “You know where the fountains are.”

  “Ugh. I mean in here, stupid,” she replied, looking around at the worried faces. “They’re not letting people roam around the halls, so they’re gonna have to bring water and food and stuff. But, I’m guessing they didn’t yet. I’m thirsty.”

  “Your thirst is a top priority to everyone here,” David replied with a smirk.

  As if to emphasize his point, the doors to the gym rattled as a man, shouting at a few uniformed men, was practically dragged in. The man questioned the point of all this if they were just going to leave kids out there on their own, which made David wonder exactly what was happening that was so horrible? Did the man know something that the rest of them didn’t, or was he just panicked?

  Before he could get his sister’s thoughts on the subject, she caught his attention with a glare. “You’re an idiot,” she said, before stomping away with crossed arms.

  David was torn. Obviously, Nicole wasn’t too concerned; she took the time to insult him, after all. But, at the same time, it wasn’t her usual witty comeback. There was no violence against him. She could be worried, or just irritated, he thought. Then he recognized her backpack; not her new black one—to match her new black everything—but rather her pink and blue one from years ago. From when she didn’t care about looking cool or goth or whatever she was now. He knew she had it on her for one reason: it was her survival pack and she was not going anywhere without it. He knew she had packed water in it. She’s not thirsty. He jumped off the stage and hurried after her.

  “I got here a little over an hour ago and I was one of the first groups,” he told her when he caught up, wanting to at least have someone to talk to. “I haven’t seen too many emergency people around—they’re probably out finding people or whatever. Once more of them get here, I’m sure they’ll get food and water and stuff.”

  “Whatever,” Nicole said, not looking at him. Instead she looked through the crowd. “Did Carol get here yet?”

  “Um,” David said, looking around, “I haven’t seen her. I was watching the line for a while, but I didn’t notice you come in either, so it’s—”

  “So you have no idea,” she said, cutting him off. “Great.” She crossed her arms again and headed back to the stage for a seat. David could see that there were no spaces left. However, he felt that if he was on the stage and saw Nicole coming at them with her attitude, he’d offer up his spot pretty quick.

  KAITLYN

  With all of these people in the gym, Kaitlyn’s friends had to be around somewhere. She hadn’t seen them since they left the school—she was in the bathroom when the message went over the PA and ended up on a different bus with a bunch of seventh graders. When she looked for them, she saw only the same faces over and over.

  They were all doing the same thing; looking for people—family members, friends, loved ones. Eventually she realized that with all the commotion, finding her friends would be nearly impossible, at least for the time being. Plus, ever since her mom had been brought in on a school bus, she would barely let Kaitlyn out of her sight.

  Granted, it was a very strange, frightening situation—nothing like this had ever happened before, not in Sydney anyway. Whatever was happening had to be big. Lives could be in danger! she thought. The Soviets might be attacking! Or aliens! Or—

  When she noticed Corey O’Neil, all of these thoughts slid away. If the other girls were around, she would have taken them over to him, or gotten one of them to bring him over. Well, not Sarah. She had a crush on Corey too, despite having a boyfriend already. But, talking to Corey O’Neil with her mom listening in would be a fate worse than death.

  In the middle of what she could only assume was a national emergency, her goals were clear: find her friends and talk to Corey O’Neil.

  ALEX

  Damp, fallen leaves scattered the ground, covering the usual path he took. Alex was very familiar with these woods, so he wasn’t worried. Besides, the area was only a square kilometre or two, between the subdivision, his school, and the highway. He heard another siren, though he wasn’t sure from what kind of vehicle.

  “Must be a big
fire,” he said to himself.

  A few minutes later he reached the brook. As he expected, Shadow stood on the other side, as if waiting for him. She was dripping wet and Alex hoped that the brief swim had tired her out.

  She was just seven feet away. The water was only two-feet at its deepest. Shadow stared back at him, confident that he couldn’t get to her easily.

  After a staring match too long to have with a dog, Alex yelled across. “Well? What are you going to do now?”

  Shadow jumped up and down making half-barking, half-yipping noises. In dog language that meant “I want to play now.”

  “I’ll play with you,” he said, using the fake happy voice dogs liked, “but you have to come here, okay?”

  Shadow stood, cocked her head, and then continued bark-yipping.

  He’d have to try a little harder than that. “Come on, Shadow! Come on, girl! Come here! Come on!” He patted his knees and clapped and whistled. She took a step or two forward, then stopped at the water and backed away as if she were afraid of getting wet.

  “Oh, come on! You were just in there!” Alex said, incredulous. “How do you think you got over there, stupid?”

  Shadow looked at him as if she were about to reply, but instead jumped up and down again, and paced the edge of the brook. Dog for: “What is keeping you? I want to play!”

  This is taking way too long. Game over.

  A fallen tree stretched across the brook; he had often used it to cross. It had been an excellent obstacle when he used to play ‘war’ with his friends since it looked impassible—only he knew that it wasn’t.

  However, on this trip across his attention was on making sure Shadow didn’t run off again, and not on the tree, or rather on the fact that it was covered in wet fallen leaves. Slippery leaves. While sidestepping a branch nearly halfway across, he slipped into the brook with a large splash, soaking him.

  He looked up just in time to see Shadow’s face coming straight at him. Before he could move, she licked him.

  “Thank you,” Alex said to his dog as he grabbed her collar and struggled to his feet.

  Back on the home-side of the brook, he shook off as much water as he could. Shadow did the same, which made Alex wetter. “Thank you again for that,” he said. When he checked his watch—thankful that it was “water-resistant”—he found he’d been out for almost an hour.

  “An hour! Man ... Dad’s gonna flip if he called.” He looked down at his dog. “Well, I hope you got that all out of your system. Happy now?”

  Shadow gave another shake, soaking Alex’s face once again. She looked up at him, panting. She did seem quite happy.

  The walk home took almost twice as long. The wet leaves that caused Alex so much trouble over the fallen tree continued to be a nuisance as he trudged back through the woods. In addition to being soaked, he was now dragging a large dog beside him. He slipped several times. More than once, he accidentally let go of Shadow’s collar, leaving her free to run off again. When she didn’t, he wasn’t sure it was a sense of loyalty that made her stay, or—more likely—she simply wasn’t aware that nothing was holding her back. The fact that she licked him each time he fell made him hope for the former.

  He was distracted throughout the whole walk.

  He wished his dad was home. Horrible things could happen when he was away from home. Just like it happened before.

  He tried to shake those thoughts out of his head. “I was worried about you, you know,” he said to Shadow as they walked. She looked up at him, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she happily pranced alongside him. “But I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you.” He crouched down and took his dog’s head in his hands, looking into her deep brown eyes. “I’d never leave you on your own—you know that, right?”

  Shadow licked his unexpectedly close face and threw her front paws up on his shoulders, knocking him down once again.

  “Good enough,” Alex said, picking himself up and uselessly dusting off his soaked pants once again. He still couldn’t shake the worry of being all alone.

  The feeling followed him the whole way home.

  As soon as he got there, he went straight upstairs, not even bothering to close the door, peeling off his soaked sweater and pants that clung coldly to him. When he came back down in dry clothes, he noticed several things. First, the house was a mess—papers and mail that had been by the door, now strewn about the floor; pantry door in the kitchen wide open with cans spread out on the floor below it. None of it had been like that when he left.

  He also looked at the door—the one he had just entered—and realized that the key for it was still upstairs in his soaked pants pocket; he had never taken it out. He was certain he had locked it before he left. Next, as a chill crept through him while staring out the mysteriously unlocked door, he noticed that the street was almost devoid of cars. Few parked, none driving. No people either.

  He slowly closed the door, worried that if he moved too quickly it would trigger something or someone to jump out of their hiding spot. He went to the kitchen to close the pantry door. Then he noticed one last thing: a note, hastily written in his father’s handwriting: Alex - Stay Home!

  Crap. He was caught. His previous unease at his unexplained surroundings was replaced by guilt.

  He stood, staring at the note with only one thought on his mind: how can I get out of this? Was the fact that he was just out to make sure their beloved family dog was safe a good enough excuse? The fact that it was his dad’s fault that she had gotten loose would certainly help. And the Wattses could verify what happened: dog got away, Alex went after her, and came back with her in tow. It was downright responsible of him.

  He knew he had to call his dad right away—no sense in hiding. Despite his confidence in the situation, he couldn’t dismiss the feeling of uncertainty. The sense of chaos inside his house and the feeling of abandonment outside. He tried to regain some of his assuredness as he dialled the number that his father had left for his new office.

  No answer. No answering machine, either. Just ringing.

  That must be good for business, he thought as he hung up. Maybe they were out for lunch—that would explain why his dad had come home. At least now he had some time to think about what he would tell his dad when he tried again.

  But then the phone rang.

  He let it ring a few times as he thought over what he would say. But the more it rang, the angrier his dad would be on the other end. He knew it was his dad. It had an angry dad ring.

  “Hello?” he said cautiously.

  “Alex?”

  He paused. Maybe he could try acting casual. “Hey, Dad. What’s—”

  “Where were you before? I told you not to leave the house!”

  “I’m sorry, Dad. I—”

  “I waited there for almost an hour!” his dad shouted, not hearing any of his excuses. “I had to leave Mary here with the sitter!”

  “Dad, it’s—”

  “They had to drag me out of there!” He wasn’t finished just yet. “They almost cuffed me!”

  “Shadow got—”

  “Alex, stop. It doesn’t matter.” His father paused. “Is there anyone there with you?”

  “No. Just Shadow.”

  “Okay. Good. That’s good. Go lock the door.”

  “Why?”

  “Dammit, just go lock the door! Both doors!”

  “Okay, jeez. Calm down.” He went to the front door, stepping over a pile of coats he hadn’t noticed earlier. Then he hurried back to the phone. “Dad, I know you told me to stay home. I’m—”

  “Don’t let anyone in unless it’s me, okay?”

  “Okay.” He thought of possible exceptions: Mary’s babysitter, a neighbour, one of his friends, the Wattses. “What about—”

  “No one! Do not open the door until I get there. Do you understand me?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I got it.” Alex started to worry. Dad doesn’t sound angry as much as he sounds ... scared? In the pause, he could hear n
oise over the phone. A person yelling? Or talking through a megaphone? “Dad—where are you?”

  “I’m at your school.” He paused. “Your old school.”

  “Why are you—?”

  “They evacuated the area. Why didn’t you wait when they announced it on TV?”

  “I was watching mov—”

  “It doesn’t matter, okay? It doesn’t matter. Just stay there. I’m coming to get you. Just … stay put. Please.”

  “Okay,” Alex could hear the fear in his own voice now. “I will. Dad?”

  “And don’t let anyone in until I get there. Do you understand how important that is?”

  “Yes.” It was as much as Alex could do to not start crying.

  “It’ll be all right. I’m coming to get you. Just wait, and I’ll be there.”

  Alex wiped his eyes. “Thanks, Dad.”

  He held on to the phone for a full minute after his father had hung up.

  He was alone.

  DAY 1 - THE AFTERNOON

  NICOLE

  The siblings sat—Nicole on the stage, David on the floor in front of her—watching the crowd and the events unfolding before them.

  There was barely any room for people to move around. There were now nearing 1,500 people in the school that usually held under 300, and yet people kept piling in. Some settled and sat, looking bored to mildly curious. Some even fell asleep. Far more people weren’t settled; they were rushing around, heads jerking back and forth in the hopes of finding a certain face in the crowd. When they saw someone they recognized, they would stop and speak with them, or hug them, or walk away more worried than before. There were a lot of very stressed, panicked people in the room.

  And still no sign of Aunt Carol.

  An hour after Nicole first found David, an announcement advised that some people would be moved to room 2B, to provide more space. David stood. “It might be easier to find Aunt Carol if we split up.”

  Nicole practically shoved him back to the ground. “Then I’ll just have to find Aunt Carol and you.”