OUTBREAK

Fresno Pt2 #32

"Lock him up," said the man. He walked away, disappearing into a dark corner of the room. Hugo was picked up and taken through a doorway and down a lit hall. It seemed somewhat like a hospital with relatively clean tiles and working lights, though It smelled like chemicals and rotting flesh. Hugo was taken into one of the rooms in this hall. The door had a small window that was covered with paper on the outside, so Hugo couldn't look out.

The room itself was empty and dark, without a window to the outside. Too weak to walk, the man carrying Hugo stood him to his feet and pushed him inside, closing the door behind him. Hugo sat and laid against the wall, hoping to fall asleep.

Carmen and the six toddlers walked from the alleyway into open farmland south of Tulare. The moon shined down, illuminating the area. Carmen used a wooden stake to off the few wanders they came across.

"How much longer?" said one young boy. The toddlers wobbled as they walked behind Carmen. Their legs burned from exhaustion.

"I don't know," Carmen said with a sigh. Her eyelids were heavy, but she resisted.

Another toddler tugged on her shirt, "I'm hungry," she said.

Carmen looked down at the kid, "I don't have anything to give you." From the corner of her eye she saw Lila falling behind. "Lila, keep up please."

Lila's head was down, as she lazily kicked rock across the dirt as she walked. Her shoulder brushed against a dead bush that was held up by a wooden stake when she realized Carmen had spoken to her. "Okay," she said, enthusiastically. She sped up slightly, still with her head down.

Carmen noticed the toddlers wobbling, all with their heads down. One yawned, then another, then another. Looking around, Carmen spotted a lone group of buildings in the middle of some farmland. "Hey, look, maybe we can stay there for the night."

The kids looked up to see the buildings and continued walking, but now at a slightly faster pace. Creeping up to the place, it seemed to be a small ranch with one house, a couple storage units and a couple cars.

Carmen led the kids behind a storage unit. "Stay here, I'll be back," she whispered.

"Where are you going?" said one kid.

"To make sure no one else is here," Carmen answered. She took her stake and walked to the house. It looked desolate, unmoved. Feeling her way around, one of the windows was open, but had metal bars and a fly mesh on it, yet a breeze flowed in and out. She peaked in, seeing an occupied bed. Whoever it was, they were asleep and from what Carmen could tell, this window was opposite the front door.

She ducked under the window and pondered what to do.

SNAP went the sound of a metal trap.

"AHH!" screamed one of the kids from across the property. Carmen shot up to her feet and glanced back into the room. The person in the bed had disappeared. She ran back to the kids, ready with the stake in hand. Some were still behind the storage unit but Lila and one of the boys were by a small fenced area. The boy was on the ground at the gate of the fence, holding his leg and screaming for his life. Lila was pulling him up by the shoulders.

"What happened? What's going on?" said Carmen as she ran up to the two.

"Help me," the boy cried. A bear trap was locked around his ankle.

Carmen felt a shiver travel over her body as she looked at the wound. The amount of space between the jaws of the trap was too narrow for the foot to have received just a bruise. She put her hands on the trap, trying to pry it open but the movements made the boy cry harder.