What Walks Among Us (book one)

Flare Guns

The panic that broke out was not unlike the panic that arose just a few minutes ago, this time however, Cody was able to get everyone under control, barking out orders like a Sargent.

"Michael, Ben, get over to the bell tower and stop the noise, make sure whoever did it is found, and if you need to, restrain them," Cody said, and turned away from the two boys as they nodded and ran out the door, "Doctor Venson, Miss B, I need you both to go make sure the patients, and the people don't start a panic, it's the last thing we need," he said.

Beck grabbed my arm, and I looked at him, but before I could ask what he needed, Cody was saying my name, "Kodi, Tucker, both of you go to the school and keep those kids safe, everyone else I want you on wall duty, make sure that nothing gets in, and that the gates are secure."

I looked over at Beck once more, noticing that Tucker was making his way through towards me, "Look Beck, I don't know what you're going to say but I need to go make sure kids are safe," I said, pulling away.

He once again grabbed my arm, and as Tucker approached Beck looked torn as to what to do, "Just promise to stay alive. If anything happens find Me," he ordered, and then seeming to realize what he had said, he quickly continued on, cheeks pink, "or Cody, or Sam, or Chester, and," he lowered his voice a notch so that I could only hear, "if things go bad, Kodi... don't try to be a hero, be smart," he said, his intense blue eyes coaxing an agreement out of my mouth that I wasn't sure I could even uphold.

A throat cleared to my right, and Tucker glared at us, "If you two are done wasting time, we need to go," he said, the irritation plain as day on his face.

There was no more time after Tucker interrupted to say anything further, and as we hit the sidewalk I began to thank my lucky stars that I had a trainer like Cody. We ran nonstop all the way over to the school building, which was more of a daycare with learning mixed in, and I barely broke a sweat.

On the way to the school, it dawned on me just how bad this situation already was, as I saw people running around and shouting. Most of them seemed to believe that the bell meant there were zombies in the compound, and that they should run for it. I wanted to stop but Tucker stopped me before I could even stray from the sidewalk.

"Kodi, I know it seems like a small thing to do, stop and explain," he said and took a breath, it seemed he wasn't in as good of running shape as I was, but he neither slowed down nor complained about my speed, "but if we did that then we'd risk being a moment too late to save a kid, or explain to a teacher what's going on, and why it's important that the kids go upstairs and be put into lock down mode."

An image of me stopping to explain to a stranger what was going on, and then as a result, arriving to the school only to see a little girl as sweet as Abby, or a little boy as helpless as Jamie be killed. This knocked any sort of idea that deviated from running straight to the school out of my mind.

As we ran up the steps that lead into the school building, I nearly crashed into a lady who was ushering kids inside a side door. With a quick scan of them, I wasn't sure whether to be worried or relieved that Abby wasn't present.

"Oh, thank goodness you're here," she said, and once the kids were all into the classroom she turned and threw herself into Tucker's arms.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement, especially as the girl followed up the hug with a kiss. I cleared my throat, partly because I was uncomfortable, but mostly because I knew we didn't actually have time to dawdle, as Tucker had not so kindly pointed out when he pulled me away from Beck.

Tucker had enough sense to look embarrassed, and as he pulled away from the girl, I got my first good look at her. She was on the short side with brown hair styled into a bob. Her brown eyes were slightly hidden beneath the black wire frame glasses, which had seen better days. There was a piece of tape written on with sharpie that served as a name tag. Savana was written in a very neat, almost printer styled hand writing.