Monument 13

Man Outside

We run to the gate. Otis pulls up the security camera, but we don't see anything. And then we do. A woman with a lavender headscarf is rattling the gate.
"Please, please let me in. Please."
Otis turns to the rest of us.
"We can't trust her, but she's obviously not an O. I think she's paranoid. AB I mean."
"We have to let her in!"
"Please, please let me in, please please please."
Something seems off about this woman. Here eyes are glazed with fear and she keeps looking behind her back.
"We'll drop some food down," says Otis, into the microphone.
"No, no you have to let me in."
"I'm sorry ma'am, but you see, we can't open the gate."
"Please, please."
"Ma'am–"
And then we hear a noise.
"WHY ARE YOU NEAR MY STORE!!!!" The man-- the O man-- tackles the woman and sinks his teeth into her neck. Alison lets out a faint scream and grabs my arm. The woman screams and kicks, but one AB against an O won't do anything. Soon, after a few hard hits to the head, the woman slumps against him, obviously dead. Otis looks at us.
"His store?"
"Apparently, it is," says Scarlett. "Maybe that's why we haven't had anybody looking for help yet. He killed them all off."
"I wonder where Mrs. Wooly is," whispers Lindsay.
"Well, Forest Lake Middle School is just down the street. She must be there by now. She must," says Scarlett.
"Unless–"
"SHUT UP!" yells Otis, grabbing Alison and cutting her off. "You've made enough trouble already! Shut up!"
Alison cowers over under Otis. I grab his arm.
"Calm down, okay? Fighting isn't going to help anything."
"Yeah," Payton says quietly behind me. Otis looks at me. He has brown eyes flaked with gold. Then he relaxes.
"Yeah," he repeats, letting go of Alison and walking to his room quietly. Alison looks at me. One wire of her glasses is broken.
"Thanks," she says quietly, looking at the ground.
"No problem."
Most of us go to sleep, or at least into their rooms, but me, Scarlett and Payton sit on the cream-colored sofa in the Train and watch the little ones as they play with legos and dolls.
"Now what?" asks Scarlett.
"We wait it out," says Payton. "We have enough food and water for years."
"But not enough air."
Payton thinks at that.
"We have air filters," I offer, "And gas masks."
I have them both nodding.
"Well, I'm gonna get to sleep."
Scarlett recedes to her bedroom, leaving me and Payton to watch the kids.
"They should probably get to bed," I say.
"Mhm," Payton responds, nodding his head.
"I got the girls."
I carefully go over to Lindsay, Ida, Jasmine (who protests a lot), and Lila, whisper that they're going to bed, and take their hands. We've started using pull ups to go to the bathroom in, because the water and bathroom have chemicals in them. I help them into their pull ups and pajamas and send tell them to get into bed.
"Can we have a bedtime story?" asks Ida.
"Oh, alright. Go agree on one. Just one."
I strap headlights to their heads and they run off into the store. Payton comes out of the boy's room a minute later.
"So?"
"They want a bedtime story."
"Ah. You want me to read? Or stay awake?"
I shrug.
"Whatever you want."
Ida comes running back with a short chapter book for children (thankfully). I glance at Payton quickly before heading them into bed and covering them with blankets. I open the book. The cover is a deep blue, decorated with gold and silver stars. The name is Forsaking Hope.
"I'll only read a chapter or two."
Then, I begin. The story is complex, about a fairy and a demon and about how they find a portal to a different world. After two chapters, all the children are nodding off, and I quietly close the book and leave the room. I find Payton waiting outside.
"Well," I say, yawning. "Goodnight."
"'Night."
I change into my fluffy blue pajamas and fall asleep in my purple hammock, my blue fuzzy blanket pulled up to my nose and hugging my purple rabbit stuffed animal close to my body.

A/N

I don't know how I feel about this chapter. I keep saying the writing gets better, but it hasn't yet. I swear I'm a better writer than this. I'm still in the writing that I wrote a while ago, so I promise it will get better, but it is kind of disappointing me too. Sorry.
Anyway, I still hope you liked this part, despite the fact that I can't write.
:)