School Of The Apocalypse

Chapter 23/Hard Leadership

Month 5 Day 21; 6:47 p.m.

I had remembered the library at the Elementary school being more open and comforting, but now it was a survivor camp. There were four tents in the midst of the small room and the tables were pushed against four of the five entrances to the library. The lights were all out and the only comfort was the sun's rays that peaked through a non-covered area of the door that led into the outside world.

I assumed that four silhouettes that I could make out in the darkness were the three original people that I watched earlier and that the forth was the one with the katana. On a lighter note, I conjured the idea that quite a few people in my town had had an interest in katanas since I could now count three people who had acquired them for weapons.

The tents were closed tightly, though, with tarps draped over them, possibly to hide their stock or other personnel from me. I wasn't sure why, though. I had the notion that they were going to kill me, but if they were hiding it from me, I guess not yet.

"How are you?" protruded a voice from one of the silhouettes. I recognized the voice as that of the one person who was known as River.

"I'm Red Raven," I answered back in my codename. I heard whispers from each of the silhouettes aimed at River, but they were too low to be understood, at least, at me distance from them.

"Why have you come here?" asked a different voice. I believed it to be to the left of River, so I turned to answer them.

"We are on an endeavor to acquire more land and we had to clear this large structure on our way to our objective that lies past. We were unaware that there were other survivors here already, but if you are willing, we could work out a compromise to where you can join us and share the profits." Again there was whispering, but this whispering carried the small tone of anger. Logic told me that they thought that I was lying.

"How many of you are there?" asked a person on the right of River who I thought to be Nicole.

"In this building?" I asked.

"In total, no matter where that may be," said another voice between River and Nicole. I was faced with a dilemma; if I told them the truth they may hold me as a hostage or worse to get me to have our people hand over our supplies. If I told them a lie, they might seek revenge if, I take that back, WHEN they found out the truth. Either way, it seemed like I was going to die, the choice was how I would like to die. "Answer the question," they repeated. I wasn't sure what to do anymore. Then I found a loophole.

"How many people do you have?" I came back with as much confidence as I could. Then one figure stepped forward and placed one hand firmly on the arm of my chair and smacked me across the face.

"Stop!" someone screamed. The source of the voice drew closer and I realized that it belonged to a little boy, no more than eleven years old. I determined that he had probably been enrolled in this school as either a fourth or fifth grader. He stepped forward none the less, and guarded me from the one who had just smacked me and spread his arms out wide as if being crucified. "Don't hurt him, please. He's telling the truth." The lights came to life suddenly and for an instance I was blinded. When my eyes adjusted, I was surrounded by at least fifteen elementary kids in the same fashion as the first. Over in place of the silhouettes, were five people that seemed vaguely familiar. "Please, Ms. Devin." That was it! Devin! "Mr. Anthony?" Anthony!

"Devin. Anthony. Gaven. Lorelei. Courtney. Do you guys know who I am?" They each looked at each other, puzzled. "Really Gaven? Really?" He gasped.

"Josh!!!" he screamed and tackled me, nearly knocking the chair over. It was such a touching moment, and then the door broke free of its hinges and landed flat on the ground and out sprung the rest of my squad followed by my uncle and his. It was a legitimate Mexican standoff between the elementary survivors and my own people.