Surviving in Chaos

First Encounter

Susan must have really loved children, because the next thing I knew she was kneeling on the floor and opening her arms up to the girl. I like small children too but this one was a little odd. Her eyes were bloodshot and the colour of her eyes dulled as if the life had gone out of them. That wasn’t the worse part of it, as she ran, it was obvious she was unstable on her legs, almost limping and on her right shin, it looked as if a piece had been nicely bitten off.

I gasped, shocked at what I was seeing, trying to comprehend all that I had learned that day and whether it was really happening. Susan looked up at me questioningly, while the others started to take very small steps away. Joyce eyes were huge and round, and when she found me looking at her, she mouthed a word “run”.

The little girl lunges into Susan’s arms and bites a healthy chunk out of her neck, blood spurts out like a tap. She viciously continued to devour her like she was ice cream, licking and chewing more and more of her as we stared transfixed in shock and dilemma.I stood rooted to the ground in fear, my heart thumping so loud, I could hear it in my ears. I tried to absorb the reality of the scene before me. The brutality, the urgency. My legs were shaking to move and I felt like I could not breathe. The rest of the group was edging towards me as I was closest to the exit. Joyce took baby steps towards me, held my arm, forced me to look into her eyes, took a deep breath to brace us both and then we were off, running as fast we could. Just as the door of the exit swung close, the little girl looked up from her meal and smiled at us in anticipation.

We were out in an open garden, unsure of where to go and I had not been able to gather my wits yet. All I knew was that I was struggling to keep up with the group, as we ran aimlessly. Anywhere, as long as we could get to somewhere where the little girl would not find us. They found the latrine and pulled everyone inside, locking the door behind us. The train driver hurriedly checked each stall to make sure we were safe. Hopefully, the little girl had not seen us enter. I stood at the door waiting for the girl to pass, peeking through the hole in the door lock.  The toilet was clear and everyone exhibited a clear sigh of relief. Grace sat in a corner and was staring at the floor, visibly panting and lost in her thought. Sam was keeping a lookout by watching the windows and Joyce was watching me.

She shook her head really fast at me and pointed at me to sit somewhere else. When I did not budge, she took out a phone and hurriedly type in some words before passing it to me. It read “STAY AWAY FROM THE DOOR!!! DON’T LET HER SEE YOU!” I gulped as I looked up to see the girl walking past, with blood dripping down her mouth, smeared all over her previously pretty dress. She was still sucking one of her fingers and was limping or more like skipping happily down the hallway. I made the time-out sign with my hands to tell everyone she was there and everyone held their breath. I ducked my head under the lock so she could not see me even she was walking directly past the lock.

One thousand, two thousand, three thousand. Sweat was dripping down my face as I waited and waited for her to walk past. The door lock rattled, rattling me but I was careful to not make a sound. At last, the door stopped rattling and the tiny platter sound of her footsteps drifted away. I sat back up to see no one walking past and give everyone the OK sign. Everyone relaxed, and I stayed slumped in my corner. It was really happening. What were we going to do next? I felt some tears gathering but managed to fight them back. I must keep the hope, no matter how bad….