Searching For Home

The School

"How are we supposed to get in?" I asked, looking up at Gavin. I had been to his little sister's school a couple times before, but wasn't completely familiar with the layout of it.

"If the school has already been notified of whatever's going on, they're probably in the middle of starting a lock down, which means we need to hurry up and get in there as fast as we can." He said, his blue eyes swimming with worry.

I nodded in response, taking quick glances across the schoolyard for potential openings. Around us, the sounds of heavy coughing grew louder, the sounds echoing in my head.

In one of the windows in the main office, I could just barely see an older women waving at us frantically, seemingly beckoning us towards her. I looked behind, confirming that is was us she was motioning for.

"Gavin, I think that lady is letting us in." I spoke, tugging on the sleeve of his uniform.

Not wanting to hear another cough, I jogged over to the door near the window the lady was last seen in, Gavin soon following after.

"Hurry quickly." She said to us, ushering us in as she opened the door. Once inside, she removed a key from her pocket and inserted it in the door, locking it swiftly. "What were you kids doing out there? Haven't you seen the news?" She asked, clearly distraught. On her badge, it read the name Mrs. Gomez, which I could just barely make out from the way she clutched onto the lanyard that held the badge.

Gavin and I looked at each other before he answered, "Neither of us had the chance to watch the news at all, we came straight from the high school to get my little sister after what we saw."

"Oh, you're Bella's older brother, right? I can take you to her class, but you must stay with them. We can't have you guys leaving with what's going on outside. I'll have someone phone her teacher to let her know that you two will be staying with them until this whole thing blows over." She responded, motioning for us to follow her.

In the hallways leading out of the main office, several televisions were tuned into the news. Some stations were broadcasting live from helicopters, showing scenes of panic and chaos as people screamed and ran for their lives. I looked away, not being able to bring myself to watch any longer.

After walking for a couple of minutes in silence, we stopped outside of a classroom. "She should be right inside of here with the rest of Mrs. Walker's class. Just stay put and we'll make sure we have some extra provisions for the two of you." Mrs. Gomez spoke, giving a warm smile before leaving us in front of the classroom door.

With a slightly shaky hand, Gavin opened the door, holding it open wide enough for me to enter in before him. I could tell he was trying to not show any emotions regarding our previous experiences for the sake of his little sister by the way he gripped onto the door handle and held onto it a few seconds longer after it had been shut.

A lady, who couldn't have been any older than 30, walked up to us, a box of assorted fruit snacks and animal crackers teetering in her arms. "You two must be here for Bella, I just got a call from the office that you two were out there just now."

Gavin scratched the back of his head hesitantly. "Yeah, we witnessed it firsthand back at the high school and we didn't think it would be smart to stick around with everything so chaotic already." He explained, recalling on the earlier events.

"I'm so sorry to hear that the two of you experienced that," Mrs. Walker said, lowering her voice so the rest of the class couldn't hear what she was saying. "The kids don't really know what is going on out there at this moment. It's probably best not to address it right now or else it would be equally as chaotic as out there."

"We'll be sure not to say anything much around them. Oh, by the way, I'm Gavin Armstrong and this is a close friend of mine, Marissa Halloway. We were together when everything happened."

"Did you need help with anything by chance?" I asked, noticing how she was struggling with the two boxes she had in her arms.

"Actually, I do have a few things that I could use some help with. Are you guys up to some lifting?"

"Gavin!" A bright voice cut in, light footsteps following soon after as a small figure crushed itself into Gavin's side.

"Hey there, little munchkin, you hanging in there?" Gavin teased, ruffling her hair in the process.

"How about the two of you catch up and keep the rest of the class busy while I help Mrs. Walker with the rest of the boxes?" I offered.

"Sounds good to me! There should be a few board games near the book shelf if you want to set a few games up for the rest of the class." Mrs. Walker said, pointing in the direction she was referring to.

After a few moments of silently following Mrs. Walker around, she broke the silence, handing me a couple of boxes in the process. "What was it like out there? All I could hear was that it was very contagious."

"And deadly." I added, leaning in a little closer to her. "I know what I saw. Whatever's going on out there is killing people...but I can't forget how the person I saw die in front of me just...came back to life."

Looking over at the young woman's face, I couldn't read her reaction. "I know it all sounds crazy, but I know what I saw out there. It was right in front of me an-"

"I believe you," She cut in, putting down her boxes and wrapping her arms around my shoulders to embrace me in a hug. "You were very brave to leave that school while you could after that, it was probably the best decision you could gave made. You're here now, everything is going to be just fine." She reassured me, picking up her boxes again.

"Now, let's get the last of these boxes back into the classroom where we can have easy access to it." Mrs. Walker smiled, leading us back out towards the rest of the class.

~

Once we were settled in, I sat down next to Gavin and Bella, pulling my knees up to my chest and leaning back against the wall behind us.

"Marissa, I've been thinking about it for a little bit while you were helping with the boxes, and I honestly think we're better off leaving this place." Gavin spoke under his breath, leaning in a little bit so no one else could hear.

"Really? You think so?" I asked in surprised, turning my head towards him to look at him better.

"Yeah, I just thought of earlier and I just don't think being cooped up here is a good idea in case someone in the school is already...infected." He explained, his free arm playing with Bella's hair.

I thought about it for a second. I hadn't heard any coughing earlier, which seemed to be a symptom of whatever was spreading around.

"Just because we haven't heard any coughing since we've been here doesn't mean that we're safe where we are." Gavin spoke again, voicing my thoughts.

"Okay," I said after a while. "I agree, we should leave while we can. But even then we're going to need some sort of plan of escape to get out of here safely."

Gavin smirked. "I might just have a solution to that problem."