Unpredictable

Inciting Incident

As the alarms continued to go off, I grabbed for my phone and opened up Kik. Clicking on one of the conversations,  I immediately added the other three and sent my thoughts.

willG**** : Umm, guys... we can do this right?

Waiting on a response, I dumped the contents of my backpack on the floor and grabbed a couple chargers from an outlet somebody had left in the mad rush to 'safety' and put them in my bag. I glanced at my phone again as I walked toward the lab room door. The blue LED in the top right corner told me that someone had replied. I unlocked my phone and there it was.

leah******** : We got this. Tommy's waiting in the parking lot.

eri**l***ell** : I'm in building three, up top. I'm on my way.

mik*****ve** : is this seriously happening. okay. I'm headed you guys' way then...

  I waited for the next reply, from Sariel (real name, Brittney), but she didn't answer. By this time I was in the hallways, heading for the back door. I stopped myself and tried to remember where Sari was supposed to be this period. We all had different classes this year, and it sucked. At least it did for me anyway.

  Vaguely remembering her having Journalism, I turned around and went for building one. This wouldn't work without Brittney, and I'd be damned if I let her get left behind in this shit.

  A few minutes before I turned on my phone, the principal, Mrs. Rock,  had made an announcement, something to the effect of all hell was breaking loose and that if we all just followed the lockdown drill we would all be fine.

  Haha. Bullshit if she thought 1200 teenagers were gonna just sit around and twiddle their thumbs behind closed doors while something exciting was going on that the administration had no control over. There was an uprising toward the doors, and I'm sure most of them died. I was not one of those people, but only because I was glued to my seat, mouth hanging open. I couldn't,  can't,  believe this is happening. After a whole year, and all those stories...

  We were in the middle of an apocalypse, and I had no idea what to do next. I sat in silence, living in a world of noise.

But now I was headed to building one, going upstairs when there was still people pouring down them. It took a lot but I got about halfway up when I heard, "Will! Over here!" I looked around and saw Brittney still at the top of the stairs. Of course she called me Will. It's not my actual name but I would be surprised and concerned if she called me Jesse.

"Hey, meet us at Tommy's car! I don't think I can get up there without some kind of miracle!" I yelled up to her over the noise of the crowds. She nodded and slipped away into the madness, and I lost track of her curly black hair. I turned around and slid down the railing as fast as I could without knocking anyone over.

I touched down and bullrushed my way back west toward the student parking lot, shoving kids out of the way with my backpack. It took me a good minute and a half to get to the 4Runner. I slowed on the approach, seeing that everyone was ready to go. Jessica and Marcus stood outside the vehicle and seemed to be arguing about something. Typical.

"Guys, Sari should be here in a couple minutes. Let's load up." I said-half-shouted across the parking lot as I danced out of the way of a car.

"We don't even know what's going on yet, so why are we loading up?" Marcus asked me, voice sassy. "I haven't eaten yet and lunch is probably still in there."

"Fuck lunch, man. You heard Rock. All hell is breaking loose. We've planned for this many times, individually even. Let's just go." I said, throwing my bag in the back and climbing in along side it. I settled in facing the school, watching for Brittney. Not ten seconds later, I saw her bobbing and weaving through the mob, heading our way.

Jessica climbed in the middle row and Marcus climbed over that seat to sit in the back, across from me. Brittney slid into place and looked around at us. Tommy had one hand on the wheel, the other on Leah's hand, looking down at the center console. Leah was looking from him to the cars in front of us and then at us passengers. Jessica looked up from her phone and saw that we were still parked.

"Yo, uhm, so what do we do now?" she asked, breaking the silence that had descended on the vehicle. 

"Well, first we need to find out what's happening. Then we can decide who is doing what and where we're gonna go." Marcus piped up from beside me. I nodded in agreement. Reasonable.

"Alright so..." Brittney trailed off, googling news reports from today.

THIS JUST IN, the car radio squalls to life, A HORDE- Leah snapped off the radio and said, "Any guesses?"

"LEAH!" Marcus said, exasperated. She shied away and turned the radio back on.
AT SR FIFTY TWO AND US NINETEEN, THE NATIONAL GUARD HAS ASSEMBLED TO STOP THE THREAT FROM SPREADING ANY FARTHER NORTH ALONG 19. THE PRESIDENT HAS ISSUED A STATEMENT THAT CITIZENS SHOULD STAY IN THEIR HOMES, BARRICADE THE OUTER DOORS AND WINDOWS, AND PROCEED TO ANY INTERIOR ROOMS THAT DO NOT HAVE ANY WINDOWS . "The military will deal with the threat as it arises along the Coast. Tampa Bay will be taken back from these creatures and America will stay safe,"  HE IS QUOTED AS SAYING, SKIPPING THE FORMAL MY FELLOW AMERICANS INTRODUCTION THAT HAS BEEN USED IN ADDRESSES SINCE PRESIDENTS BEGAN MAKING SUCH SPEECHES.

"What is actually going on here, like seriously?" Jessica asked.