“He left,” she said with a shrug. “They gathered all the students in the gym and told us to stay put until our families came to get us, but that was days ago. A few parents showed up, but most of us just got left here. All the teachers and staff abandoned us.”
James looked back at Corbin, eyebrows climbing his face.
“Nobody’s parents came to get them?” the sheriff said, as if to confirm what he’d heard.
“A few did,” the girl said. “The rest have just been waiting. We tried to call, but then our cell phones started running out of battery. Eventually, students started leaving on their own, but as you can see, there’s still a bunch of us here. My house is way too far. I’m not walking all the way there.”
Corbin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Had the families of all these teenagers abandoned them at the school? Even if their vehicles didn’t work, wouldn’t they try to hitch a ride or walk to get their kids? Even his own crazy mom had come for him at boot camp.
“So it’s a little bit like Lord of the Flies in here,” Corbin said. “That explains all the lunch trays and trash.”
“Yeah, the first night some guys broke into the vending machines and emptied them,” the girl said. “The next day, we raided the cafeteria and tried to cook the food. That didn’t go so well, but at least we didn’t burn down the building.”
James shook his head. His shock had given way to what looked like grandfatherly disappointment. “You kids should go home. Even if it’s a long walk, you need to check on your families. You can’t stay here at the school. You’ll run out of food, if you haven’t already, and you’ve already run the generators down.”
A second kid from the circle wandered over now, an obese boy with a leather trilby hat cocked at an angle on his head.
“It’s not safe outside,” he said. “We heard some stories from kids who left and came back. They said there are looters and criminals everywhere. Kids walking alone are an easy target.”
“Don’t walk alone,” James said. “Go in pairs.” He addressed the young woman. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Libby Horton,” she said. Then she gestured at the young man in the trilby. “This is my older brother, David, and he has a twin.”
She turned just as a third girl approached. Though the third girl resembled David a little in the face, she was trim and athletic, dressed in a school t-shirt and jeans.
“That’s Amelia,” Libby said, “but we call her Mel.”
“Libby, David, and Amelia,” the sheriff said, gesturing to each of them in turn. “Look, guys, we have to use some critical thinking skills here. You can’t just sit around while your food runs out and people descend into anarchy around you. Help me get the attention of the room.”
Fortunately, his conversation had already begun to draw the attention of more people in the room. It was becoming clear that he wasn’t just some random guy. Kids began to wander over, many of them looking hopeful. The Horton kids turned now and helped him draw the attention of the rest of the room.
“Hey, everyone, come over here,” James said.
“Come here,” Libby shouted. “This guy is a cop or something.”
“Police are here to help us,” David added.
“Get over here,” Amelia said.
Eventually, most of the kids had gathered in the corner around the doors, though four or five stubborn wildlings continued to race about in the background, cursing and laughing as if madness had already taken their minds. Corbin felt a bit claustrophobic, his skin tingling in an unpleasant way as the kids pressed in around him.
“Guys, I’m your local sheriff.” James held up his badge for all to see. At this, some of the kids applauded, and a few started crying from relief. “Listen, I’m sending all of you home. As you probably know, most vehicles don’t work, so we’re going to walk.” This dampened much of the enthusiasm, but James pressed on. “I don’t want anyone walking home alone, so I’m going to send you out in pairs. Find someone who lives close to you, so you can walk together. Hey, I know it’s scary, but you can’t stay here. You’ll starve.”
Working together, Sheriff Cooley, Corbin, and the Horton kids went through the crowd and paired off the students. Corbin had to set down the stack of flyers to do so, and he found a nice spot for them in a corner where they wouldn’t get kicked or stepped on. The pairing took a long time. They had to interview students to find out where they lived so they could connect people who lived at least a reasonable distance from one another. Some made it extra difficult by showing their displeasure at the person they were paired with. The Horton kids, however, proved to be very helpful.
Eventually, the work was done, and James began ushering the pairs of students out of the gym. Corbin watched them leave, fanning out as they crossed the parking lot behind the gym and moved off into the city.
Hopefully, they won’t be like prey being scattered among the wolves, he thought.
Eventually, even the restless ones were paired and sent out of the school. Some lugged backpacks or books with them. Others left with nothing. Finally, the only people left in the gym were Corbin, James, and the Horton kids. Corbin looked at the awful mess that had been left behind, noticing that one of the basketball goal backboards had been shattered. He also saw food stains high on the walls, some kind of chocolate brownies or fudge smashed against the face of a clock.
“I guess we’re lucky nobody got killed and eaten,” he said, only half-joking.
“I think there were a few who might’ve eaten people, if they could have,” David Horton said.
Sheriff Cooley stood at the back door of the gym, watching the last of the student pairs walk off into the distance. Finally, he turned to the Horton kids.
“What about you three?” he said. “Don’t you want to walk home, too?”
“No point,” Libby said, tucking her trading cards into a small pocket on her skirt. “Our parents are out of the country. The house will be empty when we get there.”
“They’re celebrating their anniversary,” David said. “Well, they were celebrating it. They went on a trip, and then the power went out, and then we never heard from them again. I guess they’re just trying to survive like the rest of the world now, wherever they are.”
“Who was taking care of you then?” James asked.
“Our aunt came to watch us,” Amelia said, “but she went to spend the night with her boyfriend right before the power went out, and she never came back. We haven’t heard anything from her either.”
James nodded. As he talked to the kids, Corbin went to retrieve the stack of flyers. Dealing with all the students had absolutely exhausted him, mentally and emotionally. He’d felt much less anxious confronting the Eddies boys. High school felt like the greater danger.
“Okay, guys, let me introduce you to my friend here,” the sheriff said, grabbing Corbin by the arm and pulling him close. “This is Corbin.”
“Hey, Corbin,” Libby said, somewhat shyly.
Amelia and David merely waved, and Corbin nodded in return.
“I want you kids to come with me and Corbin,” the sheriff said. “If you don’t mind, I could use your help. We’ve got almost five hundred flyers that need to be passed out around town. We’re inviting everyone to a town meeting, so we can figure out how to create some semblance of order around here. If you guys will help me out, I’ll make sure you have a place to stay for the time being with plenty of food to eat. Sound good?”
The Horton kids looked at each other. Libby nodded, David shrugged, and Amelia grinned.
“Sounds good,” Libby said, finally. “It’s better than sitting here listening to people go insane. I almost got pegged with a lunch tray this morning for no reason. Someone just threw it at my face and laughed.”
Corbin felt a twinge of unease. Had James just invited these kids to stay with them? Shane wouldn’t like that. But the damage was done. They all walked back through the school and got in the sheriff’s Crown Victoria.
“
Wow, a real working car,” Amelia said softly. “I thought all the cars didn’t work. That’s what some kids were saying.”
They drove downtown and began distributing flyers to anyone they saw. Some people took the flyers, others refused them. Some took the flyers but then promptly discarded them. When they ran out of people, they started sliding flyers under doors and into mailboxes, and they left some under windshield wipers. Eventually, bored and weary, they began tossing the flyers out of the windows. Corbin folded the final flyer into a paper airplane and tossed it toward a tent camp in a department store parking lot. He watched as the wind caught it and pulled it in the wrong direction.
“Oh, well,” he said. “Maybe someone will pick it up.”
“We’ve done what we could,” James said with a sigh. “Hopefully, this wasn’t a monumental waste of time. I guess we’ll find out in two days. Now, let’s go home before I pass out. My darn head is killing me.”
20
Shane finally dared to leave Jodi’s bedside for a while. She’d awakened and seemed coherent, though in considerable pain. While Kaylee and Violet kept her company, Shane recruited his son and went out front to work on the fence. He knew Owen would have more trouble helping him put up the fence than Corbin, but Corbin wasn’t available. Anyway, he needed to spend time with his son. They’d been apart for so long, and poor Owen had gone through hell.
“You want to use the post-hole digger?” Shane asked, picking up the tool. “You’ve got the upper body strength for it.”
“Yeah, sure, I think I can handle it,” Owen said. Even if he was a bit out of his element, he seemed to enjoy being part of the project. Shane had never done a lot of home improvement projects with his him. “Just tell me where to dig.”
“Well, first we need to measure where the fence is going to go and lay out each post,” Shane said, tracing an imaginary line around the edges of the front yard with his finger. “Then we dig the postholes and build from there. Make sense?”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
They approached the pile of lumber stacked near the garage. Shane was dreading the many hours of back-breaking labor ahead of them. If he could have, he would have pulled up a chair beside Jodi’s bed, found a good book, and just planted himself there for the rest of the day. However, there was work to be done to keep the family safe, and he wouldn’t put it off any longer. Owen, for his part, was smiling and seemed raring to go.
As Shane measured off the distance for the posts, Owen dragged each post into place, running back and forth to the lumber pile. As Shane had discussed with Corbin, he intended for the fence to eventually surround the entire house, with a large gate to allow cars into the driveway and another gate to allow people to approach the front door. He wanted both gates to be latched and lockable from the inside, and he was also considering topping the fence with something to discourage climbing or, for that matter, nosy neighbors peeking over the top. He also had small brass windchimes to attach to the gate latches—an addition suggested by Corbin.
Once the locations of the posts had been marked off, Owen went to work digging the holes. Despite his lack of experience, he handled the post-hole digger like a pro. They’d made it halfway around the yard and were approaching the mailbox when Shane saw the sheriff’s big silver cruiser turning onto the street. As he watched the car approach, he realized the back seat was full of people.
What have you done now, James? he wondered, feeling uneasy.
Shane and Owen stepped aside as the car pulled into the driveway. With the sheriff’s car joining the Westfalia van and the Ford LTD, the driveway was getting full.
“Dad, who are those kids in the back?” Owen asked, dabbing the sweat from his brow on the end of his sleeve. “Do we know them?”
“We do not,” Shane replied. “Maybe the sheriff found some strays at the high school, though I have no idea why he’d bring them here.”
“Surely he doesn’t mean for them to stay with us,” Owen said, jabbing the post-hole digger into the ground as if to punctuate the point.
“Maybe they just need a ride home.”
As Sheriff Cooley opened the driver side door, Beth stepped out onto the porch. The sheriff signaled the kids in the back seat, apparently telling them to stay put, as Beth walked over to him. Shane decided to hang back and see how things played out.
“Now, Beth, I want you to hear me out first,” James said, shutting the driver side door, as if to shield the kids from what was to come. Corbin watched from the passenger seat, and Shane thought he didn’t look entirely happy with the situation.
“Who’s that in the back?” Beth said.
“These three are Libby, David, and Amelia Horton,” James explained. “We found them at the high school. The poor kids were stranded in the gymnasium. The principal, teachers, and all of the staff told them to wait for their parents and then just left them there. They waited for days for someone to come and get them, but their parents are out of the country and their aunt went off with her boyfriend and never returned. The kids have nowhere to go. I couldn’t just leave them at the school. You understand?”
“Are their parents ever coming back?” Beth asked.
“Who knows? They went on a trip and haven’t made contact since the event. You know how it is. I didn’t know where else to take them.”
Beth nodded. “Well, we’re not going to send them off alone. They can stay here for now, until they’re able to make contact with family.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Shane spoke before he realized he was going to do it. “We don’t have any more room in the house. Every bed is being used, including the cot and the extra futon. Where are we going to put all these new people?” Mostly, he was irritated at the prospect of having to deal with even more strangers while his wife was recovering. He didn’t want to sound selfish, but he couldn’t help himself.
Fortunately, Beth seemed to consider his words. James glanced from Shane to Beth.
“He does have a point,” she said.
“Oh, Beth, I can’t take them back to the school,” James said. “That wouldn’t be right. You should’ve seen that place. Poor kids broke into the vending machines just trying to find something to eat.”
“I didn’t say you should take them back,” Beth replied. She looked around, as if seeking a solution. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t we tidy up Mrs. Eddies’s old house, and they can stay over there. My house will be open to them any time, and we’ll invite them over for meals, but this way, each one will have a bed to sleep in.”
“It’ll take some work to clean the place,” James said, “but it’s not a bad idea. I’m sure they won’t mind.”
“There are still three dead bodies over there,” Shane said. “Mrs. Eddies is lying in her bed, and the Eddies boys are moldering under a blanket in the living room. I’m sure they’ll have started to stink by now. Plus, the boys trashed the place. They pulled out drawers and overturned furniture. It’s a big mess, and it’ll be disgusting to deal with.”
James gave him an amused look, one eyebrow raised. “Son, you have no idea the kinds of stuff I’ve dealt with in my line of work. A few corpses I can handle. We’ll get the place cleaned up.”
“I think it’s the best option,” Beth said, giving Shane a sharp look that dared him to disagree. “With a little cleaning, it’ll be perfectly fine. We’ll make sure the kids are taken care of.”
Shane decided not to argue the point in front of James and the strays. The sheriff leaned back into the car and said something. After a moment, Corbin and one of the new kids got out. The new kid was a rather large boy wearing an unusual leather hat. His black t-shirt was covered in superhero comic book characters. He gave Shane a wary frown.
“Corbin, David, you guys come with me,” James said. “We’re going to clean up the house next door. I hope neither of you are squeamish.”
“How bad is it?” David asked.
“Bad,” James replied, “but that’s mostly because of the dead people. Come on,
boys.”
He walked around his car and headed off across the yard. Corbin and David followed, and, after a moment, two girls got out of the back seat and followed as well. Apparently, they were not willing to be left behind. Together, the sheriff and his little entourage headed into Mrs. Eddies’s house.
“Well, that takes care of that,” Beth said. “There’s always a solution. You just have to be willing to work with people.”
“We can’t keep bringing in strays,” Shane said. “It’s going to put a strain on our resources.”
“Hey, as I recall, you’re the one who brought Corbin,” Beth said, wagging a finger at him. “I had nothing to do with that, but did I complain? No, I did not. Anyway, hasn’t he proved to be an asset?”
“Yes, of course,” Shane replied, “but you weren’t sure about him. Just the other day, you said—”
“I know what I said, but I gave him a chance. That’s the point. I gave Corbin a chance to earn my trust.”
“Okay, but did you get a look at those three? I doubt they have the skills or dedication of Corbin. Beth, I’m not trying to be rude, but we have to think about our long-term survival. We already have a full house to feed.”
“So you’d leave those three kids to fend for themselves?” she asked, glaring at him. “You’d drive them back to the high school and just dump them, I suppose. ‘Good luck, children. I hope you survive, but I really don’t care one way or the other.’ Is that what you’d do? Is that what my son-in-law would do?”
She’d succeeded in making Shane feel bad. Yes, it was a terrible thought, leaving three teenagers with no family to fend for themselves, but he just couldn’t bring himself to concede the point. He’d almost lost his wife in the chaos of this crumbling world, and he felt more protective of her and his own children than ever.
“I hate to say it, Beth, but if it comes down to my wife and kids or those three strangers, I know where I stand. I will always choose my family first. Always.” She had no response to this, and her stern gaze softened. Emboldened, Shane added, “I think you need to figure out where your priorities lie.”
Surviving The End (Book 2): Fallen World Page 18