Through The Door

Connie, Cody, the first graders, and I all walked out of the door. Unlike the time Connie pulled me aside to see the people out front in the school, she was very obedient, stepping away from the door as their voices poured through.

These doors didn't absorb noise at all, so we were able to hear the entire time.

"I wanted to ask you, away from all the kids... about your son. I'm sorry if it's a sensitive topic, I wouldn't be able to talk about it, so I understand if you shy away. But, you said your son was... eaten... by one of those zombie things?" Dad asked the girl.

The girl seemed distant like she wasn't actually in her body when she answered, "They were walking past him... then they turned while he was full of bullet holes... and ripped him open like it was a dinner... I'm gonna be sick..." She mumbled through her sentences, probably remembering that horrible sight. I didn't understand, to me, it was just gore I saw in some tv shows that appeared in my head while I visualized it.

"He was full of bullet holes... and those people ate his corpse? That doesn't make any sense, no sentient human would do that," Dad said. Papa chimed in again right after.

"That's because they're not sentient... like they're just moving out of instinct, right? Like they have no clue what's going on because of this weird disease. Maybe it's like hysteria? Or like hallucinations?" Papa asked the room.

"It could've been... but everybody having the same hallucination? I highly doubt that. It must be instinct, but why have the instinct to eat a corpse? What kind of bullshit is that?" Gammie said next, shaking off Papa's idea.

I guess Papa just wanted to believe that it wasn't instinct that made humans barbaric, but the idea that they were all shrouded from reality.

"And you said the military was opening fire... why? Do you know anything?" Dad asked, before taking a step back with his hands raised, "I'm sorry again, if this is too much, I just want to do whatever I can to keep my family safe," He said.

"I'll explain it for her... the military claimed something about a call from the radio, and then, after, it opened fire on a nearby house. Did you hear what it said?" The wife asked her husband. I knew I shouldn't be snooping around, but I couldn't help it.

"I did... Charlie, you're not going to believe this, but I heard the President's voice on the radio by the military's vehicles. I heard this right, because I doubted myself for about an hour after, but they said 'Execution of Kelly Neighborhood' a few times. That means they're killing people, doesn't it? I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but what else could it possibly mean?" The husband asked my dad.

We both went silent at the same time. Kelly Neighborhood could mean a million different things... but our neighborhood... that was the name of it.

The execution of our neighborhood? It almost made me sick... I wasn't able to tie it together, but Dad sure was, and he nailed it right on the head.

"They're killing civilians...? The military...? No... that can't be. I have to go back," Dad said. It was an impulsive decision, but the correct one at the time.

He put his hand on the doorknob and twisted it as I backed away slowly, looking up toward him.

"This doesn't block sound, does it? Then, you heard all of that?" Dad asked. He didn't have a hint of adversity in his tone, and instead, felt mistaken about his own misunderstanding.

"Just, don't freak out, okay? Everything is going to be okay, and I'm going to figure it out right now. Your Papa and I are going to check up on the houses through the same way we came, and we'll ask him what's going on," Dad told me.

"I don't think that's a good idea... not when the military is killing people," Cody chimed in, standing at a distance from Dad.

"I know, but we need some answers. I'm going to take the back way to our neighborhood, the same way we got out, and I'll be back with information. I promise," Dad told me, setting his hand lightly on my head.

"I don't think Mom would let you go," I told him, and he chuckled.

"I don't either, but she'll understand. Leon, can you come over here?" Dad asked me.

I walked away from the other children around a corner and he crouched down to my level.

"If I don't come back right away, I'm going to need you to take the lead, okay? Make these people feel safe, whatever you need to do. That's what leaders do, right?" He asked, and I nodded.

"I can do it," I told him with a smile.

After some more time passed, he walked into the room with everybody in it. He explained the situation in front of everybody, including the children, and both Mom and the other wives of the husbands that volunteered to go had a little bit of concern with the idea. After all, it was the military, and they were killing innocent people.

Explaining the back path we took to get here, showing everybody, and finally spending another hour convincing the people that it would be safe, Dad gathered together Papa, two of the four fathers in our small group, and left out the back to see what was going on.

A father in our group, who didn't seem as confident or relaxed as the others, decided to stand guard at the door, peering out toward the forest where everybody escaped.

Bob also stayed behind, staying with my Mom, Gammie, and the other wives in the lunchroom as well.

I didn't realize it at that time, but even the adults were influenced by the zombie media of our world at the time. He watched as if there would be a gang of bandits coming through with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. It was just the world we knew... except, the military made it much more scary.

"Well, should we look around for food? Where do they normally keep all their perishables?" One of the wives asked. The one who had just watched her son die was the wife of the husband who stayed behind. It made sense that he would stay, but he wasn't around her. He was quiet. I never learned any of their names, so referring to them as just husbands, wives, fathers, or mothers, felt really dehumanizing of the good people they were at the time.

I led Mom and the others down the lunchroom hallway with Cody by my side, and Connie standing behind us. We entered the lunchroom, just like we would on a normal Tuesday, but it was empty. No voices, no sounds, nothing.

"I've never been behind there... but it's behind that garage door thing," I said, pointing at the shutter that blocked the cooks off from the lunchroom itself.

Gammie grabbed onto the bottom and pushed the shutters up, revealing a clean kitchen, empty trashes, and stocked refrigerators with glass doors that showed us everything.

Fruit, vegetables, meat, bread, everything of the sort.

This is amazing! Okay, we'll have a little bit of everything to balance out our diets. A little bread, little fruit, so on and so forth," Gammie said.

She used to be a lunch lady at another school and knew what kinds of foods kids should be eating. She took care of me when Mom and Dad had to work, so I thought she was the best cook in the family, and the best person to go to when it came to nutritional advice.

"How much is in here though? We don't want to eat it all, do we?" Connie asked, emerging from the back of the group to the front. This must've been her zombie fiction books that caused her to wonder about a food shortage. I was convinced we would be back home in no time.

"We won't eat it all, in case we need some more for a little more days. We also should leave a note, saying that we're sorry we had to take anything. We're very fortunate it's even here in the first place," Mom said to us.

Niko and Skylar had been with the group but were relatively quiet. I don't think that Niko liked that Dad left without him, but some things have to be done I guess. That's how I saw it at my age.

"Since we got lucky, maybe we should say a prayer? Maybe this is God's gift to us... I imagine it to be that way," The wife who lost her son said.