Chapter 3: Alex's House

Everyone stared at Josh. No one responded. In my mind, the world had gone quiet, disregarding the ignorant laughter of my peers eating their lunch and the people passing by the hall. I’m sure Chris was already calculating.

I looked over at the girls. What are they thinking? Sally was still looking at Josh like he was an idiot, and Victoria was rolling her eyes like it was all a joke, waiting for Josh to say, “Just playing guys,” but it never came. Angela shifted her eyes from Josh to me and her smile died.

Hey. Don’t look at me like that. I just found out as well.

“What’s this about?” she asked me.

Well, crap. Now I was the one caught in the lights, but before I could formulate any further thoughts, Victoria said, “No, before that, what the heck is a class 3 outbreak? Is he trying to skip class? Period 3 is already over.”

Sally and Chris both did a face palm. Eh? I was not expecting that. Chris, I understand, but why’d Sally also do a face palm? I don’t think I was the only one taken aback because the moment she did that, both Josh and Chris turned to her. When she noticed all three of us staring at her, her cheeks turned red.

“What? I read a lot, okay?”

“What kind of books?” Chris asked. He was trying not to sound like he was curious, but I could tell he was.

“Survival. You?”

“Same.”

Their exchange was under a second, like two boxers jabbing at each other, trying to size each other up. They both paused and nodded with approval.

So there’s hope after all.

Josh cleared his throat again and said, “Okay you two, discovery time can come later. We have bigger fish to fry.”

“Like what? What kind of fish are you trying to fry?” Victoria said.

I think she still thought Josh was joking and that we were all in it except for her. The awkward silence that followed her question made me giggle a bit. I couldn’t help it. I love awkward situations. Regardless of how dire of a situation we were in, some people couldn’t be helped. There’s just no time to explain.

A light laugh never hurt anyone. I mean, I don’t see any signs of a zombie outbreak. Derek could be lying for all I know, but thinking about it again, Derek’s never been one to pull pranks on people, except for the time when he tried to TP Josh’s house and epically failed by breaking his window instead. Fortunately, it was Josh’s, so no one minded. Josh just laughed it off, but I could see how sorry Derek was afterwards.

That’s probably why Derek is a bit closer to Josh than Chris an—Josh was making signs at me. He shifted his eyes from Victoria to me and back while crossing his two index fingers over one another. I looked at Victoria, and her glare pierced into my eyes. Like a Chihuahua being approached by a sudden stranger, I retreated a few steps back. Crap. I’m still giggling aren’t I?

But before I could go any further, Angela grabbed onto my wrist and said, “Where are you going?”

“Oh, no, I’m not going anywhere,” I said while freezing in place. A little lower and we’d be holding hands. I think she noticed because she immediately let me go and broke eye contact with me.

“But I think it’ll be better to go,” Chris said.

“What? Skip school?” Josh asked like it was something that never occurred to him before. He was actually a model student. He was never absent from school, and he was never tardy. There was one time I saw him running across the street so that he could get to class on time before the bell rang. He made it just within seconds. That’s dedication.

“I’m down,” Sally said.

Angela echoed her, “Me too.”

“Wait a minute. Where are we going? We don’t have to leave now… Do we?” Josh said while losing confidence in his train of thought. He noticed Chris was giving him the narrow eyes. That was his signal for, “Shut up or die.” It was pretty effective, especially against Josh. Chris never made it official, but I’ve added it to my list of nonverbal communicable signs that we developed.

“Are you serious? I’m not ditching school.” Victoria said.

Chris looked at her and shrugged, “Okay.”

I think Chris’s curt response hurt Victoria more than he intended because she gave him that look that girls make when their world doesn’t go the way they expect it. Chris realized his mistake the moment he saw her face and looked away like a man. Another one of his unofficial signs that means, “My bad,” but not like this was the best time to explain that to her.

Sally looked at Chris like he was a bug (she’s not afraid of bugs by the way) and said, “Jerk much?” while walking towards Victoria and linking arms with her, “Victoria, you’re coming. I’ll explain later.”

Chris and I looked at each other because we were thinking the same thing. I don’t think Sally realized how suggestive her last couple of lines was, but I wasn’t going to say anything.

Except Josh pointed at Chris and laughed. “Yeah Chris, jerk much?” He tried to regain his breath but continued to laugh, “Yeah, you’re definitely coming, Victoria.”

Sally rolled her eyes and said, “Unbelievable.” I think everyone’s antics were too much for Victoria because she didn’t say anything while Sally dragged her away.

“I guess they’re going to the parking lot?” I said while turning to Angela.

“I guess so.” She nodded, “Where are we going?”

Chris and Josh replied at the same time, “Alex’s.”

I shifted my eyes back and forth between the two, and then looked at Angela who smiled at me and said, “Fine with me.”

I was expecting her to follow after the girls, but she didn’t move. She just continued smiling at me. It was a bit awkward, and I wanted to giggle, but I held the urge back.

Don’t laugh now, Alex. Why’s she smiling at me like that? Don’t laugh, Alex.

Then it hit me, “Oh. You need a ride?” I asked.

“Yup,” she replied, “I’ll also text the girls that we’re going to meet at your place.”

I looked at Chris and Josh, and they both gave me two thumbs up.

“Well, I guess I’ll be going with Chris then.” Josh said.

Chris looked at Josh like he was crazy, “What happened to your car?”

“Don’t need it.”

Chris paused and nodded, “So you can plan ahead after all.”

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When I pulled up into my driveway, I saw Chris’s car parked in front of my house and guessed they probably went in first.

Angela asked, “Where’s everyone?”

I replied, “They probably already went inside.”

“Really? They have keys to your house?”

“No,” I laughed, “I never lock my doors and neither does my father, so the guys have gotten used to entering without asking, but that did get me into huge trouble once.”

“Tell me more. When does Alex ever get in trouble?”

I laughed again, “Hey, I can be a bad boy too, if that’s what you like.”

“Come on.”

I parked the car and said, “All right, to explain simply, what would happen if your parents came back home expecting you to greet them with a big hug but are instead greeted by Chris and Josh who are playing games in their living room while eating the food they made you?

“My father would call the cops, and my mother would beat the crap out of them.”

I laughed. “Exactly,” though something didn’t sound right about what she said… But before I could question her, she got out of the car.

I shrugged my passing thought away and got out as well. Sally’s car was parked further down the road. Since I didn’t see the girls around, the guys probably let the girls in on my behalf. What great host-guests. Does that even make sense? I chuckled to myself.

“Why are you chuckling?” Angela asked while looking at me like a weirdo.

I stopped chuckling and put on my poker face. “No, I was thinking about something. Explaining would ruin the joke and I’d take too much time. Ladies first.”

I opened the door for her.

She rolled her eyes and said, “Right.”

When Angela and I entered, Josh was raiding my fridge and Chris was on his laptop sitting on the floor with the two girls sitting on the sofa across from him. Sally was on her phone. Victoria seemed to have gotten some of her nerve back, but she was taking slow and deliberate breaths.

Something happened while I was gone. I guess Sally did some explaining in the car? But how much did she know anyway? I didn’t even know if a class 3 outbreak was really happening or not.

At the sound of the door closing, Chris looked up from his laptop and said, “Alex, you have to check this out.”

Angela and I looked at each other and joined the others at the living room. But Josh kept raiding my fridge. I think he was putting food into a duffle bag… Wait, that’s my duffle bag! Angela sat next to Sally who moved her phone over for both of them to see.

“So what’s up?” I said, sitting beside Chris.

He turned his computer to me so I could see better and said, “Read.”

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Riots erupt in Los Angeles: Live updates

By John Nar

Updated 8:06pm PST May 18, 2017

Key updates

At least 80 people are dead, and a large number of people are wounded. The first riot happened in Santa Monica on May 17, 2017 and has spread from west to east. Police and military units have been deployed for riot control

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My phone vibrated.

“Here’s some stuff from twitter.”

Chris looked up at Sally and said, “I was going to show him those.”

She shrugged. Victoria was staring at Sally’s phone in silence.

I opened my text and looked at the tweets she screen captured.

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Justin Gai (@JGuy) – “Riot in East LA. #LARiots pic.twitter.com/kbacFCNWase”

Sean White (@SWhite) – “Crowd mentality at its finest. A rioter bites a cop’s ear off! #crowdmentality pic.twitter.com/csedMTLAods”

TD (@Tankdeath) – “Zombies are real, chumps! Come to TD’s Survival Shop and then gtfo out of here! #EscapeLA #SurvivalShop”

Cindy Pear (@SweetyPie) – “Cops are gearing up to slaughter. Those aren’t rubber bullets #crowdmentality pic.twitter.com/mvgaJWCAnie”

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“Seems like it’s spreading pretty quickly,” Chris said.

“But it doesn’t seem like a class 3 outbreak.”

Chis looked at Sally and nodded his head while deep in thought.

“Should we be concerned?” asked Angela.

“Maybe we should see how Derek’s doing,” I said while refreshing the news page to see if there were any more updates on the situation, “We’re about 30 minutes away from East LA, and the news stations may not be reporting accurate information, if you know what I mean. I think the most importan—”

“Alex, I’m not feeling too well. Could I use your restroom?”

I looked at Victoria. Her face was pale, and she was sweating. I guess talking about this stuff in front of her has her freaked out. Angela was a bit fidgety and kept glancing at me. It made me a bit nervous as well. Sally didn’t seem phased at all. I think Josh was pretty nervous as well since he usually likes to keep himself busy when he’s nervous, like the time when he came over to my house to play games while I studied for the AP test we had the following day. This time, he was gearing up for whatever was to come.

It still didn’t feel real to me.

“No worries,” I replied, “Take your time. The restroom is down the hall to the left, across from my room.”

Angela nodded and said, “I’ll go with her.”

As soon as they left, Chris called over Josh and said, “Let’s see what you packed. I don’t think Alex has all the proper supplies we need, but we can get a rough idea of what stores to hit up on our way out of town after we see what we have.”

Chris moved his laptop off the table, and Josh dumped the contents of the bag onto the table while Sally got up to get a better look.

There were 4 cans of spam, peanut butter, strawberry jam, a loaf of bread, baloney, cheese, instant noodles, mixed salad, a box of cheerios, a portable water filter, a kitchen lighter, a keychain compass, two 200 hour flashlights, a kitchen knife, and a first-aid kit.

“Pretty good, right?” Josh said while giving Chris two thumbs up.

“The equipment is pretty good, but the food isn’t going to last. We have six people in our group.”

Josh frowned, “True. We should eat a good meal before we leave.”

“We’ll also need more bags,” I added.

Sally raised her right eyebrow at me, “We have enough already.”

I twisted my head a little and raised my eyebrow back at her. That was my signal for, “Oh really?”

I thought it was a universal signal, but she didn’t seem to understand. She just scrunched her eyebrows together and looked at me like an idiot. Maybe that’s one of her signs for “Are you an idiot?” I guess, when you talk to someone who can’t understand you, you eventually stop talking and start making faces.

Chris saved the day by saying, “Backpacks.”

“That’s right,” Sally said, “We should empty our backpacks and use them… Is Victoria crying?”

We paused for a moment and listened. Victoria was crying. She was muttering something as well, but it was hard to make out because of her sobbing. Is she okay? Angela was also saying something.

Josh looked at Chris and I, and we all got up to go to the bathroom door.

“Hey Angela, is everything all right in there?” I asked.

The door slid open (My bathroom doors were not conventional doors that opened and closed outwards or inwards. They slid into the wall).

“Something’s wrong with Victoria,” Angela said, panic in her eyes.

I peered into the bathroom and saw Victoria sitting on the toilet cover. She was muttering, “The window… the window…”

“She keeps saying the window, but when I tried asking her what was wrong, it’s like she’s not even registering my voice.”

Angela looked at me like I knew what to do, but I didn’t. Come on. Don’t look at me like that. Victoria’s probably having a mental breakdown, but maybe following along will help her, and it’ll give me more time to think. Somehow, I felt off balance, like someone had nudged me just enough that if I didn’t take any side-steps, I’d fall.

I turned to Josh and asked, “Can you check the windows?”

Josh hesitated, but he nodded and said, “On it.”

Chris said, “I’ll repack everything and get ready to leave ASAP,” and followed Josh back down the hall.

Sally pushed me out of the way and said, “Let me take a look at Victoria. You should help check all the windows. Your house is practically see-through with all the windows you have.”

It was true. My house had a lot of windows, especially the living room area where one side of the wall was basically windows. The door from the living room to the side yard was also made of glass. My room and my brother’s room used to be like that as well, with one side of the wall having a lot of windows, but because we wanted more privacy, we took out the windows and patched up all the holes.

I nodded at Sally and went to check out my room. Everything looks good. My bed was to the left of the entrance and my desk was across the room on the right. My room had two windows. One next to my desk straight in front of me and the one next to my bed, which was bigger. I went over to the window next to my desk and tippy toed because it was slightly higher than me.

The moment I peered out the window, I ducked back. Oh shit.

Josh came running back down the hall, “Uh, Alex, do you have gardeners or some—”

I put my fingers on my lips for silence and crawled over to the window next to my bed. It was open as I left it in the morning. The wind was blowing in and the curtains fluttered. I reached over my bed and slid the window closed. After locking the window, I turned to Josh and pointed outside of my room and twisted my hands like I was holding an invisible key.

Josh got the hint. He went into my brother’s room to close and lock the windows while I moved to the living room. When I passed by the bathroom, Angela stopped me.

I think I wasn’t as calm as I thought because she whispered, “Alex, what’s happening?”

I put my finger on my lips and motioned her to follow me. Sally lifted Victoria up and Angela went to support her. Victoria kept mumbling, but she wasn’t as loud as before. She was much quieter.

When we got into the living room, Chris had already finished packing and was pulling down the blinds. I looked at him and he nodded. The girls say back down on the sofa.

“I already locked everything and covered the windows and glass doors as much as possible, but your home isn’t ideal for turning into a base.”

I nodded, “I know. We need to get out of here ASAP.”

Sally asked, “Is it here already?”

I walked over to the front window and peeped through the blinds. In front of our cars were four or five people walking around.

Josh whispered to me, “Is this really happening?”

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know for sure. I didn’t see any signs of blood or mutilation. The people outside were just wandering around here and there. A few more came into sight across the street.

Our phones vibrated. Josh’s phone was on the kitchen table, so it made a loud noise. We all froze, but Josh was already up and running towards his phone. I looked out the blinds again and sighed because it didn’t seem like the people outside noticed. At least, they didn’t show any signs of obvious reaction.

Josh picked up his phone and whispered, “Sorry.”

I nodded and pointed at my phone while showing them I was putting it on silent. Everyone followed suite, except Victoria. She seemed to be in a daze still, but Sally dealt with her phone by removing its battery. Impressive.

I checked my phone to see who had texted us. It was Derek.

“Are you guys out? Let’s meet at the safe house.”

Although Derek called it a safe house, it was one of the vacation homes his parents owned in Big Bear. It was our first go-to place in case of any large outbreak. His parents had won a law suit against a hospital that had mistreated his younger brother, who died a few days later. We weren’t friends with him at that time, but it was something he told us about when we asked him about how his parents had enough money for a vacation home in the mountains.

I texted back, “No, we’re at my place, surrounded. Any advice?”

“Weapons?”

“I’ll see what we can do. If you don’t hear back from me, something probably happened. See you.”

“Don’t let them touch you.”

I put my phone back into my pocket and sighed. This is really happening...