Heading towards the principal's office, I walked through the deep halls of the school. Every couple of feet dimly lit by a flickering lights above. I was met with a red painted door with a sign above it “School Office”. I attempted to open the door, but I quickly realized it was locked. I looked around the desolate hallway, questioning if we had cleared this room. I bring my rifle's flashlight over the bloodly door handle, I am then met with an infuriating site. The lock of the door had the key broken off inside of the mechanism.

“God damn it.” I muttered, shaking the handle and even slamming it slightly with my shoulder. I took a large sigh of defeat and reached to my back, pulling a small black crowbar from my kit. The crowbar was a black and silver with a rounded, blunt head on one side and a sharp, pointed end on the other. Along the side it had etched into it “Thane’s Attitude Adjuster” with in much smaller writing “Jackson wuz Here”. I ran my thumb along the etching as I chuckled.

“Son of a bitch Jackson, I didn’t even notice you did that. Hell, when did you even have time to do this?” I shook my head as I looked back at the door and pressed the crowbar between the door and the doorway, and began to pull towards me. Nothing, I stopped and readjusted to get a better grip. “Come on you son of a -bi… tch” all of a sudden, snap! I flew back and hit the ground. I looked up to find the door was slightly ajar. Splintering filled the former area the lock had been. I stood back up and said.

“Well shit, that worked.” I put the crowbar back onto my pack. As I lifted my rifle and moved towards the door. I slowly opened the door with my right hand, raising my rifle with my left, scanning the room as I entered.

“Clear.” I said with a sigh of my breath as I lowered my rifle. As I walked into the room, I noticed a receptionist desk, I walked over and saw a myriad of papers on top of the desk. Most were Just parent contact information and schedules to get the children home during the beginning of the outbreak, but one caught my eye. It was a picture of a young woman who looked very familiar. It read “Meet Doctor Julia Winters, for our very special after school presentation on scientific theories of Animal Behavior and viral contamination! Along with her partners Edgar the Eagle and Snapper the Snake! She will be here on October 23rd! Make sure you don’t miss it! And bring your parents!” I recoiled at the sight.

“Julia! Jesus Christ are you still in the city? Oh my God!” I quickly rummaged through my pocket and grabbed my phone, it read two bars. I rushed through my contacts until I saw “Mr. Roberts” I quickly dialed the number. It rang three times until I heard.

“Hey Jason! What’s up!” A cheerful, yet gruff voice said over the line.

“H-Hey Mr. Roberts! Hey, I have a question? Do you know where-“ before I could ask my question he cut me off.

“Hey Jason! Have you seen the stuff going on in Elkhart? The City is in Full lockdown! Actually I was just about to call you! I-“ he said with a jolly yet concerned voice.

“Listen to me, is Julia in the city? I don’t have time to talk, but is she in the city?” My voice cracked with every word as I became more and more sporadic.

“Woah, Calm down Jason! Julia’s fine I just got off the phone with her yesterday! She told me she’s already been evacuated. Ya know, with all the progress in technology, I can't believe the Nuclear Plant is having a meltdown! Can you? Anyways, listen! She will be fine! Jason, it’s really sad actually! She just started at v-, hey wait, how did you know she was in Elkhart? I tho-“ the rest of his words passed like a bullet train.

“Nuclear disaster? There wasn’t a nuclear disaster, Command said it was a biological attack? Evacuation effort? No one had left this city in days, they've been cordoned off. That doesn’t make any sense, I don’t-“ I stopped myself realizing I had been thinking out loud, my eyes widened as I heard him get sporadic, fear emitting from his voice.

“Wait Jason! What do you mean there isn’t an evacuation? Wait, where are you! Did you say biological attack? What the hell is going on! Oh my god, are you in the city? Jason!-“ a large detonation is heard in the city as the school shakes. The call cuts off abruptly as the lights in the building shut off as the building begins to settle. I realized what happened, I quickly pulled my headset down and broadcasted.

“Hey everyone okay! Squads sound off give me a status report! I shouted on the radio

“This is first squad, everyone except Patterson is okay! Light shook loose and fell on him, he’s okay, just a bit jarred. What’s with the heavy munitions?” Said Jackson

“Second squad Checking in, we are fine! But I’ve got movement to our south unsure if friendly.” Said Jasper

“Weapons team is on the third floor, we are fine! And Feathers is moving to get eyes on right now for you, second!” The subtle voice of Carmine spoke over the radio.

“Rog, thank you baby!” Jasper said followed by what sounded like a kissing noise.

“Solid, all squads be advised! Keep your eyes up! Power seems to be out, so be careful and stay on comms, if anything even looks out of place I want to know about it.”

Just then my radio lit up:

“All call signs this is Warchief, the initial bombardment has commenced, hunker down and wait for the go ahead.”Warchief out!”

”Warchief, this is Saber One Six, How copy over?”

”This is Warchief, send it. Over.”

”I thought we weren’t using Heavy ordinance on the city? Over.”

“Solid Copy One Six, The Bombardment was changed at the last moment. Stick to the mission, Warchief out.”

“Wait!-“ my voice is stopped short by the heavy bombing. I could hear heavy ordinance and cluster munitions being used throughout the city.

“Of fucking course they are mass bombing the damn city! Why wouldn’t they be! Fuck me man!” I say, I fell back against the wall behind me and dropped to the floor. I put my hand into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet. I put my index finger behind my ID, but I stop myself, looking at the person smiling in the ID, I knew I wasn’t the same naive kid in the picture. I stopped but for a moment to think about it. But then I continued with pulling out a crumpled picture from behind my ID. There I saw the picture! My mom, myself, and a girl sitting at a table at my parent’s house, I begin to tear up. My eyes darted to the beautiful brown haired girl sitting next to me. “Jules, Why are you here? Are you even alive? Why… Why, whenever I finally feel like I made peace, do you have to pop back into my life! Fuck me! What am I supposed to do? Search the entire city? To try and find you? That’s if you're even still alive!” I began to cry, tears streaming down my face, I sat there for a minute, crushed by the feelings of pain and anguish. I slowly regained myself, I stood up and looked at my surroundings once again, the silence of the room was ear piercing, only sounds of far off explosions broke up the monotony of silence. I thought to myself, looking at the picture one last time. And put it back away saying:

“Come on Jason, get your shit together, you have twenty seven guys counting on you to lead them, and if Jules alive, a depressed husk won’t be able to help her, so get it together.” I lift myself up and look back into the room.