Adrian

“We need more weapons and food. Our school only has enough food for a few days and lacks weapons to defend with" I say to begin our planning.

Abagail frowns, I don’t think she likes all this fighting.

“I think we should go get weapons first, food won’t matter if more of those midgets kill us" offers Bryan.

“You have a gun at home but that is on the other side of town, I live outside of town we need to go somewhere closer.”

Abagail interrupts “what about our families? We need to find them.”

I nod, “we do but we also need to be able to defend them when we find them.”

Abagail frowns again, “aren’t you worried about your family?”

I shake my head “dad is out of town but he keeps guns in his semi, my brothers are home sick today and mom would move them into the storm cellar. They should be safe for a few weeks.”

Bryan speaks up, a tear coming to his face “my parents are in their seventies, they have been dying for years. If this isn’t isolated they are already dead.”

Abagail looks at Bryan, sadness, she empathizes with Bryan. “We have to get weapons then we can worry about our loved ones. You can dislike it, but we need to do this.”

Jason walks up, he doesn’t seem to care. Well, I wouldn’t care about his family so I guess it is fair for him not to care for mine. I want to agree with Abagail and rush to our respective families but that will get us killed. Cut the emotions do what must be done. I take a breath.

“The nearest place where we can get guns and ammunition would be Outdoor World, I motion that we go there first.”

“When will we go to our families?”

“After we get enough weapons to safely reach them. Who is for getting weapons first?”

Bryan, Jason and Tomas nod in approval. Abagail is hesitating, she knows we need to do this but struggles about it.

“Any alternatives to moving to Outdoor World?”

Tomas speaks up, “won’t there be a lot of people there?”

“No, today is their annual inventory. There will have been a few people there in the morning to count it but by now they would be finished. It should be empty.”

“How do you know that?”

“I work for as an inventory counter on the weekend remember? It was one of the jobs on the schedule.”

The others are quiet for a few seconds. “It’s agreed then, we will move to Outdoor World to arm ourselves. Then we will move to collect our families and find food. Any objections?”

No one speaks up, Abagail looks like she wants to say something but stays quiet.

“I know you don’t like this Abagail and you can complain and yell at me later but we have to stay alive first. Alright?”

Abagail hesitates but does nod. I hope she understands, I don’t want to do it this way but there is no way we can save all our families without more than my two pistols. Some of the jocks have been looking at us for a while.

“Lets move to the parking lot, Bryan and me have cars. We’ll divide between the two vehicles.”

We all stand up and begin to walk down the hall. As we start to move someone speaks up behind us, Tyler.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“Leaving, your cliques don’t want me here anyways what do you care?”

“Sure, you can leave but give us the guns.”

Several people from the two groups of jocks nod in agreement. Like hell I would give them a gun, they are already mad at me. Tyler would try to kill me if he wasn’t scared from what happened in the bathroom.

“I didn’t give you it when you threatened me earlier. I didn’t give it to miss councelor. Why would I give it away now?”

They stop stunned for a second before one of the cheerleaders retorts back.

“Because you have to defend us!”

“Why? Because I can? If that is true, then why didn’t you all help others before this?”

“That’s different! We’ll die without your gun!”

“It’s no different, do you know why only your two cliques are speaking up for my gun?”

“The others are just scared of you!”

“Maybe some are, but why are the thugs that have joined gangs outside of school not trying for my gun? I’m sure some of them are here.”

One of the black students stands up and folds his arms looking at the two groups of popular students.

“See, he is too scared to talk.”

“No, he’s cool” retorts Aaron, I recognize him now as I can see him more clearly.

"You don't have to say that."

“He isn't saying it becasue of the gun. He said it because I respected him, sometimes I have lunch with Aaron and others outside of my friends.”

Aaron nods, and then several of the ‘poor’ students get up and they start to leave. Aaron speaks up “leaving is a good idea. If you pass our neighborhoods we’ll see you're safe.”

They all leave. Now there are only a few students that weren’t part of one of the gangs and the two cliques of jocks. Talking with the poor kids that asked to share my table at lunch on Fridays paid off. Or was it from pointing out the stupid parts of their crimes, and telling them how they could get caught? Whatever, they respected me, because I respected them. I never did have to deal with any of my things going missing here at school.

After a few moments, the jocks snap out of their surprise and begin telling me as a mob that I have to stay or give them the gun. Fools, do they still think that I will give in to their demands now? I point the gun at them, and they go silent.

“I am leaving, with my weapons. If you attack me to stop me I will shoot you all.”

Miss councelor speaks up “you can’t do that that is murder!”

Some of the others start to talk to each other, things like he can’t take all of us and there is not enough bullets to kill us all.

“If you’re stupid enough to attack try it, but I’ll use every bullet before you take me out. A lot of you will die and gain nothing.”

Bryan and Tomas step forward moving to block a charge with their spears, Abagail and Jason are backing away behind me. I never expected Abagail to help with something like this but Jason should have. I guess I can’t count on him for life and death situations? Or is it just against other people?

Tyler yells back “we just have to tackle you and take the gun!”

“And how well did that work for you earlier?”

Tyler turn white and shuts up, others look at him and begin to quiet down, good the intimidation worked. Aaron would have called my bluff but rich white kids are too pampered to deal with this. The slum students will be more reliable.

The five of us leave and make it to the parking lot, the halls while bloodstained were empty. Where are the bodies? Even the midgets that I shot near the social studies room are gone. Why are they missing? Abagail doesn’t seem to notice this, she is probably just glad to not have to see the corpses of these monsters and people she may have known.

Bryan and Tomas noticed, I don’t want to speak the question. I am sure of the conclusion, there are bodies near where we defended but where we could not see there are none. I saw a fat kid being eaten alive earlier, so it has to be cannibalism. The midgets must have gathered the dead, probably for food, they did seem starved.

None of us raise the question, none of us want to confirm what we are thinking. Jason just doesn’t seem to care. I may not care about who died but I care if I’m going to be hunted as food. We do not say anything as we arrive at the parking lot, there are some bloodstains here and there but the lot is devoid of people. There are less cars then why I parked so some of Aaron’s group must have taken some. My car and Bryan’s truck are the only vehicles that do not have broken windows.

Blatant robbery, but I am leading others to go do the same at another location. Seems stupid to break all those windows but I guess they are not worried about getting caught anymore. Whatever the better off they are the safer we will be when we pass through their territories to get home.

I toss Tomas my car keys “you drive my car, I’ll be ready to shoot anything that attacks us.”

Tomas nods, the other three of our group pile into Bryan’s car. It’s bigger than mine little car so if something does go wrong they’ll be safer.