“Let’s start our meeting now,” Niko said to the men.
So Mr. Appleton and Robbie held court in the Living Room. Robbie groaned as he lowered himself down onto one of the futon couches and patted his belly.
“I feel so happy now,” he said, smiling at all of us. “I thank God he brought us to this place.”
Mr. Appleton chose a straight-backed desk chair. He put his bad foot up on an end table. I tried to ignore the smell.
“What would you like to know?” he asked us.
“Maybe you could just start at the beginning and go from there,” Niko said. “We’ve been here since the hailstorm, so any information you can give us about what has happened outside would be good.”
“Fine.”
He took a moment and began: “The hailstorm caused a significant disruption for everyone, as you can imagine. There was panic when the Network went down, as no one could reach 911. However, it was the news of the disaster on the East Coast that created what I would consider to be a chaotic environment. Many people gathered at the VFW to watch the news coverage, such as it was, on an old television set. It was a time of mourning and there was a sense of camaraderie that was admirable.
“I am proud to say there was no rioting or looting at any of the stores in town. At the stores whose riot gates had not deployed, people stood quietly in lines and purchased only necessities. From what I understand, people in Colorado Springs were not as well behaved.
“I set out for the hardware store first thing the next morning. My Land Cruiser was garaged, so it was undamaged by the hail, which is more than I can say for most of the cars in town.
“I was surprised to find the store was closed. There were some employees gathered in front of the store who weren’t sure if the store would be opening or not. There was a spirit of confusion and discouragement among the employees and the few customers who had arrived.
“Then the earthquake hit. People fell and were hit with some debris. A part of the roof of the store collapsed and the windows shattered. There were some minor injuries among those of us gathered around the store.
“There was discussion among those of us uninjured about how to best care for those who had been injured. I am fully trained in first aid, so for about an hour, I issued directions and tried to oversee the care of the injured. I went into the store and found a basic first aid kit. I decided we should move the injured away from the store in case further aftershocks brought more of the building down.
“It was at that moment that I detected the change in the color of the air. I saw a black plume rising in the sky toward Colorado Springs.
“In a matter of minutes, the people around me started acting in ways that were beyond my comprehension.”
Mr. Appleton stopped to wipe sweat from his forehead. He was staring straight ahead, as if watching a movie of the events he was describing to us.
“I was helping a young employee of the store carry a female employee who had a broken leg. She was quite heavy. African-American descent. I would estimate two-hundred to two-hundred-fifty pounds.
“As we carried her across the parking lot, the air turned around us. Everything became quite green. The woman’s skin erupted in blisters. They started small, but as we continued to carry her they grew and burst. She began to scream and writhe. We were forced to set her down, not only because she was moving but because her blood was spurting from the many lesions and she became too slick. Just as I realized that she was dead the young man I had been assisting gave a furious cry and attacked me.”
Mr. Appleton was now rocking slightly front and back as he spoke. This small movement was a metronome and the story kept coming out of him at a steady, even pace.
“I fought the young man off for a moment, but he might have injured me seriously if he had not been attacked in turn by another person. It was an elderly man who had earlier told me he was there for chicken wire. I watched as the old man and the young man fought each other to the death. The young man was the winner.”
Suddenly Mr. Appleton seemed to come back to the present moment.
“Are you sure you want the younger ones hearing this?” he asked Niko, pointing toward Sahalia and Alex.
Sahalia huffed.
“It’s okay,” Niko said. “They’re big kids. They have all the rights and privileges of us high school kids.”
Mr. Appleton continued.
“The light got more and more dim and soon it was as if night had fallen. The sounds around me were horrific. I heard screams of rage intermixed with the screams of the murdered and the gurgling sounds of what I assumed to be people choking on their own blood.
“I pulled my sweater over my face and began to walk to my car. I got in my car and took care not to turn on the lights. I turned on the radio and heard the emergency broadcast that explained what was happening around me. I attempted to drive back to my home. The highways had become glutted with cars and none were moving. Around me, in the cars, I could see some people blistering up and dying. In other cars I saw people begin to attack each other. And in a few cases I locked eyes with other people who seemed to be just as sane and frightened as I felt.
“I was sure that if I tried to walk home on foot I would be attacked, so I drove my car over the median and made my way over the land. This was made difficult because of the hail, but my Land Cruiser has four-wheel drive.
“However, as I neared my home, I could see that the development was on fire. All of Woodmoor was ablaze. The fire had spread quickly from house to house. Among the burning homes, I could see many people running and screaming. I decided not to try to get to my house, but instead to go try to take shelter in one of my schools.”
“What do you mean, one of your schools?” Niko asked.
We all looked at Mr. Appleton.
“Well,” Mr. Appleton said, “I’m the chancellor of schools for El Paso County.”
Sahalia groaned out loud, which was so startlingly funny that I burst out laughing.
Everyone laughed, even Mr. Appleton.
“Sorry,” he said. “But it’s true.”
Mr. Appleton went on, in his measured, efficient way, to tell us that he’d met up with Robbie at Lewis Palmer. Robbie had told him that Mrs. Wooly had come to see about getting a bus to get a bunch of kids home who were currently stranded in the Greenway (that was us).
“Yeah, I was at the school during the hailstorm,” Robbie told us. “It was me and some teachers. They left, after the storm, but I stayed. That’s when Mrs. Wooly showed up. She told us you were safe here.”
“Is she okay?” Niko asked. “Where is she?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What do you mean?” Josie asked. Robbie looked flustered.
“We were trying to calm people down because some parents were coming, looking for their kids.”
“What parents?” Alex interrupted. “Did Mrs. Wooly tell them we’re here? Do you know the names of the parents?”
“Well, no. Not really. Because, well…”
“There were a group of us there,” Mr. Appleton took over. “We gathered together, sharing the resources and information. We were trying to create a secure, uncontaminated area that everyone could bring their families to. But we were attacked.”
“By who?” Jake asked.
“By people with O-type blood,” Niko said softly.
Mr. Appleton nodded.
“They were all killed.”
This landed like a punch to the stomach.
“Mrs. Wooly?” asked Niko.
“I’m not sure,” Mr. Appleton answered. “It was very chaotic.”
