And still no sign of Aunt Carol.
An hour after Nicole first found David, an announcement advised that some people would be moved to room 2B, to provide more space. David stood. “It might be easier to find Aunt Carol if we split up.”
Nicole practically shoved him back to the ground. “Then I’ll just have to find Aunt Carol and you.”
Soon after, a second announcement came: food would soon be provided in the staff room (McDonalds was sponsoring this particular state of emergency). David jumped up. Nicole wasn’t sure what made her feel more nauseated: the thought of McDonald’s grease, the fact that people thought about eating during whatever this emergency was, or the fact that David seemed downright excited about it. She decided on the two that made others—especially David—look like the idiots that they were.
“Can you believe that people actually want to eat?” Nicole asked in a most disgusted tone. “With everything that’s going on!”
David thought for a moment, and then looked up at his big sister. “What is going on, anyways?”
Nicole had not expected the question. When David grew visibly concerned, she answered vaguely. “Whatever is happening outside. They don’t make safe zones when everything is okay!”
“Nicole,” David started after a moment’s silence, “do you think this has anything to do with the flu that’s going around?”
“Probably,” Nicole blurted out. When she looked at him, she could see genuine fear in his eyes. Their parents had been away for almost a week. What if they couldn’t get home? Until they could find Aunt Carol, she had to be the adult, even though she was only three years his senior. She had to make things okay. She sighed. “You know what? I bet this is being blown way out of proportion.”
“You think so?” David asked, hopefully.
“Yeah. I mean, look: did you see anything bad actually happen? No. Nothing bad happened. Not here in town anyway. If it did, you know everyone here would be talking about it. Right?”
“Right.”
“Yeah. Plus, nothing happened in Halifax yet. When was the last time something happened in Sydney that didn’t happen in Halifax, like, a few days before? And even then, even if it does hit Halifax, it might not come here at all. Remember that hurricane that almost destroyed Halifax, like fifteen years ago? Hurricane Beth?”
David stared blankly at her. “Let me see … fifteen years ago, when I was negative two?”
Nicole smacked him on the side of the head. “You know what I mean. I did a science project on it a few years ago, remember?”
He nodded. “It didn’t almost destroy Halifax.”
“Whatever—it came pretty close. Lots of stuff got wrecked and flooded and Dartmouth was labelled a disaster area and boats got lost and houses got destroyed and every news show in the country was talking about it. And what happened here?”
“I don’t know,” David said flatly. “Again, I was—”
“It rained, and it was kinda windy. That’s it. Big deal.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I went to school all that week.”
“That was fifteen years ago! You weren’t in—”
“Pre-school, David. Pre-school.”
“You are making this up. You can’t remember that stuff!”
He’s feeling better, Nicole thought, he’s arguing. He even smiled, having made a good point: she actually couldn’t remember it any better than he could.
“I’m not, spaz. Even if I was, they still had it on the news and it’s in books. How do you think I did a report on it? So this? This isn’t going to make it into any books, and it hasn’t even been on TV.”
David paused and she could tell he was satisfied. The spaz liked logic. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.”
A table had been set up in the far corner of the gym with a water cooler. “David, dear,” Nicole started, with a fake smile, batting her eyelashes. David started laughing. “If you’re bored, you can go get me a cup of water.” She waited for David to stand before she delivered the punchline. “Then you can go play in traffic, okay?”
“There it is,” David said, turning toward the water station. “You had me worried there for a minute. Thought you were going soft on me.”
Nicole stuck her tongue out as her brother turned away. “Never on you, loser.”
He shook his head, and she was sure he was smiling.
She was no longer smiling, however. She was worried, and she was scared. She had heard things about what was happening out there. Kids had been talking, out of David’s earshot. Something about some news footage that came from some street in Halifax. But, what she heard was impossible; it had to be just a rumour.
She knew that if someone had been shot that many times, they’d stay down.
Still, she pictured it.
She looked down and noticed that her hands were shaking.
ALEX
At first, Alex did nothing but shake. For a very long time. He wanted to sit down, but he wouldn’t walk to the living room for fear that he would fall down on the way. He was frozen.
When the initial wave of fear dissipated a bit, he gave himself one last shake; he had to do what his father had told him. After all, Dad would be there to find him soon and it wouldn’t be good if Alex hadn’t thought of something obvious like checking the window locks. He was fifteen, after all. Dad would expect him to be responsible.
He locked the back door and then checked all the windows. His bedroom window was open a crack—he always slept with it open. He slammed it down as hard as he could, and when he pushed the latch
