He noted something Keith had mentioned earlier. Being the basement level, there were high windows set in the walls, about at head height if you stood inside, but only about a foot from the ground from the outside. They were all already shut and locked. But they also had metal roll shutters for added security.
Shelley could see Craig draw six classrooms. She recalled Nancy stating that these rooms felt like dungeons. On one of the classrooms, Craig wrote the word; ‘lab’. That room had microscopes, Bunsen burners etc. Across from the classrooms there was a large boiler room that also was used as the janitor’s office as well as a large storage room.
Next, Craig started on the main floor.
He’s got an architect’s hand. Shelley noted as he drew the layout.
There was an open front office, just off to the side of the main entrance, and a couple of separate offices behind that main office. On the other side of the hallway was the gym equipment storage room. The floor was completed with a large gym on one end, and the lunchroom they were currently sitting in on the other end.
Craig next engaged his son Jack to share what he saw upstairs. After a couple of minutes, Craig started drawing again.
It appeared the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, as not only was Jack a lanky young man with an easy smile just like his dad – but he also appeared to be an analytical thinker. Shelley felt that he did a good job explaining what the second level of the school looked like.
Jack explained that the second floor contained five classrooms, a set of washrooms, and a library. The corner classroom was set up as a media room, including a large screen television. Jack mentioned that Ethan had checked the tv and found it to be working. What was even more interesting was that he checked and found that some stations were still broadcasting.
Nodding to himself, Craig stood up and addressed the group
“Hey folks. I just wanted to provide you all with some information. I don’t want to take up too much time, so won’t go into the details, but here is roughly what we have for supplies.”
Craig went on to tell the group that there was a substantial cache of food, consisting mostly of Meals, Ready to Eat – or MREs as they were called in the military. He told them that there was a pallet full of medical stuff, which Shelley and Joe were sorting through, that there was another pallet full of arms, ammunition and other ‘army stuff’, a pallet with clothing and sundries, and a pile of bedding, cots and chairs. He finished off by stating that they would get a proper inventory list tomorrow and suggested that people set up the classrooms as bedrooms for the night.
“But first, we should all head upstairs. I just found out that young Ethan found us a working television – and that some networks may still be broadcasting!”
That stirred the group into action. People quickly cleaned up and brought their dishes into the kitchen. There was an industrial size dishwasher in that kitchen, and it was quickly agreed upon to take advantage of the machine while electricity and water were still running.
Cots and bedding were collected from the gym and brought upstairs. There were five classrooms upstairs, and four of these were quickly claimed by the Bentleys, the Collins family, the Millers, and the Van Gilze family. The fifth classroom was the media room, so it was agreed that this room would stay empty. The rest of the group would settle into the basement classrooms.
The group filed into the media room and took seats, while Ethan got the tv going.
Shelley sat next to Claire. The poor woman was still in shock. Shelley could not imagine what was going through her mind, having seen her son killed right in front of her. Claire must have felt her staring, as she turned to face Shelley. The look of despair was plain on her face.
Shelley couldn’t help herself. She spontaneously started crying and reached out to Claire. Claire’s motherly instinct took over and they clutched hands for several moments. And then Nancy was there, wrapping them both up in her arms.
“Oh, my dears...” Was all she said as she held them. She knew that no words would suffice.
Nancy was the typical grandmother if there ever was such a thing. Round figured, kind featured, and with great empathy. This was apparent to Shelley as soon as she got on to that bus. The kind of person to continuously fuss over everybody else. Shelley guessed that she was the kind of person that would help somebody no matter what sex, race, age or mood.
Just a sweet old lady. She showed all her matriarchal capabilities in that moment, hugging the two women tight and tut-tutting.
After a long moment, the three ladies released each other from their hug. Shelley looked over to Claire as they took their seats again and the two women exchanged a quick smile.
Ethan had found a channel that was still broadcasting live, so he turned up the volume.
The group watched and listened to the latest news.
THE NEWS WASN’T GOOD.
The news anchor indicated that this would be his last broadcast, but that the government was going to broadcast textual news from some obscure bunker location.
He went on to say that the latest bulletin by the WHO indicated that anybody that was still symptom free would likely remain so.
That gave the group some hope.
For the rest, the news was grim though. It was inevitable that the syndrome would continue to progress until the host died. Many people would die in terrible agony as
