Survivors

Chapter Eleven: Our Apocalypse

"Is anyone there?" Gigi asked.

"Shut up Gigi! We don't know if those are the Commies or not!" I frantically whispered as I clapped my hand over her mouth.

"Shut up Sierra, it's not the Communists," she retorted.

"Gigi? Sierra? I'm on the other side of the hallway," Ali called.

"Who are you?" I cautiously asked.

"It's Ali; I have Tyler and Jackie with me. They're injured." That was all I needed to hear to worry. I wasn't as interested in Jackie's injury as much as Tyler's. I also had too many questions to ask, but those can wait until later.

"Ali! Good God! It's so good to hear your voice I've got Liora, Gigi, and Helayna with me. I don't know how many people survived and I haven't heard from anyone else yet. Remember the rendezvous point? Head there."

My group headed downstairs past the office and discreetly headed towards the fountain near the downstairs boy's restroom.

"I don't know if anyone else survived; as far as I know, the seven of us are the only survivors," I stated.

"I can't tell you either," Ali told us.

"Have all the rooms and everything else been checked?" Tyler surprisingly asked.

"No, only the classrooms upstairs," I said and Ali agreed. "Whatever happens, we need to stick in pairs to ensure safety. I stay here with the wounded while the rest of you scout classes. Ali and Gigi, stick together. Liora and Helayna: you're paired up."

"Who made you in charge?" Gigi asked with support from Jackie.

"I'm taking charge because everyone here, besides you two, helped in making a plan and it was I my idea to carry it out. If you think my plan hasn't worked so far, vote for a new leader when we're clear of San Pedro."

"We have to leave the city?" Liora asked.

"Yes and I'm sorry about that but what happened here didn't happen only here; this is what it looks like maybe 25 miles in all directions. Go search for more survivors but be wary; I haven't seen any foot soldiers. Oh and if it's possible to scavenge for food, take it all."

They took off. Ali and Gigi for Kindergarten, the office, teachers' lounge, library, and day care room. Liora and Helayna for grades 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 1st, and the church. I had to watch over our wounded. During my watch, I found Tyler trying to stand once again on his own. He wasn't as wounded as Jackie and I didn't know what exactly he was hurt with seeing as we were mostly safe in the closets. Jackie, on the other hand, made it easy to see her injury.

"Where were you, Sierra?" Tyler asked me.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"When Ali woke me up, you weren't there. I don't even know how I had fallen out of the closet."

"I woke up in the office. Everyone in there was dead."

"Ali seemed to have amnesia, like she didn't remember us in the closets and what exactly happened."

"How did you notice that I was gone?"

"Before we were knocked out, you were in the closet with me. When I woke up, you weren't in there."

"I-" I was cut off. Two bomber planes were flying overhead. They locked on to us and started to fire. "Hit the deck!" I ordered. Tyler, who was apparently feeling much better, helped me to carry Jackie inside the closest classroom.

Inside, the desks were all destroyed and chunks of the ceiling had crushed some of the children and desks. There were holes looking up into the room above us and everything seemed dead and right, like we were in a movie and something dreadfully bad was about to happen.

"Hide among the dead. Do whatever it takes just lay low," I commanded.

Jackie lay near a window, injured leg facing up with Tyler and myself acting as if crushed under some blocks of the ceiling to hide our height. Jackie, who was never tall to begin with, fit in as possibly one of the tallest kids in the 1st grade classroom where we were hidden.

I heard a foot soldier approach but remembered to stay as still as possible and to quiet my breathing. I was supposed to be dead. It felt like I was one of the kids in the scene with the velociraptors from Jurassic Park. I heard Jackie's breath increase and she started to hyperventilate. She'll give us away! I thought. She tried to stand but in her weakened condition, she fell over. The soldier killed her with no moment's hesitation. Shot right through the back. There was nothing I could do. He kept searching the classroom. When he came closer to my position, I heard Tyler stand and take the soldier by surprise. Tyler hit him with a chunk of the fallen ceiling. The Communist was knocked out by the blow but not before he let out a yell to alert his comrades.

"Hurry!" Tyler said to me as he offered me his hand to help me up. We ran out of the room just to find Ali and Gigi racing toward us. The two soldiers following Ali and Gigi were shooting at us all yet still we missed their shots.

"How the hell are we missing their shots? What kind of soldiers are these?!" I screamed as we ran.

We were running across the blacktop to escape. Then, without warning, two in our group, Ali and Tyler, split up and went off to the sides. As the soldiers chased Gigi and me down, Tyler and Ali caught them off guard on the sides. Kicked in the heads and knocked to the ground, we all stopped to catch our breath. We ran up to the church where Tyler, Jackie, and I saw Liora and Helayna headed last.

When we entered, the was nothing inside but destruction and sorrow. Liora and Helayna were gathered near the choir section of the church. Sound crew had been called not long before it happened. My group approached carefully and quietly. Liora seemed to be searching. Of course. Adrian, her crush, was a part of sound crew and, therefore, had been called up to the church. I saw her digging.

Later, after the incident, only recently, she confided in me of how she felt when she was searching. "I felt like there was nothing I could do other than dig. I had to find him before it was too late, before he had no chance for survival. What can I say? I was in love with him. I had to remain hopeful that he was still alive. I thought, 'Maybe, if I was the one who found him, he would love me the same as I love him'. For a while, I never thought I would find him. When I found him among the wreckage, he wasn't breathing, but he hadn't dissolved like the other kids in the school. I knew that Sierra could do CPR so I regretfully took him to her so she could try to wake him up. I was upset when Sierra had to give him mouth-to-mouth because I felt a pang of jealously coursing through me. I only wish that I would have been the first face he saw when he woke up; I truly did love him."

I had to do CPR on Adrian to save his life, but if Liora could've done it herself, I would've let her do it. He's not my favorite person in the world but it would help to have more survivors and Liora would've been devastated if he was dead. When he awoke, mine was the first face he saw and I don't think Liora was too pleased.

"What now?" was the popular question among us.

"We obviously can't stay here forever. We need a plan and a safehouse," I decided.

"Where could we go," Tyler asked me.

"What if Area 51 in Nevada actually existed? We could pick up supplies along the way and make our way over there. It's an supposed to have a clean, underground facility that we can use and work on further plans there. What say you?" I had developed a plan.

"That may not work," Helayna said.

"If you guys have any better options, speak up," I told them.

In the end, no better plans had come up so we were left to travel to Area 51, just past Las Vegas, Sin City. It seemed just the right place for Catholic school students, right? We were all on edge but I could never forget the look in his eyes when Tyler had helped me up to my feet in the classroom in what seemed not more than five minutes ago. That was the first time in the whole day when I actually felt relief and happiness.