Everyone was inside the Bridge, and I already couldn’t help to listen to this next thing. Chase and Alaska huddled together in a couch with Clara. I stood along with Gab, Sean, and Berta. Manuel and Jon leaned to the wall to the right. 

“Soooo… why are we here?” Berta already impatiently bit her nails.

“Yeah,” Gab started, fixing her glasses before continuing. “Let’s just get to it. We need your help. We need your help to do this really dangerous and deadly thing.”

“Darling, you have to know who you’re talking to. Nothing can be more dangerous than our already impossible trip,” Clara said, sipping more of her coffee in a retarding way. Sometimes she had an ego higher than a skyscraper.

Gab gave her a faint smile. “You might wanna rephrase the word after hearing this one.”

‘Slip’, the kid who I tried to talk to, who escaped the so called MBS, entered the room accompanied by an old lady with gray hair. 

“Guys this is Gloria and Slip. Slip here is the only one who managed to escape the MBS or the Marion Boarding School in these impossible times.”

“What’s so special about this place?”

“That’s a good question, Jon. MBS is as you can see is a boarding school and hundreds of kids and teachers stayed there during the pandemic breakout. They have a governmental policy that every student shouldn’t leave the school for safety reasons. That was because Indianapolis and Fort Wayne already got several cases and that the mayor thought that the boarding school should be safer than parents’ houses. And as you can see, it’s now literally a haunted place with kid predators and teachers in every section of the school. You can’t just break in by yourself and break out without turning into one of them.”

Jon sighed. “Let me guess, there are still living people in there.”

“That’s right,” Gab answered delightfully. “Split here said that some of the kids managed to flee in time towards this one room in the far back when people started to get infected in the school. How many there are in there, we do not know, but Split said certainly more than fifty kids and five teachers are in that giant room. This room is an auditorium secluded from any place else and only has one access point, and that is the main door. But this place is too far to reach and there were only three of us, so certainly we couldn’t break in there alone. We also couldn’t leave the hospital defenseless. That’s why we need your help.”

I scratched my head. “How did they survive this long, though?”

“Yeah, that is the unsettling part. They do whatever it takes to survive.”

We all saw Slip whispered something to Gloria. 

Gloria nodded and passed the words to us. Her voice tender and shaky, and she went super emotional knowing what Slip had gone through although everything wasn’t new for her ears. “Slip said sometimes a team of kids and teachers risked their lives to make a run for the school’s cafeteria. Most of the time they didn’t make it back, but sometimes they did.”

Slip pulled Gloria’s dress again and he whispered something more. I saw Gloria’s face changed in disturbance, but she spoke nevertheless. “Slip said sometimes there’s just no more food and they started eating roaches, mice, and one teacher even sacrificed herself to be eaten by her students to stay alive.”

A bubbling thought rose in my head. Why is cannibalism so popular in this new world? I guess humans do anything to survive, but this is something extreme that feels like it comes out from a French horror movie or something.

Everyone in the room gasped after hearing Gloria, even Gab.

“Well, we didn’t know that before this,” Gab said. “But you now know what these kids have gone through. We have to rescue them. This will be hard, very hard. Will you help us?”

Suddenly, everybody’s gaze went to me. All eyes pierced straight to my eyes. They were like waiting for my answer, like I was their paragon who could decide things and was the wisest.

“Umm, sure. I mean, these kids, they suffered for too long. We should do something, eh?”

“I can’t imagine the guilt of letting those children stay there if we leave them,” Berta said.

Clara excitedly grabbed Alaska and yanked him to her to be hugged. “Let’s all be heroes!”

Gab nodded. “True, but this is a very lethal task, Clar. We might never see daylight again after entering the school.”

“The more dangerous the merrier.”

Clara knew what she had to deal with, but she often masked her emotions with jokes and cheeky attitude.

I clapped my hands and stared at Gab. “So, what do we do?”

Gab gave me a huge smile and her eyes glowed like a miracle just fell right to her lawn.

−

Sean slowed up and stopped the car right in front of a huge complex of buildings. The sun blared towards the school, giving us a better vantage point to do our recon. Gab pointed the complex from the back seat.

There was an asphalted pathway leading into the school area with two inner-locked gates and a black-tinned-windowed checking post at the front. I could already tell that the school’s security was mad.

Behind all those overprotective barricades were oceans of giant buildings too pretentious even for me. The first building I saw was as big as a mall and I could see the vertical garden and the lovely eco-park right in front of it. A beautiful fountain was centered right at the lawn, but it got kinda torn apart.

“As you can see, there are four main buildings in this whole complex. The first one is the A building which is the biggest and probably the craziest. All the administrations and teachers’ rooms are in there. Also, there are the indoor swimming pool on the top floor, a ballroom on the second, and this auditorium that we’ll be focusing towards in the fourth, right next to the main cafeteria of this giant school. Oh, and the library in this building is also mad big. There’s also like a computer room and a small gym, all of that just in building A.”

“I can see that.” Clara was still impressed on how ginormous the building was, and the entire facility.

As Gab was describing this, I noticed how big it grew when added by her explanations. The A building looked like a campus on its own. It was five-storey high with the length of probably two football fields.

“There’s a skywalk connected to the B building which is a dormitory. This dorm is divided into different sections according to different floors. The first floor is the female high school students’ section. The second is the male. The third and fourth are a collective section for male and female students of junior high. Supposedly, these kids escaped with the skywalk towards the A building through the fourth floor’s skywalk. So, I reckon those survivors are mostly junior high’s students.”

The B building was right behind the A building, rather covered from our visuals. It was slightly shorter but we could kinda see the skywalk as Sean parked the car leaning to an angle where we could see everything. It looked like the newest building with all the black windows and such prestigious design. It almost looked like a ball-building in a way, or maybe an egg. The skywalk was really similar to the one in Louisville.

“The C building is the junior high and it is two-storey tall. The D right next to it is the high school and it’s three-storey tall. Behind all of these buildings are the outdoor cafeteria, a basketball court, and there’s one other small building: the teachers’ dorm.”

The outdoor café peeked my interest. It was like colorful shipping containers stacked together in a messed up but artistic way, and all the windmills and benches and trees just gave it a very green vibe to it. I imagined all those famous celebrities and businessmen paid tons of dollars to put their children here.

The C and D building looked extravagantly similar. What I could conclude from my observation was that the school was an elite school and it wasn’t going to be easy rescuing people from there.

“This is like the biggest and most elite boarding school in all Indiana, and most rich families from around here will put their children here. Two years ago there are over three thousand students from junior to high and over two hundred teachers. The biggest school is here, not in Fort Wayne, not in Indianapolis, but here in Marion.”

I took another look at the school. It still amazed me on how big it was. “When are we gonna do it?

“Tomorrow morning. Sean’s staying in the hospital to look after the others. As I said, we can’t leave it unguarded.”

“It’s alright,” I snubbed. “Chase will accompany him.”

Chase immediately frowned from the most rear seat. “What?”

“You will help Sean in the hospital, okay? It’s going to be so dangerous in there that we might get killed.”

“That’s not fair. I can look after myself, and I have Alaska, which is apparently a more capable dog than you thought.”

“I can’t risk you going in that nether place.”

“Ti, I can help.” Chase started to approach me with another method. “I have to learn how to survive in this harsh land after all that happened. This is like a practice for the future. I can’t always count on you, I have to protect myself. I have to be able to stand on my two feet. The world has changed, Ti.”

Clara nodded, provoking the already tense debate. “The kid’s big already, man. He’s also right. This is an apocalypse. No one is truly safe anyway. Also, we can use the dog for sniffing shit.”

I considered for a while. My heart and mind were conflicted. I somehow started to sweat as I wasn’t able to think straight.

“Fuck it. Fine.”

Chase cheered up and hugged Alaska.

“But there are some rules you have to follow. First, don’t separate yourself from the group especially from me, second keep Alaska shut. I don’t want him barking over a group of predators and alerting all of us. Third, stay behind me all the time. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Now, how do we know if Alaska’s not gonna bark?”

“Oh, watch this.” Chase turned towards the dog who’d been sitting silently all the time. “Alaska, stand!”

Alaska jerked right up and stood with four feet of his.

“Alaska, sit!”

He sat down accordingly.

“Alaska, bark!”

He barked twice.

“Alaska, stay quiet!”

Alaska went to his stomach and stayed low. He completely shut his mouth and sneaked behind Chase’s back.

“Good job, Alaska.” Chase reached for his jacket pocket and gave him a treat. “He can do some more like Chase and stay and else, but obviously he can’t do it in a car.”

Clara shook her head after watching the incredible dog show. “I never had a dog like that.”

I still had doubts inside my mind. “Let’s just hope he listens to you when we actually enter the place.”

Sean drove us back to the hospital. Jon, Berta, and Manuel were discussing their plan and going through the sketched map of the boarding school. Manuel apparently was an alumni of the school. It would be one hell of a nostalgia for him. I really hoped nothing went wrong with this. I could already think of so many ways that that could go wrong. I did watch too many movies.

The sun started to set when Manuel drove us to this indoor shooting range just five minutes from the hospital. They did pick up a lot of guns and ammos from that crashed helicopter a day ago, so some we could spare to make ourselves better before the real deal. I really hoped I wouldn’t use any guns as we wanted to be as quiet as possible, but you can never be too careful. I also brought Chase with us to prepare him as best as I could.

For Alaska, I really had doubts taking him with us. He could be useful to protect Chase, but he’s still a dog. I assured myself with the fact that Alaska crept inside the Jeep when we were ambushed at the chopper’s crash site. He wasn’t a reckless dog. He proved us that he was more intelligent than we assumed, but doubts are still doubts.

Manuel pushed the range’s door with his back as his arms were full of unloaded weapons. 

The shooting range had been wrecked like there had been an earthquake or something, but we used it as the walls were padded, allowing us to shoot freely without thinking twice about making sounds.

Some metal targets were places by different length from the shooting position. Manuel grabbed some ear-patches and started to load some guns.

“I assume all of you already shot something or someone at this point.”

Seeing us nodding, Manuel smiled a bit and turned to me. “What do you know about guns?”

“That they’re harder to control even at close range than in movies and that they’re loud as hell.”

“That is correct. Shooting is harder than it seems, but I’m pretty sure you’re already mastering it. Now, try hitting three of the closest targets with that rifle.”

I did as he said. I checked the magazine and reloaded the gun. I turned the safety off and aimed at the first target. 

I breathed heavily and calmed my nerves. What I learned from all these experiences were to stay calm when you want to shoot. You need to do it in a cold head, and that’s hard to do in some sticky situations.

I managed to hit those three targets with six bullets. Manuel smirked proudly after noticing I headshot one target right in the forehead part.

Berta did as good and so did Clara. Jon took his time before shooting, like he was considering to end his enemy’s lives before actually pulling the trigger. And he was still facing targets, not humans or predators.

Chase’s turn happened quicker than ever. I could see his stiff feet and pale face when Manuel lent him an M-16. The weapon was far too big for him.

I pitied at his fate again. A boy his age should probably play Battlefield or PUBG instead of aiming real guns.

I watched him pretty carefully as Manuel fixed his posture every now and then. He did a great job teaching the kid. He was a really patient man.

It took Chase half an hour to master the targets. By the end of that, he could already swift guns easily and didn’t grip them as monstrously as before. We clapped at him after he did his first headshot.

I also took the liberty to study Alaska. Every gunshot was like a thunder directed straight to your ears, but Alaska didn’t budge.

After everything was done, Manuel tried to catch our attentions as he wanted to say something.

“You all did great. I’m proud to all of you. But there’s something I need to tell you.”

None of us commented, not even Clara. She knew this was no time for her silly sarcasm and stayed put.

“I assume all of you at least already killed someone before. Not a predator, but real life people.”

Everyone nodded, including Chase. He might’ve done something bad with her brother before meeting me in the apartment.

“How do you feel about murdering someone? I don’t care how bad they are or how merciless they can be.”

I took the liberty to answer first. “It’s hard. Every time I ended someone’s life, it felt, empty. Maybe when I first did it, I felt nothing. They were trying to kill me so I had to defend myself… and defend the people around me. But as the clock ticked, I realized that I just ended someone’s life. Living is a precious thing and we only got one time to make the most of it, and I just took that from someone.”

“That’s good. I want you to know that you, in any way, cannot kill someone and feel satisfied about it. If you feel good after ending a life, then I might worry about your future. You’re humans, don’t you ever forget that.”

Immediately, I saw Clara looking down like she was feeling the most guilty. She realized what she’d done. She’d almost killed those three dudes. They deserved deaths, but that doesn’t mean you have to kill someone.

Manuel knelt before Chase and firmed both his shoulders. He fixed his face and morphed it into something very serious. “You don’t become like them, okay? You have to avoid killing as much as you can. You have to be a person who despise killing, and you’ll only do it when you have to. You have to protect these people… your people. They’re your family so it’s also your responsibility, but don’t lose your heart to the darkness by making killing a hobby. It’s never right… killing.”

Chase stared him back towards the watery eyes of Manuel’s. I felt like he was telling us something… telling us of something he experienced.

We walked out when it was dark and returned to the hospital to get an early rest. We all occupied the same room in the third floor and slept huddled to each other comfortably, lullabied by the constant rumbling of the generators.

They went all quiet at midnight, and it plunged me to a deep ravine of dreams. I tried to escape that ravine, to jump up or climb it with bare hands, but the swelling darkness below my feet kept pulling me down and down into a pit of sin. I saw all past events, all killings, all bad things that I’d done. 

I am a killer, and I promise you that I don’t like it.

Right?

I don't like it...
I don't like it...

-----

Photo: Freaktography from Pinterest