The Library

I know, as I recite this story into the notebook, you're wondering when it gets good. This is all basic stuff, there's no action yet, what are you even reading this for?

This is all necessary... I hope. I hope that as I write this down in the notebook in my hands and I recall these events, you'll understand just how important the periods without action were to me. There was a time in my life when every day I woke up, there would be action. These days... when I was a kid, in the library with Connie, were the best days.

In that library, Connie and I broke off from Dad and Bob to go look in the fantasy section.

"What kind of books do you like, Leon?" Connie asked me, picking up a soft-cover book with bleached stains all over the front.

"I'm not really a big fan of reading, but I really like Chillbumps. You know, those scary books that are pretty short?" I asked Connie, looking through a ton of thicker books on a tall shelf.

"Yeah! Did you ever read Volume Twenty-Eight? The ones with the zombies?" She asked me. There was that word again...

"Twenty-Eight? Is that new? I only read up to twenty-five... looks like I have catching up to do, and plenty of time to do it," I told her, walking over next to her as she held a weird book in her hand.

"I love zombies... they're so cool to me! This is one of my favorite books, and the main character is so cool! His name is Richard Rime, and he always knows what to do and learned about his zombie-infested world as time went on... but the books stopped at Volume Eight," Connie said.

I felt as if she was oversharing, like telling me about a hobby her parents never listened to her about, because frankly, it was sort of annoying.

Hearing about zombies while the threat is in the real world is like a spit in the face. Like a reminder of how screwed things were.

"That's sad to hear, I bet they were really good books..." I mumbled, looking through more of the shelving to find something to change the topic.

"The things in that book were really brutal... I hope the world doesn't turn into that. I just want it to be okay all the time. I want it to be us in this school, and the military to fight it off. I don't want it to be scary," Connie said.

"Our parents will take care of us, even if it does turn scary... it was pretty scary in my neighborhood, and we made it out. That means that we can survive the scary, right? Don't worry, it'll be okay," I tried to reassure her, but there's something about deep-rooted fear in people that you can't fix if you don't have an example.

I pulled out a "How-To" book about surviving in the wild and led the subject away.

"Look! If things do go south, we have this book to help us out. And, the school always has a ton of food for breakfast and everything. By the time we use up everything like that, I'm sure we'll be back at our homes," I said again.

"Maybe you're right... it's just, some of those zombie tv shows are really scary. I would hate for that to be real life. Isn't it suspicious to you, Leon? Suspicious that both of our Dads are already so accustomed to this school and left so fast from our neighborhoods like that? It's like they knew something was going to happen," Connie told me. She kept her voice lower for that part, even crouching behind the shelves that were originally up to our neck level in height.

"Life isn't a TV Show, Connie. Don't worry so much. Look, here's one of my favorite fantasy books," I said, pulling another one out.

"Survival Evolved: Incarnation? I thought you said you didn't like fantasy," Connie said with a suspicious look. It was like her previous worries had melted into nothing.

"Just this one, I've been keeping up with it since they started to release. Do you know this one?" I asked her, and she nodded.

"You can tell it's from a beginner author, but I knew that going in. Some of it isn't too good, but it's one of my favorites. Who's your favorite character?" She asked next.

"By far? Probably Lia. Is there any other right answer?" I returned her question, flipping open to page 63 to read a little bit.

"Nope," Connie replied.

We went on about the details of this random book and eventually had to leave the library with Dad and Bob. While on our way out, there was a loud, desperate knocking at the door far ahead.

I was the first one to turn my head toward the entrance of the school, looking at around three separate families, all with kids I vaguely knew from being in my class, and a mother and father guarding them while knocking.

Dad started to stare at the door, so I thought it was a means to open it. When I walked forward though, Dad blocked me from moving, crouched down, and lightly turned my head toward his.

"I'll handle this, you go back to Mom. Same with you, Connie. Go back with the books you grabbed and don't come out until I say it's okay," Dad told me. I slightly nodded, turning toward Connie, and walking back with her.

The fork in the hallway, which led to the same place at the end of the school, was near the middle of the entrance, so Connie and I first turned down the hallway on the left-hand side. Once we got to one of the middle rooms I explained earlier, Connie pushed me in, and we watched what was going on from the doorway that we first entered through.

"We're supposed to go back! What are you doing?" I whispered in a loud tone to Connie. She held her finger over my mouth and peered with curiosity at what Dad and Bob planned to do.

Dad unlocked the door from what little I could see and opened it to the three families standing outside.

"Are you guys looking for safety? Please, come in!" Dad said. All of the families were simultaneously thanking Dad and Bob. Their tones were worried... scared, even. Like my first time getting off of a roller coaster, I was just waiting to puke, that's what their voices sounded like.

"It's terrible! The military... it's just opening fire! It's killing civilians! And there were people walking around... my son, Jeremy, he died, and those people were eating his corpse!" I heard a woman say.

Her voice sounded hysterical... but hidden in hysteria is always a little bit of truth. I couldn't get that image out of my head at all and started to think the worst.

"Eating the corpse? Jesus Christ... well first, are all of you okay?" Dad asked above all means to see if everybody was fine.

"We're staying here as well, we have plenty of room and plenty of resources, so please, make yourselves at home. These little ones, did you go to this school?" Bob asked. He seemed to be the one to calm down all of the children. He had a friendly nature, one that couldn't be deflected in times of hardship.

"Is Leon here?" I heard one of the kids ask. I got too curious and peered out from the door, walking toward the front of the school.

Cody Canni, my classmate from Miss Love's class, was standing with his family in the very front.

"You're okay! Nice!" I wasn't sure how to express myself, but knowing I had one friend with me here so I didn't have to make new ones was really awesome to me. We had been friends for a long time already, so it was easy to bounce off of each other.

"I thought I told you to go back and hide... no matter, these people are nice, so it doesn't hurt either way," Dad commented. He showed no signs of aggression and welcomed everybody to the back of the school where the rest of Bob and my family were.

"Guys, these are some new people that just happened upon us to find sanctuary. We'll be here for a couple of days at least, so let's get to know each other," Dad told everybody.

We went through introductions, finding out that the other two kids besides Cody were all here as first graders instead of a fifth graders like Cody, Connie, and I all were. They were very small and barely even capable of doing things on their own yet. It would be quite the story to remember when they get out of here.

"Why don't all of the kids leave the room... I want to hear what you had to say again, Miss," Dad said toward the Mom who claimed that her son's corpse was eaten. Cody, Connie, the first graders, and I all stepped out of the room