Dog Eat Dog, page 3
When Evelyn arrived at Busan, South Korea. She made her way to her apartment that was being rented for her by the school. As with most people who have newly arrived in a country, she wanted to go around and explore all of the sites and get to know what would be her new home town. But there was a damper quickly placed on her plans, by the onset of an aggressive strain of the flu. So, she was reduced to spending her days in her apartment almost as soon as she arrived. Thankfully, she had a couple of weeks before school was to start, so she did not have to be at work. This would have just added insult to injury if she found that she had to call out for the first two weeks of work so soon after arriving. Also, thankfully, she had neighbors who paid attention to the fact that she had not been out of her apartment in several days. She was pretty sure that if they had not, she would have surely been a lot worse off than she ended up.
One morning, she awoke to the sight of a beautiful face peering down at her through loose locks of sandy brown hair. The young woman’s bright green eyes seemed to bore holes into hers as if they were searching her soul for whether it was pure or not. She smiled a bright wide toothy grin once she was apparently satisfied with what she found. The young woman introduced herself as Virginia Mathis and told her not to be alarmed that the landlord had let her in; also, that she had made her some soup and disinfected her apartment for her. As well as, brought her some clean clothes to change in to. Evelyn was quite taken aback by this outpouring of kindness and couldn’t help but begin to feel some sort of grateful affection towards Virginia from the very beginning. Even though she also found herself quite embarrassed at the time by not only her appearance but the fact she even needed help caring for herself in such a manner. Not long after that, Evelyn was well enough to get out of bed and explore the town. Which she did with Virginia, who she later discovered worked as the math tutor of the school she worked for; so they would have the chance to spend even more time together. Evelyn was very grateful for this as well. She couldn’t help finding herself missing Virginia when she was not around and longing to be close to her. This created a great conflict within her because of everything she had been taught growing up. But once again, her grandmother was a great comfort to her. She was able to call and talk to her and tell her all about her feelings for Virginia without the fear of judgment that she knew she would surely receive from both of her parents. Especially if her mother ever found out.
There was another situation they had to take into consideration as well, which later came back to bite them both in the ass. The high school at which they both worked was a Christian school for girls, and they would also frown on this kind of a relationship if they were to ever be discovered. Which sadly they were and subsequently they were forced to leave the school. So, once again, Evelyn returned home; with someone at her side that displeased her parents. They decided to try and make a go of it in spite of all of their hardships, going as far as getting an apartment together near Memphis. It did not take them long to get jobs teaching because of the great demand for educators in the area. Even though, like everywhere else, the pay was not anywhere near what it should have been for what they had to put up with. Particularly, all the fighting, the drugs, and the shooting scares. Despite the fact every day was one harrowing experience after another, Evelyn felt she could endure it all as long as she had Virginia by her side. She was the reason she got up every morning, the pep in her step, the purpose in her life. She was finally well and truly happy. Or so she thought.
Until one night, she returned home to their small apartment to find Virginia in bed with one of her seniors. This completely shattered everything Evelyn thought was good about the world, and all she knew to do was run as far away from that part of the world as she could once again. She spent the next several weeks looking for jobs all over the world until she finally received an offer from Boulder High School. They were the first to contact her, so they were her first choice, and it took her no time at all to pack all of her belongings and move out to Colorado.
Because of her degree in general education, they placed her where they needed her most, and she soon found herself as the matron of the late afternoon detention crowd. The small band of misfits that had been forgotten by the rest of the world and their parents, apparently. There were not that many, only five or six, but she was determined to make the best of not only her situation; but their’s as well. It had only been a few months now since she started as their teacher, and now she found she was having to find an entirely new meaning to making the best out of their situation. This now entailed playing mother of this small group and doing her dead level best to ensure their survival as well as her own.
When this whole mess started three months ago, it was like the onset of some sort of progressing nightmare or horror movie that they could not escape from. If only situations like this came with some kind of instruction manual on what you should do to navigate it. They all quickly found themselves imprisoned and laid siege to by hoards of rabid dogs, in numbers and proportions the likes that no one had ever seen before. And, they were then reduced to living like vagrants or refugees in their own home town; left to the mercy of these wild animals.
It didn’t take long at all for everything to be laid waste to. Once the state of emergency had been declared in the rest of the country, Boulder became a wasteland, nearly devoid of all other human life; except for the small cluster of survivors that were held up at the high school. They started out as quite the group. The principal took his rightful position as leader and organized hunting parties for food and other supplies, as well as teaching people how to arm themselves properly. He also set up a chain of command that kept everyone in line. This gave Evelyn and many of the others a great sense that they would be able to possibly survive this for quite some time with him as leader. This, of course, was until they discovered that once you were bitten by one of these things that you contracted a type of rabies yourself and soon would succumb to some kind of madness. So, he had to do the unthinkable and begin to execute infected people before they could reach that point to keep them from infecting survivors. They organized burning parties to dispose of the remains. Everything had really taken a turn for the medieval. Especially, after he himself was bitten and he told Evelyn that she had no choice but to shoot him herself. After which, she unceremoniously found herself to be the leader of this ever-dwindling group of humans. It dwindled even more as people decided to leave the umbrella of her leadership and brave the perils of the outside to try and find whatever was left of their families and survive on their own. She was pretty sure that by now many of them were dead. Now she was left as she had started when she got here, with her small band of misfits from detention. Those who were sure that even if their families were still alive, they would want nothing to do with them, and probably see them as some kind of liability. But they most certainly weren’t, she was very proud of the progress and growth they had made for being millennials. They had had no other choice but to grow up very quickly into quick thinking able adults, who could survive with or without the help of another. Each one of them had adopted the military precision with which she ran this last bastion of hope, as she called it. The future of the human race was left up to them most likely, and she would be damned if she was going to let the rest of the world down.
Evelyn had set it up to where there were watch shifts that everyone was responsible for taking to make sure that everyone was able to get at least two hours of sleep. She had learned somewhere that as long as a person can get a ninety-minute cycle, their brain will be able to operate at full capacity for several hours afterward. She also set up small supply collecting assignments, and no one was allowed to travel alone. They always had to be sure to take a buddy or a partner of some kind when they would go out for whatever reason.
She hopped down from the examination table she had been sleeping on and looked down at her watch. Evelyn grimaced to herself as she realized that the battery had completely gone out, and now they would not be able to use it to keep track of time. Not like they really had any concept of time in the hell that they were in now. They would just have to do things the old fashioned way like they were doing everything else. Surviving by their instincts and what was left of their wits. Which she wasn’t sure just how much longer hers were going to hold out at this rate, but she couldn’t think about that. She also could not let any of them know that this rigorous schedule and burden of responsibility were beginning to get to her, and she was going to burn out any day now. She could feel it.
Evelyn reached down into the small desk chair and pulled out the heavy coat that she had modified with some duct tape to ensure that it would be impervious to teeth. Even though it was currently the middle of summer and the temperature outside very much reflected this fact, they could take no chances on safety. Even if it meant sacrificing their comfort to do so. The fact that all of the power in the city eventually went out because there was no one left to run it for whatever reason, either they were dead, or they fled the onslaught of voracious creatures, provided some comfort as the thickness of the dark provided a coolness at night; that gave them a relief from the sweltering heat of the day. Oh, the pleasures of living in the mountains, she would often think to herself when she considered the temperatures. She also thought about how many people mistakenly believed that because they lived in the mountains, they would be protected from this biblically proportioned plague of ravenous canines. But, of course, they had not stopped to consider the fact that because they lived in such close proximity to so much wildlife that they were actually more in danger than the rest of the country of being laid siege to by the worst of these creatures; the wilder breeds of dogs, such as wolves, coyotes, and ferals. This was something that they were having to deal with here in Boulder, unfortunately. Why was it that life always seemed to find a way to place the most difficult of situations in her path? Just like when she decided to learn to knit, the first book that she picked up was to learn advanced knitting. Lucky for her, she did not realize that it was the most difficult until after she was finished. But this sort of thing was always her luck, her fate, her lot in life. It wasn’t a lot, but it was certainly her life at the moment.
The sound of rushing, pounding, boot-shod feet coming down the hallway caused her to hastily pick up her weapon. A spear that she had fashioned with some duct tape, a couple of butcher knives from the kitchen, and a mop handle. She stepped to the door and opened it, prepared for the sight of anything. She wondered in a mixture of annoyance and dread if there had been another breach in their defenses that had let the dogs in through another window. These creatures were getting smarter and smarter by the day, it seemed, and she found herself being less and less surprised by the new ways they found to torment them. Slowly poking her head out of the narrow doorway and into the wide and empty hall, she craned her neck as she looked both ways; down either end of the dark ended corridor. When, finally, she caught sight of a slender figure coming around the corner at the other end of the hall. She could barely make them out in the darkness and strained her eyes to see who it was. There were only a few options as to who it could be considering the skeletal size of her crew.
“Evelyn!” Called the advancing voice of the small male figure. From the sound of the voice, she realized it was Patrick. He could very easily be mistaken for one of the girls because of his size. He was very small for his age, and this lead to him getting into a lot of fights in his previous school career. However, even though he was not a very large young man when it came to stature, he most certainly was in mind. He was an academic giant in comparison to the rest of them, and his intelligence was something that Evelyn had come to rely on very heavily in these last few weeks.
“What is it, Patrick?” she asked, calming down only slightly as she stepped out into the expanse of the hallway; keeping her weapon at the ready anyway.
“I am sorry to disturb you like this, but I thought you should know that Casey and Darren have not returned from their hunting assignment yet and it’s been over two hours,” Patrick informed her with a bit of concern in his slightly cracking pubescent voice. Even now, she found herself impressed at how well he spoke for a boy of only fourteen. “What would you have us do? Should we send Beth and Daniel after them?” he asked, looking as if he was trying to develop some sort of plan for their recovery as well.
“Have you been able to get them on the walkies?” Evelyn inquired, as her first option on the checklist in her mind. She did not want to risk any more lives if she didn’t have to. Many people would have considered this a heartless frame of mind, but she had to take everyone’s safety into account just now. They couldn’t risk anyone frivolously if it turned out that they were actually okay.
“No, ma’am. We have been trying, but no one can get any response from them. Not even on the emergency phones,” Patrick stated, very matter of factly. He had apparently been going by the same checklist as she. Once again, impressing her. She often wondered if he could read her mind. This was something she would worry about at a later time, though, right now they needed to come up with the best course of action to save their people.
“Alright, let’s join the others, and we’ll decide what we need to do next,” Evelyn instructed him.
“Okay.” Patrick nodded and turned to the side of the hallway that he had just come out of.
Evelyn followed close behind him. She took deep breaths to subside the nausea and vertigo that she felt coming on from her lack of sleep. She had to be top notch if she was going to continue in her position as leader of this small crew, also if she was going to deal with the possible grim outcome of this current situation. Pangs of fear joined the combination of things going on inside of her body as she made her way through the winding hallways of the school and to the lobby where the others were waiting. All standing like some sort of militia with their weapons standing as ready as they were at their sides. Their young faces covered in soot and dirt from their various excursions into the outside remains of what was left of their world. The smell of body odor and musty garments filled the air around them, reminding her that she would also have to add bathing and clothes washing to their list of duties. If only to help keep their sanity and remind them that they were still human beings and not like these creatures that hunted them so persistently.
“So, what are we going to do, Miss Bullock?” asked Daniel, brandishing his spear in his gloved hand. “Beth and I are ready to go find them if you want us to.”
“Yeah,” volunteered Beth, taking her place beside him.
Evelyn paused for a moment to gather her thoughts and what would be the best course of action to take at the moment. “Where did they go? Does anyone know? Were they given a flight plan for their mission today?”
“Yes, ma’am,” answered Patrick, turning to face her and pulling a map from his pocket. “From what we could tell from our last scouting mission, the Rite Aid on main was pretty clear the other day, and it also looked like it hadn’t been completely picked clean. So, I sent them there for today, because it wasn’t that far. I figured it wouldn’t take them that long if they just got the essentials. But you know how they can be.”
“How can they be?” Evelyn uttered, wondering what they hadn’t told her.
“Well, you know, they have a tendency to let their eyes be too big for their stomachs. So I gave a them a specific list of what they should get. Such as medical supplies some foodstuffs; especially, canned and nonperishable items. Those sorts of things, not a very long list. Which is why I am concerned that they are not back by now,” Patrick responded.
“I thought you were talking about the other thing,” piped in Stephanie, the youngest member of their group, with a slight smirk on her face.
“What do mean the ‘other thing’? Patrick?” Evelyn looked sternly into his eyes for an explanation, afraid of what he was about to tell her. She was pretty sure she knew the answer before he even gave it to her, and she was certain it would be just as she feared.
“Stephanie, why?” Patrick exclaimed. “We don’t know that, plus there are a lot more important things to worry about right now than whether they’re ‘doing it’ or not.”
“Oh, my god. Really, you guys? Seriously? What have I told all of you about this? We don’t have time for that sort of thing right now. And, besides, do you have any idea the consequences that would occur if any of you were to become parents right now?!” Evelyn nearly shouted in exasperation. She couldn’t believe she was hearing this right now, but she knew that she should have expected it to become a factor; considering she was living with an even amount of teenage boys and girls. All who were still trying to figure out what to do with the hurricane raging forces of their hormones. It was all she could do to deal with the girls having their periods. Now, this!
“Don’t yell at us, Miss Bullock. We aren’t the ones that are doing it. Besides, all the girls here are younger than me. So you don’t have to worry about me doing anything like that,” Daniel did his best to defend himself and the rest of them at the same time.
“I know, Daniel. It’s okay, I am just under a lot of stress right now… as we all are. I am not trying to take any of this out on you guys. But if it turns out that they are okay, and this is why they have chosen to scare the ever living daylights out of us by taking so long, you can best believe they are going to get a little more than a talking to when they get back,” Evelyn informed all of them, hoping that the message would sink in that she was about to have to start making an example out of everyone who did such things for now. At least, until they were somewhere completely safe. If there was such a place still in existence.
