“Hey, Evan, have you seen Charlie? I can’t find him anywhere. Did he have sentry duty downstairs again today?”
Evan shifted in his chair next to the East stairwell. He nodded to the calendar hung on a corkboard next to the stairs. The 23rd had been crossed out in marbled gray by a dying black marker, the year crossed out and corrected twice. “Yeah, I saw him, kid…”
“Sonja.” She was growing impatient with this hall monitor already.
Evan smirked. “I saw him. He said something about having only 11 bars of soap and wanting to do stockings this year. Ms. Matthews gave him a hall pass, as long as he took Ian with him.”
“Idiot! He’s going to get himself killed!” She kicked at a locker and ran down the hall. Sonja found an empty science classroom and worked it out. If not for this small town having one spacious three-story school building for grades 6 through 12, they likely wouldn’t have been able to keep each other safe this far. She had to follow the fool. Her older brother was a hopeless holiday romantic. Charlie’s request may have been wrapped in gift-giving sentiment, but there were other reasons for the principal to authorize a supply run. It was becoming a little too obvious in the hallways that this sanctuary with more than 30 residents was getting low on soap.
After a quiet dinner by herself in the cafeteria, Sonja signed in as if she were turning in to sleep for the night, then gathered her gear and crept up to the third floor. In the back upper tier of the band practice room, she climbed a short ladder and dialed the combination on the lock holding a metal access door shut. Pocketing the lock, she scurried into a short vertical access tube and closed the door at her feet as silently as possible. The band room, given its location in the middle of the upper floor, was rarely patrolled after the evening check-in, and no one had noticed the missing padlock in all the time she and Charlie had been using this exit for supplies, and not just for skipping class. She realized it was now more than two years since this had all begun, more or less. Thanksgiving Eve 2019. Sonja shuddered and tried to focus on helping her brother.
The upper hatch was not locked, but the roof was usually a safe zone. Remaining cautious, she popped the hatch open as little as possible and surveyed the immediate area with her flashlight. The roof and its perimeter was strung throughout with overlapping clothesline. Tied strips of metallic safety blanket slowly waved in the chill breeze, catching moonlight. “Another December of this crap nearly done,” Sonja said to no one.
A short ladder at the roof’s edge led to a fire escape. This would have been the tricky part during third period of seventh grade, but these days the windows into Mr. Reese’s English classroom were shuttered against the cold. She tiptoed quietly past as long practiced, anyway. Mr. Reese might still be up reading, wasting batteries.
Before reaching the pavement, she pulled out the night vision goggles that she’d borrowed from the school armory when Charlie was late to check-in. No sign of the enemy, but the middle of the night usually was the safest. Even evil sleeps. She dropped down and followed the building’s shadows to the Northern edge of the school parking lot. There was an opening in the fence here, not that the fence helped much during recent sieges. School sentries were now watching the dozen or so glass entry doors at all hours, especially over the last month. Beyond the fence, open parkland led to a small business district on the far side. Sonja followed a memorized route along the hedges, with maximal tree cover. All was quiet in the park, too. A little too quiet.
Sonja opened the unlocked back door to the old pharmacy, one of the few buildings in town that had had a working security gate and was mostly intact. She closed the door softly and turned around to face inside, inhaling deeply. “CHARLIE!”
“Oh, Shit!” said someone. Something glass shattered.
“Damn, Charlie, just paint a target on our backs, you moron!” That must be Ian.
Sonja stormed into the front section of the store and stopped short as a strong wave of floral perfume hit her. Her eyes watering, she said, “Ugh, are you finished? It’s almost pre-dawn, you know.”
Ian shouldered two full backpacks. “Sonja, right? No, we’re good, but I think your brother has a crush. He has been looking for a final gift for over half an hour. I think I have a full inventory of this place now.”
Charlie grumbled and grabbed the remaining perfume bottle on the shelf. “Fine! This one smells nice.”
Sonja waved a hand in front of her face and led them back and out into the cool and very fresh night air. It had begun snowing while they were inside.
Charlie bounced in front of his sister and thrust a blue teddy bear into her hands. “Merry Christmas, Sonja!”
She smiled but winced at the loud outburst and had to say something. She whispered, “Dude, thanks but keep it down! It’s getting light out!”
Charlie looked around at the undisturbed snow. “Nothing out here but us.”
Ian looked perplexed. “Yeah, where are they?”
A large bird dropped to the snow nearby. It flapped brown wings and turned glowing red eyes towards the trio. The bird growled. Growling bloomed all around them in response, seeming to come from everywhere.
Sonja dropped her bear in the snow and retrieved her machete. Mr. Franklin, the late groundskeeper, had kept the long knife around to deal with ivy from time to time. Sonja had prepared many roast dinners with it in the last 25 months.
“Run! They’re in the trees!”
Another early self-prompt for the holidays.