As Dad, the other husbands, Niko, Skylar, Cody, and I all entered the cafeteria, all eyes were drawn to us.
"You're back! Hey, what the hell is on your arm? Did you cut yourself? Are you okay?" Mom asked Dad. She nervously pulled up his sleeve to look for anything, and started to wipe the blood from his arm.
"Everything... our neighborhood... it's ashes, really. There's barely anything left. The military isn't there, the bodies are scattered... and they followed us here. Some of them were running, some were crawling... and others were walking. To put it simply, all I know is that we'll be here for a long while, until we know of a sanctuary and can leave there," Dad said.
From his small backpack, he pulled out a book called 'Everything You Need To Know About Becoming Self-Sustainable', which was oddly specific in my eyes, but it was a thick book, a very thick book.
"We can survive off this land here, at the school. Once we get another call on the radio from the president, we can think about moving form here, otherwise, it's off the table. It's way too dangerous, especially for the children," Dad said, looking toward me specifically.
"So... what did you see? They were running and walking, sure, but are they dangerous? Do we know for a fact?" The husband who stayed behind asked.
"I'll be honest with you, Jason. They took a bite out of Henry's arm over there, and since that, I'm not sure that I can believe they're in the right mind. To take a bite of another human, what kind of messed up do you have to be? It just doesn't feel right to me, at least," Dad said, clearing his throat and repositioning himself.
"We have the food at the very least, we can save a tomato and plant more if need be," He said.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. For our farming class, we have all sorts of seeds that we grow in the garden by the playgrounds. We took care of them for a while too, so some stuff should still be growing in the greenhouse," I explained. This brought an overall hope to the group they didn't have right after Dad's explanation. He planned to stay here for a long time, and I just didn't understand.
"Good thing they have that greenhouse, otherwise the crops would die in the winter," Bob said, rubbing his hand over his bald head. He seemed rightfully uneasy about everything, moving closer to his family as Dad and I finished talking about the greenhouse.
"What's that noise outside? Do I hear... banging...?" Henry's wife asked, moving toward the door.
"Yes, that's them. The zombies, for lack of a better term. It's them, they chased me out of the neighborhood. They bit Henry's arm. I don't know if they react to pain the same way we do, but when I killed one, some of them started to run. About four in total, and they were fast. That's why we all ran back. We won't go outside," Dad said. He nervously turned to Connie, placing his hand on her shoulder after crouching down.
"Did you ever watch Dead Walkers?" Dad asked Connie. It must've been a zombie show because her eyes lit up in passion as she nodded.
"Yes! That's where I get all of my ideas from! You know, when the group was in trouble, they stuck together and everything ended up okay in the end! And, the zombies eventually go away if we leave them alone," Connie said in a light-hearted tone, smiling toward Dad and then Bob.
"Does anybody else have any other suggestions? Please, speak up if you do. I think Connie might know what's best to do here. We leave them be, and wait for them to pass," Dad said, nodding toward everybody to make sure we were all on the same page.
The two would make a great team. Dad was probably the smartest person I knew, even including all of my science teachers, all of the smartest teachers in the school at all, and even the gym teacher, who claimed he was smart because "I get to exercise all day and get paid the same as everybody else," which I believed to be funny.
"Are they actually that scary? What did they look like? Grey? Bloody? Bites taken out of them?" Cody's Dad asked, popping up from the back of the crowd.
"Like people... that's what makes it so terrifying. There's a bite here and there where dried blood coated their arms, but some of them are just normal. They're wearing normal clothes, they walk normally, they run normally... some of them grunt like real people. It's hard to tell who is who," Dad stated, looking to Henry for some other information.
"When the guy bit me, I pushed him off, and he went crazy at the sight of my blood. Charlie here told him to back off or he would shoot, but he wouldn't listen, so he shot him in the leg. He crawled to me, he didn't even scream in pain or flinch. I saw it in his eyes. He just kept going for my arm..." Henry recalled, holding his arm in pain while his wife put a bandage on it.
I watched over everybody's attitude as the atmosphere grew more uncertain and intense. Nothing was set in stone, but I think that's what made it so scary. In my eyes, everybody was just coming together to solve a problem. However, this wasn't just a problem. This was survival at this very stage.
The thought of growing our own food, and staying here long-term, would've been unheard of in a normal home. The goal was to grow up, get a successful job, and add to the world, but now? That dream was dead. We were stuck in a school while dead people walked around like they were alive. They were even biting people. It felt like civilization died while Henry explained the man that took a bite out of him like he was the prey to a dangerous predator.
"Connie, what's the cure to the bite in that show? Does he need any pills or medicine? I assume Neosporin isn't going to fix it," Dad said, crouching down to look at the bloodied bandage. He turned back to look at Connie, but she sat in silence.
"In that show...? There was no cure. It ended on a rough note, where almost everybody died because you can't escape the sickness. The most common cure to the infection is to cut off the wound, or to become a zombie and let your loved ones kill you," Connie bluntly said. It hit like a punch in the gut, and everybody turned to her as if she just screamed in a library.
"Well, good thing this isn't a tv show, and this is real life. I'm sure it'll be fine, let's just stop the bleeding," Dad said. Not a shred of uncertainty remained in his voice. He could efficiently separate reality from fiction and did so with ease. It was natural for Henry to be as unsteady as he was, and he started to hyperventilate after hearing that.
"Hey man, calm down! It's a tv show we're talking about here, that's not what's going to happen to you!" Bob told him, crouching beside him as well. Cody's Mom jumped in as well to properly administer the bandages on his arm, and Henry began to scream.
"You know what else used to be a tv show?! Zombies fucking walking the Earth! That used to be fake a few days ago! I could be dead here!" Henry screamed out. I shot back in fear, hiding behind Niko and Mom with Skylar as Dad put him down on his butt again, pushing on his shoulder.
"Do not freak out. You're a man, a father, a husband, you act like it. We aren't here to act out of proportion. We don't have any evidence that bite is what infects you," Dad told him with a stern look. He was always stern in the way he spoke, meaning every ounce of every word he said.
He never swore either, and if he did, it was for good reason. I never heard the word, 'fuck' around the house, because he thought it to be an ignorant word for ignorant people who can't assess the situation properly. We weren't allowed to swear in his house, only he was.
"You're right... I'm sorry. I'll make it through. I'm feeling tired, maybe today was just exhausting," Henry said, taking a deep breath and wiping sweat off of his forehead. He smiled at all the children and rose his hands in surrender.
"I'm sorry for scaring you guys. I didn't mean to talk like that, excuse my potty mouth," He said with a sharp smile. I believed him, walking out from behind Niko and Mom, and giving him a thumbs up as I looked toward Connie.
She looked nervous too, I wondered what she was thinking about.