“So, what are you saying?” Megan said.

“I’m saying, I’ve done little else except focus on Mexico. But Mexico might not be the answer. It was just a means to keep me centered. It provided direction. A goal.” Charlene moved closer to me, reached for my hand. She realized how difficult this was for me. I had no problem admitting when I was wrong. I struggled with admitting I didn’t know what was right, or best. I laced my fingers with hers. “Alley and I were talking. She made some points that, I just couldn’t argue against. And before any of us do anything, I think we should talk this out some more. All of us. Because right now, I’ve got to say that staying here in Pennsylvania, at this high school, at least for the winter might make the most sense. In the spring, I don’t know what will come next. I don’t. For now, I think we should talk. All of us.”

Gene lowered his head.

“He has a point.” Melissa tugged on her husband’s arm.

“I want my bus.” Gene looked up, looked over at me. “We should still go get my bus. It has more weapons. More supplies.”

I was not sure he’d heard or comprehended anything I’d just said. I was not the leader. I was not in charge. If anything, he’d been the one in charge here. Why in the hell was he telling me he wanted his bus? I was not the one to grant or deny his request to go to retrieve his bus. It wasn’t me. I wasn’t that guy.

Allison said, “Gene, let’s make a list of all of our provisions first.”

“It’s done,” Michelle said. “We keep it in the kitchen. It’s on a clipboard by the register. Every time we use something, we subtract it from the list.”

“Good,” I said. “That’s excellent. Why don’t you--”

The reserve lights mounted on the walls flickered, and then went out.

“What just happened? What was that?” Charlene took a step back.

“The generator,” Gene said. “It’s a quirky piece of equipment. Thing gets used like once a year. Usually when we have a bad snowstorm. I can look at it.”

“Where is it?”

“The generator’s in the boiler room, back of the building,” Dave said. “Saw it last night. Andy showed me around.”

Gene nodded. “I can give you a tour of the mechanics of the place. I’ve shown Andy, who showed Dave and Megan. More people that know how this place works, the better. You never know who may need to know what, you know? Spread the knowledge.”

I agreed. “Good call. Let’s take a look.”

“I’d like to see it, too,” Charlene said, and kept a hand on the hilt of her long sword. She looked around, eyes taking in everything. I didn’t like it either--lights just going off.

#  #  #

Charlene and I followed a step behind as we walked from the cafeteria and through the school hallways, the whole time my mind spinning. I’d made a grandiose speech back there. In telling everyone that I was not a leader, that I was not in charge, that I was not sure if Mexico was the right place to go or not, I still had my own reservations. If Gene all of a sudden said we were going to go to Arkansas, or Megan said New Jersey -- I’d say no. I wouldn’t follow. I might not be a leader, I guess. Neither was I someone who followed. I didn’t take direction well. Maybe that made me a dick. I’m sure it did. Part of me knew I still planned to call the shots. I couldn’t change my nature. Not overnight, not even in the midst of…all of this. People were either with me, or they weren’t. It was kind of that simple. The thing was, Allison was quite possibly right. She’d made sense this morning. I wonder how long she debated telling me any of it. There it was, again. I was a dick. At least I knew it.

“We keep the classroom doors closed, but not locked. Figure if anything gets in from one of the windows or something, we’re hopefully going to hear the glass shatter. The closed door will be a good initial line of defense. We argued about locking them all, but then figured if those things are inside the school, a classroom might be a perfect place to hide. Can lock the doors from the inside, without a key.” Gene made a motion with his hand, like he was turning a key. “And each classroom has fire windows. They swing open and are big enough to basically walk out of; ideal if getting out of the school is safer than staying inside it.”

“You been with the school a while?” Charlene asked.

“Seems like I’ve always been here. Graduated from here. Went to college for business. Earned a degree and everything, but seemed like schools were kicking out business students by the bucket load. Finding a job, finding a good paying job that is, was impossible. Didn’t matter I carried a solid GPA, either. Business graduates were a dime a dozen. So I came back home after a while. Moved back in with my folks, you know. That was one of the toughest things to do. After having the freedom of living on my own on campus, to go back to house rules and explaining where I’m going, who I’m going with and when I’d be home--about went insane. Within a few weeks, I knew I’d need to move out. Waited some tables at the Denny’s, grabbed up a vacant studio, and when there was a janitorial opening at the high school, so I applied. Thought it would be temporary, a good job to hold me over until I could find something more in my field.” Gene’s walking slowed. He seemed almost lost in reflection.

“How did you and Melissa meet,” Charlene said. My kid was smart. She’d sensed the funk the career conversation was causing, and knew to change the subject.

“That,” Gene pointed a finger, “that is a great story. I mean, you’ve seen her. Look at me. You’ve got to be asking yourself, how’d this Joe Schmo wind up with a babe like that?”

We rounded a corner.

Gene stopped. Held up a hand. “Shh. Door’s open. Shouldn’t be.”

“Mud,” Charlene said.

It wasn’t clearly footprints, but someone…or something, was wet and tracking mud around inside the school. “I’m guessing this wasn’t how you left the mechanical room?”

“It was not,” Gene said. “I’m going in. You guys have my back?”

Charlene already had her long sword drawn. I pulled mine from the scabbard. “We got you.”

Chapter Sixteen

1002 hours

“Dad, I don’t like this.” Charlene held the hilt of her sword in both hands, the tip of the blade on the ground. She kept bouncing on the balls on her feet. She looked ready to swing that blade in any direction in an instant. Her eyes pivoted left and right and left.

“We need to warn the others. If they have weapons, we’ve got to be ready to kill them,” Chase said.

“Weapons? You don’t think it’s those things?”

“Sneaking into the school, breaking into the mechanical room, and cutting the power from the generators?”  I shook my head and almost snickered, but stopped. I thought about Charlene’s mom and the photograph, and the zombies figuring out how to climb higher on a fence, and unfasten a belt. “No, dear, I do not think it’s zombies. This is too well organized.”

“I don’t know which is better.”

I knew. “It’s people. Survivors. They’re not friendly, though.”

“How do you know that?”

“They didn’t try to make contact. They…”

What they’d done instead was disorient and split the group.  “Gene?”

“What is it?” Charlene raised her sword.

“Stay right here. I’m going after--”

The lights flickered on in the hallways. Gene must have managed to restart the generators. Another flicker, two, and then they stayed on. From where we stood outside the Mechanical Room door, I could hear the motors of the generators whine as they geared up and sent out energy though the school.

“Gene?” I pushed the door open with the sword’s blade, stood back, still cautious, still ready for anything. “Wait here, Char. Yell if you see anything.”