Chapter 9

“Do you think they’re gone now?” Sasha asked in a hushed voice

“We’ve been standing here for 3 hours now, if they’re not gone by now we’re doomed anyway.” Mac said

“So, should we open the door?” Ridley asked

“Yes, I’m starving. Let’s go home.” Asher said

Ridley opened the door to the garbage room slowly, and peeked out. It was still dark, obviously, but the sky had cleared and the moon lit up the night somewhat.

“I can’t see anybody.” He reported

“Ok, let’s go.” Mac said

With their hearts hammering in their chests they quickly left the room and started running towards their apartment. It took them about one minute to get inside the safety of their apartment, but it felt like much longer for them.

Cold and hungry they sat down to eat the last of their sandwiches, without anything on them – they were even out of butter.

“We’re doomed.” Sasha said

All of them wanted to pretest but they knew she was right. Obviously Ridley had no idea of where the school actually was, at least not from this direction. And being chased by that mob had convinced them beyond any doubt that it was not safe to go outside.

“What do you think they were doing?” Mac asked

“Dunno. Protesting against the military, perhaps?” Ridley said

“Whatever they were after they scared the shit out of me!” Asher said

“But without food we’re dead!” Sasha said with a hint of desperation

“Is there anywhere else we can get food from?” Mac asked

“I think I remember where the school is now. It’s next to the store.” Ridley said

“So it’s not safe to go there anyway.” Asher said

“There’s another school on the way to the big store.” Mac said

“Too far away.” Asher said

They all sat in silence, trying to come up with a solution. After several minutes Sasha sighed and walked up to the window. She parted the blinds a bit so that she could peek out, and suddenly her eyes went wide open.

“What’s the matter?” Ridley asked and rushed to her

“I can’t believe we’re so stupid!” Sasha exclaimed. “The daycare center right outside our house should have some food.”

“That they should!” Asher said. “We should go there at once.”

“All of us?” Mac asked

“After that thing earlier tonight I for sure don’t want to split up, besides: if we find food we need to get it home as well.” Asher said

“Ok, let’s go then.” Sasha said

“Wait! What if we run into that mob again?” Asher said. “Don’t we need some kind of protection?”

“Like what? What weapons do we have?” Ridley said and looked around himself

They all started going through their stuff and soon came up with a small pile of potentially useful things: A blunt ornamental great sword, an even blunter ornamental katana, a slightly broken – but sharp – cane sword, a thin metal bar and a heavy frying pan… as well as some kitchen knives.

“Right. I’ll go with this.” Asher said, lifting up the great sword

Mac could not help laughing at him – he looked so proud. “I’ll take this.” She said and picked up the metal bar. “Maybe it will do some good.”

Sasha decided that the frying pan was too heavy, and that no one would take her seriously if she waved around with a kitchen knife. So she took a huge IKEA bag to carry food in.

Ridley really wanted to use his cane sword, but once the others had convinced him that it was more dangerous to him than anyone else he went into the closet and found the mop-shaft.

Once again they put their clothes on and went out to the front door. They watched for any sign of activity outside, but all was quiet. They opened the door and dashed across the road, to the daycare center.

Apparently no one else had thought of raiding it, because all windows were intact and the door was locked. After a short debate they decided to climb up on the roof, and try to find a way in there. After a bit of struggling Mac and Ridley got up and looked around. Since this was a small one story building, there was no way to get in from there.

“Nope.” Ridley said as he landed on the ground

“I told you.” Sasha said

“So how do we get in?” Asher asked

“We break a window.” Ridley said

“What if there is an alarm?” Mac asked

“True…” Ridley said

“Ok. Let’s do it like this: we break the window and run to the kitchen. We grab everything we can find that is edible and run the hell out of here before someone comes.” Asher said

“That doesn’t sound like a very good plan.” Sasha said

“What else are we going to do?” Mac said

“Besides, we have these now!” Ridley said, waving his mop-shaft

“Ready?” Asher asked, looking at the others

They all nodded

“For pony!” Asher yelled and threw a huge stone through the window.

An alarm immediately started beeping very loudly.

Asher thrust his sword through the window, making the opening big enough for him to pass through safely, and ran inside. The others followed quickly, looking nervously behind them.

They quickly found the kitchen and started going through the refrigerator and cupboards. Since this was a day care center they did not really have all that much food, but they grabbed everything they found.

“Ok, let’s go now!” Mac yelled over the noise

As they went out through the broken window they could see a pair of headlights moving towards them on the other side of the field.

“Hurry! To the back.” Sasha yelled

They ran as fast as they could to the back of their building, and in through their backdoor, that Sasha had left open. They closed the door and had to resist the urge to run into the closet and hide.

“Did you see who they were?” Ridley asked

“It was the military.” Asher said

“Are you sure?” Mac asked

“Absolutely.” Asher said with a firm look

“What if they come looking for us? They might have heat-cameras.” Sasha said

“Though I seriously doubt that they have heat cameras, it might be a good idea to go up to the storage room and stay there for a while.” Asher said

They sneaked out into the stairway and looked nervously towards the day care center. There was indeed two military patrols there, searching the area for whoever broke through the window. They were pointing at the ground at all the tracks that the mob had made. Luckily these concealed their own tracks very well.

They snuck upstairs and opened the door to their storage and went inside. With them they had all the food they had just stolen, and pillows and covers. They were spending the night there.