The stairway was marked by a series of candles placed every couple steps illuminating the raising hallway with just enough light for me to register where I placed my feet. I placed my hand along the wall to keep from tripping, though at this point shifting around in the dark but I never quite adjusted to the night, especially not as well as Lauren and Evan.

At the top of the stairs was a door for the first time in months I knocked on it. I had gone through several doors the past few weeks, everyday at some point I had to charge through it, not in the polite manner before the fall of society. I had to pick, kick and launch myself through the door not knowing what would be on the other side. When I first met Evan, he insisted on going first while Lauren and I would man the door, but later we started taking turns. Even as stood in front of that door, I was nervous still not knowing what to expect.

The door opened, Levi stepped into the soft candle light, “Ah Mr. Hudson, I expected one of you at some point.” He opened the door wider to allow me to enter the room. The second floor of the field house was the roughly the same size as the floor below it but on this level two offices had been put up.

“I gave your friends my room,” Levi said pointing to the farthest office. I assumed Nurse Karen was staying in the other. “I assume that this isn’t merely a social call.”

“Thank you for taking care of my friends,” I said. We were standing in the middle of a large space. I wasn’t quite sure what to say, and I was uncomfortable confronting the leader of the community that just took us in.

“I’m not in the habit of turning away good people,” he said, “we need all the help we can get.” He walked over to one corner of the room with a couch, and a coffee table, there was a blanket that indicated it was Levi was sleeping. There was a shotgun on the table. Levi sat on the table, adjusting the revolver on his hip. “Have a seat,” he said.

“You must be wondering how an old man, a woman and a bunch of kids managed this long.”

I nodded.

“Before this all happened. Before the shutdown, I was a principal, Lincoln Area High School, just a small country school, never had more than 300 kids. A couple days before school gets out, I heard about the epidemic, we all did but no one thought much of it. People get sick all the time. Except one of the days I get a phone call about the quarantine. No one in or out. No one to go anywhere. Stay in, stay safe, the government’s coming to help, just stay put. It’s what I thought. I tried my best. We put the kids in the auditorium. Tried to keep them calm. Their parents weren’t even allowed to come and get them. That’s not when I started to worry though. Karen kept them calm.

We were they for two days. Some of the kids were coughing pretty bad, we thought it was the flu or something. Before the phones went down, I got a call from my brother. He’s, was, god I don’t know what happened to him, worked for the CDC. He told me what was happening. He warned me. Told me what happened when they died about the reanimation. He said it they wouldn’t admit but countries had already fallen, the ones that couldn’t contain it. I didn’t believe until one of the children almost killed Karen, right in her office. I put her down myself. Hit them in the head, he said. My brother, said hit them in the head. I’ll never forget it.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

Levi looked away, I could he was tearing up.

“The only thing we could do. We put the sick kids in the gym, and, and, and,” he didn’t finish. We sat in the dark for a while.

“The rest of us stayed in a couple class rooms. All the food from the cafeteria was gone in couple days. We were stuck there. No one would leave the school. Luckily it was back in the countryside, not that many people. We tried to keep the kids calm, but they were so scared. We would have died there, but someone managed to flag some passing National Guardsman. They were on the run, said the base up north was overrun. They took us in. We roamed around for a while until we found this place”

“We’ve been here a couple months. At first, only the soldiers would leave. It was a vicious cycle, we needed food. Needed medicine, needed weapons. Except, the soldiers didn’t come back one day. Except one. He said he couldn’t leave us. Sergeant Wilson, good man. He kept some of the guns. Taught the teachers and kids to shoot, how to live in this world. But, the training was slow. We wouldn’t let the kids leave the camp. Slowly the teachers wouldn’t come back. We’d send people out to look for them, but after a while we were losing too many men.

“They wouldn’t let me leave, they said I was too old. I had little pintsized girls, just out of college telling me not to go. I never should have let them leave. A couple days before you got here the last two went missing. Just girls really, not much older than the kids they taught. Karen and I are the only ones left, except the kids. They’ve had to grow up too fast. As I expect you and your sister have had to.”

It was funny he knew she was my sister, I didn’t remember telling him or anyone here that information.

He sensed my surprise, “you’re friends told me. I’m afraid they’re rather talkative, but I don’t think they meant any harm.”

“Mr.” I said.

“Levi,” he said.

“Levi,” I said, “I’m sorry this happened to you and you’re students.”

“I am too,” he said.

Some time passed while we sat in the dark. I was about to return downstairs when he said, “Was I mistaken or did I hear some kind of commotion earlier?”

I didn’t want to start out lying to the man, besides he had this way about him that I didn’t think much got past him, “Yes,” I said, “I don’t think one of your kids got along with my sister.”

“Travis?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

He scratched his cheek, messing his grey and white beard, “I’m afraid the boy always had more muscle than sense,” he said, “I’ll talk to him.”

“That’s good I’m afraid my sister wields a machete better than she speaks,” I said.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.

It was quiet for a few moments, but the silence was interrupted by gunshots from outside. Both of us sprinted from the room to see what it was.