Simply Kayla

All I could hear, all I wanted to hear, were my feet pounding against the pavement.

I gulped in air as the stitch in my side was threatening to crumple me and my heart was preparing to burst. I finally reached the high school and looked for a loose board. Found two. Although stained red, I pried them loose and pushed myself through the small hole. I was being too loud- what was I thinking making so much noise?  I squinted through the dark hallways but it was pitch black. I shut my eyes and listened – no shuffling of feet, no moans, no screams. I felt for a wall, and edged my way down the hallway, slowly and quietly. I found a utility closet, went inside and shut the door. Time to look for weapons.

I needed more light, so I stuffed the cracks of the door with rags and flicked on a switch. This closet was abnormally large, and there was a bunk bed in here. With more visibility, I was able to find some materials: a sandcastle bucket and mini-shovels. “I’m screwed.” Suddenly, something shifted on the top bunk and yellow eyes were staring back at me. A little black head stuck out from a blanket. Aw, a cat. 

“Are you going to be in here long?”, said the cat, extremely annoyed.

Given the current circumstances, talking cats was a much easier idea to accept. I was more surprised by the fact that I recognized him. 

“Salem??” He accepted the address by arching his eyebrows at me. 

“Um, I need to hideout for a bit. Is there anything else in here I can use as a weapon?” I raised the bucket and mini-shovel, “All I can do with this is build a mediocre sand castle.” 

Salem’s response wasn’t very helpful. “No, you’re pretty much screwed. Hiding under this blanket has proved successful for me though.”

“Yeah, that probably won’t work out for me.”

I sat down on the bottom bunk, staring at the floor, trying to think of my next move. It had been quiet outside for a long time, maybe it was safe to go out? One inch at a time, I opened the door, and peeked my head outside. Absolutely quiet. I cracked the door open wider to get some fresh air into the closet, giving me chance to glimpse down the hallway. 

I saw a round silhouette of a person, with something perched on their shoulder. They raised their finger towards the object on their shoulder, a button clicked, and then “Tootsee Roll” started echoing down the hallway. 

Holy shit. “TURN THAT OFF!”

But the silhouette ignored my demand and started tootsee rolling towards me, boombox on shoulder. I ran towards them, grabbed the boombox, and frantically shut it off. I looked up at a woman, I was looking up at Melissa McCarthy. She looked back with a huge grin on her face. 

“I’m SO glad you’re here! I was starting to get so bored!”

Extremely disturbed by the volume of this encounter, I couldn’t reciprocate her enthusiasm and harshly whispered, “You neeeed to be quiet. They will hear us.”

She did not whisper back. “No way girly. They were gone a long time ago!”

This was pleasant news, but I still darted my eyes down the hallways expecting to see a herd running for us. And honestly, I was happy to see any live person – even an obnoxiously loud one. Still whispering, “Ok… I haven’t found any useful weapons here. Maybe we should scope out other locations.”

And still not whispering, “Girly, I got just the thing!” She reached into a duffel bag I hadn’t noticed and pulled out ropes and ropes of Christmas lights. “We can use these!” She held up the lights to my face. 

I looked at the lights in disbelief, and looked back at my sandcastle toys. Shrugging my shoulders, I grabbed a handful of the lights, “Thanks for helping Melissa.” We packed up our lights and agreed to venture outside the building to look for more survivors and supplies. Before leaving, I went back to the utility closet:

“Salem, do you want to come with us? Maybe… maybe we will run into Sabrina?”

Salem’s head popped out from under the covers, “No, like I said before, hiding has worked out for me. I’m sure Sabrina has taken care of herself.”

Since he was determined to stay, I said my goodbye, “Ok, thanks for your help Salem. Good luck.”