Poison Paradise - Damned of the 2/19th

23 Blocks to School

Sarah looked at the rest of the group, her hand on the door that led to the outside. Everyone was wet and cold, shivering and rubbing their arms or legs to try to stay warm. The door vibrated under her hand, the wind and rain hammering at it as the monsoon crashed against the island.

"It's twenty-three blocks from here to the High School," Sarah said, looking at everyone. "Nineteen blocks in a straight line, four blocks to the right. According to the map there's a set of bleachers and a football field."

Everyone nodded.

"If you get separated, keep the mountain behind you and head straight down the street. Look for 'Madison Avenue', if you reach the jungle, you went too far. Turn around and head back toward the mountain. Does everyone understand?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got it the first time, bitch," Tommy sneered.

Raincloud slapped him across the back of the head.

Hard.

"Call her that again," Raincloud snarled.

"Enough," Renee barked. Everyone turned and looked at her. "We don't have time for this."

Thunder chose that moment to rattle all the windows.

"That storm is getting worse. There's no food and no heat in here," Renee said. She lifted up the rope made of tied together clothing. "We need to get going."

Sarah just pushed open the door, bracing herself against the wind. The wind snatched away the ability to hear anything, the lightning dazzled her eyes, and the rain forced her to cover her nose and mouth to be able to breath and made her squint to avoid getting water in her eyes.

Nineteen blocks isn't too far, less than a mile, she thought to herself.

She moved forward, stopping and letting Raincloud catch up when she hit the end of the rope and didn't get any slack. The group moved in fits and starts, staying close to the front of the stores, then moving across the lawns of the cookie cutter houses.

Renee frowned as she looked at the houses. A monsoon was tearing through the island and not one of them had torn off shingles or siding. All of the houses had good windows for the most part. Most of the windows were boarded up, the same with the doors, but here and there garage windows or small sun windows were uncovered.

She thought it was interesting that the windows facing to the right, toward the ocean, were all white and opaque, almost like frosted glass, while the windows facing the island itself were all clear.

It meant something, but she didn't know what.

Three times they had to stop, breaking into the house and standing inside the shelter, shivering and shaking.

Sarah noted that Mike, Don, Kevin and Emily were all sneezing by the the third break.

Waving Renee over Sarah looked around and leaned in.

"We don't have much time. Don looks like he's going to collapse any second and now Emily is sneezing and coughing," Sarah said.

Renee nodded. "How many blocks?"

"Four till we take a left."

"So, eight block total," Renee said.

Sarah suddenly reached out and put her hand on Renee's arm and gently pushed her to the side.

"What?" Renee said.

"Curtains," Sarah said. She moved forward and grabbed the curtains. "Heavy 1960's curtains."