We Begin Again

Evacuation

With a man's dying scream ringing in their ears, the group rolled up to Ada's road, halted by a wire gate that wasn't there the night before. On a platform above the fences, two guards clad in military uniform stood at the approach of the two cars, training their weapons steadily on the vehicles.

"Out of the cars!" The officer shouted sternly "Now."

"Dad?" Layla's voice trembled from where she was curled into Ada's side. The older girl caught Peter's eye in the cars mirror, searching for reassurance.

"Do what he says girls." Peter spoke evenly as he slowly got out of the car, beckoning for Vincent and his family to follow suit. "But stay behind me."
"Sir! We have people!" The other officer called behind him as the group approached the gate apprehensively.

"Infected?" A disembodied voice returned from somewhere behind the safety of the fence.

"No, sir." The first officer replied. "Just people."
With that, the chains began to rattle and the heavy gate was pulled aside, revealing the stern looking Sargent flanked by two younger, nervous looking troops.

"Good morning, I'm Lieutenant Andrews. And these are my Cadets, Officers Thomas as Stewart." The Lieutenant announced, and the younger men nodded at their introduction. Ada noted that these men, these boys, didn't look too much older than herself and she quietly wondered if either of them had families they would rather be with at this moment. But instead they were here. Dressed in their uniform and stood to attention, ready to help. Prepared to help. How long had they known the world was falling apart? How long had they had these measures on stand by?  "Glad to see you people made it to one of our evacuation points."

"Thank you." Peter spoke first, pulling his daughter into one side and keeping a firm grip around Ada's shoulders. "Are we too late? Have the evacuations happened already?"

The street around them, usually lined with parked cars, was desolate. And the usual hum of life that accompanied a Saturday morning was gone, replaced with an eerie silence.  Ada craned her neck, trying to spot her parent's car.

"No, sir. We've been carrying out evacuations all through the night and plan to carry out more through the course of today." Andrews stated calmly. "We will get you all registered and assign you an empty house to use while we wait for the next evacuation. Just need you to fill out a form for each of your families- won't take you long- we need your names, date of births, and registered addresses."

The officers handed Peter and Vincent clipboards for them to scratch down their families details. After a few moments Peter paused.

"Officers? I'm sorry, I don't mean to complicate things, but this one-" Peter clapped Ada on the shoulder, "isn't actually mine. Her family is- well should be- in there. I'm just looking after her until I get her home. Does she need to fill out her own form or should I put her details on mine?"

"What's your name, miss?" Thomas- the youngest looking of the three officers- asked as he began flipping through the stack of already filled out forms he was holding.

"Adeline Reid." She answered before pointing beyond the fence to her house where she prayed her family would still be waiting for her. "I live at Number 9."

"Daniel and Helen Reid are your parents, yes?" He asked, reading off one of the papers, and Ada nodded. "Yes, we have your details down already so no need to fill out another form."

"Did they- Are they still here?" Ada asked apprehensively, picking at her nails as she spoke. If The Square was being used as an evacuation point and their houses assigned to strangers, there was every possibility that her family had been moved on- already sent off to safety without her.