When I was in middle school, or the Compound's equivalent, we took a field trip to the livestock fields. We did this once a year to see the new animals being born in the spring and help out with the shearing, milking, and tagging of the large animals. The compound raised its own sheep, cows, and chickens. I always liked the sheep, because they reminded me of clouds.
I would learn on this particular trip that sheep have a pack mentality. They go everywhere together in a huddle. They eat in a huddle, sleep in a huddle, run in a huddle. We hardly ever found sheep that had left their flock. If we found one, it was probably lame or injured, and it would be killed early in its life.
These trips would sometimes last late into the night, because there were so many animals and so few students. This night, I had been sent to get a certain sheep for shearing. It was past nightfall; the sheep were huddled up to sleep. When the alarm sounded, I froze. The alarm meant that there was a horde coming towards the compound, and we were all supposed to get indoors.
The sound woke the sheep up. From where I stood, motionless, I watched the sheep lift their heads, looking around in confusion. Then, they all started running. The sound was louder than the alarm. I watched in shock and awe. I had never seen such perfect harmony, and at the time, I thought I never would again.
As I am staring in shock today, that awesome feeling comes back. I watch, again motionless, as everyone erupts into movement, grabbing their things and running towards the back. There's a door back there, I know, because Isaac's been helping build a new one.
"Isaac, let's go," I say, grabbing him by the jacket sleeve and pulling him towards our stuff. Isaac grabs our backpacks, and I throw one sleeping bag over each shoulder. The crowd of people moves towards the backdoor, and so we follow, becoming one with the flock.
"Stop! Stop!"
Someone ahead of us is yelling, and the rest of the group is echoing. I stand up on my tip toes, looking over the crowd.
Tall flames stretch from floor to ceiling, kissing the newly remodeled door frame. The wood is kindle for the red destruction. Isaac pulls me in the other direction, back towards the front.
As we watch, two men throw lit matches at the front door, the gasoline they have poured coming to life in less than a second.
Already, the smoke is suffocating. It is rising towards the ceiling in thick billows, coming now from our left and right.
That's when the flock loses control. Around me, I hear crying, screaming, confusion and stampeding. The fire has started to climb the walls, sending its arms up towards the freedom of the sky.
"Isaac, let's go!" I shout, pulling my shirt up and over my mouth. Isaac just nods, and we jog away from the flaming front door.
"Jaelyn! Isaac!"
I follow the voice to the looming shape of Stephen, carrying what looks like a sack of potatoes on his shoulder.
"This way!"
He is running now, the shape of the sack on his back jostling. As we jog to catch up, I notice it's Jackson, red faced with his eyes closed. Stephen leads us through the store, dodging bits of the ceiling that have began to rain on us. He gradually slows down, panting and coughing.
In front of him, I see a large, jagged hole in a part of the wall that has been patched. It looks man made, like Stephen might have just ran into the wall to make it. He ducks through it, disappearing into the light.
I shove Isaac ahead of me, and he runs into the fresh air outside.
I, on the other hand, turn around and run the other direction. My brain is moving quickly, for once, thinking ahead. If we are going to be outside, we are going to need food, first aid supplies, shelter. I didn't see anyone grabbing more than they needed to.
I sprint back to the supply area, shoving cans of food into my sleeping bag. When it's too heavy for me to carry, I drag it, over to the medicine aisle. I shovel in one of everything I can find, and then hurry back to the door. The floor sways under my feet. My eyes water, and as time passes, it gets harder to breathe. The path in front of me is replaced by thick black smoke. I can only hope I'm heading in the right direction.
Light breaks through in front of me, fighting its way through the smoke. I take a dive through the hole, landing on the soft grass on my stomach. There are hands all around me, lifting the bag away, lifting me up. I still can't see, blinking rapidly as I try to clear my vision. Panic sinks in.
"Jay, stop fighting me," Isaac says, jerking my wrists away from where I've grabbed ahold of his shirt in an effort to fight back.
I look up at his gray streaked face, the white bits of debri stuck in his hair.
"Sorry," I whisper, letting him stand me up on my feet. "Is everyone here?"
"No, not everyone," he answers, brushing me off.
"Who isn't--"
A great rumbling comes from the building behind me. Isaac yanks me forwards, into his chest, as the entire roof collapses, sending more debri and dust flying towards us. I cover my face with a hand, holding my breath.
I swallow hard against the knot I feel in my throat. The thought of looking around scares me, because I know we didn't all make it out.
"Roll call!"
That's Ollie's voice, shaky but loud over the intense quiet of the crowd.
"Isaac and Jaelyn," Isaac says, sighing.
We listen as fifteen people say their names. In my head, though, I list the names I don't hear. Some of them I worked with over the past two days, and some I never talked to. One stands out like a sore thumb.
Justin didn't make it out.
I search through the crowd for Clare, finding her standing close to Ollie, her head hanging low. Her eyes are red, but who knows if it's from crying or the smoke. It is unclear what her and Justin were, but they seemed close to me.
Mandy has Belle sitting on the ground. She is picking stuff from her pigtails. Stephen is patting Jackson on the cheeks as the boy coughs dryly. The rest of the people are in clusters, checking each other over.
There were over fifty people living in the Al-Ma. More than half of us are dead.
"Jay, Isaac, go see if you can find your bikes," Ollie says as we walk over to join them.
"Why?" I ask, dropping my bag of food and medicine.
"Because you're leaving for the compound. Now. We have wasted enough time trying to plan something safe. You're just going to have to figure it out on the way," she says, kneeling down to go through the stuff. She doesn't look back up at us. "Take Stephen and Clare."
Does she really think the four of us have any chance against the entire compound force?
"I would send Mandy, but I need her here to help me keep everyone calm."
Isaac pulls on my elbow. I can't help but feel like she's sending us on a suicide mission.
"How will you know if we succeed?" I ask, taking a step towards Isaac. Ollie looks up then, smirking.
"I'll know if the world isn't upside down in five days," she says, nodding. She yells for Stephen, nodding to Clare. The blonde looks at me, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. Stephen wraps his tree trunk arms around Jackson, whispering something to him before standing up. I have never seen Jackson speak, but he smiles at his dad, giving him a military salute as he walks away.
"Go find your bikes," Ollie says again, patting Clare on the back, "I'm going to try and move everyone to another building or something. We can't stay out here like sitting ducks. Hartley may come back."
Without an argument, the four of us walk away, around the flames and still standing outer walls to where the front of the building used to be. I can only tell because the asphalt here has yellow and white lines all over it. Isaac and I had them parked out front on one of the shopping cart pens. That probably wasn't the smartest idea, in hindsight, but it had seemed very unlikely at the time that anyone would come this far after us.
The bikes are where we left them, leaning on one another.
"It doesn't matter that we found ours," Isaac says, untangling them, "There's four of us and two bikes."
The rest of us just sort of look at one another.
"Maybe we can raid one of the houses nearby?" I ask, biting my nails. Glancing around, I notice there aren't many houses nearby. There's a lot full of rectangular buildings made of metal, but they are falling apart.
"Maybe over there?"
Isaac points across the street, to some houses on a hill. They are nicer than the box homes, and they aren't falling apart so much. Stephen shrugs.
"It's possible," he mutters, jerking the mess of bikes away from Isaac. In one jerk, he pulls them apart, handing them back to Isaac. Isaac mutters a thanks, propping them up away from one another before following us across the parking lot towards the houses.
Suggesting these houses was a good decision. No one has to go inside or anything. When we get to the first house, there's two bikes sitting in the driveway, bright pink and matching. Clare laughs, playing with the pink streamers hanging from the handlebars.
"Seriously?" Stephen asks, holding the bigger bike up. It's not even up to his waist. "Is this a bike for ants? I won't make it across the mountain on this."
"You can have mine," Isaac says. He looks hurt, though, with his soft smile and lilting eyes. He loved that basket bike.
"Thanks, son."
We pick up our bikes from the parking lot and leave. If we go back, I'm afraid Stephen would never want to leave. His face is stiff, eyes looking straight ahead. The basket rattles as he peddles, the bag of stuff he always carries taking up most the it. Clare occasionally looks over her shoulder, shaking her head and then peddling faster, head low again.
Isaac and I are in the back, listening to the world around us. The birds on dead powerlines and telephone wires call out as we pass by. The wind whistles in our ears and hair.
Too late, I realize I didn't say goodbye to Mandy, but she never came and checked on me. I don't know which of those makes me more sad.
Author's Note: It has been brought to my attention that Jaelyn and Isaac's official couple name is Issay. We just wanted to let EVERYONE know.