Hailey

Several hours had passed before the adults had managed to clear  enough of the rubble out of the way for the kids to re-enter that miserable place. Every man and woman held the horrible knowledge that Anna - or what remained of her - lied somewhere beneath the ravaged ruins of the upper floor. What she had done to deserve this fate, they did not know. But now they had a body to deal with... and as if that wasn't enough, a dozen children to hide it from.

It was James who finally came to Hailey with a solemn declaration of Anna's death. But then, as he had delivered the information, he lowered his voice to a whisper. He was clearly flustered. Nothing in his behaviour hinted at anything else than simple self-conciousness, but when he looked at Hailey, she could see that he was dead serious.

"I know this sounds really bad, Hailey, really bad... but the only choice we have is to hide her. In the catacombs. Somewhere deep, so nobody will find her. But somewhere easily accessible, so we can retrieve her for... for her burial, later on. When the storm's gone."

Hailey was spent. Perhaps that was the only reason why she even responded. To mock nature.

"Look at them. They're crying. They know what's going on, or at least guess. What would hiding her accomplish? They already know..."

"It saves them from being forever scarred by the sight of their favorite caretaker - killed and torn apart under an avalanche of nails, broken glass and splinters. You don't want them to feel that pain. Who knows how wicked they'd turn out because of this."

"I understand if you're worried for the kids, hey really... but this won't solve anything. If they see her dead, well... it'll be a shock, for sure. But it could help them. I mean, they are going to find out the truth at some point. This isn't what we want to do, drag her into some dank hallway and leave her there to be... eaten by rats, or something."

"So we'll twiddle our thumbs until she starts to stink and then what?"

"Not then what. By then we'll all be safely upstairs and in the van. If it's still operating. Hell, James, do you even realize that we could be entirely cut off from the rest of the world right now? What does it matter whether we tell the kids or not?"

"Jeez! Calm down. It was just an idea."

Hailey bit back her bitter response. Wouldn't help to complicate matters even further.

"Yeah."

And that was the end of that.

'Each day we spend in this horrible place, something catastrophic happens. Everyone's getting more tired and more demoralized.' A pause. 'It's so hard realize that we're about to pull this through. The smell... everyone's tired and angry... her death. That storm's going to leave or we'll die.'

While she was lost in thought, a convenient bedroll stumbled across her way. Hailey couldn't hold back the combined forces of a massive headache and an exhausted body and so fled into the warm, soft confines of the sleeping bag. Soon the comforts of sleep took her over.

As more and more adults fell down in exhaustion, a slender figure huddled down behind an intact desk. She bit back her tears, but they came anyway. It was too much to take in, all that in one go. All this time her feelings had been bottled up inside her. Now all that built-up anger, frustration, sadness, torment, and confusion was released. That was when she saw the door. It was hanging ajar.

Author's Note

Woah! Finally done with this.

Reviews

[Nienor Niniel]

Good job maintaining the plot despite such a long break between chapters -- and setting up the next progression [so long as it doesn't take too long ;)].

[Mikael Malmberg]

Thanks. I think this wasn't the best I could conjure right now. But I am intrigued about the plot nevertheless.