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."

"Probably full of asbestos," Renee said. She looked at the curtains that Sarah was busy pulling down. "Ugly too."

"But heavy," Sarah said. She held the two curtains out. "I'll grab all the curtains, make sure everyone wraps up in one. It'll be warmer than what we have now."

Renee nodded, taking the curtains and going back.

Lori took the first one gratefully, wrapping it around herself and the baby, which had fallen asleep now that it was out of the rain and wind. Mike nodded thankfully and sneezed when Renee handed him the second one.

Going back to the kitchen, Renee found curtains on the dining room table. The sliding glass door was cracked open but she didn't see Sarah. She went back, handed the first one to Tommy so she didn't have to hear him bitch, and the second one to Kevin, who was bent forward coughing.

When she went back to the kitchen there were wet curtains on the dining room table. She grabbed them and went back to the entryway hallway and handed them out.

Renee found curtains every time she walked back to the dining room, until the last time she heard the sliding glass doors shut and the slight breeze cut out.

Sarah was standing by the door, shivering and rubbing her arms, another set of curtains thrown on the dining room table.

"You shouldn't have gone out by yourself," Renee chided. "I should slap you silly."

Sarah nodded, her teeth chattering. "It's really bad out there," she said.

"There's worse things out there than the storm," Renee said. She nodded at the glass doors. "Kull the Monkey Killer is out there."

"No way," Sarah said. She picked up a curtain and wrapped it around herself. "Oh, it's warm even though it's wet."

"Why not?" Renee asked, following Sarah's example.

"Because he has a house with a tile roof, a blacksmith forge, and plenty of cut wood. He's probably sitting inside his nice warm house cooking a real meal," Sarah said. She looked around. "We're the primitives traveling through the ruins of an advanced society we don't understand."

"We'll figure something out," Renee said.

Sarah just nodded and headed back to where everyone else was grouped up by the door. She noticed that everyone was no longer shivering and nodded slightly, more to herself than anyone else.

"Only eight more blocks," she said, trying to sound upbeat.

That got groans.

"Why can't we stay here?" Tommy asked.

"Because there's no food," Raincloud said.

"You and Kevin, hell, Mike and Charlie can go get everyone food," Tommy said.

"Not in this storm," Raincloud said.

"Chicken?" Tommy said. "Bwak bwa..." he trailed off when Raincloud lifted a fist. "Don't you hit me."

"Enough," Renee snapped, stepping between the two of them.

Sarah pulled open the door, the wind almost knocking her down, instantly soaking her with rain. "Let's go," she yelled.

She led them down a block, over a block. Trying to stay out of the worst of the wind.

Finally, she could see the High School. The sign was empty, just a metal ring where there should have been the marquee backing. The school was single story, boarded up, with the markings spray painted on the plywood over the doors.

The first few doors they tried the plywood stubbornly stayed put. They slowly circled the building, the wind buffeting at them and the rain coming down so hard it was almost a solid wave of water. The windows were heavily boarded, providing no entry.

They moved between the football bleachers and the school when Charlie spotted it, yanking hard on the rope she held. When everyone turned to look at her she pointed at the school.

A single door was uncovered.

The group moved toward it, huddled together. The baby was crying, a pathetic snuffling wail of a miserable child who wants to be anywhere else.

"No way it's unlocked," Tommy said.

Charlie reached out, grabbed the handle, and pressed the button with her thumb. She felt it give slightly and pulled.

The door didn't budge.

She let off the thumb lever and then tried again.

It moved a little further before stopping.

She pulled again.

"I told you it wouldn't be unlocked," Tommy sneered. "Give it up."

Charlie tried once more, tapping on the button rapidly with her thumb. Each time the thumb lever moved a little easier. She could almost envision the rust falling off the internal mechanisms. Finally, she pushed down hard and pulled on the door.

It opened less than a foot before the wind grabbed it and yanked it out of her hand at the same time as Tommy slammed into her, the door hitting Charlie hard.

Charlie cried out in pain and cradled her wrist. Before she could do anything else, Tommy rushed in. The rope of tied shirts yanked tight, spilling Lori and Mike to the ground before Raincloud reached out, grabbed the rope, and yanked hard enough that Tommy landed on his ass.

The baby was wailing loudly as Lori rolled over.

"Hush, sweetie, hush," Lori said, wiping the baby's face. Lori could see a red scrape on the baby's forehead, the water coming down hard enough to wash the blood away before it could even get the water pink.

"You stupid asshole," Raincloud said,  stepping forward and kicking Tommy in the side.

"STOP!" Renee said, pulling herself free of the rope and getting in between Tommy and Raincloud. "There's time for that later."

"Get inside," Sarah yelled, her voice nearly lost in the crash of thunder.

Everyone shuffled in, Charlie bent over her arm. Mike leaned against the wall, clumsily untying his rope, bent forward and coughing at the same time. Kevin and Don leaned next to him, Kevin sneezing three times in rapid succession before starting to cough, Don just wheezing and clutching his chest, his face bright red.

"We all need to get someplace and get warm," Sarah said.

Charlie looked up, her eyes full of tears that were spilling down her cheeks, biting her lip. She nodded, holding onto her arm.

The baby had stopped screaming but was still snuffling and crying while Lori used her shirt to try to wipe away the blood, unaware of how high she'd pulled it up.

Tommy got up slowly. "One of these days I'm going to really hurt you," he said, glaring at Raincloud.

"Then you better come at me when I'm asleep," Raincloud said, his fists still clenched.

"Will you two stop it?" Renee snapped. Both of them turned to look at each other. "We get it, you two hate each other, but right now we've got bigger problems."

"Like what?" Emily asked. She was holding Richard's arm while he coughed.

Bree wiped her nose, straightening up. "Like getting warm."

"Exactly," Renee said. She looked around. "Where's Sarah?"

"She was right here a second ago," Richard said. "SARAH!"

"Don't yell," Renee snapped.

"Why not?" Richard asked. He was getting really tired of how Renee was acting like she had all the answers and was in charge.

"Because we don't know if anyone else is in here," Renee said softly. She motioned for everyone to follow her. "Come on, she couldn't have gotten far."

The group, huddled together, the baby making whining noises, followed Renee down the dark hallway. Now and then there were lightning strikes that lit up the classroom windows, which in turned lit up the door windows, lighting up the hallway, but for the most part they were moving through the building in the dark.

The short hallway led to a larger one that went left and right.

Renee looked down. There was a trail of water drops leading to the right. She motioned for everyone to follow her.

"Shh," she warned.

She could see where lightning was lighting up a trophy case up ahead, the light coming from what looked like the right side of an intersection. Her internal compass told her that to the right was the majority of the 'town' and the mountain.

The lights suddenly buzzed, flickered, and came on.

Everyone stopped.

"Who turned on the lights?" Tommy asked, looking around.

The walls were painted in 1970's Americana, the paint old, faded, cracked, peeled and chipped. There were old posters on the wall that looked like they belonged in a 1950's movie. Chairs were up ahead against one wall, on either side of an open door.

Sarah stepped out of the doorway, a ring of keys in her hand and a smile on her face. She saw everyone and held up a metal box with a big red cross on it.

"Found the nurse's office!" she called out.

"Did you turn on the lights?" Lori asked, her voice shaky.

"Yup. Office controls all of it except the furnace," she looked at where she had words written on her arm in black ink. "Room 334, Janitor's Maintenance Room, that's where the furnace should be."

"What about the food?" Emily asked.

"We could try the kitchen off the cafeteria or try to figure out where the fallout shelter is," Sarah said, moving up and stopping in front of Charlie. "Let me see your arm."

Charlie held it out and Sarah hissed. There was a blue line across her forearm, which was swollen up like a sausage casing. Charlie's wrist was purple and her thumb was bent wrong.

"I think it's broken," Charlie said softly, biting her lip afterwards.

"Looks like it," Sarah said.

"We should bunk down in the library," Mike suggested, then sneezed.

"Why the library?" Lori asked. The baby had dozed off again, the bloody scrape on her forehead already clotted up.

"Books will act as insulation, there will be chairs and usually carpet to muffle footsteps," Mike said. He shrugged. "At least, that's how my high school was," he pointed at the wall. "Plus, it's right in the middle of the school."

Sarah looked up from Charlie's wrist.

"Sounds good," she said. "We'll go to the library and figure out our next step."

Lori just nodded.

She had a bad feeling.