We stayed there all night, Zack bangin' on the doors. Pushed some desks up against the windows to keep them out then holed up the gymnasium with baseball bats and whatever else we could find to use as a weapon. We were scared, calling our parents and not being able to get through. Some were crying and some were saying that we had to get out there, that we had to warn people. That's when I stepped up.

How long did that take?

About an hour? Two? It was right before the first group go the big idea that they'd charge the doors and get out. We had no idea what we were dealing with.

And it didn't occur to you before that? To take control?

[Carter shakes his head] You have to remember man, we were kids. Adults were always supposed to come help us if things got too rough but we found ourselves reaching out and no one was there. We were alone and confused.

So what did you do?

I stopped 'em. I was still the president so I held a bit of authority I suppose. I told them that going out and attacking these things wasn't going to do anything but get us all killed. It was safer to stay and wait for the police or someone to come deal with it.

And was it? Safer?

Not a day goes by when I don't wonder that. At the time it was though. If we had gone out without a plan though, with no knowledge Zack, we would have been signing our own death certificates.

So you stayed.

[Nods] We ended up settling down in the auditorium with makeshift weapons and some food we found. It was lucky the cafeteria'd been stocked already for the first week of school or things might have been way worse. It was all we could do to wait for morning.

And what happened in the morning?

Nothing. There was the same collection of kids trying to get us all to leave and again I talked 'em down. We still had power and food and shelter so I said why waste it? Staying put and sittin' tight was the best we could do.

And the same thing happened the next day and the one after that. I kept us together, kept us all working so the terror at the back of our minds wouldn't take over. All that mattered was keeping moving forward and we lasted. For weeks we rationed out the cafeteria food and fortified the school and ran it like our own little town. We barely saw Zack for most of it, though we heard him pretty well. Every time he was spotted you'd drop what you were doing and head down into the auditorium where we'd wait it out. Nothing too exciting but it worked for us.

And you just waited? It never occurred to you to fight?

[Laughs] Oh man did it ever. We didn't have the luxuries the outside world did though. We didn't know what killed 'em, though we tried. Went up to the roof a few times and tried to pick off the ones below but that hardly worked because we didn't have guns. All we had were things we could salvage from the school and that lacked severely in long rang weaponry.

So what ended up getting you all out?

Ah, the eternal battle for salvation. After awhile, when our supplies had all but run out and we were pretty much living off of the vegetables and fungi we could grow in the biology labs garden, therumble of escape got louder. I usually tried to keep it low key but kids were talkin' about it, sayin' how they'd just go out and find their families and it'd be all okay. I never let it get so far as an actual plan, though, because I knew there wasn't one that could guarantee any degree of safety. That is until Jackson Lee figured it out one morning.

Jackson was this scrawny little freshman who badly wanted a spot on the council so he got invited along as sort of a test run. Would've ended up as freshman representative [smiles] if things had played out the way they should have. Anyways he was this real clever kid who was more curious than a cat with a paper bag and he spent a lot of time studyin' Zack, learned his behaviours and his mannerisms. It was him that first introduced the concept of headshots to us.

He rigged up these archery bows from the gym supply closet and sharpened the arrows so they were more of a cross bow. It worked, at least up on the roof, at pickin' off Z heads so long as you could take the time to aim. Time was all we had back there so really, Jackson offered us our first real means to defend ourselves. We could even go on the offensive if we wanted! That was when the talk of escape started getting too loud for me to block out any longer.

So you all just went?

Well no. We held a meeting y'know? I wasn't supreme leader and is was still to the best of our understanding we still were in America. We counted everyone who wanted to go and went to work makin' enough weapons to cover our backs.

So not everyone wanted to leave?

No, of course not. Seein' what had happened to Chris really spooked most of us and some wouldn't even go near the freakin' doors! Understandable of course, given the circumstances. We were divided nearly half and half. Started with the eighteen kids we had and ended up with seven to go and eleven who wanted to hang back.

And which party were you in?

Leavin'. I had a family out there, baby sister and momma and dad to check up on. I needed to know.

But you didn't try to convince others to come with you?

It was their choice, man. It was smart, given the circumstances. Why go out into the unknown when we could survive here? Why leave the relative safety we had for the unholy embrace of the z heads tryin' to knock down our door?

So who was in these two camps?

Of the seven of us goin' there was me, Jackson of course, two sisters and three sophomore guys who wanted out. Took us two days to prep and those two days were some of the tensest I'd ever had.

Really? Why?

Mili, man. She wouldn't go and we spent the whole last two days fightin' over which was the better course. She begged me not to leave, said she didn't want to lose me and I pleaded for her to come with me.

And in the end?

She stayed and I went. And, as the prewar poet Robert Frost said "That has made all the difference".