Chapter Two:


"Wha's dat?" J.J. had whispered in a scared voice, as a car crashed in the background and sirens filled the air. An inhumane snarl mixed with a loud groan and another set of indistinguishable (but the voice behind it was somehow familiar) pained yells filled the air.

Juno had stopped pushing the two tots' in the swings, before looking intensely at the ten-foot-tall steel chain link fence obscured by dark navy-blue fabric (ensuring total privacy for the daycare to keep out pedophiles and people of interest, a.k.a. for the parents that had restraining orders against their baby daddies/mommies).

"I don't know," she muttered back, already deciding that it would be best to bring the kids back inside.

"Scare' 'Uno..." Abriehet whimpered tugging on her pant leg making her look down into the caramel-skinned toddler's big brown eyes.

She gently tugged on Abriehet's curled locks and assessed the rest of her Hearts. They all held similar expressions of fear and apprehension. "Are you guys scared?" she asked softly, pausing slightly to see their answering nods and quiet chorus' of agreement, "Alright I'm going to get you kids inside now, buddy up and hold hands, okay? We're going to go up the ramp now."

She quickly got Emma out of the red swing and on the ground before lifting Xiao-Chen out of the blue one and cocking him onto her hip. The Chinese toddler was a quiet soul but a mischievous one and he would just run around the play area if she put him down. Leaning to her side she grabbed Emma's hand before marching the toddlers up the ramp and to the back door. Even from the top of the ramp, she couldn't see over the fence and onto the back of the street and coming from personal experience Juno knew that those on the outside couldn't even see the back door from the ground level.

Mumbling under her breath in annoyance, Juno sighed when she realized that the block that was supposed to prop the door open wasn't in place. Ashley always forgot to place the block back in between going in and out of the building. Rolling her eyes, she held back a curse (young ears and all that) before letting go of Emma's hand and thumping on the door.

"Hey Ashley! You forgot to prop the door open! Let us in would you!?" she called as the toddlers behind her whimpered pitifully.

She leaned against the metal gate covering the emergency fire escape stairs to the rooms upstairs, they really served as the entrance and access area to the apartments above the daycare. Gunshots rang in the air behind the fence, making her jump in fright and the kids flinch before whining. She could hear muffled talking and panicked voices before the door quickly swung open to Ashley's alarmed expression.

"Get in!" she exclaimed pulling on Juno's arm as the gaggle of Hearts walked in behind her. Ashley shut the door quickly behind the last toddler, Salvador, to walk in. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." the twenty-seven-year-old muttered in frantic whispers.

"Watch your language." she scolded out of reflex, her heart pounding viciously in her chest, before putting Xiao-Chen down, "What's going on Ashley?"

The fake redhead glared at her, but her expression was manic, making fear crawl up Juno's spine, "The world's gone to shit that's what." she whispered furiously. They quickly walked into the two-year-old classroom where all of the other kids had been gathered onto the rug while Kathy and Marcy paced in front of the doors leading into the older kids' classroom.

"Did you see them?" Marcy gasped as soon as Juno had made her way to the front.

"See what?" she asked, dread clear in her voice.

"Those things!" Ashley snapped throwing her arms in the air in aggravation almost whacking her in the face.

"Watch it Ashley..." Kathy snapped, "Three minutes ago you didn't know what was happenin' either." the older woman turned to look at her in sympathy, but fear seemed to be the dominant emotion on her face. "Tha' infection tha' everyone's been goin' on about... it's not a hoax no-more."

She could hear her own pulsating heartbeat in ears, "What?" Juno whispered.

"I just saw someone eat somebody's face off!" Ashley whisper-shouted making some of the kiddies behind them playing with blocks look up in curiosity.

Eat?

"Ashley, you need to calm down." Kathy snapped at her, "I do not wan' these kids panickin' and cryin' on top of tryin' to deal with whatever the hell is happenin' outside." she whispered furiously.

Marcy was still pacing anxiously mumbling under her breath, "Blood... There was just so much blood... It was everywhere... the blood..."

The wailing of screams and sirens outside were like a symphony, coming from the lone police car on the island and what she assumed were terrified people, only emphasized the dire situation. Marcy was an unhealthy shade of white and her hands trembled, Kathy's eyes were filled with unshed tears and she was picking at her fake nails nervously. They weren't joking. Fuck.

"Eating?" she asked looking at Kathy, the only trustworthy co-worker she could rely on for the truth, her mind was fixated on what Ashley had exclaimed before, "As in a rabies inflicted person biting someone and attacking them or eating eating, like cannibal style?"

Kathy looked miserable, "I was in the lunchroom cleanin' up the mornin' snack, I heard a scream outside. Not a normal scream, it-it was a-a truly terrified. I looked up, peered through the cubby room and-" the blonde woman shook her head, "We saw Mr. Weber get taken down by one, only one at firs', he was screamin' and he kept askin' him- Mister Arnold tah stop... Before we knew it, the man was surrounded by three others all chowin' down on his entrails. He was still alive when they-they really started eatin' him..." the woman sounded dazed as she recounted the kind man's death.

Fuck.

Poor Mr. Weber is- was an elderly crossing guard that had been stationed out in front of the preschool for a couple of years now. He had a wife named Sylvia and grandbaby number three on the way. He didn't deserve to die in such a grotesque way. And Mr. Arnold? The man that was afraid of his own damn shadow? The man that was SO afraid of nuclear warfare breaking out that he had a "secret" bunker, eating someone alive? Hell no.

"What about the sirens? The police? Didn't they do anything?" she asked softly. Deputy Livington and Flagg were on post in the Brigade building this week.

Kathy shook her head, "They stopped for a moment, started shootin' at them... they jus' got up and kept on walkin' towards 'em, tryin' to attack- to eat 'em... got one of them- Flagg and started chowin' down on him as well. Tha's when the other still alive left and those things they just kept on walkin' towards where Livington had peeled off in his car... the worst part was when Mr. Webber- he got up again and he started eatin' the officer as well."

Shit.

What the fuck is going on?

"We saw a couple break a car window and drag out the driver before bitin' her too..." Ashley added, her tone uncharacteristically soft, her eyes brimming with unshed tears, before whispering even closer to her, "It was Mrs. Davis, Sammy and Penny's momma."

Juno spared a glance at the happy two-year-old girls playing in the corner with the brightly colored blocks. What even was their life? The whole thing sounded like the plot of a badly written horror story. Except that apparently it wasn't.

It was their life.

"Anyway... I pulled down the curtain on the front door jus' in case. Those things hadn't spotted us wit' all the commotion goin' on... and I really think tha' we don' want 'em to." Kathy continued, "Marcy and I made sure tha' all of the curtains were pulled down in the fron' classroom and then we brought everyone in 'ere after turnin' off all the lights in the front."

Juno shakily breathed out before nodding, "Okay, okay... they probably won't be able to break the windows like they did to the car. Ms. Bettina got them reinforced when that school shooting happened down in the high school." she mumbled to herself.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ashley asked.

"It means they're bulletproof." she snapped before nervously chewing on her bottom lip, "It would take at least three rounds to even begin to crack the glass..."

"Okay." Kathy mumbled, "Okay, so that mean we're safe inside?"

She nodded, "At least for now... It depends on how long we're going to be holed up in here."

"This can' last too long now, can it?" Marcy asked, "I mean, it's gotta be a isolated incident... Help is comin' right?"

Juno tugged on her shirt nervously, "I don't know."


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