Chapter Five: First Look


The whole daycare was being filmed. There were cameras in every room, baring the bathrooms, and there were even five cameras stationed outside (three in the back, one in the front and one on the right side of the building). They were there for the parents really, Ms. Bettina gave the parents an option (for extra money of course) to view the inside of the preschool and watch over their kids from their computers or their phones. There were two big televisions in her boss's office that displayed the screens of the cameras. It would be their saving grace and metaphorical 'eye in the sky.'

Juno allowed a smile to bloom on her face, "We'll use the walkies in Ms. Bettina's office, first we'll check the security cameras to see if anything got in the back, though I doubt it, I'll let you guys know when I'm safe in my apartment. And, for the love of all that is good, don't contact me first! Wait for me to radio in, I don't want to attract any geeks."

Marcy was pale again, twisting her fingers nervously. "Then what?" Kathy asked.

"I need one of you to stay in Ms. Bettina's office. You can see all of the cameras in there and let me know if there is anything out there to be worried about. I need you to be my eyes."

"Okay." Kathy agreed, "Ashley you're gonna be the one to open and close the door. You gotta make sure tha' you're quiet about it and prompt."

"Me!?" Ashley squeaked nervously.

"Yes you!" Kathy snapped unrepentantly, "You'll have one of the walkies, leave it on you and do as I say when I tell you."

Juno awkwardly patted Ashley's arm, "Don't worry you'll be fine."

She snorted, "Sure I will, I have nothin' ta defend myself with."

Kathy rolled her eyes, "Grab the plastic baseball bat, if all goes accordin' to plan, you're not going to need a weapon anyway."

"But-"

"Marcy," Kathy spoke over the red-head, "I wan' ya to watch the kids, ring the bell and have 'em clean up, put on an episode of Barney... the sleepover one, shut the lights too, let's see if any of 'em get tired enough and fall asleep."

"That's a good idea," Juno agreed, "It might help us soften the blow that we might all be sleeping over in the preschool tonight."

From the looks dawning on the other women's faces, it was something that they hadn't thought of yet.

Marcy shakily breathed out, "Alright." she practically croaked.

Juno nodded as Marcy went back into the Heart's classroom and rang the bell, while they made their way into the closed office. The TVs were displaying the security cams as usual, although the content that they were displaying wasn't normal. Like Juno predicted, the geeks (her neighbors, bloody and torn and still fucking walking around even with their stomachs torn open and intestines hanging out in a gory fashion that absolutely didn't want to make her gag) hadn't gotten into the backyard, heck they hadn't even begun to wander off of Main Street. There were ten geeks in front of the preschool, but they were listless, walking around aimlessly. Some of the more oriented ones were peaking their heads inside of windows searching for their next victims. That was worrying.

"God look at 'em..." Ashley gasped, disgust and fear ringing in her voice.

Kathy's eyes were shut, and Juno could hear the woman offering a whispered prayer for Deputy Flagg. The poor officer's body (at least what was left of it) was completely mangled on the street, hell the only reason that Juno knew that it was him was because of the discarded bloody uniform.

She could still hear the siren coming from the Brigade building going off and the alarm of Mrs. Davis's car ringing annoyingly, so the sounds would only add to their cover. She internally thanked her father's persistence in running a 'tight ship' and imparting his work ethic onto her... she tended to oil the doors at the end of every week so that they wouldn't creak, the back door would be practically silent as would the metal gate covering the stairs. They could do this.

She smiled in relief before grabbing a walkie-talkie and adjusting the frequencies to the same level before attaching it to her pants. She was going to need her hands free until she was safe in her apartment. Juno quickly handed one to Ashley and Kathy snapping them out of their trance and back to reality.

"Okay, if we're going to do this we have to do it now. The alarms are still going off outside and that's only going to help with our cover... if we wait any longer, they might start roaming around and making it impossible for me to find them all."

Kathy nodded resolutely, "I'll be watchin'. You be careful now, you hear me."

Juno threw her a smug -fake- grin, "Careful is my middle name. In all seriousness though, I'll let you know if there are any complications. Remember only respond back if I tell you it's fine."

"But how will we know that?" Ashley asked nervously.

Running her thin fingers through her short brown locks, Juno locked gazes with the fidgeting woman, "I'll give you a code: 'all clear,' and that means you can talk back. But don't open the line of communication first, if you received the message but you got nothing to report say 'loud and clear.' You'll take turns talking, Kathy will always go first got it. When you're finished saying what you need to say just add: 'over' to the end of your sentence so that we know that you're done."

Ashley nodded as she gestured to herself and Kathy, "But what about when we need to talk to one another?"

Kathy grabbed two more walkies from their charging station, "Here Ashley, we'll set these up to frequency three and use these ones to only communicate with one another."

The Latina couldn't help but feel a twisting sort of pride for her co-worker's quick thinking. "Alright, this sounds good, before Ashley and I head on to the backroom, here." Juno pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and handed it to Kathy, "The ringer is on, if my brother calls tell him I'm okay but to call home the first chance he gets... and to call me back in half an hour."

The thirty-nine-year-old blonde nodded, "Okay. If he calls, I'll tell you after the all-clear."

"Good." Juno nodded, sparing one more glance at the TV screens, the image hadn't really changed. The fenced yard was still geek free and the majority of them were still on Main Street, she turned away and walked out of the office and back into the Heart's classroom, "Let's go Ashley."

The kids were all sitting and staring transfixed at the small TV while the purple and green dinosaur bounced merrily across the screen. The volume was on pretty low, but the kids didn't seem to really notice it, not that it would matter with all the doors and windows closed. The walls of the preschool were pretty soundproof after Mr. Arnold complained one too many times to the county police about the noise level of the preschoolers. As long as everything was closed, noise shouldn't be a problem, but that was why the opening and closing of the back door was important. While they would keep the sliding door of the backroom shut, it would be important to do it promptly so that any noise coming from the Hearts classroom would be masked by the sounds outside and their expediency.

Ashley nervously shuffled next to her as they slid the door closed behind them, "You ready?" she whispered. Juno nodded making sure that her keys were already in her hands and walkie firmly attached to her hip. Ashley lifted her personal walkie up, "Kathy we're ready, let us know when you're ready. Over."

"Nothing's changed. Feel free to make your way outside now, be careful. Over." she responded promptly.

"Heading out now, over." Juno responded with Ashley's walkie before standing by the door and waiting.

The woman grasped the doorknob and whispered good luck before turning its handle. The light from outside was blinding for a moment but Juno didn't let that distract her, as she quickly slipped out between the crack and maneuvered herself in front of the gate. She didn't even hear Ashley close the door the moment she was out of the preschool as she stealthily opened and shut the gate behind her and went up the three flights of stairs up to her apartment as quietly as possible. Juno opened the door of her apartment faster than she ever had before and locked it behind her.

Lifting her walkie up to her mouth Juno was quick to reassure her coworkers of her success, "Hey ladies all clear, I'm inside. How's it looking outside Kathy? Any change? Over."

Kathy's voice was relieved, "Thank god... Nothing's changed outside, the... geeks haven't noticed anything, they're still shambling about aimlessly. Over."

"I'm good here by the door. Over." Ashley added somewhat nervously.

"Alright, I'm gonna get my stuff now, give me about ten minutes of radio silence while I set everything up and get on the roof. The geeks won't be able to hear me from up there, but I'd like to play this on the safer side for now. Over."

"You got it, loud and clear. Over." Kathy responded immediately.

Ashely quickly added, "Loud and clear. Over." before the walkie was silent once more and Juno reattached it to her hip before rubbing her face languidly.

Finn and May were quick to shuffle up to her from wherever they had been hiding (they had most likely been sleeping her bed again, the furry butts), offering low whines and excited licks at her arrival. Juno allowed a small grin to stretch across her cheek before kneeling down and hugging her furry companions. Their calm and loving demeanor was like a balm on her soul. The two dogs had helped her move on and heal from a very dark period in her life, and even now that there were actual monsters walking on the earth... they could still bring her a sense of peace and clarity. She rubbed their soft heads semi-roughly (for some reason the pair were fans of tough love compromising of rough pats or rubs) before marching into her storage room.

She quickly fired up her military-grade radio and switched it on before double-checking that the frequency was on right, before striding across the room to the safe. She quickly spun the knob '3-15-28-42,' until she heard the mechanism click and the door swing open. It only took Juno a minute to decide which gun she was going to be using, before she was fixing the scope on top of her 22LR Ruger and double-checking that the silencer was in place. Juno roughly tugged on her cameo raincoat, since it had spacious and seemingly endless amounts of storage space, before stuffing a bunch of ammo in her pockets. Slinging the gun over her shoulder, after checking to make sure that the safety was off, she strode into the hallway and gated it off so her curious pups wouldn't follow her onto the roof. Juno had to stand on her damn tiptoes (fuck her pathetic height of five feet, it wasn't fair that José was a whopping five' seven to her sad elfin size) to reach the string on the ceiling and pull down the stairs to the rooftop.

Juno practically flew up the stairs and onto her roof. The sun was blinding as always but the moans and unique stench of the honest-to-god stumbling dead people were new. She peered over the four-foot concrete wall to look at the disaster that had befallen her small town with her own eyes. The geeks were disgusting, blood dripping from visible and unseen wounds, their mouths stained with the coppery life source of their victims. Their walk was distinct, like a waddle but not at the same time as they stumbled almost blindly after any sound even if it was made by one-another.

They didn't look human anymore.


Words 2138


(Beachgirl25: Thanks! I always love reading your reviews! You have the most interesting ideas! I'll definitely be checking out those videos on YouTube. Merle is going to end up playing a pretty important role in this story... sorry, but I don't think Michonne is going to be making an appearance for a long while. I already have a bunch of chapters pre-written so far, but they all have to be edited and reviewed before posting them.)

(Guest1: Si te puedo entender. Mi familia y yo somos de Venezuela, nos mudamos a los Estados Unidos cuando tenia cuatro anos, mientras el ingles es mi lenguaje preferida, si puedo hablar/escribir/leer espanol. Gracia por tu comentario, espero que te gusto este capitulo! Que haces para traducir este fanfi para espanol?)