School is in session!

Joseph Weis drove onto Carlos's property a little after 4 AM. With him were his two boys, and his wife Jane. Carlos was asleep, but was up instantly when Joe Weis beeped his horn. Within two minutes, he had thrown on some pants and rushed out with a gun at ready. The weapon was a survival carbine, a double-barreled gun comprised of a .22 rimfire barrel over a .410 shotgun. While Carlos easily met the qualifications of an "occupational shooter", he had repeatedly been declined, so he was not allowed to own repeating arms.

"What's this, then?" he said.

"Something bad is happening on the ranch," Weis said. "Adoni is dead: He rode in with a nasty leg wound, raving, then he shot himself. 20 minutes later, I saw... I saw somebody walking in from the wastes."

"Walk??!!" Carlos said. "It's a day's walkabout to anywhere through the waste! Even Adoni couldn't make it on foot during this season! Bloody 'ell, even dingos only come at night, which makes it all the worse for foot travel."

"I know what I saw," Weis said. "And more than that, I recognized him: It was Jeff Kettering."

"Kettering?! He's a decent rockhound, but he's nowhere near good enough to make that walkabout, and way too smart to try."

"Maybe his car broke down at dusk," Weis said. "It was hard enough to recognize him- he was so sunbaked he looked shellacked- but I'm sure it was him. And there's something else. You won't believe this but he- he moved almost like some zombie in a horror movie. But that's not quite right... He wasn't shambling: His walk was slow and- and stiff, and he swayed, but he didn't seem uncoordinated. I don't know how to describe it. It was like-"

Like a penguin walkin'?" Carlos said. He demonstrated.

"That's it! Exactly it!" Weis said. "Anyway, I went out to him. I thought he was in shock. I should have been more careful... Should have thought of the rabies going around. When I got to him, he bit me." He showed a wound just below his right shoulder. "I hit him, just on instinct... I killed him, when I didn't mean to. He fell straight back, and hit the back of his head on a rock. His head cracked wide open. Then I packed the family in the truck and came here."

"Did you talk to any of the neighbors?"

"I raised Hodgson to the south, but not Dowe. I couldn't reach station center either. The company hub must be down."

While they were speaking, Jane hustled the kids out of the car. "I'm going to the company hospital to get this looked at," Joseph said. "I want to leave Jane and the boys here."

"No!" Jane screeched. "We talked about this... You almost ran off the road twice already. I'm not letting you drive any further. The boys stay here. I drive you the rest of the way." After a brief but intense bout of shouting and tears, the kids were left on the driveway while their buckled in the cab.

"One last thing before you go," Carlos said. "You told me Adoni was raving before he died. What exactly did he say?"

"He said there was a new star in the sky. He tried to point it out to me, but I didn't see anything. He said it was the Devil awakened. Except, the name he used was Utjongon-"

"Utdjongon."

"He said it meant the end of the world. And he said-"

"-The dead walk the Earth," Carlos finished.

"Yes! Is that one of your myths?"

"Aye, it gets around some. It came from a northern tribe, probably extinct long since. It was their version of the apocalypse. Now, you be careful. If you should see any sign of trouble, turn right around." Joseph and Jane drove off, leaving Tommy in tears behind.

Colleen drove in just after 6:00, followed by a Phillipino mother named Esther and a teenager named Jonathan in their own vehicles. Between the three of them, they tranported 29 children, including 15 preschoolers and kindergarteners. Colleen explained, "There's been some kind of accident in the company center, and there was talk the bus was stuck in a garage. So, we decided to carpool."

"Did Joe and Jane make it in all right?" Carlos said

Colleen was puzzled. Esther explained, "My husband is the night watchman. He told me, nobody has come in since last night."

"And they weren't on the road?" Colleen shook her head.

Carlos frowned deeply. At that moment, he heard a motor start. Jonathan, who was driving a family van, was about to go back to pick up more. Carlos rushed to stop him. "Stay here, Jonny," he said. "I can get them in the Bus."

The Bus was a variant on an old but still widely used military vehicle nicknamed the Thing. The Thing as a car with huge tires (made to absorb shock in place of a suspension), and a body of bullet-proof ceramic, including a sloping rectangular fuel tank in front that gave it a slight but striking resemblance to a much older Volkswagen Thing. A Bus had the same base chassis, but the tank was oriented vertically and the body was taller and longer, approximating the shape of another VW vehicle. Carlos used it for field trips into the wilderness. Now, he hurriedly loaded several items of cargo, including a 40 L water tank, at least 4 boxes of carbine ammunition, a homemade flame thrower and a case of dynamite. "What are you doing?" Billy said.

"I'm going to the station," he said. Then he cracked a distinctly predatory smile. "I'm going to see if anyone is left to pick up. Jonny! Come here."

He led Jonny into his house. "You know computers, right, Jonny?" he said. He opened a desk drawer and took out a weathered tablet computer, equivalent to Adoni's but half again as heavy. "I could take this with me, but I think you may need it more than I do. I expect you know what this can do, as built. I modified to do a little more: Access the military satcom grid." Jonny gaped. "I know, against the law, trial in military court and all that. Trust me, I've done worse. At any rate, with the company hub down, this is our only means of long-distance communication in or outside. But first I want you to see if you can access short-range feeds from town center. There's a good chance they're bouncing off the IPCoPS satellites even if no one's listening.

"I have onboard equipment in the van that's linked directly to this tablet, including audio-video feed. I'll signal you if there's something important. Keep an eye on it while you're doing the other things I told you. Use headphones. And for the love of the Earth Mother, don't let the kids see the video feed!" While Jonny gaped in confusion and mounting fear, Carlos rushed out. He froze on the door step, in the midst of the preschoolers. "Aw, shh-Weet Mother!" he shouted.

In the direction of the station center, a thick column of smoke was rising into the sky.