“Wake up!” I was still shouting

I had the feeling something was chasing me

Ready to continue the fiction adventure into the original novel, “Senseless”?

These were yesterday’s words… or you can go back to the beginning here.

Thank you for being willing to go off on a new and unexpected journey and for gifting me this recovery time!

And hopefully you enjoy the special glimpse at a book I otherwise never would have shared?

I will return to my normal style of essayist writing and real time rambles and Every Weekday Promises but…

Maybe this is an experiment worth taking?

Please share. Consider supporting an independent writer. And let me know if you wish you could turn the page (fingers crossed, but I’m not editing this to perfection before sharing… I’m just willing myself to be vulnerable and share in all its imperfection).

See you tomorrow for more!

SIX 1/2

I had the feeling something was chasing me but simultaneously knew nothing was.

I didn’t look to see. But there was a breach, definitely. Maybe through the old security office. Sergeant Doughnut’s. Anywhere really. Someone was inside.

“Wake up!” I was still shouting, not for the students but the staff. Only one adult had been sleeping downstairs consistently, and that was Dr. Zayid. She would hear me.

I nearly slid passed the opening to PJ’s room- what used to be my office- and grabbed the handle to shift my momentum inside. In an instant, it occurred to me that I didn’t have my gloves on at all.

“PJ, wake up,” I said as calmly as I could, “Get up now.”

PJ was visually impaired and medically fragile, but could hear as well as anyone. It was no surprise to me that she was already standing in the middle of the room, holding her feed bag in one arm, and gripping a bear with another.

“I’m going to need you to follow me, okay?” I said, unable to contain the mania in my voice. She stood motionless, her eyes wide, shaking.

I took one step closer to her so we were inches apart, longing to absorb her terror. She’d heard the sounds, she knew the shooting; paralyzed in place. I know I shouldn’t use the term paralyzed or crippled any more in daily vernacular, but when you’re talking about someone’s partially paralyzed body during an end days pandemic… you sort of don’t give a shit any more.

“I know you’re scared PJ,” I said, softer now, feeling palpitations between us, hoping I could propel her forward with the sheer intensity of my need. There was something wet under my feet, soaking through the toe of my socks.

PJ had peed herself.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” I said, “But you have to follow me and you have to follow me now.”

I took a step backwards and repeated myself a few more times. The feeling of the world caving in around us was mounting. Crushing. Who was there? Who was coming?

“PJ!” I said one last time… and she moved. She started inching slowly forwards as I inched backwards, leading off the sound of my voice. I could not touch her. I didn’t need to remind her where her cane was, of course. She reached out with perfect precision and grabbed it from its keep askew the door, and then… we were moving.

Through the hallway and further still towards Audiology. The darkness was overwhelming but I knew something was near. I could feel it. The sounds, the sense. The voices were multiplied, many… closer.

“What’s happening?”

Dr Z was there. She was holding the door to Monica’s new room open as if by invisible force; gesturing inside for us to hurry without touching anything at all. “Hurry fast!”

We did. PJ was just behind me, the click of her white-stick as comforting as if she were holding my hand. She was still holding the stuffed bear and her bag; walking faster than I’d ever seen before.

Some of our blind kids used to be able to run down these halls just from spatial knowing alone. They’d get in trouble for riling up the younger class or egging one another on; normally our Senior boys, to be specific. They were gone now and it was just the woman in front of me and the one behind; she’d never been very fast.

“Get inside,” Z was saying, “Get inside!”

We pressed through the door as quickly as we could, careful to not touch one another but also not really caring. This wasn’t an unseen force any more… this was something different.

I glanced behind me one last chance hoping to see the others- Hux or Janette, even Sunaura – but all I see is something I never thought I’d see.

Flames. Flames of light at the end, far away. Flames of light and movement. Carrying. Carrying flames of light in our direction.

The electricity was no longer working, but the main hallway was suddenly ablaze with light.

Then, an electric crack and bullet of force and something slicing by my face.

Dr Z pulled me back by the ends of my hair and slammed the door closed behind us, the room enveloped with dark; gunshot inches from where my face had been.

Continued Tomorrow. The last day of sharing this novel (so far)!

** Thumbnail Art Credit: Unknown**