Miss Grasshopper – Chapter Two

Miss Grasshopper – Chapter Two

Suzette wanted to cry. She could feel the tears coming, stinging her behind her eyes. It wasn’t a nice sensation, but… she felt like it was understandable, at the moment.

The nearest shelter to the school was… several blocks away, and it was a public shelter. The sort of place no one wanted to be caught in.

There might have been a few others dotted across the city, but those would be private, or owned by the corporation whose building they were hidden within. She wouldn’t have any more luck with those.

A hand pressed against her shoulder, and she almost jumped in fright. “Give me a minute,” Melanie said.

“What?” Suzette asked.

Then Melanie turned to some of the other teachers. They were very pointedly not looking at Sue. “Do you have extra magazines? There should be three per gun, right?”

“Are you serious?” the English teacher–his name escaped Suzette at the moment–asked.

“Very,” Melanie said. “And I wouldn’t mind an extra handgun either. Or a rifle. We split what we had already.”

The teachers seemed reluctant, but they weren’t bad people. Melanie was given one of their rifles, along with a few extra magazines, then an extra handgun and more magazines for that as well.

They slipped past Suzette, not meeting her eyes, not looking her way, but still… they knew she was there, otherwise they wouldn’t be going around her so much.

Sue took in a deep breath from her nose, and if it was a little sniffly, then that was on her.

“Hmm, where can we sit?” Melanie asked as she looked around.

Sue turned her way. She had a hand out towards Sue, with a rifle grabbed by its middle. Her purse, which was more of a satchel filled with toys and teaching supplies and a few knick-knacks, was hanging by her hip, filled to the brim with spare ammunition now.

“What are you doing?” Sue asked.

“Keeping a student safe,” Melanie said. She gave Sue a soft smile. “You’re an intern, which means you’re here to learn, which means that I’m your teacher, no? A good teacher doesn’t abandon a student, even if they’re a little troublesome.”

“No,” Sue said. “You can’t stay out here, it’s–“

“It’s fine,” Melanie said. “They’ll probably not make it this far, and we don’t need to stand out where it’ll be easy for them to get to us if they do make it here.” She pointed to the main school building, up at the upper floors.

“Oh, Miss Fizz, you… you don’t have to. You’re allowed to be in the shelter.”

Melanie shook her head and smiled. “Come on, we can talk! I’ve been meaning to have a good heart-to-heart with someone for a while. It’s good for the soul, you see.”

Suzette couldn’t decide if she should cry or laugh. Instead of either, she picked up the rifle and slung its strap over her shoulder. She was wearing sensible pants, with small pockets, so she had space to stuff a few magazines away.

They took a moment to sort through what they had. Seven magazines. Four for the two rifles, three for the two handguns. That wasn’t including those already in the guns themselves.

That was a decent amount of ammunition, Sue figured.

Melanie checked her gun’s chamber, then nodded. “Come on! We can talk along the way.”

“Where are we going?” Sue asked. She followed Melanie anyway, feeling rather small as she kept up.

“Upper floor, one down from the roof. I want a good view of the playground. If the aliens come sniffing at the shelter, then I want to be able to take a good shot at them.”

“Oh,” Sue replied. It made some sense, she supposed. She wasn’t sure how good of a shot she was, not with only a few hours at the range to show for it, but she’d give it a try. “You don’t have to,” she said again.

“I know,” Melanie replied without looking back. “But I’ll stay anyway.”

“Why?” Sue asked.