Week 13: The Chaperone

Oh my God, I don’t know where to begin. First, Matthew is still alive and in a safe house in Jacksonville. A good safe house too, one converted from a prison. There is lots of military there and medical staff as well. Thank you God. Thank you so much. And thank you Maria for watching over him.

I spent so many days messed up on pain pills it took me a while to put it all together. But Mike is Caleb’s father. He was the chaperone on their band trip. He saw our message on the hotel door and that led him straight to West Palm Beach where he found me.

When my drug addled mind began to sober, I quickly told Mike about Caleb being holed up at the library. As the words flew out of my mouth a doubting voice inside my head told me to shut up. What if Caleb is not okay? What if the library has been compromised? But what choice did I have? I had to tell him about his son. He was overjoyed just as much as I was when he told me about Matthew.

My leg is still not fully healed and I am in no shape to travel, so it was decided that Mike should go get Caleb alone then come back for me. He set me up in an office building, gathered some food and water for me and even got me some ammo for my shotgun.

I gave Mike my map and circled the location of the library for him. He was so upbeat and anxious to leave, I felt I had to say something to him to prepare him for the possibility that Caleb might not be alright. I didn’t know how to go about it so I just started telling Mike about all the things I did to fortify the library and about all the supplies I had left Caleb with. That surely Caleb was fine and the zombie stampede passed him by unharmed, but…

That is when Mike cut me off. He told me that he was certain Caleb was fine. That he had taken good care of my son and that he was sure that I had done the same for his son.

“Everything is going to be alright” he said. Then with a big smile Mike pulled me up, hugged me and whispered in my ear. “For your sake it better be.”

With that he was gone, off to save his son.