Silence is suspicious.

Cat sat in her car drumming her fingers on the well-worn steering wheel in front of her as her travel coffee steamed in the black and silver mug just to the side of it. She was early, not ridiculously so but early enough to give herself time to think alone in her car parked outside the secondary school and she didn’t like being alone with her thoughts. Pulling out the keys, grabbing her bag and cup then strolling across to the entrance would be so easy, it’s what she did everyday but today there was a queasy feeling in her stomach that gave her pause for thought.

I should go in, I should really just go in and drink my coffee early Cat thought, she moved her hands momentarily off the steering wheel and reached for her car keys. Her hand hovered over them as she wrestled with the churning feeling in her stomach. Looking out of the windscreen she couldn’t see any differences between that day of the 200 previous days that she had gone into the same school, the building stood reflecting the grey sky in its glass windows. No rain fell, the wind wasn’t whipping witches past her car there was just a sky encased in clouds overhead.

Cat placed her hands on the keys then slowly moved them up to where the coffee was resting. It was still early, just because she was there wasn’t a reason for going in straight away, she reasoned. The familiarity of bitter and sweet flavours in her mouth distracted her from the feeling that something wasn’t right that was squirming around her insides. She cradled the coffee in one hand whilst thinking about what that day might bring, crowds of children moving in swarms, writing notes for children who needed a little extra help, locating those that got lost in the scrum, reminding some of expectations. Taking another swig of coffee followed by a big breath she grabbed her things then shuffled out of her tired old car. The cold air enclosed her in a firm grip making her hurry to lock up the door and scurry across the car park to the glass entrance doors before stopping to get her work pass out of her pocket to swipe on the panel at the side of the building.

As she riffled through her left pocket, she couldn’t find that familiar plastic rectangle amongst the tissues and chocolate bar wrappers so, she decided to try her right pocket only to find fluff. When she became aware that it wasn’t in those first two pockets, she started patting down her other pockets to no avail before putting her bag in front of her then feeling through it, then looking through it. Once she looked through it a few times with her stomach churning once more and anxiety rising, she tipped the bag on to the floor and with a big sigh realised the pass just wasn’t there.

Her eyes started to prickle, and she felt herself flushing whilst she hurriedly stuffed the contents of her bag back in their rightful places. With another sigh she covered her face with her hands then ran them back through her hair before turning to look back at her car, there was the pass dangling from the door of the car. Cat groaned, left her bag on the floor then went to unlock the door and free the errant pass, as she put her key in the door she stopped again and looked around. Something wasn’t right, there was only one other car in the car park and none on the road. It was quiet. Why was it so quiet? Normally there would be more cars on the road and the chatter of people walking together down the streets, this morning that was missing , it made her feel uneasy.

There was that feeling in her gut again telling her that something was wrong, but what exactly was it? Cat closed her eyes and counted to ten, then took a deep breath and turned the key to open the door and get her the pass for the building. As the pass tumbled to the ground, she noticed her phone where it too had fallen out of her pocket and into the gap next to her seat, she reached out then plucked it from the dusty gap where it was wedged and smiled to herself at the luck of finding it now rather than after searching through her bag for it in a break later. She slid it back into her coat pocket and fastened the button in the flap over it in a bid to prevent it escaping this time. Then Cat took the pass and hung it around her neck like a medal at the end of a race turning to once more lock the car, with her hand on the door she decided to take one last look for any other stray objects, maybe there would be a pen or water bottle rolling around, no there was just a loose banana sat in the passenger side footwell. Second time lucky, this time she locked it and strode purposefully to her abandoned bag and now cooling coffee mug.

Scooping up her belongings she approached the entrance panel, pressed her pass to the panel and waited for the familiar green light and click of the door demagnetising. This time however there was no green light, instead it was red, Cat frowned as her stomach churned once more so, she tried rubbing the pass on her coat in case that was the problem. Another try but once more there was no luck, just a dim red light and a locked door. She tried turning it around, swiping it and hitting the sensor but none of that worked either. Dropping the pass, she approached the doors to look into the entrance to try and get the receptionist’s attention only to see that the reception itself was deserted. That didn’t seem right there were normally at least two people in there, often more when the cleaners and heads of departments popped down, something wasn’t right. She slurped some more coffee whilst waiting to see if maybe they had gone to the back of the office where she couldn’t see them but by the bottom of her coffee cup, she realised that wasn’t the case. Janet wasn’t making teas and Elaine wasn’t photocopying letters for students, they just weren’t there.

Turning back to the carpark she looked once more at the empty spaces, if the school was shut why were the gates open? Cat wondered as she leaned on the glass door, then she looked again at the one car in the car park that wasn’t hers. Her stomach gurgled at her, shouldn’t have drank the coffee so fast, it was another old car like hers black with a couple of small dints and scratches on the sides. It was there everyday, and she barely noticed it but normally it was in different spots, some days it was near the door, on others it was nearer the exit; however, today it was in exactly the same place as it was when she left yesterday afternoon. 

She felt a sharp pain in her stomach but shook her head and approached the battered black car something about it wasn’t adding up.  As Cat got near to it, she was that there was someone in it, “hello” she shouted with an awkward wave of the hand but there was no response, she frowned and walked up to the driver’s window.

Cat gasped as she saw the colourless face of the man sat slouched over the steering wheel. He was still wearing the dark blue overalls he had on the day before, his hands were dangling at his sides and a trail of dried blood traced its way down from the space where his ear should have been to his shoulder. At first, she took a step back, but she was unsure of what exactly had happened she decided to see if the man was alright, Cat stepped up to the car and tapped on the glass. There was no answer so, she reached for the door handle and pulled, that was when he turned slowly unpeeling himself from the steering wheel to face her. There were no pupils in those eyes, no coloured irises, nothing but white eyes staring at her, his grey skin and open mouth showed her all she needed to know as she stumbled backwards towards her own car.

Her heart was racing, as he lurched after her she turned and ran, stopping only to vomit next to her car, fumble with her keys, then reverse into the former caretaker as she made her escape. On the drive home Cat shakily turned on the radio “…warning, warning, this is an emergency announcement. Do not and I repeat do not leave the house, there are people on the streets with an unusual and high dangerous infection. Stay in your houses, provisions will be brought to you, do not leave for any reason, this is not a drill…” She drove the rest of the way home in a state of shock, maybe I shouldn’t have got out of my car afterall.