Matt drove slowly through town, weaving carefully through traffic. It seemed everyone else had had the same idea as her. She could see people rushing in and out of stores, stocking up on bottles of water, non perishable food items and so much more. 

She had most of those things already at the school. But it wouldn't hurt to get more. She wasn't sure if she wanted to risk leaving the van out in the open though, especially here in the center city where there was much more going on that on the outskirts. 

So she decided she'd drive to the house furthest away first and make her way back into the city towards the school, figuring maybe there'd be less busy stores.

It turned out, that she didn't need the stores. Because the first house she got to, both parents were, as she feared, dead. 

Her student, a sweet little four year old girl who's name was Jaye was sitting in front of the tv with a bag of cookies open on her lap.

" Hi Jaye," Matt said quietly, " where are your mum and dad?"

" They're still sleeping," Jaye said, " they wouldn't wake up. I think they must be really tired."

" Have you been awake for a really long time?" Matt asked and Jaye nodded.

" I watched a lot of tv. Are you here to take me to school?" she asked.

" Yes," Matt said, " come on, why don't you go get dressed, or at least pick some clothes out from your room while I go check on your mum and dad ok?"

Jaye nodded, scampering off the couch and heading to her room. 

Matt pulled a pair of gloves and mask out of her backpack, slid them on and then went to check on Jaye's parents, already fearing the worst. Her fears were warranted. The bodies were already starting to cool down and stiffen. 

" ," Matt hissed. She'd kind of expected it of course when Jaye had said she hadn't been able to wake them up, but it still wasn't easy to take in. " Get it together Matt," she hissed to herself, " you don't have time to feel sorry for yourself, your not the one who's parentsare laying dead here." And then she realised that she'd have to tell Jaye something, and she couldn't help but curse all over again. 

She made the decision to be upfront with Jaye though, and once she'd covered both her parents up with a sheet, Matt went to seek Jaye out.

She found her just finished getting dressed, trying to figure out which shoe went on which foot.

" Is this right Miss Matt?" she asked, pointing down to her feet and Matt smiled.

" Yeah, good job getting dressed all by yourself Jaye," Matt hesitated for a second then took a deep breath and said, " Jaye, sweetheart. Listen, I need to tell you something really important. It might make you sad, or angry, or confused, or you might not even really understand it or feel anything and all of those things are ok. But it's important I tell you. Are yoi ready?"

" Uh huh"

Matt took a deep breath as she sat down next to Jaye, " Sweetheart you know how you said your mum and dad wouldn't wake up ?"

" Yes."

" Sweetheart, it's not because they're really tired. It's because mummy and daddy are dead sweetheart. They were sick, and sometimes when we get sick our bodies stop working, and that's what happened to your mummy and daddy while you guys were sleeping."

" They're dead? Forever?" Jaye asked.

" Yes sweetheart, forever. I'm sorry because I know how much you love your mummy and daddy."

" But  I don't want them to be dead," Jaye whispered.

" I know sweetheart, I know. I don't want them to be dead either. But sometimes people get sick, and remember how we taked about germs?"

" That we can get each others germs and get sick?" Jaye asked.

" Mhmm, just like that. Well, the germs that made your mum and dad sick are really bad, and really easy to catch. I don't want you to catch them, and I don't want you to die either, that would really make me sad. So I'm gonna take you with me ok? We're gonna go to everyone's house and if their mummy and daddy are dead like yours then I'm gonna bring them to school so I can try and keep you guys safe, because I'm pretty sure that's what your parents would want. Ok? I promise we can talk about this some more once we get to school, but I want to get you safe so we have to go."

" Can I say bye to mummy and daddy,"

" Oh sweetheart," Matt sighed, " they still have those germs. How about I let you say bye to them from the a little bit of a distance, you can't touch them, because I'm scared you could get sick too,"

" Ok"

So Matt took Jaye to her parents bedroom, and let her say goodbye from a distance. Just in case someone came looking for Jaye, Matt left a note on the table with the schools address and Jaye's name. 

" We didn't take my lunch," Jaye said just as they were about to walk out of the door and Matt was hit with the brilliant if possibly criminal idea that if she couldn't get what she needed from the stores, maybe she could stock up in the homes of the kids she took with her.

So she raided the pantry, and the rest of the house,grabbing what she felt they'd need then loaded it up into the van. 

By the end of the day Matt had three of her students with her.  In some cases, the children were already dead when she got to the house, in others, one or other of the parents had already made the decision that they were leaving town, and in some cases a relative had already arrived to check on the families.

" I got worried when no one picked up the phone," one grandfather said, " my wife made me drive right out here."

" Do you live close?" Matt had asked him.

" No, we actually live out in Galtod, I drove through the night to get here."

" You should probably head back now then," Matt said," they've put us on a curfew and you want to be out of here before it goes in effect."

" I will. Do you need help with anything before I go?" he asked and Matt shook her head. They parted ways and Matt got the feeling that that was probably the last time she would ever see any of that family.

The last house she got to on her way back into the city, she made itthere about an hour before curfew wasset to go into effect.

She found the fourth student sitting on the front steps with a backpack slung over his shoulders.

" Hey Baek what are you doing sitting out here on the steps?" she asked him.

" Hi Ms. Matt, I'm waiting for Nini" he said.

" Nini?Oh your brother. Is he the one that goes to college?" she asked.

" Yes. I called him this morning on mums phone and he said he was gonna come and get me. He told me to pack a bag and wait for him."

" Where is your mum?"Matt asked her.

" I think they're dead," Baekhyun answered, " they were sick last night and now they're not waking up. Her and daddy both, that's why I called Nini."

Baekhyun had always been one of her smarter kids, so she wasn't too surprised that he'd put it together so fast, or that he'd even thought to call his older brother.

Matt looked down at her own phone, it was almost curfew time. She didn't want to risk leaving Baekhyun alone after curfew went down. She honestly didn't know how safe it would be.

" Do you know your brothers number?" she asked Baekhyun and Baekhyun shook his head.

Mum and Dad showed me how to find itin their phones, but mums phone died and I don't know where the charger is so I can't call her back."

" Do you still have the phone?" Matt asked and Baekhyun nodded, pulling it out of his backpack.

" Baekhyun do you know what a curfew is?" she asked him.Baekhyun shook his head.

" It's when the people in charge say that after a certain time of the day every one has to be indoors. The people in charge of this city have given us a curfew, so after 6 o clock we all have to be inside. It's almost 6 o clock and I don't want to leave you alone. I know your brother is gonna come looking for you, but if I get you to school with me, we can charge your phone and tell him you're with me. What do you think?"

Baekhyun pondered it for a minute then he nodded.

"Ok,"he said, " I don't want to be by myself when it get's dark. Can we leave Nini a note as well?"

Matt nodded," yeah, we can, and as soon as we get the phone charged we'll call him."

They left Nini a note,and Matt packed Baekhyun into the van with the three other children, then they drove back to school, making it there just in time to beat curfew.

It took a while to get the kids unpacked, get all the supplies she'd collected unloaded and then get Baekhyuns mums phone charged enough for Baekhyun to unlock it and call his brother.

Matt assured him she'd keep Baekhyun safe.

" I don't think you guys should try and get into the city," Matt said," they've got us on curfew and I don't know what the penalty is for breaking it. I promise you I'll keep him safe, and you can come find us as soon as curfew breaks."

"Ok, yeah.Thank you, thank you so much for keeping him safe," Jongin said.

" You don't have to thank me for that," she replied, " now you just stay safe so you can be here for him. He's going to need you."

She let Baekhyun say goodbye to his brother, then she took a deep breath and turned to her four charges.

" Alright guys," she said softly, " it's been a really long day, and I think we should all take a bath, get changed, have dinner and then get some sleep."

" Ok," the kids answered her in quiet voices, testament to how difficult a day it had been. She knew they'd have questions soon enough, but right now they were just tired and hungry and ready for sleep. Matt was tired. So she could only imagine how exhausted they were. 

She was also, if she was bing honest with herself , rather terrified. So terrified infact that the sudden ringing of the doorbell had her squealing in frightand clutching at . 

Her fright made the kids giggle at least.

" Stay here," she said to the kids," I'm going to see who that is."

She grabbed a torch on her way to the door, to use as a weapon, and peeked through the glass window on the door, sighing in relief when she recognised both police officers Sehun and Chanyeol.

" Hi," Chanyeol said, " we wanted to check on you. Are you ok?"

" Um, yeah," she said, " I have four kids with me. We just got back. Do you guys want to come in?"

Chanyeol and Sehun both did, and only as they came in did Matt notice the backpacks they were carrying.

" So," Chanyeol said, " because neither one of us likes the idea of you being alone with the kids we're wondering if you'd be ok with us staying?"

Matt blinked. " Oh, um, yeah. I think I'd actually like that. If you're sure,"

"We're sure," Sehun said," Chanyeols gonna bring this in and I'm just gonna go unload our other bags. Maybe once the kids are asleep we can talk more yeah?"

" Yeah ok, that sounds good. We were just about to go take baths then figure out dinner."

" Oooh baths!!" Chanyeol crowed," I love baths! Can I help?"

" He really does like baths," Sehun snorted," let him help. You look beat, why don't you take a minute to just breath whule Chanyeol helps with baths. But first, we should probably introduce ourselves to the kids."

The kids were pretty excited to have real police officers staying with them. It helped of course that Chanyeol seemed like a legitmate child whisperer,and soon had them all following him to go take their baths.

While they did that Sehun unloaded the rest of their bags, putting them in the staff room, in the closet because they contained weapons. 

And Matt, Matt finally just took it all in.let it finally hit her. All the death she'd seen, the stress and strain she'd had to sit on while trying to stay strong for the kids.

And when Sehun came out of the staff room he found Matt sitting on the bench by the library crying softly.

Sehun walked over quietly,sat down next to her and wrapped an arm gently around her shoulders.

Matt didn't think about whether it was awkward to be crying on a man you barely knew, she figured they'd crossed that line this morning when the plague set the world to hell.So she curled into Sehuns arms and just cried softly.

a/n: so a couple of things. 

1. I have a cold- the irony ( one of my preschoolers kindly informed me today after asking me if I was sick, that he did not want my germs.)

2. I'm in grad school for counseling psych, and I want to work with kids- anyway in my death and dying class we discussed talking about death with children, my professor said a good place to start is just to explain that the body stops working. I really liked that so I'm sharing.

3. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. 

Hugs

Scheherazade