Fred was a custodian. He had been a custodian for fifteen years. He started at eighteen and he was thirty-three now. Those fifteen years had been spent at the same elementary school cleaning up puke, spilled glitter, and spilled milk cartons. Most people would have hated his job, but Fred loved it. He loved his kids and he did his best to be there for them all. He was there when they got sick, he was there when they were embarrassed that they slipped in the cafeteria and dumped their tray, he was there when they just needed a roll of paper towels for their teacher. He made sure to tell the kids happy birthday, he asked after them when they had been sick, he tied shoes, played basketball, and did whatever he could to be something positive in their lives. He wanted to be the positive, male role model that he never had. He was determined to be the presence they needed.

Kids had been dropping at crazy rates for the past week. He had been cleaning up vomit quite often, even several nosebleeds that seemed to never stop. Whatever the illness was that was going around, Fred hadn’t seen the like, not in fifteen years of work or in all of his years as a student. He had gone to the staff meeting that morning and had been told by the principal that the superintendent was going to close down the schools starting that day when school let out. The teachers would have a day or two to get classes ready to be online. Fred would be at the school every day deep cleaning and making sure the teachers that were going to work from there had everything they needed. He was going to miss the kids, but he knew that being at home would be what was best for them.

At around noon, Fred got a panicked call over his radio to go to the boy’s bathroom on the fifth grade hall. When he got there, there was a knot of students and teachers surrounding the entrance. Someone inside was crying, calling a boy’s name repeatedly, telling him to hold on because an ambulance was coming. 

“Get out of the way, kids,” He told them gently, moving them out of the way. He saw blood smeared across the floor and wall. “Kids, go to class. Hurry up.”

The kids looked for another moment, but seeing the look on Fred’s face, they quickly ran into one of the classrooms. Fred went into the bathroom to find the teachers gathered around a boy on the floor. There was blood and vomit everywhere. 

“Fred, can you go to the classroom with the kids, help calm them down? Please!” The teacher sounded desperate. 

Fred nodded and grabbed some towels off his trolly he brought with him. “Here. These are clean and softer than paper towels. You can clean him up better.”

The custodian went to the classroom, not noticing he left a left shoe print of blood, fading as he walked to the classroom where all of the kids had gathered. The kids had moved all of the desks out of the way so most of them could sit down comfortably on the floor. Others sat on desktops and countertops. He was met with a hundred questions at once.

“Hey, hey. Calm down guys. It is all going to be okay. Tanner is sick, that’s all. He must have that virus that is going around. They called the ambulance. Everything is going to be okay,” Fred looked out the doorway down to the bathroom. About that time, the gurney and two paramedics came around the corner and went into the bathroom. 

An ear shattering scream echoed out of the bathroom, followed by several cries in shock and one in pure agony. There were yells of anger mixing in now as well. The kids in the classroom were beginning to panic. “Kids, stay in here!” Fred ordered, stepping out into the hallway. More shrieks and a tussle was heard from inside the bathroom. Then a stomach turning shriek came from elsewhere in the building, causing a chorus of shrieks to echo through the halls. 

Fred grabbed his keys and locked the door from the outside before running back inside the room. Over half the kids had run out the open back door. Inside there were about twenty students left. He ran to the back door, grabbing the handle and pulling it closed in a panic. “Pile desks up in front of the door!” He ordered the kids that were left.

In a panic, Fred and the few kids left began to throw anything they could against the doors, hoping that it would be enough to keep out what was making the screams in the hallway. 

“Stay away from the door and keep quiet,” Fred whispered, leading the kids behind the teacher’s desk. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get some stuff.”

The kids nodded, making themselves as small as possible to hide from anything that could be nearby. Fred had scared them with his yelling and strange instructions, but they heard the noises from the hallway and they knew that Fred wouldn’t let anything happen to them.

Fred scurried back over with an armload of lunch boxes and water bottles. “Let’s see about what kind of food we have. It can go in this fridge here,” He gave the minifridge that was under the table a little pat. He also took out his cell phone and handed it to one of the kids. “Pass it around and call your people. See if they have ways to come and get all of you. I want to get you kids out of here and somewhere safe.”

The first kid began to make his phone call, the others sorted food in lunchboxes, and creatures screamed, ran, shuffled, and moaned out in the hallway.