Rachel went back into her house just long enough to grab a backpack from under her bed and stuff her purse in it. She was in her car and out on the street within minutes. The radio had been blaring an emergency broadcast signal when she started the car, saying something about people needing to gather at the local high school.<br/><br/>To hell with that! Rachel had to find some way to get to her mother. The streets were so deserted that she had an easy time of working her way towards the road that would lead out of city. She'd just turned the corner and saw the barricade in the road, as well as two police cars blocking the street and the officers standing and looking at her.<br/><br/>They were not going to let her through. Their faces showed no sense of pity, and finally they had lost their patience with her and 'escorted' her to the high school in one of the squad card. At least they had let her keep her backpack.<br/><br/>After being unceremoniously dumped at the front stairs and among the throng of other people, the cop car headed back to their post. More police were standing at the doors as they ushered people inside, then leading them to the school's lunch room.<br/><br/>It seemed Rachel was not the only one that was here unwillingly. Someone was causing a scuffle at the entrance to the big lunch room, yelling about his rights, and taking the police's attention long enough for her to slip away and take the stairs to the second floor.<br/><br/>After trying several locked doors, she finally found one that was unlocked and slipped inside. She shut the door gently behind her and frowned when she saw why it wasn't locked. Someone had busted the lock completely off.  The door was still able to shut, but Rachel left the lights off and moved to the farthest corner of the room before settling down.<br/><br/>She checked her cell, and it was still not working. The crank radio in her bag would be no use right now, not with the emergency broadcast on all the channels and not giving her any idea as to what was happening in town. Rachel took out her short range, hand held CB radio and turned it on. It took a time of tuning the dials, lowering the squelch and background noise.<br/><br/>She came across a conversation on channel four between what seemed to be a few truckers. She didn't speak to them, only listened to what they were saying. She was completely absorbed in the horror of it.<br/><br/>They were telling each other to not stop for anyone, especially if the person looked sick or hurt. One trucker was saying that a band of cannibals were running around, another trucker claimed that there must be a nearby maximum security mental institution that had been overrun and lost their patients. Some were claiming that it was aliens, others were arguing that it was terrorists.<br/><br/>Rachel turned off the CB and put it in her backpack. She should save the battery life. Besides, it didn't matter what it was out there. She knew that if it got in the school, there was going to be a lot of trouble for her.