History of the Trap: May Shadows Part 3

SYNOPSIS:  After being visited in prison by Morgan LaDona Tigh, Lance Martin has agreed to Dr. Duncan's request to detail what happened in the time that Lance is calling "the Trap."  Lance begins his journal by describing the morning before the trap fell, where we learn his father was the Principal of Loren High, that Lance is a Junior, and has a sister named Diane who is a sophomore.  After a couple hours at school that morning, where we see how different is relationship with Morgan is, we also meet Lance's best friend, Artie Pentler, and their gang. Just as Lance is ready to ask Ginny Estill out, the Trap falls, and they witness the horrible death of two P. E. students as they are caught in some kind of electrical storm.  The students soon realize, as April marches on, that the so-called storm is something more, and that they may be trapped at the school and it's grounds for a very long time.  As May starts up, a grizzly murder is discovered.  Mr. Franks, the substitute math teacher is found dead in a janitorial closet. The murder remains unsolved five days after the event, as Lance's father and staff struggle to come to grips with events.

3

Four days later, the murder of Mr. Franks still reverberated throughout the school.  But nobody seemed any closer to finding out who the killer or killers might have been.  Kevin Gellar had been interrogated by Vice-Principal Tate, and was ruled out as his alibi held up.  Unless he was very sneaky, he spent the entire evening and morning in Mr. Clark's class, which was one of the places used for makeshift sleeping quarters. 

The other boy, Jess Marlin, was never found.  Mr. Tate tried to find and interview people who knew him, but he was having trouble finding anyone who had anything more than superficial knowledge of his existence.  The fear was that he had been murdered like Mr. Franks was, but his body was put somewhere that was not yet found.  But why be so clever hiding Jess when Mr. Franks was so easily discovered?

My Dad held daily meetings in which events and future plans were discussed.  Often, student council members would sit in on those meetings, on a rotating basis.  I went to about one meeting a week, usually matched up with Wilbur Jones.  We attended the meeting the morning of the murder.  That's where I learned of the interrogation of Kevin Gellar and the missing status of Jess Marlin.

The next meeting I went to was the following Tuesday.  There were no new leads on the Franks murder, and you could see the frustrating toll it was taking on the adults that were in on that meeting.  The total count had dropped again, very slightly.  We were now at 1,169, down from April's 1,181.  There were two fatalities, Mr. Franks and a girl, Debbie Shoemaker, who was found with her wrists slashed in the girl's whirlpool tub and was presumed a suicide.  But the other 10 were like Jess Marlin, simply disappeared from the count.

There was a decision made not to make the daily census just a count but an actual roll call.  That way the staff could at least better track the names of the missing.  But where were all these students disappearing to?  Was there a way out that only a handful knew about or stumbled across?

"What about the tunnels?" chimed in Wilbur Jones.

"What tunnels?" asked Vice-Principal Crowler.  He was the liaison to the student council and usually the first adult to respond to our queries.

"You know, the tunnels, downstairs, with the fallout shelter."

"Those aren't very extensive, Wilbur," answered Mr. Crowler. "And we've been down there quite a bit trying to take advantage of the food stock."

"Nevertheless, it might be a good idea," said my father.  Mr. Clive Martin, the school Principal.  "Why don't we organize a team to survey that entire area, everything below the school - fall-out shelter, food storage, mechanical equipment, everything?  Mr. Crowler, why don't you head it up, and take Mr. Bruchow and Mr. King with you." Oscar Crowler nodded his agreement.  Jerry Bruchow was the biology teacher and Terence King the shop teacher. Mr. Bruchow was at the meeting and also nodded. "Oh, and include that student that was so helpful in establishing the perimeter, I think his name is David."

That team, the "Tunnel Team", was established and then Mr. Bruchow brought some rather startling news of his own.  It seems that two students who had gone off on their own for some "alone" time, Donny Truman and Krissa Sellenraad, had stumbled across a patch of wild raspberries.  It wasn't even their season but there they were, in full bloom!  A group would be sent to harvest them, and see if a way could be found to encourage and extend their growth.  Out efforts at gardening were just beginning.

There also was discussion about making some more events in order to make the days more structured and give the students more to focus on, to distract from the feeling of being trapped and depressed.  Every student was assigned already to a chore team, and there were a few hours of a day of classroom schooling going on.  Some ad hoc things had come about, like the Branch's Jeopardy game, and some sports scrimmages, but my father felt like more was needed.  The Athletic department would be tasked with coming up with some more structured intramural sporting events, the Music Department was to organize a concert, the TV Studio should try to come up with a short night time telecast that make include something beyond just news, perhaps a variety show that might include some sketch comedy, and the dance that had been planned but canceled due to the onset of the storm would be rescheduled for this Friday.

A dance.  My heart beat a little faster.  One more chance to ask Ginny.  This time I promised myself I would not blow it.