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When they didn’t know what else to do, they set up a table with Goldfish crackers and two kinds of blue Gatorade.

Chris Comfort had heard the sirens rushing after 10 a.m. local time toward Apalachee High School and the middle school and preschool just beside it. Then, the news started to trickle out – on text chains, local news, CNN – about gunshots at the high school, kids in lockdown. Helicopters soon swirled overhead.

By noon, ordinary cars and trucks and SUVs had started lining up on Haymon Morris Road, the one main artery to and from the campus. But they moved at a crawl, brake lights bright red.

Some turned onto Comfort’s side street, then parked two cars deep. Others, unwilling to face the gridlock, started passing by on foot – trudging a mile, often more, under a beating sun in hopes of confirming their worst fear wasn’t real.

By midafternoon, neighbors had “been bringing waters and snacks for hours.”

They had water, sports drinks, granola bars, applesauce packs, cheese and peanut butter crackers, gummies and cold cubed watermelon. 

They worked in shifts to hand it out mostly to the walkers but also to drivers who crept by on the road.

One neighbor, only identified as Chris, was with her 15-year-old daughter, Geaux, a homeschooled 10th grader who hangs out with lots of kids from the neighborhood, sports and church who go to Apalachee High.

Some of those kids walked with their parents back past the snack table.

“It’s afternoon, and they haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Chris said of many.

“There were some kids who hadn’t eaten since last night because they didn’t have time for breakfast this morning. They were on their way to school,” Geaux said.

“It’s hot,” the teenager added. “And it’s scary.”