Latest / INSPIRE STORY / Zombie Outbreak Story _ Eclipse Compendium_ File 1_ College Campus Quarantine

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Zombie Outbreak Story _ Eclipse Compendium_ File 1_ College Campus Quarantine · INSPIRE STORY

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Speaker 1: He had grown up in the desert, where rain was
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something to be celebrated, something that brought the earth to
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life in a riot of color, a treasured springtime day,
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where the view out his bedroom window was different, at
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least for a few hours. So when Alex found himself
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in the emerald wild pocket of greenery that was the
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town of Stonebridge, New York, it had felt oppressive at first.
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It was so humid, that air heavy with moisture, and
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when he looked beyond the college campus there was nothing
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to see but forest. Those first few weeks, he felt trapped.
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But humans adjusted, they always do, and he was no exception.
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When the first of his classmates started getting sick, Alex
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paid it no mind. He was quiet and laid back
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for the most part. But his roommate David was a
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different story. David had his finger on the pulse of
1:02
everything happening on campus, and since David didn't seem worried
1:05
about whatever was going around, Alex found it easy to
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let it slip his mind too. It was just a
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few people coughing in a fever, probably some sort of flu.
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Everyone got the same emails telling them to stay inside
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if they displayed any symptoms, but life pretty much stayed
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the same until the incident by the fountain. On his
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way from one class to another, Alex was crossing the
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center of campus when a commotion caught his attention. He turned,
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shouldering his backpack and following the other students who were
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moving to see what was happening. It was so unreal,
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so abhorrent, that it took a long minute for Alex's
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mind to accept what he was seeing was real. He
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didn't know either of them, not the short, thin woman
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with hair as dark as ink, or the taller, panicked
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man who tried to hold her off as she dragged
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her fingernails down his face, one thumb in one forefinger
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finding the hollow of his eye sockets. He screamed when
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she bit at him, aiming for his neck, but over correcting,
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sinking her white teeth into the curve of his jaw,
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her incisors catching at and tearing his bottom lip. The
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woman spat the flesh onto the ground, the inside of
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her mouth blacker than a vulture's feather. Shock rippled through
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the surrounding crowd, yet no one stepped forward to help. Later,
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Alex would think that maybe if David had been there too.
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He might have tried, but that afternoon there were no leaders,
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just a group of people barely older than kids, the
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light of their logical minds blinking off as the instinctual
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animal part helden on survival took over like a tsunami
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blanketing a city. There were a million actions he could
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have taken that would have made more sense. If Alex
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had left right then, he might have made it out
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of campus and even out of stone Bridge before shit
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really hit the fan. But that isn't where his feet
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took him. Alex had run cross country in the dry,
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sharp Nevada heat as a teenager, and while the air
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and stone Bridge felt more like breathing through a wet sponge,
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he still knew how to run, and that's exactly what
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he did. Alex ran hard, deeper into campus and right
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through the door of female only dorm e, pushing past
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two girls exiting and catching the door before it locked.
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They gasped, offended and still blissfully unaware that there was
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a man bleeding out blind less than a football field's
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length away. Alex took the stairs, regretting it by the
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third floor, but Sarah lived on the fifth. He made
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it to her door, the one he had only seen
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twice before their falling out, and all but collapsed into
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it as he beat at the metal surface with his fist. Sarah,
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he managed to call out once before the door was
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being pulled open, and there she was, looking terrified but
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blessedly healthy. There was no time. Alex pushed into her
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dorm room with her and closed the door behind them.
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Sarah protesting the entire time. She only closed her mouth
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when he whipped around and grabbed her shoulders, and she
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got a good look at the expression on his face.
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Something is wrong, he panted, trying to catch his breath.
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Pack your things. We've got to get out of here.
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Under no circumstances would she have let Alex in, But
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she wasn't full enough to ignore the blatant fear on
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his face. Had not the fear of mania or some
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sort of mental break. Alex, unflappable computer genius that he was,
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appeared well and truly afraid, and he had come for
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her first and foremost, and made her heart thud in
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her chest painfully. She had her old friend sit on
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her twin sized bed, handing him a bottle of chilled
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water from the mini fridge, beneath the desk she shared
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with Emily and watched as Alex pressed the sweating bottle
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to his forehead briefly before drowning the entire thing. Tell
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me what's happening, she demanded, sitting next to him. Alex
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swallowed hard and started to talk. It was a short story,
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but by the time he finished talking, she had shoved
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a few nights worth of clothes and supplies into her backpack,
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dumping her books and papers out onto the floor and
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kicking them out of the way in the process. Despite
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the fact that they had been fighting, Sarah trusted Alex
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more than almost any one else in the world world,
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and if he told her it was in their best
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interest to go, she would follow him. Even in the
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short time he had been in there, news had started
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to spread about the attack across campus, and she could
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hear people in the hallway rushing around faster and faster
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with each passing minute. She and Alex weren't the only
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ones planning to flee. They made it to the front
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door of dorm e, but found it locked and the
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student manning the desk shaking her head. I can't let
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you out there, wor just went out that we are
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sheltering in place. No way unlocked the door, Alex insisted,
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but the older student wasn't budging. Absolutely not. Whatever's going
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out there is no joke, and I'm not gonna have
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you two letting whatever's happening out there in here. Sarah
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slammed her hands down on the desk, meaning what exactly
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what are you afraid of? Is going to get in here?
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I don't know. It's not like they told us. It's
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the sickness, the one that's been spreading right under our noses.
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A deep voice carried out of the common room, and
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David strides out, only the stiffness of his spine betraying
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his underlying stress. Some of it seemed to fade when
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he saw Alex, and he let out a deep breath.
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I knew i'd find you here. You've got your girl,
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So it's time to go. We've got thirty minutes if
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we're lucky, before the quarantine is fully in place, and
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we need to be out of campus by then, if
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not out of town completely. The front desk worker bristled,
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I just said, all it takes is for David to
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lay his hand on his side arm for the girl
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to go Pale, hitting the unlock button for the door
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without any more argument. A criminal justice major at the
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on campus police Academy, David was still in full uniform,
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which explained why he had no issue getting inside door
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me in the first place. The power move leaves Sarah shaken,
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such a casual threat for David to make over a
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problem that to them was still nebulous. Her attitude changed
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as soon as they were outside, though, watching packs of
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students and even professors running full tilt, all of them
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seeming to go different directions. She gasped as a man
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grabbed a girl by the hair, picking her up off
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her feet by the length of it, before Alex pulled
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Sarah away, following David's hulking figure down a thin sidewalk
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between two dormitories. All of this over some sickness. Are
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you sure, Alex asked, and David grunted, hmm. I wouldn't
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believe it either, except for the fact that everything went
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down when my class was at the firing range with
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some of the local PD. That's why I'm still armed.
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He gave the holstered pistol a pat It came over
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their radios and they kept referring to the virus and
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the infected. I was able to listen enough to figure
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out that the military is actually on their way here
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to quarantine the entire campus, and that's when I took
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off to find Alex. He spoke so steadily, as if
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reality wasn't on the precipice of cracking. Sarah could only
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look at the back of his neatly shaved head, following
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David only because Alex seemed to trust him. Everything spinning
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out of control so rapidly that she was just glad
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to have anyone else to lead the way. You didn't
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have to come back for me, man, Alex murmured, I
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would have managed. The muscles on the other man's face
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were still tense, but he shot a smile over his
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shoulder at Alex. What kind of friend would I be
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if I left my nerd roommate behind? Just try to
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keep up, he groaned, but it was good humored. Sarah
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eyed them both like they were insane. Had they not
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just witnessed the beginning of a murder? Weren't they minutes
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away from being locked down in this campus with some
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rage virus running wild. After a short time, they were
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headed towards the parking garage, and she listened while they
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discussed taking David's truck and hoping to bluff their way
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out of campus if necessary. Her phone was in her
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hand and she was getting ready to call her parents,
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hoping to warn them about whatever was about to go down,
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but when she tried to make the call, the device
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didn't even try to connect. She did have one message, though,
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from her own roommate Emily. It read something's up at
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the lab. Doors are locked, but I can hear people inside.
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Me and some of the other bio students are going
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to the pre Men library in the Science Hall since
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we can't get to class. I've got a bad feeling.
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Stay inside today if you don't have any lectures. Watching
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Alex and David talk quietly trailing behind them, Sarah felt
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a wave of guilt wash over her. We've got to
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stop somewhere before we leave. There's someone we have to
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bring with us. It was the wrong call. Sarah knew
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it as soon as the words left her mouth, and
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she watched David's jaw clench and Alex's expression close. Neither
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men argued, which surprised her, but halfway to the Science Hall,
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she wished that one of them had spoken up. It
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was chaos, like one of the circles of hell, and
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it was all happening so damned fast. She was a
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psychology student and thought she had at least a passing
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understanding of humans as a whole, but seeing the way
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things degraded within hours shocked her to her very core.
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The closer they got to the science hall, the more
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sick students there were, and therefore the more violence. It
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made her sick, recognizing some of the faces of both
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the dead on the ground and the infected as they
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tore those who weren't sick to pieces. It wasn't cannibalistic
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or for any other rhyme or reason she could discern.
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It was just a compulsion for violence, for blood, and
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there was so so much blood. David moved them quickly,
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hiding them against the buildings through the planted decorative gardens
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when possible, but she still knew that her decision to
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go back for Emily had lost them their window of
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time where escape was still possible. How could she regret
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trying to help her friend, though, like Alex had done
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for her. Alex had been her best friend for most
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of her childhood. Both of them coming from the same
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town in Nevada and both receiving unexpected scholarships to Stonebridge.
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It had been such an unbelievable coincidence and had been
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a blessing at first, but the closeness the two had
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only grew in college. But for Alex it changed one
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wrong move on his part, a single romantic gesture that
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wasn't reciprocated, and their decade long friendship went down in
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flames until he came for her when the world was
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all but ending. She could only hope that he would
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understand why she couldn't leave Emily behind. Emily had killed before,
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mostly lab mice, and during one horrible class she had
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to be the one to press the plunger down and
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deliver the fatal barbituates to a Rhese's monkey, but never
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a person. Until that afternoon, they had taken up the
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library in the Science hall, all six of the biology
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students do for lab time that day to try and
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suss out why they had been locked out of their classroom.
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It was from the second floor library window that they
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watched the first infected person bend over at the waist,
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coughing until there was bloody mucus on the hand they
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used to cover their mouth. Then when the coughing stopped,
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they attacked, reaching out and grabbing the skirt of a
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passing professor and dragging her body to theirs, before bringing
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them both down to the concrete, cracking the professor's skull
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against it like an egg fuck. One of her classmates
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had whispered, looking back at the rest of them with
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wide eyes. Surely this isn't no one answered, but someone
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did start to cough. Emily was not a fighter either,
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but she had a will to survive. She crushed her
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first assailant with one of the towering bookstacks, throwing all
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of her weight against it until it toppled down on
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top of the other woman. The second she cut open
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with shards of a decorative vase that she had found
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behind the desk of the absent librarian, cracking it against
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the edge of a table like a cowboy in a
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bar brawl, and slashing the throat of her lab partner Craig,
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as his hands tried to claw her down with him.
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At that point, she was scream sobbing hysteria, spinning to
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life in her throat and spilling out into a set
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of hands. Gentle and calming found her shoulders. Em We've
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got to hide. That was how she and Mark, the
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only other uninfected, ended up in the coat closet, huddled
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together like frightened rabbits until the door was pride open
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and Sarah rushed in to grab her, moving so fast
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that Emily raised her hands to protect her face. At first,
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when Sarah's arms came around her, she clung to her roommate, shaking.
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At least someone had come back for her. You're alive,
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they breathed at the same time, and then laughed. The
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sound threaded through with manic fear. Emily recognized Alex hovering
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a few feet away, but not his enormous friend, who
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was frowning in her direction. Open your mouth, the stranger demanded,
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crossing his arms. The request was so bizarre that it
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gave her pause at the same time causing Mark to
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stiffen beside her. After crawling out of the closet. Humm,
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no why, she asked, But even as she spoke the words,
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the meaning became clear, and the thought sobered her instantly.
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At first, she had assumed that the black, gaping mouths
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of the classmates she and Mark had been forced to
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put down was just blood or shadows, but apparently it
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was much more than that. Yeah, it's the only defining
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factor that we've been able to see so far, Sarah explained,
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I'm sure you're fine, but David, it's fine. Emily bristled,
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but did as she was told. Emily understood, but there
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was a sliver of uncertainty in her Could I be
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infected too? A ticking time bomb? David leaned forward, taking
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Emily's chin in his hand and turning her face so
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the light from the windows shone on her pink, unbloodied gums,
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none of the blackness that the virus brought. He had
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Mark do the same, pausing after a second. It's just
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silver filling, Mark assured him, pulling away from the grip
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of the bigger man and adjusting his lab coat and
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taking his place next to Emily again. Now that you've
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invaded a personal space, what happens next? The silence was telling.
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Sarah looked at her feet, making Emily wonder how much
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she had sacrificed to come and find her, and if
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her friend might be regretting it now. She recognized right
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away that no one knew what the next steps were.
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Emily did neither, but she was sure that she didn't
17:47
want to stand around aimlessly any longer. The stillness gave
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space for the terror to set in again. Finally, Mark spoke,
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all eyes turning to him, Well, if none of you
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have any clue, I have an idea. He wasn't in denial.
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I wasn't time for it. But that didn't mean that
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Mark wasn't still filled with a dread so heavy that
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he could hardly stand up straight down. In the lower lab,
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the one staffed by the Umbrel employees, they called this
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mutation havoc. It was created from the rabies virus, and
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havoc wasn't anywhere near ready to use as a particularly
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terrifying weapon of biological warfare. But that just made everything
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more dangerous. It was still changing morphing, and whatever strain
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of it was running through campus might already be resistant
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to the vaccine, and they had been creating alongside havoc,
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but Mark would take his chances with it anyway. Better
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to try the trial vaccine and potentially live than to
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lie down and wait for death. Rabies in its most
19:02
basic forms, spread through saliva, the virus replicating in the
19:05
salivary glands for that very purpose, But they had hoped
19:09
to make Havoc or whatever the end form of it,
19:12
would be an airborne contagion, something that would not only
19:16
damage an opposing force, but spread rapidly and make them
19:20
kill one another. That was the holy grail for Umbrol.
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Just owning such a thing would make them unconquerable. Fear
19:29
is a powerful deterrent. After all, they had some success
19:34
in getting Havoc to spread through airborne means. Overall, the
19:38
virus worked with a twenty three percent success right at
19:42
that point, But there really had been no reason to
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eliminate the infected saliva transmission route. It would have just
19:50
been more work. Mark had never experienced a greater regret
19:55
in his life that he hadn't worked to eliminate that
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method of transmission. As soon as a single incisor clipped
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the skin of his wrist as he shoved an infected
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student away back in the library, the damned thing had
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both hands clasped on his upper arms, and the ill
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timed bite had been a desperate move which only paid
20:18
off by centimeters as the sharp edge of its tooth
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found its bull's eye. Mark had never had a silver filling,
20:27
but the lie was easy enough to provide. He had
20:31
zero clue how much time he had, and he might
20:34
have been imagining it, but Mark felt exhausted. There was
20:38
a chance that it was just from the come down
20:40
from the adrenaline rush of the attack, but he couldn't
20:43
be sure. All he knew was that he had to
20:47
get to the lab and hope that one of the
20:49
synthesized vaccines would be effective enough to save him. He
20:54
could go alone, sure, but there was certainly more safety
20:58
in numbers that and he wasn't quite ready to lose
21:02
Emily yet either. Mark had tapped her as someone that
21:05
would be a great asset to bring into the fold
21:08
of Umbrell. All of that meant that he was going
21:11
to have to convince the group to go along with
21:13
his plan. He had one good chance to make it work.
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In the minutes were ticking down fast. Out with it, then,
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David prompted when Mark spoke up, telling them that he
21:25
had an idea. Okay, so we know that whatever this is,
21:28
it's more than likely viral. My best bet is to
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get to the school lab and see if there are
21:33
any clues to what this disease might be, and hopefully
21:36
find out if there is some sort of medicine or
21:38
a vaccine that we can take to keep ourselves safe.
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It was Alex that disagreed first. I don't think so.
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We've wasted enough time. Let's just try to get off campus. Yeah,
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and if the virus is spread through the air, you
21:54
want to take this shit back to your family, maybe
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start a fresh outbreak once we're out of the city.
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Mark countered, and from the way Alex went pale, it
22:02
was obvious he hadn't considered that point. It's not about
22:05
solving some mystery. It's about making sure we aren't prematurely
22:09
signing the death certificate of our parents and siblings if
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we make it out of here. David made a doubtful noise, Hm,
22:17
do you really think that somehow your lab is going
22:19
to have a vaccine for this specific virus. Emily had
22:23
her arms wrapped around herself, looking away from everyone, but
22:27
her words made it clear that she was still listening.
22:31
If somehow patient zero came from the lab, then yeah,
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I'd bet we have some sort of protective measure. Mark
22:42
kept silent, letting them craft their own narrative. There was
22:46
a burst of chatter, all of them talking over each
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other after Emily's revelation. Of course, she had no way
22:53
of knowing about the lower lab, or that she and
22:57
the other biology students were just doing busy work for
23:00
Umbrel while the real research happened below ground, but her
23:04
instincts were good. It reassured him that he had made
23:07
the right choice. In Emily. Her mind was almost as
23:11
quick as his own, even if his was feeling slower
23:14
by the minute. They needed to get a move on. Finally,
23:20
it was decided the threat of getting their loved ones
23:23
sick a powerful enough deterrent to keep any of them
23:26
from trying to break out of campus on their own.
23:30
Mark didn't really care one way or the other, but
23:32
the four of them did once he had his vaccine,
23:35
but he wasn't so sure that Umbrel would let them live.
23:38
After seeing the lower lab, he thought about the human
23:42
subjects locked away in their windowless room and shuddered. There
23:47
still wasn't a firm agreement about what to do once
23:49
they were done at the lab, though David made a
23:52
low sound in his throat when Sarah suggested that if
23:56
worse came to worst, they could stay in the lab
23:58
until rescue arrived. I don't know if we have to
24:02
hold up for days, even weeks. Then the dorms of
24:05
the cafeteria are going to be way easier to live in.
24:09
The lab has almost nothing to keep us alive. You're
24:13
really content waiting weeks to get out of here. Alex
24:16
was shocked. We have a zero idea why some people
24:19
are getting sick and others aren't. You want to pin
24:23
your hopes on two biology students. This virus coming from
24:28
our campus lab is a huge if. What makes you
24:31
think they have any chance of getting a handle on anything.
24:34
We need to hunker down, and Sarah shook her head. Nope, no,
24:39
I'm sorry, David, but no, I'm not going to sit
24:42
around and wait to die. I want to go home.
24:46
There was a long moment of silence, but David finally
24:49
dragged his hand over his face and cursed, fine to
24:55
the fucking lab. Then lead the way, brainiacs, I'll cover you.
25:04
It wasn't far, just the next building over, but it
25:08
still felt like a world away, having to pick their
25:11
way through the forsaken campus grounds. All of the group
25:14
could hear helicopters overhead, and in the distance the impossibly
25:19
tall metal fence that had been stretched across the entryway
25:22
into the college. The military had arrived but wasn't daring
25:26
to come into the infected zone. Instead, they were content
25:30
locking them in like a bunch of sick lab mice
25:34
in a cage. Made Emily's stomach turn, and she wondered
25:38
if this was somehow karma coming back for her. It
25:43
took all three men putting their shoulders into it, but
25:46
they managed to knock the door into the lab open
25:49
and drag a table in front of it to keep
25:51
it closed. Once they were all inside, most of the
25:54
lights were out, but there was the sound of shuffling
25:57
feet somewhere in the low ceilinged building, and beyond that
26:01
the murmur of human voices. But they weren't there to
26:05
help anyone else out. They were there for answers, and
26:08
if everything went well, a potentially life saving vaccine that
26:11
might guarantee them the longevity to make it out once
26:14
everything was over. David is right about one thing. They
26:18
couldn't live out their days there. A single vending machine
26:22
resided in the professor's break room, but that was it,
26:26
so she and Mark had a short amount of time
26:29
to find their answers before they would be forced to
26:32
move once more. Plus, from all the clear signs that
26:35
they weren't the only ones in the building, leaving was
26:38
probably the right call. Oddly enough, the first floor was
26:43
devoid of any other activity, infected or otherwise, It made sense,
26:49
she figured to take refuge on the higher floors, away
26:53
from doorways to the outside, and at least it made
26:55
their path clearer for the time being. Hearing them was, though,
27:01
Emily didn't want to imagine who was up there, who
27:04
she was consciously choosing to leave behind. When they made
27:09
it to the main portion of the lab itself, all
27:11
the student stations placed two by two in the long room,
27:15
Emily felt herself swaying on her feet. She'd seen the
27:19
lab empty dozens of times, and there wasn't anything different
27:22
about its appearance then, but she still saw the empty
27:26
spaces that would never be filled by the right people ever. Again,
27:31
they were all lying dead on the floral carpet of
27:33
the library floor. Just yesterday, she had been there with
27:38
the rest of her class group, Craig hovering over her
27:41
shoulder while she looked into the microscope. Now this throat
27:46
was a ragged hole, and her hands were the ones
27:48
that Mark gripped her up. Her arms steady. I'm fine,
27:54
she lied. Let's just get this done and get out
27:56
of here. Sarah and Alex peeled way to look around,
28:01
leaving David standing at the door to keep watch while
28:03
she and Mark set to work. There were dozens of
28:06
viral samples in cold storage, things they had been working
28:09
on for the last six months during lab periods, but
28:12
Emily had an inkling of where they should start. Only
28:16
one of the samples contained a virus that could cause
28:18
any sort of mental deficiency that would lead to rage
28:21
like the infected had displayed, and it was the most
28:24
deadly one she had ever worked with. Too. Rabies whatever
28:29
was spreading through campus obviously wasn't run of the mill rabies,
28:33
which was terrifying enough on its own, but it was
28:36
the only place she could think to begin. Rapid mutations
28:40
weren't unheard of in the viral world, but a different
28:43
strain of rabies that would be something totally new. She
28:48
shared her thoughts with Mark, her voice soft enough that
28:51
David couldn't hear. Alex and Sarah had left the lab
28:55
in search of a computer terminal to see if Alex
28:57
could find some way to connect with the outside world,
29:00
and after a moment of hesitation, David decided to stay
29:03
behind at the lab. To Emily's surprise, her new partner
29:07
was on the same page as she was, almost finishing
29:10
her sentence. Before she could decided, they began their swift
29:15
work with careful hands. Marked pulled the samples out from
29:19
cold storage and prepared the slides. Meanwhile, Emily carefully cut
29:23
a piece of her lab coat sleeve covered in Craig's blood.
29:28
She flooded it with immersion oil and siphoned the pink
29:31
liquid into a different slide for comparison. She and Mark
29:35
checked and double checked, but it was clear Craig had
29:39
been infected with the lysaviris one that resembled rabies, almost
29:44
perfectly floating there under their scope, but still terrifyingly alive.
29:49
It was nearly a perfect match for the control sample,
29:53
but just different enough to send a shock of disbelief
29:55
through remiy. Disbelief and dread. How could this happen, she
30:02
whispered to Mark while they cleaned everything up. It doesn't
30:05
make any sense. No one works with live rabies virus,
30:10
let alone in even more deadly mutation of it. When
30:13
he didn't answer, she turned to look at him noting
30:16
the sheen of sweat on his forehead and the look
30:18
of uncertainty pulling at his expression. Emily, look, I have
30:23
to tell you something, show you something, actually, But once
30:28
I do, there's no going back, So I'm actually Emily Mark,
30:36
Alex called from across the room, interrupting them. You guys
30:39
might want to come see this. Going back for Alex
30:47
had been one thing, but David hadn't expected to get
30:50
put in charge of an entire group of Alex types.
30:53
They might take offense to him considering himself in charge.
30:57
While they moved around the lab like so many worker ants,
31:00
he was the one guarding them and making sure that
31:02
they didn't get ambushed. His nerves were absolutely shot. Had
31:08
he stuck with the rest of the criminal justice students,
31:10
he might already be out of the campus and on
31:13
his way back to his parents house by that point.
31:16
But him, in his damned inconvenient affection for his smart,
31:19
if naive roommate, went and fucked it all up. Alex
31:24
and Sarah were on the second floor by that point,
31:28
but he had promised not to do anything stupid. Emily
31:32
and Mark were working in the lab, which left David
31:35
with nothing to do. But stare at his own shadow.
31:38
They were taking forever. He was ready to make them move,
31:42
demand that they pick up the pace, but something caught
31:45
his eye in the doorway of an office further up
31:47
the hall. Just a flash, but he was sure it
31:51
was a hand gripping the door frame before disappearing within.
31:56
David glanced back at the two biology students bent over
31:59
a microscope and slowly went to investigate the movement. When
32:03
he was sure they weren't going anywhere, he heard the
32:06
sound of them hyperventilating. Before he saw them, armed with
32:10
scalpels and breathing like they had both run a marathon.
32:13
Were two women, one older and heavily pregnant and the
32:17
other closer to his age. Great, he thought, more sheep
32:23
for the flock. The pregnant woman looked over him, her
32:26
eyes landing on the pistol in his hands, and relaxed
32:29
a few de grace, you're with umbrel. David frowned, who
32:36
her eyes went wide and quickly answered, never mind. I'm
32:41
Professor Kelly Joplin and this is my assistant, Nina. Are
32:45
you I'll just ask, can you get us the hell
32:49
out of here? He looked at her chest feeling tight
32:53
at the way she folded her hands over her stomach,
32:56
but there was nothing to be done about it. His
32:59
willingness to roll over and let Alex and then Sarah
33:01
walk all over him had ruined his chances of escape
33:04
once afraid not, I'm sure employees will get first priority
33:09
for rescue. Anyway, She stood taller, laying the scalpel on
33:13
the table beside her and stretching her hands on her
33:16
lower back and a line of pain between her eyebrows
33:19
while she spoke, Well, what if I told you that
33:22
I have a key to the security office upstairs? That
33:26
caught his attention? What like a surveillance room, Nina answered,
33:32
her voice high and quivering. No, we've got some volatile
33:38
samples here, and well, the company that owns those samples
33:41
requires us to have armed guards on the premises at
33:44
all times, a miniature armory. David's thoughts raced, all for
33:49
the price of taking two more little lambs with us?
33:54
To hell with it? He thought, why not if you
33:57
had armed guards, where the hell are they and why
34:00
would they abandon a pregnant woman? And David stopped hearing
34:04
Alex calling for the others. Hold that thought, can't talk
34:09
right now, Stay here or come with me, doesn't matter.
34:14
They followed him, of course, unwilling shepherd that he had become.
34:22
After quick introductions, with Mark being the only one to
34:25
recognize Joplin on site, he allowed Alex to lead them upstairs.
34:30
Besides Mark, who said he wanted to check something back
34:34
in the lab, they didn't have to go far to
34:37
see what he wanted to show them. Like a macabre
34:40
trail of crumbs, bodies of students and professors all led
34:44
down one hallway, the horrible path culminating in a dead
34:48
man slumped against a single door, face first, as if
34:52
his last act had been trying to get inside. The
34:56
gore of it was minimal, though, each of them having
34:59
been dispatched by a b bullet in the brain. Simple clean.
35:04
It was a hot, humid day, and the smell of
35:07
it all had Sarah dry heaving and Alex pressing the
35:10
back of his hand against his mouth. David heard the
35:14
click of the professor's sensible heels on the stone steps
35:17
behind him, and he turned, holding up a hand. I'll
35:22
take that earlier deal, professor, but I promise you you
35:26
don't want to come up here. Throw me your keys.
35:30
She hesitated, but after a second she dug into her
35:34
pocket and threw a key ring up to David, which
35:36
he caught one handed. It's the yellow key. Choplin indicated.
35:43
What was so important that they would all be so
35:45
desperate to get inside, Sarah mused, covering her nose and
35:50
mouth with her shirt. Well, the professor said, there's a
35:54
security office up here, and considering the bullet holes, I'd
35:58
say our armed guards are inside, plus whatever weaponry they have,
36:03
David answered, already pulling the corpse off the door with
36:06
a groan of effort. He did his damnedest not to
36:09
look at the faces of any of the dead. He
36:13
slid the key into the lock, the security system, reading
36:16
whatever invisible code was forged into it before the mechanism
36:20
slid into place, and let him turn it. David called
36:24
out before pushing the door open, letting any guards that
36:27
might be inside know that they were uninfected civilians, name
36:31
dropping the pregnant professor for extra safety. But he might
36:35
as well not have bothered. As soon as the door
36:39
moved inward an inch, something hit from the other direction
36:43
with the force of a freight train, taking David off
36:46
his feet and knocking him to the ground with the dead,
36:50
his hands sliding out from under him in a pool
36:52
of blood. When he tried to catch himself, the guards
36:56
were inside. Five of them. They were also so infected.
37:01
Stepping over David and moving for the rest of the
37:03
group with a single minded intensity. He felt his heart
37:07
hit the walls of his chest, adrenaline flooding into a
37:10
system as time seemed to slow to a crawl. David
37:14
had a single magazine, having fled the shooting range with
37:18
only what he had on him, which is why the
37:20
security office had been such a temptation. As the infected
37:24
guards came down on his friends, he was able to
37:27
raise his gun, exhaling slowly and still laying on the ground,
37:31
and squeezed off three shots. Two hit home, one just
37:37
above an infected man's temple and the other obliterating an
37:40
infected woman's eye on the way to her brain. The
37:44
third went low, hitting the guard in the throat, knocking
37:48
him back but not down. Alex, Sarah and Emily weren't motionless,
37:54
though Emily jerked a broom from the hands of a
37:57
previous fallen janitor, hitting at the two un injured guards
38:01
softball style before turning the handle forward like a spear
38:04
and pushing them back with a scream. David watched as
38:08
one guard tripped over his own feet, falling, and Emily
38:12
turned her face away before bringing the end of the
38:15
broom handle down into the man's eye socket once, twice,
38:20
and then three times. Sarah froze at first, but when
38:24
she watched Alex shove the other uninjured guard to the ground,
38:28
grabbing his shirt and slamming him back into the floor
38:30
again and again until his skull cracked like a melon,
38:34
she managed to bend and grab the maglight off the
38:37
now dead man's belt. It was just in time for
38:40
her to feel the last guard, with a bullet in
38:43
his throat, grab at her hair, wrenching her head back.
38:48
Sarah yelped, pivoting on one foot and slamming the heavy
38:52
metal flashlight into his temple with a sickening crunch. Finish it.
38:56
David yelled, but he didn't need to. Alex took the
39:00
bloody flashlight from Sarah's hand, telling her quietly to look
39:04
away before he ended it for her in a series
39:06
of wet, miserable strikes, the dry grating breathing of the
39:11
infected guard going bubbly and finally silent. When he was finished,
39:16
there was no face left to identify and they were
39:19
safe again for the moment. It was a massacre, but
39:28
the Security Office made the horror worth it. Back on
39:32
his feet, David removed weapons from each of the down guards.
39:37
Only three of their side arms had any AMMO left,
39:40
but he found a tiny glock forty three in a
39:42
backpack hanging on the back of the door that he
39:45
gave the professor when she insisted on coming upstairs, holding
39:49
her belly and going green when she saw the hallway
39:52
of death. Nina made it to the top of the
39:55
stairs before turning around and going back down. He didn't
39:59
blame her. Everything else he distributed to Alex, Sarah, and Emily,
40:04
pocketing a few things for Mark, who was still downstairs
40:07
in the lab. The girls clung to their earlier weapons,
40:11
the broomstick for Emily with the head of it broken
40:13
off now and the maglight for Sarah, but he insisted
40:17
that Sarah, who admitted to having shot a gun before,
40:20
carry one of the guard's side arms. The holy grail
40:24
of the office wasn't the weaponry, though it was the
40:27
surveillance terminal, completely unlocked and open. The triple monitor set
40:33
up was black. Only the words Eclipse Initiative activated were
40:37
scrolled across it. Alex sat down in front of it, murmuring,
40:43
what the hell is the eclipse Initiative. No one saw
40:47
Joplin turn her head and breathe silently, damn it. It
40:52
took Alex a few minutes to learn his way around
40:55
the system, but it didn't take much time before he
40:58
had the schematics of the entire building. By the time
41:02
David had finished distributing weapons, he had the entire campus
41:05
map up too. The maps showed them two anomalies. First,
41:10
a maintenance tunnel leading through the mountain face that surrounded
41:13
the school and out into stone Bridge. The second was
41:16
a basement level to the lab. Alex printed the maps
41:20
and schematics out, and on the suggestion of the increasingly
41:23
nauseous professor, they went back downstairs to find Mark and
41:27
discuss their next steps. David knew it was because no
41:31
one wanted to be around the corpses anymore, not because
41:34
they were worried about Mark's opinion, but he agreed they
41:38
had all seen enough to fuel their nightmares for the
41:40
rest of their lives. Mark was waiting, unmoving when they returned,
41:46
looking glassy eyed and distraught, but David didn't fault him
41:49
for it. They all probably looked similar. Alex spread the
41:54
maps out on the metal tables, and before anyone could
41:57
say otherwise, David let them know he didn't care even
42:00
for a second about the basement room, but the tunnel.
42:05
He could still get all of them out, no matter
42:08
how hard he wanted to seem on the outside. The
42:11
idea of leaving his group behind felt too much like
42:14
a betrayal. He didn't need to sit and wait for
42:17
rescue with them, though. There was a way out of
42:20
the quarantine campus. What are we waiting for, he asked,
42:25
noticing the quiet that seemed to be hanging over everything.
42:29
Let's go before that tunnel gets locked down too. Emily
42:33
and Mark look at each other, and she squared her shoulders,
42:37
turning to David the basement room first. We haven't had
42:42
time to look into the vaccine, and there might be
42:44
more information and answers for us down there. Before he
42:48
could deny her firmly, Professor Joplin spoke up. I'll let
42:53
you in if you take us with you. Mark shocked
42:56
them all by scoffing, if you lost your damn mind, Kelly,
43:02
Do you have a death wish? Joplin's eyes raped him
43:06
over head to toe and raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow.
43:10
Do you, Because you know as well as I do
43:13
that what you and to everyone else needs isn't up
43:18
here in the kindergarten lab. Everyone turned to look at her, confused.
43:25
There was a familiarity between her and Mark, and with
43:28
it a clear animosity. Mark swallowed hard, getting a far
43:33
away look in his eyes. You really think we've got
43:37
something that might work, Joplin shrugged. Maybe maybe not. You
43:43
spent more time down there than me, and I can
43:45
see through you. Mark. I'd take whatever options you can get. David, baffled, said,
43:52
what the hell are you two talking about? They ignored him,
43:56
of course, with David not being able to get a
43:59
single word in Edgeway, there were agreements rapidly being made.
44:03
Clenching his teeth, David sank into an emptied chair, exhaling
44:07
slowly as he did so, and coming to terms with
44:10
the fact that maybe he wasn't the leader after all.
44:14
It was just that giving up control was infinitely difficult
44:17
for him. Death was everywhere everywhere around them, maybe even
44:23
in the air, So how could they expect him to
44:26
just relax while they poked around some underground lab. People
44:31
they knew were dying horrible deaths, losing themselves to some
44:35
monstrous second existence, and David was just supposed to sit tight.
44:40
Fright impossible. Professor Joplin, without hesitation, pressed a palm to
44:48
a seemingly empty area on the wall, kying a code
44:51
in on a nearly invisible keypad and stepping back as
44:55
the portion of the wall slid aside. She seemed cool, composed,
45:00
even while her assistant was like a speechless shadow. It
45:05
unnerved him, made him think that they knew something he didn't.
45:10
David hadn't planned on following them down, instead taping together
45:14
the map that Alex had printed out, but once it
45:17
was done, he couldn't settle, not up top alone while
45:21
the rest of his group was in some mysterious subterranean layer.
45:25
It just wasn't in his blood to wait around and
45:27
simply hope they came back to him alive. So pocketing
45:32
the map, David followed down the dimly lit staircase, emerging
45:37
into a room that looked more like a hospital than
45:39
a laboratory. Emily was at a computer terminal, her bloody
45:44
lab coat removed and a sickly cast beneath her tan skin.
45:49
He watched her work, professor Joplin coming up behind her
45:52
and guiding her through finding what would hopefully be the
45:55
vaccine they needed. Nina hung back near David. Alex and
46:00
Sarah were looking through stacks of papers strewn about, looking
46:04
concerned but unsure as they moved between the hospital beds
46:08
complete with restraints. Then there was Mark, perched on a
46:13
hospital bed, his shoulders hunched and his face flushed. He
46:18
coughed into his hand and wiped it on his pants
46:21
as discreetly as possible. Everyone else was so wrapped up
46:26
in what they were doing that no one noticed, no
46:29
one except David and Joplin, who had moved away from
46:33
Emily to pull a tray of syringes from a cold
46:36
storage unit, the cold air blowing the sleeves of her
46:39
dress back. It was the older woman's fault that they
46:43
were all in this damn basement to begin with, But
46:46
there was something about her pregnant belly, an iron will
46:49
to survive that made it impossible for him to put
46:52
her in harm's way. She was just looking for a
46:55
way out same as he was, and he couldn't fault
46:59
her for that. As they gazed at each other and
47:04
understanding about mark passed between them, David gave her a
47:08
tight nod, jerking his chin towards the stairs. Go, He
47:13
told her wordlessly, get the hell out of here. Professor
47:18
Joplin obeyed, setting her tray on the table next to
47:21
Emily in slow, unhurried movement, taking Nina by the hand,
47:27
and disappearing silently up the stairs, the first person that
47:31
listened to him without complaining all day. How convenient. By then,
47:38
Emily was speaking to Alex and Sarah, who were watching
47:41
over his shoulder as she pulled something up on the screen.
47:45
I don't know what the hell is going on down here,
47:47
she told them, shakily, clasping her hands together in front
47:51
of her. But the samples they have stored down here
47:54
are live viruses, rabies, and some weird derivative of it,
47:59
which is the mutation that is spreading through the campus,
48:03
and more other mutations, other varieties. She swallowed hard, closing
48:10
her eyes. Live viruses, and all these beds with restraints.
48:17
Is it possible that whoever was running things down here
48:20
was testing on people? She turned to look for Joplin.
48:25
All of the official documents have the same letterhead. Alex
48:28
points out, handing Emily a piece of paper with a
48:31
stylized U on the top. The Umbro group is mentioned
48:34
all over the place. They're a pretty big name in
48:38
tech circles. But I mean, I guess it's possible that
48:41
they might be dipping their toes into medical shit. This
48:46
is far above our pay grade. Sarah sighs, a thread
48:50
of hysteria in her done. Can we just get out
48:54
of here? I want to go home. David was only
48:58
half listening, watching Mark, noting the way he wiped sweat
49:02
from his brow and muffled his coughs in the neck
49:04
of his lab coat. Each sign made David feel more
49:08
and more miserable, and more and more sure of what
49:12
was to come. I should shoot him now, save him
49:17
when the heartache, he thought, but he couldn't. Like everyone
49:21
else in the room, he was barely old enough to drink.
49:24
The idea of killing someone in what would equate to
49:26
cold blooded murder was too much, too heavy. It didn't
49:33
take long, though, for the others to hear the hacking,
49:36
and David watched as one by one they came to
49:38
the same conclusion, shaking with fever, unable to get a
49:43
breath in now between coughing fits. Mark was infected. Mark,
49:49
Emily warbled, open your mouth, he did, turning to show
49:55
them all the pitch blackness surrounding the whites of his teeth,
50:00
black like all the other HAVOC sufferers, And then he lunged.
50:07
It might have been because he knew her best, her
50:10
just because she was the closest, but Mark jumped for
50:13
Emily first. Only David, launching himself forward, stopped his charge,
50:19
and around the snapping of his teeth and his hands
50:22
raking the air, David forced Mark to the hospital bed
50:25
by pure strength alone. Then the rest of them were there,
50:30
struggling against Mark's frantic movements to lock the restraints into place,
50:35
both legs and both arms, wrenching the belt's tight and
50:39
setting them tears leaking down Emily's face. The entire time
50:45
it was silent, a wretched ordeal, only the sound of
50:50
Mark's teeth clacking together in the desperate grunts coming from
50:53
his throat filling the room. Once his limbs were down,
50:58
David clasped the other man's head between his hands, and
51:02
Emily stretched the last restraint over his forehead, freely sobbing.
51:06
At this point he expected more of a fight from her,
51:10
some demand to give her a chance to try and
51:12
find a cure. But there was no time. They all
51:16
knew there was no time. Mark was gone anyway, Get
51:22
them out of here, Alex. David told his friend, his
51:25
voice flat. When I get back upstairs, we run. Mark
51:32
strained against the restraints, thrashing in any way he could,
51:36
and Emily held out her hand to David wordlessly. He
51:40
looked at her open palm and back to the girl's face,
51:44
the reality of what she was asking crashing over him. No, Emily,
51:50
go have already back in the library, she choked out,
51:57
But David wouldn't hear it. At the library. You defended yourself.
52:03
This one is not on you. Then he looked back
52:06
to the other uninfected man, Alex. Now taking both girls
52:12
by the wrist, Alex moved for the stairs. Sarah went willingly,
52:17
but Emily was a fight, looking back and trying to
52:20
pull away, some sense of duty driving her, but she
52:25
was tired emotionally and physically, and in minutes Alex had
52:30
her out of sight and it was just David and
52:33
Mark left in the lower lab. If you would have
52:38
just told me, we could have done this without them
52:41
having to know. David took a deep breath and inspected
52:45
the chamber to ensure there was rounds in it. I
52:49
get it, though I wouldn't want to die either. I'll
52:54
get them out, though, don't worry, and I'm sorry against
53:03
the skull of another human. The gun didn't kick in
53:06
his hand hardly at all. They left Kelly, Joplin and
53:15
Nina behind. The two women hadn't been in the upper
53:19
lab or the hallway leading outside, and there was no
53:22
time left. All they could do was lock the door
53:25
from the outside with the key ring David still had
53:27
on him, and finally slide said keyring under the door,
53:31
just in case the professor and her assistant might still
53:33
need it. Just like David said, they ran quietly, sneaking
53:40
low to the ground at times. The four of them
53:42
ran across campus, following an inked line in the taped
53:46
together map to the maintenance tunnel that offered them the
53:49
last available means of escape. They weren't the only ones left, though.
53:54
Other students watched them from the dorm windows. Some yelled,
53:58
but most were silent. More than likely because the noise
54:01
from outside the campus was drowning anything else out. They
54:05
had taken them quite some time to get where they were,
54:07
as they had to navigate the campus filled with more
54:10
and more infected, and at this time the quarantine was
54:15
failing and the barrier had been breached. The sound of
54:18
rifle fire and commands being yelled could be heard from
54:22
outside the campus. Infected students clawing their way through ever
54:25
widening gaps in the seclusion wall. Still inside, their once
54:31
pristine campus was covered in gore, in the remains of
54:34
a life that none of them could ever truly have again.
54:38
None of them looked too closely at the bodies or
54:41
the huddled groups of six students waiting for a victim,
54:44
too afraid to see a familiar face in either place.
54:48
At one point, a pair of two infected appeared, seemingly
54:52
out of nowhere, hidden behind an abandoned car, rushing the
54:56
group of four. David had his gun up first, but then,
55:01
almost like a miracle, two perfectly placed shots came from
55:05
somewhere above, dropping the infected with identical holes between their
55:09
withered eyes. It was a blessing, but havoc still reigned,
55:14
and all the four of them could do was flee. Maybe,
55:18
just maybe the world outside the campus walls was still intact.
55:23
Even if it was, though none of them would ever
55:26
be the same. All of them were now battle tested
55:31
and hollow because of it. Sarah held on Alex's hand
55:35
like a lifeline, shell shocked. He had the horrible feeling
55:40
that if he let her go, she would just sink
55:42
to the ground and remain there still and in the
55:45
hands of some gruesome fate. So he didn't let go.
55:49
He wouldn't. Just like the maps said, the tunnel was there,
55:55
the doors open as if it had been recently used.
55:59
None of them even stopped to consider the danger of it,
56:02
not until they were deep inside and the pitch blackness
56:05
of the place was suffocating them. But while their cell
56:09
phones had no service, they certainly had flashlights, and it
56:13
was enough to guide their way. Four beams of anemic
56:17
yellow light and the sound of four sets of feet
56:19
echoing off the concrete walls. Alex had never seen much
56:23
of war. Anything coming in from the media or from
56:27
other countries was always sanitized. Explosions, sure, even fire or
56:34
the crack of a fired gun, but never casualties, never
56:38
human bodies or the scarlet stain of blood, and certainly
56:43
never the off white of brain matter strewn in the
56:46
street like refuse. That day, though he saw it, Alex
56:51
saw everything and more until the images were burnt into
56:55
his mind. David led them out into the war zone
57:00
that was stone Bridge, eventually taking Emily into his arms
57:04
when she cracked to pieces, unable to go on, and
57:08
Alex followed with Sarah over the dead, behind cars with
57:13
civilians bullets through their temples, slouched against the steering wheels,
57:18
and finally to an empty police car, the keys in
57:22
the ignition and the driver still and cold, his throat
57:25
ripped out, and the shimmer of his guts poking through
57:28
his kevlar vest, laying right outside the open driver's side door.
57:34
Alex climbed into the back with Sarah. David placed Emily
57:38
in the passenger seat, telling her to keep her eyes
57:40
closed until he told her to open them. Sarah followed suit.
57:45
Then David was behind the wheel, his face a mask
57:49
of chilled determination, his knuckles white from the strength of
57:53
his grip. He turned the key, the engine clicked to life,
57:58
and finally they were moving, getting as far away as
58:02
possible from what was left of the beginning of their
58:04
adult lives, an innocence they might have held on to.
58:09
Sarah turned to look one last time at the campus
58:12
in the mountains, watching as a collection of soldiers climbed
58:15
into a hovering helicopter, the blades of it denying her
58:20
that last vision. Whoever the students had been before today,
58:26
the four left behind their bodies and their new jaded
58:31
souls escaped, seeking safety, but it would be short lived,
58:38
as soon the government would decide that total sterilization was
58:44
the only way to save the rest of the country.
59:00
F