We Can Survive

Chapter One

I was running so fast, and I just couldn't seem to get away. People were everywhere watching me, laughing at me, and they wouldn't help me no matter what I screamed. Then I turn to look behind me and realized I was running from nothing. Nothing was chasing me at all. That's when it started to happen. The whole world began to shake and a loud siren began to go off.

"Hey babe, we got to get up we have psych to get to" my boyfriend, James, whispered to me, as he gently tried to get me to wake up.

"No, can't we just skip it today, I don't want to wake up" I groan, and roll over to face away from him and towards the wall.

"Now come on, Alison we have to go we skipped on Tuesday. We can't skip both days of the week."

I knew he was right, and I hated him for it. We had skipped Tuesday, and we only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for psych. I'm currently at University, so we have a block schedule. Groaning, I get out of bed and head to the bathroom to brush my hair and teeth so I don't look as dead as I feel. As James took his turn in the bathroom I threw on a light sweater, some jeans, and my timbs. It was starting to get cold outside, we only really needed a light jacket to walk to class but we also knew that a harsh winter was coming our way.

"Ready?" James asks as he pulls his backpack on.

Nodding, we make our way out of my apartment and out to the elevators. When we get down to the first floor, and outside we notice that not a lot of kids are out and about. Our class starts at 11 am, so there definitely should've been some heavy traffic out by now.

"Maybe it's because of that new flu that they are talking about? I've heard a lot of kids have had to be quarantined at Kentworth" James, offered as an explanation, referencing Kentworth the hospital close to our college.

"James, this is a school of around 40,000 kids. The flu shouldn't take out this many people..." I trail off, as we continue our walk to class.

When we reach the psych building, I let the thoughts of the new sickness slip out of my head. Instead, I focused on my very trained methods of zoning out in class because my professor is the most boring lecturer in history. He finally puts up the last slide and says his closing statement, and I don't think I've been up out of my chair faster. James and I grab our bags, and we head out into the little courtyard out front of the psych building.

"Alright, so we can meet at my place after you're done with lab?" James asks, we typically go to his fraternity to hang out and sleep at my apartment since the fraternity is way less strict.

"Yes, I'm hoping that my participants don't show up today. I am so not feeling this lab, I'm honestly just looking forward to winter break" I sigh, and after laugh and a hug, James heads back to his place.

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"Yeah, so after you're finished with these questionnaires then you're all set to go," I say, as I lean over one of my participants and click on the link that would take them to the survey.

"Thank you" The girl groggily replies.

She seemed to be extremely drained, she even looked like she was dead when she walked in: super pale with dark circles under her eyes. I sit down in my swivel chair and start working on the paper that I had due later that night. School has become so much harder since we are getting close to winter break and that means finals are even closer.

"Alright, I'm finished," the girl says, as she sluggishly walks out of the participant room.

"Okay, you're all set. You should see your credit show up in your subject pool account in a couple days. Have a nice day!" I say, overly cheerful like our research instructor taught us.