New Eden- The New Eden series book#1 (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 13 "blood sprout."

"Someone want to tell me what the hell happened!" Whickham shouted.

I was collapsed against the wall in the hallway. I took out my inhaler and puffed two doses. I didn't care who saw me. That was too much hell for me to care what anyone thought.

Everyone was gathered around us. Asking questions. Wanting to know what had happened inside the room. I was too breathless to answer right away. Judy was a mess. She was crying endless tears and muttering incoherently. Brandon paced back and forth, confused and obviously scared out of his wits. When someone had tried to calm him down he batted away their hand and continued pacing.

Kay held her brother and they cried.

"Hey! Hey!" Nichola held Kay-Marie's hand in hers. She got down on her knees and looked in Kay's eyes. "What happened?"

It was Lisa who started off. "He woke up. Malcolm suddenly woke up, and its as if he couldn't breath. He-he was panicking...I ran out to get you."

"He was fine." Kay picked up the story. "He was lying there and was fine. Then was up, and gasping, and grabbing at us. We tried...we tried to help him, but he...he just..." She was crying. Distressed and unable to finish.

"Its the damn pollen!" Brandon finally said coming out of his pacing.

"The what?" Whickham asked.

"The thing." Brandon emphasized with his hands. "The thing that the flower sprayed on them. Its the pollen." He was back to pacing his corner. Three quick steps left, then about face and three more steps back. "They breathed it in. That's how it got inside them. It-it caused them to go into some kinda of coma. It incubated in their lungs. Their esophagus...it grew. It grew freaking fast."

"Whoa! Slow down. What grew?" The electronics teacher interrupted Brandon's rant.

I got to my feet. "A freaking plant was inside of him!"

That got everyone talking. A plant!? No way. Was it like the plants outside? How big was it?

Whickham quieted everyone. "You're telling me that a plant sprouted out of Malcolm?"

"It was kinda like a bean sprout. But way bigger and covered in blood...A blood-sprout!" Elton jumped into the conversation.

Whickham looked from the boy to me, a skeptical look on his face.

"Hey you can open the freaking door and see for yourself!" I snapped.

"No!" Lisa said quickly. "We can't open the door. We don't know if they're contagious."

"We were around them all the time before." Brandon said.

"Yes, but if you're right about what happened to them then things could have changed...They could be infectious now."

"Oh my God!" Kay suddenly said. Our attention turned to her. "She still inside! Samantha's still inside!"

Crap!

I had already noticed this fact. But I had decided to stay quiet. We had had enough panic as it is. The look Brandon gave me said that he had already came to that conclusion.

"We have to get her out!" Kay made for the door only to be blocked by Brandon.

"We can't open the door, Kay."

"What're you talking about?! We HAVE to get her out of there!" Kay protested.

"Kay, listen," I tried to reason. "Samantha was exposed to the same thing John and Malcolm were infected with. You were with us. You saw it. Even if we can get her out we can't help her."