We All Fall Down

We All Fall Down Part 4

Rachael was a pretty blond girl of fifteen, about to be sixteen. She was tall for her age, but she was also one of the youngest of her classmates and so tended to be around kids that were older than her. For those two reasons, people always thought she was older than she really was. She was currently listening to her AP History teacher drone on about Mesopotamia.

"The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. Who can tell me who conquered the Achaemenid Empire?" asked Mrs. Shultz.

Mrs. Shultz was an idiot and none of her students liked her. Rachael attended a very good public charter school that had a 98% college placement rating. But this particular teacher was the type that realized too late they didn't want to be a high school teacher and thus spent their time being mean to their students because they were jealous. Rachael hated her.

"Alexander the Great?" asked a shy girl named Lisa.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" replied Mrs. Shultz.

"Telling?" asked Lisa.

"Yes, that's correct," said Mrs. Shultz tiredly. "Now who can-"

She cut off abruptly as a ring-tone filled the classroom. She glared around the room at the students. The ring-tone sounded again.

"Who's phone is that?" she asked icily.

A boy just over from Rachael named Devon fumbled in his backpack and pulled out his phone, which made the sound again.

"It's mine," said Devon, "but I swear it was on silent..."

"Give it here," demanded Mrs. Shultz.

Devon reluctantly handed the phone over.

"If you can't be respectful in my class and keep your phones turned off, you cannot have them. Now I-"

She was interrupted by two more phones going off. Rachael slid back in her chair and sat up straight. Mrs. Shultz looked like her eyes were going to explode out of her head.

"Who?!" she demanded.

More phones went off, including Rachael's. Rachael grabbed hers up from where she'd had it hidden on her desk behind her textbook, which was propped upright in front of her. The phones weren't ringing; those were Emergency Broadcast System warnings. This had happened once before but it had been for an Amber Alert. These were not Amber Alerts. She looked at the text for the warning.

Infections outbreaks are being reported throughout Boulder County and surrounding areas. Citizens are urged to stay inside, especially if you are home. Do not travel unless absolutely necessary. Stay tuned for further bulletins.

Holy shit. That was pretty serious. Other students had read the warnings and were relaying the information to those who hadn't. Rachael heard coughing to her right. There was a general din rising in the room and Mrs. Shultz was screaming over it about being disrespected and looking apoplectic. Rachael wouldn't have been surprised if her head really did explode. The kid who was coughing was still at it. Jeez dude, drink some water. She turned to see who it was.

A kid named Mike was the one coughing. But he wasn't just coughing, he looked like he was having an attack of some sort. He was coughing violently and his face was turning a bluish color. She watched him push himself back in his chair and arch his back away from his desk, then spasm forward coughing. A spray of blood flew out of his mouth and all over his desk. The girl sitting on the other side of him saw it and started screaming. Mike jerked back again and Rachael could see his eyes bulging out of his head and blood was starting to drip out of his nose and his ear. He was gripping his desk and all the veins and tendons in his hands were straining against his skin, like they'd tear right off his hand if the skin wasn't there to hold them inside. Rachael edged back away from him. Mike gave a guttural sort of choking cry and then his head slammed forward against his desk and he stopped moving.