INFECTED

Not A Drill

    I was one of the last people to get inside of the building. The only people that weren't infected that were behind me were Allison Trippe, Mohammed Mere, amd Leo Anderson. They were the slow people. Or Allison and Mohammed at least. Leo was trying to fight back Joshua, which was the reason why Mr. Richson had to run outside to try to get Leo inside of the building, since he can't leave a student outside if they are still sane and/or uninfected. Or at least that's what I heard. The teachers had a meeting about what they had to do last weekend. But that was before all of the crazy stuff happened, and it's not like the teachers were paying that much attention anyways. Nobody thought the virus would hit the school. Nobody thought it would be serious. They thought wrong.
    After about two minutes of struggling, Mr. Richson finally got a hold of Leo and brought him in the building. After that, everybody was watching to see what Joshua was going to do, or where he was going to go now that no one else was outside.
    Everybody except me, that was. I was still panting, feeling lucky that I ducked and that Joshua's machete missed my head, even though it almost touched my arm. And I could've sworn I saw a very thin purple slime, very evenly coated on the machete. I was lucky I was left untouched by any kind of infection so far, since I knew other people are already dying.
    As I was still panting, I looked up at the ceiling as I heard the principle, Mr. Farr come on the loudspeaker.
    "We are in a lockdown due to the spreading of the Tracking Virus. Lock all of the doors and do not exit the building. Please cover all of the windows and sit behind a desk or some type of large object. Do not make any noise. This is not a drill."
    The last sentence repeated again in my head. Just thinking about it gave me the chills. I looked around and then saw all of the students sitting down now. I then looked to my left, and then saw Liam and Henry, who was still holding his leg while some students were trying to help him, and then past Allison and some other seventh grader, was Paris. Anabelle was still at the door, alone now, since everybody was hiding except her. Even though she could easily duck. Anabelle looked at Mr. R, who was on the other side of the gym now, locking the two front doors. Anabelle then ducked and then crawled over next to me.
    "Joshua went into the woods." She whispered. "And then he went into this weird trapdoor under the slide on the playground."
    That caught my attention. "What?"
    "There was a trapdoor under the slide. He moved the slide to the left and then opened a trapdoor and then crawled inside."
    I didn't even know that was there. Nobody did. Nobody even uses the slide anymore. Everybody either plays four square or soccer. So it had to be something recent, or something over the weekend or something. And Joshua plays soccer, so he would be the farthest away from the slide, and we were on vacation from last Thursday to this Tuesday. So he couldn't have known about it or been involved with it. Until he got infected.
       I look around at everyone's faces. The people who I usually saw as calm were now very paranoid, looking around the room constantly and not touching anybody else.  I scan the room for Henry, since I want to make sure he's okay, or at least better. 
     "Wait." Anabelle began. "Don't go over yet, give him a breather." Anabelle says.
      A bit frustrated and annoyed I say, "Fine." As I sit back down. 
The only sounds in the room are of hushed voices, frantically making small talk and the sound of rushing students trying to help Henry or other students. 
        The silence ends when Liam shouts, "Hey! I lost you."
        I try to say something, but all of my thoughts suddenly leave my head.
        Anabelle saves me from the silence when she says, "Maybe we did it on purpose?" A smirk runs across her face, but she gives an innocent shrug. Liam's face seemingly turns blood red in anger, and Anabelle gives a sideways smile. "Joking. You good?"
"Me? I'm fine. You know I almost killed a kid at my old school, and..."
      Liam continues to rant about his tales of things he probably didn't even do at his old school, or anywhere, really. I zone out of the conversation, and then look around the room. I try to focus on the people and the walls, but my mind again thinks about the slide. How could I be so clueless and miss that? If I had done something so simple to just look, or anything! But that kind of thinking gets me nowhere.
      "We need to go out." Anabelle says as she looks up, her eyes as big as the stupidity of her idea. I begin to pay attention again.  
       "What'd I miss?" I ask.
        "I know you may be a chicken, and it's not very wise to go, but I think I'd risk it." Anabelle says.
         "No way! You'll get killed! It'll be like the Cornucopia from The Hunger Games came to life. That's a suicide mission, a bloodbath with a hint of virus!" Liam's temper rises, and his jaw tightens.
          "Yeah, stupid thought," she says with a sigh. "What's new?" Liam asked with sass.
          The silence is broken again, when Anabelle says, "We need a plan. We can't just sit here like cows on a farm, waiting to be slaughtered." Her voice rose with annoyance.
           "Well if we're doing that we need your girlfriend," Liam says in a childish, mocking voice, while then looking around the room for Paris. 
           I ignore his comment and get up to go talk to Henry. I pass Paris, and see her white skin shadowed by her brown hair. After walking a little bit more, I spot Henry, and notice his warm white skin, now pale, glistening with sweat. The gash in his leg isn't as bad, due to the help of the first aid kit and other students. His blue eyes focus on me and his pink lips turn upward for a pained smile. I now walk towards him.         
I look down and say, "Hey."  I try to keep my voice soft, so I don't bring any more attention to Henry and I. 
          His pale blue eyes fix on me and he says, "Hey."
         "I was wondering if I could talk to you?" I ask. He nods his head.
    "Can you get up? It's kind of private. You can stand up right?" I say, looking up and down his handsome body. Henry doesn't even respond, and he just stands up, even though he puts his hand on my shoulder for support. I grabbed his hips to help him get up, which increases his speed. When he is fully up, I somehow can't seem to to let go of his hips. He looks up at me, and his blue eyes look into my brown eyes. I feel the tension in between us, and I feel the need to pull him in closer.
"Hey! Henry and Jackson, sit down please." Mr. Richson yelled. I looked back at Mr. R, who then looked at me, and he then said, "And hands to yourself, Jackson."
Mr. Richson looked disgusted when he looked at me. He looked at me like I was doing something wrong, like I was doing something ugly and weird.
Was being gay weird? Was liking Henry weird? Was I gay? Was I weird? Mr. Richson must've thought so.