Chapter 1: The School

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When the world comes crashing down on everything that you once knew and cared about, and when your life hangs on the thinnest of threads, threatening to break with even the slightest movement, the last thing that would run through your mind would be why it all happened. All you would be able to think about is the immediate necessity to preserve your life; live a little longer, move a little faster, because the second you slow down- the second the idea of giving up even flashes through your mind- would be the moment you’d be submitting your life to the inevitable death that awaits you. All you would have time for is to take the next step, to keep moving forward.

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John sat hunched in his seat, looking out through the grimy windows of the bus as the rain ceaselessly pelted the glass. The scenery outside whipped past as the trees and bushes all became one long, green blur. The petrichor of the foliage lining the side of the road seeped through the school buss’ ventilation, giving the interior a calming smell of wilderness accompanied by a dampness that made his hands and arms clammy.

Readjusting his position on the seat to avoid having to touch the vinyl cover with his moist skin, John pulled out his earphones and plugged them into his smartphone. Looking at rainy weather always left him pensive and melancholy so he decided some classical music would best compliment the overall atmosphere. Listening to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, he didn’t hear the buzz of conversation in the packed bus increased as more students were picked up to go to school. Raising the volume, and continuing to look out the window, he noticed too late that someone was about to sit next to him.

He didn’t like to sit next to people on the bus as there was never enough room and the person sitting next to him always seemed to smell like he’d never taken a shower in his life. He would customarily put his backpack on the seat and try to take up as much room as possible to ward off any would-be seatmates but having been distracted by the weather and the music, he hadn’t the opportunity to do so before another boy sat next to him.

Luckily, the person who sat down was his close friend, Sam. John was of slightly above average height, around an odd inch shy of breaking the six feet mark, with dark brown hair and eyes that you would mistake as black if you didn’t look closely. Having been in the soccer team since the beginning of freshman year, his body had toned to a lean, muscular frame.

In contrast, Sam was less athletic. With blond hair and green-blue eyes, he boasted a more wiry build with a jawline so sharp it could cut stone. Due to his generally amiable disposition, Sam had become quite popular among the right circles.

John was the type that was usually reserved and introverted when he was by himself but easily was the life of a party if he needed to be, which was largely the reason why he was quite familiar with most of the different friend groups in the school.

Placing his backpack between his legs to avoid it rolling down the walkway of the bus, Sam greeted John.

“Good morning, John. You look tired as always.” Sam said amicably.

Giving a defeated smile and a sigh, John replied, “Hey. Yeah. Didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“You never get sleep,” Sam scoffed. John had to agree, his habits of taking three hour naps right after getting home, followed by a good 8 hour session of cruising through the internet left him little time to finish his homework before dawn broke. Sleeping at 3 in the morning was not an uncommon occurrence. Giving a noncommittal shrug, he decided to change the topic from broaching on analyzing his bad habits.

“Did you see the news?” John asked.

“Yeah. You mean the disease that turns people crazy that they found in-what was it? Afghanistan? Kazakhstan, I think? One of the ‘-stan’ countries.”

“Pakistan, you uncultured swine.” John replied jokingly.

As an American, they naturally were not inclined to learning the basic country names and cultures outside of their own and the internet never spared an opportunity to remind them of the capitalist, imperial Americans that they were. The only reason John could recall the name was because he’d read the article just that morning. At 3 AM. When he should have been doing his homework, instead.

Sam, trying to save some of his dignity, took out his phone and brought up an article on the disease. CCN had reported a week before of unrest rising in Pakistan as riots and looting had risen in frequency sharply over the course of a few days.

Although the news may have seemed less than extraordinary, what made it jump to the headlines was the fact that the country was actually in a period of extreme stability for the past several months, and the new emergence of seemingly unprovoked unrest may either be the arrival of a new movement in the people, or a new radicalist group working behind the scenes to create unrest. What really raised the eyebrows of the people back in the States was the government’s military response to the situation.

Airports, borders, and streets had been locked down in the radius of the riots and the military had been called in with full force to handle the situation. It seemed somewhat excessive yet no word from the Pakistani government left many people around the world guessing as to what was going on in the South Asian country.

It was only yesterday that news broke suggesting that the commotion may have been caused by growing concern regarding a disease originating from one of their small towns.

After reading the article, the two, as the proud Americans they were, found some interest in the military movements but soon wrote it off as the Middle East being the Middle East.

They arrive at school, being the last of a long entourage of yellow painted school buses that systematically unloaded their cargo of students before heading off to whatever magical land buses go to when not transporting children.

Contemplating the mysterious laws governing the after-hour social lives of buses, John made his way to the first class of the day. Entering the classroom, John sat in the very front and center and started taking out his materials for class.

He wasn’t such a dedicated student as to consistently sit at the front of class hoping to curry the favor of the teacher, but rather he had a habit of falling asleep in class due to his irregular sleep schedule and thus left it to the teacher to keep him accountable and attentive during class. If he sat at the front, the teacher, seeing him dozing, would discreetly bump his foot into the leg of John’s desk, jerking him back to the realm of the living.

The teacher, confirming that the time for class to start had arrived, stood up from his seat and began teaching the lecture while the students furiously scribbled in their notebooks to keep up with the material.

Starting to daydream, John went into a trance like state of writing while his mind went to battle fantastical creatures elsewhere in the depths of his mind. Only when the bell rang did he return from his stupor and pack up his stuff.

The teacher assigned the students to write an essay describing their thoughts and feelings on the current news of the disease and to relate it to some of the material they’d learned in class. After stuffing the assignment in his bag, he headed off to his next class.. Rinse and repeat. Five more classes passed in relatively the same way and he made his way to the cafeteria.

Walking up behind John, two figures approached.

“Going to lunch?” Sam asked.

“Yeah. Hey David.” John replied while greeting his other friend who had accompanied Sam.

David was Chinese and had been John’s close friend since middle school. Slightly shorter than John, David had gotten an interest in a variety of interests that ran parallel with John’s, never intersecting. Because of this, over the years they had not had many opportunities to hang out but they still maintained a good relationship.

The three made their way down to the cafeteria and got their lunches before sitting down with the rest of their friends. The table was packed with at least a dozen people trying to talk over each other.

After some aimless and pointless banter to pass the time, Sam turned to David.

“Did you hear the news? Shits going down in Pakistan.” Sam emphasized Pakistan, seemingly making a point to recoup from the embarrassment of showing his ignorance of the world earlier that day.

“Shits always happening. Somewhere. All the time.” David said indifferently.

“Yeah but this is different. Apparently an update came out a few hours ago saying that the disease messes with the mind or something.” Sam said excitedly. John perked up at the new information and intently listened while pretending to be distracted by some other conversation. He wasn’t going to give Sam the satisfaction of knowing more than him.

But as he turned to look away into the distance, he caught sight of a girl. She had long, wavy dark brown hair and a heart shaped face and a light tan. She had curves that would make a man snap his neck trying to turn to get a glimpse of her rear. Secretly admiring such a beauty, he appreciated the God-given gift that was women. Realizing his original intent, he once again focused his attention on Sam.

“-and now they’re closing airports and borders to try to contain the situation but looks like it won’t hold.” Sam finished his story with an ominous tone trying to get a rise from David. Frustrated that he missed the majority of the story, John sighed and decided to just read about it in the news when he had time.

“It won’t get in the US, will it?” Vinay, one of the friends at the table asked worriedly. He wanted to be a doctor when he graduated college but ironically, was too afraid of disease and germs to actually do anything remotely close to working in medicine.

“Doubt it. Not with homeland security being hounded by Faux New’s fear mongering. It’ll fade from our minds in a few days” David assuaged Vinay’s fears.

John looked out of the window, seeing the rain pelting the glass. He contemplated on the growing fear and how blinded to reason people could become because of it. He thought to himself, it’s just another hyped up danger out in the other side of the world. It’ll pass with time.

Unfortunately, it would not pass. Not with this. It would only get worse.