Zombie High
Roger Laird
Published by RogerLairdWriting at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Roger Laird
All rights reserved
Discover other works by Roger Laird at RogerLairdWriting.com
Table of Contents
Most stories about a zombie apocalypse use a stereotypical scenario of a zombie outbreak. The outbreak usually starts with some negative actions that go horribly wrong, like a corporation trying to create super soldiers, or perhaps no explanation of the source is identified. However one thing is common, the outbreak spreads fast and devastates nearly the entire population of the world in a short amount of time.
Then a group of heroes come along and start killing the zombies. Removing heads or causing massive head trauma are generally accepted ways to kill zombies. Survival mode kicks in and characters turn on their loved ones without apparent remorse. I doubt that very many of us would do that. We would be so overcome by grief that I doubt we could do much of anything. A person would have to be pretty cold hearted to kill their loved ones with no reservations. We might as well face it, if a zombie apocalypse were to occur the people we care about most would be the most likely candidate for first zombie you meet.
The zombies in these stories usually shuffle around with impaired movement. There are a few ways that people get caught by these types of zombies. First, there is the surprise factor. It seems unlikely to me that anyone who has been able to survive a total zombie apocalypse in their area would ever allow a situation in which they could be surprised. Second, there is the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of the hindered movement of the zombies. Inconceivably, they are all running, and wow they are fast. Did they run on the Olympic track team or what? There is always a door to go through at the last second, usually glass so that the character can get an up close look at what almost ate them. Forget that a horde of mindless zombies moving that fast with no concern for pain would probably bust through the door or knock it right off the hinges. Finally there is the mysterious “Super Zombie Slide” that occurs. This method is usually seen in older films. The zombies slide along dragging their feet in the first shot. Then in the next shot it shows the victim running for their life. It goes back and forth, the zombies never moving any faster but always gaining ground.
This story is not a stereotypical zombie story.
Breanne Murphy was an average high school student in almost every way. She attended St. Peters Private High School, she played a few sports throughout the year, but was nowhere near the best player on the team. Some seasons, in fact, she would be cut from a team or very close to it depending on how many lower class students tried out for a JV or Varsity position. She was not popular and she was not an outcast. She stood out so little outside of class, that many of her remarks would go unanswered or unnoticed in a conversation.
Breanne Murphy was average in almost every way with one very important exception. Breanne was extremely bright. In fact her intelligence level was not fully disclosed to her teachers. Over the years she had learned not to answer questions too frequently so her teachers wouldn’t exclude her from discussions. The truth was that her intelligence rivaled some of the great minds of the century and in later years she would make great discoveries in science and mathematics. In high school; however, she appeared to her friends and teachers as someone who merely had to work less than others to maintain her high grades. Her intelligence was augmented by the fact that, unlike some of the other great minds, she had a vast amount of common sense. It was this combination of intelligence and common sense that allowed her to survive what would later be referred to as The Zombie High Epidemic.
Breanne loved all subjects and liked all her classes. Her favorite class; however, was Advanced Placement Science. It was not the just subject matter that she loved so much. She was in her junior year and the school had had problems finding good science teachers. As a result, for the third year in a row, she had Mr. Stewart as her AP Science teacher. He had previously worked for a large university before coming to work at St. Peters, but he refused to give up his work testing the positive effects that natural ingredients had on increasing brain performance. The school board had allowed Mr. Stewart to test his drinks on the students because the ingredients were all approved by the FDA and generally used in food products.
Mr. Stewart and Breanne usually spent time after school in the lab working with all sorts of vitamins and plants with positive properties. They created concoctions and tested the effects on lab mice. Breanne had taken a few of the drinks herself when they had started, but they had a hard time evaluating whether her intellect increased or not. Recently they had had some particular success with a mixture and wanted to test the drink on students.
As it happened, one of Mr. Stewart’s regular science classes had a test the following day. Breanne and Mr. Stewart made arrangements to come in early and mix up the amount of the formula they would need to administer to half the class for the experiment. They split the class into two even groups with a similar range of test scores in each group.
In the morning, after spending several hours in the lab, Breanne and Mr. Stewart finished their preparations just in time for the morning bell. Breanne had received permission to skip her first few classes that day in order to assist Mr. Stewart with the experiment. After working for so long, Breanne needed to use the restroom. She asked to be excused and told Mr. Stewart that she didn’t mind missing the start of the experiment.
As Breanne left to use the restroom, Mr. Stewart stood on the raised platform in the front of the room. He pulled out the list and separated the class into the two different groups. He had them sit on opposite sides of the classroom and then asked, “Would someone be willing to come up and help me distribute the drinks to the students that will be receiving them?” Once all the test group students had their portions, he poured the remaining juice into his mug and took a drink. He was glad that the taste of the concoction was pleasant. Otherwise, the students might not have been willing to drink.
After seeing that Mr. Stewart had drank his portion of the juice, the students drank their portions and set to work on the test. Breanne had developed a test that would require far more complex thinking to really test the power of the concoction. The extra effort that was needed to figure out the problems would have normally been far beyond the capacity of any of the students. The control group was expected to fail miserably, while the test group was expected to excel.
As the effects of the juice began to kick in, the students in the test group set to work. None of them had a hard time answering the questions on the exam. In fact, every one of them ended up getting all of the answers correct, but as it turned out, their performances would not be discovered, nor would it matter. The test group students’ brains were in a hyper state of activity. When the sudden end of the test came, something in their minds broke.
Miranda was in the test group. Being the smartest student in the class, she finished the test first, as usual. She finished several minutes ahead of the rest of the students. She got up from her seat and took the test to Mr. Stewart’s podium. After delivering her test she just stood there staring at Mr. Stewart. Miranda had always been a respectful student. So when she continued to simply stand and stare at Mr. Stewart, he assumed she wanted to hear her grade. He put his head down and started checking her solutions. He ignored several other students as they turned in their tests. Several of the students from the control group who were still taking the exam began to whisper uncomfortably. Mr. Stewart was so focused on Miranda’s test that he was unaware that all of the students from the test group were now standing in front of the podium with Miranda.
Mr. Stewart called for silence as he turned the page to start checking the proof on Miranda’s final problem. As he turned the page he cut his finger on the edge of the paper. As the blood ran down his finger, the smell acted like a catalyst. Miranda and the other students frantically scrambled over the podium. Miranda reached Mr. Stewart first. Grabbing his arm, she sunk her teeth into his flesh. She ripped away with a piece of his arm in her mouth and blood splattered everywhere. A scream from one of the control group students distracted the other zombie students and they turned to attack the rest of the class. Miranda stood in front of Mr. Stewart grinning, with blood all over her face as she chewed the morsel of his arm that she had claimed.
To Mr. Stewart’s dismay the students who were being attacked seemed to instantly become blood thirsty like their attackers. When this happened the other zombified students would cease attacking them. As it was, many of the control group students were seriously injured, but their injuries ceased to bother them after the change had taken place. Mr. Stewart watched in horror as the students he loved and adored ravaged each other. Knowing that he would soon become the target again, and noting that he had not been infected by the attack like the students, he made his way to the door.
He burst out into the hallway screaming and holding his still bleeding wound. He tripped over Breanne as she was returning from the bathroom. Other teachers came out into the hall to check what the scream had been about. Their students poked their heads out into the hall to see the commotion. Seeing Mr. Stewart’s blood, several of the teachers ran to help him. Breanne stood while Mr. Stewart dragged himself to his feet and yelled for everyone to run.
Breanne ran with Mr. Stewart, but his colleagues stood frozen in confusion. As Breanne and Mr. Stewart reached the far end of the hallway, a wave of zombified students rushed out of his classroom and attacked the teachers. One of the teachers, Mrs. Canterbury, who taught troubled students, was able to fight her way free with minor injuries and hurry to join Breanne and Mr. Stewart at the end of the hall.
They stood and watched as the zombies attacked and killed the other adults. When they finished they turned on the nearest classroom. It was then that Breanne noticed that they were working together to attack successfully. They had also taken the time to dress the wounds of their companions and staunch the bleeding. They made quick work of the door to the first classroom. After several minutes filled with terrified screaming, the zombies returned to the hall in greater numbers. This time they split into two groups and attacked two classrooms at once.
That was enough for Breanne. “These aren’t mindless zombies like in the movies. They’re thinking logically and strategically. How can we stop them? We can’t just kill our friends.”
It was Mrs. Canterbury that supplied the answer to her question. “This school used to be a military base. I think there was some sort of lockdown mechanism that prevented anyone from getting in or out. If we activate it we can prevent the rest of the town from being attacked, but we won’t be able to get out ourselves either.” All three of them agreed that this was the best course of action. They set out towards the principal’s office. If they had any luck, Mr. Jenkins would still be there, safely away from attacking students.
When they reached the main office of the school, they found that the secretary was out to lunch. Breanne barged through the door to the principal’s office and found Mr. Jenkins sitting behind his desk with his head down. He was snoring so loudly that he would have rivaled a fog horn. Breanne walked over and began shaking him to wake him up.
Mr. Jenkins’ office also served as the nurse’s office and, indeed, he had often tended students when they were injured. Mrs. Canterbury took Mr. Stewart over to the first aid kit on the wall and started tending to his wound. After she had wrapped his arm adequately, she turned her attention to her own wounds. When Breanne was finally able to rouse Mr. Jenkins from his nap, she explained the situation. Mr. Jenkins looked at her as if she were crazy. He did not believe the source of the devastation until she forced him to look at the security monitors.
When he saw the students were wreaking havoc, he was horrified for a moment. Then the horror passed. He came to the conclusion that he was dreaming. Mr. Jenkins activated the lockdown system. He figured that if he was dreaming it couldn’t do any harm. Mr. Stewart and Mrs. Canterbury came over and asked Mr. Jenkins to divulge the location of the controls that would deactivate the lockdown system.
When the system had been installed by the military, it was set so there were several locations that it could be activated from. Deactivation could only be accomplished in one of the high clearance sectors in the building. The controls were in a hidden panic room in the basement. Being the highest official currently presiding in the building, and the washed up son of the military officer that previously commanded the old base, Mr. Jenkins knew the code required to enter the panic room.
The four survivors turned to the security monitors again. Nearly all the classrooms had been overrun. Now groups of zombie teens were gathering in the hallways. When the school went into lock-down mode, it was divided into three zones on the ground floor. Each zone had an access point to the basement. Mr. Jenkins’ office was in zone one. The access point to the basement was just outside Mr. Jenkins’ office door. As they watched the security monitors, one of the students walked over and began motioning to the security camera. Another zombie caught his meaning and busted out the lens. Soon other zombies were following their example and every camera in zone one and zone two were black. Zone three seemed to be fully operational.
As they now noticed, it was completely free of signs of infestation as well. In that zone, no signs of movement were present whatsoever. As the monitor scrolled to the next camera, Mr. Stewart shouted, “That’s my classroom.” It seemed that in the chaos, the wave of zombies had made their way out of the zone where the attack had begun. The survivors decided to make their way down to the panic room and see if there was any way to get out of their current situation.
Before they left, Breanne picked up the phone and dialed 9-1-1. She managed to inform the operator that there was an emergency at St. Peters High School, which the police already knew from the alarm that accompanied the lockdown system, before the line went dead. “The…the..they cut the phones,” she stammered.
“Law enforcement wouldn’t be much help in this circumstance. Even the military would have a hard time breaking in here,” laughed Mr. Jenkins.
The zombies had reached the hallway outside the office but had not come into the office yet. The students at St. Peters High School detested Mr. Jenkins. They couldn’t stand his militaristic style of discipline. He had also let himself go over the years. As a result, he was fat and smelly. That distaste had been strong enough to keep the zombie students from entering the offices.
But when the four survivors came out of the office and opened the door to the basement, some of the zombified teens spotted them. A boy let out an unintelligible yell and the horde came running after them. Mrs. Canterbury was the last through the door and she slammed it behind her. They ran down the stairs as fast as they could. As the zombies slammed into the metal door behind them, the door gave way and a mass of zombies tumbled after the survivors.
It was fortunate that the zombies had tumbled down the stairs in a mass because it took them some time to pull apart and get to their feet at the bottom. Many of the zombies were injured and that impaired their speed further. It was enough to allow the survivors the time they needed to reach the door into the panic room and enter the code without being caught. The door locked automatically behind them and the zombies began beating on the door with rhythmic thuds.
It took several minutes for the main power that operated the panic room to come on automatically as it was intended and for the outdated lights to activate. Once they did, the room was filled with a bright light and none of the survivors could see any better than they had been able to in the darkness. After several panicked seconds, Breanne’s eyes adjusted to the light. Monitors lined the walls. Many of the screens were blank but there seemed to be some cameras that had not been displayed on the monitors in Mr. Jenkins office. Some of the cameras were still active in zone one and zone two. The survivors could see that the zombies had missed these cameras and that they were probably hidden in some way.
The lights from the screens cast a greenish white glow into the room. Breanne was thankful for the fluorescent lights in the room because they lessened the grim glow from the monitors. There were two other doors in the room that led back out to the different zones. Each door had a plaque mounted above it with the name of the sector that it led out to. The fact that each sector had a separate entrance into the panic room meant that they would be able to escape into the abandoned third sector to retrieve whatever supplies they could find.
Mr. Stewart and Mrs. Canterbury were discussing something intensely while Mr. Jenkins had found a chair, and to Breanne’s amazement, had fallen back asleep. Breanne moved closer to the teachers to join the conversation. As she did, she discovered that Mr. Stewart was insisting on going up into zone three to look for supplies. He also wanted to get into his lab to gather some ingredients to attempt to work on a cure.
The only issue with finding a cure was that they weren’t sure how to test it. They could not open the door into the other sectors because they would be overwhelmed by the zombie students. If that happened the zombies could then figure out how to deactivate the lockdown system and then wreak havoc on the town. The survivors decided to solve that problem later and Breanne accompanied Mr. Stewart into the abandoned zone.
Mr. Stewart and Breanne made their way through the empty halls. They entered classrooms and gathered any food and drinks that they could find in students’ backpacks. Breanne took a bat from a baseball player’s bag and held it out in front of her just in case. The search of the zone took them nearly an hour. The final room they entered was Mr. Stewart’s classroom and laboratory. They cautiously walked toward the back of the room to enter into the laboratory.
Breanne led the way between the desks and the row of cabinets that lined the wall for storing lab supplies. Before they reached the door to the laboratory, it burst open. Miranda stood directly ahead of them. She was covered in blood and had a sad look in her eyes. She mumbled and gargled, but was unable to speak any words. Breanne hesitated. She knew she should kill or impair Miranda before she could attack them. If Breanne were bitten, she would become a zombie like the rest of the teenagers, but she could not just brutally attack someone that she saw on a daily basis.
When Miranda finally did attack, Mr. Stewart shoved Breanne aside so hard that she tumbled over two rows of desks. When she regained her senses, she turned to help Mr. Stewart. In her frantic state, and Mr. Stewart’s peril, she overcame her reservations about harming Miranda. She ran forward hitting Miranda in the chest with the bat. Miranda tumbled backwards off of Mr. Stewart. As Miranda jumped back to her feet, Breanne advanced on her swiftly and smashed her in the leg with the bat, breaking the bone. Miranda collapsed to one knee with a blood curdling scream and then rose to her feet again, pushing herself up on the nearby desk. Breanne swung again, breaking Miranda’s other leg. Miranda tried to rise to her feet again but was unsuccessful.
Breanne ran back to her injured teacher. She grabbed his arms and heaved. In this manner, she dragged Mr. Stewart back down the hallway and down into the basement toward the panic room. Miranda crawled after them the entire way. Mrs. Canterbury screamed, frozen in terror when the door opened and she saw Miranda crawling along after them. Breanne yelled for her to come and help bring Mr. Stewart back into the room. They shut the door just before Miranda had crawled close enough to prevent it.
Mrs. Canterbury immediately focused on bandaging Mr. Stewart’s new wounds. She worked slowly and in complete silence. When she finished, she asked Breanne what had happened. Breanne explained as best she could. Mr. Stewart was going into shock. His face was pale and his temperature was rising. They gave him some water that had been in the backpack Breanne was still carrying on her back. He coughed it out. He was in no condition to make another venture into zone three to attempt to find a cure.
Breanne knew that she was the only one who stood a chance to correct the great wrong they had committed. When she finally set her mind to it, she decided not to let Mrs. Canterbury know of her plans. Breanne looked up at the monitors and saw the zombies trying to break down the doors to the panic room from zones one and two. Miranda was lying outside the door to zone three. To Breanne’s surprise she was not trying to claw her way in. Breanne turned her attention back to the other monitors. As she studied them, she noticed that the attempts of the other zombies had become increasingly systematic. Miranda must have known she would not be able to breach the room on her own.
Mr. Jenkins was still fast asleep and Mrs. Canterbury was closely monitoring Mr. Stewart. So when Breanne walked over to the door and yanked it open, Mrs. Canterbury’s response was too slow to stop her. Breanne leapt over Miranda’s head and grabbed her by the ankles. She dragged Miranda away from the door and begged Mrs. Canterbury to close it behind her. Mrs. Canterbury was crying hysterically as she shut the door to the panic room.
Breanne dropped Miranda’s legs and ran away. She swiftly made her way up to the hallway of zone three. She found a supply closet and retrieved some rope. Then she went to the nearest classroom and got the teacher’s high backed desk chair. She gathered her courage, and when Miranda came crawling into the hallway, Breanne sprang on top of her and tied Miranda’s hands as tightly as she could. Then she lifted Miranda into the chair and tied her legs, chest, and head tightly to the chair.
With Miranda secured to the chair, Breanne wheeled the chair down the hallway to Mr. Stewart’s classroom. She left Miranda at the front of the class while she went to the back of the room and opened the door into the laboratory. She walked in and looked up and down the aisles between the lab tables in order to insure that there would not be another unexpected attack.
Once she cleared the lab, she returned to the classroom to bring Miranda in. Breanne wheeled Miranda to the front of the lab a good distance from the table that she had decided to work at. That way she would be able to keep a close eye on Miranda as she worked. With Miranda in place, Breanne went to the refrigerator and started gathering the ingredients that Mr. Stewart and she used to create concoctions.
As she sat down to work, she looked out the thick barred windows of the lab. She noticed that it was dark outside. Breanne wasn’t sure how much time had passed since the attack had started. She was certain that she wouldn’t have noticed if several days had gone by. Red and blue flashing lights swam on the ceiling. Again, she was thankful for the lighting that drowned out the flashing lights. She took a beaker and started mixing in ingredients, carefully documenting the combination, amount, and order in which the ingredients were added.
When she finished the mixture, she walked over to Miranda and forced her to drink it. Breanne went back to work at the table. She checked on Miranda again after ten minutes. Seeing no change in her condition, Breanne went back to the table to work. There was no change with the second mixture either. Nor was there a change with the third. By the one hundredth mixture Breanne was starting to lose hope.
She sat down on a stool near Miranda at the front of the classroom to observe the one hundred and first mixture’s results. As she did, Breanne mumbled to herself unintelligibly. When she stopped, the mumbling continued. Breanne looked up at Miranda who was staring back at her with knowing eyes. “I wish you could talk so I would know what you are thinking,” Breanne said to her.
Then Breanne noticed that Miranda’s hand was bunched, as if holding something. She was swirling it in the air in front of her. An idea occurred to Breanne. She ran back to the lab table and grabbed her pen and notepad. She spoke out loud, asking Miranda how she was feeling. She put the pen in Miranda’s hand and held the paper so Miranda could write. When Miranda finished writing Breanne turned the paper around to read. The paper read:
I feel great for the most part. My head is clearer than it has ever been before, except for the overwhelming sensation that is driving me to bite you. Before you and Mr. Stewart came back upstairs to look in the lab, I had control of my senses. But as soon as I knew that the two of you were alive, and uninfected, I lost control again. If you untied me, I think I could help you find an antidote to this accursed infection.
Breanne considered the paper for several minutes. She was certain that untying Miranda would be a mistake. She was not sure how long it would take her to discover a cure, and then how would she administer it once she had? In those few minutes, she had determined a course of action. She knew she was not going to be able to find an antidote quickly enough to prevent everyone in the school from starving to death. In order to be more effective, she needed to be smarter. She rose from her stool and walked to the front of the room. She rolled up her sleeve as she approached Miranda. She held her bare arm in front of Miranda’s face. Miranda tried to resist by moving her head from side to side, but she was tied too tightly. Finally, Miranda gave in.
Breanne screamed in pain as teeth tore into her flesh. She felt a strange sensation moving through her veins. The last few seconds of Breanne’s scream were nothing more than moaning. Her head was clear, but there was an insatiable tugging sensation in her stomach. She was hungry and she knew what she craved. The craving for blood was foremost in her mind. The craving stemmed from a desire to be cured. It seemed that what Breanne needed to be cured was contained in human blood, but for some reason the blood of the zombified Miranda held no draw for her. In her heightened intelligence, she found that there was something more than just human blood that she needed to be cured. She mastered the sensation and rushed to the lab table with her notepad. With her new craving to guide her, Breanne set to work again. She worked to find an antidote that did not require human blood as part of the composition. The first two mixtures had no effect. The third mixture revealed the horror of Breanne’s mistake.
Miranda spoke out one loud word. “NO!” But it had been too late. Breanne’s original hunger increased exponentially. It overwhelmed all of her senses. She dove at a cured Miranda, biting her on the arm. Once she had bitten Miranda, the sensation vanished again. She tried to apologize, but only moans came out. Miranda moaned in response, but her angry eyes told Breanne that Miranda had been infected again. Breanne retrieved the remaining amount of the mixture and drank it. Then she mixed more to give to Miranda. In her excitement, Breanne spilled it onto Miranda’s arm. To Breanne’s amazement, Miranda was cured simply by the contact with the antidote. Breanne set to apologizing immediately, but Miranda was too preoccupied with the pain in her broken legs to listen. Finally, she told Breanne that she forgave her just to shut her up. Breanne untied her.
Miranda did not rise from her chair. She asked Breanne to wheel her next to the lab table so she could watch as Breanne mixed more of the antidote that would be needed. Miranda began looking around the room. While Breanne worked, she and Miranda debated how they could administer the cure to everyone at once. Breanne hoped that the fact that the antidote could be absorbed through the skin would help them to find a solution. Suddenly Miranda burst out, “I’ve got it.”
Breanne’s eyes widened with excitement as she listened to Miranda’s idea of administering the antidote. Breanne knew it would take some work. She also knew that Miranda’s solution was the only way for them to make sure no one else got infected again after they were cured like Miranda had been. Miranda continued explaining to Breanne.
Miranda had remembered something she had seen while she was crawling after Breanne in the basement. Against the wall was a large tank that was labeled FIRE SPRINKLER RESERVE. This tank was meant to provide enough water to run all the fire sprinklers in the building for an hour if the water main had been shut off for some reason. If Breanne could find the main water supply to the school and shut it down, she would force the reserve to be used. If she mixed the antidote into the fire sprinkler tank and set off the sprinklers, everyone would receive the antidote at once.
Breanne was certain that the only effect that diluting the antidote in water might have, would be a delayed recovery time. Breanne went down to the basement by herself because Miranda was unable to get out of her chair. She located the water tank and poured the antidote into the tank, stirring it in with a broom handle. Then she began looking for the water main shut-off.
It was not hard to identify once she found it in an obscure room of the basement. It was labeled with a large sign that said MAIN WATER SHUT-OFF. The valve was stiff. Breanne pried on it with all her strength for about ten seconds before freeing it. Once it broke free, it moved with ease into the closed position.
Breanne arrived back in the laboratory gasping from running the entire way. She explained to Miranda that she had been successful. Miranda indicated a Bunsen burner on the side counter and asked Breanne, “Would you like to do the honors?”
Breanne connected the burner and took a striker from a drawer. She lit the burner and held her notepad over the flame. When it ignited, she stood on her stool and held the flame directly below the sprinkler. Soon there was water pouring down on them. It was cold, wet, and uncomfortable, but they didn’t really mind. After an hour, the water ceased and Breanne and Miranda cheered out loud in their relief.
“Now we need to get into the panic room in the basement to see if it worked. Then we can override the lockdown system,” Breanne said as she pushed Miranda through the hall on her chair. When they reached the stairs to the basement, Breanne carried Miranda downstairs and over to the door of the panic room. She was so certain in her success, that the burden of carrying set Miranda hadn’t bothered her. She set Miranda down and entered the code to the door. She pulled it open and Mrs. Canterbury gasped as Breanne came in carrying a cured Miranda.
The students on the monitors were all sitting down in the hallways. They were all soaking wet and crying or had their faces buried in their hands. They had all been cured, but Mrs. Canterbury still refused to override the lockdown system for another two hours just to be safe. Mr. Stewart was sleeping when Breanne had returned and Mr. Jenkins showed no signs of waking up.
Though the military had questioned Breanne and Mr. Stewart about the ingredients of the concoction that started the ordeal, neither Breanne or Mr. Stewart ever revealed the true ingredients to them. In the years to come, the military tried to recreate the situation. They were never successful.
The scientists set to investigate why the incident had occurred, determined that the reason only teenagers had been affected, was that all of their thinking was done with their prefrontal cortex. The hyper-activity of their brains had short circuited their minds. The loss of coherent vocalization and the sensation of pain were side effects of the infection. In fact, when Miranda had stood in front of Mr. Stewart’s desk on that fateful day, she had been trying to tell him that something was wrong, but she wasn’t able to speak the words. When the students first smelled the fresh blood from Mr. Stewart’s paper cut, it had acted like a trigger. The students had thought that human blood would cure them. It was only with Breanne’s higher intelligence that she was able to determine that something more was needed.
Mr. Jenkins refused to ever face the reality of what had occurred. He was eventually institutionalized. Mr. Stewart and Mrs. Canterbury resigned from their jobs. With the secretary being the only other staff member at the school that had avoided death, due to her having been at lunch when the outbreak occurred, the school was forced to close for the rest of the year. Many of the students and their families moved away.
Breanne and Miranda’s families were among the few families who stayed. Their parents forced them to go through grief counseling, even though both girls were coping very well. The two girls developed a great friendship in the following months. Breanne visited Miranda every day while her legs were healing. Afterward they did everything together. Somehow both girls had been accredited with saving the school. Breanne explained to Miranda, “I couldn’t have cured anybody without your help. You gave me the inspiration to change and also came up with the idea to use the sprinklers to administer the cure.” Both girls were given full scholarships to the college of their choice as a reward for ending the ordeal.
When they did return to school the next year, it was as legends. Not just Breanne and Miranda, but all of the students that had survived the ordeal. Each of them was marked with one or more bite mark scars. Miranda was the only one of the test group students who was left at the school, and thanks to Breanne’s mistake while curing her; she had a bite mark scar too. Nothing eventful happened at St. Peter’s High School in the following years. Breanne and Miranda decided to attend the same college and ended up starting a medical company that worked towards solving the existing epidemics of the world. They accomplished many great things together, but neither of them ever forgot their day at Zombie High.
The End
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Over a thousand years has passed since The Great Disaster changed the geography of our world forever. Technology has fallen away from the world and feudal society has emerged again. New warriors have taken up the weapons of older times. General Tao Blight has risen to meet his fate and fight alongside them as the leader of Aodhan's First Royal Army. His fellow soldiers and countrymen have freely given him their respect, but they might start to question where his loyalties lay if they found out his true heritage.
Tao has not always belonged to the country he now serves. His childhood home was located in the disputed territories, far closer to the Naichian Empire’s border than the border of the Aodhan Kingdom. There had been a time when his father kept a strong stance of neutrality when it came to matters regarding the feuding countries, but his ideal of neutrality could not persevere when his homeland was the subject of dispute.
Tao's mother was murdered after his father enlisted in the Imperial Military. Her death served as the catalyst that drove Tao and his father to opposite sides of an extreme conflict. Now, Tao is on the brink of ending the war once and for all. But how will he cope when he is forced to face the memories of his complex past?
Join Tao in LEGACY: A FATHER’S TALE as he attempts to create a new legacy and fights for the peace his world so greatly desires.
Preface
Not long after the beginning of the twenty first century, an event occurred in nature that was driven by the actions of men. The scientific rules that govern the world were stretched to their limits. As the rules could not be broken, the world snapped back to correct its position in the universe. The result of this event would later become known as The Great Disaster. At the time of The Great Disaster there were over ten billion humans living on Earth, nearly all perished in The Great Disaster. Many more died in the chaos that followed.
The only portions of the known world that are inhabitable by humans at the time this story begins are the portions of the world that sat on the Eurasian and African tectonic plates. The world bulged out beneath the Eastern hemisphere, raising the elevations of the major tectonic plates in that portion of the world. The African plate slammed into the Eurasian plate, forming the highest mountain ranges ever known and merging the two continents into one. The other plates were mostly covered by water when the polar ice caps broke apart and melted, causing ocean levels to rise. Any survivors in the mountainous regions still above water were evacuated to the sole surviving continent.
Much of the blame fell on the scientific community and, as unlikely as it may seem, all technology and most sciences were destroyed in a process lasting hundreds of years. Society fell apart, rose again, and crumbled, in a vicious cycle. Eventually, groups banned together, forming the new countries of the Aodhan Kingdom and the Naichian Empire. These countries became reflections of the ideals that ancient countries stood for long before The Great Disaster.
Over a thousand years has passed since The Great Disaster. Humanity is a mere shadow of its former self. Feudalism won out as a way of life, and has been practiced with far greater success than had ever been achieved in the past. A great peace was won and it lasted many years. A neutral territory’s leader, in his greed, created cause for war between the last two civilizations on the Earth. Now a new generation of warriors must rise up to meet fate and leave their legacy on the world.
Legacy
A Father’s Tale
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One may not love thee so
Yet, given chance to love
May change faces
Locked behind garden walls
Sit thee in the heat of day
Crying the world away
And doors remain shut
In thine hands thine heart asunder
Thou spend thy soul
To avoid a blunder
Walls such as these deter all that come
Yet I stay forth, striving to reach within
Be it to care for thee
Such a mortal sin
Then dead I’d ready be
To care not would be my wrong
And to wrong thee is my fear and my pain
Thus I be so profane
When in thy presence stay I
Wishing for favor in thine eye
Love not known yet love be sworn
In disguise it lay for fear of scorn
Sprouting wings to fly away
For secrets cannot remain
Given chance, risking mistake
And worse, causing pain to thee
I know all at stake
And ask only for you to see
I love thee
Boundless Ends
In a forest of many years stood two trees alike
Of some yesterday were towering
Two dragons, gone bad, in the sky
Seeking vengeance for things thought stolen
Turned course for there
Guided by some unknown rage
A hate welled up that no one knew
The first dragon came of early mourn
Engulfing the branches with its fire
Leaving a gaping hole where it struck
And the animals housed by this tree
Frantic and worried
Made their way down the branches
The creatures of the forest came
To watch the horrid sight
Now the inhabitants of the second tree
Had heard of the tragedy of the first
And began to scamper down the trunk
As they did, they heard a call in the midst of it all
To return to business now
Moments later the second fury came
A dragon in the sky
Hitting the second tree with an even greater force
The sight seen by the whole forest
Bringing an awe to the creatures
Showing them how vulnerable they were
And then more tragedy
The second tree fell
Taking creatures into its trap
As it came crashing down
It took other trees with it
And then the first tree fell
A sight that was sad to see
And as darkness poured in
The realization that the forest had changed
Hit hardest in the woods surrounding
When the fireflies usually gathered to sit upon the trees
Lighting up the skies
And now the greatest lanterns of all
Were gone forever