The Morning The World Broke

**Marisol**

The first scream came from somewhere past the science wing.

I stopped in the hallway, copies still warm in my hands. The sound was short and wet, not the usual student shout. I waited. No second scream followed. An administrator farther down the corridor caught my eye and gave a sharp nod, sweat already shining on his forehead even though the air still held the morning chill. I turned back toward my classroom.

Room 306 smelled of dry-erase markers and the faint sourness of teenagers who had skipped the shower. Most of the desks were filled. Three sat empty. Nora's was one of them. Unusual. Nora never missed first period.

I set the papers down and opened the attendance sheet. My mind flicked, once, to the apartment I had left an hour earlier. Ethan's last kiss still lingered on my cheek. The Pinterest board for the wedding still open on my laptop. Soft sage. Months away. Safe. I pushed the thought aside and started the lesson on energy alternatives.

Two boys in the back whispered over a phone, shoulders hunched. I let it go. Then the door opened and Nora hurried in, out of breath, eyes red and wet. I nodded her toward her seat. Soft shouting drifted from the hallway again, closer this time.

I checked my email between the warm-up questions. The principal's message was already marked urgent.

*Due to the high risk the CDC has placed on this sickness, school will dismiss after lunch so students can still eat. This is city-wide for Richmond. Tell your classes by the end of first period. No fourth period. No need to panic. This is only a precaution.*

I cleared my throat. The class looked up.

"There's a flu-like sickness going around. We're leaving early, right after lunch. Same day, just no fourth period."

Cheers broke out, too loud, too sharp. I smiled because it was expected. Fourth period was always my hardest group. These kids were mostly good.

I dug out the video questions for *The Lorax* and handed them around. Pollution. Dying plants. Problems that still had worksheets. I told them to behave and stepped out to make the extra copies.

Halfway to the copy room I collided with Sarah Chen. Papers scattered across the linoleum.

"I'm so sorry, Marisol."

"My fault. I wasn't looking."

Sarah's face was tight. "Just got a call from my kid's school. High fever. I'm on my way to get her." She checked her watch and was already moving. "I have to go."

"Hope she feels better."

I gathered the papers and started back. The second scream cut through the hallway, closer, higher. I flinched. The copies slipped from my hands and spread across the floor. I left them.

When I stepped into 306 the students were already watching the door. I kept my voice even.

"I'll be right back."

The administrator at the end of the hall nodded again. Sweat ran down his temples in thick lines. I closed the classroom door and stood with my back against it for a moment, palms damp. Just keep teaching. It is not happening near you.

A few minutes later the door slammed open hard enough to crack the plaster.

A teenage boy staggered in, both hands pressed to his stomach. Blood leaked between his fingers in dark ribbons that dripped onto the floor in slow, heavy drops.

"Ms. Reyes. I can't make it to the nurse. I feel so hot. I can't move."

I helped him onto the nearest desk. My pulse slammed against my throat. I looked at the closest student.

"Call the office. Tell them we need the nurse in 306. Now. What happened?"

His eyes were red and irritated, the whites shot through with broken vessels. Someone shoved a roll of paper towels into my hands. I pressed the entire roll against the wound. Blood soaked through almost at once, warm and sticky.

"I was walking to school. Some guy jumped me. He bit me in the stomach. I thought he was crazy. I tried to get to the nurse."

His breath caught. He started wheezing, each inhale shorter than the last. I pulled the shirt back. A rough crescent-shaped bite mark poured blood in slow pulses. The skin around it had already begun to gray.

"The nurse said to bring him down. There are four other people in there already."

More screams rose outside. Chairs scraped. Several students bolted for the door.

"Stay calm," I said, though my own voice shook. I kept pressure on the wound. His cries stopped. I could not find a pulse. The room narrowed. I started CPR, pushing hard on his chest. The desk creaked under the force. Nothing.

I kept going. After two full minutes his chest rose on its own.

I wiped my eyes with the back of a bloody wrist. The boy sat up slowly. His eyes looked cloudy, the pupils too wide, the irises dull. His sister Lily stepped closer, tears streaking her face. Two friends came with her.

A low growl rolled out of his throat.

I stepped back and braced my hands on the desk. The air in the room changed, thicker, charged. Before I could move he lunged and sank his teeth into Lily's neck, then the nearest friend's arm. The sound was wet and final. Gasps and sobs filled the room. The rest of the students poured out the door in pure panic, backpacks abandoned, papers flying.

Nora grabbed my arm hard enough to bruise. I stood frozen while the boy kept going at the two girls. Nora cried into my cardigan. The fabric was already dark with blood that was not mine.

I made the decision in one breath.

"Come on. We have to go. We can't help them."

I grabbed my coat and pulled Nora into the hallway. Blood soaked the tan fabric in widening circles that stuck to my skin. The corridors were chaos. Kids running. Some bleeding on the floor. Backpacks and papers everywhere.

"This way."

I pulled Nora down a side hall just as the intercom crackled.

"Attention. Please return to your classes. There is nothing to be alarmed about. Please return to your classroom until further notice. I repeat-"

The announcement cut off with a scream. Feedback screeched through the speakers until the sound died in a burst of static. Nora looked at me, waiting for answers I did not have.

"We can't go back," Nora said through sobs. "He'll kill us."

I pulled her into the copy room and shut the door. The fluorescent light above us flickered once.

"What's wrong?"

Nora slid down against a cabinet. I sat beside her. The floor was cold through my jeans.

"I think my dad has this. That's why I was late. Mom had to go to the hospital early for work, so it was just me and him. I was making him soup. He could barely get out of bed. He looked almost as bad as that guy."

I nodded once. My mind went to Ethan. What was happening where he worked. I needed to call him the second we reached the apartment. Right now I only had to get Nora out.

We headed for the exit, staying clear of the slow-moving students who made low, rhythmic sounds in their throats. Outside, the sidewalks looked almost normal except for the stream of kids leaving the building. I put an arm around Nora and started toward my apartment on East Broad.

We walked in silence for ten minutes. A siren blasted past and made me jump. Only then did I notice I had stepped in a puddle. The sky was clear and blue. No rain. I looked down. The puddle was red. Bloody footprints led toward the side of a building in uneven, dragging steps. I covered Nora's eyes with one hand.

A man was on his knees over another body, eating.

The sound reached us first. Wet. Rhythmic. Animal. Then the smell.

I pulled out my phone and called 911. My fingers left red smears on the screen.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"There's a man eating another man." I gave the street corner. The dispatcher told me to stay on the line and stay where I was.

The man looked up. Blood ran down his white shirt in thick streams that had already begun to dry at the edges. His eyes were the same cloudy, bloodshot color as the boy in room 306.

"Is everything okay, ma'am?"

He stood, almost falling, and started toward us. His gait was wrong. Too loose in the knees. Too stiff in the shoulders.

"He's following us. He's snarling like a rabid animal." I backed up. "The other man. He can't be walking. That's not possible."

"What's going on, ma'am?"

"He can't be walking after that."

I backed into a pole. Both of them kept coming. The second one's insides hung in wet ropes that swayed with every step.

"Nora, get behind me."

"Ma'am, please stay calm. Help is on the way."

My phone hit the ground and the screen cracked. One of them hit the pole where my face had been a second earlier. The other man's insides spilled out at my feet in a wet, gleaming pile that steamed in the cool air. I scrambled away, pulling Nora with me. The dispatcher's voice continued from the broken phone, tinny and useless.

We ran.

Halfway down the next block I looked back once. The two figures were still coming, slow and steady. Behind them, farther up the street, three more people moved the same way. Same loose knees. Same cloudy eyes.

The outbreak was not inside the school.

It was already outside.