This may not be the best time to post something like this, but, in my defense it's been sitting in my document list for years.

Public Education

The virus was airborne and spread through- as far as they knew –the entire school. Parents had come flooding in to get their children, but the doors remained locked; the windows barred. It wasn’t more than a few minutes later when the announcement was set that the perpetrator didn’t stop with just this school. It was “breaking news” all over the world. Every school in every country, city, state was now harboring poisoned children.

She wasn’t sure why she felt as if the only one willing to help, but as he weaved through the frantic parents/siblings, she wondered if she really was the only one in a stable enough mental state to do this. 

Teachers, though just as hysteric as every other adult, were instructed to pull out as many resources as possible and to make the children as comfortable as possible while keeping them nearby until a solution could be found. It wasn’t a well-headed order as most of them had children of their own to fret about, but those with steady mind began to shuffle the desks together and pile all the blankets, mats, anything soft together.

Some of the children were too young to understand what was happening. They felt perfectly fine, but they could see their families pounding on the doors and windows while teachers were acting strange. Those older, were harder to control as they fought to get to what they deemed sanctuary- their parents’ arms –and completely ignoring anything and everything trying to keep them away. 

Less than two hours after the horrible announcement, the barricades were no longer holding and people began pouring through the holes to get their children. No one could blame them really. Who wouldn’t fight to the death to reach those that meant so much to them? Still, without the children altogether, no antidote could be administered in mass. There might not be enough time to go to each child individually. 

This was loudly explained to the parents, though some didn’t bother to listen. Others, however, frantically followed any order they believed could help and soon, the make-shift beds were supporting adults too. Many adults or graduated teens took it upon themselves to gather supplies for the unprepared staff. Mattresses were pillaged from homes along with blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals in hopes of bringing the no-doubt confused children comfort. Several TVs, movies, and game systems filled the halls of the more upgraded schools to distract the older children form their predicament.

It took far longer than she had hoped and soon she found herself running toward every offer of hope. She had graduated a few years ago and her sister just last year, but that didn’t bring her the slightest hesitation; rather just a bit of relief. 

Days later, when the symptoms began to put the children into bedrest, she found it. It had been the last in a long list of last hopes, but she found it nonetheless. There wasn’t much and could only hope that it would be enough for as many children as it was needed for. Her discovery, however, was not just the antidote, but also the orchestrator who started all this madness. They fought briefly before she knocked him out cold with a lucky shot and a metal pipe she’d stumbled upon in the beginning of her search. 

Unfortunately, in her haste, she failed to ensure her safety. The tedious process of transferring the large bean that had proven itself to be the counter drug to the plastic bag she had acquired from a hospital was taking all of her attention. During her lapse of situational awareness, a sharp pain in the side of her neck almost caused her to drop the children’s only chance of survival. More strength than she had even needed to exert was pushed to its own limit as she fought to stay steady as the stabbing pain continued its assault. 

She was being injected with the poison. No one had been directly injected before, but she shoved the thought away to keep focused on her task. Finally, the bean had fallen into the bag, the seal was secured, and she was able to pull the syringe out of her neck, but the damage had already been done and the man had escaped.

The effects of the poison hit her almost instantly as she seen found it difficult to remain standing. She had to get to a school or hospital as soon as possible; or at least before it weakened her any farther. It was almost poetic justice that it was the school she had volunteered at years ago that lay the closest option. She knew the nurse was more than capable so she steering her uneven, slowing steps toward the large building. 

Getting in was easy, but maneuvering from there was not. The children’s symptoms, over the 5 days it had taken her, they worsened until they could hardly move. Parents were now uncontrollable as they went after the school officials in a blind panic. Police did what they could, but their own children were at stake as well and there were far too few of them without a family. Hals were overcrowded and she had to push and shove her way through, hiding when noticed in case of alerting the unstable mindsets of the adults.

Her legs were tiring far too quickly. She wouldn’t make it at this point, but it was then she heard the voice of the old school nurse from behind a hidden door. Upon entering the room, she stood tall and strong; as healthy as she could. It would not do for them to waste even a second fretting over her when there were children to save.

The moment she passed through the door, cheers erupted. The fact that they remembered her was almost enough to make her stone heart break into tears, but she remained steady as she passed off the bean with instructions she had found lying about the man’s workshop. 

Hopeful announcements were soon sent flying through the intercoms around the school as well as, she could only imagine, around the world that the antidote had been found. It took some time and she wasn’t able to do much to help as she wasn’t much of a science major, but the bean was proven real and was being rushed toward the nearest hospital to be refined. 

As soon as the end of the tunnel was lit for the children, her legs finally gave out on her. The world slowed to a crawl and the worried voices around her were thousands of years away. She was falling into something soft soon after and awoke to the sound of a child crying. Surrounded on all sides by familiar, if not older, faces was a strange experience as the last time she saw these young faces they were bed-bound as she now found herself. 

The nurse soon explained that the antidote was soon to be administered in a vapor form in every town. She almost laughed at the idea of such a small bean stretching so far, but laughter was found to be a painful experience. They had tried to contact her family, but the lines were so overwhelmed with people phoning others, it was almost impossible. She nodded understandingly and shakily pulled a wad of papers out of her pocket. Labeled for each member of her family, it was no question what they were and the nurse took them with eyes filled with tears. 

An eternity seemed to pass as the room around her emptied of people and light. Hallucinations soon haunted her and she ran a hand over the unfamiliar blankets until they turned completely. The one on the bottom was light green and covered in darker green flowers that almost looked black from a distance. It was the blanket her and her little sister would huddle under during cold nights that influenced them both to huddle under the large comforter and into each other. On top was no a white quilt squared with purple enclosing sewn flowers; the cover her great grandmother had made her so many eons ago. 

She imagined the reactions of her family. Her parents, brother, and sister would be devastated; at least she hoped. Was it wrong to hope your passing would bring pain? Shouldn’t she hope they would be alright without her? The thought faded into the back of her mind when the hallucinations soon brought those loved faces before her. She spoke to her family one at a time with as many words as she could choke through her tears. Apologies, assurances, admissions, promises, they all poured out of her as quickly as her tears followed, but the visions didn’t last as long as she. 

The door to her left soon burst open to reveal the nurse who was at her side in a moment. How the woman knew she was fading, she didn’t bother to wonder. A sharp bee sting pricked the inside of her elbow and the nurse’s hopeful face appeared in front of her as if searching for something. She was glad that she wouldn’t be alone for this. The nurse seemed frantic as words burst from her, but she couldn’t hear a word of it.

Instead, she could hear her heartbeat. It was slow, she realized distantly, but it hardly mattered to her as her world faded to darkness. 

She was floating or falling; who could tell? Tearful visions of her family surrounded her and she could almost feel their arms around her as she drifted away from their reaching grasp.