Free The Pandemic Sequence (Book 1): The Tilian Virus by Tom Calen Page A

heretofore implausibility of such a situation.
    “It’s crazy, right? Things like this aren’t supposed to happen,” Mike responded.
    “Is it everyone? Do you think everyone that got sick turned into…” Derrick’s voice trailed off.
    “I don’t know. My mom, my brother and his daughter were all in the hospital with it this morning.” Mike felt a pang of guilt as he realized that he had not been able to reach any of them after he had talked to his aunt.
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Allard. Jenni’s folks were both sick this morning, too.”
    Mike wondered how many dead would need to be mourned by the people surrounding him.
    “How about your parents?” Mike asked.
    “They were fine. My mom didn’t want me to come to school today, but I wanted to be here for Jenni.”
    “How’s that working out for you?” Mike laughed, the comment slipping from his lips before he could catch himself.
    Taking no offense to the offhand remark, the teen jokingly retorted, “It’s right up there with when I decided to jump off the barn with a sheet for a parachute.”
    In the stillness of the night, Mike heard a familiar click followed by a soft, red glow.
    “You guys are gonna wake everyone up if you keep laughing,” came a voice from the darkness.
    The faint burning ember of a cigarette tip moved closer to Mike and Derrick. As the cigarette’s owner took a drag, the face of Erik Lasdale was illuminated. The second-time senior had spent the last four and a half years at John Moore High School creating a very large reputation, matched only by the equally large discipline file bearing his name. If there had been a fight in school, most assumed Erik had been involved. He had grown up in a challenging home; his mother spent more time with a bottle than her five children, and a revolving door of men that moved in and out of her room. His father was long gone. Whereas most could easily write him off as a prison-bound delinquent, Mike—who had taught Erik since beginning his career at John Moore—had come to see a different side.
    Erik, though he tried hard to hide it, was actually rather intelligent. Clearly not a student that studied, he did possess an impressive skill to hear details and catalog them for future need. Of course, that assumed he saw passing a test as a need. He performed well in Mike’s classes, it was most of his other subjects that he blew off with casual ease.
    Taking a seat in one of the empty chairs, he tossed both lighter and cigarette pack into Mike’s lap.
    “Go ahead, Mr. A.,” Erik teased. “You’ve been fiending for one all day.”
    Quickly rejecting the notion of not only smoking in school, but smoking in school with a student, Mike began to hand the pack back to the long-haired nineteen year old.
    “You’re kidding, right?” the young man said through one side of his mouth while a cigarette dangled from his lips. “You shot up how many people today? And a cigarette’s breaking the rules? You think anyone’s gonna care that you smoked a butt while keeping all these kids safe?”
    Either hearing sense in the words, or willing to give into his craving, Mike felt a small amount of guilt as he inhaled from a newly-lit cigarette. That guilt left with the smoke he exhaled.
    The few remaining hours of the night passed as the three discussed Mike’s plans for the coming day. He felt relieved when both agreed with his decisions. Derrick, however, suggested a small detour before heading north to the military base.
    “My dad has a bunch of guns. He collects ‘em. Our house is only a minute off the main road outta town. If my parents are there they can come with us, and if not, I know the combination to his gun safes.”
    Mike understood Derrick’s true motive for suggesting the excursion, but he worried that each student would then ask to check their homes for loved ones. Travelling to sixteen different houses was a risk he was unsure about taking. He was cautious in rejecting the idea. Since he had no