Rise by Mira Grant

Author:Mira Grant [GRANT, MIRA]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Fiction / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Dystopian, Fiction / Horror
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2016-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

Wednesday, March 19, 2036, 12:01 P.M.

Elaine Oldenburg’s class was one of five in the first grade. The school extended from kindergarten through fifth grade, although there were only three fifth-grade classes; many students were withdrawn from the physical school system after fourth grade, or transferred to a middle school where they would be less likely to endanger smaller children through their mere presence. All told, thirty-three classes were in session when the alarm began to sound. It was too much to ask for that many students to remain calm and collected, especially when the restraints failed to activate correctly, resulting in fewer than half the students being locked into their desks.

Nathan Patterson had started feeling unwell fifteen minutes after the end of recess, and had been sent to the nurse’s office for observation and blood tests. Mr. O’Toole had followed school policy and not asked Nathan to take a blood test before leaving the classroom. If it had come back positive—which it couldn’t, there was simply no way Nathan had been exposed; it was a ridiculous idea—the door would have locked, and the safety shutters on the windows would have descended, containing the infection, yes, but also containing the entire class. Blood tests were only requested in the case of student illness when the student could not be safely transported from the classroom to the office.

Joseph Lee, who sat next to Nathan, kept casting anxious glances at his friend’s empty desk. Nathan should have been back by now. But instead, the alarm was sounding, and Mr. O’Toole couldn’t get the office on the phone. Something was seriously wrong. And why wasn’t Mr. O’Toole calling for help? Someone needed to tell the police that something was going on at the school.

Cell phones were forbidden during class, but with Mr. O’Toole pacing back and forth in front of the whiteboard and half the class distracted by crying, or sitting very still and trying not to cry, Joseph decided he could risk it. He slipped his phone out of his pocket, swiping his thumb across the screen to unlock it. The familiar glow of his background sprang into view. Habit made him fold himself around the screen, trying to keep from attracting Mr. O’Toole’s attention. He needn’t have bothered. In that moment, his teacher wouldn’t have noticed the students beginning to dance on their desks and sing the national anthem. His mind was miles away, following a trail that would have been familiar to everyone in the room: like the rest of them, Mr. O’Toole was trying frantically to convince himself that this wasn’t what it looked like.

It wasn’t an outbreak.

It couldn’t be an outbreak.

Joseph brought up his keypad and considered it for a moment, waffling between calling home and telling his dad what was going on, and calling 911 and letting the authorities know what was going on—although he wasn’t really sure what he’d say in the second instance. Like, was it prank calling if you told the police that the alarms

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