Dead Quarantine (5 page)

The line moved again. It was going quickly.
He thought it odd that no one came back out.

“You are not really ill are you?” the girl
said.

He put his index finger to his lips. “She'll
hear you. Besides, I am fairly sure I have it now,” he said,
pointing at her.

“Blame me all you want, but you are skipping
school, ain't ya, Ralph?”

He looked at her in surprise. She knew his
name. He thought he went unnoticed at school. It must have been a
coincidence; she had heard his name in passing.

“Yeah well...test and all...yeah...”

He stuck out his hand. “Well, I guess I'm at
the disadvantage.”

She slowly gave him her hand. “Lauryn.”

“Pleased to meet you, Lauryn.” He made a
mock bow.

Her hand felt soft and fortunately dry. She
had small hands, yet she grabbed his firmly. She seemed a tad
direct, but nice. He liked her already. What better place to make a
potentially new friend than in a row waiting to enter Mrs.
Evergreen’s hellhole?

“Aren’t you afraid of getting infected?”

“Asks the girl with a runny nose after
passing me her germs by shaking my hand?”

He was not sure he saw it right, but did she
blush or was she running a fever? Probably his imagination.

“But aren't you afraid?”

“As I see it, this thing is all over the
place; most of us are going to get ill anyway. My mom and sis are
already ill. So when they quarantine us all—” He nudged his head at
the infirmary door, the line moving forward. “—I'll be stuck in a
house with flu patients. I'm already scheduled to be ill.”

“Yeah, it sucks really. I like it at school.
I thought I could ride it out, but the teacher sent me here.”

One of the nerds Tom had referred to. He was
sure if Tom were to meet her, his not so mild view would change.
What was there not to like about her? Besides her being filled with
mucus and not being Sarah. Still, a near-friendless man like him
should not be picky, but he was. Despite that, somehow she passed.
It must have been the smile. The question he feared, however, was
whether he passed her inspection. What went through this girl’s
head? He couldn’t remember ever seeing her talk to a guy. Then
again, he had only seen her a few times. It didn't make their
current conversation all that special.

The line moved. She was next. There was a
chance that after this he would not see her anytime soon. They
could be taken on separate buses, going different routes. He really
didn't know.

“Lauryn.”

She threw a questioning glance at him, her
brows slightly raised. “Yes?”

“How did you know my name?”

She chortled and coughed almost immediately
after. “Have you seen yourself in the mirror? You are decent
looking.”

Decent looking? What was that? He had no
idea what girls considered decent.

“Any girl would notice you walking around,
being all serious and reserved, surrounded by the boisterous boys
at this school. You stick out, and it is also hard to miss you
always walking with that fat guy.”

He pulled a bit away in distaste. Calling
Tom fat? Well, he was, but he was his friend and Ralph really
didn’t like people making fun of Tom. Not even cute girls.

She brought a hand to her mouth. “I'm sorry,
I...”

“Next,” they heard Mrs. Evergreen’s hoarse
voice from behind the door.

“I didn't want to be rude to your
friend.”

“Yes you did; you better move along.”

She hesitated for a moment, not knowing what
to say, and then turned abruptly and entered the infirmary, leaving
him behind to stare at the closed door. Shit. Way to ruin the
moment. He could have been a little more forgiving instead of
lashing out at her. It was this high school, with these asshats
teasing Tom. It ticked him off.

“Hey, Ralphie.”

He whirled around. He had been so entranced
in his talk with Lauryn that he had not noticed the line had grown
by ten behind him. Almost the entire football team stood behind
him—the asshats he disliked. However, the head asshat, Jake, was
missing. The one talking was Jake's right-hand man, and for all
Ralph knew, he was THE right-hand man. A real wanker, that
Anton.

“Could not even score with that slut,” Anton
said.

They were always so unselfish with their
insults, throwing them away so freely and hoping they would stick.
This time it did.

“What happened to you guys? Have you all
been sharing the same drinking cup or was it that you guys couldn't
stop holding each others limp, pencil dicks again?”

He must have a death wish. They closed in on
him, surrounding him. “What did you just say?” Anton said,
threatening.

“Do you have trouble hearing? I knew they
were wrong about you going blind if you spank the monkey a lot;
they must have meant you go deaf.”

Death wish or not, it had never stopped him
from standing up to these jerks who thought they could do whatever
to whomever. He would mess one up good before they got to him. At
least he was close to the infirmary. That thought sent a shudder
down his spine. Mrs. Evergreen’s treatments could do more harm than
any beating he might get from these cavemen.

“Get him,” yelled some guy in the back.

Ralph pressed his back against the door.
Maybe there was no need to fight. Anton hit his palm with a meaty
fist, while glaring at Ralph. “I'll enjoy this.”

Ralph pushed his hand behind him and grabbed
the door handle. He waited. Anton pulled his fist back. Ralph kept
still, intently watching Anton's ice blue eyes. A twitch. Quickly,
Ralph opened the door and ducked inside. He heard Anton's fist
smash against the hardwood door and the curses that followed.
Anton's friends threw obscenities at the closed door. Words did not
hurt, but a solid door did.

“What's the meaning of this?” Mrs. Evergreen
yelled at him.

The old, thin but tall woman folded her
arms. Her hawkish nose pointed forward, a snarl of mouth under it,
while her eyes burned with anger. It was a welcome face in lieu of
a possible beating. He saw Lauryn being escorted out a door in the
back. She turned to look. He smiled at her. Her face lit up as she
smiled back. A man in a hazmat suit nudged her on. Ralph looked
wary at the rifle slung on his back.

“Why does he have a rifle?”

“Answer my question,” Mrs. Evergreen
screeched.

“I thought you called.”

“Well I didn't.”

With that said, she stayed motionless and
silent as she watched him. It creeped him out. He felt himself
frozen in place, not knowing what to do. She didn't answer his
question, and he doubted she would if he asked again. Was this
really just WHO doing its job? A service to the people? Why the
rifle? Since when did health care personnel carry weapons?

Finally, he asked, “Do I have to take my
shirt off and lay down?”

“What you got to do is wait like a good boy
until the kind sirs come and get you.”

Ralph scratched the back of his head.

“No test for if I'm really ill?”

“You? Ill? From here I stand, you are
healthy as a buckaroo's horse.”

He turned pale. She had caught on to his
little scheme. What to do? He coughed. She didn't flinch. He did a
series of deep coughs, emulating those fits he had heard all day.
He almost choked on one and coughed for a while, beating his chest
for air.

“Come on, little Ralphie.” He hated being
called that. “You can't play these old tricks on me. Always
thinking you are smart, but you ain't. You are just a pesky little
rodent with worthless dreams like the rest.”

The two men in hazmats returned. The tallest
looked from the nurse to Ralph and back to the nurse.

“Is he contaminated?” the tall man said.

“Does it really matter if he is?”

“What is going on here?” Ralph said.
Something was wrong. There was nothing civil about this; he felt
like he was cattle with no say if he was brought back to the pen or
taken to the slaughterhouse.

They ignored him.

“Nurse, answer the question.” Agitation
showed in the man's voice.

Mrs. Evergreen locked eyes with Ralph while
addressing the soldier. “Yes, he is, take him away.”

Ralph backed against the door. Before he
could think about repeating his previous escape trick, the two men
each grabbed an arm and pulled him away.

“What is this?”

The men did not answer him; instead, they
escorted him to the back door.

“Nurse! Mrs. Evergreen! Tell them!”

“You’re infected. We all are boy. We all are
tainted.”

Tainted. She had finally lost her marbles,
although at the worst time ever. He hoped this was the last time he
ever saw her. The men pushed him outside the room. One held him by
the arm, keeping him close while the other walked behind him. Ralph
got a closer look at them. The hazmat suit was semi see-through; he
could see combat fatigues. He lowered his sight to their shoes.
Combat boots. These were no health care workers who happened to be
armed; these were soldiers required to be armed.

“Sir.” He craned his neck to see the other
man. “Sir.”

He shoved him. “Keep walking.”

They passed through a hallway and walked
toward twin iron doors that opened to the courtyard at the school’s
rear. Two buses stood next to each other. One was full and the
driver was just closing the door. The other one had a few high
school students sitting in the back and a familiar face in the
front. The sun shone on her red hair, making it brighter than it
already was.

More men in hazmats stood around the buses.
All were armed. His gut wrenched. Lying about being ill was not
such a good idea after all.

“I'm not ill; I don't have the flu.”

“Walk.” Again a shove against his back.

“Seriously—” A rougher shove. He tripped
forward.

The one holding him yanked him upright.
“Watch where you are going.”

This was not right. This was not the way he
should be treated. He was a citizen of a free country. This was not
communist China or some African dictatorship; this was the land of
the free and the brave. He struggled to get free. Grabbing the
soldier’s hand, he tried to twist his wrist. The one walking behind
him raised the stock of his rifle and slammed it against his head.
He staggered forward, dazed. His head screamed in pain; he whirled
around, confused. He saw Sarah. No, not Sarah, but Lauryn. She
gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide,
terrified. Two pairs of hands grabbed him, lifted him up, and threw
him in the bus. He smacked the floor, the side of his head banging
against it and igniting more pain in his head.

“If he leaves, shoot him,” a soldier barked.
“Shoot him in the head, you hear. Only thing that puts them
down.”

The world seemed to float around him. For a
moment, he thought he was upside down. Two small, soft hands
grabbed him, pulling him upright. He tried to swat them away.

“Ralph,” a voice said. He tried to look but
only saw a haze floating in front of him. He was shaken about.
“Ralph!”

“Yeah,” he said, still groggy. He touched
his head. A bump was growing. The bastards hit him hard.

“Are you all right?” He looked up into
Lauryn's worried face.

“Do I seem all right to you?”

“Can you stand?”

She helped him up. He stood wobbly on his
feet, but with her support, he got on the front seat behind the
driver. The driver’s seat was empty. His sight steadied. In the
back of the bus, the teenagers looked on in silent shock. Much help
they were, but what did he expect from freshmen? Just kids really,
fresh from their mother's tit—well not really, at least he hoped
not. He couldn’t really blame them for being scared and doing
nothing to help him. Kids against armed soldiers would not work
well at all.

“What happened?” Lauryn asked.

“I fessed up about not being ill; they
didn't care much about that.”

She touched the side of his head. He winced.
It hurt and it would be worse later on. He already felt the
throbbing that would become a splitting headache. Really, he should
have just stayed in the classroom, minded his own business, and
swallowed the bitter pill the exam would be.

He saw her staring at him with her fevered
eyes. She seemed to have lost all care for her own situation and
was giving him all the attention he needed, while she barely knew
him. It felt good. He didn't understand why she did so; he would
never understand girls and the women they became. So different from
men, it boggled his mind.

He sat upright and swiped her hand away. She
gave him a hurt look.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. As she stood to leave
him, he grabbed her hand.

“Please stay.”

She sat next to him. “I thought you—”

“I didn't mean to; my head just hurts. Why
are you so nice to me?”

She stared outside at the high school door.
It swung open and soldiers came out escorting one of the jocks.

Lauryn coughed. “I don't know really...I
think like you.”

He didn't listen to her answer; he had
instead followed her stare to the outside. The soldiers pushed the
jock—his name evaded Ralph—inside the bus. Bewildered, he looked
around until his eyes finally met Ralph's. The jock wiped snot from
his nose and walked past while glaring at Ralph. In the back, he
chased the freshmen out of their seats and sent them scurrying to
the front.

“Asshole,” Ralph mumbled.

Everybody around him was ill, sniffing their
noses and coughing, but despite that, nothing seemed to have
changed. High school was still a shitty place riddled with bullies
and parents sugarcoating it or overreacting about it, but never
really changing it. Things stayed the same, always the same. The
perceived strong went after the perceived weak. And all those in
the middle suffered through it or actively complied with it. He
hoped college would be different.