Dead Quarantine by A. Rosaria

loyal, smart, and totally unselfish.
She long ago stopped feeling guilty about also liking her for being
pretty. It was a fact that girls got along better when there wasn't
a huge gap in looks. Less envy and jealousy. She glanced sideways.
Lilly was staring ahead, still shocked about what had happened
earlier today. First, Lilly had been upset when she heard Ralph was
quarantined. Ralph, yeah he was nice and all, but she never would
have thought Lilly liked him. He wasn’t exactly relationship
worthy, at least not in high school.
    That had been in the morning; it wasn't what
had completely upset her friend. What had was what had happened an
hour earlier during their history test in Mr. Turner’s class. It
was silly really to take a test when only seven of the twenty-five
students were present. The whole high school has been drained of
students. She had no idea how many were still left, but going on
how many people were left in their history class, there weren’t a
lot.
    Mr. Turner, a teacher of retiring age, was
dealing out the test. His face was flushed and he sweated a lot.
She suspected he had the flu, but she was wrong. He had something
else. Mr. Turner suddenly clawed at his chest, his eyes rolled
back, and he collapsed. Lilly immediately rushed to him and started
giving him CPR. George, a classmate, called for an ambulance, but
he reached a recorded message instead, telling them that all lines
were occupied. With no help coming and Lilly only able to do so
much, Mr. Turner died. George went to the principal’s office to get
help, but he was sent back with the message to wait for help. An
hour passed and no one came for the body; it still lay there at the
front of the classroom.
    Mr. Turner dying was bad, but it wasn't what
shocked them all and put Lilly in her current comatose state. What
did do that was when one of the hazmat men walked by the door,
stopped when he saw what was happening, shoved Lilly aside, and
shot Mr. Turner in the head. His corpse still lies where he died in
a pool of blood, covered with their jackets. The soldier told them
not to leave the classroom, and since then, they had stayed
inside.
    “Lilly.”
    No response.
    “We can't stay here all day,” Jake said.
    Sarah turned to face her boyfriend, who was
sitting at the desk behind her. “We can't leave her behind.”
    He was tall, muscular, athletic, handsome,
and rugged with a square chin, blue eyes, and blond hair. The
perfect picture of a man. His blue eyes focused on the back of
Lilly's head. Contempt oozed out of them. He still couldn't take it
that she would not drop Lilly as a friend. He wanted to be the only
person in her life, which was endearing but not enough for her to
cut ties with her best friend. Lilly was the only real friend she
had left.
    “Why can't we? She would be safe here.” He
pointed at the fat kid. “Fat Tommy could watch over her. He
wouldn't mind.” Jake threw his eraser against Tom's back. “You
wouldn't mind, would you, fatso?”
    Tom froze in his seat, ducked his head
between his shoulders, and kept silent.
    “I asked you a question! Fat fill your lips
so that you can't move them anymore?”
    Sarah didn't like or dislike Tom. He was
gross and smelled, but she liked less the way Jake treated people
like him. It spoiled how she felt about him. She wished instead
that he was a better guy, too good for petty teasing.
    “Jake, please, leave him alone.”
    “Why? Are you going to protect this loser
too? What are you, saint loser or something?”
    “Come on, stop it. I'm on your side.”
    “My side?” Jake stood up. “Sam, George, are
you with me?”
    The two boys stared at him, scared, and
quickly nodded yes. They knew better. Sarah had seen Jake throw a
fit before because someone did not agree with him. God, if he were
not so good looking and popular, she would break up with him. No,
not true, it was not only because he was popular and handsome that
she liked him; he was sweet when they were alone. He