The Farewell Celebration was an amazing
presentation, even before the show had begun it was apparent that King Atalon
had spared no expenses in hosting the invited guests, each Invite received a fabulous Guest Pack, filled with special coupons and offers for the New Empire.
Bella and her friend Bria wove through the
red and white tents clutching their guest packs, weighed down by bags of personal items, searching for their designated
tent. The
students were very impressed with the accommodations, the tent was not the
humble abode they had expected, it was more like a temporary house, furnished,
warm and welcoming. There were big comfortable beds, a table and chairs, portraits
of the gods, a vase of roses and a bowl of fresh oranges, it almost felt like a real home inside!
"Oh. My. God!" Bria gushed, dropping
her bags in surprise. Unable to resist, she jumped on the bed, bouncing off the
edge, breaking in the cozy down quilts. "This is awesome! I was like, so
worried when I heard we would be staying in tents!"
"Me
too!" Bella was equally relieved. She walked around the tent, inspecting
the decor, impressed once again by Atalon's grand generosity. Every detail and
comfort that they were accustomed to had been thought of and provided for their
stay. "Hail Atalon!" She plucked his portrait off the post and kissed
him on the lips, held it to her heart and squeezed it tight.
Meanwhile in Fina, Mesta was feeling
uneasy for no apparent reason, she hurried down the hall to the classroom just
as the sound of the first bell rang out across the university campus. It
wasn't just the strange empty cafeteria or vacant halls that ate away at her
thoughts, she felt a physical unease,
a strange feeling in her stomach that was occupying her mind, too; Something
was wrong.
She
unlocked the classroom, dropped her bags on the desk, opened the windows and
sat down to review the lesson while waiting for the students to arrive. But as
the class began to filter in, she noticed the students had a low energy too,
had the Pancake Breakfast been too rich? One by one they slumped at their
desks, it wasn't her imagination, she felt the same way, was it a flu virus? A
psychosomatic lethargy brought on by the disappointment of not being invited to
the Farewell Celebration?
The
second bell rang and Mesta stood up to begin the lesson but her legs were
really weak. And as she wrote out the day's subject matter on the chalk board,
'GROUP THIINK', her arms felt really weak too… "Can
anyone tell me what Anthropomorphism means?" She could barely project her
voice… She tried to catch someone's attention but the class could barely pay
attention, as if their minds were preoccupied, too. "I'll
give you a hint" Mesta returned to the chalk board, now struggling to hold
back a wave of nausea erupting steadily inside. Slowly she wrote the word
'STORRYTELLLING' on the board, but as she stepped back to read it the word
looked wrong, there were too many L's... She erased the L but the word still looked wrong. She looked at the
subject title again, there were too many I’s… The longer she looked at the word, the more
uncertain she was what was wrong or right, it was as if she was hallucinating,
as if the letters were coming alive, duplicating on their own, there were three
L's again...
She
closed her eyes but it wasn't just the strange hallucinations now. Suddenly
her arms and legs began trembling and jerking. Losing the confidence of her
feet as a wave of heat engulfed her entire body from within, she shuffled back to her desk to sit down and reached for her coffee. But from the corner of her eye it was
apparent that none of the students even noticed her, the whole class was
struggling to remain upright. She glanced at Karen, she seemed just fine at
breakfast and now she looked like she was suffering badly… There were two Karens...
Karen
caught her eye. "Can I... I think... I'm going to be sick!"
Before
Mesta could process her words, Karen bolted for the door. Mesta felt like doing
the same thing but her legs were feeling too heavy, heavy like lead. Then, out
of nowhere, anger struck, hard. Rage
took over her whole body, a need to lash out, a need to beat the living shit
out of anyone who came her way. Shocked by her sudden violent urges, Mesta
wondered if the others were feeling the rage, too. She glanced around the room
but looking at them only assured her they
were! Wide scary eyes glared at her from everywhere, making her feel nasty,
she was losing consciousness, rapidly. Fighting a fever and trying to
remain strong, she sipped some more coffee hoping it would help but it only
made her feel worse.
Paralysis
was the next phase of the disease. Unable to move, Mesta began to panic as she
struggled to follow Karen's lead, she felt like striking out but she couldn't
even get up. What was she to do? The sickness was getting worse, a stabbing
pain gripped her head, making her double over in writhing agony. She tried to
sip her coffee again but now the smell made her sick. Angry, she threw the cup
as hard as she could.
With
stabbing agony, her stomach contents suddenly exploded from her mouth, spraying
the student in front of her with bloody vomit.
The
student leapt up in a psychotic rage, a rabid fury unleashed from one to
another. Fists clenched tight, students all over the room jerked out and began
tearing at each other apart. After sustaining a blow to her face, Mesta briefly
came to, then found herself slipping in and out of consciousness, next thing
she knew she was beneath the desk, jerking violently on the floor, the room
around her discolored and abstract. Strobes of light flashed across her eyes,
then like a changing wind, she felt overcome by the violent urge to rip
someone's face off again.
One of
the students reached out and clawed at her leg. She lunged back, tearing his
flesh violently with frenzied fury, overcome by a sickening compulsion for
blood. Blood spewed out of arteries, eyeballs were clawed out of sockets,
furniture crashed around the classroom as Mesta and her students succumbed to
the rabid virus by tearing each other apart, eating each other alive in a
seething pile of gore and cannibalistic disease.
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