Virulent: The Release by Shelbi Wescott

breath. Clayton climbed up onto the table and grabbed hold of the ladder, sliding it this way and that way, and testing its ability to hold someone’s weight as it towered to the ceiling.
    “She didn’t even come to school today,” Mrs. Johnston said, crossing her arms over her chest, and wandering to the journalism teacher’s desk. “Yesterday we talked about starting herb gardens and taking the kids on a play date.” Mrs. Johnston trailed off. She sat down in a big squeaky black chair and leaned back, and she trained her eyes on a row of pictures in frames—smiling faces on the beach, a Pomeranian dog licking a little boy’s face.
    Lucy remembered that Mrs. Johnston and the journalism teacher had been good friends, always huddling with their heads together at assemblies, sharing class adviser duties, bringing each other lattes in the morning.
    It was strange that people were lost instantaneously and their lives released from the world in a moment. Those people were held in memories and nothing more. Best friends absorbed into bedlam in a single breath and simply—poof—gone in one startling second. Lucy was most alarmed by the fact that so many people had died and not any of them could be properly mourned. She grieved for mankind and for herself, but she knew the individual people were already turning into a collective.
    Clayton climbed up the first few rungs and held the blowtorch and wire-cutters in his hands. Grant and Purse Girl each held a side of the ladder while Lucy looked at the clock. She watched as Clayton reached his hand up until he could touch the plastic segments, and when he pushed up on them they gave slightly under the pressure. He put the wire cutters down and grabbed the blowtorch, turning it on so the blue flame sprouted up a few inches and hissed angrily. He began to work on the plastic around the edges of the first panel, melting away the sides—they curled under the heat—their edges turning black. The room began to reek of burning plastic, but if anyone cared, no one said anything.
    “Are we going back to your room?” Lucy asked Mrs. Johnston. “We have three minutes.”
    Mrs. Johnston stood up. The chair turned in lazy circles behind her. “Clayton?” He turned the blowtorch off and looked down.
    “Five minutes?”
    “Keep going,” she instructed and she sat back down.
    Lucy took a tentative step forward. “Why risk it?” she said. “Let’s just go back. Then we’ve earned another ten minutes.”
    No one answered her.
    She hadn’t heard from Salem, but she had sent three texts about getting to the roof in the East Wing. Lucy hadn’t thought through the next stage of their plan. If they could get Salem inside, that would be fantastic, but what happened after that? One thing seemed clear: The entire plan would be easier if they didn’t already have security looking for them. The journalism lab didn’t have windows and the entire room was isolated, and while that worked to their benefit as they plugged along, burning the plastic ceiling away, it seemed to be a detriment if they couldn't plot an escape.
    Her tendency to overthink and dwell in restlessness was a trait inherited from her mother. But at least her mother was strong enough to transform anxiety into action. She wondered how her mom would have organized the troops if she were here and she couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Mama Maxine swooping in and taking charge, charting their course without room for error. Mama would have already set up camp somewhere, hunkered them down and have them eating an elaborate lunch. She would have found a way to help the people trapped outside while still protecting herself. She would have all the answers. But she was not there; Lucy had not heard from her since her frantic text. All the text messages sent to her mom and Ethan remained without reply.
    Her apprehension grew as the second hand on the school’s wall clock made its rounds.
    They were zeroing in on the point