Whimper by Erin McFadden Page A

“What’s going on?” she asked anyone who would answer.
    Once we were all inside, Zack pressed all the buttons to shut the house up tight, even the storm shields on the windows. The clanking racket was too loud for any of us to actually talk over, so we waited. Brianna tapped her foot impatiently and Elliott continued to glare at nothing in particular. When the grinding racket ceased, we all sort of stared at each other until everyone started talking at once.
     

 
     
     
     

    Everyone was talking over one another and no one was answering me. Fed up, I latched onto Zack’s shoulder and gave him a little shake. Okay, it must not have been too “little” because his head bounced like a bobble head doll for a second. “Sorry,” I said brusquely. “Now tell me exactly what you saw on campus. I need to know what the vehicles looked like, what the people in them were wearing, everything you can think of.”
    Zack rattled off what he’d witnessed and where, every word confirming what I’d already strongly suspected. The “clean-up” team from the CDC had arrived. That could mean only one thing. “We need to prepare. Things are about to get a whole lot worse around here.”
    Zack and Zoe looked at each other skeptically. “If they’re here in force, shouldn’t that mean they’re here to stop the problem?” Zoe asked.
    “They’re not here to help. They’re here to control and spotlight the threat. They’re spreading fear and misinformation a little more at each site the virus has been released. If there are as many vehicles and boots on the ground as Zack says, then this is their biggest response yet,” Brianna explained, her voice thick with tension. “Elliott’s right. I’m sure all hell is about to break loose.”
    Zack switched on the TV in the living room and we all drifted in to watch the unfolding news coverage of the Breaking News: Health Crisis on University Campus.
    “Can you record this?” I asked, studying the background in each shot as carefully as I could. We tried to count vehicles, but most of them seemed to be solid white vans without any Federal markings whatsoever. It was hard to tell if we were seeing the same vehicle several times or not. To the far left of the shot, there appeared to be a couple of tents set up. If the cameraman would only pan a little bit further out… I caught myself leaning, trying to see around the plastic edge of the TV screen. The camera zoomed out and finally I caught a glimpse of a few students being led into one of the tents.
    “Fuck! They may be giving out vaccines,” I gasped, looking at Brianna.
    “You two are going to have to stop speaking in code and start filling the rest of us in!” Zoe demanded, clearly impatient.
    “We think the vaccines they’ve been giving are mainly placebos, except that a few of them are laced with the virus,” I answered gravely. I still couldn’t believe I put the bullet in the gun they were using to kill these kids.
    Some sort of commotion outside of the camera’s range caused a group of campus officers to race past. One of them stopped to try to force the reporters back to their news van. “For your own safety, you need to go back to your vehicles. Now!” he ordered, glancing over his shoulder and unsnapping the holster on his waist. “Get back!” he screamed again, before running away.
    The camera jostled around, revealing the officers fighting with a heavyset lady who looked like she might have been a librarian or a nurse before the virus kicked in. Now she looked like a demonic, half-naked librarian or nurse. She was actually snarling at the officers, tearing at them with her fingernails and trying to claw and bite her way free. She was dripping in blood. My mind spun cataloguing all the possible points of contagion going on there.
    Zack broke the stunned silence. “Uh, Zoe? I think it’s time we get out the Holy Shit Preparedness Kit. I’m thinking this qualifies.” Gunshots rang out on the TV and