Day 1: Ripley

What is going on?

They prepare you as a teacher for tornadoes, fires, school shootings and disasters of all kinds. They don't prepare you for this. They don't prepare you for the end.

I've never seen anything like it. I don't even know where to begin. Aside from my son feeling ill this morning and having to bring him to school with me, everything was normal. Normal traffic, normal sunrise, normal normal normal. It's always the seemingly normal days that go horribly wrong.

I was in the middle of lecture when I heard the first head hit the desk. It startled me, and I figured a kid was trying to get a rise out of me, or that my son, Billy, had done something to make noise. I wheeled around, ready to reprimand whoever made the noise. Then it happened again. And again. Until all the students around the room were slumped over their desks. There was no warning, no reaction. Billy, a little slow from his cold, stared around the room with wide eyes.

I grabbed Billy's hand and my bag, and went into the hallway. There was no one there. One by one, I looked in the classroom windows and saw the same thing; students and teachers slumped over their desks. I stepped into the library and put my fingers to a student's neck and felt nothing. They weren't breathing, either.

I know, I know...I should have tried CPR or other life-saving maneuvers, but I couldn't do that on everyone? Besides, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have helped.

I made my way down to the south doors, and saw a few students gathered there, apparently okay physically, though obviously shaken. Except for Tiffany, who looked mostly bored, which was her typical way of going about things, but her eyes were a little worried. A student I didn't know joined us as we went down to the cafeteria. As far as we knew, no students were in there.

Some of the students moved the cafeteria workers' bodies outside, and shut the doors. Not too long after we heard banging above us. Moaning. We could see a worker outside walking again, after having been dead for about an hour or so.

Needless to say, and this isn't the best way for me to put it, but we all freaked out a bit.

We barricaded ourselves into the cafeteria, using the heavy tables to block the doors, sealing our fate for who knows how long.

Time passed, the banging around continued, more people were outside the windows, roaming around. As the students journaled, I left Billy with Eric, a student, and made my way into the kitchen to find some food for the kids and me.

Too bad I wasn't alone...

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