"Ayyyyy, sup bro?" Carson says, walking up to me. We have the exact same schedule, but he had a doctor's appointment first period so second period is the first time he saw me today.

We do our secret handshake, then we sit down in our places. Second period for us is orchestra. He's a cello, and I'm the concertmaster, otherwise known as the first chair of the first violins.

A sub walks into the room with a viola case, and tells us to set up. I take out my violin, and I warm up with JS Bach's Chaconne in d Minor. Halfway through the song, an alarm sounds.

Startled, I almost drop my violin. "Which alarm is that?" I mouth to Carson through the confusion and panic.

"Lockdown," he says out loud.

"LOCKDOWN, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!" the sub yells at us, slamming the door to the teacher's office shut and locking it. I pack up my violin as quickly as I can, then I shove between people to get behind the racks of cellos and sit next to Carson.

The air is thick with fear. You can almost smell it. Everyone is so scared that all you can hear is the alarm blaring.

"Do you think it's one of the infected people? Do you think that Seattle will be quarantined?" Carson asks. I can feel a bubble rise up in my throat. I think it is. I think that everyone is afraid of that.

There's been a disease floating around. A third wave of Ebola called The Sickness. The rumor is that someone engineered it. Some men just want to watch the world burn. It's reached Asia, Africa, South America, Central America, and Europe. I heard that it started to creep into Texas, but I couldn't imagine it jumping to Seattle. It's probably just an armed crazy guy in the area.

I don't know why, but I find myself thinking of my mom... and Lydia.

Suddenly we hear a bang on our door. It seems to echo through the room. One girl next to me is having a mental breakdown, rocking back and forth and covering her mouth to refrain from screaming. I wrap my hand around a music stand. Whenever I'm scared, I never even think about running. I always get a weapon and prepare to face off.

A second band fills the room.

"Carson, when whoever that person is gets in here, I'm gonna whack it with this, and then you get everyone out of here. If you can't do that, at least save yourself." He nods reluctantly in reply.

A third bang sends the door flying open. I charge forward, slamming the music stand down onto the head of the intruder. A sickening crunch fills my ears as he topples over. "Run!" I command them. Carson and a few other people follow me. The others either freeze or find a new hiding place.

Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I rush through the chaotic hallways as a guy named Sam stops me.

"Guys, you've gotta help me! Ci... she's stuck downstairs! The roof collapsed when they set the room on fire! She's trapped."

"I can help her."

I turn around, and my fears are proved correct. It's Mai.

Mai is this beautiful, kind, smart, talented, jaw-droppingly cool girl. We're close friends. I've had a crush on her for four years now. My crush started in fifth grade. My mom found out about it in seventh from Carson's mom. In fifth grade, Carson told her (because we were at that age where everyone tells their parents everything), and in seventh grade she couldn't take the thought of Carson hanging out with a gay person and called my mom to out me to her. It was terrible.

"No, Mai, I'll go," I say.

"It's okay, Eli. You get everyone else out. I'll catch up with you." I watch her leave. I just stand there, watching her. This might be my last time seeing her, ever.

"Eli, we have to go," Carson says. His voice seems as if it's in the distance."Eli." He grabs my sleeve and pulls me away. I stumble, coming back to real life. I find my locker, and I twist the lock so it opens. I grab out my backpack and continue running. "Eli, are you okay?" he asks.

"No time. Let' go, c'mon."

"Where are we even going?"

"Well, we can't discuss that now. Shh!!" I grab him and duck behind a bookshelf. The others also get behind. A couple of middle-aged adults stroll past. I can feel their presence. It's really strange. I can almost feel what they're thinking about. They want blood. They want the blood of this school.

I gulp, curling myself into a smaller ball. They stop for a second, shrug, and keep moving.

Relieved, I get out from behind the bookshelf. Only a couple more steps to the door. I reach it, starting to try to open it. It's deadbolted, and the deadbolt is broken. It's not exactly possible to get out through this door, unless we break it down. "So much for sneaking," I mutter, jogging backwards and launching myself forwards at the door, ramming it as hard as I can with my shoulder. It makes a loud screeching noise and a loud bang as the door goes flying open. I sprint out through the door. I've never ran this fast in my life. Nobody can keep up with me, but right now, I don't care about anyone else. I want to save my mom. I don't know why, but I do.

"Eli, stop!" Carson exclaims, catching up to me as I do what he says. "This is about your mom, isn't it?" I don't reply. "Elizabeth, that woman abandoned you! There's no way that she could possibly--"

"Fine," I mutter. "You guys go three more blocks. There's an empty, clean dumpster over there. Nobody ever puts trash in it. Hide in it. I'm going back for Mai and Ci, and I'll meet you there." I hand him my backpack. "Take this. It has food and water in it." He stands still, accepting the backpack. "Go!"

I sprint back, not breaking a sweat. If I do, I don't notice. I can feel my heartbeat pounding in my head. I pull the door open, screeching down the burning hallway and stumbling down the stairs. Burning chairs and desks are strewn across the hallways.

"Mai??" I scream, throwing desks to the side as I enter the room. It is a wall of fire. I see a glimpse of her on the ground through the flames. "Jesus..." I mutter, glancing around. I sprint through the flames, grabbing the fire extinguisher and starting to spray Mai and Ci with it. There's no way that I can put out all of this fire.

I make a break for it and grab Mai, pulling her away from the burning ceiling. Ci is still partially under it. A second burst of adrenaline coming, I lift it up with all of my might. I manage to lift it about a foot off of the ground. I grab a couple of stones from the ceiling and shove them under. I drag Ci out and away from the ceiling.

I swing Mai over my right shoulder, and Ci over my left. I start to sprint out when a flame licks my back. I keel over in pain, my adrenaline rush ending and pain taking over. I roll on the floor to stop the burning from getting any worse, but I already know that the burning is severe.

I don't know how, but I force myself up, grab Mai and Ci again, and burst out of the door. I stumble down the hallway and collapse.

A few minutes later, I see Carson over me. He grabs Ci, helps me up, and helps me start to leave. I still am holding on to Mai. I don't question how or why he came back. I just focus on putting one foot in front of the other and breathing.

We get about a block away from the school, and I collapse again. Carson frantically turns me over, ripping the back of my shirt open and starting to rub burn cream on it. I start to scream with pain before he puts his hand over my mouth. It all goes black.

I wake up, and I'm sitting right outside of the dumpster, next to Carson. It's the middle of the night.

I feel bursts of pain running up and down my back.

"Uhn..." I mutter, trying to take my mind off of the fearsome sheer pain I am experiencing.

"Eli?" Carson says, sitting up. He blinks a few times to get the sleep out of his eyes.

"Is Mai ok?" I ask.

"Yeah, she's fine."

Silence.

"Do you guys have food or water?"

"We have a little food and water." He pulls out a bottle of water and an unopened, unheated can of chicken noodle soup. He grabs the can back, pulls out a can opener, opens the can, and hands it back to me. His hair looks like a messy pile of straw. I slurp down the soup, then I drink the water. It hurts to drink. "Mai, Ci, Clara, Destiny, Rebecca, Maggie, Jack, Sam, Quinn, Kenan, Mitch, and Rohan made it, too. They're with us, in the dumpster. I have watch right now.

"Fourteen people? That's a big group."

"C'mon, Eli, please? I know that you know your way around this place. I believe that you can smuggle us out of the city and into Canada. In fact, I know you can."

"No, you don't. With this number of noisy middle-schoolers and no authority, it would take a miracle to get us through an abandoned subway system without messing up."

"C'mon, you've gotta know the streets. You spent-"

"One year on them. Yeah, Carson, I remember."

He sighs, grabbing his head and ruffling his hair. "Jesus, Eli, I'm so sorry. You know I would have helped if I could."

I shrug. "I stayed homeless for a year. In fact, I guess I have been homeless for a year. I haven't had an actual place to live for an entire year, and for the other twelve years of my life, I lived with my single, alcoholic mother. So, yes, I do know the streets. But there are still one million people in this city. I have never gone on a walk before, ever, where I have gone one length of a block and not been seen by someone else."

"But--"

"Carson, please..." I turn away, sliding down so that I'm lying down with just my head resting against the dumpster. "Please drop it."

He nods, hanging his head. "Were you scared?"

"About what?" I ask.

"About dying. We all thought we were gonna die."

I pause. "Nope," I mutter. "I wasn't worried about ME dying. I was worried that Mai might. And I was thinking about what would happen to me if she did."

"What do you mean?"

"She's been the light of my life for so long... she's so perfect. She's been what's held me together for the past few years, and... if I lost that, I don't know what I would do."

"I know how you feel," he says. "C'mon, let's get some rest."

I roll over, trying to fall asleep, but it takes hours for me to finally be able to fall asleep.