Chapter 1

I roll up my sleeve slowly. It's been such a long time since I've gotten a shot; I don't remember what it feels like.

"Can you smile at the ceiling for me dear?" says the doctor warmly. I look at the ceiling and attempt to smile considering the fact that I'm hyperventilating. Hurry up...Hurry up, I think to myself. I feel a little pinch and nothing else.

"You're all done sweetheart," says the doctor. I shift my gaze to her and I swear that I detect a sly smile. I blink and look again. The doctor is wrapping my arm carefully with a bandage and I conclude that I imagined it.

"I barely felt it," I say happily. As soon as I sigh with relief, I feel a sudden shock run though me. I flinch.

"You all right?" the doctor laughs. I personally didn't find it funny at all but I nod my head. The doctor writes something on a sheet of paper and hands it to me.

"You're good to go," says the doctor. I grab the sheet and leave the room in a hurry. I suddenly bump into someone.

"Finally! I thought that the doctor was poisoning you or something," laughs my older brother patting my head.

My name's Alaura Brandin and I just turned fourteen. My life is pretty simple. I wake up, go to school, come back from school, and sleep. That's pretty much my daily routine. I've always wanted a change in my life and I think that I'm about to get it.

There is a virus around. The name's way to complicated so I'm just going to call it The Virus; it makes life so much easier. Apparently, The Virus can damage pretty much anything in your body, that's what makes it deadly. It not as deadly as cancer but it comes close. This is why I finally got my vaccine today. The rest of my friends and family got it before me so I'm the last one.

"Shut up Reese," I retort playfully. We walk out of the doctor's office and I get in Reese's red minivan.

"Don't forget to fasten your seatbelt," reminds Reese fiddling with his car keys.

"I'm not a kid anymore," I roll my eyes and fasten my seat belt quickly. Reese manages to find the right key and turns on the car. The red minivan pulls out of the parking lot and maneuvers on the road. I rest my elbow on the armrest and look out the window.

"C'mon Toyota!" shouts my brother honking the horn. I turn around and stare at him.

"I told you to stop doing that!" I heave a sigh. My brother has a bad habit to talk to cars that are driving to slowly and stuff like that. Like usual, he ignores me.

"What the hell are you doing SUV! It's an advance!" my brother holds his hand on the horn for a couple of seconds and eventually the car in front of his turns left.

"Reese, please stop," I attempt to talk nicely to him but it doesn't work. "Be that way," I mutter under my breath. In about ten minutes of pure torture, we get to my school. I groan when Reese parks the minivan in the parking lot.

Reese smiles while putting his hand on my left arm. I shove his hand away and look at him defensively.

"What?" he asks.

"I-just-got-a-shot-there" I mutter.

"Oh right...sorry about that," We make our way to the attendance office and the attendance office lady prints out a slip of paper for me.

"Take this to your teacher when you get to class," she explains. I nod my head in response and wave to Reese.

"Remember to text me if something happens all right?" Reese smiles as he waves back.

"Yup," I respond as I walk down the school hallway quietly. When I'm about to open my locker I find a note stuck on it.

Hey girl! Hope that you survived the shot :D

I smile at the note and open my locker. I grab my math books and make my way to class. I can hear our math teacher lecturing my classmates away about passing notes during class. I giggle to myself and knock on the door. The teacher stops talking and I can hear him stomping towards the door muttering under his breath. As a safety precaution, I take several steps back just in case. The door opens and I see my chunky bald math teacher. He opens his abnormally large mouth to yell at me and I hold out the slip of paper to stop him. The math teacher grabs it and directs his beady black eyes towards the slip to read it.

"You may enter Miss Brandin," he grumbles gesturing me inside. I walk inside and immediately applause breaks out and I can see my best friend, Holly giving me a standing ovation.

"She survived it!" Holly laughs sarcastically while other kids start to laugh with her. I'm overwhelmed by all of this attention and I find myself blushing. I sit in an empty seat beside Holly in the back of the class.

"How was it?" Holly asks tying her brown hair in a ponytail.

"I barely felt it," I reply happily. I turn and face the board and watch our math teacher write some gibberish on it. I open my drawing book and start to doodle. I suddenly hear this strangled cry near the front of the classroom and look up immediately. I look just in time to see Jeremy, a kid in our class fall from his chair to the ground. His lips part in a silent scream and he starts to twitch spasmodically.

"He's having a seizure!" a kid beside him yells. Terror erupts in the classroom. Kids are running around and even the math teacher is frozen behind his desk. The door flies open and the principal barges in. Everyone freezes in place.

"What is-" The principal spots Jeremy laying still on the ground and his eyes grow to the size of dinner plates. He calls 9-1-1 and scoops Jeremy up and takes him away. I stare in horror as he closes the door and I could just make out Jeremy's pale face in his arms.

"R-recess," the math teacher stammers. No one makes a sound as we file out of the classroom to the back door that leads to the playground. I walk up to the tree with

HA carved in the trunk and sit down. Holly sprints outside and sits down beside me.

"That was scary," she giggles nervously.

"Yeah," I murmur quietly taking a bite out of my apple.

"It sounded like he was being strangled-"

"Stop," I snap. "You don't have to remind me," We sit in silence and I see a boy with blond hair sticking up all over the place walk out of the school. I watch him make his way to a tree of the other side of the playground and dig through a paper bag.

"Are you listening to me?" Holly enquires cocking her head to one side.

"Huh? Oh yeah..." I tear my gaze away from the boy and look at her. Holly looks at the boy then back at me.

"You like him!" she smirks.

"Do not!" I say, lightly offended. "Is he new?"

"Yup...and single,"

"Cut it out!" I give her a light push and she falls at someone's feet. We both look up and see the boy staring at us.

"You two were talking about me weren't you?" he asks raising his eyebrows.

"No we were-"

"Don't bother...I get that a lot," he shrugs. "I'm Luke by the way," he adds holding out his hand to Holly to help her up. She takes it and Luke pulls her up.

"Thanks," says Holly brushing the dirt of her. Suddenly I hear sirens and I see an ambulance speeding in our direction. Luke, Holly and I get up and we look curiously at them. I can see the principal, accompanied by the school nurse and Jeremy's parents surrounding a boy on a stretcher. The paramedics rush out and examine Jeremy closely. They pick up the stretcher and put him in the back of the ambulance. I hope that he's going to be okay, I think to myself when the bell rings and we have to return to class.

(Time lap)

Done, I think happily to myself when I finish my last algebra problem. I grab all of my books and dump them in my school bag. I grab my phone when I hear my notification tone. I open up a text from Holly.

Turn the tv on right now

I turn my phone off and I turn the T.V. in my room on curiously. I can see doctors talking worriedly to each other while they observe an empty vile through a microscope.

"A young 14-year-old boy by the name Jeremy Fisher died last night of something we have feared of for a long time," explains the monotonous voice in the television. "Doctors have found a dead virus in the young boy's throat. If it is what we think it is, then this is the dawn of another quarantine," I shut the T.V. off and fall on my bed in shock. He was the one of the first ones to take the vaccine...this can't be possible, I think franticly to myself.

"Alaura! Dinner's ready!" shouts my mother interrupting my thoughts. I swallow nervously and make my way downstairs, ready to tell them that our worst fear has been realized: The Virus is striking back.