The Beginning of the End

by Lorana Hoopes

  Lily turned her wide eyes to Katie. Though she said nothing, she hoped that Katie would understand her silent question. Why had a substitute redecorated Mr. Higgins’ room? And why was he acting as if they’d be there all day instead of just the fifty minutes for the first period?

  Katie offered a small shrug and a subtle shake of her head in response. It wasn’t much, but it let Lily know that she had understood the question and that she had no answer either.

  As Lily walked to the desk she had used last week, she noticed new tape marks on the floor. She’d performed in a few plays over the years and had marked stages for set pieces. The tape had never seemed threatening or dark before. But it did now. The once bright room now looked like an elaborate tragedy with all the desks exactly six feet apart.

  Katie leaned close and whispered. “What happened here? It feels so cold.”

  Lily shook her head, but it did not ease the fear that this might only be the beginning. First, the vaccine push on Friday and now this. Deep down, she supposed she knew this day would come. After the rapture, it was only a matter of time before the Antichrist was revealed, and he tried to take over the world. Lily just hadn’t thought it would come so soon.

  She took a small comfort in knowing she was not alone in her unease. Though everyone who entered was masked, she could see the shock play across their eyes as they stepped into the room. Most were too timid to ask any questions. Connor, unfortunately, was not.

  “Whoa,” he said as he slid into the classroom right before the bell went off. “Who are you and what happened to Mr. Higgins?” Connor was the typical jock. He almost always wore jerseys of some sort - basketball, football, hockey. Lily had never seen him in anything else, and she wasn’t sure he owned other types of shirts. Plus, he was a little cocky and loud. That worked in his favor during most sports games, but it did nothing for him with Mr. Dagon.

  Mr. Dagon looked up from his computer and fixed Connor with an icy glare. “Mr. Higgins will be out for a few weeks. I am Mr. Dagon, and in my class, we don’t have verbal outbursts like that.”

  Connor shrugged as he plopped into the last unoccupied desk. “The bell just rang, dude.”

  Lily had seen teachers get upset before. In fact, she’d seen them get upset at Connor before, but she’d never seen such hatred pour forth from a teacher’s eyes like the kind that issued now from Mr. Dagon. “I am not your dude, young man. You will address me with respect, and to make up for your poor behavior, you will stay after class to sanitize the desks today.”

  Though Connor offered another shrug, Lily saw the muscles in his back tighten. He didn’t like being called out and receiving punishment was even worse.

  “Good, now that expectations are settled, we can begin class. Let’s begin by researching and discussing the effectiveness of vaccines.”

  “But we don’t have the vaccine yet,” came a small voice from behind Lily.

  “We will soon,” Mr. Dagon said as his eyes swept over the room. “We will soon.”

  “Aren’t you coming?”

  Candace glanced up from her salad to see one of the older nurses, Anne, in the doorway. Anne was probably only in her late fifties, but her graying hair made her appear older. Still, she was one of Candace’s favorite nurses to work with. She was kind but a hard worker, and she could switch from spitting out nails to issuing soothing words like a grandmother on the turn of a dime.

  “No, I’m going to finish eating first,” Candace said. She’d had to work through lunch and was just now getting a chance to eat. She hadn’t planned it, but it had come as a welcome excuse to not take the first round of vaccines that were being pushed on the medical staff.

  “Have you eaten? Do you want to join me?” She’d tried to convince Anne not to get the vaccine, but for all her good qualities, Anne’s downfall was that she truly believed the government was there to help everyone.

  “Don’t tell me you believe those conspiracy theories,” Anne had said when Candace had brought up the issue. “I think you might need more sleep.”

  “It’s not a conspiracy theory if it’s true,” Candace had pressed, but Anne had merely shaken her head and claimed she was doing it not only for herself but for her husband who was diabetic. They’d been living apart for the past several months and Anne wanted to be able to go home to him.

  Candace could certainly understand that as there wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t miss her own husband. Still, she worried for Anne. She knew not everyone would have an immediate adverse reaction. Some might not have one at all, but she’d been checking the site daily that posted them and the increasing number gave her even more hesitation.

  “No, I ate earlier,” Anne said, answering Candace’s question. Candace couldn’t see her smile, but the crinkle lines on the sides of her eyes led her to believe the woman smiled behind her mask. “Thank you for asking though. I know you have misgivings, but I hope that you’ll see after today that this vaccine is safe.”

  “I hope so too,” Candace said, but she knew in her gut that wouldn’t be the case. As Anne left the room, Candace sent up a prayer for her safety and for all the other people who were taking the vaccine believing they were doing the right thing. “Please protect them, Lord.”

  Raven entered the large warehouse behind Pastor Ben and Nathan and smiled. Though it was just a large space now, it would be perfect if they ever needed it. “This is amazing. Where did you find this place?”

  Nathan stuck out his chest and smiled broadly. “My next-door neighbor owned it. He said he and wife had planned on opening a company but then she disappeared. He told me about it one night when I was witnessing to him and said he had no use for it anymore. I asked if he’d be obliged to sell it, and he agreed.”

  “Thankfully, the church still had funds in our account from before the rapture, and we’ve been receiving modest tithes from those who’ve attended after,” Ben added. “We were able to reach a deal with Nathan’s neighbor.”

  Raven stepped forward and scanned the area. There were a few office areas, a break room which she assumed held a sink and a fridge, and a bathroom. With a few other partitions, she could envision a place where many would be able to live more or less comfortably. It would be like a large commune, but it would be better than being isolated. A part of her still hoped this wouldn’t be necessary, but with the vaccines hitting the streets already, she knew it would be.

  “This is great,” she said, smiling at them. “Will we be able to get some partitions and beds and maybe a few showers?”

  Nathan smiled again. “Yep, I’m already working on that with some fellows from the church. Thankfully, we have a few contractors and plumbers among our congregation now, and they have offered their services.”

  Raven placed a hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “That is wonderful news, Nathan. You are doing more than you know for all of us.”

  The man blushed and dropped his eyes to the floor. “Aw, thanks, but I’m just happy to be doing the work of the Lord. It’s something I should have been doing a long time ago.”

  “We all should have been,” Pastor Ben said, speaking up. “I’m working with some of the parishioners who like to garden as well. We’ve got a few acres here, but unfortunately it’s going to take us a bit to have a sustainable garden.”

  Raven nodded. She worried about that. So far, they were still allowed to shop, and she made sure to purchase extra items whenever she went, but she knew the day was coming when that would no longer be an option. At least not unless Gabe could work a miracle and find a way to forge their vaccination documents.

  “How is our pantry looking? Do you think it will hold us over until then?”

  Ben ran a hand across his chin. “It’s growing every day, but so are our numbers. If the crackdown comes too soon, I worry. We need another few months at least before I will feel comfortable.”

  “We’ll pray we get that then. How about our sister churches? Have they been as lucky as we have at finding resources?”

/>   Ben nodded. “Some more than others, but all have a pantry and a few others have secured a building such as ours. I’ll keep reminding them how pressing this issue is.”

  “As will I in the next video I do,” Raven said. “I’m glad that more people are waking up, but I hope God gives us some time to prepare.”

  “Me too.” The gravity in Ben’s voice mirrored the weight on Raven’s shoulders, but there was only one thing she could do. Pray.

  17

  “Okay, it’s weird, right?” Katie asked Lily as she unwrapped her sandwich. She was on one end of the table and Lily was on the other. Though the girls sat at a table that could hold three students, it was just the two of them today.

  Lily glanced around the cafeteria and realized it did seem sparser. Were there students missing? She’d heard rumors of a few students having to quarantine, but that had only been one or two. It seemed more like ten or more were missing, so, where were they?

  “Lunch or everything else?” she asked. Weird did not begin to describe everything that she was feeling. The morning had been so odd that she was having a hard time even unpacking it all in her head.

  First, there had been science - another day with the creepy Mr. Dagon leaning over their shoulders as they researched and continually interrupting them with a random fact about the efficacy of vaccines. Lily was beginning to think he was on payroll with the pharmaceutical companies as much as he pushed the idea. He’d even asked them how many of them had returned their forms and were looking forward to their shots in the next week or so. Lily and Katie had exchanged a glance but kept their mouths closed. There was no need to draw unneeded attention to themselves. That day would come soon enough.

  After science, she’d enjoyed a reprieve with a slightly normal English class with Mrs. Fox. Mrs. Fox was normally one of her favorite teachers, but today she, as well as the history teacher Ms. Turnbull, had seemed off. Both women were normally vivacious and chatty, but today their normal animation had appeared forced. Maybe it was the influx of new substitutes. Lily knew the teachers at this school were almost as close as the students, and not only was Mr. Higgins gone, but the math teacher had also been replaced. Supposedly, she was on a two-week quarantine, but Lily was beginning to have her doubts.

  The math sub wasn’t as creepy as Mr. Dagon or Ms. Dickens, but she didn’t seem especially friendly either. Dressed all in black, her pale skin had appeared even more white, giving her the look of Morticia or Wendy Addams. Her tone had been monotonous as she droned on about the assignment and her class expectations while Ms. Owings was out.

  “All of it. Like where did Mr. Higgins and Ms. Owings go? Are they really sick? If so, why hasn’t the government shut us down? I was reading the opening plan again the other night, after we met the new nurse, and it said that more than one case would be considered an outbreak and could shut us down again. Yet now we supposedly have two teachers and several students out and we’re business as usual?”

  Lily bit the inside of her lip and looked around again. “Yeah, the whole thing is strange, but maybe they don’t actually have the virus. Maybe they were just exposed and had to quarantine. Or maybe they both got tired of teaching with a mask on. I can barely breathe in mine, and I don’t talk much during class. I can’t imagine having to teach with one on.” She glared at the folded piece of fabric on the side of her table. Thankfully, students were still allowed to take their masks off to eat, but they were required to put them on as soon as they finished their lunch. Lily had never been an especially slow eater, but she was finding a way to drag out her eating lately. Her face still felt hot and itchy from the mask, and she dreaded putting it back on after lunch.

  Katie popped a chip in her mouth and chewed. When her mouth was clear, she picked up the conversation again. “I suppose that’s possible, but I feel like the school should have said something about it. And what’s with these substitute teachers they hired? They’re so…” she shuddered, “impersonal. One of the things I loved about going here was that the teachers seemed to care. The new ones feel cold.”

  Cold was a good word. Everything felt so odd this year, but cold definitely summed up the subs well.

  “But I didn’t do anything.” The loud, protesting voice grabbed the girls’ attention, and they turned to see Connor facing off with Mr. Dagon. Connor was one of those kids who spent a lot of time in the principal’s office - not usually for anything major, but he had a way of not following the rules just enough to get in trouble. Usually, it was for being late or mouthing off in class. Lily wondered what it was this time.

  “You will come with me or you won’t be returning tomorrow.” Mr. Dagon’s low voice held the note of authority that seemed to sober Connor. With a roll of his eyes, Connor followed the new teacher out of the lunch room and toward the office.

  “Can he do that?” Katie asked. “Kick him out of school for not coming with him?”

  Lily shrugged. She didn’t even know what Connor had done this time. The buzz in the lunch room was loud, but not so loud that the students hadn’t heard the exchange. However, there had been no disruption beforehand, which made her wonder exactly what Connor was in trouble for. “I don’t know, but I don’t plan on finding out for myself. Maybe he didn’t do a good job cleaning the desks this morning.”

  After mouthing off the other day, Mr. Dagon had required Connor to clean the desks every day for the next two weeks. Lily had never been a troublemaker, but it appeared toeing the line would be more important than ever this year. Spending extra time with Mr. Dagon was about the worst punishment she could imagine.

  The bell rang a few minutes later, and with a sigh, she replaced her mask before gathering up her trash to throw it away. Just three more hours, she told herself, but three hours felt like a lifetime.

  When the final bell rang, relief flooded her body. She could not wait to get out of this building, rip the mask off, and breathe in fresh air. Could she really do this for the rest of the year? Another hundred and fifty plus days?

  “Hey, did you see Connor after lunch?” Katie asked as she met up with Lily outside the classroom door.

  Lily shook her head. “No, why?”

  “I don’t know. He was just acting really weird.”

  Lily lifted an eyebrow at Katie. “Connor is often weird. I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.”

  Katie glanced around as if afraid of someone overhearing her words. “You know how he got called out by Mr. Dagon at lunch?”

  Lily nodded as the girls continued toward their lockers. Katie’s eyes darted around again. Though not generally a nervous person, Katie’s behavior was turning Lily into one at the moment. Suddenly, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as if someone was watching them. Lily’s eyes darted around as well, but she saw no one.

  Katie scanned the area one more time before continuing. Her voice was barely above a whisper this time though and Lily had to strain to discern the words from behind her mask. “Well, when he came into last period, he was all weird, like spacey or something. His eyes were kind of glazed over, and he just sat there quietly and did what he was told.”

  Okay, that was more than a little weird. Connor wasn’t a “bad” kid, but he was definitely not the type of student who sat and did what he was told in class. His name was usually uttered no fewer than five times along with the words “focus” or “get to work.” For him to actually do that without reminders was odd.

  Lily opened her locker and exchanged the no-longer needed books for her backpack. “Well, maybe he got in enough trouble for whatever he did that he decided to focus.”

  Katie leaned up against the lockers and folded her arms. “Maybe, but something about the whole thing bothers me.”

  Lily had no argument there. The first few weeks of Senior year might be in the books but it was certainly the weirdest start of school she’d ever had. “Yeah.” She shut the locker, and the two headed toward the front entrance. “You want to get together later?”

 
; “Sure, I can swing by after dinner.”

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  Twenty minutes later, Lily pulled into the driveway of her house. She grabbed her mask from the seat where she’d thrown it, determined to now wash it daily.

  During all of their required vaccine research, Lily had stumbled across an old article that stated the majority of the deaths of 1918 had come not from the flu but from bacterial pneumonia after the fact. Bacterial pneumonia that had sprouted on the masks the people had been forced to wear.

  This knowledge made Lily hate the masks even more, and a part of her feared she might be damaging her lungs by wearing one all day. However, she was determined to try and get a quality education, so if that meant washing it every day to keep the bacteria at bay, she would do that. In addition, she had begun taking Vitamin D and Zinc after Gabe and Raven recommended them.

  “How was school today?” Her mother asked as she entered the kitchen. She sat at the table, her laptop open in front of her.

  “It was interesting.” Lily dropped her bag by the chair before heading to the pantry to find a snack.

  “What do you mean interesting?”

  Grabbing a packet of fruit snacks from the shelf, Lily tore the package open and popped one in her mouth before answering. “Well, wearing a mask all day still stinks for one thing.” She ran her hand across her chin. There was still some weird phantom feeling there even after nearly half an hour with no mask on.

  “Okay, but that will get better with time. What else?”

  Lily pulled out the chair across from her mother and sat down. “We’ve had a bunch of new hires at school. A new counselor, a new nurse, and now we have a few substitutes. The school told us the teachers who are out got sick, but I don’t know. Regardless, the subs and the new hires aren’t nearly as friendly.”