New Eden-World's Near End

Chapter Two

10:46am

"It's a quarantine." Brandon, one of Bradley's friends was saying. He was sitting on top of a desk with his legs crossed under him. He had his smartphone turned landscape and was staring at the screen.

"What? No way!" Kay-Marie said. She was right next to him, looking at her own phone.

"Look." Brandon said and showed her his phone. There was a video playing on the display. The video was recorded from someone else's phone as they held it above the heads of the many others that was gathered in a crowd that was shouting and pushing against a line of men in military uniforms. People in the crowd were shouting for answers and were cursing at the military men as concrete barricades were being erected to block the roads.

"They're not letting people in or out of town. That's a quarantine if I even seen one." Brandon said.

"They could just be looking for someone, like a fugitive or terrorist, or something." Kay countered.

"Valid," Brandon pointed out. "But you don't need to lockdown an entire town to find one, or a couple persons."

Kay gave a sigh of frustration and turned away. She was tired of arguing theories with Brandon. People were saying that it was a quarantine for a virus that had gotten loose, or terrorist were attacking, or it was a simple government exercise. The internet was blowing up with what was happening. Everyone had conspiracy to share, but no one had any real answers.

"Anything?" she asked and scooted closer to Bradley, who was in the seat next to her.

Ever since he had gotten the message, Bradley had been trying to get in touch with his mom without success. He pulled the phone away from his ear and shook his head. "I keep getting redirected to voicemail."

"Everyone's trying to call out," Brandon said. "The lines are gonna be tied up for however long this goes on. You tried email, or Twitter?"

Bradley nodded. "I sent a message out on every social media app she'd use, and I left her a voicemail." He sighed deeply in frustration and stared at the phone in his hands. Fifteen. That's how many times he had tried to call his mom. The line would ring for a coupe seconds and then pass on to voicemail. However, the last four attempts didn't even ring. Instead he had been patched through to an automated voice message. "Due to the number of incoming calls all our lines are busy. Please hold on the line and a representative will be with you shortly to address your concerns, or you can hang up and try again."

Things were not ok.

Keep calm, Bradley. This, whatever this is, is probably temporary. It's just an exercise. Or it could be something real. Something serious. This could be another 9-11, maybe worse, and we could be stuck here for days. As his thoughts strayed, Bradley felt the anxiety creeping in and tightening around his chest. Bradley shook his head and stood up suddenly. He shouldn't think like that. If he allowed his thoughts to run away then he would only be setting himself up for an asthma attack.

Breathe, Bradley, breathe.

It was after ten. Ever since word of what was happening had started to spread the teachers had decided to cancel all classes for the day. They had directed all student to their home rooms while they convened in the main building to decide on what to do next. The result of that was children had taken the opportunity to create chaos. They moved about the halls and classes shouting and talking in groups. Many of them were like Bradley, Brandon and Kay, who were drawn together in an effort to try and make sense of what was happening in their town. But there were some, like Leroy, who abused the absence of the teachers to create whatever trouble their hearts desired. The bully in question was currently laid out on the teachers' desk, talking animatedly and laughing with a couple of his slimy friends. The tension that had burned between Leroy and Bradley had sizzled out and had been forgotten.