The Beginning of the End by Lorana Hoopes (readict txt) 📕

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.”

Lines of concern creased her mother’s forehead. “Well, this is probably new territory for them too. Give them time. I’m sure it will get better.”

Lily shrugged. Though she highly doubted that, she wasn’t in the mood to argue with her mother over it. Besides, there was nothing she could do except not go to school and that certainly wasn’t an option. At least not until they required the vaccine.

“Oh, by the way, I signed this for you,” her mother said, sliding a sheet of paper across the table.

Lily glanced down at it and shook her head. “No way. I’m not taking it, Mom.”

“Lily.” Her mother’s voice took on that condescending tone that Lily couldn’t stand. “I know you’ve been reading conspiracy websites that claim it isn’t safe, but everything I’ve seen says it is. Besides, it’s the only way we can get back to normal, remember?”

Lily stared at her mother. What had happened to her? Her mother no longer attended church, but she hadn’t seemed like the type to buy everything the government pushed hook, line, and sinker either. Now, she was not only dismissing Lily’s fears but pushing the idea of back to normal? Her mother was beginning to sound like the commercials Lily hated.

“I don’t think they’ll ever let us get back to normal,” Lily mumbled.

Her mother placed a hand on her arm. “Now, honey, I know it’s been hard, but this will pass. Things might not go back to exactly the way they were before, but this will help.”

“Mom, do you hear yourself? Dr. Goodman was on the TV last night saying that even after we get this vaccine, we still have to wear a mask and be socially distant. He said we could still even catch NCAV, and now they’re talking about a new strain being discovered? This will never end.”

Lily had never spoken to her mother like that, and for a moment she thought about apologizing, but then she remembered Raven saying their job was to spread the word, show people the truth, wake them up. Who better to start with than her mother?

“Lily, I…” her mother sputtered like a car trying to start on a cold morning.

“Mom, I love you, but I need you to listen to me now.” Lily waited for her mother to agree. Then she took a deep breath and began to share everything she knew.

Candace had just stepped out of the on-call room when Julia came running up to her.

“Dr. Markham, you have to come quickly,” Julia said, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the farthest exam room.

“What is it?” Candace asked, fighting the urge to dislodge Julia’s grip on her arm. Clearly, something had scared her. Julia was generally a level-headed nurse even though she was on the younger side, but right now, she looked as if the ghost of her dead grandmother had just walked through the walls of the hospital.

Julia glanced around before answering in a hushed whisper, “It’s Anne.”

“Anne? What’s wrong with Anne?” As soon as the words left her mouth, Candace remembered the vaccine station yesterday and how proud Anne was to be getting the vaccine even after Candace warned her not to. “Oh no.”

She quickened her pace and followed Julia into the last ER room on the floor. Anne lay in the bed, her body convulsing. It presented like a seizure except much more frequent and instead of glazed eyes, Anna’s fearful ones were fixed on Candace. “What’s happening to me?”

“I don’t know, Anne, but I promise you I will find out. When did this start?”

“Last night.” She paused as her head shook uncontrollably, flopping from one side to the other. “I felt weird after the shot, so I took the rest of the day off.” Another pause as the shaking pulsed down her body. “It started with my foot. Just jerking on its own. Then the other one.” She paused again as her arm lifted off the bed before flopping back down. “I took some Tylenol PM to help me sleep, but when I woke up this morning, it was worse.”

“Okay, I’m going to run some tests and do some research. Just try to relax.” Candace squeezed Anne’s arm and offered a sympathetic smile. She wished she could do more, but the vaccine was so new that few side effects had even been reported and nothing like this. She did know that she had to do more. Regardless of what happened with her job, she needed to start speaking out about this vaccine so that no one else ended up like Anne.

18

The next morning Lily pulled into the school parking lot and sighed. She’d checked her bag twice before she left to make sure she had everything, but it appeared her mask had been forgotten. It was probably still in the dryer as she washed them daily now, hoping to avoid bacterial pneumonia. There wasn’t time to go back for it without being late, so she decided to just grab one of the ones the school was handing out. She wasn’t the first one to have to use one, and she doubted she would be the last. High schoolers were notorious for losing things.

After locking the car, she headed for the temperature check in point, stifling another sigh when she saw that Mr. Dagon