Authors: Michaelbrent Collings
Dedication
To...
Mom and Pop Barbey,
who
provided me with a rare gift,
and
to Laura, FTAAE.
The Colony: Genesis
Book One of
The
Colony Saga
Contents
Chapter
“Mr. Strickland?”
“
Shhh
.”
A pause. Then:
“Mr. Strickland?”
“
Shhhh
!
”
A shorter pause.
“Mr. –“
Ken Strickland tried very hard
not
to roll his eyes. He almost succeeded.
“What is it, Becca?”
Becca Lee was famous for this. Bright enough to be in the college prep courses, but she somehow always found herself on the upper end of the grading curve in the lower level classes. Like she didn’t want to run the risk of finding herself in the middle of the pack. Better to win at an easier game than actually push herself to excel. Still, that didn’t stop her from raising her hand and asking some question every time she finished a test. An obvious-to-everyone-but-her attempt for recognition, if not outright validation. She might as well have just said, “I’m done, I’m smart, and I just wanted you all to know.”
Ken liked Becca. He liked
all
his students, even the ones who seemed determined to squeak through their high school career on the way to promising futures as fry cooks, senators, and other high school teachers. But some of them really tried his patience.
“Becca,” he said. His voice was a stage whisper, one he knew from experience would carry through the room. She was in the first row – a seat she had picked for herself, of course – so he could have been quieter. But sometimes a little public embarrassment was the best medicine. “Please be quiet unless you need to go pee-pee so bad you’re going to explode.”
Titters from the class. Most of them seemed to understand what he was doing, too, glancing surreptitiously at Becca and rolling
their
eyes before returning their gazes to the tests he had handed out only…. Ken’s eyes flicked to the digital wall-clock.
Crap, it’s only been ten minutes? No
way she
finished already.
As if mirroring his thoughts, Becca shook her head at that moment. Her face scrunched up and there were wrinkles on her forehead that he’d never seen on her before. She looked worried. Freaked out.
Scared.
“It’s not that. It’s just….” She looked like she was searching for the right words, then just shrugged and pointed.
Ken followed the line of her gesture. He wondered absently if this was some new way to get attention. Wondered if there was any chance he would be able to steal away during his lunch break and meet up with Maggie and the kids.
Wondered if he was going to live and die in that lowest of all stations: a high school teacher.
Then all that fell out of his head, fell from his mind like water through a sieve as he saw what Becca was pointing at. What she had been the first to see.
Others in the class saw it, too. The titters of a moment before disappeared, replaced by several gasps and one small screech that probably came from
Janeane
Carpenter in the last row.
Or maybe it came from Ken himself. He couldn’t be sure. But a moment later he realized he’d stopped breathing.
“What the hell is that?” he said.