The Aftermath
Though the military had questioned Breanne and Mr. Stewart about the ingredients of the concoction that started the ordeal, neither Breanne or Mr. Stewart ever revealed the true ingredients to them. In the years to come, the military tried to recreate the situation. They were never successful.
The scientists set to investigate why the incident had occurred, determined that the reason only teenagers had been affected, was that all of their thinking was done with their prefrontal cortex. The hyper-activity of their brains had short circuited their minds. The loss of coherent vocalization and the sensation of pain were side effects of the infection. In fact, when Miranda had stood in front of Mr. Stewart’s desk on that fateful day, she had been trying to tell him that something was wrong, but she wasn’t able to speak the words. When the students first smelled the fresh blood from Mr. Stewart’s paper cut, it had acted like a trigger. The students had thought that human blood would cure them. It was only with Breanne’s higher intelligence that she was able to determine that something more was needed.
Mr. Jenkins refused to ever face the reality of what had occurred. He was eventually institutionalized. Mr. Stewart and Mrs. Canterbury resigned from their jobs. With the secretary being the only other staff member at the school that had avoided death, due to her having been at lunch when the outbreak occurred, the school was forced to close for the rest of the year. Many of the students and their families moved away.
Breanne and Miranda’s families were among the few families who stayed. Their parents forced them to go through grief counseling, even though both girls were coping very well. The two girls developed a great friendship in the following months. Breanne visited Miranda every day while her legs were healing. Afterward they did everything together. Somehow both girls had been accredited with saving the school. Breanne explained to Miranda, “I couldn’t have cured anybody without your help. You gave me the inspiration to change and also came up with the idea to use the sprinklers to administer the cure.” Both girls were given full scholarships to the college of their choice as a reward for ending the ordeal.
When they did return to school the next year, it was as legends. Not just Breanne and Miranda, but all of the students that had survived the ordeal. Each of them was marked with one or more bite mark scars. Miranda was the only one of the test group students who was left at the school, and thanks to Breanne’s mistake while curing her; she had a bite mark scar too. Nothing eventful happened at St. Peter’s High School in the following years. Breanne and Miranda decided to attend the same college and ended up starting a medical company that worked towards solving the existing epidemics of the world. They accomplished many great things together, but neither of them ever forgot their day at Zombie High.
The End
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