And This Too: A Modern Fable Read Free Page A

tears continued to spill down her face as she drove.
                  Once the road had made the transformation from Main Street to barren highway, Harley had collected her head enough to ease into the posted speed limit.
                  Pixel crawled onto Harley’s lap. The girl couldn't help but smile at the warmth and love emanating from the kitten, so she reached down and stroked the purring fluff ball.
    *****
    Somewhere in Montana
    Imogene Reed sat with her back against the wall. Everyone around her was bobbing up and down, responding to the screaming cheerleaders. The Hawks were having a perfect season, despite their synchronized illness, and now it was the student body’s job to rev up the Hawks for their homecoming game.
                  The cheerleaders would yell, “Lemme see your Hawk spirit!”
                  Then, the enthusiastic masses would reply, “What’s that you say?”
                  Then the cheerleaders would do a funky move and the masses would mirror it. The display made Imogene’s head hurt. The sound of thousands of pairs of feet stomping on the bleachers kept waking her up.
              When everyone sat back down, the football coach stood in the middle of the gym and cheered, “Tonight we’re gonna tear it up!”
                  The brain dead crowd whooped in response.
                  “Gonna pulverize the Panthers!”
              “Yeah!”
                  “And maintain our winning streak!”
                  “Yeah!”
                  “So come on down here and lend these Hawks your spirit!”
                  The students poured out of the bleachers, formed a puddle on the floor and circled up around the football team. In ripples, the pool of students bobbed up and down while hollering, “We’re number one! We’re number one!”
                  Imogene stood on the outside of the disgusting ritual. Suddenly, over the stomping and yelling, there was a disturbing sound. One of the football players had thrown up in the middle of the huddle. Soon all of them were vomiting a black sludge. The bouncing stopped as the whole team let out a murderous, uniform screech.
                  Chaos enveloped the high school as the quarter back pounced on the coach and tore into his flesh. The linebacker simultaneously began perusing a cheerleader. Teachers were panicking. Screams echoed throughout the gym.
                  Imogene scurried from the scene and down a flight of stairs, before she found herself in the girls’ locker room. Her heart pounded in her throat as she listened to the faint sound of her peers’ blood curdling cries. Then, there were heavy, uneven footfalls coming from the stairs. Imogene surveyed her surroundings. She had to choose between hiding in a toilet stall or the showers. She crept towards the empty, dry showers just as the ghoul's shadow entered the room. Imogene sat on a bench in the shower stall victoriously that she supposed was meant to be a shelf that was too wide and too low to the ground. She slid backwards towards the wall as the uneven shuffling sound came closer.
                  Ppt-ppt-pshhhh.
                  Imogene looked at the shower head in dismay as it begun to spurt water. That’s when she noticed the blinking red sensor.
                  “Oh god,” she muttered in disbelief.
                  It had been a couple of years since she'd taken gym, so she had no clue that they'd upgraded the showers.
                  “Uuuuughn.”
                  The water had tipped the monster off, and now he was headed in her direction. The frightened teen edged back to the front of the bench. The water shut off. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, stood up, and ran for it. The predator saw