And This Too: A Modern Fable Read Free Page B

the teen dart off and began to pursue his prey more vigorously.
                  Imogene ran for the other set of stairs with the undead football player close behind. In her haste, she fumbled up the stairs, falling over herself a couple of times. Enough adrenaline was pumping through her system for her to get up without taking notice of the cut on her chin, or the rapidly enlarging, purple bump on her shin. The girl used excessive effort to push through the door she had found.
                  The teen couldn't help but recoil as she was hit with a blast of warm, chlorinated air. She had unwittingly led herself to the pool. With legs too sore to work properly for much longer, Imogene tried to power walk to the water slide on the other side of the room. Just as she had begun to ascend the ladder, the swinging door opened, and the rogue jock caught sight of his prey. Imogene crawled into the top of the tube slide and watched in horror as number thirty-two quickly made his way across the room. Imogene bit her bottom lip and held her breath as she waited for the monster to accept the stalemate. Instead, he glanced up the ladder and began to scale it.
                  “Shit,” she sobbed, scared to tears.              
                  Imogene pushed herself down the slide and entered the water with a splash. She gasped as her jeans and hoodie instantly absorbed some of the water. In the heat of the chase she'd forgotten how unbelievably heavy she'd get under water. As she paddled with one hand and both of her feet, Imogene struggled out of her hoodie. That’s when a splash echoed throughout the room.
                  The desperately hungry boy sank all the way to the bottom of the pool and began to continue the chase. Imogene tried to paddle faster, slipping out of her slippers in the process. Exhausted, she tried to keep swimming as the ghoul behind her continued forward at an unnerving pace.
                  She decided to take a chance and began treading water as she pulled her shirt up over her head. Then she quickly unfastened her jeans before advancing towards the shallow end. She kicked her pants off as she swam. However, even though the scantily clad high school girl was moving with new found speed, number thirty-two was catching up. For a brief moment, Imogene recognized the howling monster behind her, and sadness bubbled up in her throat as she remembered how Tom Balfina had bought her lunch when someone tripped her in the hallway and spilled her homemade spaghetti all over the floor. Tom, the running back, was one of the only guys on the team that Imogene could really stand. As the terrified girl swam towards the other side of the pool she almost wanted to stop fleeing. She began to wonder why she hadn’t just swam to an edge and gotten out of the contaminated water.
                  Just as Imogene reached the shallow end, she began to believe that she was in the clear. Her toes could almost touch the bottom, so she paused a moment to catch her breath. That’s when a hand grabbed her ankle.
                  Imogene was able to let out one final scream before Tom pulled her under.
    *****
    Somewhere in North Dakota
    "Radioactive Fizzy."
    "Anda for you, sir?"
    "Hot tea," Levi replied kindly as he and his friend slid out of the window side booth.
    Li Xiu Ying smiled politely and nodded. She hated working in her uncle's restaurant; most of the customers were too rude for her to handle. Li Xiu was relieved that she could bitch about them in Chinese. The waitress went and gathered drinks for the buffet-fattened oil riggers as the front door opened and a large, disgruntled family reunion boisterously interrupted the peace of everyone dining at Foo Chow Buffet. Li Xiu sighed and rolled her eyes, stepping back onto the floor with a plastic cup of green soda, a mug, and a small metal tea-pot in hand.
    Li Xiu got to the