Tides of Chaos

At the University of Stormport, Aquilino and a handful of his students stampede from the classroom.

Some students follow him as closely and quickly as they can. Others do not escape at once and remain locked inside the classroom with Karma and Darma. Karma has fallen to the floor amid vomit and uncontrollable secretions. Darma stands beside her, stunned and horrified. She wants to help her sister, but does not even know how she will help herself. At one point she releases a piercing scream that reaches Aquilino clearly. The director passes through amid the chaos consuming the building. He takes in the situation, acts quickly and locks Karma and the now-contaminated Darma inside the classroom.

Adrenaline surges through Aquilino once he reaches the hallway with a handful of his students. In the broad passage connecting every classroom on the floor, the tide of young bodies has spun out of control. Karma is clearly not the only case in the building; there are others in the surrounding rooms. As if that were not enough, soldiers are arriving by aircraft with orders to shoot if necessary. The professor hears the muted electric crack of automatic gunfire in the distance, on this floor and those above and below. Everywhere he looks, terrified children surround him.

Some students descend quickly down stairs, others trample, push or squeeze to access the available elevators. The professor observes everything with great perplexity, captured by terror. Jessica, Romualdo, Rolando and Bruno are next to him. Both Bruno and Jessica insult the director of the institute in different ways, for having locked up their healthy classmates along with the contagious Karma. The insults don't seem to reach their destination.

"Guys, guys! Please, how are you going to say such foul things to the director?" Aquilino wants to point them out.

His students obey him, they stop insulting at least for now. The situation overwhelms them. Although he has corrected his students, the teacher sees no point in maintaining good manners in the midst of such tides of chaos. He can't move a hair. He is unaware that, inside the classroom, the same one he used for these twenty-five years, his student Sam places the sole of his shoe on Karma's chest. The young woman has a fit that seems frantic. Sam tries to keep her glued to the ground while also preventing any saliva, vomit, or even blood from splashing onto him. That would infect others.

Sam grips Karma tightly, braces himself and hurls her into a corner. Darma reacts in defense of her sister, catches Sam from behind and strikes him. Another young woman comes to Sam's aid and violently smashes Darma's head against the wall; Darma falls stunned to the floor. Karma rises at once, runs and lunges at Sam. Out in the corridor, the professor looks at the students behind him and sees panic in their eyes. He considers himself responsible for them and must protect them until he can bring them to safety. He is the only person who can stand between them and the many tragedies that will unfold that day. They are in his care.

A piercing, powerful scream comes from inside the classroom. Aquilino does not know its cause and has no wish to learn it. Jessica peers through the small window in the door and sees Sam strike Karma's head with a desk. Then she witnesses Darma retaliate: Darma leaps upon him and attacks. Jessica watches in horror. Aquilino rises from the corridor floor, covers Jessica's eyes with his hands and pulls her away from the window. Not even he dares look at what is happening to his students inside. Karma kicks uncontrollably in the air, a reflex; she is no longer conscious. Her sister's wild screams choke in her own infected blood. A sudden surge of vomit erupts and drenches Sam.

Aquilino moves away, holding Jessica and Bruno on the way, he wants to leave the building. Desperate, Romualdo and Rolando stand up behind him. They follow him. With great pain in his heart, Aquilino cannot help but remember how adorable Karma has always been in his class, with her sister, with her friends, with classmates who were not his friends, and with himself. While the young woman's body shakes reflexively one last time, amid the clattering of desks generated by the dispute between Darma, Sam and others, the teacher shakes his head. He advances through a crowd of teenagers and young adults who are fleeing in terror.

There is great widespread scandal. Aquilino trips over something, falls to his knees on the ground, hurts himself. He leans on Bruno, who assists him to get back up. Exasperated, Jessica bursts into inconsolable crying. Aquilino feels a lump in his throat contained only by the adrenaline. A deep anguish overwhelms him. Just a little while ago his class was like any other day. He feels defeated, it tortures him to see that the same situation that occurred in Baybeach hours ago has reached them. He has no doubt that this will affect the lives of his students forever. At this point, his own life no longer matters.

The educator chooses to go down the stairs, which are wide, have doors on the landings and offer freedoms. He does not intend to expose himself to being locked in with an infected person inside the elevator. Among the chaotic, angry crowd, Aquilino and his students descend ten flights of stairs. Finally, after a while that becomes too tense, they manage to get out onto the streets of the university district. Once outside the building, the panorama that the educator and his pupils witness is not at all encouraging. Jessica meets up with someone named Dana, a friend. Both, along with the others, follow Aquilino among a large crowd.

They try to break through the human mass, a challenge that proposes a true journey. A section that is usually covered in minutes takes almost an hour. The horrified people they come across try to avoid by all means being reached by any contagious infected person. The virus spreads through the district like wildfire. Aquilino stops his frenetic career. He has moved a little away from the building where he teaches classes. His students do the same along with him. Bruno wields a broomstick as if it were a spear. Jessica and Dana, for their part, carry metal legs from broken desks just in case they need to defend themselves.

People have become violent, aggressive, no one wants to fall into the hands of a soldier, much less an infected one. Around Aquilino's group there is a massive human stampede. They avoid others in panic, at any cost; They push, hit, stomp, they are guided by primary instincts. Around the professor and his people there is an apocalyptic landscape. They run in various crossed directions with no apparent direction. Among the convulsing crowd are soldiers. The streets are crowded with peaceful beings turned into angry rats that generate tides of chaos.

The soldiers try to control frightened civilians, among whom there are people who have yellowish blisters on their hands or faces. These people try to flee, hide from the soldiers. Above this critical human mass with potentially infected people, electric aircraft equipped with scanners that measure the body temperature of individuals fly over. If they detect people with a fever in the crowd, the soldiers on board have the green light to open fire. The latter happens several times. Each wound inflicted by a bullet that hits its target spreads infections to multiple numbers of new hosts.

These tides of chaos approach Aquilino like a human tsunami. The educator looks one way, another, turns around without knowing where to go. He needs to find a quick way to escape with the students who are with him.

"Where are we going, professor?" Jessica asks with tears in her eyes and clear trembling from head to toe.

"This is hell" exclaims Bruno.

"We must kill them all or we will never get out of here." Rolando raves. Romualdo nods several times to this.

"This way," Aquilino tells them.

He starts to run as best he can, but not before making sure that his students are following him closely. They head towards a corner. Aquilino deduces that the place offers possibilities to avoid the crowds and chaos. The group runs desperately, they collide with others many times, they try to avoid anyone touching them. While running, Bruno steps on something slippery and falls to the ground. Thanks to Rolando and Romualdo he did not rush, he would have been brutally trampled. Before getting up, Bruno discovers that the asphalt is dyed purple under his feet. Aquilino stops, waits for him, observes the military aircraft that fire mercilessly at unarmed civilians. Beyond, at ground level, shock forces with shields and electric clubs herd masses of humans.

People avoid being herded like cattle while Bruno gets up with difficulty; The group moves on. They reach the desired corner, cross the street, move away from the crowd. The tired old professor can't take it anymore. He stops his progress, leans against a wall, breathing heavily through his mouth like a fish out of water. His students surround him. They have not yet completely emerged from the chaos. A large horde of outlaws, furious at the police authorities for shooting their defenseless classmates, veer right around the corner where Aquilino and the others are. They are launched directly into combat against the shock forces.

A very violent confrontation takes place between these two forces. With unusual savagery, young people attack soldiers armed to the teeth. Some die along the way from being hit by bullets, but they are too numerous. The stampede finally reaches the soldiers, they beat them relentlessly. A young man tries to grab the machine gun to attack other soldiers. A blast of electrical energy hits his hands, causing his arms to explode completely. The street is full of furious simultaneous combats. Among them are drooling boys with blisters on their faces.

Aquilino and the others watch, they want to get away from the chaos, they can't, the professor needs to catch his breath, he feels like he's barely breathing. He is concentrating on this when suddenly, without time to do anything, a stinking claw-shaped hand, full of blisters, holds Jessica's hair tightly. Everything happens too fast. The young woman's golden curls, which smell of forest herbs, are pulled forcefully toward a crowd of runaways. They appear out of nowhere from a nearby street. Aquilino can do nothing but watch as the brutal crowd drags his student away. The maelstrom does not last long, Jessica is dragged helplessly. When Jessica disappears from sight, Aquilino despairs. He reacts as quickly as his tired bones allow, he tries to go after her; His students hold him tightly and prevent him from doing so.

"There is nothing we can do for her," one of them tells him.

Horrified, he limits himself to listening to the high-pitched screams of his most dedicated student, full of fear and pain. This generates a sharp and inevitable anguish. Bruno also has an uncontrollable impulse to go after her, but there are dozens, hundreds of furious people fighting against shock forces. The troops, given the situation, are under strict orders to prevent anyone from leaving the area. Aquilino hears some of this on an agent's radio. He places a hand on his chest, with a look he tries to make himself understood. Bruno barely understands it. Dana is frozen with fear, she can't take it in. The situation gets worse.

"Infected people," stammers Aquilino, embarrassed.

"What do you say, professor?" Romualdo asks him.

"They are people infected by the unknown virus. They are sick human beings—with faults and virtues, loves and hatreds, wisdom and ignorance, tastes and aversions, hardship and good fortune." Aquilino reflects upon his own words, then adds, "They are people like anyone else, like us. They have families, friends and neighbors. Their only misfortune is carrying a contagion they never wanted, never chose and which, for now, cannot be cured."

"Let's go, professor! Let's go! "They're coming this way," exclaims Bruno, as he grabs his old teacher's arm and pulls him out of the crowd."

"There are dozens of souls lost forever," Aquilino shouts as he is dragged away.

"Let's go now!" insists Bruno.

Dana sobs, still paralyzed by fear. Rolando takes hold of her and pulls; Bruno in turn drags him, snapping Dana from her trance. Helplessness over what happened to Jessica weighs upon them all. They resume their flight and run together toward the opposite corner, unable to think of a better course. The farther they get from the perimeter, the better. Aquilino is exhausted beyond endurance; he was never much of an athlete. He runs as best he can, awkwardly forcing his thin, ungainly body onward in desperation. The need to bring his students to safety drives him to maintain an impossible pace.

Without stopping, the professor turns his face to his right. He sees a sea of young people stampeding over a scared boy. He screams in pain almost inaudibly. They stomp on his back until he stops complaining. Aquilino is impressed, he looks to the left. He sees another chaotic stampede that crushes the cheeks of a colleague of his against the sidewalk. This suddenly makes him feel that he must return home no matter what, he must return to his beloved Kika. Their feet drag on tiles that once had shine. Your home is very far away. There will likely be no bus or train transportation. The panorama worries him, he had not noticed something.

He stops and pats the trouser pocket where he usually keeps his electronic key; it is not there. He searches another pocket, but cannot find it there either. He is prepared to take the students to his apartment if necessary, until the tides of chaos subside and they can return safely home. Without his keys, he will be unable to do that. Worse, he realizes he cannot get inside to be with Kika. Despair takes hold of him. He decides to go anyway, even with his students if they wish to accompany him. Once they arrive, he will think of some way to open the door. He says nothing of this for now, but his concern for Kika intensifies considerably.

The boys who are with him shake him out of his trance and make him walk again. The group runs in the opposite direction of the disaster. They cross another street, they walk away. A large squad arrives in the area with measured, sonorous steps, without breaking formation. Each soldier carries a stun gas rifle, as well as fully loaded firearms. The militarized reinforcements frame a perimeter, enclosing the esplanade area. The shots multiply, the streets are stained with blood, this stirs up dissident masses. The peaceful Aquilino feels dizzy from such a stressful hustle and bustle.

He goes forward, grabs Dana by the neck, removes her from the sights of revolvers and automatic pistols. He does this just before silent bursts of fire begin to traverse the streets from side to side. The district is quickly covered in smoke. Infected and healthy people alike chaotically flee in all directions. Soldiers dressed and protected with gas masks reinforce the established perimeter. They shoot without considering the consequences of the destination of those bullets. Corrosive smoke spreads quickly, it is effective on those hit. Teacher and students take refuge at the side of a marble staircase.

Several dozen other students are with them, young people Aquilino does not know and cannot tell whether they are infected. Amid the chaos, Dana can bear no more; she cannot withstand the pressure of remaining hidden in the middle of the gunfire. In a panic, she rises and runs away from the soldiers. Aquilino turns and sees her flee through the smoke, terrified and weeping, before losing sight of her. The professor concludes they cannot remain there much longer. Summoning his courage, he presses his hunched back against the wall and signals Bruno to follow him. His student does so. The soldiers spot the professor's attempt, followed by Bruno, Rolando, Romualdo and a handful of other students.

The soldiers open fire, the blasts hitting some of them. A bullet hits the right side of Romualdo's head. His skull explodes like a grenade of flesh, bone and blood. Rolando stops, turns, stays, sees his friend collapse to the ground. The others don't expect it, they get scared, they run through the smoke in different directions as fast as they can. Gas grenades explode near them, they avoid inhaling it in different ways. The revolt subsides little by little. The battle cries are reduced to screams of pain, coughs and agonizing complaints. Bodies are piled here and there; some corpses smoke in fresh purple puddles.

Aquilino and Bruno cross passages, go down stairs, run through streets, ascend stairs, go over a blind spot in the established barricade. Aquilino stops, Bruno puts him on horseback on his own back, he carries him from now on. They move away from the university district towards Eastown. Aquilino tries to think about what he will do once he gets home so he can get in without the key. That is, as long as they manage to escape from all the barricades that still lie ahead.