Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize.
It was the day after we got back from the Thanksgiving holiday that things in the school started getting a little…strange. It was seventh period and I was making my way to my next class when I noticed that there was an unusual amount of whispering and people talking to each other in groups. And for once, none of them were looking at me. Which was a huge relief. Oliver approached me quickly, asking if I had heard about what happened. I shot him a confused look.
"No. What, did Brittany have a major freak out over her broken, overly-priced, manicured nail in the middle of the hallway again?" I asked. Oliver rolled his eyes.
"Hannah Goldman collapsed last period, and they had to call an ambulance to rush her to the hospital." he explained. Hannah was one of Brittany's friends, actually.
"You know why she collapsed?"
"No one knows. She was perfectly healthy."
"Okay…"
I didn't think it was anything supernatural at that point. I mean, yeah, it was a bit odd that she collapsed when she was absolutely fine. But by Thursday of the following week, three other students beside Hannah Goldman had suffered the same fate. All four of them were now in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital. All of them were gravely ill; their immune systems were slowly shutting down for no apparent reason. The case had been plastered on every news station since the second person collapsed.
I was sitting in Math class sixth period the following day (a Friday), staring out the window. I never pay attention in Math class, hence why I suck at the subject more than the others. It wouldn't be such a problem if the teacher wasn't so damn boring and spacey. She's quite oblivious to the fact that most of her students don't pay any attention to what she's doing half the time, either, which is okay for me. I got tired of watching one of the school maintenance men cut the grass outside, so I let my eyes wander around the classroom as the teacher went over last night's homework that I only partially finished. While glancing at the other students who were as bored as I was, I noticed that this guy, Brandon, sitting across from me, had a rather pained look on his face. It looked like he suddenly couldn't breathe…The teacher continued to write on the chalkboard, muttering who-knows-what to herself.
"Somebody help him!" a girl yelled frantically from behind me. I glanced back to see who it was and saw that it was Amy, a normally very shy girl in my grade. Luckily, I wasn't the only one seeing this.
However, the teacher was apparently very hard of hearing, because she didn't respond. Everyone was staring at the poor guy, talking loudly. Some got to their feet. Brandon started wheezing and finally fell out of his chair, his chest rising and falling unevenly.
"Please…help…me…" he coughed, clawing at the carpet. I got out of my seat and knelt on the floor by Brandon, rolling him over so that he was lying on his back. His lips were turning blue, and his face was deathly pale.
"Do something!" Amy shouted at the teacher, who finally turned around just as Brandon coughed and fell unconscious.
"Call 911!" I ordered the teacher. Dropping her math book to the floor with a startled cry, she scurried over to the phone on the wall of the classroom. She called the main office, telling them to dial 911 immediately. We all watched, horrified, as Brandon was carried swiftly out of the room on a stretcher.
Please help me.
Brandon's words remained in my mind even as I sat down for dinner that night. Something had done that to him. I knew it. I had witnessed the whole thing, and something about it didn't seem right.
"What's wrong, kiddo? You're unusually quiet…" Dad mused.
"A guy in my Math class collapsed today--just like the others. I saw it, and something was…off. I don't know…I just have this weird feeling that something else did it to him."
"Like what?" Sam asked, interested. I shook my head.
"I dunno."
"What did you see, exactly?" Dad inquired.
"He was just sitting there, and then all of a sudden, he couldn't breathe. His lips were turning blue. He fell unconscious right after he collapsed onto to the floor. It was almost as if…"
"What, Ally?" Sam encouraged.
"As if something was sucking the life right out of him," I finished. Oliver glanced at me, his eyes wide. I sighed and set my fork down onto my plate. "Sammy, can I use your laptop?"
"Yeah, sure." he replied. I got up from the table, deciding to do a bit of research on my own. I grabbed Sam's laptop and curled up onto the couch. I surfed the web for every report on the students who collapsed, and some things on creatures or entities that could cause such a thing. About an hour and a half later, Sam sunk down on the opposite end of the couch.
"Find anything?" he asked. I sighed.
"Well, none of the students are showing any signs of improvement. Brandon's in a coma, like the others. The doctors still don't know what's going on, but they're doing all sorts of tests."
"Did they find anything?"
"They found some kind of mysterious substance in their blood," I stated. "but they're not releasing what it is."
"Any theories?"
"I found something on a Shtriga, since they do suck the life out of people, but I ruled it out. They only go after kids, and they attack at night," Sam nodded. "But I also found something on a croatoan."
"A plague demon." Sam supplied.
"Yeah."
"It's possible. Your father and I came across one that was spreading a demonic virus. They found sulfur in the victims' bloodstreams."
"You think this 'mysterious substance' is sulfur?" I wondered.
"There's only one way to find out. We need to see a blood sample."
"How are we going to do that?" I asked incredulously.
"We'll think of something." Sam reassured me.
The next day, Oliver and I were waiting for the two of them in the backseat of Dad's Impala. Whatever they were plotting, I knew it had to be something that was most likely illegal. They came out of the house dressed in very professional-looking suits. Once they were in the car, Dad handed Sam some sort of ID, which he also had for himself. I reached between the seats and grabbed Sam's before he could pin it to his suit.
"The CDC?" I cried. "Are you crazy?"
"Alyx, it's not like we haven't done it before. Quit worrying. You want to find out what's going on, don't you?" Dad asked. I nodded. "Well, then, shut up." I sighed and sat back in my seat, remaining quiet for the rest of the ride to the hospital. Dad instructed us to go see if we could visit some of the students in the Intensive Care Unit, while they tried to get a look at a blood sample.
Oliver and I went in first, walking casually to the front desk. A nurse with curly, blonde hair and hazel eyes sat behind it; she stopped working and looked up at us. "Can I help you?" she questioned.
"We're here to see our friend, up in the ICU." Oliver replied. The nurse quickly surveyed us from head to toe.
"Are you both 18? No one under 18 can visit the ICU." she stated.
"Yeah." Oliver and I answered quickly. The nurse wrote us up passes and told us that the ICU was on the fourth floor, and that our friends were bring kept in the same area, under quarantine. This also meant that for health and personal reasons, no one except family was allowed in. We were only able to stand outside.
Oliver and I took the elevator up to the fourth floor, and found the students from our school. They were in this large room, in beds separated by curtains for privacy. There were a ton of nurses and doctors constantly checking the many machines that they were all hooked up to.
"They all look so…helpless," I whispered. "It's horrible."
Meanwhile… (General POV)
Dean and Sam waltzed up to the same desk Alyx and Oliver had encountered, trying to make themselves look all official. The nurse glanced up and Dean flashed her his most charming smile. Sam fought back the urge to slap his older sibling in the back of the head, and stood there quietly.
"What can I do for you, sir?" she asked politely. Sam swore that he saw her cheeks turn a light shade of pink in his presence.
"We're from the CDC," Dean said casually, gesturing to himself and Sam, "We need to speak with the doctor who's been taking care of those kids who collapsed at Lawrence High School."
"Of course. Dr. Rivera is up on the fourth floor, the ICU. I'll page him to tell him you're coming."
"Thank you." Sam said. The brothers made a swift walk through the busy, hectic hallways of the hospital, hoping to get this over quick. Neither Winchester--be it Dean, Sam or Alyx--liked to be in any hospital, for obvious reasons. They found the nearest elevator and stepped in, taking it up to the floor where the ICU was located.
"You think it could be a croatoan?" Sam asked Dean on the ride up. The elevator they had taken was empty, so they were able to talk about the job freely.
"I don't know, Sam. I mean, last time, the victims were going crazy. These kids are just getting sick."
"What if there's more than one type of plague demon? Maybe this one just causes people to get sick; that's one way of creating panic." Sam suggested.
"Could be. But we know one thing for sure." Dean declared.
"And that is…?"
"Alyx and Oliver can't get infected," Dean said. When his brother gave him a partially confused look, he clarified, "Oliver is part demon. And, since Alyx has a demonic power, she's most likely immune to it, too."
The opening of the elevator doors broke the silence between them. They walked out and down a hallway. The brothers approached a doctor that they suspected would be this Dr. Rivera person. He appeared to be waiting for them.
"Dr. Rivera?" Sam asked. The doctor nodded and shook both of their hands.
"I'm Sam, and this is Dean. We're from the CDC--"
"So I've heard," he said, cutting off the younger brother, "Listen, I already talked to someone from the CDC two days ago. They came down here to take a look at everything and make notes on the case. They said they'd be in touch, but they never told me that they'd be making another visit."
"We were sent down here to take another look at one of the victims' blood samples, just as a follow-up. To make sure we have the right information to work on a cure for the disease." Dean stated. Dr. Rivera sighed.
"Follow me." he ordered. The brothers trailed behind the doctor, who took them into a very white and sterile lab where other doctors were glancing at different slides in microscopes. Dr. Rivera took out a blood sample that was safely stored away and kept on file. He motioned for them to come over to a vacant microscope. He placed the sample under the lens, and focused it so they could see. Sam sat down and looked at it, seeing that there were traces of a yellowish substance mixed into the blood.
"And you said that this substance in their blood was…?" the younger Winchester asked, to confirm his suspicions.
"We believe it's sulfur, but we have no ideas as to how it got in their bloodstreams." The brothers shared a knowing glance.
"Okay, I think that's all we needed to see. Thank you for your time, Dr. Rivera." Sam said.
Once they were safely in the elevator again, Dean got out his cell phone and called Alyx.
Alyx's POV
We were leaning against the car when my cell phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket and answered it, seeing Dad's number on the caller ID.
"Yeah?" I said.
"It's sulfur." Dad said simply.
"Okay. So, now what do we do? Is it a croatoan?"
"Sam thinks it may be a different type of plague demon."
"How do we…get rid of it?" I asked.
"Well, we haven't exactly thought of anything yet."
"Wonderful," I answered sarcastically. "Why do I get the feeling that this particular job is going to be a pain in the ass?" Dad laughed, and hung up, saying that he and Sam would be out in a couple minutes. Putting my phone away, I turned to Oliver and said miserably, "We have a lot of researching to do…"