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    Panic
    Panic
    Panic
    Ebook72 pages1 hour

    Panic

    By Tom Leveen

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Her only way out is with the boy who will turn on her . . .

    In the middle of a sudden epidemic that deforms its victims and creates bloodthirsty hunters of everyday people, high school senior Laura Fitzgerald becomes trapped in a classroom with a freshman boy she's never met . . . and who has suffered a bite from one of the infected students.

    The day started normally enough, with her ex-boyfriend, Brian, ditching class with his friends while Laura stayed on campus and tried to control her frequent panic attacks. But today was going to special: today she was going to tell Brian that she'd been slowly reducing her medication and learning to control her panic naturally.

    Then all hell breaks loose in the school gym. Kids turn into grotesque beasts who feel no pain, maiming and killing the uninfected. Laura fights her way to a classroom with another student, who reveals that he's been bitten by one of the sick kids . . . and he doesn't feel well.

    With both their lives on the line, Laura must fight the overwhelming symptoms of her panic disorder to get him medical attention and both of them to safety, not knowing if anyone is coming to save them.

    Ever.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFTJ Creative LLC
    Release dateNov 11, 2020
    ISBN9781393449997
    Panic
    Author

    Tom Leveen

    Tom Leveen is the author of Random, Sick, manicpixiedreamgirl, Party, Zero (a YALSA Best Book of 2013), Shackled, and Hellworld. A frequent speaker at schools and conferences, Tom was previously the artistic director and cofounder of an all-ages, nonprofit visual and performing venue in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is an Arizona native, where he lives with his wife and young son.

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      Book preview

      Panic - Tom Leveen

      Tuesday, November 12

      Phoenix Metro High School

      Phoenix, Arizona

      5:04 p.m.

      Um—

      My name is Laura Fitzgerald, I’m seventeen . . . and I really, really want to be eighteen someday.

      I don’t know what’s going on, exactly. It feels like the world is ending out there. I’m scared, and there’s no one else in here but me. This is Cody’s phone, not mine. I guess you know that. Whoever you are. Whoever finds this, I mean.

      If Cody’s mom or dad hears this, I’m sorry about Cody, I did everything I could. I swear.

      God . . .

      I don’t know . . . I don’t know how long I can stay in here. I don’t have any food or water. But they’re still out there, I can hear them. Sometimes I hear someone scream out there.

      Um . . .

      Honestly? I’m kind of surprised I can even talk right now, usually I’d be curled up in a little ball somewhere. That’s what I really want to do. But I can’t. They’ll get me if I do.

      Oh, God. God.

      No. Okay. Stop. Breathe. I can do this. I can do it.

      Uh—

      I just, I thought I should explain everything, because maybe it will help? I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone will ever find this . . . but, um . . .

      Okay.

      This is what happened.

      Tuesday, November 12

      1:50 pm

      T his is my worst nightmare , I told Mackenzie Murphy as I forced one step after another toward the gymnasium. Around us, hundreds of other students pushed and shoved and yelled and cussed. It felt like being in human soup, drenched in clammy sweat and the breath of thousands of other high school students.

      I don’t do well in crowds. Phoenix Metro High School grew exponentially a few years ago when another school closed down. There are way, way too many of us. Definitely way too many for me.

      Kenzie smiled and tugged my pony tail. I yelped, and Kenzie laughed. Don’t worry, you’ve got a bratty-little-sister-type friend going with you to keep you all distracted.

      Despite how my arms and legs shook under my hoodie and jeans, I managed to smile back at her. Kenzie’s brother Brian had broken up with me a few weeks ago, but Kenzie didn’t act all weird about it, thank God. She kind of was like a little sister to me, even though she wasn’t that much younger.

      I forced myself to take as deep a breath as I could. It wasn’t easy. I wanted a pill. All I had to do was reach into my bag and grab my bottle of clonazepam and in twenty minutes or so, I’d be able to handle all the noise and shoving and shouting, mostly because I’d be a half-asleep zombie.

      But I didn’t do it. I didn’t take one. I didn’t want to have to anymore. It was something I’d been working on for a while.

      I can’t believe Brian didn’t come with us, I said to Kenzie as people jostled into us. Each anonymous touch made my stomach clench.

      Kenzie grabbed my arm and pulled us out of the worst of the foot traffic. I appreciated it. It made it easier to breathe. Our classroom buildings are all open, not enclosed; not indoors. That meant we had to deal with whatever the weather happened to be. Today, it was nice outside, sunshiny and a little cool but not cold. It wouldn’t get cold until December, or even January. We never got snow, and it only rained maybe a dozen times per school year. The roofs and awnings over the sidewalks were mostly for providing shade.

      I think the open hallways helped me deal with my panic disorder and agoraphobia. I could usually handle being in classrooms, but gatherings any larger than that made me feel like I’d been put into a coffin and pushed out to sea like Danae in the Greek myth—enclosed and muffled in darkness, lolling out into an endless rollercoaster ocean, sick to my stomach and utterly trapped.

      It wasn’t the greatest way to spend each day.

      Fuck Brian, Kenzie said, sincerely but without any real hatred. She loved her brother a lot. He’s being an ass-bag.

      "But gosh, how do you really feel, Kenzie?"

      He is! Kenzie kept me moving toward the gym, but an angle, out of the bulk of the foot traffic. "You are awesome and so totally good for him, and

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