The New Rule

As soon as Elisa Goodwin had stepped into the school grounds of Anchorbridge High, she knew something was wrong. Very wrong.

She had been away in Italy with her parents for two weeks as a family holiday. It had been great and she couldn’t wait to tell her friends about it. But now, she had completely forgotten about this. Something wasn’t right.

The bare trees that shrouded the school’s playing fields swayed in the cool morning breeze. But apart from that, the fields were empty. No kids playing football or open field baseball. There weren’t even small groups of students basking in the warm sun like they usually do at this time of year.

Instead they had formed a large group that was slowly walking towards the large entrance doors that lead to the interior of the school. As more students arrived, they walked over to the large mass too. And they weren’t even chatting to each other.

Eliza found that hard to believe since this was the first day back at school. Everyone has a story to tell when they come back from holidays.

She looked over her shoulder, her wispy auburn hair becoming swept in the breeze as she watched more students arrive without so much as a whisper. Then she saw one of her friends appear, Simone Bradly.

“Simone! Thank god you’re here. Everyone is acting so…” she paused as her friend walked straight past her and join the ever expanding group of students.

“…weird” she ended her sentence and watched as more of her friends started to pass. Stacy, Lucy, Emma even Mike, her boyfriend passed without even stopping to say hello.

What’s going on? She thought to herself as she saw Charli go past without mocking what she was wearing as she usually did.

Out of plain curiosity, she went up to where Charli was standing and yelled in her face “Hey, bitch!”

Charli just looked over at Eliza and smiled. Then she turned her head back to a forward position and stared into space. Eliza couldn’t help but wonder that something was defiantly up. 

Finally, the last of the students arrived and the large doors opened up for the first time in weeks and as they did, another strange thing happened. No one ran for the door or shoved anyone out of the way calling them a ‘slug ass’. Instead, they lined up into four straight, even lines and marched, yes marched into the school halls.

Eliza watched in amazement before quickly entering herself, as not to be left behind when the doors shut.

As she walked through the corridors, she watched as all the students went to their lockers, opened them, got their books, shut them and then went off to their classes. Something about how they did it made Eliza shudder. How they had all been so… identical.

In her first class she noted one thing. The teachers were still the same. Mr. Halburn (Hellburn) yelled at her for being late and ordered her to sit down. She did so and saw that all the students were writing in their books. At the same time. The scribbled, noted, scribbled, turned the page and scribbled some more. As she began to write she heard Mr. Halburn on the phone.

“Something is wrong with… What? Don’t say that to me! It needs to be fixed and…” he shot a glance at Eliza and she quickly put her eyes back down to her paper. For the rest of the lesson, Mr. Halburn talked on the phone quietly and Eliza watched her classmates odd movements. When class ended, everyone got up at the same time and left the room in an orderly fashion. Her next class, art was the same. Everyone noted in time like a mirror image and Eliza couldn’t shake the feeling that Mrs. June had been staring at her the entire time. When recess finally came, Eliza was happy to leave Mrs. Junes wide eye glances and head to the cafeteria.

In here was no better. Everyone sat in neat rows chewing their food in unison. This not only surprised Eliza, it also freaked her out. Then from the corner of her eye she saw Mr. Crow, the best teacher ever. He was kind, friendly and never gave out homework. Smiling with relief, she headed over to him for some answers.

“Mr. Crow!” she called from the other side of the room. Mr. Crow jolted suddenly in place then turned around to meet Eliza gaze. Mr. Crow was usually quite a cool character so it surprised her to see him looking so nervous.

“Elizabeth,” he said quietly, still standing in one place.

“Mr. Crow whats going on?” she asked with slight confusion in her voice at seeing him like this.

He looked at her and then at the cafeteria bar. The lunch ladies weren’t there, they were cleaning up in the kitchen. Then he looked up. Eliza looked up too and saw something strange.

Several video cameras had been placed all around the top of the room.

Mr. Crow signaled her to quietly follow him. She carefully walked around the camera’s paths and followed Mr. Crow to a deserted classroom. When Mr. Crow shut the door, Eliza blurted out questions.

“Whats going on? Why is everyone acting strange? What are the cameras for? What…”

“Shush Eliza!” Mr. Crow interrupted and looked out the window “or they’ll hear you”

“Who will?” Eliza wailed.

“The government”

“The government?”

“Haven’t you been over in Italy for the last couple of weeks?”

Eliza looked up at him and nodded.

Mr. Crow sighed.

“While you’ve been gone, the government setup this new system. They’ve been planning it for years but only just decided to try it out last week. They’ve been…”

He stopped and looked at Eliza sadly. She quietly waited for him to continue.

“They’ve been injecting school kids with this new formula. I can’t pronounce its full name but its been nicknamed the ‘Obedience Virus’ the symptoms of this ‘virus’ are similar to hypnotism. You must obey what you have been told. No, you do obey, and without even realizing it.”

Eliza looked at him, stunned. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Is…is that why everyone’s been like this?”

Mr. Crow nodded and sighed again.

She looked at him, her eyes full of tears and he quickly added “I was against it. Many of us were. But the government slipped under our noses and did it when they gave out flu shots. And they must have given it to other higher authorities too since they started to agree to this… awful thing.”

Eliza thought for a moment and had a horrific realization.

“Not all the all the teachers are against it, are they?” Eliza asked, remembering Mr. Halburn’s anger outbursts and phone conversation.

“No” Mr. Crow replied quickly “And that means we need to get you out of here. Now.” As soon as he said ‘now’ there was a knock at the door.

“Whos in here?” roared a voice. It was Mr. Hellburn. She could hear him slamming his fist on the door.

“Quick!” Mr. Crow whispered, opening a door which lead to another classroom “go through here”

She nodded and raced into the room, slamming the door shut behind her. She turned around and screamed. In front of her, row after row, were infected students. They gazed at her with open eyes but did nothing.

She quickly made her way to the door and tried to open it. It was locked. She cried in desperation and tried again. As she did a voice came on the inter-com.

“STOP ELIZABETH GOODWIN” it demanded “BRING HER TO ME”

She screamed again as the students started to jolt awake. The one closest reached out to grab her but she dodged. Suddenly the door swung open and a figure stood in the doorway. It was Mr. Crow.

“Mr. Crow!” she shouted and her raced forward and pulled her away from the students. He then slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Wait!” Eliza yelled “where’s Mr. He…”

Then she looked down and saw him on the floor. He had been knocked out cold. Suddenly she heard the sound of shuffling. More students were coming.

Mr. Crow quickly grabbed her hand and lead her through the maze of halls that connected the school together. As they raced down one hall and then another, she could faintly hear the voice over the inter-com, but couldn’t make out words.

Eventually she looked back and saw no-one was following them. Mr. Crow must have realized that too since he slowly came to a halt outside a door. It was made out of fine wood and had a brass handle. Mr. Crow opened it and gesture Eliza to go inside. She did so, and realized it was pitch black.

“Wait Mr. Crow, don’t…” but he had already shut the door.

Inside the darkness, she heard fumbling and muttering. “Mr. Crow what’s going…” then she felt someone shove her. She gasp as she fell down towards the ground. But instead of hitting the ground, she felt herself fall onto a soft chair. She tried to move her arms but she couldn’t. She was being held down.

Suddenly the lights flickered on. Eliza looked around the cold, white room in fear. She looked to her left and saw Mr. Hellburn holding her down. Then she looked to her right and moaned. Also holding her down was her ‘friendly’ teacher Mr. Crow.

Before she could say anything, a tall woman wearing a white lab coat came in. She looked at Eliza and smiled.

“Thought you could get away, did you?” she asked the frightened girl.

“But Mr. Crow…”

“We found out what he was doing so I got lumpy here,” she pointed at Mr. Hellburn “to inject him while he was helping you escape. Then we instructed him to play dead while your hero brought you here and then he followed you when you weren’t looking”

“How could you do this!” she cried sharply and struggled to get out. Suddenly, Mr. Crow slapped her across her face. She stop struggling and began to weep.

“Why did we do this?” the woman sniffed “Why? Because students are out of control, that’s why! They never listen, they repeatedly get into trouble and they have no respect!” She slammed her fist onto the table. This made Eliza jump but she was still firmly held in place.

“This formula’s our only way to get you brats to listen to us and what we have to say. When you get older and understand, your going to use it on your children for the same reasons.”

“I’d never!” she cried

“Silence! Crow! Halburn! Hold her down!” The lab woman held out a syringe from her other hand. In it was a purple liquid.

“This won’t hurt a bit” she whispered to Eliza and suddenly jammed it into her neck.

Eliza started to scream but as the needle came out, she had ceased her noise.

The lab woman smiled at Eliza and said, “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now run off back to class like a good little girl”

Eliza nodded at her obediently and walked out of the room and down the corridors back to her class.