The Virus - Part Twenty-Five (Wishing's birthday part :D) added 24 March 2012.

[Kiwifruit]

Author's note: I haven't written anything for a while, so I thought I'd get back into the swing of things by writing a story for you guys I haven't edited this at all (heck, I haven't even reread it xD) so apologies for any errors or just horrible writing xD The plan is basically to allow the scenario in the first paragraph to take place with some plot involved as well. There will be much more sneezing in further parts if people want to me to continue. Also, I wrote this late at night and in little bits in between other things. Sooo, before I go overboard trying to justify the (probably xD) low quality of the writing, here it is:

The Virus is starting out slowly, hijacking just enough cells for a slight runny nose and a mild cough. Too little and the spread will be inefficient; too much and Patient Zero will most likely stay at home, instead of soldiering on though her usual school day and passing on the Virus to all she comes in contact with. Execution of the First Infection was seamless: the Victim is a teenage girl with little in the way of brains, consideration or personal hygiene, like the majority of the human race. She will be ideal for starting an Epidemic of vast proportions: first, it will spread to her large circle of friends and then outwards...to the rest of the school, their families, their families' friends...the Virus will be unstoppable.

Cindy tossed her bag into her locker, slammed the door and snapped the padlock shut. She turned to head off to her first class with her armful of books, before whipping back around with a soft "Damn!" and fumbling with her lock again.

"Forget something?"

Cindy glanced sideways at the tall, attractive young man who had spoken as he moved to stand beside her. "Hi, Mark...I'm just after my tissues; I left them in my bag. And my lock seems to be – oh, no!" She gasped as a particularly violent tug on her lock caused her to drop her books, papers and folders scattering around her feet. "Crap..." She crouched and attempted to gather her belongings together. Mark squatted to help. Cindy sniffed hard; leaning forward caused her nose to run, nearly dripping on her books as she and Mark scooped them up together. She dashed her wrist underneath her nose, nearly dropping her collected books again as she stood.

"You want me to take those?" Mark grinned, brushing his thick, dark hair back from where it had fallen across his forehead.

"Uh...sure, thanks," Cindy tilted her head back, sniffling, in an effort to prevent her nose from dripping as she hurriedly handed her books to Mark and finally managed to undo her lock after a few more seconds of fumbling. She dived into her bag and emerged clutching a travel pack of tissues, tugged one out and blew her nose heartily.

"Wow," Mark commented. "Got a cold?"

"What's it sound like?" Cindy retorted, her voice muffled by the tissue. "Ugh...this is so gross. It wasn't so bad this morning, but now I don't think these will be enough to get me through the day." She looked doubtfully at the small pack of tissues.

Mark shrugged. "There's a box in every room."

Cindy opened her mouth to reply, but snapped forward with a violent "Het-shew!" into her hand instead. She groaned, reaching for another tissue from her depleted supply.

"I hate being the sick one going to the front to get tissues all the time; you can feel the whole class watching you. I feel disgusting."

Mark shrugged again. "Less disgusting than snotting all over everything."

"Yeah. Sure. I've got to get to Maths anyway, you know what Mr. Calvin is like if you're late."

Mark grinned. "Ooh, don't sneeze in his class; he's got this thing about coming to school sick. He'll turn the class into a lecture revolving around how inconsiderate you are."

They said their goodbyes and headed in opposite directions for first class. Cindy found her best friend, Jenny, waiting for her down the hall by her locker.

"Hey, Jen."

"Ooh, was that Mark I saw you with again?" Jenny, small, dark and pretty, loved to tease Cindy about Mark.

"We're just friends, Jen. You know that."

"You're in denial. The chemistry between you two is thick enough to win you a science fair prize. What's with your voice, anyway?"

"Sick." Cindy sniffled wetly to emphasise her point. "Woke up with it. Sat up and started sneezing."

"Well, don't go getting me sick, I've got to sing this weekend." Jenny was the lead singer in the school band; her ambition was to help lead the band to the top of the charts. She was the right one for the job: she was fiery, motivated and loved showing off, practising long, hard hours to give the audience her best.

"Hold up," Cindy stopped right outside their classroom. Jenny stopped halfway through the doorway and backed out again, one eyebrow raised.

"Er, why?"

"I need to sneeze. I want to get it out before going to class. I don't want to go through what Benny did, Mr. Calvin is psychotic about coming to school sick."

Jenny laughed. "Hurry up then. The late bell's going any second."

Cindy twitched her nose and sniffed. "Hold on a sec...I'm trying." She squinted at the opposite wall, trying to trigger the sneeze she felt lurking stubbornly at the back of her nose by breathing slowly and deeply through her mouth. The tickle crept up frustratingly slowly, growing and fading with each deep breath. Finally it began to grow and spread, prickling her nose more and more. Cindy's nostrils flared slightly as she fought to prevent the sneeze from slipping away. Finally, her breath started hitching of its own accord. She tipped her head back slightly as her eyes began to squint shut, she slowly drew the final breath and -

"Come on, Cindy!"

The tickle instantly faded to an irritating tingle. Cindy desperately drew another couple of breaths, trying to bring the sneeze back; but it was no good.

Jenny gave up waiting for her friend and stepped into the classroom right as the late bell rang. Cindy groaned, wiped her nose on her wrist and followed.

TBC...? Comments (especially any constructive [or even nonconstructive ] criticism) would be great

[glowstick03]

Ooh, this is a bit different from other stories I've read! I'd love to see where it goes...um...constructive criticism...establish if this is just the normal cold virus or something else? That might be me just being curious. But great job :]

[Vetinari]

Nice start! I love a bit of delicious contagion and the snippet at the beginning is fascinating.

No criticism of the writing, spacing it out a bit might have made it easier on the eye for me to read. *is getting old!*

[Kiwifruit]

Thanks guys I'm going to be obnoxious and reply to you now (mainly just to ask if the spacing's good now because I'm impatient like that xD) rather than just waiting til I have another bit:

@ glowstick03 - you're meant to be curious You'll find out along with the characters

@ Vetinari - like it is now? Sorry, I had it spaced automatically in Word and forgot to respace it once I posted it.

Thanks for reading/commenting

[Vetinari]

@ Vetinari - like it is now? Sorry, I had it spaced automatically in Word and forgot to respace it once I posted it.

It's easy to do that, yes it's perfect now. And I don't think you could be obnoxious if you tried.

[Nicole]

I'm enjoying it so far! Please continue, it's great.

[starpollen]

Oh yeah! I like the promising "no, I can't sneeze! hold it back! gotta... hold it... god I can't!..." scenario I see coming. Man I love those.

[obsessed]

Ohhh, I don't think I've read anything you've written! That might be why I clicked here just to get a taste of it.

I love where this is going, and I'll be waiting for the (m).

Take your time, I'd love to see more!

[Owen]

Superb! i NEED more!

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Wonderful start! (read: please continue )

Really enjoyable to read. I especially liked the change of perspective in the beginning and in the end where she tries to 'sneeze herself out' before lessons.

[zneeze]

Finally got around to reading this, and I'm glad I did! Great start Kiwi, can't wait for the next part!

[Demosthenes]

This was great! I love the "wait I need to get this sneeze out" thing. Oh yeah, and I can definitely see a "hold it back" scene coming up.

[musiclover90]

This a good start, can't wait for more.

[Kiwifruit]

Awww thanks so much for reading it everyone, especially those who commented! You make me feel so happy

@Vetinari: I'm glad it's good now I've changed the format in Word now, so I have to add the extra spaces in there too; that should prevent any future issues with it

@Nicole: Thanks I'm glad you like it and I'm very happy to continue - I'm quite enjoying myself xD

@starpollen: Oh, definitely, so do I! Expect to see a lot in this story Hopefully I haven't mangled the instances in this scene too badly, it's fairly rushed

@obsessed: The male sneezing should come in in the next two or three parts...and knowing me, there will be a lot

@Mr invisible: Well I can hardly ignore that, can I! Here it is, hopefully it helps satisfy your need for now

@Sigrith: Most certainly Thanks very much, I'm glad you like it! I liked that bit too lol...and more of the "italic perspective" (as I'm starting to think of it as because, yeah, it's in italics ) in the next bit

@zneeze: Thanks! I'm really glad you like it I think I'm posting warnings at the top of the bits containing M sneezing, and I'm going to try and make it make sense without it (though it will definitely contribute to the plot ) so you can skip those bits if you want xD

@Demosthenes: Thanks, I liked writing that part too And of course there is, and there will certainly be more to follow, I love those xD

@Musiclover99: Thank you, I'm glad you like it so far! Here's the next bit


AUTHOR'S NOTE (because I feel the need to have one): Yeah, I got slightly carried away with descriptions in this bit. I know I do an awful lot of telling-instead-of-showing here, but as I said, I'm horribly out of practise and working full time takes away a lot of the time I'd otherwise use to polish this up a bit. I'm really starting to get into this now (I've already written most of the next part ) so hopefully it starts flowing more naturally soon!


Cindy slid into her usual seat between Jenny and Kyle, an outgoing, athletic student who appeared to have taken a liking to her.

“Can you get out your homework please?” Mr Calvin, the classic tall, dark and handsome type, strode into class. He was 34 but barely looked a day over 28, and genuinely cared about his students. His fun and generally easygoing nature as a teacher combined with his good looks made him the subject of a large number of crushes among the female students he taught – but Cindy would declare loudly and freely to anyone who cared to listen that she hated him, mostly because of the various detentions her lack of completed homework had earned her.

At the front of the class, Mr Calvin flipped to the page in his folder he used for marking off homework and began making his way around the room, dealing out dire threats to those who had neglected the worksheets and nodding happily at those who had completed them. Cindy sat with her mostly incomplete work in her hands, dying to wipe her nose but knowing it wouldn’t be safe to do so until Mr Calvin had his back turned. By the time he reached her, her nose felt damp around the nostrils and she desperately wanted to sniff; however, her fear of being called out in front of the class forced her to hold back.

“What’s this, Cindy?” Mr Calvin raised one eyebrow, indicating a nearly blank worksheet

“Um...I couldn’t do the problems, sir.” A trickle of liquid started slowly making its way down the back of her nose.

“This isn’t good enough, Cindy. They’re exactly the same sort of problems that we did in class and, although you are a capable student, you use the same excuse every time I give you homework. I have yet to see any finished homework from you this year. See me at lunch, please.” He took the little work she had done and moved on to the next student.

Cindy held back a groan; spending lunch with Mr Calvin instead of having the freedom to blow her nose and sneeze and cough as much as she wanted? She could almost feel how bad it would be now. No, wait – her nose really did tickle. But Mr Calvin was still facing her way. Wouldn’t he have to turn his back on her at some point in his circuit of the class?

Apparently not. He somehow managed to gather work from every student in the class without turning away from her once. Cindy was torn between two options: get out her tissue and wipe her nose in view of Mr Calvin, or let her nose run until he turned around. She sniffled as quietly as she could, but it didn’t seem to do anything but irritate her nose, causing her lost sneeze to return with a prickly, tormenting vengeance. Finally, he made his way back to his desk, giving her the few seconds of opportunity she needed to dash the back of her hand under her nose several times to rub away the itch. She winced as she noticed the shining trail she’d left on her hand.

“Oh, gross...” she muttered.

“Did you say something, Cindy?” Mr Calvin looked up from his planned work for the day.

“Er...do, sir...” Cindy wiped the back of her hand on her grey school skirt, hoping he didn’t hear how stuffed up her voice was.

Mr Calvin seemed to watch her suspiciously for a long moment, before returning to his lesson. “In that case – everyone turn to page 119, please, and read the explanation of Simpson’s rule. I’ll give you a couple of minutes for that, then we’ll go over it on the board.”

Cindy started reading, but got lost halfway through the first sentence and gave up. She hated Maths. She also hated her Mum for making her do it. And she hated her nose for running and itching and putting her through the worry of being caught out by Mr Calvin. She glanced at her watch – less than ten minutes had passed since the start of the period. How was she going to hold out without blowing her nose, sneezing or – as her throat was beginning to bother her – coughing?

Cindy sniffed as quietly as possible, which did little but aggravate the niggling itch lurking somewhere behind her nose. At the same time, the irritating trickle of liquid attempted to make its escape from her nose; she had no choice but to wipe her nose on her sleeve, coughing from the tickling before she could prevent it. She glanced guiltily at Mr Calvin, but he was absorbed with marking a test that a younger class had suffered through.

She glanced longingly at the door, wishing she could go to the bathroom and blow her nose; maybe that would diminish the awful, growing tingle signalling an impending sneeze. She sniffed again, slightly loudly this time, again wondering however she was going to last through the period.

A few minutes later, she was in an even worse state. Her nose felt on the brink of running uncontrollably, her chest ached with the need to cough and – she needed to sneeze. God, she needed to sneeze. She was tempted just to ask to go to the bathroom, but Mr Calvin was notoriously difficult to get a hall pass from when he was displeased with a student’s work and she didn’t want to have to explain why.

She rubbed her nose as unobtrusively as possible again, hating the wet squelch it made. She could feel the sneeze from earlier starting to grow again. Now she had two reasons not to sneeze – one, Mr Calvin would notice and, upon seeing the state of her, would subject her to one of his famous lectures; two, she would make a right mess. Though now it appeared she had no choice in the matter – the sneeze was coming, whether she liked it or not, and it wanted out. Cindy gave up trying to be subtle and started rubbing her nose roughly, holding her breath. Oh, please, no...now would be a really great time to interrupt again, Jenny...

Desperately, she started fumbling through her pockets, until her fingers found the last tissue from her small packet. Her eyes squinted shut, her nostrils flared and finally, helpless to stop it, Cindy sucked in her breath and lunged forward into her hastily unfolded tissue. “I’CHEW!” The last, high pitched syllable of her sneeze echoed around the class, almost seeming to bounce back off the ceiling. Cindy’s eyes widened and she shrunk down into her seat, feeling her cheeks start to burn with embarrassment.

Not only Mr Calvin, but the entire class, looked around at her. Cindy slumped in her seat, sniffling and blushing furiously, attempting to clean up her nose with the tissue. Her sneeze seemed to have taken all the energy out of her – now, she wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl into her bed.

“Are you feeling okay, Cindy?” Mr Calvin asked quietly.

Cindy froze for a moment: would it be more prudent to obviously lie and hope it would, by some slim chance, deceive him; or should she admit she felt miserable and wanted to go to the sick bay? The sight of her textbook made up her mind: if she left, she wouldn’t have to do the work for now - and it would be a perfect excuse for not understanding the complicated-looking formula and its applications.

“Do, sir...ub...cad I go to the sig-bay, please?” Cindy felt herself flush even deeper as she realised how bad she sounded.

“You may. I’ll get Jenny to copy her notes for you so you won’t full even further behind.”

Cindy mumbled her surprised gratitude before gathering her books, grabbing the offered hall pass and fleeing the class. She headed straight to the bathroom, unable to prevent herself from sneezing twice more on the way, covering her books and arms with cool, damp spray.

When she got to the bathroom, Cindy could see why Mr Calvin had let her go so easily; it was easy to see that she was sick. Her short, curly red hair was a mess, escaping from her ponytail in wisps. Her nose was bright pink and her cheeks so flushed her freckles were hardly visible. She groaned and rubbed her watering eyes before grabbing a length of toilet paper and heartily blowing her nose, amazed at how much gunk it had produced in the last couple of hours. She half-heartedly tossed the crumpled wad at the toilet before sinking down to the toilet floor, leaning against the wall. Suddenly, the walk to the sick bay seemed like too much effort; she would stay here until the bell went and get Mark to drive her home during his free period.

TBC as soon as I finish the next bit! Still encouraging comments, especially any suggestions or criticism you may have

[alpha_dog]

This story is amazing!! Please continue

[musiclover90]

Wow, poor Cindy. Cant wait to read more!

[Owen]

You have satisfied my need for the time being, but soon it shall rise again!

your an amazing writer btw

[starpollen]

I like the unexpected answer from the dreaded teacher. Looking forward to more of the saga!

[zneeze]

Great second chapter to this! And who said I was going to skip over the male bits? I want to read every part of your work!

[mr.moosey]

I'm fascinated by this story! I can't wait to read more. ^^

[Wishing]

Wonderful stuff, you are a great writer....can't wait to read more!

[Kiwifruit]

Wow, so many comments! I wasn't expecting much interest Thank you all so much! You make my day, you know that?

@alpha_dog: Glad to see you've started reading too! I hope you like this next bit enough to stick around I'm not quite living up to my earlier promises of "much more sneezing in further parts" yet...so I'll have to make up for it later Trust me, I'll get there, I have several bits planned out just full of them

@musiclover90: I know...I feel sorry for her...especially given what she has to go through later! But that's to be told in a later part...

@Mr invisible: I hope you're feeling needy right now, because here's some more for you; I hope it proves enough of a "fix" for now!

@starpollen: I'm glad you like it I've extrapolated his out-of-character "sympathy" (ha...) far more here and later...prepare for more unexpectedness!

@zneeze: Oh, okay then I'm going to label it anyway because I know a lot of people here seem to hate male sneezing, but it would be great if you read them! Hopefully they're not too yuck for you(especially knowing I'm going into lots of yummy, messy, contagious detail...)

@mr.moosey - I'm glad you like it! Here's some more for you; hopefully it fascinates you even more...especially the first bit

@Wishing - thanks heaps I try, but this isn't particularly polished work; it takes me long enough to write it as it is without obsessively editing (which I will do if I start lol).

Part three commences...

The Virus is progressing faster than anticipated. Cindy has already asked permission to leave class and is looking very sick. If she stays home, we may not attain our objective; it is uncertain whether transmission is effective through the air in early stages. It is imperative that she infects as many as possible to achieve maximum transmission before quarantines and preventative measures are imposed. However, our plan has been disrupted – her request to leave class was granted against orders. This must not go without punishment.

“What is the meaning of this, Calvin?”

Mr. Calvin jerked the phone away from his ear and winced as the man on the other end roared at him. He swallowed hard and tugged nervously at his tie, eyes flicking from side to side as though seeking some acceptable excuse.

“The Virus wasn’t supposed to affect her so much this early!” Mr. Calvin sat perched nervously on the edge of his office chair, drumming his fingers on his desk. “I was told she would hardly be symptomatic. I called her back for lunch like you said to, but -”

“But nothing. No excuses! She’s not going to see you at lunch if she goes home sick, is she? No one will be exposed! Why did you let her go to the sick bay? Why?”

“She looks awful!” Mr Calvin blurted, balling his free hand into a fist. “I’m not supposed to be exposed. She’s not meant to be this sick today! She’s wiping her nose on her hands and sneezing and dripping and –”

“And this is exactly what we want! We need this to spread. Getting the Virus all over her hands is just what is going to accomplish that. If you had kept her in class, she would be exposing her peers to every sneeze, every cough – I hardly dare think of the infections you might have prevented.”

Mr. Calvin exhaled slowly through his teeth, closing his eyes in frustration. “But that’s exactly it, I’m not supposed –”

“As such,” the voice continued, ignoring his protests, “you must now become responsible for spreading the Virus to the students you prevented being exposed. You will be infected yourself.”

“What?” Mr. Calvin squeaked, standing up in shock. He gripped the edge of his desk so hard one of his fingernails broke. He didn’t notice the pain. “But you can’t – I mean – it –”

“Don’t panic,” the voice interrupted, “we’ll still give you the antidote as promised. You’ll just have to go through a few weeks of discomfort that you wouldn’t have otherwise.”

“Weeks...” Mr. Calvin sunk back into his chair, suddenly ashen and shaking.

“You’ll meet us in the usual location, usual time. Tonight. Hopefully this will repair the damage you’ve caused.”

The line went dead. Mr. Calvin muffled a sob into his fist, a solitary tear sliding out from under his glasses.

* * *

The ringing of the school bell jolted Cindy awake. As the haze of sleep cleared, she realised with a jolt she was lying on the floor of the school toilets. She hurriedly pushing herself into a sitting position, surprised at how weak she felt.

“Gross,” she croaked, then coughed as speaking aggravated the twinge in her throat. She deliberately coughed a few more times and cleared her throat.

“Ugh...I feel yuck,” she muttered, testing her voice. Her blocked nose was still obvious, but at least she was no longer hoarse. “Not too much anyway,” she sniffed.

Slowly, she pulled herself up on the wall, not trusting her sense of balance. She waited for a couple of seconds, expecting to be dizzy at the very least; but she seemed to be okay.

“Huh,” she murmured, raising her eyebrows slightly in surprise. She sniffed hard again then reached for the toilet paper. After clearing her nose out as best as she could, she felt much better.

Except for the lingering tingle at the back of her nose that is.

“Oooh...” Cindy groaned, scrubbing at her nose with both hands. She leaned against the wall again, running her fingernails down her nose in an effort to coax a sneeze or three out. The tickle grew slowly, then reclined again just as she was sure she was going to sneeze.

“Ah, c’mon...” Cindy sniffed gently, feeling the sneeze grow and shrink as she breathed. “Just one...come on...” her breathing grew more and more erratic as the urge to sneeze took over, forcing her eyes almost closed. “Hih...ih...” she gasped, her chest heaving, until – “I’tchew! Hh-ih...tchew!” She sniffed hard, blinking slowly as her vision cleared. The tickle had settled into a niggling itch behind her nose; irritating, but not nearly as bad as before. Cindy sighed in relief, relaxing against the wall and half-smiling as she wiped her now damp hands on her skirt again. She shook her head experimentally; other than a general sensation of being unwell, she felt okay. Far better than earlier, certainly. She glanced at her watch; she was late for her art class. She made up her mind: she wouldn’t go home after all. She enjoyed art and the teacher, Laura – one of the only teachers in school who went by her first name – liked her. The thought of her mother’s wrathful last lecture was also off-putting.

“If you leave school without good reason one more time...” Cindy mimicked sullenly. She sighed. She’d see how she was doing after art. After blowing her nose and sneezing one last time for good measure, she left to collect her art gear.

Anyone got any suggestions about the length of parts? I know that I'm more likely to read bits of sneeze fics if they're shorter (unless I know and like the author's work or I'm already reading the story ) but I'm not sure if I should be posting more at once - thoughts? Shorter, longer, just right? Also, I have vague ideas of the plot I'm going to use, but any suggestions/requests are welcome and I'll do my best to incorporate anything anyone asks for!

[Peachy]

Oooh, suspense! I like this story, very well done! Please continue!

[shygreeneyes]

An Evil Plan! Nice touch. And infecting the wrong person, always a good plot twist.

[Jules]

Ooohh, this is really good!!! I love the idea of an evil plan going awry! Can't wait for more!