I was literally panting for breath, giggling nervously as Alex's hand swiftly pulled me close and clung to me by wrapping his arms around my waist. There was just enough of the military lights outside the window for me to see the untouchable beauty of his cute face in the dark, and the smile that widened as he lifted his fingers to tenderly tuck some of my hair back behind my ear made me SO weak in the knees.

Our eyes connected briefly, but I bashfully turned away from him before my virginal blush got bright enough to light up the entire room and expose me for being the borderline coward that I was.

Seriously, I probably would have run out of there screaming if my legs weren't so wobbly and useless at the time.

Weird.

An entire armada of flesh eating zombies literally pressing up against the gates just outside of this building...and yet, the scariest thing on Earth to me right now is the approaching moment when Alex's soft lips touched mine. This whole thing is so damn crazy!

We looked at one another in the dim light, his short blond hair shining with it's fuzzy appeal. He was just a bit taller than me, but I proved that it wouldn't matter much, but springing up on my tiptoes for a moment and coming back down again. The grin he gave me brought his dimples into full bloom, and I melted right there on the spot. Hehehe! God, he was cute!

We snickered out loud at one another, always turning our heads to hide, awkwardly amused by our fearful hesitation. When I peeked back at him, I saw him playfully roll his eyes, causing me to giggle even harder, but he eventually tried to straighten up and get serious. We were NEVER going to get ourselves involved in a hot make out session this way!

Alex took a deep breath, took hold of my hand, cleared his throat...and in this really adorable way, he says, "Jake? I'm gonna kiss you now, m'kay?"

My entire body quivered with the sudden overpopulation of goosebumps that were raised on the surface of my skin. "M'kay..." I said, the jittery flutter of butterfly wings in my stomach getting even worse. I felt my pants tighten around me as I got unbelievably erect over the idea that we were doing this! Ugh! Just me and Alex...all alone...in the dark. Just hearing his voice in the dark was enough to thrill me to the point of near orgasm. I almost wished that I had taken the brief opportunity that Donovan had given me earlier to jack off behind the teacher's desk. Because, now, if I don't totally explode with a hot load of teen cream in my underwear, I'm going to be leaking so badly that it's going to look like I did anyway. Either way, I had better find myself a secret way back to my sleeping palette in the gym tonight without any pants on! I can't imagine that being an easy task, but...whatever. That's SO not the point right now!

He waited. Our faces were so close to one another that I could feel the warmth of his breath on the bridge of my nose.

I was shivering so badly that it was hard to keep still. Alex was still holding my hand, but despite us both being super interested in one another, I don't think either one of us had any previous experience when it came to putting everything together like it should be.

There was a timeless pause between us. Come on already. Do it. This is driving me bonkers. He gave my hand a little squeeze, and he smiled again. Both of us turning red as we got closer to the moment. Closer to magic.

Alex took a deep breath, and he bashfully leaned in to kiss me on the side of my mouth. Hehehe, not on the cheek, and not on the lips, but somewhere in between. Almost as if he was going to kiss me and chickened out at the last minute. You'd think I'd be disappointed, but I wasn't. Not at all. In fact, I thought it was kind of cute.

"Sorry, hehehe..." He said, looking down at his feet.

"No, it's ok." I grinned.

"This was so much easier the first time."

I looked him in the eye and softly told him, "You'll get no complaints from me."

I think the words gave him a little more confidence, even if spoken with a shaky voice. When our eyes met again, I knew this was going to happen. I could feel it, and I squirmed from the delight it gave me.

He let go of my hand, but only to put his hands on my hips...taking a baby step forward and lightly pulling me to meet him halfway. Then, he leaned in to kiss my lips with a gentle peck. A tender experiment at first, but after that first collision we were thirsty for more. Our lips touched again. And then a third time. And we both took a breath before leaning in again and allowing our romantic connection to linger.

There's always a temporary moment of disbelief when you're kissing a boy this hot. Where you feel your lips sliding against his, you feel his warm palms on your waist, you hear the elegant 'smacking' noises as you both give and receive pleasure simultaneously...and you're forced to ask yourself...

...Is this really happening?

Alex was an incredible kisser! Naturally, I don't have anyone to compare him to, but his instinctual technique was something to set the bar high for any other boy I'll ever kiss in the future. His lips were so soft, so warm. He applied just the right pressure. Just the right amount of moisture. His breath blowing gently on my cheek. And when his tongue touched mine...it was like the first drop of a rollercoaster. This it. This is what I've waited my whole teen life to experience. Even with my dreamy expectations set so high...Alex didn't disappoint.

My pulse began to rise as we let go of those clumsy 'first time' wiggles and fell into a rhythm that put our labored heartbeats in sync with one another. "Mmmmm..." I moaned. But the next sound to come from me was more like a whimper in a much higher pitch. As Alex's tongue slid over my own, I felt his hands gently sliding lower on my waist, then moving behind me to rest just above my cheeks. Breathlessly, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed my hips into him, grinding against the hardness I found there. I guess he took that as a greenlight to go further, because only a few seconds later, he moved them down to rest on my bottom completely...giving the mounds a squeeze. I think he really liked that, because he didn't it again almost immediately when I didn't pull away from him. This created even more heat between us, and as much as we LOVED kissing like this in the middle of the room...it suddenly didn't seem like it was enough.

Our lips parted, and from the look on his face, I could see that he was feeling it too. There was just this yearning motivation to see just how far we could take this all at once. Almost like a kid who's trying to see just how high he can get the swing to go on the playground without falling off and getting hurt. I wanted more. So much more. I gave him another little peck on the lips, my hand rubbing the fuzzy buzzcut in the back of his short blond hair. I thought about the teacher's desk in the far corner of the room, and I lightly grabbed Alex's hand to guide him over there with me.

I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what I was feeling either, to be totally honest. But I didn't want it to stop. I wasn't sure how far I should go as far as pushing the boundaries of what was possible...but with this school as full as it is and filling up with more people by the truckload...I wasn't sure when, or if, we were going to get another chance like this. And if it turns out that this is the beginning of the end for the entire human race...I want to know that I did it all. No regrets, right?

Now my heart was pounding so hard that I was starting to gasp from the concussive blows it was delivering to my ribcage from the inside. Omigod, omigod, omigod...is he really following me back here? What now? Can I do this? Does he want this as badly as I do? Always...a moment of disbelief.

As soon as we made it to that corner, Alex moved in to start tongue kissing me again. He passionately gripped my ass cheeks and pushed me back until I was practically lifted up to sit on the desk. More blissful moans escaped us both as he wedged himself between my legs and pressed himself into me.

More! Please, God, give me MORE!

The orgasmic intensity of it all was almost too much for me to bear. I had to break our kiss in order to keep from blowing my load right then and there. But Alex didn't miss a beat as he kissed a little lower and started to gently suck on the side of my neck. Sure...like THAT'S going to help me calm down! I never knew that part of my neck was so sensitive. If I hadn't been sitting down, my swoon would have tossed me right down to the floor like a knockout punch for sure. Feeling his tongue against my skin...a sensual suction masking its constant movement...it was nearly enough to make my eyes roll back in my head. All I could do was breathe harder and use my free hand to hold his head closer to me so he'd never stop. My other hand, stretched out behind me on the desk so I could lean back without falling over completely.

As hard as it was to keep from crying out at the top of my lungs, I still wanted more!

I couldn't help but to think...this is the part when the concept of foreplay becomes less of a carnal delight and more of a burden. How much can we get away with in the time we have left together?

That question was answered seconds later as the sound of hard bottomed shoes approached the classroom door from the outside. Muffled voices speaking to one another with a sense of urgency. And then, they were close enough to put their intrusive hands on the door to our private paradise!

In an instant of near hysteria, both Alex and I disentangled ourselves and looked at one another, wide eyed, before doing the only thing that we could do in this situation...

We ducked down to the floor and crawled up under the desk as swiftly and as silently as we could, hearing the classroom door open in the background. Alex thought to put a hand on the teacher's chair, as it had wheels on it, and if anybody heard the sound of it rolling, their attention would be drawn to this corner right away.

I had to hold my breath in order to keep from making any noise. Please don't turn the lights on. Please don't turn the lights on. Please, oh PLEASE, don't turn the lights on!

The first voice I heard was the doctor we saw down in the infirmary not long ago. He was obviously flustered about something, rushing into the room and immediately taking off his glasses as three more men entered the room behind him. Alex and I remained dead silent. Thankful that this corner was dark enough to hide us in a shadow even darker than the rest of the room. "This can't go on! This is serious! Do your soldiers have any idea what they've done?"

"Calm down, Dr. Vega. I assure you, the boy was checked out. No bites. No scratches." The second voice was Sergeant Brower. After his morning and even speeches and safety lectures, we could recognize that voice anywhere. I started to lean forward to see if I could silently peek around the corner of the desk to see what was going on. Alex grabbed my wrist, shaking his head, but I pressed my finger to my lips to let him know that I wouldn't make a sound.

"You don't understand...I don't think it's all about physical wounds." Dr. Vega told him. As I peered around the desk, I saw the doctor, Sgt. Brower, my chemistry teacher, Mr. Syder, and one of the other soldiers who had his head bandaged and his arm in a sling. Dr. Vega said, "We initially thought that this 'sickness' went viral simply through blood and saliva, and that these creatures were merely products of a direct attack. But...it appears that we may have been wrong."

That definitely got Sgt. Brower's attention. "I can't say that I like the sound of that, doctor. Please continue." He folded his arms and stepped closer. Even standing still, that man can be intimidating as hell.

"That father, the one who brought his boy in sick, he may have passed inspection, hey bothmay have passed inspection, but...we've been looking for open wounds...not the symptoms of the disease itself." Dr. Vega said. "Initially we thought that maybe we could cooperate with law enforcement and figure out what happened by tracing everything back to the earliest reports of violence in the various areas around the city. Possibly finding a 'patient zero' and figuring out a way to reverse the effects and keep the pandemic from getting any worse. But the problem didn't originate in just one area. Or two. Or ten. The outbreak, seemingly, came from hundreds of different locations at once. No rhyme, no reason. And once the carnage began, their numbers double or triple every 24 hours. That's why the chaos came down on us so quick. The city fell to pieces so quickly because whatever started it all exists in dozens, maybe even hundreds of silent carriers."

"You want to take the short way to the part where you actually tell me what this all means? I don't have the luxury of a drawn out campfire story, doctor." Brower said.

Mr. Snyder chimed in and said, "The outbreak is coming from within. It is highly contagious when it comes to bite marks and scratches...but it started in a wide variety of hosts. All over the city. Perhaps all over the country." Again, Brower wanted to know more. After having Mr. Snyder two years in a row for science classes, I could already see him getting into 'teacher mode'. "Think of it like...the chicken pox. You may have a bad case of it when you're a kid and it's gone in a couple of weeks, you go on with life and you don't think about it anymore. But the truth is, that virus doesn't ever go away. It simply lays dormant in your system for the rest of your life, waiting for your immune system to weaken to miss a step so that it can suddenly be 'reawakened' from within, causing Shingles." He said. "With this particular outbreak, however...there doesn't seem to be any previous illness attached to the sleeping contaminates. Something within the carriers that was previously inactive was suddenly 'triggered' somehow, and it simply took over. From there...it was just a matter of violently spreading the illness to a variety of new hosts. Their earliest victims never saw it coming."

"Are you trying to tell me that we can't distinguish who's a carrier and who isn't?" The sergeant asked.

Dr. Vega replied, "Not until it's too late, I'm afraid." He peered over at the soldier that he had given medical attention to, and said, "Private Harries? Can you tell him what you told us?"

The soldier stood at attention at first, but the sergeant let him know that he could rest at ease. The soldier's voice was trembling slightly when he said, "I was on security detail at Hillside, sir. I stood at the gates, I watched the convoys come in...the people..." He swallowed hard as he remembered the horror of the bloodbath that supposedly took place there. "...Soldiers and doctors were working day and night to save as many civilians as they could. They were exhausting themselves. I was called in to assist. I checked new visitors from head to toe, looking for any signs of injury. Anything. There was this...this boy. He couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen years old. I remember him because...when I handed him his clothes back I noticed that he was wearing red sneakers. Bright red sneakers."

"Go on." The sergeant said.

"He was clean, sir. One hundred percent free from injury. I checked him myself." He continued. "A week later...people began to disappear. Civilians. Soldiers. Medical staff. By the time we realized what was happening, we had an entire basement full of those things. They crawled up from beneath us and...we didn't stand a fighting chance. They multiplied so fast. So very fast." A single tear rolled from the Private Harries' eye. We tried to hold them off by blocking off that part of the school, and we checked the surveillance tapes to see what we missed. The first attack came from that same boy. Red shoes. He was a carrier and he didn't even know it. It was like...someone had flipped a switch inside of him. He was FINE before that! But...he wasn't the only one. Another teen boy and a preteen girl made the next few attacks. According to our staff, they all checked out. The adults were all fine as long as they hadn't been bitten, but the kids...the goddamned kids..." The soldier began to break down, and Mr. Snyder stepped in again.

"I've heard similar reports from many of the other people we brought here, Sgt. Brower. Not just from the Hillside massacre, but from other places as well. Always the same scenario. The teenagers pass inspection with flying colors, but they're the first to trigger the outbreak. It's the adolescents that are the carriers. They are the ones being awakened, and contaminating everyone around them. They don't need to be bitten. They don't need to be turned. Whether the sleeping virus gets activated or not is completely random."

Brower asked, "Well, what's triggering the virus?"

"We don't know yet."

"Well, how can we tell which kid is a threat to us? What are the symptoms?"

Dr. Vega said, "We're still working on that. For now, it's anybody's guess. It could be a severe change in look and behavior...or it might just look like the common cold. We simply don't have enough information yet to determine what we need to be looking for and what we can dismiss as simply being a 24 hour flu bug."

"This isn't comforting me at all, doctor." Brower said. "You do realize that we have fortified ourselves in a high school for safety, don't you? What you're telling me is that sixty five percent of our inhabitants may be ticking time bombs?" There was a moment of silence between them. No one wanted to answer. Sgt. Brower said, "Alright, first thing tomorrow morning, I want the teenagers in this facility rounded up and counted and sent back for re-evaluation. You said we're looking for ages between fourteen and fifteen, correct? Maybe a year on either side, give or take?"

Snyder said, "I'm afraid that won't do us any good, sergeant." When asked why not, he answered, "Well...I know that it's a common perception that teenagers are teenagers and that's all there is to it. They should be 'this' developed by age 13, and 'that' height by age 15...when their voice should change, when their shoulders should broaden, etcetera. We classify them by averages and quick studies in order to put them all in one lump sum. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is, it would be really difficult to find any two teenagers alike. They grow at different times, they mature at different ages...some teens keep a baby face until they're twenty five, others start growing mustaches at twelve. We can't figure out if this violent trigger is connected to their rapidly changing biological development, if it's hormonal, or if it just strikes certain teens at random. It might affect five kids in the whole complex, it might affect ten. Maybe none of them will be affected. Or..."

Mr. Snyder stopped there, but Dr. Vega said, "...Or it could be all of them. We have no way to know for sure."

"Are you folks telling me that we may experience a future breach in our security if we let the wrong people in here?"

Dr. Vega said, "Sergeant Brower...right now I've got a 12 year old boy in the infirmary who is so traumatized by what happened to him that I can't even get him to speak. And another boy, brought in by a police officer, who seems like he's just got a bad case of the sniffles...but for all I know, he could be halfway through the change himself." The men all looked at one another with concern. "Alert your troops, sergeant. The 'wrong people' may already be here."

"You have to call off the other search and rescue convoys, sergeant." Snyder said. "At least until we figure out a surefire way to detect potential carriers and separate them from the 'normal' teenagers. Otherwise, there's nothing to stop this school from becoming another Hillside."

Sgt. Brower walked over to the window...and he looked at the bloodthirsty horde of zombies still pawing at the gate. I made sure to pull my head back behind the desk and hold my breath so as not to be discovered. "Separate them from the 'normal' teenagers, huh?" Brower looked back over his shoulder. "And then what? Are we just going to toss them out there? With 'them'?"

"It's a matter of survival, sir." Dr. Vega said. "What happens when we start letting these infected children in with their families?"

"I've got a better question for you, Doc..." He said. "...What happens when we start turning them away?"