<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em><strong>Lasair Rowen</strong></em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>After the announcements, all matter of chaos took place in her class. The students stampeded toward the lecture hall doors,pushing and squeezing past one another out into an already congested hallway. There was no way to control this Lasair knew and just watched how it all unfolded. The announcements had her calculating her own self-preservation during the state of emergency and if she could get to her own home. Lasair couldn’t see herself being pushed and hurried toward the building’s entrance by screaming students. She disrobed, replacing the lab coat back upon its hook, then waited out the stampede for as long she could. </em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>Back into her briefcase went her lectures, exam papers, and files she needed to study. Nevertheless, as always Lasair had been planning her next move, a move that did not entail, being locked up on this campus. <strong>“Home, dam it…I’ve go to get home.”</strong> She mumbled this out of nervousness and for the lack of really knowing what and where to go during this whole thing. <strong>“Yes, home in my bed watching this hellish emergency from the comfort of my own home. Sure I’ll lock the doors, windows, and set the security alarm, making sure all should be well.”</strong> She realized she was speaking aloud all the things she thought. <strong>“Oh wow Lasair, another great mind bits the dust. You are standing here talking to your self, and still-doing-it.” </strong>Fighting the zipper of the case to close, gave it one last desperate tug, this finally shut the overly stuffed big pockets of her soft leather brief case. In jest, the bag vs. Professor was not over yet. Confirming to herself what the  final plan was, knew that she was to travel straight home, and was to avoid the urge to do her usual pit stops at all cost. </em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>The Professor would still out of stubbornness try to break such rules in a declared state of emergency; still venturing on to the firing range and then over to Abe’s Bar. She was going to have to stick with the game plan and wait until this crisis was over, in the confines of her home. </em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>Checking her station mumbled yet again to herself, <strong>“Yes a few glasses of red wine should…no wait; beer… should put me at ease. That’s where I need to be right now during this hellish state of emergency.”</strong> Her hands and body trembled uncontrollably every now and then unsure of what to make of things from her side fence. Working quickly to get out of there had been trying to retrieve her car keys from a side pocket she hardly used in her soft leather bag; which laughably was busting at the seams always. The side pocket of her briefcase, with all the papers inside it did make getting into that section all that much more difficult. She scrapped her hand across the teeth of the zipper tracks several times, while jamming her hand inside over, and over again for those keys. </em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>A clank of the doors opening above the middle isle drew her attention quickly having believed the building was for the most part empty. Lasair watched a colleague, Professor James Kratz step into the lecture hall. By description, was 20 years older then her. He kept himself in excellent condition while he sported a short hairstyle of ebony hair which complimented his face very well. The hint of graying gave his thick hair a distinguishable look. They always shared lunches, or dinners every now and then; depending on how late they stayed in the labs. </em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>Now, he was not looking at all his best. Instead he looked like he who had just gone a few rounds in a rowdy bar. His lab coat was blood stained, no doubt by his own, bottom lip half swollen, and hair was a complete tangled mess. <strong>“Professor Kratz…What happened to you?”</strong> A dumb question right. He either, was in the hall, or he was trampled down in the classroom. Kratz was not comfortable about how things went down at the school and wanted to get out as much as Lasair looked to want too. He grabbed her briefcase and pulled her by the hand explaining as he headed them both toward an exit of the lecture hall. Before she could ask him any further questions, he was already telling her what happened down the hall from her. </em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em><strong>“Well I was coming to see how you faired, after the masses rushed toward the doors of the building after the announcements. Getting down the hall as a Professor didn’t offer me any safe passage. I was elbowed in the eye and gutted deep several times every time I bellowed professor coming through.” </strong>He stopped talking as he pulled Lasair through the halls with him. Once they rounded the hall at the exit saw for themselves they were going to be a while waiting to leave behind lingering students still trying to get out the building. Lasair’s mouth dropped to see that the hall was still, packed with students. She almost wanted to scream herself wanting to get out of that bedlam.</em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>Thinking now realized they were going to have to backtrack, and take the long way around to the staff parking lot, out back. It was enough to make anyone groan knowing they had to run through the lab department and its many locked doors and double spaced labs. Laughing, they turned around and each swiped his or her badge and swiftly plowed down the many halls toward the staff parking out back.  “<strong>Lasair, can I ask a favor?” </strong>He panted as they ran. <strong>“Can I stay at your place? Last week I moved into a residential suite at the Royal Hotel. I figured during this state of emergency that the college will need as much help as they can get.” </strong>He hoped she would say yes.</em></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><em>Charging though the fungus department, Lasair grinned and agreed. <strong>“Yes you can I have plenty of room.”</strong> She was right of course; her dearly departed parents left her a 7-bedroom house. The smell in the fungi segment was strong of sulfur. In a near by lab they started hearing the latest updates on a blaring radio about the riot and its unusual resiliency in strength. But the operative word that rang out was cannibalism, which shook her to her very core to not totally understand what was really being described and thought it was misheard by her before James yanked at hand arm to pull her on. Hearing last how the rioting has manifested at Rockford high had her heart pounding in her chest not just from the brisk run to the back of the building but hearing it reached he high school. <strong>“DID YOU HEAR THAT? This crazy mob has reached the high school."</strong> He nodded that he did still manuvering the lab maze of offices and still he said nothing. This was not something Rowen could brush off easily as a common factor with mobs. Hearing how things were falling a part now; wanted to linger longer by the radio to make clear she had not misunderstood some of the words being usded on the station such as cannibalism.   </em></span>