"Richard Preston - The Cobra Event" - читать интересную книгу автора (Preston Richard)

mouth was hurting a lot; it felt bumpy and it stung. She was debating whether or not to go
home. She decided to go to art class and leave after that.
The art teacher, Peter Talides, was a balding, middle-aged painter, likable and disorganized,
and his art room was a satisfying place. Students hung out there during the day and after
school hours. Kate settled herself at a table in the corner of the room, near the window,
where her assembled Box was taking shape. It was an ambitious construction, a kind of a
house, made of pieces of dollhouses and all kinds of found objects. Kate felt dizzy and weak.
She tried to work on the house but couldn't remember what she had planned to do with it.
She felt as if she had never seen it before and as if some other person had built it.
'I want to go home,' she said out loud.
The students looked at her. She started to stand up -- she intended to go back to the
nurse's office -- when suddenly she felt really dizzy. 'Oh, no,' she said. She got partway to
her feet, and found she couldn't stand. She sat down heavily on her work stool.
'What's the matter, Kates?' Jennifer asked.
There was a crash. Kate had slid off the stool and landed on the floor beside her worktable.
Peter Talides came hurrying over. 'Are you all right?'
'I'm sick,' Kate said in a thick voice. She began to tremble. She was sitting on the floor with
her legs out straight. 'My mouth hurts.'
Talides bent over her. 'We need to get you to the nurse,' he said.
She didn't answer. Her teeth were chattering and her face was flushed and feverish.
Peter Talides was frightened. Kate's nose was running with clear mucus that flowed down
over her lips. It was gushing out, as if she had a very bad cold. Her eyes flicked over his face
without seeming to see him.
'Someone tell the nurse,' he said. 'Go on! Go!' To Kate he said, 'Just sit still, okay?'
Kate said, 'I think I'm going to throw up.'
'Can you stand up?'
'No. Yes.'
He helped her to her feet. 'Jennifer. Prasaya. Please take Kate to the bathroom, will you?'
The two girls helped Kate out of the room and into the bathroom, while Peter Talides
waited in the hallway.
Kate stood in front of the sink, hanging on to it, wondering if she was going to throw up.
Something moved inside her mind, as if some being that was not Kate but was Kate was in
agony. There was a mirror over the sink. For a moment, she couldn't bring herself to look.
Then she opened her mouth. The inside of the mouth reflected in the mirror was dotted with
black blood blisters. They looked like shining ticks feeding there.
She screamed and hung on to the sink, and screamed again. She lost her balance and
crumpled to her knees.
Peter Talides ran into the bathroom.
He found Kate Moran sitting on the floor, looking at him with glassy eyes. The clear mucus
was running out of her nose and mouth, and she was weeping. She said in a thick voice, 'I
don't know what to do.'
Kate's expression went blank. The left side of her face rippled in a series of twitches that
moved in a wave. The twitches were marching jacksonian seizures. Suddenly she uttered a
fierce, guttural cry. She toppled backward. Her knees straightened out and her body seized
and froze hard in a clonic jerk. Her head hit the tiled floor with a crack. The stiffness lasted
for a few seconds. Then her arms and legs began to tremble and jerk rhythmically. She lost
control of her bladder. A puddle formed under her.
 Talides tried to hold her arms still. 'My God!' he cried.
Her legs lashed out in a clonus, knocking over a wastebasket, kicking Talides backward.
She was very strong. Then her body began to scissor back and forth. Her teeth clicked