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"Dunno," Elephant says

"B?"

"A test," I say confidently

"Why?" he presses

"Pallaskenry’s in the middle of nowhere They wouldn’t have any labs around there It’s all bog land"

"Excellent, B"

I findme down to size either, like they would if this was any other class

"More ideas," Burke says, pointing to Suze

"God, I don’t know" She blushes, then coughs "My dad thinks it’s terrorists"

Burke blinks "Co for terrorists Got carried away and killed civilians by ive them an excuse to kill the witnesses"

"Far-fetched," Burke hums, "but let’s run with it" He adds the theory to the board and asks for estions

Soone wild Another says maybe it’s aliens, that the rabid crazies were taken over by bodiless beings from another planet Kray coures people are being controlled by satellite signals

"They’re gonna use it on the Arabs," he says "Noour troops in to sort out their ers mad and leave theood riddance to thery s Burke shushes them

"That’s not one of the more far-fetched ideas," he says "Certain politicians would do just about anything to cling to power and disable our ene - but he ht have a point"

"I don’t think it’s terrifying," I snort, evil-eyeing the Musli after them They’d do it to us if they could"

"We’ll have that argu a war before it can erupt "Let’s stick to zombies Any other proposals?"

There are a few more, then Burke stands back to study what he’s written "It’s a horrible world, isn’t it?" he mutters and I’m not sure he knows that he’s spoken out loud

He turns to us "I’ I believe any of these exotic, unfounded theories But these are questions we should be asking Life’s complicated Answers rarely come wrapped up nice and simple There are plenty of people out there ready to tell us e should and shouldn’t believe We always need to be skeptical, to look for the sting in the tale"

Burke looks around slowly and it see at each and every one of us in turn "Trust no one Always question what you’re told Don’t believe the lies that people feed you, even if they’re your teachers or parents At the end of the day you have to work out for yourself what’s right or wrong"

He glances back at the board and sighs "But bear in mind There are lots of black-hearted, asps when he swears but most of us take no notice "It’s important that we hold theht be the most black-hearted and mean-spirited of the lot, so hold yourself the most accountable of all"

As we try to make sense of that, Burke chuckles, shakes his head and wipes the board clean "Enough preaching," he says brightly, then adds, to a chorus of groans, "Back to the worm"