An idiot's guide to the apocalypse

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Silence Before the Storm

Sarah

 

“Sarah? Sarah!”

  “Yes?” I mumble, raising my head as I snapped out from my state of half-sleep. It is English class - my least favourite lesson. One whole hour of dicking around and chatting about… well, certainly not English...

  “Come on! We need to do this thing before Sir comes and fucks us over!” Edward sighs, once again playing around with my pen lid like a curious monkey.

  Edward, a 6”1’ giant with sky blue eyes and golden blonde hair. He has a bit of a reputation for chronic laziness, an endless supply of sexual innuendos, and immense physical ability… Definitely not a good combination.

  “Really Ed? You, telling someone else to stop sleeping?” Flynn retorts, pushing up his black-rimmed glasses while displaying a matter-of-fact expression.

  Flynn, on the other hand, is fairly average height; has thin, brown eyes; short, light brown hair and a pretty scrawny physique. He’s more of a “realist” (at least, that’s what he calls himself), he takes life with a pinch of salt, and likes to take a more serious approach to things. Although, his quick, sarcastic sense of humour often makes up for it

  “Shut up, Flynn,” I yawn irritably, covering my mouth with my pale hand politely. “It’s not like you ever do any work.”

  That’s me, Sarah. I like to think I’m pretty average, at least physically. I’ve got messy brown hair and grey-blue eyes. I’ve got a pretty plain body, although Edward often calls it “slender”, I’ll never really understand him...

  This is just the day to day banter of our English table: Flynn contemplates life in his usual cynical manner whilst dishing out sarcastic commentary and forcing his work onto the guy next to him; Ed sleeps through life, usually just thinking about food and girls… his attitude probably gets him in more trouble than it’s worth; I just go with the flow, everyone else keeps their heads down.

  “So, what have you been doing?” Our teacher nags, pulling a chair up to our table. He likes to check up on us as, in the end, we are just a bunch of lazy teenagers.

  Flynn quickly brings his eyes down to look at his book, frowning in concentration. He often tends to stay out of these situations as best he can.

  “Nothing?” Sir suggests, raising a judgemental eyebrow and doubting us as per usual.

  “Well, we’ve been looking into these characters and we’ve decided that...” Once again, Edward was quick to craft an excuse. It is one of his specialties.

  “That the main character is just a representation of what the author values in society!” I chip in, smiling proudly at my own analogy. I know it’s lame, but I like to come across as intelligent when I can. However, from time to time, I can transgress into such an unsophisticated, rude person.

  “Oh, well… Carry on then…” Sir swiftly leaves, almost disappointed that he couldn’t catch us in the act.

  Laughing to myself, I close my book once again and stare at the posters on the wall, not really caring about anything going on around me.

  “So,” I begin after a while. “Did anyone hear about that dude on the TV that ate his brother?”

  The others on our table look at me in surprise, some even stop working to listen. And that’s pretty strange, because they have a tendency to try to get on with their work rather than give in to the ridiculous conversations we have.

  “Shit! Really?” Edward exclaims, dropping the pen lid in shock.

  Flynn nods, continuing. “Yeah. It was in London. Apparently, the police had to shoot him dead. They tried to arrest him, but he just went crazy.”

  “Seriously?” Edward questions in his usual disbelieving tone.

  “Yeah, apparently he tried to take a bite out of a police officer’s shoulder.”

  “That’s… That’s fucked up,” Ed mumbles to himself, running a large hand through his blonde hair.

  Shaking my head in disbelief, I doodle on my hand while biting my lip in concentration. But something stops me in the act. A shrill scream erupts from the corridor outside the English classroom, and all eyes fall on the dark green door on the other side of the room.

  After a few long seconds, I break the deafening silence. “What the hell was that?”

  “I…” Flynn begins, clearly attempting to articulate an answer but failing. “I don’t know.” Wow…

  “That… Didn’t sound good,” Sir says confusedly. “Not good at a-”

  He is cut off by our head teacher being slammed into the clouded-glass door, red splattering up in a volcanic manner. Everyone stares, wide eyed, unable to comprehend what is going on. What the hell is going on?

  “OMG! HE’S BEEN MURDERED!” Someone shrieks, sending everyone into a crazed panic. Tables and chairs are all flipped and swept aside as everyone was desperate to exit the building.

  All I can do is stand and stare in horror. My feet are frozen to the ground as my eyes fall upon the blood oozing its way down to the carpet decorating the room with a tiring-haze.

  “I need to get out of here,” I whisper to myself, looking around the almost empty room. And as I do so, I see a shaken-up Flynn hiding under the table.

  “Come on, Flynn! Hiding won’t save you!”

  As we make our way outside, the most appalling sight appears to me. People grabbing, biting, scratching each other. Blood. Guts. It’s all there. Finally, putting me out of my misery, my vision clouds over and my feet fall from beneath me.

  Blackness consumes me until I am no longer conscious.