~Alex~
It was a regular Monday at school. People were reminiscing about their weekends, running pointless 5 k’s and partying and having sex and everything, while I sat at home on my laptop scrolling through pictures of cats on the internet. That was my weekend. My mom had been busy all weekend with some new uncharted disease that was spreading like wildfire around the city.
I sat down in my seat, barely noticing my friends walking like lost puppies behind Carter. Everyday it’s the same. Carter walks in with his adoring fans, while I sit there and watch in disgust. I never really liked Carter to begin with.
He magically showed up in ninth grade from Nowhereland in Texas, and all the girls are all over him. And he enjoyed it. Really enjoyed it. And everyday for the past three years I have sat there looking at him flash a smile and flirt with girls who he didn’t even know. I gagged at the thought of it.
At least my friends have some sanity about themselves. They know when to stop, or I think they do. Like I said, every day’s the same, and it didn’t change when Abby and Megan see me they plop down next to me saying, “Morning little bitch.”
“Good morning,” I responded in my usual morning tired dragging voice. They went on gossiping something about how Carter went to a party and how they can’t believe they missed it.
I rolled my eyes and laid my head down on the table. I looked out of the window and saw a man walking back to his car. He was really pale and he needed a tan badly. Too bad it was a foggy day. My eyes rolled over to Carter, and I thought I could make out his eyes looking at me. But they instantly dashed down to his phone. Then Annie, his obsessive ex, sat next to him and started shoving her boobs in his face. Classy, I thought
My eyes drifted back out the window, and I saw a bright flash of light whip past our window. Startled, I jumped, and sat up.
“Did you guys see that?” I asked.
“See what? Jesus calm down Alex,” said Megan.
I shook off the strange light I saw, and looked out of the window. The man was gone, but the car was still there. Whatever, I thought.
“Good morning class,” Mrs. Hawkins said walking in with a stack of papers.
“Here goes my day,” I whispered getting out my binder. Class went on as usual. Nothing really interesting. But if you think learning about how Huckleberry Finn affected the outcome of stupid World War II good job on you. And that’s exactly why I’m failing that class. She doesn’t make sense in her lessons and she makes the tests so hard it kills my grade every time.
She expected notes to be on the lesson, however more were being written on who hooked up on Saturday night. The most dreadful part of my day was nearing an end, when the intercom blared on.
“ALL TEACHERS! ALL TEACHERS! LOCK THE DOORS! CLOSE THE BLINDS! STAY INSIDE. WE ARE CALLING A SATE OF EMERGENCY. TURN YOUR T.V.S ON THE NEWS. STUDENTS CONTACT YOUR PARENTS! AGAIN…”
there were grunts in the room as Mrs. Hawkins did as she was told. Last week we had an intruder alert, and had to stay in school for and extra hour just so they could find a robot that went rouge from the Robotics team. I just slipped a piece on gum in my mouth and sat back in my chair.
The TV came on and the volume was turned up. The old thing only got three channels: News, Sports, and Soap Operas for the lonely teachers of the school. This one was automatically set on Channel Five, and the news anchors came on.
“Hundreds of people in Lincoln Park have disappeared after a burst of lighting ran horizontally through the park. We have a video taken by a bystander's phone, who dodged the light just as it came by.”
The worst phone video came on the screen, and it was just a normal day in the park. The person was filming a little boy no more than two trying to kick a soccer ball. But then everything got foggy, and then a burst of light, exactly like the one I saw at the beginning of class, passed right by the camera. That was pretty much it because the person who was taking the video had “dodged” the light. The fog cleared up and the park was empty.
It looked like everything was just left in place. Picnic kits, Frisbees, bikes, skateboards, all of those things were just sitting there on the ground.
I sat up in my seat and stared at the screen. This was unbelievable. “We are getting reports from all over the country stating similar events…”
Annie screamed and jumped on Carter, along with most of the other girls in the classroom. My friends and I just held each other’s hands as we dialed our parents.
I called my dad first. “Alexandra!” he shouted into the phone. He sounded like he was running. “Where are you?”
“I’m still at school, what’s going on?”
“There’s some alien-” the line went dead. I called out my father’s name. I hung up called again three times. Tears swam up to my eyes as I dialed my mother. But she didn’t answer.
It went on like this for hours. People who did get in touch with their parents, stayed on the phone with them until eventually the line went dead. Most people were praying, telling their loved ones that they loved them, saying goodbye to each other as more and more bolts of light shot through the air and past our window.
Abby, Megan, and I huddled together in the corner with about six other girls from my class. We were all crying, some of us were bawling, others, like me, just had a tear or two rolling down our faces.
The third report came on, and a boy named James lost it. He simply got up, walked over to the TV and unplugged it. A few people thanked him silently for stopping the heartbreaking news. But then, he took the TV off of the hinges and lifted it over his head. Walking over to the window, people asked him what he was doing. And to answer their question, he threw the TV out of the window, breaking the window into a million pieces of glass the rained down to the ground outside.
People started screaming at him, while others panicked. He was breaking our only way of protection. He was killing us. He continued to take certain things, like a desk or a stapler, and he would throw it at the windows breaking everything that we had keeping us away from whatever was going on outside.
A few people ran out of the classroom, and others just huddled closer to each other. Either way we were all terrified. James was done destroying out safe haven, and his last words were, “Good luck in the afterlife. Hope to see you guys in Heaven.” And he jumped. He jumped out of the third story window to the ground.
More people ran out of the classroom, while others went to see if James was okay, even though we all knew he was gone. I was scared. People were dying around me, leaving, crying, and disappearing. I held onto my friends tightly as I just waited.
And right after James jumped, the Light stopped in front of our shattered hopes of survival, once known as widows. The kids who went to see James disappeared in thin air. The Light crept into the room, and one by one, people disappeared. First it was Tyler, then Spencer, then Annie, who hadn’t left Carter’s side. The Light skipped over him and took our teacher.
It lifted higher in the air and then let out a yellow gas, and then it disappeared into the hallway, some how shutting the door
“Don’t breath!” I heard Carter say. “Hold you breath for a little while longer!” I took a deep breath just as the yellow gas flowed around my face. It was so thick. I couldn’t even see my friends clinging on to me.
My chest was getting painfully tight and I struggled to keep my breath in. My friends gave in. I don’t know which was first, but hearing her gasp for air, was the most painful thing I’ve ever had to hear. I could hear her beating at her chest, trying to get the poison gas out of her lungs, while she gaged and coughed. Then there was silence and followed by the thud of a body falling to the floor.
“Megan!” Abby screamed. She let go of me and soon she went through the same motions as Megan. Gasping, beating, coughing, gaging, and then…
tears ran down my face as I came to the reality that I was going to die at school. Most people joked about how school was killing them, and that’s how they were going to die, but this time it was true. I was going to die in this place, just like how my friends did.
I clenched my eyes shut, getting ready to breathe in the very thing that burned my friends lungs. I felt the strong grip of something snatch my shirt and was pulling me closer. My eyes flung open and I saw the Light again, shining brightly through the clearing gas.
It was coming to get me too. I screamed and started kicking widly into the air, hoping to hit that thing that was trying to kill me. It put its hand around my mouth and picked me up. I instantly calmed. It wasn’t an alien, or anything else for that matter. It was Carter. He was saving me.
He drug me out of the classroom and shut the door. He was taller than me, so leaning down to look me over was a hassle. He was tense, like if he found something wrong then everything would be over. I silently watched as his eyes dashed rapidly around my body. He lifted his bright blue eyes to my face and they lingered there.
“Are you alright Alex?” he whispered. Trying to keep back my tears I nodded. A sigh of relief rushed out as he embraced me. He held me so close and so tightly. I wrapped my arms around him and cried in his shirt. He told me everything was going to be alright, and that we were going to be fine.
“But Carter, my parents-”
“Mine are gone too,” he said painfully. “It’s just you and I for now.” Saying those words made the reality of the situation hit me. They weren’t human at all. They were trying to kill us. They were dangerous. We were alone.
We dreadfully discussed what we were going to do while somebody-we didn't know who just yet-figuredout what the hell was going on today. We needed a plan and fast. The roof wasn’t safe against flying streams of light on a murderous rampage. And if we went to basements we’d be trapped, with no way of escaping if the Light came near.
We talked and looked in each classroom for any survivors. There weren’t any. There were only bodies lying where they fell from the gas with the news still blaring on about the mysterious Light, and the disappearances of hundreds of people at a time. Papers, book bags, cell phones, everything that a teenager considers personal was laying on the floor, dropped in the panicking of everyone.
Carter thought it was some other country trying to attack America, but when the report told us that places all over the world were experiencing things like this, he was proven wrong.
Nobody knew what this was, and the best that we could come up with were aliens. The word even sounded childish, like something that would be in a Nickalodeon show or something. Alien. These definately were not coming in peace.
We walked down the halls absolutely speechless. Most if not all of the classroom dorrs were open, and occationally there would be a studen or a teacher halfway out of the door before the collasped from soffication.
Carter told me not to look at them, and just try my best to find things we can use to help us survive. I wasn't going to argue with him on that one. I couldn't argue with him. He saved my life.
Carter bent down and picked up one of the bags left on the floor and dumped out its contents. “I like this one,” he said smiling back at me. “Get one too we’re going to need something to carry our stuff in.”
I wanted to ask why we couldn’t go back to get our own stuff, but the windows were open and the deadly gas could still be lingering in the room somehow. I looked around and saw a bag I “liked”. It was a pink and grey bag, and it had the intitials REF engraved on it. Rachel Elizabeth Fredrickson. A girl I had little contact with, except last year when we accidently blew up a cow heart in bio class, and we had to spend the day cleaning it up.
I had no idea where she was. I had no idea where anybody was. I just knew we needed to get out of there before the Light came back to kill us. Carter grabbed two water bottles and handed me one. We found a few things that could possibly protect us, like a broomstick, or a pocket knife that was snuck into school. While he wasn’t looking, I snuck into the girls bathroom.
It was deserted, just like how it is during classes. I took a crowbar that I found and broke open the tampon and the pad despncer. “25 cents my ass” I murmured as I loaded them into my bag.
“Alex? Alex where are you?” I heard Carter yell franticly into the hallway. I walked and poked my head out of the doorway and looked at him. “Oh thank God. Why are you in there?”
“I’m just getting something,” I said. He nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. I tossed him my water bottle and asked him if he could fill it up for me. I went back to dumping the rest of the pads and tampons in my bag.
When I was done, I walked out of the bathroom and saw Carter looking into one of the classroom. His dirty blonde hair was flopping over to one side, and his arms were crossed, showing his huge biceps. He noticed me and called me over. He was watching the news again, and this time the anchors were focusing on China.
“Millions in China have disappeared, and the army has been put into action…”
I cupped my hand over my mouth as they showed more amateur videos of the Light making people disappear, and the gas spreading everywhere. More tears flowed through my eyes. I felt Carter’s hand run down my arm, and to my hand. He held my hand so tightly, and I turned away from the TV and buried my face in his shirt. He wrapped his arms around me and told me the soothing words he said before: We’re going to be alright.
I pulled myself together and he let go of me. “Come on we have to get going,” he said, grabbing my hand again. He led me out of the doorway and to the stairwell, where more papers and cell phones and papers were scattered.
I heard something coming from the bottom floor. It sound metallic, like how the Autobots sound when they move. Wind was picking up and the papers dropped on the floor made a tornado in front of us. I froze, and so did Carter. We knew what was coming, and we knew what would happen if we stayed there like deer in headlights.
I spun around, and we ran back up the stairs. His grip on my hand was tightening and I could feel his heartbeat through it. It was fast, it was loud, it was scared. He was scared. We were scared.
We made it back to the hallway and hid in one of the classrooms, careful of the students and teachers sleeping eternally on the ground. The light followed us and we ducked behind the desk.
We could still hear it. Roaming around the classroom looking for us. “Are we going to die?” I whispered. He didn’t answer me. He just wrapped his arms around me and held me close.
As the Light got closer, I shut my eyes, and we held each other tighter. I was sure this was it. This is the way I was going to die. But then the sound got quitter, and eventually it left. But we didn’t.
We relaxed, but didn’t stop holding each other. Our hearts were pounding in sync with fear and something else I couldn’t make out. We were sweating, and our breathing was heavy.
“I think it’s safe now,” he whispered. We got up and he led me out of the classroom and down the stairs.
It was strange, but outside it was just peaceful. It was silent. Without the rushing of cars or busses, or people yelling and screaming at each other, it was just amazing. It was still a little foggy, but not as foggy as this morning.
Too much had happened in the past few hours. My life was flipped upside down by alien attackers and the only person that was there with me was some guy I had never even bothered to talk to most of the year. why me? Why the world? What did we ever do?
Carter and I walked together, hand in hand down the road, going no where in particular, just away from where our loves changed. Away from the place that destroyed us. Away from the place that brought us together.
I looked up at him. he was silent, staring straight ahead of us. I felt my heart flutter, and a rush of something went through my veins, causing goose bumps to crawl over my skin. I just stared at him, silently thanking him.