Soon, Kaitlyn stopped the bus and looked out the front window. I stood up from a seat and looked to see what she was looking at. It was the school, but all the lights had gone out and it was completely black inside, not to mention that the sun had almost set and it was going to get a lot darker. Without saying anything she continued towards the school. We couldn't stop now, especially when there were more adults in the school and with the rest of the students there would be many mouths to feed by the time we arrived with the food and water.
I looked back at the others, "we are at the school, but all of the lights are out and with the sun setting it will be extremely dark. When we stop we will need to work as fast as we can." No one complained about it, I only hoped they understood what I meant by that. The bus started up again and in a few seconds we drove into the parking lot, everyone picking up whatever they could carry and bringing it out of the bus. Reese grabbed two of the bags and walked to the front door of the school, peering inside before trying the handle, the door sitting there without budging an inch.
I picked up my bags and walked up to her as she began knocking on the door, "open up please!" She tried the handle again before throwing a kick at the door. "Ok time for a magic trick," she told herself before backing up a few steps and shouting, "OPEN SESAME BITCH!"
In a few seconds after that as if on signal, a dim light began to shimmer behind the door and soon the opened it, revealing mr. Spila who was holding a candle. "did everything go well?" He asked us as the others finished unpacking and had begun carrying everything to the door.
"Not even close to, "well", we were attacked by a giant blue lizard and Miguel attempted to be hero and got himself cut." Reese explained, gesturing to me as she spoke about how I tried to distract the lizard. They exchanged a few more words before we were let inside, I was too busy staring into the abyss to listen, I was right when I thought that these creatures were from "Rain World". We all stepped into the darkness of the school, setting down the bags of food. In the pits, more candles lit to reveal the faces of other students, brightening up the school just a little bit more.
"The power went out while you were away, the only things we had were candles and it will be staying that way until the power comes back on." I looked up at the ceiling, the sky had darkened significantly within the few minutes that were spent. Not only that but everyone in the school seemed frightened now, barely speaking a word. Quickly I returned to the bus and grabbed more of the bags, looking down the road at the lifeless houses, a small figure darted past, followed by a slightly bigger one, predator and prey. Before I knew it I was once again in the abyss, thinking to myself, what has the world come to? What happened to our one home to cause these turn of events to happen? I brought the rest of the bags inside, each filled with all sorts of foods, hopefully enough to feed everyone in the school, now that I actually took a look at the lit faces, there weren't many adults here, or at least many new ones, were they stationed somewhere else? I silently asked as placed down the last bag, or were there not many adults around?... or left? More thoughts would have entered my mind if I stood there longer but I shook them out, the moon had begun to rise.
"Alright everyone, move to your classes, you will all be sleeping there for now!" I heard the principle call out, no one could argue, at least the classrooms had a soft floor and sleeping here would mean banging their heads against stone, metal and the bodies of other students. Everyone complied and soon enough were all in their classrooms or on their way, I was maybe the fifth to enter my classroom as I watched the adults grab the pile of bags we had filled with food. Once I was in I looked at the blank pieces of paper and pencils at the back, it was too dark to begin drawing but now I knew they were there as another option other than the paper in the library. More students came into the classroom and as I looked over my shoulder I noticed Coen, Reese and Shantae following Kaitlyn inside. I assumed it was safety as a group when they walked over to the back where I was.
"Well guess what you little shit, you get to sleep with us now," Reese told me, keeping her voice surprisingly quiet although it made sense since people were about to fall asleep. Coen had already begun bugging Shantae quietly, getting his hand slapped.
Kaitlyn looked around the room, "it sucks that we don't have any blankets or pillows here."
The moment she said that, I let myself hit the ground, almost face planting and then curling up into a ball, "this is soft enough for me." They all looked at me weirdly before beginning to make a pile around me, Coen of course though, leaped on top of me and began rubbing his back against my own, using me as a cushion. We didn't speak much after that, only said goodnight and exchanged a few pokes, after that the talons of sleep latched onto us, pulling our minds from our bodies and sending our dreams and nightmares.
I stood in a wide open space, flourishing with different forms of vegetation, when I looked around I found myself in a dense forest, I didn't even know most of the trees around me either or any of the smaller plants. I began walking through the forest, a few thorns digging into my pants and a mosquito or two flying around me before I killed them once they tried to land on my arms. In a few moments after that, the forest opened up to reveal a town in ruins, nature growing all around it. Walking onto the road, I was greeted with a herd of deer just nearby, munching peacefully on some long grass, for some reason urging me to look up at the sky, a sky that was being blocked out by large trees, even with the town in ruins, it was still quite beautiful with all this nature around. I walked down further but stopped as I saw a dark figure within one of the buildings, large and glowing orange eyes staring directly at me, a long beak being dimly highlighted with the light, nasty teeth like a saw blade, everything about it was disturbing until it snapped its beak, the sound all too familiar to me. The sound of scissor blades scraping against each other.
A sliver of red and orange lit up the room as I opened my eyes. Everyone was still asleep until I noticed Kaitlyn and Reese trying out a game of chess, there probably wasn't much else to do anyway. I got up, trying not to disturb Coen and Shantae before making my way over to them.
I watched as Reese made her play, "checkmate"
Kaitlyn, leaned back onto a cabinet, "yeah I know I suck at this game." She sighed, "dammit."
The intercom came on with mr. Spila's voice, "good morning everyone, I hope you had a good rest, it's time to start the day." Soon the class started to wake up one by one, I was actually quite surprised they weren't being stubborn. "All students will be headed to their work rooms after they've eaten, but before that we would like all teachers to take note of all students and send the information to the office. Thank you."
Reese stood up properly, "well I guess it's time for me to go, see you later." She made her way to Shantae and shook her fully awake before heading out the door to her own classroom. After a few more seconds the rest of the students woke up, beginning a bit of small talk with each other before the teacher interrupted by calling out the names of each student. In time, everyone except for Brody whose life was taken the day everything began. Before we all knew it, we were back in the school kitchen with a lot more food than before from everything gathered yesterday. Some were down and started slowly while others were neutral about their feelings and quicker to begin although not as many were that fast. Once again I was working alone at a table stacked with soup, pasta, beans, and other things that would usually be served as lunch. Again it came down to sorting and counting how many of each thing their was with the exception of water this time.
16 cans of black beans, 12 boxes of thin spaghetti, 14 cans of roasted mushroom soup, and so on as I continued to count up everything on the table. But I kept having this feeling. Like I've been doing this for years. The thought seemed to flow through me as I continued. The only problem was, why was I feeling it here and now when it all started two days ago? I reached my hands to feel nothing, no a drink, not a can of food, just air, flowing as if my hand was never there. My vision was going black, soon I'd really be in the abyss, but not this time. Reality, or what I thought it was, snapped back into me. There was indeed nothing on the table, my work was done, but the other students working behind me were also done. The last kid had just left the room when I caught my senses, and so I naturally turned around and followed, not noticed by anyone.
I woke up on the floor again, it was still late at night and not much happened during the day. Slowly I got up, careful to disturb anyone. I was just slightly surprised that even in the dark, I could see fairly well. The light bouncing off the moon had illuminated the room, not so much the hallway where a door would've stood to make everything harder. I didn't even know what I was doing, but as soon as I figured it out, I had left Reese, Shantea, Kaitlyn and Coen and was no longer in the classroom. My eyes adjusted in time and I could see the scrapes and cracks along the floor and the lockers from the unexpected attack. My feet began to move on their own out of the wing, as the corridors connecting the hall and the classrooms were called, and to the front doors which were not the ones broken down during the attack. As if I was being controlled by another being, I opened the doors and stepped outside. The cold air didn't bother me a single bit as it flowed around me, in fact it was rather soothing. It brought the noises made by distant animals to my ears and even their smells which although weren't the best smelling, also soothed me of worries I didn't even know I had. Sitting down on the steps, I saw a few crows pecking at something in the distance. It wasn't until my eyes focused a bit that I saw the carcass of a dead animal, likely a dog for the shape and size, staring blankly at nothing and everything.
"What are you doing out here? It's fucking freezing!" I turned to see Reese behind me, trying to keep herself warm.
"I couldn't sleep," I answered without meaning, "just thought I'd take a look at the world during the night."
It didn't take long for Reese to find the scene I was watching a few moments ago, "I don't know about you but that's kinda morbid."
"Yeah, maybe. But it still calms me down a bit from everything that's been happening. Our live changed so fast in what? Five to ten minutes?"
"Maybe, but it's still freezing out here." As she said that, Reese grabbed me by the arm and began dragging me inside, me quickly being submissive and following, but not before I saw a dog pop out from the abandoned houses to scare off the crows and feast upon the carcass of one of its own.