Jeremy looked down from above and grabbed tightly on the bar of the railing. He stretched his arms and lifted himself over the sideways. His legs was about to go over the bar when Carmen grabbed onto his forearm.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," she suggested, tugging him on the sleeves.
"I guess you're right," he agreed, unsatisfied, "We'll call it a night."
---The next day.
Carmen stood above the corridors of HUC, on the little maze of a town. She was here last night. She could see the result of that; there were little remains over the floor of last night. There were also small fragments of glass scattered over the ground. Some buildings were bare. Others had cracked glass and the lucky ones were not affected.
Dustbin toppled over and tables tipped over. One of the alleys probably had the stench of a dead canine lying on the ground. It was all so clear in the day. The light revealed all.
"Coming to class?" asked a classmate who approached her, on her way down to the underground corridors from the stores.
"I'll be there soon, Rachel," she replied with a partially forced smile. Rachel smiled back and walked on down the stairs.
There was a brief pause. Then, she heard sounds of voices. It was followed by footsteps.
"How are you out in the sun?" said a voice, from behind.
"You know," she said, "Fresh air."
"I mean-"
"I know what you meant," she interrupted, "I don't know myself."
"What about blood?"
"I eat when I'm hungry," she replied bluntly, "If they have too little blood, they die."
"That won’t turn them-"
"No," she shook her head.
There was another pause after that.
"I'm going to class," she said and she left with a wave.
He waved back, still standing at the same spot. He stood there staring at the scenery she was staring at. The same fragments of shattered glass on the ground, the same dead dog and the same toppled trash can. He was reflecting. He glanced up into the bright skies, eyes fixed on the deep blue. Suddenly, the images jittered like an old television set with terrible reception. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes but nothing changed. He turned behind him and faced the stairs where Carmen headed. The deeper it went, the darker it was and the darkness was seeping out of the corridor. The jittering reduced but the sky was turning black. Finally, the jittering stopped. However, the whole scene had changed before his eyes. It was darker and eerier. Something was wrong with the place.
He did not panic but he was confused. He knew weird things were happening- he was partially living proof of it- and things were getting even stranger after meeting with Carmen. This, on the other hand, topped the scale.
From a distance, he could see a figure heading at him. He was slightly big and slightly short. He wore a pink t-shirt with white stripes and a pair of jeans. He was in a hurry, rushing towards Jeremy wearing a worried look on his face.
"CC," he called, "What's going on?"
"It's coming," CC warned with a hoarse voice.
"What is?" he asked.
"The horde."
"This isn't exactly like left-" he stopped dead when he saw a huge cloud of shadows approaching their direction. The stench was unbearable. It was like an army of rotting flesh. The little city fell dead except for the sounds of moaning. The smell was strong; imagine the smell of the product of consuming a mix of rotten everything blended up into a possibly green coloured juice.
The earth shook. Silhouettes fell from the buildings, appeared from the alleys and marched down the roads. Jeremy realised they were indeed an army of rotting flesh headed towards them. As soon as it got too dark to see, streetlamps lit up the path but it was still quite dim.
"I stand corrected," he admitted, "What are we to do, CC?"
"We fight," said CC firmly. He lifted the back of his t-shirt and wedged in his jeans was a handgun. He pulled it out from his jeans and pulled the slide of the gun.
"Is that a gun?" asked Jeremy.
"An M1911 to be exact," he said, getting into position. The large gathering of living and walking rotten human took notice of them and started running at them.
"Damn, they're fast," mutter Jeremy. As soon as he placed a period to that sentence, one of the mutants broke from the crowd and dashed towards Jeremy. CC's quick reaction saved him. He raised the gun at the creature with both hands on and a finger on the trigger. One bullet and the head exploded. Blood and remains of the brain splattered all over their clothes. The rotten, dead corpses fell on top of Jeremy who immediately pushed it aside.
"What should I do?" asked Jeremy.
"Pick up that Molotov and throw it at the horde," instructed CC who pointed the gun at the bottle with a rope on the ground. Jeremy scooped up the bottle from the ground. CC took out a lighter for his pocket and a stick of cigarette. He placed it in his mouth and lit it up before lighting up the rope soaked with a cocktail in the bottle. Jeremy cocked it back and threw it at the en masse.
The glass shattered but there was no fire. And even though there was no fire, everything seemed brighter. The sky seemed to be clearer. He took one glance around and everything was back to normal. He noticed a fresh shattered item on the ground ahead of him.
Still baffled and dazed by the experience, Jeremy headed back into the corridors of college.
---"Joshua," called the lecturer, "I'm very surprised."
Joshua stood up tall with his spiked hair and his favourite black t-shirt with the letter 'es' in the centre of a diamond.
"Eh heh," he giggled mischievously.
"You got seventy-nine percent for your quiz," announce the lecturer.
"Of course, Ms See," he proclaimed, "I'm very smart."
The class burst in laughter once they heard that. It was true that he did improve on his Statistics but he was still a clown. He sat back down next to his girlfriend, Kim who was almost as tall as him. In front of him was Ben and on the side of Kim was Rachel and behind Rachel was Carmen. Carmen was not usually in their class because this was not her group but this was a replacement class for her. She dreaded coming this early for class; she was not much of a morning person. In fact, she was half-asleep, slumped on the desk.
Class finally ended and the students hurried out of the classroom. Jeremy was standing at the side of the door, waiting for them to leave the class. Ben came out and Jeremy pulled him to the side. After a while, Joshua too came out and Jeremy called him to the side. Carmen noticed this but she decided to head in the opposite direction.
"Ben, Joshua," he called.
"Jeremy," Ben called back.
"Hungry," moaned Joshua, "What's this about?"
"Mr. M wants to me to form a group."
"No, no, no, no," said Joshua before pausing and adding, "No."
"Doesn't he have another team? HMC Leads lead by Daniel," stated Ben, "Why does he still need us?"
"Because," Jeremy took a deep breath and looked around, "He needs your abilities."
"My abilities?" repeated Ben quizzically, "My abilities to do what?"
"I know I am very handsome," bragged Joshua jokingly.
"Handsome, my foot," said Ben.
"No, he knows about the both of you."
Both of them fell silent. Ben looked slightly more serious than he was before. He broke the pause by asking, "What does he know?"
Jeremy turned to Joshua and asked, "How do you think Joshua scored so high this time for his Statistics quiz?"
He turned to Ben and said, "And if I'm not mistaken, you knew our marks for our last paper before it was even uploaded on the website."
"That doesn't proof anything," argued Ben, "And that was not a true story."
"True or not, Mr. M wants you," said Jeremy, "Something's going on."
"I did not say I would not refuse to join the team," said Ben, "Mr. M knows I would never deny when he asks me for something."
"How about you, Joshua," he asked Joshua who was contemplating. Joshua felt slightly surprised due to the fact that Jeremy, and possibly Mr. M, knew something about him even he was still confused.
"I'll think about it," replied Joshua after a minute of thought.
"Very well, I'll leave you two to be now" said Jeremy before he walked away.
---Everything felt so dreamlike. He was merely an observer, viewing the world in a third person view. He could hear a voice. That was all he heard and what he was hearing was not what he was seeing. What he saw was horrid. There was no gore, no violence, just an act of evil. The voice got louder. He knew what the voice meant but he was trying to avoid it. There was no avoiding it no matter how hard he tried and this was not the first time. He was compelled towards the voice. Finally, he stopped resisting and let go.
"Janson," called the voice once more, "Janson, wake up."
"Uh," he mumbled groggily.
"Slept late last night, right?" asked the lecturer.
"Sorry, sir," he apologised immediately after he was full consciousness.
"What am I to do with you?" said the lecturer as he shook his head and went back to teaching. Janson realised he was holding the pencil in his hand. It was the same thing again. He did this in most of his classes when he fell asleep. His right hand pressed the black granite lead on the white piece of paper. The side of his hand was coloured black. On the previously blank piece of paper was a drawing. It was a sketch, to be precise, of a girl of his age trapped in a room with brick wall. The door was blue, much like any other door in college. There were red pipes over the place and the door was grey concrete. There was something unusual this time. He had used the red inked pen this time and it was all over the girl's hands which seemed to be slamming on the door. A mobile phone was drawn with great accuracy, laid on the floor next to her feet. The phone showed the personal details but the dim light reflected against the screen. It read: 'Name: Ti-'.
Janson slowly slipped the paper in a folder filled with other various drawings and pretended to do his work.
End of Chapter 1
No comments:
Post a Comment