Beginning of the End

“Lucas, wake up.”

I jolted awake as Ethan slapped the back of my head. I looked at my reflection in the computer monitor, my blond hair was a mess and reached my eyebrows, and I clearly did not shave again since my beard stubble was starting to blend into the peach fuzz. I yawned as I looked over at Ethan, ignoring his messy brown hair and stringy facial hair.

“What did I miss?”

“Nothing this time, but you gotta stop falling asleep in class.”

“Why, I still have an A in this class?”

“Barely, if you turned you stuff in on time; it would be a higher A.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. My parents remind me of the same point; I’m lazy, but at least I have the intelligence to make-up for it Ethan.”

Ethan froze and went back to work. He knew I was telling the truth. Suddenly, Tim decided to join our conversation,

“WHAT A LOSER!” He exclaimed.

“Shut up Tim.” Ethan replied.

“Will you two just get along for once?” I remarked, “I’m just glad the teacher isn’t in here right now to yell at us. Now that I think about it, hasn’t it just been us four in here for the entire class period?”

“Now that you mention it, it’s been half an hour since class started and no one is here,” Amy stated.

I realized that it was December 21st, which wouldn’t be a big deal, except that the year was 2012. “What’s the time anyways? Wasn’t there supposed to be something going on today?” I questioned.

“Right now it’s 11:59.” Amy answered, pointing at the clock, “if there was something going on today, then class would’ve been canceled.”

“Holy…How many seconds ’til noon?” I asked.

“Why are you asking? Nothing’s going to happen, just like every other predicted apocalypse.” Tim replied.

“You never know, something might.” Ethan replied.

“10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…” Amy counted. Once she counted to one, the clock turned to noon exact, but nothing happened.

“See, told…” Tim said, interrupted by a bright flash of light that engulfed the room. Then there was darkness…

I woke up in a daze. I looked around and the classroom was empty, except for the four of us lying on the ground. I saw that Tim’s short black hair was slightly messy and Amy’s long, blond hair was somehow in perfect condition. I looked up at the clock and saw that it was hanging on by a wire and there were three bullet holes. I pulled out my iPod touch and looked at the calendar on it. I couldn’t believe what I saw: May 1, 2013. I jolted upwards and shook my friends awake to show them this.

“No way that’s true. How could we have been unconscious for five months?” Amy asked.

“Maybe that bright flash of light put us in a coma.” Ethan answered.

“Look guys, a note.” Tim stated as he pulled off a small piece of paper from the somehow intact door. I took the note from him and started to read it, “To the four of you when you find this note, the apocalypse has started. We were able to keep you guys alive for the past few months. Some of us have died protecting you; now don’t go dying on us. We’ll need your specific DNA structures?” I questioned, and then continued to read the note, “We’ll answer your questions later. They started to overrun us so we were forced to lock the door and retreat on April 31st. The classroom next door has food and water for you guys. We tried to evacuate everyone to a safe haven before this all started, but we could only do so much. You’re lucky we found you before they did. We’re not sure about the current condition of those we evacuated, but so far about 4 billion people on the planet have died, and another 1.5 billion are predicted to be either dying or dead. We’ll come to pick you up as soon as we can. Signed, Wasp, Task Force 121.”

“Why has the military taken an interest in us?” Tim questioned.

“I guess we’ll have to find out once they pick us up.” Ethan replied. “The only problem is that we’ll have to survive until then.”

“Survive against what?” Amy asked.

“Let’s start with our top priorities, rehydrating and eating.” I said. Everyone nodded in agreement. I opened the door slowly and looked around. There were bullet holes on the walls as well as chunks of concrete from the walls all over the floor. Cinders and ash littered the hallway and there was blood splatter on the walls and floor. The door I opened was covered in scratch marks and blood. We quickly ran to the adjacent classroom’s door, which was in a similar condition, and opened it. The room was unscathed. The side of the room had a fridge and a microwave on the counter, a long table with four chairs on each side of it was in the middle of the room, and on the table there were packages of microwave food like ramen, burritos, and pizza. Our eyes widened as we ran in and devoured the food and chugged some of the bottled waters in the fridge. Once we were completely full, we saw that we didn’t even put a dent in the rations.

“Now what?” Ethan asked.

“Let’s see what we can find outside.” I replied as I walked towards the door, Amy right behind me as I opened it. We crept slowly down the hallway and to the right to the lockers. On the ground was an assault rifle, the M16. As I picked it up, a zombie turned the corner and spotted us (the only reason I know it was a zombie because of how often zombies have been used in video games). I quickly started to shoot it (luckily the M16 was silenced) but I was trembling so much all I could hit was its legs. After 5 bullets, one of the legs popped off and revealed something unexpected: circuitry.

“Wha…What the hell is this? Some sort-of zombie…robot?” I questioned as I slowed my breathing, steadied my aim and squeezed the trigger, putting one bullet right between its eyes as it began to charge. It immediately stopped moving and we all let out a sigh of relief as I put another bullet in its head, just to make sure (one of the rules I learned from Zombieland, the double tap).

“At least we know what we’re up against.” Tim commented as he walked forward and stopped. “Guys, come look at this.” We all ran over and gasped in shock. A large military helicopter, most likely used to deploy troops, was wrecked in the middle of the lockers. Its blades were completely bent upwards and it had remnants of floor tiles and concrete covering it and its immediate surroundings. The pilot of the helicopter was severely bleeding from his chest and neck but was still breathing. A few feet in front of him was a small blue steel gray watch. I walked over and went to pick it up when the watch jumped up and attached itself to my right arm.

“What the hell, I can’t pry it off!” I exclaimed as I tried to peel the thing off.

“There’s no use, once it’s found a person with the right DNA structure, it will attach itself to that person and will not let go until the code is entered…*cough cough*… Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you. The nanomachines inside will help you out. Try to unlock its full potential for the upcoming… Crap, it’s starting…” Stated the pilot, his head still face down.

“What happened?” Amy asked.

“I was bitten by one of the zombies. Remember …” Replied the pilot as he jerked upwards, his bleeding suddenly stopped and his skin started to turn green. I dropped my M16 and we were too hesitant to pick it up. I took a step back and tripped, falling on my behind. I propped myself up with my right arm only to see the pilot lunging towards me. I closed my eyes in fear and hoped something would happen.

I felt ice cover my right arm for a split second, and then disappear. I opened my eyes and my mouth fell open. The pilot was frozen in midair in the middle of a large ice spire. I rose slowly and the moment my right hand left the ground, the ice spire crumbled into little pieces.

“How did…What just…Huh?” Stuttered Tim.

“I think it has something to do with this weird wrist thing.” I answered. “Now, let’s go back to the room with the provisions, see what we can dig up.”

Everyone nodded as we headed back for the room. We looked in the cupboards and closets for anything of use. Our search turned up a TV with video games, cards, board games, and other entertainment as well as some sleeping bags, pads, pillows, and a radio. When we found the radio, Amy gave it to me and I started to mess with it. I couldn’t change the frequency or any of the settings on the radio. After five minutes of messing with it while they were looking (for once those three were getting along, especially Tim and Ethan), I finally found the power on/off switch and pressed the talk button.

“Hello, this is Lucas Stromberg of Hillside High School, is anyone out there? Three other and I survivors are in need of any help that can be given. Someone, anyone, respond?” I shouted into the radio. A minute passed no response. Suddenly, a deep voice was blaring out of the radio.

“This is Wasp, Task Force 121; did you guys have a nice nap? I’ll answer any questions you have once we arrive to pick you up in two days. In the meantime, in the back of the crashed helicopter there is a stash of weapons. Use those weapons and stay in the provisions room for those two days. We’ll pick you up at where the helicopter is crashed at around 1200 hours. I can’t talk anymore, they’re overrunning…” The transmission cut short and all we could hear was static.

“Wasp, are you there? Please respond.” I yelled into it. Tim put his hand on my shoulder.

“There’s nothing we can do, let’s just worry about survival.” We all nodded in agreement as we settled in. Those two days were lackluster. All we did mainly was practice with the weapons, eat, sleep, and play games. I couldn’t find out anything about my watch during that time. On the day of the pickup, we grabbed two or three weapons that we were most comfortable with (to reduce weight), put on some earplugs so we didn’t blow our eardrums out, and stationed ourselves at the helicopter at 11:55. There was no transport in sight. I still had the radio with me when it crackled and Wasp’s voice could be heard saying;

“We’ll be there in ten to fifteen minutes. Beware, the horde is coming.”

“Great, let’s get ready.” I said as I pulled out my M16, my M93 Raffica at my side, as everyone else pulled out different models of assault rifles. Tim strapped his Spas-12 to his back and Ethan put his assault rifle on his back and pulled out his grenade launcher. Surprisingly, Amy was holding a M16 in her hands with a Striker and a P90 on her back. A loud shriek pierced the silence as a huge horde of the zombie-robots funneled through the main hallway towards us, shambling surprisingly fast. I knew they would overrun us unless we can force some of them to break off. I jumped forward and pulled out a few smoke sticks, as I called them; small sticks half the size of roman candles that release huge amounts of smoke.

“I’ll lure as many as I can to follow me, just worry about fending them off.” I yelled as I lit two smoke sticks and threw them on the ground.

“That’s suicide, Lucas, DON’T DO IT!” Amy yelled.

I smiled, “I know what I’m doing, trust me.”

I turned and sprinted down the side hallway, throwing down smoke sticks every 20 feet with the zombies behind me. I turned down various hallways until I made a grave mistake; I hit a dead end. The zombies were quickly encroaching onto my position as I aimed my M16 at the corner. The first wave of zombies started to turn the corner. BAM, BAM, BAM. I used up the entire clip, but the entire wave was gone. I pulled out my Raffica as the second wave charged towards me as the first wave was dispatched. My hands were trembling but I steadied them as I was taking them out left and right when a huge group of them came around the corner. My Raffica was out of ammo, and they were quickly approaching. I closed my eyes, thinking this was the end and that this was the worst idea I’ve ever had.

I felt ice around my entire right arm. I opened my eyes and saw that a cool looking armor made of ice was covering my arm. I placed it on the ground and huge ice spikes shredded through most of the encroaching horde. I thought that I could use a weapon, and a long, 10 foot ice halberd materialized in my right hand. I grasped it with both hands and charged in as ice wrist blades materialized on both hands. My swings were perfectly fluid with my halberd as I shredded the oncoming horde. After a minute, the entire group that followed me was on the ground with some sort of blow to each zombie’s head as well as various limbs on most sliced off. I stared in disbelief at the pile of zombies I just mowed down with a weapon I never used before, but then I remembered the others. I picked up my dropped guns, reloaded them, and then ran as fast as I could back to the crash site. When I arrived, no one noticed me, but I saw that they were barely pushing the horde back. I put both of my hands on the ground, and large ice spikes shot out of the ground and covered the entire main hallway except for a narrow path down the middle.

“What the hell?” Ethan yelled.

“Glad to have ya’ back, Lucas.” Tim said, looking straight at me. Amy ran up to me and slapped me, but before she could yell I pointed at the horde. She nodded and ran back to her post as I followed close behind, all of the ice on my body slowly retracting back to the watch.

The fight went on for a half minute before Amy shouted, “Lucas, there’s too many of them!”

“I know, just give me a sec, I feel very weak right now.” I looked at the never ending horde, and as I was looking around, I saw the metals lab. Suddenly, it hit me. I immediately slammed my hands on the ground, closed my eyes, and concentrated on moving the ice spikes into a thick wall blocking the entryway.

“Follow me, we don’t have much time.” I yelled as we dropped our guns and ran into the metals lab. As everyone bolted in, I faced them and began to explain my plan, “as long as that horde is here, Wasp will have trouble getting us out. The wall won’t hold for long, so we’ll have to just blow the horde away.” I smirked as everyone gave me a puzzled look.

“What the hell do you mean?” Asked Tim.

I simply replied by pointing to the workbenches, which contained acetylene welding torches and friction lighters.

After a couple of seconds, Ethan yelled, “Are you crazy?”

“Yes I am, but that’s beside the point. If we light the acetylene after it spreads far enough, it will at least stall the horde long enough for us to be evacuated.” I paused as I estimated how long we would need to have the valves open (finally, a real life use for Calculus). I resumed, “I think it would take about 3 minutes for the gas to spread far enough. But first, I need to test something.”

I placed my right hand on the ground and concentrated. In front of me, an ice hand emerged from the ground.

“Put a friction lighter in the hand.” Ethan ran, grabbed a lighter from a workbench, and placed it in the hand. I squeezed my left hand as though it was grabbing the lighter as the ice hand followed the movements and squeezed the lighter fast enough to generate a spark with the lighter. I grabbed the lighter out of the hand as it retracted back into the watch.

“We have our detonator, now let’s get to work. Tim: you and I will move all of the acetylene tanks by the ice wall. Ethan: turn on all of the valves in the lab, and move any hoses and torches closer to the door. Amy: prop the door to the lab open, and then help Ethan out. Once we’re all done, we will meet right outside the lab.”

As Tim and I were moving the tanks, I walked up to the ice wall. I placed my hands on the wall and reinforced it as well as made a few air holes in it so the gas can spread further. Then, I made an ice hand above the tanks and place the lighter in it. Tim placed the last tank as I was turning all of the valves on the tanks to get the gas flowing. Afterwards, we all gathered outside of the lab.

“We have about two minutes, follow me.” I said as I ran outside through the emergency exit (luckily, the alarms were destroyed). Once everyone was out, I placed my right hand on the ground and concentrated, trying to move the hand and manipulate the wall as I slowly moved forward. After about ten feet from the door, the connection between me and the ice started to become fuzzy, so I took a step back, faced the door, and I had everyone stand behind me. We made sure our earplugs were still in as I had Ethan set a timer for one minute as we waited.

It was the longest minute of my life.

After what seemed like an eternity of anticipation, the timer went off, and I immediately went to work. I practically slammed my right hand against the concrete as I used almost all of the strength I had left to form a large, thick ice wall in front of us, reusing the other wall as well as draining the watch of what nanomachines it could spare. I waited a few seconds for the zombie horde to move closer before I squeezed my left hand.

I may have been a little off with my math.

The explosion was nothing I’ve ever seen. It immediately threw us back, destroying the wall along with most of the school. As my eyes started to close, I could hear a helicopter in the distance.


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