Rohan

Saturday, April 30th, 2022 (39 days after the Shutdown)

A few more meters and the Sorrows would release their ‘Death Cry’, but his feet were plastered to the ground despite every fiber of his being warning him to run.

“H-Help…” a soldier pleaded as he was woken up by the frigid winds discharged by the Sorrows.

Feeling a clammy hand clasping his leg, he struggled to decide. There were two of them and one was still unconscious. No, there’s still time. Dragging the first one to his feet, with his assistance they shared the burden of the unconscious soldier between them. Guided back to the safety of the gym by the newfound power of his eyes, they retraced Rohan’s fading green footsteps until they managed to successfully close the doors behind them.

“Everyone up!” the conscious soldier yelled, turning on the nearest lantern. Shouts of distress echoed across the gym as people gradually awakened.

Leaving him to rouse the soldiers, Rohan collapsed on his mat. A growing discomfort behind his eyes warned him that he’d strained them and he could feel its irregular contractions through his eyelids. Even his hands clamped over them, blood continued to leak out of his eyes as he saw a world of red around him. Through its continued use, his eyes began to overheat.

How do I turn this off?! he begged, squirming at the thought of losing his eyes.

Sssstop, little hu-man, warned a chilling voice. Your actionssss are not befitting the power you have been giffffted. Ack…cept and partake in thisss trial.

Memories of the abyss he’d be a prisoner to and the elliptical pupils that had stared at him from the gloom resurfaced in his mind. After a fortnight of slumber, the albino serpent had awoken.

Remembering all the times he’d called out for help, Rohan bit back some choice words and opened his eyes.

Immediately, an influx of stimuli battered his retinas till he could feel a change overcome him. Smothering out the noise around him, he attempted to turn his focus inwards, noting the pressure developing around his optical nerves. He felt in tune with the inner workings of his body, perceptive to his neurons firing as his cerebrum mutated to accept the stimuli.

That was until it stopped and he only saw gray. Shit.

Your tttrepidation issss misssplaccced little hu-man. You have done thisss before.

You?! What are you doing to me? What have I done to deserve this? Rohan questioned.

The thoughts had been weighing heavily on his mind since he first saw the snake tattoo over a month ago.

He felt its rage bubbling underneath his skin. Do you sseeeekk to insssult me, little hu-man? I have offered you a giffft, one many mortalsssss would fight for. You carry my marker… do you not underssstand the implicationsss? Tisss not sssomething I besssstow lightly.

Then why have I nearly died so many times because of your marker? I was too weak to run away and now I’m trapped in this school, Rohan protested, feeling another bead of blood growing in the corner of his eyes.

The military personnel had awoken, and judging by the sound of heavy foot traffic next to his head they were sealing the gym door. He felt a delicate hand try to rouse him but he ignored it lest he lose this opportunity to speak to the cosmic creature.

Your mewling tiresss me. Those “changesss” you ssspeak of were neccessssary for your bo…dy to handle my preccsssenssse elssse you forfeit your life to an endlesss ssslumber. Little hu-man… my resssurgence awaitsss me and through my marker we have been bonded. Lessst we forget my warning when… we first met… I have preached ccccaution and you… cassst it assside, it countered.

… If I ask you to leave you wouldn’t would you? worried Rohan.

If that is your wissshh, ssso be it. However… a fragment of my true body resssidess within your sssoul. To asssk to me leave… would be ill advisssed. Vessstigesss of my power would leak into your body… and your mind and body will twissst without me to sssheperd you… Consssidering the nature of your ssspeciess your concern is warranted but ressst asssured… your mind will be your own. As it continued to speak from within him, it drew a curtain around his senses.

My ssstrength requiresss sssacrifice… I will not be cognizant to your queriesss… I mussst retreat to brumate… but if you ever feel a change overcome you… do not possstpone the processsesss or the repurcusssionsss will be dire.

… what do I call you? he asked, recognizing their conversation was coming to an end.

A swell of warmth permeated from his chest as if the serpent was smiling. Can snakes even smile?

Namesss hold power, little hu-man… you are not ready to bear mine.

Like that, the curtain withdrew and he could hear the frantic chatter around him again.

… And now I have to wait for my vision to return… tragic.

***

It was pin-drop silence when he arose hours later. Swallowing back the growing knot in his throat, he scratched at the waxy film that had grown over his eyes. Natural lighting returned, dispelling his fears that he would be stuck with the thermal vision.

Out of concern for his well-being, someone had moved him into the supply room of the gym and away from the gym entrances. Taking in the refreshing smell of the moldy volleyball nets and neglected equipment, he got up and brushed off his borrowed clothes.

Where is everybody though?

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The entire population of the gym had woken up, and from a distance, he could see the dark circles under their eyes. A few were leaning against the brick walls, trying to get some shut-eye but they readjusted their positions every few seconds as if their minds had been beset by turmoil.

“Hey, glad to see you’re up. You might want to wipe the blood off your face though,” a soldier disclosed, throwing him a grimy towel. “They must’ve done a number on you.”

Who are they— Oh! The ones who unleashed the Sorrows into the school. I forgot about them.

“What’s happening outside? Do you guys know?”

The soldier sadly shook his head. “We tried looking out from the gym entrance’s windows and the ones in the changing rooms, but we can’t see much. It’s not the cafeteria where we had windows everywhere so we could plan.”

“The Sorrows?”

Turning to the other soldiers, they smirked sardonically. “Check for yourself, kid.”

Raising an eyebrow at their reaction, he abided by their suggestion. Gym mats had been jammed in all of the cracks to prohibit the Sorrows’ smoke from slipping under and infecting an unsuspecting bystander. Squinting through the windows, he was greeted by an empty hallway.

“Why aren’t there any of them?”

“That’s what we were hoping you would tell us. I was half-delirious when you picked me up and the other guy said he just heard someone else out there. Why were you outside?” inquired the soldier who’d given him the tool. More soldiers drew closer as they listened to the conversation.

“Are you suspecting me?” Rohan suggested, trying to grapple with the idea they thought he was a traitor.

Raising his hands to appease him, another soldier shook his head. “That’s not what I was implying. We just want to know since you were the only one there.”

“...”

Omitting personal details like his newfound power, he recited everything he remembered about the encounter and watched the doubt on their faces melt away till they were nodding along. I could tell them anything and they would believe me.

“So where are Clyde and Ruth now? They opened the door and probably hid somewhere in the school, right?”

That must be their names. “They escaped outside.”

“They… escaped… How in the world is that possible with the Sorrows keeping us in check?”

Recalling faint images of a glowing stone, he debated telling them. They were riled up from becoming prisoners in their own home, separated from a source of food and water for hours. Introducing another variable that was out of their control would throw them into a state of angst, the fallout of which would be directed toward him.

“There were three of you and two of them, right? Maybe they were attracted to you because of the higher number?” one of them suggested.

That’s possible… Then they purposely made noise to attract us to act as a diversion? I could say that… but that’s not completely true. The smoke should’ve brushed them in passing so why didn’t it? The stone?

“Yeah… that’s probably true,” Rohan murmured as a Sorrow drifted by, its incessant wailing telegraphing its existence before it appeared. Its amorphous form stirred up the dust as it passed by. “Have you sent someone to the cafeteria across the hall?”

“That's an unnecessary risk. From what you’ve said, the doors to the outside are still open which means the area of effect will then include the outside. If someone steps out, they’d attract every Sorrow in the vicinity,” reasoned a captain who was stranded with them. “At least now that we’ve gotten a bit more information, we’ll begin the preparations to isolate the school. Rohan, do want to sit in on this one?”

Nodding, an hour of intensive preparations began.

The only hope that they had was that similar to the main entrance to the school, the exit had a vestibule. So if they couldn’t close the outer door, they would shut the inner one. The only problem was how to round up the remaining Sorrows within the school.

The plan would repeat the same process as the previous breach — a classic lure, bait, and catch. But where a room sufficed the last time Sorrows had entered unannounced, they needed a bigger area with multiple exit points. The only places within the school that fit the criteria were the library, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium.

Settling on the gymnasium, they began to move all the gym mats and other useful equipment into the locker rooms so they’d be able to access it even when there were Sorrows in the gym. At one point Laura approached him with Peyton in tow.

“Don’t you think it’s weird?” she asked, passing him a musty volleyball net.

“Who? You? Yeah, you are.”

“You’re not funny. What I’m thinking shouldn’t affect the military’s plan so you don’t have to tell your new friends, but ask yourself why aren’t all of the monsters downtown? On the first day they appeared, there were thousands of people downtown compared to a hundred at the school. They should’ve all gone downtown. I think they can only sense things within a certain radius and they follow herd instincts,” she explained, passing another set of equipment to him.

“Okay, so?”

“There’s no higher power controlling them or else they would’ve been more strategic—”

“Laura,” he interrupted, fed up with how casual she was being. He would be the first to admit that it was petty, but he wanted to see her at least express some remorse for forcing him and the rest of the club to stay after school during the day of the red sky. He could’ve been safe at home right now. “Just get to the point.”

“There really is something different about you… I just don’t know what it is,” she glowered, shoving a bag of battle ropes into his arms. “I’m asking you to consider the possibility that what drives the monsters isn’t only population density. There’s something else about them and whatever it is, Ruth and Clyde figured it out.”

Clearing the last of the gym equipment from the storage room, roughly 25 of them waited in the dark with the putrid odor of a day’s worth of human waste keeping them company. From the small window in the door, they could see the southeastern hallway. At exactly 5:25 pm, from the girl’s changing room, two soldiers rushed to close the door, one of them carrying a wide mat in case they need to haphazardly cover the door.

In the silence, their heavy breathing was all he could hear. Minutes later, someone knocked at the door.

“It’s safe. Where’s the captain?”

“Yeah, I’m here. What’s the problem?”

“That’s just it… the Sorrows are gone, sir. All of them are gone.”

“What?”

Pushing past each other, the locker room emptied out. True to his word even with 30 of them exposed in the hallway, no Sorrows stormed towards them. With every room they rescued, their following grew larger until roughly all 130 of them had congregated.

Did they leave on their own?

Running through the crowd, a few others picked up on his train of thought and joined as he ran upstairs to the second floor and the roof that lay beyond. In the week he’d been cooped up indoors, he hadn’t realized how deprived he’d been. Without the pollution of vehicles or the commercial activities of factories and malls, the air had become clearer.

“Holy cow… look at the sky! What the hell happened?!”

Great towers of fumes coalesced with the sky, contrasting the warm day with foreboding storm clouds. More footsteps thundered up the stairs as an explosion sent up another pillar of black smoke. Is there a battle going on or is it them? From where he stood, there wasn’t a single Sorrow in view: the back fields, the side parking lot, and the courtyard at the front were all devoid of the nightmare creatures.

The captain who organized the recovery effort, walked to the edge of the roof.

“… that’s the Hill… the central government is under attack…” he trailed off.

They all stared on as, in the distance, smoke billowed into the sky.