Chapter 26
Schools Out
Leo pulled out the paper Mr. Osmond had just given him and unfolded it.
Pull up implant interface settings. Go to implant deactivation. Select Yes. Then Yes again. It is possible you are too young to handle you know what, and it may be messing with your mind.
Of course, Leo knew how to deactivate an implant. Asshole! Leo turned around and punched a locker next to him several times as hard as he could, leaving a huge dent. He must be making progress on body hardening. His shaking fist hurt less than it should have. If he was wrong about the two girls fighting, it meant he was crazy, or he misremembered something that, for him, happened over fifty years ago.
But if he was right? He chuckled. If it did happen, it would be fun to listen to Mr. Osmond eat his words.
Why was he so angry? Were preteen hormones making him lose his temper? Great. He had to worry about hormones on top of everything else. Since coming back from the future, he'd never felt quite this hopeless. He headed toward the exit.
“Hey. Wait for me.” It was Jason running up behind him.
Leo slowed down and waited for his friend. They walked down the hall together. “Mr. Osmond thinks I'm crazy, and what the hell is a SJFF?”
Jason walked next to him. “Super Jumbo Friends Forever. It's a girl thing. You are wearing a 'plant. Is it possible he's right?”
“I hope so. I'd rather be crazy than have the apocalypse. But I don't believe it.”
“Let's go to my place and play School's Out. If you're not crazy, we need to play the game to prepare us for this Change,” Jason said.
“Psst! It's Brick!” Leo hissed, pulling his friend back and out of view of Brick and his cronies hanging out at the school entrance.
“Yeah. Let's leave the back way,” Jason said.
“What the hell,” Leo said with a sigh, once they'd given Brick the slip and were walking home. “Let's play School's Out.” He'd used to love that game, before he lived it for real.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
It felt strange being in Jason's home again. It was as he remembered, a two-story, faded blue house. Jason's bedroom was on the second floor with a view of the street. But Jason kept the windows covered so sunlight didn't interfere with his gaming.
“So, how do I do this again?” Leo asked after they'd grabbed snacks from Jason's large kitchen and retreated to his bedroom. Leo studied the gaming equipment that was of higher quality and more complicated than anything he owned. In addition to a nice VR helmet, there were gloves, a harness, and an all-directional treadmill for him to walk on, allowing him to move around in the game.
“You played over twenty hours with me just last week,” Jason said.
“Feels like a long time ago. Help me out. I need a refresher.”
“Oh all right,” Jason said. “Hold still. I'll get you hooked up.” Jason started with the helmet, pulling it over Leo's head. The helmet was lighter than Leo expected. The screen lit up.
It was like Leo was inside a high school. Older kids walked around talking, preparing to go to their classes. A banner, “Go Badgers” hung on a wall.
Then a soundtrack from some ancient rock song began to play.
“School's out for summer.”
Words appeared in the air in front of him.
Alien parasites escaped from a secret government lab and invaded the water supply. The government could have decontaminated the water reservoirs, but they needed the money for their 'The Government is Your Friend' special outreach program.
As the music played, some of the students began to change. Teeth and fingernails grew longer and sharper. Faces became angrier, more bestial. Tentacles came out of their mouths and they let out unearthly screams.
“School's out forever.”
Then everyone was running, the unchanged students trying to get away, and the Changed students attacking anyone they could catch.
“And we got no principles... And we got no intelligence.”
An older man, maybe the principal, came out of his office to be attacked by a group of changed students and torn apart. A Changed girl in a red and white cheerleader uniform chased a smaller boy down the hallway. In his struggles, he grabbed the school banner and pulled it from the wall. Tentacles came out of her mouth as she tore into him like a starving--evil alien badger? Blood splattered the banner, floor, and everything else.
A little blonde girl ran in his direction. She looked terrified, and too young for a high-school student--a freshman, maybe. Changed students caught her and tore the screaming girl apart. For a second, he imagined another girl calling out his name.
Oh god. Shawna. I'm sorry! Leo's pulse raced. He started shaking and hyperventilating. Memories of his previous life from ten years before raced through his mind.
He'd arrived at the shelter, hungry and desperate, somehow convincing the inhabitants to take him in as a scout. A little two-year-old girl, Shawna, adopted him immediately and followed him around the shelter, babbling. She never saw him as a freak. He'd shared his food with her and brought her little toys he found on his excursions.
He didn't know how the Bosses found their shelter. Maybe just bad luck...