Chapter 10

School's Out

Leo checked his stat sheet.

Subject: Leo

Sex: Male

Age: 12

Strength: 5.4

Vitality: 4.8

Agility: 4.5

Intelligence: 5.2

Charisma: 5.2

Common Sense: 4.4

Class: Undetermined

Special skills: None.

Demon Tears: 9

Corruption: 0

There was some improvement in his basic stats, but not as much as he'd have liked. Strength had gone up another 0.1 points. Agility 0.1, Intelligence 0.1, Charisma 0.3, and Common Sense 0.3. Since he had yet to recover physically, his maximum Vitality was unknown.

What surprised him was that both his Charisma and Common Sense had gone up by a whole 0.3 points. The two stats he'd made no effort to raise had gone up the most. Go figure.

“Mom, I hate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” Lydia whined.

“It's what we got. Eat it or go hungry,” Mom said, finishing the last of her Bio-Blessed energy drink and tossing the can into the garbage before exiting the kitchen. She'd just come home from another graveyard shift and was in no mood to put up with complaints.

“Psst, Lydia,” Leo hissed, once Mom left. “I got a partly eaten burger and fries if you want to trade.”

“Eww, it's got your germs on it,” she said, making a face.

“Suit yourself.” Leo shoved more cornflakes into his mouth, forcing himself to eat, though he wasn't feeling hungry. Memories of the stolen rabbit had taken away his appetite.

“Uh, could I see it?”

“Bottom drawer of the fridge, in back,” Leo said.

Lydia rummaged around in the fridge, pulling out Leo's leftover burger. She made a show of opening the bag and carefully examining the french fries and three-quarters of a burger that he hadn't gotten around to eating. “I'll take it.” She dropped her PB and J sandwich next to him on the kitchen table.

As he entered the school that morning, he passed an older girl wearing a beat-up leather jacket, arms folded across her chest, while somehow holding a cellphone and texting single-handedly. She didn't say anything, but if looks could kill, every student walking by her would be dying, slowly, and in agony. He walked past her quickly, careful to avoid eye contact.

Jason helped him find his classes, and he sat quietly, alternating between boredom and confusion. If his classes did anything to improve his intelligence, he'd be shocked beyond belief.

Brick spat on Leo from the hallway stairs at lunch period, connecting with the back of his neck, but Leo somehow managed to make it to the end of the day without getting pummeled.

“Oh, Leo! Just the boy I was looking for.”

Leo sighed. School had finally ended, and he was heading for the exit. There was a bounce in Mr. Osmond's step that made him nervous. The honors science teacher cornered Leo in the school hallway.

“Yes, Sir?” Leo said.

“Well, Leo, I looked at your predictions and they are, how shall I put it,” he chuckled, “interesting. This first prediction, for example: a screaming, cursing, biting, hair-pulling fight between Maxine and Tomi, two young movie starlets, happening on camera this Thursday or Friday.”

Leo nodded. “My little sister is a fan of theirs. That's how I heard about it... last time around.”

“Well, I asked a few of my students, who are also fans, and in their words, 'the girls are SJFF's, practically sisters.' When I suggested the two might have a physical altercation, they looked at me like I was insane. Also, it's common knowledge that there's a werewolf in their latest movie. So that werewolf with a question mark you wrote down does nothing for your prediction. I did some research of my own and found out that Maxine and Tomi play goody-goody characters in their movies, and are literal choir girls in real life, known for hosting charities for sick puppies and stuff.”

He paused to take a deep breath. “What this means is the fight you described would cause parents to boycott their movies and cost the two girls, and the girls’ agents and producers, many millions of dollars. Even if the two girls wanted to fight, there is no way their various handlers would allow it to happen on camera.”

Mr. Osmond pulled out a neatly folded sheet of paper and carefully placed it in Leo's jacket pocket. “I calculate the odds of this fight, as you described it happening, to be over a billion-to-one against. Consider my suggestion.” He turned around and walked off, looking far too pleased with himself.

***

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, who were 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’d lived it for real.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

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.

“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 with some ancient rock song began to play.

“School's out for summer...”

Words appeared in the air in front of him.

Alien parasites have 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, only 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 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 it was just bad luck...

***

Leo tore off his helmet. It took all his self-control not to throw the fragile helmet against the wall. Tears ran down his face. “I can't do this!”

“Now what?” Jason said, adjusting his own VR equipment.

“In my vision, forty years after the Change, a little girl lost her parents. She adopted me, followed me around, became like my daughter. Then they came, and I ran. I couldn't do anything for her, so I ran and left her to be eaten. I watched from a distance as the monsters tore the shelter apart, eating everyone inside. I couldn't do anything! I left her to die!” Leo pounded the floor with his fist hard enough to hurt his hand and make the entire room vibrate.

“Well, maybe if you quit being a whiny bitch and play the game, you'll be able to gain the skills you need to protect her.”

“You don't get it, Jason. They're not NPC's. They're real people who are going to suffer and die!”

“So?” Jason said. “Millions of kids are starving to death right now all over the world. The people who could help, like that billionaire Ambrose, just go on about the importance of eating organic food and grass-fed beef, and how those starving children should quit spending their money on candy. The TV hosts go 'Yay, you're such a genius, Ambrose,' and nobody does shit.”

“You know, the Change didn't affect Ambrose that much,” Leo said. “At least not in any way that matters.”

“Know what I like about this game world? It's honest. No going to school for a bullshit degree that won't pay anything. No dealing with health insurance companies and getting buried in medical bills. The monsters in the game aren't hiding behind police and courts like they are now. They're right in front of you. You get hungry in the game? Hit up a food store or vending machine. Get hurt? Go find a med pack. Need a place to stay? Find an unoccupied house and build yourself a shelter.”

Leo sat on the floor, staring off into the distance. Why did it have to be him? Of all the world's humans, he had to be the least deserving of a second chance.

He wondered, not for the first time, if he was the only one to return from the future. But if there were others like him, they were being awfully quiet about it.

If he couldn't handle this stupid VR game, what was he going to do in a month when the monsters became real?

He sighed. “Okay, let's do this. You should text my mom. Tell her I'm at your place studying and will stay for dinner. She likes you, so it shouldn't be a problem.”

“What can I say? The ladies love me.” Jason pulled out his cellphone.

“Gross.” Leo stood up, picked up his VR helmet, and put it on again.

Leo and Jason played as high school students who had spent their entire lives blowing off schoolwork for computer games. That, combined with being among the lucky few with a symbiotic relationship with their alien parasite, gave them near-superhuman reflexes and abilities they desperately needed to survive the armies of fast-moving Infected.

Leo felt Jason tighten his helmet and put some kind of gloves on his hands and a harness around his chest. He looked through the VR helmet. His hands were larger than his real ones and covered with black leather gloves. His torn jeans and brown jacket had changed to torn green combat fatigues.

“In case you forgot, you're GI Joseph,” Jason said. “I'm Gunslinger Gavin. I was thinking we'd try the base run again.”

As seen through the VR helmet, Jason became Gunslinger Gavin, a tall skinny kid wearing a leather jacket with anarchy symbols on it. He wore two holstered guns around his waist and he held some kind of vape pen to his mouth from time to time to inhale and exhale virtual smoke.

They were facing an unmanned army checkpoint. “We tried this run last week and got slaughtered. The general's daughter is hiding at the center of the base. We need to rescue her and get her to an extraction point where army helicopters can come down and evacuate us.”

Leo felt around and found an assault rifle strapped to his back and a combat knife at his waist. After a bit of experimenting, he figured out how to take the safety off the assault rifle and set it to single fire, then he pulled back the slide, hearing a virtual click as he put a bullet in the firing chamber. At the edge of his vision, floating over his head, a blue stat screen showed he had twenty bullets and two med kits, and his green health bar was at max. He noticed his character had a special skill feature called Surge. Curious, he poked the screen where it said Character.

Character

Name: GI Joseph

Level 1

Hit Points: 5

Strength: Weak

Agility: Lousy

Intelligence: Below Average

Social Standing: Loser

Skills and Abilities:

Expert in video and VR gaming.

Can chug a liter bottle of Mountain Dew.

Sleeping in class.

Special Skills:

Surge.

The symbiotic alien parasite living inside your brain has made you stronger and faster than you would have been without it. It also gives you the ability to boost your speed for thirty seconds. The world will appear to move more slowly during this time.

Inventory

One banged-up assault rifle

20 bullets

2 med kits.

One dirty combat knife with a dull edge

One pair of dirty, torn combat fatigues

One pair of dirty, torn leather gloves

One pair of dirty combat boots

Next to his stats and inventory, he saw a picture of an overweight sixteen-year-old boy with acne in combat fatigues. GI Joseph, presumably. Leo sighed. The odds didn't look good. “Any chance we could sneak past the Infected?”

Jason/Gavin shook his head. “Don't think so.” A map appeared in front of them. “Last time we went through the med center for med kits, the armory for bullets, and the base school for more of my medication, which I need to avoid stat penalties.” Gavin took another hit from his vape pen. “There's supposed to be an officer's lounge over here,” he pointed at a spot near the center of the map, “where we can rest a bit once we kill off the Infected officers. And I got my brother to jailbreak the game so we can see the general's daughter naked when we catch her in the shower.”

“Wait. This girl is surrounded by hungry Infected and she's taking a shower?”

“What else would she be doing?” Jason/Gavin asked.

Leo raised his assault rifle. “Good point. You lead, I'll watch our rear. Let's rescue your girlfriend.”

Jason giggled. “Not my girlfriend.”