It was a madhouse outside. The rain poured down by the bucket, a dense curtain of water that seemed to weave in and out, swept from the grasp of gravity by the wind. The trees surrounding the field outside the windows swayed in unison, the rustling of their leaves could be heard under the sound of the rain drumming against the roof. Inside, Mr. Stenson droned on as usual. The nub of chalk in his hand clacked against the blackboard.
Roy couldn’t hear any of this of course; he was plugged in. His fingers tapped at the smartphone in his lap as music poured into his head through a pair of earbuds. Suddenly a dreadful noise broke through the lyrics of his song.
“Roy.”
Instincts honed by years spent in the classroom kicked in as he snapped his attention to the chalkboard and hit the minus button on his phone.
“Yes, Mr. Stenson?” he replied, carefully sliding the smartphone back into his pocket.
“Please give the class the definition of a function,” Mr. Stenson stared at Roy, or rather, he stared at his desk.
“Well, sir, a function is a, thing in math where you ah, write that squiggly ‘f’ down and ah...” Roy’s eyes darted from the board to Mr. Stenson, attentive for a clue as to what in the world a ‘function’ was.
“Well Roy, perhaps you could read the definition off of the textbook,” Roy looked down at his textbook; a triangle stared back at him.
“Roy, please follow along with the lesson. We are currently on page one hundred and eighty-two,” Mr. Stenson slowly picked up the white mug on his desk and took a sip.
“Thank you sir,” Roy quickly flipped to page one hundred and eighty-two. Then unexpectedly a blue window popped up obscuring the definition of a function. Roy looked up only to realize the blue window seemed to follow his field of view. Most of the other students seemed similarly stupefied as they too stared at something only they could see.
“Well, I can't teach with this distraction in the way,” Mr. Stenson carefully set his piece of chalk onto the table and walked towards the intercom.
Roy turned his attention back to the blue window and realized there were several lines of words written on it.
Attention!
The System will be implemented shortly in order to accomodate several new changes which will occur.
You have 4 minutes and 45 seconds to familiarize yourself.
Think [Status] in order to view your information sheet.
A small beep from the intercom took his attention off of the blue window.
“Attention all staff and students, we are aware of the blue box you are all seeing. At this time all teachers should keep their student inside the classroom. We will begin calling classes down to the gymnasium shortly. Please make sure that all windows are closed and blinds are drawn. Thank you.”
The intercom beeped again as it closed. As soon as the announcement ended the class burst into noise. No one knew exactly what the blue windows were, but the novelty of it seemed to bring up all sorts of discussions. Roy looked at the window one last time, the time seemed to count down, and it now showed 2 minutes and 58 seconds.
Roy tapped on the shoulder of the boy sitting to his left. Lawrence seemed to be in a daze as he turned around to face Roy. He was short for his age and looked two years younger than everyone else in the class.
“Lawrence, what do you think - are they gonna let us out early?” Roy bent over so he could hear over the voice of the other students.
Still he could barely make out Lawrence’s quiet response, “Probably, just look at the rain; if this continues there will probably be flooding.”
That sounded good in Roy’s books; as long as there was no school anything was fine.
“What about the blue window, you see it too right, what do you think, personally I’m kind of excited for what happens after the timer runs out.”
At that Lawrence frowned,” Well, maybe we can get a clue as to what this ‘surprise’ will be if we follow the instructions and think [Status].”
Without hesitation Roy turned his attention back to the blue window and thought, [Status].
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Character Sheet Name Roy Stone Level 1 Race Human Condition Normal HP 126 / 126 HP Regeneration 0.009 MP 118 / 118 MP Regeneration 0.035 - Statistics STR 9 INT 10 CON 9 WIS 7 DEX 10 AGI 10 Unallocated Stat Points 0 - Resistances Heat - Cold - Force - Electric - Poison - Corrosion - Hallow - Void - Mental - Spiritual - - Skills
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Abilities
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Traits
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Roy looked through the new window that had appeared; he stared dumb founded at the screen. Lawrence seemed to stare at the screen as well, but his expression seemed to turn more and more solemn. Roy focused on his own screen for now and carefully looked over the [Statistics]. As he viewed each stat, information regarding it seemed to suddenly appear in his mind.
There was nothing enlightening about his name, level, and race. But, as he reached HP thoughts started to suddenly appear, one second he would be looking at the capitalized letters, the next it would be as if he had suddenly remembered what the letters meant.
HP represented his health, he would die if it hit zero, MP was his ‘mana’ there was little information regarding this. HP regeneration and MP regeneration are rate in seconds. STR is his physical strength, DEX his ability to perform physical maneuvers. CON measures the health of his body and is directly related to HP. AGI determines his speed and WIS the amount of MP he has and it’s regeneration. Finally INT is a measure of his magical power. Roy realized that these stats were not fixed; they could be increased by ‘leveling’ up. This meant he could be “faster, higher, stronger!”
Following that was the [Resistances] section, which was composed of nothing but zeros. At the bottom were the Skills, Traits, and Abilities section, all were blank, but he would be able to fill these up as he acquired skills, passive bonuses; abilities, ‘powers’ that he could activate and use; and traits, which would modify his capabilities. The idea was still blurry in his mind.
As Roy mulled over the information that had suddenly surfaced a though hit him. Strength, dexterity, magical power, these were exactly like the ones he would encounter in the video games he played. Did that mean his life had suddenly become a video game? The though excited him, video games were fun, classes not so much.
Roy turned around to share the good news with Lawrence only to see that his expression was the polar opposite. Lawrence’s fists were clenched and he seemed to shudder as he sat there.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Lawrence stared at Roy for a second, then he seemed to transform, there was a frantic look in his eyes, his leg muscles were clenched as if he was going to leap out and make a run for it, “Roy we have to go, we have to, it’s not safe, that blue window is nothing but trouble!”
“It’s like a video game, stats, skills, abilities, this is gonna be great, it’ll be like Dungeons Treasures Dragons Wizards. I can’t wait for this timer to run out!” the timer was at a minute and 11 seconds.
“Roy, what do you do in DTDW? You fight monsters, this is real life Roy! Shit, we’re getting stats for fighting, that’s what the changes are going to be,” Lawrence started to pull out his various textbooks from his bag, carelessly throwing them onto the ground, “What do you think is going to happen when that timer runs out? We’ve got the character, we’ve rolled the stats, now we start the game.”
A tug pulled out the math binder and spilled the hundreds of pages of paper onto the ground, ”Can you imagine fighting monsters in real life Roy! This is the grace period we’ve been given; after this shit is going to hit the fan!”
Satisfied now that his backpack was almost devoid of books, Lawrence stood up and strapped on his bag,” I’m getting out of here; crowded places like this will attract monsters like an ant nest attracts Arnold’s foot,” then Lawrence walked out the door.
Mr. Stenson seemed to be caught completely off guard as Lawrence opened the classroom door and left. “Lawrence, Lawrence, Mr. Petrov!”
Mr. Stenson looked at the closed door for a moment before getting up to reach for the intercom, before his finger could hit the button the intercom beeped and the principal, Mr. Kwang, began his announcement.
“All staff and student, this is a lockdown, this is not a drill. Teachers please ensure that all students are in the classroom. All windows and doors must be closed, all lights must be turned off. All staff and students are to close all electronic devices and maintain silence. You will be released by an administrator when the lockdown is over. This is not a drill.”
Then the intercom beeped again and the room was completely silent. The timer had reached zero.
Everyone stared at Mr. Stenson, he had tried to call the office regarding Lawrence but no one had answered. He then went and drew the blinds, locked the door and closed the lights. Roy had expected something big to happen but so far all that could be heard was the heavy drumming of the rain which only seemed increase in intensity. He wasn’t too worried about Lawrence though, Lawrence usually knew what he was doing.
Roy could see that there were several groups that had formed, friends that had stuck together to help ease the unease. Several of his buddies and grouped around the back of the room and they had motioned him over, but no one dared to break the current status quo and move. Then suddenly something banged against the door.
It wasn’t a knock but a bang, like something had tried to break through. Someone screamed but it was quickly muffled, it was probably Alyssa who sat a few seats to the left and beside John. John was known for being the no-nonsense captain of the football team.
Mr. Stenson shuffled the marked tests on his desk and reached into his the cupboard. Roy couldn’t believe his eyes when the man calmly pulled out a rifle from the inside of his desk and stood up.
The class watched as Mr. Stenson walked up to and then peered out the small window on the door. Mr. Stenson’s expression remained unchanged as he took a few steps away knelt down. His rifle pointed at the door and his gaze unwavering.
A few classmates took the opportunity to shuffle away from the door, leaving just Roy and a kid who sat two rows back. What had been a privilege – being the first to leave when the bell rang – had turned into a curse. Roy contemplated getting up and joining the students who had gathered to his left near the windows when suddenly the door broke off its hinges and something soared through the door way. Then, almost in unity, the rifle went off; the classroom was illuminated by the flash for just an instant before plunging back into darkness.
The thing that had intruded upon the classroom flew its due course and then landed on the ground, its body skid for a bit and emitted a faint growling sound before departing the world. Mr. Stenson looked down at the thing he had shot. The rest of the class followed. The corpse was about the size of a shopping basket; it resembled a frog but had a shallow coat of grey fur with yellow spotted patches. The pupils on its two bulbous eyes had already dilated, and it’s mouth, which stretched from one side of its face all the way to the other, was hanging open. Two rows of needle like teeth showed through the maw, a limp frog-like tongue hung out from the side.
Light magenta colored blood had begun to flow out of the bullet wound on its head and pool under its body; the smell of rotten fish permeated the room. Roy looked at the teeth, the bulging muscles, the maw that seemed like it could come alive again and open wider and wider, its size without bounds, as it encompassed the school, the neighborhood, Anamosa, and his entire world.
Some students hurried back to their desks, others hurried to the nearest window and opened it up to get some fresh air. A few stood still in their place as they stared at the frog monster, curiosity, fear, denial. Someone ran for the trash can and began to puke.
Roy stared at the eyes of the frog monster as Mr. Stanson kicked its sagging body outside the classroom. Then he lifted the door and pushed it against the door frame, cutting off the illumination entering the classroom from the hallway.
“Alright class, everyone take a seat,” everyone moved their chairs and bunched near the windows. Arnold still sat at his normal desk, seemingly unfazed. A small group of three had chosen to sit in the opposite far corner of the classroom. Tim was holding onto the trashcan as he stumbled back to his seat and slumped over his desk. Roy stood stock still at the front of the classroom; eyes still staring at the pool of blood.
Mr. Stenson walked over and guided him back to his desk. Roy couldn’t even feel embarrassed as some of the braver students giggled, the room had suddenly felt too small, the dark too pervasive, and the thin woolen T-shirt too little to stand between him and the outside world. Mr. Stenson walked back to the front of the room and began to address the class.
“Your attentions please everyone, we are in a state of lockdown and I am sure that the authorities will be here soon. For now I would like to take attendance,” Mr. Stanson pulled out the attendance and began to call out names.
“Tristan.”
“Here.”
“Huxley.” Mr. Stanson repeated a second time, “Huxley.”
“H-h-here.”
“Julia.” A girl, eyes red from sobbing, slowly raised her hand.
“John”
“Here.”
“Fahim”
“Here?” Fahim turned to look at the door as the sound of many somethings slapping against floor tiles approached the classroom.