Noah is still sitting in his chair, staring blankly across the art room. When suddenly, a loud blaring alarm sounds out across the entirety of the school. Marking the ending of the dreams of darkness that had pervaded its halls and rooms for so long.

Noah flinches at the sudden noise from the loud alarm. After five consecutive ear piercing rings, the alarm falls silent. This allows Noah to hear the chaos that is occurring in the rest of the room.

After a few seconds more, the alarm picks up again, the same five consecutive rings that pierce straight into his ear drums.

Noah remains sitting in his chair for two more cycles of the alarm. Even with everyone rapidly rushing towards the door, he alone remains seated.

One more series of rings passes before Noah says to himself in these few seconds of silence. “This means, I should leave too.” He speaks slowly, his head being heavy from the prolonged period of waiting.

Pushing himself to his feet, Noah looks towards the open door, just in time to see the last person exit the art room.

Noah walks over and passes through the door himself, then hesitates. He looks to his left, some distance away down the hall, he can see the group of people that had come from the art room.

One person is trailing the group, a shorter girl that often looks back over her shoulder. She spots Noah standing there and waves her small toy bear at him. Whatever she intended with this action is not understood by Noah, who begins turning away.

He looks down the hall to his right, seeing it empty for as far as he can see. If Noah was more aware, he would have realized he can see a lot further than he could before, as the darkness that was present in the schools seems to have faded.

Observing this empty hall a moment longer, Noah begins walking in that direction. Not thinking too deeply about where he is going or if he is heading in the correct direction.

He only thinks about ending his 5th trial. Which requires him to exit the school and board a bus.

So he walks, turning right at the first intersection he comes across. Not even bothering to look at what the other directions hold. In his mind, there is only one thought, where can he find a bus to board.

This whole while, there are intermittent seconds of silence that act as a calm between the storm of piercing rings from the alarm that covers the whole school.

The discomfort the ringing causes deep in his ears is not easily dismissed. But the thought of finally ending his 5th trial causes Noah’s footsteps to hasten.

After making his first right turn, he heads straight down the next intersection. Then he takes a left at the next, heading straight at the one after, finally at this intersection, he goes right.

Over these few minutes, the five consecutive rings are the only constant, spaced apart by seconds of silence. Noah’s ears have deafened slightly, growing numb to the loud noises.

The shadows that once patrolled these halls have all disappeared, allowing Noah and the many others traversing the halls to go on unimpeded.

A few other individuals pass by Noah and cross paths with him. They are all alone, traveling solo like Noah himself through these maze-like halls. They head in their directions, believing they know the correct path towards the exit.

Noah too walks his own path, moving in whatever direction he is first inclined to go down.

Eventually after making another left turn, Noah sees something different ahead of himself. A metal push door with a large emergency exit sign on it.

He immediately starts moving towards the door, believing without any doubt that this is where he is supposed to go, the small traces of common sense in his mind lead him towards this belief.

Walking right up to the door without faltering, Noah pushes it open and steps through. As he is crossing the threshold of the door, an odd pressure change occurs all around him.

Like the entire atmosphere and aura of the world has changed, Noah is able to feel a difference in the air that touches his skin.

So stark and sudden is the change that Noah suddenly stops and simply looks forward unblinking. He is acclimating to the strangeness that surrounds him.

After a few moments of inaction, Noah begins to take in the world around him once again.

A chaotic scene is presented to him. Armored bodies rushing around performing various actions. Distant voices in screams, shouts and cries can be heard.

A shroud of darkness surrounding the school, consisting of ground barricades and fluttering tarps overhead.

This is a scene fairly similar to what occurred in the dream memory that Noah experienced in detention. The scenes of military personnel rushing to set up the barricades, and the tarps descending to block out the sun.

Now, Noah finds himself in this scene personally, everything happening right before his eyes. A major difference however, is the shimmering rays of sunlight that now flood in through various cracks.

The makeshift door ways and faults in the tarps overhead are evidence that the seal and quarantine of the school is over.

A voice suddenly yells near to Noah, giving a stern command. “Students are to be immediately evacuated by boarding the transport bus! Uh, head through that portal and get on the bus! Now! Get moving!”

It was a heavily equipped military personnel that had spoken. His belated command after seeing Noah implies that he was not expecting to run into a student so quickly.

Being caught unawares, he had recited his own orders word for word initially, before directing Noah towards the buses.

Noah hears these stern words very close to himself and turns his head in that direction. He did not clearly understand what the man had said as he was fully listening. However, he did pick up on two things.

The direction the man is pointing in is towards one of the makeshift doorways that is letting in the natural sunlight. The other was the key word: bus.

Knowing his own trial had told him to get on a bus, Noah begins walking in the direction the man is pointing, towards the doorway. The military personnel has already moved on, rushing to his next task.

Noah takes step after step. With everything coming in and out of focus around him. Everything feels so surreal to him, like none of it is truly happening.

He feels like his mind is viewing his own body and senses in the third person. Like there is a span of distance, or time, that separates him from the surroundings.

He is actively walking forwards, towards the doorway where light is streaming in. But he also feels like it is growing more distant, getting further away from him.

It is all an illusion of his mind though, as to any outside observer, Noah is just steadily walking towards the light of the doorway.

When he reaches the exit, Noah only glimpses through it. Seeing a distorted world of white and pastel colors. He has to squint his eyes to make out even these vague details.

Noah turns away shortly after. Something compelling him to turn back around and look at where he had come from.

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He sees the short distance he had walked from the emergency exit of the school, to the break in the barriers that form a wall around it, where he now stands.

Noah hesitates, knowing that there is going to be a major change as soon as he fully passes through this barrier. As soon as he steps out fully into the light, something will be lost.

The brief past, the accumulated experiences of his new existence in the Afterdeath. All of it has happened here, in the school of dreams of darkness.

But once he walks outside into the world beyond the barricade, he will leave this all behind. In this new life, Noah has never been in natural sunlight, nor has he experienced anything other than this school.

These thoughts, these notions. Whether they are Noah’s own, or influences from another, they cause him to hesitate, but for only a moment.

Turning around while taking a deep breath, Noah takes a step forward with confidence. Deciding to face whatever lies ahead with bravery, or rather without any thoughts at all.

Stepping through the makeshift doorway, Noah feels another, more minor, change in the air around him. He feels the light breeze and the warmth of the evening rays of sunlight on his skin.

This is a pleasant change, far better than the stale coolness of the interior of the school and the suffocating constriction inside the barrier.

For the first few moments he steps outside, Noah embraces the freshness of the air and keeps his eyes closed. Feeling an uplifting sensation within himself.

However these moments are quickly ruined as Noah’s ears pick up on the cacophony of sounds that exist around him. Many voices, much louder than before, shout and yell.

Whatever they are saying and shouting, Noah does not pay attention, as the words and voices all blur together into an irritating mess.

Opening his eyes finally, Noah recoils as the bright sunlight leave lingering spots in his vision. Turning his head to the side and using his hand to shield his face, Noah tries again.

Opening his eyes to look around himself. A world of long shadows, bright flashes and blurred colors is presented before him. He is forced to heavily squint, cracking his eyes open in small slits.

To his left is a large blurry yellow mass, which his remaining common sense would determine is a school bus.

To his right, is a wall of dark colored, ever shifting bodies. Beyond them lies a surging, chaotic sea of mixed colors with dozens of constant white flashes across it.

The voices are loudest in this direction, causing Noah to move away from them. His senses are overwhelmed, whether his hearing or sight, all of it is too much for his simple mind to process.

Acting on basic instinct, Noah walks left, towards the now more clear yellow objects lined up in rows.

Stepping into the long shadows of the buses, Noah is able to relax his scrunched up face. Severely squinting his eyes was necessary for him to barely see in the bright and color filled environment he had found himself in.

Approaching closer to the bus nearest to him, Noah approaches the door, stopping just in front of the closed doors.

As if it was waiting for him to approach, the doors snap apart and swing open. Noah does not react, as with the opening of the doors, an immense pressure enveloped him.

The same feeling he had when he was still in the large colosseum, just before he began his trials. Just as quickly as it consumed him, the pressure fades and a voice from within the bus lightly calls out.

“Going to get in?” It says in a tone laced with friendly mockery. Noah looks up into the bus, blankly staring at the individual that had spoken. It is a simple looking old man, with a rather disheveled appearance.

A small red cap sits on his head, fat hanging from his chin. The stained blue vest over his plain gray shirt does little to hide the large mass beneath.

This is what Noah observes from the man. He gets no impression, no feeling or sensation as is normally the case. Instead, he directly ‘sees’ the surface appearance of the bus driver. Something Noah does not normally do.

The driver tilts his head slightly and asks with the same voice as before. “Getting in?”

Noah does not respond, as he stares into the eyes of the bus driver. It feels like his own eyes are being sucked in, pulled into the starry void that exists through the driver’s eyes.

An infinite array of stars and constellations pass by Noah’s vision, sending him reeling and almost falling over from dizziness.

Noah feels incredibly small, he is intimidated, he is scared. Whatever this being is that sits in the driver’s seat of the bus, is something far greater than himself.

Even in the colosseum with so many beings sitting above him, Noah was not this frightened. But just this simple looking old man is enough to suppress him entirely.

Noah finally gives a response to the driver. Mumbling a weak “..yes..” before limply lifting his right foot up and placing it onto the bus steps.

Planting his foot, Noah suddenly regains a portion of himself. Gaining strength back into his weakened body, he pushes with his left foot and fully steps up onto the bus, proceeding to walk up the next few steps.

Facing the back of the bus, looking not in the direction of the driver, Noah stops moving and remains frozen. He stands adjacent to the plump old man, as if waiting for something.

The driver’s voice sounds out next to him, saying, “Take a seat,” In the same ‘friendly’ tone as before. His voice has been a bit too high pitched for someone possessing such an appearance.

Hearing this, Noah immediately steps into the first row of seats directly behind the bus driver and sits down. Something prompts Noah to look upwards into a mirror, where his eyes once again meet those of the driver’s own star filled ones.

The driver speaks. “Others will be boarding shortly.” Noah did not notice this when entering, but he is the sole passenger, being the first to board this specific bus.

Noah silently holds eye contact with the driver through the mirror. Second after second of awkward silence ticks by. Noah grows more uncomfortable with each passing tick.

After nearly ten seconds of seemingly analyzing, the bus driver says in an almost playful tone. “You are called Noah, correct?”

Taking a short pause, as if deciding how far to take its teasing, he continues. “I suppose that is all you know of yourself, for now.” Stopping again, the driver purses his lips in thought.

“I left a small gift in the next set of trials. There will be something to guide you to it. I hold the belief that you will be able to capitalize on the opportunity it presents to you.”

“I cannot orchestrate everything perfectly as there are limits. But I do have faith, as you have experienced so much already. I’m sure you will manage this, just fine.” The driver says with an ominous smile.

“We will meet at another time, there, we will ‘discuss’ in more detail. Complete your trials until then. Fare well, oh lost child.”

Breaking off the eye contact, the driver looks away. Finally freeing Noah from whatever had bound him.

Both the driver and Noah blankly stare ahead of themselves. Noah is confused and still overwhelmed by everything around him. The driver, returning to its normal behavior, the way it was supposed to be.

The strange hidden depths within the driver’s eyes are gone, as it was never intended to be part of this transition between trials.

However, Noah does not realize this, and continues to stare at the back of the driver’s seat, trying, through all his effort, to forget about the strangeness of what had just happened.

Something had struck him deep. Touching upon subjects that he does not want to know. The driver, the higher being that had resided within him, Noah did not like it. As he got the feeling, that whoever that being was, they knew something more about it, things about his past.

Not even twenty seconds pass before others things affect him, drawing his attention. More lifeless begin to enter the bus. A jittery fellow steps up first, taking the seat across the aisle from Noah, giving crazy eyed stares at everything around.

Another pair step up shortly after, both somber and straight faced. They choose the seat behind Noah, sitting together in a silent agreement.

One by one, sometimes in groups or in pairs, many others lifeless enter the bus. They fill the seats closest to the front, occupying the first seat they come across while moving backwards.

Only those that were already in a group or had a partner prior to entering the bus, sit together, everyone else choosing to sit alone.

Not once does the bus driver react to any of the new arrivals. Acting like a statue, the large bodied old man sits still, his eyes never moving from the glass in front of him.

Every time a Lifeless enters, Noah’s eyes flick to the entrance, getting a brief impression of all who step into the bus. He is not overly concerned with who they are, it is merely a distraction to keep his thoughts away from his own situation.

Noah does the same thing again, avoiding the most important matters. He would rather be oblivious and ignorant, than to face the truths that could potentially cause him harm.

Another Lifeless boards the bus. Noah’s gaze lands on him for only a moment before going elsewhere. If Noah remembers him from the detention classroom, he makes no sign of it.

The Lifeless meanwhile, scans the entire bus, hesitant to completely get on until he makes sure, they, are not here. Rapidly moving his eyes across every seat, Daniel relaxes slightly, relieved that his once allies, now turned enemies, are not on this bus.

Daniel,, the same Lifeless that had been a part of the group to free Noah from his detention. Daniel sets his eyes upon Noah.

Seeing the mop that rests against his leg, he recognizes Noah but makes no reaction. Instead he quickly moves past him, moving deeper into the bus.

Noah only took the one glance at Daniel, paying him no more attention than that. He continues to sit, staring ahead at the back of the seat in front of him.

He remains unaware of just how great the interferences are in his trials. Just how many things are being tampered with that far exceed what is normal for an Undeserving Lifeless.

These facts will eventually be laid bare to him, as only so much can be allowed. Perhaps, even those that wish to meddle, will themselves be disrupted in their plans.