Tomb of Emperor Khiz-ik/Paleton High School

  Jack woke up to complete darkness. His head hurt, and for some reason his entire body felt heavier. Struggling to remember what happened Jack got up to his feet. One moment he was calling out to Bobby, and the next he was here, wherever here was. He couldn't see anything in the darkness, so he pulled out his phone and turned it on. The screen's brightness was enough for him to see he was in a cave next to a black stone wall. He switched on the flashlight of his phone and a beam of visibility shot through the dark, revealing a large cavern that his phone couldn't see into.

  Jack swung it around, trying to find anything that might indicate just where the hell he was. As he did so, he began to move away from the wall deeper into the cavern. He got about fifty feet in when he began to spot shapes in the dark.

  "What the fuck?"

  He came upon what looked like nests of bones and broken egg shells. He stopped to examine them, letting out a sigh of relief as he discovered they weren't human.

  They look like bird bones, he thought, as he shined his light on a skull with a long curved beak.

  He kept pushing forward despite the growing sense of unease. He was never one to sit and wait to be rescued, so as he kept moving forward he tried to think about how he ended up here. His current theory was that an earthquake, they were due a big one in California, somehow sent the school tumbling down into a cavern. He didn't really believe it though.

  The cave is too stable, he thought. There would be more debris, or rocks, or anything, but as he ventured through the non-human bones there didn't seem to be any sign of an earthquake large enough to sink a school. Just smooth black stone. Something was wrong. As if to justify the thought, he began to hear multiple crunching noises. Uncertainty hit him as he marched forward, a part of him screaming to turn around and run. Yet, it was too late.

  Jack stopped walking as he stared at the scene in-front of him. Just at the edge of his light was a reptilian looking monster the size of a large man. It was hunched over something, it's jaws deep in the thing's chest. It took Jack a moment for him to realize it was a human.

  Jesus that's Bobby, he thought, staring in awe at the sight of Bobby McManus getting his heart torn out of his chest, as the lizard snapped its head up and looked at Jack. They stood there for a moment as the two regarded each other. Jack looked at the creature noticing it had no eyes, just a smooth black carapace over its head. Despite this, Jack knew for certain the creature could see him.

  The lizard dropped Bobby's heart and growled out what could have been awful Russian. Then, like out of a horror movie, at least thirty other obsidian lizard monsters emerged from the dark to stare at Jack. Each one holding some manner of human body part. One of them, Jack noticed, was holding the head of the freshman girl Bobby was hitting on.

  Poor girl went from creepy rapist to giant man-eating lizard, Jack thought, a half-laugh, half-sob making its way from his throat. Jack stood what could have been an hour, though was probably only a few seconds, as the lizards did a weird staring without eyes and growling thing. Until, finally, he spoke to the crowd.

  "Welp, if you creepy fucks are gonna eat me, you're gonna half to earn it." Jack said, before turning around and dead sprinting in the opposite direction of the murderous lizards. The lizards looked around at each other for a few seconds before erupting in a cacophony of screeches, swiftly giving chase into the dark.

...

  "We should really move away from the windows Elizabeth," Malcolm said for what was probably the tenth time, eyeing the man-sized birds circling the sky above, and just like the other nine times she ignored him. She was too busy looking out of the classroom window, at the changed landscape of her city. Paleton's only high school was situated on the west side of the city near its edge, and currently fused into the side side of a mountain.   

  The south side of Paleton was the residential district, where Paleton's middle and upper-class residents lived, and was currently mixed in with a forest. The mix of red and orange treetops lending the houses a rather autumn-esque look. It seemed that the south side wasn't hit to bad by whatever this was. That was good considering Elizabeth's family live there.

  The relief was short lived as what seemed to be a dragon emerged from one of the forested areas and proceeded to burn down several houses in quick succession. Elizabeth had to smother a well of panic at the sight. She could do nothing to help her family by panicking in a mountain miles away from them. She had to remain level headed.

  With great effort she tore her eyes away from the south and examined the rest of the town. It seemed both the south and west side of the city were separated from the rest by an emerald-tinted river, with the north and center of the city on the other side. The east side was completely cut off from the rest, as the green river split: one path going south cutting it off from the residential districts, and the other heading north into a gorge that separated the east side from downtown and the northern farmlands.

  Elizabeth examined the east-side, already seeing fires in the distance. It came as no surprise as the few factories Paleton had left were situated out east. Along with all the resident's who couldn't afford housing in either downtown or the south side of the city. The Gravel, as most of the inhabitants liked to refer to the area as due to the gravel roadways, had always been the home of inequity for the town. Before the sixties it was the only area in the city that allowed for colored people to live in them, the rest of the city being subjected to redlining. Though the practices that led to the area being segregated were demolished, the area remained a hotbed of crime and poverty. The city's relatively few gangs make their home there. The area seemed to be roughly the same, the only difference being patches of areas filled with white. The distance wouldn't let her make out anything more.

  She turned her eyes towards downtown. The city center seemed to suffer from the same patches of white, along with an influx of small hills that caused the tall buildings of downtown to lean dangerously to one side or the other. None more so than Loci-tech tower, the thirty story tower leaning precariously to the east. The tower was going to fall down sooner or later, she only hoped the occupants evacuated before it did.

  The sight of the Loci-tower's imminent demise filled Elizabeth with mixed feelings. While Loci-tech's recent rise in the tech market brought about a much needed rejuvenation to Paleton's economy, said rejuvenated economy was only benefiting landowners. As the area around Loci-tower became worth more, so too did the homes, as many individuals straddling the line between the middle and lower classes were forced to move into The Gravel. Those that didn't either moved out of the city or became homeless.

  Gentrification on her mind, Elizabeth moved her eyes north to Paleton's farmland. She was relieved to find that unlike the rest of the city, there were no towers about to fall, no fires raging, and no dragons burning down homes. Though, her eyes did travel farther north, past the farmland, towards the state penitentiary. She could just barely see it in the horizon, another possible problem waiting to rear its head. That along with the mental hospital to the far east, next to the gorge, just north of the hospital. Many of the more unstable prisoners got bussed down to the facility. Though with any luck the prison guards and security for both facilities will be able to handle the inmates.

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  Examination of the city complete Elizabeth finally heeded Malcolm's complaints and moved away from the windows towards the classroom's interior, where the school's wood and plaster walls blended into black stone. Before Elizabeth examined the city she had spent ten minutes going over their classrooms' weird fusion, before deciding there were better things to be doing. The implications of the fact that the stone walls blended seamlessly into the school's interior being the only notable thing about them. Whatever, or whoever, changed their world did so with such skill that she couldn't find a single flaw. It put a hamper on the idea that this could be some computer simulation. If it was a simulation, it was indistinguishable from reality. Though the idea that there was some entity out there capable of such earthly revisions wasn't any more appealing.

  "What are we going to do Elizabeth," Malcolm asked with fear in his voice. It occurred to Elizabeth that the only reason he wasn't panicking was because she remained calm. He thought she had a plan. It was endearing that he thought she would have a plan for the literal apocalypse.

  Well... she did. Just not this kind of apocalypse. Her plans were for a nuclear winter or governmental collapse. Even then they were only rough outlines, done for humour, and not full blown plans. Though now that she thought about it, she could probably borrow from them and ad-lib the rest.

  "Go through the backpacks. Find things that are immediately useful: food, water, weapons. One of these idiots might have a knife. If not we'll break a leg chair and use that. Put those on the teachers desk. Knock off all the other crap on it. We don't need to get things mixed up. Next, get secondary items: phones, chargers, batteries, medical supplies, flashlights, hand sanitizer, anything else you could foresee us needing in the future. Grab a desk and put it next to the teachers if you need more room."

  Elizabeth moved as she spoke gathering backpacks as Malcolm shoved all the teacher's belongings off their desk. The two then went through the class's belongings: finding two bags of chips, ten pieces of candy, a soda, rum in a soda can, several bottles of water, a few sandwiches, and a switch knife one of the kids from The Gravel had hidden in their backpack. Unsurprisingly, There were no phones besides Elizabeth's and Malcolm's, most of the schools teens carried them on their persons at all time. Yet, they did find several boxes of band aids, a couple bottles of hand sanitizer, several boxes of tampons and pads, a lighter, and a bunch of sewing equipment.

  "Who had the needle and thread?" Elizabeth asked

  "I'm pretty sure that was Sarah, the quiet chick with the pikachu backpack and anime pins," Malcolm responded.

  "Right, she was the one who wanted us to get them a katana," Elizabeth spoke with distaste. That job had been particularly irritating. They had wanted the sword modeled after some anime she couldn't remember. Something about a black swordsman?

  "No, that was Ethan. Sarah wanted us to get her a bunch of cosplay material."

  "Ugh, that was even more annoying then the god-damned sword. Why did she need several gallons of adhesive anyway?"

  "She and her friends had wanted to build some of the monsters from an anime Called Digi-mon. I recall the finished products were pretty awesome," Malcolm responded.

  "What the hell is Digi-mon?" Elizabeth asked, in an attempt to distract her friend.

  It seemed to work as he immediately began regaling her about the wonder that was Digi-mon: Digital Monsters. That was good because it saved her from having to keep him calm while she thought about what to do next. They had a negligible amount of food and water, and considering how far they were from town, it was unlikely they were going to make it to the city without becoming starved and dehydrated. Plus, they had no idea if the cave tunnels that connected the classroom deeper into the mountain even led to anything remotely close to an exit. Her cursory examination of the dark halls giving her nothing to go on. Add this to the fact that they didn't even know if there were any other students alive in the school, and this was becoming a rather bleak picture. On the one hand if they found other students they would have to split their rather small food supply, decreasing their chances of survival, and on the other was the disconcerting fact that they might be the only people in the enter mountain. Which, try as she might, she couldn't spin in her own head as a good thing. It would mean either the students were killed or they were taken by whatever force reshaped the world.

  Shouting from the corridors took her out of her thoughts. Her head snapped towards the door, the sounds getting steadily closer. She whipped around, grabbed one of the chairs and put it beneath the door. Running back, she grabbed the switch knife off the table, pulling Malcolm behind her as she spun to face the door. Judging from the sounds whoever was yelling was too close for them to flee the classroom. Should they exit, they would surely be spotted.

  "Be quiet, they might pass us by," Elizabeth said, suddenly furious at herself for not barricading the door. She saw the winged monstrosities outside the window. She knew there were things outside that were less than likely to be friendly to humans. She would have to make sure Malcolm made it. She would not have him die because of her stupidity.

  "What if they are friendly?" Malcolm whispered.

  Elizabeth didn't respond. The yelling was getting closer. She could make out what seemed to be a stream of curse words, followed by inhuman yipping. Whatever was happening didn't sound like anything she wished to be a part of.

  "We stay quiet," she whispered.

  "But what if-"

  "We. Stay. Quiet."

  Malcolm frowned, but obeyed, his fear overriding his more altruistic instincts.

  Despite her reticence to getting involved, it seemed she was going to be forced to anyway. The sounds were right outside now, and somebody was trying to open the door. There were screams to get the door open, followed by somebody yelling they were trying, and then another yell to move. The door burst open, the chair keeping it shut breaking beneath the force of the blow.

  Elizabeth was about to dash forward to stab the individual before stopping at the sight of him.

  "Oh shit, Elizabeth?" Jedidiah said from between the doorway, a smile on his lips, "Good to see you-"

  He didn't finish as he was shoved inside by a tall woman, who quickly followed him in, dragging along a shorter man dressed like a nineties gang-banger stereotype, overly large saggy jeans and all.

The woman threw the gang banger inside before spinning to slam the door shut. The door itself couldn't shut completely as the top hinge of the door was broken from it being forced open. Tiny black hands speared through the cracks holding small black daggers, which lashed out at the tall woman holding the door shut. They couldn't penetrate deep, but they were swinging wildly, slicing the woman's legs and arms in the process.

  "FUCKING HELP!" She shouted.

  Elizabeth spun around grabbing the rum and lighter, as Jedidiah ran forward to help close the door. Elizabeth rushed toward the door and began to pour the rum across the black arms sprouting from the doorway. A few of the arms began to swing her way, one of which cut her hand.

  Elizabeth grunted in pain before starting the lighter and began to light as many of the arms with alcohol on them on fire as she could, the knives slicing her hand as she did so. Some arms caught on fire quickly and spread to the hand owner's body. While others caught on fire for a moment before the fire dispersed. Either way Elizabeth got the desired outcome as most of the black arms receded, their inhuman yells of pain resonating in the outside hall.

  As more arms were pulled away, Jedidiah and the tall woman, who Elizabeth saw was Catherine Barnes, an athlete and former friend, managed to slam the door shut, severing a few of the small arms in the process.

  With the entryway closed, Elizabeth, Malcolm, and the gang banger began to drag the teacher's desk in front of the door, as Catherine and Jedidiah held it shut against the enraged owners of the tiny black arms. Desk in place, they began stacking tables and chairs on top of it. When nothing else could fit, the students stood round the doorway tense waiting for the monsters to break through the barricade and attack them. Yet, try as they might the weird yipping creatures couldn't break their way through the door. Eventually, the students began to relax as the yipping grew quieter with every passing moment, until finally there was nothing but silence.

  Suddenly exhausted, Elizabeth turned to face her peers.

  "Is everyone-"

  Elizabeth stopped as in front of her face floated a blue screen.