Acacia gripped the edges of her desk, her knuckles white, as the classroom vibrated and the cracks in the walls widened ominously. Confusion warred with a primal fear as the tremors abruptly ceased, leaving an eerie silence broken only by the sight of the deepening fissures, stark reminders of the terrifying event that had just transpired.
She slowly looked around and saw the mix of emotions among her peers, her gaze shifted to Mirkil who slowly raised his head once the tremors stopped and Christine was in a hunched position with her chest heaving at a fast pace.
Mirkil gently tapped her shoulder and her breathing slowed down. She sat up straight and removed her hands from her ears.
He then turned his gaze to Acacia who just nodded at him to show that she was fine.
'What is happening? Is it an earthquake?'
Her thoughts were cut off by the voice of the teacher's voice. Her gaze focuses on him.
"Evacuate immediately, it seems to be an earthquake. Please everyone evacuate before the tremors begin again." The teacher spoke with urgency and the students were hesitant before they started to gather their bags and stood up from their seats, headed towards the exit of the class.
"An earthquake was not what I was expecting on a Tuesday morning." Mirkil commented as he stood up and walked towards the exit. Acacia quickly stuffed her books in her bag and stood up with Christine as they walked closely beside him.
"I don't think anyone was expecting it," Acacia replied while glancing down at the cracks on the ground beneath her feet.
"Isn't there usually a warning for these kinds of things?" Christine asked while thinking about the sudden event and squeezing the strap of her bag. They left the class and saw other students equally leaving their classrooms with the teachers ushering them out to the halls.
"There is but I don't know why we didn't get any earlier warning." Acacia pondered on Christine's question while her heart was still racing.
"Maybe it's not an earthquake? What if it's a huge monster that hit the school?" Mirkil questioned with a thoughtful expression.
'That can't be right.'
"No monsters that huge exist anymore since the war. Even if they still exist there is no way it would have gotten this close to the city without the heroes wiping it out." Acacia shook her head at his words.
"Then it's an earthquake, let's just hope it doesn't get serious." Christine let out a small sigh as they continued to walk.
Acacia nodded and the tremors started in an abrupt manner. She immediately lost her balance and fell to the ground along with some other students. Screams erupted once more and the cracks on the floor and walls widened even more. Christine was holding onto the window by the wall while Mirkil was on the ground clinging to the wall.
"What is happening?!" A male voice exclaimed in coalition with the screams.
Acacia squeezed her eyes shut and took deep breaths as the tremors continued and it felt like the building was going to break in half as the scent of dust from the ceiling filled her nostrils.
After what felt like forever the tremors stopped and she slowly opened her eyes, her heart beating loudly in her chest while seeing her friends not moving from their positions.
"Is it...is it over?" The familiar male voice from earlier asked out loud but there was no reply. Acacia looked down at the floor and took a deep breath, placing her hand above her chest to feel her heartbeat.
She then heard a sharp gasp, she raised her head and noticed Mirkil's horrified expression, his gaze stuck in one place while Christine had her hand over her mouth. Acacia furrowed her eyebrows and turned her head in the direction they stared at, her gaze widened and she slowly stood up from the ground at the sight of an orange ant-like beast, eating the head of a female teacher.
'Am I dreaming or someone just died?'
Her body was stiff, not a single muscle moved as the large insect kept eating, the crunching sounds filled the hall until everyone started to run in panic. Students and teachers fell over and shoved each other to escape but everything felt slow for her and a wave of nausea filled her stomach.
"Snap out it! We have to get out of here!" Mirkil shouted in urgency towards Acacia, his words snapped her out of her frozen state and she was a bit disoriented as she removed her gaze from the insect. Christine rubbing her back and the soothing motion calmed her down.
'Calm down, calm down.'
Acacia took a deep breath and nodded towards Mirkil and Christine."I'm fine, let's go."
The trio immediately started to run at a fast pace while the ant was busy. Acacia kept seeing the image flashing in her mind but kept shaking her head to forget it.
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They were about to reach the stairs when the windows suddenly shattered to pieces, similar large ants swarming in and immediately lunging at everyone. Blood splattered over the walls and floors.
The trio stopped in their tracks when an insect broke in from the window and stood tall in front of them. Acacia's mouth felt watery and her palm started to feel sweaty until the ant was lit on fire and screeched loudly.
"Run!" A female teacher yelled out towards the students as she continued to throw balls of fire at the insects.
'Mrs Silvia!'
Acacia's eyes widened but she didn't have the time to ogle as they ran down the stairs in haste. They reached the lower half of the school building and were swept up by the crowds of students rushing towards the exit, Acacia immediately gripped Christine's wrist while Mirkil held Christine's other hand as they tried to stick together.
Acacia tried to concentrate and move through the panicked crowd. A loud clicking sound from behind, she turned her head and tried to see against the moving students and saw three ants at the far end of the hall. The middle ant tilted its head at the running students and the other two ants didn't move.
'Why aren't they doing anything?'
She shook her head and decided to keep running, moving her legs faster and shoving her way through the crowd while her grip on Christine's wrist tightened.
The trio managed to get out of the school building and ran towards the streets when the ants suddenly started to run, swinging their limbs left and right against anyone close enough.
As they reached the streets, they were struck with the sight of burning cars and various creatures in the air and on land. People running in different directions and others using their abilities to defend themselves.
Christine spotted a restaurant and immediately directed them towards the building. "Over there!"
They ran towards the restaurant and Mirkil let go of Christine's wrist, locking up the door and dragging a table to the door to secure it. They took a moment to catch their breaths, Acacia sat down on a chair and ran her fingers through her hair.
Christine looked around the restaurant, taking in the designs and the messy disorganized place. Chairs and tables turned over with food scattered on the floor and cracks on the walls.
"How the hell is the whole street flooded with monsters?" Mirkil questioned, sneaking glances through the windows.
"I don't know, even if a monster ends up in the city. It should be at least one or two not a hundred." Acacia replied with a hint of uncertainty.
".... doesn't this remind you of what we are taught in history class? What happened 80 years ago?" Christine said in a soft voice as she turned around to face them.
"The Great War, the one that founded our city, Encer. The war between humans and monsters." Acacia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
'Why though? We won the last one. Why would another start?'
"As much as I would like to dig through history and find out what is going on, I can't. Even if we do understand, it doesn't mean we can win against those things out there." Mirkil backed away from the door and crossed his arms.
"True, oh wait. Let me call my brother, he can send some officers to help us." Acacia immediately removed her bag from her shoulders and unzipped it, bringing out her phone and calling her brother.
"Sorry, your service is currently unavailable.Try again later."
A female mechanic voice replied and she raised a brow as she tried calling his number again but the same thing kept repeating itself.
'How is this possible?'
Christine quickly brought out her phone and checked it but didn't have any service either.
"I don't have any service, either."
"This is ridiculous, why is the service suddenly gone?!" Acacia said and dropped her phone on the table, her feet repeatedly tapping against the floor.
"Let's not panic, we can find another solution. But first, let's find something to drink, I'm thirsty." Mirkil uncrossed his arms and went further inside the restaurant. He entered the kitchen and looked around for a while, he found a fridge and took three bottles of water and some soft drinks.
"Found some drinks!" Mirkil asked, he walked towards them and dropped the water bottles and drinks on the table.
"Thanks." Christine took a bottle of water and immediately gulped down half of the bottle.
"Thank you." Acacia stood up and collected a bottle of water, she opened the cap of the bottle and took long sips.
"Welcome but we have to go back out there." Mirkil replied and took a sip from his soft drink.
'Excuse me?'
"There is no way that I will go back out there." Acacia immediately shook her head and set the bottle of water aside.
"I agree, it's too scary." Christine nodded and sat down on a chair.
"It's scary for me too but we have no choice. We can't stay here forever and sooner or later, those things are going to come here or another earthquake happens. We need to head to the Flow Society headquarters and stay there for shelter." Mirkil sighed heavily as he explained.
"How will we get there without getting injured or worse? Their headquarters is a bit far and we would need to run like crazy and neither of us can drive a car to get us there quicker." Acacia pursed her lips, thinking deeply about his idea.
"Then I guess we will have to run like crazy, I don't want to wait around until they come to me. Soon the food here won't be enough and neither would the water and eventually we would have to go out there." Mirkil responded as he gestured towards the door.
'I really don't want to go back out there.'
Acacia and Christine stayed quiet as they glanced at each other with uncertain gazes.
"Look, we can equip ourselves and be very careful, sticking to the wall and defending each other's backs. We also have my healing abilities so everything will be fine as long as we stick together." Mirkil gave them a reassuring smile with a determined gaze.
"Fine, I just hope we get there in one piece and hopefully my parents are there as well." Christine sighed reluctantly.
'I guess we are doing this.'
"Alright, let's go but we need to have a weapon to defend ourselves." Acacia said in a serious tone.
"That's more like it." Mirkil smile brightened and he left to the kitchen, he came back after a few minutes with some kitchen knives and handed each to the girls.
'I will have to stab a monster with this...'
Acacia looked at the knife in her hands and felt a shiver down her spine at the thought.
The trio looked at each other and nodded, Mirkil walked towards the door and shifted the table aside.
"We run on the count of three." Mirkil said as he held the handle of the door and looked at the girls with a serious expression on his face.
Acacia put her phone back inside her bag and hung it on her shoulders, her hands gripping the knife tightly. Christine nodded and Mirkil slowly unlocked the door.
"1...2...3!" Mirkil immediately opened the door and the three of them ran out of the restaurant.