It was the most significant event in history known to humankind. It changed the perspective of not only how we see the world, but how it functions. The first known contact can not be accurately determined. The only thing historians agree on is that the Cataclysm happened in the year 21st century, counting from the old calendar...

Notes from ‘History of Althera’ - Ethan Quinn

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It was the end of spring and the days slowly becoming hotter. The seventeen-year-old Jim Hawk was bored to death and wanted nothing else but to go home. He was a boy like any other, sitting in the classroom with the rest of his class that seemed just as bored as he was.

He had short brown hair, dark blue eyes that resembled the tranquil sea, and a well-trained physique.

*Psss*

“Hey! Jim!” Looking over his right shoulder, Jim saw a boy with short dark hair, dark brown eyes, and a body on the skinnier side smirking at him. That was his best friend, Jake. Rolling his eyes, he whispered back, “What?”

Making sure that no one was listening, he said, “Did you hear that Clay and Lukas are even again?”

Hearing this, Jim rolled his eyes and said, “That competition is so pointless.”

“Yes for you,” corrected Jake before continuing, “For us, it is one of the few exciting things in this godforsaken city. You are just envious that you are that stupid!”

“You fuckin-” Just as Jim was about to curse, he was interrupted by the voice of their teacher, who intervened and asked, “Jim, do you perhaps want to answer the question?”

Startled by the sudden request, Jim stuttered, “Y-Yes, I mean no.” Not questioning him further, the teacher turned back to the blackboard. Seeing this, Jim breathed a sigh of relief, while Jake giggled to himself. Just you wait until class is over.

Ignoring his mocking, Jim looked out of the window. Jake wasn't wrong. He wasn't stupid but couldn't be compared to the likes of Lukas, Clay, or Charlotte. They were the best in class, and he felt all this competition was useless anyway.

Looking at the clear sky, Jim's thoughts began to wander, thinking about all sorts of things. He was torn out of his thoughts when he noticed how a paper ball came flying from the back and hit one of the other students on the head.

Not again. Does he ever get bored by this? There has to be a limit to how stubborn and stupid someone can be.

Turning around, Jim looked at the person he had way too many fights with. The biggest and most annoying person in their whole school. Steven was someone that finds nothing more interesting than dominating and pestering others.

Jim doesn't see himself as a hero or a righteous savior, but he does help where he can. This ended most of the time in a fistfight with Steven and his goons. He lost count of how often they fought, but it seemed like he never got tired of it.

It got to a point where Jim just gave up talking reason into him. He couldn't possibly help everyone who was bullied by him, and they had to learn to stand up for themselves sooner or later anyway.

Returning to the view of the clear sky, Jim began to ponder about the reason why he even had to attend school. His posture was sunken down like a broken old man, while he supported his head with his right hand.

Suddenly, something strange piqued Jim's interest, resulting in him sitting upright and taking a closer look.

What in the world is that? A star shouldn't be visible during the day. More importantly, doesn't this thing get... bigger? Jim rubbed his eyes, thinking that it was an illusion from his tiredness.

Looking at the star again, Jim wasn't even able to react as a blinding white light, drowned his vision and shot over his head, into the distance. It seemed to be ripping the atmosphere into half, barely missing the ground by a few hundred kilometers.

The light was so blinding that it shrouded the whole planet, turning night into day, and for a moment illuminated every visible corner.

Then, just like nothing happened, the sky returned, and the blinding light was nowhere to be seen. It was so fast that Jim questioned if it was even real.

Looking around the room and noticing the confusion of everyone else, he was sure that this wasn't an Illusion, but then what in the world was that? It almost looked like a star or more like a meteor-

Not being able to finish his thoughts, a splitting pain suddenly rushed through every fiber of his body, causing him to scream out loud and lose his balance. Falling to the ground, Jim began to convulse with each of his muscles and twitched on the ground trying to get a hold of the situation.

He stretched his limbs in unnatural angles and tensed every muscle in his body. The pain was comparable to a swarm of flies biting him from head to toe, while the blood in his veins felt like boiling water.

Never before experienced Jim pain comparable to this, and never before was he so helpless. He couldn't keep a thought for longer than a second before it was swept away by a storm of never ending pain.

At some point, the pain slowly receded. Starting from the head and toes, it slowly accumulated in his chest. In a final push, he felt a pain incommensurable to the torture before, a pain so piercing that Jim thought his heart was stabbed a hundred times over by a blazing hot blade.

In the end, a relaxing and soothing feeling remained that reminded Jim of the embrace of his mother, or the comfort of a blanket. After this much pain, this soothing feeling was comparable to heaven and elevated him so much that he thought he could fly.

Taking a moment for Jim to rest, he tried to stand up from his pool of blood. With shaky legs, he slowly stood up, only to immediately fall again. His body felt more or less fine, but the aftereffects of the pain were just too big.

Gritting his teeth, Jim calmed himself. Everything was fine. The pain was gone and he was still alive. Taking a few slow and deep breaths, he tried again.

Slowly standing up, he supported himself on one of the tables and took a careful look around him. Only now did he realize that something was blocking his view.

Rubbing his sleeve over his eyes, Jim was able to see again. Looking at his sleeve, he was startled. Was that blood? Touching his face, Jim noticed that his whole face was smeared in blood, which came most likely from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

Roughly cleaning his face with the help of his sleeves, Jim took a look around the room, and what he saw horrified him. Over half of his classmates seemed to lay dead on the ground, with bloodshot eyes, as the scarlet red decorated the face of each one in the room.

Hearing a sound, Jim turned around and saw how Steven was shakily standing up. Remembering something important, Jim abruptly turned around. He had to know if Jake was doing fine.

Jim didn't have many friends, to be honest, Jake was his only real friend. Looking at the table beside him, he saw how Jake was slowly coming to his senses and also trying to stand up. Seeing this, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Before he could even revel in his relief the window suddenly shattered into hundreds of pieces and Jim abruptly turned around only to see a hawk, way bigger than it was supposed to be, slash with its claws, which resembled daggers, at the closest person.

Steven couldn't even react before he was furiously attacked by the hawk. In seconds his body was littered with slash wounds and Jim could only watch frozen as Steven screamed for his life.

*THYK*

A miserable scream resounded through the room as Steven was fighting like a madman to get the hawk off him, who had just pierced his beak into his eye.

The eye was ripped out of his socket and flew to the feet of one of Jim's classmates, Charlotte. The normally cool and joyful student had a pale and frightened expression on her face.

Almost every student who was able to stand was now frozen in place and fearing for their lives. The scream was just too miserable and an experience Jim would never forget. This was a disaster!

Taking a deep breath, Jim's survival instincts took over, helping him to free himself from his frozen state.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He couldn’t just watch this thing kill all his classmates, he had to do something. To use the chance, while it's distracted, and kill it before it's done with its meal.

Before Jim could act, all hell broke loose and everyone who was still alive and able to stand ran for their life. He wasn't sure who was the first to run but soon after everyone else followed.

It was a huge chaos and in the process, they bumped into one of the girls, which fell backward.

There was a weird sound and when he turned around to investigate, Jim saw how a girl fell on Clay. He had compared to the rest a bit more color on his face.

Though this color didn't stay for long as he stared in the air, with wide open eyes, as he looked shocked at the student on top of him as he pushed her carefully aside.

A pool of fresh, hot blood flowed from the student's chest. She had an expression of disbelief and shock on her face as the life drained from her eyes. She had no power to speak and just collapsed under the weight of her body, lifeless.

Before the student fell, Clay grabbed a broken piece from the shattered window to defend himself and wrapped some of his clothes around it so he wouldn't cut himself.

In the chaos, the girl suddenly fell directly onto him, the shard piercing her heart in one motion. With trembling hands, he quickly put distance between himself and the corpse, mumbling something while holding his head in shock.

Slapping himself, Jim was able to gather his thoughts, You can do this, get it together. I have to first kill this stupid bird above anything else. I need to concentrate. Jake still needs time to recover.

Jim gathered all the courage he could muster, grabbed his chair, and ran to the bird with as much force as he could. He held the chair high above his head and slammed it onto the bird, and then-

*CRASH*

The leg of the chair landed perfectly on the head of the hawk and sent it flying. Without hesitation, he sprinted after it and smashed the chair on the head of the hawk, which lay still dazed from the hit on the ground.

*SPLASH*

It should be dead right?

*SPLASH*

Jim thought he could see it moving for a moment and slammed the chair one last time on the head just to be sure. The head now resembled more of a crushed watermelon than anything else.

Jim felt relieved and could feel how the built-up stress flowed out of his body. He felt energetic, it was almost like he was rejuvenated…

Focusing on this weird energy, Jim felt it rushing through his whole body before it settled somewhere in his chest, no more specifically in his heart.

What the hell is even happening right now?

Still not really able to understand what just happened, Jim took a deep breath and summarized,

There was a strange light in the sky, and afterward, everyone in the classroom collapsed and underwent some sort of transformation where about half died.

After whom knows how long, I came to my senses and slowly stood, only for a hawk that was unusually big to crash through the window of my classroom and kill Steven. Then I smashed its head in, and now I’m here.

Looking down, Jim realized that he was standing in a puddle of blood formed by Steven and the hawk. Seeing the wounds of Steven, his ripped-out eye and the smashed head of the hawk, Jim couldn't help himself. Only now was he calm enough to fully realize what gruesome scene he was standing in.

*TRHOUGH*

With a sound resembling a dying man, Jim vomited everything his stomach held. Taking a moment, for his system to function again, Jim slowly regained his vision which had turned blurry.

Seeing a mixed pile of blood and vomit, Jim had to throw up again. At least he tried to, as every bit of his stomach was already emptied. Closing his eyes, he slowly turned around and opened them again, only to be greeted by his dead classmates. At least that was what he expected.

There were still corpses, but at least not everyone was dead. Somehow, with him, a total of seven people survived this very strange situation. Looking around the room, Jim made sure he didn’t miss anyone:

Our teacher is dead. Max, our class representative, Lukas, Charlotte, Clay, Chris, Jake, and me. The rest are either dead or already fled in the chaos before. I guess I have to see the positive, the smartest people are still alive and Max is a capable leader.

Coming beside Jake, Jim slapped him on the cheek, which abruptly awakened him from his daze.

“OUCH! What the fuck, Jim!?”

Seeing this, Jim couldn’t help but chuckle, “That was for before, have I got your attention now?”

Confused, Jake asked, “What the fuck do you mea-?”

Interrupting his question, Jim pointed behind him where Steven and the hawk lay. Startled by the sudden corpse, Jake hastily crawled back, only to hit his head on the table behind him.

“AHHH!”

“Haha!” Now Jim really couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Infuriated, Jake asked, “What the fuck happened? Why are there corpse-”

Now taking a closer look, Jake saw the gruesome wound on the bodies and swiftly stood up and looked away, only to be greeted by even more corpses who looked like they came straight from a horror movie.

Closing his eyes, Jake panicked and asked, this time with fear hearable in his voice, “J-Jim, what happened here?”

Before he could even answer, Max said, “I want to know this too, Jim. What the actual fuck happened just now?”

Surprised by all the questioning eyes on him, he hastily answered, “How the fuck should I know?! I have no idea what is happening right now. There was this light, then this weird transformation, the hawk, and now we are here.”

“The internet doesn’t work,” before Jim could try to make sense of the situation, Lukas intervened and waved his phone around.

Feeling stupid for forgetting that he could just use his phone, to get answers, Jim quickly grabbed his own. Unlocking it, his excitement soon deflated, as he didn’t have internet either.

Turning to Lukas, a said, “Me neither.”

Directly after, Max added, ”Me too.”

One after the other, everyone checked their phone, only to have the same problem. There was no internet, and it was not slow or just small but completely gone like they were suddenly on the moon.

Trying to cheer everyone up, Charlotte said, “Who cares about the internet? See it as an exciting adventure, finally something happens in this godforsaken city.”

Pouring cold water over here, Max specified, “A deadly adventure. You do realize that each of us could have died just like Steven or one of the others who didn’t survive this transformation, right?”

Soon, everyone engaged in a conversation about what to do, but Jim was distracted by a boy with shoulder-length blond hair and dark green eyes.

Clay was currently lost in thought while staring at the corpse of the girl he killed, which was now covered by a jacked.

Chris was Clay's best friend and had shoulder-length brown hair, which he always tied into a ponytail. He had light blue eyes with a touch of gray in them and was currently trying to say something but didn’t know what. Seeing that he might be able to help, Jim called out, “Clay.”

He didn’t respond.

“Clay!”

Slowly turning his head to him, he asked, “Yeah?”

"It wasn't your fault.”

Nodding his head in Jim’s direction, he was soon lost in thought again. Jim was unsure if this helped but he at least tried. Finishing with this, he turned to the heated discussion of the others.

With his long curly red hair, and bright brown eyes, Max said, “Our priority should be to save everyone we can. If all the teachers are dead, most of the students will be on their own.”

“Are you stupid?” Looking sharply at Max with his light green eyes and short brown hair, Lukas asked, “Do you really think a situation where we know nothing about what is going on is a good time to play hero? You have to think rationally. Just moments ago, some big hawk was trying to slit our throats, so who told you it was only one, huh?”

Max was about to refute him, when Charlotte with her long blonde hair and light blue eyes intervened, “Guys, guys, calm down. We can’t be fighting amongst ourselves.”

Trying to stop them, Jake suddenly said, “Why is it even that silent?” Confused by the statement from Jake, everyone quieted down, and they were able to hear some distant explosions, but not a single sound came from the hallways.

Scratching her head, Charlotte said, “That is weird, it shouldn’t be that silent if they were fighting outside more animals.”

Before anyone could say something, Clay answered with a voice devoid of emotion, “They fled or are dead.”

“How do you know that?” asked Jake with a questioning gaze

“Their screams suddenly piqued like they were suddenly killed. What ever did this is incredibly fast,” replied Clay absent-mindedly.

Pointing to the corpse, Charlotte hesitantly asked, “Are you fine now?”

Slowly nodding his head, Clay said, “Yes, somewhat. I’m still more in shock than anything else, but I at least calmed down to some extent. I will just focus on surviving, which all of us should do.”

Seeing this scene, Max asked, “So are we just going to ignore that he just killed one of our classmates?”

“Max!” Shocked by the plain question from him, Charlotte said, “He didn’t do it on purpose, it was an unfortunate accident, and you know that. I already told you we can’t be fighting.”

Exhaling, Max shook his head. “You are right. I’m still in turmoil with this whole situation.”

“No worries, aren't we all?” Smiling, she said, “As long as we all stick together, I’m sure we will find a solution to this.”

Hearing all this, Jim said, “I think Clay has a point. We have to quickly decide what to do, and our survival is the highest priority right now. We don’t know what waits behind that door, and I think that going to the storeroom should be our first step.”

Lukas asked, “Why do you think so?”

“Simple because it has everything we need. There are things we could use as weapons, rope, flashlights, and most importantly a medic set. If we get injured, we have a big problem, so I think that bandages and medicine are very important.”

Nodding his head in approval, Lukas commented, “That does sound plausible. I agree with the plan, we can’t do anything here after all.”

“Yes, we can’t just sit her around and talk all day,” added Charlotte.

One after one, the group agreed to first go to the storeroom and get some supplies. After packing everything somewhat useful in their backpacks, they made their way to the door and Jim opened a small slit to see through.

The scene on the other side was not something Jim could have imagined in his wildest dreams, and shocked him to his core. If he didn’t empty the contents of his stomach before, he would now.

Slowly closing the door, Charlotte asked, “What is it? Is some animal already waiting?”

Shaking his head, Jim said, “See for yourself.”

Looking through the door, Charlotte was frozen for a moment before she closed the door again, only to vomit in the bin standing beside the door.

I somewhat expected this. But seeing it for myself is completely different. I couldn’t have imagined such a scene… we are really fucked, aren’t we?”