The alarm sounded loud and clear across the yard. Students and teachers alike ran to the safety of their designated classrooms, none had expected to hear the alarm rise so soon after the last attack. The dark clouds in the sky indicated that it wouldn’t be long before the first attack occurred.
Some of the students stood in shock, looking around themselves in total disbelief. Some had only overcome the trauma from the last attack and now the prospect of another one was just too much to take. One such student was kneeling on the gravel, crying his eyes out as the mass of students overtook him on their way to the classrooms. The trial runs they had carried out at the end of every working day had been preparation for this. Lightning struck down from the heavens and smashed into the iron bicycle shed with a resounding crack. Most of the young men were in the safety of the iron doors when it happened, but some were still running from the fields below the yard. As the iron grates shot down across the doors, the remaining students outside veered away towards the other shelters near the back of the grounds.
The lightning showered down on the school with renewed vigour and the students within the building screamed as the resounding crashes echoed throughout the school. The alarm’s tone changed from a loud wail to a series of shrill beeps, indicating the time left before the school went into full lockdown.
As the first shrill beep came to an end, a new sound could be heard to everyone within the walls of the school. To anyone that knew him… Jason was a calm boy that always followed the students around him, he was the type of boy that made friends easily and kept them for life. However at this particular moment all that people saw, was not the quiet boy from their class… they saw a young man screaming in agony, holding a twisted leg at the base of one of the old trees in the schoolyard. Students screamed from within the building, yelling for him to get up. Their attempts were drowned out by the rapid beeps sounding across the grounds.
_________________________________________________________________
Jason lifted his head from the rough gravel and opened his eyes, only to be partially blinded by a searing flash of light that struck the ground in front of him. Jason never saw his friends screaming out to him, and he never heard their pleas, he died on the gravel of the schoolyard with a broken leg and burning hole through his chest. Teachers leaned against the walls, they were past mediating the panicking students… now was the easy part of the routine, taking names and adding absentees as statistics. Statistics of the most recent death toll, statistics that would become even more dire as the night progressed.
A low hum from outside could be heard as the latest beep silenced itself. Some students crept away from the windows, wanting the terror to stop. It was quickly becoming a grade four attack. Gary looked around towards the teacher, only to find him sitting underneath his desk, rocking back and forth.
The young man sighed before he turned back to the rest of the class, “Guys, get down from the windows…when it happens, you don’t want to aggravate them.”
Some of the students stopped their screaming and turned towards the Gary, some with looks of confusion, others held looks of contempt. A newer student to the school was the first to answer, “You…you’ve seen this happen before?” his voice shook slightly and Gary noticed his hand gripping the side of the desk tightly.
Smiling humourlessly, Gary turned his back to the young men and instead looked towards the cowering teacher. “I was here for the second raid, my parents enrolled me in this school as it was one of the three that survived the first raid.”
A large crash outside indicated that the bicycle shelter had given way to the torrents of lightning. Just as heads started to turn to look back outside, Gary spoke again. “Most of you here have only seen the drills and the procedures, most of you probably thought it was over cautious and foolhardy…but this is the reality of it all.”
The young sandy haired man pointed out into the yard where trees had caught flame from the downpour of lightning. “We are currently living within a dead spot, some of you may have heard of these on the television. The government has realised that there are certain locations around the country that are subject to spiritual attacks. So instead of alerting the public…they decide to issue quarantines.” Gary said as he sat in a plastic chair.
One of the braver students chose his words carefully, “If what you’re saying is true, how did your parents know to send you here…and what does all this mean, spiritual? I don’t understand…What is going on here?”
Gary took a steady breath and glanced outside into the now darkened sky. It was only five in the evening, but the darkness outside hinted otherwise. “My parents barely survived the first raid. Seeing as it was several years ago, nobody really paid that much attention to it, and discounted any spiritual speculation. They always worried about me, and wanted me to be safe, so they enrolled me here. This school was one of the only structures left intact after the first raid.”
The student took a breath before he cut Gary off, “Look, I know what you’re saying, but you said raid… the attack all those years ago was an air raid! It was all over the news that a small air base got its calculations wrong and it resulted in a lot of homes being destroyed. People moved from the area and others were reimbursed. What are you talking about raids for?”
Gary got to his feet, “Obviously, I’m not explaining this very well. Maybe this will change your opinion!”
All of a sudden, Gary’s hand shot out and grabbed the scruff of the student’s neck before pulling him towards the window. The remainder of the students in the class huddled back towards the wall, whimpering for their loved ones, each one more scared than the next.
Gary was smiling now, a smile that showed no happiness. “Watch and learn, this is the part where you start learning what reality really is…”
The alarm cut off abruptly as an explosion sounded from the right wing of the school. Teachers rushed to the area, some with rifles strapped across their backs, most of them had seen what the raid was capable of and none were keen on taking any chances.
Back in the classroom, Gary held onto the struggling boy as he pressed his face against the cool glass…waiting for the lighting to strike one more time. “If any of you are squeamish, I suggest you keep your eyes away from the window!” Gary spat as he took his eyes from the window and met the gaze of the petrified student in his grasp.
As the lightning shot down again, the yard was momentarily illuminated. The struggling boy looked out towards the yard as it lit up and Gary held on tightly as he screamed his lungs out. “Doesn’t look too much like an air raid, does it?” Gary asked to the boy who hyperventilated on the spot.
The hulking creature in the yard slammed a clawed foot into the gravel and cracked the concrete beneath.
“The lightning weaves together to make a portal… that’s how they get here, you think this is scary?” Gary asked the petrified boy. The boy nodded his head vigorously as he tried to look anywhere but the window.
Gary released his grip on him and rubbed his tired hand. The boy fell to his knees and struggled to breath, all the while trying to avoid the window. Gary turned his back to the window as he walked over to his schoolbag. “If you want to know the scariest thing about all of this, look outside again…”
The once brave student got back to his feet, rubbing his neck he slowly turned around to look outside. The next flash that lit up the yard showed over a dozen of the hulking behemoths, each one approaching the school. But what was even scarier than that was what happened after the yard was plunged into darkness…
The sound of thunder ripped through the night as the last streak of lightning shot down from the heavens. The brave boy nearly screamed as the yard was illuminated once again… there was nothing there.
As the boy opened his mouth to speak, the sound of iron being torn screeched through the night. The boy’s question went unanswered as Gary spoke, “That would be the door on the left wing…”
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