Doomsday High Chapter Two: Introductions [UNEDITED]

I woke up after another black-out. Rena was beside me, and lots of other people were anxiously waiting for me to come around. I got up, looking at them one by one. All of them were unfamiliar but their gazes showed friendliness and concern.

“My head hurts and I don’t know anyone. How am I supposed to recover?” I asked myself, rhetorically.

It took me a moment to assess the situation – we were all safe: me, Ryan, Squall, Rena, Carlo and Annabel – and I was lying on a really comfortable couch in the middle of what seemed to be a wide living area.

“We’re in the T.V room,” Squall informed me.

I propped myself up to a sitting position, looked around, and noticed that there were actually three sofas in this room, sitting close to each other. In the middle was a round glass table and on top of it was a first-aid kit. Beyond the couches was a 70” plasma T.V which was suspended in mid-air with the aid of a really thin chain. The walls were colorful and filled with drawings of characters from Japanese cartoons. Fifty-one doors circled the whole room, with the largest standing right beside where two huge built-in bookshelves stood. It was a gateway to a battlefield.

I looked at the floor and saw that it was made of see-through glass. Below the glass was a wide collection of stuff toys.

“Gay, isn’t it?” A dark-skinned guy asked me. His hair heavily glossed with gel and it stood up in a way that it made him look like a shark. His accent told me he was from Asia. Probably from a country in the Southeast.

“Shut up, Dave,” another girl told him. This one had straight hair and was fair-skinned. She had big eyes and long, thick eyelashes. She was a midget but she looked really cute.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll shut up,” Dave snapped at her.

“Uhm… Guys… Wouldn’t it be better if we introduced ourselves first?” A tall girl with fair skin and long, dark, curly hair told them. She looked at me and grinned, “I’m Bernie. Bernadette Ferrardo actually. But please just call me Bernie.”

“Ken,” I told her. “Ken Takanashi.”

“Welcome to the family,” Bernie said as she took my hand and shook it gratifyingly.

“I’m Patty Denise!” The midget told me. “Welcome to Section 12.”

“I’m Dave Zentamir,” The dark haired guy stated, folding his arms across his chest as a sign of authority.

Next on the line was another girl with long, straight hair and yellowish skin. She stood up from the couch to my right. She also had big eyes and long eyelashes. Her cheeks were pink and puffy. She was extremely thin. “I’m Cristine Weathers.”

As she sat down, the girl beside her stood up. This one had waist-length hair and olive skin. She had twinkling, coal-black eyes and she was hugging a stuffed toy. “I’m Roni.”

“Veronica Gale,” Dave said, rolling his eyes.

“Shut up, Dave,” Roni told him. Apparently, they loved telling him to shut up.

Roni beckoned another girl who was sitting on the couch across her to stand up. This one had light olive skin, round eyes, a button nose and small lips. She was adorable and rowdy at the same time.

“My name’s Angela,” She said, looking at me. “I prefer to be called ‘Jay’.”

“She’s C and Belle’s little sister,” Squall told me. “It’s not obvious since she’s taller than the both of them. She’s your senior but she’s only 14 in mortal terms. She was immortalized at 13.”

“Cool,” I said.

The boy standing behind Jay looked at me. He had big round eyes and tan skin. His face was cursed with pimples and his black hair, lifeless without the gel, spiked downwards.

“Jeck,” he said. “Jeck Maroon.”

“Moron,” Jay jerked in a joking tone.

“Whatever,” he retorted before turning around and pulling a PSP out of the trouser pocket.

“Is that everyone?” Squall asked them.

“Not yet!” Another girl shouted. She practically emerged from nowhere. She had a thin layer of black-brown hair with white highlights, tan skin, big eyes and a petite frame. “My name’s Ivy. Ivy Randall.”

“Now is that everyone?” Squall asked again.

“Yes,” Carlo confirmed before looking towards me. “Call me ‘C, okay?”

I nodded.

“I’ve told Rena what you already know,” Ryan said to me. “So now let’s move on to what you both are completely clueless about – the grades. Everyone in this school must have the best grades mankind could ever imagine. If you Ace a test, it means more supplies to your section. Supplies are materials… blades… gunpowder… bullets… anything that could help you in the killing spree. You two haven’t been given a regular test so we’ll have to create a weapon for you two from scratch. It’s the same for every freshman in this school.

“Aside from supplies, good grades come with a bonus. That is, you could get anything you want when you want them. If you want a PS Vita, ace a test and it’s in your hands.

“You can get good grades if you avoid getting done in. The main reason why you’re hunted down is to lighten the competition. Like I said earlier, if you ‘die’, you won’t be able to lay a finger on anyone or your lessons for a whole week. That’s more than enough to pull you behind.

“The only places where ‘killing’ isn’t permitted are the clinic, the library annex, the classrooms, and the dorms. Everywhere else is unsafe. Of course, the training course is the most suitable area for a good challenge, but it is bounded by rules.

“Number one, it could only be used at the right schedule, which is noon. By then, students of every section are required to attend a face-off of their representatives. However, getting done in while inside the course doesn’t count. You’ll be resurrected and you won’t have to be suspended.

“Number two, once the training course is off-limits, you are not allowed to use it as an area for a killing spree. If you do this, you’ll be disqualified,” Ryan’s look turned serious for a moment. “The same rule applies to all the places where killing sprees are abolished.”

“Disqualification is a nasty thing,” Squall said. “Five of our former members have been disqualified. It’s the main reason why most of the quarters are unoccupied.”

“Moving on,” Ryan stated, clearing his throat. “Once you are a student in this school, you are immediately immortalized. If  your section fails to accomplish a year, you’ll all have to repeat it since you have all the time in the world to do so.

“Our parents were once students of Doomsday High, and it is a requirement that we, their children, attend this school,” Ryan paused for a moment, as if waiting for a question or a reaction from me and Rena.

“Why didn’t they tell me anything?” I asked myself. “That they were immortals. That Doomsday was a school I had to attend. They should have prepared me for all of this.”

“They probably didn’t want you to back out,” Squall told me. “Doomsday High is a really good school, if you put aside the killing sprees, that is.”

“But they should have told me something in the least,” I said.

“Maybe there were things that are better known later than sooner,” Rena told me as she held my hand. “Maybe during the break, you could ask them.”

“I guess,” I whispered to her.

“Love bugs,” I heard Annabel mutter from behind me.

“Cooties,” C whispered in a sing-song tone.

“Moving on,” Squall continued. “The schedule is arranged so that there are only two sections running around the school at a certain period of time. That way, killings are more challenging. Tomorrow, our Section’s schedule collides with Section 1’s.

“The Schedule works in a way that once you’re out of the classroom, you could meet up with your seniors and team up with them before going to your next class. It’s going to be tough. Teacher’s won’t give a crap if you come in late after a killing spree,” Squall chuckled. “They behave as if nothing bad is happening. Heck, they won’t even care if their students are covered in blood.”

“Is everything clear now?” Squall inquired.

I nodded before looking at my ankle. The gauze had been replaced but the pain was still there, albeit not as sharp as earlier.

“It’s 1am. We all need to sleep. School starts at 10 for all of us tomorrow,” Roni said. “By the way, Ken. Your quarter is that door.”

Roni pointed towards the first door to the right of bookshelves. I murmured a thanks to her as Ryan helped me up and supported me once more. I used my good leg to propel me forward, hoping that I wasn’t heavy for the seemingly malnourished guy.

I took the privilege of opening the door since, to state the obvious, the quarter belonged to me. The knob felt cold and it had a lot of dust on it, as if it hadn’t been touched for years. The door swung open easily and I was greeted by perfume and a really narrow walkway.

We went through the walkway slowly. Once we got to the end, the air changed. For the most part, it was much colder and more welcoming.

 To my surprise the room was fairly huge, but it had the same familiar atmosphere I knew – home.  On the center of the room was a small, well-made bed with white sheets. Beside the bed was another door – probably the bathroom. The floorboards were made of mahogany and the walls were decorated with paintings. On the left side was a bean chair, a 32” plasma TV, an Xbox 360 and a PS3. Next to the TV was a huge shelf filled with books and video games. On the right side of the room was a table which was armed with reference materials, school supplies and a laptop. Sitting in  front of it was an office chair.

I limped to the bed and collapsed on it, allowing my body to rest on its softness.

“This place is great,” I whispered as Ryan hovered above me.

“We could do some modifications if you like,” He informed me. “This place is yours, after all.”

“No,” I told him. “It’s perfect just the way it is.”

“Okay then. Rest well,” I heard him say as I shut my eyes. The door slammed shut and I was alone once again.

I let my consciousness drift slowly into a dark abyss, hoping that this was not a dream. I had met a bunch of people I liked so much that I didn’t want to leave.

My eyes fluttered open to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I sat up and searched for a clock, pressing a head on my temple upon realization that there was none. I laid back down on the bed, its softness deterring me from acknowledging the knocks.

“Ken. It’s time to wake up,” I heard Ryan say.

My foot was aching in pain again.

“I’m up!” I yelled at the door.

I hefted myself off the bed, not bothering to arrange its now-wrinkled covers. I sighed as I limped forward, my feet protesting with every step. I dropped to the floor and the sudden impact resulted in a loud bang. I winced and rolled on my back to ease the pain.

I heard the door click open and a few hurried steps before Ryan and Squall entered my vision. “You okay, kid?” They both asked, simultaneously.

“Does it look like I’m okay to you?” I told them before a groan escaped my lips.

“Jesus help us,” Ryan muttered, doing the sign of the cross. I looked at him, puzzled. He was staring at my foot.

I managed to help myself up to a sitting position and looked at the gauze that was wrapped around my ankle. It wasn’t stained with blood. What horrified me was that it was green – which meant that the wound had gone worse.

“Your wound’s infected,” Squall shook his head. “Damn blade must’ve been poisoned. We need to get you to the clinic.”

“What about my suitcase? I need to retrieve it,” I told them.

“C and Belle could fetch it for you. Those two like to look around the lost and found,” Ryan told me. “Of course, that won’t stop them from encountering an enemy section so—they’ll be risking their lives for it.”

“They’re going to risk their lives for a suitcase?” I asked, raising a brow.

“Technically, yes” Ryan said. “Now come on. You’re going to miss breakfast. You need to eat quickly. We’ve also got to do something about that wound of yours.”

Ryan and Squall helped me up. It was Squall’s turn to carry me. I grimaced at the thought that I had to depend on someone in a school where survival is the first and foremost option.

I was led to the living room once more. Ryan grabbed a remote-looking object sitting on the center table and pointed it towards the two huge bookshelves. He let his eyes rest on the right shelf and smiled as it sank down, revealing another room –the dining area – behind it.

“Secret passages,” I whispered in a blunt tone. “Nice.”

Squall almost lifted me as he made a step towards the room. It seemed to take forever before we made it inside.

The dining area was fairly wide as. There was a long banquet set in the middle, and most of the seats were unoccupied. Hoisted above the banquet was a really expensive-looking chandelier. It was suspended by a golden chain which was connected to a glass panel that restricted another band of stuff toys from falling onto the table. On the right side of the room was a huge air conditioner.

I took a seat next to Rena. Dave was sitting on his “throne” in the center of the banquet, behaving like he was the president. He landed jokes on everyone. He hadn’t even touched his food. Annabel was munching on her bacon while C joined in the hullabaloo. Bernie was singing something random – she was singing a  biography of everyone in the room. Ryan and Squall took a seat close to me before they too began creating a ruckus.

Rena laughed as Roni told her a crude joke. I nearly gagged. To state the obvious, they were throwing green jokes across the table and none of them seem to mind.

Ivy and Cristine were too busy laughing at Dave who threw punch lines at Squall. The poor guy knew that the joke was on him, but he seemed quite unaffected. In fact, he laughed his butt off like a crazy old loon. Jay threw peas at Jeck whose attention was consumed by his PSP.

“Uhm… Guys,” Ryan stated, worry straining his voice. “Ken’s wound is infected.”

The dining area suddenly fell silent, with only Jeck’s PSP beeping away as his fingers rammed against the buttons on the said device. However, the silence was short-lived.

“How about amputation?” Annabel suggested, looking at me with a sadistic little smile. “With no pain killers.”

“I’ve been considering amputation, but the infection might be spreading. For all we know, it could’ve reached half of his body but the morphine’s preventing him from feeling most of the pain,” Squall told her calmly, as if the girl wasn't threatening to torture me. “Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not familiar with drugs and their effects.

“None of us are familiar with anything related to that matter either. But if it is spreading, then it must be progressing slowly. Look, he’s still standing,” Bernie said. “If the infection was that bad, he would have gotten done in by now.”

“Maybe I got done in overnight,” I suggested, popping a bacon into my mouth.

“No… If you got done in, you’ll be lying in the clinic without our knowledge,” Bernie told me. “Anyone who gets… uhm… killed… is retrieved there. We don’t know how it happens… It must be some sort of magic. Regardless of where a person dies, they always end up in the clinic.”

“I see,” I told her.                    

                             

“Either way, we’ll have to send you there so that the nurse could check on your wound properly,” Bernie said.

“Why don’t we go there now?” I asked them.

“Because while we’re dining here, Sections 2 and 5 are out there on a killing spree,” Ryan informed me with a warning tone. “The least we could do is finish eating and give you a first-aid treatment before preparing for classes. Some of us could even skip our first classes and take you there. However, we would risk getting caught up in a brawl with Section 5 and 10.”

“Look. It’s not like we’re going to let you get done in on us,” Roni told me. “You’re lucky. Other sections are strict. The seniors don’t give a crap about what’s happening to their new recruits.”

“Trust us, Ken,” Ivy said. “It’s not because we have a bunch of weird people in our section doesn’t mean we’re not being honest with you. What you see is what we are. Sooner or later, you’ll become someone different and we’ll learn to accept that.”

“This school does things to your head,” Annabel said. “So don’t be surprised if you develop a second nature. Eat up and stop worrying. We’re wasting precious time.”

“Squall and I would accompany you to the clinic,” Ryan reminded me. “C and Belle would retrieve your suitcase.”

“I need to go with them,” I told him. “It’s my property. It’s my fault I lost it. At least let me go with them before we head to the clinic.”

“Hell no,” Annabel protested, slamming her bandaged left fist against the table. “You could barely even stand up and you’re volunteering to assist us? What are you? Suicidal or something?”

“I’ll accompany you to the clinic,” Rena told me. “Squall gave me two guns to use at my disposal. I’m armed.”

“I’ll go with Belle,” Roni informed them. “I’m not gonna let my doll get tangled up in a mess she’s not supposed to be in.” She winked at Annabel who, in turn, cringed at her gesture.

I nudged Ryan on the side of his stomach with my elbow. “Is she--?”

“Roni’s a little bit into girls,” Ryan said. “Only a little… I think… She has a boyfriend in Section 11.”

“Isn’t that kind of rough for her?” I asked.

“No… They support each other quite well,” Ryan mused.

“That’s awesome,” Rena breathed. She startled me a little but Ryan’s voice was high-pitched for a man and it wasn’t easy for him to lower it, so she probably overheard the conversation. She continued, “I mean… They’re out to kill each other yet they love each other. It sounds a little cliché but it’s cute.”

My head shot up to the sound of a chair being pushed backward. Annabel stood up and gave me a good glare before moving towards the opening which led to the living room. I noticed that both her hands were wrapped in bandages. I sank back in my seat. That kid scares me to bits.

Dave whistled before standing up. “That’s her signal. Let’s stop wasting time. Finish your meals and get out of here before Belle chases us around with her chainsaw.” He looked at me. “She can’t kill us but she’ll end up hurting one of us anyway.”

I didn’t think twice in lifting myself off my chair, though doing so only made me fall backward. In the end, I could practically picture myself splayed painfully and motionlessly on the floor. I couldn’t move. I was practically pinned.

In the next few seconds, Rena was by my side. She draped my right arm over her shoulder, then with all the force and strength she could muster, heaved me up to a standing position. I had to lay my weight on her, which was very embarrassing. I took the chance to look at her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed in worry and concentration. Before I even noticed, Squall had taken my other arm and they both maneuvered me out of the dining hall and into the TV room.

I was appalled when I saw Annabel kneeling in front of the center table, preparing the supplies with her wounded hands.

She was humming a random song. A rare smile grazed her face. She seemed like a different person, now that her mood had lightened but her very presence still shook me.

“You’ve prepared them,” Squall said, calmly.

Annabel nodded and lowered her head. She stood up as Squall and Rena placed me on the couch. They held me like I was a fragile package waiting to be delivered. My ankle was screaming in pain and I gritted my teeth to hopefully get rid of the pain, even for a short moment.

I nearly jolted when Annabel started unwrapping the gauze around my ankle. I sank back and heaved a sigh of relief. She was still humming as her fingers carefully untangled the green-stained bandages. I could see the way her face shifted with disgust once the wound was uncovered. I didn’t know if it was out of panic or shock, but Annabel dropped the thick layer of cloth and ran off without a word.

I managed to get a good view of the bandages from my perspective and I wanted to scream out. The bandages had maggots roaming around the end.

“This is far worse than I had expected,” Squall muttered to no one in particular.

“What the hell did they put on that blade?” Ryan asked as he hovered beside me. His eyes were downcast, staring at the bandages as he stepped furiously on the maggots.

Jay huddled to my side, seemingly hearing the ruckus. She had a shocked and worried look on her face, but her attention wasn’t on me. It was on the ground as well.

She glanced at Ryan who was too busy rummaging the first aid kit. She shook her head and yelled, “Goddamn it Ryan! We need to take him to the clinic now. We can’t risk watching him get done in on us now! Even if the poisoned blade was the cause, the first examination is already through. He’ll be suspended for a week.”

“The wound’s not spreading. It’s eating him from the inside,” Ryan told her. “It won’t kill him but we might have to resort to amputation, just like Belle had suggested.”

“Which is why we need to get him to the clinic now,” Jay snapped back at him, matter-of-factly. “Any damage to the body can’t be healed unless you die, but the clinic might be able to do something to lessen the complications.”

My head suddenly started spinning. My left leg felt numb. I couldn’t see my left foot from my current angle, but I could tell that the wound was horrid. The bandages were practically describing it for me.

Ryan lifted my left foot up, and I closed my eyes to ease the sudden pain. I hollered out and practically yelled at him to drop my foot.

“How are we gonna take him there? He might get killed,” Squall said.

“Grandfather,” Jay hinted before glancing at me with a smirk.

****

Bernie made me drink pain killers before re-bandaging my foot. Then Squall gave me a pistol to arm myself with. Ryan used the remote-looking device and used it to open the left bookshelf so that he could drag out a wheelchair.

Bernie decided to tag along so that she could have “some fun”.

It turns out that Bernie uses a unique type of bomb for a weapon. It came in the form of paper cranes. Once they made contact with another person, they would explode. I asked her how she made them but she never told me a thing.

Rena had an M16 on her sleeves but Squall said that she’ll have to replace it with a more unique weapon soon since Section 12 was ‘different’.

It took a lot of work for them to maneuver the wheelchair all the way up to the first floor. I was just enjoying the view. 

After moments of pushing and heaving, we were cascading down unexplored hallways in a wretched attempt to get to the clinic before this wound takes my life away.

It wasn’t long before we encountered students from Section 10 and 5. A few of them took notice of our small escapade and didn’t have second thoughts on finishing us while we were vulnerable.

Bernie busied herself by throwing paper cranes toward interested attackers. I watched in plain eagerness as the cranes clung to a victim’s cloth before transforming them into a small pile of powdered ashes.

Rena seemed to have more difficulties. The M16 was a little too heavy for her and she had to bear its weight while shooting her targets.

I recognized the boy with heavy Hispanic accent as he charged towards me with two cutters. Squall handed me over to Ryan so that he’d go head-to-head with the lad. We continued to run.

There was blood everywhere, but none of the students seemed to have “died” yet. Unable to hold back, I aimed my pistol at an unwary brunette who had successfully beheaded her attacker. I pulled the trigger and fired.

Head shot. She dropped down. Dead.

I looked at Squall who was still busy stabbing the Hispanic boy mercilessly. I opened my mouth to tell him to stop.

“The more gruesome the better,” Ryan told me before pushing me forward.

We weren’t moving fast enough. Before we even knew it, another girl had Ryan’s right hand nailed to the wall with a pair of scissors. She was green-eyed and ginger haired. I jerked back before aiming my pistol at her, but a boy pinned my hand and ceased my gun, rendering me unarmed and vulnerable.

He had only began to laugh when Bernie’s paper crane took him by surprise and blew him to smithereens.

I took a look at Ryan whose right hand was still nailed to the wall. His face contorted in pain as the girl pushed the scissors deeper into his palm. In the spur of the moment, two blades were jabbed straight into her head, piercing right through it – one protruded through her forehead, the other through her mouth.

Squall was holding her by the hair. He had used his actual weapon – a gigantic pair of scissors.

He grinned at me before he used his foot to slam the girl to the wall just so that he could take back his scissors. He broke her neck in the process and the bones cut their way through her flesh. He flung her to the ground like she wasn’t even human.

I suddenly recalled Annabel’s words.

“This school teaches you to become what you least expect to be – a monster.”

The words echoed in my head like some sort of warning. Even as we took off entered a more peaceful hallway, her voice sent chills down my spine.

The hallway was intriguingly empty.  It was provided with elevators for our use.

Ryan hurried towards the nearest one and jammed the “down” button with a bloody fist. We had to wait for a few seconds before a bell rang and the elevator doors opened. We hurried inside the cramped area. The elevator doors shut automatically and we were transported to the first floor.

Squall took hold of the wheelchair before we scrambled out of the elevator. The clinic was hidden by a gallery of empty hallways, but it didn’t take long before we eventually found it.

The wide expanse of medicine-scented walls encompassed me. Most of the beds were already occupied. The casualties were concealed by curtains. For a moment I wondered what it felt like to be dead, but my head kept darting back to my wound that I found it hard to ponder.

I looked around and caught sight of the British girl Annabel sawed into half yesterday evening. She looked at me and lowered her head. She was sitting on a bed close to the entrance. The one next to her was vacant so Ryan pushed me towards it.

Across the British girl, partially hidden by the curtains as he laid unconscious on the bed, was the Hispanic boy from earlier. His body had gone back to normal, which was both uncanny and relieving.

To his left was little miss ginger who had nailed Ryan with a pair of scissors. She was also unconscious and unscathed. The “patients” next to her were too obstructed by the curtains so I couldn’t see any of them.

Ryan parked the wheelchair while Squall and Rena lifted me on the bed.

Bernie went off to call the nurse. The said person was busy scribbling notes on the farthest side of the clinic.

My foot seemed heavy. Moving it was impossible. Simply trying to do so brought a huge amount of pain to my upper leg even though I had pain killers in my system.

“What happened to him?” The British girl asked, concern straining her voice.

“None of your business,” Rena retorted sharply. “Psycho.”

“Rena… It’s okay,” Squall reassured her. “We’re inside a clinic. No one’s out to kill each other.”

“My name’s Arthuria Coldwell,” The girl said, looking at me. “Student Body President.”

A short silence ensued.

“I’m really sorry about the rope and the attempted ‘killing’. I just had to do it. You were all easy targets at that time. I was waiting for the right chance to bring at least one of you down,” she said. “It’s for the top students list, okay? I don’t want to be an enemy. I just want to stay on top.”

“Section 3 is the section with the most number of students. They have been on the top student’s list for three years in a row since Arthuria became student body president,” Squall explained to me. “They’re clinging tightly to that position.”

“This school is all about competition,” Arthuria said. “There are rules to follow while you’re in the classroom, but once you’re out, you make the rules.”

“This… school… is… nuts,” I told her between pants.

I was rather surprised when the nurse huddled next to her and gave me the same worried expression. The nurse’s eyes scanned me profusely before it landed on my left ankle. She gracefully undid the bandages and gasped.

Arthuria’s attention also darted towards my ankle and she covered her lips to prevent the words that might just come out of it.

Rena looked at me worriedly and I gazed into her eyes to read the message behind them, but there was none. She was speechless.

“Crap,” Ryan murmured, loud enough for anyone close by to hear.

The nurse went towards the cubicles and came back with a syringe that had a needle readily attached to it and a small glass bottle. She dipped the needle  it into a bottle and allowed it to absorb as much of the liquid inside it. Then she walked towards me and jabbed the needle into my arm, injecting the liquid intravenously. I thought about the purpose of the liquid as it flowed into my bloodstream. I only realized that it was an anesthetic when black clouds invaded my vision and I was slowly lulled to sleep.