Apocalypse: The Beginning of the End

Chapter III: The First Strike

Apollo Drakos

We ran out. A lot of kids were running here and there in panic. A few moments later, it was a catastrophe. It was shaking. I was pretty sure there was no earthquake like this. It was off the scale. The building began to collapse.

I ran here and there, I heard people screaming so loudly, that the screams themselves scared me. As I was running, the ceiling fell off.

"PHOENIX!" I cried as I continued to run. "MELISSA!"

There was no response at all, but the continual of screams from people. The floor beneath me crumbled as I ran to save myself, but then I got blocked by bricks on one side.

I fell down with the debris. And on top of that, a chair fell on top of my head, and it felt like my head was split into two. Well, not exactly on top, or I would be dead, but it did go through the side.

I saw a girl stuck painfully between a table and a chair and she was screaming and crying for help, but I couldn't save her, she was too far away from me. I'd never reach her in time. And then I saw her body giving up as she fell through the rubble. I peeked into the hole and saw her body down there, scratched and bleeding all over. I quickly moved away from there

Then a part of the ceiling tore off and began falling. It fell just as I managed to get away from it, but then the floor began to crumble further and I fell onto a chair. I looked at my chest. It was bleeding badly, but it was so dark, I could barely see anything.

"HELP!" I cried.

But no help came. I got off the chair, limping now, because my leg was bleeding. The place was blocked in, like in a closed cave.

Then I tried pushing one of the sides open, but all that happened was something fell in.

"Melissa?" I said.

She was in pain. I pulled her out of there (with difficulty).

She groaned, but she wasn't so badly hurt. To be honest, neither was I. But the ground was still shaking a little and we had to get away from here as fast as possible.

"Melissa, can you hear me?" I said.

"Yes, yes, I can hear you fine," she said, bumping into me. I felt that tingle from her, but there was pain too.

She pushed the thing that was blocking us. Did I tell you how immensely strong she was? Yeah, she was strong and brave.

Anyways...

She managed to open it, but with great difficulty.

It was raining. The crowd outside was watching. I joined them too, but I barely noticed there was no earthquake from where we were standing. All I cared about was Phoenix now. I could not see him anywhere since the earthquake began and that was when I was too busy taking care of myself.

"Phoenix!" I cried. "Where are you?"

But there was no sign of him.

"Where is he?" said Melissa.

Then I noticed a body on the ground, about five meters away from the school ruin. It was Phoenix.

"Wake up!" I said, running over to him. "Come on!"

He did.

"Wha-?" he said, looking around.

"You passed out," I said. "Can you walk?"

He stood up.

"Yes, I can," he said.

"Come," I said. "Let's go home."

We dropped Melissa to her home and then went home ourselves. To our surprise, Dad was already waiting there.

"Dad-" I began, but he interrupted.

"Come in, quickly!" said Dad, breathlessly. He never usually cared about what time we arrived, because he was usually at work at this hour. We entered and sat on the sofa.

This was unusual.

"I have to get back to work," he said.

"Dad, wha-" Phoenix began, but Dad cut him off.

"It's the machines that we have been making, especially at our company are malfunctioning. Yes, Apollo, it is the machines. Unless I am very much mistaken, the so-called earthquake was caused because of them. I'll explain more later. I have to go to work for longer hours and fix this quickly. Do not leave the house unless I ask you to. That is essential. Schools in this region will closed until further notice, so stay at home and stay safe. I might have to work overnight. Where's my bag?"

"Dad- wait," I said.

He didn't say anything. He just picked up his bag and left, saying, "Stay safe, kids! Don't go out!"

"He already knows," said Phoenix. "Did you notice everyone's face in the class today? Except Elias of course, he was just a boulder."

I nodded, ignoring the last part, even though I hated him too. It looked like they had seen similar things that we had.

"Let's heal ourselves," I said, pointing at the first-aid kit.

"What was that, though?" said Phoenix. "How can a machine cause earthquakes?"

"I don't know any machine designed for an earthquake," I said. "But unexpected things will come our way now. We must be ready."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know how Dad said that we might have to space travel?"

"Yeah?"

"That's locked in now. There's no turning back. I don't know when it will start, but it will, soon."

Phoenix looked at me in horror.

"The alternative being?" he said.

"Death," I said, looking away from him, staring at the horizon.

But little did we know, our lives would never bethe same after that.