The Encroacher's Trilogy: Dystopia (COMPLETED)

Chapter 15

Aldo was the first to lose his sanity.
He started to howl with the sirens and Dr Wyse grovelled on the ground and bawled like a child.
It came to my attention that she was in more danger protecting me than I was stuck inside; while everyone else on the other hand could get to a shelter.
I looked out of the classroom window (that wasn't able to open) to see what was happening. I was in as much danger as everyone else so I at least had the right to know where the bombers were. At first I saw nothing through the thick canopy of leaves... but then the wind blew the leaves aside like a parting and I saw a horrific sight.
Thousands of black birds were in a formation in the sky flying over our village.  At first I thought they were black birds, until hundreds of tiny black specks fell from them.

Bombs.

They fell faster than the speed of gravity. They fell what seemed faster than the speed of light, because all too soon I felt tremors under my feet.

And it wasn't an earthquake.

Dr Wyse became so distressed I saw her out the window. Wait...
"DR WYSE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
She flailed her arms in the air as if she had no mentality and ran into the village.

Another bomb fell.

I could sense it was at the end of the street. The bombers were moving fast and I knew I was no longer safe.
I was in the kill zone.
I ran to the door and desperately tried to make the barricade fall.
Nothing worked and I could feel my conscience slip into insanity.
I tried again and again, pushing, shoving, using objects, throwing, heaving- but all I could do was break the glass. That was one thing, but there was no way I could get through without hurting Aldo or myself.

With injuries where would we be?
Dead; faster than you could say 'shelter'.

***

I slid down the wall and summoned tears. They weren't tears of sadness but tears of frustration.
How the hell was I meant to be safe in a kill zone? Nowhere was safe with the exception of the bomb shelters!

I cried in anguish and threw the fire extinguisher across the corridor.
It temporarily flew threw the air before impacting and making a dint on the wall.

The fire extinguisher.

I didn't know why it hadn't occurred to me before but I was grateful for the brainstorm at that precise moment.
With great difficulty, I heaved the fire extinguisher onto my shoulders and made my way into Dr Wyse's classroom. I looked longingly at the window and charged.
It shattered into a thousand pieces.

***

Fragments of the window littered the gravel outside of the school and I knew that injury was inevitable. I climbed out first and splintered my hands and knees on shards of the glass before calling Aldo to jump into my arms.
He obeyed the command and I hurriedly carried him out of harm's way. Side by side, Aldo and I ran into the village to not head for the shelter, but to find Noah.

***

The sight was inflammatory to the eyes.
The village had already been hit and bodies of fallen neighbours littered the ground. Dr Wyse was amongst those bodies.
It was the first time for me to hear the marchers in distress, however this was a different kind of noise because everyone was panicked to get to safety.
There was even a large crowd to get into the bomb shelter.

Single file! Single file!

It was too painful to watch the lack of organisation and I couldn't even stop to help because I had to find Noah.
A girl of around 5 years old approached me with a grazed face. She must have fallen over for she clutched her leg in tears.
"Where's mama?" She cried and I looked around to find two bodies on their fronts underneath the rubble. I crouched down and held her petite hands, "Safe now," I said softly to calm her; before standing up and carrying on with my search. It was awful to just leave her there, but at least she didn't understand her parents were dead.
"Safe now," she repeated as she continued her search.