1. Troy Roman
Troy P.O.V
Date: September 14, 2238
“We’re sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you breaking news.” A robotic feminine voice blared from the speaker mounted at the front of the classroom, shattering the silence.
Automatically my mouth moved, silently reiterating the words I had heard over a thousand times. I could recite what happened in each excruciating minute of the thirty-year-old video without missing a single detail. Don’t worry. I won’t. I’ll just summarize it for you.
A severely pixelated man with a plastic grin on his blotchy face would appear on the screen.
He would remain frighteningly calm as he mindlessly read the teleprompter informing the audience to stay inside as grey, thin beings with soul-sucking black eyes ran rampant through the streets, attacking everyone.
Everyone.
Age, wealth, race, sex didn’t matter, and you could pray to whatever God you wanted, but they still came.
No one group was left unscathed as the vile bastards ravaged the human population, effectively positioning themselves at the top of the food chain.
In a matter of days, they disrupted everyone’s lives, forcing them to work together to survive.
Survive.That’s all they could do given the circumstances.
The black block letters stamped across their picture would label them as mutants, but I preferred the spawns of satan.
Promptly after the final word left his lips, his plastic grin melted as realization sunk in. Staring slack-jawed into the camera, he would scratch his head, messing up his hairpiece. Then-
“Please stand by.” The robotic voice spoke again.
“You have to be kidding me! How many times are we going to watch this video?” I mumbled, slumping in my chair and folding my arms loosely across my chest.
“Pause video.” Mr. Lennox, the instructor for the class, spoke the command to the sixty-five-inch interactive board at the front of the classroom.
The video froze on the anchorman with his lips slightly parted before he could utter a single word as Mr. Lennox unfolded his long, lean body from behind his desk and stood before it.
He lowered his black square-framed glasses to the tip of his nose and leered at me over the rim. I unconsciously swallowed as his piercing, steely blue eyes pinned me to my chair. “Do you have something you want to share with the class, Troy?” He asked, causing everyone to turn and look at me.
Shit.
I thought I had whispered that, plus I sat at the back of the class with only one other student sitting near me, and he hadn’t reacted to my question. Mr. Lennox must have super hearing or something.
“Yeah, uh...” I cleared my throat and looked around at my classmates. Most of them seemed indifferent to the situation, but a rare few were practically begging me with my eyes to voice my opinions.
I glanced at my feet, sticking out the other end of the desk, and weighed my options.
Keep quiet or say something?
Remaining silent would keep me out of trouble, but nothing ever changes if you don’t fight for it.
Fuck it.I sat upright in my chair and returned my attention to Mr. Lennox.
“Yes, I do. We watch this same video every single time we come to this class. And it does nothing but reminds us of the lives we lost. Instead of providing us with information beneficial in our fight against the mutants. Like their origin or...”
“Or their weaknesses.” My deskmate, Pete, spoke up, bringing a smile to my lips.
“Exactly!” Knowing I had at least one person on my side gave me the courage and confidence to continue despite the blank look on Mr. Lennox’s face. “Something that could put an end to this once and for all. Because I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick and tired of constantly looking over my shoulder, wondering if this is the moment they will return. I want them gone, for good. Don’t you?”
“Yeah!” Pete popped out of his seat and fist-pumped the air.
But aside from him, no one else said anything, not a single soul. It was deadly quiet, and with each passing second, the silence became unbearable.
“Both of you out. Now.” Mr. Lennox’s voice came out low and controlled, but the heated look in his eyes told a different story.
Before we could even get out of our seats, the door opened, and two guards stormed inside. They were dressed similarly to us students in all-black boots, shirts, and camo pants, but the pistol holstered around their waist set them apart. My eyes followed the two men as they cut through the aisles until they stopped on either side of us. Much to my astonishment, they grabbed our arms, forcibly removing us from our chairs, before leading us out into the hallway.
As soon as the door shut, blocking out the whispers, I shrugged off the guard’s hand and stood against the wall. Pete joined me shortly afterward as the guards posted up on either side of the door.
“Thanks for having my back in there,” I whispered, slipping my hands into my pockets.
“Having your back?” He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Man, please, I just wanted to leave instead of being studied like a bunch of lab rats.”
“Lab rats? What are you talking about?”
He slipped the black elastic band off his wrist and tied back his long blond dreads. “The cameras embedded in the interactive screen that Mr. Lennox... I mean Dr. Lennox, after all, he has a Ph.D. in psychology, uses to monitor us.”
“Whoa, whoa. Hold up. You’re lying. There aren’t any cameras.”
“Oh yeah? How do you think they arrived so fast?” He jerked his head toward the guards.
I was at a loss for words because he had a point. How had they arrived so fast? Mr. Lennox hadn’t called them, and no one else had either. And I seriously doubted they just happened to be passing by at that exact moment. Bu-
A light jab to my side disrupted my thoughts.
“Here he comes,” Pete muttered, straightening from the wall and smoothing the tiny creases in his uniform. It was probably more for something to do than the need to tidy his appearance.
“Troy, Pete, what the hell was that? Huh?” Mr. Lennox demanded when he stood before us.
Pete didn’t say anything leaving it all up to me as he stared straight ahead with his arms crossed behind his back.
Dickhead.
But I couldn’t be angry with him. After all, this was my fault.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Lennox. I just wanted to watch some different material that would provide greater insight into the mutants instead of the same old video.”
“And you thought the best way of getting what you want was to disrupt class and waste my and everyone else’s time? Is that it?!”
“No, sir. That wasn’t my intention.”
“Well, that’s what you did!” He spat, the flush on his cheeks darkening with each word. “And I won’t tolerate that kind of disrespect. From you, him, or anybody. Understand?”
I looked off to the left and mumbled. “Yes.”
A hand clamped around my neck, forcing it back forward.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you and tell me you understand, Troy!”
My fists balled down by my side, and it took everything not to push the shorter man away from me. To hell with if he was my teacher or not.
“Yes, sir, I understand,” I yelled loud enough that even the students in the classroom further down the hallway could probably hear me.
“Good.” He let me go, tugged down the bottom of his suit, and walked away. “Two weeks of kitchen cleaning duty for the both of you.”
Pete’s eyes bulged, nearly popping out of his skull. “What?! That’s not fai-”
Mr. Lennox stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Shall I make it three?”
Pete kept quiet, and Mr. Lennox gave a firm nod before continuing on.
