Student's Peril First Two Chapters

8/14/2019 Student's Peril First Two Chapters

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STUDENT’S PERIL

Dear Reader,

It was a normal day, or as normal as any day is. The only clue theyreally had that something was different was a lot of new faces in place of old

ones. This was done so casually and intelligently that no one even noticed

the new faces. It was about noon when a few people started to notice the

difference. It would only take a few more hours for people’s lives to change

or even to be lost. Some people say that it was the beginning of the end.

Others say it was not anything but the beginning of a war. Even others think

it was merely a story told over without knowing the ending. Those that were

in the thick of it merely thought it was something else all together. No one

really knows nor do most people really care.

To understand the entire story you have to understand that most of the

people in it were about your own age. In fact they were in school just like

you are today. Their school was slightly different than yours of course. They

had what was known as an outside school. That is, all the walkways between

the classes were outside. They also had to pay for food, and commuted to

school every day. It was not that primitive as most of you think. They had

things called cars to get from place to place. In fact most of them thought it

quite a dilemma on what to wear during the day, even while working out.

The most important thing to know though is that learning thisknowledge was mandatory for them. They believed they had very few rights,

and therefore did not think much of their school. Another way for adults to

torture them they would lament. They took the knowledge they were

bestowed for granted.

Now on this fateful day several years ago they found out theunexpected worst happens at the worst possible time. And only a few wereable to teach and protect the rest of the world of the unknown powers thatbefell them. They fought against unbeatable odds and still live on to fightagain. There is only one surviving manuscript of their peril, flight, and fight.

That is what sits before you and though it is but a copy, treat it as if it werethe original so that it may live on till man forgets how to read. Enjoy andlearn from this what you can. For each it has its own message. Listen foryours.



Unknown Author to Unknown

Reader

Chapter One

This is but the last remembered words of a man who was a child who

dabbled in literature before, and a man who wielded sword once before

trading it again for the pen. You should not worry about this old man. He will

surely be dead by the time you read this. He has left the world and is in a

more modern time with conveniences of the past. He is actually a very small

part of this story so his name will not even be mentioned.

This story begins in the morning with a call to a sleepy person in the

midst of waking up to go to work. She was not very sleepy for long

considering the news she was given. This was a thing that happened in

movies or books, not in real life. But here she was being told exactly what

would happen and she was taking it in as if it was somebody telling her that

her coffee cup had broken over the night, and that she had to bring another

one or borrow someone else’s.

She got ready quickly and barely remembered to feed her dog. She

was feeding her dog what might be its very last meal. It is amazing what the

mind will have you do to calm you down. Feed the dog, water the plants, fix

the hair, and make the bed. All normal, daily things; But then came the

steps to prepare for today, and she hoped, the rest of her life. Grab a few

knives, her son’s sword, a frying pan, dried goods, and the canteen. The

essentials she would need to survive in the new world.

The roadto work was slightly less crowded than usual. Then again shedidn’t usually go to work at four thirty in the morning. She noticed subtle

differences to the school immediately. There were slight rises in the front

lawn and gentle slopes in the roofs of the buildings. Then there were

changes you had to be dead to miss. There were trucks carting in masses

upon masses of medieval weaponry and armament. There were men and



womenoddly carrying the same weapons they were unloading. Some looked

young enough they could have been one of the students.

“They are here to become students and substitutes. We have chosen

half your student population, and a quarter of your staff to be replaced with

highly trained Marines.” A Marine officer motioned to the younger Marinesunloading materials. He was dressed in a blue suit that was clearly not what

he was used to. His brown hair was cut very short and reflected the orange

light of the street lamps. He had come up to her as she was getting out of

her car and she had not even noticed. “The remaining students and staff will

be taught in the weapons you see us loading here. Hopefully that will be

enough.”

“Shouldn’t you be evacuating the school completely, not just half of it.

I do not like putting any student in danger at all. I don’t approve of it. I don’t

approve of putting anyone in danger.” They started to move across theparking lot. It was as crowded as it would be in approximately two hours.

But even now some trucks seemed ready to move out and leave. Ready to

leave the school as it was when they came. Well, almost how it was.

“Neither do I. And that is why I wouldn’t do this, except it is a last

resort. The American military is stretched as thin as it possibly could be at

the moment. There is absolutely no way we could keep this force from

getting their foot in the door without the civilian help, and even then will

probably fail. Within the United Statesour weakest defensive point is within

schools. The enemy thinks this may also terrorize us into surrendering, ordoing something stupid. There are too many schools in this country to

replace every student in twenty-four hours with military personnel who still

look like kids. We have no choice.” She had originally thought the rises were

men but now she realized that they were stores of food and water. All ready

to be taken out and eaten. There was probablyenough for at least a year.

Hopefully they wouldn’t need to use it.

“I already know that, but why do we have to use medieval weapons?

They could hurt themselves before they are of any help to you. And why is it

such a danger this far inland?” She finally turned on him, and put on thebest demanding face that she could. She wanted some answers before she

sent some students into battle and possibly death. Christ, she was no

military commander who had to make these decisions day in, day out.

“Ma’am, if we could use our normal weapons, we would. All weapons

that used gunpowder or any other chemical reactionare no longer in working



condition. And why it’s a danger here is because they can attack at anytime,

anywhere. Don’t ask how, they just can.” He looked her straight in the eye

and looked as if he wanted that piece of information more than he wanted

his guns. She would have loved for him to have both if it was possible.

“What the hell are these things anyway? Why are they attacking us atall? And how do we know they are attacking?” She walked to the door,

turned around, and looked him straight in the eye. If he tried to lie or change

the subject she would be able to catch him. She was a principal after all.

“Well Ms. Ratan, some of our scientists have been sending some

probes into a void like thing, and one sent back a radio signal, that when it

was decoded, was plans for a full scale invasion, outlining the attack on the

schools. As for the name, -we’ve called them Vanoricksright now.

Vanorickwas the name of the man who made the void.” He never took his

eyes off hers once but to make it seem he was embarrassed at the name.She wasn’t sure if he really was or if it was a very good act.

“What is your name and rank, Marine Corps isn’t it?”

“Yes ma’am, Marine Corps, I am Second Lieutenant Marshal Jennson.

Like I said we’re stretched thin.” He was obviously the commanding officer

today. And an interesting day it was most definitely going to be.

“...don’t approve one bit.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“Get those trucks out of here. We need at least a cursory look of

normalcy.” Gunnery Sergeant Chavez was busy making sure everything was

going as smooth as it could. He was from the installation and logistics unit

from the local base. He was pulled because he could organize this mess

fairly well, and then he gets told he not only is dropping off the stuff but he is

the second most senior man at this location. The most senior being a

damned butter bar. And that was just were his day started to go really bad.

The kids he had to deal with were barely old enough to shave or be out

on their own. Most of them hadn’t even finished boot camp yet. Their drill

instructors were yelling, screaming, and starting to give him a headache.

There was a reason that he became a recruiter. “Sergeant Nieves, get your

recruits to their classes now. This is no time to be teaching them crap.”



“Aye Gunny, Just trying to prepare them to go back to boot after this is

over.”

“Yeah, first they have to survive. And to do that they need to be in the

proper place at the proper time. Now get them moving.” The Gunny

watched the recruits run off toward the class rooms, and couldn’t help butwonder if any of them would even survive. “Corporal Whitley! Get your ass

over here.” Chavez began searching around the trucks looking for the one

NCO from his own unit. He saw the Lieutenant taking to some chick.

Probably the principal, she actually looked pretty good to be a principal.

“Whitley!”

“Right here, Gunny.” Whitley appeared next to him wearing what

appeared to be slacks and a dress shirt, with tennis shoes. His hair was the

Marine Corps basic, so short you couldn’t tell color. In his hands he held the

supply man’s best friend, a clipboard. He was of course his usual cherry self “What can I do for you?”

“God Whitley, you’re a horrible sight this early in the morning. How are

we doing with storing the supplies? And how well are those that are taking

over for the teachers positions prepped?”

Whitley looked around quickly, ”Well Gunny, between you and me the

other NCOs around here all act as if this is some kind of drill. You know as if

this were some sort of readiness drill for the recruits. I really don’t think they

should be put in with any students. But as for supplies, we’re set to supply

an entire Roman legion for a full year. Excluding of course any form of

alcoholic beverage. Though I have good news Gunny, someone finally found

some coffee and ran a pot. They have it in the admin area, where you’ll be.

Hey Gunny, if we have to protect this school and all the students, why don’t

we have more than a company of Marines? And I don’t think there’s a single

grunt among us.” Whitley looked around quizzically, and finally set his sights

back on the Gunny. He was right to be worried. His estimation of the DI’s

was all too accurate. If any of these kids that found themselves under their

command and survived, it would be by luck and maybe a little skill of their

own. But there wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment. Maybe if any of the scatter brained fools survived he could get them to listen.

“Well Whitley, this is why they came up with the term ‘SNAFU’. And if

anything ever was a snafu then this is most certainly it. Now where did you

say that coffee was?”



* * * * * * * * * * * *

The blade came down upon its neck and severed its head completelyfrom the shoulders. He barely noticed the next one coming at him from his

right side. He rolled out of the way to avoid its axe. He brought his own

sword up to block against its shield. He couldn’t depend on this one falling

over for him. He managed to get to his feet, and ward off its incessant

attacks without cutting his own head off. Left and right his peers were being

killed. They would probably put this down as a massacre, not a battle, even

though they had managed to kill one or two of these beasts. The beasts

were very vague but he could tell that they were somewhat humanoid, if you

could forgive the odd limb here and there. Not a single one looked the same.

He dodged to the side and got out his dagger as the beast lunged

forward. He got behind it and slit its throat. The warm blood slid over his

hand. He took a second to look at his hand and dagger; a gold hilted dagger

with an obvious reddish tint he had just gotten today, and noticed the

creature’s blood was a whitish-clear. He backed up a few steps and bumped

into something. He turned quickly ready to kill or die- and sighed in

momentary relief. It was a fellow student though he couldn’t tell whom

because of the blood on her face. Then her eyes widened noticeably. He

turned quickly and found one of them charging at him. Everything slowed

intensely and he saw he had a choice. What that choice was he did not

know. But he had to choose soon. He looked back and saw her frozen, as he

seemed to be. He looked forward again and-

He woke up with a start. He had a nightmare that’s all that it was a

nightmare. He looked at the clock on his bedside table and almost

screamed. He was going to be late. He couldn’t be late again today. His

folks would kill him. He already had Saturday school this weekend. What the

hell was he going to do?

He jumped out of bed and walked towards his bedroom door, pickingup his clothes as he walked. He had about five minutes to get ready and

then he had ten to get to class. What was he supposed to do for today? Oh

yeah! He had that test in science, and he had a paper due in English. Well,

he could do them before he had those classes.



He had an unnerving feeling it wouldn’t matter what was supposed to

happen today. The dream popped back into his head for a second and he felt

his spine try to freeze stiff. Damn movies were messing with his dreams. He

would have to stop watching them on weekdays. They may start to affect

his schoolwork. Just about ready.

“Are you still here John? You’re going to be late. It’s almost seven

o’clock.”

“I’m out the door now mom.” He ran down the stairs mentally taking

note of everything there was and would ever be. His family didn’t change

the house that much. They didn’t change much at all really. After twenty

years of living in the same neighborhood, in the same house, with the same

furniture you would think that his parents would want a little different setting

in their life, but no they kept everything as close to the original as they could

for as long as they could safely.

“Wait, have you eaten anything, brushed your teeth, combed your hair,

made your bed, or any one of those things?” He was going to be late by her

nagging over every detail. He didn’t have time to do all those things if she

wanted him to be to school on time. “Oh and dear.Happy Birthday! Here

you go. One present in the morning does a mind good.” He had forgotten all

about it. He had forgotten his own birthday. He took the package and kissed

his mom. Her cheek was slightly moist to his lips as if she had been crying.

He moved his head so he could look into his mother’s eyes, and for the split

second she held his gaze with hers, John saw tears in her eyes. And oncemore the dream popped into his head. He had the oddest feeling that he

would never see her again. “I’m alright dear. I’m just a mother crying over

her baby becoming a man.”

John hugged and kissed his mom once more before breaking the

silence that had come upon them both. “I love you mom, but I am going to

be late so I have totake this present and open it on the way to school. Bye,

tell Dad I love him.” He stuffed the present in his bag and ran out the door,

waving to his mother. What fitting last words to his parents. The thought

came unbidden, but he didn’t counter it with another thought. He walkedhalfway to the school and heard the bell ring. He automatically went into a

sprint. His mom would kill him for this, even if she wouldn’t do it till

tomorrow. He once more had the odd feeling it wouldn’t matter; it was a

feeling of eminent doom.

* * * * * * * * * * * *



Sara walked towards the campus, lost in her own world. Her book bag

was heavier than normal, and her parents had been acting weird this

morning. There seemed to be something off today. What it was she couldn’t

place a finger on, but she knew there was something. The feeling was as if there was an end or beginning coming. Though it was only midyear and

nothing major was due. She had decided to wear dark clothes for the day.

And her hair, a mix somewhere between red and brunette, was as normal

cropped short.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice Jocelyn

walk up beside her. “Sara? Earth to Sara, come in Sara. Hey what’s got you

so off into space?” Jocelyn was her best friend since fifth grade. Since

Jocelyn had moved to the area. She was in her normal out it of jeans and a

shirt. “Come on Sara, today’s John’s birthday. We get to make fun of himand make sure that his birthday is a day he’ll never forget. Plus I think I got

a secret.” There was a short period where Sara didn’t say anything just kept

looking around, and walking towards school. “Sara, it’s no fun having a

secret if you won’t ask me what it is. What is up with you today?”

“Sorry Jocelyn, I just have this really weird feeling today. You know a

feeling that everything is off in the world. It was weird, both my parents

were there to see me off this morning, and Julie couldn’t pick me up this

morning. It’s just all really odd to me. Did anything weird happen with you

today?” They turned the last corner and the school came into sight. At firstglance everything seemed perfectly normal, but as she looked closer she

noticed less students out in the hallways then was normal, and there was a

few other things that were off.

“Well mom was a little more huggy than normal. And I guess it is

pretty odd that she actually made a lunch for me. Oh, and my secret could

be considered out of the ordinary. Can you guess what it is?” They came up

to the crosswalk across from the school and waited for the light. There were

several students already waiting at the cross walk. Some were busy talking

to their friends; others were busy watching the light.

“Well, if I had to guess. I’d say it was you were done waiting for John to

ask you out and are going to ask him instead. And before you ask,your first

statement to me was about John so he is most certainly on your mind.

Second, you’ve seen him pull out that ring he keeps in his pocket, and you’re

dying to find out what it is. Thirdly, you told me last night on our way home



from school.” The light changed and they made their way across the street

and onto the school campus. The campus looked even more off as they got

closer. Their first class was a trailer to the back of the campus and instead of

walking through they usually walked the perimeter.

“Sara, you’re no fun. How is a girl to be excited about this stuff if youkeep drawing the life from it with logic? I mean life is supposed to be

illogical, and chaotic. You know the whole chaos theory thing. That’s what is

supposed to keep life fun.” They were getting closer to the class and they

could see their classmates standing outside the trailer doors. It seemed the

teacher wasn’t there yet. As she got closer to the trailer Sara noticed a piece

of metal shining from behind one of the bushes. That was just one more

thing that was off.

“That is also what makes it so dangerous. But you’re right I don’t use

logic on everything. There are several things I think that are completelyillogical, such as why I should learn German instead of learning something

else.” As they stopped outside the trailer, the five minute warning bell rang.

“And like why John is never on time, even though he lives closer than anyone

else.” Both the girls began to laugh at that.

The classroom door opened a second later, and a man dressed in a

blue pinstripe suit, exited the building. His belt drew Sara’s eyes for the

briefest of seconds; it had a loop of reinforced leather on the left side, which

seemed placed there for a reason. He raised his hands for attention, “All

right class, we’re going to be outside today, just out back. I’m your newstudent teacher Mr. Jennson.” As Sara moved with the rest of the class to

the back of the trailer, she couldn’t help but think this was one more thing

that made the day off.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

He ran up the stairs, across campus, and into his classroom door. It

wasn’t open like it usually was. He had expected it to be so he had been

looking around for campus supervisors. He had been lucky, there were none.

But he hadn’t seen the door had been closed, as well as a few other things

he failed to notice about the campus, and now he had a tremendous

headache.



“Making your acquaintances with the door I see. It have anything to

say?” There was a man standing next to the side of the building towards the

back.

“Not really, but it’s giving me a headache.” He shook his head and

cradled it in his hand for a second before inspecting this stranger a littlebetter. He seemed nervous and anxious. The fact that he was not

comfortable in the suit he wore was obvious. It was a navy blue suit with

white pinstripes. He wore what at first glance seemed a normal belt, but on

closer examination, it was a sword belt meant to carry an unsheathed sword.

“I can see why. Class is back here today, and I am your new student

teacher, Mr. Jennson. Come on you have things to learn and you’re late. By

the way, what’s your name?”

“Es ist mir egal, und Ich bin John” John was getting into the class

already and forgot to answer in English when questioned in English.

“What was that? I don’t speak that language.”

“It doesn’t matter.” The fool of a teacher didn’t even know how to

speak the language he was supposed to be teaching. What was going on

today?

“Time is one thing that does matter today. So hurry up.” Mr. Jennson

walked back around the building. There had been something poking at his

back since he left the house, so as he walked around the building he checked

his bag to see what had been poking him. It was the package his mom had

given him. What had she gotten him that would almost kill him?

“You bring a present to the teacher every time you’re late?” Mr.

Jennson had startled him. He had pulled out the package and had not

noticed the entire class staring at him. Instead of answering Mr. Jennson he

began to tear at the wrapping of the package. It was very abnormally

shaped, a sort of triangle with a downward slope from one side to the other.

It was bound to be something stupid like a watch or key chain. It even had

stupid red and gold wrapping paper. He tore away the stupid wrapping

paper to look at the stupid gift and-

His parents had buried him in a pile of excrement the size of Mount

Rushmore. They had gotten him a pair of daggers and put them in a “T” to

confuse him of what it was. Mr. Jennson brought him out of his deep feeling

of eminent doom. “It seems you came prepared to class today. Are your

parents in the military?”



“Well yes and no… kind of. Why do you ask?” He could only be

startled at the question. He had started to say that his parents had just

gotten out of the military, or so they told their son. He didn’t fall for it for an

instant.

“It doesn’t matter yet. I’ll tell you later.” Mr. Jennson seemed tomutter something under his breath. And he shook his head. It almost

seemed he said something along the lines of “if we survive to see the end of

the day”. The feeling of eminent doom came back in a hurry. “To start can

anyone tell me what they know about military history?”

“Which military?” asked one of the more astute students “I mean eachmilitary had a different history for different reasons, and during differentperiods of time.” This student, his name lost in the fabric of John’s mind,seemed to know a bit about the different militaries of the world. He stoodbeside Jocelyn, as beautiful as ever, and Sara who was busy looking at John

and his daggers. There was a puzzled look on her face as if she couldn’tpiece something together. Beyond her there was a set of bushes with whatseemed to be metal shining out of the branches and leaves.

John had not heard a single word after Mr. Jennson had avoided his

question. He was too busy looking around the rest of the class and staring at

his new daggers. There was a sheath on them both, but the blade was not

what was drawing his attention. The hilts were gold with a very obvious tint

of red. He also noticed a symbol on them that he knew very well on each

side of the hilts. It was his family sigil, and he hated it. The sigilwas a cross

of a sword and a very primitive musket, with ivy vines crawling over each of them and a deer behind the cross eating the ivy leaves. All of this framed by

a very nice depiction of two canyon walls. It always made him think of a

fight between man and nature. He hated it. But at that moment he could

only stare at the daggers and think of the dream.

“What did you ask John?” Mr. Jennson had suddenly turned to him as

well as the entire class. John hadn’t even realized he actually voiced the

question that had been forming in his head, but he needed it answered.

“Who is it you plan for us to defend ourselves against?”

The class took a few seconds to comprehend what he had asked and

then the meaning hit. The other student’s reactions varied from complete

paralyzing shock to a boisterous nervous laughter. Only two people in the

entire clearing remained entirely calm and poised the one who asked the

question and the one who was being asked. It took a minute for the class to



settle down and only then did they realize that those two had neither

moved,nor spoken.

There was hushed silence that not even nature disturbed.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

She couldn’t believe her ears. Neither the silence nor what caused the

silence made much sense. Why would students, high school students, be

asked to defend themselves at all? We are still kids. The thought was just

absurd. Why John had ever had the thought she would never know. But then

again the teacher had made no response or action to quiet the class. That

almost certainly proved that John was asking a question that got to the heart

of the mater.

There were a few odd things around the campus today not in the least

the fact that class was outside. There were other odd things about the day

she usually got a ride from her friend Julie, but she had called last night and

said that she would be unable to drive her to school today. She had had a

strange premonition about whether or not it was going to be a normal day

today then. Her parents had sent her away today with a kiss and a hug,

much more than their usual “get out ofhere”. The premonition came again,

stronger. She hoped everyone was going to be all right.

“Sara, are you alright?” Jocelyn was standing beside her and seemed

worried. Then again anyone would be worried right now with all that is going

on. Or better, with what they didn’t know whatwas going to happen. “I

mean you haven’t said a word and these conversations usually spark your

interest.”

“I have never been in this kind of conversation. Not one in which I

actually think John is right. And not one in which involved the possible death

of friends, family, and us.” Sara was in a daze she had no idea how far her

voice reached or how shocking her words were. She just knew they were thetruth. Sara just stood there for a few seconds watching nothing and

everything, looking for… something. What she didn’t know, not yet.

“Sara though I agree with you, can you tell me why you think we’re in

danger?” John looked straight at her almost expectantly.



“I just a have a bad premonition, along witha very arbitrary view of the

facts. I mean there are mounds all over the quad with freshly laid sod, no

punishment for bringing daggers to school, a sword belt on the teacher, a

new teacher at this late of a date, and most importantly a rack of weapons

behind that bush. I just want to know why the hell they’re medieval

weapons.” Things were starting to become clear yet much less clear than

before. But she was starting to understand her mother’s common uttering,

“Answers lead to questions.”

The class couldn’t help but stare at her, then the bush, to Mr. Jennson,

and finally at John and his daggers. They just couldn’t quite believe that the

world could be that cruel. Cruel enough to send teenagers into battle

without even givingthem time to say goodbye to their family and friends.

The world could be much crueler. And she had the bad feeling they were all

going to find out how cruel the world could really be.

The rest of the class was either hysterical or paralyzed, and most likely

there are mirror images of this scene in every class around the school. What

could scare the government enough to arm children, and even, if she didn’t

miss her guess, use those armaments?

John decided to speak up in an attempt to centralize the class’s

thoughts on surviving and not fear. “You still haven’t answered the question

yet Mr. Jennson. Who are we defending ourselves against? And one more,

why have us use medieval weaponry?”

“They’re called Vanoricks, and they found some way to disable most of

our chemical based weapons, in fact all of them. Yet they can make their

assault at any time or place they wish. And we suspect their first target will

be the schools. High schools are the only schools we are preparing a fight in.

All other schools we have created a fast evacuation plan.” Mr. Jennson

looked to the ground and shook his head in dismay. “Any man or woman who

has ever held a weapon in service of their country has been reactivated,

armed and sent to schools and other military strategic points. We cannot be

entirely sure where they will strike.” He finally looked up and stared into the

eyes of every student in the class. “I will teach you what I can of closecombat tactics and strategy. That’s why the Marines are defending the High

schools so we can teach you what we know. Every Marine is at least a tan

belt in martial arts. Now I’m going to give you guys a couple minutes to soak

this stuff up. When we begin again I’ll have you pick some weapons and

start our training. You have just as long to soak as it takes me to clear the

bushes away from the weapons. Understood?” Everyone just kind of nodded



and stared at one another. Lieutenant Jennson walked towards the bush and

began lightly singing. The song was indistinguishable, but the tone was

mellow and sad, while still somehow remaining brave.

Sara couldn’t help but be mystified at the sound of that song. She had

known too many good Marines. She even forgot for a second why Mr. Jennson was singing the song. That is she forgot until John walked between

her and Jocelyn. It was then that Jocelyn without thinking twice turned into

John and began to weep. Sara stood and watched her two best friends hold

each other. She couldn’t hold her fear in any longer and she turned into John

herselfand started crying on his chest. She stared to think that she must

look incredibly dumb and childish at that moment. But she couldn’t stop

crying. She kept feeling rain land on the back of her neck and it wasn’t till

she finally pulled away from John did she realize he had been crying as well.

“Were not old enough to handle this yet,but give us a few hours and we’ll be

cold hearted bastards.” She just knew that the words were true she wasn’t

sure who said them, whether it was John, Herself, or someone nearby. It

didn’t really matter at that moment she realized there was no more room for

childish things and that their child hood would just have to wait to complete

itself if it wasn’t already.



Chapter Two

The coffee pot was empty again. It was always empty when he needed

a second cup, or a third or sixth. His day had definitely improved since this

morning. He was in the one room in the entire school where he didn’t have

to deal with kids, he had the only coffee pot readily at hand, and there was

the cute principal to talk to. The butter bar he was under was actually a

competent officer, one who had done time on the enlisted side. Now if only

he could say they would all survive it, then it would be a good day.

He replaced the old coffee grounds, added more water, and made sure

the pot was lined up right. Taking the time to do it right was very important

to him. No reason to have bad coffee for any reason.

“Gunnery Sergeant Chavez, is the whole waiting thing normal? I meanif my staff are barely hanging on to their fears then what are the children

going through?” Ms. Ratan stood behind Chavez, and though he didn’t

bother to look at her he could feel the stress in her voice. Hitting the button

on the machine he finally turned toward her. . Well maybe he hasn’t gotten

away from dealing with a junior officer at all. “Well? You’ve been in this type

of situation before right?”

“Ms. Ratan, the modern military rarely has a battle where they can sit

and wait for it to begin. It’s is more a reaction type event. But the waiting

before any mission is usually pretty nerve racking. So yeah I would say yourstaff is acting, for the most part, normal. But no one has ever been in this

situation before.” He didn’t bother to mention if they were huddled together

praying and pretty much pissing themselves that would be normal too.

“Well, are we going to have any more warning of their assault than

this? I mean the Lieutenant didn’t mention anything except that we would

know before they came. He never did explain how we would know.” Her

hand nervously went to the sword at her waist. It was more of a testament

to how odd they all felt with blades on their side rather than the threat it

once would have been construed as

“First Ma’am, I expect our electricity to fail and with them our radios.

That will be the times to let that steel at your hip breathe air, and soon after

it should get its chance to drink deep. But until then, if you want to keep

your staff calm you have to act calm. An officer’s most important job on the

battlefield is to remain outwardly calm. Regardless of how scared they might



actually be. You can tell them you’re scared, you just can’t let them believe

you’re scared. There’s other things you going to have to know, but just use

that one for now and we’ll get into the rest tonight over dinner.”

“Gunnery Sergeant, I am not an officer in the military. I’m a principal

at a public school. I should not be worrying about whether or not studentsunder my responsibility will live through the day. The only reason that I

should ever have this monstrosity on my hip is if I happen to be in a play,

and then only as a prop. And there is no way I could ever think about what

I’m going to be doing at dinner in this situation at all. So excuse me if I can’t

remain calm.” She was becoming hysterical, and in reality it was to be

expected of a civilian, but she couldn’t take the luxury of letting someone

else handle everything. It would only make things worse.”

“Like it or not Ms. Ratan, this is the situation we’re in. Though yes you

were a principal at a public school as soon as you, your staff, and yes yourstudents were armed you became a military officer. A very new one, but you

are one. The people in this school are going to be looking to you for

leadership. They’re going to be looking for it now, during the conflict, and

after. That means they trust you, and if you act scared they lose hope. If

they lose hope you might as well kill them yourself.” Chavez hoped that was

enough to get her back into shape. Luckily the coffee pot was in the break

room, out of sight of everyone else. No one else had seen her become

hysterical. She needed to see how the Lieutenant was acting. That would

probably help calm her down a little. “How about this? When we do lose

power why don’t you deliver the news to Lieutenant Jennson yourself? That

way you can see how he is acting, and how calm he is. There will be plenty

of time for you to get back here before the assault.”

“That sounds like a good idea, thanks Gunnery Sergeant.” She wiped

her eyes, checked her hair, and gave a brief smile.

“Call me Gunny, or in private call me Randall. Now while we endure

the terrible wait, how about a cup of coffee?”

* * * * * * * * * * *



hour.” Lieutenant Jennson pointed to the building and then to the hand held

radio that was sitting next to it.

“So how should we expect them to, you know attack?” Sara seemed

fixated on the windows looking into the building. “You know just in case one

of us see something, we’re not freaking out at nothing.” Jennson and Ms.Ratanlooked through the window to where Sara was looking. There was a

circular black mass hovering about a foot and a half above the ground. Its

edges visibly swirled around it as if it were a whirlpool. Alicia couldn’t help

but feel dread at the sight of that monstrous void.

“Something like that, except the color was whitish blue every other

time.” Lieutenant Jennson shook his head andturned to the rest of the

students, with a look of pure determination. “Prepare yourselves for battle.

Get the spears to the doors and windows. They have to come out to fight, let

them meet cold steel first.”

Students ran to the doors and windows of the classroom ready to fight,

fear showing quite visibly on their faces. Sara ran to the door and started to

organize the students there for the most effective assault. John ran to one

side of the building already yelling at the students there, and Jennson got the

students at yet another side of the building organized. Miss Ratan had

nothing to do but stand to the side and watch as her students prepared to do

battle with some unknown beasts.

She was about to join Sara and her group at the door when she heard

John curse the fact that he got out of bed that morning. But what really

made her stop from going to the door was what John had been cursing about.

In all the other classrooms students were running out screaming. Some of

the students were covered in blood; and very few if any still carried their

weapons. They were being routed throughout the campus and students, her

students, were already dying.

The Lieutenant quickly looked around and made a decision. “John,

Jocelyn, Matt, Teresa, and Aaron on me. Miss Ratan, you should come too.

Sara take charge here, when the threat here is defeated set up an area for

the wounded and secure it. You guys will stick on me. We’re going to start

organizing the rest of the school into some sort of legible battle. That way

some of us can survive.” He started towards the quadand the six of them

followed weapons at the ready.

When they reached the quad, most of the students were running,

trying to find a class or place to hide. There were little skirmishes here and



there. Mostly where there were Marines enough to stand and make a big

enough fight. To one side of the quad she saw the joking Marine’s class still

in their square doing their best to hold off the attacks of the vanoricks.

Where the seven ran into any of the beasts they were slaughtered quickly.

“Ms. Ratan, take Jocelyn, John and Matt. Head to the auto shop, andthen start moving back toward the quad sending everyone you can to Sara.

Damn wish we had more shields Cpl. Whitley has it right. Send all the

wounded to Sara as well, and any corpsman you run into. Aaron head back

to Sara and let her know she has to take command of the students as they

come to her. Help the wounded as you can but priority is to hold that area.

Tell her not to try a counter attack. Hold that ground. Now go.” Alicia and

the three students named to go with her split off towards the auto shop, with

Aaron already sprinting back to Sara.

Her small group yelled into class rooms as they went yelling foranybody that was still alive. Most students they ran into were with wounded

or wounded themselves and got sent off to Sara with an order to listen to her

commands and run there.

When they got to the auto shop it was quiet,almost as if no one was

there. It was also dark where there were usually bright, and almost

disturbing, halogen lights above the garage. As their eyes began to adjust

they began to notice blood everywhere. Limbs hanging off of the hydraulic

lift as if set up there for ceremony. But everyone who had been in the auto

shop that morning was all over the walls, floor, ceiling, and tools. Not evenone vanorick body was to be found among them.

Miss Ratan turned on her toe and lost her scant breakfast. Actually the

only people not to lose whatever was in their stomachs were John and

Jocelyn. But that was merely because they had noticed what else was in the

room and did not have the chance to go with their first instinct. The

vanoricksthat had committed the massacre had found a way to hide in the

small crevices made by the machines in the room. John already had the

adrenaline running through his system yelling, “Well come on and dance

damn beasts!” Then before Miss Ratan could get up the vanoricks practicallyflew at them.

* * * * * * * * * * *



The Gunny had been wrong, this was like modern warfare. All he and

the staff had was a few seconds after that first vortex thing appeared before

the first vanorick came through. It had the beak of an eagle, two human

looking arms, and it looked like it had a pair of horse legs. Not long after the

first staff member fell. And then another vortex appeared, and then another.

The vortices were appearing in several areas of the building. “Get your

weapons up, backs to the walls. C’mon people that last cup of coffee will not

be my last. It wasn’t nearly that good.”

The staff reacted fast as soon as someone started yelling directions.

They moved themselves to as close to the walls bringing what weapons they

had up to point at the vanoricks. Though no matter how fast they were, half

of the staff had fallen in those first couple of seconds, and the beasts kept

coming out of the vortices. The Gunny found a position standing at the door

of the break room shouting encouragement and orders to the rest of the

staff.

Staff member after staff member fell to the blades, claws, and teeth of

the vanoricks. And yet those that remained standing, were killing more and

more of the beasts. After a minute that seemed to last a lifetime the vortices

began to close. “See this isn’t so bad, we’re almost finished. Just keep

fighting and we’ll all live to see dinner tonight. I’m cooking.” There was a

weak cheer at the Gunny’s words. Whether it was because there were very

few people left or that they were all busy didn’t matter. A second later the

next set of vortices opened. One of vortices opening directly behind the

Gunny Chavez, in the break room, he never saw the beast that stabbed him

from behind.

As Gunnery Sergeant Randall Chavez lay on the ground he had a

couple very poignant last thoughts. The first being, at least that cute

principal wasn’t here, and the second was that the coffee wasn’t all that bad.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the staff to fall under the seemingly

unending flow of the odd beasts.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Blood was everywhere, on everyone and everything. Jennson must

have chosen the best sword fighters to come with him because they had not

lost anyone yet. It had seemed they had been fighting for at least two hours



and still the vanorickswere still coming. When they had first assaulted them

he and Jocelynhad barely fought off the first wave by themselves. But then

the others regained their composure in time for the second wave that came

at them from behind them.

From there they had been pushed into the garage towards a waitinggroup of vanorickswho were quite determined to destroy their approaching

foe. The vanorickswere almost beasts in their looks but something about

them, plus the fact that they stood upright, seemed to put them above a

simple beast. John only saw three types of the vanoricks, birds, weasels, and

a sort of hairy disfigured humanvariety. And each had different types of

limbs at that. Feet, hooves, hands, claws, and talons were among the list, as

well as a few other unknown limbs. They fought together only as if being

controlled, other than that they fought by themselves.

They had moved out of the auto shop, and seemed to be moving backtoward the quad. These beasts just didn’t seem to be stopping. Jocelyn

stayed at his side, with Matt to her back and Ms. Ratan to his. They had their

own little square of defense, constantly moving. Between waves of the

vanoricks, they checked class rooms, bathrooms, and hallways looking for

anybody. All they seemed to find was death and more death. After a while

of this they almost stopped searching for survivors and were looking for the

beasts to kill.

In the latest wave Matt had taken a blow to his right arm and was

barely able to hold his blade. He could defend himself a little with his leftarm, but not at the level that the fighting required. John decided to speak

up. “Matt, head back to Sara. Its close enough you should be able to get

there unhindered if you run. Rather have you alive later on than dead now.

Plus you got to make sure Jocelyn’s best friend is still there. Tell Sara she’s

missing all the fun.”

“John if you think this is fun I’d hate to see your idea of hell.” And with

that Matt dashed off toward their German class. Ms. Ratan just watched him

run off, on one knee catching her breath. Jocelyn took the slight break in the

fighting to hit John in the arm.

“Alright John, she’s your friend too. But when we’re done fighting, and

we both get cleaned up, you’re going to sit down with me and we’re going to

have a nice long conversation over some food.”

“Yes, you two can laugh and smile but, I don’t think any of us we’ll ever

get all this blood off of ourselves. Thanks for sending Matt for me John. I



was about to speak up but I’m not as young as you two. It takes longer for

me to catch my breath. Damn this sword is heavy.” Ms. Ratan paused for a

second, taking a deep breath. “Alright, where to next?” She said, finally

standing up straight.

The decision of what class to head to next was taken out of theirhands. Another group of the vanoricks turned a corner and wasted no time

in heading right for them. One was coming at John, sword raised above its

head screaming at the top of its lungs,concentrating on its target, him. It

failed to notice its fallen comrade under its feet, and lost control of his

momentum and its sword hurtling the blade across the hallway into another

one of the beasts. Rising back to its knees John swung hard down on the

creature’s neck severing the head. Either the beasthad no clue how to fight

or John was the luckiest person on the planet right now. Seeing motion to his

right he swung in time to barely catch a striking blow off his own blade. He

rolled to the side and slashed at the creature’s arm, only to have the blow

caught on its shield. He rolled to the right to avoid a swinging ofthe

creature’s mace. He fumbled one of his daggers out, got in behind it, and slit

its throat the warm blood sliding down his hand and arm.

He didn’t have time to ponder the sloppiness of his fightingbecause

something hit him from behind. He turned quickly ready to kill or die- And

saw Jocelyn giving him a relieved look that must have mirrored his own. She

was covered in vanorickblood. From head to toe she seemed as if she had

just walked through a yogurt shower. He was about to say some witty

comment to her, when her eyes widened in an almost primal fear.

He turned around and decided that primal fear was appropriate. There

was a vanorickcharging towards the both of them with spear lowered and not

reacting to anything else. He felt more than saw Jocelyn completely frozen.

He turned around and was about to push her out of the way when he felt a

searing pain in his shoulder. He looked into Jocelyn’s face and saw pure

astonishment. John looked down and saw the spear sticking through his

shoulder and into her throat.

On instinct John stabbed back into the creature’s stomach. He nolonger had any real self-control. He broke the spear between Jocelyn and

himselfpulling it out of his shoulder. Turning around he began killing and

hacking at any and every vanorickhe saw. It was sometime laterthat he

finally calmed down and stopped hacking at dead bodies. The last

vanorickhad died a couple of minutes ago. Though he stopped killing, the



world was still in a haze. He felt people helping him up and asking him

questions. All he could think about was Jocelyn.

* * * * * * * * * * *

He was pissed. Not only had the assault interrupted one of his favorite

jokes, but he also saw the recruits running as hard as the students. Where

the hell were their Drill Instructors? With the students under his command

starting to panic he had no time to deal with piss poor excuse for NCOs those

sergeants had made. He began to rally his own class. Screw it if his class

was going to fall apart.

“Alright I got those shields for you to help keep you alive. Keep them

high, and keep jabbing with those toy blades you got and we’ll all get

through this just fine. I still have too many jokes left to tell.” Corporal Jason

Whitley stood stark center of a group of young teenagers standing shoulder

to shoulder, facing outboard and holding every shield the Corporal could get

his hands on. It was when he mentioned feeding Roman legions to the

Gunny that he had the idea to use similar tactics. True, there had been no

way he could train the students enough to make them disciplined enough to

use the tactic as an effective offense, but it should help to keep most of

them alive.

But the fact that it seemed to be a losing battle everywhere else was

starting to worry him. He needed to start drawing the fleeing youth towards

his position. Those that had no weapons could at least start looking after the

wounded. So Cpl Whitley began to do the one thing all good sense, and

many a late night reading military novels told him not to. He was going to

draw attention to himself. “Rally on me. Everyone head here. Get behind

the shields.” He began yelling for all he was worth.

Slowly students and recruits realized what he was offering and

changed their frantic running to take them towards the shields. Hopefully his

class could tell between friend and foe.

Things went on like this for a time, him yelling orders and shouting for

attention. Some of his original class fell, and he had new students pick up

their shields. They had to keep that shield wall up. He remembered feeling

a pain in his heart when he started seeing the beasts come out of the

administration building. That could only mean the Gunny was no more.



After that everything became a slight blur. It wasn’t until the Lieutenant

yelled his name in his ear did he notice he was holding a part of the line

himself.

“Cpl Whitley, bloody smart idea with the shields. Now maneuver this

beast toward the south. I got some students with a set line of defense, andan aid station.” The Lieutenant was covered in the beasts’ blood. There was

a female student behind him, which was equally covered. She seemed to be

smiling searching the line looking for a break. It seemed there was at least

one portion of this mad house that was organized.

“Glad to hear that sir. But I don’t know if that would be the best idea.

If we move in that direction it will drive the enemy towards their line. They’ll

get hit even harder than they are now.” Whitley backed from the line letting

the female student take his place. She gave a quick smile his direction then

began humming tunelessly under her breath. She picked up a fallen shieldeasily and began to stab repeatedly beyond it, always holding the shield up.

The lieutenant just watched her take her position and with the barest

nod gave his approval. He then turned his look on Cpl Whitley. “I’m counting

on that Cpl. The people there are as ready as they can be. Any word from

the Gunny?”

“His position fell a little bit ago; I didn’t see anyone make it out, other

than that nothing.” And that was all that was said of the Gunny’s death.

Maybe they might eventually be able to write the letters make the toasts,

and quietly cry over the people lost. But not now, now they had to survive.

Student's Peril First Two Chapters

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