Marco’s POV

“What happened?” I asked when I entered Beno’s room. Inside… my friend… has his head mostly bandaged. His only working arm is also bandaged… just what did he get into while I am gone! It has just been less than a day!

Well… honestly, it's more of a miracle that he is alive… well, on the dark side, he has to live like this for the foreseeable future, on the bright side… I won't be alone I guess.

“Just an accident… I was drinking some water and accidentally dropped it on top of my head ahahha…” Beno said. And that is a goddamn lie. There is no glass product in here, nor are there any ceramic products so there is absolutely no way you could hurt yourself like that. Plus… if you were really drinking and it slipped through your hand and it broke… it shouldn’t hurt the top of your head…

But knowing Beno he probably doesn’t want to talk more about it so I accept it and let it go… while I don’t like him lying… I think that him talking about it would probably hurt him even more…

“So… the exam is next week, you think you are good for that? That would be our last exam in school, then we are officially adults…” I said to him. To be honest, I don’t think we can live until then… but like Beno said before, one of us had to do it for all of us…

“How will I even do it… I mean, I am not sure if I can even write in this condition…” Beno replied.

“Don’t worry, I asked the teachers. They allow you to do the test here, the teacher will show you the question and you just have to say out the answer. Plus, for math, you are already good enough to get great scores already.” I said trying to cheer him up. Beno is almost the best among us in terms of academic scores! Well, second to Luca, he is a beast in exams…

“If we can live until then sure, maybe we will be able to live until graduation…” Beno said. Though… I can hear the sarcasm in his voice.

“Don’t be like that… anything can happen! Who knows, maybe we can live long?” I said jokingly, though, that is so… unbelievable for even myself…

“If you want to… but I sure hope that I don’t… these nightmares… I am just starting to embrace it…” Beno laughs dryly. Man… I don’t know how bad these nightmares are as my only knowledge of it is from Beno saying about it but… it really is going bad…

“Don’t worry, I will be here, your family will be here,” I said though… I can see that his body tenses when I mentioned his family… yesterday… might have something to do with his family…

Several months later

Beno’s POV

Not once… did they even visit me… even today when we are going to graduate…

Now I am at school, in a wheelchair though, with Marco pushing my wheelchair. Turns out, we did survive for so long, so long that the news about our group just died out. Though, that didn’t stop the anger of Adeline’s family and also my father’s anger.

“Hey, we are finally graduating, at first I didn’t think we could even go this long!” Marco said cheerfully. Sometimes I wish I could be as positive as Marco… sure the nightmare is more bearable now and I sometimes can even chat with them… but that only happens once per month. Good enough for me though.

Within an hour, all the certificates have been given out, even mine, though when I am getting mine, I can see the headmaster is nervous… guess that even with time, fear is not something that can be easily diluted…

While I am chatting with Marco in the corner of the hall, a huge explosion occurred on the stage, instantly killing anyone who is on there. Which is basically most of the teachers and alumni. The guards immediately start evacuating everyone there, starting for the students.

“Marco… not here, we won't be dying here,” I said to him. At least for the current trend, we won't die here, there is no warning here, so this is not the place where we die. Marco heard my word and start to escape the hall with me.

I said escaping but it's quite hard, the entire school seems to have become a warzone, not only the hall is attacked but most of the school blocs. It seems like they are specifically targeting the school as the neighboring houses are fine. We both went to the field along with whoever that survives, though… I can see some faces are staring at me… I do not like how this is going…

Looking back though is utter chaos. The school is on fire, some buildings have collapsed, and screams are everywhere… even around us, there are many injured some even dead… at least I think they're dead as they're not moving…

As I see several people moving towards me, someone shouted and everyone’s attention went to them. They are urging everyone to see the news and that’s what most people, including Marco did. Upon opening the news, what we see isn’t the normal news reporter, instead, it is someone standing in the middle of a fire… wait…

Isn’t that our school?

The man stood in the hall in front of the huge explosion that happened just now. Looking around, I saw someone familiar or should I say a few familiar faces… They are the ones I found underneath the school when Luca died! What are they doing here?

“This is a declaration to everyone in this city! For years we humanity has tarnished this planet, and when the planet punishes us, we still have not learn our lesson, that is why we plan this attack, what is the use of having the young if they are not taught correctly!” the man said as he along the other man in the background raises their weapons…

I do not like this at all… even though the forecast for our deaths is still not here, I do not want to challenge it…

“Beno… I think we should leave ASAP… I do not think it would be a good idea to stay here… with or without your dreams. I nodded as we start to leave the school, along with a majority of the survivors. However, most of us split up midway some to their homes some back to wherever they feel safe. Me and Marco just went back to the hospital. I said I could move my wheelchair there alone since it is not that far but he insisted and I relented.

“I wonder just where the world is going to now…” Marco said. Truly, if people like this became the majority, then I guess humanity would probably not exist for one or two more generations.

Within half an hour, we reach my hospital room. We just entered it and sat on the bed and said nothing. Sometimes, silence is the best… I read it in books that people love to just wander around in the wilderness and camp for a while to have some inner peace or something. I even saw a meme about someone who went into the woods for a while and came back with some spears.

“Do you think both of us could get blamed for this case too? Similar to previous ones?” I asked. I had to… all previous cases of Luca, Kevin, Adeline, and Peter are all blamed on us… there is zero reason for us to doubt that this would not be despite there is already someone who is claiming it…

“What can we do… we didn't do anything wrong, we are just trying to live here… if it's anything it's those who kill that are wrong, and in this case, it's those crazy fanatics,” Marco said.

“You know, since we are far from there now we shouldn’t…” Marco said but I got distracted midway… it’s the dream again. This time I saw a house burning, it was Marco’s house… and Marco was just inside, sitting on a chair in the dining room, as if giving up already…

“no… Beno… Beno!” Marco tried to call me, but I only responded after the dream ended. Seeing him I immediately urge him to get out of the building. Seeing me suddenly so frantic, he did not question and immediately start to push me and my wheelchair out.

We didn’t have to walk too long before my fears become reality, upon going downstairs to the second floor, we both can start to smell smoke in the hallways. Looking closer, we can see that the smoke is coming out from the elevator shafts. This is bad, the fire probably comes from the ground floor, which is why we haven’t smell it at the third floor yet.

Sensing my anxiety, Marco start to push the wheelchair faster, I grip on it harder because I don’t want Marco to slow down because of me, even though we talked about wanting to die to end the suffering, when the opportunity comes, we both still wanted to live instead…

Upon reaching the first floor, we can see hell already. On the left side of the stairs is totally engulfed in flames… the smoke is starting to be unbearable as Marco starts to cough because of it. The wet towel can only work to a certain limit.

Yet this isn’t the limit to the despair, when we reach the ground floor, which is truly hell. The entire floor is on fire, from the hallways, to the ceilings, only the ground is slightly free of fire as well, the floor is tiled so there isn’t that many stuff to burn.

But alas, we are close to the exit, luckily the firefighters are already here and is trying to put out the fire, at least I can see the water pillars coming in trying to put out the fire.

We will be saved, at least that is what I thought before I felt a force pushing me forward, tossing me from my wheelchair to the ground. Marco stumbled even further than me, luckily not touching any fire. Looking back I can see a metal pipe stuck in the wheels of my wheelchair. It is definitely not there before so someone tossed it there.

Looking around I only see someone, he is wearing an entirely black suit with his face covered, but the moment he talked, I knew who is it.

“Well, if it isn’t the disgrace of mine.” Father…

“I originally accept this because a certain someone isn’t dead but if I can get you killed together, it would be the best day of my life, maybe I can pretend to grief so that I can earn some pitty points too!” my father said as he brought out a knife from his pocket… I still can’t understand this… why is father doing this…

“Looking at your face you’re thinking why right? Well, it is because of you! Because of you that bitch died, because of you I am forced to take this shitty job! So, if you have someone to blame, blame yourself for even being born!” he said as he try to stab his knife into me, but I rolled away to barely dodge it.

In a panic, I quickly find anything to toss at him, whether it is some debris, or even a foldable chair, if it is something that I can grab, I used it to throw it at him, but it doesn’t help the eventual demise that due to me only using one hand, the power of the toss is weak and it didn’t do any damage at all.

Looking around I found out that Marco is nowhere to be seen, which somehow made me feel relieved. At the very least he is alive. But to my shock, when my father is about to seal the deal, Marco came out of nowhere and body slam him. Pushing him to the side. Marco then quickly try to lift me out and get me out of this place before my father can recover.

“It is not worth dying now Beno! Just a bit more and we both can be saved!” Marco said as he lift me through his shoulders. We heard the firefighters shouting, and we shouted back, getting their attention. A sense of relief come to our mind as we are going to be saved, we are going to live, is what I thought honestly.

That is until my father came and stabbed Marco. He is still not giving up, he stabbed him in the back, causing him to fall down with me. I look at him, I am thinking that I am starting to be desensitived by all the danger, that I am not even scared at him holding the knife. Instead, I am angry…

It is alright if you want to beat me, hurt me or even kill me even. But dragging my only last friend down with you, that is unforgiveable… even though I can’t walk, I can still move around with my hands, and I can definitely still swing my legs, and swing it I did and caused him to fall down, with a huge thump, I swung my casted leg as if it is a club at his arm that is holding a knife.

With a hush bashing sound, I can even hear the sound of his bone cracking, even though he yelped, he still tried to make the sound as low as possible. Though it is not really helping us at the situation.

The firefighters yelled out again, it seems like they lost us and is trying to get our location, so I shout out loud for them to find us. But with the rate of the fire, the chance of us getting found is getting lower. Even though the floor is inflammable, fire is still dropping down from the ceiling, and the place where I can be safe from the fire is getting lesser.

“Marco, you have to get out of here!” I told him, but I can see that he is hesitating.

“Quick! There is no time left! You have to get out of here alive!” I yelled again, Marco moved, but to the wrong direction, he is moving towards me. He then lifts me up and tossed me to where the firefighters are.

“Live Beno… don’t worry about me… I will wait for you at the other side.” Marco said before the fire blocks my vision to him. Marco… he did not scream… he did not cry… he just smiles…

I yelled out at the top of my lungs before I fainted, both from the pain, and from the smoke…

Benokelvin

You guys wanna hear a funny thing? It is until now that i realized...

This is supposed to be Act 0... not act 1....

oh well...