I and Ryan came out of what was once the schoolyard which we had now torn to shreds and made our way to where our bags were.

We were down to the last 7 minutes. I picked our bags up and took a quick look at their contents as Ryan stood near me spectating everything. The principal's body was still there plus a pool of his own blood.

The school was silent, I could neither see anyone poking out of the classes nor hear anyone.

"I wonder how Bella is doing..." I muttered under my breath. 

Ryan placed his hand on my back trying to reassure me.

 I looked at him, he had a reassuring expression on him.

heh, it is funny, I would have never thought of Ryan as the caring kind or that I would ever rely on him as much as I am right now, he was after all the klutz, always getting into trouble and saying the darndest of things, always standing outside the class cause he is outstanding.

I looked up at the air, where once the alien lady floated.

I was having a hard time understanding all this, also I questioned many things, had I become delusional again? I was in the hospital for having severe delusions, I don't remember what delusions I had but it was something related to angels and demons and about me having come to save this world.

The events that happened, I could not put my finger on it but I felt there was a connection.

Maybe I regressed to having delusions, I looked at Ryan who was inspecting the part of the invisible wall that barred us from getting to the school building.

Delusion or not, getting out of the situation in hand was the priority.

I stared at the stationeries inside our bags.

I then took out the school books and threw them on the ground, Ryan looked at me in confusion.

"This is close to one of those zombie survival movies ain't it ?" I said mocking the situation. He looked at me and nodded.

He was so quite unlike his usual self, that it worried me.

But I didn't know how to comfort him.

I left some plain notes and the stationeries in the bag with our water bottles and lunch.

I handed him his bag and a pen. "We will use the pens as weapons if the situation gets to it".

Ryan didn't seem okay with it but seemed to think it made sense.

We were down to the last 4 minutes now.

"3 minutes and 56 seconds,"

I said as I walked past him toward the blood stain revealing the well hidden wall in plain sight.  

"All of it might end right after this or the situation could get worse," I stated.

I turned to look at Ryan's unreadable expression.

" Let's survive. " Ryan nodded.

"We need a weapon," he said, I was surprised but happy that he felt like speaking since it seemed like he was worsening with time.

"Yeah,".

 "Let's check out the situation inside the school first" I continued.

"No, getting a weapon is our priority. " he asserted. I didn't understand why he suddenly got so serious.

Well, witnessing a murder by an alien would make anyone serious. 

A pen is more than capable of killing.

I pondered over it. He was right, having a weapon would not hurt but I wanted to check up on Isabella.

*sigh*

"You are right, but where do we get one ?"

"The archery club room," he said, it was a good suggestion but the bow was a ranged weapon, and the lack of arrows should also be considered.

It's a good suggestion but both of us using the bow will put us in danger, considering I am not as good as him. I should learn the [][][][][][][][][][][][] as soon as possible. ' spoke a very familiar voice in my head.

I shuddered. What was that? I broke out in a cold sweat before seeing flashes of explosions and blood splatter in my head. I held my head and collapsed to my knees.

What am I seeing? I wondered as I gripped my head tighter, Ryan rushed to my side. "Are you alright? what happened ?" he asked worriedly crouching in front of me.

The sudden barrage of memories ended, but I still didn't understand what all the explosions and blood was about.

I looked at Ryan, who was all worried. "I am alright, was just a sudden headache," I said not wanting to worry him about it.

"Is that so? " He asked, I could feel he didn't believe me, it was after all a stupid excuse. He didn't question me further to my relief.

We got to our feet, we had but a minute left now.

I left the thinking for later and rose up, determined to deal with the situation in hand.

"Using the bow sounds good and all but it is a ranged weapon"

"I am not as good as you Ryan, I miss 1 out of 5 arrows unlike you, and the shortage of arrows is also something we have to consider."

He nodded in silence. "I will go to the cafeteria there must be knives there. " I suggested. His eyes widened at the suggestion, "no !" he exclaimed,

" being separated would be worse".

"We could first go to the club it is the nearest from here and then we will go to the cafeteria " he suggested.

It was a good suggestion but something told me it would not be dangerous.

But, Ryan's suggestion was more logical.

So it was decided, our next destination.

It was time to stop worrying, after all, we were down to the last 5 seconds.

5

4

3

The timer counted down unlike my anxiety and worries which increased

2

1

Right as it reached 0 I heard bells chime in my head again. "The first trial has ended, those who failed will be given the penalty."

A few seconds passed, and the invisible wall was still there, and again the monotonous voice spoke "Calculating reward."

"You have received a reward of 2000 coins for having completed the trial first within all servers. You have received 500 coins for your first kill. You have received 5800 for your subsequent kills. " Said the monotonous voice accompanied by the noise of coins falling in the background.

"Your total reward in the first trial is 8300 coins."

The message ended and right after, the invisible wall disappeared.

My blood which had stained the wall was now on the ground, it was as if the wall never existed.

I looked at Ryan who was looking up at the sky, I followed his gaze to find the lady who had appeared again.

She laughed with a powerful voice, "amusing, really it was so amusing." I dreaded.

"keep up the good work vermin, who knows, maybe you will become something to not be looked down upon." She exclaimed with her alluring voice.

I felt an unknown rage towards her and disgust.

"The next trial will begin in 2 hours, make sure to rest well so you can keep us entertained!" She once again disintegrated after ending her sentence.

The floating window now had a 2-hour timer.

"Another trial ?" I spoke in dread.

I had internally wished it would all end.

"It is just as I thought" voiced Ryan as he started walking to the club area.

I was quick to follow him

" What do you mean ?" I asked in confusion.

"I have read about this, " he said,

"what do you mean 'read about this' ?" I questioned him as we walked.

His sudden declaration gave rise to a ton of questions inside me, how did he read about this? what did he read? where did he read about this?

"You know how I read webcomics in my spare time," he continued, "yeah"

"This has been a popular theme for some time now, the sudden appearance of mysterious beings, and all that," he explained as we left the area we had been stuck in for the past hour and walked towards the club area.

" What do you mean ?" I questioned him, we were now crossing a small, old shed that was barely standing. It looked ominous, there were always rumors surrounding it, but most of them were made up.

"So, there is normally a main character, these trials or scenarios would start occurring, and many humans would die, there would be angels and demons and whatnot. "

I looked at him speechless, "webcomics ?" I was flabbergasted, fiction? I don't know what I was expecting, some sacred scripture passed down in his family? That was dumb of me.

I chuckled, he was so serious telling me about it. "It is not funny," he remarked.

A popular theme in webcomics? Well, it does seem interesting to read but definitely not something to experience firsthand.

It made me question what was happening, maybe reading those might get me a clue.

"Yes, considering it is happening to us right now." I saw his lips curve.

"So, tell me more about this. " I asked as we started walking on the tiled path that led to the club area. "I don't really know much, I never read them but as you said it is close to surviving in a zombie apocalypse except there are monsters and not zombies"

He explained, "So, any idea we could get about this situation is to read comics or novels on this or find someone who did."

"I presume so " he replied.

"sheesh"

We reached the club area, there were only 2 sports clubs in our school. The archery club and the athletics club. We power walked to the archery club.

Ryan rushed to it first and opened the club door.

*click*

He slowly opened the club room which looked like much store room, the archery clubroom was only ever made to store stuff anyways.

Ryan stood still in front of the door blocking the view. I smelled iron and another scent that disgusted me. He looked shocked and turned pale.

I went closer to get a look at what was there.

It was truly a blood-curdling site, Nathan, Lucas and another person all lay dead with blood splashed all over the walls and floor.

I realized the terribly disfigured corpse must have been Sera.

They were part of the archery club, they had a competition coming up so were probably practicing in school since 6 in the morning.

Nathan had an arrow poking out of his chest, and many wounds aside from that it looked like he was in a fistfight. Sera seemed like she had her head repeatedly smashed against the wall.

Lucas had been choked to death, but I could see a few markings on his shirt, maybe he was beaten too.

The scene was nauseating, Ryan stumbled back before shoving me to the ground.

He ran a few meters before collapsing. I ignored his pitiful state and went into the club room. I didn't feel anything looking at the horrible sight.

I walked towards the shelf and grabbed all the arrows there, new and old alike. As I was haphazardly shoved all the arrows into my bag I saw something in my peripheral view.

I turned to look, and there I found another student sitting but with no head, there was blood everywhere near, it was as if her head exploded.

She was sitting still, with her hands hugging herself. I could see blood run down from her neck which was not attached to a head.

I started to panic but soon found myself calm, I averted my gaze and continued shoving in the arrows and I grabbed 2 of the newest bows and rushed outside.

I saw Ryan still collapsed but now puking his guts out. I went to him and patted his back gently. He was having trouble organizing himself.

I got him to his feet and managed to drag him away from his puke, he collapsed and was having a hard time coping. I crouched and hugged him.

It had been a few minutes now, he was no longer a mess, I could see him question my reaction. Even I did.

I hoped he would not ask me that.

He composed himself, "W- What d-do you think happened there ?" He stammered as he looked at the ground with tears welling up in his eyes.

"It must have been the trial, they too must have thought they had to kill someone. "

"They could have killed anything at all! like us! " he cried.

"We too at first thought the same, Nathan must have attacked Lucas, and Lucas probably fought back too but then could have gotten killed by Nathan.

Sera must have shot an arrow at Nathan to try stop Lucas from dying which could have angered him after which he could have killed her and could have later died from excessive bleeding."

"What ? How do you...?" He looked at me confused and somewhat terrified.

"I am assuming that is what happened since that is what I think the crime scene pointed to, Nathan has a bigger build than Lucas after all, but I don't think we will ever know the truth of what happened here.

It just seemed the most plausible to me."

"Wait why do you think ?, hold on" he stammered with his sentence.

"Luna.... how can you be so unaffected? They were our friends! and even if not how could you be ok with this situation ?" I was expecting that question.

"I don't know, I just don't feel anything right now. To be honest, none of this feels real to me. Get up now, we have to go to the cafeteria and then hurry on to the school building. "

I grabbed his arm and pulled him up.

"Let's go" I shoved the bows at him and opened my bag to hand him the arrows.

"Would you be the same even if I died?" I looked up at him in astonishment.

I was hurt and surprised, my mouth gaped at his question. How could he say that? I was so hurt. Soon the pain turned to rage. "What do you mean by that huh ?"

I started shoving him. "What do you think I mean ?" he asked as if rebuking me.

"How could you ask that ?"I cried, I was so hurt, I didn't know what to tell him.

"Well you don't seem to care, that's why. You didn't shed a single tear looking at our dead friends, your reaction is the problem."

He shoved me but with a lot of force, I fell to the ground. I looked up only to be met with a scowl. He grabbed the arrows from me and started walking to the school building. Leaving me alone.

I didn't get up, I didn't feel like getting up. I lay on the cold ground as I thought about it.

My reaction was weird, to a lot of things. I could not answer how I would react if he died either.

What is wrong with me?

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Thank you for reading !! tell me your thoughts on this chapter !! lov yall !! <3