Chapter 1- Chris Kriegman

May 1st, 2001

10:06 AM

A/N: I have decided to add to the Restoration Series. Since Original Version editions of pretty much all the other Restoration Series works have been posted since I recovered my copies of them in 2017, it seems only fair that I include "The Reactions of Many" and "The Aftermath" and give the readers- if there are any, ha ha ha- a chance to read the stories exactly as they were when I found them on this site in 2011/2012. Remember- *none* of the stories covered in the Restoration Series are mine, least of all the Original Version stories, where the content of the chapters is 100% original and thus 100% the work of someone else.

This story may be more like 99% original, however, since even my saved copy of this story did not have a specified time of day for Chapter 3, although it had a specified time of day for Chapters 1, 2, and 4. So I simply copied over the 9:15PM time I randomly picked, going off how Chapter 3 has a sentence specifying it as being "after nine" at night.

This is the 40th story posted to the Zero Day archive on this website.

Below in quotation marks is the original author's notes that displayed on Chapter 1 for this story.

"A/N: This is going to be a short multi-chaptered story of people's reactions to Zero Day, mainly Chris, the Kriegmans, the Gabriels, and Rachel. So probably around 4 or 5 chapters... this is the first chapter. I chose Chris as Cal and Andre left them a note. Also, seeing as how there was never a name of the school, I just chose a name at random. Forgive my crappy place-naming skills. I'm great at naming characters; places, not so much."

Chris yawned as he walked back into his room, scratching at the back of his neck. He looked around, trying to figure out if anything was out of place. Something felt a little bit… off.

He was nearly certain it was probably nothing at all, but these feelings just didn't come out of nowhere. Then again, maybe it was like "de-ja-vu". Chris always had the feeling of de-ja-vu but it never amounted to anything. Yet, the feeling he had at the moment wasn't anything like de-ja-vu, but at the same time, he didn't know what it was like.

The man sighed, sitting back on his bed. It felt like things had been moved. Probably nothing big, and it didn't seem like anything had been stolen… but Chris just couldn't shake off this feeling.

Looking around, Chris frowned as he saw a piece of paper placed purposefully atop some books that he didn't remember putting there. Standing up he walked over and picked the paper up. As he read, he could feel his stomach tighten; a bad feeling settling in the pit of it.

Chris, sorry we took your guns. We needed them for our movie. Have fun at yo mamma's.

There was no signature, but Chris didn't need to see one to know who had written it. Andre and Calvin… a movie? What movie could they possibly be making that included real guns and—

Chris dropped the paper and threw his door open. Reaching up, he grabbed the key for his gun closet door. Quickly, he shakily unlocked the door, grabbing the other key for the cupboard where he kept them.

XX

He could swear his heart stopped as he stared into the cupboard. Only one gun remained—the gun he had removed the indicator on. "Shit… fuck!" Chris opened the drawers before taking a few steps back.

Everything was gone. His bullets, clips, his fucking guns were all gone. Didn't Andre and Calvin get how fucking dangerous guns were? What were they going to do with them? What "movie" was this?

A crazy thought came to the front of his mind but he shook that away, feeling a bit guilty for thinking of his cousin and cousin's friend like that. There was no way they would do anything like that… right? That question had been purely hypothetical.

Chris leaned back against the door frame, staring at the empty place where his guns should be.

Yet… "What do you think would be the best gun to actually kill somebody with?" The question Calvin had asked had been so serious and both he and Andre had looked very curious about his response. He had thought it was a strange question at the time, but had decided to think nothing of it. Obviously it was probably just a question by two teenagers—teenagers liked guns. Andre had been raised learning how to hunt, he knew that, and Calvin was a natural with it.

Locking his closet back up, he walked out into the living area of the house. He would just call Andre's parents. Chris didn't want to get him and Calvin into trouble, but obviously they didn't get just how dangerous it was to be going around with a loaded gun. Plus, they had stolen them.

If the two of them really were using it for a "movie" (probably a school video), they could have just asked and he would have let them borrow them- under supervision of course.

Grabbing his phone, he dialed his uncle's house, bringing the phone up to his ear, listening to it ring. Only a moment later—something which shocked him slightly—the phone was answered and the sound of his aunt's panicked voice greeted him.

"Ch-Chris! Have you seen the news?" Johanne Kriegman seemed to force out, and Chris' brows furrowed.

"No… what's going on? Did something happen?"

"T-turn on the news! Quickly!"

He grabbed the remote with his free hand, turning the TV on and quickly pushing in the channel numbers for the local news. A picture of Andre's and Calvin's high school met him and slowly he lowered himself onto the couch, feeling as if he would vomit at any moment.

"—ports of any fatalities just yet. If you are just joining us on this Tuesday morning, we have gotten 911 calls of a shooting at Tielson High School." Chris was barely holding the phone up to his ear, barely taking in what the reporter was saying.

XX

Shooting? Guns? What was this? It couldn't be what he thought… they wouldn't do that. It was probably just a coincidence.

"So far, there have been six kids taken to hospitals for serious injuries. Other minor ones have begun being attended to at close by houses. We know this is difficult, but the police ask that people stay away from Tielson High School and to please go to the public library to find out if your child has been accounted for.

"There are still a lot of kids trapped inside of the school at the moment, and the SWAT team are trying their best to get to them. It's been affirmed that there are two gunmen. Their names are not yet known—"

The reporter went on but Chris wasn't taking any more of it in. Two gunmen? That just about set it in stone, didn't it? His phone dropped to his side on the couch. Andre and Calvin had been the ones to ask to go shooting with him. They had happily helped take them out and put them back. They had known where the keys were.

They had asked which gun would be the best to kill somebody with.

Chris' eyes closed tightly, jaw clenching. He knew what all these things were adding up to, but he didn't want to think them. To think that would be betraying his cousin but… what else could he think?

"FUCK!" he screamed, kicking at the coffee table. "Shit…" He felt like he was being torn apart between realism and idiotic optimism. How could it be that his cousin could do something? Andre had always been a good kid… he had fun hanging out with him- but now this?

There was no way Andre would do something like this. He just couldn't accept it.

Yet Chris didn't see how he could accept anything other than that.