Chapter One
May 2007
Redemption, TX

Val Breckenridge walked down one of the hallways before his first class of the day at the science building of Redemption High School. He was minding his own business like he always had done before. He wasn't one to talk to a lot of people before or after class. He would just show up when he had to and leave when it was time to go. People avoided him in the hallways because of that. They didn't know what he would do or even who he was. He was always the grumpy kid walking down the halls. People would try to talk to him, but Val would just brush them off or totally ignore them. He truly didn't care about anything that didn't concern him. He was always alone and he rather enjoyed it. Although, it was boring sometimes.

As he neared his chemistry class, some guy ran right into him. Val turned to see the person who hit him. A quiet rage started to boil up in Val, but it subsided when he saw who had run into him. It was one of his classmates from his chemistry class, Zack Henderson. Zack was stressed out all the time. He was one of the people who would run into things without any malice. He was just clumsy and stressed. Val noticed that Zack had dropped his books on the ground. Val knelt down to help Zack out.

"Thanks," Zack said.

"No problem," Val replied.

Before either of them could say anything else, they both heard music coming from down the hall. The people all around them dissipated into smoke. The hall started to grow. Classroom and locker doors swung open and slammed shut. Suddenly everything went dark. When Val and Zack vision came back, they were sitting in their seats with their chemistry class almost over.

"What in the hell?" asked Val underneath his breath. He turned to see Zack have the same look of surprise on his face. Val turned back around to the front of the classroom. The same music was still in his ears, not as loud as at first, but it felt like it was calling him somewhere.

Redemption High School Gym

"I don't want to do this," John Sayers pleaded.

"Why not? It's going to be fun," replied Karin Garcia. The two of them were in the gym before school had started. Karin had laid out several of the mats on top of the hardwood gym floor. John and she were standing on them as the two of them went back and forth.

"I don't think you and I have the same idea as fun. Not in this case anyway. I don't want to be the one whipping post for you to practice on," John continued to tell his best friend.

"It's not going to be that bad. I'll go slowly and I promise you it won't hurt."

"How you know?" asked John.

"I've been doing this since I was eleven. I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours underneath my belt. I've been in your position before. I was nervous but I went through with it. Look where I am now. Besides, this isn't even one the more advanced things I could do. Since you've never done any of this before, I wasn't going to use an advanced technique on you."

"Thanks for that," John snipped.

"John, shut up and get over here before I decide to use an advanced technique on you. Also, this was your idea. You wanted me to show some of the stuff I could do. Now I am. So deal with it," Karin shot back.

"Fine," John relented, "What do you want me to do?"

"First take your shoes off," Karin answered as she took hers off as well. She tossed them to the side as did John. Karin laid down on her back and raised her legs in the air. She told John to lean onto her feet. She placed her right foot on his bicep and her left foot on his hip. She grabbed his wrists and asked, "Are you ready?"

"No, not really," John replied.

"Too bad," Karin smirked. She swiftly moved her right foot from John's bicep and placed it one his hip next to her other foot. She raised her legs and pulled on John's arms. John was completely off of the ground despite being a good deal larger than she was. Without breaking stride she kept propelling him with her feet and hands until John completely rolled over her and hit his back on the mat and then she was on top of him with her arm against his throat; however she was not pushing down.

"How did I end up on bottom?" asked John, "And why are you on top of me?"

"The answer to both of those questions is because I performed the elevator sweep on you," Karin answered, "That was one of the simpler moves."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you two," a quiet voice came from the entrance of the gym. Karin and John looked to see one of their classmates, Colt Barton, staring at them. His body was lanky and his demeanor was quiet

John replied in a pleading voice, "No! Don't leave. This is not what you think it is."

"What is it then?" asked Colt.

Karin got up off of John and answered, "I was showing him one of the sweeps in BJJ."

"BJJ?" asked John.

"Brazilian jiu-jitsu," Colt replied.

"So you know what it then?" asked Karin.

"Colt knows a lot of things," John answered as he stood to his feet again, "He's like a human encyclopedia."

"You could say that," Colt said.

"I know why we were here, but why are you here, Colt?" asked Karin.

"This is where my first class meets," Colt answered.

"Speaking of first class, we should probably get to our first class, Karin," John said.

"Yeah," Karin replied. As Karin took her first step, she heard music coming from behind her. It was loud and pounding in her ears. She asked, "Can anyone else hear that music?"

"Yes," Colt answered.

"I hear it too and I know what song that is," John said. Before he could finish, the gym windows exploded, sending glass all over the gym floor as the walls of the gym started to crack.

"What's going on!?" yelled Colt as the music grew louder and louder.

Instantly the place went dark. Just as fast as they left, the lights came back, but John and Karin were no longer in the gym. They were sitting next to each other in their algebra II class with only minutes left. Karin leaned over to John, "What happened?"

"I have no idea," John replied, "But if I end up being the final Cylon, I'm going to be pissed."

"What?" asked Karin.

"I'll tell you later."

The bell rang and John and Karin jumped up. They hurried out to the hallway. They walked down the hallway towards Karin's locker. Karin asked, "What about the gym? Remember it was being destroyed."

"I know. Colt is in my next class. I'll ask him then."

"What about the music?" asked Karin as she opened her locker.

"Music? Oh yeah. The music is from Battlestar Galactica. The song is called All Along the Watchtower. The Bear McCreary cover made for the show. It's how four of the final five Cylons find out that they are Cylons."

"So we are hearing it why?" asked Karin.

"I've no idea," John replied, "I just know we heard the music. So did Colt. You go on and I'll ask Colt what he thinks."

"Okay. Do you think Kristian heard the song also?" asked Karin.

"I don't know. Why?" asked John.

"She's my twin sister. Maybe because I heard that, she did as well."

"Go find out, Karin. I'll see if anyone else is acting like something strange happened to them."

"How will you be able to tell?" asked Karin.

"I will be able to. Trust me, now go," John said as he took off.