"Look at the sky," Wes whispers. I do look up. It's purple, just like it always has been. There are a few pink clouds floating around, making it look like some sort of pastel dream. There's nothing unusual.
"What is it?" I ask, wanting to know what exactly he wants me to look at.
"Doesn't it just seem... Wrong?"
"What's wrong with it?"
"The colours. They're all wrong." Wes squints hard at them. I can feel the rays of the suns beating down on my back, and the wind rushing through my body.
"Why?"
"There shouldn't be... That is... There isn't..." Wes flops back onto the grassy hill next to me, defeated. "I don't know."
We lie there for a while. Day turns to night, where the sky is pitch black and strangely empty, and the moon triples in size and quantity. Wes keeps shaking his head.
"Nishan would've found this strange," I say, permeating the thick silence in the air, threatening to strangle us.
"Who's Nishan?" Wes asks.
"I don't know."
We look up. The moon is getting closer to us. I could almost reach out and touch it. I know it's not a good idea though, considering that the moon is covered in liquids that will melt your body and freeze your mind.
"Wes?" I look next to me.
"Yes?"
"Where are we?"
"We're..." Wes stops. "I don't know."
The moon arches its back, then hisses at me.
"We shouldn't ask these questions."
"I know."
I feel an itch at the back of my mind that I need to scratch. I probe at it, trying to figure out what it is.
"Autumn." I whisper quietly.
"It's been Autumn forever."
"No, it's been winter."
"Autumn and winter?"
The moon glares at me. Wake up.
The second, most brilliant moon is whispering again. She always does that.
All the moon seem to huddle together to converse, then the sky lights up with orange flames. The flames lick the ground, and I feel pain erupt all over my head.
"Spring?" I ask.
I hear silence. I look next to me, and see nothing.
"We-" I feel blank. "I forgot what I was going to say."
It's hard to think with a huge blanket over your mind. I look at the moons. 10 in total. I could swear there were-
I don't know.
Night turns to day. The suns touch my skin, and I feel blisters forming underneath them. The pain is so much, but I can't remember. The sky is yellow, like it always has been. The clouds are many, and they're all red.
But something feels off about the colours.
I stand up, only to realise I have no legs. I don't fall, but instead I float upwards.
"Payton?" I hear a voice cry.
I can't remember who she is.
"Ssh... She should be okay."
"B-b-but after the toxins!"
"Wes is okay. She will be too."
"We're all okay, so will she."
I can't talk. My mouth is sandpaper.
The room is metal, fragrances inhaled through my nose. It smells like chemicals, and smoke.
"Payton?" A girl stands over me. Her blonde hair tumbles down her shoulders and into my mouth, suffocating, choking me.
I cough. Her hair is only tumbling past her shoulders. That's it.
"Payton? Can you hear me?"
In vain, I try to speak or move or anything. All I can do is watch her.
"Pa-" She's cut off by a guy.
"Payton." His mouth opens so wide that it pulls back over his head to reveal a red mass of muscle and brain.
I think a tear escaped my eye.
"She can't talk," the blonde girl whispers.
A hand suddenly smacks my stomach, forcing me up and making me cough multiple times.
"Much better."
"W-" I don't know what I was going to say. I don't remember anything but this bed.
"Hearst Corp. Those words ring any bells?" A brunette next to me asks.
I shake my head. I want to lie down again, but I feel like I might fall out of my body if I do.
"Do you remember anything?"
I shake my head again. Hearst Corp. I don't know what that means.
"Okay, I'll explain the main things. First of all, your name is Payton."
I nod. Okay. That seems okay.
"Second, a company named Hearst Corp released deadly toxins into the air. The only way people could survive was if they were able to put themselves in stasis, but only for a month. Any longer, and the stasis would become as deadly as the toxins." She clears her throat. "You were in there for four months. Our machines automatically let us out, but you were stuck."
"Wes." I remember that name.
"Huh?" They all look at me.
"Wes." I say it again.
"Wes... He died in stasis."
"He... He was with me."
"We all were, at one point," a girl with pink hair in the corner says.
"And thirdly, you died."
It's been a week.
I've learned everyone's names, but there's still something off about the world.
I hallucinate regularly, and sometimes find myself in other people's heads, seeing their thoughts. I haven't told anyone, mostly because I've accidentally learned some very personal things.
Autumn used to like Wes. Wes is now dead, so naturally she's a bit sad. Actually, very sad. Upon poking around her head, I discovered she has major depressive disorder. Yikes.
I, apparently, am well liked by people. The moons, were in fact my friends talking. They all laughed when I told them how the suns were beating on my back even though my back was covered by a grassy hill. People like me, but I heard Julian saying how he hopes I'd still put out for him. After seeing a thought about him and Kallie, I don't think I would ever do that with him.
We're inside a school, and it's apparently our school. How we got so much funding nobody knows.
Nobody has elaborated on my "death". It's a bit weird, but from memories I flatlined a month ago, and stayed that way for three weeks. Once Wes died, I suddenly came back to life and then woke up an hour later.
When I asked Kallie about it, she said, "The flatline was just a little blip."
I don't know what they're hiding from me.
I've studied the stasis machine.
Overexposure causes hallucinations, depression, and unobserved side effects. I'm assuming my brain searching skills are the said "unobserved side effects".
I've also studied the toxins, using a booklet I found in a locked safe in Nishan's room. I got into it using a key I found in his "Scarlet Justice" boxers.
They take on different forms based on whether you have a certain type of characteristic. There's five of them.
The first one is a leader based one, where if you're already a good leader you become an authoritarian leader. Side effects include- superiority complex, preying on vulnerable people, and violent behaviour. Julian probably fits this one, as does Mia and Ace.
The second one is a suicide-based one. If you're already a bit fragile emotionally, you tend to fall off the deep end a bit. Side effects? Suicidality, depression, anxiety, and no energy. This is definitely Autumn, and perhaps Nishan, but I'm not sure.
The third one is a shy one. If you're introverted and like to keep to yourself, and you don't fit the first two, this will make you quite vulnerable and quiet. Side effects include painful shyness, not being able to speak up, and being ruled over. Kallie definitely fits this, as does Janey.
The fourth one is for unique and different people, like Sakura, Koh and Ezra. You become more keeping to yourself, and more rebellious. For example, I was looking in Ezra's head and noticed that he was planning on creating bombs. With what, I don't know.
The fifth one is for extroverts. You become more chatty, and a lot more sociable. Nishan wrote "Payton?" next to it, but it's weird because the side effects are all not things I'm experiencing. You start lashing out, becoming more angry, and then homicidal. It's similar to the leader one, except this one actually wants to kill people.
As it turns out, nobody told me about how there used to be "All Stars" with them from the school. Apparently, Calvin, a Type 5, ended up killing all the other All Stars, and Julian finished him off when Calvin was about to start on Janey.
I do know that Julian's intentions towards all the Type 3s isn't good. Mia just bosses them around, Ace is super rude to them, but Julian...
I relocked the safe, and left the key in the same place. I have to make sure Julian doesn't get this information.
Last night, Ace nearly killed Julian over Julian's intentions with Janey. Ace found Julian forcing himself on Janey, and then bashed Julian's head in with a meat cleaver. He didn't kill him, but Julian's concussed now. Kallie tried to help Julian, but Ace threatened her. Nobody but Janey, Ace, Julian, and me know exactly what happened. People haven't been nice to Ace as a result.
Ace doesn't know that this isn't even close to the first time.
I tried to talk to Janey, but she isn't talking to anyone.
I also noticed Sakura and Ezra working together in a lab. I left them alone, but I'm a bit nervous.
Nishan was in bed for a few days. He has no idea I know that he's depressed. I forced him out for dinner, but he's looking worse. I don't know what to do.
Well... We're all divided now.
Julian is back in action, and his first port of call was to fight Ace.
For some stupid reason, nobody thought to lock the sharps up after Ace's outburst, so the consequences are that now Ace has no left hand, but Julian is blind in one eye and has to use a walking stick.
Ace also shouted out, "You can't just rape people!", which now means that half of us are on his side because there's more context.
Julian's supporters include Autumn, Kallie (being threatened, I noted), Mia, and Koh (who never liked Janey much to begin with).
Ace's supporters include me, Janey, Ezra, Sakura, and Nishan.
Ezra and Sakura nipped off at dinner, which makes me think that something's up. I am concerned, but not as concerned as I am about Nishan, who's started to eat less. I've moved into his room now, and I make sure he gets stuff done.
Julian is vowing revenge, and with Koh on his side I'm nervous.
Well... Koh isn't really a problem now.
To be honest, nobody thought that Ezra would lash out at her.
But when Koh said, "Janey was asking for it," Ezra got his steak knife and...
As a person with a sensitive stomach, I won't describe.
Julian tried to get up, forgot his walking stick, and fell over. Koh tried to attack Ezra, but when you're being cut into it's a bit hard to fight back. Autumn threw a knife in Ezra's direction, missed (steak knives are not throwing knives, Autumn!), and ended up hitting Janey. Janey was frightened, but had enough outdoor survival skills to know not to pull the knife out. Sakura got Janey and I out of there, and I don't know what happened next, besides Koh's scream and Ezra, Ace, and Nishan rushing us into a safe room which they then locked.
We're all in a room together, and with my hallucinations of more blood and gore and Sakura doing first aid on Janey's arm, I am about to pass out.
It's been a week.
We got out of the room yesterday, where we found out Mia had gotten Julian's side into a safe room as well. Koh's corpse was on the floor, as was a lot of other blood. We cleaned it up, and got back to normal. Ace did lock up the sharps though, leaving a few for us "just in case".
I talked to Nishan about the types. He was a bit embarrassed I'd found it ("in my lucky briefs!") but he was mostly happy to talk to someone about it. We've decided we can't tell if Ace is a Type 1 or 5.
Today though, has been good. Ezra and Sakura are still working on stuff, but Nishan's joined them so I'm with Janey and Ace playing Risk. Ace keeps winning.
Julian's side are out.
Kallie seems to have tried to do first aid on them, but Julian has a bad concussion now. Ezra seems to have gotten Autumn in the scuffle, and she now has a scar on her wrist.
Already, Julian seems to have slept with all the girls on his side. He seems to be enjoying the non-consent, while the girls are terrified (minus Mia, who seems to be the only one who gave consent). Janey's been with Ace the whole time so she's been okay.
I still haven't told anyone about my brain searching. I think I'll talk to Nishan about it.
I talked to Nishan about it two days ago, and he promptly asked me whether Sakura had a crush on him.
Once we cleared that up ("she's a bit too pressured trying to make whatever it is you're making"), I asked him why I didn't know what they were making. I mean... I should be able to look through their memories, right?
"We've all taken forgetting serum, which makes us forget what we've been doing, funnily enough. We just read the notes and work on it."
"Oh okay... Thanks Nishan."
I've been playing more board games with Ace and Janey. Ace wins at all of them except for Cluedo, which I won once. He didn't want to play it again.
Julian's been quiet, but I'm concerned because he shouldn't be so quiet. I've kept an eye out, but nothing seems to have happened.
Autumn's been extremely quiet after Julian's non-con adventures. I'm concerned about her, but she's on Julian's side, so she's dangerous. I feel bad, but there's nothing I can do.
Today, I think I can say I've held up the "Type 5" side effects.
Turns out Julian's been priming Mia up to kill one of us. An eye for an eye, etcetera. Anyway, I was concerned when I heard her thinking, "Where's Payton?" so I did a bit of digging. I got one of Ace's 'emergency' weapons, and when she walked around a corner I smashed her head in with a metal pipe Ace found in the bathroom on the second floor. Once she was out cold, I found a gun on her. Hats off to Julian, I had no clue there were guns inside here.
Anyway, I found Ace and told him, he followed me to Mia's body. He grabbed the gun, and started striding to where Julian would probably be.
"What are you doing?"
"Going to find out where this gun came from."
I went back to Nishan's room, when I realised I wasn't sure if Mia was dead.
"It's probably nicer for you to not kill her. I mean... She's just been convinced by Julian to do bad things."
At that point, I could almost kiss Nishan. He has wise answers to a lot of my questions.
We talked about life, the universe, and everything. We talked until Nishan fell asleep, and I looked out the barred window of his room.
I realised that we weren't going outside at all, in fact, ever. If the toxins were already in here, why weren't we going outside? Noted that down to ask Nishan later, because nobody told me when I woke up.
Can't tell whether Ace is Type 1 or 5, but after today I think it's 5...
Woke up to hear Janey screaming. I grabbed my trusty metal pipe, and raced out the door, briefly saying to Nishan, "I'll be back!"
Found Janey, found Julian on top of her with a gun. Julian was already "going through the motions" so I knocked his head in with the pipe, not knowing he'd cocked the gun. Julian fell down, but not before shooting Janey's arm.
At that point, with all the blood, I passed out.
When I came to, I was covered in blood. Ace had come in, and had stabbed Julian, so Julian had grabbed Ace's knife and stabbed him back. Blood had sprayed everywhere, and Julian was trying to kill any of us. Mia came in with another gun, but Ace had gotten his knife back and stabbed her. When Ace stabbed, Julian was reaching for him to throttle him but slipped on the blood. Ace had hit Mia's artery, so blood was going everywhere and Mia fell to the floor, dead. I looked up and saw Ace and Julian in a fist fight, the knife forgotten on the floor.
"Janey!" I shouted. She looked at me like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car. "Get to Sakura's room!" She didn't need to be told twice. She darted out, and I wondered whether to stay or go. I picked up the knife, and the gun, then went back to Nishan's room, wanting to get away from the blood.
I didn't know at the time, but Kallie had gotten into Nishan's room and had been told by Julian to "kill anyone at any cost", and her being Type 3 was completely brainwashed. As I got through the door, Kallie was getting ready to strike. Without a second thought, I cocked the gun and shot. The recoil sent me flying, and slammed me into the hallway wall. I missed Kallie, but she was spooked enough. With a second of hesitation from her, I ran back in and stabbed her.
It was interesting for Nishan to wake up to, me covered in blood, dragging Kallie's corpse out of the door. I felt so bad, but I knew it was kill her, or have Nishan be killed. I shut the door, locked it, sat on my bed (really just a mattress on the floor), and cried. Nishan sat next to me, and held me while I sobbed grossly.
At that time, Ezra had been shot by Autumn, which Sakura heard after she'd bandaged up Janey's arm. She grabbed a first aid kit pair of scissors, and when she found Autumn crying with the gun over Ezra's body, started going at her. First aid scissors are literally the most useless weapon that is sharp (besides a butter knife) so Autumn was in pain, but not even close to dying. Sakura didn't realise it, but Autumn being a Type 2 decided that she couldn't go on being sexually assaulted by Julian, then killing people who he didn't like, and she shot herself. Sakura felt the blood go all over her, and was in shock. Seeing Ezra's dead body didn't help either.
She went back up to Janey, who just needed someone with her. They cried together, and then Janey fell asleep while Sakura went to the lab. Sakura found the object she'd been working on, and decided it was finished.
Ace and Julian were still fighting, but Julian was beating Ace up with his walking stick. It was a grotty mess, with blood everywhere, but they were both angry (and Ace homicidal). They exchanged quite a few angry words, and Ace smashed Julian into the lockers in the hallway outside. Julian swatted at Ace with his stick, which hit Ace's temple.
Sakura saw Julian, and decided to throw it at him. That was what the object was for anyway.
Because she hadn't tested the strength with Ezra and Nishan, hadn't known what the object was until she picked it up, and didn't see Ace, she threw.
Ace fell to the ground, and decided he needed a weapon. Where was there one? Inside Janey's room. That thought may have saved his life, because when he ran inside the room to find the gun, the handmade hand grenade hit Julian.
BOOM.
There wasn't much left of Julian, besides fragments of his body. Ace came out, to find Sakura down the hall, and Julian dead.
Everyone went back to bed, and got some rest, including Nishan and me, who fell asleep next to each other on my bed.
We all wake up, and regroup in the kitchen. We're all tired, and Janey and Ace are nursing battle wounds.
"Nishan," I say slowly, trying to remember my thought from earlier, "You know the toxins are in here right?"
"Yeah?" He answers.
"Why don't we go outside?"
Everyone is quiet.
"I..." Nishan quietly responds. "I don't... I don't know."
There is silence. I look into the corner of the room where I notice a camera, watchfully looking at us.
"Where did you find the information on the Types?"
"I... It was in my room..."
"Did you pick your room?"
"I... I just knew it was my room."
"This is a school right?" I gesture around me. "So why are there "rooms" in here, and not classrooms?"
"Oh my..." Janey is quietly whispering.
"How were all our clothes and stuff in here? Did we move everything to the school before we went into stasis?"
"Ohmygosh..." Sakura's mouth slowly opens wide.
"Why the fuck is there a gun in a school building? Why a random metal pipe?"
Everyone looks at me with shocked expressions.
"We all just conveniently forgot information about the outside world after being in stasis. How did you find the information?"
"We... We just knew the basics," Ace replies.
"And..." I look at the camera. "Why are there cameras?"
Everyone looks where I'm looking.
"There are cameras..." Nishan gasps.
"You guys helpfully had the materials to make a hand grenade, we helpfully had "forgetting serum", and we didn't think of going outside."
Ace looks at all of us again. "We need to get out there."
We all race for the front area, right next to where the stasis machines are. There are the gleaming wood double doors, and we all look at them, noticing them for the first time.
"Ohmygosh guys..." Sakura walks forwards, and tries a knob. "They're unlocked."
We all get close to her, and then open the doors.
We walk out onto the steps, turn around, and look at the front of the building.
"Dystopian Studios..." Nishan laughs. "Ha. That's actually quite clever."
We turn around again to take in the sights... Of a film studio?
"And that's a wrap!" A guy in a tall folding chair chuckles into a megaphone. "We were expecting it from Nishan... But not from Payton!"
"Who... Where are we?"
And a lady ushers us to the side of the studio, to where we see more cameras.
"What?!" is the general consensus from all of us.
We were basically told that this was part of an experiment, where they put high schoolers in an environment where their behaviours are altered and they see what happens.
"We weren't expecting all the blood!" The director laughed.
It was being played live, and so all the deaths were real, except for the All Stars, whose story was made up so that the Type 5 would be more believable.
"Wes was not fitting any of the roles, and we couldn't have more than 3 Type 4s, so we may have altered your experience a bit Payton. Wes was never there. We're also sorry about your crazy time "in stasis"! Haha!"
I was pissed, naturally. So was everyone else.
The program really didn't expect so much blood. The homicidal thing was meant to make everyone a bit on edge, and not trust each other, but the opposite happened because Nishan didn't trust anyone to show them the booklet.
I saw Wes at a cafe recently. We both cried, and then he talked about what I'd missed at school. Apparently, throwing a hand grenade at the school QB isn't really a good idea...
Wes offered for both of us to switch schools together. I asked whether the others could join us. "Of course," Wes responded to that. "It'd be stupid not to."
So now... We're at a new school. Nishan and I are best friends, and we all sit together. Of course, we're known as the "Toxic Kids" but that's a lot better than the alternative of going to a school where everyone is accepted, but where everyone will hate us.
~End.
(Hope you guys enjoyed! It was tons of fun for me to write, although I don't know if I ended it too well. Oh well!)