Chapter 21:
So, I sort of forgot to update...sorry about that.
I don't own anything…
Oliver's POV:
She's done it.
I turn on the feed that links to the CCTV camera in the high school and see the hall filling up with students, all of them not knowing that there's anything wrong whatsoever. All this is to them is the usual, boring assembly that they're forced to attend once per week as the entire school.
Little do they know that one hell of a lot of them won't be making it through with their lives intact; they'll be dead.
Getting bored of listening to the whining of so many teenaged brats, I switch the feeds so that I'm observing the chatter of the smaller children, the ones who I am slightly bothered about killing, but not really. After all, when I get control of Morganville, it shall be shut down within months – there is no such thing as this 'vampire Alzheimer's' that Amelie insists exists, therefore why bother to prolong something that evidently does not work?
Now this is more interesting. I can see that two of the teachers (who are supposed to be married to other stupid humans) are having an affair… not that I particularly care or anything, just it makes for good entertainment. It's even more entertaining since they're standing closest to the vent, therefore if they don't survive; it isn't exactly a loss to the human population of Morganville – or even the world.
The doors are shut and the assembly commences a minute before it is supposed to – yet the hall is smaller, so it shall fill up with gas much faster than the other hall will… but the other school's assembly shall last longer, since the messages are in a much higher quantity.
I don't bother listening to the assembly for the little brats, my eyes simply scouring the screen for the signs of the tendrils of… oh, yes; I forgot that the gas is colourless. I shan't be able to see anything until they begin to cough and collapse…
~x~
Fifteen minutes later, and it's beginning to happen.
I can see the adults coughing slightly, see the children on the front rows shuddering and beginning to loll forwards, unable to support their own body weight. The staff at the back of the room don't seem to notice that there is anything wrong, simply continue to stand there… it's happening, but it's slow and steady, nothing immediately happening to bring my attention into the situation.
In the high school, amazingly, things seem much more progressed. I don't understand it at first, until I realise that there is double the amount of gas in a room which isn't that much bigger.
Screams erupt from the end of the camera, so loud that I worry that anyone in the café (and I include humans in here) will hear the screams and come rushing in. so I turn the volume down and smile, watching as the events unfold…
What happens in the school, from the POV of one of the children:
People are falling.
I don't get what's going on! Why are people collapsing, coughing, choking?
At the front, all I can see are the Tutors and the head on their knees, coughing, their faces turning a puce colour as they get closer to the floor. My fellow students at the front – the year sevens – are following suit, seeming in worse state.
All I can do is stare, look at the way that the effects are evident in rows back, people closer and closer to me are coughing and collapsing to the floor.
And then I react.
I run, run screaming for the door with the fellow kids at the back with me, with the couple of adults who survey at the back to make sure we're not talking. There's hardly anyone able to make it to the doors, able to run out into the clean air of the hallway, feeling weak from the exposure to whatever it was.
I can only guess that it is gas – what else could cause such reactions without any visibile ailments.
"Has anyone got a mobile phone?" the teacher at the front of our little group heading out to the grounds yells back at us, about half of us nodding in agreement. "Call the police, the ambulance services… everyone who can help."
We nod as she smashes a glass cover over a button and presses it, sending a wailing throughout the school. Water begins to pour down, mixing in with the tears on our faces, giving us a little boost as in getting rid of the gas from our systems.
I call the police station, who don't seem to believe me when I explain what's going on.
"Please, please, you have to help – there's been an attack in the school hall; I don't know what's going on but people are falling over and we had to get out otherwise we'd have collapsed as well… oh God, I think they're dead!" I wail, the person on the other end of the phone allowing me to finish my sentence before contradicting me.
"Are you playing a prank?" he asks, entirely serious.
"No; you can speak to a teacher if you want!" I exclaim, outraged through the tears – surely he ought to take this seriously, rather than just presume it's a joke!
I hand the phone over to the teacher and stalk away, unable to see anything. My friends are still in there – I only sat at the back because I was late! That's the only reason – I'm only year nine, but if you're late, you have to sit with the year elevens! My friends are in there… my sister is in there! And yet I know if I go back in there, my parents will have no children.
Do I save myself or risk my life to save my sister, when we could both die?
"You can't go back in there!" the new teacher yells at me, pulling me back as I try and run back into the school. I can hear the slow progression of other kids coming out of the building, hear their screams for help, hear the teachers with them yelling to see if there are any others out – obviously there must be, if the alarm is going off.
In the distance, I can hear the slow wail of sirens, the first cars evidently just leaving the station. Shouldn't they be more prepared than this? I mean, true there was that bomb thing a few weeks ago, but that shouldn't impact on children's lives! We could all be de—oh god, what about the primary school?
I should head there… I should... but I don't think I can do anything there. I need to stay here.
It'll kill me.
Oliver's POV:
From what I have been able to see of the devastation in there, it looks identical to what I wanted to happen. Scores and scores of people lie on the floor, coughing and trying to crawl to the limited fresh air coming in through the doors the lucky people escaped through.
The situation over at the primary school is pretty similar. There's the majority of the children on the floor, some of them having escaped, but the ones on the floor are obviously dead. Their lungs are evidently undeveloped enough to even contemplate fighting back against my wave of attack… and the teachers couldn't either, which isn't really a shame. Unsurprisingly, the adulterers near to the vent have succumbed.
Claire has done this perfectly. I see no issue in her sleeping this morning, since she evidently stayed up late to sort this out.
My phone rings on the desk and I pick it up, smiling slightly as I see Amelie's name on the caller id.
"What can I do for you, Amelie?" I ask smoothly, turning off the CCTV incase she can hear the screams issuing from it.
"There… there has been an attack at the schools, Oliver," I have the satisfaction of hearing her voice quiver, this being an attack that has shaken her. "I need your help to assess the situation, for we cannot allow the humans in to see their dead for they do not have the ability to locate the source and turn it off without succumbing themselves. Will you help?" she is actually giving me the choice, though I know I have to do it in order to get the CCTV camera out and ensure Claire cannot be found to be the perpetrator.
"Of course," I evidently surprise her, smiling slightly again. "I'll be there shortly. Good luck."
And, with that, I walk out of the office and to my car. Claire can come down later. But, for now, stage three of the plan is complete.
Now for the big one…
Please don't read, alert or favourite without reviewing please - I do enforce the latter two.
10 reviews for an update.
Vicky xx
Vicky xx