The moon casts its white light on me as I walk to my bus stop. A halo glow, that looks more like a haze, rests around the full moon. It looks bigger than normal full moons, yet I’m not sure why. I make it to the end of the road, and now the moon is hidden behind the barren twigs of a tree making it look like a creature trapped in a cage.
The wind blows chilling me to the bone as I try to move to counter its effect. Normally the sun starts to rise at this time, but I see no sign of the start of this new day. While I wait for the bus I notice that it’s much quieter than normal. No cars were approaching the intersection, and the kids who normally wait with me were nowhere to be found. After ten minutes in the cold, I decided to head back to my house; maybe I missed a call saying that there was no school. However, that would be unlikely considering there’s no snow on the ground.
I walk in the house with relief as the heat thaws my body. I close the door, and listen for any sign of life. The floor in the hallway creaks and moans as I maneuver toward my parents’ bedroom. I struggle with the doorknob before entering the dark chamber. I flick the switch to my left, but nothing happens. I try it multiple times, before I pull out my phone to use as a flashlight. The covers are askew on the king sized bed, and nobody is to be found. I walk out the door and search the rest of the house. Every room so far was empty, except the last. The last room in the house was the powder room, and I approached the closed door with the same rapid heartbeat as the others. My breathing got more and more intense as I got closer; I tried slowing and calming my breathing but I couldn’t help it. I outreached my hand to grab the doorknob. All of a sudden there was a bang at the door making me jump back, and nearly out of my skin.
I listened for more noise, and heard some rustling. I took a deep breath and quickly lurched the door open. When I looked in, I saw nothing, but I flashed the light through the whole room and noticed a glow coming from behind the toilet. I got closer to see the fluffy black fur of my cat. She saw me and ran out of the room.
I walked to the front door again and looked out. No one was to be found, and I had to get to school. I knew it wasn’t legal yet, but I grabbed my permit and the keys and enjoyed a peaceful ride on the empty roads. I arrived to the school where it was drizzling, and only street lights lit the school. I pulled in at the front, parked, and ran to the front door. I pulled at the handle, only to experience failure. I looked through the glass to see the faint outline of the darkened office. I drove around to each entrance, but got nothing, that is, until I made it to the athletics door. I could see two of the fluorescent lights illuminated the tiny patch of hallway. At the end of the hall I could see a faint green glow that had to be from my imagination.
I got out of the car, and once again pulled at the door. The door didn’t open, but the ice resting beneath the door invited my to take a plunge to the sidewalk. The cold seeped right through my thin jeans, and I stood up to shorten my pain. I looked in one last time, and turned toward my car in defeat. What I forgot was that only the left door opens from the outside. I faced the school again, and finally succeeded in penetrating this fortress.
As I walked slowly down the creepy abandoned hall, the green light at the end was getting brighter. Suddenly I felt as if I were in a horror movie. Should I continue on? Isn’t that basically the worst idea? Bounding forward made no sense in my head, but I suppose some green light is better than going down the hallways that were completely dark.
My muscles seemed to lose all feeling, and even though my head kept telling me to turn back, my legs just kept moving. I was approaching the end making my palms sweaty and my mouth dry. I turned the corner to see multiple little green dots aligned next to the wall. I pulled out my phone and turned the flashlight on. In a row going down the hallway I saw students resting in the fetal position. A cord snaked from the wall outlet to a whole in the back of their necks. The lifeless beings, I once knew as friends, now seemed like robots. Were they charging? I poked the nearest kid with my foot causing him to fall over.
The lights in the hall magically turned on and I heard footsteps clopping and squeaking along the floor. Each step echoed in the hallway making me unsure of the direction they were coming from. I looked at one end, and listened; then I turned the other way and tried to decide where the noise was emanating from. I decided that it was coming from the art hallway, and ran in the opposite direction. I didn’t make it far before tripping on the student I had knocked over previously. I couldn’t make it to my feet, so I started to scuttle down the grimy school floors. The noise became louder, and louder; I tried the best I could to make it away, but my legs prohibited me. I stared at the spotted tile floors, until I came to see a shiny black object in my path.
I stopped in my tracks and my line of sight went up until I saw an older looking face. In front of me stood a tall, narrow shaped man, with some grey stubble on his face, along with half frame glasses resting on his abnormally large sniffer. The man wore his signature navy suit over a nicely ironed white shirt, with a black tie putting his whole outfit together. I knew the man to be the school principal, but the expression on his face was not one I was used to seeing. Instead of having his normal blank, and somewhat disappointed, look upon his face, the corners of his lips were slightly curled, making it look like an awkward smile. He held out his hand and helped lift me off the floor, only when I got closer to his face could I see that it wasn’t a smile. It was a smirk, like he had been planning this for ages, and I just fell right into his trap.
“Welcome, Daisy. I’ve been wandering how long it would take you to find my base of operations.” were the first words out of his mouth. His voice was smooth, and steady which only gave me chills. “How could you spend eleven years with these robots, and not think something was off about them?” As he talked, I couldn’t help but listen. I should probably be running, but my feet wouldn’t move. Instead I just looked around at all these bodies, trying to remember something weird, well, weirder than usual. “I have all the parents believing that these robots are their kids. If you think that those adults will believe you over the school administration, you’re mistaken. However, I still can’t have you getting in my way. I think it’s time to see if I can turn a human into a machine. I’ll just have to remove a few organs first.”
That was clearly my queue to run away. I turned the corner, to the hallway with the exit at the end. I started to run until, I saw my chemistry lab partner lock the door. This once friendly, and familiar face, had silver eyes and I could hear the gears grinding behind the skin to create a smirk similar to the principals. I saw her starting to walk toward me, and I knew I couldn’t turn back so I ducked into the weight room to the left of me. I could hear gears grinding, and metal clunking on the title just outside the room. I looked around the room frantically; my eyes passing from one object to another. They finally settled on a pile of resistance bands. I grabbed one, ran to shut the door, and did my best to tie the handles shut. I than grabbed as many medicine balls as my muscles would allow, and dropped them in front of the door. I was essentially locking myself in a room surrounded by killer teenage robots, but this was the best offense I could think of.
For my next step, I grabbed two weight bars and placed them on either side of the door. I took another resistance band and tied it tight stretching from one side to the other. I went to grab more equipment when I heard the principal laugh, which was a sound I was hearing for the first time in my life. I turned around to see that they were walking in the room. I can’t believe I forgot that there were two entrances into this room! More of the robots busted through my trap door, and suffered the consequences. The first couple tripped over my trip wire and face planted into medicine balls, and it was a domino effect for the rest of those who entered that door.
“Students!” he yelled to them. “Come through this door.”
The first wave started to come for me, so I grabbed a wooden rod. Attached to this rod, was a short rope that was connected to a five pound weight and a two pound weight. I took the seven pounds, and swung it with as much force as I could muster. The weights at the end smacked right into my crush’s face. I think I pulled a muscle in my arm with that swing, but it was nothing compared to what I did to him. Half his skin fell off revealing the gears and metal behind his flawless complexion. I can now confidently say that his complexion is no longer flawless. We all watched the paper thin, skin layer float to the ground, and as soon as it touched the school floor I looked back up to see him roaring at me. They all started getting closer, which made me need to swing more. My muscles were giving out and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this up. I then heard an annoying beeping noise going off. It was an alarm that echoed through the whole school. The robots were backing me in a corner. My vision was going dark, and the last thing I remember was seeing flashing red lights and my friends cornering me. The noise of the alarm rang through my ears and never went away.
I opened my eyes to realize that I was in my bedroom. The alarm had been going off, and I slapped the button in attempt to shut it up. It turned off, and I sat up looking around the room. It was the same as I always knew it to be. I sighed in relief to realize that it had just been a dream. I got up, and cringed in pain of a sore arm. Why was my arm sore? I didn’t do anything yesterday that would have pulled my muscle. I probably just slept on it weird. I continued to get ready, and went to school like I always did. I went to my first period math class, and sat in my normal group. The teacher talked us through some problems, then told us to do some on our own.
“Gwen, what did you get for an answer?” the teacher asked my friend.
“I’m still calculating.” she responded.
I had to think hard. What did she just say? She was still calculating? Like how robots would need to “calculate?” I watched her carefully for the rest of that period, but nothing happened. I went to my next class, and hung out with my friends. I noticed that this one guy was looking more worn down than usual.
Looking down I heard him say, “Dang it! I need to charge.”
I could feel my breath quickening, and my hand formed a fist. I looked around at everyone else, but nobody thought it sounded strange. “What is happening?” I thought to myself. “Wasn’t it just a dream?” I tried more and more to stay away from people. I watched everyone’s moves being sure that nothing was going to catch me off guard.
The end of the day came, and my lab partner convinced me to go to the library. We both entered, and I looked around for the normal group of kids that spend their time in there. Luckily they were up to their normal business.
“What do you want to work on first?” I asked her.
“Well, I was thinking biology.” she replied.
“But, we don’t have biology. That was last year.”
“I know. I meant yours.” Her eyes turned silver, and the principal walked in.
“It wasn’t a dream!” I screamed. My lab partner pushed me onto the table, and another robot came at my head with a drill. I screamed for mercy, but none was given to me.