Mrs. Frieda stands in front of the holographic board, which illuminates with a white base and colored text that embodies a solid definition enough to keep itself clearly visible even compared to the white light of the classroom. The board displays a list of notes under a title that reads "IPT; Emd~~," and a stock image of a holographic brain to at least try to spice up the otherwise mundane lecture.
Mrs. Frieda wears rather casual clothes for a professor, with blue pants and a white shirt overlaid with a brown light unzipped jacket, which has a large collar. She typically dressed in such clothing, as she seems to try clothing herself as informally as a prestigious university would let her.
She lectures on the contents presented on the board, "This function is a golo type, which means it's isolated in its own little ecosystem, so you'll have to be able to find creative ways of translating data you pick up from it to use it elsewhere. Don't fret though, one way you can easily get this into a more friendly data type is by a ferizon converter, like so:."
The holographic board then displays a completely new slide, showcasing an image of code, which contains the exact conversion method she had referenced.
Opposite to her were the several rows of tables, with each row slightly elevated above the one before, full of students who were taking notes on their Connects, whether writing it out with holographic styluses or typing on projected keyboards.
Among one of the students who sat two rows from the front was Rohan, who has one holographic screen in front of him along with a keyboard to type notes and traverse any browser he needs, while another screen sits beside him over the table, tilted to allow him to write if there was any reason that typing would be inadequate. It was an optimal setup for a class that kept jumping between formal note taking and creative drawing tasks, as Mrs. Frieda was not easy to anticipate, even for Rohan, and so the best bet was to prepare for anything.
Rohan keeps his eyes ahead on the professor, silently taking notes and giving his fully undivided attention, trying to follow along with what is being shown while his Connect also records the screen and professor anyways just in case he misses something.
However, that pristine focus shatters when he feels a tap on the shoulder, and the soft female voice asks him, "Hey...Rohan? Do we need to copy all this?"
Rohan turns his head to his right where he felt the tap, and his eyes settle on Erica, who sits beside him, wearing a green blazer over a black shirt. Her long brown hair sits on her shoulders and against her back, and her eyes stare curiously with a hint of anxiety as she seems apprehensive.
A warm sensation comes over Rohan from Erica's innocence, as he could tell she desperately wanted him to relieve her with a denial, as the slide was full of code that'd be a pain to jot down in its entirety.
Rohan shakes his head horizontally before explaining, "It's okay, you don't need all this. I'm copying it just because, but really it doesn't matter since it's such a common method. Besides, even if you want to copy it, I can let you go off of mine later."
Erica frowns, and she mentions, "But I don't want to just copy off of you all the time, I feel bad, it's like I'm putting in no effort and just riding off of your hard work."
Rohan shakes his head, and reassures, "Don't worry, you're completely fine, it's not like that anyways. Just relax."
Erica smiles, and she nods her head, expressing "Thank you so much Rohan! Okay I'll stop distracting you now."
Rohan nods his head, and he turns back to face Mrs. Frieda, who wraps up talking about the slide she was on, and goes on to the next, which has more bullet notes to copy. Rohan begins to write again, taking down notes while listening to the ongoing lecture.
His eyes stay on Mrs. Frieda and the board, but his hands type on the keyboard to type perfect notes into his own screen, trying to focus once more on the class after the short exchange he had with his girlfriend.
Mrs. Frieda's voice was the dominating sound in the room, although there were many students who weren't paying attention as per usual, and the monotony of the lessons over the course of the year slowly drained the life out of the lectures regardless of how hard the professor tried to keep them interesting. Still, Rohan put all the attention he could give to it, and typed the best notes he could every time he had class.
She continues saying, "...but only if you correctly initialize it as an adult Phrase type. If you don't, it won't work, and your program will crash and burn like the city if you don't keep your grades up. Just kidding, but really, make sure you initialize them correctly, it's a common mistake that students just try using child types and complain that the program is broken."
Rohan blinks twice in confusion to the quick joke Mrs. Frieda tossed, as part of him felt an odd discomfort from it. He still continues typing his notes, trying to keep up with the class anyways without worrying too much about irrelevant one liners. Besides, she was known for going all over the place and having little regard for the impact of her jokes, so there was no reason to feed more meaning than there originally was into something that hardly anyone paid attention to.
Mrs. Frieda changes to another slide, and with another slide was another barrage of notes for Rohan to take, which he gets to promptly on his keyboard. He listens to Mrs. Frieda, making sure to stay focused in the lesson, as while he felt like the class had gone on for ages, he didn't want to loosen his attention.
However, as he types, he begins to feel a throbbing pain in his forehead, a pain that starts out subtle, but gradually worsens as it becomes more noticeable and painful. He tries to ignore it, however as it becomes more intense, turning into a legitimate headache, he finds it harder to think straight. He lowers his head as his forehead tenses, trying to combat the pain, but to no avail.
Right as he lowers his head, he's interrupted again, by a sudden explosion in front of him, as the wall behind the board crumbles as if being rammed by a pod, the whole wall being destroyed upon impact.
Rohan raises his head in surprise, as he watches in horror as Mrs. Frieda tries to turn her body around while being engulfed by the smoke, and chunks of the wall fly towards the students. He immediately turns to Erica and tackles her to the ground right before a giant chunk flies right through where her head just was, just barely missing and striking the table behind her, as both her and Rohan fall to the ground.
While he was able to save Erica, Rohan hears students all around him scream in pain as chunks of debris continue to be hurtled, and he hears the sound of the heavy material striking classmates, causing others to scream even louder in fear. Just by accounting the speed of the debris and the fact that the walls were made out of such dense material, it was almost guaranteed that anyone hit by the debris was already dead.
The blood curdling screams ring in Rohan's head, although the sound of the flying debris stops, indicating that the air was clear, and that there was a safer chance of standing up without being immediately killed.
Rohan stands up, his head first turning behind himself, where he's shocked to see multiple bodies of students laying on the ground behind nearby tables or in the aisle, with large stones of the wall beside them, and pools of blood under them.
The other students who had luckily survived all shriek in terror as they sprint for the door, however some of them couldn't leave, either because they were frozen in petrification or because they were trying to move the bodies that would never move again.
Blood splatters stain the walls as it seemed most students were unable to react in time, which was enough to get the survivors to push the door open and run out of the classroom.
Rohan looks back down at Erica, and holds his hand out to her, realizing she had to get to safety as well. He yells, "Come on, we need to get out of here!"
Erica looks up at Rohan's hand for a few moments, and she then holds her hand out to him, grabbing onto him while in a disoriented state, for she still couldn't process what was going on.
She's pulled up to her feet by Rohan's immediate pull, with the force of the pull causing her to stumble into his body, to which he holds her to keep her safe by his side.
Right as Rohan readies to leave, he hears a shriek come from behind, however it was one of an older adult, specifically Mrs. Frieda. The sound of a heavy knock triggers Rohan to turn to face the front of the classroom, only to watch the professor fly out of the smoke cloud as if she had been smacked across the face with a great force.
Her body flies towards the aisles before landing right next to Rohan's table, and Rohan immediately runs towards her, grabbing Erica's hand at the same time to keep her close to him. He stops in front of the professor, and feels a heavy weight on his chest, as he stares at Mrs. Frieda's bleeding head, as her eyes were wide open, yet she clearly wasn't conscious.
Rohan freezes at the dead body, completely lost for words on how such a carefree go lucky person was lying dead in front of him, with her forehead seeming dented inwards, with blood gushing out of it, as it seemed she suffered horrendous cranial damage, and there was no coming back from it.
Her mouth hung open as her eyes stared off into the void, yet another body filling the aisle, trapping Rohan and Erica both as it would be harder to get through to the door.
The sound of echoing growls captures Rohan's attention back to the front of the class, as at first he thought that some object had crashed through the wall, possibly from another class, but from the vaguely familiar monstrous sound, it was no object, but something far worse.
As the smoke clears out in front of Rohan and Erica, the dark gray smoke begins to glow yellow from the inside. The glow becomes stronger and more precise, shaping out two yellow eyes stalking through the smoke, and a wide glowing mouth.
Rohan feels his head ache greater as his heart starts beating, his body frozen as he watches the smoke dissipate, and as it clears out, a man in an orange and red body becomes visible, his eyes and mouth glowing as they stare right at the remaining students, the last of his victims.
He begins to start walking towards the two, slowly, as if wanting to savour the meal. His steps were heavy and uneven, as if he was an unhinged psychopath, and the dissipated smoke makes it clear that there is fresh red blood on his face.
He continues to grunt and growl, not speaking a single word, as if he couldn't at all.
Rohan steps backwards, and he holds Erica's hand tighter. He then begins to step towards the aisle, stepping over Mrs. Frieda's body, and right in the center of the beast's line of sight, the two's eyes locked on each other.
Rohan pulls Erica into the aisle, and he commands, "We need to get out of here. Get in front of me, don't look back."
He then pushes Erica in between himself and the door, and starts stepping back, forcing Erica to have to move forward as she begins walking down the aisle reluctantly, trying to step over the deceased bleeding bodies.
As Rohan steps back, he hears the splash of blood under his shoes, but tries to focus on staying away from the beast, who continues to advance towards him. Rohan begins walking faster, trying to speed Erica up, as he felt they weren't moving fast enough, at least not enough to get away.
Rohan turns around, and wraps Erica around his arms, picking her off the ground regardless of how sudden it was. He knew that Erica was squeamish around gore, and since they were surrounded by it, she wouldn't be able to move with enough haste, as she would be distracted instead.
So rather than wait, Rohan begins running towards the door, stepping over bodies and debris, his eyes locked on the door as he hopes the beast wasn't too far behind. He keeps his eyes on the closed door, as all the other lucky students have gotten out, and were most likely evacuating the building, which Rohan and Erica needed to do too.
He gets out of the aisle, trying to not think too much about the casualties he had to witness, and the excruciating headache that is still beating while getting worse.
Now with a more open space, Rohan sprints to the door, which pushes open, letting him out of the room. He keeps Erica in his arms, first escaping the room to get away from the beast before trying to think of where to go next.
However, as Rohan gets out of the room, he finds himself in a dark hallway, as it seems all the lights outside the room were out, making it much harder to see where everyone was, and where to evacuate to.
Rohan turns his head from right to left, trying to guess where to go, but he's given a hint as he hears the sound of screaming from the left side, screams similar to the ones before.
It was the best lead on where everyone was, and it made sense that they would be screaming, especially after what they had witnessed. As long as Rohan knew the perpetrator was behind him, he had no reason to worry about danger ahead.
He lets Erica down on the ground now that there was no gore surrounding them, but before she could speak, he grabs onto her hand and begins sprinting down the hallway, not giving a second to rest. Erica at first pulls back, but succumbs and follows him, her footsteps right behind him.
Rohan pants heavily as he runs towards the sound of the screams, unable to find the exact source with his eyes due to the blindness of the dark. But he pursues nonetheless, gripping Erica's hand tightly while fighting his headache.
The farther down he runs, the more the screams seem to come from his right side rather than ahead, as it seems they had made a turn. Indeed not too far ahead, he vaguely notices a hallway branching out to the right, where the terrified shrieks seem to come from. He runs towards the hallway, turning on the intersection and continuing to pull Erica with him.
The screams become clear as Rohan recognizes that he was in the same hallway as them, which was relieving, as it seems they hadn't gotten too far, and so it would be easy to regroup with them. He continues sprinting, just wanting to get Erica to safety.
As he runs, he hears Erica push the words, "Ro-rohan...wa-wait...ho-how about everyone else back in the room? What ha-happens to them?"
Rohan lets out a defeated sigh, and he admits, "We can't worry about that right now. We have to keep going, and get you somewhere safe. Don't worry about the others."
Erica responds, "Bu-but...Jessica was in that class...I saw her laying at her table. Wi-will she be okay? What will happen to Jessica-?"
Rohan gasps for air, and he answers, "We'll worry about that when we're out of here. Come on Erica, everything will be okay...everything will be okay...everything will be okay."
Even though he directly called out her name, he wasn't sure who he was directing those words to.
As the screams become louder, meaning the two were getting close, relief comes over Rohan as it seems they were almost out. That was until he heard another sound amongst the screaming, the sound of wild electrical arcs.
Rapid flashes of yellow light act like a strobe, and Rohan stops sprinting suddenly, faster than Erica can anticipate in the darkness as she rams straight into Rohan's body.
Rohan remains unmoved however, as he stares ahead into the dark hallway, where he experiences more flashes of light. He notices that the screams seem to occur right when the flashes do, as though the two were directly related.
A few more flashes graze Rohan's, and suddenly, the screams all stop at once, going from deafening to deafened. Complete silence fills the hallway, as chills run down Rohan's spine, as he is trapped, unsure if he should continue forwards or run the other way, and so ultimately he does nothing and just stands still.
A few moments after the silencing, the yellow light begins glowing constantly, far on the other side of the hallway. The light seems to pulsate, first nearly blinding before it dims down to clarity. The light sharpens to multiple individual yellow arcs, which seem to come from a glowing central figure shaped like a man, but did not feel human in the slightest.
Rohan stands in front of Erica as the being begins to approach him, with yellow arcs constantly coming off of its body. He stares down at the glowing being, and as he does, he hears Erica stutter, "U-uh...Rohan-...?"
However, Rohan's attention stays on the yellow man, whose arcs give light to the room the closer he gets to the two. As the flashes of light illuminate the room, Rohan manages to spot glimpses of bodies littered on the floor, all of them charred badly, as many of the corpses were hardly recognizable as people even.
There were more bodies than there were escapees from the classroom, which only meant that the casualties ranged beyond just the students in the classroom, as the whole floor could've been wiped out, if not more.
After everything, there was nowhere to go. Not even returning back to his normal real life was an option that was yanked away from him from the other life he selfishly lived.
Even if Rohan were to escape from this situation alive, there was no way he could continue this life, there was no way he'd have the normal future he worked for so long on yet wasted away so quickly.
Was it his fault that he was on a floor piled with corpses? While he might've not been the one to directly kill the students, he was the only one who knew the two who did. Are they here because of him? Did he get sloppy and lead them to the school? Did he destroy his own school from his own ignorance?
Did he force everyone in his life to burden the consequences he accumulated from abandoning them?
They did nothing wrong.
Rohan stares at the sea of dead bodies in the hallway as the yellow being approaches him, electric arcs coming off his body, as the closer he gets, the brighter the light becomes, and the more bodies are visible at once.
Rohan's eyes begin watering as he couldn't feel anything but the guilt of knowing that all of this happened because of him. Everyone going to the school only did to pursue a safe and normal life, one with security, one that should've been completely peaceful since they never chased danger.
They were all innocent students, just trying to grow up and get ready to live in a world that they wanted to help grow, they had a set goal and committed to it, they committed to their friends, they committed to their life whereas Rohan didn't.
If there was anyone who deserved to be killed this way, it would've only been Rohan, nobody else deserved to be involved with his mess. But now they were, and it was his fault.
Rohan tries to take deep breaths as he stares at the opposite of what he hoped to achieve. He wanted to bring security and safety to the world and the peaceful people in it, he wanted to give people the ability to live sensible lives where they could give the life they wanted, do what they worked for, only lose if they directly caused it, rather than lose to a force above them that ravaged them senselessly and unjustly.
All he did in the end was help those forces find more people to ravage, people who never even managed to start their dreams, to start their lives as free adults in the free world. He just made everything worse, he just hurt everyone.
Would it be wrong if he was the lone survivor?
Rohan's contemplation is interrupted by Erica, who speaks up again after not having been responded to before, warning "Rohan...beh-behind us-..."
Rohan's eyes widens, confused as to what Erica could be referring to, as he almost forgets there was even a hallway behind him, as he felt backed up into a wall. He turns around, only to find himself staring at the orange beast, whose yellow eyes and mouth glows in the darkness, having followed the two down the hallways. He grunts and growls, now having gotten the two in his sights.
His orange armor was complimented with red, both under the armor plating as the undersuit, but also fresh red blood that had stuck onto his plates, stuck on his mask and body, with blood dripping down his closed fists.
He slowly approaches the two, taking away the option of running the other way that Rohan had earlier, as now he was truly trapped.
Rohan grips Erica's hand more tightly, and turns back ahead of himself, nearly jumping in fright as the man was right in front of him now, his face now clear and visible.
Rohan stares back at the purple ghostly face, the yellow eyes staring into his, as the humanless expression observes Rohan's tense face, which was sweating now.
Without even holding his hand out, the electric arcs coming off his purple body direct themselves at Rohan, with multiple arcs shocking his body, causing him to feel intense jolts of pain constantly.
Rohan instinctively lets go of Erica, as he didn't want to make her share the same pain, as the agonizing burn was something he couldn't subject her to. He screams out in pain as he falls on his knees, his body being pumped full of raging energy, which fills every part of him without mercy.
He looks up at the purple devil, who stares down on him, his hands folded over each other, as if he wasn't even fighting. He was just tossing everyone aside with ease, staring at Rohan as he shrieks in pain, knowing there was nothing he could do.
Rohan could feel nothing but constant pain, however he manages to hear Erick shriek his name, "ROHAN, HELP!!!"
Rohan's eyes widen as he gasps for air, and forcefully turns himself around, regardless of how much it hurted, turning to face Erica while on the ground. The electric arcs didn't stop, if anything it felt like it worsened, causing him greater pain.
But it was nothing compared to the sight he was forced to see, as he watches helplessly as Erica is grabbed by the neck by the orange beast, who begins pulling her away from Rohan, who instinctively tries to reach out for her, even though his arms could barely move.
Rohan screams, "NO, STOP, PUT HER DOWN! STOP! STOP!!" The beast does indeed stop, however he now has Erica out of Rohan's reach, letting Rohan confirm this after more failed attempts to flail his arms towards Erica.
The orange beast holds Erica up with its left hand, and it begins pulling its right arm back. Its yellow eyes stare at Rohan, who couldn't do anything.
Rohan tries nonetheless, pushing through the pain to crawl forwards while he's still being constantly electrocuted. He moves closer to Erica, holding out his hand to try pulling her back to safety.
But before he can, he receives a hard kick to the rib, knocking him to his side, laying on the ground. He leans towards his side as it hurts immensely, as though it was broken, but he then stops worrying about it as he remembers he has more pressing matters. He tries to get back up to reach Erica, but is quickly stopped as he feels a cold boot stomp on the side of his head, realizing it was the purple devil's, holding him down.
Rohan groans in pain as he continues feeling the electricity surge through him, and even then he couldn't move because of the weight pushed down on his head, only making it hurt more. He stares helplessly at Erica, who is held up by the beast, her hands on her throat as she tries her best to fight to breathe.
Rohan screams, "WAIT ERICA, IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY, I'LL SAVE YOU-! DON'T WORRY! DON'T-!"
Before Rohan could finish his sentence however, he watches the orange beast drive his fist straight into the back of Erica's head, punching a hole right into it, instantly causing her eyes to roll up, and her jaw to drop.
Rohan's eyes widen and become more watery, as he feels tears roll down his cheeks. His mouth opens, but he can say nothing, as all he could do was stare at the girl he loved ripped away from him.
It was a moment that lasted not a full second, and yet to Rohan, it felt like it stayed in place for hours. Watching the life in Erica immediately pulled out, shattering like a glass vase.
The orange hand breaks through her forehead, as parts of her brain fly out like the chunks of wall blown out earlier. It was a disgusting sight that made Rohan want to vomit, but he was too shocked to do anything.
Inside the hand was part of her brain being held, with her prefrontal cortex between its fingers. The hand then closes tightly into a fist, causing the remnants of the brain to explode, scattering everywhere, as if it was nothing.
As the beast's arm stays plunged through Erica's brain, Rohan's tears fall to the bloody floor, as he couldn't think, and he could hardly feel anything, as there was so much happening at once that there was almost nothing at all. He didn't know how to feel, he didn't know how to think.
He slowly murmurs the end of his sentence: "...worry…."
He tries to say or think anything else, but nothing comes up, and now he is the final victim left to be finished. He stretches his hands out towards the limp body as chunks of the brain rain down in front of his eyes; his arm glow yellow from the electricity surging through his veins, and right before he can grab onto Erica, he feels the boot press down into his head harder, and everything immediately goes to dark. Consumed by the black void.