Freyr's day, A day of peace and pleasure

Friday.
A day to leave all your worries at the door, and not pick them up again until Monday. Yet I have a blog to maintain, and I no longer have the excuse of technical difficulties. As part of my computer issues, though, I did back up the files that I had on my hard drive onto a USB. Both good and bad to have them this way, I think, as I can take it with me to work on w/e computer... but I really have one main computer and if traveling, should I really be writing? If I'm traveling, it's normally to see family and such, and so it would be rude to be writing. That's a worry that can wait, though, as I have no plans to travel soon.

What I do have plans for, though, are to back up more of my files. As part of that, though, and as part of going through them, I am typing up things I've already written. Yet I am writing and editing while I do this, and want to give a little taste of what I've been working on.
Last thing before I go into that, though. Does anyone happen to know basic information about military ranks? Just stuff like what outranks Private, and what rank or title is the person in charge of a base, etc.

Anyway, back to the show:
I am issuing a very big spoiler alert right now. Because I will be posting spoilers. Right here. Right now. So if you are the type to not like spoilers: stop reading. Now. Because there will be spoilers.

I'm posting the first chapter I wrote. I think there is some very slight editing I may do to it, in order to clear some stuff out of the way for chapter four. But here goes. And, just in case, and one last and final time.

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▓▓▓SPOILER ALERT!!▓▓▓
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Chapter 1

     I remember it as if it only happened yesterday. I was in eighth grade, and science class was as boring as ever. Ms. Fererra was talking about buoyancy or dispersion or something else long and unexciting. I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, though, because I was watching a cardinal in the tree outside. It was hopping along a branch, probably as interested in us as we were in it. It would take a few hops, then turn its head. Then take a few more hops, and turn its head the other way.
     I didn't notice when the class got quiet. I didn't even notice when she called my name at first, to ask what was so interesting outside. But when I looked back to her, I saw the hallway was full of other kids, and then the principal came in.
     "Ms. Fererra, I'm glad to see you're doing well," he began. "Now, as you know, we have a scheduled drill for the entire school, and you're running a bit behind. So if everyone would please go into the hall, and make your way to the gym..."  We all looked at Ms. Fererra, who raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised to hear about the drill, but she went along with Mr Gerritt's lead.
     "Okay everyone, let's go to the gym. Respectful and quiet in the halls. Single-file," she stated the instructions like it was a normal day and we were scheduled for gym. The class began to stand, and I saw Mr. Gerritt whispering into Ms. Fererra's ear, and her eyes widening. The class was already walking to the gym, when I looked back out the window for the cardinal. The only red I saw, though, was the streams of the comets... or meteors... or meteorites... the giant rocks falling from the sky.  Like I said, science was NOT my best subject.
     The next few moments were a blur of action. I'm told it took a few minutes, but it seemed like seconds. I think I called for Ms. Fererra, to ask about the red streaks I saw in the sky.  Mr. Gerritt lifted me by my mid-section, and ran like I was a football and the gym was the end zone. I heard him yelling to Ms. Fererra, but I didn't hear what he said.

~~~~~

     My psychologist, Ms. Kylan, says it was just fear telling me we'd be hit, but I KNEW that the school would be.  She says I couldn't possibly have known, because even the military was expecting all touchdown to be downtown, but were just taking precautions and getting everyone away from windows and external doors. I'm not superstitious, I'm not paranoid, and I do not suffer hallucinations... though these are all things Ms. Kylan has listed as possible causes of my epiphany.

~~~~~

     I remember that I looked up at Mr. Gerritt, and I told him we'd live. I wanted to tell him we'd be okay, but I knew it would be a lie.
     And as he ran with me in his arms, I could see the beads of sweat on his forehead, I could hear his labored breathing. I remember Ms. Fererra running past us, rushing to the gym, her high heels clip-clopping as they hit the tiled floor. I was relieved to know she made it into the gym, because the door was just closing as it came into view.
And then the explosions started.
     Mr. Gerritt lost his footing when the blasts came, and we both fell to the floor. The walls were crumbling around us, and something fell and knocked him unconscious. I didn't see the brick fall, because the lights were flickering, but I nearly tripped over the bloodstained rubble when I went to him.  I was barely strong enough to drag him to the safety of a doorway, hoping it would be more sturdy.
     As I sat in the doorway with Mr. Gerritt's still-bleeding head in my lap; dust filling the air from all the debris; my ears pounding from the explosions; I began to hear the screams and cries from the gym.                    Strangely, it gave me a sense of peace, of hope. Someone must be making those sounds, and that meant someone was in there, even if they were hurt.
     I adjusted Mr. Gerritt's head, and sat him against the doorway, so I could help in the gym.  By this point the flickering of the lights had stopped, and the hallway was full of dust. Thankfully some light was coming in from the windows of the classrooms, but I still had to put my hand on the lockers to make sure I didn't get turned around.
     My hearing was slowly returning, and I hear the sounds from the gym more clearly. Some were yelling for help, some yelled names of friends and students, some were just pain. When I opened the doors, well, I would still have nightmares about what I saw then in the gym, but what came later was even worse.
     The first thing I saw was the dust. It covered everything. There were no colors other than the grey. Just different shades of grey.  Then the stench got to you. A mix of blood, fear, and being so afraid that you lose control of ...well, basically everything below the bellybutton. And as my eyes began to water from the overpowering odor, I saw my friends, classmates, and teachers. Beaten and bruised, it was amazing to see how they handled it. Some of the teachers cried, sitting with their arms around their legs, some were trying to dig out other teachers and students. Students were mostly crying, largely in groups. Some of the students helped to clear debris, and some of the teachers nursed some of the wounded.  The ground had puddles of blood and dust forming, and some of my classmates weren't moving.
     It still chills my bones. The knowledge that just half an hour before that I was sitting and watching a cardinal in a clear blue sky. Now I saw plenty of red, and despite the roof being blown off, there was too much dust to see they sky.
      I looked around the gym, hoping to see Alyssa safe, but fearing how bloody she could be. Or if she was stuck under rubble... My knees began to quake at the thoughts, as I looked at so many wounded, each which could have been her hurt instead. I ran through the gym, screaming her name, asking everyone if they'd seen her. The entire time wishing I had reacted differently last night. Tears began to flow, creating little streams along my cheeks, while my throat was already hoarse from all the yelling. But I kept searching.
     Someone told me Alyssa hadn't been in class that morning. I was so frantic by that point I didn't even notice who it was that told me. I was glad she wasn't in the brunt of the damage. I still wanted to make sure she knew that I was safe, though. I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my cell phone. I had zero bars. Probably some kind of interference from the... space rocks. I put my phone back in my pocket, wiped the tears from my cheeks, and started to focus on helping others. Lifting debris off some people, helping others to the nurses, and all too often finding a lifeless body.
     "Harm!! Over here! Harm!"


~~~~~

     Harm, by the way, was short for Harmony. I really wish it wasn't, sometimes, because it's almost as bad as being named Calamity. Okay, so maybe I was a little superstitious.

~~~~~

     I turned to the people yelling for me by the nickname I never outgrew. There sat a fallen wall lying on top of one of the faculty. Some of the students were using boards and debris to try to pry the wall off the unconscious adult. I was walking towards them, and I recognized Ms. Fererra, the pool of blood around her staining her white turtleneck. As the students were able to lift the slab of wall a few inches from her, Ms. Fererra's eyes began to open.
     "Ms. Fererra!" I yelled as I ran. I ran to her, so I could pull her out from under the wall, for it couldn't be held up very long.  A single beam of sunlight made its way through the dust, and it seemed like Ms. Fererra was in the spotlight, and everyone was watching the action. When you have enough adrenaline pumping, everything seems to go into slow-motion. It was as if everyone in the gym was watching me run to her, but by the time I got to her, she had pushed the slab off on her own, and stood.
     As the slab fell back on the ground, the resounding thud seemed like a gong, beckoning a new passage in the story of my life, and the lives of those around me. The gym went silent. After a moment of awe, some people began backing away in fear, some went towards her, hoping she could protect them.
     Looking back at that moment, now, I'm glad Ms. Fererra was the first. We didn't know it then, but her actions were the dawning of a new era for our city. If not for her, if not for someone responsible to rally around, I fear things would have gone even worse.

~~~~~

     Ms. Fererra didn't notice what had just happened, at first. "It's impolite to stare, class," she said as she adjusted her hair. She turned around to see what caused such awe, and saw the slab she had just lifted. "Oh, dear," she sighed, "this must be some kind of trick." She bent and began lifting the slab, without even straining. "Oh! Styrofoam," she said as her grip created fingerprints in the brick wall, "But this is no time to be playing around. Let's get to the wounded, everyone!"
     Ms. Fererra walked away, as if unconcerned with the mass of students that couldn't lift the section of wall she had proclaimed styrofoam. Some of them tried lifting it again, and none could make any progress. There were probably seven of us that tried to lift it before we all got distracted by the burst of light and heat.
     His name was Duncan. He was in my science class, but sat a few rows ahead of me, at the front. He was the kid that always raised his hand, always had something to say. He hadn't been helping other students in the gym, he was on of the ones crying in the corner. And currently, he was the kid literally on fire.
     The doctors and scientists later would call the gym a powderkeg. They'd say things about how it was like some kind of beacon of energy that shined on everyone and radiated from there. They used beautiful words, scientific words, I've even read a few poems about it. But anyone describing it as anything less than a nightmare clearly wasn't there. They didn't see the people's bodies tearing themselves apart. They didn't see the student turn into a puddle of flesh, or the teacher that ran into a wall so fast she splattered, and they didn't see the carnage of people suddenly realizing that the laws of physics had forgotten everyone in that gym. Everyone but me.

~~~~~

     I ran out of the gym, out of the room that reality forgot. I ran towards where I had left Mr. Gerritt, and he still sat there, his eyes barely open. I clung to his chest like someone grabs to driftwood after a shipwreck.
     "...Harmony? ...What happened?" He asked, the words barely coming out.
     "Mr. Gerritt... I... I just..." And with that, for the third time that day, it was just too much. I just wished I could have Alyssa telling me everything would be all right, like she used to. Stroking my hair while my parents argued, giving me support when I couldn't stand on my own anymore.
     "Stay right here, Harmony," Mr. Gerritt said soothingly. When he started to heading to the gym I tried to stop him.
     "NO!! Mr. Gerritt! It's not safe in there! Your body will... I mean, their bodies were... but..." I realized I couldn't even describe what I'd seen. There simply aren't words to describe such trauma, such massacre.
     "Just stay here, Harmony. I'll be right back." And with that, he went into the gym, despite all the screams, despite my warning, perhaps despite his own fear.
     I looked into the room I was in the doorway of, then, for the first time since dragging Mr. Gerritt in. It was the boys' locker room, painted blue, and pristine compared to the rest of the school. I threw up. Maybe it was because I finally could catch my breath enough. Or maybe it was because of all the dust and gore filling my lungs. I threw up again. I was exhausted. I turned my head, realizing I was laying down just beside the puddle I'd made. The school mascot, a blue jay, was standing just inside the boys' locker room, where it hadn't been moments before. That was the last thing I saw for three days.