Awakening Day

That Damned Third Floor

Awakening Day

I never expected it to happen during the middle of class. Especially during my morning college courses. During the last half of my psychology class, my ears began to pick up a faint whistling noise. I passed it off as the clunky old heater in the room, these days, it was always making noises like that. My professor drone on and on about the brain and its various mental states while I began to question the whistling noise. The sound had begun to increase in pitch and I wasn’t the only one in the class who began to question the sounds. People began to mutter about it and some even began to rub at their ears. And yet, somehow, my professor did not hear it. Maybe it was too high of a pitch for her to actually hear it, kind of like the mosquito noise. I tried to concentrate on my lessons at hand but I couldn’t help but wonder what was making that noise. I felt like I had heard that noise somewhere before, and yet I couldn’t put my finger on it.

            I checked the clock and saw that it was nearly nine. I made myself focus on the task at hand and I began to ignore the ominous whistling noise. I will never forget what happened next. I could hear the clock ticking away. Second by second, we neared nine, and once the clock struck nine all hell broke loose. Some type of missile had hit the campus parking lot, roughly two blocks away from my classroom. The blast blew out every window three blocks in diameter. I was thrown from my seat and against the wall.

            My head had slammed into the chalkboard, knocking me out cold. My consciousness was a blurry pool of fear and primitive instinct. My body was fighting to get me awake, it also felt like it was trying to counter an attack. I was woken up by a severe ringing in my ears. I put my hands up to my ears and they came away sticky. I opened my eyes and saw that they were bloody. My ears had been bleeding. I looked down at my body and found that I was covered in desks, broken glass, and rubble. I glanced around the room and saw that it was empty, the door was shut. Where had everyone gone? I began to move the desks from atop my body and I managed to break free. I stood up and stretched my aching limbs. I was covered in a layer of brick dust and broken glass. It was dark in the room save for the emergency lights.

            I brushed myself off and rummaged around the room, looking for my book bag. I needed to check my phone. The ringing in my ears began to die down as the minutes passed. I found my book bag hanging from the projector, the explosion had really sent a blast! I jumped up and tore it down. It too was covered in a layer of dust. I sat down and unzipped the top pocket. Like a gem in the rubble, my phone sat waiting to be turned on. I pressed the power button and watched it boot up.

            My ears began to pick up bits of noise. Nothing sounded right, all I could hear was moaning. My phone lit up and I unlocked it. I had three phone calls, and roughly seventeen texts. I popped one open and it talked about the explosions. In fact, five more talked about the explosions. Our entire nation had been hit. Every major city was struck with these missiles, and after that, highly populated areas were the second target. I had subscribed to an informative text that told about disasters. I never thought that it would actually be used. I glanced at a few of the others and the last one caught my eye. It was a nationwide evacuation announcement. My eyes widened and it began to wash over me. That’s why everyone was gone, they thought I was dead. Everyone was told to evacuate all major cities and head to either coast for sea deployment. The explosions had been that drastic, they had to call for evacuation. How long had I been knocked out? That’s when I saw the date on my phone, I had been knocked out for fifteen hours...

I needed to get out of this school. I had to find my mother and get us to safety. I scrambled to my feet and I packed up my book bag. I looked around for anything else useful, I needed a weapon, something that I could use to defend myself. By this time, people were probably looting like crazy. They would be killing one another to get food and water. I saw the desk my professor used to use, it was lying on its side. The table leg was roughly the size of a baseball bat. With a swift kick, I broke the leg off. It clattered to the floor. I picked it up and tested the weight, it was mildly light. It would have to do. I put my book bag on my shoulders and looked around the room for anything else useful. I couldn’t find anything that would help me, not in the darkness.