The World We Once Knew

Chapter 6, The School, Idalia

Trigger Warning: This chapter contains death, violence, gore and suicidal thoughts. At the bottom of this chapter I'll add a summary of what happened in Bold.

As the embers rise, we watch our hideaway go up in smoke. Screams in the distance echo through the valley our school was supposed to be hidden in. If only we had gotten here in time. It appears that whatever, whoever, did this, has vanished into the darkness.

Rose, who was beforehand exhausted, sprints towards the school, about 3 miles in the distance. Adriel and I stand paralyzed in fear. I look beside me, Adriel's entire body is shaking.

"Adriel..." I begin to say. He jumps, startled by my voice. Stepping away from me, he begins to withdraw, tumbling away from me.

"Mom... Dad... I'm so sorry." Water pools out of his eyes.

Wait! Dad! The school, it's burning, everyones dying, my dad, dad... before I know it, I'm halfway down the hill. I need to get to him, maybe if I get to him in time I can save him. The school taught a course on medicine. If I get there in time, I just know I can heal him. I just need more time. I can't lose him too.

I race down the corridors of the school, the fire mostly extinguished by this time, leaving nothing but smoke, ashes, and the corpses... unrecognizable corpses, strewn across the floors of the school. The brick walls are scorched but still standing for the most part. The inside of the building is regrettably, less burnt than the outside. The halls, soaked in blood, with guts pouring out of bodies from where they had been slashed. That's when the smell hits me. Jeez that smell. Imagine walking into a slaughterhouse except all the bowls have opened. Iron, methane, and... steak? No, don't think like that. The air is hot and salty, as if it was made of sweat and steam. I silently sob at all the empty eyes almost staring at me. I plunge through the halls slowly, because my shoes stick to the floor. As I turn the corner, the true horror sets in as I hit the main hallway.

It reminds me of the horror stories I've read. So much blood and organs. Charred skeletons are frozen in position, timeless even in death. I hear as blood smeared on the ceiling, plops to the ground. Pools of blood well out from underneath piles of bodies where people had been thrown against the walls and onto each other. I can't distinguish where one body starts and another ends. My shoes squelch from under me as I slowly step through the sticky blood, urine, and guts. Their intestines slither out of them, reminding me of sausages, and fall onto the bodies under them. I feel food from earlier in the day rush up to my mouth, I turn to throw up and end up puking on a body next to me. I'm so sorry.

I see some blue in the distance, my feet begin to move faster than my mind does, racing towards that light of hope. Suddenly I fall to the ground, slipping on the blood, finding myself covered in a sticky substance. I pick myself up finding that door right in front of me. There it is, that same old door, blue with pink polka dots. Except now it's been splattered with blood. A boy pushed up against it, his brain matter clunking out of him. The top half of his head had been slashed off but I can see where the sword hadn't gone all the way through. Part of his scalp still remains, skin peeling off like a banana.

I crawl around him and push the door just enough for me to squeeze through. I hear as it creaks open and reveals a room covered in ashes, as the desks are mostly all burnt to crisps. The windows all shattered, leaving empty gaping holes where the light used to be able to escape in. Now all that escapes in is the cold crisp air from outside as well as the meager light from a crescent moon.

There's a scorched metal desk still standing in the front of the classroom. A brown shoe sticks out from under the desk. Dad? My entire body shakes, I feel as if there's an earthquake beneath me, but it appears I'm the only thing shaking. My legs begin to tremble as I get closer to the desk. My first clenches as I walk closer. I begin to see the body of a large man, his body is burnt to a crisp but I can still see where his throat had been slashed. Blood stains the inside of the desk where he had been hiding, trying to escape from whatever it is. Dad didn't deserve to die like this.

I fall backwards as my vision is consumed by red. That same old fire. I don't even care anymore. What's the point of holding back? Holding back didn't save my parents. Holding back just left room for those that I love to get hurt as I push that same, dang, fire back down. I begin to stand back up and find a stick laying next to me. I pick it up and begin hitting everything around me.

Who did this, and why? No. No, It doesn't matter. All that matters is that they brutally killed my friends. They killed my Dad. I'm not even sad anymore. Raw anger, unlike anything I've ever felt, fills my mind. It's almost like adrenaline, but a thousand times stronger. Like a fire with toxic smoke erupts around me. I must find who did this. I must avenge my father. That's all that matters.

"Why!? Why did you take them?! I hate you!!" I scream into the void of corpses and darkness. Whoever did this, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. I will hunt you down and tear off every limb of your body and watch as you burn. Setting fire to you, hearing your screams last a lifetime.

Clang! Clang! The stick hits against the charred desks, crumbling, leaving nothing more than ashes. I lunge towards the shattered windows, breaking in the window bars. I hit them over, and over, and over, and over, and over again, until the stick snaps under the weight. My hand slips and falls into the concrete wall below. My hand is red by this time, it feels so warm but I don't give a crap what happens to me anymore! Just go ahead and kill me already. You already took my everything.

I stumbled out of the classroom, tripping on one of the charred desks that I had beat to death, falling onto a corpse. I open my eyes and see the corpse's eyes staring at me. One of his eyes had been butchered by a pencil. Brutally plunged into his eye, now appearing as if an egg is oozing out. I jump up, realizing that some of his feces is stuck to my shirt. My eyes well up as I feel tears descend from my eyes.

Maybe that wasn't actually dad. Just someone who looks very similar. Dad would never leave me, after mom died... he promised me. He said he'd never leave. I feel tears descend from my eyes, seeing nothing now but blurred colors.

"Matthew... Mat... Mat! Where are you!?" I hear Rose yelling. I totter into the courtyard, tripping over myself, almost losing balance but then stabilizing. This happens several times until eventually my body collapses. I just don't have the energy or life to go on. All around me are corpses. Even more than in the school.

I look up at Rose, who's looking through the bodies... That's disturbing. She seems to be looking for something, or rather, someone. She grabs a body, inspects it, and tosses it away. As I start to approach her, she picks up a bracelet off the ground. She suddenly sobs, screaming incoherent words. I step forward, but before I can reach her, she takes off into the woods at breakneck speed. "Rose, wait! We need to stick together!" I yell, but it's no use. Now I'm alone here in a pile of corpses, my father among them. I beat my fists into the ground and my skull, hoping to wake up from this nightmare, but it's no use.

Dad, I'm sorry I couldn't save you.

In chapter 6 of The World We Once Knew, we follow group 5 as they approach the school and find that the school has burned down and no one was left alive. Adriel appears to be dealing with ptsd. He starts hearing things and begins crying, saying "mom.. Dad... I'm so sorry." Idalia finds her dad's classroom completely destroyed. Her dad's body is found under a desk. After finding him, she goes into a fit of rage, hitting everything around her until she eventually breaks down and begins crying. Idalia finds Rose outside, Rose is looking for her brother and after finding Matthews bracelet near some of the dead bodies, she ends up storming off into the woods.