Elemental Overdrive (Rewrite)

The Start of a New

Nicholas's POV

I walked over to my last class of the day with my friend Cameron as he and I talked about how a girl from our last class thought the drawing that Cam did of Sams from Taleunder looked like myself. We arrived at our US History class, and sat at our desks next to our friend Lillith, all the while still laughing about random nonsense. I turned to face Lillith, but then I felt a sudden sharp yet small tinge of pain, which caused me to flinch and hold my head. "Are you alright Nick?" Lillith asked me, a look of concern growing on her face, as I then looked up at her to respond. "I'm fine, just a small headache" I responded, giving her a smile.

We were having a great time chatting and laughing, although every so often I would hear something faint in my head. It was so faint I hadn't noticed it earlier, but I wasn't quite able to make out what was being said. I was in the midst of conversing, so I decided to push it off to the side. Afterwards, while wiping the laughing-induced tears from my eyes and yawning, I began to ponder what it was I was hearing. I then went quiet and focused on it while the other two spoke amongst themselves.

Not long after I began to focus, a voice boomed in my head, coming in loud and clear, saying "I apologize for this, but I believe you can and WILL aid us greatly. If you wouldn't mind". Whilst trying to make sense of what the voice meant, a thud caused me to glance over at the other two, finding that Cam was asking Lillith if she was alright and shaking her as I was slowly fading into a slumber. "What's going... On..." I mumbled before I too passed out.

...

I jolted awake, and slowly sat up. "What....what happened?" I mumbled, holding my head and surveying the area. I found myself in what looked like a deep crater, and it was near pitch black around us.

"Where are we? Am I dreaming?" I wondered as I finally got up and walked around. Not far from where I woke up, I found Lillith unconscious, and lying next to her was Dave, someone I had referred to as a friend but nowadays I act more coldly towards. I shook them to try and wake them, to no avail, with Lillith replying, "Five more minutes..."

After a while I saw some disfigured, human-like entity I didn't recognize come near our vicinity. "Oh crap, Lillith! Dave! Wake up!" I spouted as I tried to shake them awake in a sudden, adrenaline fueled panic. The shadow got closer as I then stumbled off to desperately find something to use as a weapon, before finding a pocket knife by a broken down car. I turned back towards the direction of the figure after scavenging, finding it nowhere to be seen. This sent me into an even greater panic as I darted my eyes trying to find it, then I heard movement behind me and swung around in a panic-induced slash. Dave was a little ways away from me, next to Lillith, getting up from the ground with a groan.

He rubbed his eyes and squinted in my direction, "Nick...?" he said and then blinked a few times. His eyes then went wide and he suddenly pointed at me. Rather, he was pointing behind me, which I barely registered as the disfigured humanoid grabbed onto me, forcing me to turn around, before pushing me onto the ground.

"Nick!" Dave screamed, running closer towards us as I tried to muscle the thing off me. I was groaning and turning my head to avoid the attempted bites it was unleashing as Dave's footsteps rapidly came over, and smashed the side of its head with a brick. I kicked it away, knocking it back, while crawling backwards to gain distance and gripping the pocket knife tightly.

Dave grabbed my arm, urgently yanking me up while the figure got up slowly. I readied my knife and watched this creepily slithering figure intently. "What the fuck is that?" Dave said with a wavering voice. It creeped slowly at us while I took a while to answer, "I don't know..." I said in a low voice. Dave stared at it, took a breath, and winded his arm up before giving a sort of roar, a battle cry, chucking a brick straight into its abdomen. I hesitated for quite literally a moment, before readying myself to lunge into it.

"WHO IS YELLING!?" A scream echoed from the side, stopping my advance and prompting me to flinch and glance over at the source, finding Lilith sitting up in a rage. My head snapped to her, managing to take my attention away long enough for the monster to wander within striking distance. I quickly snapped back to it, finding it too close for comfort, and I instinctually raised my hand and jammed the knife into its neck.

Lillith had seen what I did, and her anger quickly turned into fear. I believe at that moment she had thought I had killed someone. Contrary to our belief, it merely stumbled back before once again creeping towards us, the knife lodged into its throat.

Hearing Dave start to run off behind me towards Lillith, I soon followed suit while keeping my gaze fixed on the monster. Dave and I made it to Lillith, panting, and still facing the fumbling creature. Lillith was completely shocked and confused, not understanding the situation but well aware that what we were dealing with was unnatural and dangerous.

The larger distance between us and the creature was slowly relaxing me. Properly able to think again, and I scanned around for something else to use. There was a detached car door on the side of a broken down car, but I didn't think I was capable of using it myself. "Dave! Grab that car door!" I instinctually shouted, pointing in the door's direction. I was quickly scanning around for something else for either myself or Lillith to use. Dave wasted no time running in the direction of the door, and I managed to find a piece of rebar.

I turned to Lillith, "Don't take your eyes off it, tell us where it is," I said firmly, before running and grabbing the long piece of rebar. She was still in a slight panic-induced daze, but she never took her eyes off it, "I-it's still stumbling towards us!" she yelled while Dave and I returned in front of her. Dave seemed to want to know what to do with the car door, so I looked at him and the creature. "Can you tackle it?" I asked him. I watched as his eyes darted from the shambling creature to the car door in his hands, "Fuck it" he breathed and began running towards it in sprint, hoisting the door up like a shield. I followed behind him, as fast as my little legs could carry me, gripping the piece of rebar tightly.

The creature, for a moment, seemed to brace for impact. This was proven once Dave slammed into it, pushing it back slightly but not exactly knocking it down like I expected. Seeing this, I began pushing myself further forward. I stepped next to the monster, raising my arms up and swinging my weapon onto its head. Upon impact, it fell quickly and slumped over. I stumbled backwards onto the ground and started panting, adrenaline leaving me just as fast as it came.

Dave tossed the door and joined me in sitting down, taking a few deep breaths. Lillith, though, ran towards the monster and grabbed the knife that was still lodged in the creature's neck, stabbing it straight through the head. Dave and I stared at her in a sort of shock, surprised at her act. "It was dead already...?" Was all I managed to quietly let out, still in my daze at what she did. She quickly shook her head and exclaimed, "It was like a zombie! We all know to aim for the head! Double tap!?" I had nothing to retort with, because upon thinking about it further, she was right. It acted exactly like a stereotypical zombie would, even attempting to bite me. Having nothing to say against her, I stayed silent. Dave seemed to have thought the same. She crossed her arms and pouted, waiting for an answer she wasn't exactly going to receive.

Calming down from the experience, we shuffled away from the body and stood about, wondering about our situation. A general scan of the surrounding area above the crater we were in revealed what seemed to be a big city of sorts, so my first thought was somewhere like New York City. Lillith noted that the air was dry and the temperature wasn't too hot nor cold, similar to how it felt outside before we got to school, so we suspected that it was still the same day. The time matched that of the school day's as well. It was well lit outside, although we were covered by the shadow of a large building, the sun's rays unable to reach us.

Whilst we were having our discussion, the sound of shuffling debris startled us from above. We shushed each other and listened closer, but as soon as we honed in on the noise it stopped. We looked at one another in confusion before a feminine voice rang out, "Hellooooooooo!" Bewildered, our heads shot upward and we saw a figure falling down towards us at high speeds, crashing down a little ways in front of us. A dust cloud formed, and the three of us braced ourselves for a potentially hostile encounter. "Hold on, I'm not gonna hurt you," the figure spoke out in a soft, cheery voice, before the cloud even settled down.

"Who are you?" Dave spoke, a little nervous. The dust cloud settled, revealing a well toned redhead, standing a good maybe 5'9 tall. She wore a faded red tank top, and black skin tight pants. Her hair was fairly long from what I was able to see, reaching down to her back, or maybe mid back? It was tied up into a ponytail. She clapped her hands, dusting herself off, before shooting us a smile. "Name's Caira."