Extinction

chapter 2 (Connor)

I'm just so tired right now. I just want to sleep and never wake up. I followed the girls as they headed through the building towards the head teacher's office. Whatever that woman wanted from us, it wouldn't be anything good. The last time I was called over; it was to report to me that my mom died. I try to shake the memory out of my head. Instead, I looked ahead to where Tori and Janel were in a heated conversation. Janel still had that stark white hair of hers wrapped up in the towel. She was walking backward so that she was facing us. Tori was moving along forward looking at Janel, nodding along, and commenting back to whatever she was babbling on about.

I felt a bit awkward, to be honest. Tori and Janel were always linked together. They were my friends too but we weren't that close. I have always had a hard time making friends. The only proper friend I had was Sierra. She understood me when others didn't. I could remember it very well. The first time we met.

I was hiding behind the table, looking up to where my father was talking to another man. I couldn't see him properly. All I knew was that he was wearing glasses. I tried to listen to what they were saying. "We need to extract her DNA"" Find the_" "Bring it to 39_" I can't remember properly. I was only 7. I heard a whisper behind me. I turned my gaze around towards the large door that was at my side. There was a shadow behind the door, that disappeared as soon as my eyes met it. I looked back at where my father and the man were talking. They wouldn't notice if I disappeared. I decided to sneak up to the door and start looking for the shadow. 'Pssst' I heard someone say. The shadow. I decided to follow it. It led me to another room that was more lit up than the corridor I walked in from. The shadow turned around to look at me.

It was a girl. With long black hair that reached her waist. She was about my height, very pale and thin. I noticed she looked a bit like that man my dad was talking to. She was pretty. I tried smiling at her, but she didn't smile back. "who are you?" I asked. She didn't say anything. Maybe she can't speak I thought to myself. "Do you live here?" I asked "-because I don't, I came here on a plane" She still didn't say anything, just kept staring at me with those dark eyes of hers. "was that your dad?" I tried again. She signed. All at once she started walking up to me slowly. Almost like a ghost. Still, without any expression on her face, she took my hand and whispered "Let's be friends".

That's how it all started. Me and Sierra. Later in years to come I learned that she lived in another country, and every two months my dad went to visit her father in Japan. To discuss whatever, they were talking about. We were doing fine. We used to talk while our fathers did their secret business. We became close. However, two years ago, that's when things went downhill.

Sierra and I were in her bedroom. She was showing me a few of the Legos she was building. I love building things too. "I couldn't finish this one," she said, "-lost the instructions and there were too many pieces". I looked at where she was pointing. A small box containing a fairly large amount of Lego pieces. "Can I try something?" I asked. She handed the half-built robot into my hand. I sat down on the floor and started adding in piece by piece, fitting the blocks in where I felt was right. Within half an hour it was all done. "That looks amazing! I can start programming it now," she said. You look amazing I thought. Her long black hair was tied up in a high ponytail. I wanted to touch it. It looked silky and soft. She looked up from the robot and met my eyes. Her eyes were so dark and deep, sometimes her eyes spoke louder than her words. I reached up to tuck a strand of hair from her face that had come loose.

Almost instantly there was a loud bang. I dropped my hand down and got up hurriedly. That noise was a gunshot. Shit, I started raising down the corridors to where I think the noise was coming from. Sierra was close behind me. "Dad!" I heard her shout. We ran towards her father's office. The same one both our fathers used to have meetings in. As we neared the room we heard loud voices screaming and then another gun shot. Shit, what was happening? We rushed into the room. As we did so I heard Sierra gasp behind me. The room was a mess. The large window in the corner was shattered and there were six men in gear standing near it, all with guns aimed towards each other or towards my dad. My father also held a gun, which was pointed at the person kneeling in front of his feet. Him. It was Sierra's father; his hand was clenching his chest which was bleeding. I saw the blood pouring down, staining the white dress shirt he was wearing. I looked up towards my father. "wha- what did you do?" I asked, my voice shaking with disbelief. "Get out of here" Sierra's father looked around and shouted at me. His mouth was spewing blood. Three of the men in the corner changed directions and aimed their guns in my direction. "Runn!!" was all the man kneeling on the floor said before the room erupted with flying bullets. I grabbed Sierra's hand and ran. We didn't know where we going, all we knew was that we needed to get out of this house. We heard footsteps chasing after us over the sound of bullets. "Over here" Sierra said dragging me towards a metal door on the side. We went through it. The men were close behind us. The door led us towards a large open area. In the middle was a helicopter. "Get in!" Sierra shouted running towards the front of the helicopter and climbing in. I got in from the other side. There were more people in that area as well, who's attention turned towards our way. "Stop right there!" one of the men shouted. A bullet flew past me, narrowly missing my head by an inch. Shit. I was panicking. I needed to keep the men off so that sierra can get the helicopter in the air.

I felt a sudden pain in my hand. It felt hot. The helicopter wings stated spinning, we slowly were lifting off the ground. Another gun shot. The helicopter started tilting towards the sides. We've been hit I think. My hand began feeling hotter. It was starting to burn. I looked down and saw large quantity of tanks or tins of petrol arranged and stacked together. My eyes quickly came in contact with a lonely man standing near the tanks smoking a cigarette (oblivious to his surrounding commotion). Something in my brain clicked. Suddenly without any knowledge or thinking, my hand shot to the side pointing towards where the man was standing near the tanks. The next few minutes were a blur. All I was able gather was the bright light erupting from the cigarette and the loud explosion following it. The helicopter was flung into the sky due to the impact. We were circling in the air dangerously. "Hold on!" Sierra shouted at me gritting her teeth, her hands straining the controller trying to keep the circling helicopter under control. From the corner of my eyes I saw the house or at least the outdoor balcony area was on fire. That side of the building was covered in flames. Nothing could be seen through the rising red hot monster.

Did I do that?

That was my last thought before I blacked out.

" Yo Connor! You alive?" I heard a voice say as I snapped back to reality. I rapidly blinked a few times as I started focusing on two pairs of eyes staring up at me with worry. "I think we should slap him" the grey eyed person said. Janel. I shook my head harshly "what happened?" I asked, my voice almost a whisper.

"You blanked out man" Tori said. "We were walking and you just stopped and started staring straight ahead without moving a single muscle".

"Yeah, you looked possessed" Janel said pocking me in the forehead. "You okay?"

"I'm fine" I said. "Let's just go to the head teacher's office without talking about this". They were still staring at me concerned. I pulled myself together and walked between the girls continuing straight through the corridors. I shouldn't get distracted. There is no point.

Everything that happened back then, it is in the past. It doesn't matter anymore I kept saying to myself. Forget it all.