"The Cantankerous Crew" Act One: The Academy

Erica

Erica sat up in her bed with her legs swinging off the edge of the bed, looking out the window to the sunrise. She plastered a smile on her face that, in a matter of seconds, became genuine as she looked to the other side of the bed. There Alex slept, her once perfect braid covering all of her save an eye. She had been locked out her room but it was too dark and much too noisy to pick it, so Erica had let her stay the night. She did not really need an excuse to see Alex properly taken care of, so a sleepover was something of a relief to Erica.

She got up making sure not to wobble the loft around too much as she climbed down the ladder. The still groggy teen stretched and rubbed at her eyes before carting off with a towel to the shower.

The two girls strolled down the almost completely empty paths connecting the academy to itself like a garbled bunny-trail. Erica had to get some books from the library and Alex never missed a chance to enter its quiet domain.

They pushed against two grand mahogany doors. A long and narrow desk was before them, centered in the exact middle of the room. Every shelf, table, chair, and door was made from the same wood. Tall windows let the warm sunshine pour onto each book and delicately woven rug carefully placed to make the entire area even more inviting.

Erica and Alex slid in and showed their ID's to the librarian. Upon checking in they strolled over to the reference section and their daunting quest began.

Hours later without any headway Erica called for a break. They were just about to put the books back when Patrick, Damion, and Nicholas came crashing into the enormous room. Screams echoed from outside and even in the library itself. Everyone in it was immediately standing or, in Erica's and Alex's case, sprinting toward the boys.

"What's going on?" Erica demanded, doing her best to brace against a few students struggling to exit.

She shoved them onto the floor with one full swoop as Patrick answered, "The academy is under attack of some sort. All of the professors are missing at the moment, but we must evacuate."

Alex's face fell. "Is my father accounted for?" she shouted over the oncoming commotion. With a sad look, Patrick shook his head no.

A rush of students were flooding their way. Erica pulled everyone out of the way aside from Damion who simply stood where he was, not even swaying as a plethora of them crashed into him. He simply lifted them out of the way. After a moment the current was finished and all the students had come into the well sized quarters. Erica was thankful that every room, hall, and even the courtyard was made for quick escapes or safe houses.

She saw Alexandria take in a deep breath. They made eye contact and Alex nodded. Standing on top of a table Erica shouted out, "Okay, people, anyone at tier three follow Patrick, anyone at tier two and one follow Nicholas, and any other tier, go to the opposite side of the hall to the meeting rooms. The two boys followed Alex to her own secret entry and soon the friendly faces had disappeared into an air vent.

Erica had collected all the others into the largest of conference rooms and they began to fill her in on what was going down. With a sigh of relief, Erica noticed Leo standing patiently. She waved him forward to help organize the commotion of too many voices sounding at once. In a matter of seconds he had gotten everyone to sit down on the empty floor in silence. Leo and Damion joined Erica on the platform and tried to explain the situation.

"We still don't know where it started, but there was a major gas leak. I assume it is from the mess hall, since that is the only area with simply access to a gas stove, but I don't see why the chemistry rooms couldn't be the source."

Erica nodded, taking it all in. "And we don't have hazmat suits in this area," she added solemnly. The three of them exchanged doleful looks.

Damion spoke up, "Erica would die in seconds from taking in any fumes and Leo couldn't run fast enough, so that only leaves me." He gulped, but had long ago given up the idea of living a long life.