Cold, but Still Human

Chapter 3 - Katerina

[September 3, 2017]

Katerina and Eden are both in their second year of middle school. Fortunately, they were put in the same class, 8A, and have been enjoying the first month of school so far. Well, 8A was actually pretty dull as compared to the cool, athletic kids in 8B, and the gifted in 8C.

Katerina stares at her worksheet, trying to figure out the answer, when she overhears Eden’s conversation with Andy.

“Hey Andy. Can I borrow your phone to use Google Translate?”

“I thought you only used the dictionaries for French class,” Andy mutters, his eyes glued to his phone.

“Fine. Be that way.” Eden huffs, walking over to Katerina. Katerina couldn’t help but giggle. “Can you help me with this. What does ‘L’area d’oolala!’ mean?”

Katerina laughs loudly, looking back to Eden, “It’s your crotch area, idiot.”

“This is why I suck at French.”

Katerina scoffs, shaking her head at her friend.

She continues to giggle as she watches Eden return to her seat and raises an eyebrow at her worksheet. “ ‘L’area de oolala!’ my ass!” the girl says a little too loudly. All eyes turn towards Eden as they burst into laughter. Just as the teacher is about to intervene, the PA goes off.

“The school is now in lockdown mode. I repeat: The school is now in lockdown mode,” the principal’s voice announces.

The students crowd into one corner of the classroom, as the teacher rushes to close the blinds. The room is completely silent, until one familiar sound is heard and a horrible aura emits from a student on the other side of the room.

“Frick!” The class groans in unison, glaring at the obvious culprit. They all laugh silently, as Frick’s face turns red, with a guilty smile plastered onto his face. Katerina rolls her eyes, laughing along with everyone.

Usually, these drills would be short, but this one, seems to drag on forever. Minutes pass. Then an hour. Everyone’s phones are out, and the students all updating their Instagram and Snapchat stories.

“This is so boring. It’s been more than an hour and nothing has happened. Help meh!!” Andy captions on his post.

“At least we’re wasting class time lol,” someone comments.

A few giggles can be heard throughout the classroom.

“Truuuuuuu,” a student replies.

Suddenly, a strange, foreign smell emerges in the class. Scattered coughs are heard, as students look around in a confused manner. This was evidently not Frick’s fart, but something else.

“What the hell? Guys! Look! The air is tinted green! This is some sort of gas!” someone shouts.

With her hands covering her mouth and nose, Katerina squints at the air around her, noticing the weird green gas that was progressively becoming more visible. Concerned, she looks back at her classmates to see their faces droopy and their eyes half-opened.

“This isn’t right...why does this feel so familiar?” she whispers to herself.

To her left, she spots Paul slowly inching his way across the floor with the same droopy facial expression. “I feel so high...” He slurs.

Katerina looks over at Eden fumbling with her necklace, panicking.

While both girls try to recall the familiar scent, the teacher runs over to her desk and pulls out a weird mask-like object from underneath. As she tries to put the mask on, a student points at the teacher and shouts, “Look guys! We were set up! This gas is gonna kill us!”

The class turns around, facing the teacher, while tears run along the sides of their faces as they inhale the terrible fumes.

“Give me the mask!” the students shout, trying to rip the mask away from the teacher, “We’re all going to die!”

At this point of time, Katerina’s eyes suddenly widen in realization. “This smell…it’s the same thing from the museum!” she looks over at Eden, who had already rushed her way over.

Pulling on Katerina’s arm, Eden speaks over the yelling students, “If my predictions were correct, we have to leave. Now.” They unlock the door and dash out of the classroom.

Katerina’s hand presses against the side of her head, experiencing a pain similar to a terrible migraine. “Thank god the gas isn't too bad out here in the hallways.” she says, coughing.

“I couldn't agree more,” a voice says from behind them.

“Andy? Serena? What are you guys doing here?” Eden asks, a shocked expression spread across her face.

“Nobody noticed you guys getting out of the class. The students were either high as fuck or fighting for the mask,” Andy says, looking over at Serena. “Serena...I don't know why she's here,” Andy explains in a strangely calm manner, looking over at the girl. Serena flashes a grin and walks away.

“Hey man, either watch your profanity or I'll shut your shitty pie hole for you.” Eden complains, smirking as she's an obvious hypocrite.

Katerina looks around anxiously. “Let's get out of here first.” The others agree, and they all run down the stairs and towards the emergency exit.

The exit comes into view, and the group of students’ eyes brighten as they dash towards the door. Finally, Katerina thinks to herself, We can get out of this horrible mess.

Andy reaches the door first, and without hesitation, pushes it with all his force.

“Shit!” He shouts. The door doesn’t budge.

The group chuckles at Andy’s desperation. “Hey, are you so weak that you can’t even open a door?” Katerina asks in a jokingly manner. She pushes Andy aside and reaches for the door.

“Stop!” Andy yells, “The door is locked. Don't you see that large padlock hanging on this chain?” Andy walks towards the heavy piece of metal and begins fumbling around with it.

“Are you sure you're going to try again? Didn’t you fail a second ago?” Katerina chuckles after stepping aside in defeat.

“Won't know if it's going to work if I don't give it a try.” Andy whispers as his hands shake in fear and stress as he nervously sticks a piece of scrap metal into the lock opening and begins twisting it around.

“You sure he can get us out?” Katerina whispers into Eden’s ear.

“We’ll see…” Eden whispers back hesitantly.

“Can someone give me a hand?” Andy says, sweat dripping down his forehead and staining his shirt.

Serena walks over, taking out a hammer. With one hard swing, metal parts crash to the floor, the lock smashed open.

“What the...” Andy looks up at Serena, astonished. Serena flashes him a toothy grin, and proceeds to shove the door open. She leads the way, as the group ventures out of the school, towards the field located at the back.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Andy says, catching up to Serena, eyeing her in disbelief.

“I stole it from the janitor on the way out of the classroom.” she replies.

When they finally reach the back of the field, they turn around, witnessing the green gas staining the windows and polluting the air. There’s no doubt about it. The entire population of the school is going to be doomed.