The Apostate Trials

Chapter 4

Dread flooded the room like the plague. Noah was frozen solid. Mind racing, gut twisting. He slid on his coat and joined the cluster around Rylan.

       After coming to terms with the heavy silence that consumed each of them, the fear that whisked their panic─thoughts of how and what they did to survive each and every day─their lives back then all of a sudden sounded like a piece of cake. They may have no longer been caged, but that sensation still lingered. They still felt caged. Every bit the animals they made themselves out to be. The more it sunk in, the more hopeless their situation began to feel, the deeper the threads of silence weaved between them. Their knotted guts confirmed what each had been feeling since the start of it all; fear. Pure. Unadulterated. Fear.

Rylan took a moment to clear his throat. "You all heard what the letter read. If we want to survive this thing then we have to come out on top." That's when the fear really began to settle in.

"Didn't you hear? We're Class F!" Someone finally shouted.

Another began to repeatedly scream, "We're all gonna die!"

"Calm down. Everything is going to be just fine. You guys don't have to worry about a thing," Rylan's assurance calmed the room. His voice was frighteningly lax considering what had just been revealed. "From the sound of things, we aren't the only class out here. But our group is small, which will most certainly play to our advantage."

       Noah unintentionally drowned out Rylan's voice, his eyes intently scanning through the apps on his phone, only a small handful. One was what appeared to be a leader board with hundreds of classes ranked─closer inspection revealed theirs to be currently ranked dead last, as hesitantly anticipated. The next app was a contact list, of which only one name remained outlined in green; NEST. He grimaced upon discovering that he couldn't call or text the contact.

The final app of importance sprouted a hologram from Noah's phone, instantly resulting in a handful of glances landing upon him, drowning out Rylan's words as well.

       The hologram was large, an exact terrain of what Noah believed to be the Manhattan that NEST spoke of, a barren landscape of corroded buildings masked by undergrowth and streets littered by the hollow shells of rusted vehicles. After using his fingers to zoom out, Noah discovered Manhattan to be far vaster than his mind could have possibly comprehended, with a large wall encircling them within, trapping them like rats.

Many took notice of the timer that hovered high above.

0hrs:12mins:36secs until H.O.S

"H.O.S," One repeated the letters in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?" It truly didn't ring any bells.

Noah closed the app with a sigh, placing the phone directly within his right pocket alongside his hand. "High Output Scan," His voice came out a lot calmer than he anticipated; something within him automatically registered the acronym with swift ease, although he didn't know what, or even how, bearing in mind the lapse in his memory. "It basically shows the position of all our enemies for a limited period of time."

       Rylan, as well as a handful of others, began to search their phones for the same app─only to find different, unique apps in their stead; Rylan's app was a compass that told him the exact time the nearest supply drops would fall, guiding him in their direction, Miles had an objective locator, Rosary a phonometer, and many others tools that, together, could prove to be of varying usefulness.

"We'll never have to worry about a thing with Noah's output scans!"
"Yeah! We just might be able to win it all with Miles' objective locator!"
"Nikki's Threat Analysis will definitely keep us safe!"