The Day the World Ended

Chapter 3 Welcome to the New Age

I woke up early in the morning to the sound of knocking on our classroom door. The teacher was sleeping with her head down on her desk. All of my friends were huddled in the far corner of the classroom sleeping on each other's laps or leaning on each other's shoulders. The knocking at the door persisted, so I gently stood up, careful not to wake anyone, and walked to the door and looked out the tiny rectangular window. It was the principal. I quickly but quietly opened the door and he grabbed my arm and pulled me out into the hall.

"Sorry for the early and rude awakening but no one has eaten since lunch yesterday so I was wondering if you could come with me to the cafeteria to get the fruit and milk to hand out to the students. It'll go bad since there's no power."

I hesitated, the teacher would get worried but it was for my friends, as well as all the other students. "I guess."

The principal smiled and started towards the cafeteria with me following close behind. We rounded the corner and stopped at the doors entering the cafeteria. As soon as the doors were shut behind us, he folded back his jacket and grabbed the gun from his belt. I stared wide-eyed at him. For we were not allowed weapons in school.

He looked at me and grinned sheepishly, "Can't be too careful you know. If someone got in here somehow we have to protect ourselves from the sickness. Because if it starts in here, it will spread like wildfire. And I don't think any of us could..." He paused and looked at his gun, then at me, "I don't think any of the staff could... kill... a child."

I shrugged and looked at my feet, "You would if three hundred kid's lives were on the line."

He frowned slightly at this, "Look, I've never killed a person before. And if you think your video games could somehow prepare you for the real life thing, your mistaken. Killing a living person is hard, mostly when you don't know if they'll get better. They might have family that they need or want to get back to. And you killing them from protection means your taking the mother or daughter of a person away."

He looked me in the eye for a few seconds and then walked to where the food was stored with me following behind. He looked around cautiously as if looking for someone or something.

"Who are you looking for?"

He looked at me and then looked away as he fumbled with his key to open the door. "There's a battery operated radio in the office where some of the staff are. We meant to announce it to everyone but, we never got around to it."

"What was there to announce? Did they find a cure? Can we go home?"

He found the right key and unlocked the door, "I think I should... uh.. tell everyone when I say this. I think it would be better. So we can keep an eye on some or... most students. They wouldn't be able to handle it. We need to make sure they won't do anything."

I looked wide-eyed at him again, "What is it? Is it that bad? Or is it that good?"

He shook his head and looked at me once more, "The students were right." Then he walked into the darkness, gun in hand.

The students were right? What did he mean? The students were.... oh my god. This is it. The Apocalypse. The sickness... it was spreading more quickly than I or anyone thought. This was more dangerous. This was scarier. We were in Hell.

My stomach rolled over itself a million times. I bent over and hurled on to the floor. I fell to my knees in a teary mess and hurled once more. The principal came out with a crate of fruit and milk and dropped it when he saw me. He ran to my side and brought me close, shushing me like a mother would her baby. It would've been awkward if it was any other day, but this was different. Everything was now different.