West Central

West Central

West Central
By Hebi Aikouka
Epilouge

Thomas started, looking up at the speaker in the roof with vexation. He had had his head on his arms, resting on his desk, and was falling asleep when it went off. He snorted, having missed the announcement that woke him.
"Hmm. I'll be back, class, in about fifteen minutes. Continue to work on your creative assignments, please," Mr. Unkauf, the teacher, exclaimed. He jumped off the desk he was standing on, and walked out the door.
Thomas chuckled. Mr. Unkauf was his favorite teacher. For someone who had been teaching at a school for over twenty years, he still had an aboundment of energy. He had been standing on a desk to show the different angles taken by filmmakers. He was alays smiling, even in those rare cases when he got mad.
The announcement repeated, so Thomas was able to hear what was going on.
"An NPS Council meeting is being held at the office. All staff are required to attend, as well as all NPS members. Repeat, an NPS Council..."
"Ah, once again, Shaun Pready advances farther into Russia," Thomas mumbled to himself, going on. "And easily pisses off more World Leaders. He makes George W. look good. How he managed to get elected, we'll never know," he said more loudly.
Alex Gagnon, one of Thomas' best friends, leaned over towards him. "I personally blame the death of Gerald Henningway. I have to admit, while I don't like the States on a whole, he was an awesome guy, especially for a president. It's like, say, looking at Hitler as a politician, not a mindless killer."
"Exactly. Well, at least, if Canada goes to war with the States like they did eight years ago, we'll still be safe. I love the upgrades they did to the school."
"Ah," Alex started, his voice airy with a proud tinge. "Good ol' West Central. I mean, when they built this beast, it had the two schools and the college, the olympic standard gymnasium, the cafeteria, and now look at it."
"Amazing how much they've added," Thomas continued from Alex. "The cafeteria never runs out of fresh food since they added the indoor garden. All thousand kids in this school alone could live forever in here."
"Don't forget," Alex said happily, "The NPS. Couldn't be safe without that, not since the end of Iraq."
"Hey, guys, I was wondering," Merith Balern, a new person to the school, started. "What exactly is this NPS you keep going on about?"
Alex shook his head in shame, obviously sad that someone didn't know about it. Thomas patted his shoulder, talking. "Oh, shut up, Alex. You know she's new. Anyways," He turned to Marith, "The NPS Stands for 'The Nuclear Protection System'. It was built in with the other upgrades to the school three years ago. Basically, it moniters the current level of radioactive material in the air, and compares that to sound files taken from outside. It also has a small part that moniters war activity. If Russia presses the big red button, the System will know in seconds and arm itself."
Marith blink in amazement. "What are the soundfiles for?"
"Well, basically," Alex went on, "if there's an explosion heard outside, it will also arm itself. It then compares the time of the sound to how much radioactive crap there is in the surrounding area."
"Now, when it goes off, that's the fun part," Norman Viscott cut in, obviously listening to the conversation. Thomas sighed, noticing two other people walking over to the group. "When they did the upgrades, they installed these huge steel blocks uner the ground and even into the school in certain areas. These blocks shut into each other and lock in using a mechanism that's somehow physically impossibly to unlock. There's a computer system in the main office where a code can be punched in to unlock the system anyhow."
"Only two people know the code, for some safety issues," Bradley Hearm started. "One of the students on the NPS Council, and another teacher who's the head of the council."
Marith scratched at her head, obviously scared at the sheer power the system could wield. "One last question," She prompted. "Anyone know when this assignment is due?"
The whole group chimed in at the exact same time. "Look at the board, under 'Due Dates'."
---
"Is everyone here? Yes? What about the secretaries? Them too, yes. I said 'all staff', you know. They here now? Good. Everyone needs to hear this," Mr. Clark, the principle of West Central announced. "Everybody, eyes and ears. We have a serious issue that needs to be attended. I've just recieved word from the NPS's automatic alert module. The National Guard has reported that it will be delivering a biohazardous material, and it's remarkably coming through our town. They've said that it's not unstable, but there may be a case that the NPC starts up anyways. I want all teachers on high alert, and to warn the class. One more thing, however-"
"With all due respect, Jim," Mr. Harven, the school's newest gym teacher, cut in. "I've a class in the gym with access to all the equipment. May we get on with it?"
"Hold on, Mr. Harven. This new info is extremely important. Recently, around the school, bomb threats have been found. We're not exactly sure who's making them, but we have reason to believe that it's most likely the student who was expelled earlier this year for giving those cigars away in the Common Area. He's set the detonation date for today, and in fact should be happening relatively s-"
Mr. Clark was thrown across the room, along with a few other teachers and the table. He slammed into the wall with his ears ringing. Picking himself up immediately, he ran outside to find out who had just blown away half the wall. All the other teachers followed, and one of the NPS Council members, Mihna Vonrick, started after them. She was the student code bearer. Mrs. Hanesworth grabbed her shirt and started speaking extremely fast.
"No, no, no! You stay here! We can't afford to have the system go off with nobody to unlock it! Do you understand?"
Mihna looked down. "Yea, I know..."
As the teachers rushed out, Mihna felt a surge of angry, firey envy. What could possibly go wrong with a few cherry bombs, she asked herself. Walking slwoly out of the deserted office, she waited until all the teachers had left the entrance room. Even the school's janitor had walked outside to find out what the explosion had been about. Slowly, she edged towards the open doors, looking her head out.
She wasn't expecting what she saw.
Henry Decar was standing in front of every adult that was in the school, his arms outspread with a switch in his hand. His entire body was lined with large, bright red sticks of dynamite. By his foot was a large cylinder container. It had a very large 'H' on it. Mihna shuddered- she knew that the cylinder was enough to take out half the school. She looked up at his body, covered in the explosives. In the furthermost parts of her mind, despite her state of terror at this new threat, she couldn't help think that the scene was extremely cliche'd.
"Do you think it's easy, being expelled?" Henry screamed, holding his finger over the switch. "You think it's easy, having to steal and sell cigars so you can feed yourself? Easy, having to come home one day and tell your parents you had been compleetly removed from the school they worked so hard to get you into, because you needed money? My parents dropped me! Abandonded me because I had failed their best efforts. I was left on the street and nobody knew! Well, now who's in charge of my life? Who's in charge, who can stand up and be the man they are, and fix everything? Nobody, that's who!"
He lifted his head and cackled a fierce, hideous laugh, tears rolling down his eyes.
"Luckily, before all you, you, you bastards, you dictating freaks of nature, could get me out of that hell-hole, I was able to read up on a little engineering." He pointed down towards the Hydrogen Container. "This baby will go off in two minutes. Enjoy."
With that, he kicked the container down the hill towards the highway that lay so close to the school. He slammed his finger on the switch, and let go.
"Die, you sons of bi-" His voice was drowned out by the sudden roaring, intense heat. Blood and bits of something rained the air, spreading out, hitting and smearing some windows and walls. All of the teachers were thrown back. Some even went as far as the asphault walkways, slamming into them with enough force to make deep, hollow cracking sounds. Mihna wasn't sure if it was the walkways or the teachers. She sat, stunned at those rubbing their heads, getting up with a look of intense sadness and disgust. Suddenly, some of them snapped their heads towards the highway, others looking to see what had caught the attention of their collueges. Suddenly, they all froze, and dropped in what seemed like defeat.
The Hydrogen container was in the middle of the highway. Sirens were heard, but not coming towards the school.
It was a convoy of police cars and fire trucks, even an ambulance or two, escorting a huge, ugly bright green, armoured truck. On it's side lay the one symbol that nobody had hoped to see in their lifetime, and words that frightened all who looked.
'CANADIAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY: EXTREME CAUTION', it read. The nuclear symbol somehow shone in the dark, grimy yellow that covered it. As the teachers watched with complete and utmost despair, the truck slowly crossed over the container, passing it by. Some of the teachers had started to get up, thinking the explosive device was a dud, a fake. A they started to get up and looked at the ruined grounds all around them, some speaking in a soft, mourning voice for Henry, they were once again thrown to the ground with an explosive force that shattered a few windows. Those who could still see looked up to see an amazing explosion, ripping through the fire engines and swallowing the armoured car. The vehicles caused more blasts, completely inferior to the initial blast. The flames shot projectiles of flaming metal and bits of the highway, carving a crater into the soil.
Another sound caught everyone's immediate attention, turning heads away from the smoking, black hole in the ground. A klaxon alarm screamed wildly, and suddenly a female voice, oddly mechanical, rang throughout the school's grounds.
"System Program recording. This is not a drill. All personel inside the building must retreat away from all doors and windows. System Program executing PEPCON's Nuclear Protection Program. Repeat. This is not a drill. All personel inside the building must retreat away from all doors and windows."
A great humming, seeming to emanate from the ground, filled the air. Grass, close to the school, suddenly retreated outwards leaving gaping holes arond the perimiter of the building. At the far end of the school, great steel blocks started to slide out of the ground and slam with brute force into notches above them. The barriers, at alarmingly fast speeds, shot up the school, completely encasing the entire thing within it's mighty grip. The blocks looked to be about two feet in width, made completely out of reinforced steel. Mihna screamed, as the ground underneath her retreated. Mrs. Hanesworth turned around and saw Mihna.
"Run, Mihna! Get back inside! Hurry!" she screamed with a grief-ridden voice.
Mihna turned to run inside, but her foot caught on the gap and she fell, painfully, onto her back, looking up at the roof. Walls on both side of her pulled into themselves as she struggled to get up. Witha horrific grinding sound, two partitions of the blcoks came out and slammed into each-other, locking in.
Mihna screamed again as she watched and felt her legs get pummeled between them. Struggling to get loose of the blocks that gripped with deathly strength despite her pain, she heard another grinding sound above her. As she looked at the noise, she saw fate descending.
All of the adults, now entirely alert of her position, turned their heads away from the gory scene as her last scream cut off half a second after she started it.