AVERY’S POV
I was failing.
I didn’t need a magician to wave a wand and tell me that I was going to fail my test.
But you know the thing about calculus is that it has never once in my academic life felt urgent.
For what seemed to be the umpteenth time, I stared at problem seven on my exam slip and then back at the clock ㅡ forty minutes left.
Which meant I had spent approximately 30 minutes answering only three questions.
Why did it feel like I didn’t study?
Oh rightㅡ I didn’t.
Obviously, I had meant to study.
I had a whole plan too for it.
Read, review and reassess.
But what actually happened was that I slept off five minutes in with my textbook on my chest and I woke up with the spine imprinted on my sternum and a very firm belief that I would be able to catch up on Friday before the 10am exam.
It was currently 10:30am and that belief has long been disproven.
“I hope you all are having a great exam,” the teacher called out, leaning against her desk with a smug grin on her face.
The whole hall let out a collective sigh of disagreement and I dragged a hand through my dark hair.
Shit.
I just wanted to go home.
My phone was lying in my half-unzipped bag and my gaze strayed to it.
Mum had sent a text earlier this morning: “Will be home late from work. Do not order any pizza. Left some macaroni instead.”
Yay.
More stale macaroni to go home to.
I almost gagged at the thought, twiddling with my pen instead.
Dad hadn’t sent a voicemail in two days and I was getting paranoid already ㅡ he had been deployed to another base a few months back and all we got now were short voicemails where he would tell us how well he was doing and how he missed us so much.
How comforting.
My gaze flickered to the girl beside me, my expression bored.
Her pen moved fast across the paper and her posture was laid-back.
Without thinking, I leaned forward, struggling to get a look at it.
Maybe just a littleㅡ
The building suddenly shuddered.
My neck snapped up in time as the other students tensed too, looking around the hall.
“What the fuck was that?” Mason who was three seats away whispered, looking around.
The teacher waved a hand, looking back down at the book in her hand.
“Decorum, guys. There’s a lot of construction work down the road, it’s just that. I don’t want to hear another word.”
That eased me for a bit and I relaxed again in my seat as everyone sighed and went back to writing.
My gaze strayed to the window this time and my brows furrowed, seeing other students and teachers outside the hall on campus staring up at the sky, some of them having their phones raised while others stared in awe.
What…were they looking at?
The whole building shuddered again and this time, the teacher straightened up, panic flashing across her features for a second.
Someone at the window gasped, dashing to their feet almost immediately.
“Oh fuckㅡ what is that?”
Everyone was at the window in less than five seconds, palms pressing against the cold glass as they stared outside.
Papers long forgotten, I dragged myself to my feet, immediately reaching for my phone before I cautiously approached the window andㅡ
Oh my god.
The sky wasn’t right.
Definitely not right.
There was a tear.
Almost like a black seam torn across the atmosphere.
My eyes widened as I stared at it.
“What is that?” Someone gasped, eyes literally pressed against the pane of the glass.
Black smoke filled the air, blinding vision for a second as I struggled to see through the thick gas.
The ground shuddered and a low whirring sound reverberated through the space.
I watched in awe and horror as the smoke cleared up and in the empty parking lot now stood…things.
My brain short circuited for a second and my brain struggled to find a word for how enormous they were.
Big was the only word I could offer.
They were huge.
Definitely the size that makes your brain blank that you can’t even process it.
Had to be at least 70 feet tall.
It’s like you’ve seen the full size of it but then you look again and there’s more.
Six limbs.
My eyes moved fast, assessing it.
Six long fucking limbs that were…metal.
Moving with an articulated precision that unnerved me as a teal light bleeding through the surface that seemed to scan across the crowd formed.
There was not just one of that.
I could spot about 2 others behind it standing at strategic positions in the city.
My heart raced wildly in my chest as I took a step back.
“Holy shitㅡ this is so cool…” someone was already gasping, fingers slightly trembling as they hit the record button on their phone.
Something doesn’t feel right.
Two military jets flew extremely low, circling the three unnamed machines.
A student frowned, staring at his phone.
“Guys, emergency broadcast. There’s a shutdown. Citizens are advised to get behind bunkers…and…” He paused, looking up.
“Waitㅡ why? ㅡ are those things dangerous?”
My palms felt sweaty and I barely had time to respond before the…thing let out a shudder and everyone cowered for a second before straightening up.
A few people outside on the campus grounds start backing away, others getting into cars and zooming the other way.
That…was smart.
Because half a second later, the limbs suddenly raised and were pointed forward, teal light blinking furiously at the tip.
A girl with a high ponytail broke the silence, her voice a shaky whisper.
“What do you think it’s dㅡ”
A mechanic whirring sound thrummed through the space and my eyes widened as I stared at it.
That can’t be right.
“Take cover!” I barely got the words out before a deafening sound was heard and I felt a subsonic pulse in my chest just as an explosion wrecked through the school and I was thrown across the hall alongside others and everything went blank.
Hiiiii, we are so back, people.
Love you so much.
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