Chapter 2 - Dusk to Dawn

Never in my life have I ever seen anything like this. The entire horizon completely blocked out by a wall of dust. The closer it gets the darker it gets around us until the sun was entirely blocked out. What if the windows give in and cant block out the sand? What if the winds in that cloud is strong enough to penetrate the building. What if...

"Ejay come on." Lj said waiting on me. "I could see you're scared, and I could tell when your overthinking. Get a grip we'll be fine."

"Lets go newbies, in here!" Shouted Angie waiting by the entrance of a room.

We ran in and was greeted by five other people that looked like they were about our age. Angie closed the door behind us, came up to me and whispered "if you hesitate to move like that on the outside, you'd be left to die."

"Alright newbies from left to right you have Cory, Alyssa, Victor, Lici and Regine." Said Angie while walking away from me. "Now you guys introduce yourselves."

"What is this?" Asked Akiel. "I didn't come here to make friends."

"Who said we're trying to be your friends?" Asked Cory while rising out his seat. "Your more than welcome to go back outside 'cause I didn't ask you to be here."

"How 'bout you make me go back huh." Replied Keily.

"Um I'm Khiara and I'm not sure if I want any specialist training."

"That's alright Khiara it's not meant for everyone." Replied Lici

"It's really not." Says Cory as he sits back down still starring down Kiely.

"What about you lil man?" Asked Victor pointing at Lj.

"Don't ever call me that again." Replied Lj in a serious tone. "I'm Lem and I'm going to be a searcher."

"Going to be, alright bro my bad"

"Alright scary your up." Said Angie

"Hey Jay you alright right?" Asked Lj

"Never better. I'm Ejay and I'm also here to become a searcher."

"You need to search for some balls before you could ever become a searcher." Replied Angie while laughing. "If a sandstorm is enough to phase you then maybe you should be like Khiara and try live a normal life."

"Funny, so question. How long are we going to be stuck in here?" I asked.

"Usually a sandstorm of this size could hang around for a few hours." Replied Alyssa. "So I suggest you fine somewhere comfortable to sleep for the night."

"Are sandstorms common out here?" I asked.

"We get probably one close to every three months, and a big one like this once a year." Lici replied.

When we arrived here it was nearing five o'clock in the afternoon so most likely we are really stuck here for the night.

I hope mom and the others made it to somewhere safe. They should've still been with the guards so they should be fine. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared before, or if I said I wasn't thinking about it anymore. Angie and Lj's statements echoes through my head as I think about what would've happened if she didn't ran into us outside. What if we..... Damn I'm doing it again. Maybe I'm not cut out for this.

About an hour goes by of nothing happening and nothing being said outside of the two groups. A muffled sound of the sand particles hitting against the building's exterior is heard throughout every room in the building. It's only 6pm but it feels like it's after 10 in the night. The room we're in looks like a classroom but there's only seats, no desk. Khiara already fell asleep on two chairs and Kiely is about to do the same. Me, Lj and the others are wide awake.

"How many other people you think in here with us?" Lj asked.

"I don't know how, 'bout we go and find out." I replied. "We could at least walk through this bottom floor."

"Let's go then cause sitting here waiting got boring very quick."

"Hey, where you two going?" Asked Angie as we're walking out.

"There's nothing to do in here so we're going to go check out the rest of the floor." Lj replied.

"Alright then I'm tagging along." She responds while getting up.

"Nah that's alright I doubt we'll get lost or anything."

"I wasn't asking, I want to come."

"I'm coming too." Says Lici. "What about you guys?"

"Nah I'm chilling." Victor responds.

"I'm 'bout to nod off so I'm good." Says Cory. "Also I think Lyssa's been sleep for at least 10 minutes now."

"Alright then boys let's get stepping." Angie says while smiling and walking past us.

As we walked out into the hall all the lights turned off. It's dark but not impossible to see thanks to the white colored walls.

"Majority of the buildings in this city are powered by the sun. However as it is now the solar panels only stores up to just around an hour of energy." Angie explained.

"So power usually turns off at night anyway." I replied. "What if there's an emergency at night then? There's no alarm."

"It's the guard's job to sound manual alarms incase of an overnight emergency." Responded Angie.

"So I have a question." Says Lj jumping in. "How dangerous is the sandstorm out there?"

"You would suffocate to death within minutes due to the particles in the air being to thick to breathe in." Says Lici. "I like to study meteorological events in case you were wondering."

"Good to know." Me and Lj said simultaneously after a short pause.

Just then another kid came around the corner walking towards us. He's basically the same height as Lj but a lot thinner.

"Hey Dameer, where you off to?" Asked Lici.

"I'm looking for a flashlight. Me and Nesha was in the middle of something before the power went out."

"You and Nesha huh?" Lici responded with a grin.

"Chill out, anyway who're these guys?"

"Light skin is Ejay and dark skin is Lj." Angie replied. "This is Dameer guys, he also will be training to become a searcher."

"I'd talk more but I need to find a flashlight like right now. So I'll see you guys 'round." Dameer says while running off into the darkness.

"Yep we could only guess what he needs that light for." Lici says as we continue to walk.

The building is ominous, a chilling breeze flows through the halls making an eerie whistling noise that doesn't end. Some dust has settled under windows and started to pile up. Maybe we should just go back to the room and be patient until this ends. Just then a knocking noise came from the end of the hall we're in. It's too dark to see the origin of the noise so we start to walk towards it. The noise sounds like a rock hitting a piece of plywood. As we near the source a flash of light from behind us then illuminates the hall. We spin around to see Dameer coming towards us with a flashlight.

"Hey did you guys see Nesha come this way?" Asked Dameer. "She wasn't in the room I left her in so I thought..."

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

The knocking we heard has now turned into forceful banging. With Dameer shining the light we could now see the noise coming from a boarded up window. The girls now have a worried expression on their face and aren't saying anything. We inch closer to the window when suddenly the knocking stopped. We're about 10 feet from the window and we're all just staring in silence.

"Someone should've yelled nobody's home." Said Dameer.

"Be serious." replied Angie

BANG!!!

The board sent flying off the window landed right in front of us. We jumped back and Lj and I stood in front of the girls trying to understand what's happening. Dust started pouring in along with a cold breeze. Then two shadows slowly stood up in the window frame. As they entered the light I froze again, but this time my mind went blank.

"INFECTED!"