Chapter 5

I giddily ran next to him, "I didn't have my weapon with me when I fled, so... I couldn't lend a hand when the monster caught him," I clarified.

I did, in fact, intentionally left my belongings behind when the monster noticed us. It would only slow me down from escaping.

"It seems it's inevitable to lose another student again..." Lucas said depressingly as we parted ways, we remain vigilant until our adviser finished their mission on locating the room where we can send a distress signal.

I noticed Lucas looked at me a while ago as if he suspected I did it on purpose—letting the annoying guy die, that is.

"Ophelia..." Danny called out to me quietly, and I noticed him froze in fear as he was looking behind me.

I felt something was off so I turned and looked at the direction he was looking, I saw two monsters who were quite far away from us. One an eyeless, and the other... It was— gigantic. How did it even fit in the main entrance of the campus.

I, too, froze in fear. And despite my desire to take a step to flee... My foot is solidly anchored on the ground.

"What was that..." I mumbled to myself, and it appeared that the eyeless monster noticed us and came straight to us.

I wish I could run away. I want to go find and pick up my weapon for a kill, but my body refuses to move. "Not again," I thought to myself.

I was trembling, I felt all the strength in my body disappeared, my heartbeat, it was thumping loudly. I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down. It was no use, my panic is taking over my mind and my body. Now I'm slowly accepting this is the end of my life, again.

Suddenly, I heard Lucas yelling, "Ophelia! Danny!" He was far from us, he's jumping while waving his hand up in the air.

"Let's go," Danny said, grabbing my arm and pulling me away.

Lucas has kept me hooked; he did that for us to escape...? What about him, though?

As I was looking at Lucas, I felt Danny tugging my arm but my body refused to follow him. "Let go of me..." I blurted out, kinda confused why I said that.

He replied firmly, "No." This suddenly reminded me of the time Dev dragged me away to flee.

I was so helpless at that time and I wished for him to flee so I could sacrifice myself, because there's no way I could survive this apocalyptic thing.

If it were them to survive then there's a chance. During those times my legs were weak to move that's why surviving doesn't really come to my mind.

However, this time... I believe I am capable of doing something.

I sighed deeply, letting out all the fear taking over me, "I'll be fine, trust me," I said, looking at him firmly with my voice shaking.

I noticed his jaw clenched, his eyes looking at me with a worried expression.

I sighed, "Let go." I said firmly. And in that moment, he finally released me from his grip.

I dashed back, grabbed a stick that I found on the ground as a weapon, and ran straight to Lucas.

"HEY!" I yelled, hoping to get the monster's attention, but he was too preoccupied with Lucas. I quickened my pace and yelled at him to try to dodge the monster's attack when it got too close.

Everything was overwhelming. My heart is racing as adrenaline rushes through me, and Lucas was busy analyzing the monster's movements.

I then heard a familiar sound, and noticed something else. It's coming from its arm. I attacked the monster and in that short span of time, I did something different to confirm my suspicion. I cut the monster's neck using the sharp end of the stick.

"Come on!" I yelled at Lucas, pulling him away, we both hide behind a post and ducked down. Seconds later...

*kaAbBOoOOOMM!!* The monster exploded, destroying the surroundings with a 5-meter radius around it.

I then expected the huge monster to chase after us, but it didn't even move. It also bothered me why there would be one eyeless monster lurking around followed by a gigantic one.

"Ophelia!" Danny rushed over to us, assisting the student on the same team as Lucas. Their clothes were torn, and there was a burnt mark on their shoulder.

"Where are the others?" Lucas inquired.

"Sir Hernandez was still inside the room for the distress call, and the other one died from a monster; Beck tried killing, but it exploded seconds later when he pierced its skin," he explained. This is a similar situation to my experiment, but we were concerned about the massive monster blocking the staircase.

"Lay the injured student down on the ground."

"All right," Danny nodded as he gently laid it on the ground, and I returned to my bag to retrieve some first aid supplies I had picked up on our way here.

I explained to them what I did on my experiment with the monster while I clean his wound, applying treatment and patching it.

"What should we do about it? It appears that our explosion drew a lot of attention," Danny inquired.

"Let's try it; there should be something here that we can throw at the giant monster just enough to hurt it and make it explode, but first... let's take the student inside a room, and both Ophelia and I will go upstairs to see what it can do," Lucas suggested.

"That's too risky." I replied.

"You know we don't have any other choice."

We waited for Danny and the student to enter one of the rooms where they could hide. Then we went straight upstairs to grab anything we could find, a large thing to throw to damage the monster

"On the count of three, prepare yourself," Lucas said, taking a step backward for a ready aim.

"Alright."

"1... 2... 3!" he counted before throwing it.

The thing missed it, but it exploded seconds later. It was so loud that it destroyed the stairs, and gradually... I blacked out.

—

*Third Person's Point of View...*

Ophelia stirred awake, clad in a loose-fitting gown typically worn by hospital patients.

Upon realizing that she was in an unfamiliar setting, her fear took over, she panicked and tried in vain to open the doorknob to her room, only to find it secured and locked. This realization worsened her anxiety and she remained on high alert, not wishing to endure yet another precarious situation after her previous experience on their campus.

She instinctively cried for help and searched for signs of life outside of her room, but her efforts yielded no results. She thought maybe everything was just a dream and if not, then it's much worse. Her anger grew, she started kicking-forced-the-door-open and to her surprise the door opened, and revealed a figure of a man.

Ophelia was taken aback by its greeting, all she can see is a tall guy wearing an all black combat suit with a creepy looking smiling expression on his face.

The stranger attempted to communicate, yet Ophelia's terror took over and that made her grab the stranger's ballpen resulting in the medical personnel sedating her to suppress her distress.

—

Upon awakening for the second time, she observed her surroundings and noticed several other teenagers. Her hands and feet were now confined to the chair. Seconds later a light flashed in fron and there appeared a woman wearing a lab gown.

"Hello everyone! This is Doctor Harley Jackson speaking. It is my pleasure to welcome you all and introduce our organization. Our main purpose is to shield the world from unwanted forces that have infested this planet that's causing destruction, and we have been relentlessly working towards our lifelong mission to uphold peace and protect the civilians. I am eager to work alongside each one of you soon."

Ophelia realized what the doctor had been discussing. It caught her attention as she recognized the importance of the information being shared. So she made a mental note to every word it will discuss.