Chapter 13: Academy Locked Down
Few of the students in Class 1A slept well that night.
The city streets rang with the sound of riots and gunfire, punctuated with occasionally audible orders being given over loudspeakers. The police were doing their best to try to keep order, but they had already failed.
The skies were filled with smoke and soot, large portions of the city were on fire, and the areas where there weren’t Riots or fires were too dangerous for anyone to have entered.
They had been locked down by private security forces and awakened citizens, who were not going to take freeloaders into their territory.
The people outside slowly went quiet as they searched for somewhere safe to sleep.
It was clear that the army wasn’t going to let them into the Academy tonight, and nothing else was going to get to them, they hadn’t seen a vehicle for hours.
Kalli woke up with the first light of the morning and took a surprisingly warm shower.
The hot water was back online, and the fan in the room now worked. So, they must have finished working on the electrical system overnight, and the Academy was operating fully independently.
Unless the city’s power was back online.
That seemed unlikely. She could see fires all over the city, and that would mean power outages all over.
It also made the thought of going out to loot this morning highly unlikely. It would be better to wait a few days and then search the empty houses.
"It’s now seven thirty. We have sixty minutes until the timer on the apocalypse warning ends. Everyone, take care of the necessary, and prepare to defend the Academy," the military commander announced over the loudspeaker.
That caused a panic outside, but most of her class members simply nodded.
They had been thinking of nothing else for the entire morning.
Kalli watched one of the girls grab Reggie by the collar and drag him toward the dorms.
"Make sure he’s healed after you take out your frustrations. We need the warriors," Kalli called.
The girl laughed. "If I’m going to die today, I’m finding out whether he was all bluster."
Oh... so that was how it was.
He might still need that healer.
Many of the others seemed to have similar ideas, not wanting to end life with regrets if they didn’t make it through the day. Kalli couldn’t blame them, but she didn’t know any of these people that well, and she had already died with regrets once.
One of the soldiers gave them an incredulous look, and Kalli laughed at his naive innocence.
"Relax, they’ll be back on time. I expect the first will back in under ten minutes. It’s not like they’re going to leave the school grounds."
The soldiers chuckled at the mention of the students only needing ten minutes, and then a few of them gave Kalli curious looks, while a Sergeant with the name Sanchez on his uniform came over to talk to her.
"Did you not have anything that you need to do before the next wave of destruction?"
Kalli shook her head. "No, I’ve taken care of everything that I need to. I want to see what happens from the very start. Perhaps my class will give me some insight into how to deal with the problem.
Knowledge is power, and all."
The soldiers nodded. Knowledge was indeed power. And at the moment, none of them had nearly enough, while those who had it weren’t sharing.
The soldier offered Kalli a cigarette, and she shook her head.
"Never picked up the habit. But how did you get the task of babysitting a single class of students?"
The soldier laughed. "We are special forces from the local airbase. Command told us that there was a hero here. So, they dispatched our team to secure the hero until things were settled.
The fact that there is an entire class is unexpected.
At most, they were expecting a team of five. Now, our teams have gone to secure as many of the others as possible. Apparently, the abilities of the combat classes are the key to survival."
Kalli nodded. "They are. I don’t know if it’s a secret, but their skills aren’t the only thing they get. They also deal increased damage with certain weapons. They can do more damage to a monster with a sword than the average person can with a rifle.
My class lets me see that sort of thing."
Technically, she just had guns in the store, and they were listed with separate damages for ranged hero classes and everyone else. And everyone else was doing 5-10 damage with a gun, depending on the weapon. Even a machete in a warrior’s hands did 20 points of base damage.
Which would be reduced by the armoured hide of many of the monsters. So, a monster with heavy defences would take nearly no damage from a regular person using a rifle.
"Dammit. So, we really are in trouble. Well, most of us. I am a Warrior Class Awakened. But I don’t see anything like that when I look at my gear."
"Did you get a starter box?" Kalli asked.
The soldier shook his head, so Kalli took out her short sword.
"Examine this, what does it tell you?"
"Short sword, Common Grade. Deals 25 points of base damage. Shit. You’re right, when I examine my rifle that way, they’re equal. It also deals 25 damage a shot, but I’ve only got a certain amount of ammunition."
"Exactly. Conserve where you can, don’t go full action movie.
When it comes to riflemen, snipers will be King in the upcoming battle, as they have the best chance of maintaining their ammunition reserves. A single spent magazine is, what? Thirty lost chances for a sniper?
Keep the short sword, I’ve got a good knife, and I’m not a combat class."
Kalli wasn’t going to volunteer the fact that she had a store where they could get more ammunition and melee weapons.
Not yet.
Before the day was over, and everyone’s powers were in the open, she would show her hand to prove her value.
At least, that was the plan. The way that silence had settled over the city was giving her a nervous twisting in her gut that promised nothing good was going to happen.
