Chapter 21: The Class 2G Plan
The two exhausted archers sat on the cobblestones of the driveway as they ate the protein bars Kalli had saved from her military issued ration packs.
"We had set up with most of the students from Class 2G and a bunch of other students at the wholesale mall. We figured that with nearly a hundred of us, we should be more than enough to take on whatever was coming.
After all, we had these new powers, and some of the students even stayed at the Academy long enough to get the hidden third quest to find shelter.
That one gave a bonus box when they got to the mall, so most of us had weapons of some sort.
We got these bows from the camping supply store, but they only had like fifty arrows in total, and my [Lightning Arrow] skill still needs an actual arrow until I can upgrade it, same with James.
We split them evenly, but then everything went to shit.
A bunch of the seniors wanted to take over everything, and ordered the rest of us to remain in the hallways while they controlled access to the stores. That turned into a huge fight, the regular patrons at the mall started to fight back against the seniors stopping them from getting supplies, and then people started dying all over.
The healers fled, and so did we.
But by the time that we got away, we had used half our arrows. And then, we came across a group of those armoured boars. We hid on a roof until they went away, and thought that we were good to make it back to the Academy.
We heard the broadcast saying that there were soldiers here, but we saw them all leave, headed for the docks.
So, we figured why not give it a try? At the very least, the dorms are solid stone buildings with metal storm shutters."
Kalli nodded, and Derek patted him on the shoulder.
"Not a bad call, Rick. We sheltered in the dorm building and got the award. We were the only class that didn’t flee the Academy, so we were the only ones here when the army arrived.
There isn’t much left now that they’ve pulled out. But we’ve got one special forces team with an awakened sniper.
That’s got to count for something.
Unlike the rest of us, they’ve got actual training, and they know what they’re doing. But we’ve also been getting some quests that give more reward boxes.
Including the one to go rescue you.
That’s how we knew where you were, and Sanchez’ team, with Yara and the others, got the Common Grade box this time. Our team did get a half System Point for the assist, though. You can use them to buy skills, if you didn’t already know."
Rick nodded. "Yeah, it takes five points to do the first upgrade to [Lightning Arrow]. I’ve got two so far."
"Well, give it a few days, or a week, and you’ll have it upgraded. We got all the early quests, since we stayed at the Academy, and almost all of us have upgraded a skill or bought an additional one now."
While they talked, Sergeant Sanchez sighed in frustration.
These kids were supposed to be the heroes, a whole Academy full of them, and they were at some outlet mall killing each other over sporting goods before the apocalypse had even made it through the first day.
"Do you guys have a food supply? I know that there is a cafeteria at the school, but I don’t know if it survived. Our class is in the basement, so we exited through the back, and didn’t see the rest of the school."
Kalli gave Reggie a confused look.
"Classes F and G are the remedial classes. They’re in soundproof rooms in the basement, with no windows and no distractions, working on their schoolwork from first light to last dinner call. The school even brings lunch down to them."
"Well, that’s a bit hardcore. But I understand why they didn’t see anyone else now. I’ve seen the basement entrance, and it’s at the side of the building, well away from the other doors."
"If we had been thinking, we could have gone to the dorms, but the class beauty didn’t think that it was safe to stay here, and she wanted to go shopping, so we all followed."
Even Reggie groaned in secondhand embarrassment.
"You picked the mall because she wanted to go shopping before the apocalypse?"
"Yeah, it was a bad call. We originally went to the high-end place so she could look at handbags, but everyone was panicking and rioting, so the Class Monitor led us all to the wholesale mall with the good hotdogs.
None of us thought that it was going to actually amount to anything."
"Well, I can see that level of denial making sense at first. It was a fifteen-minute event that your class likely didn’t even see, and then you came out and found everyone running and rioting. So, you had no way to know that it was serious."
The pair of archers laughed. "We saw the messages, but then nothing. The teacher made us go right back to studying until the timer was up. But when she left after to see if our lunch was on the way, she never came back, so we left."
That sounded like the Academy’s biggest slackers.
The moment that they were left unattended, they went shopping instead of remaining in class for the rest of the morning. And while they only vaguely realized the horror that the rest of the school went through, they surely saw it all once they were outside and the chaos began.
"Well, at least you made it back here.
It’s not exactly safe, but it’s safer than most places right now, and we will set guards overnight so that nobody sneaks in to try to take this place from us," Kalli offered.
That was something that only the special forces team had considered.
But Kalli was used to being on call in an office that had three shifts of workers. You always needed security on hand if you wanted anything to be called secure.
