I THINK NOT!

Isaiah

Day 0, 9:25am

"Did you see Mr. Judd's face when I chucked that piece of clay at him!" Matt exclaimed as we walked out of Building 3 and on to the campus.

"Ya!" I said "It was priceless! Too bad you now have detention for the rest of the week." He shrugged.

"I don't care, it was worth it." He walked off and joined Alex's and Randy's conversation. I pulled out my phone and texted Cortez to meet me at the skateboard rack. I put it away and headed to the main entrance of the academic building next to the rack.

I was scrolling through Instagram when a voice spoke from behind me.

"Damn she got a fat ass." I whirled around and saw the familiar devilish grin that Cortez sports when he's up to no good.

"You scared the shit outta me dude!" I said while my heart felt like it was going pop out of my chest. He laughed as he handed me the longboard.

"Here class is about to start so I'd hurry." he vaulted the concrete seat and ran through the building doors. I checked the time and he was right. I only had five minutes until class started. I cursed under my breath and hastily pulled the lock from my bag and slid my board through the slot and fastened the lock. I threw on my bag and sprinted into the building.

_______________

Chemistry was going boring as normal until everyone's phones started going off at the same time. We pulled our phones out and stared at the screens with a confused look on our faces. Then suddenly a rumble shook the whole building causing books, laptops, and pencils to fall on the floor. My heart dropped and Ms. Jensen yelled for everyone to get under their tables. I got under the table with the girl, Bailey, that I shared the spot with. I was scared outta my mind but one part of me thought, earthquakes are not this strong this fast. Before I could even take that thought any further it stopped just as fast as it started. We sat there all stunned into silence. The only sound in the classroom was the flutter of papers falling to the ground. Everyone got off the ground and stood up in shock. A voice split the silence only after the first word did I know it came from me.

"Was that an earthquake?" It took a second for Ms. Jensen to come to her senses and answer the question.

"Maybe… is everyone ok?" She asked the rest of the class. Murmurs of yes's and ya's came from the room.

"Ok everyone, pick up your things and let's get back to taking notes." Then a sudden beep came from the loud speaker.

*Beep...beep, beep*

"Attention in the building. Attention in the building. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill. This is a message from the Denver Public School District all students and staff are to be indoors at all times. They are to shut and lock all the doors . No one under any circumstance is to leave the building until further notice." The message was followed up by another series of beeps then the speakers went quiet. The class erupted in questions.

" When are we gonna be able to leave?"

"Are we still going to lunch?"

"How long is it gonna take?"

The questions kept pouring in and I could tell Ms. Jensen was getting overwhelmed.

"Hey!" she yelled "everyone shut up! I am as confused as you, so don't ask me like I know all the answers ok?" She picked her papers and started to straighten them out. The rest of the class started to clean up until Grace spoke up from the silence.

"What the fuck?" she asked as she stared at her phone screen. "There's something going on, on the news."

"What?" Ms. Jensen asked, sounding more annoyed than concerned.

"You should see for yourself, its on all the news stations." Ms. Jensen sighed and then proceeded to pull up the 9 News website where there was a live feed playing.

"- It seems like a two hundred foot tall black spire has mysteriously risen from the ground right in front of the Denver Capitol Building . The thing is made out some kind of rock hard alloy-" he stopped and put his hand to his ear piece, "this just in, reports are saying these this have sprouted up everywhere seemingly only a few miles apart." He touched his ear piece again. " more reports are coming in of the strange spires appearing everywhere across the state and even across the country. We are going to Kaite Eastmen that has just arrived at the scene of the spire in front of the Denver Capital." The picture changed to a short blonde woman in front of the black spire. The spire itself was massive, it was in a perfect cone shape dotted with perfectly placed spots that looked like they were slightly moving as if the spire itself was breathing.

"Thanks Kyle, its seems like the cone-like spire sprouted out of the ground as if God himself pushed it through the ground like a pincushion." she turned around and let the camera pan on the towering spike. In the background you could see a homeless kid around our age walk up to it and admire it. She kept talking about how authorities are telling people to stay completely away from the spire but I was too focused on the kid in the back to really pay attention. He walked around it looking at the holes with curiosity. He took a gruby hand out of his pocket and reached to touch it. A black light shined from the spot and in an instant he started screaming. The cameraman focused the camera on the kid in the distance as he noticed the screams. The light continued to grow brighter and soon all of the holes in the spire started to glow also. The kid tried to pull his hand off but he was having no luck. Soon his screams stopped as it seemed like the spire absorbed his entire being because there was no sign of the kid except a smoking pile of clothes. The camera started to shake as the ground started to rumble, the spire seemed to vibrate intensely. The classroom began shaking again as the spire in the Arsenal began vibrating in sync with the other. The cameraman stumbled but kept the camera on the rock. Black smoke-like fog started to pour out of the holes in the spire and started to move around like a bunch of angry snakes. A tendril of smoke started coming toward the reporter like it wanted to catch her, she screamed and started running. The camera guy followed but kept the lens on the smoke chasing after them. The smoke hit the reporter in the back with such force it made her fall straight on her face. The cameraman put the camera down and went to her side. The smoke looked like it just absorbed into her, her face was a sickly shade of grey, her veins were black in her face, she started to twitch uncontrollably like she was having a seizure. The cameraman kept calling her name but she wouldn't respond. The live feed cut off suddenly and was replaced with a technical difficulty screen.

The classroom sat there in silence as our brains tried to process what just happened.

"That was fake." said a girl in the back of the class.

"But it was live…" I responded.

Then the panic set in.

Multiple students went out of the classroom to see if there was another spire close to the school. The class erupted into hundreds of questions. Some guys were laughing at how the reporter fell on her face. Some girls weren't even paying attention and used the chaos to check their phones. I sat there thinking a million miles an hour. What happened to that kid? Where did the spires come from? Are we fucked? What did that fog do to that woman? Were the spires alive? It looked like the holes were breathing. Taylin burst into the classroom with a couple kids that went to look at the Arsenal.

"There is one of the spikes there like they said in the news." He ran back out the door, most people ,including me, stopped what they were doing and ran out the door before Ms. Jensen could tell us not to. We ran down the hall and looked out the window that had the best view of the National Wildlife Refuge. Sure enough there was one almost in the middle of the Arsenal it looked like it was jutting out of a lake. The entire spire was shrouded in the black fog, it came rolling off the sides and on to the ground just like it did in the news. The smoke moved along the ground like it had a mind of its own. Fear embedded itself into my conscience as the realization hit.

"Shut the windows." I said to no one in particular. Taylin looked at me with confusion.

"Close all the windows!" I yelled at everyone "If we can close the windows and keep the building air tight maybe we won't get hurt like that reporter lady." The students all exchange looks of realization that the news feed was actually real and that the fog hurt that reporter some kind of way.

"Ok before anyone starts to freak out, some one go convince Ms. Jensen to tell the office to do an announcement of what I said to do. And the rest of you guys go around and see if any classrooms' windows are open. Don't try to explain to the teachers what's happening just do it," I looked out the window, the smoke was moving quickly. If it continued to move at that speed it would reach the building in a matter of minutes. "Now stop looking at me like I'm stupid and do what I said!" They looked at each other and then ran off, only Taylin stayed with me.

"I'll go tell Jensen." he started to run too but stopped suddenly. "You should come with, it was your idea in the first place." I nodded and we ran down the hall back to the classroom.