Pendulum Prologue and Chapter 1

Prologue:

“I hope they’ll realize most of us have better things to do than sit around here doing nothing.” Drake said to his friends, while looking around the Auditory. It was the biggest room of the university, and at the moment, filled with students. These students included, among others, Drake and his friends, Grayson and Kylie, who'd been sitting in there for over an hour, only getting more annoyed by the minute.

The Auditory was built like a giant circle, a big, round podium in the middle, and chairs layered around it. It was usually for seminars and such, although it was pretty hard to actually look at everyone at the same time while on stage. It had been written off as a simple design flaw, but that didn’t bother the students, as it allowed them to talk while the person on stage was focusing on the other side. It could fit about 500 on seating alone, but it was plain to see it exceeded capacity, with people sitting on the floor, and standing against the walls.

“Tell me about it, I've got a class in two hours, and if this takes any longer, I won't be able to prepare for it in time.” Grayson commented, Drake's closest friend, while with his arms crossed and furrowed brow, looked even more annoyed than him.
“What class?” Drake asked Grayson, while probably already having been told earlier.

“Acting class, at least, I get to choose an actor from that class to be in that short movie I have to make. The problem is that the male lead I had in mind, almost perfect for the role, doesn't want to do it anymore, because his girlfriend broke up with him.” Grayson responded, with a grimace on his face.
“What’d she do that for?”
“Because he's pretty much gay, and she figured that out, but the guy’s still in the whole denial phase about it. That's why I cast him, because the short’s almost exactly his situation. But now, he doesn't want to do it anymore because he thinks it’ll make him come over bad, so now I have to convince him it’s not. I’m going to have to go all out on this one.”

Grayson was about 21 years old, little more than a year older than Drake, about six foot four with brown hair and eyes, and was taking classes to become a movie director, although having dabbled in several other courses prior. Drake had seen some of his short films, even going as far to participate in some of them, and thought they weren't half bad. “Going to play your smooth talker card?”
Grayson chuckled. “That, and possibly the ‘I’ll kick your ass if you don’t’ card.” Drake remembered who he was talking about now. “Wasn’t he a wrestler once?” Grayson nodded. “Yeah, but I can take him. I might need your assistance though, I’ll call you if the need arises.” Drake swallowed, hoping that was a joke, and changed the subject. “So, Kylie, what’s going in your world?”

Kylie looked up, not having paid attention to the conversation. “Not much, just one class in four hours; we're looking at the brain of our dead teacher Mr. Hackey.” She looked at them, after waiting for a response, only to see two faces giving her a weird look. She sighed, and tried to remind them: “You don't remember that he died last week? Committed suicide? No, not ringing any bells? That weird Goth chick claimed he was murdered by the dean?”

Kylie was 22, a year older than Grayson, about five foot nine with black hair and green eyes, and was currently studying for doctor, which took up a lot of her time, but she liked cutting people open, so she didn’t really have a problem with it.

“Oh right, that guy. You’ve got to love people who donate their bodies to science. Where'd Miranda get that idea from anyway? The dean's been missing for about a year now, is this the best thing they can come up with when it comes to crazy rumors?” Grayson asked, thinking about what the mystery announcement could be.
“No idea, but she also said by the end of the year, the fries would be gone from the cantina, and half the school would be blown up.”
“No more French fries? That's a shame, they were pretty good... Would that be announce-worthy?”

Drake was the youngest of the three, being 20, in between the two when it came to length, and was trying to become a teacher of history, although he wasn't that good at the whole studying thing.

Drake and Grayson had met when Drake had arrived on his first day, and had been assigned as Grayson’s new roommate. After a couple of disputes, several fights, and even one black eye, they had laid aside their differences, and agreed to be friendly from then on.
After that, slowly but surely, they grew towards each other, and became close friends. “They're literally gathering everyone, I don't think that's going to be it. I'd put my money on the dean announcing they’re going to blow up half the school before that.” Grayson joked, although not entirely sure about the impossibility of that.

“Did you know this isn't even everyone? This is only about half the college, the other half is split between the library and the cantina. That's why this is taking so long.” Kylie told them, both of them listening with about as much interest as they could muster up.

Kylie had met both of them in the one class they shared at one point, some forced psychology stuff, and hadn’t even taken notice of them at first. However, when one day, Grayson had asked her to come over, she’d taken up his offer, and much to her surprise, it hadn’t been for a date. Grayson had just wanted them to hang out. So, they did. After a while, she started to go over there without an invitation, and became Grayson, and by extension, Drake’s, very close friend. While she was happy about her friends, she couldn’t help but think something more of Grayson, especially considering some issues he’d been dealing with as of late.

“That explains a lot, I saw some people get kicked out because there’s no room here, if they have to go all the way over to those places, no wonder this crap’s taking so long.” Grayson muttered.

The university was a massive piece of land, stretching a couple of miles wide and across, a square structure, with a grand wall that separated it from the outside world. It was divided into four major pieces, starting with the north-west corner, which was the library, which existed out of three wings, with one being closed off right now. There was also a large stage with a podium and a television screen, which is where some of the other students were.

In the north-east corner was the building that housed the cantina, which shared its space with the gym. The cantina was in the front of the building, while in the back the gym resided, which existed out of eight halls. There was also a large screen in one of the gym halls, which is the remaining number of students were.

The main building was in the middle of the bottom of the property, which made a triangle that connected the three buildings. It was divided into four wings with a flower structure, while the Auditory resided at the center, the other wings like petals around it.

The remaining part mainly existed out of dorms. They had been primarily built in the middle of the triangle, although there were exceptions, with enough to consider it a fully-fledged town. Grayson and Drake lived in one of the dorms close to the main gate, which was at the middle of the top, with Kylie’s dorm not being far away.

Suddenly, the doors closed, and the lights focused on the stage. “Well, this doesn’t seem ominous at all. Ten bucks the dean’s an alien and is here to kill us all.” Grayson joked. The other two chuckled, as someone in front of turned around to shush them. Drake snuck out a last remark: “No, he’s a reptilian leading the rebellion of the 7-foot mole people, this is his first target.” The three of them went quiet, as did everyone else, and all attention was aimed at the podium, where the long lost dean surfaced.

Chapter 1:

Drake woke up. How long he had been sleeping, he couldn’t tell, but it felt longer than what would be considered healthy. He tried to get up, but found himself underneath a couple of chairs, fallen on top of him. He slowly pushed them off, trying not to hurt himself too much, but didn’t succeed all that well, with one of them hitting his leg quite hard. He cussed, his mouth barely able to utter the word, as dry as a desert, but eventually got himself up.

His chest was hurting like hell, and his arms weren't much better. He also felt like he was getting hit on the head with a hammer every couple of seconds, probably due to the long sleep. His prime thought, however, was hunger and thirst. Luckily, a full bottle of water stood right next to the place he’d been temporarily comatose, along with some canned food. He grabbed it, pulled it open, and chugged the whole thing down without a second thought. Then, he drank the bottle entirely, flushing away the taste of whatever was in the can. When his primary need had been satisfied, he finally took a look around, and he saw something beyond his worst nightmare.

The entire Auditory was covered in bodies. The neatly organized chairs were thrown around everywhere, splatters of blood and guts all over the room, along with a reeking stench of rotting, along with maggots crawling around where bodies were stacked up on each other.

Drake tried to keep himself from vomiting, but was only partially successful, a little succeeding to find its way back into his mouth. He sat back down, swallowed, flinched and assessed the situation as well as he could. Everyone here’s dead. Maybe even his friends. He could try finding them at least. Maybe they were somewhere else in the building? Actually, he probably had to get out of here first, and find out what caused this. He tried remembering what had happened, but was unable to recall anything from after when the dean had come on stage. He figured that what he had said, or whatever followed it after, must have been the catalyst for this, and he was likely the one to blame here.

He got up again, and tried to locate his friends among the bodies. He went around the entire Auditory, sporadically taking breaks to keep himself together from seeing all the gore, but couldn’t find any traces of them. He thanked God, for which could very well have been the first time in his life voluntarily, and headed to the east wing exit, to try and find out how the other parts of the university looked like, and possibly escape.

However, trying to get there so fast, he tripped on something he hadn’t seen, and fell. He cursed, and saw what he had fallen over. It was a gun. More accurately, a gun embraced by the hand of a dead man. He didn't know a lot about guns, but he knew it might be better for his own safety if he brought it along. Odds were whoever or whatever had caused this might still be out there to get him. He went to the door leading to the east wing, and opened it.

The Auditory had four doors, one to each wing. Between those wings were hallways that connected them with the two closest ones. Those hallways also contained the only doors to the outside, and stairs to go to the higher floors. The fastest way to get out of the university was to go to the east or north wing, head to the hallway between the two, go outside, and walk straight forward until you reached the main gate, which was about a mile or two away.

Drake shut the door behind him, looked around, and saw that the east wing was in no better shape than the Auditory. Blood and bodies were scattered around everywhere, but the metal chairs and tables were a different story. They looked like they had been made into makeshift cover, but it seems like it hadn’t worked out all that well for them. Several corpses were behind them, the metal pierced by the force of the bullets, although while it seemed to stop some of them, clearly not all.

He looked inside the class rooms, and saw the same thing again. Blood, corpses, and a rotting smell gave the room more of a horror movie vibe rather than a school one. Drake thought he should probably start to get used to that image, although he hoped this madness would be contained to the main building. He moved on, turned around the corner to the left, heading further to the exit, when a sudden voice cried out.
“Hands up in the air like you’re praising the sun. Don’t try to turn around. State your name, gang, and rank, and hope you're in the right one.”

Drake did what the voice told him. “My name is Drake, and I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He tried to look behind him, but was interrupted.
“Don't you dare; you're not getting away that easily. So, you’re what, a freelancer? Crazy? I don't buy it. There aren't any freelancers anymore these days, and only one crazy person is left in this building, unless you’re counting the leaders of this mess. So, what are you then, a Gray Son, Great Man, or just a bad liar?”
Drake looked confused. “I just woke up in the Auditory, alright; I don’t even know what the hell happened.”
A second voice cried out: “Are you being serious? That’s the worst excuse ever! Shoot him!” The first man spoke to him: “Dick is waiting just beyond those doors, he knows all the faces of the Gray Sons; if we take him there he can tell us whether or not he's lying. I’m not wasting a bullet on this jack-ass, are you? Sleeping Beauty, turn around.”

Drake did as he was told, and saw the two of them, holding him at gunpoint, coming closer. “Put your pistol on the floor and kick it over to us.” He obeyed them. “Well then, Drake, was it? Let's go for a walk.” the first guy commanded him, as he picked up the gun.

As they walked, Drake got a better chance to examine them closer. They were mainly dressed in red, with bullets hanging around them, and carrying the same pistols as him. The first guy had black hair, and his left ear was missing, while the second guy was blond, and part of his nose was missing, along with his left hand.

Drake tried to strike up conversation with them, while he was going the completely wrong way to escape this mess. “So then, what are you guys? Great men or the eh-”
“Can’t you see from our attires? Or are you color-blind?” Drake decided to play dumb. “Yeah, I can’t differentiate for crap.” The second guy laughed. “We’re Great Men, you idiot. I guess Robb didn’t factor in color-blind people when he came up with the outfits, among other things.”

Drake had heard that name before. Grayson had mentioned him a couple of times, usually with a curse along. Still, it could just be a coincidence, but it somehow rubbed him the wrong way.
They went through the door to the south-east hallway, where a third man was waiting. He didn't appear to be missing any body parts, and looked as if he might be the oldest of the bunch. He was also the only one to be wearing a different color.

“Alright, where'd you pick this one up?” he asked, while checking out Drake. “The east wing, he says that he just woke up from the announcement, but we figured he was lying. Must be one of the Gray Sons then.” the first guy proudly said, probably expecting some sort of congratulations. Instead, all they got was a spit at their direction.

“Did you think he might be telling the truth? Don't recognize him, and he's not wearing any colors. Give me his gun.” The second guy gave it to him. “Fully loaded. So he's either a tourist from the neutral zone, or his very unlikely story might be possible, although I think the first is just a tad more likely. Doesn't matter anyway, he's useful. Tell me boy, how good are you in a fight? Either fight with us, and take your chances, or we just kill you right here. Your choice. Are you willing to die for your ideals?”

Drake looked hesitant. He decided that it might for the best if he joined them, seeing as he had no ideals as far as he was aware when it came to this, and they’d kill him if he didn’t. It was also the only way of knowing what was going on. He had sworn not to kill once, but if he stayed back, his lack of body count might be ignored.

He nodded, and the man gave him his gun back.
“Remember boy, it's three to one if you turn on us. Come on, we're heading to the third floor. Robb has advanced again and the reinforcements are arriving. We're part of them.”

The second guy sighed. “Really? He gives us the night shift, and now we're also supposed to throw away our lives and be cannon fodder? This sucks.”
“I don't make the orders, I give them. We all swore allegiance to him, it’s too late to turn back. Now come on, and look alive. It might be the last time you are.”
The oldest man concluded, as they began their climb on the stairs, towards the sound of battle.

If you liked this beginning, please like and share, I've got the entire thing written out and if people like it I'll post more!

©Bram L.