6 Apocalypse

School actually was not canceled. Most schools around America resumed today. The fall of the satellites did not really affect schools too much. The most prominent effect of the superstorm two days ago and the failure of all satellites were about overseas communication and services.

Many companies began to lay off workers. Cities saw a drastic increase in crime rates. However, the internet and phone services, at least on American soil, did not see much change. Things became slower, but the internet did not immediately shut down. They did not have too much to do with satellites.

The government decided that education was important and needed. They released a statement saying, 'We encourage all schools and educational facilities to continue normally as if nothing happened at all. The best way to deal with problems is to educate people to help them solve it.'

And so I was forced to come to school today, which I do not really feel was a really bad thing, because I didn't know where I would go today. Maybe hang out with Taylor? I kinda just want to go back to routine. The headaches really hurt and just remembering them sent a shiver down my spine.

Taylor and I sat in a parked a black Bently. It was different than yesterday's and had a less flashy black color than the bright yellow one she drove from the hospital. We had parked in a space overlooking the entrance of the school, observing the students that walked in from all directions: the parking lot, the busses, and the student dropoff.

"Everyone is a bit different. Some are much more different than others, like your pitch black, but their colors are usually a firey color."

...

"That kid has a greenish color. That girl is tinted with hazel blue. That guy is smoking hot."

I looked at her funny at the last comment. She was pointing towards Giovanni, the creepiest kid in school. He was a weirdo who often gets in trouble for watching hentai in class. Nobody actually wants to talk to him, not even George, the kid who is a registered sex offender. Giovanni is just a lonely creep. Nobody tries to physically bully him either. There is a rumor going around that when one of the troubling kids that got into fights at school tried to beat him up in an empty classroom, Giovanni whipped his donger out and threatened the bully with it. No one bullied Giovanni after that rumor spread. It also solidified his standing as a loner and a creep.

Taylor blushed and said, "I mean, I feel like my body is burning in... when I look at him." Taylor closed her eyes, then began to rub them.

"I mean I feel kind of... attracted to him. I don't know why, but he just looks pleasing to me for some reason. I kind of want his..."

Taylor started to trail off and finally realized what she had just said.

"Is that his power? To seduce random girls? Do you remember what color he was?"

Taylor was beat-red at the moment and finally answered, "I think he was a normal color fiery-red color."

"What about my color? Is it still black?"

Taylor glanced at me for a second, then replied, "yeah, it's color sucking black."

"What do you think is the issue then? Is it that your vision doesn't show if someone has a power? then what does it show? And why is mine completely different?" I muttered to myself.

Knock. Knock.

A girl was looking into the car window. A girl who I didn't know well. Someone who was in a completely different cliche than me. All I knew about her was that she seemed to be a popular dumb, white girl that plays field hockey and lacrosse and used to play the trumpet in middle school.

Taylor rolled down her window and looked up in surprise, "Hey! Courtney right? I met you once when your sister hosted a party right?"

Courtney nodded in response, "Yeah, what are you doing here? Don't you have classes today?" She then shooed away her boyfriend that was standing awkwardly behind her, "Yeah, you can go on without me."

Jackson, the boyfriend, glared at me, then gave Courtney a quick peck on the head and waved, "Alright, see you in class Court."

After Jackson left, Taylor and Courtney continued to converse with Taylor.

"What are you doing here?" Courtney asked. Then she glanced at me, "What are you doing with Daniel, just sitting in your Bently?"

"Oh, we are just working on my project for a psychology course I'm taking. We are observing high school students as they walk into school. Professor Ivan recommended Daniel here to me. He said Daniel is a smart student, and can definitely help me complete the project," Taylor lied. It seemed she had already prepared an excuse.

"Oh! That's cool. What are you observing?"

"Just, like, behaviors of students. It's a naturalistic observation, we just watch and record different patterns we see, like who walks in alone, or who takes the bus."

Courtney glanced at the crowd of students walking into the school building and just happened to catch her boyfriend slip and fall on what appeared to be nothing. Taylor had a surprised expression on her face as she glanced over with Courtney. No one in the crowd stopped to help, and Jackson just glared at the surrounding students. Courtney giggled and then asked, "that sounds so interesting! Watching people walk into the school sounds like fun! Can I join?"

"...I was just about to leave. We already packed all the papers up, as you can see, so I'll be taking my leave," I said after a brief period of silence between their conversation.

"Yeah, sorry, I have a class to get to soon, maybe next time," Taylor quickly caught on and added.

"Aw that's too bad, it sounds really int—"

Ding, ding. The first period warning bell rang as the students hanging outside the school quickly got up and started shuffling into the building. I got out of the car as well and started to lightly jog towards the entrance. Bells are a student's best friend.

Taylor and Courtney continued to say a few goodbyes as I hurried to my first-period class. Then, Taylor drove away.

...

I walked into my first-period Spanish class. When I walked in, my friends in the corner of the room began cheering.

"WOO! I saw you sitting in a car with someone, who was she? How did you guys meet?" Will instantly asked.

I grinned at the question but didn't answer. I didn't know how to answer that anyway. Was I supposed to say she was my superpowered partner? I just allowed them to succumb to their imaginations.

"I heard she rode a Bently, what's that all about? Also, what happened to you yesterday? Why weren't you in school? Were you out somewhere with her? Or were you also scared of an attack from... Ch... scared of the rumors?" asked another one of my friends, Magnus.

"I was actually hospitalized yesterday morning."

"What? What happened?" Gerry asked.

Ding, ding, ding. The bell rung before I could answer. I sighed with relief; the bell saves me again.

"Bien chicos! Hoy hablaremos sobre el futuro."

...

The day went by weirdly. I mean it was weirder than I expected. There seemed to be a little fewer people in every class and most people were strangely quiet. Everyone and everything was just more lethargic.

Everyone was trying to return to a normal life, but circumstances seemed to force life in a different direction. A country-wide censorship and the constant government reassurance that everything was going to be alright honestly put a damper on every student's mood. I guess the Superhuman Association that might have message some superpowers individuals also shocked those people as well.

I didn't know if any person actually had powers, and I didn't really want to be seen with Giovanni. Actually, Giovanni was really weird today. Weird as in, he actually paid attention to the physics class. He is actually pretty smart; he can get passing grades by not paying attention to class and never doing homework. But today, he actually paid attention. Every person was surprised but didn't say anything, not even the teacher.

Finally, the end of the day came. I didn't have gym to test out what I was capable of with my strength compared to others, but that's fine. I didn't know if I could control it.

But as I walked through the front entrance, I finally saw the first hint of superpowers. In the air, a woman was floating, looking around in confusedly. She was wearing light leather armor over a dirty white tunic and held a wooden spear that looked to be made by a caveman. Every student stopped to discuss this flying phenomenon. As she glanced around confusedly, more and more people gathered at the entrance of the school, about 35 meters from the floating woman.

However, when Giovanni walked out, the floating woman in the air tensed and pointed her spear toward him in a threatening manner. Giovanni froze at that instant and cowered in fear. I could feel a certain aura exuding from the flying man. It made me feel a faint sense of fear. Everyone else also started to slowly back away in fear. Only Giovanni was left on the stairs as he was cowering in fear. I didn't know what was going on, did the flying dude have the power to induce fear, or to fly? Or was it both?

The entire school shuddered with a little bit of fear. It was a natural instinct at this moment when the floating woman was threatening someone of the same race.

This was a standstill. Nobody could predict what would happen next...

—————————————————————

"Are you saying Mexico is attacking the southern border right now?"

"Yes, they are moving military forces into a position to take Texas."

"Fuck! What the Fuck! We just somehow dealt with the communications Ghost, and now we have to worry about a war with Mexico? Screw the Ghost, screw Mexico!"

"Sir..."

"That hacker can just rot and die! Not only did we get late information about Super-humans, but we also couldn't contact them either! The ghost somehow even hacked military communications and killed many super-powered individuals in the government! And if that wasn't enough, 2 old men were there when we thought we tracked him down! And since communications were censored, we didn't get this information that Mexico was attacking! Fuck!"

"Director..."

"Sorry, I'm just tired. Notify the Commander in Chief, Secretary of Defense, and Director of National Intelligence. We aren't in charge anymore."

"Yessir."

Once the messenger left, the Director of the FBI rubbed his eyes and let out a long sigh. He had been working tirelessly for an entire day to solve the problem of the entirely censored United States internet and the entire network of intricate ghosts that blocked the flow of information through the internet. They tracked down hundreds of homes across the country to put an end to the hacking of different servers and impediment of information. In the end, only old, dead people could be found and as well as thousands of high-end hacking machines that ran without human interaction. These old people didn't match any known person either. It was like they had never existed in the first place...

Now, Mexico has gone on the offensive for some reason. Perhaps they found it the perfect opportunity to strike while the United States was undergoing a communications lockdown. Whatever the reason, Mexico was going to pay for...

"Director! Something big is happening!" the messenger barged into the office room once again.

"What is it this time?" The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sighed. Just when he finished 1 important job, 2 others pop right up.

"Nuclear Power Plants are failing! Their reports say that the particles are getting stronger and stronger and the fission processes are failing! They probably wouldn't be able to make any electricity in about 10 days at this rate of energy loss!"

"What? Does this have something to do with Superpowers?"

"Perhaps it has something to do with the world! NASA has also reportedly sent a rocket to perhaps see into space and what happened to the satellites and has detected odd changes to the world as we know it..."

"What sort of changes?"

"A flat earth."

"What?"

"A flat Earth. Well, it's more like an extension of the Earth. They could see China from space directly above the United States. A massive pitch-black fog also split the Atlantic into two and cover the two poles. Space isn't really space anymore. Something really strange has occurred to reality..."

"So is that the reason people have been popping up with superpowers?"

"It's what we can assume. The Earth has become flatter and for some reason is continuing to become flatter and they estimate the Earth will become completely flat in 20 days. If you go outside, you can actually sort of see the Earth flattening out..."

"This isn't something we can control... we should gather all military personnel to the border and personally account for every Superhuman in the military that is left. Suggest this to the President and Secretary of Defense."

"Yessir."

"I also think we should be very wary of the rich, only they could afford to pull such a hacking stunt with the help of some sort of superpower. Such a stunt would be impossible without money and a superpower. Everything is going to shit. It's a fucking apocalypse."

"Yessir, I will send your warnings personally."

The messenger ran off with the recording of the entire conversation to personally hand to the important members above the FBI command chain.