Stalemate!

-9:26am, Wednesday, Girls Hostel, Royal Heart College.-

Royal Heart College, a mixed day and boarding secondary school in the heart of Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria. At least, it was, until the rains came.

Built in form of a large square, the school was entirely spacious, containing many meters of unused or under used land. The major school buildings, classrooms, academic block, staff rooms and a few tuckshops were located at the entrance of the secondary school. While the boarding facilities were located at the far opposite ends of the fences behind the frontal academic and educational buildings, the boy and girl hostel at the west and east direction, respectively.

The reason the hostels were put at opposite directions with the sports complex and playing field in-between them was to put a level of control on the boy- girl intimacy. Although, this didn't mean that sexual intimacy was not existing as the senior boys and girls ate in the same and major dinning hall that was built in intersection with the kitchen just opposite the boys hostel to the North-West direction while the junior boys and girls ate in the dinning hall situated at the ground floor of their hostels. However, it did reduce the possibilities of sexual experimentation and of course, teenage pregnancies.

Both sexes could hardly go to the other hostel because of the tight security and monitoring, but today, Sam and Tolu, squatted before the broken down flight of stairs that gave entrance into the storeyed building hostel for the girls.

"You have to try, please. " Sam said, putting a hand on Tolu.

"I don't know, it happened when I was expecting the worse... Something like an adrenaline charge up." Tolu muttered, feeling the meter high rubble of broken stairs.

"Most of the power outbursts I've seen usually happen in a fight or flight situation."

"But this isn't one. I mean, there's nothing to terrify me here." Tolu closed his eyes and tightened his abdominal muscles as Sam looked on, expectantly. "Nothing!" I can't feel that pull I felt inside me."

Sam exhaled and rose to his feet, patting himself. He looked about, before heading towards one of the broken through windows of the girls dinning hall.

"What's that?" Tolu asked, watching Sam squeeze through the bent bars of burglary proof to enter the broken glass window.

THUD! Sam dropped in to the hall and sounds of breaking woods echoed softly. After a minute or two, he jumped out with two sets of roughly broken table anchor bars.

"Well... Let's go rock climbing on these stones." Sam grinned, hurling a set at Tolu.

However Tolu did not look convinced. He made to talk but Sam showed him the flat of his palm, a sign to keep quiet.

"You coming or not?" Sam chirped in, stabbing a stick into the rubble. He pulled at it to ensure it was firm. At a second later, he pulled in the stuck in wood to lift his weight as he jumped, stabbing the other wood high up.

Dangling from the top, he smiled down at Tolu. "It's fun, come on!" Sam smirked.

But just as he did, a tiny piece of stone tumbled from the top, rolling down. He looked up to ascertain what it was when the stone rolled, straight at his forehead, knocking him off balance. The stick he held on to, creaked and creaked, breaking into half as Sam free fell.

"No...noooo." Tolu yelled, as he rushes to position himself to catch Sam. In so doing, Tolu frowns noticing the height he gains with every step. But before he can make sense of it, Sam crash lands on top of him.

"Fuckkkk... Ahh! "

"Get off!" Tolu groaned, pushing Sam off by the buttocks from his head and shoulders.

"Wow! Tolu, it worked. Your adrenaline picked up." Sam gloats, rubbing the roughly crusted pillar of earth elevates them to the first floor.

Tolu is speechless as he stares down at the cement ash pillar carrying them. The pillar stops elevating when its get to the base of the first floor.

"You're right , Sam!" Tolu mutters, looking up.

Up above them is the remainder of the flight of stairs that lead up to the other floors. The only flight of stairs broken is the one that gives entrance to the first floor.

And the realization of this is enough to put frowns on their faces as they ponder what exactly was behind the situation. They get up to the first floor just in time before the pillar of earth begins to dissolve back into dust, raising another column of dust into the air.

"What next?" Tolu asked, glancing briefly at the two opposite directions of the U shaped hostel. Sam did same, before moving to the right. He walks there and glances at the first dormitory door he sees. On the closed, metal green painted double door, is a post that reads '14', earning a shake of head from Sam.

"This is dorm 14, dorm 7 should be there, at the left of the stairs." He said, retracing his steps.

"Hey... Why don't we just start from 14 then?" Tolu asked, perplexed as Sam walked by him.

"Angela's dorm is dorm 7. And..." Sam frowns turning into the other side of the U shaped hostel to get to dorm 7 when the air whistles almost soundlessly as it flickers, a ball of hazy air coming straight at him.

Instinctively, he doubled down, avoiding the whistling projectile by inches. The hazy ball of air swept past Sam, brushing slightly against Tolu's face before it slammed into the wall behind.

GBAM!

Stress lines ripped across the wall from the impact area as debris scattered into the air, leaving the two boys stunned, staring at the wall.

Another low hum resonates again, and before Tolu can react, the ball of fuzzy air slams at the back of his head, sending him sprawling into the ground.

"Ahh....!" Tolu groaned, only to grit his teeth as Sam signaled for him to keep quiet. He felt for the back of his head, intense ache racking his body.

Wheeeeee...!!

Another low whistling hum and a forceful slam into the wall, sending out another series of crack webwork. Seeing this, Tolu crawled over to Sam, occasionally stopping to grit in pain.

"How is your head?" Sam whispered once Tolu reached him at the entrance of dorm 7.

"Bad! Hurts terribly. Feels like I was hit by a bulldozer. Aaarh!" Tolu whisper groaned in reply.

"Sorry."

"Yeah!"

Another ball of hazy air whistled over head, slamming into the wall. This time, combined with the previous slams, the impact area cracked and gave way, revealing the outside airs to them.

"That thing is very powerful. My guess is that , that is what blew the stairs down."

"Hmm... It's like a concussion wind."

"Concussion blast should be more appropriate." Sam knelt down. He attempted moving into the dorm by pushing open it's doors. However the doors creaked as they opened and in response, another blast exploded over head.

"Shit! The noise we make is attracting more of the blasts. " Tolu reasoned, kneeling too.

As he knelt, an entire spasm of ache hit his entire head and he groaned out loudly. "Aaargbb!"

WSSSHHHH....!!!

WSSSSSSHHHHH..!!!!

Two blasts rocked the air, whistling over head and slamming through the cracked open hole in the wall.

Sam signaled for Tolu to come as he began crawling away from the door. Tolu got the signal, following him and together they crawled away, back to the stair way.

At the stairway, they got up, dusting their hands and knees.

"This is what we will do, eh!" Sam said, earning a nod from Tolu.

"Give me those sticks." He said and Tolu passed the sticks over to him. " I feel like there's someone there, focusing on each sound we make."

"A monster?"

"Exactly where the problem is. First, we haven't seen any monsters that climb, yet. Secondly, if it's a monster hurling that wind blast at us..."

"Wait... Wind blast... Angela?" Tolu asks tentatively.

"No! We left her at the field." Sam exhaled, closing his eyes briefly. "I hope she's safe. And even if she is the one, why would she want to attack us after directing me to her dorm?"

"She directed you?"

"Yes, long story." Sam waved his hands impatiently. "What I'm saying is that... It can't be a monster there because, the monster ought to have come out from where ever it is. At least if not for anything, to eat us."

"What if the monster is injured and can't come out?" Tolu reasoned, earning himself squeezed eyebrows from Sam.

"Are you dumb? No matter what, at least from everything I've seen or heard, the monsters are like lizards, they have heal fast. Plus, they always come to get people to eat, no matter what state they are in. They are like zombies. "

Sam replies, exasperatedly.

"Oh!"

"You know what?" Sam shook his head, frustrated. " We are going back there and this is what we do. We make as much noise as we can and try to predict where those blasts are coming from. I have an idea though. The blasts keep moving in same direction, even when we were bending, it still kept wheezing past over us. We just happened to be in the line of fire."

"Oh!"

"Exactly" Sam nodded. "Which means, the human being doing that is doing that from a blind location, meaning the person is scared and acting out of a fight or Flight response. The same thing that triggered your powers."

"Adrenaline..." Tolu thought, a hand to his chin.

"And I feel like, if you get into line of fire, your body can kickstart that power stuff you did twice now." Sam added. "Come."

"Okayyyyy? So what exactly are you going to do?" Tolu said as they walked back. The blasts had stopped already.

"Watch and learn!" Sam smirked at Tolu, shuffling his left foot on the ground repeatedly.

Immediately, a concussion blast exploded, zooming straight for Sam. But this time, Sam was faster.

Quickly, he twisted out of the way and pushed Tolu towards the blast while clinging to the two sticks in the other hand.

"Whaaaaaaat..." Tolu panicked, his breathing getting huffed at the sudden action as the blast zoomed closer to his forehead.

"Nooo.." Tolu cried out in fear, covering his face with both hands as the concussion blast whistled dangerously close.

And in the next second, gravity shifted.

The ground pulled up, yanking itself from the base of the dorm 14. The two boys tumbled over, as a slab of the concrete ground turned up vertically, the top of it getting sheared off by an explosion, upon contact with the blast.

WHEEEEE...!!!

BOOOOM!!! Concrete sharpnel exploded as the force of another concussion blast whistled through the concrete ground turned wall, shattering it entirely, the force, knocking back the boys.

*Cough*

*Cough* *cough*

Tolu coughed, reacting to the heavy dust about.

"Tolu, the aim has adjusted itself." Sam whispered as they struggled to their knees.

Just what in God's name were they up against? Initially, he had reasoned the aim stayed the same but now, the aim adjusted, scattering the concrete shield, Tolu's power had conjured.

He looked over to Tolu, seeing the latter groaning silently as his breathing became ragged. Empathy rushed though his body, making him tense up.

So far so good, Tolu had being the only trusty friend that had always been with him, no matter whether he had anything to give him. The others? Those ones just stuck around because he was simply Head Boy.

Sterning his face, he looked up, only to gasp in surprise as the flat of a soft fleshed palm popped out from the door of dorm 13, a whitish haze of churning air hovering about the fingers.

Smiling,he reached for a stick and aimed for the fingers. "Not again, whoever you are." Sam whispered.

THWAK!