You and Them

"Good morning students of Kolar. My name is Vishva Pratap Raghavan but you may know me as the… 'President of India'".

The entire class is flabbergasted.

Why is the president giving us an informational message? What is the meaning of this?

After realizing the true importance of this message everyone proceeded to give their absolute attention to the video hearing everything the literal PRESIDENT of the country had to say.

Mr. President took a sip of water and began to speak:

"I won't waste any time on more formalities and I'll get straight to the point. Officially our war against Pakistan may already be over, but the danger has truly not vanished yet.

Hearing this the students are perplexed.

Gossip arose amongst them…

President continues spontaneously:

"High Nixtom City is among the biggest cities in India, and it holds the greatest school in this nation; the same school you students study at." The video changes settings, it switches to graphic visuals of HS Kolar being at the top of the list among many criteria and leaderboards: These graphics ranged from photos and newspapers about the achievements of HS Kolar's school's unique education system, and leaderboard statistics showing the fact that a majority of Indian top scorers come out of HS Kolar. While these graphics are shown the president doesn't stop speaking and his voiceover continues alongside the graphics.

"That's not all though, this school holds students with the highest potential from all over India and even the whole world.

So, it's safe to say that you kids are the true future of this nation's development, and the 'enemy' knows this." ...

The screen suddenly turned black as the president finished his sentence.

Gossip amongst students continued spontaneously:

"What is sir president talking about? Is he really serious?"

"Why is such critical information being revealed to us?"

"Could our city really be in that much danger? And if it is, what are WE supposed to do about it?".

After a few seconds, a slow transition brings the scene back to the president's residence and the president continues:

"Not being subtle I can tell you, my brethren, that the end of the Rakvill War against Pakistan was …. 'Abrupt'. No side came to a definite conclusion.

Because of this the 'enemy' might be dissatisfied… They may even try to reignite the inferno of war.

The scene cuts to a video recording of a building being lit on fire with some soldiers equipped with guns randomly running around.

President's voiceover continues:

"As you can see, we are already starting to see some attacks from anonymous organizations. Pakistan has pleaded ignorance and claimed that they have no involvement in these attacks, that's hard to believe but for diplomatic reasons, we have to accept it..."

The scene cuts back to the president.

"...that, and all the factors such as; the importance of this school and the city, and the location being close to the border…" The scene cuts to show an aerial view of HS Kolar.

"...Make this school the prime target for a terrorist invasion."

The entire classroom goes into a state of absolute silence. In an entire room full of people, you could clearly hear the ticks of a clock. Eyes go wide, heads turn to seek comfort in company. They realize that the horror once thought to be left behind, gone, left for dead never to come back; was still alive. It was waiting… waiting to strike in the dark.

The scene cuts back to the president. His eyes were a bit squinted, facial expressions being down yet calm, and he appeared emphatic. President continued:

"I know hearing this might have made you all, shocked, scared, anxious, nervous, and all those fearful words. I understand you are still just youngsters, trying to make the best out of your school lives. Still, this is an important message you need to understand. Because even though you all are youngsters, you aren't just any 'bunch of youngsters'..."

The scene slowly transitioned to a compilation of various photos of students taking many prestigious awards from around the world.

"... You all are the students of HS Kolar, you all are the pride of this entire nation, the seeds of a better future. Geniuses in every field.

The responsibility I am about to give you kids is not something kids should be worried about but unfortunately, with great shame, I have to assign you all a task…"

Once again, the screen cuts back to the presidents. While continuing his speech he makes a fist and light bangs it against his chest as a sign of respect and gratitude for strength and loyalty.

"...The task might be tricky, but I am with absolute confidence when I say that students of HS Kolar will! Triumph over any task given to them…"

After hearing the reassuring yet intimidating words of the President, all students were scared yet awe-struck, fearful yet somewhat excited. It was as if the students were given a sort of promotion directly by the President.

The Scene cuts to some footage of the outside school campus, it shows a compilation of men wearing black suits and black goggles, the camera is angled in a way that it feels as if the viewers were looking up to these men, they looked tall, strong, and intimidating.

"We have our special forces dispersed all over High and Low Nixtom. You may have even noticed some of them while walking to the school today. These agents are here to protect you all, and I assure you that they are very! Good at their job. But that being said you must realize, that not all foes come with tanks, carrying guns and rifles. Some of them come with friendship, employment, trade, and even education…" As soon as the President said this.

Many photos started flashing by in a quick succession. These photos were of the Kolar classrooms, taken directly from the inside. It was just for a second but it seemed like a photo of Abhi flashed by in the video. Abhi noticed this, his eyes widened, he looked surprised but immediately calmed down, perhaps he thought it was just his imagination? It would be very unlikely that Abhi's photo came up in this video because the video had started just a few minutes after Abhi sat down in the classroom. It would be implausible that a photo of him was in the video.

Upon hearing this. Students squint their eyes which are filled with wariness.

The president comes back on the screen:

"What I am trying to say is there are enemies hidden in plain sight. Outsiders such as these special agents could never fish out enemies from the inside, regardless of how good they are at their job.

What we need are agents that belong to this city, agents that are the citizens of this society with internal connections to its people and land. What I'm saying is we need you all to be our agents, to protect this land and the people within it…"

Graphics of the tourist attractions and other beautiful places of the city pop up on the screen, and even some visual references to the city's culture are shown.

"...Now, even I'm not evil enough to ask a bunch of kids as young as 16 to physically protect anything. But what we need is your mind, students of Kolar are some of the most educated and intelligent people in the world. What we… No, what I ask of you all is to be the eyes of this land, find whatever information you can about the enemy, keep a lookout on the surroundings, and report absolutely anything suspicious to your teachers, in case of urgency or emergency you may even report to the agents spread all across the city. This task is extremely important, as the magnitude of the combined pool of information produced from all you students is far beyond what our significantly fewer agents could accomplish."

Students start discussing among themselves:

"Oh my God, are we really being handed such an important responsibility?"

"I don't think I'm ready for this, this is so scary."

"Think about it though, why would the president give us such a responsibility if he didn't think we are capable of handling it."

"You've got a point mate, I knew students of Kolar were considered dependable and respected by everyone, but this is far beyond anything I expected".

"Also, you are also responsible for keeping this interaction between us a secret, you can tell your parents about this but that is the only way the word of this gets out. Keep this in mind as this is for both your safety and the safety of the nation."

The scene slowly transitions to show the Tricolor Indian flag waving in the sky. This scene is played for a few seconds until suddenly it cuts back to the president.

The video zooms in to the point where just the deep brown eyes of the president are visible in the video taking up the entire screen. It was almost like the president was trying to look deep into the soul of the person watching, it was ominous…

Then in a slightly aggressive tone, the President said:

"One last thing. Even though I have given you all a task to collect as much information as possible, I'd still like to remind everyone that Rakvill is still in absolute Lockdown. Since the first war in 1969, no person has been allowed to go in or come out of Rakvill.

In certain special circumstances, this rule may have been ignored and the rule breakers forgiven but regardless, researching Rakvill is strictly Forbidden. 

The President pauses in his speech.

The video slowly zooms out to show his entire upper body while he is shown to take a sip of water.

He releases a sigh, calms his tone, and proceeds to speak some more:

"So the responsibility that is given to you; all of my lovely youngsters is still no excuse to research any forbidden data. That being said, I wish nothing but good fortune to all of you and hope to see this generation blossom into something great and change the course of the future. Jai Hind". 

Click! Click! Kachank! The screen blinks a few times and goes blank.

Hearing this most students were perplexed as researching Rakvill being illegal was common knowledge these days.

but unlike others one student looked absolutely flabbergasted; he was sweating his brains out, almost shaking in his boots. That student was the one sitting next to Abhi. He was none other than Veer. Abhi seems to have taken notice of Veer's sudden obscure behavior. Suddenly Veer turned around like he was looking for something, and Abhi turned in the same direction to check what Veer was looking at.

Turns out two more students were showcasing similar expressions to Veer, and all three of them were looking at each other like a triangle of disturbed faces was interconnected between the class. Among the other 2 was a short girl with blue hair and blue eyes, and a tall guy with short black hair and green eyes.

While gazing at each other they noticed that Abhi was looking at them as well so all three of them reverted their gaze back to the screen and tried to calm down their expression. So Abhi followed in their footsteps and did the same. 

"Oh wow, it seems like it was a special video file. It got automatically deleted on its own after being played out in full." said teacher Ms Oxlong. So that's why they said under no condition to play the video even once except when showing it to all the students. *Sigh* I'm so glad I followed the protocol this time.

"Well, you heard the man, as he said it is very important to do the task given to you which is to keep an eye on the surroundings, but it's also important to keep this interaction a secret. Also, the obvious, it's not recommended to research Rakvill as it will actually be considered a crime. That's that, now how about we start with the introduction session you all wanted? Students from the first row, start your introductions first then everyone goes one by one".

Students started to give a lackluster introduction one after another, at this time it was like no one cared about getting to know each other; everyone was talking about what just happened and how insane it was that the president of the country would personally send the students a video. Not knowing each other wasn't enough to make them stop gossiping about this. Every intro just came out as reluctant, so the intros were just scoffed at and ignored as nothing could've been more interesting than a message straight from the president, but unlike others, Abhi paid attention to all of them, focusing especially on the 3 students who made a triangle of disturbed faces.

In the 3rd column came the intro of the tall guy with black hair:

"I'll go next. I'm Kevin Smollegs Revy from Belgium. I like weight lifting, calisthenics, boxing, and ummm… furries."

This grabs some students' attention and the class lets out a small chuckle, while the teacher says:

"Ha. Ha. Very funny Kevin, now next!"

After a few more intros at the back of the 3rd column comes the blue-haired girl's turn:

"Good morning, I'm Dep Dugyum I grew up in here in Rakvill but I'm originally from China. For a few years, I lived in the north because my dad was on duty in the Rakvill War, but we are finally back now. Also, I like reading and writing, and a bit of Muay Thai, and I just wanted to say this was the craziest first day ever. I don't think anything in life will shock me now ha-ha! Thank you".

After this, the class goes back to discussing the events that transpired regarding the president instead of paying attention to the intros.

After a few more intros the queue reaches the last bench. The turn came for Abhi's bench to give their intros; as he was trying to stand up and give his intro "Good morning I'm Ab-" 

the orange-haired guy next to him unintentionally interrupted him and started giving his intro with a strong voice instead:

"I'm Veer Singh Noubiches from Punjab. I like swimming, football, a little bit of Dungeons, MMA, and reading. So, I hope to have a good time with y'all in the next few years, also NOT A FURRY."

"Good morn-"

Abhi immediately tries to get his intro out but gets cut off again by the class's laughter because of Veer's sneaky comeback toward Kevin.

"Good morning I'm Abhi, and I like...." "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Abhi's intro gets completely overshadowed by the laughter from Veer's joke.

"...I like to study… I like to run... and walk, and I came to this city just a few months ago… and I'm from…"

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

"That's enough giggles. let's hear the last of the intros so we can get into the studies for today" Says Ms Oxlong. 

The silly comeback from Veer led to the class paying attention to the intros one last time, and with the teacher's words the class calmed down and their laughs stopped disrupting Abhi and they finally listened…

"...I came to this city just a few months ago… and I'm from…"

Rakvill".

............