The Button Which Almost Destroyed The World Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Hide-and-Seek

His surroundings were not moving at all. Dyert was the only one who quaked. Gradually the whole room was trembling. Stationery fell off the table and the wall clock shattered on the ground. There were screaming female students and terrified male students. They were doing what they had been told to which was hide under the table. Dyert realised something; no one outside of the classroom were frightened. He could not hear anyone yelling beyond the door. Even though the class was noisy and the rumbling noises of the earth made it worst, he knew that no one else in this school apart from this classroom was feeling the shake. He needed to do something as the vibrating ground would not cease.

He stood up and headed for the door while trying to avoid any falling objects. The ceiling was cracking but at snail’s pace. He made an effort to keep away from the students who were still running around in the room with fear. He grabbed the knob, twisted it and pull. He was finally out and it had no tremors; just as he thought. Just when he was comforted that he was on motionless ground, it began to shake.

He ran in the hallway as far as he can but it earthquake tried to keep up. Being chased by shaking ground was kind of weird. Bystanders looked at him awkwardly but before they could ask, they found the reason out for themselves.

While he was running, something from the distance caught his attention. It was a poster with the title ‘Stealth Martial Arts Competition’ pinned to a board. It was strange since that there are rarely these types of martial arts competition. He glimpsed to the back. The floor was splitting into two and the crack was catching up to him. He ran up to the notice and tore the poster out of the board. That killed some of his precious time and every millisecond counted if he had to escape from this sticky situation. The fissure divided into two. It arced around and ahead of him. Then it became one once more, continuing ripping the hallway.

Dyert stopped. He was standing on a piece of cemented ground which was in the middle of a moat of emptiness. The floor rumbled further and the gaps around Dyert were much larger and more cavernous. Small pieces of his area fell into the cracks. He wondered how deep it was. He could try jumping to save himself or plummet down to his death. The ground deceased its shaking. The sound of terror deceased too. He glanced back and saw the students emerging from the classrooms. Some were clutching their heads; others had the relieved expression written on their faces. Dyert, on the other hand, had his brain shifted to ‘work’. He placed his foot back but the ground became unbalance.

He hoped this idea he brainstormed would not kill him. He put his plan into action. He stepped back, causing the unbalanced piece of ground to slant. He ran and with his quick reflexes, he leapt. He knew he would make it… he thought he could make it… he hoped he could made it. Unfortunately, he underestimated. His body slammed against the wall of the hole and his hands immediately grabbed on the cliff of the ground. He pushed himself up with the remaining energy he had but a sweaty hand slipped. He was dangling; holding on his life. He peeked upwards. It was an open hand. Dyert grabbed it and he was pulled up before the other hand slipped.

“Thanks…” he took a look at his mysterious rescuer, “JC.”

Justin Chow was said to have been the father of the Mysterious One yet he denied it. Proof was nowhere to be found as no one has seen his parents. However, following the description of the Mysterious One in Dyert’s book and Justin, they had similar attributes. For example, they mutter gibberish, carry a pocket knife around and have minds like an enigma. On the brighter side, Justin sounded saner than the Mysterious One portrayed in the book. Though, books exaggerate and twist the truth from the original events. He was tall and thin with jet-black hair.

Justin pulled Dyert out of the sticky situation and brought him away from the danger.

“What were you doing here? I mean, there’s a big hole between this part of school and the other parts of school which includes the classrooms. Aren’t you supposed to me in class?” asked Dyert.

“Just getting stuff from my locker,” Justin eyed Dyert carefully, “How about you?”

“Running,” he replied.

“Ah, I see.”

The students and teachers dashed out of their classrooms to the hallway only to realise that there was a big separation between their side and the exit of the school. The lockers were damaged but not all of them. Some were cracked and some were dent. The walls were fractured and the ceiling was raining dust from the broken pieces of cement. The double door was shattered. Outside was terrible as well. From a distance, it just looked messy. Up close, there were a lot of jagged lands and holes. Trees fell and bushes ripped. Leaves and pieces of papers blanketed the area. The flagpole was slanting.

Dyert and Justin went outside to have a look. They tried to avoid falling into the fissures. Passer-bys were stood out of the gates of the school, staring at the disaster. Apparently, only the school and some areas outside of the compound felt the shake. The building looked fine on the outside except for a few cracks in the peachy white walls.

“So how are they going to come out?” questioned Dyert.

“What?” Justin broke out of his concentration, “Well, there’s still the back exit and emergency exits.”

“You think a school like this would have such a thing?”

“Of course they do. All schools have one. Sheesh,” Justin explained with exasperation. By then, Dyert had diverted away from his lecture and grabbed the poster, which he snatched, from his pocket.

“What’s that?” enquired Justin.

“Stealth martial arts competition.”

“Ah, intriguing. And you are planning to participate?”

“Yup, once I find out where in heck is this place.”

“Number 22120201514, Galingston Road. I’ve never heard of it.”

“Hmm, strange. It’s only next month so I have time to get more info on it.”

Their conversation carried on until the students and their friends came out of the ruin. The speakers around the school came on. Principal Bob the Third (or Mr Bob for short) announced that there would not be school for a week and letters would be sent out for further details. Later came the finale where gravity helped destroy one of the speakers hang on the pillar. It went out in sparks and the crowd cheered. That was one eventful afternoon for Dyert. The day was still young.

Dyert and his group of friends went to the ‘Cauldron o’ Magic’, a café in the walls of an alley. It had a history too; in fact a book on it. It had dormant wormholes which were used before. They are similar like portals except less dangerous and only to one location. They look like little craters on the walls but one can be stretched to the side of the whole wall which is 10 feet maximum in height.

Dyert, Justin, Freddie and their last companion in the inner circle was Eliria Wasser.

Eliria was the only mage among the four of them and was one out of eight of the only mages who went to Taswin High. Her specialty was water and that could be seen in her family name as Wasser means ‘water’ in German. However, she was not from Germany. In fact, her generations were not exactly on a continent known to the non-magical society. It is known but it has not been discovered. Ever heard of Atlantis? Apparently they aren’t mermaids and mermen anymore. Evolution took place and they are more human than mermaids nowadays. Though, there were still mermaids. Never asked an Atlantean what had happened to their continent. Just think of it as ‘misplaced’.

They were sitting around a round table, sipping on their drinks. Justin had coke with a hint of alcohol he added, Eliria had water while Dyert and Freddie had plain coke. They were having a conversation on the latest gadget that had been created.

Compact Disks were old; there was a new secondary storage called Compact Everything invented. It fitted in drives and it was an mp5 on its own. It was circular with no centre hole and it was actually a screen on the behind or speaker if music was burnt onto it.

Time went on since 2006 but some things that existed out of time still haven’t changed a bit. Fate, for example, is still sitting in her library, at her table, writing the events of the world. The Grim Reaper too is busy collecting more souls which have escaped their host. They were (past tense if you follow the Earth time zone) currently in the same room discussing about the future.

“How’s the future for our little green people?” the Grim Reaper spoke in a deep, monotonous, hollow voice.

“After the plague wears off, the five of them will rebuild the city,” Fate spoke in a sweet voice. Fate was quite hard to describe. She was all glowing white; her gown, hair, everything.

“However…” she added with a lower, more depressing voice, “Earth is not doing too well.”

“How so?” he asked emotionless.

“I am not allowed to tell you that. Though, it involved another young boy.”

“Kids these days are insane, aren’t they? I mean, the last person who almost had many lives endangered was a kid.”

“Time will come when you have to collect these souls,” Fate handed the Grim Reaper a list of names with dates next to them.

“What do you know about time? There is no time here.”

After forty-five minutes of chattering, Dyert and his friends got up and headed for some time-consuming entertainment to kill their time. It was only two in the afternoon and there wouldn’t be school tomorrow so there was no need for the completion of homework. Dyert’s parents would not mind too. The more Dyert was out, the happier his parents would be as there wouldn’t be an annoying pest around them. The only ones with stern parents were Eliria and Justin. Being a girl and the only girl in the family, Eliria’s parents were harsh on her because they care. Justin, on the other hand, just had mean parents who made tight rules. Another one of the Mysterious One’s characteristic and another reason to assume that Justin’s father is the Mysterious One.

They headed for the cinema just down the street. This cinema was an old one and it looked like the one on television. It had a big neon light sign on the top glaring ‘Nextron Cinema’. Posters hung on the walls around the cinema. In the middle was the ticket booth as well as the support for the ceiling. There had been many nostalgic events that happened here before and Dyert was lucky enough to witness it. He sighed as flashbacks passed his head and stood there in the state of unconsciousness. This would go on every time

Ideas for movies had been decreasing as the year went by. More book-based movies were coming out and more animated, talking, personified animals. On the brighter side, Wishworld the Movie was coming out. They had been working on it for five years and they had a long break during the war. However, that was hard to believe since the book was released only two years ago. Apparently it would be an IMAX 3D movie. After magic came to the world, production boosted by four hundred percent and as a Christmas present, they would be releasing it at 0.00GMT on the 25th December 2020.

Apart from that, there had been new warning labels for movie. For example, the sign for ‘Monsters from Pockets’ which read “Warning: Weak minds may suffer epilepsy, seizures and various headaches.”

“Let’s watch ‘God Gave Gill Goats’,” suggested Freddie. Those new movies had weird titles. It supposes to double meaning to it or hidden messages which is like a clue teaser thing.

“Um…” Dyert stammered as he counted the amount of money he had twice, “I don’t think I have enough.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll cover it for you,” replied Freddie who already had enough in his hands.

They left in the middle of the movie. It was a real waste of four dollar. The movie was boring, worst than the sequel of that animated chicken movie which did some freaky dance.

“What shall we do now?” asked Justin, “I have…”

The fingers of Justin moved in a wave-like motion before he said, “10800 more minutes before I have to return home.”

“There’s the bowling alley,” suggested Freddie.

“The last time we were there, we had been thrown out,” reminded Eliria. The three of them turned their head towards Freddie.

“What? It was not my fault. I didn’t know that I could spit flaming saliva,” he argued.

“You don’t know anything,” Dyert said, “Besides; we did advise you to go home and rest. However, you were too stubborn.”

“Are you still in debt?” questioned Justin. Dyert was looking around, trying to get involved in the heated disagreement. One was because they were yelling out embarrassing moments right outside a crowded cinema. The other reason was that he had too many things on his mind.

He glanced around his area as if it was new to him. There was a motel across the road. A thought came to his head. This type of places should have pamphlets for foreigners. Dyert sneaked across the street after looking both sides of the roads. It was barren. He turned back once he was on the other side. No one noticed his absence. He pushed the motel’s glass door and a bell rang. The people inside stopped doing what they were doing and took a glimpse of him. They then continued doing what they were doing. It was really freaky. Though, fortunately for Dyert, at his very left was a shelf filled with brochures on Seemsides. He approached and took one, immediately flipping it open. It did not have what he wanted. He went through the seventh book and he was still empty handed. As he was about to leave, he decided to check the one last book. He opened the book and on the page he opened to, he found the place he wanted. There it was, Galingston Road.

Unexpectedly, the earth shook. The first thing that came to his mind was “Another earthquake?!”

However, blackness was the only thing to be seen outside the glass door and the quake stopped. Dyert tried to open the door but there was no use. The door burst inwards. Some humans who looked like ninjas jumped into the room.

Through the cloth around his mouth, he muffled, “Anyone here by the surname of Xavier?”

It was dark and he was hoping no one spotted him as he went up the stairs.

“Who’s Xavier?” yelled one of the many people in the motel.

“A kid,” he answered.

“There was one here,” said a hoarse voice.

Dyert did not want to see what was happening down there. He was wanted so obviously he would run away to hide in fear.

The first floor of the motel was dark. He hid behind the crate when he heard some swoosh sounds. He leaned against a crate of some sort but when he moved, the floor creaked. Something slammed into the crate and the impact pushed it towards him. He was wondering to run or not and he only had a split-second to make up his mind. ‘Run’ he decided and so he did so. Something jumped in his way as he dashed through a corridor. He spun to his right and tried going through there but he head butted someone instead. Torpor caused him to lose his balance. He was lucky though. Before it could catch him, he backed away.

He took turns, opened doors and slammed objects. Finally he found the stairs going up by tripping on it. He took the stairs to the next floor. He was panting by his predator were not. They were already a floor ahead of him. He ran till there were no floors left. He groped around for the doorknob and entered the room on the top floor. It was not as dark as downstairs. There was light but dim. There was a closed window. He ran towards it but it was locked. The door shattered into splinters. The room hazed with clouds of dust. Silhouettes could be seen. Dyert panicked and instead of unlocking the window, he punched he fist through the glass and opened it. His hand was covered with red.

“Dyert, we’re here for you,” spook the first one. If not mistaken, he might have been the leader.

“What do you want?” Dyert asked with a half stammering voice, “Is it about the button?”

“What are you talking about? We’re only here for you. Nothing else. No one else.”

They took a step forward. Dyert tried to step back but he was already at the wall. His blood dripped on the floor.

“Why do you want me?”

“It’s an assignment.”

“To kill me?”

“That is confidential.”

The ninjas took out their daggers in both hands, waiting for the signal. They were giving him a chance to find a way out. The leader lifted his hand. Five fingers were up. One dropped, followed by another and another and another. There was one more left. Down went the last finger and in came flying knives. Dyert jumped through the window but one of the knife slashed a bit of his bleeding knuckles. He was looking down below, at the ground, as the wind rushed through his hair. He tried to yell but he was voiceless. Chemical reaction kicked in and he was seeing a bright light even though it was dark outside for some odd reason. It’s over he thought it’s all over.

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Examinations over. Chapter 3 will be out before school starts, by next week.