The first thing I did when I regained consciousness was scream...
...but not in the way you're thinking; it was more of a yelp, and it sounded like a dying puppy, but I digress.
I quickly tried to sit up, scrambling wildly for a wall I could lean my weight on. But I'm a lucky person, so of course there was no such wall, so due to the lack of any abdominal strength, I fell on my back with a thud.
I sighed.
I tried again and this time (with an embarassing wheeze), I managed to grasp some sort of pole to hoist myself into sitting up. I stared at the pole for a solid five seconds only to realise that it was the leg of a desk. I scanned my surroundings.
Lots of desks were scattered across the room, as if they were once arranged but got shuffled around. Same goes with the chairs. Heck, some of them were even toppled over. At the very front of the room, there was a large whiteboard mounted on the wall, with another desk sitting right in front of it, which made it easy for someone to see even from the back of the room.
Holding on to the desk, I pulled myself up. My knees buckled, and I nearly lost balance. However, I managed to stand up. Thank you, random desk.
"A classroom...?" I croaked. The sound of my own voice startled me. It was raspy and hurt my throat, as if I hadn't used it in a long time. When I tried to take a step, I felt a sharp pain in my legs and I collapsed. I desperately tried to grab on to the desk at the last moment, but I ended up pulling the desk down with me. Sorry, random desk.
I groaned, my joints aching all over. What had happened to me? Why am I at school? Did I pass out?
After a few painfully slow minutes, I had managed to stand up again. This time, my joints had a bit of a workout, so they loosened up.
Still hurt, though.
I made my way to the door, wincing with every step as I carefully held on to desks and chairs as I went along.
My head spun, and my vision blurred momentarily. It felt like I had just woken up from a century-long nap. That would be the most accurate way to describe the hell I was going through; everything hurts and my mind was too tired to think about anything.
That's when I realised. Who am I? How old am I? Am I still young and fresh? Oh my god, I've become the main character that was transported into another world, haven't I?
"Wait, that can't be right. I'm at school." I thought aloud. That was right; I was at school. I'm your average high school girl. I'm 17. I don't possess a social life and I surf the internet all day. That much I remember.
'My throat still hurt and my voice still sounded like a frog in heat, but maybe it would return to normal if I kept talking.' was my idea at the time. So, I did exactly that.
As I trudged down the school corridor, I sang the lyrics to my favourite song, 'Nut Banana'.
I'm kidding, that's ridiculous. I sang some made-up song with mumbo-jumbo as lyrics because for some reason, I couldn't remember any songs. Other than the obvious high schooler stuff, I remember my name and what I had for dinner last Christmas; the latter as a result of a mental scar.
Who thought it was a good idea to shove a gift the size of a choking hazard inside of a cake? Morons.
Anyway.
I'm Liz. I'm 17. A high schooler. Certified degenerate.
That was a relief. If I had total amnesia, all the cramming I did for my exams would have gone to waste.
Wait a second- the exams! I had totally forgot it was next week! And here I was, randomly passed out on the floor. Though, I'm pretty sure there are more pressing matters at hand...
While I was passing by classroom after classroom, it became clear that they were all abandoned in a hurry. An emergency evacuation? Was there a fire? Would that mean I'm already dead?
I shook the thought as quickly as it came. If there was a fire, I would have been burnt up long ago. If the building was saved by firefighters, then I wouldn't still be lying on the floor. Come to think of it...
I had just realised that it was quite dark out. It wasn't night or anything, but something like dusk. I glanced at the sky, trying to figure out what the position of the sun was. Then, I leaned over the ledge of the building, trying to spot shadows. Luckily, I spotted one by a tree.
Considering the length of the shadow on the tree and what direction the shadow was moving, it was clear that it was sunrise. Unfortunately, I couldn't see if anyone was at the courtyard since it was still too dark to tell.
That didn't make my situation any less confusing. No matter what theory I crafted, it wouldn't matter unless I get a good grip of what was going on, and that meant finding other people.
However, the task was easier said than done. My body felt like collapsing at any minute without warning, and trying to walk down the stairs in that state was a poor idea. Even so, I made the effort to check every classroom on the floor I was on before heading down to the ground floor. No matter where I looked, it was all the same. A lot of people's belongings were also left behind, which only supported the theory that there was a serious emergency.
Once I had made it all the way to the ground floor of the school, it was already rather bright out, illuminating the previously dimly-lit courtyard.
And that's when I saw it.
Bodies.
A sea of bloodied bodies were scattered across the courtyard, bodies belonging to students that attended this very school. Before my mind could process the horrifying image presented in front of me, my nose first detected a nasty stench. I gagged, then covered my nose with my arm.
It reeked. Was it the smell of rotting corpses? Probably. I wouldn't know, I don't usually hang around sites of mass slaughtering. Unless it was Valentine's Day.
I hurriedly retreated back into the stairwell. Eyes wide in shock, I stared blankly at the wall as my brain caught me up to speed. That image was permanently seared into my brain. They're dead. These innocent lives had met their end in an unspeakable way.
I gulped. My mind raced with all sorts of possibilities. All I could think about was...
"...a shooting?" I thought. That had to be it. The school was attacked by people who shot those poor souls down. It all added up. I mustered the courage to take a step outside, but quickly retracted my leg, worried that the murderers would still be around.
But that couldn't be the case. It was sunrise. Which meant that if they attacked during school hours, they'd have left long ago.
I took a deep breath.
I ran across the courtyard, trying to make it to the canteen as quickly as I could, which was directly across. I stumbled over a detached arm, but I regained balance and kept running. I couldn't stop myself in time so my own momentum slammed me into the wall of the building. I groaned, rubbing my forehead. It was like my muscles weren't working right. I stretched my legs, making sure that nothing weird happened to it. Good, it wasn't muscular dystrophy. I thought for sure sitting on my butt staring at a screen all day would come back to haunt me.
Save for the weird joint pain, I felt fine.
However, those were famous last words. I felt a sharp pain on my face, where I hit the wall. It was some dried up liquid. I touched the spot and examined the material. It looked and smelt like dried blood. In fact...
My clothes were torn up and bloodied too. Not as much as the bodies that I just saw, but still in terrible condition. Just what in the world happened to me?
I decided to examine my body at a nearby mirror. Thankfully, there was a bathroom next to the canteen. Surprisingly, the canteen was clean. No bodies or anything.
The Health Department did rate our school's canteen to be A+; they really weren't messing around.
The bathroom, however...
It looked horrible before, and it somehow got worse. The stench, especially. But instead of defecation, a wave of another horrid stench swept the bathroom. Blood.
It seeped from underneath the bathroom stalls, and I could see a pair of legs from there, unmoving. Probably best not to open that one up.
Then, it was time to look into the mirror. I held my breath. I wasn't going to look like I just got mugged, right? Well, considering my situation, I could probably excuse myself for looking like utter crap. Why was I even bothering about that in the first place? I probably deserved to choke on my Christmas gift.
I looked into the mirror.
My school uniform was in tatters, exposing my bloodied skin. If someone were to draw me and put me on the cover of a book, they would probably have to pretend that my uniform was in pristine condition because I look like I came straight out of a sex dungeon with legally questionable fetishes. At least that explained why I felt like I was dying; I probably was.
Joy.
I removed my vest and unbuttoned my white...well, now half-red collared shirt. The blood was dried up, which made for a very unpleasant undressing experience.
Bite marks. My shoulders, my waist, my legs, my neck, and other miscellaneous body parts you can think of. But that wasn't what surprised me most.
My skin was...sort of blue. A blueish grey, to be more precise I had pretty fair skin, which made the tan girls in my class a little jealous, but that's clearly not the case this time.
So let me sum up this wild experience; I have bite marks all over my body, I was bleeding out but it's all dry now, I can't remember anything and I look like a poorly made Smurf Happy Meal toy made in China. That's just wonderful. If manga and anime taught me anything, it's probably this:
...I'm dead, aren't I?