ZERO HOUR

Chapter 2

72 hours earlier

"How boring," I strerched my legs and laid against the chair, yawning for the nth time, "let's go check out the new gaming cafe later."

My friend who's sitting next to me acted as if he's listening attentively to the teacher's discussion but replied in a low voice, "Sure, let's skip afternoon class."

I was about to agree when I remembered the chocolate bar under my desk, "Nevermind what I said. I have something to do."

He snickered, "You're going to confess today, aren't you?"

I gave him a slight nod and buried my face on the desk, making my arms as my pillow.

"But are you certain about that? Not that I don't believe in you but dude, Jiselle is a school beauty. She's too famous and arrogant, besides she has so many suitors."

"Hmm, I know but still... "

He sighed, "Well, it's your decision."

"Ouch!"

I raised my head in annoyance, squinting my drowsy eyes, trying to know who smacked my back. It was Barb, he glared at me and faced the teacher who's standing in front of us.

"Mister Esquivel, just because your grades are exceptional doesn't mean you're allowed to act arrogantly! How dare you sleep in my class!"

I sat straight, "Sorry ma'am."

The teacher tsked and flipped the pages of her biology book, "Hmp! Now answer this question," she continued,

"Our world has encounted few viruses that posed a threat to our world's population. What are those rates that we need to consider to identify if the certain virus is a threat?"

It's not in her discussion earlier, but who cares. I crossed my arms and relaxed my back,

"These rates are infectivity, fatality, and lethality. The speed of transmission and means of transmission are evaluated to determine the infectivity rate of a virus, the fatality rate is the degree or magnitude to cause harm," I took a deep breath, talking is damn tiresome. "and lastly, Lethality rate is to measure how deadly the virus is"

There's a hint of embarrassment in the teacher's eyes after I flawlessly explained my answer. "V-Very well, you may take your seat."

The bell rang not long after, everyone else went out to have their lunch. While I remained in my seat, clutching the box of chocolate, procrastinating.

Will she really reject me? I just hope she'll hear me out

.

Barb was waiting at the doorway,

"Stop spacing out and do what you gotta do! I'm hungry!" He snapped,

"Go have lunch, I'll catch up." Said I,

I tightened my grip on the box of chocolate and waved at him. "It's now or never."

I have planned to confess my feeling to her before the semester ends. Jiselle's known for her beauty, she's very popular especially among boys. She has many admirers, including me.

My hands trembled the moment I stepped down on the ground floor where her classroom is, I can feel beads of sweat rolling down my temple as I reached her classroom. She was there, laughing with her friends. I never felt this nervous in my life, I tried so hard to compose myself as I approached her.

"Hey," I called, "f-for you."

I handed the chocolate over and gathered all of my courage "I've always liked you, since middle school until now." I scratched the back of my neck, "can I court you?"

She stared at my hand for quite sometime before snatching the box and throw it in the ground, " Oh my god, Gideon. You have the nerve to confess to me? You're just a nobody, look at yourself!" The raised her brow and glared at me with disgust. " You'll never be my boyfriend, you're a trash-"

She was cut off upon noticing the crowd, they were all looking at a direction. There was an explosion few miles away,

"Look!"

"Is that a mushroom cloud?!"

"s**t!"

"Wow! It's so pretty!"

"STOP DAWDLING AND RUN!"

I raised my head to look at the gray mushroom cloud. Strangely, the sunshine is dull and it wasn't blinding at all. That's weird because it's noon.

"s**t! The shockwave's gonna reach this place!" Everyone started panicking. I mean, who wouldn't? A nuclear bomb like explosion can cause mass destruction.

I grabbed Jiselle's wrist, " let's go, it's not safe!"

"Let go of me!" She screamed, " I'm not going with a trash like you!"

I have no choice but to let go, I'm not in the place to care for her anyway.

Barb dragged me to the nearest classroom, "Let's go hide somewhere!"

I sat on the dusty floor, "We should be safe here in the first floor-" the ground started to shake.

Barb fell from his feet as a sudden tremor occured, "s**t! What the hell!" He complained, " could this day get any worst?!"

The earthquake finally stopped, we remained anxious and waited for the after shocks before settling.

Barb yawned and stretched his arms, "Why do I feel sleepy all of a sudden."

"You too? I feel sleepy as hell." This is strange-

I tried so hard to resist the sleepiness but my eyelids feel very heavy. Everything went blurry, like my mind is shutting down and my body feels so tired. The last thing I saw was Barb falling in the floor and everything went black.