The Shift

My eyes slowly opened, it hurt to move. I was staring up at the white clouds lingering in the vibrant blue sky, The tree tops swaying in the breeze, my ears were ringing, it was like hearing nothing and everything all at once. You know how you walk into a room and you know the tv is on but there's no volume, that's what it was like. I tried to tear my eyes away from the clouds but they were so peaceful and non threatening. There was no sadness, no anger just peace. There was a slight breeze that blew against my face, pushing a hair across my cheek tickling my nose, I didn't even posses the strength to lift my hand and move the stray hair . Everything was so quiet. I forced my head away from the beautiful sky and turned it to the right, I was laying in the grass, red grass? It was covered, I could see the vibrant color shine as the sun hit it, red, blood red the grass was covered in blood. There were bodies everywhere, limbs, arms, legs. I couldn't look any more, the clouds were much prettier. A movement to the left caught my eye, it was a teacher, she was scurrying around checking the bodies for what I'm not sure, probably to see if they were alive. Alive? was I alive? I tried to move my body, I groaned.. Definitely alive, death isn't supposed to hurt this much. That's when things changed, at least for me, my head started pounding, my heart was doing the same. I couldn't remember what had happened, but from the look of it I don't think I would really like to remember. I looked into the soulless eyes of a girl I had known all my life, her big brown puppy dog eyes now a shadow of the person that used to be there. Chloe, she wanted to be a journalist, she had strait A's, was friendly and outgoing. She loved chameleons. There were angry claw marks raked down her cheek, I could see the muscle bubbling out of them, my stomach turned. I heaved but it hurt, my eyes watered, I looked back into the sky, it was better up there. My hearing was returning, the crying was everywhere, on all sides of me. Teachers were screaming "this one gone." A male teacher said, I think it was Mr. Johnson. "As is this one." a female said "THERE ALL DEAD." Another woman screamed crying, "Hush Lorraine. You need to calm down. Go sit by that tree over there and get your head together." "I found one." Mrs. Hallow, announced, "Its Peter, he's breathing." A man walked over and got in my view, "Oh god, Jo, your ok. I didn't think ... After.. Oh nevermind. Can you move?" I shook my head slowly, I could feel the tears leaking down my cheeks. "Jo's alive too." Mr. Johnson announced, "Oh sweetie, sweetie. Are you ok. Please tell me your ok." The older lady rushed over, miss Tales, she knelt down by my side and pushed the hair away from my face. "Can you sit up dear?" "I don't think so." I said, my voice hoarse and thick with emotion. "oh sweetie, don't worry. I will help you." The older lady slid her hand behind my back and helped me sit up, that was a mistake, everywhere I looked there were dead people, my friends, my classmates, teachers. Tents were ripped, some shredded. Blood everywhere, I could feel the bile raising in my throat again, the older woman grabbed my cheeks making me look at her. "NO, you don't look, look at me, stay looking at me." "wha..what happened?" I stuttered. "You don't remember?" she said silently, I shook my head no, "It must be shock, it will come back. You'll be lucky if it doesn't though." She said quietly, I couldn't help but agree with what I saw littering the forest floor. The police sirens were blaring in the distance, they sounded so loud it hurt my ears. I covered them trying to drown them out. "What's wrong Jo?" "The police sirens, their so loud" she furrowed her brow "Hun, they're not even close yet." I shook my head, the two teachers got up and continued inspecting other students that could have survived. There were 21 of us that survived the slaughter 21 out of fifty-two. The police arrived, assessing and calculating the area, they started covering the bodies with black plastic, why? I wondered, so we couldn't see the destruction? The death? Our friends? It was too late, we seen it all. They even put up posts and started taping off the area like a crime scene, cause that's what it was, they were moving slowly, deliberate they couldn't do too much until the ambulances got there to take the survivors. I watched as they covered the lifeless bodies of students and teachers alike. I pulled myself up against a tree to stunned to talk or move, I couldn't believe what I was seeing and I couldn't remember s**t. Clearly some wild animals must have tore through or camp and well massacred us. A small woman walked over to me dressed in her uniform, she was a police officer, her tag said Tandy. "How are you feeling?" was that a joke? How was I feeling? "Great just great." I said sarcastically, she sighed. "Do you know what happened here?" I shook my head no. "I can't remember." She nodded "Ok. That's fine." She sat on the grass beside me trying to make conversation until the ambulance showed up but I couldn't do it I couldn't talk or the dam would break. No one I knew survived the attack, none of my friends. Sure, people I knew but none of the people I actually cared for or was even friends with. Peter was alive, he was a taller guy in grade twelve, pretty buff and normally totally hot, blonde hair, blue eyes, on the football team, you know the total cliché jock. Although right now he was looking pretty much like me "s**t!" His pants were ripped and blood was seeping through the white truncate that was wrapped around his calf, his eyes were puffy and streaks of blood marred his face. His face was stone cold and emotionless, usually he had a smirk on that face of his but not today. Today he was detached and blank. He sat alone on a stump just staring off in space like it was the most interesting thing. Hera and her group of Barbie's also survived, they looked really unaffected by the blood oddly enough, Hera was frantically searching her purse for what I could only imagine was her cell phone. A wide smile shot across her face as she pulled out the ruby colored cylinder. Lipstick, really! What a Barbie. She shot to her feet and sauntered over to the stone-faced Peter, he didn't even flinch as she touched his shoulder. How could those Barbie's live and all my friends die, does it make me a horrible person thinking like that? How did they survive this attack with out a scratch? "What a joke she is." I said silently, more to myself. Peters eyes shot up and looked straight at me. Could he have heard me, no that's too far. "The first ambulance is here Jo, were going to put you in it now ok." I nodded and she helped me up, I limped over to the flashing lights and could see other lights coming towards us in the distance. My eyes blurred a bit as we got closer, I could see sweat beads on the neck of the man opening the back of the ambulance door revealing his pours. "Trippy" I couldn't help but thinking, They helped me in the ambulance and laid me down on one of the two stretchers. A few minutes later they placed Calvin on the other, he was one of the bad boys of the school, black grungy hair, actually now that I was looking it was more of a darker grey color. A tattoo of an eagle on his back with its wings spread open reaching from one shoulder to the other, it was actually quite beautiful. His eyes were frozen, staring up at the ceiling of the van. The clouds were much better I thought, as I too focused in on the white metal that laid above me. A person could barley hear him breathing if they weren't paying attention. A man jumped into the front of the ambulance and started it up, turning the sirens on making Calvin and I both flinch from the loudness. The Sirens seemed to get louder and louder, my hands shot up to my ears to cover them, it was no use they just seemed to get louder, sweat was forming on my body all over, I felt like I was drowning. "Miss, miss are you ok." A small woman asked. "HER NAME IS JO!" Calvin screamed, the ringing in my ears got louder, but it wasn't ringing it was screaming and it wouldn't stop. "JO." Calvin yelled I turned my head and silence, no screaming, no nothing just Calvin and his hard-grey eyes staring at me. The woman leaned over me and reached for something tucked in a drawer "Jo I'm going to give you something to relax, are you allergic to anything?" I looked at the woman leaning over me and shook my head. "Ok then, just relax and breathe." My head fell to the side and my eyes connected with Calvin's once more. I couldn't move I was mesmerized by his eyes, I couldn't tear my eyes away. Calvin had me frozen in my spot, not a muscle I could move. I felt a slight prick in my arm, the world slowed and noise became distant, and everything faded into darkness.