Frontrunners

By: Northerner7

“So does anyone have any more questions?” A bored looking young man asked the crowd before him.

One of them stepped forward and spoke up, “Yeah, Edwin dude. Say I’m like bringing a girl over, yeah?” Edwin nodded blankly to the grinning guy’s question. “Ok, so she can stay the night, right?” Again Edwin nodded.

It was more of the same with these guys every year, and he was really not interested in their shenanigans at the moment. Probably not a great first impression, but it would sort itself out eventually. A couple other guys high fived the question asker and they all chuckled like they were in on some sort of amusing secret.

“You may have a guest over for three nights in any fourteen-day period. So three times every two weeks, as the rules say,” Edwin rattled off the procedure he’d long since memorized. He got asked about this a lot and had learned the rules for it by repetition.

“And you are not allowed any guests during finals week,” chimed in Edwin’s female partner. They were both the Residence Assistants, or RA’s, for the fifth floor of the dorm they lived in. Ava Springley a year his junior and someone he had only met a week ago. She was beautiful and charming. Yet, Edwin wished he could have gotten someone else as a coworker. Something about her set Edwin on edge.

The freshmen on his floor took her at face value. They focused attentively as she spoke. Edwin had been working together with her for a week now and was doing his best to keep their relationship professional. Her charm simply broke against him like a brick wall. He was doing his best to pay it no mind.

The freshman before him broke up into smaller bunches. Most of them circled around Ava as she chatted about life here on campus. Several students wandered out and a girl strode straight to Edwin. “Excuse me, Edwin.” He glanced her up and down as discreetly as he could. She was a very pretty girl and he hoped she did not take offense to his unconscious glance. She had probably noticed but bulldozed into the conversation without a hitch. “I don’t like my roommate, basically she’s a bitch and I want her to switch out.”

Edwin stifled a sigh, it was only the first day and already there was a problem. “I’m afraid it's policy that no room changes are allowed during the first two weeks. As today is day one, that’s within the first two weeks. Sorry,” he rattled off his little spiel to her.

“Ugh,” she rolled her eyes, “so what then? She’ll leave after two weeks?”

“Hmm,” Edwin pretended to think about it for a moment, “probably not. Before anyone moves rooms, you’ll each have to talk with the peer mediator. If she agrees that your situation isn’t working, the Hall Director has to sign off on a room switch. This is, of course assuming your roommate is even interested in switching rooms.”

“Peer mediator? Sounds like crap. Can’t you just, I don’t know, get the Hall Director to sign off for me?” She winked at him, tongue poked out in a silly expression. Or was it supposed to be cute, probably cute, Edwin imagined.

“A hint of amusement crawled into his small smile. “Sorry, uhh…” She picked up on his cue.

“It’s Mary.”

“Right, Mary. Sorry, there’s just so many of you to remember.” He chuckled a little and she laughed along. “Well Mary, I’m afraid I simply can’t do that for you. But, now that you’ve brought this to my attention I’ll have to speak with your roommate and get her side of things. Depending on what she says, either; you two will just have to work it out, or I will have to schedule you a meeting with the Peer Mediator.”

She clicked her tongue, Edwin internally twitched an eye. Her petulance was beginning to annoy him.

“Fine whatever. Talk to her. For all the good it’ll do you, she’s so weird,” Mary said before she stormed off somewhere. Somewhere out of the fishbowl anyway. He glanced around and noted the crowd was continuing to thin. Several were still sticking to Ava as she wove an epic tale of how some guy once tripped and spilled his coffee all over another guy in one of her classes last year. Truly riveting stuff.

In his bright yellow polo, Edwin leaned against the red brick wall and crossed his arms. He was supposed to hang around until everyone was finished asking questions about their introduction. And of course, that meant he had to wait for Ava to finish so they could go check in downstairs. Because they had somehow managed to get stuck together with the first patrol that evening.

It was 7:30 pm at the moment and the patrol was not till ten. But if he had to sit around here in the fishbowl, the meeting area on his floor, he would rather just do the patrol route now. At least he could be content with himself about the fact that none of his patrols this semester would be during finals week.

He ended up browsing the web on his phone for the next half an hour while Ava continued to entertain a small crowd. At eight, however, he could wait no longer. So he pocketed his phone and pushed himself with his back off the wall. Strolling over to Ava he cleared his throat and cut off an anecdote about her brother’s misfortune.

“Ava, it's eight,” he said deadpan. “Let’s go check in at the desk and tell ‘em we did the intro. Then we can kill the next two hours ‘til we gotta walk.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him and fluttered her eyelashes cutely. “Okay!” She spun to face each of them individually and smiled brightly. She gave her audience a chipper little wave and bounced off out of the fishbowl. “C’mon Ed, let’s go!”

With eyebrows raised, Edwin shook his head a bit before trudging off after her. She was humming to herself as they stood in the elevator and waited for it to reach the bottom floor. Edwin just stood there silent with his arms crossed as he stared blankly. When they arrived on the bottom they walked over to the desk and Ava leaned up against it and began chatting amiably with the bored looking girl working the monitor. Edwin nodded his head towards the guy on duty and he handed over a clipboard.

“Just check off that you guys are done. That’s all there is to it,” he said and Edwin thanked him, before doing just that. With his required task done he nodded once more to the guy as he returned the clipboard and caught Ava’s eye.

“All done. I’m heading to my room. I’ll meet you at the elevator around five ‘til, yeah?” She smiled and nodded before returning to her conversation. Something about a party coming up this weekend.

Edwin made his way back up and crashed down on his bed with a deep sigh. “Some people,” he muttered to himself and kicked off his shoes before rolling over and hugging his pillow. For half a minute he just lay like that thinking unpleasant thoughts about the new kids he would be dealing with. Then he hauled himself up and plopped down into a rolling chair he had brought from home. With himself in place Edwin spent the next couple hours browsing the web wasting time.

Eventually though, he roused himself and grabbed a brown university print sweatshirt and slipped into his shoes before he tread across the carpet and glanced at himself in the mirror. Cold blue eyes sat sunken on his long face. His short cut brown hair topped off a face with average features. But the large bags under his eyes gave him a weary appearance. Nothing looked out of place so he went on his way to meet Ava.

He arrived on time as promised. At the moment Ava had yet to show up. So he minded the time by looking at the blank section of wall on his side of the elevators. In large stapled letters it said, Edwin’s Board! On the other side of the elevator, a similar section was there for Ava. Only hers was littered with all sorts of things people could do at this time of year in Laramie. As well as a huge list full of tips for the first day of class. Truly it was much more helpful than his blank section. Which he had meant to have filled before the introduction today. Whoops.

As the clock struck ten, Ava came bounding from her room. She stood an inch shorter than his own 6’1” height. Her blonde hair was cut in a short bob that fanned out behind her head. Grey eyes met his blue before Edwin turned his head to reach for the elevator call button. She greeted him with enthusiasm. Edwin mustered a nod and half hearted “Hello to you too,” in reply.

They rode the elevator to the ground floor and exchanged duties with another pair of RA’s.

They set off without delay. Starting outside and working up. All was quiet, no one causing trouble. Eventually, they ended up on the roof. Glancing around Edwin noticed it was a clear night out and the moon looked particularly large at the moment. Ava also noticed and was gushing to no one in particular as she skipped around the off-limits area. Edwin stayed firmly near the door.

It’s almost a romantic scene, Edwin thought in jest. At that moment Ava turned around and grinned at him. “Whatcha thinkin Ed?”

“Nothing really.” He tried to shrug off the conversation.

This was actually turning into the sort of thing he would rather avoid. A situation where he was likely to say something embarrassing. Well, the situation was, until he caught sight of something strange. As Ava giggled and moved to step closer he extended his arm and brushed her aside.

Eyes locked and mouth agape he walked across the roof to the edge. “Ava, are you seeing this?” He asked in shock.

Ava who was skipping along behind him finally followed his line of sight and crashed into him in shock. Edwin rocked precariously on the edge before he fell backward and came down in a tumble atop Ava. Heart beating furiously he scrambled free and ignored her indignant squawks as she tried to right herself. He moved away from the edge.

When they both regained their footing, they picked back up from where they were moments ago, and stared in pure dumb shock at the fantastical sight playing out above the city. A huge cylindrical object was just floating in the sky while large sections of it billowed thick black smoke. An internal glow cast the light of the flames across the night’s sky illuminating the edges of the otherwise invisible vessel. Zipping around it were half a dozen, long shapes glowing blue. Thick lines of color erupted back and forth between the two sides and occasional flares of light revealed that there were smaller crafts weaving in and out of the large dogfight.

It was something surreal, like a strange hallucination or a vivid dream, it did not belong here. Ava quickly tried to check this, “Edwin can you see this too?” Her normal boisterous voice was subdued, and unsure, opposed to her casual confidence. Edwin meanwhile was counting his fingers and trying to poke one through his palm. Only to confuse himself more when his dream test failed.

“I think I am,” he said somewhat breathlessly. Above them, the conflict raged. The huge cylinder was moving closer and closer towards the city and it brought to light more details as they stared at the foreign craft.

At that moment the tornado warning sirens blared to life. The loud obnoxious noise jolted the city awake and sent many people to turn their TVs or radios on. Edwin and Ava flinched but failed to further react as they watched the mesmerizing illuminated whirlwind of combat.

Within several minutes the battle had progressed and was now taking place over downtown. Strange wooden helicopter shaped aircraft moved about in evasive patterns as smaller triangle shaped planes jetted around. Weaving through the chaos and performing complicated aerial moves as they lined up shots. Dodged rounds and errant salvos rained down on the city. Edwin and Ava were thrown onto their backs as the building beneath them shook under an impact neither had seen coming.

When they regained their footing again Edwin was now aware of the reality of the situation. Ava was staring at the scuffed hem of her shirt, rubbing it between her fingers.

“Ava!” Edwin yelled, “I’ve got no clue what’s going on. But I don’t think the roof is a safe place to be.” He could barely hear his own voice over the siren.

She must have caught his meaning, as she nodded. She approached him and said something,but he could not make out her words. Regardless of what she wanted to say. Edwin had set his course. She could follow or do her own thing. Thus, he turned and jogged over to the roof access door and used his card to open the building back up. He held it open as Ava jogged through behind him. Edwin made for the stairs and Ava kept pace. The elevators were risky business. With that shock to the building, their reliability was in question. The likelihood of becoming trapped was simply too high, while the stairs offered a much safer alternative.

Their feet pounded down the cement. Within two minutes they were exiting the side door out of the building. Lucky for them the stairwell had yet to fill up with sleepy residents who were following along with the evacuation everyone assumed to be occurring. Outside, the night air once again bit at his skin, it was chilly. Edwin glanced towards the building and saw a hole the size of his head punched through the wall and a spider web of cracks that surrounded the damage. Bits of the wall facing had crumbled down to the ground and lay in a scattered pile in front of the main door.

“Edwin, what should we do?” Ava’s voice cut through the air. Quick and snappy like a whip crack, her tone carried the air of someone whose words were expected to be listened to and followed. Edwin cocked an eyebrow and turned to face her small frame. He was not impressed with her attempt to command him.

“What do you think we do Ava? I’m gonna run the hell away. You feel free to do whatever you want. But that’s some crazy shit up there so I’m suggesting that you run away,” he said. Then turned and began jogging away down the street, further into the city, and onto the school’s campus proper. In the near distance behind him, he could hear loud thumps and muffled explosions which spurred him to jog faster than he could maintain for long. But he was not really thinking about his marathon pace at that moment. Rather, when a projectile struck the asphalt nearby and skipped like a stone before it shattered the bottom floor window of a building ahead of him; he only just, did not blindly sprint, and exhaust himself.

“Edwin! Oh my god! Did you see that?” Of course, Ava had followed him and was commenting on the near miss with whatever that had just been.

Before he could reply, a huge explosion lit the night sky above. Seconds later, a huge wooden frame plowed into the street ahead of him. Wood sprayed like water as it splintered and sent shrapnel everywhere. The fire consumed the vessel and the burning bodies of humans spilled out of the crash and began rolling feverishly around the asphalt. Ava gasped and Edwin stared mutely.

Someone came running out of the door of a nearby building, an older professor. He tore his jacket off and began to beat at the flames of those afflicted. Edwin, spurred to action, removed his sweatshirt and ran over to help. The smell of burning flesh repulsed him and he gagged down bile as he physically staggered when he caught the first whiff. At this distance, he could hear the pained screams of the burning. The screeching now filled his head. It was unearthly, he had never known a human could make such noise.

Edwin got to work. As he tried to tame the flames on one figure, he came to the realization it was too late after the figure stopped twitching and lay motionless. He bent down to examine them and discovered the figure was beyond toasted, charred black to the bones. So he moved on. There were others he could try and save. Ava jumped in and began beating a towel over someone. Edwin wondered where she had gotten that, but did not stop moving.

Edwin moved from corpse to corpse rapidly. Pronouncing them each dead in his head as he saw the damage and lack of motion. It all seemed to blur together and after an eternity he stared down at the dying embers of the last figure. Edwin gave his verdict and took stock of the situation. The professor was openly crying as he hacked his lungs out from the smoke. Ava had smoke stains across her body and part of her pants looked to have caught fire at some point. Edwin noticed that his own hands had turned red and an uncomfortable pain lanced from his fingers. This was a mess. The flames seemed to be burning hotter and stronger than they had any right to. Perhaps the clothes these guys wore was coated with some sort of flammable chemical, Edwin wondered.

The wreckage flared up and was burning brighter than before. The flames' intense heat drove Edwin to move further away from the wreckage and he ended up standing next to the two others. At this point, he realized there was another person along with them. A teenage girl holding a towel similar to the one Ava clenched.

Surprisingly she seemed to be managing the best out of all of them and she stared with hard eyes as the conflagration soared higher. None of them spoke, they had just witnessed a tragedy that they had fought futilely to prevent. Edwin rationalized that they were clearly soldiers of some origin and so their deaths were in the line of duty. Not that this argument really worked for his rattled mind at the moment. Perhaps it would help at some later point.

To his amazement, a figure, not on fire, staggered from the burning wreckage. The blaze parted around him and when it did brush against him it seemed to affectionately lick against his clothing. As he moved clear of the fire, the pronounced limp and awkwardly held arm hinted that this man was injured. Edwin stepped forward to check on him.

“Sir, hello, can you hear me?” Edwin called out. “I’m an EMT. You look injured, may I inspect you?” The ingrained routine came to mind and he settled into the role. The glare off of the fire did not give Edwin a chance to really look at the man as it was too bright. So he stepped closer. The man collapsed face first into the pavement before Edwin could reach him. It was at this point, that a huge piece of wood which was speared into the back of the man’s left thigh, was revealed to Edwin. Shocked to find such an injury, he froze, his mind unable to recall what to do next.

He worked his thoughts through it. An impaled object meant bleeding, step one was to apply direct pressure and try to control the bleed. So, Edwin ran forward and knelt down to apply pressure with his hands around the wound.

The man was hemorrhaging, his blood squirting in spurts. Edwin felt his heart go cold at the sight. It was definitely arterial, the wood was probably in the guy’s femoral artery.

“Ava!” He shouted. He needed someone to help him. “Find a stick or something thin and sturdy. This guy needs a tourniquet immediately!”

In those spare moments while Ava ran around looking for something Edwin realized he was in a bad situation. He had not made a bad call to apply pressure immediately with a wound like this, but he should not have locked himself in place, rather he should have gotten one of the others to do it for him.

As if by divine intervention, or simple curiosity, the teenager, and professor had wandered over. “Sir,” Edwin called to the man. The professor was shaking and tears still fell, but the man seemed coherent. Maintaining eye contact he yelled again, “I need you to take my place, I need you to put direct pressure on this wound until I can do something more about it. Can you?”

The professor nodded hesitantly before he gingerly stepped over and kneeled down. The man stiffened as they switched. Fresh blood spurted on to his hands and for a moment Edwin feared this guy would not be capable. Then, in the next moment, he vigorously shook his head and cursed under his breath. The man’s hands clamped down like vice grips, and Edwin moved on.

Putting the professor to the back of his mind, Edwin fished out his pocket knife and started to cut his sweatshirt into a better shape to use as a tourniquet. When he got it to a workable point he moved to address the other two.

“Alright. I need to turn him onto his back. I’ll need your guys' help,” he yelled, glancing between the professor and the teenager.

“When I roll him, I need you,” he pointed to the teenager, “to lift his leg up and hold it while this guy keeps pressure. Can you do that?” She nodded sharply and moved to grasp the man’s shin. “Alright, on my count of three we’re gonna roll him, keep that leg up.”

At three, he rolled the collapsed man and the other two managed to keep the wood from bashing into the pavement. Edwin started in on assessing the guy. He seemed to have an open airway, but as Edwin moved to check his breathing he noticed a distinct lack of chest rise.

“Shit!” Edwin swore through grit teeth.

His fingers sought out the man’s neck and when he came back with no pulse he had to make a decision. Without a doubt the current situation made him question whether any sort of ambulance could make its way here. Not likely, considering this whole thing going on is probably a mass casualty incident. This guy’s probably a priority four; basically, he could do compressions for an indeterminate amount of time and have an extremely small chance of saving this guy. Or he could just leave a dead guy dead, and try to flee from the overhead chaos.

“Shit!” He swore again, his voice harsher.

“I’m starting compressions on this guy,” Edwin shouted to be heard over the siren. When he glanced down at his hands he realized they were shaking. He grabbed one with the other and began to perform CPR on the man.

Everything was blurring around him and he could only focus on the feel of the guy’s chest as it fought against the heel of his palm. The man’s chest resisted his compressions much more than it had any right to. With no choice, he started compressing much harder than he had ever tried before. Without a doubt, he felt the ribs snap and he nearly stopped from worry. However, Edwin recalled from his training that breaking ribs is a common occurrence during CPR, so he continued through his doubt.

At some point, probably five or six cycles in, Ava was there hitting his shoulder. When he filtered out her voice from the sound of his breathing he realized what she was saying. “Edwin, I got this from the wreck, can you use it?” Clenched in her hand was a long handled hatchet. In the firelight, the metal head glowed eerily and Edwin realized how ridiculous it would be to use.

“Yeah,” he gasped out between large gulping breaths. “Ok, Ava, can you… Can you do it? Or do we need to switch?”

“I can apply a tourniquet.”

Edwin zoned out after that, he occasionally checked the man’s pulse but he found no change and he felt his chest filling with uncomfortable dread. Ava must have finished the tourniquet because she was kneeling on the other side of the man and staring intently at Edwin’s hands as he worked. Edwin was trying to figure out how long he had been doing this for when he realized they had not even called 911! The main point of CPR was to keep someone alive long enough to get them to the hospital.

“Ava, call 9-1-1,” he tried to shout. But she looked back at him with confusion. He tried again, and this time she heard. Her eyes lit up with realization. She had her phone in hand within moments. Only to drop it onto the man’s chest. Edwin looked at her sharply and realized she was even more shaken than he was. Her arms and shoulders were visibly trembling. Shit! Edwin swore mentally. He needed her to keep her head right now. They needed to make that phone call.

“Ava—focus—dial and speak,” Edwin said between harsh breaths.

Edwin could not recall how long he had been working on this guy, and he was even less certain that this guy was salvageable. So, when several of those triangular fighters tore low through the street and arcs of lightning strafed the street in pursuit, he decided to call this guy a lost cause and cut out. It was too dangerous to continue working on this guy who was already dead.

As Edwin stood up to run away a most bizarre thing occurred. His vision was obscured by a huge flash of light that exploded out from his body. A faint circle glowed around on the ground beneath him and motes of light cascade down around his body. He heard the light tinkling of a chime. When the light faded a moment later he could see again and strange apparition floated before him.

Congratulations!

You have acquired enough EXP to level up x5.

You are now level 5.