~~~~~~~~(16:00 PM)[noon]~~~~~~~~

Leo splashed a bucket of soapy water across the floor as people with brushes started scrubbing and cleaning Velysium Hall with the cleaning equipment they commandeered from the janitor's closet.

Velysium Hall was too filthy for them to live in and thus needed to be cleaned. So the teachers had the students who hadn’t been fighting, or those who barely had any injuries, come to help them clean up all the gore and blood from the floors, the classrooms, and the walls. Leo had unfortunately been one of the lucky ones to not get too many cuts and was overall fine. Though he would have like to not be soaked down to his underwear in blue beetle blood.

“Huurg!”

Hearing the sound Leo turned to where another student dumped the contents of their stomachs onto the floor,” Oh come on!” cried Leo,” this is the 7th fricken time! At least if you needed to vomit, do it where we didn’t just clean up!” Many people nodded in annoyance at that as the perpetrator was told to clean up his mess.

They were almost done. The floor and walls of all the classrooms within Velysium Hall were cleaned, though most of the clubrooms on the left side didn’t need cleaning since there had been no one in there for the beetles to kill. The rooms on the right though, which included the woodwork, robotic, and manufacturing room had a bit more blood to clean. That could have been attributed to the fact that most students started running out into the open space and were killed by the influx of beetles.

Not wasting time, the survivors at Velysium hall started putting to use some of the equipment they regained access to. Grinding could be heard as they used grinders to sharpen the steel weapons that had been in the Martial Art club room. Zane had to convince the principal for a while before getting those steel weapons. The principal had accepted but the weapons had to be dull for obvious reasons. Now though, having them sharpened was one of the top tasks to have done on the principal's list. The weapons they had consisted of 4 katanas, 2 broadswords, 5 sets Kamas, 4 Hook swords, 2 sets Sai, 2 sets Butterfly swords, and a glaive.

Leo wanted to use a Katana, but it had been decided that after they were all sharpened only the one who knew how to use them would be allowed to hold them. Leo could understand why, with how stupid some teenagers were, there was definitely going to be some fool who was going to find a way a saver their arm with the least amount of movement possible. Sighing, he grabbed a brush and joined the other in scrubbing away gore from the floor. It would take a few more minutes to clean up Velysium Hall, picking up all the downed lounge chairs, broken floor pots, and more.

The woodwork team had by far the most important job. The wood that had been kept in the woodwork classroom was taken outside after being cut to make a wall. Velysium Hall’s entrance was on the sidewall of a long hallway, which meant that they had to make a barricade in 3 areas. The left side of the hallway, the right side of the hallway, and around the entrance. Wood planks were being drilled into the concrete walls of the school. They were not trying to make an intricately designed masterpiece of the barricade. No, there was no time for that, what was important was that it was strong enough to block the beetles. Each barricade was going to cover both the top and bottom half of the entrance and both sides of the hallways. Since the beetles could climb, it was useless to have the barricade only on the bottom side.

Then there was going to be a slit in the wood wide enough for makeshift spears and weapons to strike at the gathering beetles. Though they had no idea if the barricade could support a tide of beetles, or big beetle, it would give them time to prepare. As of now, the barricade was half-finished, students were climbing on top of ladders to attach wood planks and other parts to the ceiling and moving down from there. The bottom half was all done.

Surrounding the woodwork students and their teacher, Mrs.Gibson, as they worked to make a simple barricade many of the students who hadn’t been participating in the big beetle fight were there, each with spears at the ready watching, with sweat on their brows, for any incoming beetles from the platforms on the bottom half of the barricade.

Steven Long and Tobias Sweeney were part of this group. Each of them awkwardly held their crude spears. They had come from the nurse’s office to this place and had not yet fought or even been too close to any beetle ever since they hid with Coach McConnell and the other teachers, who took care of all the beetle that linger too much by the nurse’s office and scavenged for food. But since many students were too tired or were given a break from fighting they had to pick up weapons to guard with Coach McConnell.

“This is insane.” Said Tobias or Toby as his friends call him.

“What is?” replied Steven, clearly knowing what his friend was talking about.

Toby looked at him for a second before realizing Steven was feigning ignorance and rolled his eyes,” You know what I mean.” after a moment of silence he continued,” Dude, I wish I had picked Manufacturing class instead of video game design, at least then I would be safe inside and not be out here, where one of the bigger beetles could charge in at any moment….” he said Remembering the shock he had when he saw all the people ganging up on the big beetle, whose corpse had been dragged next to the manufacturing classroom along with all the other beetles.

“I see what you mean.” Said Steven remembering the same thing,” I can’t see myself standing so close to that thing and fighting like the others, they should be over here, not us, we will screw up in two seconds.”

“At least you didn’t say ‘to protect us’ or I was going to smack both your heads.” said Coach McConnell, causing them to jump and look at him where he stood behind them. ”it's good you know your limits, but at least try to think of other people too, your classmates who fought the beetles are all tried now, and are counting on you much like you are now. So man up!”

“Sorry coach….” said both Steven and Toby as they hung their heads in shame.

When the coach returned to his post a little ways from them both teens remained silent and focused on their task, not wanting to have the coach try to give them a lecture. They ignored the snickering of the woodwork students that were working above them on the ladder and looked out into the hallway.

Soon enough the sound of screeching and sharp legs clicking across the floor could be heard. It wasn’t a surprise. The noise they were currently making with the drills working in the hallways, and the grinders in Velysium Hall were bound to call beetles to their location. It was just too noisy.

Steven and Toby tensed up along with the others, including the woodwork student. Drilling stopped as everyone looked on into the left hallway from which the sound was coming.

“Start coming down from the ladders, quickly.” Said Coach McConnell calmly as he watched the hallway. Not a second after he said that a group of 5 beetles rounded the corner. They were moving slowly at first as they got closer their blue feelers gradually turned red as they rush towards them at full speed.

“Go! Everyone who doesn’t have weapons gets back into Velysium Hall!” Coach McConnell didn’t have to tell them twice before all of them started climbing back down quickly in fear from the ladders and rushed away into Velysium Hall, “Those on the right barricade, stay there and watch that side in case beetle scums come from there. Those on the left barricade, strike on my mark.”

If Steven hadn’t been sweating before, he was sweating now. He hadn’t fought these things at all and wasn’t confident in his abilities to kill one of them. 2 of the Beetles split from their group and began climbing opposite walls, griping and puncturing holes into the lockers as they did so. If they went to the ceiling they would not be able to get them.

The first one to reach the area got killed by Coach McConnel with a single trust, straight to its head. The Beetle slumped down but more was coming. Suddenly the 2 beetle that was on the walls fell, as the last 2 beetles similarly slumped down and stumbled to a halt at the walls.

Looking behind them, 4 students with bows from the archery club stood there looking at the handy work. All 4 beetles had been hit square in the head with the arrows going pretty deep into their heads. These students were Oscar Short, Teresa Hunter, Irene Wells, and the Archery Clubs vice-captain Arran Sharpe.

Each of them lowered their wooden bows as everyone sighed thankfully for the quick intervention. “Good work.” Said Coach McConnell who then turned towards Steven and Toby,” Tobias, go get the woodwork crew to come back to work.”

“Ok.” Said Toby, before leaving to call the other back.

“Hey, Steven.” Said Oscar as the woodwork team started pouring back in,” Ya?” responded steven as he lowered his spear,” Get our arrows back.” Steven looked at the scary beetle corpses, even if they were dead, no way in heck he was getting close to one of those things, so only one answer was possible,” F*ck you”.

Sadly the coach made him go get them.

~~~~~~~~(17:30 PM)~~~~~~~~

“Are there any change of clothes we can give people?” Asked the Principal to Mrs.Stillwater as all the gore and blood-covered kids were gathered next to the second-floor restroom. They had started cleaning up here as well, with the more adept fighter clearing out the lingering beetles on the hallway where both Mr.Vall and Mrs.Stillwater’s classrooms could be found. The Woodwork team was working to barricade opening to the hallway better, most of them would just be fully blocked off, with only 2 having platforms to guard against the beetles.

Most of the cleaning was done, the only thing that was left was the students and teachers who reeked horribly, especially Niko and Rennard who everyone gave a lot of space to, it wasn’t just organs that had fallen on them, but beetle poop too.

The gore on them had dried quickly, allowing them to clean everything up without adding more to the floors and other rooms.

In Front of them were buckets of water and soap for everyone to use. The soap wasn’t really the kind to wash somebody with, they couldn’t be picky in these times.

“Uh…..” began Mrs.Stillwater unable to find an answer to the question.

Zane was the one who had an Idea,” I know.” he said as everyone turned their attention to him,” The Martial Art rooms closet has a bunch of leftover uniforms from previous graduates. Since the program sponsors get everyone a new uniform for the first time for free, they’ve kind of just been collecting dust in there.” and before anyone could ask, he added,” Don’t worry they were all washed”

“Ok.” Said the principal,” I’ll have someone go get them, but for now, I need all of you to go get washed, 5 at a time, take a bucket of water and soap, and get going!”

The first five boys took a bucket each and entered the boys’ restroom, with the first 5 girls doing the same before going into the girls’ restroom. The restrooms were about the best they could do since no one wanted to trek to the gym’s locker room to take a shower. It was also a good thing that there were drains on the floor to take all the water and prevent a flood.

While the rest waited, the Principal left to get the Martial Art Uniforms, leaving Mrs.Stillwater and Mr.Perry, the design teacher, to handle things. The clothes that had been bloodied were tossed to the side once each student entered a stall. Water was given to them if they needed more of it.

“Man.” Said Leo, finally deciding to sit down next to the wall as many have done to wait their turn,” I don’t believe I’ve moved as much as today in my entire life.” He said to no one in particular.

“Same.” replied Rennard from where he sat with Niko, far from the rest of the line,” I feel like I’m going to drop dead at any moment.”

“Tell me about it.” Said Ria,” we’re going to be so sore tomorrow, it's not going to be good.”

Multiple people groaned at that, but many others weren’t talking. Although they've been trying to keep the death of their classmates and friends away from their minds, most were failing to do so, especially those who had been closest to those that had died. This included Zane who had not been in the mood for much ever since Saif died, and that was understandable, Saif was after all the Martial Arts club Vice-captain. Still, he participated in the conversation.

“You sure? Feels like a normal day to me, maybe a little above average.” Countered Zane, to which the martial Arts members agree too.

“Normal? Average?” began Leo putting on a shocked face,” My guy, was it just me, or were we fighting giant beetles maybe 2-3 hours ago? If that was a normal day, what was the day before this calamity like?”

“.......” “No, no, no, you misunderstand,” Said Zane,” it just feels like it, since I start every morning aching all over from the prior days training. Saif and I wou----” after uttering Saif’s name again Zane stopped for a second with a grim look on his face, with many other following suits, still he went on,” Would go crazy practicing every afternoon. That doesn’t feel much different from how I feel now.”

“Ah I see, I am usually at home playing video games by that time.” Said Leo, as his eyes went wide," My video games! I just realized I might not get to play any for a really long time!"

"I think that's the least of your worries." Commented Ranzer.

"you don't understand!" said Leo looking over to him," Video games are my life! I can't live without them."

As they talked more, the line moved on as people started coming out washed and wearing martial arts uniforms. Though it was clear that many of them were uncomfortable, mostly due to the fact that their clothes had been all soaked in blood, down to their underwear, they weren’t wearing anything underneath the uniforms.

“Anyway, after this, we should be able to head to the cafeteria for food right?” Said Leo,” Because I’m pretty damn hungry now.”

“Right!” Shouted Rennard,” I don’t even care if it’s nasty school food, I’ll eat about anything right now!”

“Didn’t you already eat sh*t a while ago? You have no right to be hungry right now.” Said Ranzer, to which everyone explodes with laughter, even those who had been discussing another thing with tier friends busted out laughing at the comment.

Rennard rolled his eyes,” Yeah, yeah, laugh it off, but we still saved y’alls ass.”

“On that note.” began Troy,” were not going to the cafeteria at all.”

To his words nearly all conversation stopped, some of the others who had heard of the situation, from the friend they had reunited with from the Nurses office, were not so surprised. Not going was a much better alternative than going.

“What!?” shouted nearly everyone in the area who hadn’t been filled in, even snapping some of the more depressed ones to pay more attention to what was going on.

“What's wrong?” said the principal, rushing out of the other girls’ bathroom,” where are the beetles?” She wondered if any beetles had gotten past the barricades they had made.

“Forget about that!” Said Leo,” why are we not going to the cafeteria? We're gonna die of hunger here, or worse, have to eat beetles for dinner!”

“Is there a reason we're not going?” Asked Ria.

“Is the queen beetle actually there or something!?” Cried out Ranzer, putting everyone on edge with his statement.

See as there were no beetles she calmed down before answering their questions.” No, there's no queen beetle in the cafeteria as far as we could tell.” that alleviated much of the terror, calming the teens as they listened further to what she was saying.” there is something much worse. Excuse the language, but that Bastard Coach Haron was in the cafeteria with his football team as they do every morning, resting up before heading to class. When this whole disaster started, they managed to secure the cafeteria as everyone made their way down to the first floor, giving us a safe place to hide it while things calmed down.” some people gleamed at that, this meant they had another place to go apart from Velysium Hall, one with food. Though they couldn’t see how that was a problem until the principal continued talking.

“For 5 days everything was fine, but then-coach Haron ambushed the security officers while they were out clearing out some of the beetles that were getting too close to the cafeteria. He took the tasers and the rest of the security officer’s weapons with him. 2 of them died after that with only Mr.Wheeler and Mrs.Fitzpatrick making it out. After that, though the tasers were useless against the beetles unless they got past their armor, it worked well with people. So Haron along with his football team took control of the cafeteria taking a monopoly over all the food.” Silence had overtaken the area as they listened to what was going on. It was no doubt that practically everyone, who had watched apocalyptic movies at one point in their lives, knew that apart from the zombie and monsters, humans were just as bad, if not worse than the first two. Though many had thought it would take time for things like this to manifest, reality had proved them wrong. By this time no one had entered the bathrooms as everyone was outside listening to what the Principal was saying.

The principal sighed as she loved at their face before reluctantly continuing,” essentially they had a monopoly over the food, and used that to have everyone hungry enough to follow their orders. Everyone in the cafeteria is a slave to them. Let's not even get started with what the girls are being subjected to while in there.” the Principal finished the last part with Ice in her words, she was beyond furious and soon nearly everyone joined in as they put two and two together.

“The hell!!” Screamed Ranzer,” why don’t they just leave!!”

“Yeah, I mean there should be a lot more students than the football team, even if they have a taser, they should still be able to take them down!” added Leo.

“Not while they are starving. Plus not all of them are willing to go outside the safety of the cafeteria and fight beetles.” continued to Principal.

“That's no excuse!” Said Niko,” all of us were terrified, but we still pulled through to fight the beetles.” “Exactly, they should still have been able to fend for themselves,” added Zane.

Principal Salinas signed again all of what they said was true, but they still didn’t see the big picture, they were still very naive of the situation happening in the cafeteria.” your situation is different.” She began, stopping most of the livid curses and shouts being thrown at no one in particular,” From what I gather from your teachers, you practically had no choice, you've been stuck in your rooms for a week, eating only vines and whatever else you could lay your hands on. Eventually, you grew desperate, you had no other choice but to leave and fight. In the cafeteria, there are around 500 students, way more than all of you who banded together to fight the beetles. Though I was saying Football team, a lot of the other students joined in on Coach Haron’s plans and even I am ashamed that some of the other faculty did too. Their group was much bigger than this one, more than enough to take care of the beetles in the surroundings.” At this point, many of the students began to understand,” eventually those students and faculty began to rely on them for protection and feared they couldn’t do better if they overthrew them. Food-wise, I doubt any of them even though of eating the vines, since there isn’t much near the cafeteria at all.”

A deafening silence took over the area as the reality of the situation weighed on them. Not only were monsters a problem, but utterly vile humans who hadn’t dared reveal themselves when society was all together were surfacing in this apocalyptic world.

“The only reason the 48 of us made it out of the cafeteria and survived for the last 4 days was that a lot of us had already been fighting with the beetles and many more had a mind to leave while there was still time as the rest stayed because of food. We then salvaged around classrooms for food left by other teachers but didn’t find much since the cafeteria group was doing much of the same in other locations even if they didn’t have to, they’ve been harassing us for the past 2 days asking for a lot of medicine form the nurse office for only a little bit of food. It’s a good thing you guys found us at that time. We were considering trading with them”

After a long moment of silence, the principal got even to start getting washed again, but this time there was no conversation as everyone was too deep in their own heads wondering what the hell they had done to deserve this predicament.

~~~~~~~~(20:15 PM)~~~~~~~~

The worst thing that could have happened had gone to pass.

Everyone not currently engrossed in guarding the area or working on barricades, which were those kids and faculty who had fought off 2 big beetles and an army of beetles 6 hours ago, and those who had taken the first watch while the barricades were being made, were sitting on the lounge chairs in Velysium Hall or just sitting on the floor. Each of them had a bowl of soup, but not just any soup, beetle soup with chunks of meat and a few other vegetables (or at least hoped they were vegetables) taken from the vines that they had been eating while trapped in their rooms.

Everyone's faces were much the same, a mix of pure disgust and hopelessness as their stomach rumbled. To cook this, they had gone up to the culinary room on the 3rd floor, finally realizing that it was another place with a lot of food in it. However, the beetles had long since beaten them to it as the culinary room was ransacked and all its foods gone, except for a few carrots and a few loaves of bread that had long since rotten. They had then taken all utensils they could use and hightailed it out of there avoiding confrontation with multiple groups of beetles.

Though the stoves could obviously not be taken, an alternative was found. The science storage rooms bunsen burners would do the trick, and to fuel them, the gas tanks in each lab table within science-based classrooms were taken, as the sight was quite gruesome on the second-floor rooms, the faculty and adult did this, allowing them to have everything they need to cook. Finally, they took some time to assemble everything in one of the classrooms in the hallways they secured after cleaning them up. Thus the culinary teacher and the psychology teacher along with the few culinary students cooked the food, resulting in their current predicament.

“So.” began Leo, who was sitting on the floor in an oversized Martial Art uniform with a bowl in his hands as heads turned to him,” Who's trying first?”

Everyone was quiet as nobody wanted to be the taste tester, they were hungry, but they never thought it would get so far as to eat beetles.” Smells horrible.” Said Ranzer, taking another whiff of the soup only to start coughing.

“I volunteer Leo to be the taste tester.” Said Rennard where he sat at the edge of the group,” He eats a lot of junk food he’ll be fine.”

Leo looks at Rennard with a look of betrayal,” just for that, I say we volunteer Rennard to do It! Or Niko! Both of them already got a mouth full of beetle sh*t in their mouth, this should be no trouble”. Hearing this Niko shook his head vigorously with a very clear “Hell No” plastered on his face. Rennard makes much of the same expression.

“Ok, since we can’t decide let’s do a rock, paper, scissors competition, if you lose you have to----”

“Suuururrrprprr!”, to the noise of fluids being slurped everyone turned to Coach McConnell who dropped the bowl from his face setting it down to the side of his chair once he was done. He then looked at everyone who was staring at him in shock, even the Principal who had been reluctant to try was staring with disbelief.” it's not that bad”, he finally said,” It's not the worst I’ve had.” as he finished speaking the Culinary teacher, Mrs.Alonzos, came over rolling a tray with a covered platter on top of it.

“Here take one.”, she said, as she stopped next to the coach and lifted the covering of the platter; to which the godly smell that had been lingering amongst the heavy febreeze tainted air, which barely covered the scent of blood in the hall, wafted out even more.

Everyone found themselves leaning in to see what it was as Coach McConnell took one of the shish kabobs from the platter.” I thought we didn’t find any meat.”, he said, clearing remembering scouring through the culinary rooms kitchen but couldn’t find any meat that the Beatles might have left behind. Even the freezer had been raided.

“We didn’t.” Said Mr.Stillwater, as she poked at her food and adjusted her glasses to sit better on her face,” the meat is from the raptor thing I killed, I saved a lot of the meat in my mini-fridge for later. There wasn’t anything to cook it within my classroom.”

As Mr.Stillwater finished, Coach McConnell took a bite of it and chewed. Everyone watched as his usually calm and serious face brightened with glee as he devours the things.” so fucking good! Hell yes!”

Seeing his delight everyone started for their bowl to get a taste of the shish kabobs, only for most of them to spit it back out, saliva and all.” what sort of garbage is this!” Cried, Steven.

“Nope, I can’t eat this, I’ll die from food poisoning,” added Toby

“Hahahahahah” Leo just laughed himself off as he stared at the horrible food in his hands.

Some people were crying as they tried their best to hold the food in and not regurgitate it, with around 4 failings, bumping their contents. Worse out of all of them was Niko, with a father who was a cook, he gotta eat good food all the time, this...this was like eating plain dirt.

Everyone found themselves hoping this hell would soon end so they could get the piece of heave that was that shish kabob.

……..

Big mistake. 30 minutes after the piece of heaven they were dropped back down to hell as an agonizing pain assaulted their stomach before they got on to work. They had been unsure what had caused, but everyone was blaming the beetle soup.

Since it was the only food they had they decided to give 5 unfortunate souls only the Beetle soup and 5 very fortunate souls the raptor shish kabob. Those who ate the shish kabob were obviously fine…..not! They were rolling in as much agony as the first tasters had after 30 minutes. Those that took the horrible Beetle soup only had half of that, but it was still pretty bad.

After that, the Shish kabob degraded in the people's eyes. The beetle soup remained as it was, it had already been bad, to begin with.

[Day 11 {week 2}] - Tuesday - January 11, 0000 A.A

~~~~~~~~(00:00 AM)~~~~~~~~

The remainder of that day had been uneventful. Apart from more people breaking down into tears with their friends trying all they could to calm them down nothing much happened. Friends reunited and talked about the things they did or didn’t do during the week-long period spent hidden within the school.

Mostly everyone had tucked in for the night hours ago. It had been a hectic day and they were all very tired, more so with the fact that days in the current world were 32 hours long. It had been decided that the night watch will be rotated every 2 hours, each one with a teacher in it as most teenagers could not be trusted to stay awake at such a time.

It was currently the 3rd watch at midnight and Steven was not liking this arrangement. He and Toby had returned to the left barricade in the hallway near the entrance to Velysium Hall. Both of them were still pretty tired and sore all over. Thankfully being the avid gamers they were, sleeping for only 6 hours was a cakewalk for them. The same could not be said for some of the other students who looked to be about to drop dead on the floor.

Over on this side, one of the janitors, who went by the name Malcolm, was supervising the area. His job was to shake any of the students who were falling asleep to keep guarding the area. However, there wasn’t much he needed to do, with the threat of beetles popping up at any time who the hell would fall asleep. The students only look to be needing a few more hours of sleep to function properly.

The 3rd watch had been as quiet as the preceding 2 watches. The motion sensors in different parts of the school had long since turned off the light where no movement had been detected. Every once in the while these sensors would turn on the lights as a beetle passed by, putting everyone on edge, but for the last 2 watches nothing had really happened, apart from some gunshots going off somewhere.

“We really should have taken the first watch.” Said Steven with a yawn as he stared out into the dark hallway. “You just realized that?” replied Toby as she shook his head with a smile on his face,” I’ve been regretting my decision since they woke me up for the 3rd watch, It seriously felt like I had just time traveled the second I closed my eyes. I didn’t realize just how tired I was until then.”

After a moment of silence, Steven asked a question that had been on his mind for days now,” hey Toby, d----” he was then interrupted by the ringing of gunshots again somewhere in the area. Many people hoped it was the military coming for them, but there was no way to tell. “do you think we’ll ever get used to this? Like this whole new world thing. Looking at the satellite images there are huge stretches of untouched forest that could hold god knows what. How would we fare against those creatures if they ever came by?”

His friend thought for a moment before giving the best answer he could,” best not think about it.” Said Toby,” we should just worry about the present with the beetles everywhere, there no telling what could happen.”

“Yeah, hopefully, they don’t attack for a while.” Said, Steven

“Definitely, it is possible they could be asleep now, what's the worst that could happen?” replied Toby, to which Callie, who had been on the right barricade behind them commented,” don’t you dare jinks it Toby!” To which some people chuckled.

Toby laughed too before answering,” I’ll try no---” However his reply was cut short when the lights from both sides of the hallway suddenly turned on. At that point, everyone went quiet and hoped it was just another passing beetle, or some person brave enough to walk around at night. Soon a beetle appeared from the right hall, Feelers a very angry shade of red as it darted their way. 2 making their way towards the right barricade from the right hallway.

Most people calmed down as these few beetles would be taken care of easily. But then 4 more appeared from each side, then their number surged to 20 within seconds, and then 40 soon after that. Panic soon set in as the numbers kept increasing, then as the first beetle neared the barricade 5 big beetles, 2 coming from the left hallway, 3 from the right, came barrelling down, their speed only hampered by the beetles in front of them, with a tide of small beetles with covered each hall.

“SOMEONE GO WAKE THE HELL OUT OF EVERYONE!!” Screamed Malcolm as he looked on in shock at what was coming. 5 people left the barricades screaming, their screams and the ominous screeching of the beetles woke those who had been sleeping within the rooms of Velysium Hall.

2 of them booked it up the stairs to the second floor where more people slept within the cleaned-out rooms in the hall, while the rest shouted out the situation in fear.

Coach McConnell came running out with a club in hand, wearing padded equipment from the Martial arts clubroom. “ What's going on!?” he asked as the 3 students kept shouting together. He could already guess that an attack was coming and a very bad one as he looks at the three students who had embodied fear to a perfect degree. Immediately, while the 3 students kept shouting he rushed for the barricades.

The barricades were holding, but everyone could feel it would be so for much longer. The space from which people thrust their spears was too small for the beetles to pass through. It made it easy picking for them, even the archers were making good time killing beetles with aimed shots. The beetles bodied were piling quickly and slowed many down, but the big Beetles were approaching, that was when Malcolm decided it was about time to leave,” Kids! Get Down from the barricades, we gotta go!” He shouted motioning people to get back to the main barricade covering the entrance. He didn’t have to say twice as many people hightailed it out of them when Big beetles came into view, cutting through the tide of the beetle hoard which was still increasing.

By this time Niko along with everyone who had been sleeping on the second floor came down and looked on at the chaos. Sparring gear from the martial arts room was tossed about as people grabbed spears. The few who could also take to the remaining liquid nitrogen throwers, and refilled flame throwers to get into the battle. The sleep had practically worn out of everyone one as soon as it became clear a lot of beetles were attaching.

The Newly sharpened weapons were passed around to those who knew best how to use them. Niko Received a Katana, Ranzer took a set of butterfly knives, short blades with wide sides, while Zane was handed the Guandao, a weapon much like a spear, but with a one-sided long blade. The best of the martial arts team took in anything that was left and charged into the fight.

By this time, the barricades were gone, the big beetles had obliterated them in their charge, a tide of beetles was now pouring in and unto the walls, ceiling, or floor. With the big beetles at the Charge, the Coach had the sprayer go for the big beetle while the rest focused on the smaller ones.

Malcolm’s decision at the beginning had ultimately helped save plenty of the students who had gotten back in time as the big beetles demolished the barricades. Though the wood that had been flying around had injured many of them. They too joined the rest of the survivors in the fight for their lives.

“Those of you with steel weapons!” said Coach McConnell,” go after the Big beetles, see if steel weapons and kill them!”

The people with the steel weapons did just that, but it was useless, not only was getting close near to impossible with beetle raining from the ceiling as some of the archers tried their best to stop their advance from there, but the beetles around them weren’t giving them much leeway at getting close to the big beetles, only the sprayer could make any pathway, but going there was suicide as not only would they be sprayed with either liquid nitrogen or hot flames, but the Big beetle’s mandible would be snapping off their necks with seconds. Even if they had managed to get close, the big beetle’s carapace was too strong for even the steel weapons.

The Archers were having a better time with the big beetles, though they were split between 3 groups with the first causing the rain of beetles from the ceiling, and the second rapidly shooting arrows into the incoming tide on the floor and walls, all the while the third sent Arrows at the Big Beetles. As it was useless to aim for the big beetle’s carapace the 3rd archer group aimed at eyes, or even when the big beetles open their mouths to bite or screech. Emilia Rosalinda, the Archery Club’s captain was pelleting arrows at the big ones hitting areas where the carapace overlapped and causing the creatures pain, the only other person doing the same was Vice-Captain Arran, although with a lot less accuracy.

Zane was by far causing the most beetle deaths. His Guandao had the greatest reach of all weapons, just by swinging it once and spinning it around, he decimated 10 beetles in seconds. The beetles were noticing it was by far the most dangerous and were ganging up on him much like they were trying with the sprayers. But still, he was able to manage them enough, but he would tire out soon.

An hour later the tide of small beetles was coming to an end, the normal beetles were starting to flee too as the 2 of the big beetles were taken down from the onslaught of sprayers and arrows. Still, the survivors had received a lot of injuries as well, with many fleeing from the battle due to fear, opening many holes in their defenses. miraculously 5 people were the only deaths

With the normal beetles dwindling and falling back, attacking the remaining 3 big beetles was easy enough. The group isolated these 3 big beetles separately while half of the force dealt with the normal beetles still coming.

A hook sword managed to cling on to the edge of a carapace on a big beetle’s Neck. Troy, seeing an opportunity, pulled back as violently as he could, and ripped off multiple small sections of carapace exposing the neck. The beetle screeched in pain and returned the favor by cutting towards troy with its bladed feelers. The cut connected, slicing across the martial arts chest padding he was wearing, which prevented Troy’s guts from spilling out. Still, the beetle wasn’t done as its feelers came back, this time slapping troy meter away on the floor.

“I'm fine!!” Said Tory as he held the side of his face while he stood, now with a surprisingly mild concussion. The Beetle though wasn't happy Troy had survived and ignored the rest as it went for troy instead. The Sprayers were running out, so they could only be used in time like these when the beetles were a dead set of murdering someone. However, this time it wasn’t needed as Zanes Guandao came piercing the exposed Neck of the big beetle, to which it let out a gargle screech before eventually falling limp onto the floor.

“We got it!” Someone said from their group. Getting the attention of the Coach who was busy fighting with another big beetle.

“Good!”, Said Coach McConnell,” split up and help take out these 2.”

Their group did as they were told as the fighting continued. Zanes Guandao attacked one of the big beetles who caught it in its mandibles and screeched, this distraction gave enough time to Niko, who slid between the Beetles legs, this time not to cut its abdomen as he didn’t need more gore beetle guts over his body again, but instead aimed were the beetle’s legs came out from its main body and cut. He managed to hit 2, rendering them useless which was enough to collapse the beetles on its side.

Balance destroyed, the beetle now had its abdomen exposed and could move as much, easy picking as Ranger's Butterfly Knives let 2 deep guts in the beetle's abdomen as he evaded the remaining of its legs.

The beetle screamed as it shook its legs violently, letting go of Zane’s Guandao, to which he promptly responded by ramming it straight into its mouths. Ending its sad life.

The final beetle died from the Emilia and Arran turning it into a porcupine shortly after. Though the Arrows hadn’t gone far enough into the Mega’s organs, the Beetle had shaken off multiple of them causing it to bleed to death.

With all the big ones dead the normal beetles were taken care of as they fled. Though many were out of the final battle, either from injuries during the battle or for other reasons, like Zane, whose Guandao got stuck in the Big Beetle's mouth.

After the battle was finished, 9 people had died, 3 of which were faculty More on the verge of following suit. No one slept much that night as they repaired barricades and cleaned up the area, waiting in silence in case another beetle tide decided 3 am in the god forsakened morning was the right time to attack them.