original

Evolve, the fight for survival

Kapitel 1: 01 Is that a centipede?

"Yes the match was cancelled, we still don't know the reason why. It might have been because of the heavy rain" A student said casually with a shrug.

The classroom was filled with chatter and laughter, students were loitering about. Some reading, others eating but most were talking among themselves.

Ken was talking with his friend Brandon while watching a girl from the corner of his eyes. 'Is that deep fried sphagetti? I wonder how it tastes'

"I can't deal with these assignments anymore" Brandon spoke with a groan as he ruffled his hair.

"Yeah but at least..." Ken stopped speaking as he turned his full focus to the girl at his front, or more specifically, her sphagetti.

"At least what?"

"Is that a centipede?"

"Wha.."

Ken stood up fast, he leaned forward and slapped the fork out of the girls hand. The sphagetti on it fell on the ground staining the white tiles.

"What was that!" She screamed in annoyance.

Ken had cold sweat on his forehead, he didn't respond to her but pointed towards the fork on the ground.

Near the plastic cutlery, a black centipede crawled out of a roll of sphagetti. With a coordinated wave-like motion, it propelled itself forward scaring the students.

STOMP!

Ken killed the centipede with a stomp of his feet and a disgusted expression on his face. The crunch he felt when he stepped on it was not delightful at all, it made him feel repulsed.

The girl who had almost eaten the centipede began to empty out her insides. She vomited into the white nylon from which she had brought out the sphagetti.

"She almost ate it, disgusting"

"Yeah, that's nasty"

"Take her downstairs to wash her face" The class representative said.

A centipede must have gotten into the food somehow. The found it, killed it and now everything is alright.

Or so they thought.

All around the yellow painted room, several shadows began to emerge from the several cracks and crevices. The shadows leaked out and poured down, moving close to the students.

"Aaaah!"

With screams and panic, the students rushed for the door avoiding the invading tide of darkness. The room itself felt like it was shrinking, Ken stood mortified as he saw countless centipedes swarm the area.

'We need to slow down the centipedes somehow' They were on the third floor and he didn't like the chances of him swimming over a panicked mob.

Thinking fast, he ran for the door while bringing out a cannister of cologne from his bag. He threw the bag towards a cluster of centipedes and dashed down the stairs just outside the classroom.

"I need a lighter!" Ken yelled as he easily caught up with his classmates. The staircase was just to small for all of them to rush out.

Luckily, he didn't need to ask twice as a tall student with dreadlocks gave him a lighter from his bag. Ken set the lighter to maximum output before flicking it to life.

He placed the cologne behind it, and waited a bit for the centipedes to get closer. The people behind him were so desperately pushing themselves, he was scared someone would push him from behind into the swarm.

He pressed down on the cologne causing a geyser of fire to erupt. The spray of fire rained down on the flood of centipedes preventing them from approaching.

"I need help" Ken shouted as he noticed more centipedes coming from the sides. He moved the spray left and right, but it passed over too quickly to kill the centipedes.

The tall student who had given him the lighter and another girl ran up with different sprays and aimed it through the single lighter.

Three pillars of bright orange fire, crisscrossed and swept over the small staircase, preventing the centipedes from coming any closer.

They retreated slowly while scorching the centipedes, until they were finally out of the building. Ken returned the lighter and made a run for it, his bottle of cologne had almost run out so he threw it away too.

'At least we are outside now, there is no more danger.' As Ken kept running, he noticed the swarm of centipedes did not reduce but continued to pour out from the three storey building.

There was a forest in the school near the building, Ken reasoned this was where the centipedes were coming from.

"OH MY GOD!"

A hysterical scream came from the crowd. Ken looked away from them towards the three storey building, where a massive black centipede crawled out from the hidden side of the building.

The abomination's chitin had a metallic sheen in the sunlight, it's pillar like legs effortlessly dug into the concrete of the building. It was like a small living train with legs, radiating palpable bloodlust.

"Wha-what should. How do" Ken couldn't make a complete sentence, his mind was blank. His heart threatened to burst out of his chest. His body, paralyzed by fear.

The train-like centipede didn't give them much time to admire it, as it crawled off the building and onto the ground. Moving like an actual train it left a bloody trail as it mowed down the students who were running for their dear lives.

With tears in his eyes, Ken ran away with the others who were remaining. Maybe it was a survival instinct or maybe it was dumb luck, they kept space from themselves as they ran, preventing the humongous centipede from taking them all out in a single attack.

'Should I hide in a classroom or a car. No I should head towards the lagoon, I don't think centipedes can swim but what if they can.' Ken was frightened, he had never been more scared in his entire life.

He looked back at the giant centipede which chased Brandon as it climbed over a building. Although he wanted to help his friend, there wasn't much he could do.

He looked at the wave of never ending centipedes that had gained on some of the students, offering them a very painful death.

Suddenly, he felt the needs to empty out his breakfast. He held in his urge and stopped running to observe for a bit. Breathing heavily, he noticed that the centipedes had stopped appearing.

'If this is all we can still use fire to kill the rest of them but what about the big one' Ken shivered as he thought about the monstrosity. He looked towards the building they had just run from.

If he used the other stairwell, he could get to the second floor where the chemistry lab was. Maybe he would find something to deal with the centipede there.

Ken ran back towards the building, luckily for him the centipedes had thinned out, giving him a chance to reach the stairwell. He ran with hateful stomps struggling to keep his feet on the ground for as little time as possible.

He was practically zipping through the air, some centipedes were sent flying away while some landed on his clothes and began to crawl upwards towards his face. He hurriedly slapped a centipede off his cheeks and violently shook his body sending several others hurling through the air.

Finally reaching the chemistry lab, Ken rushed inside and locked the door before swatting more centipedes off his person as he stomped them to death. He sat down on a chair as he digested his emotions and situation.

He looked over the chemicals available, Hydrochloric acid looked like a good pick. The school had a large stock of materials so the acid had not yet been diluted. Thinking back on the massive size of the creature though, he searched for something else.

After recovering a little bit from all his running, Ken noticed the screams and panic had reduced. A scary though that everyone was dead came to mind but he quickly dismissed it.

After pacing through the chemistry lab for a while, Ken found a bag and placed a chunk of sodium the size of a human head into it. It made the bag a bit heavy, but it wouldn't slow him down.

'I should take the hydrochloric acid after all' As ken had this thought, he looked towards the other side of the lab where the bottle was. Suddenly, night fell and the lab was dark.

"Is it that late, or is another bizarre event happening" Ken looked outside the window, the giant black centipede was hanging from the roof looking back at him.