My name is John Harolds. I was a junior at Sacred Soul Academy, a prestigious academy that churned out hundreds of alumni who would one day become the pillars of society. Something happened that year. My classmates and I became involved with something big that could threaten the very social order of the world we lived in and we ended up being hunted by the police, the military and everyone we had ever trusted. This is the story of the greatest escape of our lives. What if you were told that the life you had led was all a big fat lie? Escape! Chapter 1 By Shinieris

My name is John Harolds.

I was a junior at the Sacred Soul Academy, a prestigious academy that churned out hundreds of alumni who would one day become the pillars of society. My parents were reluctant originally when the offer letter came. Being minimal wage workers, they were afraid they wouldn't be able to afford the tuition fees. That was until the school offered a scholarship. So in this school, I was a scholarship student, with my food, board and uniform paid off, though I had to work as B Wing's janitor every thursday for some spending money.

Something happened that year. My classmates and I became involved with something big that could threaten the very social order of the world we lived in and ended up being hunted by the police, the military and everyone we had ever trusted. This is the story of the greatest escape of our lives.

******

"Is everything set up? Are the doors locked?" our Student Council President asked the other seniors as he set himself up at the podium in front of the class.

Needless to say, we were really shocked and confused when suddenly a group of seniors, which some of us identified as the whole of Student Council body entered our classroom and blockaded the doors. We were waiting for Advanced Chemistry class and not only did our teacher not come, we were invaded instead. Many of us looked at our class head and he was as confused as we were. Not only that, we found the sight of backpacks with desert camouflage pattern on trolleys that the seniors left around the class rather distressing.

Our Vice President, the lovely Annamarie Hudson said to the President from across the room, "Yes, the others say they can give us 10 minutes at most, not more."

"So we should expect 5 minutes then and not a second more," the President said loudly.

I had a very bad feeling about this.

Then he turned on the microphone on the podium and said, "Alright class, listen up! We have only 5 minutes so please everyone listen to me because this is the last time we will ever be able to talk like this again."

"You all know me as the Student Council President. You know me so because you've been in this school for over a year but that is a LIE! None of you know me before 2 months ago. In fact, none of you knew anyone you know now before two months ago, not even your parents, not even the friend sitting next to you!"

"You may have heard all those rumours in the BBS, or when someone hacked into the city-wide news channel and told us things that the police didn't want us to know. You were told that it was all a prank or a virus attack, but it's not. It was all true. This is NOT Earth. We did not evolve on this planet!" he said passionately.

Suddenly everyone was speaking at once, saying he was delusional, saying he was only trying to scare them. No few even said that he went mad. I mean, where else would we be if not on Earth?

"Quiet everyone!" the Vice President scolded. That shut everyone up.

"We do not have time!" he looked at the girl next to him, the Vice President who showed him four fingers.

"Damned it! Listen well! When you leave this hall, all hell will break loose! Give them the tools!" he ordered.

The upperclassmen who were standing with the trolleys hurried forward putting those backpacks with desert camo pattern on each desk. I unzipped mine and looked inside. On top of everything was the handheld IL52M Particle Wand. It was the more common variant of the IL52K, used by the police force, but it was modified to be able to go through police and customs scanners without setting off the alarm. It was extremely illegal to own even one, these people actually had 32 pieces. Who were these people?

Another thing they put into the backpack was what appeared to be a monochrome electronic paper, barely as thick as a cardboard but had its own bioelectronic processor and memory banks. It had neither the processing power nor the memory capacity of tablets, but it was a solid technology, fast, simple and reliable, unlike tablets which was laden with all kinds of softwares and games which slowed it down despite the higher processing power.

They also put a helmet thing on each of our desks, one I identified as one of those brain stimulation helmets that the elites used to improve their brain power during class. It was extremely expensive. These people had 32 of these. It must've costed them millions. The rest of the contents was just a change of clothes, some toiletries as well as provisions, food and water.

"Alright everyone, put the helmets on, right now!" the president said as he himself as well as the rest of the seniors wore one of their own.

I heard murmurs from the back, mostly the chatty girls and more playful guys.

"I said PUT THEM ON!!! We DON'T have TIME! Don't you understand?!!!" the president said as the other seniors helped put the helmets on the struggling guys in the back.

"I think we should just do as he said," Carl said. He had been my best friend since childhood. We went to the same schools, the same tuition classes and we even lived in the same neighbourhood. This year we got to sit next to each other.

"I suppose. What's up with him? What's he so scared of?" I said as I put the helmet on the helmet, "Ohh, this is comfy. But strange, I heard you can actually feel yourself getting smarter once it's on, but I don't feel anything."

"Maybe there's a switch," Carl guessed.

"Everyone's wearing it? You! What are you doing! Don't take it off!" the President scolded one of the guys sitting one row behind us. Then he asked something to the Vice President and she gave him two fingers.

"Crap!" he said loudly as he took out a device and activated it, showing a holographic map of the entire Eastern Mountains in mid air. "We are here!" he pointed to a blinking dot by the sea labelled as 'New York'. Then the dot for New York dimmed and twelve other dots appeared, blinking just like New York previously. "These are the cities you may be passing through or stopping by. Avoid them as much as you can, only go there for supplies!"

It was this time that the seniors placed five envelopes on each of our desks. I opened it and was surprised to see a lot of US dollar notes, probably thousands of them, spread over five envelopes in denominations of 50s and 100s. I didn't actually count it, because the president told us to put it into our bags and to listen to him first.

"Please put it aside, we'll tell you about the money later!" then all the dots dimmed and a single dot on the other side of the mountain ridge blinked. "This here is Tal-Halas Shipyards. Memorize this map like your life depends on it, because this shipyard is not on any map! Remember this! You must take only Tunnel 52 or 66, all the other tunnels will lead elsewhere. Remember, Tunnel 52 or Tunnel 66!" he pointed at the glowing dot.

He allowed the map to stay on as he said, "Your mission, once you leave here, is to go to the Tal-Halas Shipyards. From then on, it will be your choice. Do you leave the planet and escape to our homeworld, or do you come back to fight a guerrilla war like the hackers? I cannot tell you what to choose."

I was floored. Leave the planet? What the hell was he thinking? Where would we go? Those space shuttles wouldn't be able to sustain all 32 of us for long. We'd need to dock at the ISS or something sooner or later.

Then he took off his helmet, and as the other seniors took off their helmets as well, the rest of us followed suit. "This helmet was modified by the Underground Resistance. Its purpose is not to stimulate your brain, its purpose is to lock the knowledge that you received while wearing it in the deepest corner of your brains. From now on, you will notice that you are not able to speak of it nor can you tell anyone of it. This is to ensure that none of us can be brainwashed, threatened or hypnotized into revealing our objective."

I noticed that the seniors brought the helmets to one side, removed the processor and memory casings and then used their own IL52M to burn off the circuits inside the helmets before doing the same to the processor and memory cores. So they actually had more than 32 of those illegal weapons.

"You have just been given 50,000 US Dollars. Use it as you see fit. Some of you may recognize the weapon, it's called the IL52S, an upgrade over IL52M and absolutely illegal. Read the description attached to it. Don't show it to anyone, because if the police found it on you, prison will actually be heaven compared to the place they will send you to."

"You are also given a Soharachi Type-89 Hoverbike each. I hope you all still remember the hoverbike handling lessons that I painstakingly included in your curriculum last month. You will need it to escape from this academy at least. After that, you can keep using it or leave it behind, depending on your situation. Remember, none of these things are more important that your lives, so if you happen to find them more of a burden than help, leave them! You must accomplish your mission above all!"

Then he turned to the Vice President, she shook her head and his face turned grim. "You will leave the academy in pairs. The pairing will follow your current class seating. And this is MOST important. Once you leave this class, DO NOT TRUST anyone. Not your neighbours, not your friends and most of all, NOT your parents. They are NOT your real parents, the memory was implanted on all of you. The only other person you can trust, will be your partner. DO NOT trust me, DO NOT trust your classmates and DO NOT trust anyone else. This is also important! You MUST stick together with your partner. IF by any chance you were to be separated, you must go alone, hopefully you will meet each other there because no one outside this class knows your objective."

He looked again at the Vice President and she again shook her head. "DO NOT separate, DO NOT separate, DO NOT separate! If you separate, you will be alone! Now you will all leave through the secret door we planned and take your beacons, that will allow you to signal each other once you arrived at the location. You two will go first," he said as he pointed at Violet Tam and Victor Yong.

Then as his eyes scanned the class, he froze and paled immediately, "OH MY GOD! What have I done?" He appeared to lose the strength in his legs and had to grab hold to the podium before he turned to the Vice President and said, "Anna, you go with Carl Miller. As for who will go with John Harolds-"

"NO!" the Vice President cried, "I am staying here, with you! We promised! I will NOT leave you behind!"

"But Anna, two underaged boys going everywhere together will be too suspicious. If it's-"

"NO!" the Vice President stood firm with tears in her eyes, "I will not leave you. Whatever happens, live or die, we will be together!"

The president took her in his arms and held her tight. Then he turned to us, all 32 of us and for the first time, we saw the tough, strict and strong president we always knew or we thought we knew wept for the first time, "You are the chosen ones. You have all only been here for two months, not long enough to receive reinforced subliminals in our mass media, yet not too young that you're unable to think. This plan was made twelve years ago and the preparation started ten years ago. What you have with you, are the total sum of the efforts of hundreds of former students and friends, who had by now succumbed to the subliminals present everywhere around us. This plan was handed down to each of the preceding Student Councils. We saved every single bit that we had and donated it to this project, which we called Project Salvation and it was always the authority of the Student Council Presidents to decide when it's finally executed."

"I know I can wait and hand it to the next Student Council, but," he wept again as the seniors around us walked up to their husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, though some remained where they were on their own . "Please forgive my selfishness, but I do not want to live in such a world anymore. We are not lab rats, not experiments for these... things that brought us here."

He hugged the Vice President tighter, "We do not wish for our children to live this life. This is our one and only hope. You are all our one and only hope. After today, this plan will be no more. Project Salvation will end with the current Student Council. Today shall be the last day of our lives."

Just then the door was banged rudely from outside. The senior nearest to the door asked the person outside to identify himself. When he was satisfied, he opened the door and in came Tommy Lewis, the prefect in charge of B Wing 2nd Floor. He was out of breath, probably from running and he had in his hand one of the older IL50 Particle Rifle. "Sir, they've broken through! They're using the other students as human shield. We can't get a clear shot!"

"So it has begun," then he looked at the Vice President. "Shall we?" he said as we heard explosions not far from us, probably from the B wing.

The Vice President nodded and wiping her tears, she gave the order, "Henry, Jessica, Harald and Anke, bring up the reinforcements. Mary, Johnson, Larry and Selene, maintain the force fields for as long as you can. Yannick and Miriam, show them the way out. The rest of you, man the artilleries and the AA guns. We will be in the tech room organising the distractions. Go now!"

We all took our bags then walked up to the seniors at the exit for our beacons and left following Yannick and Miriam. I had seen these two before and I heard rumours that they were going have a wedding next month. I wondered why they had waited until they were 18. Most couples around here got married around 15, they had their first children around 16 or 17. Regardless, I felt like congratulating them, but if what the Student Council President said was true, then there would be no point, they would all be dead by the end of today.

We arrived at one of the storage rooms in Wing C. Yannick took out his IL52 and leaned on the wall next to the door. He nodded to Miriam, and Miriam used her key to unlock the door, then with count of 3, she kicked open the door and stepped away from the door. She took out her own IL52 and together, they stepped into the storage room, pointing their particle wands at every spot that could possibly be used as hiding places.

"Clear!" Yannick cried amidst the booms of explosions from Wing A where we came from.

"Come out now! I am armed and I will shoot if I you don't come out by the count of three!" we heard Miriam shout.

I looked inside and saw Yannick turn around as he took cover and pointed his IL52 at the direction Miriam aimed hers at. Yannick was looking very serious. Miriam on the other hand was looking so afraid, her whole body was trembling, yet she kept her wand trained on one corner of the room.

"One!" Miriam shouted. When the person still didn't come out, she continued, "Two!" and then 'Thr-".

Out from the corner, I saw a little girl, no older than 10 came out of the hiding place.

"What the hell? You're supposed to be in the B Wing! No, forget that! How did you get in here?" Miriam as she raised her wand to eye level, as if preparing to disable the little girl.

"Miriam, calm down," Yannick said as he took out a device and pressed a button that caused the device to emit rows of lasers at the little girl. "No tracking device!" he declared.

Miriam handed over her wand to Yannick as she said, "Cover me, I'm going to search her body."

Miriam was very thorough as she took off offending pieces of clothes on the little girl and probed even her private places. The little girl started crying as Miriam took off her panties. "All clear," she declared in the end as she helped the little girl wear back her clothes.

Yannick then handed her wand back before turning to us and urging us in. "Come on! Help me push this off!" he said as we helped him push aside one of the old lockers on one wall.

Behind the lockers, there was a hole leading down into the darkness. Yannick leaned in and felt around the walls on the inside before he flipped a switch and the roughly dug tunnel was filled with light. I noticed the decline wasn't very steep, but it seemed a long way to walk.

"Get in, all of you, but don't get out of the tunnel before we arrive," Yannick urged as he stood guard outside the storage room.

Carl and I was among the last to get in, when we heard screams and explosions very close by. Yannick pushed the last of our classmates into the storage room, locked the door and barricaded it by himself. Then he grabbed one of the particle rifles from one of the lockers and took up ambush position at the same place the little girl hid just now.

"Miriam, I'll hold them off. You lead them to the hoverbikes," Yannick said.

"No! I won't leave you behind! We promised to stay together, to the end. Come with us," Miriam cried.

Yannick shook his head, "Someone needs to delay them, Miriam. Go, take the child with you. You can use her to fool others into thinking that you're a young single mother. Nobody will question you then!"

"No, I won't have this!" Miriam said as she handed me the little girl before taking one of the particle rifles herself, "We go together or we don't go at all. I will stay with you. With two of us, we will be able to hold them off much longer."

Yannick unexpectedly kissed Miriam in the lips before he said, "Very well, send them off and lets hold them off together."

"Yes, my love," she kissed him back before she turned to us and urged us to go into the tunnel. "Keep going along the tunnel. Once you're at the exit, use this to determine if there's anyone outside," she gave Carl one of the scanner devices that we just saw Yannick use.

Carl accepted it and put inside his pants pocket.

Yannick took out two more particle rifles from the locker. "Get into teams of four and go your separate ways. Do not go to the same places, we don't want all our chickens in the same coop. These four man teams will be your support group for awhile, but it is very likely that you will be separated soon after. Remember the president's words, once you're separated, you must go your separate ways. Do not wait for the others and do not expect them to be the same people you left here with. The enemy comes in many disguises. DO NOT trust anyone! Here, you'll probably need this," he said as he handed me a particle rifle and two more to Carl.

"The hoverbikes are preprogrammed with the routes you can choose to follow that will help you escape from their eyes. It's a route that's been well researched and planned. You will be safest if you follow the routes. There are ten routes, each team must pick one-" Miriam said before the door exploded.

"Shit! Gogogo!" she ordered as we ran into the tunnels and she pressed a button that caused the tunnels to collapse around us.

That was the last we saw of them.

We kept running after that. As we walked, we felt the tunnel's ceiling shake as it dropped dust and dirt on our heads. The tunnel was very straightforward. You could tell that this was recently and very hastily dug as parts of the tunnel only had wooden supports instead of the concretes that held up the ceiling on some parts. It took us about ten minutes to reach our classmates and when we arrived, each one of them asked where Yannick and Miriam was.

"They stayed behind to buy us some time. They entrusted us with telling you guys what to do next," Carl explained.

I had by this time, carried the little girl in my arms. She couldn't handle all the running and collapsed halfway through our escape. As I looked at my classmates, the President's earlier words rang in my mind, of letting go of everything that could be a burden to us. I looked at the little girl in my arms, and the particle rifle saddled on my right shoulder. I couldn't use the rifle while carrying the little girl and I wasn't that good of a shooter either. So I called the best marksman in our class, Arnie Whilming over and said, "Take the rifle. Let's just hope you won't have to use it."

Arnie took the rifle from me. He tested the balance, held it with the butt against his shoulder and inspected the built-in sniper scope and the power source. He looked pleased with it and said thanks. After that I went to the front of the line, where Carl was scanning the door in confusion.

"What's the holdup?" I asked when I arrived.

He looked at the settings and without looking at me, he said, "Miriam said I need to use this to determine if there's anyone outside, but I don't get it. I've been using it on the door but it kept saying there's 33 people, which is us."

"Maybe the door is shielded or made of some type of reflective alloy?" I reasoned.

"I did think that too, but then why would Miriam give me this? She must've known the door is shielded, she's on the student council," Carl said as he scratched his head.

"Maybe we need to open the door first?" one of the girls asked.

"But there's no doorknob! It must be an electronic door. How do we even open it?" one of the guys argued.

"Maybe there's a button we can press to turn off the shield or something?" one of the girls, Nanako Fujisawa said.

"Yeah, that's probably it. Everyone, help us look for a switch, lever or button!" Carl said and soon we were all off inspecting the door, the wall and the floor for anything resembling a switch, level or button. Even the little girl was looking for it.

"Carl, I found something here," one of my classmates called.

"I see," Carl said as he looked at the depression on the wall, and slotted the scanner into the depression, "That's it!" Carl exclaimed when he saw that the scanner fit perfectly into the slot. Then Carl pressed the 'scan' button and it started scanning as it linked up with the scanners outside the door.

Then the display showed, "No sentient lifeform in the scanned area. Press 'Scan' to open the door."

Carl pressed the 'scan' button and the door opened as strong winds flowed into the tunnel almost pushing us backward from the difference in atmosphering pressure. Then the wind settled and we walked out into a large warehouse, where 34 hoverbikes were waiting for us.

"Woah! It's true! I never thought I'd get to ride one of these. These babies sell at 120,000 dollars each!" Moorthy Sekaran, our resident mechanical engineering expert said as his eyes gleamed in awe of the engineering marvel in front of his eyes.

"Yeah, you couldn't possibly buy one of these with the 2000 dollars a month that your parents make," Jennifer Carter, our self-proclaimed class princess whose father owned one of the largest tech firm in New York taunted.

"Guys, please, before you get on your hoverbikes. I need to brief you on what we need to do," Carl announced as he told us to get together with our partners.

Once everyone had gotten into pairs, with me standing next to Carl in front of everyone, Carl said, "Yannick told us that we need to split into teams of four and each team must go their separate ways!"

"What? That's not right! If there really is a war out there, we need to stick together. Safety in numbers!" Eric Thompson protested.

"Remember what the President said, we must fulfill our objective at all cost. It was Yannick who said we shouldn't put all our chickens in one coop," Carl said.

"I see," our glasses-fetish character Yuu Nakani said, "Distraction then? That damned senior, he expected some of us to be bait as the others escape!"

"Yuu! Don't say anything unnecessary!" Nanako scolded, but the damage was done.

Soon everyone went into a shouting match, mostly directed towards Carl and I, for being the people carrying Yannick and Miriam's final will. They scolded us for believing the seniors so blindly, for expecting them to go out there to get captured or worse, killed so that the others could escape. It became so bad that the little girl in my embrace cried again.

"Hey guys!" one of our class tech experts, Azman Hussin called as he turned on the huge screen on one side of the warehouse.

The screen showed our school, the Sacred Soul Academy being bombarded by hundreds of military airships and artilleries. Around the academy, many burning husks of the airships littered the barren landscape as the academy's defenders responded with their own anti-air defenses and artilleries. We saw one of the academy's shields collapse under the barrage of bombs and artillery shells from the airships and mobile artilleries.

"That is the dorms..." one of the girls by the name of Felicia Wong said with her hand over her mouth.

"There shouldn't be any students there right now, right?" I heard one of the girls ask.

Then Carl called for everyone's attention again, "Guys! Look at that, those are our friends, our seniors, our juniors, our brothers and sisters there, dying so that-"

"Emilia!" one of the girls, Sophie Beauchamp cried as as she saw another of the shields collapse, while the B Wing, which housed the freshman and junior classes go up in flames.

"Sophie, please!" Carl said.

"That was my little sister! MY little sister!" she became hysterical and had to be held down. Then her boyfriend, Frances Vinot took her in his arm and rocked her as if he would a baby.

"There's nothing we can do for them now. The only thing we can do now is to not let their deaths be in vain. We must leave!" Carl pointed out.

"Why can't we just stay here? Look, they gave us food and water, we can probably survive for a week with these," one of the girls asked.

"Exactly! But what will we do after a week?" Yuu Nakani asked.

"Well, we can go out to get more," the same girl said.

Yuu Nakani snorted as he argued, "What makes you think they will just leave? These are the military. We know they are very thorough. Besides, remember that tunnel we just came out of? That tunnel was made in haste. Unlike the door just now, the tunned wasn't shielded. Their scanners can penetrate the soil and once they traced the tunnel to this garage, what do you think will happen?"

That shut everyone up as we all started imagining what would happen next. It wasn't all flowers and cakes, we heard the rumours of what the military did to those they arrested. Then unexpectedly, Yuu told everyone to keep quiet while Carl tell the class the rest of Yannick's and Miriam's message.

Carl coughed. "Thank you. Alright, everyone here will split into teams of four. Each team will decide their destinations and the moment we leave this garage, we must ride to our destinations at full speed. No matter what happens, we must push forward. Above all, don't separate, because once we separate, we must go forth without waiting for the others. This is the thing that Yannick stressed the most. Once you're separated, you won't be able to tell if the others are still the same people you left here with. DO NOT trust anyone, not even our friends and family! Does everyone understand this?"

There was a murmured 'yes' among our classmates.

"Alright, let's choose our teammates and get on our bikes!" Carl suggested as he took me to one side of the garage, next to the hoverbikes that he declared 'our bikes'.

"Hey, mind if we come with you?" Yuu Nakani approached us a few minutes later along with his partner, Nanako Fujisawa.

"Sure, but don't you want to go with your friends?" Carl asked.

Yuu Nakani snickered. "Friends? These bunch of idiots? Sure, they're great to have fun with, but I'll be dead in a week if I had to put up with them. No, we don't get along much, but our chance of escaping this place alive is much higher with you."

"You think so?" Carl said, appearing a little proud of himself.

"Actually no, I asked Moorthy and Azman earlier, but they had already teamed up with other people. So you guys are the next best thing. If you guys already have your own team, we would have been happier to go on our own," he said quite honestly.

I heard from the guys that Yuu was quite the annoying bastard who said whatever he felt like saying. They said the only time he was cunning and chose his words carefully was when he played games. They further claimed that Yuu Nakani could hold all their troops with only a quarter of what they had while using the rest of his own troops to destroy their bases with well placed traps and delaying elements.

"Why not? It's not like we have a team anyhow," I said.

"Sure, why not. You guys OK with those bikes?" Carl asked while pointing at the hoverbikes next to ours.

"It all looks the same. I think they bought all these at the same time. Pretty dusty, though," Yuu said as he ran his finger on the metalic body of the hoverbike next to him. "You think you can ride these, Nana?"

Nana simply shrugged before she got herself onto one of the bikes. She turned the ignition on and the display screen came up, asking her to identify herself. "Fujisawa Nanako," she said as the hoverbike showed 'Identifying' before it turned into 'Confirmed'. Then every light on the hoverbike turned on and the hover mechanism whirred in response.

"Better go then," he said, referring to the hoverbikes. Then almost as if he forgot, he called one of our classmates, Rahman Ibrahim before throwing one of the rifles he still carried to the guy who scored second in our sharpshooter tests.

I switched my backpack from my back to my front as Carl helped put the little girl behind my seat. Carl offered to carry the little girl behind him, but she seemed to have attached herself to me that I told him it would be best that she rode with me. I told the little girl to hold on to me very tightly and to never let go, and she promised she won't. Then I registered myself to my hoverbike and received a 'Confirmed' in response.

"Guys, we have London City, Ramasutra Marshlands, Bleak Forest, Odin's Spine, Mount Rushmoore and Mexican Jungle. Which one sounds good?" Carl asked.

"Bleak Forest," Yuu and I said at the same time.

"Bleak Forest then," he said as we all chose the Bleak Forest route. "I won't ask why," he added.

Yuu explained nonetheless. "London City is filled with people, it will be too risky even if we can use them to blend in. Ramasutra Marshlands is a swamp filled with crocodiles. Odin's Spine is damned hard to ride through. Mount Rushmoore is too open. Mexican Jungle's trees are so densely packed, we'll have to leave these big bikes behind once we arrived. Bleak Forest is the best among the options left."

"Fine then," Carl said as we all pressed the windshield button, which raised the protective glass on our front, sides and rear that would protect us from the strong winds at our top speed and any fragments flying out way.

At our top speed, even a small pebble could act as a bullet that could kills us if it hit anything vital. Then I looked at the display which said, "Press 'Open' to open the garage door." But the button under it that was supposed to be 'Open' was written as 'Waiting'.

"Oy! Whoever haven't chosen a route, do it quickly!" came a voice from the hoverbike's communication system.

"Sorry!" a girl said over the comm. Soon after, the button turned into 'Open'.

"This is it, guys," Carl said over the comm, "It's been nice knowing you guys. Good luck on your escape. Let's meet again at the final destination."

I pressed the button 'Open' as I said, "Good luck everyone.

"Yeah, same to you."

"Good luck!"

"Let's get out of this in one piece."

"Be missing you guys."

The garage door opened slowly as everyone said their best wishes. I could hear the humming sound of all the hoverbikes as my own hoverbike hummed and lifted itself into the air. Each of us waited patiently for the door to open high enough for us to rush out of the garage at top speed.

"We'll be going first, everyone follow behind us," Carl said through the comm.

"Okay."

"Roger."

"You da man, Carl,"

Then the door opened high enough and Carl said, "John, we're going!" Then he sped off through the open door.

"Right behind you," I said as I followed behind him into the dusty wasteland.

The rest of our class followed behind us in a single file until the road became wide enough. Then we split into eight teams and separated. We gave our final farewells to each other before they were too far for us to get their signals.

******

"They've opened the garage door," the Vice President commented.

"Time to let out the distraction drones," the President said as he pressed some buttons and watched as a large number of drones flew out from the hills around the academy via the screens in front of him.

"We lost Wing C. Wing D is cut off from us. I calculate they will be overwhelmed in half an hour," the Vice President said coldly.

"I guess this is it, then. We have prepared long for this day. We have all been made aware of this when we took over as Student Council from our seniors," the President said as he laid back on his chair.

"Still, we are cruel for thrusting this fate on those children," the Vice President said as she tapped some buttons.

"It's crueler to let the future generations live as lab rats for these things that took us from our own home," the President reasoned.

"I didn't mean that. I meant they couldn't even say goodbye to their families," the Vice President clarified as she looked at the hoverbikes leaving Garage 3.

"They're fake families anyway. Their real families are probably still on our homeworld or died during the abductions."

"You're saying that, but you mailed your own goodbye letter to your family, didn't you?" the Vice President accused while still looking at the screens in front of her.

"You did that too, huh?" the President said with a slight smile.

"Of course. Every one of us did that," she confessed when something caught her eyes, "Yannick and Miriam's ID was not activated. Yet the others have left. Switching to Camera 113," she said as she pressed some buttons. She broke into tears when she saw it.

On screen, on the floor of the storage room, Miriam lay dead. She had lost the lower half of her body, probably to some explosion. Yannick laid a short distance away from her, his back disintegrated, showing the bones underneath. His right hand, the only hand he had left was outstretched as if trying to hold Miriam's hand, but fell short by a few centimetres.

The president embraced the Vice President, comforting her as best as he could. "I guess it's time that we do what we planned before," he said as he took out his IL52.

"Yes, it's time. Unlike the others in the Student Council, we are the only ones who cannot remain alive. Our unprotected knowledge of Project Salvation will put every one of those children at risk. We must not let them get ahold of our brains." the Vice President wiped her tears and took out her own weapon.

They aimed at each other's head.

"No hesitation," the President declared.

"No hesitation," the Vice President agreed.

"After three." The President counted, "One, two, three!"

Things became quiet so suddenly.

"Why didn't you shoot?" the President enquired.

"Why didn't you shoot?" the Vice President asked back.

"How can you expect me to shoot the love of my life?"

"How can you expect me to do the same?"

Things became awkward, until they suddenly broke into laughter.

"Well, I knew I wouldn't have the heart to shoot you. I was expecting you to be heartless enough to shoot me," the President joked.

"You think I'm that kind of woman? I'm offended," the Vice President giggled.

"Well then, since neither of us felt like committing a lover's suicide. Why don't we make better use of our lives by helping the others?" the President suggested.

"Why not?" the Vice President said as she armed the self-destruct button, with the President confirming the order.

Then together, they walked out of the control room. Hand in hand, they kissed for the final time as they went off to see to their own deaths. All to buy a few minutes more time for the others to escape.

Nobody ever escaped the academy. The self-destruct system was rigged by the previous Student Council. Although the display showed six hours, in reality, the internal clock was set to explode after half an hour, regardless of how long the timer was set. Apart from the 32 juniors who escaped, nothing else survived after the nuclear bomb under the academy exploded with the power of a 25 kiloton bomb.

*This story has been at the back of my mind for some time now but only last night did it became so clear to me.
**As usual, I welcome all comments and feedbacks. Praises help me to write faster and constructive criticisms. As my grammar is terrible, try to point out the flaws in this story though. None of my friends has good grammar. In fact, my grammar is the best, even among my former teachers. So I can't asked anyone else to proofread my grammar. Anyhow, I intend to sell this one as my first entry into self-publishing. Please point out the flaws in this story and once I'm done, please give me your honest opinion of it.
***Sorry there's no TG element in this one. The crossdressing part starts from the second chapter.