CHAPTER 07

Chapter 07

*Alex Peng*

The only way to survive is to lead.

I stand in front of my fellow survivors, sizing all of them up. Deciding which ones are expendable and which ones are not.

It sounds cold, I know. But in order for the majority to live, some of the minority must die. Otherwise, no one would survive. Sacrifices have to be made.

I live in urban Northern Virginia, where I learned this the hard way. Where natural selection kept the population of kids low. All my life, I’ve survived by being the leader. Just when I thought I could finally relax and be a normal teen, this apocalypse-like chaos had to come along and weed out even more of us.

A low, mocking voice pierces my thoughts, dragging me back to reality. “So, leader, what are we going to do?”

I search the group for the speaker. My eyes settle on a skinny Asian boy whom I recognize as Gene.

“Well, first, we have to come up with a plan, on how to survive. I propose that we find as many survivors as we can and regroup. Then, we send out scouts to try to find out what happened, what in the world even caused all of this.” I say in my most confident tone.

“You’re never going to get anywhere with that. There’s something going on here much bigger than anything you could even dream of,” Gene argues.

“Well, you got any ideas? I’m all ears,” I snap. “We can’t do anything until we figure out a way to survive.”

Gene shuts his mouth and glares at me. I raise my eyebrows slightly at him, smirking. He scowls and looks away in submission.

Surprisingly, another voice speaks up before I can open my mouth again. “Actually, I agree with Gene. We’ve got enough people here. It’s time to find some answers.” This time, it’s a girl who’s opened her mouth. Nidhi.

Well, if Nidhi says so, then that’s what we’ll do. “Fine, then. But where should we start?”

“We need answers, don’t we? So why don’t we go out and ask people, find out what they know first?” Nidhi suggests.

“No need to do that,” a new voice says. It belongs to a tall, dark-skinned boy. Strange, I’ve never seen him around before. Where’d he come from?

He continues,“I have all the answers already.” With a long, thin finger, he points at something in the distance. We all squint at the horizon.

It’s a dark patch of… something, blurring as soon as I focus my eyes on it. However, when I divert my eyes, I can just make it out with my peripheral vision.

Lightning flashes overhead, and it disappears.

“It’s the Cosmo Prison. One of its inhabitants have escaped, and is breaking her followers out. The only way to close it again is to find the key, which is missing right now.”

We all stare at him.

It’s impossible, this explanation, something straight out of a fairy tale. Yet, somehow, I believe it.