Aidan awakes in the morning somewhat abruptly, feeling his arm the bullet hole shot by Luke the previous day had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared and replaced by only a small divot where it had once been. Aidan stands up and Jake falls to the ground, somehow still asleep. Aidan approaches the dormant Bruce, he places his hand on his eye not expecting a reaction but Bruce's eye bursts open under the shell and stares directly at Aidan. Aidan falls backwards out of shock and attempts to crawl backwards away but a tentacle growth grows from the ground and grips onto Aidans leg pulling him up from the ground and up into the air. The tentacle hoists Aidan in front of Bruce's eye, suddenly another tentacle shoots from the ground and grabs onto Aidans right arm, wrapping itself around it tightly making it turn purple. Aidan attempts to yell but another tentacle coils around him preventing him from screaming. The tentacle digs into the small divot in Aidans arm and breaks through, as soon as he breaks through Bruce's iris grows in size and Aidan feels sharp pain coursing through him. The tentacles eventually retract and drop Aidan to the ground, Aidan stumbles but manages to run away, he looks backwards to see Bruce's eye slowly closing with a scraping tone. Aidan manages to get back and runs into the B block bathrooms next to the camp. He falls to his knees and throws up black sludgy liquid into the bowl. He looks into the bowl and then rolls up his sleeve and pulls off the now damaged tape. He sees dark purple and black skin and veins around the area where the tentacle had entered. He attempts to touch it but stops inches before and uncontrollably recoils from his other arm. Aidan rolls down his sleeve and leaves the bathroom and walks back to the main area. Upon Aidans entrance Cooper stands up and passes him canned food, “Breakfast” he says. Aidans takes the can and sits down silently, “Luke brought it from the tunnel he found, main goals today, survive and try to find William” Cooper explains to Aidan then announces to the group, “It’s not looking good for him. I heard him scream, found his blood then.. nothing! It’s like he just disappeared?” Says Ella still confused from the discovery. Jake pipes in, “And before you ask Aidan, there’s like a dome over the school. We can’t get out.” Aidan looks confused but shrugs and keeps eating his food. The group sit and do meaningless chatter for a while before the ground begins to rumble around them. The group run outside to see that Bruce's shell has disappeared and he appears to be back to normal, he pulls himself out of the ground and begins flying. His neck turns in every direction hastily looking for the group, he locks eyes with Cooper. “Go!” Yells Cooper as he charges into Bruce, everyone else runs. Bruce grows his non-gauntleted arm and swings a giant destructive punch at Cooper, Cooper blocks it with his arms and pushes against it. Orange sparks flying from the blocked area, the armour seemed to be powering up Cooper to have super hero like strength. Bruce prevails though and Cooper goes flying back into a metal beam in A Block, he quickly recovers as if the attack had no effect on him. Bruce jumps up into the air and slams down in front of Cooper, this slingshots Cooper into the air and he punches himself into the distance. Bruce looks confused and looks up, only to not see Cooper.
The others run back into the original DGT room to look for more survivors, what was once just a destroyed classroom had become a baron wasteland like environment. The group began coughing almost immediately upon entry. They all retreat out of the room but a mysterious hand pops out holding a gas mask. The group looks wearily and confused at each other before reluctantly Luke reaches out and wears the mask. He enters the room and is engulfed by a dark thick gas cloud. Aidan attempts to run in but Ella stops him, “It’s too risky!” Yells Ella at Aidan. They stand there at the door for what felt like several minutes. There is absolutely no sign of Luke from the room, Damien looks at the group, “Maybe we should just keep going?” He says. People look on disapprovingly but look into the smoke filled room and agree to continue to move.
Luke walks into the room with his newly gained gas mask and looks around for the gloved hand that had reached out for him. He attempts to yell but realises his trials are for nothing and the mask blocks out the sound. Luke's skin begins to become itchy, the areas that are exposed begin to turn red and inflamed. The burnt half of his body begins to feel as if it's burning once again. A hand grabs onto Lukes and he begins to get pulled through the room. His eyes begin to grow heavy when suddenly he is thrown into a room that looks completely untouched by the explosion. Luke snaps back into reality and he hears a door slam. The figure of the hand reveals himself and he pulls off Lukes mask, then he pulls off his own. Damon's face is seen below the mask and Luke looks surprised. Damon gives Luke a mask that pushes cool air into his lungs, Luke stands up. “We’re gonna need you to tape up your arms, once that.. ya know.. gas thing starts spreading its going to become worse and worse for you to breathe in or have on your body” explains Damon. Luke goes to grab some protective gear from the walls but Damon bats his hand away, “Don’t touch my stuff” he says. Luke looks annoyed but gives up and moves to the door and opens it, “Guys! I’m alright I’m in her-“ yells Luke into the fog but gets interrupted by a fit of coughing after inhaling the gas, Damon slams the door, “Listen to me!” Says Damon annoyed. He returns to his table and pours something into a vile, then into a needle. He walks over and injects it into Luke's arm. Luke looks confused and winces a little, “What’s that for?” Asks Luke. “It’s a minor protection against the gas, now leave. Protect yourself and only come back if you really need medicine.. don’t tell Bruce I’m here.” Says Damon annoyed. Luke nods and puts his mask back on, opens the door and quickly leaves. He returns to the hallway and sees no one left waiting for him, he pulls off his mask and lets out an annoyed exhale as he begins walking down the hall in search of them.
The others find themselves inside the PE Centre, they look around to see a very destroyed main gym area, shattered glass, blood and bodies sprayed everywhere. They walk in and look around, it's a horrific scene and they all shudder a little bit at the sight of everything that has been seen. In the centre is a clearing from all the blood, except for a long line and a body in the middle. They approach the extremely deformed body and find a paper lying on it, Aidan picks it up and reads it, it says “Victor” with a red line crossing it out. They drop the note and look at the body, just by the hair they can tell it's Victor's body laying. “Guess this is what happens when Bruce catches up with someone…” says Damien terrified. “Oh it absolutely is” says Bruce manically from behind the group. They all turn around and look up at him flying in the air. They retreat backwards and Bruce floats towards them, suddenly Bruce falls downward in pain and pivots to look behind him. Luke is standing in the doorway with a big gun in his hand, “Everyone get out!” he yells as he points at the exit closest to them. They all run out and Bruce flies towards Luke, growing his right foot in size. He prepares to stomp Luke but Luke begins lasering Bruce's foot, Bruce goes flying back and crashes into the opposite wall. As he flies backwards his foot moves to show Luke with Vetri and Cooper holding onto his hands from the side, eyes glowing. Bruce charges up and begins flying at them.
Cooper lands atop the hall and perches to see Bruce fly away, clearly absent minded about his location. Cooper hangs from the building and walks to the sign at the front of the school. Vetri is sitting there and Cooper sits on the other pole next to Vetri, “You got powers?” Vetri says. Cooper nods and looks at him, the two begin talking and Vetri suddenly turns to his left and begins walking, Cooper looks confused, “What's happening Vetri?” asks Cooper. Vetri jumps up and Cooper follows him, Vetri directs his landing to beside Luke outside of T Block, Cooper lands beside him. They watch over top as Bruce flies over top of them and straight towards the PE Center. The three of them look at each other and run in the direction of Bruce. They run into the PE Center and Luke spots a large gun that he picks up, he aims it at Bruce and fires…
Bruce jumps back from the wall and attacks the three of them, they use their powers together, energy coursing through their connected arms. Bruce actually takes damage from the attacks, he gets furious and dives into the ground, crashing deeper and deeper into the earth below. The ground begins to shake and the three lose their balance, suddenly the environment around them starts glowing orange and the entire PE Center tips onto an angle, forcing the three to lose the grip they had together and slide all the way from the gym to the ground outside, Luke splatters on the ground but Vetri grabs hold of him and heals him back to being alive. They watched as the entire PE Center was ripped from the ground and hoisted onto the back of an absolutely gigantic Bruce Thomas, he was 3x the size of the PE Center and he wore it upon his back like he was a turtle. He let out an extremely loud scream and attempted to stomp onto the three of them, they all began running and watched as the gargantuan hand narrowly missed them. Cooper and Luke attempt to keep running but Vetri grabs onto their arms and pulls them backwards and begins running up Bruce's giant arm, Bruce turns his head slowly as he watches them run up his arm, grabs onto Bruce's shoulder. Vetri looks to Luke, “Luke. I need you to chop off my arm” says Vetri with full seriousness. Luke looks uncomfortable at first but then pulls out a fireman's axe and slams happily into Vetris arm, Vetri screams in pain but chucks the severed arm into Bruce's massive ear. Vetris' arm regenerates from his body and the group watch as the severed arm regenerates inside Bruce's giant ear, connecting itself to Bruce's ear. Vetri flexes the Bruce ear hand and digs his fingers into Bruce's skin. Bruce screams in agony and throws the three off. Vetri grabs onto Luke and the tree crashes into A Block doing serious damage to the top floor. They watch from a distance as Bruce looks in pain as he starts glowing orange, after a while he shrinks back to his original size and he falls to the ground from exhaustion. The PE Center falls too and crushes Bruce creating a massive shockwave. For a moment, the world stands still, the others run out of the B Block base to look at what's happened, dust blows them backwards a little. Nothing happens, everyone is chilled out. Suddenly Bruce flys up out of the PE Center again, this time with a bleeding eye. That same eye has grown black and it's pupil has become orange and glowy, it can be seen from miles away. Bruce grows slightly using the orange stone and flies towards the centre area and lands. Bruce pulls down the ruined New Zealand flag from the flagpole and uses it to brush the dirt off his face before slinging it over his shoulders and using it as a cape. The group outside of B Block retreat inside their building and Bruce completely ignores them, Bruce begins walking towards the three on the top of A Block with extreme anger. He jumps high into the air with his fist raised above his head and as he is about to complete his arc and slam into the three of them a mysterious blob like substance globs around Bruce's hand, the glob slings backwards and Bruce goes flying all the way backwards to T Block. The figure walks himself away from A Block revealing himself. Orange-ish hair and a green overcoat. A figure indistinguishably William. Damien sees him from a distance and immediately runs outside to see him, as he gets closer Damien slows. Damien sees different parts of William, half of William's jaw is replaced with robotic parts, one of his eyes is black with a green pupil, half of a green stone in the middle of his chest and he is wearing some sort of black clothing under his overcoat. William reaches out his right arm to Damien, revealing an arm made of a glob like substance. A phantom arm.
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3. The Hooded Man →