Realistic or Modern Detention - IC

[Mitheral]

Previous day

“Diane!” Her adoptive parents were shouting for her. “Can you come to the dining room? We need to talk.” As soon as she entered the room they told her to sit down. “The school called. Would you know anything about someone pouring skunk spray all over another student’s car upholstery?”

Diane nodded. She never lied to the Millers.

Her father started to laugh. The Tyvek suit? Painting gear? The shower. You conned your little brother into helping?” But the man was laughing.

“Jonathan! We are not encouraging this!”

Jonathan Miller looked at his wife. The man was a former US Marine. But even he saw the justice in this. “Of course not. Bad Diane. Bad Diane.” He didn’t sound severe and was still laughing.

Isabelle Miller couldn’t help but join in.

“This is about the guitar, isn’t it?” Mr Miller asked. One of the boys at school had filled Diane’s practice guitar with smelly garbage. He and Diane had spent the weekend cleaning it and rebuilding it, giving it a nice pine fresh smell. But it had taken a lot of work.

“Yes sir. Karma. I know it wasn’t very mature. But the punishment did fit the crime.” Diane smiled.

Her mother had to put her foot down. “Well, you will have to face the mus--.” She stopped and winced, deciding not to finish her sentence. Jonathan had started laughing again. She had to give him a light backhanded slap. He was NOT helping. “Well, at least you were honest with us. That said, we will let you decide what you should do.”

+++++++++

With the teacher gone the students in detention all found themselves stuck with what amounted to strangers. Well, Diane was new to the school. James was a foreign exchange student. The others were all from different cliques. Diane seemed like anything but a troublemaker. The scars on her wrists suggested she had some real problems. James was the newest super athlete. The Coach was practically in love with him. Their being here made no sense.

Of course, noone wanted to talk first. So Diane took the lead. “Sooo, what did everyone do to wind up here? Excuse me, allegedly do.” As expected she was initially greeted with silence. “Come on. We have to sit here. We may as well pass the time.”

James would have been just as happy sitting in silence. But he finally smiled. “Well, I got looked at by a girl. Not my fault, but some of the guys didn’t like it. So they were giving me grief. Not saying I did anything. But they all found tampons in their lockers. I guess they took it personally “

Diane rolled her eyes. Harmless, but she wasn’t surprised that a bunch of jocks got bent out of shape about it. When the lists of crimes finally got to her, she smiled. “Circumstantial evidence. Supposedly someone poured skunk scent all over the head cheerleader’s car upholstery, ruining her date with a certain quarterback.” She snickered. “My parents turned me in.”

++++++++

Sharing laughs about how they all got themselves into trouble at least passed the time. And they also had time to interrogate James a bit about the fact that he was British and what he thought about America. Somewhere along the way they found out why he was so good at sports. His father was a Royal Marine that had gone into pro football (what Americans call soccer). The man also was a semi pro MMA champ. James didn’t seem to care much for most team sports. He preferred extreme sports.

Diane looked over at the Hourglass. “Guys, time’s almost up.” As they watched. the last grains passed through. Sand and Hourglass gave a brief flash and the whole room shook briefly. Then everything was silent once more. For a long time noone moved. Then it was up to one of them to be the first out the door. What awaited them was a shock.

https://www.demilked.com/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/gothic-dystopian-postapocalyptic-surreal-paintings-zdzisław-beksinski-26.jpg

The school was gone. All that remained was their classroom. The walls on the outside looked as though the room had been plucked out of the school severing electrical cords.

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[brightkings]

Elliot hadn’t been expecting much from detention. The most trouble he’d ever been in at school previously was when he was sent to the timeout corner for ten minutes, and the only experience he had with proper detention were the scenes in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. He was fairly sure sending students to a forest full of monsters was illegal in real life, but what would he know?

His parents had called a cab for him. That was fine. He didn’t want to spend thirty minutes or so in a silent car. Also because it had smelled like his mother’s new perfume that smelled more like skunk spray than whatever the French, cursive title actually meant. He was reasonably confident the word cheese was involved in some manner. No matter, he wouldn’t know anything. After all, he was being sent to a room along with the British (though the accent was a tad suspicious) boy who put actual tampons in everyone’s locker and the girl who poured actual skunk perfume onto the resident Regina George’s car. Those two actually belonged there. In his eyes, what he did was barely of any concern. So what if he’d brought a lighter? They were lucky it hadn’t been a firework, or a gun.

Also, the tampons were disgusting. He didn’t know whether it was targeting him exactly, but they were still disgusting.

~~~
WELCOME TO DETENTION!!!

How fun. There weren’t even that many people to judge here, which was a big turnoff for Elliot. And the teacher seemed to belong in an episode of Criminal Minds, with the smile and the creepy Hourglass. No matter, he’d just distract himself with whatever the weather was. Slightly cloudy, apparently.

Then the two he had been finding the most likely false faults of had started talking. Whatever, he decided. He was going to end up miserable and disappointed in himself either way.

Once the James guy had finished talking, he chimed in, “I brought a Lightsaber to school. Apparently our principal’s not the biggest fan of Star Wars. Don’t know what his problem was; just trying to save the galaxy.”

~~~
Time seemingly passed by quicker when you weren’t staring at the clock. Or in this case, the grains of sand.

When the top bit emptied, there was something that Elliot likened to the feeling of hyperspace. And then the weather changed. Everything changed.

“If this is another prank of you lot, I swear to god, I will bring my Lightsaber out.” Not the best threat he had, but it was the only one that didn’t have a swear in it. If the teacher caught him, he’d probably have to spend another day in detention.

But the teacher didn’t seem to be here, wherever here was.

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[rakshasa]

Pia was unfamiliar with the school’s secretary and staff responsible for discipline. She was always the quiet kid that stayed out of trouble; which didn’t particularly mean she wouldn’t film the occasional fight video from the cafeteria, or skip the last class of the day when she was feeling bored. She wasn’t innocent, but she’d never gone this far breaking the school rules before. Her auntie was surprised with her as well, but she couldn’t get far into chewing out Pia without causing the girl to cry her eyes out.

P sat in the wooden desk uneasy, attempting and failing to focus on a sketch for AP Art. Her stomach hurt, knowing she was surrounded by ‘bad kids’ and at any moment she could be asked something and put on the spot. She shifted uncomfortably every few seconds, trying not to make eye contact with the upperclassmen, ignoring their conversation starters. One kid was responsible for vandalizing another student’s car, the other for a prank. She definitely didn’t belong here.

The teacher made her a bit uncomfortable as well, especially with his massive, storybook-like hourglass. As long as she could ignore him though and he wasn’t passing out a quiz, she couldn’t really care less about his presence, or lack thereof.

She almost jumped, a little startled when one of the older kids called out to her, asking what she had found herself in detention for. She could feel her face heat up as the eyes of her peers turned to her. All of the English she had learned for years had up and left as she was put in the spotlight. “U-um… possum accident… was me.” She pieced together what she remembered about english to stutter her confession out. It wasn’t the worst thing anyone in the room had done.

A few more minutes passed as she made slow progress on her sketch. She was in the middle of drawing the outline of hair on the model she was drawing when a sudden flash of light caused her hand to fly off her paper, leaving a long grey mark where she had dragged her pencil. Before she was able to erase it, the room shook with an intensity like an earthquake; when it stopped, everyone was silent. No one could say what just happened. The weather had changed, and the view from the windows no longer showed the field near the school. This… wasn’t happening. There’s no way this could be happening. Something is wrong. Pia looked down at her lap, tears welling in her fear-twisted face. Something was definitely wrong.

brightkings Mitheral MePersonally

 

[MePersonally]

"Detention."
When the teacher said the word that had been building on her trembling lips for about a second, Amy nodded and a smile formed on her face. It wasn't the first time that word was spoken and it definitely wouldn't be the last time, either.
"Does that make you feel better, now?", she asked, looking at the teacher's trembling hands, "nothing else you can do about me, really."
She kept eye contact with the teacher until the woman backed off and went back to the front desk, where she continued talking about boring stuff and Amy went back to drawing on her desk. A skull, a knife, someone with a huge stab wound. Was she trying to figure out what it looked like to kill someone? That surely was what the teacher believed. And maybe, maybe she was even right. Noth that she cared much about what the teacher thought... But her being scared of Amy was definitely a fun option.

*****

Amy sat on her usual desk in the corner, drawing on the desk with a pencil she had found in one of he tables. Maybe, she sould buy a sketchbook for her special studies, she thought, but that would be a reason to stop puttig her art anywhere else than in there. She just really liked being seen vandalizing the place, because the thought of stopping that was kind of aversive.
She only looked up when she heard the teacher speak. He wasn't the usual guy who came in here when they were sitting in silence. And who the hell put an hourglass on the front desk anyway? The whole situation was weird enough to peak Amy's interest, so she put the pen down and watched the teacher leave. Something was off, very off today. Nothing was the way it was supposed to be and the others didn't even notice. She looked around, realizing that there were no familiar faces whatsoever. What a weird detention day.
“Sooo, what did everyone do to wind up here? Excuse me, allegedly do”, a girl asked. Amy didn't know her, but then again, she really didn't pay attention to people around her, if they weren't important or loud. What a stupid question! What an innocent way to start a conversation. Amy rolled her eyes and stayed quiet, listening to what the others had to say. Information was good, she could use it against them if she needed to.

So, apparently there was Diane, the weird girl who had asked the weird question. She seemed to be quiet and likeable, for the most part. Then there was James, some british guy or whatever, who thought he was sooo handsome and cool, the way he talked about himself. Elliot seemed to be a nice guy. A little different from the rest, she liked that. And thn there was that art girl, who practially jumped on her chair. She seemed upset, nervous. Amy wanted to laugh about her, but deemed it inappropriate, even for her standards. She was definitely the most vulnerable one in here, she didn't even say her name out loud, just stuttered some incoherent words.

***

Time passed like it always did in detention, somewhere in the middle of painfully slow and too fast to actually get to know the people she was with. Amy liked to know things about her fellow students, even though she wasn't really interested in making contact with any of them. She was an outsider and everyone knew that. She was fine with that role and had no desire to change it.
Oh. Finally. The glass had run out, they could leave. Amy put the pen in her pocket and got up, exiting the classroom... Only to find herself in a wasteland. She blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes, but this was definitely real.
"The fuck...", she mumbled and shook her head, but at the same time, she felt that tickling creep up her spine. That special feeling when she was involved in a mystery, something dangerous. With a shit eating grin on her face, she went back inside the classroom.
"Guys! Look at that shit!"
Oh how giddy she was all of sudden! But what she found inside the room was an utter disappointment. Confusion, fear, the girl with the sketchbook even cried. Amy rolled her eyes.
"Get yourself together, really now", she snapped at the crying girl, as well as all the others; I don't know what happened, either. But this is f*in exciting!"
She waited for the others to contradict, or agree, whatever, really. She already knew what she was going to do. With a practiced movement, she pulled the knife out of her boot and marched towards the door.
"I'm gonna go explore now, anyone with me?"

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[Mitheral]

Note: The perspective in the image is off a bit from the scene.

Day 1

Diane stepped out and surveyed the scene. They were upon a high ridge that loomed above lowlands. In the distance - about 9-10 miles was a large river that ran north - south. Further in the distance off to the WNW was an outcropping of mountains. Then she recognized the land. It was so different. But she knew exactly where she was. She felt a knot in the pit of her stomach.

“Wait! Uhm … “ She looked around on the ground. This was bad, really bad. She looked up and pulled her sunglasses down to study everything, then pushed her sunglasses back onto her nose. “I know what this structure is. But don’t try to walk on it. It’s a long way down. I think this was one of those lookout points for a scenic outlook, where there would be telescopes you could feed quarters.” She pointed. “I think this is Sandia Peak. Problem is, I just spotted three different species of plants I have never seen here before. I came here once. That river and valley out there? I think that’s the Rio Grande. Albuquerque should be down there. And that crater far to the south? I think that used to be Kirtland AFB. We’re in the future.”

“That’s impossible,” James shook his head.

Diane looked at James. “No, it’s very possible. I have a friend who knows physics. He said that travelling forward in time is easy. We do it all the time. We can speed it up or slow it down. It is reversing direction that is hard, but theoretically possible with a Bose-Einstein bridge. I agree with her,” she indicated Amy. “The F sounds about right.

“Here is the way I see it. That Hourglass (HG if folks want to abbreviate) is likely the culprit for our situation. I was watching when the sands ran out. All the shaking and stuff started the instant the sand was done draining. The shaking lasted 10 seconds. Then the glowing stopped. Now we are here.

“I am guessing that the HG is also likely our only way back. I’d say we better take very good care of it. We have no idea if it will work again. How to make it work. How often it can work. How to control it.

“We have no food, no water. And we are on top of a mountain. Water will be scarce. We are above the edible food line. We need to get down the mountain. But that is a 2000 foot cliff. It is about 12 miles south to the pass; then 18 miles west to the river. That is 2 days without water. But there may be a settlement in the Pass. It was also known as Highway 66 or I-40. We can get some water from cacti.

“I don’t know if any of you can see it, but there is a small town down there by the river. If you look carefully, you just make out signs of smoke plumes. But that doesn’t mean we’ll be welcome if this is some post-apocalyptic future. If we go north, it is only about 16 miles to the river, but much harder terrain and no people at the end.

“For me this is easy. I’m used to this. You with the knife. Don’t lose it. Just might save our lives. If anyone else has any ideas, by all means, bring them up. Just telling you what I know about this place. I imagine there is far more that I don’t. But I have to agree with Amy about exploring. Normally when you are lost, it is better not to go wandering. But the truth is, noone has any idea we are here. Not a prayer someone will come looking for us. We have no food and water, so remaining here is death.”

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[brightkings]

"Wait, wait, hold on. You're used to this?"

Elliot was decidedly not used to this. He hadn't any idea on what this even was. He'd been paying enough attention in Physics class to know that Doctor Who was completely fictional. Then, he'd wished it was real. Now, he cursed the creative mind of Sydney Newman. Maybe this was the effect of a drug. This was detention in high school, after all. Some stoned halfwit could've been in here just a week ago, and left their bag of devil's lettuce near the air conditioner. After an hour, he'd inhaled enough to share some sort of induced nightmare with the rest of these delinquents, and here he was. That made much more sense than time travel, right?

Elliot knew the answer was no, but denial was a specialty of his.

"You know what, never mind that. Just make sure I don't have to keep the HG. I'm going to trip on something and break it, I'm sure. So, you know what, if you guys want to go exploring, that's cool with me. Just one condition: we are not killing anybody. Mortally injure, sure, but killing is off limits."

Another light bulb went off in his head. The teacher. There had been something weird about that man, and his general sociopathic aura told Elliot that he probably wouldn't mind if a bunch of children were trapped in, if Diana was right, the future. A post-apocalyptic future, with maybe hostile people and maybe the place of their death.

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[MePersonally]

Amy's face lit up as Diane spoke. So, she wasn't all that weird, but kind of useful. She knew that kind of mind trick, her brother could do that as well. It was called an idetic memory, keeping information that it shouldn't be keeping. Right now, it was good. The only thing that Amy didn't like at all was the way she was holding herself, like she was the one who knew everything, like she was the one in charge. She might have the information they needed, but she definitely had no idea what was going on herself.
"And who put you in charge, missy?", she asked, as she started wandering around the classroom, opening all the drawers and cupboards that she could find, "Last time I checked you were a f*in twig, not even strong enough to raise yourself on a bar." She looked around the group of people. "I say we go the shorter way. No people might not be a bad thing, they might be nuclear mutants or something. Plus, I can deal with harder terrain. We should gather everything we have in one or two backpacks, so we don't have to carry too much stuff around with us. I say we leave everything non vital here and then get the hell away from here."

When Elliot made a comment about not killing anyone, Amy scoffed and almost started laughing.
"What's the matter? Scared of a little action?", she teased and shrugged, "You don't have to kill anyone, but if my life is in danger, I won't hesitate."
At least she was being honest. Maybe, just maybe, she would even enjoy it.

Rummaging through the room, Amy found a few chalks, an old compass, two pairs of scissors, a few pins from the pin-wall and a few questionable artworks. With a determined glance, she dropped all those things on the table in the front and the started emptying her pockets. Her phone, her wallet and her lighter were added to the pile of things. Next, she emptied her backpack, but the only thing useful in there seemed to be her headphones.
"Okay, that's all I have", she stated and looked around at the others, "Your turn."

Waiting for the others to empty their pockets as well, the girl walked up and down the room, arms crossed behind her back. Like a military commander, she made sure everyone complied to her orders.
"Okay, now. What do we do with all this?", she asked, gesturing towards the pile of things, "I mean, we can use those scissors as weapons. The compass for directions and the chalks... Well. They burn pretty."
She shrugged and looked around the weird group once more, just to get a sense of what she was dealing with, before she took charge of this mess.

Mitheral rakshasa brightkings

 

[Mitheral]

James looked Diane over. She did look a little rough. She had great muscle tone, but looked sore. That could have happened for a number of reasons. Then he looked at Amy. Finally Elliot. He shook his head, looking back at Diane. He hadn’t liked the attitude Amy had given Diane. “What were the roads like in each direction? And how sure are you about our location?”

Diane nodded. “Pretty sure. One way to be certain though. About 60-70 yards that way we should find some old ruins. Probably nothing left but some of the concrete foundation. Sandia Tram was the third longest single span tram in the world. Asphalt roads, gravel sides. Windy twisty…”

“No. Sorry, I meant the terrain around the roads. You know, I doubt the roads even exist anymore. But rougher terrain does NOT sound like a good idea. If anyone gets hurt, they die. We won’t be able to carry them. I am in good shape - better than any of you, I’d bet. But we should go in the direction that the - how did you put it Amy - an F-ing twig - can make it. We leave noone behind. Diane? Your call.”

Diane winced. James had put her on the spot. “Sorry, I was in a car accident. So I am still a bit banged up. Some of my hobbies are rock climbing, jogging, gymnastics, and such. And I have taken some self defense courses. I’m not completely helpless. Let’s gear up and I’ll think about it.”

She walked over to a desk, flipped it over and started trying to kick the table top off. James looked puzzled. “I need … oh wait … “ She walked out and found the largest rock she could pick up and throw hard. “This should do it.” She walked over to the wall and slammed the rock into the cinder block a few times, opening the wall up, exposing wiring. She dropped the rock and grabbed the wiring and yanked hard. Before long she had about a dozen feet of multiple lengths of wire. She twisted a 4 foot length of several strands of wire and held it up. “Garrote. Now to make a flail. James?”

James shook his head. “Just a garrote. If any Mad Max types pop up in the desert and have guns, none of this does us much good. But if they come at us with melee weapons, I’ll have all the weapons I need.”

Diane looked around. “Trash bag. We need that.” She checked to see if there was an empty left in the can under it. There was - two, in fact. She offered one to Amy. “For collecting water. Someone needs to bring the screen. Makes a good shade source.”

James looked at the mess Amy was making. He shook his head. Instead he walked over to the HG and picked it up. He placed it back in the box. Then he walked over and grabbed up some of the wiring to wrap the box up like a Christmas Present, created a loop on top for ease of carry. Then he got started on his backpack. He dumped out his books. “Just my laptop - it’s a mini. Got my cell phone, iPad, and some art supplies.”

Diane looked over. “I really don’t want to repack everything. Laptop - you do NOT want me to lose that - art supplies, video cam, digital cam, smartphone, cyber gauntlets, hard drive, zip drives, my sunglasses and earplugs. Little bit of makeup, financial stuff.”

James nodded. “Direction?”

Diane sighed. She really didn’t want to choose. She really DID want to take the easier road. By the same token, she didn’t really want to piss anyone off. “If we take the rough route, I am probably going to slow people down a little. I am sorry. I got run over - literally. Amy, I put me in charge. I know the area. I have survival training - specifically in this location. But I also happen to agree with you. James, as much as I appreciate it, she’s right. A mountain pass - if it is populated - is also ideal for an ambush site. If the terrain wasn’t so bad, I’d suggest waiting until nightfall. In fact, that isn’t a bad idea. We can manage without sleep for a night. I would guess it is afternoon. Best time to hit the desert starts about 4 PM. 1000 to 1600 are the hottest hours.

“ We take the north route. But we take it slow. When we get down to lower latitudes we can squeeze some cactus for water. If it gets too rough to travel we can make camp and take off again in the early morning as soon as we can see better.”

James nodded. He was clearly listening to Diane - or rather NOT listening to Amy.

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