As Michael walked out of the classroom with the other students, he noticed that the dread was not confined to his peers. Every student passing him looked as though they had witnessed an incomprehensible concept, as if the truth they had known from birth had just shattered. And that is because it had. When Michael finally sat in his room for the first time, even his normally disruptive roommates did nothing stupid; everyone sat in absolute silence.
In such a quiet environment, I began to ponder why I hate humanity. For yes, they are disgusting, but are they disgusting now? In the world shown in the vision, humanity was beautiful. For the first time in my life, I was grateful to be human, to be alive, to witness such a spectacle. Humanity isn't inherently bad; it is the foreign object. Humanity is tainted by external factors, and hating humans for what they cannot control makes me a hypocrite. But then again, humans also choose how to react to external factors, so do I blame humanity or their reactions? My mind wandered further before my eyes closed from sheer exhaustion. For unknown reasons, witnessing the vision had drained even him, AND SO DID MICHAEL FALL ASLEEP.
The next day, Michael woke up and walked to his next class, observing the towering walls of Emox. He slowly began to realize that those structures were built to survive the unknown, to survive things that did not even logically exist. The walls were plated in thick titanium and layered with a protective barrier maintained by the security corps—EMOXians whose abilities were specialized in defensive forcefields.
When he finally arrived in class and took his seat, he glanced at Eli and smiled, noticing immediately that no one else was smiling or joking. In fact, the only emotions lingering in the room were fear, sadness, and anger.
Speaking of the devil, Mrs. Ali walked into the room. "Good day class, now let's move to the next lesson," she began, but before she could finish, a weapon flashed from the back row. She caught it effortlessly between her fingers.
"YOU BASTARD!" a student yelled from the back, staring in blazing anger. It was Zion, tall and broad-framed. He shouted, "Do you think we are fools? You use some annoying ability and lie to us—what a fucking expensive lie! Do you know how hard we worked to get here, how much our families sacrificed, and then you come into our first class and mock us? You tell us to kill one another, you treat us like disposable sheep, why, WHY?!"
Miss Ali walked over to him slowly with a sorrowful expression. "My dear student, because the way we treat you is the way the enemy will treat you." With that, she struck him across the face so hard his body lifted off the ground, smashing into the opposite wall and crashing through surrounding desks and students.
Just as she turned away, Zion's voice rang out again. The class stared in awe, dumbfounded by his sheer tenacity. "AND SO FUCKING WHAT? BREAK US BECAUSE THE ENEMY WANTS TO BREAK US, AND THEN WE BREAK THE ENEMY! AND WHEN WE FINALLY BREAK THE ENEMY, WHAT IS LEFT TO DO? BREAK EACH OTHER? TRAIN US TO BE ANIMALS OR TREAT US LIKE ANIMALS, AND WE WILL DO THE SAME TO THE FUTURE WITH NO CHANGE!"
Miss Ali, having heard enough, whispered a single command. Zion collapsed straight to the floor as she continued smoothly, as if nothing had happened. "Now class, that was a demonstration of the variation of your abilities, because basic usage will not get past Anomalies."
The class stared blankly, wondering what Anomalies were, but she pressed on. "You see, when the unknown destroyed the world, they also imbued it with negative energy. The reason none of you have ever flown out of this country is not because your parents are poor, but because there is nowhere left to fly to. Half of the globe has turned into a wasteland, expanding because Emo energy permeates everything. Animals out there have evolved into anomalies, plants have grown tenfold, and some have developed intelligence rivalling even the headmaster, our honorable Bola. Your primary duty as students is to learn how to survive there. It is called the Wasteland, a place of nothing but dread. At its center lies a portal, and whoever finds it and reaches the other side might finally discover how to fight the unknown. Given the conditions of the wasteland, finding that portal is nearly impossible—assuming you survive long enough to even try."
Michael, Eli, and everyone else felt their minds slipping. Nothing in their entire lives made sense anymore. Yet she ignored their profound shock and carried on.
"To survive in the wasteland by the end of this year, you must master your abilities, learn novel ways to apply them, and finally understand how to generate Emo from your brain and heart cores. Most of you think emotions are purely abstract, but Emo originates from your brain, while your heart acts as the gear. That is why if you overexert yourself using your brain core, your heart can collapse. You never discovered this before because none of you utilized your powers to such extremes until coming to Emox."
The class was stunned, but a heavier, graver seriousness settled over them as they began accepting reality—right until she delivered her final words. "CLASS DISMISSED, AND YOU WILL NOT SEE ME AGAIN UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR, BECAUSE THE PERSON TEACHING CORE AND POWER USAGE IS NONE OTHER THAN MISS EIMAR."