Xavier groaned in pain, his eyes opening not to see sunlight or darkness or clouds like he was in heaven or a nasty smile of a demon grinning at him confirming he was in hell. No, he looked up to see a wooden ceiling.
He couldn't feel his hands or his legs. He struggled up to a sitting position grimacing in pain. He froze staring at his hands. They were bruised, swollen, rough like he had spent his whole life doing manual labour, and this was the result. He gulped back saliva.
"What the hell is going on?" He whispered in fear.
He tried to move his hand and discovered he was chained. Black, strong chains that held in one place, practically making sure he couldn't move them. He stared at his lap and then froze. He was wearing rags, more like a sackcloth used to hold turnips and yams in a farmhouse. And now he was wearing it.
"This is impossible," Xavier whispered in shock. "Wasn't I wearing clothes?"
Then it hit him. Recent memories slam into his head like an out-of-control train smashing into a huge wall like a miss. He remembered everything. The trip, normal chaos in the bus, a dead person, and then the explosion, and now he was here.
Xavier frowned in thought. He should have died. There was no way of getting out of that, and now he was here.
He looked up and then he froze. He could see them. All his classmates were here! Every single one of them. They were a sorry sight.
Packed like sardines, chained, rough, filthy like they hadn't bathed in three years. The guys were wearing sack clothes like him. The girls wore cloth only on their bosom and then on the lower half. But the clothing was terrible. Some of the girls' breasts were poking out like dogs on a mission. Not like anyone cared about that.
Xavier shrank back. If they were like this, then that means he wasn't an exception either. He turned to his right and was both shocked and then relieved to see Brian beside him.
But Brian wasn't smiling at all. He was scared, shocked, and fidgeting, clearly sweating that he couldn't move his hands or legs.
Xavier noticed most of his classmates had woken up. Surprised was the last word on their list. They were pissed, sweating bullets, and whispering loudly among themselves.
That was when Xavier noticed that he was in a huge carriage that was being driven. Apparently, the occasional bumps had awakened his brain to process it.
That means one thing, he thought. They were being driven somewhere, and by their clothes, it didn't need a detective to know they were slaves or something.
The whispering in the carriage had increased to a noise. The teenagers were scared, complaining, and some were crying, they wanted to go home.
"Dude," Brian Croaked. "What is going on? Where are we?"
"I don't know," Xavier confessed. "Just calm down. It'll be over soon."
But his classmates weren't calming down at all. The voice increased by a few decibels, amplifying the voice to shake the wooden carriage.
Suddenly, without warning, lightning erupted from underneath the carriage, coursing over the entire wooden carriage, directly shocking everybody in the carriage.
Screams of pain erupted as the lightning intensified. Xavier arched his back in pain, his eyes rolled to the back of his head groaning like a bad engine.
Then the lightning stopped.
The students slumped in their uncomfortable position. Some groaning, some crying silence because of the pain. Xavier was no exception. He coughed out his lungs, grimacing at the pain.
"Are you rats finally done with the noise?" A voice quietly called out from outside the carriage.
There was silence.
"Good." The voice-sounding male spoke, obviously taking the silence as a yes. "Keep your freaking mouth zipped."
"Tell them, mate." Another voice spoke. "Can't believe these are the things the goddess brought from their shit hole to come here and become heroesWhWhat a load of bullshit."
"I know." The first man spoke. "But the citizens demanded it. The goddess couldn't lose face as the king had ordered it. But why was it from that shit hole of a planet?"
"Guess we'll never know." The other replied. "At least the females are fine. Would have had my way with them if only the goddess weren't strict about time."
"I know how you feel." The first replied, and they burst into
laughter.
"Oh, shit," Brian whispered.
Xavier turned to him. "What?"
Brian met his gaze. "We've been summoned. Actually freaking summoned. And instead of being treated like privileged people, we're actually nuisances in their eyes."
Xavier swallowed in fear. He had seen that look on Brian so many times. Brian was serious. And it made sense. Now they were here to become heroes. Everybody here.
Derek was shivering. Xavier looked at him.
"I can't believe it." He whispered, everybody staring at him. Then his face morphed into an excited smile. "We're going to be heroes! This is a dream come true. I can finally kill and experiment on dead bodies. "
The whole class gazed at him in annoyance. This guy was truly infuriating.
Brian scowled at the boy like he was a dog who accidentally pooped on his shoe.
Xavier stiffened but didn't sag anything, only silently wishing this guy would stop his spouting.
Then the carriage stopped. Xavier heard it groan before rolling to a stop. Immediately there was silence in the carriage. Xavier waited with bated breath, his heart beating.
He heard footsteps drawing closer to the back of the carriage. Suddenly, the doors were yanked open. Sunlight fired into the students' eyes like lasers. Everboy couldn't help it. They all winced like vampires afraid of the sun as the harsh light slammed into their eyes.
A muscular man stood a the door. Tall, hairy, with a stubble on his chin. A gruesome scar tattooed on his face like an imaginative masterpiece gone horribly wrong. The man wore silver armor, sunlight bouncing off it.
He stared at everyone in the carriage. Then his face broke into a nasty smile that made Xavier swallow in fear.
"Welcome, " He announced, still smiling. "To your new world."