Terror at School - Prologue
Zain got up from the sofa after tying his shoes. He picked up his backpack from the shelf across the room in the open kitchen and made his way toward the front door of his house.
A moment later, he was past it and out onto the street. It was a sunny Autumn day, with a slight bit of overcast. Leaves rustled on the pavement, which was otherwise thick with dust. Patches of litter also dotted the street all the way to the road junction several meters away. It was towards here that Zain was looking, hands tightly clenching the straps of his bag, and only a moment after he had exited his home, a bus arrived, its engine howling in the otherwise quiet morning.
The monster of a vehicle screeched to a halt near where Zain was standing, and the door popped open; the bus conductor, a tall, lean man, turned his gaze at him. Zain hopped onto the bus through the steps at the entrance and looked towards the back of the bus, its rows of seats filled with other children, all of whom seemed rather quiet. He made his way towards the back, and before he had eventually found a seat and sat down, the door had shut, and the vehicle started moving again.
He peered through the side window of the bus as it moved across the narrow streets and lanes of his neighborhood, lost in thought as he looked at the dusty surroundings, the shanty-looking houses, the open sewage lanes, and a few empty but litter-filled patches of land. His backpack was lying on the empty seat next to him. And despite a few more halts and a few more kids entering the bus, no one bothered to sit near that chair, occupying others instead, even those furthest to the rear.
About 15 minutes or so elapsed, and the bus came to halt on a wide, concrete pavement next to a large building with a high fence all around it. This was the Nexus Public School, where Zain came to 5 days a week. The conductor again opened the door, and the children, already bracing themselves for the eventual exit, jerked towards it as if in a flow, streamed out of the bus, and moved onto the main gate of their school.
Into this flow, Zain too merged himself, and in a few moments, he was out. He adjusted his backpack on his back, arms inside both its straps, and like the rest of the children, started moving along that sea of people.
But he was not going to his school. Not today. Not yet. There was unfinished business left to be done. And no one seemed to notice when he skirted by the side of the fence and into the alley by the school.
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With the last bit of the mud in place, Zain threw the mini-shovel to the side near his backpack and collapsed by a shrub. It had taken him most of the school day and there was a lot of dirt on his clothes. He could explain it away easily enough though, playing around, bullies, etc. All that mattered was that his task was complete.
And as he picked up the bone in his hand, a grin spread across his face.
NAVIGATION
Terror at School
- Prologue
- Chapter 1