Prologue

PROLOGUE

Friday 4 November 0720

A day like any other. Depressing. Gloomy. Grey.

Morning. Fatigue. Boredom.

But it would be the end of it all. All they had to endure was a few more hours, and then they would be free. Or so they thought.

Last day of school, but nothing was much different. Talking, weiqi, stoning.

Ashley looked at his watch and it was already 7:21. He checked it with Fang Jin who was sitting next to him, and his watch wasn’t fast. The bell had failed to ring.

Norman was the first to stride out of the classroom as usual every morning. He tried hard to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He shook the handle hard, but it seemed locked. “What the fuck?”

Ngiam, sitting right next to the door, heard him. “I can’t open this fucking door. I think it‘s locked.” Ngiam laughed and confidently reached out to open the door, but Norman was right. The door really was locked.

“Huh? I just walked in from the front door just now. Did someone lock it by accident?” Ngiam was puzzled.

Norman walked to the back of the classroom, pushing past the obstructing group of people who were still engrossed in their game of weiqi. He tried the door. Locked too.

“What the fuck? Both doors are fucking locked?” Norman yelled.

“Really?” Quek tried opening it, but to no avail as well. He slammed himself against the back door. Nope.

“It’s locked? I’m sure…” Bernard said.

“It’s true, some fucker locked us in…” Norman said.

Bernard laughed upon hearing his use of that word. “Relax. Then don’t go astroturf lor. We have excuse to pon assembly.”

“Shit,” Gabriel tried to kick the door. “Really cannot!”

Everyone slow began to realise what was going on, even the blurrest of people like Ling Zhang. Pretty soon, everyone in the class wanted to try opening the door, but nothing worked.

Wen Tao said he wanted to use his godly powers to open the door. Like that worked.

Ashley quickly switched on his phone so that he could call for someone to find out what was going on. To his surprise, the side bar showed zero reception.

Woonie and Mervyn tried inserting an unbent paper clip wire to pick the lock in the same way that the classroom console gets picked. The clock struck 8.

Everyone was lost in the commotion. What they didn’t notice was a white gas slowly being emitted from the air con system.

Mark, who was sitting right under the air con suddenly fell to the floor. Then Aaron Chen and Aaron Tan. Followed by Roger.

And they fell one by one, by one, by one.

Until silence reigned.

Chapter 1