This World Is Strange

After Ms. Suzuki helped Clay back to the nursing room, he rested immediately, hoping to recover as much as possible. If the goblins attacked again, he wanted to be ready to defend himself.

"Thank you, Ms. Suzuki," Clay said as he plopped onto the nursing bed, adjusting his body to a more comfortable position.

Ms. Suzuki hummed in response to Clay's gratitude, a small smile lifting on her face. But just as she was about to sit down next to Clay's bedside again, a familiar voice spoke, grabbing her attention.

"Oh, you're back," Takashi's voice rang out.

Unconsciously, Ms. Suzuki sighed internally as her gaze drifted from Clay to Takashi, who, once again, stood by the doorway of the nursing room.

"I was looking for both of you earlier but couldn't find you. Did you guys go somewhere?" Takashi inquired.

In response to Takashi's inquiry, Clay said, "We just went to check on the corpses of the creatures from before."

Hearing Clay's response, Takashi's face slightly softened as a sigh of relief came out of him. Noticing this, Clay quietly made a mental note of this.

"Well, as long as both of you are okay." Takashi smiled, "But going back to the topic I was going to tell you guys about." he began explaining the things he had prepared before.

Currently, Takashi and the other students have made three temporary team names and assigned them tasks.

Explorer: This team was to go outside the school buildings to survey the surrounding areas and bring back information. Their current top priority was to find a source of water.

Food Management: As the name suggests, this team was responsible for bringing back food and keeping everyone fed. If there weren't any food inside the school buildings, they would have to go outside and forage for edible food.

Base Management: Their task was to take care of the home base and keep it in suitable living conditions for the entire group. They were also in charge of moving all debris and sharp objects within the home base and grabbing any soft materials they could find for bedding.

For now, those were the group's names and current assigned tasks. Depending on the situation, changes will be made.

"And so, I came here to ask which group you guys wanted to join," Takashi stated.

Both Clay and Ms. Suzuki sat in silence as they pondered their decision. Before long, Ms. Suzuki said, "I'll join the Food Management group. I can use my knowledge to provide information on where the students can find snacks and food. If I recall correctly, I remember being told there was a storage room for snacks that only teachers and staff knew about." Ms. Suzuki stated her intention, and Takashi nodded his head in confirmation.

After which, Takashi's focus landed on Clay, still deep in his thoughts. After a few more seconds of silence, Clay spoke up.

"I'll join the base management group. Once I recover, I'll help out." Clay spoke promptly, to which Takashi nodded his head in response.

"Alright then, I'll let the others know." Takashi spoke towards Clay before directing his attention to Ms. Suzuki, "Ms. Suzuki, do you mind following me then? We have to start as soon as possible before nightfall."

Ms. Suzuki nodded before following Takashi out of the nursing room, leaving Clay alone in the nursing room. With no distractions from anyone else, Clay's mind soon drifted off to sleep.

As Clay fell asleep, Ms. Suzuki and Takashi were in another room with about a dozen students. The students who couldn't fit in the room due to capacity size stood outside or were in another room. 

Once Ms. Suzuki and Takashi were in the room, all eyes fell on them. Seeing this, Takashi began speaking up.

"Alright, as I'm sure you're aware. Our current situation seems most illogical and surreal. But I assure you, this is reality. This isn't a dream we're having, but reality. This is why I want to address the problems we will face very soon and tackle them before they worsen. First, we already have a defense measure in place, which was blocking the stairway leading to the third floor. Thanks to that, we don't have to worry too much about anything getting in."

As Takashi began to speak, he addressed the food and water problem. This would be solved by the food management and explorer teams, whose main priority was finding a drinkable water source. As for the food management team, they would be in charge of foraging food. Luckily, since Ms. Suzuki was here, they could first search for snacks and other perishable goods at the locations that Ms. Suzuki mentioned.

They don't have to resort to eating unknown berries or other things found in the wild just yet. Hearing this, most of the students sigh in relief. That is until they heard Takashi's following words.

"And so, we need to group ourselves into three teams that we mentioned before. Please state your intended group that you want to join and walk over to that corner so we know." After speaking, Takashi pointed to three corners of the room, indicating the respected group they would be placed in based on where they went.

Of course, most students immediately headed towards food management, followed by base management. Resulting in only three people in the explorer team, Takashi, followed by Anna and Lily.

Seeing this, Takashi grimaces at the sight but chooses not to say anything. He would have liked more people to join the explorer group if possible so that it wasn't just the three.

But then again, with the dangers from yesterday night, perhaps it was better for it to be a small group while the others focused on finding food and fixing the home base.

 With that in mind, Takashi shook off his grimace and began speaking again.

"Alright then, now that we have put ourselves into our respected group. We should start doing our assigned task immediately while the sun still shines." Takashi promptly stated.

After finishing his speech, the three teams began their assigned task immediately. While all this was happening, Clay was still peacefully sleeping in the nursing room, recovering.

As the day continued, the three teams worked diligently without much hassle. At most, there would be slight complaints about their situation. Aside from that, everyone did as they were told.

Once the sun began to dim slightly, the once bright sky illuminated by the sun soon became a tinted orange, signaling minimal daytime left. 

All three teams returned to the home base and back to the same room where they had assigned their groups, reporting their progress on their assigned task.

"For the food management team, we found a stash of snacks and perishable goods. The only problem is that half of the perishable goods we found were crushed to bits. Luckily, the other half, alongside the snacks, still seems to be in okay condition. It should last us about four days or so. But there should still be more areas where we can look for. The only problem is whether or not they have already been crushed under the debris." Ms. Suzuki reported her team's progress as the spokesman of the food management team.

"As for the base management team, we were able to clear out most debris and throw it out the windows, making most rooms on the third-floor tidier and giving us more space to store whatever things we need to do." A girl who seemed to be the designated leader of the base management team began speaking, "But as for the sharp objects we found. We decided to keep them as weapons in case of an attack." The girl pointed towards a small corner full of sharp-looking metal pipes and other sharp objects.

After stating the progress of the base management team, the girl became silent as she had nothing more to say. After that, all the focus was now on Takashi's team, which was in charge of finding water and surveying the area of the school buildings.

"As for us, we were able to find a source of drinking water, a pond, to be exact." Takashi's first few words brought a glimmer of hope into the eyes of the students as most knew that a source of water meant civilizations must be nearby, but that only applied to rivers and such. Hearing that it was a pond, the eyes of the students darkened once more as they listened more to what Takashi had to say.

"I'm not sure if I should be saying this, but while Anna, Lily, and I found the source of water. We spotted a strange animal." Takashi spoke as he heavily emphasized the word 'strange,' Leaving many students to wonder what he meant by that.

But as Takashi began to describe the strange animal in more detail, the eyes of the students, including Ms. Suzuki, began to widen, shocked at what they were hearing.

Takashi described the strange animal that looked like a wolf that was as large as a bear with claws extending to almost about two feet from its paws, and though he didn't get a good look at its maw as it was drinking water, he could be sure it must've had big sharp teeth.

Once Takashi had finished describing the strange animal he saw, the voice from the girl who had spoken earlier about the base management progress spoke out.

"How did you escape? Didn't it see you?" The girl questioned Takashi, full of fear and a hint of doubt that Takashi could get close enough to such a creature without being spotted.

Takashi responded, "I'm not too sure myself. I guess we got lucky, or it didn't care about us," thus leaving more questions to be asked but no way to answer them.

With all that said, the meetings soon disbanded once they confirmed their task on what to do tomorrow, which was essentially the same thing as today's task. The only difference was that Takashi's team was to scout if the pond was safe to get water from before a team would be sent to gather some water before bringing it back to the home base.

Once the progress meeting for all teams was over, they had another problem—the nightly attack of the creatures. But no one wanted to bring up the topic, fearing that whoever did would be designated to handle such a task.

In the minds of everyone in the room, whoever brought up matters about the creatures would automatically be assigned as the person dealing with the creature.

Even if it meant pressuring that person or worse, forcing that person.

And although no one could guarantee the creatures would attack tonight. They also couldn't guarantee that the creature wouldn't attack tonight.

Resulting in the room growing tenser with each passing second. After about half a minute of silence, a voice suddenly spooked everyone.

"As for the night attack of the creatures, I'll handle it." A male voice resounded throughout the silent room, making it louder than it appeared.

But once everyone saw who it was, a look of bewilderment appeared on everyone's face. It was Clay.

With each confident stride Clay took as he entered the room, a strange aura of authority hovered over him, leaving a sense of awe and respect.

"Although I say that, I need a couple of people to help me. It's not like I can handle it by myself." Clay stated promptly.

The tension in the room lessened as Clay took up the mantle of handling the task that troubled everyone, making everyone let out a quiet sigh of relief, glad and thankful that they didn't have to take up the mantle of handling the creatures.

But as they recalled Clay's following word of needing helpers. The room grew slightly tense, although not as much as before.

"Clay! Are you sure you can do this?! Aren't you still injured?!" Ms. Suzuki shouted, worried about Clay's health.

This reminded everyone in the room of the previous night, where Clay was seen killing two of those creatures. But not without sustaining heavy injuries that left him out of commission for an entire day.

Remembering this, everyone began to doubt Clay's ability to handle the task. In fact, wouldn't someone who was at least uninjured do better than Clay, who was heavily injured?

Everyone had that thought, but no one spoke out, fearing they would be assigned to take on the task instead. However, thanks to Ms. Suzuki speaking out first, all the students felt they no longer had to hold back as they began to voice their opinions.

"Yeah, can he even handle those things with his current condition?" One student voiced out.

"I know, right? I don't think he can even kill one of those creatures right now, much less swing a stick at this point." Another voiced out.

The student's voices joined together, mocking Clay's ability to handle the creatures and even downplaying him. Some even went as far as to say that Clay was only doing this to look cool, but he was nothing more than a coward who would run away when the creatures came back.

But unsurprised, none of these voices addressed the claim of whether or not another person should take on Clay's position.

All the students, before they were all transported to another area loved to gossip and spread, which was a common trait that most students shared during school time, as there was nothing to talk about aside from fueling drama and shitting on others to make themselves feel better.

And considering that they were stressed beyond belief by everything that was happening. They needed a tool to vent on, and luckily, they just found one, Clay.

But as all this was happening around Clay, he only smiled with a poker face in response. He did not allow a single emotion to appear on his face. He was like a doll being toyed around by countless children, used as a stress ball, but even so, he still kept that poker smile on his face.

After a while, silence soon dawned on the room again, leaving everyone waiting for Clay's response to their actuation and bashing.

"You are correct. I am indeed in no position to take on this task. But even so, I still wish to take on this task." Clay smiled.

Hearing this, all the students were about to begin another round of bashing, but Clay's following words cut them off.

"Which is why I want to bring an additional person with me," Clay spoke calmly, shutting up all the students who were about to bash him again.

Although Clay spoke calmly as if he wasn't angry at all, in the ears of the students, his words sounded like they came from the devil himself.

This time, no one spoke at all. The room fell in complete silence, with Clay still standing there with a smile.

Seeing Clay's smile, the students felt a sense of unease as they recalled moments ago of all the shit that they had shouted towards Clay.

But now, they were praying that, hopefully, Clay didn't remember who exactly it was that was talking shit about him earlier. Deep down, they knew Clay could easily pick the one he hated most to accompany him.

Although the person Clay picked could refuse, everyone in the room would immediately side with Clay's decision as they didn't want to be the one to be picked next, plus Clay only needed one person.

Only one person needed to be sacrificed alongside Clay to stop the creature's attack. At least, that was the message they got from Clay. And seeing how sturdy the barricade was, they did not doubt that what Clay had told them contained any falsehood.

However, that notation was only because the students didn't want to entertain the idea that more people would need to go alongside Clay, as the number of people required to help Clay fend off the creature's attack increased. This meant that the chances of them being picked next were higher.

But just as the fear and tension in the room began to rise, a gentle voice called out.

"I'll go."

Everyone turned to see who it was and saw that it was Ms. Suzuki. This shocked everyone as they heard Ms. Suzuki's words. Before long, cries of protest about Ms. Suzuki not going could be heard.

"Ms. Suzuki! You can't go! You could die!" One female student screamed.

"Why do you have to go?!" Another female student shouted.

Countless students voice their protest at Ms. Suzuki wanting to go with Clay. But Ms. Suzuki only shook her head in silence as she slowly walked over to Clay.

"Wait, I can go instead! Ms. Suzu-" Takashi shouted, his voice overwhelming all the students as the noise died down to focus on the other male students aside from Clay.

But when Takashi shouted his first few words, his mouth was immediately covered by two pairs of hands. Anna and Lily kept their hands over Takashi's mouth.

Anna then said, "Sorry, Takashi didn't mean that. He's a bit hothead." followed by Lily, who also said, "Don't worry about what he's saying. It's all nonsense."

In contrast to Takashi's muffled screams to Anna and Lily's smile. Everyone only nodded quietly as they barely paid any heed to Takashi's words from before. 

The sharp eyes of Anna and Lily also helped shut up any voices that wanted to mention Takashi's previous claim.

With that said, no one wanted to volunteer to be Ms. Suzuki's replacement. Ultimately, this meant that Ms. Suzuki would be Clay's helper. Short mutterings could be heard as some felt guilty at not being able to help Ms. Suzuki while also muttering curse words towards Clay, who was the source of all of this.

Although they knew it wasn't Clay's fault, they still wanted someone to blame. And who better than the one who brought up dealing with the creature?

As for Clay, his usual poker face was broken, and his brow lifted slightly at the result of the situation. Initially, he had intended to cause chaos amongst the students before randomly picking a few. No one would object to his choosing as he knew they didn't want to be the ones to be picked next.

From there, he and the other chosen students would be picked to defend the barricade. Next, he planned to 'convince' the students that he would protect them and give them a sense of safety, making them slowly depend on him.

This way, he would form a small group independently without causing too much fuss, considering that his reputation would take a dive after this incident. Most students would avoid him from now on, but he would at least have a few 'helpers' whom he could depend on after convincing them. But now, all that was ruined by Ms. Suzuki, who volunteered to be his 'helper.'

His plans were utterly ruined, and his reputation was also tarnished beyond belief, thanks to him being seen as the 'devil' who had dragged their precious teacher with him, who most likely would die in the eyes of the students.

Thanks to that, no one would want to help him anymore and may even avoid him like a plague. Hell, he wouldn't even be surprised If the students began mistreating him by not sharing any snacks or food with him, hoping he'd die from starvation.

Although it would seem illogical to do so, in the eyes of the students who were already frustrated and stressed beyond their limits, logic would no longer matter to them. All that matters is them venting out their stress as much as possible. By the time they notice that they are destroying the only thing keeping them safe.

It would all already be too late. But worst of all, he would also be long dead by then. The destruction of others was acceptable for Clay as long as it wasn't him. But mutual destruction was something that Clay couldn't accept, especially with a group of angsty teenage girls who couldn't control their emotions.

'All thanks to that damn teacher...' Clay internally mumbled to himself as he watched Ms. Suzuki approach him.

Although angry, he couldn't show it on his face, at least not for now.

'Damn, this is not going according to plan.' was all Clay could think of as he accepted the outcome that lay before him.