Trash: Chapter 103 Those Eyes (Patreon)

Chapter 103

Those Eyes

After explaining everything that happened on Saturday night, and how I found Johny with cuts and climbing marks from the courtyard, Mr. Karl said he’d take care of it, well those weren’t his exact words. His exact words were.

“That bastard! If this is true that he brought the Death Eater to the arena, then I will spiritually castrate him with my bare hands,” at that an irate Mr. Karl raised up said intimidating hands and let them glow with an odd sort of golden-silvery power that made me wonder first what a spiritual castration would be, and how it would be performed. Then almost immediately, I saw him making odd gripping type motions with said hands and decided that there were some things that it was okay if I never learned.

After that, he brought me to the end of Mr. Zion’s classroom. For a moment I hoped he could just help me go to music class with Madame Voyou, but he seemed adamant that he needed to move quickly on this information.

Mr. Karl knocked twice on the door, and before getting permission to enter, he opened the door and did that odd turning, ducking, twisting motion he had to do to enter a classroom without hitting his head on the doorframe. The way that his body seemed to move on instinct showed that this was a well-practiced movement on his part.

“Sorry, just dropping this one off,” Mr. Karl said, before gesturing to me and letting me take my place. From the look on Mr. Zion’s face it was clear that he might have been annoyed by the interruption but just nodded easily and gestured for me to take my seat. This time I found that movements were easier, while walking down the cramped aisles between desks, I could feel my body instinctively finding the one open spot on the floor that wasn’t blocked by bags, feet, or books. Each step I took gave me both balance and fluidity to move forward. That’s when I realized that my new Advanced Movements Skill was already paying off as I felt like I was almost skipping from spot to spot.

While I was feeling the effects of my new Skill, I was not lost to the effects offered by my badged Skills, like Eagle Eyed, that allowed me to use my periphery to see Mr. Karl making some type of hand gestures towards Mr. Zion. While I might have missed the look on Mr. Zion’s face, I could tell by his speech that he was flustered.

“Code two?” A flustered and somewhat frightened Mr. Zion responded.

“Yep,” was the one-word response that Mr. Karl provided before leaving. Shortly after that, I reached my seat, at the same time the door to the classroom closed. The effect was almost ominous, as I landed and could feel eyes on me. I felt that most eyes were on me due to my graceful movements, but I really knew it was mostly due to my being late and Mr. Zion seemingly not commenting on that fact. Just when I thought the tension from all eyes staring at me would get to be too much, Mr. Zion saved me.

“All right, who can tell us what we were discussing earlier?” Mr. Zion’s authoritative voice cried out.

“We were discussing the seasonal effects of slimes,” Ithica responded, giving me a knowing sneer after providing the answer.

“Very good, and why is this important?” Mr. Zion asked the class, his eyes scanning the room before a boy, Daniel, raised his hand to respond. “Yes?”

“First it is nearing winter time, when most creatures try to hibernate,” Daniel responded, clearly only giving a partial answer.

“Yes, but is that everything?” Mr. Zion pressed. Finally, he looked around and saw that only Quin still had his hand raised. As if letting out a sigh of reluctance, Mr. Zion paused himself before calling on him, “yes Quin?”

“Slimes are often seen as something spawned by winter, due to their original findings being discovered shortly after winter snows melted and hunters went to check for hibernating prey. The truth is though that slimes can develop anytime that Z-rot infected creatures stay still for a long enough time, while their bodies slowly die and succumb to the infection,” Quin replied showing off his Sage Skill in full form.

“Right, so if slimes can be created at any time, then why are they important to note now?” Mr. Zion asked.

“Because, first it is winter time, and the idea that an infected creature might go into hibernation is a very real concern as we head into winter break. Also, slimes themselves are important to note due to the fact that they are immune to Z-rot infections, but are also acidic to anything that touches them, especially human skin and bones.”

“Very good, you have touched on my next topic, why is this important for us to discuss in history class?” Mr. Zion asked. There was a pause, before another girl raised her hand to respond. “Yes, Olivia?”

“Don’t slime zones constitute natural barriers between Z-rot wastelands and civilizations?” Olivia asked more than answered.

“Yes, you are correct that known slime infested areas are a natural deterrent for Z-rot infected creatures, where it stops most weaker creatures. This was why our ancestors in their infinite wisdom used to set fields of them to help protect our borders. There are just a few problems with this process, can anyone name a few?”

“Well, other than it only stopping the weaker Z-rot infected creatures, it did little to stop the more powerful creatures. The Death Eaters especially found their existence to be beneficial, by all accounts. Also, after the slime fields got to a certain size, they became less manageable and more likely to break natural containments, seeping into water supplies, and deep reservoirs, ruining more lands and ultimately causing most countries who utilized such strategies to lose more ground than the Z-rot monsters managed originally,” Quin responded, his tone overly confident.

“Yes, our ancestors found themselves making many mistakes in the past. Actions that seem foolish today, like cultivating semi-sentient slime cultures to act as a barrier to block the spread of infections were a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that might have been more manageable, had we taken time to combat Z-rot at its source, versus finding ways to avoid it entirely,” Mr. Zion spoke.

As he did, I could begin to see his political views seeping through. He was part of the Actionist party, or those who advocated for fighting Z-rot at its source. This is in stark contrast to the Fortifier party or faction, a group who thinks that taking time to fully evaluate the enemy is more advantageous to ensuring humanity’s survival.

While there were a lot of different themes and values that ultimately caused the splitting of the two major factions into a group of minor factions made up of each. At their core, each of the parties could be summarized down to their slogans.

Actionist party- "Kill the enemy at its source."

Fortifier party- "Let the enemy kill itself through attrition."

Thinking about the parties, I wondered what party Madame Bloom was part of. Then after half a second of deliberation, I realized that Madame Bloom, and the entire party she assembled seemed to be part of the Actionist party. That or they all seemed to portray the Actionist party ideals from their works and actions. I don’t see the Fortifiers going out and closing a rift on a Saturday morning. Then again, protecting the bastions, or safe places for humanity is part of their goals, so I could see how Fortifiers would be willing to help out.

Still, it was interesting. Ultimately, I hate politics, in this life and especially the past, but knowing that this world had similar but different parties trying to control the direction that our government would go was important. At least it was important in trying to figure out how our world would go if either party got in control of finances and budget allocations.

“So are you an Actionist?” Daniel cried out, apparently thinking the same thing I was, based on Mr. Zion’s response. Then perhaps if expecting this very question, Mr. Zion smiled slightly, a smile that showed his teeth and did not go to his eyes. A smile a predator might offer, before biting deep into its prey.

“I am merely pointing out that in this case the Fortifiers, the faction in charge of advocating for the Slime demarcation, could have done better to take a moment to fully research the long-term effects of large slime cultivation on land,” Mr. Zion began, then pausing for a moment to let that thought sink in, he continued.

“This is why we learn History, to highlight the past failures of our ancestors, so that we might not repeat those same mistakes ourselves.”

There was a pause, as everyone sat in silence at Mr. Zion’s last words. Before the bells for the school began to ring and chime out, letting us all know that this class period was now over. For a moment Mr. Zion looked like he wanted to go more into his lecture mode, but then stopped himself.

“Your homework for tonight, identify areas within our own city where slimes might gather and ways we can prevent them from spreading,” Mr. Zion called out.

“Bloom Park, that place is haunted. Everyone knows that slimes are attracted to ghosts,” Daniel called out. As he did a number of students chuckled at his comment.

As for me, I felt myself getting slightly angry at the idea that people would laugh at Bloom Park effectively being designated as a biohazard area that would breed slimes. While I had not seen any slimes, I wanted to check to make sure now. For slimes generally involved dead animals, at least that’s what I thought, but maybe dead and dying trees might also be a source for slimes to build and congregate. With that, I got up, trying to even equate what slimes were exactly. The best my mind could equate them to was an advanced form of fungi. Fungi that had a liquid outer layer, that allowed it to roll on land. Similar to jellyfish from my past life, but these were land-born and able to be split into multiple segments that could each grow up to be their own slime.

I knew fire was a method of dealing with larger slime pools, but that caused toxic smoke and ash to be created. Smoke and ash that would dissolve the slime down into its dormant form, where it would essentially go into its own hibernating form, until it came into water and a form of life. Once those two conditions were met, it would spring back to activity and begin devouring whatever creature it landed upon.

These were my thoughts as I made my way out of the classroom. Going outside, I instinctively stopped and looked around but found nothing. For a second I paused, trying to remember why I stopped, only to realize that Mousey wasn’t here. I then wondered why he wasn’t there, only to remember that he normally spent first period at Mr. Karl’s class, before going to his own second period. That should be fine, but I also remembered that Mousey wasn’t at Mr. Karl’s classroom either. In fact, the last time I saw him was when he was standing next to me on the school steps, waiting to be let in and scanned. For a moment I wondered if he was okay but quickly dismissed it knowing he was fine. He was Mousey after all, too frightened to do anything truly bad, right?

These were my thoughts as I made my way down the hallways towards my second period and arguably my favorite class, music.

As I got closer, I could hear gasps and people stopping to gawk and look into the classroom. I was confused at first, before I overheard the comments.

“She got rid of the eye patch!” One boy cooed.

“Yeah, she looks so beautiful,” another boy replied.

I was at first confused, but then entering the classroom I saw what everyone else was staring at Madame Voyou was there, a giant boxlike structure in front of her that was covered with a blue tarp. The tarp made identifying what the actual shape underneath somewhat tough to identify, but it was clearly tall and rectangular in shape.

For the most part, Madame Voyou seemed to be looking down the covered box in front of her. Only after hearing my lighter walking did she pause, her ears almost twitching as if being alerted to a new sound. That’s when paused and looked up at me quizzically.

That’s when I saw what I had already expected to see, a sight that I had grown used to on Friday night, when I caused this condition, and Saturday when I spent the majority of the morning working with her. Yet, looking at those two deep mesmerizingly blue eyes, I could see why all the boys were gawking and talking about her in the hallways. It was also staring at those eyes that I realized why Mr. Karl was so enamored with her, she was brilliantly captivating.

Then as if seeing me, or rather seeing what I still had strapped over my shoulder, she commented.

“Good, you brought your violin, you will need it for today’s lesson,” Madame Voyou commented.

“I will?” I asked somewhat confused.

“Yes, you will—” was all Madame Voyou said, before smiling slyly and gesturing towards the covered box before her.

And like that, I knew she was up to something.