Chapter 3: Chapter 3: The Department of Aberration Containment

A few minutes later, the broadcast system buzzed to life across the school. The voice speaking through the system was a familiar one, for it belonged to the dean of the school. The only thing was that the dean, a stoic man who many students and teachers alike feared talking to, sounded horrified. His voice was shaking with every word he barked into the radio.

“All students, for god’s sake, shelter in place immediately! This is not a drill! This is not a drill! Lock the doors…”

That was when the voice was cut off. Just like that, the dean was gone. The last thing that passed through the system was the sound of something hitting the ground in a loud ‘thud’ sound.

In one of the classrooms, Athena looked up from her notes and frowned. She was wearing a black t-shirt with her blonde hair tied into a ponytail. This didn't sound right. What was happening? Was there a school shooter? Maybe some sort of earthquake? This was California, after all, but a natural disaster shouldn’t make the dean so scared…

As she was still in her thoughts, the math teacher who had been talking about calculus turned to her students.

“Get behind the tables!” She barked before walking to the door and locking it. She wasn’t too sure of what was going on either, but rules were rules. “Everyone, get behind some cover!”

The students exchanged confused looks before obeying one by one. Athena frowned and joined two of her friends behind one of the larger desks at the back of the room. As the three of them sat down, one of the other girls turned to the young woman, who was deep in thought.

“What’s wrong, Athena?”

“Just confused about what is going on.” Athena replied, quietly running her hand through her ponytail as she continued thinking. “It’s weird, what is happening with the dean.”

“What do you mean?” The first girl, a brunette by the name of Jessica, asked.

“Well, if there is a school shooter, then how did they cut off the broadcast? Did they decide to attack the broadcasting room? If so…why? Most school shooters will try to kill as many people as possible, not cut off communication. And I am not hearing any gunshots.”

“Maybe there has been a shooting nearby?” Jessica suggested.

“Then how did the dean get cut off? Technical difficulties? Seems too coincidental. And the sound at the end…”

“No one seems to know anything.” The third girl, another friend of Athena by the name of Trisha, added without looking up from her phone. “I was texting my friends in the other classes. None of them seem to have heard anything either.”

“It’s probably nothing.” Jessica did her best to comfort her friends. “Maybe the school administration heard some rumors and decided to lock things down just to be safe. As for the radio…who knows? It’s not like the school has the funding to replace old equipment.”

Trisha nodded.

Right beside the two girls, Athena wasn’t so convinced. Even so, there was little she could do but sit tight and hope nothing wrong was happening.

They sat there for a few more minutes, waiting in confusion. Most of the students in the classroom were in a similar state. They briefly exchanged words with each other, but most had their eyes trained on their phones to pass the time.

This all came to a stop when voices suddenly came from outside the wooden door of the classroom. Footsteps. Voices. Many students in the classroom, joined by their math teacher, turned to the door in confusion and horror. They could hear people running down the hallway. Shouting. Crying. What could be causing this?

Before anyone could do anything, someone suddenly started banging on the locked door. It was a girl, and she was screaming in utter horror.

“Let me in! Please!”

“Let me in!”

“Let me in!”

---

Agent Ross of the Department of Aberration Containment sighed as the black SUV he was in sped down the street of Santa Barbara. He tapped his earpiece and frowned as he felt the pain in his ear. It was tolerable so far, but the pain also reminded him of something.

He needed to find himself a new ear soon.

“What do we know so far?” He asked, his voice sounding way too young for his face. Unsurprising, considering neither his voice nor his face originally belonged to him. Like almost every single part of his body, they were gradually added onto him later.

“There has been an incident in a local high school. Central Valley High School. It is likely that an Aberration breached there. We were first alerted about the incident when one of the students called 911 and screamed something about a mask that was killing people by touching them. She then started crying.”

“A killing mask. Fantastic. Not the weirdest Aberration we’ve seen.” Agent Ross sighed. “I guess we should be glad it’s only a mask that kills by touch. What else do we know about the Aberration?”

“I’m sorry, sir. That’s all we know so far. The girl who called 911 wasn’t able to provide any additional information.” The female voice in the earpiece apologized. “911 received calls from a number of other students, but none of them could provide any useful information. They are all terrified.”

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“I see.” Agent Ross nodded. He was hardly satisfied by the lack of information, but that was the common situation for many Aberrations.

“We already have two strike teams at the high school. Strike teams Alpha-7-Kilo and Alpha-9-Zulu. Alpha-9-Zulu has entered the school building. They will try to gather information about the Aberration to aid in its containment. Alpha-7-Kilo has been setting up a perimeter around the school. More reinforcements are on the way.”

Agent Ross nodded, despite knowing his assistant wouldn’t be able to see it. He was sure she got the idea. As he watched things dart by outside the window, he couldn’t help but ask a question.

“How many people are in the high school?”

There was a pause. “Around 4,000 students and faculties.”

“And how many people will still be alive by the time this Aberration is contained?”

“Sir…you know no one can say for sure.” The assistant replied quietly. “If the Aberration’s kill pattern is moderate, then most will live. If the kill pattern is aggressive, well…”

Agent Ross sat there in silence for a while as the car he was in sped on.

“Jesse, we will win this war.” He suddenly whispered. “One day, we will purge every single Aberration from our world. One day, Earth will be safe for mankind once again. One day, this nightmare will end.”

“Yes sir. We will win this war.” Jesse agreed politely.

---

“Sir. Strike team Alpha-7-Kilo ready for action, sir.”

“Have we heard back from Alpha-9-Zulu?” Agent Ross asked. It had been too long since the other strike team entered the building. He knew if there was any information, he would be the first to know. The fact that he wasn’t told anything was terrible news.

“No, sir.” The team lead answered. “We have completely lost contact with them four minutes after they entered the building. None of the team members are responding.”

Agent Ross frowned. The strike teams did have body cams on them when they were on missions, but these body cams weren’t linked to command centers on missions where the kill pattern of the Aberration the strike teams were sent to handle was unknown.

This policy was put in place after a strike team accidentally live-streamed the image of an Aberration with a visual-based attack pattern back to the command center. The moment the staff back in the control room saw the image, the Aberration appeared inside the supposedly safe walls of the command center, exposing even more DAC operatives to the Aberration.

The casualties the DAC suffered that day was more than enough to remind the Department to take extra caution when dealing with enemies they knew nothing about. Against the logic-defying powers of the Aberrations, a single mistake could doom countless people.

Still, the strike team had radios and satellite phones. Sound-based attack patterns were much rarer than visual-based attack patterns, and the radios would only be turned on when the team members wanted to say something to minimize the possibility of the attack pattern spreading. If the strike team was indeed wiped out, then it did so before any member of the strike team could say a word into the radio.

If this was really done by the mask mentioned in the 911 calls, then the mask could likely do a lot more than kill by touch.

“Did any survivor attempt to get out of the building?” He asked again. Usually, most incidents would result in some witnesses fleeing the scene. These witnesses could usually provide important information to the Agents sent to contain the Aberrations.

Once again, the answer was concerning.

“No sir. We didn't see anyone come out of the doors.”

“Then we have a serious problem.” Agent Ross concluded, wisely. “Jesse. Call HQ. Tell them we need reinforcements.”

The Department, for all the influence and resources it had, was very limited on their Agents. Most cities only had one Agent. Agent Ross was the only one stationed in Santa Barbara.

“Are you sure, sir? Perhaps you should attempt to contain the Aberration first?” Jesse hesitated. Once again, Agents were rare and their time was precious. Not every single potential breach required the presence of multiple Agents.

“Exactly.” Agent Ross insisted. “In most cases, there will be at least a few survivors. It would take an especially dangerous and infectious Aberration to breach in a densely populated school and prevent as much as a single survivor from making it out of the building. Either this Mask is extremely powerful, or it may not be alone. Call for reinforcements, Jesse. It is my decision. If anyone thinks it’s a poor call, they can bring it up with me.”

“I see. Yes sir.” Jesse acknowledged. “I will contact HQ immediately, but even if they agree to send help, it will take at least an hour for help to arrive.”

“Well, hopefully the situation is not dangerous as I fear, and by the time they arrive, it will all be over.” Agent Ross shrugged. Despite his concerns, he still had to enter the building and engage whatever horror spawned inside. He couldn’t just sit back and do nothing while a monster was ravaging through a school filled with innocent children. This was his duty. He shouldn’t have joined the DAC if he was afraid of risks. “Sergeant. Get your squad ready. We are moving in.”

“Yes sir.”

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