Matthew+Battley

__**Term One, Piece One

The Civilisation**__

The school was in havoc, people running everywhere, classroom to classroom. Even the principal was in hysterics. The great grey sheet loomed ever closer to the school. All around them, the city was crumpling and dying, the whole life force had been swept away. And still the gases crept on, taking in everything in their stride.

The attack had begun without warning, one day the greatest trouble was the economy, the next people were fighting for their lives within a nuclear holocaust. What Australia had taken offence to was anyone’s guess, but they were here and that was what counted.

Back at the school, the anthill like activity continued, everyone knew they were doomed. But then, without warning, something incredible happened. With an unearthly “crack!” the ground in a one kilometre radius of the school split cleanly and with an almost zero gravity feeling Mount Albert Grammar slid down a newly created chasm. 10 seconds later they hit the bottom, not with a crunch, but a hiss and people once again began to stir. They woke just in time to hear another large crunch as the ground (now a long way above them) slid across to seal the gap they had come down. This fact unsettled most people to an even greater extent (if that was at all possible), as it was the general consensus that they were now sealed in an airtight cave. Coming to their senses people realised that they and the school had been saved from imminent destruction and a puzzled silence swept across the school. Then to add to their thoughts, the darkness encompassing them was interrupted, one by one large lights illuminated the area. The students could now see their surroundings. In a new-found interest, the schools inhabitants began to survey their new domain. It was not in fact a rocky walled cave as they had expected. In fact the walls were filled with technology, more extensive than any person there had seen before. The Students stared in awe.

“Nice isn’t it,” came a voice from behind them. The inhabitants of Mount Albert Grammar rotated in a millisecond flat. “Oh…don’t look so alarmed, it’s only me” groaned the same voice again. The Students eyes darted towards the sound. Before their eyes was a person so old that time itself seemed to distort around him. And yet, beyond the age there was something quite recognisable about him…

To be continued...