Reduct

Anglo-Western High School was amid a food crisis in Reduct. The lunchrooms were not
being supplied with enough resources to make food for all the students. The students gathered
in the cafeteria to construct a protest outside the school for the government to fund the schools
with enough money for nutritious meals. The governments shut down the sector and refused to
provide help since they had declared war with another country and they were preparing the
military. War and famine struck the high school. Mayhem erupted in the halls as students were
starving and fought for survival. Among the students was a small group of survivalists. Bill the
natural born leader, Sierra was an expert on technology, Skye was a delinquent, and Alex was a
coward. They were known as the Misfits. Through the leadership of Bill, the group was able to
maintain a barricade and support themselves in the teacher’s lounge. The teachers had
evacuated and had left the students behind. The Misfits devised a plan to travel to the tenth
floor and conquer the cafeteria. As they prepared to journey through the school, the walls begun
to shake. Plaster fell from the ceiling and the walls started to crack.

Before any of the Misfits could react, the wall collapsed and there stood four jocks with a
weight lifting machine in their hands. The Jocks started making war cries, dropped the machine,
and charged the Misfits. Alex and Skye dove out of the way. Bill was knocked into the counter.
Sierra managed to trip one of the Jocks. Bill picked up a mug from the counter and struck the
Jock on the forehead, causing him to fall unconscious. The other jocks who charged crashed
into the cabinet doors. The Misfits used their time wisely and darted out of the room. Alex and
Sierra picked up Bill over an arm each and left. They cautiously walked down the hallways. The
door that leads to the weight room was left wide open. The Misfits decided to take the room and
claim it as their land. They searched the room and found provisions to last them a few hours.

A few hours later, the Misfits continued their journey to the cafeteria. They scoured the
rooms and took all the available resources. Granola bars, candy, halfway eaten sandwiches.
The Misfits took provisions of every kind. In room 406, they encountered several other students
who were huddled around a small fire which was flickering from what seemed to be old English
textbooks. The Misfits slowly walked closed the door and continued to forage. They hear a
rustling sound coming from behind them and as they all turn around, two of the students from
the room and five other students who were wearing shrouds lept from the side rooms and
surrounded the Misfits. The two “leaders” of the group, who called themselves “The Saviors,”
explained that they had been low on food and that they must scavenge the remaining resources
off of wandering groups. The two were brothers, Zack and Cody, who had been separated from
their sister, Sabrina, when the shutdown began. The Misfits decided to help the group of
stragglers. The group agreed and the congregation set forward to find Sabrina.

The room was void of light and, as far as Sabrina could see, there was only one window.
She tried to get up but immediately fell down due to the rope around her wrists holding her down
to a pipe. She began to panic but noticed a pencil sharpener lying nearby. She reached with her
legs and brought the sharpener closer to her. She smashed the sharpener with her foot and
then dragged the pieces to her hands. She grabbed the razor and began cutting the rope until
she sprung free. She got up and walked over to the door and opened it to reveal a long corridor.
She checked in all directions and snuck through the hallways. She didn’t know why she had
been taken. All she could remember is that one second she was with her brother and then
everything went black. When she approached room 502, she realized that she was on the fifth
floor. She had to find her brothers because she would not be able to survive on her own. She
walked towards the stairwell when all of a sudden, a bellowing groan echoed throughout the
stairs and the halls.

Alex groaned loudly and leaned over the stair railings. Bill gave him a stern look since he had
warned Alex not to eat too much candy yet Alex did just that. While he was leaning out of the
staircase, he decided to look up and saw the face of what he believed to be an Angel. Their
eyes locked and it seemed as if time had stopped. He began to travel up the stairs and she just
stood there, watching. She seemed terrified, not knowing if she should trust him. They met on
the stairs and instantly knew that they had feelings for each other. They maintained eye contact
as if they had lost each other in the other’s eyes. The world seemed okay now despite the
current epidemics. They joined hands and walked down the stairs with the same pace. When
they reached the bottom of the stairs on the fourth floor where the Misfits and the other group
were located, she let go and ran towards the other group. Zack and Cody hugged her and she
hugged them back. They had found Sabrina. She ran back to Alex and kissed him. The two
groups were brought together into one because of Alex and Sabrina’s feelings for each other.
Peace was maintained between the groups.

Together, the Misfits and the Saviors walked up the stairs with caution and headed towards
their final destination, the cafeteria. As they approached the tenth floor, the clicking of metal on
the railings could be heard, intensifying. Out of the shadows, ten students emerged and
attacked. They fought for a few minutes which resulted in only seven people left standing. Zack,
Cody, Bill, and Sierra were all barely standing and extremely exhausted. The leader of the other
group was unconscious and three of the people remained. They decided to end the fighting and
picked up a random piece of paper left over on the ground. They found a pencil and sketched
out a quick treaty stating that the leftover students would relocate to the North side of the
building and on any floor beneath the 8th floor. Bill, Zack, and Cody signed the treaty and
picked up their fallen comrades. After their friends woke up, they travelled together to the
cafeteria on the tenth floor. They finally reached the doors, which were barricaded. In unison,
they pushed the doors until all the pressure was removed and they fell through. The cafeteria
was empty with no students anywhere in sight. They explored and found about 20 trays with
cartons of milk and burgers ready to be consumed in the back area of the serving station. Alex
was eyeing the food when he heard a faint noise. He tracked it down and found a radio. The
man on the radio says that the war is over and evacuation choppers are being sent throughout
Reduct to gather the remaining students. Over the next few hours, the Misfits and the Saviors
rushed down the stairs to the main office on the first floor. Sierra set up an override to the
lockdown mechanisms and removed the protocol to allow them to leave. They walked towards
the doors and opened them to their freedom. The choppers awaited them with rations for every
student. The Misfits and the Saviors escaped the Reduct shutdown.