Pure whiteness. A floating sensation. Then complete darkness.

Storell couldn’t remember how long she slept. She couldn’t remember the dreams she had either. When she slowly came to, she had trouble opening her eyes. She heard a loud hissing noise in the background.

When the noise died down, Storell mustered all her strength to open her eyes and look straight ahead. She couldn’t make out much due to blurry vision from sleeping with contacts in. Her neck and arms felt sore. Most of her body felt numb, including her legs. Slowly though, she regained sensation throughout her limbs.

She lifted her right hand, and touched something. It felt like glass. Where was she? Was she still in the room? Why was she lying down?

She felt the ground with her other hand. Plush. Some kind of blanket? Pillow? She felt rather comfortable in her current position, as if she was in some kind of sleeping chamber.

Wait, that had to be it. The sudden realization shocked her into lifting her body straight up. She screamed.

Storell looked around. She found herself in a large white circular room. She looked down.

She sat on some kind of bed pod, the kind you see in science fiction movies where people needed something to hibernate in during warp travel. Above her lay a plexiglass covering. Cool air flowed through vents on the inner side of the bed chamber.

Storell slowly slid out of the bed. She stood on the ground of the room.

There were other beds in the room. Some of them were opened, others were still closed. She didn’t feel like counting the number of beds because of a lingering headache.

She took a few steps away from her bed, heading towards the nearest wall. While she walked, she heard the hissing noise again. She quickly surveyed the room to locate the origin of the noise.

One of the beds opened. She hobbled over to it. When she stood close enough to see who slept inside, she tried to scream in elation. "Paul! Paul!"

Her outburst immediately woke him. He stood up. "Storell?" The two looked into each other’s eyes for a brief moment. Paul looked around. "Where are we?"

"I don’t know," Storell replied.

"Well, what happened? How did we get here?" Paul said.

Storell thought about their situation. Yesterday was the last day of school, she remembered that much. Oh, there was an explosion. And someone named Bennett returned. Today, they had gone back to the school, to the source of that explosion.

She couldn’t remember any more than that. "Has it come back to you, yet?" she asked Paul.

Paul shook his head as Storell helped him out of the bed.

The hissing noise returned. This time, two more beds opened. Paul and Storell each went to one.

From one of the beds rose a freckle-faced girl wearing a bolero and a red dress. Paul helped her out of the bed. "Earchon Franche?" Paul asked.

The girl nodded but didn’t say anything.

At the other bed, Storell helped Brady out. "Where the fuck are we, man?" he shouted. "Did we get abducted or something?"

Storell looked around. There were four people awake and out of their beds now, but eight of the beds were open. Where did the other four go? Or were they just empty to begin with?

Paul looked over to her. "Hey, there’s fifteen beds. Did fifteen of us go into the door?"

Was that what happened? They entered some door? Storell tried to remember who was there. Paul and her of course. Brady. Xecure. This girl in the dress and her tall friend. Pernwall, the Indian kid. There was a freshman boy as well. And one of the punks. And two other girls she didn’t know.

The hissing returned. This time, five beds opened, leaving only two closed. "Xec’!" Brady shouted as he ran over to Xecure’s bed. He helped his friend out.

Earchon Franche went over to the opened beds. "Montgomery?" she shouted out. The first bed she came across was occupied by Derrin, the small freshman from earlier. She ignored him and walked over to the next. Vesuvius, the punk with the nose ring, lay asleep on it, unfazed by the hissing noise and the sudden change in air pressure.

She looked over to the next opened bed. A girl with long hair emerged from it. "Montgomery?" Earchon Franche ran over, but stopped when she realized it wasn’t her.

The long haired girl rubbed her eyes, then looked around. She found her glasses next to her and put them on. She then looked around the room, making eye contact with those peering at her. "Where am I?" she said out loud.

"Who are you?" Earchon Franche asked.

"Me? I’m uh, Lettiere. I’m a junior, or was. Senior now, I suppose," the girl answered. "You’re Montgomery’s friend?" Lettiere said to Earchon Franche.

"Yes, I am," she said. Montgomery and Earchon Franche were two of the most popular girls in the school. Storell, watching the two girls converse, found it unsurprising that the two girls were recognized by everyone.

"Oh well, nice to meet you," Lettiere said. She extended her hand out to shake. Earchon Franche blinked initially, but then took the hand to shake.

Lettiere held the back of her pleated skirt down in place and rolled off her bed chamber, landing on the ground delicately. She looked around the room, examining the ceiling, the wall, and the beds. Everyone stared at her.

"Do you," Storell paused to get Lettiere’s attention, "know anything about this room?" Storell asked because the way this girl acted, she sure looked like she did.

"Huh? I uh, no, I don’t know anything about this room. But it sure is fascinating, isn’t it?" Lettiere replied. She ran back to her bed and ran her hands over the plush blanket nesting inside. When she couldn’t find anything else, she examined the front of the bed. That’s when she paused. "Whoa," she said.

"Whoa, what?" Paul said. He walked over and crouched down to look at what Lettiere was looking at. The others, except for Vesuvius, who slept soundly, joined in examining it.

Strange markings adorned a small plate on the bed.

"What is that?" Storell asked.

"Some kind of marking… Some kind of symbols… Some kind of alien language?" Lettiere said.

"Hey!" shouted Brady from near his bed. "They’re on the front of mine, too!" he said. Everyone quickly realized that the markings were on every bed chamber.

"Wait," Storell said. "What if they’re some form of identification? Maybe like, our names?"

Snap.

Storell turned around. An Asian girl stood crouched before her bed chamber, with her camera in her hands. She had just taken a picture of her marking. "Huh, how come I didn’t notice you before?" Storell said.

The Asian girl turned to face her. "Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself," she said. She stood up, dusted off her Bermuda shorts, and waved to the crowd. "Cassidy. I’m a 9th grader."

"Hey Cassidy," Paul said. He pointed to the marking on her bed. "Did it just change?"

"Huh?" Cassidy said. She turned and got back down on her knees. "Hey, I can read it now!"

"What does it say?" Xecure asked.

"It says my name! Cassidy Gaines!"

…