The Academy

Dust and rocks surround you as your body appears. The rocks scatter towards a spur line that then moves raggedly to the left of the mid horizon. The land seems to have shifted from baby rocks to mother of all rocks along a sandy and dusty plain. Short shrubs reluctantly grow in this hectic environment; although you notice the flora gets greener as they try to escape the banks of the river.
The river traces its way through the lower sections of the long plain and doesn’t seem to have a start or an end. Taller trees grow along the riverbed, most are thirty metres tall with purple leaves at the top and the more acceptable green leaves cascading around the trunk to the ground.
The wide river is swimmable, which is good if you need to get across its boundaries. You look around for a way to not get wet and are duly pissed off as you see no way across without swimming. You don’t like this planet already and normally it takes a few hours for the hate to take hold. The river provides water for its roots and water for its 3 legged, hairy, smelly, and hairless creatures.
You walk through these creatures towards the planet's three moons, as instructed by the chief navigator, noticing what they are eating. One, thin, brown eye slides across a blunt three-leveled head. The top level holds its one eye, the next level holds a long sharp appendage and the third has a long row of orange sharp teeth.
You hope that this mission progresses very quickly. The beasties and food sources looked uninspiring. You are clothed, which is always a good thing on these missions, or so you tell the cadets in your class. The Academy seems a long way away and you rue that fateful day you fucked up and found yourself ‘volunteering’ for salvage missions.
You teach survival and investigation skills to cadets, so you stick to what you know. Stay near water sources and they will lead you to settlements. Your memory of what this mission actually is unreasonably shallow, so you keep walking along the river. The water tastes cool and the width stays a constant length even through the bends.
Tall grasses along the river rise up to hip height. The grasses change from sharp dark green thicket, to round soft Festuca that grows in clumps and is difficult to walk through.
There are intermittent rumblings and shaking of grasses around you as you walk through the thicker grasses. You try and steer clear of the large trees and their inhabitants. One of the 3 legged creatures has been following you since you landed here; although, you don’t really care. Unarmed critters are rarely an issue; although, you just realise you failed one of your own tests.
Waiting for the creature to advance, you notice it seems shy.
Can you understand me?
Yes, I can. You were supposed to contact me when you first arrived. I am to be your guide.
Well guide me then, you say forcefully.
You are going the wrong way. The town is back this way, says the beastie pointing the opposite direction of your meaningless travels.
Oh, you want to kill this fucker. Why the fiddlers fuck did it not make contact with you hours ago? You decide not to anger yourself any further and follow it back along the river. One hour of silent walking and the creature stops.
Why are you stopping?
Food. Must eat and rest.
Thinking this is a great idea you hope to get a feed as well. The critter walks to the river and stares intently at the water. Minutes pass without a move. The three moons are separating, and the sun is starting to lower in the sky. You know nothing of day length or night length. Always reach or create shelter by nightfall. Your students would always ask how you tell night is coming. You tell them that orbital satellites such as moons, or man-made satellites change direction and of course when it starts to get dark. That usually got a laugh or two.
There is an exciting push of movement. You quickly turn your head and hear a slap of water and see the three-legged creature has caught a fish. With its tongue. The tongue is about five metres long, black with slightly white stripes down each side. You start to duck for cover when you see it flicking your way. A long, thick fish is flicked onto the ground next to you. More minutes pass and then another fish lands near you.
Hello there! Can anyone join this feast?
You look around and see a familiar face. Which is alarming and doesn’t make any sense. You should be the only one investigating this incident, whatever it is.
What are you doing here, Jinny?
About to join you for lunch. Lucky, I have the kit to gut these things. Here’s some flint, start a fire and I will prepare a meal fit for queens, as they say. After starting the fire, you notice your guide has gone.
Where’s that creature gone?
Oh. A pause. Gone, job finished. I can take you where you need to be after we eat, she says and gets on with gutting the fish.
The fish is decent enough. The presence of your new companion is curious. Jinny is dead. You should know, you killed Jinny, and it was a sweet, sweet experience. It happened after a particularly chemical laden graduation party at the Academy. You burned the body and disposed of the ashes.
After eating the fish, you follow Jinny into town looking for someone in charge to explain this senseless situation. The outskirts of the place look familiar. As you get closer you notice you are once again by yourself. Jinny has gone.
You step into what seems an exact replica of the Academy, although devoid of the vibrant buzz that is academy life. You feel fucked over, but don’t know why or, more importantly, by whom.
You notice two figures walking towards you. You turn and run. You recognise those students and now feel as though the situation is getting away from you. Running and running. You keep running out of the misplaced Academy and glance backwards checking for Aretha and Manya, two inquisitive students you also happened to have killed at the Academy some years back. They started investigating you for their student news website and needed to be dealt with. Their deaths were a bit of fun for you during the Academy winter break. It was messy, and they died hard.
The Academy and the undead students are far behind you and fortunately you notice a town in front of you. You now need to get out of here. You keep walking towards the town. You start to vomit as the scene before you unravels it’s true ugly form.
The fucking Academy with the fucking dead students. You tell yourself you would gladly kill them again. Think about it. This can’t be real. How did you get here? Fragments emerge in your mind. Memories born through fear and frustration.
Your mistake was to kill a teacher and not dispose of the body, says a voice in your head. Not yours. Someone else’s. A judge? Oh shit, what have you gotten yourself into?
The victims start to be joined by the others, including Jinny. They stand there in the main avenue of the Academy. You killed over twenty-five people and two dogs over a period of five Earth years. The dogs start growling and barking. The people you killed say nothing. Andrea, a seventeen-year-old you murdered after an easy kidnapping from a dorm room, stabs you in the face, breaking your tender skin and two teeth. A dog scratches you deeply and takes a large chunk of your right leg with snapping jaws.
The victims start stabbing, beating, and kicking you. Silence from them, screaming and intense pain for you.
Why are you doing this? No one answers. Blood flows from your wounds.
You are feeling pain. It’s not only your pain. You feel intense agony. You feel more than you want to. Every torturous infliction you did to them. You feel it all.
The victims tie you to a pole. Wood is piled around you. The pain is incessant. They take turns in your head. Screaming. Yelling. Begging for your mercy which did not come.
You burn to death.
Slow. Pain. Agony.
Dust and rocks surround you as your body appears. The rocks scatter towards a spur line that then moves to the left of the mid horizon.
Been here before?
Your mistake was to kill a teacher and not dispose of the body, says a voice in your head. Not yours. Someone else’s. A judge?
 
Your day has begun again. There are things worse than death.