THE DREKS OF FOREVER 2: School Days (science fiction written by David Charles Kramer aka DJ Buddy Holly)
THE DREKS OF FOREVER 2: School Days (written by David Charles Kramer)
The school didn’t look wrong.
That was the first problem.
Flat Texas sunlight. Long concrete walkways. A flag snapping in dry wind. Lockers dented from years of normal teenage life.
Everything exactly where it should be.
And yet—
Eli Carter noticed it before anyone else.
It was the way some people stood.
Not everyone.
Just a few.
Their shoulders sat slightly raised. Not tense. Not proud. Just… lifted. Like something unseen had taken hold and never let go.
Their arms didn’t fall naturally either.
They angled forward.
Palms turned inward.
Like they were already holding something no one else could see.
Eli didn’t have a word for it.
But he had a feeling.
The same feeling he got watching ants carry something too big—
like they weren’t choosing to.
Across the room, a girl named Jenna shifted in her seat.
She wasn’t one of them.
She kept glancing at Marcus and the others, then adjusting her backpack straps like she suddenly didn’t know where her arms were supposed to go.
She stopped touching anything after that.
That morning, the substitute showed up.
He wrote one word on the board.
KARMA
No Mr.
No explanation.
He turned to the class.
Calm. Still. Already finished with whatever this was.
Marcus Hale leaned back in his chair.
“Substitute, huh?”
His shoulders sat higher than everyone else’s.
His neck leaned forward just enough to look intentional.
The others around him—Tanya, Lila—same posture.
Same shape.
Same… alignment.
“We’re not really doing assignments today,” Marcus said.
Karma nodded once.
“Good.”
That should’ve felt like control.
But it didn’t.
Because when someone doesn’t resist you—
you don’t know where the control went.
Late morning, Riley Vance arrived.
She didn’t belong in the building.
Everyone felt it.
She walked in clean.
Straight spine. Relaxed shoulders. Head high.
Nothing pulled.
Nothing forced.
She didn’t look at the students.
She evaluated them.
“Which one of you is Karma?”
Karma raised his hand slightly.
“I am.”
She gave a small, precise smile.
“Good.”
Like something had already been decided.
By midday, Karma handed out papers.
No explanation.
Just one word:
“Read.”
Tanya flipped hers over first.
“Seriously?”
Then she stopped.
Marcus noticed.
“What?”
She didn’t answer.
He took the paper.
Read.
Slowed.
It wasn’t a story.
It was observation.
Bodies that change after assignment.
Spines bending under a load not given, but accepted.
Necks pulled forward, as if listening for instruction that never stops.
Arms positioned not for life… but for carrying.
Marcus scoffed.
“Okay. So?”
Lila stood.
Her chair scraped too loud.
“Why does it look like us?”
Silence.
Tanya’s voice dropped.
“It says they don’t get assigned.”
(pause)
“They… get used.”
Marcus snapped.
“No.”
Too fast.
Too sharp.
“No, that’s not—no. That’s not what this is.”
He stood.
Forced himself upright.
It didn’t hold.
“We report this,” he said.
Immediate. Strained now.
Tanya nodded quickly.
“Yes. Yes, we report it.”
They stepped into the hallway.
Devices out.
Voices tight.
“We’ve got a situation.”
They waited.
Nothing.
Marcus again.
“This is priority.”
Still nothing.
The silence stretched.
Listening.
Inside the classroom, Eli stared at his desk.
Then slowly… at his own shoulders.
He lifted them slightly.
Held them there.
It felt wrong.
Heavy.
Like something might settle if he didn’t stop.
He dropped them immediately.
His chest tightened.
Just a little.
Across the room, Karma erased the board.
Slow. Even.
Eli raised his hand.
“Are they coming?”
Karma didn’t turn.
“No.”
“Why not?”
A pause.
Then—
“They already did.”
At the end of the hallway…
there was a door.
No one remembered when it appeared.
No window.
No sign.
Just a presence.
Riley walked toward it.
Marcus saw her.
“Hey—”
She didn’t stop.
“You don’t have clearance—”
She opened the door.
Stepped inside.
The door closed.
The hallway felt tighter after that.
Time passed.
Or folded.
Aaron laughed under his breath.
“She’s coming back, right?”
No one answered.
Marcus checked his device again.
Nothing.
He straightened.
Forced it.
It slipped.
“…no,” he said.
Quieter now.
Then—
The door opened.
Riley stepped out.
And the illusion ended.
Her shoulders—
wider.
Held too high.
Her neck leaned forward.
Set there.
Her spine curved inward.
Like something had settled into place.
Her arms hung forward.
Palms turned in.
Ready.
She wasn’t hurt.
She was… configured.
Marcus stepped back.
“…what did they do to you?”
Riley looked at him.
Nothing behind her eyes.
Karma stepped into the hallway.
“They didn’t do anything.”
Marcus shook his head.
Faster now.
“No. No, that’s wrong. That’s—no, that’s not—”
Karma tilted his head.
“She qualified.”
The word hit.
Tanya stepped back.
Lila covered her mouth.
Aaron looked at his hands.
At the way they already angled inward.
Jenna backed into the wall, hugging her arms tight to her sides, refusing to let them fall forward.
Like she could stop it if she stayed small enough.
Eli watched them all.
And understood something no one said—
It wasn’t happening to them.
It had already chosen.
Marcus forced himself upright.
One last time.
It held—
for a second—
Then broke.
His shoulders rose.
His neck drifted forward.
He pointed.
Voice cracking clean this time—
“Freaks—”
Louder—
“FREAKS—”
No one argued.
Because now—
there was nothing left to argue with.
Karma returned to the classroom.
Picked up the marker.
Eli didn’t look away.
A faint hum filled the air.
Low.
Steady.
Almost below hearing.
Eli felt it more than heard it.
In his chest.
In the desk.
In the floor.
Like something was idling.
Waiting.
Karma wrote one word.
BECOME
Eli swallowed.
Quietly.
He lowered his shoulders again.
Just to be sure.
Behind him—
in the hallway—
the Dreks stood still.
All of them.
Same posture.
Same shape.
Ready.
And the door—
remained open.
Waiting.
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