Freeze tag

Chapter 11

I wake up to an announcement. It tells me to go to the auditorium and wear your regular clothes. I hop out of bed. And put on jeans and a white shirt with the American flag faded on it, and running shoes.

Without breakfast we walk down to auditorium. "You get any sleep?" Mackenzie asks me.

"Not a stupid second of it. When ever I close my eyes, I see Hector." I respond.

"Same." Margie adds, while Mackenzie nods.

"I got sleep, I just had a terrible nightmare, yay." Faun says in a dull manner.

Then Aaliyah takes the stage. "I'm not sure if all of you are aware of what took place last night."

Many look around confused. "Lucky." Nichole mumbles. Then a boy about sixteen leans in from behind us. "What's she talking about?"

"Your going to find out." I tell him.

"The boy, Hector Joseph, sadly hung himself."

Talking burst out, I could only get snippets of the conversations. "Why would he do that?!"

"Where did he do it?"

"He did it to himself?!"

"Poor guy."

"Who's Hector?"

"How did he get the rope to hang himself?!"

"How'd he do it?!"

Then Aaliyah's voice cuts them all off. "We still have no idea why he did it, or how he got the rope to kill himself. We are looking into it. Everyone from dorm 18 to 23 stay here."

That's us, we're dorm 23.

After everybody else left, Aaliyah hops down from the stage. I didn't realize that Aaliyah was so short, compared to me. "As you all know I'm Aaliyah, and I am so sorry you had to witness that."

We all nod solemnly.

"To get your mind off things we want you to take the day off."

Oh my god, thank you, I think to myself.

We all thank Aaliyah and leave.

"So what do you guys want to do today?" Zed asks.

"I don't know" Selena says.

"I don't know about you guys, but I feel like going outside."

"Are we allowed?" Neon asks.

"I don't know let's ask Mick" I respond.

We run to the dorm. Mick is sitting at the table eating. "Hey, Mick is okay if we go outside?" Mackenzie asks.

"Well there's no rule against it. So I don't see why not."

Yes! I think to myself.

"Thank you - but how do we get out there?"

"Follow me." Mick leads us down a few flights of stairs. Then we get to a big giant door. "You can go out there under one condition, don't go beyond the fence." Mick says sternly.

"Why not?" Eric asks.

"That bloody question will be answered later, ok."

We all mumble a fine or a yes.

"Good." Mick says as he opens the door.

The bad thing is now I want to see what's on the other side of the fence.

When the door opens I expect it to be a rain forest, like it was last time. But, when he opened the door it was a snow covered forest. "Mick, won't we need jackets?" Leah asks.