Last of Daylight

9.3 'Always Be Prepared' Isn't Just A Motto For The Scouts

"Oh my god." So much smoke.

"Oh my god." Everyone was screaming.

"Oh my god." The ground was shaking.

Lucy tried to right herself as the school rocked. Squeezing her hands over her ringing ears, she stood still in the dust, smoke, and debris. The fire alarms never went off. Shouldn't they go off?

Never mind. The screaming was noise enough.

Left alone in the programming classroom, Lucy staggered her numb limbs toward the door. Out in the hall, students squealed and funneled out of classrooms to escape the fire blazing in the technology hallway. So many bodies stood between her and the exit at South Hall. Lucy joined the crowd at the back and pushed her way through. She wanted to see the sunlight from the doors just at the end there.

A rumble elicited more cries from the terrified teenagers. Lucy gazed up at the ceiling in time to watch an enormous beam collapse and crush in a classmate's face. With fresh panic and screams, any semblance of order flew out the window. Chaos reigned. A wave surged through the crowd. Rushing forward became the only priority.

Lucy squeezed between her neighbors. Hands pushed on her back, elbows punched her ribs, and someone's ankle entangled hers. Lucy thought for sure she might fall down, but the other girl lost her footing and fell under the heaving heap of stampeding students.

The girl screamed as one foot mushed into her, another bashed her head, and another stomped her until the screams gurgled into nothing. Lucy knew if she ever slept again, she would hear that sound in her nightmares for the rest of her life.

The herd of people thinned as one hall spilled into another. But why was everyone turning right? The exit was on the left. Lucy emerged from the technology hall and stopped so abruptly the crowd sent her sprawling onto the floor. She slid shy of a man's combat boots.

The boots belonged to a behemoth guarding the exit. He snarled down at her with huge teeth and a sword. Startled, Lucy scurried onto her feet to rejoin the herd. After sparing a glance behind her, she noticed the man didn't give chase.

Lucy ran outside the flood now, and it refused to let her back in. Where the elbows had annoyed her before, they pained her now. The aggressive jabs forced her out of the way. In one last ditch effort to keep her place, she dove into the mess of them.

Someone smashed the side of Lucy's face against the lockers. The girl flattened Lucy there and ran off. Bodies brushed against her, feet rushed across her, her head smacked against a combination lock, and, without a doubt, Lucy would fall under the churning battery of shoes. Her screams would die after a time, like the trampled girl.

While the screaming never ceased, it took on a desensitizing rhythm. As the herd approached the cafeteria, that rhythm changed into an orchestra of sounds. Cries, grunts, groans, guttural sounds, wet sounds, crunching sounds. All of it awful. Some blood-drenched students ran screaming back into South Hall. They didn't get very far before arms reached out from the cafeteria and pulled them back inside.

Swept into a break in the lockers, Lucy opened the door next to her and popped inside. She recognized the recently built band room by the smell of new industrial carpet and paint. Cast in darkness, focusing on the new-room smell helped Lucy ignore the smell of smoke and a faint odor she didn't recognize. The stench made her pull her wrist to her mouth to stifle the urge to gag. Fumbling around the location of her fourth period class, Lucy stumbled over a desk. Beyond that was the podium, beyond that was the stage, and beyond that was the door. The way out.

Soundproof. Lucy no longer heard the violent deaths of her classmates.

What the hell was going on? How could this happen? Well, it certainly wouldn't happen to her. She planned to get the hell out of there.