No song for this chapter. Not for a scene like this.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Danny
The thing about hanging out with Daniel, it was hard to stay serious. We were back to laughing about things like we normally did. We were already in the parking lot talking about random things.
It was quiet.
“Damn we’re later than I would have hoped,” Daniel now regretted his choice. “We missed something real interesting.”
He was pointing out with his foot at skid marks in the parking lot.
“It looks like a party,” Daniel made a random comment.
I looked at the schoolyard where there were papers and books scattered across the yard. I froze.
“Danny what-”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
If the blood in my veins could have frozen up, they would have. My joints were locked in place and Daniel mirrored just the same.
BOOM!
We both hit the ground at the same time.
“Call the police,” I told Daniel calmly as possible.
Just when I said that a kid I didn’t know was running out from the school building panting his eyes and arms looking wild.
BAM!
His head…
I heard Daniel shaking from terror as he fumbled to get his phone out of his pocket. I only stared a head at the building to see if we had been seen. Nothing seemed to move or come out. We were safer out here.
For now.
Daniel was taking an awful long time to dial now and I didn’t rush him. I was having trouble keeping my own wits about. When I heard him speak his words shook around. At this moment with what I was feeling, he was doing better than me.
I didn’t listen to what he said, I just kept down on the ground.
Jake might be in there.
“Danny!” Daniel hissed suddenly ten feet behind me and counting. I didn’t get on the football team for nothing.
This wasn’t about being a hero. This was just something I did naturally here and now.
I was in the school building that had never been this silent before. Papers, schoolbooks, and lockers that were left open. Everything that everyone was doing when this started must have been dropped. I didn’t see any other bodies yet.
My heart pounded hard with adrenaline coursing through it. I heard a click and I scattered like a rabbit against a classroom door that was closed. I willed my breathing to slow down to avoid making anymore noise.
Boom!
It sounded a bit further off, muffled.
BANG!
The walls vibrated with the sound.
There was more than one shooter.
Sobbing then a scream of a girl.
BANG!
I could swear I saw the flash of the shot which meant this was very close.
My idiot of a best friend joined me suddenly. He elbowed me in the arm which kind of hurt. I wanted to sigh, make a frustrated gesture at him, or shake him. Instead I rolled my eyes at him.I could hardly tell him he was wrong.
Calm and easy footsteps came our way and the door behind us moved. A hand that had to be of a teacher motioned for us to get inside. I had an idea that came so quickly. I pushed Daniel inside while he made a grab motion at me silently while. Without even looking who was in that classroom, I got on the balls of my feet to head in other direction of the shooter. I heard Daniel hissing at me probably that if the shooter didn’t get me, he would.
What the hell was I doing?
I stayed on left side of the hall way keeping low and silent. I wanted to find Jake. Needed to find Jake. Maybe it was selfish of me to think that way. I wanted to see if he was alive. But then I got close to answer.
Andrea Keller, dead. As for how long ago I couldn’t tell. I continued on listening to the gunshots I could hear near and far. It sounded like there were five shooters. This was much worse than I thought.
An arm grabbed at my leg and I almost kicked it off when I found a girl I think was named Katie under a body of one Nick or Nikko. Her eyes looked swollen but she kept herself in control as she continued holding on to my leg. I turned around and knelt down by her while listening for any thing.
“Did you call the police?” she barely whispered. “It all happened too quickly. We froze. People started to run. It just didn’t feel real.”
The look on her face was devastating that it even brought me close to tears. Her boyfriend I think was shot while he must have been protecting her. There was his blood smeared on her face and her leg appeared to have been shot. She was panting hard with her body in both types of pain.
“Yeah, yeah,” I told her.
Now I was real scared. I tried to question her with my eyes but knowing the answer might be too hard to accept. She stared back at me. Then I could hear the police sirens. I grabbed her under her arms to pull her out trying to block her view. This girl was starting to fall to pieces again. If that happened it would risk myself doing the same.
“Listen to me,” I said in a sound soft as taking a breath, “I’m going to help find you a place to hide right now. Can you help me?”
She nodded her head with her eye’s barely open from the pain.
I lifted her up and she groaned from the pain her leg. This was a bad idea. I let her back down against the lockers continuing to block her view. Picking her up would only cause her more pain which would mean noise, then I didn’t want to think past that. She was on the same page as I was because she continued to cooperate with me.
Her teeth grinded together form the pain.
I looked around for anything that I do to help her.
“I’m not going to leave you,” I told her, “But I am going to drag you a bit if that’s ok. You‘re a strong girl.”
She nodded her head with her eye’s closed now. For the second I moved she must have seen her boyfriend dead just then.
So I pulled her along while watching our backs hoping this wouldn’t leave any trace of our passage. The police sirens sounded closer now and I heard more running. I froze to catch where it was coming from. It was up ahead. I looked side to side at some of the open classroom doors. There were more dead bodies some faces I knew. Gary being the one I had known best. My heart felt like it was just squeezed.
“CHARLES DON’T!” Someone yelled at the top of their lungs.
BOOM!
A scream, falling pieces of ceiling, running, and silence again.
I didn’t move unsure of what to do next when I heard the sirens were a lot closer now. And then as if on cue a full five rounds went off one by one. Then it was like the danger in the air suddenly uplifted. Surely other emotions would rise.
I let myself lean against the lockers to catch my breath. But then Katie fell to pieces right then and there. She screamed like a banshee. I wanted to cover my ears but I didn’t. My body just slid down to the floor. I watched her kick at the open locker door until it was bent out of shape with her good leg.
It was terrible to watch someone in that much pain.
This drew attention as someone was running towards us. I almost got ready to defend us when I saw who they were. Charles, Jake, Jimmy, and some others came running at once.
Jake’s alive.
Was this the right time to think the thoughts that ran through my head at this moment. Not really. But what I thought was that it looked like didn’t have to run in here at all. Jake was good at taking care of himself. What use was I? Well I helped an injured girl and saw one of my friends dead.
They all ran to her and Jake ran to me. I couldn’t respond to anything he said. He started shouting things at me but I couldn’t hear or feel anything. I just watched him. This flesh and bone creature shouting things at me and then slapped me. Life was strange. I didn’t feel that either. It was a numbing coldness. Like when I was on vacation with my parents on ski resort. It got so cold because I was a dumb kid that forgot my gloves so they got real cold that I could barely feel anything. Or maybe it was shock.
Just what the hell was he saying to me anyway? I felt so out of it I don’t think I even felt like moving my head.
Then the others ran in my direction and I figured it out. Somewhere and somehow I got shot.
Jake
My mother was devastated and she apologized over and over again. I also wasn’t grounded anymore and she wished she never took my cell phone so I got that back too. I didn’t say anything because when I saw her. I knew I could break down now.
I didn’t ask how they found out or who spread the news. Mostly I didn’t care because I needed them.
So that was what I did but at the hospital. My dad was there next and he held us both while we all fell to the ground. We weren’t the only other ones.
Some of the injured were screaming from the shock and the pain. This was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. These were screams that was going to take weeks to get out of my head.
What happened was a group of kids that ranged from freshman to sophomore made a blood pack with each other. They were miserable and depressed teenagers that only wanted their parents love. Parents that worked long shifts or were abusive? It didn’t matter the reason or why they did it. They did it and I felt no mercy for them right now.
This was a shock to everyone because this was such a nice town and a great school. The thing was, it can happen anywhere. No matter how green the grass looks, the chance is still there. No place was perfect so there were no exceptions.
I had lost two friends. I watched Nick get shot protecting Katie who was shot in the leg. Thankfully that was going to mend and would be back on her own two feet again. Andrea was the one that ran off to draw the attention of the shooter away from us.
By the way the shooter had a ski mask on and I could tell it was a boy. Not that it really mattered of course. They targeted kids they envied at first but then because murder causes a bloodlust, the targets didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t know Andrea was dead until later. A lot of things weren’t told until hours after. I stayed by Katie’s bedside and told her myself.
Not a story I want to repeat.
The dead count was twenty-two for students and teachers. Even poor Miss. Roberts who was defending the students in the library was one of them. I felt even worse and I just didn’t want to hear anymore.
Danny was hurt only because he was shot in his side. I didn’t see the blood at first but the look on his face was too vacant to just be in shock. He lost a lot of blood. If it weren’t for Katie screaming for help we may have never found him. I stayed with him holding his hand and kept him awake while Jimmy ran for help. It wasn’t anything too serious because even he was going to be up and about again soon. Daniel stuck with him like white on rice. We nodded to each other when we saw each other in passing.
Heck too much happened in a blur that my mind couldn’t absorb every detail.
I was there when Charles fought off the other shooter. That was the sucker that went to jail and how the story got out. When I had yelled at Charles back then I didn’t realize well enough what he was doing. He wasn’t going to stop fighting. The rest of us were going to run to the police sirens but we weren’t going to leave him. He was right to stand and fight.
I gave blood to help the wounded as did both my parents. It turned out a lot of people followed our example.
We all in a our own ways did something brave that day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ :( so yeah finally that scene is over. More drama is on the way sadly but hey, this story kind of told itself! And I am trying to upload faster because my laptop is being super annoying with it freezing up randomly thing. Got the dreaded blue screen today. So I want to get as much of the story out as possible. Anyways thank you guys for taking the time out for reading. I have been using my wifi phone watching the reads climb. Also I have seen 2 people (you know who you are) add my story here to their reading lists and that makes me equally happy. So freezing screen and blue screen hardly dampen my spirits because of you guys. Thank you!