"Hurt. Hurt."
The whispers of the horde outside the classroom filtered in through the thin wall. The shadows of a dozen hands pressed against the door. How many of the things were in the hallway by now? Shinji couldn't even guess. Maybe thirty. Maybe a hundred.
"Doors," the Doctor gasped out. He leaned against the various tables and chairs they'd hurriedly thrown against the room's entrance. "Big, thick doors. With locks. Bit impersonal, I know. All the same -- I'd recommend them. None of this sliding business."
"That's not how we do things here," Misato snapped. She crouched with her back to the wall next to the door, gun held at the ready.
"I know, I know. I'm just saying, the benefits -- awwww, don't do that. Don't --" Noxious yellow fumes started to pour through the cracks around the door. The Doctor pulled off his coat and stuffed it into the top railing. The rate of incoming smog lessened, though not by much.
"We're all going to die, aren't we."
The speaker was the big-nosed kid, his voice monotone, large inelegant tears rolling down his face. He and the rest of the class were huddled in the front of the room by the windows. Shinji himself sat on the floor, halfway between them and the two adults by the door. Rei stood in the back of the room, staring out into space.
Hikari reached over and smacked the big-nosed kid across the back of the head. "Of course we're not! The commander of NERV's here! She won't let anything happen to us!" She didn't sound very confident, Shinji couldn't help but notice.
Misato said nothing. She grimly drew the slider back on the handgun, then pulled her purse closer to her foot.
The big-nosed kid started to cry again. "Oh, God," the short-haired girl whispered. She clutched an ornate wooden cross to her chest. "Ohgodohgodohgodohgod..."
"CLASS!" the Doctor roared. "STAND!"
And Shinji suddenly found himself on his feet, along with the rest of the class. Even Misato stood up straight - then sat back down, a pained expression on her face.
"Right. Last time I make you do that, I promise." The Doctor crossed to the center of the room. "Look at me. Look at my face. You're my class. That puts you under my protection. Keep your wits about you, follow my lead, and I promise you - I will get every single one of you out of this alive."
The room was silent for a moment. Kensuke raised his hand. "Can you... do that?" he asked.
The Doctor grinned. "Watch and learn." He spun around. "Ms. Ayanami, help the captain mind the door. Shinji - see about getting those windows open. Should buy us some time against the gas." Shinji nodded. "Mr. Aida, if you would be so kind, sah, as to go into the first-aid kit in the supply closet. See if they've got any of those breath masks like you see on the subway. Everyone else, find something to cover your mouth and nose - handkerchiefs, piece of cloth, whatever you can find. And you - sorry, what's your name again? Hadn't called on you yet."
The big-nosed kid looked up. "S-sadahiko Kobayashi."
"Sadahiko. Good to meet you. What'd you bring for lunch today, Sadahiko?"
"L-lunch?" He blinked. "Uh, a bento box."
"What kind?"
"Um. Tuna sashimi. And edamame."
"Perfect." The Doctor smiled. "Go and fetch it for me, could you? Swap you my peanut butter for it. The rest of you lot - get ready to move in a few minutes. We're getting out of this room."
"How?" Toji asked.
"Working on it. Go!" The Doctor rushed over to the windows. Shinji followed him. The rest of the class started to move.
"Two story drop." The Doctor's eyes scanned over the parking lot outside. "Survivable. But - awwww, look at that." He pointed to the ground beside a white Toyota Cresta. Shinji could barely make out the shadow of a figure crouching behind the car. "At least a baker's dozen still down there. Probably more watching from the ground floor. Can't risk it. Not until the police get here."
Shinji glanced back over his shoulder at Misato as he pulled down one of the windows. She looked like she was trying to think. "What about your - the blue box?" he whispered. "Is there any way you could call it here, or something?"
"Nah," the Doctor muttered back. "And even if I did, no power, remember?" He clapped his hands together and said in a louder tone of voice, "Right. Intru-dah-windows is out. What else do we got? Think, think, think." He paced back towards the center of the rooms, tussling his hair. "Walls, ceiling, floor - all reinforced concrete. Too thick to resonate. Except for the one keeping the zombies out. That's wood and drywall..."
Misato jerked her head up. "Wait, drywall?" She put her hand against the wall.
"-- air ducts too small to crawl through," the Doctor continued. "That's a first, actually. No garbage chute. No maintenance hatches. No teleports. No gift shop... Blimey, no little shop. That should've been my first warning right there..."
She started to go through her purse. "Doctor Smith," she said. "I think I have something."
The Doctor didn't seem to notice. "Can't tunnel, we're on the second floor. Not enough time to build a hang glider... Or enough gaffa tape, for that matter..."
"Doctor Smith!" Misato barked.
Shinji turned away from the window he had opened partway. "Err, Doctor..."
"Okay, no easy way out, so maybe focus on them instead. Poison-gas bloodhounds on two legs - how do you fight that? Set off the fire alarms? Nah, it's not like they're giant bats..."
Misato's sunglass case flew through the air and bounced squarely off the Doctor's nose. "Ow! What was that for?!" He glanced down at the offending object. "- wait. Disney's Little Mermaid brand? Seriously?"
"Doctor Smith." Misato pulled something out of her purse. "I have a plan."
***
The classroom wall screamed as Misato stuck in the thin blade to make the final cut. The device in her hands looked like a boxcutter of some sort. Shinji couldn't help but think that it looked somehow familiar, though he couldn't recall seeing anything quite like it before.
He stood in between the Doctor and Toji, clinging to the side of the wall to steady it as Misato finished up. He tried to ignore the itch on his nose where the breath mask he wore rubbed up against it. There had been enough in the supply closet for everyone in the room - except the Doctor, who had donned a tie-dye bandito mask he'd pulled out from the pockets of his coat.
Misato pulled the knife from out of the wall near the floor. She stood up, clipping the device to her belt and drawing her handgun.
"Give it a moment," the Doctor whispered. Shinji strained his ears. He could hear the things in the corridor shuffling around, and a slight hiss as the yellowish smoke started to seep through the new cracks.
"Right." The Doctor looked back to the rest of the class. "Remember, wait until I say go. Then all of you run for the back stairwell. Just run. Don't look back. Sweepers --" He nodded to Rei and Hikari, both of whom held a broom. "-- out in front. Clear a path for everyone. Kensuke, you go behind them. Get those fire doors open. Captain, you and I'll stay back and cover them as long as we can." Misato gave him a curt nod. "Right, then. Everyone ready?"
"Are we allowed to say no?" Sadahiko asked, his voice muffled through the breath mask. He stood holding Tomoe's limp form piggyback-style, her arms tied with strips of cloth to his shoulders. Hikari glared at him.
"Only if I get to say it first." Somehow, Shinji could tell the Doctor was grinning again underneath the mask. "Right. In that case... allons-y!"
He started to push. Shinji took a deep breath - or as deep as he was willing to take, what with the gas - and strained as hard as he could against the wall. For a moment, it didn't seem to budge. Then there was a cracking sound.
The majority of the classroom wall fell down into the hallway outside. There was a muffled crash as a few hundred kilos of drywall pinned the things standing behind it to the floor.
The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the ceiling. The fire sprinklers in the hallway burst on, the water sweeping the yellow smog out of the air where it fell. "GO!" he barked.
Shinji stumbled out into the sudden downpour. The thin amount of poisonous smog left in the air stung his eyes. He felt something moving, or trying to move, underneath the wall below his feet. He also saw at least a half-dozen of the things still standing in the hallway by the classroom door. One of them - a scarecrow-thin salaryman without a mask - lurched out towards him.
Then Rei was by his side. She jabbed the thing in the face with the end of her broom, then effortlessly knocked out its legs out with the handle. It fell to the side.
"MOVE, Shinji!" Misato shoved him down the hallway. Shinji ran. The scene in front of him was chaos. He could see most of the class sprinting in front of him. Off to one side, Toji slammed one of the things down with his desk leg, screaming at the top of his lungs. Shinji glanced back over his shoulder. The salaryman had struggled back onto its feet. He saw Misato approach it, her gun raised.
"NO, WAIT!" The Doctor reached out towards Misato, his eyes suddenly as wide as dinner plates. "DON'T!"
She pulled the trigger --
-- and the salaryman exploded. Its body evaporated in a blinding flash of light and fire, thick yellow smoke flooding the end of the hallway. The blast threw Misato back a meter into the air and onto the floor. Shinji stopped in his tracks and turned back. He could just barely hear himself screaming or shouting something. Two masked high schoolers leapt out of the miasma, reaching and grasping at her. She kicked out at one of them, caught it in the chest, pushed it back -- the other grabbed her leg and started to pull her back into the smoke --
Then a piece of chalk came whistling through the air and beaned the thing right in the temple. It lurched back, letting go of her. The Doctor jumped in and put a single hand over its masked face. It abruptly spasmed and fell to the ground, its arms and legs twitching.
The Doctor turned and held out his hand to Misato. "Come on!" She grabbed his wrist and let him pull her back up onto her feet.
Shinji skidded to a halt in front of them. "Are you -"
"I'm fine, Shinji!" Misato waved him off. "Just get to the door!"
"You heard the captain! Go! We'll be right behind -" The Doctor glanced over his shoulder. The other high schooler - the one Misato had kicked - was getting back up. "Could I have that back now?"
"Oh - yeah." Misato let go of the Doctor's arm.
"Thank you -" The Doctor turned and hurled another stick of chalk right between the thing's eyes. It fell back onto the floor. "Fire hose. Two doors down the hall on the left -"
"On it." Misato shook her head, as if to clear it. "Shinji, go!"
Shinji opened his mouth to say something, but then three more masked things emerged from the smog, and Misato pulled the knife off of her belt, and the words flew out of his head. He turned and ran.
***
He turned the corner to find Rei waiting for him by the open fire doors. "The adults?" she asked.
"They're coming."
Rei nodded.
"It won't open!" Toji shouted, his voice on the edge of hysteria. "It's locked!"
The rest of the class clumped together by the entry to the stairwell. Toji pounded frantically against the heavy metal door. It didn't budge.
Shinji glanced down the hall. No sign of the Doctor or Misato yet. He felt his hands start to twitch.
"Excuse me," Rei said. She stepped in front of Toji. She put her right hand on the door, just beside the handle. Holding onto the frame with her left, she started to push.
One of the girls giggled nervously. "Ayanami," Kensuke said. "That's - that's really not going to work. It's steel --"
There was a sound not unlike a beer can being slowly crushed. Then the door's lock tore free from the frame.
The giggling stopped. "Holy smeg," Kensuke breathed.
"Well, yeah. After I loosened it for her." Toji crossed his arms.
Rei stepped back, rubbing her wrist. Shinji couldn't help but notice that she'd left her handprint embedded in the door.
There was the sound of scrambling from down the hall. Shinji jerked his head up just in time to see the Doctor and Misato sprint around the corner and leapt the line of desks in the middle of the hallway.
The Doctor pointed the screwdriver at the door as he ran up. "Sorry, sorry," he gasped out. "Stupid thing, forgot I locked it --" He stopped short as he noticed the door was already ajar. "-- oh." He saw the handprint and raised his eyebrows. "Oh."
"Everyone, stand back!" Misato pushed her way through the class to the entryway. She took something out of her purse. In one fluid motion, she cracked open the door, tossed the object into the stairwell, and pulled the door shut.
"Wait." The Doctor stared at her. "Was that a hand grena --"
There was a massive, dull burst of sound inside the stairwell. Flames licked the edges of the door, then subsided.
Misato kicked open the door, gun held out in front of her. She walked out onto the scorched landing -- then stopped short. Down the stairs below them, Shinji could hear the sound of footsteps, and a cacophony of voices repeating that same miserable word over and over again. "Hurt."
"Third floor!" Kensuke suddenly yelled from the back of the class. He hopped nervously from foot to foot. "Trust me! Go to the third floor!"
The Doctor eyed the stairs down. "Works for me."
"Everyone, up to the next floor!" Misato shouted. "Move it!"
They ran up the stairs, the chorus of tortured moans growing ever closer.