The sound jolted them from their moment. It rang again. Dropping his hands, Donovan took a step back, seeming to remember where they were. Carter shifted, pulling her emotions back from her face. Donovan did likewise.
"I should find Link," he said.
Carter nodded. "Of course."
He turned, but paused at the sound of Carter's voice.
"Donovan," she said. He looked back and she slid her hands into her pockets. "Thanks."
He gave her a nod and pulled the closet door open. Outside, students were frowning at the sound, as if it were an annoying fly. They looked to their friends and voiced their annoyance. As Carter looked around, she saw the metal shutters closing over the windows and knew all the doors had been sealed. There was no one coming in and no one getting out.
All the speakers through out the school crackled. Then someone spoke.
"Students," Principal Withers said, "please stay calm and return to your home rooms immediately. Attendance will be taken."
Before the voice was drowned out in another ringing of the alarm, students were making their way to their classrooms.The more seasoned students moved with a more leisurely pace, though they did as they were told. Beyond the constant noise of the alarm, there was a buzzing of voices as mild speculations and theories were exchanged and expanded on.
As the crowd began to thin, both Donovan and Carter looked, but Link was nowhere in sight. Donovan cursed under his breath and instantly made for the library. Carter halted him by grabbing his arm. He turned back to her and she let go.
"You heard what he said, right?" she said.
Donovan pointed towards down the hallway.
"I did, but Link is in the library."
He took a step away but she reached for him again.
"I know, but think about it," she said, her tone almost bored. "If he was with Maddy when the alarm went off she would have been suspicious if he didn't leave as well. He would go back to home room. Come on, we'll find him there."
"Let's just wait here then," he said. "He'll come this way."
She shook her head. "Not likely, it's not the fastest route back to the chemistry classroom."
"Right. Okay, let's go."
They joined the throng of moving students, some breaking off and flowing into classrooms. The alarm remained persistent, as if nudging even the most reluctant students to get moving. Carter found herself heightened to closeness of Donovan beside her. Lingering thoughts still hanging on after the intensity of the moment minutes before. She tucked her emotions away, and forced herself to keep an eye out for Link.
The hallways were thinning by the time they reached their classroom. Inside students were buzzing with talk as they crowded around tables, not bothering with seating arrangements for the time being. Mr. Miller gave a glance at each entering student, ticking their name off his list.
Carter and Donovan peered into the room, looking for Link.
When they saw no sign of him, they pulled their heads back out.
"We'll wait here," Donovan said, his tone even.
Carter rested back against a set of lockers, digging her hands into her pockets. Donovan stood beside her, his gaze roaming from one side of the hallway to the next. His eyes darted from face to face, a subtle energy in his stance. Carter watched as each student rounded the corner, waiting for a set of glasses and brown hair.
A tingling feeling tugged at her the longer the time stretched on and no Link appeared. As less and less students walked into classrooms, she rose from her slouched position. A full minute passed, of completely empty hallways, before she looked at Donovan. A frown was touching the spot between his eyebrows.
The speakers crackled again.
"Students stay in your classrooms until further notice," Principal Withers said. "Any remaining students return to your homerooms immediately."
Donovan ignored the order and pulled out his phone. The frown deepened, as he studied the screen. He then looked at Carter.
"There's no signal," he said.
The niggling feeling took stronger hold of Carter. Both of them were already moving, before they even voiced their thoughts.
"Let's go find Link," she said.
Neither of them talked, their thoughts fully focused on their task. As they moved, they kept their eyes peeled for any sign of Link or inclinations of anything off. There was a low hum of voices that filled the hallways and spilled from open doors.
An unsettling feeling at the unknown creeped around Carter. The world around her seemed to take on a different hue, as if with the closed shutters had darkened everything somehow. Something inside her was telling her there was something wrong, though what, she didn't know. The feeling grew in intensity as the hum began to die down to a low murmur. Their speed steadily increased.
They were hurrying down a set of stairs when Carter began to feel it.
At first she thought the odd feeling was brought on by her building concern. But then her thoughts started to blur and meld into each other. She reached out and gripped the railing. The stairs before her went hazy for a second before coming back into focus. She looked to Donovan and saw him stumble into a wall.
He turned to look at her, his face tight with confusion. Carter clenched the metal bar, forcing herself to shake off the feeling.
It didn't leave.
When Donovan took a step forward and staggered again, something caught Carter's eye. A small grate at the base of the wall. Around it the light was distorted.
That was all it took for one thought to snap Carter out of her daze. Covering her nose with her hand, she stumbled down the stairs towards Donovan. He saw her and the same thoughts crossed his mind. He instantly covered his mouth.
Not bothering to speak, Carter took his hand.
He didn't resist and followed her. His hand was warm in hers as she guided him down the stairs and along a hallway. The cloud in her brain grew, taking over and dampening her thoughts. Through the fog, she held on to one piece of information with a relentless stubbornness.
Beyond open doorways, they could see figures slumping against desks, heavy eyelids sagging closed. Carter felt her body succumbing to the same poison. The same lethargy and eventual unconscious that could lead to Link's harm.
With that thought spurring her on, she guided Donovan to a janitor's closet. Inside, she tried to force aside a metal shelving, the wheels rusty from nonuse. Donovan realized what she was doing and assisted, their limbs weak from the knock out gas.
The wheels shrieked in their grooves. Behind it was a blank, gray wall. Carter moved to the edge, looking for the imperfection. Only a slight dip in the smooth surface gave away the wall's secret. She banged a fist on it and a small, square door popped open revealing a key pad.
She looked to Donovan. He hurried forward and keyed in the right numbers. The wall slid back. Beyond it was a set of narrow stairs. She darted in and looked back for Donovan. He stepped in behind her and hit a button at the top of the stairs. The door shut, locking them into the tight space.
For the first time in what felt like a long time, Carter took a deep breath, sucking in untainted air. She coughed, the gas still clinging on to her.
Donovan was pressed against her, breathing deeply.
"Come on," she said, her voice raspy.
Faint lights at the bottom of the stairs guided their path. Stretching out on both sides from the steps was a long tunnel. Florescent bulbs flickered on, activated by the door. Carter looked up at Donovan, her mind sluggishly clearing. The clean air evicted the toxins from her body.
"Do you know which Safe Room was given to Link?" she asked.
He nodded, the haze receding from his eyes. "2B."
Carter turned to the left and started along the corridor. As she walked, the weakness that had been hanging on her started to lift. Concrete tunnels split off and joined their tunnel. She navigated her way expertly. They didn't talk, their thoughts still blurry and crowded with more pressing issues.
As her mind gradually came back to her, speculations and questions darted around, fighting for the top spot. The biggest question on her brain was 'who was the target?'
"They gassed the entire school," she said.
Donovan made no comment, his expression carved from stone. They stopped before a steel door, made to withstand any form of penetration. Beside it lay a small screen. Carter stepped aside and nodded at Donovan.
"This is all you," she said.
He moved forward and laid his hand on the pad. A light flashed, scanning it. His name popped up. After going through retinal, voice and facial scans the door unlocked, heavy bolts sliding back with dull thunks. Donovan heaved it open.
Behind it was a room only slightly bigger than a cleaning closet. A cot was pushed up against one side, while cabinets lined the other. Donovan quickly moved to one the cabinets and started working with the combination. Carter dropped her bag in front of the door, making sure they weren't sealed in. The lock clicked and Donovan opened the cabinet. It was filled with survival supplies. He pulled out a bottle water.
"Here," he said. "It will help."
He tossed the bottle to her and she caught it. For a moment all they did was drink, ridding the poison from their bodies. By the time the bottle was empty, Carter felt her thoughts focusing. One thought in particular shot through her head. She walked to the rectangle speaker on the wall. Pressing the button below it, she connected it to every other unit in the school. It buzzed into life.
"Smith," she said, speaking into it. "Is the Falcon secure?"
She waited, her heart picking up speed. The speaker hummed. Carter glanced back at Donovan, who was staring at the speaker, as if he could force Smith to talk with his thoughts. The speaker crackled.
"Who is this?" Smith asked.
"This is Carter and Donovan. Is Mason secure?"
There was a short pause, then he replied. "Mason is secure."
Relief washed over Carter, not realizing she had had any worry over Mason's fate. At the tail end of her relief was a new stab of fear as Link's fate still hung in the balance. Donovan left the cabinet and joined Carter by the speaker.
"Smith, they've gassed the whole school," she said. "What's the military's ETA?"
The was a brief moment of silence. A silence that weighed too heavily on Carter and Donovan's minds.
"The alert never went out," Smith said. "I can't get communication to anyone on the outside. Whoever is doing this must have a signal jammer and turned it on before setting off the alarm."
Carter turned away from the speaker, a shock of panic coming over her. Every fear and worry she had for Link's safety came barreling at her, cramming itself into her thoughts, until he was all she could think of.
She walked the short length of the room, her mind frantically racing.
"Smith, what about the SAT phone?" Donovan asked, his forehead screwed in concentration, his thoughts rivaling Carter's.
She continued to pace as Smith delivered the news that the signal jammer was too strong that even the satellite phone was no good. Carter's pace quickened, her energy back to where it had been before inhaling some of the knock out gas. Donovan continued to exchange information with Smith, ideas on counter attacks flying between the speakers.
Carter only heard pieces of their conversation, her mind chasing one thought after another. She spun on her heels as she came to a wall, her necklace bouncing against her chest. She froze, actually feeling the metal that always hung on her neck.
In one swift movement, she reached up and yanked the necklace off. It snapped and fell loose. She dropped it to the concrete floor and smashed it with her shoe. Donovan looked at her, his conversation with Smith at an end. Only a hint of puzzlement made it onto his expression. She wasn't sure if what she had done would work, but a part of her hoped. She met his gaze, seeing the unspoken question.
"It's embedded with a tracker. With any luck my father just got an alert that it's off line." She shook her head. "I don't know if it makes any difference but it's something. Now what's our plan?"
He moved over to the other cabinet and worked with the second lock.
"Currently no one knows of the situation here," he said. The lock popped and he pulled the doors open. "My first task is to get Link and bring him to safety. After that I'll disarm the jammer, since Smith is sealed in the safe room with Mason and can't leave. I'll get a call out to the military, let them know what's going on."
Inside the cabinet was an array of supplies: medical items, and protective gear. Donovan reached for the gas mask, looking over the contents for anything else that could assist in his goal. Carter moved to stand beside him.
"Don't think for one second that you're going alone," she said.
He didn't even look her way. "You're not coming, Carter and that's final."
At his words, hot anger burned though her. Beneath it was an unbreakable need to see Link safe and secure. The feeling shot through her, solidifying her resolve. The burden of his life and his protection weighed on her, filling her with unyielding determination.
She grabbed Donovan's arm and pulled him so he was facing her.
"I'm coming with you," she said.
His expression went stony. "I don't have time for this."
Carter crossed her arms defiantly.
"No, what you don't have time for is not thinking!"
"Carter-"
"No!" she yelled, pointing at him. "Were you honestly planning on going into an unknown situation, without a weapon and without backup?" She looked at him with a patronizing expression. "Tell me this Donovan: what happens when you get Link? How were you planning to cover your back as you carried an unconscious boy to safety. Huh?"
Fire sparked in Donovan's eyes.
"You're a civilian!"
"And you're an idiot!" Carter took a step forward, her face daring him to argue with her. "I'm the best thing you got at the moment. I have as much field training as you. So stop arguing. We're wasting time. Link needs us. Both of us."
Donovan's rational side entered the equation and he nodded, her logic breaking through his single minded stubbornness. He turned back to the cabinet and grabbed a second gas mask, handing it to her. She took it.
"What's our plan of attack?"
Donovan continued to shift though the materials in the cabinet, searching for any sign of a weapon or a tool with enough weight to offer some sort of defense.
"Link's last known location was at the library," he said, falling back on familiar military terms. "That will be our starting point. If he is not there we will fan out and search. Our first mission is to locate him and bring him to safety. After that we will reassess the situation and see where we stand." He looked back at her, his expression hiding any and all of his emotions. "Link's safety is our aim for now. With any luck this is just a kidnapping and that means Link is still safe. For now."
Carter nodded.
"Okay. Anything in there we can use?" she asked.
Donovan turned back to his task. After a minute of searching, he came out with a single scalpel. He held it up.
"Unfortunately, this place is stocked for survival not defense. We'll have to stay out of sight until we can get some better weapons." He flipped the small blade expertly, testing it. "Until then this is all we have." He looked at her. "Best to stay out of a fight until we know what we're up against."
Securing the scalpel in his belt, he unhooked his bag from his neck and dropped it on the cot. He turned his attention back to her, his face serious.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
It was in that moment that the full weight of their reality hit Carter. Her heart kicked into gear as the familiar surge of adrenaline was pumped through her. This was not the training course and Link was not just some dummy waiting in a chair to be rescued. He was one of the few friends she had and someone she could trust.
Beyond the door and in the school was a minefield of variables they had no clue about. For all they knew it could be an army of men with automatic guns with no intention of kidnapping, but murdering an entire school of politicians' kids. The logical side of her brain kicked this idea out since they wouldn't have gassed the place, more simple to use a bomb. But it didn't matter, the gravity of their situation and all the unknowns that swam around them crashed over her.
All these thoughts were like a lightening flash in Carter's head. In that instant one thing struck her. She met Donovan's gaze, his strong features and the fight that was brightening his eyes.
Her heart banged against her ribs for an entirely different reason.
There was no one she wanted more by her side than him in that moment.
"Let's go save Link," she said.
Donovan's face was deadly serious and he nodded. Grabbing his gas mask, he moved to the door, Carter behind him. He looked back. Before he could even voice his question, she spoke.
"I got your six," she said.
**********************************************************************
Crazy crackling cookies and cream 😱!!
Okay! Okay! Calm down! Put the torches and pitch forks away! I know, I know! It's another cliff hanger, but just hang on! (😏😁)
I know you hate me right now, but what about this, will a double update next week make you forgive me??
Good! 😉
Anyways! Moving on. So there you have it! Some ish is going down at the school! Any clue as to what exactly??
(Also 'got your six' is a military term, it's pretty much slang for 'got your back')
Who thinks Donovan is super hot when he is in his BA-no-one-get-in-my-way mode?
Here's the real question? Why don't I have a really hot bodyguard to protect me? You know...besides the fact that I'm not important enough and don't need one since I barely leave my house. But still! I should have one!
Ultimate favorite male character you've ever read?? (And tell me what book they're from)
(Mine is Brigan from Fire by Kristan Cashore because he literally is the most epic character EVER!!!)
Време за въпроси (Bulargian) This question is from Cecilialapertosa: Have you ever had author's block?
Answer: Probably, it's just been forever. The reason why is because I found the solution to writer's block. I write two books at the same time. This way if I'm stuck on one I jump to the other. It's worked out so far.
Yes, that means I have another book in the works, I'll be posting it at the close of this one.
Now!!!!! 💥💥💥
Write a book, start another, never fear writer's block!
(That started out as poem type thing in my head but did not pan out all that well. Pity)
Here is an amazing collage that Sweetietea2 made me! What do you think?