by B D Grant
Boston pushes, “Intruders and…”
Baudin’s brow furrows saying irritably, “And that’s it. Don’t let intruders get to the school.”
I lean down to him staying a safe distance away just in case he goes berserk. “He wants to know if you are suppose to kill students when the school is compromised.”
He doubles over, putting his head in his hands. “I’m really drunk. I gotta be.” He lifts his head up and looks toward the hallway. “None of this is making sense.”
I know the feeling. I stand back up. “We’re being invaded by people dressed in combat gear. Teachers are shooting students, unarmed students.” I point outside. “Right now, teachers at this school are killing students for no reason. Boston and I need guns to protect ourselves while we go to save my friend.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” he tells me.
I offer him my hand. “Get up.”
He takes it and I help him stand. I glance at Boston before kneeing Dr. Baudin in the same spot Boston hit me. He doubles over. I pat his back sympathizing with his pain. “Do you still think you’re sleeping?”
His voice is strained. “If I say, “yes” are you going to do that again?”
“Yup.”
“Then no.”
A creak from the kitchen causes all of us to turn.
Glensy turns the corner from the kitchen to the living room. “What’s going on here?” he says, holding an assault rifle at Boston who is pointing his gun at Glensy.
I move slowly toward the shotgun even though it isn’t loaded.
“Not another move,” Glensy tells me.
“That’s a sweet toy,” Baudin says, using the television to help steady himself.
Glensy takes aim at our teacher. “You have no idea.” He fires one round, dropping Baudin with a shoulder shot. Baudin cries out. Glensy disappears behind the wall into the kitchen.
Boston steps in front of me, ready to shoot. I go to Baudin. “Take cover,” Boston instructs inching toward the kitchen.
From the kitchen, Glensy calls out, “Check him!”
“What?” I ask. Boston gets against the wall moving closer to the kitchen. Baudin is unresponsive. “He isn’t dead. He’s only unconscious,” I tell Boston quietly.
“I didn’t kill him. I didn’t shoot him with a bullet,” Glensy tells us. “It’s a nonlethal tranquilizer of some kind.”
Boston’s about to peep around the corner when I hold my hand up mouthing ‘wait’ to him. “What the hell are you talking about, Glensy?” I ask.
“The explosion went off before I could get to my evacuation site. I was caught outside right by a shoot out. A Dynamar coach threw grenades. Students were caught in the middle of the chaos but he didn’t care. He threw them anyway. I got this off one of the bodies of the intruders.” He lifts up the double magazine rifle, “It shoots bullets and tranquilizers. It looked like everyone was targeting students at first, but then I noticed that the people fighting the teachers were only aiming for student’s arms. Once students were down the intruders were carrying them off. The other faculty members with the coach were shooting to kill. They had some students with them that they seemed to want to keep alive,” he is getting quiet, “but the rest…” he trails off.
“We know,” Boston says, lowering his gun. “They’re doing the same thing in the marsh where the stage ones go for evacuation.”
Something hard hits a wall in the kitchen. Boston jumps around the corner with his gun ready. He surveys the kitchen, relaxes, and then nods me over. Glensy is standing by the wall where he has punched a hole.
“Do you know why they’re doing this?” Boston asks him.
“No. It’s a massacre out there.” He walks to Boston and me looking past us at Baudin laying on the ground. “You can’t trust any of them.”
“I’m with you,” Boston agrees, “but he wasn’t lying. He didn’t know what we were talking about.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Do you know how long the tranquilizers last?” I ask Glensy.
“No idea. Why are you two in here?”
“He was our best bet at getting our hands on weapons.”
Glensy looks at the shotgun. “A double barrel isn’t going to be much help.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” I say.
Glensy goes to the refrigerator in the corner of the kitchen. He reaches on the side of the refrigerator against the wall and pulls out a pistol. He hands it to me saying, “Dr. Baudin’ll tell you a lot about his hiding places if you talk to him long enough. So what’s the plan on getting out of here?”
Boston and I tell him where we are heading and why. Boston goes back to Baudin’s room.
I look out the tiny window on the back door telling Glensy, “I leave when I find her.”
Boston joins us after gathering a pocketful of shells for the shotgun. “I locked the front door for him too,” he tells us.
“I’m sure he’ll thank you in class tomorrow,” Glensy says dryly as he readies his gun. I open the back door.
16
K. Demise of innocence
The campus is still under siege when we leave Dr. Baudin’s house. The sound of gun fights come from multiple directions. However, there are less people out in the open as we move on the outskirts. We hide when we hear heavy footsteps coming our way. A group of intruders jog by without seeing us. One of them has a tiny camera strapped to his helmet.
The only time we make contact with anyone we see is when I spot Evan in a group of six skirting the woods. He’s the only Dyna in the group. Two of the others are stage twos and from the looks of everyone else Ethan’s the oldest. The stage twos have makeshift weapons. The youngest in the group is wearing the only bulletproof vest in the group. His group is immediately on the defensive. I can’t blame them since we are stage threes that are well armed compared to them.
“Stage three building is on fire,” Evan tells me, after a short standoff.
“The evac site in the marsh is a trap.”
“So there aren’t any boats?”
“We didn’t make it that far. You won’t either.”
Evan tightly grips the metal piping in his hand. It’s wet on the end. “Ya’ll should come with us,” I tell them. I motion towards the pipe. “You won’t get far with that thing.”
He rests the pipe on his shoulder. “You’re underestimating me. We aren’t going back that way.” He looks at the youngest then lowers his voice. “There were more of us when this started.”
“We’ve got to check out the stage one building. I think Anne’s there.”
“I get it,” he tells me, “I hope you find her.”
I tap Boston’s shoulder. He’s talking to another stage two about the fencing on the east side of the school. He has the shotgun and the handgun he got off of Baudin. “You want to give them one of those?”
He happily hands over the shotgun and extra shells to the stage two he’s discussing exit strategies with.
Glensy walks over to me. “Here,” he says. He reaches to his back and pulls out a handgun from his waistband. Evan takes it spewing thanks. Glensy turns to me. “He had more than one gun in the kitchen,” he admits.
Evan and I’s groups split up wishing each other the best.
Boston sings, quietly distracting us from the sounds around us that should only occupy nightmares. “This is my rifle, this is my gun. This is for fighting this is for—”
“Really?” I interrupt him.
“What?”
“You’re the only one that could have fun with that little thing,” Glensy teases.
Boston grabs his belt buckle with his free hand and wiggles it. “Oh is that right? Your girlfriend sure had fun.”
Glensy punches him in the arm angrily. For Boston it’s a hard hit.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” I ask Glensy.
“No.”
“That shouldn’t have bothered you then.”
“Yeah,” Boston says. “I could’ve told you how much your mom likes my g
un.” He gives Glensy a wicked smile. Glensy really goes for him this time.
I squeeze between them. “We’re here. You’re being too loud.”
The stage one building is fairly deserted like most of campus. We ease up to it, staying by the trees. It’s a good thing we didn’t run right in because someone our age runs out. He’s followed swiftly by another stage three.
“They gave us a direct order. This is no time to wuss out.” The first student keeps walking, ignoring what the other is telling him. He slows a bit looking over his should to glare at the guy following him.
“The only people left in there are children.”
The second guy doesn’t reply. The first guy’s glare turns into fury and he stops walking to face him. “If they ordered you to put that barrel in your mouth, would you?!”
“Enough! Suck it up and follow the orders you were given, or else.”
“Or else what?”
The second guy lifts his gun catching the other one off guard seeing the gun pointed right at his chest.
He voice is a mixture of hurt and surprise, “You’re going to shoot me, your best friend?”
“I will do what has to be done.”
“Me too,” Glensy whispers. He raises his gun, switches the lever on the side of the gun off of the tranquilizers. He shoots the student threatening to kill his friend before he has the chance to make good on his threat.
Glensy moves out from the bushes we’re hiding in as the distraught stage three, whose life Glensy just saved, takes off running in the opposite direction. “You’re welcome!” Glensy shouts after him.
The building is eerily quiet for a place that normally has little kids shouting and teachers continuously coming to and fro. We start checking rooms. We find them to be empty with a couple overturned chairs here and there. We separate so we can cover ground faster. We’re getting close to finishing the first floor when I open a door and see a footprint trail of blood on the floor. I have my gun ready as I walk in. The blood leads me to two small bodies at the back of the front of the class. Judging by their positions the little boy tried to protect the girl with his own body. Is there such a thing as selflessness in one so very young?
I lean down to close his little eyes when a noise of something heavy and metal drags the floor from upstairs makes me jump up. Glensy’s at the other end of the hall about to enter a room as I walk out of mine. Boston’s out of sight checking one of the rooms closer to Glensy. They have a staircase on their side of the hall identical to the one by me. I motion for Glensy to go to the stairs, pointing up to the second floor. More movement upstairs can be heard in the hallway. I run as silently as possible up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs I can make out voices. There was much more of a fight on the second floor. Doors are open, windows broken, and desks and chairs are skewed everywhere including the hall. I follow the voices to a room with its door slightly open. I peek through the crack, into the room where all the noise is coming from.
Mase, Lia, and another faculty member have their back to me. I hear crying on the other side of the room but the person doing the crying is blocked from my view. Downstairs there’s a gunshot and I jump back, against the wall. Glensy and Boston haven’t made it upstairs yet. What was I thinking running up here before clearing the entire first floor?
“Hurry up,” someone in the rooms says. I hear movement coming up the stairs, down the hall. I squat down, ready to shoot whether it be someone from the stairs or the classroom. Glensy pops his head out of the stairwell. A relieved breath escapes me. I put my finger to my lips then point at the door I’m next too. His steps are silent as he joins me at the opposite side of the door.
“Please don’t do this,” a shaky voice pleads from inside the classroom. It’s Anne. I look inside again, trying to locate her exact position. She’s somewhere on the other side of the room. There are scared whimpers also coming from that direction so she’s not alone.
“Lets not drag this out. Lia, you ready to prove what your kid’s made of?” Lia looks over at Mase, who brings his gun up without hesitation.
I do the same, pointing my gun at the back of Mase’s head as I announce my presence, “Wrong move, Masey.”
Lia and the man beside her turn to the door. They are wearing identical holsters that carry their handgun under their left armpit. They’re holding tactical rifles that definitely don’t have tranquilizers in them. “Drop it, son,” the man says.
Mase lowers his rifle some to look curiously in my direction. He doesn’t have the handguns that the others do.
Lia relaxes when she sees me and lowers her gun, slightly. “Kelly, I know how this looks. Put your weapon down and I can explain.”
My gun moves to Lia. “You’re about to kill innocent kids. What part am I not getting?”
The man beside her suddenly moves, opening fire. The bullets hit the door right next to my head. I return fire but the man moves to the left side of the room that I can’t see without sticking my head around the door giving him an easy target. Glensy’s swings the door wide open, and from the other side of the doorframe he begins returning fire with me. Lia and Mase are watching the exchange unfazed. I look around the doorframe just enough to have a one-eyed view. I take a shot but it’s Glensy that is able to hit the man. His shot makes solid contact to the man’s neck. The initial mist of blood turns into a pool as soon as he hits the ground. Lia and Mase go for cover behind an over-turned teacher’s desk in the rear of the room on the left.
Glensy switches to my side of the doorframe as I run in. Anne’s on the right side of the room against the back wall with two small kids tucked behind her. She’s unarmed. Someone shoots from behind the desk before I can make it to Anne. The chairs between her and I are sprayed with bullets. They’re stopping me from joining her. I’m too far inside the room to run back out but even if I could I’m not going to leave Mase and Lia with an open shot at Anne. I quickly turn a group of desks on their sides while Glensy distracts them by shooting their desk. I get behind one of the small, overturned desks and shove the rest towards Anne.
“Get behind them,” Anne instructs the kids.
“Don’t you dare,” Mase says from the side of the table he’s crouched behind. I can see the end of his gun pointed at Anne. She freezes pulling the two little ones back. Glensy fires at their desk again and Mase’s gun disappears behind the desk. Anne grabs the closest thing to her, an overturned chair, and slides it next to her. One of the kids scrawls behind it. There isn’t anything else in arms reach for her or the other child to hide behind.
“What the hell, Mase?!” Glensy yells from the door. I freeze in the realization that Mase is Glensy’s best friend. I won’t stand a chance if all three of them start shooting at me. I look at the door. Glensy wouldn’t even have to move to have a clear shot at me. I look at the wall of windows to my right over-looking the back of the building. If only I could get Anne and the kids out before I’m become outnumbered. Would the kids survive a two-story jump?
“Good shot, Glensy,” Mase says, peeking hesitantly over the desk at him.
“I got one for you too, buddy,” he replies. Relief washes over me. I could seriously kiss that big lug right now.
“Oh, don’t be that way, G-man. You can still get on the winning side.”
I can’t see Lia at all and just as I aim at Mase he ducks behind the desk.
Glensy grunts, “Humph! The dark side isn’t for me, bro. Consider me pro-life.”
“I’ve had enough,” Lia announces. “Get the window.” Mase obeys turning his gun on the window closest to them. He shoots the window out leaning out enough for me to have a shot. I don’t hesitate. I shoot and hit him in the arm.
“Arghh!” He cries out, rolling behind the desk.
Lia sprays my desk with shots. Holes are punched out over the length of the desk, but luckily they’re all too high to hit me where I’m laying at on the ground.
Suddenly Mase is up from behind the desk, running for the
window. Glensy tries to move in to shoot but Lia covers Mase, shooting in Glensy’s direction. Mase jumps from the window as I get up from the ground. As soon as I lift my gun to shoot Mase, Lia shoots my desk again. Anne pushes the kids out from behind her to get them to the nearest desk for protection from the bullets. Lia runs after Mase. I jump up and begin firing at Lia but she’s fast. She gets off another round that sprays across the room. I drop down. The skinny metal legs of the desks aren’t much protection. She makes it to the window as I realize she isn’t shooting at me. Glensy runs in shooting as Lia makes her exit through the window.
Glensy and I run to the window. She’s already to the side of the building, turning the corner. Glensy gets two shots off before she’s gone. Silence falls over the building once more. I look over at Glensy. He cusses, lowering his weapon.
“You just tried to kill your best friend,” I tell him.
He looks hard out the window not staring at anything in particular. “He wasn’t that good of a friend.” His head turns slightly to look at me out the corner of his eye.
“I don’t feel so bad for shooting him then,” I tell him.
Something catches his eye behind me. “Oh no.”
I turn around to see what he’s looking at. Anne is on the ground between the spot where she was crouching earlier and the desk that the two kids are curled up behind. She’s on her side, propped up on her elbow, holding her lower chest. Pain is written on her face. I sink to my knees in front of her. I hold the back of her head and carefully lay her back. She’s somewhat surprised to see blood when she pulls her hand off her chest. “She shot me.”
“I know.” I put her hand back over the wound and press hard.
She stares with empty eyes at her chest. “It was a lie. I should’ve known this place was never real. I will, never… belong... any… where,” She struggles, gasping like she can’t catch her breath.
I cradle her in my arm applying more pressure to her wound. “Don’t say that, Anne. You belong.”
She looks up to me. “Where?”
