by T. Gault
As we stared out the window we heard the noise again. Pop, pop, pop. The noise was muffled, but it sounded like it was coming from the cafeteria. We waited to hear the noise again, but the noise had stopped.
“We should call 911,” said Gwen as she pulled out her cellphone.
She dialed and waited. We waited for what felt like ten minutes for someone to answer. She was about to hang up when we finally got an answer. While we waited for an answer, Gwen put her phone on speakerphone.
“Hampton 9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” said the call taker.
“We’re on the Thomas Nelson campus off of Magruder and the campus police are shooting at someone. We can’t see them but their car is parked on the grass outside of the cafeteria and we keep hearing gunshots,” said Gwen.
“Okay, I’ll get some units to head that way. I need you to stay on the phone with me. Are you hurt?” said the call taker.
“No, we’re not hurt, but there might be someone hurt in the cafeteria,” said Gwen.
“Okay, I need you to stay away from the cafeteria. If you can, lock the doors where you are and stay away from the windows.”
“Okay,” said Gwen as I ran to the door to lock it.
“There have been a lot of calls this morning and I may have to put you on hold for a few moments to handle another call, but don’t hang up, okay?” said the call taker.
“Okay, I’m not going anywhere,” said Gwen.
“This might sound strange, but have you seen anyone at the school that looked sick?” asked the call taker.
“No, I haven’t seen any sick people here. What do you mean by ‘sick’?” asked Gwen.
“Some of the other callers today have been telling us that there are sick people attacking them,” replied the call taker.
“Like the flu or something?” I asked.
“No, not really like that. More like, well, the people looked...hold on I’ve got to switch lines. Stay on the line and I’ll come back to you as soon as I can,” said the call taker before we heard the on hold beeps.
I went back over to the window to see if anything else was going on. We hadn’t heard any gunshots in a few minutes. Just as I looked down at the courtyard, I saw a man hobbling on the sidewalk toward Hastings Hall. I could see a bloodstain on the collar of his shirt and on one of his sleeves.
“Gwen, there’s a guy down there. He looks like he needs some help,” I said.
“Do you think he’s one of those...sick people she was talking about?” asked Gwen.
I looked back out the window and watched him for a few seconds. He repeatedly looked over his shoulder back at the cafeteria like he thought he was going to be followed. He was wearing a button-up shirt and a pair of dress slacks. He looked desperate to get away from the cafeteria.
I looked at Gwen. “I’m going to try something,” I said as I tapped on the window.
The man immediately froze in place and looked terrified. I tapped again and he looked right at me.
“Help me, please,” the man yelled.
Gwen and I ran to the stairwell and down to the outside door. The man came stumbling around the corner and collapsed on the ground in front of us. We helped him to his feet and got him inside of the stairwell.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
“They’re in the library,” said the man.
“Who is? The cops?” I asked.
“Yes...no the...they grabbed me and I don’t know what happened,” the man struggled to say.
“Who were the cops shooting at?” I asked.
“They just started shooting, but there were too many,” the man said.
“Too many cops?” I asked.
The man fainted and fell to the floor. Gwen and I held onto him the best we could as he fell. We sat him up against the wall and Gwen pulled her phone out of her pocket. She tried to get the 9-1-1 call taker back on the phone, but we were still hearing the on hold beeps.
“What are we going to do?” asked Gwen.
“I don’t know. 9-1-1 said to stay here and wait,” I said as I tried to take a closer look at the man’s injuries.
I couldn’t see the injury to his arm under his shirt, but his sleeve was soaked with blood. The left side of his neck had a pretty substantial wound and his collar was completely red from the blood.
“We can’t wait until someone shows up. He is hurt pretty bad and we need to at least find a first aid kit or something,” I said.
“I’ll stay with him. You go look around in here and see if you can find one,” said Gwen.
I jumped up and ran back up the stairs. I remembered seeing a first aid kit hanging in the hall near to the bathrooms. I jogged down the hall to grab it, but as I got closer to it I noticed the lid was already open. There was a package of gauze on the floor in front of the door to another classroom. I slowly pushed the door open and peered inside. I looked at the floor and saw several drips of blood on the floor leading to the desk nearest to the door. I walked up to the desk and saw a pair of medical scissors and blood smeared all over the desk. I looked around the room, but there was no one.
I picked up the scissors and the package of gauze and ran back to the first-aid box on the wall. There was no medical tape or any other bandages in the box, but there was a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. I took all the supplies and ran back to Gwen.
“Is he talking again yet?” I asked.
Gwen shook her head, “No, he hasn’t moved, but I can see he is still breathing.”
“We need to find someone who can help. How about that 9-1-1 call? Has she come back to the phone yet?” I asked.
“No, I’m still on hold,” replied Gwen as she began to try to wrap the man’s wounds.
As Gwen dressed the injuries, I noticed that they didn’t look like bullet holes. It looked more like the skin was ripped and torn.
“I don’t think he was shot,” I said as I pointed at his neck.
“What else would have done this?” asked Gwen.
“I don’t know, but it definitely doesn’t look like what I think a bullet hole would look like,” I replied.
I stood up and opened the door. There didn’t appear to be anything else going on outside. We hadn’t heard any more shots since before we saw the man walking outside. The man needed way more medical attention than either of us could offer him.
“I’m going to see if I can find one of those cops. They probably know what’s going on and maybe they’ve got an ambulance around here somewhere already,” I said.
Gwen looked scared. “I guess I’ll stay with him. Let’s exchange phone numbers and you can call me when you find someone or I can call you if something happens here,” she said as she held up her cell phone.
I pulled out my flip-phone and typed in her phone number and she saved my phone number in her phone.
“I’m going to leave my backpack with you while I try to find help. I’ll be able to move faster,” I said as I dropped my backpack on the floor next to the wall.
“Help me get him up to that classroom before you go. I would feel safer locked in that room and I can see what’s going on around the campus from there,” said Gwen.
Gwen and I lifted the man with his arms over our shoulders and we carried him up the stairs. We sat him down as gently as possible and propped him up against the wall. I looked out the window again to see where I was heading. I had been inside that building so many times before, but this time felt so much different.
“Call me as soon as you find someone,” said Gwen.
“I will. Go ahead and lock the door behind me. I will call you before I try to come back in,” I said as I walked to the door.
I could tell that she was scared and did not want me to leave her alone there, but I needed to find some help. Walking up the sidewalk toward the entrance to the library and study center, I passed the newer addition to the school, Templin Hall. None of my classes had been in that hall yet, but it was very nice inside. I looked over at the campus police vehicle and could see t
hat no one was sitting inside the vehicle, but the blue lights on top of the car were still running. I looked through the windows into the library area, but couldn’t see any movement or hear anything coming from inside.
I stepped up to the doors and looked down at the steps just before I opened the door. I could see drips of blood across each step leading to the sidewalk. The blood was most likely from the guy that was now with Gwen. I opened the glass door and inched my way inside. I could see more bloodstains on the linoleum floor of the study center. Some of the blood looked different. It looked thick and dark brown.
There was something else on the floor that caught my eye: small shiny objects. I moved closer to some of them and could see that they were bullet casings. They were scattered all over and seemed to be more concentrated toward the tutoring rooms next to the library. Right at the entrance to the tutoring center hallway, there were more blood smears on the floor. The gates to the library were still down and the lights inside were off. I peered into the shadows of the library and thought I could see something moving in the back. I thought it might have just been my eyes playing tricks on me.
“Hello?” I called out, but got no response.
I looked back toward the cafeteria and could see a light had been turned on. I thought maybe that was where the campus police had gone. I inched my way down the hall toward the cafeteria. While I walked I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was walking behind me. I repeatedly looked over my shoulder only to see that there was no one there. As I made my first few steps into the cafeteria, I could see that the light was coming from behind the sales counter for the cafeteria. I could see water covering the floor in front of the counter. I walked closer to it and could see a mop bucket tipped over on the other side of one of the lunch tables. The mop was nowhere around the bucket though.
I looked over at the doors where the group had been pounding earlier. The glass on the doors was shattered and there was more of that thick, brownish blood on the floor and on the broken glass. I walked over to the doors and found more of the bullet casings about twenty feet from the doors. I bent down to pick up one of the casings.
SCREECH...THUD...
BANG, I heard what sounded like a muffled gunshot from down the hall toward the library.
The sudden noise startled me. I froze in place for a few moments, not knowing what I should do. I slowly stood up and walked toward the wall near to the hallway leading to the library. I all but held my breath as I walked. I was afraid that if I breathed too loudly, whoever was back there might hear me. Once I made it to the wall I stopped and listened for a few moments. Every second felt like a minute as I stood there, but I’m sure it wasn’t long at all. Then I thought about Gwen.
She would probably want to know that I’m not shot, after hearing that, I thought to myself as I pulled out my cell phone.
I called her number and waited while the phone rang, but she never answered. At first I thought I might have typed her number wrong, but then I heard her voice on the voicemail and knew I had the right number.
Then the thought crossed my mind, What if that gunshot was Gwen?
I gasped and let myself begin to imagine what might have happened. I quickly snapped myself out of the daydream and made myself focus.
Either way, I need to find some help, I thought to myself.
I rounded the corner into the hallway and started to walk slowly toward the tutoring center. I continually listened for any sounds at all from the tutoring rooms, but didn’t hear a thing. I kept my eyes locked on the hall leading to the rooms as I slowly moved toward it.
CLINK. I froze and I’m sure I turned white until I realized I had accidentally kicked one of the bullet casings on the floor.
I stood still and listened. Finally, I heard something coming from the rooms. A shuffling noise.
“Hello? Officers?” I said quietly as I continued to stand still.
Just as I spoke, someone came stumbling out into the hall. Something was wrong with the person. He looked different from the guy that was with Gwen. The injured guy with Gwen looked like he was in a panic. This person almost looked drunk. He walked right into the wall with a THUD. He stopped and stared at the wall for a second or two and turned to walk away from me. He was wearing jeans and a light-blue t-shirt. Judging by his age I thought he was most likely a student.
I couldn’t help it; I had to know what was going on, “Hey, are you alright?”
The guy stopped in place and turned around to face me but did not answer. Something was wrong with his mouth. His teeth looked like they were permanently exposed, like he had no lips. There was also a deep crimson stain around his mouth and down the front of his shirt. He started to stumble toward me and appeared to be staring right at me. Each step was a little quicker than the last.
“Okay, just stop right there,” I said as I began to walk backward.
What I said only seemed to make him move faster toward me. I didn’t know if this was one of those “sick” people or not, but I wasn’t about to let him touch me. I turned and began to run back into the cafeteria. I glanced over my shoulder to see the person trying to run after me and I saw what looked like one of the cops stumble out from the tutoring center. No matter what was going on it was time for Gwen and me to leave.
I turned to run toward the shattered doors to the cafeteria, forgetting about the soapy water spilled all over the floor in the cafeteria. I slipped and slid into one of the tables, but somehow managed to stay on my feet. I pushed off of the table and continued to run toward the doors leading outside.
I looked back just before I went through the doors and could see the person chasing me. His eyes were still locked on me and he didn’t even try to avoid the tables and chairs as he ran through the cafeteria. He was so intent on getting to me that he flipped over a table and slid facedown into another set of a table and chairs. I didn’t wait around to see if he was going to get back up.
I ran out onto the patio outside of the cafeteria and could see the campus police unit still sitting on the grass. I ran back toward Hastings Hall to tell Gwen that we needed to leave the campus. I set my eyes on Hastings Hall and ran with everything I had. While I was running I pulled out my cellphone and tried to call Gwen again, but again I got no answer. I just hoped that she had seen me running toward the building.
I threw open the door to Hastings Hall and ran up the stairs. Something wasn’t right when I came out of the stairwell. There were blood smears around the door handle and on the wall next to the door to the stairwell. Then I saw the reason Gwen had not answered. Her phone was lying on the floor just outside of the classroom she was hiding in. The door to the classroom was left open.
“Gwen? Are you up here?” I whispered.
I waited for several seconds and started to make my way to the classroom. I watched the hallway and listened for any sounds, but the only sound I could hear was my footsteps in the silent hall. I peered inside the room and saw where the injured man had been sitting. He was gone.
“Gwen? Are you okay? Where did the guy go?” I whispered.
She was gone. I walked into the classroom and looked out toward the cafeteria again. I must have gotten someone’s attention when I was in the cafeteria, because there were about ten more people stumbling out of the broken cafeteria doors that looked just like the sick guy that had chased me. I wanted to find Gwen, to get away from the campus. I picked up my red backpack from the floor where I had left it. I turned and walked back toward the door until I heard something coming from the stairwell. It sounded like someone bumping the metal handrails. I could hear shuffling footsteps moving up the stairs. I couldn’t move. If it was Gwen or the injured guy, I wanted to help them, but if it was the sick guy chasing me, I didn’t want him to find me there.
Logic got the better of me over my concern and I ran down the hall to the other stairwell. I slowly opened the door, stepped inside, and held the door cracked open slightly to watch the other end of the hall. I kept my eyes locked on the d
oor handle for the stairs. I heard someone slam into the door pretty hard and it echoed down the hall. The door handle began to slowly turn and finally the door swung open. The person pushing on the other side of the door was not ready for the door to open and he fell to the floor in the hallway. It was the man Gwen was trying to help.
“He might know where Gwen went or what happened to her,” I thought to myself as I pushed the door open and stumbled into the hall.
The man began to stand back up and still appeared unsteady on his feet. I started to run toward him and began to ask him about Gwen. As he steadied himself on his feet, he appeared to hear me as I ran. He looked up at me with cold vacant eyes and a new smearing of blood around his mouth. He started to move toward me and he wouldn’t take his eyes off of me. I tried to slow down, but with my momentum, coupled with the heavy backpack full of books behind me, I couldn’t slow down.
