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solus.serpen
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Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Topics: 7
Posts: 608
Location: UK
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 Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:11 pm Post subject: Terrorist High |
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Ok, not the best title ever - but I found a story I wrote a year or two ago and thought I might as well post it up.
It's not a school for terrorists - sorry. It's an all girls' school 'attacked' by terrorists.
Swearing, Death, etc. < WARNING
Anyway, Happy Christmas! 
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‘Brrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggg.’
Sighing in relief, Jess jumped out of her chair and swung her heavy back-pack onto her shoulders, tapping her fingers on the desk impatiently as she waited for her friends to don their own bags so that they could leave for lunch.
Surina, an Asian girl with long, braided black hair, stood up on her right and swung her beige shoulder bag onto her right shoulder, laughing at a private joke that her and the tall, dirty-blonde haired girl standing on her right had just shared.
Further to the right (past the tall, short haired blonde), two more girls stood packing up their things. The one nearest Jess would have been one of the shorter girls in the year had it not been for her brown hair which stood up a good inch and a half in little ringlets around her face and shoulders. This was Lizzy Jones, and next to her stood Sarah, a girl a good six inches taller than her - her loose, layered hair reaching just below her shoulders.
‘Are you okay, Jess?’ Surina asked, sparing her tomboy-ish friend a concerned glance. Jess shrugged indifferently and Surina frowned slightly before also shrugging and returning to her conversation with Alice.
Most of the class were leading out and some had already gone. Jess’ fingers fell still and she looked up briefly to say ‘Bye’ to Ellie who sat at the end of the table, immediately to the right of Jess. Ellie waved in response and left to find her other friends to eat with.
‘Hey guys, should we go?’ Jess suggested, her tone portraying just how tedious she was finding waiting. Alice looked over at her and then looked back at Sarah and Lizzy.
‘Well Sarah and Lizzy aren’t ready yet so…’ Alice replied, letting the rest of the sentence hang unfinished in the air, apparently satisfied that everyone would understand the need to wait for them. Jess ignored her and after a moment of silence, Surina looking between the two, Alice sighed in frustration and turned back to Surina.
‘Look Surina, can you tell Jess that we should wait for-’ She started, intending on bypassing the silence treatment that she wasn’t sure she deserved. It wasn’t like she had done anything to start it off anyway in her opinion. She didn’t get to finish her sentence though because Jess walked past her as though she didn’t exist and glanced at how far Sarah and Lizzy had gotten with packing. They still weren’t completely ready as they had been chatting and so she tapped Lizzy on the shoulder and said fairly tonelessly,
‘Hey - well I’m going to go eat lunch now. See ya’ later.’ She smiled slightly at the end and waited for Lizzy to nod distractedly and mutter a quick, ‘Ok!’ before walking off towards the door.
They were some of the last people left in the classroom, nobody really wanting to linger in the Chemistry lab with Mr Heath, and as Jess walked away she heard a chorus of voices cry out behind her.
‘Wait Jess!’
Not wanting to turn around, Jess continued walking out of the lab as she heard the sound of running footsteps following her.
‘Wait Surina!’ Jess heard Alice call, followed by a loud sigh of exasperation. Smiling slightly, Jess reminded herself that, actually, she couldn’t have heard those things because the invisible person people called ‘Alice’ didn’t really exist.
Surina caught up to her when she’d just reached the door that led to the outside walkway connecting the three main school blocks together. Then, a few moments later, Surina started up a conversation with the thin air about how irritable Jess was being and how she thought she must be having her monthly period.
Jess grimaced and just about refrained from hitting Surina when she suddenly heard a loud cracking sound and immediately flung herself down onto the ground, raising her head to search with her eyes for the shooter as she army-crawled along the walk-way towards the entrance to the curved-building.
Jess was used to guns and the sound of gunshots because she went shooting often and so, although her heart was still racing - pumping adrenaline through her active body - she was not shocked enough to freeze up. Surina and Alice, who attended ATC, were also fairly used to gunfire (although not perhaps at home with it like Jess) but, unlike their long, brown-haired friend, they abandoned the army crawl and ran full out for the door to the curved building, their hearts also beating out adrenaline into their systems.
There was another two shots and Jess ducked her head, continuing to crawl as she traced the sound back to the door out of the science block that they had just come out of.
Oh shit! She thought, her eyes narrowed as she pushed herself up and ran for the door. She had heard one of her companions cry out behind her but she didn’t wait around to see which one - truth be told, it wasn’t like she cared all that much for either of them in view of her own life being on the line. She didn’t have far to run now, but she zig-zagged her running to avoid becoming a main target for any more bullets that might be fired.
The door to the curved building opened outwards, towards her, and so Jess ducked as she gripped the handle and yanked it down, forcefully pulling the door open and jumping inside, landing with a clumsy forward roll and quickly concealing herself down the stairs. Taking a deep breath, she chanced peering through the banisters to see what had happened to her companions and whether they were dead yet.
Apparently they weren’t as Alice, her left leg bleeding uncontrollably, was being half-dragged, half-carried by Surina who was desperately trying to run as fast as she could to get to the door before it shut.
Mildly disappointed that Surina hadn’t been shot as well, Jess ducked her head back down and took the stairs two at a time, intending on losing the two other girls because, with her injured leg, Alice was only bound to slow her down.
Thus thinking, she reached the bottom of the stairs and took three sharp right turns, sliding under the stairs in style. Unfortunately the space under the curved-building’s stairs wasn’t cleaned very regularly (If at all, Jess thought sceptically) and she ended up covering her mouth and nose as a wide, thick dust cloud roused itself at her film-like arrival.
Oh damn, Jess thought as she felt her nose tickle and then sneezed several times in a row, her eyes narrowed into slits to avoid getting dust into them. Even when the dust began to settle Jess couldn’t help sneezing some more and silently reprimanded herself at having chosen this spot to hide in.
Just as she was deeming it safe enough to open her eyes to more than thin slits, Jess heard first one voice and then another one call out her name and heavy feet descending the stairs.
No! No! Hell no! Don’t sneeze, don’t sneeze. They’ll just pass by. Don’t sneeze.
Unfortunately her silent mantra didn’t help any with her fight against human biology and she sneezed again.
‘Jess?’ Surina called again, her voice holding some hope in it.
‘Be careful,’ the person who didn’t exist warned and Jess hoped desperately that Surina would listen to it. ‘It could be another terrorist.’
What happened to the other one? Jess wondered thoughtfully, but dismissed the silent question with a shrug and continued to wait for Surina’s verdict. It came unexpectedly in the form of a well-rounded face peering around the stairs and grinning in relief as Surina saw Jess crouching there.
‘Hey Jess - give me a hand here, would you?’ Surina begged, shifting Alice slightly on her back. Jess glared at Surina for being so loud and careless.
‘With what?’ She replied dryly, still refusing to acknowledge Alice’s presence. Surina stared back at her with some incredulity in her eyes as Jess stood up and pushed past her, checking that no-one was coming and holding a finger to her lips to stop Surina from talking. Surina shut her mouth obediently, albeit a little reluctantly, and Jess nodded in satisfaction when she saw that no-one was coming after them yet.
Where is that gun-man that was shooting at us before? She wondered again, her brow furrowed as she lithely darted towards the door, out of the curved building and out into the ‘grounds’.
I think I’ll try the field, Jess decided firmly, taking a left and pressing herself up against the wall, glancing around her to make sure that no-one had seen her. She noticed (with some dissatisfaction, but no surprise) that Surina, still carrying an injured Alice, had followed her outside and against the wall. There was no-one outside who had spotted her, but she saw that a man dressed in all black (a balaclava over his head) and holding an Uzi in BL1 was looking straight at her and her face fell into an annoyed frown.
Shit.
Turning, Jess ran as the man lifted what looked suspiciously like a radio to his mouth. The guns that had fired the bullets at them and hit Alice in the leg seemed to have sparked off a whole train of gunshots and, as Jess ran out onto the field and lifted her head up, the whole school seemed to ring with the sound of gunshots, giving her a sad and uneven beat to run to.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
‘Yes! We beat them!’ A teenage girl’s voice drifted through the air, followed by an amused laugh from her companion. Dumping their bags and folders on the dry grass beside two un-kept-looking wooden benches they sat down, one on either bench, facing each other with a couple of feet in-between them.
One of the girls, the one who had laughed, began to open the crumpled T.E.S.C.O. bag that contained her lunch, searching through the contents animatedly as her loose auburn hair fluttered in the wind. The other waited for a minute, staring back the way they had just come as if expecting the arrival of others.
‘What’re you doing, Lydia?’ The red-head asked genially, pausing from unwrapping the foil around her sandwiches to glance up at her friend. When Lydia didn’t reply though she rolled her eyes and returned to her food. ‘Tch. You don’t have to wait for them, you know.’
Lydia glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye and shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. ‘Yeah…guess not.’
Slowly bending over to zip open her desert-camouflage bag, Lydia pulled out a much smaller sandwich bag that contained a yogurt, a small metal spoon and two chocolate bars.
‘Oooh, healthy,’ Lydia’s friend commented sarcastically and she shrugged in reply, another smile playing on her lips.
‘Yeah, well, whatever. No different from normal,’ Lydia replied, brushing her long brown bangs behind her ears with her right hand as she glanced back over at the science block of the school. A few people had already been on the field when they had arrived but most people arrived later, walking at a more leisurely pace than them. Today though it was quieter than usual, with no-one coming near the field. She frowned.
‘Hey, Steel…’ Lydia started, glancing briefly at her pale, freckled companion to see that she had gotten her attention.
‘Mm?’ Steel (somehow, through a series of un-memorable events, ‘Steel’ had come to be called by her surname by her friends) hummed in reply, having just bitten into her peanut butter sandwich. Lydia looked back to the walkway and over the new greenhouse to the science block again. Her eyes narrowed as she squinted to see what was going on - it seemed like there were still students inside the classroom, sitting down at their desks as if they were in a lesson.
‘What?’ Steel asked, exasperated, once she had finished her mouthful. Seeing that Hannah was squinting at something, she immediately turned her head and squinted as well, trying to work out what it was.
‘Did the bell go?’ Lydia murmured, glancing at her now-squinting comrade. Steel didn’t answer her immediately.
‘Damn, I can’t see without my glasses,’ Steel muttered a moment later, turning back to Lydia in confusion. ‘Sorry - what?’
‘Did the bell go?’ Lydia repeated. ‘Because those people in that class-room seem like they’re still in a lesson.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Steel replied with certainty. ‘Of course it’s gone - they’ve probably just got class-detention or something.’ Then, as if to convince Lydia and herself further, she waved her hand at the few other people eating lunch. ‘Anyway, they obviously heard the bell.’
‘Yeah…’ Lydia muttered with a frown, still not desperately convinced, although slightly more at ease than before. ‘But they could just be skiving. Besides…where are the others?’
Steel shrugged, apparently too focused on her lunch to bother thinking about ‘the others’. Lydia continued to frown for a few moments more but then sighed and pulled out the yogurt from her sandwich bag. Peeling back the lid of the yogurt, Lydia couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Somehow, the school was different today, as if something ominous was about to happen.
Having finished one sandwich already, Steel glared up at her friend as if telling her to drop it and so Lydia gave her an enthusiastic smile and picked up her spoon. Before she could actually begin on her lunch though a loud shot rang through the air and she jumped, the yogurt landing on the floor and spilling all over the shaded green grass. Steel cursed loudly, jumping down onto the floor and reaching out a hand to pull Lydia with her. Annoyed, Lydia landed in a pool of split vanilla yogurt.
Oh the joys, she thought ironically and adjusted her hands so that she could press down on the hard ground and raise herself enough to look around for the source of the gunshot.
‘Get down!’ Steel cried heroically, batting Lydia around the head and causing her to fall back down to the ground and land in the cold, messy yogurt for the second time that day. Lydia clenched her fists and tried to take a deep breath as she crawled over to the bush, intending on hiding behind it.
‘The bush’ was a large, 2½ meters long lengthwise and 1 meter long width-wise, not-very-thick clump of foliage. It was as tall as a small tree, many of which grew in the surrounding area, and would provide sufficient cover as far as Lydia was concerned. Looking over her shoulder when she reached the bush, she saw that Steel was following her and so she found a parting in the bush’s branches and entered the bush, cracking off some of the interior branches when inside to create more space for Steel.
Steel army-crawled over to the bush and entered on her hands and knees, turning around almost as soon as she had to stare back at the school, squinting at the long distance between herself and ‘the action’.
‘Hey, Steel,’ Lydia hissed quietly, trying to peer out of the gap over her friend’s shoulder without much success, ‘move over, would ya’? I can see better than you.’
Frustrated that, for the moment, she couldn’t do something better than her friend, Steel reluctantly moved over and began formulating an idea of what was happening.
‘I bet it’s terrorists,’ she announced distractingly as Lydia squinted out through the branches. Lydia didn’t reply for a moment, too preoccupied with her current task to properly focus on coming up with a situation herself.
Steel herself had been going to ATC for as long as Surina and Alice had been and, like Alice, attended the course as much as possible (both Mondays and Thursdays, with a few camps and shooting week-ends thrown in). Unlike Alice though Steel always managed to win the awards such as ‘best uniform’ and ‘best cadet’ - providing a source of constant teasing and, thus, amusement for the auburn-haired teenager.
‘You know, it’s equally possible that Jess finally lost it and brought in a gun to shoot Alice or someone with,’ Lydia finally replied, giving her eyes a quick rest as she glanced at her restless companion, a smile hovering on her lips.
Lydia had also attended ATC, but only for two months since May last year because, at the ceremony where you received your official ATC books, one of the male cadets had flirted far too openly for his own good with her, catching the eye of her protective father. Thus she had been forced to quit (frankly, she hadn’t been over-keen on the organisation anyway, so she hadn’t been too bothered by the order) and ever since then had been a lot more concentrated on writing in her spare time.
‘Haha, yeah,’ Steel laughed uneasily, shifting to see if she could see anything further out in the field. Lydia returned to her eye-hole just as another gunshot rang out from the school. Suddenly the air seemed to be full of them and she covered her ears firmly as she continued to stare out towards the school. Probably not Jess then, Lydia decided grimly although she hadn’t believed her suggestion anyway.
As if her thinking about her had suddenly made her appear, Lydia saw Jess emerge from the side of the curved building and run out towards them. She was zig-zagging her running to avoid being hit and now Lydia could see that a man clad in all black with a balaclava had moved to be visible on the bridge/top walkway. He was holding a large gun and aiming his shot specifically at Jess as she ran. Lydia didn’t know what gun it was because she had only ever gone shooting once, and that wasn’t even with blanks - just to get her used to holding the heavy (Tch, hardly ‘heavy’) shotgun.
Behind Jess, Lydia saw Surina appear, running, with Alice slung over her back. She would have alerted Steel to her find but Steel was already peering over her shoulder at the action.
‘Holy shit!’ Lydia’s companion gasped out behind her and she silently agreed, her face now set into a grim line. Half-crawling out of their hide-out, Lydia felt Steel grab onto the back of her jumper, holding her back.
‘‘The fuck ‘you doing?’ Steel shouted above the gunshots. Now partially deaf from the loud noise, Lydia only barely heard her friend.
‘’Gonna go tell Jess where we are, yeah,’ she shouted back loudly and Steel hesitated, processing the words in her head before shouting back.
‘Just wave then!’
‘That’s what I was gonna do, yeah,’ Lydia gritted out, too quiet compared to the gunshots for Steel to actually hear her. Balancing on one hand and waving with the other, Lydia half-turned her body and shouted in Steel’s face to,
‘Break the branches off - make an exit the other side!’
Again Steel hesitated as she worked out what was said before forming an ‘O’ with her mouth and retreating further back into the concave, viciously kicking the branches out of the way as she did so.
Jess had seen Lydia a while back and now, as she drew closer, she saw Lydia hurriedly retreat back into the bush. Relieved that she’d found Lydia and, therefore, probably Webber as well, Jess threw herself down onto the floor and crawled into the small opening in the bush. Surina, who was valiantly trying to run as fast behind her, arrived a quarter of a minute later, Alice gripping tightly onto her back.
There really wasn’t much room in the bush and Lydia grimaced and hugged herself closer to avoid having to be pressed too close to anyone else. Steel was still attacking the inside of the bush, already having made an exit and now trying to make the space bigger to accommodate all of the newcomers. Jess was resting although still on edge, holding her ears to shield them from the gunfire that was still echoing all around them. Surina had laid Alice down outside and was asking for help to bring her in, although none of the others could really hear her properly - and pretended that they couldn’t hear her at all.
Steel eventually grabbed Alice and roughly pulled her in, allowing Surina to crawl in with tears running down her face. It was apparent that Surina had also been shot in the leg whilst waiting for someone to help take Alice in.
Well that really only tells us that their aiming is crap. Surina wasn’t even trying to dodge and they still only got her in the leg, Lydia noted, watching Surina’s blood in morbid fascination. She laughed a laugh that sounded a little too quiet and strained to be genuine then, indicating that she was under a certain amount of stress. Even so, she refrained from acting helpfully. It’s more vital now to think of what we should do next, not waste my time healing people. Besides - if they’re too weak to survive from an wounded leg then that’s their own problem.
Steel decided to take control by removing her jumper and trying to rip it in half, hoping to quench the flow of blood from Alice’s leg and ordering Jess to tend to Surina. Seeing that Lydia was sitting still, apparently uselessly, she shouted something about ‘Help us’ to her and expected her to comply.
Seeing Steel’s sincere face Lydia frowned and removed her jumper, not particularly wanting it now it was stained with yogurt, and threw it to Jess. Jess seemed a little reluctant to tie the jumper to Surina’s leg but did so as Steel tended to Alice in her usual heroic style. Lydia merely frowned and stayed out of it, convinced that if she tried to intervene then she would only get in the way.
Those bullet wounds are going to get infected though - you really need to get some water and, preferably, a sewing kit to sort them out, Lydia added thoughtfully, noting the tears and painful faces of her two new injured companions.
By the time Surina and Alice were safely ‘tied up’, most of the gunshots had ceased, although it took a while longer for the group’s hearing to even partially come back. There were still the odd few shots but, as they all sat huddled in the bush, it felt a lot safer somehow.
‘How come they haven’t come after us?’ Lydia asked first, glancing towards the opening they had all entered by. She had to repeat it louder three more times before they all heard and understood.
‘They probably got distracted by something,’ Steel replied hopefully, also glancing at the entrance. Then Jess answered with her own opinion on the matter.
‘Actually, it’s likely that they’ll have the school surrounded, which means there’s no point in coming after us. If we try to leave then we’ll all get shot that way.’
Steel nodded in agreement; it seemed to make perfect sense as she peered out of the ‘exit’ and saw the glint of metal in the brush surrounding the school grounds (although she couldn‘t make out the shape of the guns because of her short-sightedness).
‘Even so though; after making all that racket it’s not as if they’re just going to wait around to get caught by the police, is it?’ Lydia voiced her doubt with the suggestion, not quite ready to believe that they were going to get away with their lives so easily. She expected someone to jokingly call her a pessimist, but it seemed as if open humour had been killed along with optimism and they all sat in silence for a minute or two, thinking and waiting.
There were still the odd few shots ringing out around the school and it sounded as if the terrorists were wandering around, picking off the stragglers and would be escapees. Surina, who had been silently staring at the school (terrified and in pain) out of a hole in the hedge, suddenly became animated then and waved at the others.
‘They’re coming!’ She cried, trying to keep her voice low enough for the gun-men not to hear her but loud enough for the rest to hear her. They heard her.
‘Shit!’ Steel exclaimed helpfully and immediately tried to think of a plan like they all were, wanting to get them all out safely - even if it meant sacrificing her own life; it would be a heroic death, one I think I’m worthy of. Besides - I’m not a coward.
‘We’ve got to get to an unoccupied room,’ Jess told them urgently, the first one to come up with a plan.
‘The music rooms,’ Lydia suggested and Jess and Steel nodded enthusiastically.
‘Right - can you guys make it?’ Steel asked Alice and Surina genuinely whilst Jess and Lydia moved around so that they were at the exit, intending on being the first ones out. Alice grimaced and shook her head slightly but then her face softened into a frown and she shrugged.
‘I guess I’ll have to,’ She said and Lydia twitched impatiently, not wanting to waste any more time. Jess, seeing Lydia’s impatient gesture and not particularly feeling like waiting herself suggested sensibly,
‘Look - should we hurry up?’
‘I’ve got an idea!’ Surina gushed and Lydia assumed that the terrorists must be walking very slowly for them not to have reached their hiding place yet. I suppose it’s
not as if we’re running away - they don’t have to run after us.
Well that’s a first, Jess replied to Surina’s exclamation silently in her head, her temperament now even more irritable than before due to the wait.
‘Hell, let’s just go already,’ Lydia snapped, her dark blue eyes flashing madly before softening as she reprimanded herself silently on losing her cool.
‘Alice, you don’t have to go anywhere for my plan, stay here.’
Apparently Alice must have agreed to Surina’s suggestion because Steel gave a quick goodbye and then ran after the other two who had just left, heading towards the music block. More gunshots rang out after them, blowing up the grass just behind their feet as they increased their speed dramatically.
The window to one of the music practice rooms was open and so, pressing herself as close to the wall as possible, Jess gave Lydia (who was smaller than her) a lift up and Lydia climbed in through the window face first, putting her hands down onto a conveniently placed table below the window to stop herself from falling too far and breaking something.
The room, now that she was in it, smelt metallic and infected. Jumping down in a complicated fashion to avoid flipping over and hitting something painfully, Lydia raised her head to see two dead bodies lying on the floor. Their blood, which was just beginning to dry, spread out over an even wider area. She grimaced and covered her mouth and nose with her right hand, leaning her left arm against the piano for a bit of support as she took the scene in with interested eyes, briefly glancing back at the window as Jess’ arms and then head emerged into the room before returning her eyes to the gory scene in front of her.
The girl, who might have once had a pretty face before it was blasted apart by a bullet straight to the centre of the forehead, looked to have fallen backwards off of the piano seat, her lower legs still resting on the colour-coded (red) leather piano stool. Her teacher, an ageing man who looked to have been in his forties, lay nearer the door and, judging by the position he had fallen in, seemed to have been trying to shield her before he was shot. The area around his chest had been blasted three times, but it was hard to tell because his whole torso was so caked in blood.
Jess was now fully in the room but had done a forward roll off of the table and straight onto the still-soft corpses below. Lydia started, her bloody picture disturbed, and quickly got back up onto the table, intending on leaning out and giving Steel a helping hand up; Jess can get up on her own. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go to plan.
Leaning out of the window as she heard Jess curse behind her and gag slightly at the smell, Lydia saw Steel reaching up and grabbed one of her wrists as the other hand desperately scrabbled at the window ledge. Lydia pulling with all her strength and Steel climbing desperately up the wall seemed to be working until a shot that sounded the same as all of the others didn’t hit the earth - it hit Steel’s side instead, lodging itself a few inches in.
Almost immediately her grip on Lydia’s wrist loosened and her climbing attempt stopped, almost dragging her friend out of the window with her as she fell to the ground. Lydia tried to keep holding on but, mindful of her own life with her head poking out into the sunlight and in clear aim, she let go and retreated slightly.
‘Get the fuck up, Steel,’ Lydia shouted, her face pale, fearing an outcome she hadn’t prepared herself for, and was joined by Jess at the window. Pushed out of the way as Jess took her place, Lydia pressed herself against the wall, her heart thumping, and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.
Kami-sama…God…I know I haven’t exactly been perfect - haha, far from it in fact - but nobody is really, are they? I- well, I really need you to help us right now. We’re all your children so you shouldn’t mind, right? Please help us all. Keep Steel safe. Keep us all safe. I don’t want to die yet. I really don’t want to die. But…I suppose, if it’s your will, then…
Lydia’s disjointed and desperate prayer was cut off as a scream of agony rang through the air and her head snapped back over to the window. Pushing Jess back out of the way, she stared out to see that another bullet had found its mark in Steel - this time in her shoulder.
‘Arrrrrrrrgh - fuck,’ Steel screamed in anguish, her cry deeper than most of the girls’ screams as they had died. Eyes wide and hands clasping and unclasping uselessly at her sides, Lydia watched as Steel jerked violently on the floor and grabbed at her shoulder with her left hand, trying to stop the bleeding although she was already loosing an extortionate amount of blood from the hole in her side.
Lydia hadn’t seen Steel cry before but now, as her auburn-haired friend lurched forward, her body wracked with a harsh and bloody cough, she saw that her eyes were glistening and her cheeks wet. The violent cough had brought forth a shower of blood spewing out from Steel’s mouth to splatter all over her already red-soaked clothes and drip onto the path beneath her. A few drops even reached the brick wall into which the window to the small music room was built.
Lydia felt the same weird, somewhat disgusted and yet interested feeling rise in her that she had felt at the sight of the two dead corpses still lying on the floor. Logically, she knew that Steel was going to die there and then - but something inside rejected this knowledge so strongly that she found herself feeling sick, the strong smell of bare flesh and blood not helping any with her sanity. As she stood on the cheap school desk though, staring down at her friend and shaking, she realised that part of the reason for her not being able to accept her friend’s death was because, somehow, it meant that she, too, was going to die.
There’s no escape. There’s no escape from this. They’re cold blooded killers. They don’t know me. This isn’t like a stupid dream; these aren’t people I know. I can’t barter with them. I can’t win…so…must I lose?
Fazed out, Lydia was completely oblivious to everything around her, her body shaking like a leaf. Although it might have been nice to think she would be able to cope in a situation like this, internally she knew that she was useless. She had always known.
Steel though, who had more experience of things to do with guns and war, was undergoing enough pain to stop herself from fazing out and so moved her left arm so that her hand was positioned next to her pocket and fumbled clumsily with the zip. Managing to find what she wanted, she pulled out her mobile phone, the blood that coated her hand from her right shoulder wound rubbing off onto the plastic phone casing and making it slippery in her grip.
Even though she was in such pain from her two wounds, Steel still managed to cry hoarsely to gain her friend’s attention before using up the last of her strength to throw the phone to her trembling friend. Miraculously Lydia managed to catch the phone, although catching was not a skill of hers even when she wasn’t shaking.
The terrorists must have seen the transaction though because a moment later and another gunshot rang out and, this time, the shot buried itself in Steel’s brain, cutting out all rational thoughts and, more importantly, her ability to live. This good aim was probably something to do with the fact that the shooter was standing less than two meters away. Lydia’s tear-stained face disappeared from the window, a lightly tanned hand pulling the small plastic and glass panel shut behind her, the handle moving uncertainly down to lock the window closed behind her.
‘Where’s Steel?’ Jess anxious voice managed to penetrate Lydia’s damaged mind once she had descended from the desk. This was the second time she had asked, because the first time she had been completely ignored. This time though, when she had tried to pull her friend away from the window in order to see what Steel was doing, Lydia had shut the window behind her, and now she was crying.
‘Lydia, pull yourself together! Where’s Steel?’ Jess shook her deep-blue-eyed friend quite hard and ended up pushing her back against the wall although she didn’t mean to, tense due to their horrible situation and under pressure to think of a solution considering her friend’s obviously unstable state of mind.
The answer to her question was blatantly obvious, especially since she had seen the first two bullet wounds that had been inflicted on her auburn-haired friend, but Jess was finding it too hard to accept. After she had been pushed out of the way of the window, the sight of Steel dying on the ground still burned into her memory, she had tried ringing the police on her mobile phone - but had found the signal to be nonexistent, even though she normally had full signal. Now the mental image of her bloodied friend flashed in front of her eyes again and she grimaced, pushing it away.
‘She-she’s dead, isn’t she?’ She finally managed to whisper, staring Lydia in the eyes for a moment before looking away, her suspicions confirmed; Lydia had nodded, if very faintly. Letting go of her trembling friend’s shoulders, Jess suddenly froze.
Footsteps.
Lydia heard them a moment later and immediately crouched, crawling a quarter of a meter to her left so that she was hiding behind the Piano. Jess, who was nearest to the door, on her feet and the most stable one of the two, swivelled and, after jumping over the two dead cadavers lying on the stained carpet, turned the lock on the door. It wouldn’t help much, but it might gain them an extra second or three. Then she stood to the side of the door, just out of sight, and looked around her frantically for a larger weapon than her penknife, which she was already holding in her right hand.
I can’t believe Steel’s dead. The thought appeared, unwanted, in Jess mind and her breath hitched for a moment; now was not the time to be thinking about that. Now was the time to get the hell out of this stupid situation - and get Lydia out too if at all possible.
Even though their chances were slim, Jess tried not to think of it as she carefully reached up to a shelf on her left and wrapped her fingers around a plastic recorder someone had left there. If she had read or thought about this situation she might have laughed at the idea of using a recorder, but now she was actually in the situation herself it wasn’t even remotely funny. Her face was grim.
Footsteps, Lydia thought silently. More footsteps. Ahahahahaha. Step, step…step, step. Ahaha. We’re gonna die here, aren’t we? We’re gonna die! Finally find out what it means to die? Find out what’s there? Ahaha - why am I laughing? Is it funny? Why? What’s so funny? What are you saying? I don’t want to die! Ah! Help! Oh, God…no, not…ack, I feel guilty. What? Help! Help! Where are you?…sh-i-t.
For a moment Lydia paused from her thoughts, her breath almost as erratic as her inner dialogue was. She had never been particularly sane in her opinion, except maybe when she was very young, but now she truly was going mad. A battle of light and darkness that had been present inside of her for several years once again resurfaced, fighting for control over her actions as the heavy footsteps stopped by the door; there’s two of them. Do I even care? No, wait, shut-up. Be quiet. Stop it! Ah, ah! Now I sound like Oedipus and Creon. Am I a tragic ‘hero’ too then?
Annoyed because she couldn’t even think straight, Lydia’s mind finally became silent as she listened intently for what was happening at the door. She hadn’t even seen where Jess had gone, but she was afraid that if she looked she’d be seen. Maybe the two terrorists would forget about them and go away? Maybe they’d think this room was empty? Even though she thought it however, she didn’t really believe it; isn’t it better to be a pessimist and never get disappointed than an optimist who always gets let down?
Jess tightened her grip around the recorder and her knife as she tried to listen in to what the two men (well it sounded like they were men from their walking style anyway) were saying outside. For a brief moment she glanced over to the far right hand corner in which she knew Lydia to be hiding in, and wished that she had had the sense to drag her over here with her; it would provide a better chance of escape for her friend if they were nearer the door. That way she wouldn’t have to knock the terrorists out - just confuse them and run past; with Lydia cowering in the corner though things became a lot harder.
Ah well - too late now, Jess decided with a certain finality, her thoughts much more coherent and sensible than her friend’s had been. I could formulate a plan, but it’s most likely I’ll just act on instinct. I hope Lydia does too, because I’m not sure how this is going to turn out. Hmm…maybe I could knock one of them out with this recorder, and then try to hold off the other one with the knife whilst Lydia comes to help? Then maybe we could beat him…I think we’re fairly stro-
Jess plan-formulating was cut into as she heard the crackle of a radio; so they are using radios to communicate with each other. I thought so. Unfortunately, since the music rooms were supposed to be sound-proofed, she couldn’t hear what they said although she could hear them talking.
I need help. I don’t want to die. So…I’ll do whatever it takes to stay alive? But…what will that b- Another gunshot, the loudness suggesting its proximity, cut into her thoughts and Lydia winced, still convinced that she wasn’t ready for this. She assumed that they had shot the door open, although she dared not look and see.
Jess had expected them to shoot the lock off - it was the only sensible thing to do really, and they honestly couldn’t afford to waste time because Lydia had been right back in the bush; after making such a loud noise they seriously didn’t want to be sticking around for much longer. Thus she wasn’t surprised that, a moment after the loud gunshot, the door creaked open.
The music room door had a strip of glass running from the top to the bottom of the door and, turning her head to the right, Jess could see an Uzi appear first through the glass. It was the same type of gun as the terrorist she had seen with the radio earlier had been carrying, and she assumed that it must be the standard weapon for this group.
One of the black-clad men, the one holding the Uzi, appeared through the glass next and Jess realised that if he were to look to his left then he would be able to see her. In fact, the only thing separating them was a sheet of medium-thickness glass and so Jess stayed as still as possible, her heart racing faster than if she had just run the 1600 meters; it was a wonder to her why they couldn’t hear the loud, thumping beat.
Now she was actually so close to being killed, Jess wished that she had had the time to think up a proper plan for this. I can’t wait until they’re both in the room because I’ll be shot by the first one by then. So I’ll try to take out the first one now, and hopefully Lydia will come to help me with the second one. Damn. If they didn’t have guns, things would be so much easier.
The first terrorist had paused, still separated from Jess by the door. Then he looked to his left. For a moment dark grey eyes met medium blue and they both froze. Then everything moved very fast.
It was necessary to abandon her plan because Jess hadn’t bargained on her enemy seeing her and so, without thinking, she threw herself against the door with all of her strength, causing her opponent to stagger backwards unstably in his surprise. Gritting her teeth grimly, Jess pushed against the door again, desperate not to let the terrorist regain his composure yet. Through the glass she could see that his companion was also muddled by the turn of events.
Still acting on instinct, Jess knew that she had to get away from the door quickly before they began to use their guns (she was currently a good target), but suddenly saw an opportunity of a lifetime that she simply couldn’t miss. Trapped between the door and the wall was the first terrorist’s Uzi. He was still holding onto it, but the barrel was on her side of the wall and so, taking a risk, Jess took a firm hold on the length of the barrel and jerked her hand, swiftly kicking the door shut again straight afterwards.
The movement must have been enough to confuse the man once again because his grip loosened on the weapon and, after her second tug, Jess fell backwards against the bloody piano stool, triumphantly gripping the barrel of the gun. She was unable to rest long though because a series of gunshots followed the successful gain of the weapon and Jess dived forward and to her right as the glass in front of her was obliterated, tiny shards of the see-through material spraying all over the room; Jess felt a stinging sensation all over her body as the miniscule remains of the glass pane buried themselves in her skin.
Now back where she had positioned herself to start with, to the left of the door, Jess winced at the pain of her many cuts as she readjusted her hold on the Uzi so that she could easily shoot it. Then she pushed herself into the corner and aimed the gun at the door. If they tried to get in now then she could shoot them, so for the moment they were safe; but if they called for back up then they would be outnumbered by far.
‘Jess…’
Jess looked up at the sound of her name being called and saw Lydia’s hand wave at her from behind the piano. She wondered if her friend had been watching the whole thing or not. The door was still partly open and so, if they listened, she was sure that the terrorists would be able to hear them; but right now it seemed fairly unimportant.
‘I’ve got a gun,’ Jess called back, and then decided to check it to see how many shots it had left; it would be fairly useless if it was empty, wouldn’t it?
Behind the piano Lydia stiffened. She hadn’t been watching the action in fear of being killed by a stray bullet or giving away her position, and so the news that they had gained a gun surprised her. It also made things more complicated, because now they actually had a chance of getting out, didn’t they?
Jess isn’t stupid. She’ll shoot them if they come in, but what about back-up?
It seemed as if what was happening now was a lull before the storm. Outside the room Lydia and Jess could both hear the crackle of a radio, presumably asking for back-up, and Jess realised that she had five rounds left in the Uzi. Seeing that she still had Steel’s bloodied phone in her hand, Lydia carefully turned it on, glad that it was on silent because she didn’t think she would be able to stand a happy ‘I’m-turning-on-now’ tune right then. For a moment she wondered who she should ring. The police was obvious, but the first number she thought of was her home; then again nobody will be home now, will they?
Her hands shaking again, Lydia pressed the three digit number on the phone and made sure it was ringing before holding it up to her ear. Even though the phone was supposed to be silent, the ringing tone was still audible and it sounded very loud in the relative silence of the room. Frozen because she realised that the terrorists could almost certainly hear that she was ringing someone, Lydia was desperately glad that Jess had obtained a gun and that Steel had been sensible enough to remember her phone.
Jess, who had also heard the ringing, was shocked; how come Lydia’s phone had signal whereas hers didn’t? She was glad though; this way, so long as they could hold out long enough, they might be rescued.
‘Hello, which service do you require?’
Lydia’s stomach lurched at the voice. She had never had to call ‘999’ before although she knew the procedure well, but now she felt a slight spark of hope rise in her; they might actually be saved!
‘Ah…ah police, please,’ Lydia replied quietly, not sure she could trust her voice any louder. The operator sounded electronic but told her to wait and that she’d be put through as soon as possible. Unfortunately the phone call suddenly cut out. Surprised, Lydia took the phone away from her ear to see that the display read;
Call ended.
00:26
Wondering why they would have cut her off, or if she had accidentally pressed the ‘end call’ button, Lydia was just about to try ringing again when she realised that the screen was black. Trying to turn the phone back on, Lydia realised with some dread that the phone was out of battery.
Still staring at the screen in disbelief, her hopes now completely crushed, Lydia found it almost impossible to think. Almost.
Continue talking. Make the terrorists scared that you’ve got through. That way, they’ll have to leave sooner.
It seemed like a fairly sensible idea, but Lydia couldn’t quite accept it; surely they know that someone in the surrounding area will have already called the police? Gunshots as loud as that are hard to ignore. The police will be here soon anyway.
‘Lydia…’
This time it was Jess who called out, and Lydia assumed that it would be safe enough for her to poke her head round the piano slightly to look at Jess. Her friend, holding the Uzi, was covered in small red gashes that must have been caused by the broken glass Lydia could see lying around on the floor. Through the gap in the door Lydia could see the barrel of an Uzi pointing at her and pulled back just in time to avoid being hit by the shots, her heart racing fast once again and her ears hurting, even though she had avoided getting directly hurt by the shots.
‘Lydia, I’m going to throw you the gun. You can shoot them from there and then we can get out,’ Jess told her hiding friend and, knowing that the terrorists would have heard her plan added meaningfully, ‘please be quick.’
Then, gritting her teeth, Jess weighed the gun in her hands for a moment before aiming and throwing it to the corner Lydia was taking shelter in. Careful not to put any limbs past the side of the piano, Lydia saw it coming and, for the second time that day, managed to show off her distinctly improved catching skills; she assumed this change in ability was due to the adrenaline rush from all of the ‘excitement’/fear she felt.
Jess, as soon as she had thrown the gun, readied herself to throw her penknife at whoever entered the door first, for she was sure that that was the course of action they would take; until Lydia was ready to shoot Jess was almost completely unguarded and, so long as they opened the door, an easy target as well. Surprisingly though they didn’t attempt to enter, preferring to stay outside instead.
Jess jolted in surprise though as she heard the sound of gunfire, only to realise that it was Lydia who was shooting. She was at least glad that Lydia had figured out how to fire the gun (she had never been too sure of her friend’s shooting ability, having never seen her shoot before), but also realised that if their two opponents were no longer there then shooting at them would just be wasting ammunition.
‘Lydia, wait…!’ Jess tried to call to her friend over the loud shots, but Lydia couldn’t hear her and continued to shoot. Even if she had managed to figure out how to shoot the Uzi, Jess was pretty certain that Lydia hadn’t figured out how many shots they had left. In all actuality, there was very few - and if the two terrorists were still outside then they (the two girls) would be easy pickings once their shots were all used up.
Damn. Is it possible that the two men outside are also out of ammunition? No, wait…ah. Ah! Shit. They’re just waiting until we run out! Then they’re going to come in here and finish us off! Shit!
Lydia had taken a break from shooting because the gun didn’t seem to be responding when she pulled the trigger now. She wondered if it could be because she was doing it wrong, but in all actuality she knew that it was out of bullets. Still afraid of being shot, Lydia had refused to look where she had been shooting, preferring to stick the gun around the side of the piano and fire, mindful that she could shoot Jess if she wasn’t careful. This meant though that she didn’t realise that she had dealt absolutely no damage to their opponents what so ever. Now though, as she heard Jess cry,
‘Shit, Lydia, have the bullets…’ and trail off, realising that she had told anyone outside that they were now defenceless, Lydia peered around the side of the piano to see that, far from having disappeared, there were now more of the terrorists outside their door than before.
‘Sh-i-t,’ Lydia muttered and held the gun tighter, even though it was effectively useless. ‘Jess…there’s more of them.’
From inside the room the two girls could hear what was being said among the group of (now) four terrorists, and so they listened dutifully, even if the sound was slightly muffled due to the balaclavas they wore.
‘They’re dry,’ one of the men spoke up but, before anyone else could reply, they heard a crackling sound from their radios.
‘Units four, seven, eight and eleven - please return to base as soon as possible. I repeat; please return to base as soon as possible. You have five minutes before we leave you behind. I repeat; you have five minutes or we’re leaving without you. Over and out.’
5:00
Jess and Lydia (who had peered back out from behind the piano again) exchanged glances. If they could just hold out for another five minutes…
…but, after having used up all of their ammunition, their chances (if the terrorists continued their attack) looked very slim.
‘Oy, I’m gonna get back to base like he sez. Sure as hell I’m not gonna wait for the blues to get ‘ere,’ a new voice spoke up and Lydia found herself praying that the others would go with him. Just like when she had gotten through to the police, a spark of hope lit up inside of her - except that this time the end was in sight. Jess, who was not religious, didn’t hold as much hope as her companion and flicked her knife open and shut in order to keep herself alert.
‘’Ere, Badger, you come too. Now they’re dry they’ll be easy pickings for yer guys, ya?’ The same voice spoke up again, confirming Jess’ silent assumption that they were using code names. ‘Badger’ must have agreed because two sets of heavy footsteps began to walk away from the room and the two girls heard the door out of the music department open and close a moment later.
Jess gripped her knife, knowing that if she aimed right then she might be able to take out one of them, but the both of them would be impossible unless Lydia had something up her sleeve. Then again, doesn’t Lydia also carry a knife? Jess wondered practically before realising that the penknife her friend carried with her was actually too small to be of any real use at all.
4:30
‘Four and a half minutes,’ came a new voice from outside. Lydia wondered why he’d said it, sure that he could have just pointed to his watch and held up four and a half fingers. Where they really that dumb? Not, she supposed, that telling your enemies the time was much of a slip up, but maybe he would do something even more stupid? ‘I’m going to get my gun back,’ he added gruffly, still very audible, ‘so lend me yours, ‘kay?’
‘Ahaha - not on your life, ma- hey!’
Both of the girls stiffened as the door was roughly kicked open, and Lydia’s hands began to sweat on the cold metal. When he said he was going to get his gun back he had meant the one she was currently gripping very tightly…and from the sounds of it, he had just acquired a loaded gun from his fellow terrorist.
Jess saw the door open and the black-clad man who came through it for the second time that day, but this time it moved much faster in front of her eyes. As he turned his head though and their eyes met once more she didn’t act instinctively…she acted as she had planned she would.
Still crouched on the ground, Jess raised her arm as the man lowered his gun to point at her. His finger curled tightly around the trigger as a sharp implement left her hand and by the time the metal trigger had been fully pulled back Jess had thrown herself to the left, her knife flying true through the air, straight for the centre of his forehead.
Recently she had been practicing her aim with a knife and, as she flew through the air in slow motion, she turned her head to see if any of her training had paid off. Bullets flew out of the gun and buried themselves into the wall, following her progress, as she saw the man’s eyes widen at the knife coming at him. He dodged but it was too late and, just as Jess landed on top of the still-soft, unknown girl’s corpse, the knife embedded itself in his skull, the force at which it was thrown ensuring the depth of penetration.
Unfortunately, because the terrorist had been gripping the gun so tightly, his grip on the gun didn’t relax and, as bullets ricocheted erratically around the room, one of them found a target that responded to its touch.
‘Aghh,’ Jess gasped in pain, her right hand moving to quickly stem the flow of blood from her right leg as her opponent (now deceased) hit the floor. With his arm now still, the gun continued to fire it’s bullets - but now it fired them into the same spot; into the wall, near the floor and directly under the small window.
4:00
Jess only remembered that there had been two of the terrorists left behind when she saw a black shadow move by the door, and then it struck her that the most important thing to do right then was to get the gun before her new opponent did.
Forgetting about her injured leg Jess lurched forward, around the side of the piano stool, her red-stained right hand stretched out in front of her so she could grab the gun. She managed to touch the cold metal with her fingers but, before she could get a firm grip, she felt a blow to the head and was forced to retreat, pressing her left hand onto the floor to her left under the piano stool in order to get better balance for her awkward stance.
Her right hand moved up to block another kick to her head just as three of the many shots still shooting out of the Uzi passed by very close to her left arm. Her arm quivered and she felt her stance waver for a moment before she gritted her teeth and attempted to grab the heavy boot that came at her once again.
She had already calculated that, if she should fall, she would be directly in the firing line of the un-manned Uzi - but whilst she was having to ward off this new opponent’s attacks she realised that she couldn’t change her stance. Where was Lydia? Why wasn’t she coming to help? Did she expect Jess to do all of the fighting?
Why is she so useless? Come and help me, you selfish bastard! Jess thought instinctively out of desperation, even though she wasn’t sure that she meant it.
Another blow to her arm and Jess realised that she hadn’t managed to catch the offending weapon. As her arm wavered again though the next shot came in faster and this time Jess managed to grab the front of the boot and hold on. Unfortunately the impact, added on to the fact that she was already unsteady, was enough to make her left arm give way completely and she felt herself falling.
As she fell Jess’ grip on the leather boot strengthened - as if that would be able to keep her above the ground. This enabled her to see though what type of boots they were. The boots were of a good style and this, along with the Uzi machine gun being an (apparently) standard weapon, convinced Jess that this group of terrorists had a large amount of money to be spending and were thus a fairly prominent and important terrorist group.
Even so, Jess thought as she hit the floor, this isn’t how I want to die. It’s too early…I’m too young…
Jess winced in anticipation of the bullets that were sure to come. Indeed, a moment later, they did. Before she felt the metal tear the flesh in her side away though Jess flicked her eyes over to her right (she had landed on her back, her left side facing the door) to see Lydia’s apologetic eyes staring back at her from around the side of the piano.
It’s too late for that now, even if you are sorry, Jess told her friend mentally and saw her retreat back behind the piano as another three shots followed the first one. One more round followed before the remaining terrorist managed to prize his fellow murderer’s fingers away from the trigger and thus stop the bullets.
It was already too late for Jess though and she knew it as she laid dying on the floor, her insides torn to shreds by the nine bullets that had entered and her mind too taken with the pain to think of anything else.
The terrorist that was still alive, after checking the number of rounds he had left, decided to put Jess out of her misery by delivering two swift blows to her head with the butt of the Uzi instead of shooting her and Lydia, who had sneaked another quick look, wondered whether his gun was ‘dry’ as they had described her gun earlier. After it having wasted so many bullets it was quite possible that it might be, but she didn’t want to take any risks either.
Having gotten used to the smell of the blood, Lydia didn’t think it should make any difference to have Jess’ added to the collection, but somehow it did. Maybe it was because she thought she might have been able to save her, but really she was a coward and hadn’t known what to do. Even if she had managed to stop him from kicking her or hitting her with his boot or the gun, Jess still had a wound in her leg and that would have got infected and perhaps killed her. Lydia didn’t think she was really all that good at medicine and assumed that Jess would probably have died anyway.
Maybe I’m just saying that to convince myself though. When the police came they could easily have gotten her an ambulance, right? Oh dear.
Suddenly seeing a chance of survival though Lydia didn’t waste any more time thinking about Jess; or the lack thereof anyway. Instead, standing up and taking a step to her right so that she was in plain view, she pointed the ammunition-less Uzi at the last remaining terrorist, trying to stop her hand from shaking.
3:30
‘Drop the gun,’ Lydia commanded as forcefully as she could. Even so, her voice was slightly hoarse from the death of her two friends and it somewhat spoilt the effect. The masked man looked up at her, his hands still holding the barrel of his gun as he had been hitting Jess’ head with the butt of it; the butt of the Uzi was stained red with Jess’ blood - and now it would have been fairly accurate to pronounce Jess as deceased.
‘You’ve run out of bullets,’ the man replied as if stating a fact, but Lydia noticed that he didn’t attempt to move his own gun into a shooting position. She shook her head.
‘No, I’ve got one round left. I just wanted you to think that I’d run out.’ She prayed that he would believe her, because until he dropped his gun then they were equal. In fact, he had the upper hand at the minute; his gun might actually be loaded. ‘Now drop your gu-’
Lydia was cut off by a loud whirring sound outside. Even though the window was closed, she could tell that the noise was coming from the field and, stupidly, she turned her head in the direction of the sound, not thinking of the consequences. A moment later however she realised what she had done wrong.
The metal Lydia was holding in her hands was warm and sweaty, having acclimatised to her body temperature, but the metal pressing into her neck was cold; even colder because she was so warm herself.
Slowly, Lydia turned her head to look up at the man who was now standing in front of her. He had moved fast - faster than she had expected he would - and now he stood on his left leg, his right leg kneeling on the top of the piano stool and his gun now the right way around with the barrel pointing upwards. If he was to shoot the bullets would go straight through her skull, cutting a neat pathway through her brain as they did so.
‘I also have one round left - isn’t that nice?’ His voice, although muffled by the balaclava and also, now, by the loud whirring noise outside, was still clearly audible to Lydia. Maybe that was because he was so close though - less than two feet away. She tried not to swallow too deeply because, with the barrel of the gun pressing into her neck so hard, Lydia imagined that it would hurt to swallow much.
‘So go ahead and shoot if you want, but I think my shot will do more damage than yours,’ the terrorist continued, and Lydia strained her eyes looking down to see where her gun was pointed because she couldn’t bow her head. She could see though when she looked that her Uzi submachine gun was pressing into his abdomen, a little higher than she would have liked; it would have scared him more, she reckoned, if it had been several inches lower.
3:00
Grimacing because she had let him get the upper hand, Lydia hesitated before dropping her gun. The Uzi hit the end of the piano stool, bounced off and finally landed on her feet; Lydia carefully nudged it off, wincing because it was heavy.
‘Wait…don’t kill me yet,’ Lydia pleaded and this time she looked into her opponent’s eyes. They were a deep green colour, but they were also captivating (perhaps because they were the only part of him, except for his mouth, that were uncovered) and Lydia felt her breath catch for a moment; this man was human. Somehow it was easy to forget such a large detail with terrorists when they hid behind cloth masks and killed people without a second thought but, even though it was obvious that they were human when you thought about it, the realisation completely shocked Lydia.
Maybe the terrorist saw the shock Lydia felt on her face because his eyes narrowed, snapping her out of her trance-like state. Pressing the gun even further into her neck, Lydia’s opponent ended up making it hard for her to breathe and so she was forced to stagger back a few paces until her spine connected with the wall. Before she could recover though the slightly-warmer barrel of the Uzi regained its position on her neck and Lydia found herself having to swallow again, her throat contracting painfully against the offending metal. She was sweating and, without her jumper to hide the effects, she began to feel stupidly self-conscious; really though, why should I? This isn’t the time.
‘And why shouldn’t I?’ The man in front of her sneered over the whirring noise that was still present outside. He leant in as he did so and, hate it though she did, Lydia suddenly got an idea.
Acting on an impulse she closed the gap between them, even though it meant that the metal dug deeper into her flesh; it felt as if it had cut her, even though it was supposed to be blunt. It was hard to forget that the man in front of her was a human being once she felt the warmth of his lips, but Lydia forced herself to disconnect from her actions in order to stay in control and gain a chance to escape.
For a moment nothing happened, but then Lydia felt herself pushed back against the wall and gasped; had her efforts really been that unappreciated? At least with her head back where it should be her neck felt less threatened by the Uzi - although it was still sore from where it had been pressed in and she felt a drop of warm liquid trickle down her neck, irritating her.
As she tried to calm her rising heartbeat, Lydia couldn’t help wondering why she wasn’t dead yet. Why hadn’t the terrorist shot her already? He hadn’t hesitated with Jess, even resorting to bashing her head in with the butt of his gun. Was it really because he didn’t have any ammunition left? In which case, why hadn’t he smashed her brain in like he had done to her friend? It seemed somehow unfair that both Steel and Jess had been killed without a second thought and yet he was hesitating with her.
If he hadn’t pushed her away Lydia would have put her survival down to the fact that she had just shown that she didn’t want to fight him; her dropping of the gun had also been to get this point across. Did he only want to kill people who were a threat to him?
But if that were the case, why would there have been so many shots? Lydia wondered, remembering back to when they had been hiding in the bush. The school had literally been filled with gunshots. It’s as if their aim was to kill everyone in the school. So again…why am I not dead?
Whilst Lydia had been thinking, the terrorist had checked his watch. It was an expensive type and a part of the
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sheik
Tourist
Joined: 25 Dec 2008
Topics: 9
Posts: 27
Location: On the Fence
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| Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 12:03 pm Post subject: |
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No ending?
_________________
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
"Faster than those who are better than me and better than those who are faster than me."
"You've got a wishbone where your backbone should've grown..."
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