CHAPTER TWO: DOWN BELOW
Adam tried to run as fast as he could, but Fiona's heels were constantly slowing them down. He was pretty sure that if she stumbled again, he was going to yank those heels off and lock them in Fitz's locker.
Adam threw the door of the faculty office open to reveal a very annoyed looking group. Fitz was smoking far away from the group, Bianca was texting, Holly J was giving Eli a stern lecture, Clare was digging through the drawers, and Eli looked like he wasn't going to stop laughing anytime soon.
"What happened?" Adam exclaimed in a rush, getting weird looks from the rest of the teens. His breaths were short and timed evenly with Fiona's.
"What are you talking about?" Bianca asked with her arms crossed.
Holly J glared at Eli and said, "This one decided it would be funny to sneak up on my with a rubber spider."
Adam couldn't help but join Eli in his fit of snickering. Fiona elbowed him, causing him to stop abruptly and wear a serious expression. "So you were the one who screamed?"
"I thought it resembled more of that of a pig squeal," Eli teased, falling back into hysterical laughter. Adam rolled his eyes and plopped down into the nearest seat. Fiona took her place in his lap and ran her fingers through his hair, getting disgusted faces from Bianca, while the group spoke among themselves.
"So have you guys found the keys yet?" she asked. She felt Adam's fingers tracing circles in her back and tried her best to ignore it.
"Actually," Clare spoke up, "it looks like all of the keys are here except for the ones that go to the exit doors. There's theater, gym, bathroom, office, and classroom keys. And here's one to the basement."
"So what do we do?" Adam asked, slightly bouncing his right leg impatiently.
"We could always bust a window," Bianca announced in a soft voice.
"That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard," Fitz said without averting his eyes from the foggy windows.
Everyone seemed to jump a little bit at the sound of Fitz's raspy voice. The only reminder of him in the room had been the smoke emitting from his cigarette and mouth. Holly J seemed to be the one that jumped the highest.
This caused Eli to begin laughing and poking at her. She spun on her heel and began lecturing him again when Adam turned back to Fitz and Bianca.
"Well do you have a better idea?" Bianca was the type of girl who depended on herself and herself alone. If anyone else came up with an idea, she probably wasn't going to go with it. Even if it was better than her own.
"Yeah, I do actually," Fitz told them. "We could all just stay overnight in the gym. It's not like we're getting anywhere in this snow anyhow."
Holly J and Eli immediately stopped bickering at the mention of sleeping anywhere within forty feet of each other. Holly J normally would've gone against it, but he had a point.
"Fitz might actually be right," Clare said. She was standing close to Eli again with her fingers intertwined with his. "Maybe we should all just stay here and try calling someone tomorrow morning."
"Why can't we call someone tonight? The idea of sleeping on a cold floor doesn't sound all that inviting," Fiona told them, her fingers still tickling Adam's scalp.
"I don't know, maybe because the snow is barricading the roads. We might as well go get the sleeping bags from the closet in the gym and camp out," Bianca spoke. Clearly she didn't enjoy the idea of sleeping with them any more than they did.
Clare nodded and was about to close the drawer of keys when Holly J stopped her with a tight grip.
"What is it?" Clare asked her with concern.
"Grab all of those keys," she ordered. Clare gave her a puzzled expression. "Just in case. I'd feel a little better with the gym doors locked from the inside."
Clare understood where she was coming from and grabbed the keys from the drawer before handing them to Holly J to stuff inside of her purse.
"To the gym?" Eli asked.
Holly J, clearly still angry with him, gave him a menacing glare. She pointed over his shoulder and ordered him to walk. He gave her a scared smile and spun around to join Clare on their journey to the gym.
Adam walked with his arm hugged tightly around Fiona's waist. Even if no one seemed to be in any current danger, he still didn't like the idea of being in the dark school without a weapon. And Holly J's scream had only made his nervousness grow further.
They were rounding the corner to head to the gym when Adam felt his phone going off inside of his jeans. He pulled it out and answered while Fiona watched him. The group stopped when they heard Adam's questioning greeting and turned to look and see what he was doing.
"Drew?" he asked. He'd begun to wonder why his brother had been taking so long in the shower.
"Adam-"
His voice sounded scared and shrill, but it was hard to make out over the cracking in the phone line. It might've been Adam's imagination, but he was pretty sure that he could hear his brother's voice echoing in the halls.
"Drew? Drew what's wrong?" Adam asked, worried. He felt Fiona grip his free hand and squeeze it.
"Adam, he- He won't stop- Security-…Dead! Basement- I don't-…GO AWAY!"
Drew's last words could be heard coming from the halls. Now Adam knew that it hadn't been his imagination.
"Why the hell is he screaming like that?" Bianca asked, annoyed.
"Drew needs help! He said a security officer was dead and that…someone wouldn't stop…"
The group watched Adam's now pale face. "I have to go get him!"
Adam took off from the group, but Holly J yanked him back by the sleeve of his gray sweater. "Let me go," he ordered in a stern voice.
"There's no way you're going down there alone. I'm coming with you." Holly J looked serious with her deadly grip still on Adam's sleeve.
"What? No, just let me go!" Adam yanked his sleeve away from Holly J's grip, but only to be snatched again. But this time she had his forearms.
She slapped him right across the face, making him calm down a little bit. There was a red print on his right cheek. "Adam, Drew is in the basement, and he doesn't have a key."
Her words pulled him in, and he silenced himself to listen to her knowledgeable words. "That means-"
"Someone needs to go to the security tapes and watch him," Fiona said aloud. Holly J furrowed her brows, but Fiona explained before anyone could question her.
"Someone needs to go to the office and watch the video in the basement. Whoever decides to go to the basement will stay on the line with whoever is watching the video so that they can lead them to Drew."
"You're a genius, Fi!" Holly J exclaimed proudly. Normally Fiona would've gloated, but there was no hiding the new and panicked mood that had taken everyone by the throat.
"Well I'm going to the basement," Adam spoke up. No one was going to stop him.
"And I'm going with him. Fiona and Clare will take the office. Fitz and Eli, I want you guys to go and lock yourself in the gym. If what I'm thinking is right," Holly J stopped to glance over everyone's faces, "we might not be sleeping very much tonight."
Holly J handed every group the key to their general area before everyone nodded and split up into their selected groups. No one seemed to be happy with who they'd been put with, but Holly J had done this for a reason. If they had been paired with someone they liked, they would be provoked to talk. And if they were provoked to talk, they would lose focus of the situation.
Holly J took off running down the hall when Adam turned to Fiona. "Keep your phone on, Fiona. I'll call you when we get to the basement," he said to her from the far end of the hall.
Fiona nodded in response and took off to the office with Clare.
