Chapter 2: Walking the walk

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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Edmund Burke


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Miss Haley unfolded a piece of paper, and began reading it aloud,

"When I read out your name, please walk out of the classroom and down the corridor to the school gates. Once you are out of the school gates, the game begins. You will receive the necklace and your bag in the corridor.

Now, Coalsfield Community High school, class of 2016, NH, will enter the game in the following order:

Ann, girl numb…"

"Can you wait a moment please, Miss." The old Lt walked up to Miss Haley and interrupted her. He picked up the teapot from the floor and refilled his cup. Then, with an infinitesimal amount of movement from his wrist, the teapot went flying towards the Major.

The Major instinctively went to catch the teapot; then split seconds later, moved to dodge the teapot; then another split second later, he realised it was a trick, and raised his pistol in the general direction of Miss Haley. The tea and the teapot flying towards him obscured his aim momentarily. By the time the teapot has smashed itself on the double glazed window behind him, the old Lt has already grabbed Miss Haley with his left arm and held her in front of him while pointing his pistol at the Major. Instantly the squad of six SRR men raised their submachine guns at the old Lt. While the old Lt's unit couldn't wipe the shock off their faces, and a couple of them indecisively raised their rifles in the general direction of the windows, towards the SRR men. Then seeing their neighbours weren't as eager to defend their Lt, the few conscripts awkwardly started to lower their rifles.

"Do you know what you are doing?"

"I shall not stand aside and see you force children kill each other. Not over my dead body." The old Lt turned to his conscripts standing against the wall, "Do you think it's right to let them do this? Don't just blindly follow mad orders. Think, man. Think! Do you want these children …"

"This is mutiny. Do you understand Lieutenant?! Smith, George, block the door." Two SRR men moved straight through the stunned students, and stood in front of the door. The Major then ordered the Lt's men to stand down. The few conscripts who had their rifles pointing awkwardly at something somewhere there, now lowered them and pretended they never did anything. They were relieved to be out of this jam. "I'm going to count to three, Lieutenant, then I will be forced to shoot her, then I will shoot you. Do you understand Lieutenant?!"

"… This is not right." The old Lt appealed to his men. His soldiers exchanged quick glances with each other, a few of them once again feeling the rifle in their hands. But the paralysing thought in their heads was, the old Lt is right, but why should I be the first one to stand out and defend him, isn't XXX closer to him? Let's wait and see what everyone else does first. The students looked at each other each even more even more blankly. The immediate need for survival in the face of the SRR men's gun barrels overcame any desire for action. Even Guy has calmed down enough to realise that jumping at the Major empty handed would mean certain death, and he didn't really have that much desire to die.

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"ONE!"

The old Lt continued to appeal to the soldiers, "Men. I'm ordering you, as your commanding officer, to go and disarm these thugs. We shall not kill these children tonight." A couple of conscripts felt the itch to move once again and shuffled towards SRR men, but seeing how much they stood out from the line of soldiers hugging the wall with their backs, they awkwardly shuffled back. The conscripts were all fresh out of high school, just one year older than the students, as they looked onto these helpless students, they subconsciously pressed their backs against the wall even more firmly, as if a knife would chop off their nose if they exposed half an inch more than their neighbour. They have never loved their uniforms more than tonight.

"TWO!"

The old Lt saw the hopelessness of his position, his hand trembled as he shouted at the soldiers, "Can't you see what's happening here?!"

"THREE…"

"NO!!! DON'T SHOOT!" Miss Haley screamed in terror, filling the room with her desperate last gasp at life, before the sound of the Major's third word could fade. She twisted and lounged forwards, withdrew her knife, and stabbed backwards with all of her energy. The knife went very deep into the old Lt's stomach, until the top of the wooden handle has gone in too and she could feel the blood bursting out against her thumb and finger.

Two shots rang out in the air. The Major's bullet cut Miss Haley's hair and went right through the old Lt's shoulder. The Lt didn't want to shoot, but after he felt the pain in his stomach and shoulder, he knew this was his last chance to do anything at all, so he pulled the trigger. His bullet hit the badge on the Major's cap, deflecting it upwards, it struck and shattered the already cracked window behind the Major. That, was divine intervention. If the Major was half an inch taller, or wore his cap at a slightly different angle, then who knows what would have happened next? Maybe 31 lives in that class would have been spared, or maybe the SRR men would have slaughtered everyone in the room. Nobody would ever know. Perhaps this is the sort of thing that makes historians sigh and wonder what if, when reading thick books late into the night many years later. But in the meantime, what really happened was what mattered to the class of 11NH.

Miss Haley quickly freed herself from the old Lt's now loosened grip, and lied down on the floor immediately. The Major continued shooting at the old Lt, until he has emptied his pistol clip. The blood splashed out of the old Lt's body and drenched Miss Haley from head to toe. The students near the old Lt twisted their faces away from the blood fountain.

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The Major walked over to help Miss Haley get up. "I'm sorry Miss. I didn't want to shoot you. As you must understand the government policy is to never negotiate with terrorists. And I must place the mission above all else."

"The mission? That's all you care about, huh?! Go ahead with your mission! Go on!" Miss Haley stomped off, pushing the SRR men at the door aside, and continued to shout as she walked down the corridor. "Who the Fk do you think you are?!"

The Major chuckled, pointed at a couple of the Lt's conscripts and ordered them to go and find a shower and some clean clothes for Miss Haley. Then he bent down and fished out that piece of paper from under the blood pool, and began shaking the blood off it. "Thank God for laser printing, eh?" No one laughed. Amber was irritated by the blood raining down on her. The Major noticed this, he patted Amber on the shoulder and comforted her, "You are a good girl, but be stronger. A bit of blood is good for you." he chuckled again, and held the red paper up against the light. The ink on the paper was just about still readable.

"Coalsfield Community High school, class of 2016, NH, will enter the game in the following order:

Ann, girl number one."

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A short, tanned girl stood up in the middle of the classroom. She slowly walked to the door, stepping around the other students. A couple of the more observant girls were asking themselves, is that tan really from her family holiday to Egypt during the New Year holiday, as she wouldn't shut up about? But surely not, that was three weeks ago. Must be fake then. At that thought, they held their head slightly higher, thinking, how vain is she?! Of course, Ann had more pressing things to worry about right now than her tan. She paused at the door, thinking about whether she should say something to her classmates, before it all starts. She couldn't think of anything to say, but she turned around anyway, and looked at her classmates, sitting there on the floor, looking back up at her. An empty emotion overwhelmed her, it wasn't hatred or love or any other emotion she ever felt before. She couldn't describe how it felt, but the feeling was definitely overwhelming, pushing tears into her eyes.

"Ah! C'mon! Get a move on, girl. We don't have all day!" The Major waved his hand at her, gesturing for her to get out.

Ann suddenly said very rapidly, "I love you guys!" Then she quickly turned around without waiting for a reaction from her classmates, and ran out of the door. She didn't even know why she said that, she just felt like it was her turn, and she had to say something. No use thinking about it now, she put it out of her mind immediately, and grabbed the necklace on the desk to her left. The soldier stopped her, recorded her name and necklace serial number on a clip board, checked that it was locked on correctly, and then asked her whether it was too tight. She replied it's OK. Then another soldier passed her a big black sports bag, which looked very empty to her. She didn't take it and asked to change it for another bag, and surprised the soldier with this seemingly unusual request. The soldier took the bag back and was just about to pick up another one, when the other soldier with the clipboard tapped him on the arm, and said "Hey, wait a sec, let's check it's OK with the Major first. The bags all have serials, I have to record who has what, I don't want mix ups." Then he ran up the corridor and into the classroom.

Ann stood there with watery eyes. The little girl looked up at the tall SRR soldier holding the bag. Her skirt waved from side to side, twisting slighting, in that natural gesture small girls holding a handbag with both hands tend to overuse; as if she couldn't stand still against some invisible wind. Looking down at her, the soldier couldn't help but feel a wave of sympathy, how can this girl survive out there in the storm? He dragged out the fullest bag he could see and thrust it into her hands, the bag looked almost as big as the girl, and for a moment he wasn't sure whether it wasn't too heavy for her to hold. But she surprised him again, by grabbing it with both of her hands, then throwing it over her shoulders and running off with it immediately, without looking back while shouting in a very sweet voice "Thank you very much!"

In the meantime, the soldier with clipboard saluted the Major, and asked about swapping bags. The Major looked at him as if looking at some moron, and shouted "Of course they can't just pick and choose whatever they want! You pick out bags randomly and give it to them. They have to be random, do you understand?"

"But sir, if we are picking them, how can they be random?"

"Stop asking question, go and do your damn job!"

"Yes sir!" The soldier saluted again, and ran back down the corridor, just in time to hear Ann shout back her gratitude. He noticed the fuller bag over her shoulder as he went back to his post, and grinned at his fellow soldier, "She gave you blow job or something? What's with the sweet thanks, eh?"

"What are you on about?" His comrade looked at him seriously.

"Never mind. So what's the serial of that bag then?"

The bag soldier handed him the sticker with the serial on it, and he stuck it on his form, without wiping the grin from his face. "You know you are just a big softie, you know that, yer?"

"Oh really? You want to take this outside?" The bag soldier grinned back at the clipboard soldier, but he knew his friend was right. Yes, he probably would be able to beat up half of his squad on his own in a fist fight, but if he was out there tonight, he probably wouldn't survive long enough to see the sunrise tomorrow. He has just been played by that girl.

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