Chapter Ten: Blake and Aaron-Shoot Out Part 2
Aaron got to his feet, pushing Oliver away, grabbed his gun, and rushed down the hall.
"Y'all are going to pay for this. Once I get everybody else in the school, I'll make sure to personally kill you" he growled and disappeared around the corner.
Lilly, Oliver, Aly, and Amy immediately rushed over to Melody and Lucas. Their eyes were closed and they didn't move. Lilly looked closer and saw the faint rise and fall of their chests. Oliver checked their wrists.
"It's ok. I've got a pulse" he said quietly, using one hand to lift the back of Lucas' head. He slowly pulled his hand away, his fingers covered in blood. "He must of hit his head really hard."
"But, did they get hit?" Aly asked quietly.
"Yeah, right there. Melody got hit in the lower back and Lucas in the front. I guess the bullet went through Melody and into Lucas" Amy replied, pointing to the bloody hole in Melody's shirt.
"Come on, we need to find a safe place to stay" Oliver said, standing up.
"This shooting has gone on for. . .an hour and fifteen minutes. I don't think any place is safe right now" Lilly said, looking at her watch. They all winced when they heard gun shot after gun shot after gun shot. "Although any place is better than here, let's go."
Aly, Amy, Lilly, and Oliver helped Lucas and Melody stand. Their heads bent forward like a rag doll, their eyes still closed. As quick as they could, the four teenagers tried to find safety.
-
Wheezing, crawling along the ground, Miley tried to get to Jake. The footsteps of the shooter faded down the hall not to long ago. Miley quietly sobbed as she finally reached Jake's side. She immediately saw the blood flowing from the side of his head. She pressed shaking fingers to his wound and let out a sigh of relief. He didn't have a bullet hole.
"The bullet must have grazed him" she whispered, tears streaming down her face. She wiped them away with her sleeve and checked Jake's neck for a pulse.
There was one, but it was faint.
"Oh, thank god" she whispered.
"That kid was an idiot" a jock muttered, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
"What'd you say?" Miley asked without turning around.
"That kid was an idiot" the jock repeated. "He could have gotten killed. Then the shooter, Blake you said his name was, will know that we're still in here."
"He saved us all" Miley whispered. "He saved me."
"It was a boneheaded move" the jock spat.
"At least he's doing something! You're here sitting on your butt waiting for the police to come!" Miley snapped, ripping the bottom of her shirt off. She tied it around Jake's head to try and stop the bleeding.
"I'm scared ok?" the jock cried.
"So am I" Miley cried. "And I'm even more scared thinking that he could die."
"You really like him don't you?" the jock asked.
"No" Miley muttered. "I love him. I haven't told him yet though."
"Oh" the jock muttered. "Before I left home today I got into a fight with my little brother. I told him I hated him. I really regret it now. I'm not sure if I'll make it to tell him that I'm sorry and I love him."
"I'm sorry" Miley whispered.
"So am I" the jock replied quietly. "So am I."
Silence; there was too much pain to make any noise. Miley took a deep breath, and looked up just as something more orange than red hit the ground outside her classroom. . .
-
Oliver, Aly, Amy, Lilly, Melody, and Lucas were crouching just behind the door of the boy's washroom. Aaron or Blake had already let loose a volley of lead into the lavatory earlier before they came; bullet holes in the wall and porcelain sinks were such testament alongside crumbled plaster that had been ripped from the wall and broken, pierced pipes spraying into the room from all directions.
Oliver's heart was beating incredibly loudly, shaking his unbalanced body. His breath clenched as he heard slow pacing down the hallway, and whistling. The person doing the whistling was not concerned that the techno beat was much too complicated for them and they couldn't keep in tune or the proper speed of the song, leading Oliver's panicking mind to shut him down completely so he wouldn't make a noise. Darkness enveloped him, but only for a few moments. He was still crouching, though leaning heavily up against the wall, when he came too.
There was silence outside the door, and without debating whether to do battle with his fight, flee, or hide instincts, he and the other teenagers bolted from the washroom and flew down the hallway, catching the attention of Aaron, who whirled around and pulled the trigger eighteen times before he realized his gun was out of bullets.
"Damn," he snorted, reached into an empty pocket, and then searched another before he found a bullet-full pouch on the back of her jeans.
The six didn't stop running until thier torn shoes skidded upon the waxed floor and they fell exactly where he had started; when he looked up, the library room he had walked out of was glaring him in the face. The door was open, and he saw legs, arms, faces, all still and stained from the coagulating blood.
Then, without much warning, somebody moved from a classroom and grabbed them in a blur, dragging them back inside with them. The door was closed much more elegantly, locked, and Oliver found himself sitting up against the barricade with a tear-stained Miss Honey.
"You okay, M-m-mis-s-s-s-t-t. . .O-O. . .ke?" Ranger spluttered, shaking.
Oliver nodded, knowing what his dying teacher was trying to ask him. The infantile need for protection when helpless and the socially-implanted need to protect the helpless welled up inside of him, and Oliver broke down into choking sobs. Lilly walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. She rested her head on his shoulder.
"I don't like Fridays," Oliver sniffled after ten minutes, rubbing his arms and nestling back against Lilly. "I'm going to learn all about main arteries an…and the human body after this, I swear," he spoke softly, apologetically, smiling sheepishly yet sincerely at Lilly.
Lilly merely smiled weakly and told him to keep quiet in case Aaron heard them and wanted to re-enter the classroom. Lilly knew how much Oliver hated seeing blood.
"How are we going to get out? Of this. . .mess, I mean?" Aly asked quietly, a contemplative look coming over her usually grinning face.
Oliver began to wipe the red off of his hands and face, though his sleeves were already partially soaked, and the absorbed blood jut leaked out and smeared the color around upon the boy's skin. It took a few minutes, but when Oliver realized the blood wasn't coming off, he began hastily, frantically scratching at himself to rid the horrifying image off of his body until he began bleeding himself from the deep claw-marks.
"The shooters'll be taken out by the coppers. . .stop that, now," Miss Honey answered Aly's question and took Oliver's hands into her own bloodied paws. Looking Oliver directly in his eyes with her own, she leaned forward painfully and tried not to wince. "You've already survived this."
Oliver and Lilly jumped at a sudden scraping sound. Aly and Amy were pushing a table up against the door. They then, leaned against the door, adding their weight to it. It was then Oliver, Lilly, and Miss Honey heard it. Footsteps.
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty!" Blake's voice chirruped down the hall.
Blake smiled sweetly, sickly so, and practically skipped down the hallway, the thrill of his kills settled deep into his mind so that he had quickly become conditioned to it and was no longer startled by the cracking of the gun and the thud as the body hit the floor.
Strolling contently down the hall and running through his defense about how the movies and video games might have messed her up a little, the constant heckling from the other kids, the beatings from his father. . .he could be the saddest boy in the world, if he wanted.
Walking by his homeroom class, he found herself, still grinning wildly, walking backwards as if in a state of slow-motion rewind. The door was closed; it had not been closed before. Had somebody hidden in there?
Whistling, Blake turned the knob and began to push the door open, only to find he could not. Realizing either people or desks were in the way, he peeked into the glass window at the top of the door and saw no protruding objects save for outstretched legs just poking into her limited line of vision.
Backing up with pursed lips and a disappointed expression as if she were scolding a young child, Blake suddenly bolted forward and charged the door. It burst open without much effort; the two people who had been blocking him from opening the door moments ago were huddled before the window on the east side of the classroom.
"Blake. . ." Miss Honey swallowed wearily, paler than what could have been considered healthy and standing partially in front of Oliver and Lilly.
"Missis Honey," Blake smiled and tilted his head until it rested upon his shoulder.
"Blake" Oliver and Lilly whispered in disbelief. Blake turned and looked at the two, a maniac smile on his face. Oliver and Lilly shivered.
Blake had the rifle up, his eye fixed through the sight, the muzzle pointed toward Oliver, Lilly, and Miss Honey. A steady finger upon the trigger, and he began to pull it. He looked over at Oliver and Lilly once again and slightly shook his head. He backed out of the room and continued down the hall.
"I don't understand it. Why did he just leave?" Lilly asked quietly, shaking. She and Oliver went to check on Melody and Lucas.
Lucas' pain must have been even more unbearable because when he was shot he didn't have a shirt on. Melody and Lucas were still breathing, but they were still unconscious. Their pulse was getting weaker. Miss Honey pulled a fairly new flag out from one of the drawers from the teacher's desk.
"Here. Tie this around their wounds" she whispered.
Oliver grabbed it and made his way over to Lucas and Melody. Together, he and Lilly ripped the flag into even strips and tied them around the twins' torso.
"Why didn't he kill us?" Amy asked, walking over to them, Amy in tow.
"Because he knew Lilly and Oliver personally" Amy replied.
"No, it's because he said I could kill you myself" Aaron replied, stepping into the classroom. . .