A/A- Gone but not forgotten, hey team. Trying something a little new with this chapter; two different perspectives on the same event from two teams in different places. Sounds confusing? Hopefully not. Let me know what you think though. Cheers.
-Grey.
Paulo hunched his broad shoulders to try and diminish his considerable bulk, as he and Amber walked into the library and tried to look inconspicuous. The large Argentinean lad looked around uncomfortably, he was reasonably certain that his school didn't even have a library, let alone this many books total.
Luckily for Paulo, his Nina was a teacher and had ensured that education was a priority for her grandson. Accordingly, he actually managed a decent education out of the poor public school he attended, by heavily supplementing it with private lessons in science and English. Books with many words frustrated him and he struggled to process the information, his Nina was the one that found his passion for practical things like medicine and mechanics that appealed to his unconventional mind and desire to fix things.
It was also his Nina that had actually found him the scholarship to sail aboard the Phoenix in the first place; a fact he was forever grateful to her for.
Understandably Paulo was not stoked to be in a big old book room that smelt like mouldy carpet and dust.
He settled into a chair beside Amber at one of the many study tables and tried to appear like one of the other many senior students who had a lesson free.
Amber pulled a compact laptop out of her backpack and grimaced at the alien piece of technology. She had borrowed it from Hex to contact her uncle on and do some research on, but she was unsure just how useful she would be on the second front. She also doubted Paulo would be much help, he was currently tipping his hat at the pretty girls two tables over in a roguish manner. A sharp elbow to the ribs helped focus him again and distract her as she fired up the gaming specked notebook computer.
The computer rapidly loaded and Amber punched in the password written on her hand, a smile slyly escaping her lips as the background photo jumped up on screen.
It was taken sometime during their adventure trip in Scotland, she could tell from the environment around them and the clothes that she wore for that particular excursion. The five friends were dressed for wet weather and leaning casually on kayaks at the edge of a misty loch.
Amber even remembered the photo; the camera set on a rock with a timer and her dashing back to get in the shot. She distinctly remembered leaning back against the tall Hacker, his breath hot against her neck and the powerful arm that slunk around her waist to intertwine hands across her front.
"Awww it is so much with the cute." Paulo teased mercilessly and receiving another sharp Middleton elbow for his trouble.
"Shaddup.." She hissed leaning into the screen to try hide her red cheeks and buy her time to remove her delighted grin. It was one of her favorite photos too, she might even have the whole picture blown up on her own computer to the point where only two people fit on the screen.
"How quick can you contact your uncle?" Paulo inquired an odd tone to his voice.
"Pretty quick, not much to say I guess." Amber muttered at his nagging and without looking up.
All around them other students started getting out of their seats and pushing towards the doors, a general noise of commotion rising.
Amber looked up in sudden awareness to find Paulo on his feet and looking lynx-eyed out the window to the rest of the school.
"Why?" She added in concern, pushing her own seat out.
Outside the window, at least a couple of dozen rough looking men pushed and shoved their way through corridors and around buildings, heading for Hex's computing class.
"Well that can only mean trouble." She observed sardonically.
Beside her Paulo nodded numbly.
"Can we-." Li began to ask Dos, but was cut off by a scream somewhere down the corridor.
In response the trio ducked low and pressed themselves against the wall of the classroom, Alex gave Li a hand signal pointing at his eyes. In complete understanding, the lithe teen padded over to the door and slowly peeked down the hall.
"It is too late to pull it down, your pictures have been up for hours, along with your names." Dos hissed in terror.
"Shit!" Hex summed up their situation quite nicely.
"Incoming; five foot mobiles. Ten seconds!" Li harshly whispered from the door.
The new time constraint pressing, the three moved wordlessly to prepare for possible hostiles.
Alex acknowledged her with a grim nod while he opened his backpack and withdrew a familiar looking belt and quickly wrapped it around his waist. Careful not to make a noise, he drew the knife and held it pressed to his forearm in an overhand defensive style grip.
Li silently did a front roll to cross the threshold of the door, so she was now hiding on the opposite side of the door frame to the boys. Carefully she unhooked the door from its latching and slunk in behind it.
Dos retreated to hide under the table nearest them as Hex ushered her to do. The Hacker then lifted one of the computer monitors high above his head, testing the weight.
His muscles straining, Hex held the screen ready to throw, his legs braced wide and standing in front and off to the side from the door that his two friends had closed in on.
As one, the frightened trio breathed out and waited the tense last few seconds.
A lone, rough looking adult male in a studded denim jacket was the first to enter the room, boldly like the soldier of a conquering army.
He almost made it inside.
He had barely entered the threshold when he was collected front on by a powerfully tossed computer. It caught him squarely in his centre of mass and knocked the wind right out of him; he sailed backwards through the door with the projectile following him.
There was a moment of hesitation before the second man tried to hurriedly enter, but he was caught halfway by Li slamming the door to the classroom shut on him. With a loud crunch it sandwiched his head, left ankle and arm in the trap. The piercing scream of pain seemed to indicate that whatever was caught, was now broken and the arm prompty released the lead pipe it had been holding.
An ugly bald head, was stuck facing left in the partially closed portal and he screaming bloody murder at the unnatural angle of his two crushed limbs.
Hex followed up the slam by running into the door with a furious shoulder charge, creating another loud crunch and a higher keen of pain from the thug caught in it, before silence.
The face in the door remained, but it was now silent and the purple complexion was accompanied by an empty thousand yard stare from its owner. On the other side of the door, loud swearing could be heard and desperate hands tugged at the body trying to clear it from their path.
Knowing what would happen if their attackers got a clear path at entering, Hex kept his significant weight against the door and found himself joined by Li.
"Go! Out the window now!" Alex hollered at the other students at the back of the room. One of them took initiative and the idea from Hex and tossed a computer through one of the windows and began to help students out. Slowly and carefully they climbed down the two story drop. Hex gestured with his head, for Dos to go with them and she obeyed in stunned silence.
Suddenly, a pair of large hands found their way into the door and grasped strongly at the wood, seeking to push it open. Alex saw his opportunity and darted in with his knife drawn, slashing along the length of the fat fingers. A loud curse and an accompanying yelp issued from outside, the hands withdrew themselves in a hurry, leaving a slick of blood and parts of several fingers.
"We have to hold!" Hex growled as the door thumped heavily from the forces on the other side.
Suddenly the tempo of the conflict changed once more.
With all the shouting outside and the frightened cries of students both inside and out, Li thought nothing could be louder.
She was wrong.
The thumping on the other side gave out to a moment of silence, Hex and Li relaxed against the door as the dead man wedged in it was finally cleared outside. The door was finally able to close completely, which it did with a squelch and a click, the frame was sticky with spilled blood. With a sigh of relief, Hex reached up and turned the lock on the handle.
An impossibly loud boom shook the door and a small hole ripped through the wood between where Hex and Li's heads were. In a nanosecond the pair made eye contact, with wide frightened expressions as they realised what it was.
A second hole and a second bang punched through the door right beside Hex's ear, the two teens scrambled for cover either side of the frame.
A third gunshot didn't come, instead a boot did the job. A heavy kick smashed the door open, splintering the frame where it held the lock.
Hex shoved Li back behind him as figures burst their way into the room.
Somewhere nearby and moments earlier, Amber and Paulo ran in the opposite direction to the students fleeing en mass, pushing through the thick terrified crowds. Student and teacher alike fled the violent criminals that had taken the school by force, only to find the exits blocked by more White Hook members. The thugs shoved back the surging crowd roughly and waved knives and sticks menacingly.
"Get back in ya rooms!" One of them hoarsely growled.
"We're ere looking for someone's, who caused us trouble and you don't want it to be any of yous." Another snarled stupid, but threatening.
The crowd milled uncertainly, straining at the reigns and desperately focused on the doors that led to escape. Some were turning back and running to hide in classrooms or toilets. Glass shattered in rooms as others tried escaping by that route, only to be met and rounded up by other floating gang members who had surrounded the school.
A teacher stepped forward from the group, short and stocky, but old enough to be past his prime.
"Now listen here.." Mr Bruce started to reason with the captors.
He was cut off shortly and sharply. Literally.
The nearest White Hook gave no warning at all and charged forward, his arm was a blur of motion furiously and repeatedly thrusting, stabbing.
Mr Bruce gave a single lurching gasp before clutching his stomach and stumbling back, his grey shirt blossomed forth crimson with blood. His hands feebly pawed at his stomach and grasped at the leaking holes through which his life and colour drained out. Two students caught him as he collapsed back and tried in vain to apply pressure to his multiple mortal wounds.
Paulo stood stock still, wanting to help, but recognising already that the half dozen stab wounds inflicted within the space of several seconds were fatal. Amber started forward to help, but Paulo put a large hand on her shoulder to keep her away and safe.
The light was leaving the brave teacher's eyes, fading like a torch with flat batteries.
Holding the bloody blade up to his face, the violent perpetrator spoke again with danger hanging off his every syllable.
"We aint interested in talking, go back to your fucking rooms or end up a dead." He shouted, the knife whipped back out in front of him again, ready to seek his next victim.
"This is bad… We have to find the others." Amber breathed heavily, clutching Paulo's callused hand, and she tugged him down the corridor towards the computing room.
The wide, locker covered hallways rung with a crashing as Paulo and Amber approached the last known location of their friends.
A small gaggle of nasty looking men were fighting to smash open the door to the computer lab.
Cautiously, the frightened pair ducked tight up into the closed doorway of the next classroom to avoid being seen, the invaders paid them no notice and struggled instead with the door.
Shockingly, Amber noticed the bent angles of broken limbs caught in the doorway being crunched and mangled in the vice grip of a half closed portal. She sorely hoped the body wasn't one of her friends.
Helpless, the two teens watched the fight to enter, held back by the obvious weapons present and the overwhelming numbers. The odds were against them on trying to rush the raiding party, but Paulo was getting ready to; damn the numbers. A pulse hammered heavily in his ears and he could almost visualise his friends struggling on the other side of the door.
Paulo lowered his head like a bull and was preparing to charge when a skinny man that he did not recognise, who had not been taking part, drew a small pistol from his belt.
"Gun!" Amber hissed in warning, in case he hadn't noticed and pulled him tighter against the wall.
As horrified spectators, they witnessed the pistol wielder warn his fellows to step clear and then he preceded to fire two rounds slowly and deliberately into the braced door.
With a grim grin, he then lowered his weapon to let the largest villain of the lot kick the door open.
Amber gasped involuntarily as the door caved in and with the final obstacle removed, the street gang began to pour inside.
"We have to help them.." She uttered, frozen in the door way of their own classroom.
"We will." Paulo promised her, as even with his stunted English he was able to identify the Hazchem placard on the door beside them. The title on the door read 'Chemistry Lab'.