CHAPTER 5

Miguel POV

Tick tock. Tick tock.

From his spot hidden in the corner of the room under his desk, the only sound Miguel could hear was the incessant, boisterous ticking of the clock. The stampede of terrified students' sneakers stomping against the ground had now died down, and the panicked screams and shouts had also quickly diminished to nothing.

BANG!

Miguel swivelled around towards the door, confused at the sound he just heard. That bellowing bang, followed by deafening screams of horror… It almost sounded like a…

BANG! BANG!

Another two bangs echoed down the corridor, tearing Miguel out of his thoughts and relieving him of any doubt as to what it was. The rest of the class's pale facial expressions confirmed exactly what he thought: someone had brought a gun into the school!

Robby was first to react, even before the teacher did. Having heard several gunshots during his lifetime both in juvie and before, he was no stranger to the sound so was the first to be shaken out of his daze.

"Barricade the doors. Pull down the blinds." He ordered, setting the 6 Karate students into action. Their rivalry immediately forgotten, Demetri and Kyler sprinted towards the window and pulled down the blinds to block out all of the light; Hawk and Tory dragged stacks of desks and chairs to one entrance of the room; and Robby and Miguel worked together to pull down the large cupboard next to the door and used it to barricade the other door. By this point, it was clear to everyone what was going on.

"Everyone spread out and hide. Find a place to hide. NOW!" Mrs. Watson instructed the class, her intruder lockdown training kicking in, and she nodded at the students who were blocking the entrances.

After they finished barricading the entrances, the Cobras and Miyagi-Dos all stood together in the middle of the room, their rivalry remembered and loathing returning to their eyes. However, it was definitely dampened by the horrifying situation they were in, and none of them made any move to attack one another. It was Miguel who broke the silence though, staring right at Robby as he did.

"Later?" He asked, hope creeping into his voice as he pointed around the room at the petrified students. Many of the hidden kids were sobbing silently, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends and even former enemies were all comforting each other. They all knew that there was a chance they wouldn't walk out of this school. Wouldn't see their families again. Wouldn't see a sunset again. The next breath of fresh air they take could easily be in heaven or hell. As Miguel uttered the single word, his message was clear: starting a loud fight now would easily alert a shooter that there were people in the room, and it would be putting the lives of all of the students and the teacher at risk. Eventually, Robby nodded, turning to his Cobras and silently instructing them to stand down, Miguel doing the same for the Miyagi-Dos. Taking a few steps backwards from each other, the tension between them dropped like a flatlining heart-rate, they all darted for their hiding spots around the room…

Tick tock. Tick tock.

Sweat trickled down Miguel's forehead and he could practically feel his heart pounding in his ears. Seconds dragged on, feeling like an eternity as the students curled into balls behind tables, cupboards, desks and anything they managed to get behind in feeble attempts to hide themselves from the gunman. Miguel was sitting close to the 5 other karate students, none of them murmuring even a word to one another.

"Are we even sure those were gunshots?" Demetri asked.

"SHHHHHH!" Everyone shut him up immediately, panic overwhelming all of them. At this point, Mrs. Watson stood up from her crouched position and turned to them.

"Hey, guys. Start texting, tweeting. Let everyone know what's going on. But don't tell them we're here. Shooters have smartphones too." She told them. Everyone nodded and complied, but Miguel didn't, his hands too busy quietly drumming against his leg from nerves. Hawk noticed his friend's obvious discomfort and turned to him.

"What's wrong?" Hawk whispered. Miguel raised an eyebrow at his friend, incredulously.

"You kidding me? You know where we are, right?" Miguel snapped back. Hawk shook his head and glared at Miguel. He knew it was something more.

"Dude, what?" Hawk asked again. Miguel eventually sighed.

"Sam." Miguel admitted. "She's not here. She's still with Counsellor Blatt, close to the entrance of the school. What if she…"

"She's gonna be okay, Miguel." Demetri whispered. He was sitting opposite the two of them. Miguel nodded, still extremely uneasy. He knew that there was literally nothing he could do right now but sit and wait and pray.

BANG!

The third gunshot rang through the hallways, this one significantly closer, bouncing off of every whispered locker confession, every linoleum tile breakdown.

It ricocheted and pinball bounced through the school, repeatedly slicing through Miguel's chest and cutting daggers into the muscles surrounding his furiously beating heart. He could feel his knuckles practically about to pop out of their sockets as he gripped the leg of the chair next to him furiously. He couldn't just sit here. He couldn't just sit here, not knowing if the person he cared about more than anyone in the world was okay.

Eventually, Miguel started to get up and move towards the door, but was immediately stopped by Robby, the closest person to the door. The two young men scowled at each other, Robby blocking the path to the door so Miguel couldn't get past.

"I gotta go. I gotta go. I don't care. I can't just leave her out to dry like this. I gotta go." Miguel repeated over and over again, trying to barge his way past Robby, who quickly grabbed him and stopped him from getting there. As Miguel turned to swing at him, he felt Hawk immediately grab his arms to stop him.

"Miguel, you need to calm down, and sit your ass back down now." Robby demanded, quietly and calmly.

"LET GO OF ME! I DON'T CARE! I'M GOING! LET GO OF ME! LET G…"

Before Miguel knew it, he was yelling at the top of his lungs, causing his whole class to become even more petrified as he was basically exposing the class's entire location to the shooter. Those crying just started sobbing harder. Those angry just became furious. But thankfully Miguel was quickly cut off when he felt Kyler's hand over his mouth to shut him up and together, the three big guys managed to take Miguel to the ground whilst keeping a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet.

Eventually, however, after a couple of moments of furious struggling, Miguel managed to wriggle his way free of them, and he started to make a sprint from the door when Robby roughly tackled him again and pinned his arms back, turning him around and forcing him to face the rest of the room.

"Miguel, listen! You are just putting everyone's life in danger right now! Look at them! Look at them! Look at them." Robby repeated, causing Miguel's eyes to dart around the room.

What Miguel saw he knew he would be traumatised into seeing for the rest of his life. He saw tears streaking down all of the kids' faces. Innocent teenagers shaking and trembling so violently that they looked like they were having seizures. Faces as white as the sheets of paper they had previously been writing in. One girl in the corner of the room had even started retching into her backpack in fear.

"You NEED to be quiet. Sit down. Please." Robby practically pleaded with him. Eventually, Miguel looked down, defeated, and he slumped back down next to Hawk.

"I'm so sorry." Miguel murmured quietly to Robby, and Robby nodded. He knew that Miguel wasn't only talking about just now. He was talking about his part in the ruthless, vicious rivalry they had been locked in for the past year. Being in this situation had really illustrated how stupid their "karate rivalry" really had been. They could potentially both die in a matter of minutes and they would have to go knowing that during their last year on Earth, they hadn't spent it living as happily as possible, but instead had spent a large part of their time just trying to make the other's life miserable.

"Me too." Robby mumbled back. The two nodded at each other, not love, not even respect in their eyes. The only thing there was they reluctantly knew, should they get out of here alive, they were going to have to find a way to coexist.

Robby then sat back down next to Tory and discreetly intertwined his hand in hers. As Miguel saw them, he felt a stabbing pain in his heart as he thought of Sam. It was a pain so excruciating that he had to close his eyes and sit back, his head slumping back against the wall. When Miguel finally opened his eyes again, traces of tears now stained on his cheeks, he saw Hawk sitting opposite him and looking at him.

"Moon's not here either." Hawk murmured, pain clearly evident in his voice despite him not speaking louder than a whisper. Miguel put a hand on Hawk's shoulder in sympathy, before taking out his phone and texting Sam.

Miguel: Where r u? R u ok?

After sending the message, Miguel didn't turn off his phone. Instead, he stayed on it, refreshing it every couple of seconds in hopes that Sam would respond. But no. Several moments passed without the message even being read, let alone responded to. As seconds turned to minutes, Miguel could feel fear rising in the back of his throat.

"Come on, Sam." He whispered…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Johnny POV

"Well, I'd like to make a toast." Amanda announced, raising her glass and Johnny, Carmen and Daniel doing likewise.

The two couples had met up at a small cafe in Encino for lunch that day to celebrate the end of Cobra Kai and the karate war that had consumed so much of their lives during the past year. It had been a massive dent in both of their relationships and they were grateful that it was finally over. They needed to celebrate the win with a bottle of wine (well, wine for the mature adults, Coors for Johnny).

"To my amazing husband and Johnny." She declared. "For finally putting this Karate war to bed and getting that monster Kreese out of the Valley!"

Carmen and Daniel smiled, but Johnny didn't. He wasn't even listening to her. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the small TV at the back of the restaurant and his face dropped in horror. He immediately felt his heart rate shoot up in panic, a feeling he prided himself in not feeling often.

Suddenly, Daniel, Carmen and Amanda heard a deafening CRASH as Johnny's drink slipped out of his hands and shattered against the ground. Daniel raised an eyebrow at Johnny and chuckled.

"Wow, Johnny? Did you hit the bar early today or something?" Daniel remarked jokingly. Johnny didn't answer. His mouth was gaping open and shut like a fish, his vocal chords seemingly unable to make a sound. His hands were trembling slightly, knocking against the table quietly. Carmen noticed all of this and looked at her boyfriend, slightly worried.

"Johnny? Are you okay?" She asked, concerned. Again, Johnny couldn't seem to find the words to respond. But at least he had gotten over his shock enough to finally be able to move his arms again. Raising a trembling arm, he slowly pointed towards the TV behind Daniel, Carmen and Amanda. The three turned around and immediately paled as they saw the headlines.

BREAKING NEWS: GUNMAN TAKES OVER WEST VALLEY HIGH, STUDENTS ON LOCKDOWN!