Chapter 5
Sami walked down the long dark hallway. The place seemed oddly familiar to her but she still had trouble placing how and when she'd been there before. She stopped at a door marked 22 and noticed that it was slightly open. Her heart began to beat a bit faster as the feeling of déjà vu swept over her once again. She silently pushed open the door and tiptoed inside the room. She saw at once that this was a bedroom, with two twin beds in it. It looked like a cozy room, almost like the one in which she'd grown up. A small sound came from one of the beds, almost like a whimper and she jumped. She peered over at the bed and noticed that the lumps in the bed were in fact the forms of two sleeping children, two girls actually. The whimper came again from the bed and Sami stepped closer to check on the child. It was very dark inside the room and Sami could only make out the shape of the girl and the color of her hair, which was blonde. Suddenly there was a shattering of glass and screams erupted from the hallway. Sami jumped back as the two girls shot up out of bed. Neither one seemed to notice her as they darted from their beds, whispering to one another. "What is it?" The little blonde girl said to her redheaded companion. "I don't know" the redhead shrieked. The door burst open and a man ran in and towards the girls. Again he did not seem to notice Sami's presence at all and she shrank back into a corner of the room to escape notice. "Come on." The man yelled at the children scooping them up, one in either arm and running towards the door. He was met by what looked like a man in a swat team uniform, brandishing a gun. He kicked the man back and sent him flying and disappeared down the hallway.
Sami crouched down in the corner and began to shake. She couldn't remember the last time she had ever been so terrified in her life. For some reason Eric sprang into her mind and she squeezed her eyes shut wished with all her might that he was there with her. Suddenly she heard what she thought was someone screaming out her name and she opened her eyes to see Eric bursting into the room. "Sami what the hell are you doing in here?" He screamed at her above the noise of the terror in the hallway. She couldn't find the words to speak just looked up at him in shock. "Come on!" He said grabbing her by her arms and hauling her up off the floor! "We've gotta get out of here Sami, NOW!" He shouted and dragged her from the room.
The hallway was in chaos. Everywhere children and adults were running from behind doors and screaming. The guard like things seemed to be trying to round up the fleeing people. A guard advanced on Eric and her and aimed his rifle at them. Eric let go of Sami and lunged at the guard trying to take the weapon from him. "Go!" he screamed at Sami but it was drowned out by another scream, this one a high-pitched, piercing one! The shriek continued and Sami felt as if her head were going to explode and she clapped her hands over her ears as if to shut the horrible sound out. But it didn't shut it out nor did it shut out the sound of the gun between Eric and the guard going off or the sight of her brother slumping to the cold, hard floor. And suddenly Sami let out a scream of her own!