Disclaimer: Borrowing the characters for my own creative purposes, no $$ is being made.
Sumamry: My idea of what happens in the episode that airs on March 1, 2006.
Characters: Lucas, Brooke (who I feature as kind of weepy), Peyton, Keith, Dan, Karen and Jimmy.
Plz read and review.
Gunfire rang out, screams shattered the silence that usually reigned in the residential neighborhood. People ran, fear racing through their veins, adrenaline aiding them in their speed to safety.
A streak of quirky blond hair and blue jeans, backpack slung over one shoulder comforting a dark haired girl immersed in full blown chaos mode.
"Lucas, I lost her in there, I don't know what happened to Peyton, she's in there…" Brooke collapsed to the ground.
Dropping his backpack, he told the girl to stay put. Sneaking up to the outskirts of the high school, he saw police officers in full SWAT mode, sweeping the perimeter with big guns.
He saw a familiar shag of blond hair on a girl who was lying motionless on the ground, not ten feet from him. Blood coated her forehead and right leg.
Crawling over to her, he saw it was Peyton, checking her pulse, he pulled her into his arms, checking to make sure she was breathing. Her pulse was weak and her breathing was faltering. Her skin was growing clammy.
"C'mon Peyton don't give up on me, I need you," murmuring to her, he hefted her into his arms, wrapping his denim shirt around her leg to stem the bleeding. He moved swiftly and quietly as not to alert the police.
A dark figure in military garb stopped him, pointing his gun at Lucas. Pulling off his mask, Lucas almost dropped Peyton when he saw it was Jimmy.
"Jimmy, what the hell are you doing here?" he looked at Jimmy's garb and the gun and the manic look in his eyes.
"Punishing all these assholes, who think they can push me around, I've had it," his finger twitched on the trigger.
Lucas focused on Jimmy, consciously aware of Peyton in his arms, "Look put down the gun and we can leave right now." Lucas tried to calm him down.
"No, this is it, the reason for my existence, to bring down all these people," adjusting his glasses, Jimmy looked around, keeping his eyes peeled for cops.
Adjusting Peyton carefully in his arms, Jimmy's eyes dropped to her, seeing the blood darken through the denim Lucas's tightly bound shirt that was covering her wound.
"I wasn't aiming for her, I was aiming for that skank otherwise known as your girlfriend, I'm just sorry I missed," his tone was emotionless, his eyes were dead.
Lucas backed away from him slowly, fear overriding him at this point. His brain was overblown with thoughts of his life ending here and now. Peyton couldn't die, he couldn't die, they were too young and had too much to live for.
"I can't let you go man," Jimmy had his back turned to the hallway which Lucas was thankful for because there was a cop coming decked out in black SWAT garb. He had his gun pointed at Jimmy and was looking straight at Lucas.
Lucas started to move to the right to get out of the way, something was going to happen, something meant to happen, Jimmy had been twisted and didn't care who lived or died.
Lucas didn't want to die yet. Looking at Jimmy, he saw emptiness a valley of darkness that Jimmy would never emerge from. Whispering goodbye, he watched as the police officer pulled the trigger, hitting Jimmy in the shoulder.
Jimmy yelled, turned and fired at the officer with his other arm, before falling to the ground. The last thing, Lucas saw in his eyes, was sheer hatred.
"How could you?" he groaned before falling unconscious.
Luke turned and moved to the exit swiftly for fear of Peyton dying of blood loss. She'd already lost a lot of blood.
Brooke was still frozen on the pavement in fear, knees hunched up, arms wrapped around them. Lucas rushed past her with Peyton in his arms, she starting shaking jerkily.
"Peyton, don't you dare give on me now, I need you," Lucas whispered fiercely to her. "I can't survive in a world without you."
Shouting for help, a paramedic scrambled over to him, seeing Peyton he told Lucas to follow him. Jogging as fast as he could, they stopped at an ambulance, the other paramedic helped Lucas lower Peyton to a stretcher. One paramedic ran around to the driver's side. "She has to go to the hospital now, she's lost a lot of blood."
The other paramedic asked Lucas if he was coming. Lucas froze, looking from Peyton's motionless figure to Brooke's frozen figure collapsed on the pavement.
"I'm coming with you," jumping up into the ambulance, he moved down the bench so he could hold her hand.
"Just talk to her," the paramedic yelled at him, slamming the back door shut and yelling at his partner to get going.
Lucas looked down at her, her eyelids were flickering rapidly, the paramedic put an oxygen mask on her face. He was examining her leg.
Lucas prayed for a miracle to happen, he couldn't lose Peyton, she'd already lost so much in her life, losing her own life would be the final straw for her and for him.
Karen poured a cup of coffee for a patron at the cafe, turning the radio up for a sudden news bulletin. Time seemed to freeze as she heard that gunshots were being fired at Tree Hill High. All those horror stories of high school shootings came true in a second for her.
Freezing in place, she dropped the coffeepot, watching detached as it shattered on the ground. A high pitched scream flew out of her mouth and she collapsed to the ground. Her brain shut down and she went into panic mode for one solid moment, then like a resurge of power.
She stood up quickly, turning off the radio and yelling that the café was closed. Dropping her apron on the ground, she grabbed her keys and ran to her car.
Arriving at the school, chaos was evident, people were milling everywhere behind the yellow police lines. Karen saw Brooke sitting on the ground, her hands wrapped around a very familiar backpack.
Pulling Brooke to her feet, the younger girl stared up at Karen with a blank expression on her face. "Where's Lucas?" Karen demanded.
"I don't know, he dropped his bag and went to get Peyton, I think she was shot, he was aiming for me, I think and he hit--." Brooke started crying, wrapping her arms around Karen.
"Well did you see them come out?" Karen pulled back, looking at her.
"I think so, Lucas came out, carrying what I think was Peyton and ran off to find an ambulance," Karen hugged her relieved that her son lived and she didn't hear Brooke mumble, "but he left me behind."
Lucas ran alongside the stretcher as they wheeled Peyton into Emergency Room 2, "Is she gonna die?"
"Don't push me?" the paramedic said.
Doctors and nurses burst into the room, pushing Lucas out, the last thing he saw was Peyton being hooked up to various machines.
Closing his eyes, he prayed. Opening his eyes a moment later, he pulled out his cell phone and called Larry, Peyton's dad had to know his daughter had been shot and was in the hospital.
Dan ran up to where Karen was standing, she pulled back from Brooke to look at him, "Have you seen Nathan or Lucas?" he asked her, his eyes wide with shock.
"Dan shouldn't you be---" she was pulled into his arms.
Being in his arms again was strange, so many emotions were fighting for dominance in her body and all she could do was stand there and let Dan hug her.
"Lucas is at the hospital with Peyton, she was shot, I haven't seen Nathan or Haley," turning to Brooke, she asked the girl if she'd seen Nathan or Haley.
"Yeah they went back to our place to get themselves together, they were really scared," Brooke started to cry again.
A body was rolled past them on a stretcher in a body bag, the zipper done up. Karen stopped them and asked who it was, what poor unfortunate student had died.
The paramedic shrugged sadly and pulled the zipper down, revealing that it wasn't a student but a grown man, Keith Scott.
Karen looked at his body, silent and motionless, dead. She froze and then started to shriek hysterically. Brooke came out of her own world of misery to see Karen reacting to Keith's dead body.
Dan embraced her, tears running down his face. "My big brother," he groaned painfully, his eyes shadowed by tears.
Karen clutched his arms spasmodically, her engagement ring catching the sunlight mockingly.
Keith's eyes were shut, his face frozen in death.