The room was deadly quiet as the shots rang out in the hallway. I was breathing so loud, that I thought the intruder would come in and find us.
"Great first day, huh," Alison whispered.
I nodded with a smile. I could hear sirens in the distance. They would soon be here, hopefully. Another shot fired, much closer.
Alison gasped and as I looked around the room I saw other kid's faces reflecting her horror. The whole class, including the teacher, had hidden themselves under the desks.
"What are we going to do now?" I asked, quietly.
Alison shook her head. "I've never been in this situation before."
The sirens were louder than before. Suddenly a hole was blown through the door. The bullet whizzed past my head and I heard it strike the wall. It must have shattered because I felt fragments hit my back. I arched my back, causing me to hit my head on the table. I let out a gasp of pain.
A shadow moved across the door. The gun fired again and the door flew back on its hinges.
"Out," the intruder ordered. "I know you're under there, you two."
I gasped as I realized that the intruder could only see me and Alison. We were the only ones hiding under this desk. "Come on."
I climbed out of under the table and faced the man. I could tell it was a man for he had a short black beard. He was middle aged and looked very strong. "Put your hands in the air," he rasped.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alison raise her hands into the air. I copied her. "Where are they?" the man demanded.
"Where is who?" I asked bravely.
"Don't play innocent, boy," the man said. He walked over in a matter of steps and grabbed my wrist. "Now, tell me where they are."
This man doesn't know that he has the wrong people, I thought. He will stop at nothing to get the information we don't have.
I twisted my hand and sunk my teeth into his wrist. He broke his arm out of my grip and stepped back. He levelled his gun at me and fired. I leaned over to one side and dodged the bullet.
"Wow," the man exclaimed.
In that moment, I lunged for him. I knocked him off his feet and took his gun. I sat on top of him and held the gun in his face.
Troops and troops of men stormed in the door. "Get them!" The officer demanded.
"Run," Alison screamed, as they jumped on the man.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the window. "Come with me please. I need someone who knows what she's doing."
I opened the window and crouched on the sill. I held my hand towards her. "Please."
She sighed. "Okay. The police will be after me anyway."
I grabbed her hand and we jumped to the ground. Luckily, we were on the ground floor. I didn't want to think about what would have happened if we were upstairs at the time.
The men fired their guns at us as we bolted. We left the school and ran.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"I don't know," Alison replied, brown hair flying behind her as she ran.
She grabbed my shirt and dragged me to the closest bush. She pushed her way in, through the branches and leaves and I followed.
The men that ran into the room, the police they're called, ran past. They had their guns drawn and pointing in all directions. I looked down and I realized that I still had my gun. I tucked it in the top of my pants, so no one could see it.
Alison and I crouched in the bush until the men had gone. Alison waved her hand and snuck out. "Let's go to my house."
We walked along a road until Alison stopped and looked at a house. It was a lovely cream colour and white garage doors. It had a black roof. "This is my place."
I followed her to the garage door. She bent down and lifted it up. "You first," she invited.
I stepped into the garage and waited. Alison put the door down and walked over to another door, which lead into the house.
"What have you been doing?" a voice asked.
I looked at Alison and she rolled her eyes. She continued further into the house. A woman was sitting at a bench, as if waiting for Alison to arrive home.
"What have you been doing?" she repeated.
"I-"
"I got a phone call this afternoon, two actually," the woman continued, "One from the school and one from the police. Apparently you held a man hostage in your classroom with a gun."
"No Mum," Alison interrupted. "We were in lockdown and this man stormed into our class with a gun. Nathan tackled him and took his gun and the police said that it was us who had the gun first."
"Well, this must be Nathan," Alison's mum said, finally realizing that someone else had accompanied her daughter into the kitchen.
"Hi," I said.
"I'm Taylor, Alison's mum," Alison's mum said, getting up and walking over to shake my hand. "Would you two like some lemonade?"
"Maybe later Mum," Alison said quickly.
"Okay then," Taylor called, as we left the room. Alison led me through a corridor to a room decorated with posters of colourful dragons flying high in the sky.
"Dragons," I whispered, in shock.
"Yeah," Alison said, defensively. "Childish, I know, but I can dream, can't I?"
I nodded. "You have every right to."
"Okay, so I was thinking spend the night here and leave in the morning," Alison said, sitting on the edge of her bed.
"Why can't we just stay here?" I asked. "It's nice here."
"The police will return," Alison said, shaking her head.
"Shouldn't we just tell them the truth?" I asked. "That would be the easy way to settle this."
Alison shook her head once more. "No, I don't know where you come from, but here we do things differently."
I looked around the brightly coloured room. For the first time I noticed a book lying open on her bed. I walked over and sat beside Alison so I could read the book.
Above, Saphira keened, and her grief mingled with his, as they mourned what could never be.
My heart caught in my throat. "No," I whispered. "How do you know about them?"
Hawktalon here again!
What did you think? Could I improve? Please review!
Random Fact: If the sun burned out, we wouldn't know until eight minutes later, because that's how long it takes the light to travel to Earth!