...At that moment Troy felt the impatient man move, and before he had a chance to look up, he was greeted by a searing pain through his body, and a female scream that was deafening.

Chapter 2 – A loud surprise

Chad, Taylor, Zeke, Ryan, Sharpay, and Kelsie jumped. They cowered behind the doors of their cars as the shots rang out. The first one had caught them by such surprise that they barely had a chance to register what it was before they heard a second and third bang.

Crawling around to the other side of the car where Taylor was hiding, Chad embraced the scared girl, giving her extra protection, not knowing himself what was going on. It was then that he heard the scream. He knew the voice. "Oh god, it's Gabbi" Chad whispered to Taylor pulling her even closer while pulling out his phone and dialling 911. "Ambulance, Police of Fire?" the operator spoke into Chad's ear.

"um.. Ambulance....no...Police!...no... BOTH!" Chad quickly told the woman on the end of the line. "I'm in the food hall car park... and someone just fired shots...and I can hear screaming... and I think my friends could be injured and..." Chad said frantically in between trying to catch his breath. "Ok emergency services are on their way, please stay where you are, keep out of sight" the woman replied, knowing how desperate the young man sounded and hoping that he would listen to her.

Chad hung up the phone and turned back to Taylor who had now been joined by the others, who had been hiding behind their own vehicle.

"They are on their way" he said, trying to sound a bit more confident and trying to keep everyone relaxed. He could still hear Gabriella screaming, but this time he could here the words. "TROY!.....come on troy stay with me....HELP! Somebody!...Please help!" Chad's heart sank, he had to get over there, to help Gabbi.

The others just looked at him, scared. "I'm going over there" Chad told them, glancing around to make sure the gunman wasn't anywhere near. "They need help!" he continued.

Tayor and the others just looked at him, they nodded, planning to follow him over there. "You guys wait here and keep watch for the police and paramedics" Chad told them, not wanting anyone else to be put in danger.

"Chad be careful!" Taylor whispered, watching as Chad ran out from behind the car over to help his friends.

Troy didn't even hear the shots, all he could feel was a searing white intense pain filling his body from head to toe. His ears were filled with a loud scream coming from behind him. "It was Gabbi, was she hurt?" Troy thought as he began to fall to the ground. Before he knew it, everything was fuzzy, his head was pounding and he could feel a boot repeatedly making contact with his ribs. As fast as the kicking began, it stopped and all Troy could hear were the faint noise of footsteps as they ran away.

He knew he needed to stay awake but the pain was too much to bare. Troy closed his eyes, letting the darkness overtake his body.

"TROY!.....come on Troy stay with me....HELP! Somebody!...Please help!" Gabriella yelled as she knelt beside his injured body. "Come on Troy don't do this to me, open your eyes...come on Troy"

Gabriella could hear running. Looking up she saw Chad running towards her. "Gabbi" Chad yelled as he got closer. "Chad, call 911" he's bleeding...bad!" she said, trying her best to hold back sobs. "I already did, they are on their way" he replied, kneeling down beside Troy. "Troy man come on...it's going to be alright" he spoke, slightly taken aback by his friends wounds.

He could hear sirens in the distance getting louder and louder as they made their way into the car park and over to where the teens were.

"It's going to be ok now Troy, the ambulance is here, they'll look after you" Chad whispered to his friend, hoping his unconscious friend might hear him.

The paramedics loaded Troy onto a stretcher. "We need to get him to the hospital now!, he's losing a lot of blood" the paramedic said, placing an oxygen mask over Troy's face and loading him into the back of the ambulance. "You should get checked out too" she said turning to Gabriella, noticing how shaken up she was.

Gabriella turned around to Chad as she was guided into the back with Troy. "Don't worry, I'll get the others and meet you at the hospital" he said giving her a small grin of encouragement, before the doors were shut.

The ride to the hospital seemed to take forever Gabbi thought as every second that went by Troy's breathing seemed to struggle more. The Ambulance pulled into the emergency bay of the Albuquerque General Hospital. "Troy Bolton, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, back and thigh" the paramedic relayed to the emergency staff as they pulled Troy's stretcher out of the Ambulance and into the ER "possible skull and rib fractures, BP's 90/50" she continued.

"Call surgery, we need to get him up there now." the ER doctor told the nurse as she hurried to the phone. "Troy, can you here me?" the doctor said, flashing his pen light into the young mans eyes. "Start him on a unit of whole blood as well as saline solution stat, it has been so hot today he's dehydrated we need to give this guy some fluids and get him stabilised. The nurse frantically worked to get the IV lines installed as they waited to take him to theatre.

Gabriella had been guided into an exam room as soon as the ambulance had pulled up. The doctor had looked her over and had concluded that she was fine, just shaken up which going by the days events was to be expected. She was shown out to the waiting room where Chad, Taylor, Ryan, Sharpay, Zeke, Kelsie and now Jason and Martha were waiting.

"How is he?" Chad said immediately embracing Gabriella into a hug. "I don't know, they won't tell me anything." The nurse who had helped Gabbi turned to their concerned faces "We can't tell you much at the moment, they are just trying to stabilise him, till they can take him up to surgery. It will probably be a long wait, but once his family is here and we know some more, we'll let you know." The nurse turned and disappeared behind the nurse's station proceeding to contact Troy's parents.

Trying their best to be strong for Gabbi and not let their intense worry show, the group of friends sat back down, preparing for the long wait ahead. "He'll be ok Gabbi, he's in the best hands now, they'll look after him." Chad said, trying to also convince himself that Troy will be ok.

"I can't lose him Chad, I just can't" she replied, sobbing into his shoulder. "I can't lose him!"

Will Troy make it through surgery? Read and REVIEW and you'll find out :)