Against All Odds
My Father's Gun (Part Two)
"Hey did you hear that?" Taylor asked.
Gabriella looked up and shook her head. "I didn't hear anything."
Taylor burrowed her eyebrows before looking back down at her paper. Two loud noises caught her again and she looked back up.
"But I did hear that." Gabriella said standing up.
"What are you doing?" Taylor hissed.
"I'm going to see what it is."
"Well, I'm going with you." Taylor ran to catch up with her friend, linking arms with her in the process. They both stopped when the school's alarm starting wailing.
"Maybe it's better to stay in here." Gabriella said. Taylor quickly nodded her head. They looked back at the other students in the library who all looked at them with scared faces.
"Everybody get under a table." Gabriella called out. She knew whatever was going on wasn't good.
"And I thought that it was Troy who was the savior." Gabriella heard a voice say from behind her. She turned around and saw Tim standing there with a wild look in his eyes that Gabriella had never seen in him before. An ammunition vest was on his chest and he held a gun in his left hand.
"Tim what are you doing?"
"What the hell does it look like I'm doing?"
"Tim this isn't you. Don't do this." She said softly, trying to reason with him.
"You don't freaking know me, Gabriella. You've been at this school for what, six months?I've been going here my entire life and people have always treated me like shit!" Tim yelled at her. "I'm only giving these people what they deserve."
"Look, Tim. I know what it's like to be an outcast. This isn't the answer." Gabriella's eyes pleaded with him. She looked at him with scared eyes when he laughed at her.
"You know what it feels like?" He continued to laugh. "You were here maybe two seconds before your special boytoy had his hands on you. You were never an outcast here."
"No, not here. But at other schools I was. And I thought that we had all put that behind us. We're all in this togeth-"
"Shut up. We're not in this together. Don't give me that shit! You just thought it was okay because everyone in your perfect little bubble was okay."
He held up the gun and aimed it at her.
"Tim." Taylor pleaded. "Tim we used to be friends, remember. You were on the decathalon team. You were good. You used to hang out with us."
"Used to Taylor. Damnit! Used to! Then you decided that Chad was more important than all your old friends."
"That's not true." Taylor whispered.
"You can believe what ever you want to believe Taylor." Tim said before looking back at Gabriella. He clicked the safety off and aimed it at her.
"Tim please." Gabriella said softly. "You are so much better than this."
Tim looked at her and lowered his gun. "You're right. So why don't I go find someone who's not. I hope you told Troy you loved him today." He said before walking out of the library.
Gabriella frantically ran after him. "Tim, no. Don't do something stupid. Please, Tim, no. Please. Tim. No. Please."
"Back off Gabriella!" Tim shouted raising the gun up at her.
Gabriella stopped and put her hands up in the air. "Stay here with us Tim. Please don't go after Troy. Please don't hurt anyone else."
Tim just laughed at her. He walked out of the room and roped the doors shut. Gabriella followed him and beat her hands on the windows of the library doors.
"Tim!" She yelled as she watched him walk down the deserted hallway. She broke out into sobs as he kicked open a door and fired into the room before walking down the hallway, laughing the whole time. She continued to pound on the glass window, shaking violently as she sobbed, before she fell to the floor. Taylor rushed over to her side and put her arms around her friend.
"No!" Gabriella cried louder into Taylor's chest.
Troy and Chad walked down the hall, trying to stay as quiet as possible. They had already looked in the cafeteria and the auditorium, but they hadn't found Gabriella, Taylor, or anyone for that matter. It seemed as though most of the students had luckily made their way out of the building. They had run into one student who had been hit in the leg, and another had a bullet graze his arm. After double and triple checking that both were okay for a little while, they continued on to try and find Gabriella and Taylor, feeling extremely guilty as they did so.
As they walked down the hallway, nightmares flashed through Troy's mind. He was terrified of opening a classroom door and being faced with a gun, or finding a student who been shot or killed. Worst of all, he was terrified of losing Gabriella. His mind kept telling him this way a dream, that this only happened in movies, and he would wake up tomorrow with Gabriella by his side and none of this would have ever happened. But Troy knew this was real. It wasn't some movie, and Gabriella was out there and he needed to find her.
"Troy." Chad whispered.
"Yeah?"
"I think there's students in there." Chad said pointing to a math room. "Actually, I think I heard Sharpay in there."
"You sure?"
"There's no one in this entire school that sounds like Sharpay when she's crying."
Troy thought about this and knew Chad was right. He stood for a moment and listened and sure enough he also heard Sharpay's voice. He couldn't make out what she was saying, but it was Sharpay alright.
He pulled the door open slowly and looked over to where a mass of students were huddled together.
"Shar?" He called into the room.
"Troy, is that you?" It wasn't Sharpay who answered, but it was Kelsi. Troy scanned the faces in the huddle, and clenched his hands when he realized Gabriella wasn't in this room. He was glad, however, that his other friends, including Zeke, Sharpay, Kelsi, Jason, Ryan, girlfriend, had all found each other.
Troy and Chad stepped into the room, closing the door behind them.
"Have you guys seen Brie?" He asked no one in particular.
"Or Taylor?" Chad added.
They didn't get a response from anyone in the group, and watched as their eyes grew wide in fear.
"Ah, Superstar. Class is about to start. Why don't you sit down?"
Troy turned and saw Zane standing behind him with a gun aimed at his head.
"Brown?"
"Sit your ass down Bolton. This isn't a movie, you don't get to be the hero. If you don't listen I will pull this trigger,"
Troy and Chad walked over to where the group was all sitting and sat down with the rest of them.
Gabriella pulled away from Taylor's grip and wiped the tears from her eyes. She stood up, suddenly very angry with herself. There was no way she was going to sit and cry while Troy was still out there. She was stronger than that. She walked over to the librarian's desk and grabbed a stapler and walked back over to the door.
"Gabby?" Taylor questioned her friend.
"Taylor, back up." Gabriella said with thick determination. Taylor took a few steps back but continued to stare at her friend. Gabriella picked up the stapler and slammed it into the window a large crack splitting down the front of it. She hit the window again with more force than before and the glass shattered falling down around her. She didn't notice when a piece sliced the side of her arm and threw the stapler to the side, pulling herself through the now open window.
"Gabby, what are you doing?" Taylor asked.
"I'm not going to sit here and let him do this. Now you can stay and wait for help or come with me. I won't think differently of you either way." She began to walk down the hall when she heard her friend call after her. She stopped and turned to see Taylor pulling herself through the window.
"You really think I'm letting you do this alone?" Taylor half smirked. Gabriella nodded at her friend and the two took off.
As they turned the corner in the hallway, the both heard gunshots behind them and they both instinctively took off running.
Taylor turned another corner in the hall and looked over only to find Gabriella missing. She walked back around the corner and look both ways, not seeing her friend anywhere. Tears welled up in her eyes. "No, please, no." Taylor slid down against the locker and put her head in her hands. It was only seconds later she heard a familiar voice coming from the class room next to her. She listened closely to the voices.
'I know that voice anywhere.' She thought to herself and stood back up and walked into the room.
"Chad?" She called into the dark room. She looked to her left and saw a head of hair she could distinguish anywhere.
"Chad!" She ran over and practically fell into his arms. She looked and saw that all of her other friends were there as well, and when she looked at Troy, he looked back with question in his eyes.
"Troy, I'm so sorry. Oh, I'm so sorry. I was just with her, and I don't know what happened. We were just out in the hallway and she was just gone. I'm sorry, Troy." Taylor turned her face into her boyfriend's chest and sobbed as he wrapped his arms around her tighter.
"As much as I love this reunion, shut up." Zane spat out and Taylor finally noticed he was in the room.
"How many of there are you?" She squeaked out.
"What do you mean?" Troy asked looking over at Taylor.
"He isn't alone. Tim was in the library with us." Taylor debated telling them about what Tim had said in the library, but decided it was better for Troy if she didn't. "He locked us in, but Gabby broke the window out. She's still out there, Troy."
Troy's head fell into his hands as soon as he heard this. He hadn't saved her. She was still out there, and now she was alone.
Zane propped his feet up on the desk and fiddled with the gun in his hands. "So who's it gonna be first?" He asked looking over at the huddled group in the corner. He looked over to Zeke and Sharpay and smirked. "Is it going to be you Princess?"
Sharpay's voice cracked as she let out a sob and buried her face into Zeke's shoulder, who glared up at Zane. Zane simply laughed before looking over at Kelsi. "Or will it be the 'playmaker?' Did I get that one right Troy? I thought that was what you and Gabriella had said."
"How many?" Troy said with a quiet voice ignoring the question as he looked up at Zane.
"What?" Zane shot back at him.
"How many of you are there? How many of you are out there in those hallways shooting innocent people?" Troy said angrily, his voice getting louder by every word. He stood up and walked over to Zane, his friends watch every step he made. "How many?!"
Zane looked at him and rolled his eyes. "Shut the hell up Bolton."
Troy stepped ever closer to Zane. "Why are you doing this?" Troy asked, keeping his voice calmer this time.
He was almost five feet from the desk that Zane was sitting at when Zane pulled up the gun and aimed it at Troy's head. "Take one more step Bolton."
Troy looked over and made eye contact with Chad before looking back at Zane. "Or what Brown, you gonna shoot me?"
Troy stepped even closer to Zane and was now standing in the other corner of the room. Zane swiveled his chair around and stood up to face Troy. "I wouldn't mess with me Bolton seeing as how I'm the one with the gun."
Troy let out a laugh and looked over at his friends. Most of them were looking at him like he was a crazy person. He looked over at Chad again, exchanging glances before looking back at Zane. "Like you'd really even pull the trigger. You're a coward."
"Shut up Bolton!" Zane said getting into Troy's face and held the gun to his temple. "I'll pull this fucking trigger."
Troy didn't let his gaze leaves Zane's eyes. They stared at each other for what seemed eternity, the metal against Troy's temple feeling colder and colder by the second. Troy smirked at Zane. "Bullshit."
"Troy!" Sharpay screamed from behind Zane, causing him to turn around, the gun going off and shooting into the ceiling. Before Zane could say or do anything, a chair swung into his face and he fell hard to the ground. Troy looked up from Zane's body to Chad standing a little behind him.
"Thank god man. I was hoping you'd catch on to that." Troy said shaking Chad's hand and stepping over Zane's body.
"I'm not that dumb." Chad half smiled.
"Alright. Chad, I want you lead everyone else outside. Go out through the windows if you can get it open. There's obviously someone else out there so I don't want you to risk it. Cool?"
Chad nodded and looked down at the floor. "Look, I know you're not going to come with us. Just,uh, please come back out man. We need you."
"I promise, man. We have another Championship to win next year."
Chad looked up and smiled, giving his best friend a hug. "Alright, guys. We're going out the window."
Troy nodded at the group and walked over to the door.
"Wait! Where's Troy going?" Sharpay asked.
"I gotta find Brie."
"I'm going with you!" Taylor said marching over to Troy.
"Taylor no!" Chad said from the window.
"Taylor." Troy put his hands on her shoulder. "You have to go out that window. You have to go get help and tell them what's going on. You know more than any of us."
Troy's heart shattered as he watched Taylor break down in front of him.
"But I can't Troy! I just left her! I have to help you find her! It's my fault! I, just, uh, I have to help!" She managed to get out in between sobs.
"Taylor. It is not your fault. Gabriella would be a lot happier if she knew you were safe. Go with Chad and get us help, please?"
Taylor weakly nodded before Troy gave her one last hug. "I promise I'll bring her back out to you."
She gave him a weak smile before Troy opened the door and peeked out into the hallway. Seeing it was clear, he stepped out.
alright, like i said i broke this chapter up into three parts. so please review and i'll get the next part up asap