Me: Welcome to Chapter Twelve!

Chiro: I'm going back to school!

Gibson: (Puts on a proud face.) He was able to skip a grade with Soren and Alina.

Me: Congrats…

Daniel: They'll be fine!

Me: I'm not worried about them. Warning: Oc death!

Chapter Twelve: The School Massacre

It seemed perfectly normal for us. I was walking down the street with my friends, Daniel, Soren, and Alina. The monkeys were having a battle practice. I heard Daniel moan. "I don't want to go to school!" he shouted. (Daniel's a third grader now. The others are first grade.)

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Test today," Daniel moaned. "So going to fail it,"

"Poor Daniel," Alina said.

"Good luck bud," Soren said.

"Try your best," I said. "If you fail, well, at least you still have us,"

Daniel smiled. "Thanks guys," he said. "You know exactly how to cheer a guy up,"

"That's our job!" Alina shouted.

We arrived at the school momentarily. Soren groaned. Outside the school doors stood the school bullies, B.T. and Glenny. "I'm so dead," Soren whispered.

"We're all dead," I whispered back. "Unless we can sneak in," Just then a group of kids went by. We joined them and entered the school with out a problem. We hurried to our assigned classes and waited for the teacher to start the class.

I was, for some odd reason, in the first grade classroom that shared the room with a third grade classroom. Daniel was in the third grade class. "Good morning class," Ms. Lundburg, our first grade teacher, said.

"Good morning Ms. Lundburg," the first graders chirped.

"Today is a free day," Ms. Lundburg said. "Mrs. Burn, the third grade teacher, is out sick today so today we're going to have some fun with the third graders. I want you to play nice, okay?"

"Okay!" we shouted and grabbed the play stuff. Daniel came over to my desk and we played a game of war.

We played for hours. Occasionally we stopped, once we fought with B.T. and Glenny but it was a minor event to what happened next.

Gunfire rang out in the school hallways. The other kids and me screamed. We all screamed. Except for Ms. Lundburg and Daniel. They didn't scream.

Daniel left my side and went to calm down his fellow third graders. Ms. Lundburg went and calm my class down. "Quiet!" she yelled. We became silent. "Now, Lou and Kyle, go put a few desks in front of the doors!"

The third-grade boys hopped into action. "Now!" Ms. Lundburg shouted again. "Daniel lead the first grade to the library! That goes for third grade girls and Willy too! Ben, Matt, Billy, Jason, Arnav, and Akash get the windows exits ready! Jeevan, Kanan, Abheek, and Aleem help Daniel with the first graders! Move, move, move!"

We went into action. Daniel, Jeevan, Kanan, Abheek, and Aleem led the first grade and some of the third grade to the library while the other prepared to blockade and escape through the windows.

When we entered I activated my communicator. "Monkey team!" I shouted.

"Chiro!" I heard Nova and Antauri shout. "What's wrong?"

"There's…" I never finished the sentence. Gunfire rang out again and we all screamed. "Help!" I yelled.

Daniel and the others helped us hide and then hide themselves. Two first graders came bursting in. They were Soren and Alina. I whistled and they came running over. "What's the sitch?" I asked. (Sitch is another word for situation)

"Two males." Soren said. "One teenage, one about seventy. Both have guns. One of the guns is a semi-automatic rifle," I flinched.

"Both men have pipe bombs," Alina said. "They're throwing them all over the place! They already killed Mrs. Ole, two second-graders, Noko, and Olsen! Poor guys…" I could see Alina's tears and brushed them away.

There was silence for a few moments. Jeevan was able to get a few first graders out before we heard footsteps. He ran back to his hiding spot and waited. We saw something fly into the room and we took cover.

There was an explosion and we screamed again. When it was over we were cut all over and Kanan had a broken arm. Some of the kids were killed in the explosion. Soren, Alina, and I bawled our eyes out. "Calm down you guys," we heard Daniel whisper. "They're gone and we can mourn later. But we're still alive! We have to survive to prove to those men that, sure, they had killed a few of us but we're not backing down! Right?"

"Right!" we yelled. Then there was another explosion. All I saw was Daniel shielding us and the floor giving away. The world was lost to darkness.

Few hours later…

I could hear the men. I could hear the sirens. But I couldn't move. I opened my eyes. I was covered in the rubble of the school library. I heard someone call for me. "Help!" I screamed.

I heard rubble moving and then a blinding light. I shut my eyes and then opened them again. I saw a firefighter looking at me. "I found a survivor!" he yelled and picked me up out of the wreck.

I looked around. The school was in ruins. Children and teachers were in ambulances. Firemen, police officers, and people from all around the city were digging through the rubble. I saw a flash of green. "Otto," I said hoarsely.

The fireman heard me and yelled, "Get the black monkey over here!" He carried me to a waiting ambulance. I heard paws collide with metal and I looked. Antauri was standing right beside me. I was now in the ambulance bed

"Tauri…" I said softly.

"Hush Chiro," Antauri said. "Your alright now,"

My eyes widened as I remembered what had happened. "Tauri…" I gasped. "Where's… Alina and… Soren… and Daniel? Are… they… okay?"

"Alina and Soren are fine," Antauri said. He looked away from me.

I was confused. What about Daniel? What had happened to him. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks as a medical assistant put a breathing mask on me and started to monitor my heart. "Daniel's… dead?" I asked.

Antauri gave me a sad look. "I'm sorry Chiro," he muttered. I fainted, not being capable of handling the shock of the pain, the shock of the massacre, and the shock of the death of Daniel at the same time.