Chapter Twenty-Five

School-Time

The school had been inactive for a good four years. Plans for it to be knocked down hadn't got through yet, so it stood, gathering dust and cobwebs. It was a middle school and from the top it looked like a square with a yard in the middle. The main building was also the tallest, with a large clock tower peering over the rest of the school. On either side were simple square buildings which turned at right angles down to the back like brackets, where they joined together where the gym was.

Staring up at the clock tower which had stopped long ago at eight past one was Joshua and Lukas, the former grinning and the latter shivering.

"Man, this place has taken a beating." Joshua said, walking forward and tapping a cracked window. Immediately the glass fell from its frame, hitting the floor with a tinkling sound.

"You've been here before?"

"Uh-huh."Joshua nodded the affirmative. "I... went to a bunch of schools. This was one of them, actually."

Lukas peered to Joshua in interest. "A bunch of schools? You don't seem the type to get kicked out of schools."

"Who said I was kicked out of them?" Joshua questioned. "Nah, I walked out."

"Walked out? Why?"

"Various reasons." Joshua said evasively, before testing the weight on the door. The door opened without a sound, opening into a dark, dusty corridor. Heading in first, Joshua wiped his finger across a wall, bringing it to his finger and letting off a laugh which echoed around the corridor. "Man, this is thick dust. You would have thought a janitor or someone would come here sometime. This is definitely four years worth of inhabitation."

Allowing the door to shut behind him, Lukas peered around the school in interest. Back when he was in school he had played the role of the friendly outsider. Having entered the school without parents, he was immediately teased for having grandparents. However, since he never reacted to the bullying in anyway, effectively ignoring them, he was soon forgotten about. When it was found out his dad was murdered and his mother overdosed, a lot of sympathy came his way. Not much for social interaction back then, Lukas merely smiled and waved it off.

He had close friends, valuing the concept of friends. Only a few. He hated it when you had the huge groups, claiming to be 'friends'. Friends are people you can trust. People who will trust you.

"Haha, having memories?" Joshua turned back to Lukas as they passed a few classroom doors.

"How'd you guess?" Lukas found a small smile playing on his lips. When he wasn't completing joking around, Joshua seemed like quite an intelligent guy.

"Abandoned places always seem to bring back memories, even if the particular place isn't related to you." A small laugh left Joshua's mouth. "I mean, I remember walking down this corridor. Left everyone I knew. My friends, my favorite teachers, hell, I left my girlfriend in this school." Placing a hand against a locker to prop himself up, Joshua laughed while turning away from Lukas.

"Here I thought you didn't want to talk about it."

"You didn't ask. I say things on my own time. I don't like it when people ask about personal life. Talk about invasive." Shaking his head, Joshua continued walking, turning down another hallway. He stayed quiet, before stopping outside a classroom. "This is the class I walked out of, actually. Right in the middle of maths. Teacher was so preoccupied he didn't even notice I'd gone through the door. Mr. Bolton. Man, that guy was one hell of a teacher. Needed advice, he'd give it to you, plain and straight. If You were rude; he'd smack you in the arm with his ruler. Everyone loved him. I actually liked him enough to come back a few months later to thank him. I'd stayed here more than other schools."

"How did it go?"

"I found he died of cancer." Joshua shrugged, continuing to move.

"Oh... I'm sorry..." Lukas looked to his feet. He hated talking about death more than anything. Why dwell on something like that?

"Why? You didn't give him cancer, so what have you got to be sorry? Another gripe of mine." Joshua shook his head before stopping. "In the gym, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Lukas nodded.

"Right. Chances are, she's tied up. I'd bet a fair amount of money that it's a trap."

"A trap? But what do I do then?" Lukas asked. "Dominika is-"

"Dominika is a stranger. You've known her what, a week? Since that's how long it's been since you got here, and you don't know her that well."

"Actually... well, I've known her since yesterday."

"Hah!" Joshua suddenly laughed, before coughing. "Phew, that surprised me. Yesterday? Well then." Spinning on his heel, Joshua placed a hand on Lukas' shoulder. "Listen. I'm not going to advise you to do anything. But are you sure you want to do this? These guys are no jokes. You can walk away."

"No." Lukas immediately replied. "We're involved. Even if Dominika was a complete stranger who happened to get abducted at the same time as me, I'd save her. I'd save anyone in that situation."

"Oh? You're a knight in shining armour. Cool." Joshua came to a stop in front of a pair of double doors. "All right, here's the gym. So, the plan is as follows. You walk in. You see if Dominika is there. If she is, walk slowly towards her. I'll scan the area and if I see anyone, well, I'll deal with them."

"Deal with them?" Lukas turned towards Joshua. "How will you do that?"

"How do you think?" Rolling up his shirt, Joshua pointed towards a pistol on his right side. Lukas also noticed the knife he had cut himself with on his left side.

"Would that be enough?" Lukas couldn't help but ask.

"Of course. I'm a perfect shot. Right then." Joshua stood to the side of the door, out of sight. "Open it."

Gulping, Lukas nodded. He briefly thought about what if a bunch of people were waiting for him to kill him. But they thought he had killed the brothers. So, if they were true to their word, he would be safe. Suddenly, Lukas felt his legs shaking. This was real. This was properly real. People with guns, people who wouldn't look twice to shot you. People who'll-

"They are murderers." Joshua whispered, as if he were able to read Lukas' mind. "They won't hesitate to shoot you if that's what they feel like. But don't worry; I got better reactions than them. I see them, I shoot them. Simple. Now, if you're going to hesitate any longer, I'm going to push you in there."

Nodding, Lukas took a final breath before pushing the doors open with both hands. His mind quickly took in the completely empty room. Taking a few steps in, Lukas scanned the whole room. Sheer walls, and unlike his own middle school no viewing windows at the top. The walls were a very faded purple. Bleachers on either side of the hall, along with rusted basketball nets and faded lines on the floor for the various indoor activities. A deflated basketball stood in the far corner.

"Dominika?" Lukas called, but the only reply was his voice echoing back at him. Lukas quickly moved towards other doors, which opened into other corridors and a storage room. There was no sign of Dominika. "She's not here... no-one's here..."

"Don't panic." Joshua came up behind Lukas. "Somebody's been here. Actually, something went down here."

"What?" Lukas turned to Joshua in confusion.

"Look a bit closer, my friend." Joshua pointed towards the doors they came in. "You may have not noticed, but there wasn't much dust on that door." Walking towards the door, Joshua pointed it out to Lukas. "And look," Joshua also pointed to the wall, where a small bit of the wall was missing. "This door was opened recently. All the dust came off when it was opened hard." Kneeling down, Joshua nodded lightly. Lukas could see he was imaging something, piecing together something unknown. "These are your footprints, freshly disturbed the dust. But there is a fainter set of footprints. Dust gathers quite quickly in these sorts of places, since vibrations knock dust down from the roof. I'd say these trails are... ooh, around six hours old?" Joshua pointed out the footprints. "Now, two of these are male. The other is female. Bare-footed. My guess was Dominika was brought in here with two guards, but something stopped them. The footprints go back, as if they turned away."

"What?"

Joshua put a finger to his cheek as he scanned the walls. His eyes quickly latched onto something and he walked over to the wall opposite the doors. "Ah. Come over here." Joshua motioned Lukas to come forward and pointed towards a small, two centre-metre radius hole in the wall. "What do you reckon that is?"

Peering close, Lukas stiffened. It was a natural reaction whenever he saw anything relating to guns. "Those are bullet holes."

"Oh, good eyes. Especially these holes, because they are special bullets. Manufactured for quick killing. Dominika's kidnappers are professionals. One shot. Then they turned around... why?" Joshua looked as if he were talking to himself, striding around the room with his hands latched behind his back. "If they shot once, usually they would have hit. But no sign of blood. The bullet didn't go through a body. So, it must've been someone they knew. Or someone they were ordered not to kill. Not only that, but the bullet cases and the bullet itself have been picked up. The mystery person let them pick up the cases, and due to the footprints the mystery person picked up the bullet. Why?" Joshua eyes focused on the floor near the bullet hole. He looked to Lukas. "That's not the only mystery. Lukas, what do you see here?"

Blinking, Lukas looked down and saw what Joshua had pointed out in a different place earlier.

"Footprints."

"Exactly." Joshua looked left and right. "No footprints leading away from it. How?" Joshua looked up and smiled. "Ah. Skylights. You aren't going to land nicely on your feet from that height. Someone used a rope, or something similar to climb down. Normal people wouldn't have done that. These guys are professional."

Lukas interrupted Joshua's thoughts. "Uh, how do you know all this? How can you analyze like that, you're like a detective."

Joshua closed his eyes. "Dad was a detective. One of the best. He died while driving on a bridge. It collapsed. Hundreds died. Mum was a psychologist."

"Was? Is she... is she dead?" Lukas found himself relating to Joshua. He had lost his parents, just like him.

"Nah. But I doubt she's following the career now. When dad died, she up and disappeared. But I learnt a lot from them. More than most. Some called me a genius. For me, it's natural. Heh... guess that makes me a natural genius. I didn't put any effort into anything. It came natural. Heck, that's the reason I'm-"

Joshua was interrupted by shaking from the walls of the school. Dust dropped from the roof, making Lukas cough. Joshua looked up, eyes narrowed. His eyes focused in on a wire holding up the scoring board. It was straining. As his eyes widened, the wire snapped sending the billboard crashing hard enough into the floor to cause splinters of wood to spit out. Joshua's head turned to the right and focused in on cracks running down the walls.

"This place is falling apart." Joshua stroked his chin in interest.

"What? So it IS a trap?"

"Nope. This is natural... well, to a point. It's started."

"Huh? What's started?" Lukas looked to Joshua in confusement.

Joshua turned to Lukas. "Let's get you outta here before I answer that que-

Snap

Joshua and Lukas looked up to see one of the metal beams swinging down, still attached on one side by a metal wire. Joshua quickly jumped backwards as the beam soared past him, close enough for the wind to brush by him, ruffling his hair. The other wire snapped, allowing the beam to drop hard, slamming into the wood and smashing some of the boards to pieces.

"Woah." Lukas' eyes widened. "That was close."

"That was a decoy." Joshua peered up, and saw what he was looking for. Another beam, straight above Lukas, was already falling from one wire. Like a pendulum, it swung straight for Lukas, who was none the wiser. Gritting his teeth, Joshua scrambled up the metal beam that almost hit him and pushed off the edge with his feet. He shot through the air, arms stretched out. With one eye on the beam, Joshua could only hope. "Come on..." Joshua saw the beam coming, ready to smash into Lukas.

Joshua suddenly slammed into Lukas with a flying tackle. He moved his legs out of the way just as the beam soared past. With a perfect roll, Joshua got back to his feet and pulled Lukas up. "That was close. But it's done. You're no longer next. Prevented for now."

"What...?" Lukas asked. "What do you mean, no longer next?"

"What I said. Anywho, now's not... the..." Joshua's eyes focused in on the end of the wire of the beam which almost hit Lukas. "...time..."

"What's wrong?" Lukas asked, slightly worried at Joshua's tone of voice.

In reply, Joshua kneeled down and picked up the wire. "...the hell?"

"What is it?"

"This wasn't strained. This was cut." Joshua saw that some of the wire was still hanging down, unravelled from the roof. Without a word, Joshua grabbed hold of the wire and expertly climbed up. When he reached the top, he noticed that one of the skylights was open. Not only that, but someone had run away in a hurry.

Someone was camping here. Someone was watching...

Joshua quickly took in the still-smoking cigarette, a newspaper and most incriminating of all, a pair of pliers with a small strand of wire still on it. Joshua's face creased in suspicion. Sliding down the wire, he turned to Lukas.

"You were right. This wasn't an accident. But you weren't right for the reasons you thought. The guys in black, they wouldn't do something like this. They wouldn't attack from the back. They'd shoot you dead. This was someone else."

"Huh..." Lukas shivered. Something about Joshua's expression shook him to the bone.

"Come with me." Joshua quickly took across the gym floor.

"But what about Dominika?" Lukas asked, walking beside Joshua.

"Later. This is more important."

Lukas paused, disbelieving. "What? What's more important than a human life?"

Joshua spun on his heel, anger betraying his emotions. Anger not directed at Lukas, but something else. "Multiple human lives."

A/N: Thanks to Gabe's-Girl-Forever and Bookreader2010 for the reviews!

So, a bit of news. For all my previous Final Destination stories, that is: Directors Cut, The Elimination Game, The Last Laugh, The Ride to Hell and The Saviour, I am going to be going through each of them in order of submission and doing a mass spelling, grammar, Etc. Etc. correction. This is so, if you wish to go back and read them, you'll have a much more enjoyable read. I won't be changing any of the descriptive techniques or writing, corrections only. I still like seeing how I've progressed through the years.

Thanks, and 'till next time!