Kickin It Fool here,
I am still hanging in, but things have been a bit rough. This is the 5th chapter and I hope you all really like it. I am sorry that you didn't get it yesterday when you were supposed to. Please know that I pour all that I am into these stories and I really hope you all like them or will give me your opinions so that I can learn and improve. Thank you. Please be prepared as we go forward because there will be parts that will be hard to read. I really feel like it will move you when we are done so I hope you give it a chance.
REG UPDATES FOR THIS STORY ARE PLANNED FOR MONDAYS. I AM REALLY TRYING TO STICK TO THIS SCHEDULE FOR MY STORIES, BUT SOMETIMES I JUST CAN'T GET A CHAPTER DONE DEPENDING ON WHAT IS GOING ON WITH ME.
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We are dedicating this to everyone who has been affected by school shootings. Life will never be the same, but each day that we live and go on is a tribute to all of those who have fallen. Our prayers go out to all of the families and friends that have been hurt by a tragedy like this.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Kickin It or any of the characters in it. I do not own any of the clothing mentioned in this chapter. I do not own any of the songs used in this chapter.
Chapter 5 Trapped!
KIM'S POV
I knew Jack didn't like the idea of me going with them, but they really didn't have a choice. We left the locker room and there were ten of us altogether. Jack and Brody led the way down the staircase and checked the door at the bottom to make sure the coast was still clear. We were back on the main bottom level of the gym and I made the mistake of looking to the side where we had left the people we couldn't save. I had a tear run down my cheek and Jack came up to me and put his arm around me turning me away from the scene.
"We have to keep going." He said gently.
I never thought of him as a particularly sweet person, but he really does care. I could see the sadness in his eyes, but he was right. We had to see who else was out there and if we could get all of us out of here. He wiped my tear away and we started walking to the doors that exit the gym to the outside.
As soon as we got close enough, I froze. "Stop." I said quietly, but loud enough for them all to hear me.
"What is it?" Brody asked looking at me.
I moved in front of them quickly. "Don't touch the doors. Look at those wires." I said pointing to a group of wires that were wrapped around the underneath of the handles.
"What the hell?" Jack said moving closer to look with me.
I bent down and saw that there was a small timer attached to the wires and they were fed to the outside of the door. "Jack, that has to be a bomb." I said looking at him and shaking slightly. "I think that we can check all the doors we want, but we have to assume that all of our exits are going to be blocked like this. They wanted to keep everyone in." I could feel my breathing increase slightly as the realization hit me…WE ARE TRAPPED!
"Ok. Well, we have to keep trying." Jack said putting his hand on my shoulder lightly.
I looked back at the timer and added. "Jack, that's fine, but whatever we are going to do we need to hurry. The timer only has 15 minutes left on it." I looked at him and we all moved quickly to the doors that would take us into the hall.
After the guys checked it out, they came back into the gym. "Kim, I really don't think you should go out there." Jack said. "It isn't pretty."
I looked up at him and I took a deep breath. "I have to try. Let's go." I said closing my eyes to try to clear my mind and prepare me for whatever I was about to see.
We walked out into the hall which was still full of a light amount of smoke. I immediately saw two of our classmates on the floor leaned up against lockers. I knelt down to them and quickly realized that the guy named Matthew was already gone. The girl, Shauna, who was clinging to him crying, was alright with just a few cuts and bruises. She didn't want to let him go and I had to get Brody to help me with her.
"I'm sorry, Shauna. He is gone, but we have to get you out of here." I kept saying to her over and over.
"Just let me get her." Brody said as he picked her up and she gave in and went limp in his arms.
I looked at her and she was still breathing. "She just passed out from the stress. Take her up to the locker room and I have a feeling we will still be here when you get back." I said as I looked at all of the devastation in front of me.
Brody disappeared quickly and two of the other guys moved Matthew into the gym with the others. I saw that there had been several bombs of some sort that had gone off because I could see inside the library. The wall was completely gone. I started moving forward down the hall and tried to keep my focus on helping anyone that I found along the way, but my mind was already in that library looking for my other friends. Someone grabbed my wrist which made me jump.
I turned around and was quickly pulled into a classroom. To say that it startled me was an understatement. I got ready to fight whoever it was and then I saw Milton's face looking at me. I jumped into his arms hugging him with everything in me.
"Oh my God, Milton, I was so scared when I saw the library. Are you ok?" I asked as I lowered myself back to the ground.
"Yes. I am ok, but I just barely got out of the library in time. I was lucky because I got up to go to the bathroom and was in here when the bomb went off." He said and looked down at the floor. "I have been hiding in here ever since."
I made him look at me. "Stop it. We have all been hiding until just now. Come on. Let's get out of here together." I said to him taking his hand.
As we exited the boy's bathroom, I ran smack into a panicked Jack who was obviously worried about where I was. "Where have you been? Don't do that again. Please!" He said not even letting me speak as he hugged me.
"I'm sorry. Milton pulled me into the bathroom. I was just glad he was ok. I won't disappear again. I promise." I replied while he was squeezing me tighter and tighter.
"Ok." He said and then he looked at Milton. "Are you hurt?"
Milton shook his head. "I can help you guys." He said. "I actually overheard some of them talking while I was hiding in here. They have all of the exits blocked with explosives so that no one can leave or get in. They wanted everyone to be stuck in here so they could punish people, but they weren't counting on some of the gym classes being outside today. All of those people were evacuated on buses somewhere."
I was listening to everything Milton was saying and shaking my head as I tried to wrap my head around all of this.
"Do you know how many there are?" Jack asked.
Milton shook his head. "No, I saw 3 of them talking about this. The thing is that they are not normally a group that would have hung out together. I mean they are all outcasts like us." Milton said motioning to me and him. "But they don't normally talk to each other either. I think there are several of them and from what I saw, they all have guns and will use them. I think they just finally had enough and someone snapped and got all the others to follow. We have to find a way out…soon!"
I took another deep breath. "Let's see who else we can find and work on that way out." I said.
They both nodded and we were working our way down the hall. Luckily, Milton knows first aid really well so he was helping me with everyone. Every room that we passed, one of our groups would go in to check for students that were hiding. We found several thank the Lord and someone would take them up to the locker room before returning to help us.
I looked at Jack. "We have about 9 minutes left before that bomb goes off." I said. "And we don't know if there are others around here, too."
"Ok. Let's hurry." He replied touching my cheek with his hand.
I felt a shiver run through me at his touch and smiled a small smile at him. I can't believe it, but I am actually really happy that he is here to help me through this. I grabbed his hand and held it as we moved into the library or what was left of it.
JACK'S POV
When Kim took my hand, it felt so right. I wanted to get her out of here and make sure that she was safe, but I knew that the only way I could do that was to keep moving forward so that is what I did. I was going to keep her at my side though because I don't want her disappearing on me again.
The library looked worse than the gym if possible because it was a smaller space and not only was the wall gone, but the bookcases and all of the books were everywhere. I watched as Kim and Milton both snapped into first aid mode. I started helping the other guys move things to see if we could find people. Milton was really helpful here because he had been in the library and knew how many people we were looking for.
We found several students that had been injured, but Kim thought they should be alright. She bandaged people as quickly as she could and then she saw the librarian and ran across the room to her.
I went over to help her seeing the woman was stuck under a very large bookcase. After three of us got it off of her, Kim started checking her out and her eyes opened as she looked up at Kim.
"You found me. Thank you." She said in very breathy words. There was some blood coming from her nose and the corner of her mouth.
Kim started to try to help her, but I saw how her face fell. Milton ran over to help her, but then he must have realized the same thing as Kim.
Kim bent down beside her and held her hand. "Yep, Mrs. Swanson, we found you and we are going to stay here with you. Just rest." She said to her as she smoothed out Mrs. Swanson's hair and smiled at her.
I could see that she wanted to crumble, but she didn't. She truly is amazing. "Thank you, Kim." Mrs. Swanson replied even quieter than before.
After another minute her eyes closed and she wasn't breathing anymore. I saw Kim lean her head down against her shoulder and could tell she was crying. I put my hands on her shoulders and pulled her up to me hugging her to my chest.
"I'm sorry, Kimmy." I said softly into her hair as she cried.
Two of the guys picked up Mrs. Swanson and moved her over with the other people we couldn't save in the library. It felt like we weren't able to do enough, but I had to look at all of the students and even faculty that we had found.
"Come on, Kimmy. Let's keep moving." I said, not realizing I had used her nickname so easily, and she nodded her head as she wiped her eyes.
We all walked out of the library and were really close to the office. I knew that Kim wanted to go that way, but we couldn't yet. "Kim, we have to go the other way and see how many more people we can find first. We can't just go in there and try to talk to them." I said trying to make her understand.
"I know. I just want to know about Chloe." She replied and I nodded, but kept us moving down the hall the other way.
The next room was the Media club room and I actually really wanted to get in there to see what we could see on the equipment about what was going on. There were four more students in there and they already had one of the computers up with live coverage of our school on it.
I sat down and pulled Kim with me still holding her. We all watched in astonishment as we got the first glimpses of the outside of our building. It was engulfed in flames and smoke in several places. There were police cars and people everywhere outside.
"Our reports have told us that so far 4 bombs have gone off. The first few were in vehicles that hit the outside of the building and the others were in the interior of the school. Several students were outside and evacuated by buses to a safe location. Families are being notified and told where to meet their children while other parents are waiting outside the police barricades praying that their children are alright." The reporter said. "So far no demands have been made and the police are not releasing any information about who is behind this attack of Seaford High School. All we can do at this time is offer our prayers and thoughts to all of the students and faculty stuck in the building."
I looked at Kim and she was frozen. I wrapped my arms around her securely and squeezed her trying to make her feel better and get my own head on straight.
"We need to take this with us upstairs." I said. "Brody, show these guys were to go." I added as he took them all up to the locker room.
While we got ready to head out of the room, several phones started going off both in the room and outside of it. We all quickly picked ours up and talked to whoever was on the other side of the line. I looked outside the room and heard where all of the beeps and rings were coming from.
"Put your phones on vibrate." I said to everyone in the room with me. "Those are going to tell the shooters exactly where everyone is."
Kim looked at me and followed my directions quickly. "Mom, I will call you back as soon as I can." She said into the phone. Then she looked up at me. "I don't even know if she heard me. The reception in the school is so bad."
"It will be ok, but we need to find the students with those phones before anyone else does." I said quietly as we moved into the hall.
We went into three more rooms when Kim looked at me with a panicked face. "Jack, the bomb…." She said and I knew it was going to go off.
I grabbed her and pulled her under the closest desk with me while everyone else took cover, too. We didn't know if that was the only bomb scheduled to go off now or if there were others and where they might be. We all stayed still while we felt the shake from the bomb at the gym door, but stayed down to make sure that everything was done before we moved.
"I think that we need to keep moving." I said as I pulled Kim back up to her feet. "Are you doing ok?" I asked looking at her leg.
"Yeah. I'm good." She replied.
We went on down the hall and helped whoever we could. We had covered about as much ground as we could in one trip and still hadn't found a way out. We helped the injured people upstairs and left a few more in the gym that didn't make it.
As we came back into the gym, there was more smoke and the one set of doors were destroyed and replaced by a pile of rubble that we were not going to be able to escape. "Jack, maybe we are just going to have to risk getting burnt. We may only be able to get out of here through the hole in the wall." Kim said pointing over to what was left of the gym wall.
"I know. I have been thinking that too. We still have a few other options that I want to check first." I replied.
When we walked up the stairs and into the locker room, I saw how crowded it was getting. Milton rushed over to check on Jerry and Grace. They all really did care about each other a lot. I saw Ethan starring at Kim and hugged her while turning her around to see that he wanted her.
Kelsey hugged me and asked. "Well, can we get out of here?"
I didn't know how to answer her, but I knew I had to. "So far…we are trapped!" I said and Kim turned to look at me hearing what I had said.
"We will figure something out." Kim replied. "We can do it. They can't keep us trapped forever." It was her turn to encourage me and she said just what I needed to hear. Even with all of the people that we had lost, Kim was still holding onto hope. Even with not knowing about Chloe and barely being able to talk to her mom, Kim was not giving up and I wasn't going to either.