Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2: BLOOD



He stood near the back door, trying the handle. He kicked it, pushed it, but nothing work. He had to get in. Had to get in. All of them..all of them had to die. None of them would be tolerated. Only one would other than him would be allowed to live. The girl he had operated on. Only her. But only after the chip was activated. Only then would she be tolerated. That girl. That thing. What was she anyways? Operating on her showed him her mind. Showed him how different she was, even more different than the mutants. He pulled out the gun, firing at the handle just as the bell rang. He walked in swiftly. All them had to die. Therefore, the healers were to die first.


Sounds of alarms filled her ears and she instinctively ducked, diving under a desk while the lights turned off and everyone followed her example.
“Everyone! Down and stay quiet!”
“We can take-“
“Quiet!”
Dead silence. Like the silence before the axe-murder in a horror movie jumped out and killed off everyone. Then the soft thud of someone in the halls, walking slowly, almost silently. Alex’s heart kicked into overdrive, each step outside the door causing her to lose her breath. They stopped right outside her door. Right outside her door. Her heart seemed to stop with them, her breath caught in her throat. This can’t be good..oh God, I hope this is a game..I hope this isn’t real..just another drill, right!? Zack inched closer, smiling and touching her hand, sensing her fear. She smiled faintly at him, and he whispered to her. “Hey..calm down, love. We’re healers..we’ll be just fine.”
Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling of fear. She was practically shaking with it. Then the door was thrown open, the soft thud of boots on the ground entering as the man stepped inside. He paced the aisles, 22 kids under their desks, hidden by chairs and metal. But they all saw it nonetheless. The ammunition on the belt that hung over his shoulders and across his body. The ammunition created to kill within seconds. To reach the heart and poison it, stop it from beating, kill anyone, even healers, before they had a chance to get treated. They weren’t going to live through this. Then the man stopped, lifting a gun from his pocket and aiming it at the teacher who had been at his desk, hiding behind it. However, it was open in the front and back. Little protection offered. Mr. Cotes threw himself at the man, pushing him back and-bang! Blood trickled from the shinning hole in his chest. He fell limp at the gunman’s boots, crimson blood spilling around him, making the gunman’s boots glossy. Alex felt sick, holding her mouth and looking away. Mr. Cotes couldn’t protect them.
Panic erupted, people screaming and running for the door. All but Alex. She stayed under her desk, curled up, holding her head as people rammed into the desk, pushing it against her skull. Finally the desk toppled over by a limp body, Alex instinctively falling limp. Then, before the gunman could notice, she threw her hand out to the nearest body and smearing herself with their blood. Over her chest, across her face, at the side of her mouth. It made her want to puke, but she forced herself to relax, to let her eyes glaze and stare at nothing, and shove away her tenseness. The gunman fired one last time, the body falling before the door, turning the ground crimson. They were dead. All of them but her.


“Holy-”
“That was gun fire!”
“The healers’ room! Oh my God the healers’ room!”
Heads peered through windows in doors to look out across the hall. Men ran quickly towards the other side of the school, wearing bullet-proof vests, rifles at the ready.
“What’s going on?” Kat asked. The bell had rung moments before, causing them to ditch the plan of watching the man and walk back to school. Kat, however, already knew what happened. She could smell it in the air, though no other nose could whiff it. Her sense of smell, touch, and sound had been increased drastically to make up for her sight. It still wasn’t the same, however.
“You heard the gun fire, right?” Samuel asked. She sighed, nodding, “Course. But what’s happening outside the door? You know, the stuff I can’t see?”
“There’s these soldier-like dudes running down the hall...towards the healer’s room.”
She nodded, taking another breath of air. The smell of blood filled her nose, and she winced. She tried to connect it with its owner, making a face each time she breathed. She paused, recognizing the blood. After all, this school wasn’t exactly against violence.
“Sammy..I smell a lot of blood.”
“It’s probably the gunman.”
“No..Samuel..the healers are dead.”


They were coming. He could run now. But they were freaks. They’d come for him. He looked at the bloody mess of bodies and frowned. Twenty-two students. Yet he only fired twenty-one times. One of them was faking. He had thought about shooting them all again, but that would waste amo. And time. He didn’t have much of that now. So he decided to use his own gifts. The survivor would be dealt with later. He could find them later. He took a breath and started to fade, just when a girl on the ground with black hair, moved slightly. She looked over at the boy next to her and her shoulders started shaking, tears rolling down her cheeks. It was her. She was the survivor! He reached for his gun, pulling it out and aiming it at her. Then, as he fired, he had disappeared from the room, reappearing in a large house, the bullet shattering the mirror across from him. He threw the gun down, cursing bitterly. He was so damn close!


That was close. That was way too close..I could’ve got shot. Alex thought, her eyes closed tightly. However, the image of Zack didn’t leave her mind. Moment before smiling. Moments before saving her life, dying so that she could use his blood to save herself. She struggled to place his head in her lap, tears running down her cheeks. They dropped onto his, making him look almost alive. Almost alive and crying. Except for the fact that a bullet wound was in his ribs. She laid her hand over it, sealing it and the bullet falling out. She kissed his cheeks gently, “Oh Zack..Zack, I’m sorry..I’m so sorry.”
The troops ran in threw the open door, stepping over the body of the boy in the door frame. He had almost made it. Their guns were ready, but it was in vain. The damage was done. Zack was dead along with the other twenty students. Her shoulders shook, tears blinding her; twenty-one dead. She shouldn’t be alive. She should’ve died with him. It was only chance that she survived. None of this should’ve happened. None of this. She closed her eyes, holding Zack close. Why Zack? Why did he have to die?
A soldier came up next to her, kneeling and putting his hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, miss..I’m so sorry..I was trying to get here sooner..I didn’t hear his thoughts till after he had fired.”
She looked at him, shaking her head. “It might’ve made it worse, anyways.”
He smiled sadly, then got up and started moving bodies and examining the bullets. She sat there, sobbing over Zack’s body; he was dead..and through death, he let her live.