16. | One Bullet Is All It Takes

Before the fall

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The first thing my eyes land on is an MK-47.

"What do you want?" I keep my gaze down, gritting my teeth when my question isn't answered.

Instead, the person in front of me slams his foot into my stomach using brute force. All the air leaves my lungs.

I gasp and hunch forward against the carpet.

"Don't ask fucking questions." The voice, deep and crisp, confirms that the person aiming the semi-automatic at me is a man, the same one I heard over the intercom.

I stiffen when he walks around to my backside and pushes the muzzle between my shoulder blades, then yanks my head back by the roots of my hair. By this time, I have my eyes closed, refusing to whimper or show any signs of weakness from the pain radiating through my scalp and stomach.

"Get up!" He grips my hair tighter and I do as I am told.

I push myself off my knees and stand with my eyes open this time. I stare straight into the eyes of my attacker. Well, I can't really see his eyes because of the metal mask, but the makeshift ones are large and black. It reminds me of those old Star Wars movies, angular and obsidian like Darth Vader.

"Turn around." The man nudges me again.

Slowly, I turn around, looking into the eyes of my classmates who betrayed me for Jake, and they start screaming once they realize the situation at hand. That there's nothing stopping them from being next.

I should be angry at them, but I guess self preservation is human instinct. I can't say if it were me, I wouldn't have done the same.

"Shut the hell up!" The guy holding me hisses and pushes me forward again. This time, I hear him shift his gun elsewhere. "Sit back down. Open that door and I'll fucking blow your head off!"

I crane my head within enough time to spot Jake running for the door. Just as his fingertips brush the knob, blood spurts from the top of his head and splatters against the rectangular window of the door in pink, meaty chunks.

I start shaking uncontrollably, unable to turn my head from Jake's teetering form. No words leave my mouth, my thoughts scrambled.

Everyone fell silent. My breathing quickens, and after two seconds, he falls back against the floor. Everything above his nose is missing. Just a giant hole.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Anyone else want to go for the door? Go ahead. You have free reign over it. But I promise by the time your fingers touch that metal knob, you'll be looking like your classmate with the top of his fucking head missing. Don't bother with the windows, they are barred shut."

Everyone remains silent. A few people sit down, including Julia, who stares at me wide-eyed as the man pushes me back down onto my ass.

Jake was a problem. He needed to be taken care of, I just never imagined it'd be like this. He'll pay. That bastard will pay.

"Shall we begin?" He asks no one in particular, but his head shifts from left to right as though he is examining the crowd of shocked expressions.

"Alrighty then," The man bounces, pressing two fingers against a round silver device on the outside of his mask. "Take the black girl with the brown eyes and curly brown hair, and the boy sitting in front of me looking like he wants to suck on his mom's tits." He chuckles, and I glare up at him with all the hatred I can muster.

He must have noticed because he laughs and squats in front of me. This bastard.

"What? Was that your friend?"

I don't say anything, and he walks from me to the door, squatting down and dipping his hand right into the puddle surrounding Jake before returning to my side.

All I can do is just stare at him, breathing heavily while my fingers curl against the palms of my hand. "You aren't going to take her." I hiss through clenched teeth. I know he told his comrades to come and get me and Rose.

The description matches perfectly.

"Just take me." I say.

I don't know where Ryan is, though from what I've noticed, he likes to stick to the shadows and attack when no one knows it's coming. Kind of like how he popped out of nowhere and saved me from the K-9 dog.

The man laughs again, deep and throaty while smearing a crimson streak down my face that makes me gag. Leaning in, his voice scrapes unpleasantly against the shell of my ear—taunting and sending cold fingers up my back.

"I like that fire in your eyes boy. You too were born to spill blood. But it isn't bright enough, but maybe after your friend over there," He nods his head towards Rose, who is frozen in terror. "Maybe it will be."

I jolt forward and halt when the door flings open as four-armed-men stomps toward me. When they reach the middle of the room, two of them go for Rose's arms and yank her up onto her feet while the others pull me off my ass and into a stand.

"Let her go! God damn it!" I strain against their hold, gaze darting around at my frightened classmates in a plea of help.

None of them move. Cowards. In fact, they look away as me and Rose are dragged from the room and out into the hall.

Before the view of the man who has earned my hatred vanishes from my line of sight, I force myself to remember the numbers etched into the breastplate of his suit: S2001.

I can't remember his face because I haven't seen it, but I can remember that dark gritty voice and those numbers.

Fighting against these armed men won't do me any good, so I follow them wherever they tug me.

The long hallway ahead of us is drenched in blood. The once clean halls are decorated with books, bags, and bodies.

We hadn't gone down this hall, and I realize this is where the remaining students of Rogan High are. Dead.

I try to turn my head to my left, but can't since one of the men pushes me toward a door that leads into the school's basement while the others keep leading Rose down the hall to another area.