No One Gets Hurt In This Chapter

I took a deep breath and let it back out as I stood at my locker.

When I first got to middle school I was excited. There was no greater feeling to me than the pleasure of learning something I didn't before.

Middle school just opened new learning opportunities, one of which was computers.

The world was at your fingertips with a computer.

There was nothing you couldn't find as long as you knew what you were looking for.

What I didn't like, was the people. People who kept you from learning something new.

They were always bothering you at the wrong time, telling me that it's illegal to bypass government firewalls to view their secrets.

Especially Jessica, and her cult of followers who were all too happy to listen to the orders of the Queen of the Brainless.

They constantly hinder my attempt at gaining knowledge by taking my glasses off and calling me meaningless names.

I don't bother saying anything back because I know if I just ignore them and they'll stop within the minute.

I've complained about this to my mom all the time but anytime she tried to do something about it, Jessica's father would most likely pay off the guidance counselor and I would get picked on again.

This just so happened to be one of those days.

I was just waiting at my locker to get this over with now so I can have fun later.

I looked to my left and saw her approaching and prepared for the upcoming onslaught of poor verbal insults.

A scream cuts down the hallway, causing all the students to turn towards the noise.

We see a teacher come around the corner, limping with blood all over his shirt and fear in his eyes.

No one moves as they think it's a prank by the teachers until the omnic janitor comes around the corner.

He's walking fast, with red eyes, blood dripping from his hands as he drags the remains of the Assistant Principal.

The closer students panic, and turn to start running making everyone else run as well.

A frenzy happens as everyone rushes to escape danger.

Some students trip and get trampled by other students who are worrying about their own safety.

The wave of escaping students reach me and I still stand clueless as I get knocked down.

On the ground, someone steps on my ankle causing pain to travel up my leg.

Thankfully I'm by a classroom so I roll into it out of the herd of students trying to escape.

Crawling while favoring my injured leg, I manage to make it to the closet in the classroom and with much effort, wincing as I pull my leg into the closet with me.

As I try to think about what's going on, I hear a panicked figure enter the classroom and pause.

Growing scared, I take off my shoe as it's the only weapon I have.

I hear whoever in the classroom run towards the closet and light blinds me for a moment as I desperately swing out.

I strike the figure three times with my shoe before I hear a familiar voice.

"Stop it Abigale."

My vision focuses and I see Jessica standing while rubbing her arm.

Before I can respond by telling her to find another hiding spot, a noise is heard directly outside our classroom.

Fear on her eyes, she jumps into the closet with me, closing the door behind her.

Both of our breathing is quiet and hurried as JEssica looks out the gap in the closet.

In a panicked whisper she says, "Oh god it's him."

My breathing gets more rapid as I realize our mistake of hiding in the obvious place in the classroom.

Sure enough, we hear heavy footsteps slowly approach the closet and Jessica begins to whimper as he gets closer.

We both scream as the closet door is suddenly ripped off its hinges and a metal hand reaches out grabbing Jessica.

I watch helplessly as the omnic lifts the screaming Jessica into the air as she kicks at him.

Her head suddenly snaps violently towards me and I can see the life leave her eyes right before her body is tossed into some nearby desks.

He slowly turns to me and my heart skips a beat.

I begin to think about all the things that I've learned so far have been useless. I think about how useless I've been.

Maybe I could have learned something that would have mattered and I could have mattered to someone.

Now I was going to die alone.

I couldn't control myself as tears began to stream down my face as I thought about how much I didn't want to die.

But no one was coming for me, because no one cared.

As his hand drew closer to me, I screamed in fear, pleading for my life.

Showing no care as his cold metal hand grabbed my shoulder and began lifting me painfully.

As I looked into his glowing red eyes, I let out a pitiful, "Please dont do this."

Just his other hand reached up, I see movement behind him.

A force suddenly slams into him, causing him to stumble and dropping me as I land on my injured leg.

Crying out in pain I look at my savior and am stunned for a second as I recognize them.

"M...mom?" I stutter.

She smacks him with the chair again, making him fall.

Using that to her advantage, she helps me to my feet, slinging my arm around her so I don't have to use my injured leg.

We manage to make it to the door before we hear the omnic rise to his feet.

Leaning me against the wall, she grabs the nearest chair.

"Run Abigaile, Ill hold him off long enough to give you a head start. I'll be right behind you."

I start to protest but her head turns towards me with a look daring me to as she shouts, "GO!"

Without hesitation, I use the wall to help me escape the classroom and go down the hall.

I keep my eyes on the wall and ignore the bodies on the floor as I make my escape.

Behind me I can hear the noise of bang followed by crashing which causes me to quicken my pace.

As I near the corner to an exit, I hear another bang but it's followed by a yelp this time. The noise of a crunch, gives me goosebumps and a shiver down my spine as it echoes through the halls.

Before I turn the corner, the hallways are eerily silent as I hope to see my mother running around the corner.

A few seconds pass until my heart drops when a janitor's uniform comes out of the classroom instead.

Its head turns slowly to me as I see its red eyes pierce my own.

WIth fear and dread, I turn the corner and stumble outside in the sun.

THe schoolyard is empty as I use my momentum to hop on one leg as fast as I can.

Not looking back, I try to keep my mind off of what just happened as I focus on getting away.

I suddenly feel an object on my back which causes me to fall over with the object on my back.

Struggling, I manage to turn around and throw off the object weighing me down but freeze in my tracks.

Tears well as I look into my mothers face and my mind goes blank.

I don't care when the omnic approaches, throwing my mothers dead body off of me.

Nor do I care when he once again picks me up.

I close my eyes as I hope that it's painless as I accept my fate.

Suddenly, I hear a loud zap and I can feel myself airborne.

Confused I find myself looking at the ground below.

Screaming I hold my arms over my face as I brace to hit the ground.

Instead two arms come out, catching me as we both land on the ground.

Breathing heavily, I open my eyes to find myself looking at a sleek black mask with two blue horns protruding from each side and blue lines running down the side of them.

I could make out gray and black hair on the top of the mask as it looked down at me.

Stunned, I didn't notice the mysterious figure talking to me.

Only when it repeated itself did I process what was said.

"I'm alright, I just have a sprained ankle." I managed to reply.

Then, I suddenly snap out of my stupor as I remember what happened and I look around frantically for my pursuer.

The figure notices me looking around and nods its head towards the right and I look to see the omnic with a huge hole through its chest, smoking as the red lights are all but gone from its eyes.

"You don't have to worry about him." The figure assures me.

Hearing and seeing this makes me filled with a mixture of overwhelming emotions as I start to cry once again from the events of the past 15 minutes playing through my mind.

I can't help but bawl like a kid into the shoulder of my savior as the final emotion that I feel is embarrassment.