Nadia hit play, and leaned back in her chair, munching on her slice
of pizza. At first, evreything looked normal. Nadia was starting to
get a little bored. But suddenly, she paused it, speaking around a
mouthful of pizza. "Oh my gosh, that's the same person who was
talking to Dan!" She zoomed in. "That's the same symbol!" When she
zoomed out, she almost dropped her pizza.
"What on Earth...?" he narrowed his eyes, leaning forward and
putting his fries off to the side. He then sat back and slid off
the desk, moving closer to get a better look.
Nadia hesitated before playing the video. The figure walked down
the hall. The speakers barely managed to pick up humming, though it
was very quiet. Nadia tried turning up the volume, but it was of no
sucsess. The figure stopped outside of the classrooms, looking
inside for a minute. Then, walking back, they pulled something out
of their pocket, dripping it across the floor. Nadia paused it
again. "Colt.." she said, her eyes glancing to the door, "Did you
step in anything on your way here?"
"I don't think..." he sat back on the desk and crossed his legs,
glancing down at the bottom of the black Converses. "Ohhh, shoot,"
he muttered, then whirled around to survey the floor.
Nadia stood up and carefully moved around the desks. "Thaaat's
gasoline if I've ever seen it." She looked outside. "It's all over
the floor!" She looked back, pale. "I think Dan, or whoever the
Killer is, wants to set the building on fire."
"Figures," he growled. "I'd suggest that I just take my shoes off,
but I feel like that won't do much, seeing as how this probably
isn't the only place they poured it. I'll guarantee we're some of
the only people to know." Mind reeling, he shook his head slowly,
momentarily feeling despair overtake him. Colt shook it off,
though, and, gathering himself together, stood. "We should warn
Salene and as many others as possible. Let them know what we've
seen, warn them not to be caught in groups smaller than five or
something. Maybe avoid naming names, but we have to get everyone
out."
"Most of the students will be in the cafeteria now. If we can get
the straggelers in here out, they'll be able to quickly move out of
the room. Of course, this all depends on where the Killer starts
the fire."
"I give it 15 minutes, and let's hope I'm wrong. Do you have any
idea where Salene and her brothers are hiding? I didn't see them in
the cafeteria." He started towards the door, turning back only to
unhook the computer from its jury-rigged connection to the camera
feeds and casting a slightly sad look at the curly fries.
Nadia shook her head. "They're probablly in the vents. Which is
most defiently not a good thing." She pulled out her phone. "I'll
call Salene and tell her to get her brothers out of there and into
the cafeteria." Nadia dialed a number, and a few minutes later,
hung up. "Alright. Salene and the twins are getting to the
cafeteria as fast as they can." Popping a few curly fries into her
mouth, she said while chewing, "C'mon. We should get to the
cafeteria and warn evreyone."
"Gotcha, alright." Tucking the computer under his arm, he walked
towards the exit, pushing the door open and holding it for Nadia.
Once they were in the hall, on a sudden impulse he turned and
hugged her. An odd sense of foreboding had come over him, and he
wondered if it didn't have something to do with the now slightly
noticeable fumes of the gasoline.
"Uhh...Colt, is evreything okay?" Nadia wasn't sure how to respond
to this sudden gesture. It was sweet, but they really needed to get
out of there, especially since the fire could start anywhere in the
building, since they didn't know where the Killer was.
Pulling away with a strangled laugh, he responded, "If everything
were okay, we wouldn't be preparing to evacuate a building we just
saw people preparing to burn down." With a wry smile, he added,
"Sorry, that was a bit random."
She grinned. "Hey, it's all okay. I get that you're nervous. I am
too. Now, c'mon, let's get out of.." her words faded off as she
smelled the sharp scent of smoke, and the fire alarm began to
blare.
"Oh, coconuts," he cursed. "Yeah, getting out of here sounds like a
SUPERB idea!" Turning to run, with a grimace he realized that if he
got anywhere near the flames, his shoes would catch right on fire,
or at least faster than normally.
Nadia ran with him, fighting to keep up with Colt's long strides.
"Never again will I skip gym class," she coughed, the smoke
spreading quickly. Because they were running, they were able to
make it to the cafeteria in time, where Mrs. Luswire and a few of
the other teachers were attempting to herd evreyone out. Nadia, who
had inhaled a little smoke, stopped for a minute, coughing. "Odio
esta escuela," she muttered.
"Whatever you just said about 'this school'-" a fit of coughing
broke off his sentence. "-I agree with." Though Colt's eyes were
watering and stinging from the smoke, he had the presence of mind
to at least attempt to glance around at the students, scanning
their panicked ranks for Dan, hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of
that second mysterious person.
Dan was nowhere to be seen amoung the crowd, nor the figure with
the hoodie. It was hard to keep track of anyone's face as they
moved along, evreyone hurrying, not wanting to be caught in the
building when evreything collasped. Nadia grabbed Colt's wrist, not
wanting to lose him in the sea of students pouring out of the
building. "Stick together like super glue, right?" she said. The
students were moving out, and as the last straggeler made it out,
the building began breaking down, the flames engulfing it.
"For sure," he said with a nod, bringing his other arm to his
forehead, blinking furiously, trying to help his vision clear. Once
they were outside, he turned to her. "Y'alright?" he coughed
hoarsely, the ashen taste of the smoke catching in his throat.
"Yeah," she croaked, her eyes squinting in the sunlight as she
coughed again. "Just got a little smoke in my throat." She looked
around for a minute, before pausing on Dan, near the side of the
crowd. She said to Colt, "I want to talk to him. I'm not going to
outright confront him, I just want to ask him something. You
coming?"
"Is that even a question?" he said, his words themselves more of a
statement than a question. Following her, his blue-green eyes
flickered over the chaos, feeling a twinge of pity in his chest for
the other students.