“Okay? Get ready, as soon as the light stops we climb out the window and we run to the gymnasium.” Roderick said, looking at Reese and I.
“We don’t know what’s out there though, I only saw ash and bodies. Did you see anything else?” I asked.
“No, but we’re going to have to risk it. Stay low as you run, don’t look back.” Roderick replied.
I nodded mutely. The bravado I had felt moments earlier suddenly felt stuck in my throat and I wanted to cry. What had happened to the rest of our friends and family? Had they been able to get to some kind of safety?
Reese took a deep breath out and I felt her tense up.
“You can do this Ariah, we can do this. Ready?”
“Yes.” I whispered hoarsely. I looked over at Roderick who was counting out loud to time our escape. The pink light appeared again, if it wasn’t disintegrating people I would have thought that it was quite beautiful with the way it made the dust in the air sparkle as it came through the window.
Breathe in, breathe out. Stay calm. Conserve energy. Breathe in. Breathe out. Stay calm. Conserve energy. I played the mantra over and over in my head, preparing for what was to come.
Roderick continued counting, each second felt like hours. My heart pounded making my chest feel heavy. Perspiration ran down my back, and my palms were clammy so I rubbed them on my jeans to try and make myself feel better.
“298…299…300! GO! GO! GO!” Roderick yelled as he pushed us up off the floor and we all quickly ran to the pile of boxes. Reese pushed me ahead of her and the two of them got me up on the boxes.
“Go Ariah! Remember, don't look back!” Roderick said urgently. I climbed hastily to the top with their strength helping me go faster. I scrambled up the wall to the window and looked out, more of the same carnage I’d seen before littered the grounds in front of me, dust and partial bodies were scattered across the grass. Everything looked still and silent so I pulled myself up onto the window sill and felt the others push me up and out from the bottom of my sneakers.
I awkwardly got to my feet, stumbling forward as I started to run. Fighting the urge to look back, I picked up speed and kept my focus on the gymnasium in front of me. The sky above was dark pink, almost crimson in colour reminding me of blood.
“Keep moving, keep moving!” I panted to myself as I pushed myself forward. All those sessions of running in gym class were paying off, I ran faster than I ever had before.
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I heard the sound of someone running behind me and hoped that the others had made it out too and that I wasn’t being chased by whatever had caused the chaos.
Dust blew across the grass in front of me and I tried not to think about who it belonged to. I kept my gaze straight ahead and didn’t look down. The gymnasium was just a short distance away and I felt relief start to wash over me but I still had to get inside. I wondered if the door would be hot like the one in the basement.
Making it to the entrance, I stopped and gently touched the handle of the door. It was cool so I quickly tried to open it but the handle was jammed.
“No!” I cried out. Reese came running up behind me.
“Get inside Ariah, quickly!”
“The handles broken!”
She grabbed it and tried to open it with her hands. It was stuck fast.
I gulped as I heard the popping sound start to fill the air.
“It’s coming!” I said grabbing the handle again, trying to shake it.
“Stand back!” Reese pushed me backwards and raised her leg kicking the lower glass panel of the door. It smashed and she took her jacket off and wrapped it around her hand, punching out the rest of the glass pane from the door.
“Come on, get inside!”
“You’re amazing!” I said incredulously as I ran past her, bending down quickly to get through the gap that she had created. She followed hurriedly after me and we ran straight to the shower block.
The piercing sound started again, hurting my head. We both put our hands up to cover our ears as the sound grew in volume. Pink light started to pulse through the windows above the gymnasium roof and filled the room. We crouched down in the corner of the shower and made ourselves as small as we could. I could see the streams of pink light fill the locker room to the side of us and scan the area, sending my heart racing faster than it already was.
With my pulse racing I closed my eyes and hoped that the light would miss us. I could feel Reese’s heartbeat through her chest as she cradled into the side of me. I tried to focus on regulating my breathing so I didn’t start hyperventilating and spiralling into panic.
With everything that was going on and Dad’s disappearance on top, I thought I couldn’t take much more stress and overwhelm. My heart was close to exploding, I was sure of it. But a strange quiet feeling rose within me, filling my thoughts with a calm warmth, telling me that I had to survive this moment and all the moments that I was about to face because my life and millions of other lives depended on how I dealt with the outcome. It calmed me then disappeared back from where it came. Stunned, I tried to process what it meant. Did I have something to do with the solution to this situation? Who or what was causing it?
The piercing sound gradually came to a stop, and everything around us was silent again. I opened my eyes and withdrew my hands from my ears and looked at Reese, suddenly realising that Roderick wasn’t with us.
“Where is Roderick?!”