Alive

Three

1:24 P.M.
Jalen?! What! NO! My mind screamed at me. This couldn't be happening. Even though he was a senior, he was one of my best guy friends. I had just been playing soccer with him in first period and now he was about to die. NO, NO, NO. Don't let him die, please!

A tall man with beach blonde hair walked up to Jalen. He had a gun in his hands. "You don't have to do this," Jalen whispered. "I know," the man said.

BANG.

NOOOO! My mind raced as my best friend lay bleeding out onto the floor. Tears were streaming down my face and all I could do was watch as the life drained out of him. I desperately wished I could do something, anything but that would only result in my death too.

I was going to kill that man.

If anyone deserved to live it was Jalen, and now he was gone. First Tyler and now Jalen. These men were going to pay for this.

"NORRIS!" Someone yelled from the stairwell. "Charlie! Where are you dude?" He shouted again. A strong looking, muscular guy with brown wavy hair walked out of the stairwell. "Charlie! Is everything clear up here?" The man questioned. "Sure is, Parker. Just finished off the last one," Charlie replied. "Good, that should be everyone then," the man named Parker said.

I looked back at my friends and mouthed "Does that mean we're the only survivors then?" The shock was apparent on all of their faces from my question.

1:26 P.M.
We knew if we made any noise, we were as good as dead. One of the guys reloaded and they walked away together. I let out a long, slow breath. We needed to decide what we were going to do.

"I remember reading something about when your life is in danger, you get these almost superhuman qualities, but you have to actually be in danger. You can't trick your brain into thinking it's in danger," Collin whispered. "Well it looks like we're in danger right now, so when are these "powers" supposed supposed to kick in?!" I mumbled under my breath. I still couldn't believe Jalen was dead. "Uh, guys? I don't think this is the best time to fight..." Matthew interrupted. "Whatever, let's just get this over with," I answered back. "Okay so does anyone have any ideas, because the world as we know it has pretty much just come to a screeching halt!" Graycen questioned.

Graycen and I had been friends for about three years. We had our ups and downs but we always managed to bounce right back again like nothing had happened in the first place. That's what I liked best about our friendship.

I had met Collin and Matthew on a church retreat to Gatlinburg last Thanksgiving. Together we were like the Three Musketeers and we were the perfect trio.

Mario was another one of my really good guy friends. I first met him when he moved to my school in sixth grade. I'm not exactly sure how, but pretty soon after that we were friends. I realized I actually didn't know that much about Mario when he had told me a few weeks ago that he had a brother that went to County High. I didn't even know he had any siblings, but we've just kind of been there for each other over the years. Plus, he was pretty easy to talk to.

Mariah had been my best friend since sixth grade too. She moved here after a tornado destroyed her home town. I knew I could always count on Mariah for anything, and I could tell her everything. She is always there to listen, but she can definitely be more aggressive than she actually looks.

"There are eight of us, including me," I counted. I still hadn't fully process that Tyler and Jalen were both dead and I wasn't going to right now either. The last thing I needed to do was have a breakdown, so I just had to block everything out for now. I wasn't helping anyone if I started crying again.

1:30 P.M.
"If the whole power grid is down, the police probably aren't planning to come here anytime soon because now they don't have working cars and phones so no one knows we're in trouble. Plus they're probably worrying about their own families right now," Kylie said in shallow breaths, the fear in her eyes were unmistakable.

A few hours ago, I was a normal teenage girl at school. I never thought that something like this would ever happen.

As we were contemplating what to do, Graycen said "I haven't heard any gunshots for a while, has anybody else?" "Actually I haven't heard any either," Matthew confessed. "Someone needs to go check it out, the gunmen hinted that they had killed everyone so they might have left," Kylie added.

"Okay, I'll go but I need someone to come with me to watch my back," I announced. "I'll go with you," Collin offered. "Fine, but I'm leading," I insisted.

"Wait what if someone finds us here?" Matthew questioned. "If someone finds us, then we are all fucking screwed," Kylie sarcastically answered back. "If someone actually does find you, hope it's only one shooter. He can't kill all of you if it's only him and all six of you," I said.

We left the others in the computer lab and walked down the hall together. Taking in the appalling scene, I could barely look as we passed by Jalen.

So many people were dead, and blood was everywhere. As we walked down the stairs, there was something in the closet fumbling around. My breathing sped up, and my heart began to race. We looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

"We have to open it, what if it's a survivor?" I whispered. "Yeah? Well, what if it's someone waiting to shoot us?" Collin countered. "I seriously doubt a shooter would hide in a closet," I said. "Fine, I guess you're right," Collin finally gave in.

Collin took a slow step towards the door. He reached out with a shaking hand and looked at me one last time before opening the door.