Operation Breaking Point

T H R E E

Emma sat down on her seat, tears rolling down her cheek. "Everyone just calm down." Daniel said, hoping that everybody would listen to him. Panicking would only make people act stupid and that could very well get them killed. Emma grabbed him by the shirt. "What the hell is going on, Dan?" She asked him, her eyes red from crying. "I have no idea, Em. But just calm down, okay? Nothing will happen to you." Daniel told her, trying to pacify her. Sanjana walked over to Daniel. "They just killed our teacher, Daniel. How do you expect us to calm down?" She asked him. Daniel looked down at the body of his teacher. Her eyes, which were wide open, were filled with terror and her body was drenched in blood from head to toe. Daniel guessed that she must have been shot somewhere else too. The students could hear students of other classes screaming and howling coupled with occasional gunfire.

10:15 A.M.

Most of the students just sat in their places, while some ran up and down the room. All the students were scared stiff and most of them were crying. "I'm scared, Daniel." Emma whispered to him. "Believe me, Em, everyone is." He replied. Suddenly, the door banged open, and a man with a wicked looking gun entered the class, kicking the body of the teacher with his leg. Everybody shrieked and started shouting. "SILENCE!" He yelled. "DO YOU WANT TO DIE?" He yelled again. "Everybody just calm down and shut up for god's sake." Daniel yelled. The gunman's gaze fell on Daniel. He walked over slowly towards Daniel as the students crawled back to other end of the room. "You're the leader?" He asked. "Yes." Daniel replied, his heart beating a hundred miles per hour. The gunman's gaze then fell on the badge Daniel was wearing. "Student President, huh?" He asked Daniel. "Yes." Daniel replied. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU KILL OUR TEACHER?" Emma screamed, as she threw her water bottle at him, before anyone could stop her. The gunman rushed over to Emma and asked "What did you just say, miss?" Emma, who showed no signs of backing down, looked straight into the gunman's eyes and asked "I asked why the hell did you killed our teacher, you beast." The gunman slammed the butt of his gun into Emma's stomach. She cried out in pain and collapsed onto the ground, blood flowing out of her mouth. "New lesson today children. Never talk back to elders, especially when the elders have guns and butter fingers." He said, smiling. "What do you want? Why are you doing this to us?" Daniel asked him. The gunman rushed over to Daniel and held his gun up and fired a few rounds, followed by the sound of the empty shells clanging on the floor. The students screamed and put their palms over their ears in fright. He brought the butt of the gun hard onto Daniel's arm. Daniel almost blacked out from the pain. One second, his whole arm was burning with pain and the next second, his arm went numb. "Student President, you must set an example for your dear students. You apparently didn't hear me when I spoke a few minutes ago. Never talk back." He said, smiling, clearly enjoying this. "Class, your new set of teachers today will get you a little closer to the reality of the world. Till now, you've only read about so-called terrorism only in your textbooks. But today, you're going to have a live experience on how it will be. I mean, what could give you a better experience than this?" He said. Daniel looked over at Emma, who was sleeping on Sanjana's lap. "Shortly, you will be taken to the auditorium, and let's see how important you are to your government. You will all get to know what we're fighting for soon." He continued. He walked over to the door, swinging his gun wildly in the air, and slammed the door shut as soon as he walked out of the room.

10:25 A.M.

It's been five minutes since the so called, terrorist left the room. Everybody gathered around Emma to check how she was. She was hurt pretty bad. They could hear occasional gunfire and people shouting, sometimes in English, and other times in another language they couldn't understand. Suddenly, the man, who had earlier come to our class and hit Emma, walked into the class again. The students, instead of panicking, sensibly stood up, not making a single noise. "All of you, form a line and walk over to the second floor. No sound. Leave all your bags over here. Carry nothing except for your lunch and water. If anyone makes any suspicious move, I won't even think twice before shooting you in the head, just like I did with your teacher. Pity, she seemed like a good lady. She was damn beautiful too." He said. "You're disgusting." Sanjana told him, with an expression of pure disgust on her face. "Sanjana, stop. Just follow what has been told." Daniel instructed her. "Seems like your president has attained some wisdom." The terrorist said, giving that creepy smile of his. Slowly, all the students headed out to through the door, taking one last look at the body of their teacher. This particular teacher had always been one of their favourite. She took very good care of each and every student in the class and never thought twice before helping them in whatever issue they wanted her help in. The student had actually requested the management to assign her as their class teacher but now it pained the students to look at her life-less body, her eyes wide open with terror. They looked into the other classes as they walked down the corridors. Most of the students inside the other classes looked scared, obviously. Some classes had formed groups and some classes seemed scattered. Daniel was also surprised to see that some of the senior classes had a leader, who seemed to be acting in-charge and help whomever needed it. Daniel and the others were horrified by the scenes in few of the classes. The terrorists had shot some of the students in a few classes and their bodies were being dragged towards the ground floor. This made Daniel's blood boil with rage. But there was nothing he could do about it. He never felt so helpless in his life. They climbed the stairs and entered the second floor. There was a man standing on the other side of the corridor, and something told Daniel he was ranked higher than the person who took them to the auditorium. "The auditorium is full. Put the rest of the twenty six classes on the second floor in the classrooms." He shouted. The terrorist led us to an empty classroom and ordered them to sit here. The second floor was to be inaugurated next week and the classrooms were never used before. The desks have never been scribbled on before and there were no names etched on the walls. The blackboard had never been written on and the chairs had never been sat on. "No one make a sound. You know the rules." The terrorist said and walked out of the room, shouting at some poor kid on the corridor.

10:35 A.M.

All the students were cuddled up in one corner of the room. Daniel ended up sitting next to Emma, who seemed a lot better than before. "What you did down there, that was plain stupid." Daniel told her. "I know." She replied. "Why did you do it then?" Daniel asked her. "Something about that man killing a person in front of me really made me crazy." She replied. "Your craziness can get you killed." Daniel told her. "I know." she replied, looking into his eyes.

The dreaded man returned again and came marching towards Daniel. He pointed the gun to his head. "Come with me." He ordered. Emma and Sanjana screamed in unison. Sanjana came running towards the terrorist and tried to pounce on him from behind. The man turned around and pointed the gun at Sanjana. "I thought killing the Student President would get a lot of attention. But I'll make do you with you, you little brat." He said, his voice dangerously grave. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her down the floor. "STOP!" Daniel yelled. The man turned back and pointed his gun at me, and said "One move and I'll blast your head off.". Sanjana was screaming and yelling the place down and the man just kept dragging her with her hair along the floor. "NOOO!" Daniel howled. "PLEASE DON'T HARM HER!" He yelled. The man paid no heed and dragged her out of the room. Daniel immediately sprang onto his legs and rushed over to the door. "DANIEL! NO!" Chris yelled at him. "You're going to get yourself killed, Dan! Don't do it! "Mike yelled. The both of them had to catch Daniel by the arms and pull him back. But Daniel was too strong for them. He pushed them and managed to break free from their grip, but Daniel only made it till the door before he was pushed by another man with a gun. "Your friend is gone. Go sit down." He said. Daniel tried to resist but the man pushed him with a lot of force and Daniel fell on the floor. Daniel knew he was beaten. Sanjana was gone. All he had was a little hope that these beasts would leave her alone. Daniel walked over and sat next to Emma and buried his face in this arms. Emma tried to console him, but there was nothing she could do.

It was 10:50 A.M. and Sanjana was gone.

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