C.R.E.W

Chapter 28 ~ School Escapees

I didn't understand, it was there that day, it was there in that moment! The minute I opened my locker for Mz. 'Hate everyone and die, especially Prixley', there was no glass and my locker was the way it originally was...except for a few misplacements and messed up things. Now, the glass wasn't appearing on the footage.

"Prixx, what glass?!" Her eyes went wide, "are you talking about the glass you had in your locker?! Like, the shards of it?!" She was both confused and concerned.

"I mean, yeah...well, I don't know, okay?" I sounded crazy and Noelle's look proved that.

She looked at me like I was a madman. Then, she licked her lips and started bobbing her head up and down, "the women," she snapped, "the robots. You said you saw robots, right? It had to be them."

She didn't give me any time to respond to either of her questions before she went on more about how they could have done it, "you said you had a mirror in your locker, was there any other glass that could have been broken?" She looked at me, impatiently waiting for a response.

"I- yes, I did...but there was a copious about of glass, Noelle! One mirror couldn't have-" She cut me off before I could even finish talking or word what I wanted to say.

"Powers."

I looked at her.

"They have to have powers!" She repeated, but even louder this time.

"Who's sounding like a madman now?" I looked at her. Normally, I would believe this stuff, but when she was piecing it all together, none of it made sense.

"Prixx, think about it. Even if you only had a small mirror in your locker, they had to have some way or form of duplication in order for lots of it to come flowing out of your locker." She tried to press her thoughts down on me, but it was just a lot to believe.

"I know it's a lot to believe, but compared to what you've experienced...it's really not that much. Not that different at most." She had a look on her face but it was a mix of emotions that I had never really seen her combine before.

What she had just said did make sense. I mean, out of everything that has happened, yes, it's one of the more dangerous and odder ones. However, it's not the most absurd. Nonetheless, one of the more believable ones, I'll admit, "I suppose you do have a point..."

"Yes!" She snapped her finger at me, "thank you."

A noise.

It sounded like bars bending and we both looked at each other confused. The first thought that came to both of our minds was the same: Schultz.

Noelle went to go grab me, but I was already following the same path I knew she'd take down ladder.

"No." She said, shaking her head.

I looked back at her and we heard the noise flash again.

She motioned her head towards the dusty and mucky window with the intricate spiral design along it.

I shook my head, "no, we are not going out that window."

"Prixley, whoever is in the building or after us is still going to be in the building even if we try to escape, this is our only shot to get out without being caught!"

I opened my mouth and looked at the ladder, then back at Noelle. If I'm being honest, I was both scared and thought she was overreacting just a bit.

"Come on!" She told me, "I'm not breaking this window until you agree that you're following me out of it."

I stared at the floor and forced myself to nod. She took her elbow and slammed it against the window. All I heard was a thud. No crash, no breaking, just the sound of human flesh hitting what sounded like a hard box.

A panic started to settle into my body after the first attempt. If she couldn't break the window, what was she going to make us do? What were they going to make us do...?

She slammed her whole body full force against the window, but nothing happened, just another thud.

I felt my breathing go up and continue to escalate as she failed once more. I looked at the windowsill and couldn't bring myself to look up at the window, and barely Noelle. Her green cargos were all I could see, and I was fine with that. What I wasn't fine with was the fact that the window still wouldn't budge and Noelle had tried everything. It was to the point where her arm was coated in dark black pigment and dirt.

I broke, "Noelle, how old is this room...?"

She took a pause, "I don't know...I mean, I didn't even know it was a room until I brought us in here..."

There was silence after every sentence said between the both of us, almost like time had slowed.

"You mean, you didn't know that this was even a room before you pushed us inside of it...?" I was surprised, disappointed, and skeptical.

"No, I mean, I knew there was a security room around here, but I didn't think it was this one..." she looked around the room, possibly trying to find something, but mostly because she wanted to avoid the conversation.

I looked at her and something felt off, but I didn't want to let it bother me because I trusted her so much.

"Noelle, we need to get out of here." I said, breaking the silence.

"The noise," she said, "it stopped."

I listened around and I didn't hear anything, "does that mean we can just leave and go home?" I asked.

She looked around and over at the door, "usually no, but since it's been gone for a while now, I'd say we have a pretty good chance of being fine."

She walked over to the ladder and sat down, getting ready to turn over and climb all the way down. First, she took out her flashlight, turned it on, and popped the back of it into her mouth so that we would be able to see the way down the ladder.

Noelle was more diligent and careful than I was, so I wasn't going to complain about the fact that she was going first with no light to guide her steps on the bottom of the ladder. Once she made her way down, I followed, slowly stepping down each bar of the steel contraption that was holding me upward.

Once we made it to the bottom, the noise came again.

"It's too late, I know the quickest exit." She took me by the wrist, hauled me out the door, and through the glass window pane hallway, all the way to the exit.

We were panting, me: from exhaustion and anxiety. Her? Probably the same reason except exhaustion.

"Why couldn't we have done that before?!" I asked, out of breath.

"It was too frequent before!" She said, blinking hard and long as she was hunched over, "but now, we know a lot about Mrs. Schultz and more about your locker situation. All we have to do is..."

"...tell Mrs. Brock." I finished the sentence before she even had time to thoroughly think about the rest of what she was going to say.