When The Alarm Sounds

The Atrati

Minutes feel like hours, hours feel like days, time passes painfully slowly when you are waiting to be found. Each second is filled with suspense and worry, the anticipation is enough to drive anyone mad. I glance at my watch and calculate the time we have been stuck here waiting. It has been an hour since the dreaded alarm sent everyone into a state of shock. Since we moved to behind the wooden desk, neither me nor Cody have spoken a word but have been joined by a couple of other people.

Now as I sit still clutching Cody's hand, I wonder what is going to happen to us. Will we be found? How much longer do we have to wait? How will we get out of here? My thoughts are interrupted by Cody's thumb gently rubbing circles into the back of my hand. I am so glad he is with me, I don't know what I would do if he wasn't.

Suddenly, gun shots slice through the silence. Shouts and screams are heard from down the corridor as well as some from inside the classroom. Instinctively, I tighten my grip on Cody's hand and sit bolt upright. He does the exact same taking a sharp breath.

I look at him and he looks at me. We hear one more shriek before...silence. Then, the cupboards and filing cabinets against the entrance begin to rattle and shake as the door is hit again and again. I curl up and try to disappear.

BANG!...BANG!...BANG!

They crash to the floor, the wood splintering with a sickening crack. I try to back away from it but am stopped by the wall. I see the flash of machine gun fire through the darkness. It is like they are shooting the very fires of hell into the room. The icy fear that grips my heart increases as the gunshots stop and heavy footsteps are heard crunching over the remains of the furniture they destroyed. I can hear quiet sobbing from someone nearer to the door urging tears to my eyes. The footsteps cease and the click of a gun echoes through the room striking terror into my soul causing me to shake uncontrollably.

Without any warning, light floods the room and the explosive gun shots start again swamping my senses causing me to become disorientated and even more frightened. I do the only thing I can, scream. I am not the only one screaming. There are several others all screaming and shouting. As I finally look up from my position, my eyes widen at the sight before me and I am suddenly paralysed by pure horror.

My teacher is on the floor in front of the pile of wood and metal. His crippled form laying limp with a pool of blood beginning to form under his shoulder. His chest is jaggedly moving up and down and his breaths loud and hollow. His eyes are barely open and his pallid face has a lifeless expression plastered across it. Above him, standing on the shrapnel, is a figure dressed entirely in black with his gun resting loosely on his hip. He has long white hair pulled tightly back over his skull where it meets in a tangle before becoming a ponytail of dreadlocks that hang about his shoulders like dying vines in a jungle. The sickening grin that forms over his lips chills my spine. He cannot be more than thirty but has a harsh scar drawn ruggedly across his left eye. The actual eye appears unaffected apart from having a slight red colouring to it but still manages to make him look intimidating. He puts his boot on the teachers chest causing him to speed up his breathing. The figure looks down at the injured man as if enjoying the sight and the way he has power over him.

He then looks up at the classroom of terrified students with a wicked sneer. His eyes sweep the room. He lets them linger on me for a second and I grimace under his filthy gaze. Cody's hand tightens around mine. Yet again I mentally thank god he is here.

The intruder then straightens his back exposing his pale face to the intense light. Reaching behind his head, he retrieves a sleek black pistol before cocking the gun. Others all dressed in black begin to file into the room, their faces are covered with white hockey masks that stand out against the black of their outfits. My teacher moans bringing my focus back to him and the leader.

"We are the Atrati..." He bends down placing the weapon at the temple of my helpless teacher, "...and you belong to us." With that, he pulls the trigger embedding a bullet deep into the skull of the forsaken man with an evil smile. Screams and shrieks are heard all around but I can't move, I can't speak, I can't even think.

"Let's get started."