Caught In The Crossfire

Caught In The Crossfire- Chapter 1

Sitting in class, I had my headphones in, scribbling random drawings in my notepad while everyone was doing the class assignment. I didn't really care for school much and no one ever said anything to me about my grades or not paying attention in class because overtime they learned that I didn’t care and I never will. So the teachers let me do as I please, students left me alone because they knew my temper was not something to be messed with. My parents let me do whatever I want because they don’t like to make me upset. I kinda just live in my own little world, I do what I want, don’t answer to anybody, and don’t care for anyone. Well except one person, Kellin Quinn, I care for him. He’s the only boy I’ve ever really had a thing for. His blue eyes, black hair, flawless skin, smile, laugh, everything about him drew me in. It was definitely hard to admit these feelings I had for Kellin to myself so of course I hadn’t told anyone but I don’t have that many people to tell seeing as I don’t have many friends. Plus he’s a part of the popular crowd and I’m not a part of any crowd, I just drift through high school. It was a normal day Mr. Martinez talking about random stuff that had nothing to do with school, half of the students not paying attention, and the other half pretending to laugh at his jokes thinking it would help their grade in the class. Suddenly the secretary in the front office came over the PA system.

“Students and staff I would like to announce that there is a code red. I repeat code red. This is not a drill.” The PA system clicked off and everybody just looked at each other with instant fear in their face.

“Okay, students let’s not get scared we have to stay calm. Let’s close the blinds, lock the door and everyone head to the back of the class room.” Mr. Martinez said as calm as possible. A couple boys got up and closed the blinds and Mr. Martinez locked the door then turned off the lights. Everyone crouched in the corner in the back of the classroom. I stayed on the outside of the circle, I was claustrophobic and I preferred not to be surrounded by people breathing on me.

“What’s a code red?” A random kid asked.

“It’s when someone is in the school trying to kill us.” Another student said.

“Oh my god!” Some girl exclaimed.

“Not kill us, just an intruder in the school who might be dangerous. Don’t worry they’ll get them out soon enough.” Mr. Martinez said trying to calm everyone down. I wasn’t scared because what are the odds of him or her coming in here? This classroom is on the second floor all the way in the back of the school I’m pretty sure we are fine.

It had been about 30 minutes and no one had called to tell us it was over and more of the students were getting anxious and talking amongst each other about how we could die. I sat there and rested my head against the wall trying to keep my cool because they were all acting like a bunch of idiots and it was annoying to say the least. Suddenly we heard gunshots and I looked around immediately getting a little tense while others screamed. The gunshots were so loud you couldn’t tell if they came from the room next door or all the way down the hallway. My heart was beating crazily and I felt like I was about to start sweating from being so nervous. I wasn’t expecting to hear gunshots at all. I looked around at my other classmates and some of them were hugging each other, girls were crying, and guys were trying to act brave but you could tell some of them were about to piss their pants. Hell, I was about to piss my pants. I tapped my finger against the floor and brought my knees to my chest then rested my head on them. For about 15 minutes we heard nothing after that and I think the silence was the scariest thing because we couldn’t tell where the person was, if they caught him or her, if they left, nothing. It was a guessing game and a scary one at that. One I wouldn’t ever want to play in my entire life but yet I’m sitting here playing it against my will. Once again we heard gunshots, more than the last time. My jaw clenched and suddenly I felt like a little kid needing their parents. People started crying even harder and others were covering their ears. I just wanted to go home. I didn’t want to be here anymore. I wasn’t this macho guy anymore who didn’t care about anything. I wanted to go home, I wanted to see my mom and dad, I wanted to see my brothers, I wanted all of this to be a dream. I didn’t want to die.

“We’re gonna die. We’re gonna die. We are so gonna die. We are so dead. I don’t want to die. We can’t die. We have to do something.” A guy said rocking back and forth, slowly freaking out. He kept repeating that over and over again. It wasn’t helping at all it was just freaking people out causing them to cry louder and louder. All I could think was he was going to come in here because this dumbass over here is jinxing us.

“If you shut the fuck up and all of you stopped crying like he can’t hear maybe he won’t come in here and-“ I started to say but stopped when I heard someone jiggle the doorknob. So many people started to cry louder once they heard that. Mr. Martinez started to tell everyone to shush and not make a move. The jiggling stopped and I felt a little relief until I heard the door start to creak open. A man walked in first thing I saw was his combat boots, they were muddy. He had on black jeans, a dirty white t-shirt with a black army jacket. It looked like he hadn’t sleep in days and was into heavy drugs. His eyes were so red, he had a 5 o’clock, and he had short shaggy black hair. He looked at us then snorted the snot back up his nose that was coming down while he wiped the rest with his arm. He took a couple steps closer and once again everyone was crying loud and obnoxiously. When I looked closely at him I could tell he was definitely on drugs right now.  He began to walk back to us with his gun clanking against the desk. It looked to be an AK-47. He stood right in front of us just a few feet away and just looked at us. Once everyone saw the gun they basically went into this sobbing state and I could tell he was getting annoyed. This one girl made a weird shrieking noise in fear over and over again as she took breaths between her cries.

“Shut up.” He said bluntly. Everyone tried to quiet their cries but the one girl just couldn’t stop herself from making that shrieking noise. He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her out of the group. All the students moved back as far as they could except one. Kellin Quinn, why did he have to try and be the hero? Why couldn’t he just cower like the rest of us? He slowly stood up.

“Let her go.” He said boldly. The guy looked at him and smirked, looking a little impressed. He let go of the girls’ hair and pushed her over to the rest of us.  Kellin tried to sit back down but the guy pointed the gun at him causing him to freeze and for once the room was totally silent. Kellin put his hands up trying to show the guy he wasn’t going to try anything. The guy just chuckled and lowered the gun then he looked back up and started to raise it again towards Kellin. I knew he was about to shoot him. He shot people in all those other classes so what would stop him from shooting Kellin? Especially when he stood up to him it was like he was asking for a death sentence. All I imagined was watching Kellin die and I didn’t want to imagine it, I couldn’t let it happen. He turned to face Kellin completely having his back towards us. I got up slowly, trying to make sure he didn’t hear me. Once I was fully up I ran over to him and tackled him to the floor. I tried to wrestle the gun from him but he was strong. He rolled us over and now was on top of me. Suddenly I heard a loud bang followed by instant pain in my chest. I felt someone pull him off me; I looked up and saw Mr. Martinez holding him while another student took the gun from him. The only thing I could think was if only they were a couple seconds earlier. I looked at my chest and saw a lot of blood and it was still coming out. I laid my head back on the ground and looked at the ceiling of the classroom.

“Why would you do that?” Kellin asked kneeling down next to me.

“Save your life?” I managed to chuckle even in immense pain.

“I had it under control. Now you’re gonna die.” He said pressing his hand against the wound trying to slow down the bleeding.

“You’re welcome by the way.” I said cheekily, even dying I was still a smart ass.

“Why would you do that?” he asked again.

“Because.” I started to cough up blood.

“Because what?” he grabbed my hand.

“Because… I love you.” I said. I felt my body become light and it was becoming harder to breath. My eyes began to close slowly. I tried to keep them open but it became harder to do so.

“Vic, you gotta stay with me.” Kellin said squeezing my hand tighter. I didn’t know he knew my name. I didn’t know he knew I existed but de does, he did. I couldn’t help but smile in my last seconds of consciousness then everything went black.