Class of '97

17. Doom

April 30 199711:37am

Thelunch bell had rung and the two who sat in silence looked at eachother. Doom felt his heart pound in his chest as he checked his gunsthat he had slung over himself carefully.

"Give it a coupleminutes, Doom. We got to wait for them to get into the cafeteria,"Kyle instructed gently.

"I know the plan,Kyle." Doom said defensively. He felt powerful now, more powerfulthan he had eve been before. Kyle, who had always dominated over him,was his equal.

"I know you do,"Kyle replied.

They were silentagain, connected by the acts they imagined in their heads.

"All right," Kylesaid at length, "let's go."

Adrenalin shot throughDoom and he stood up from his auditorium seat. Kyle followed, takinga stretch.

"Like soldiers, wemarch," he said in a joking voice.

They left theauditorium and walked down the corridor to the cafeteria with theirguns loaded in hand.

A freshman passed themin the hallway, staring at them wide eyed. "H-hey," he said."What are you doing?"

"Fuck off," Kylereplied, his eyes locked on the cafeteria.

They moved in andentered the room. It was swarming with students like ants around anapple core. They did not even notice them at first.

"Hey fuckers!"Doom screamed raising his weapon. Before he even fired a girlscreamed and he felt as if his life was flashing before him. Hethought in that second about his ninth birthday party, when heinvited the whole class and only two other kids came against theirwill. He remembered the first time he and Kyle played video gamestogether at the arcade, before they outgrew it. He thought about himand Kyle, day after day at lunch, talking about how much they hatethe school, and now here they were, about to do something about it.

Doom and Kyle openfired into the crowd, screams exploding. The crowd seemed toimmediately run to the exit that was on the other side from them.After the two ran out of ammunition, instead of reloading, theysnatched up their other guns to empty them out and to get as manyinitial casualties as possible.

Doom watched as one ofhis high powered bullets swept a kid he had never even seen beforeinto the wall, blood gushing from his chest. Blood was on the wallsand the tables and the floor. He felt proud. He laughed as he pulledout his .44 Magnum and started trying to make head-shots in the crowdthat was fast escaping.

"Doom!"

Kyle must have shoutedat him twenty times, but he was lost in his own world.

"Yea?"

"This is part two, Igo up this way, you go up the other, and we meet up right here whenwere done."

Doom felt nervous."What if we don't see each other again?"

"Then this is it,and I'm glad you did this with me. But we have to hurry. Now you go."

"Okay!" Doom saidexcitedly. He rushed off to the second staircase and dashed up thestairs towards the gymnasium. The doors in there did not lock on theoutside. He opened them to find a crowd of students pressed upagainst the back wall, the lights were all off, and the only way hecould see them was the tall windows that shone in the beautiful beamsof sun. He turned the lights back on and heard a girl scream.

"Line up! Or I'llkill all of you!" Doom said, feeling like an SS guard. He nevertalked to this many people without stuttering before.

Some lined up,trembling with fear, others stayed put. Doom reloaded and shot withhis AK-103 into the section of students that refused to move. Screamserupted again. He was getting tired of hearing the ear piercingshrieks, but on the other hand, they made him laugh.

The group that linedup did not look at him, but Doom recognized a face immediately.

Suddenly, the gymteacher, a middle aged woman, jumped up and sprung at him with abaseball bat. Doom reacted in a second, shooting her in the chest.She did not live for more than a second, her body fell to the flooralong with the baseball bat.

Doom stared at itblankly. "See what happens when you try to be heroes?" he askedthe crowd. The only response was a girl's shameless weeping.

"Brandon Sanders, Iknow you."

"I'm s-s-sorry,Corey," he sputtered in fear.

"I'm s-s-s-sorryC-c-corey!" Doom mocked loudly. "I'm s-s-s-sorry C-corey!" heshouted. "Who's stuttering now? Fucking retard. You deserve this."

His last words were"no, please." Doom shot him in the face to make his death asgruesome as possible.

 "The rest of you aregoing to be just fine unless there's a Megan Ellis or April Duncanhere," Doom said flatly. He started to walk away but before he didhe turned around and sprayed the line of trembling students withbullets from his AK.