Briar Preparatory Academy

Out of Time

Kate POV

My fingers separate the wires quickly, pulling certain wires out and trying to tie them together and distribute and equalize the charge. I bite my bottom lip as my eyes scan the wires, trying to figure out what the next step needs to be. Sweat pours down my back, my forehead and temples. The fate of the school is on my shoulders. If I fail, everyone will pay for my mistakes.

Suddenly I feel myself somewhere else. I am not in my own body anymore, but rather in someone else's. I close my eyes and a scene plays out before me in my mind like a flashback to something that I never experienced.

"Jackie!"

"It's about to blow! I can't do it!"

"You can't give up! We are relying on you!"

I see shaky hands that are unfamiliar working on a bomb much like my own. I see them cross over wires and cut them and a single red light.

This is Jacqueline Vegas. This is the setting of the Woodthorne Bombing.

I hear a loud bang as the door to the classroom flies open. This snaps me out of the dream, bringing me back to reality. I allow myself to glance over my shoulder.

"Could you work a little faster, Kate?!" Preston yells as an enemy fighter charges in the room and swings a huge buoy knife at him. Preston blocks it with his forearm and pushes the man out the door. His jacket has been discarded, leaving him in a white undershirt, which is streaked with soot and blood.

We both know that if Jasper's men penetrate this room and overtake us, it will all end too quickly. They're all fully prepared to die if it means getting that bomb to go off while they're still in the building. And everyone else will perish with it.

"I'm doing the best I can!" I yell back to him, brushing stray hairs out of my face as I continue to pull, break, reconnect and twist the wires around inside the bomb.

I know if I cut the wrong wires, I could cause the bomb to detonate before the timer runs down. Most explosives are set to do this in case someone tries to tamper with it to keep it from going off. There are certain trigger wires that will automatically set if off. I quickly glance at the monitor.

2:13, 2:12, 2:10, 2:09...

I have to cut certain wires in a certain order. After cutting them I have to connect them to opposite wires. This will basically cause the bomb to have a glitch from the inside and equalize the charge. Theoretically, this will shut it down.

Theoretically.

When we were taught how to deactivate and disassemble computers, bombs and spyware in class, we never practiced with real bombs or real equipment, so there was plenty of room for healthy error; after all we learn from making mistakes and failing.

There is no room for error here.

If I mess up here I will have nothing to learn from my mistakes. If I mess up, all the people on this campus will die because of me. I suddenly feel a strange connection to Jacqueline Vegas. We were both in the same situation. We had the fate of hundreds of people on our shoulders.

I yank the black wire from the back corner and scramble around with shaky hands looking for a silver wire. I finally find it tucked away in the back of the opening. I use the knife and start cutting the black wire, I see a spark fly off the wire and I hesitate for a moment, starting to reevaluate what I'm doing.

Maybe the red wire instead of the black... Or the silver. What if I screw this up? Kate stop. You can't second guess yourself. There is no time for doubting right now. I tell myself, biting my lip even harder. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to reassure myself that I know what I am doing.