Lockdown

The lockdown

It was a Wednesday afternoon. I was in my science class learning about the parts of atoms, the elements, and that type of stuff. The time was 12:34, a few minutes before lunch. Of course, my teacher wanted to use every valuable minute he had to teach. I remember we would always shoot spitballs at each other when he turned his back. It was always sad for the poor sap who got caught with a straw in his hand when he turned around. But that was for the boys in our class. For the girls, they mostly twirled their hair or played on their phones. I mean, we all pretty much texted during that class. Come to think of it, my hair was long enough at the time for me to twirl it like the girls did. It wasn't really long, but I could have easily put it in a small bun if I had wanted to. My friend tyler leaned over to me, and pulled out a small collection of marbles he had in his pocket. Tyler was my best friend. We have known each other since 1st grade. We told each other everything. He showed me his latest marble addition. I wasn't much into marbles, but I knew it made him happy. He liked collecting things. This one was clear with a purple swirl in the center. I took it in my own hands and observed it carefully. I saw the small little water bubbles inside. Maybe they were air bubbles. I'm not sure, I'm not a marble maker. Now, we have had lockdown drills plenty of times before. But it always seemed like something so surreal to me, that the next words I was about to hear would stun me forever.
"Students."
The principal said on the announcements.
"This is a lockdown. This is not a drill."
My heart immediately sunk. I looked around st my peers, who had a similar expression to mine. It was half a moment before we all clutched our belongings and hid in a corner distant from the door. My teacher locked it, and shut off the lights.
So there we sat in a consuming silent darkness.
It felt like an eternity. I looked around at my peers, some of them had puffy red eyes and tear stained cheeks. Others were too afraid to cry. My own teacher was pressed against the wall with a white face. I felt for my heartbeat, and I felt it had been so strong, it could have been jumping out of my chest. What was about to happen next will never be forgotten.

I heard footsteps down the hallway. Several of them. They were banging lockers. They pounded on doors, and with every footstep, my heartbeat grew faster. They soon came to our door. It was silent for a while, and I was afraid my own heart would give me away. We were all terrified. The pounding grew louder and louder, and then came gunshots.
Then there was silence
For a second I had thought that the gunshots were the police putting an end to the criminals. Boy had I been wrong.
The shooter somehow knew we were in there, because he shot the door handle.
"Oh shit!" I thought!
I looked around quickly for what had possibly given us away.
It was Tyler's marbles. They were still on the table. We looked over at each other, and he was pale. He was also crying. I've never seen him cry before. The shooter had been trying to open the door, and continued to shoot at the lock until it burst. My teacher silently signaled us out a secret door to another classroom. We ran in and shut the door. By that time, the shooter was in our previous classroom. He was dressed in all black with a rifle in one hand and a pack of bullets in the other. In his pocket, he had a rag and a roll of money. He spotted us. I was filled with so much fear that I darted out of the door. I wasn't the only one. Several other students followed me. I ran and hid inside my locker. I admit, it wasn't the best hiding spot, but it kept me alive. I saw the other students through the cracks of the locker hiding in trash bins, bathrooms, and other classrooms. I watched carefully, and keeping my breath steady.
I heard gunshots,
A scream
Then silence

I heard footsteps coming for my locker.

I held my breath.

They came closer each second.

They stopped at my locker.

I closed my eyes.

He walked away.
The coats and books in there are probably what hid me.

Once the coast was clear, I was about to leave, when I heard another scream.

It was tyler
He was close to me
Part of me wanted to jump out and save him, but the other part of me wanted to stand still and hidden

I then heard nothing but silence.
I began to sob, and it felt like 20 minutes.
Then 40
Then an hour
It was about two hours when the locker door flung open.