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The Escape

"Mrs. Walker, I really have to use the bathroom. Can I please go?" Bella asked, squirming around in place. 

The teacher gave Bella a hesitant look. "I don't know, we should really go as a group..." She trailed off, obviously torn between choices.

"I could take her." I volunteered, raising my hand and standing up. "Besides, I've got to use the bathroom as well. Haven't really had a chance to go since...well, this morning."

Mrs. Walker seemed to ponder on my offer, her dark brown eyes lost in thought as she glanced at Bella and I and the rest of the classroom.

"Okay," she said after a while. "The two of you can go to the bathroom. But make sure not to wander around too far, alright?"

"We promise. We'll be back before you know it." I answered, giving her my best smile before taking Bella's hand in mine and leading her out of the classroom. I shot one last look at Gavin before the door closed on us, his eyes full of trust and encouragement.

"Can you lead us to the bathroom?" I asked Bella softly, lightly squeezing her hand to get her attention.

Bella looked up, her warm brown eyes sparking as a grin spread across her face. "Of course! I'll lead the way." She eagerly exclaimed, puffing her chest out and holding her chin high up in the air, a grin plastered across her face.

After using the bathroom and washing our hands, Bella looked back up at me. "Do I need to lead the way back to the classroom?" She asked, her eyes peering into mine.

I ruffled her hair a bit. " I'm afraid not. We're getting out of here." I said, my eyes landing on a set of rectangular windows near the ceiling. If I was right, these windows led straight outside of school property and could mean out ticket out of here.

"But why are we leaving? We just got here."

"I know, but your brother and I decided that we would be safer leaving here as soon as we could. Besides, don't you want to see the rest of your family?" It wasn't exactly fibbing, Gavin and I planned to check each of our houses to find our families. Whatever happens after that would depend on how fast we could get to them.

Bella nodded. "Yeah!"

"Then we have leave here. Up for a climb?" I bent down a little, cupping my hands together. With a little nod of my head, I beckoned for her to come closer. "Just put your foot in my hands and push yourself upwards using my shoulder. I'll do the rest of the work, but I'm going to need you to open that window so the both of us can climb out of it." I explained.

After giving me a strange look, Bella gives in, doing as I instructed, giving my shoulder a small squeeze to signal that she was ready. Carefully standing up from my squatting position, I push my arms as high as they can go in hopes that Bella is able to reach the window.

Of course, there was the issue of me already being pretty short, which I'll admit did worry me a bit. With one last push of my strength, I motioned my arms upwards, giving Bella a big enough boost to reach the window ledge in time.

"I'm right below you in case you lose your grip. Just make sure you get that window opened for the two of us to climb out of." I called out, my eyes trained on Bella's small frame.

After thirty seconds of listening to the window's lock being fiddled around with, light suddenly burst into the bathroom, a pleasant breeze cooling my skin almost instantly.

"Just be careful jumping through the window." I say, watching as Bella wriggled her way through the opening.

A couple seconds later, Bella's frame disappears from the window, a soft thud on the other side of the wall followed by Bella's voice reassuring me that she was okay. I exhale a breath I didn't realize I was holding in before backing up a few steps, devising a plan as to how I was going to reach the window. Noticing the row of sinks right away, I walk up to them, tentatively putting some of my weight onto one of them before deciding that dividing my weight onto two of them would be better off.

Gingerly placing my other foot on the other sink, I begin to reach upwards, the small cracking sounds of the sinks dipping underneath my weight filling me with dread immediately. As a last ditch effort, I push all of my weight up, jumping up and just barely catching the ledge of the window as one of the sinks crashes to the ground below it.

No doubt about it that the surrounding classrooms have now heard the noise, so I pull myself up into the ledge, shimmying my body back and forth until my legs are dangling in the air. Just below me, I can see Bella looking in my direction, giving me a pair of thumbs up as if to encourage me. Taking a deep breath, I immediately jump, my stomach feeling as if it had climbed up my body and back down as I landed in the grass.

Thankfully, the fall wasn't too far, so I'm only left with the tingling sensation of the impact from the fall on my hands and knees. Getting up, I begin to dust myself off, tightening the straps on my backpack as I held out my hand for Bella to take.

"Wait, what about Gavin?" Bella said suddenly, her eyes filled with worry and her bottom lip quivering.

"Don't worry about him, we'll be meeting up with him by the window in the boys bathroom." I reassured her.

"Okay." She said, taking my hand and leading us a few paces away where another window identical to the one we just jumped out of was positioned on the wall of the school.

In the meantime, I begin to pull out Bella's backpack from where it was hidden in my own, emptying out the contents of the pink bag until all that's left are  some gummy bear snacks, a couple of graham cracker packs, two pouches of apple juice, a couple of pencils and a composition notebook.

I'm so absorbed with reorganizing our supplies that I almost don't hear the coughing until Bella says, "Why is that strange man coming towards us?"

I barely have enough time to react as I see the man barreling towards us, clearly not sane anymore. I have just enough time to push Bella out of the way as I duck underneath the man's reach.

I don't know if its fear or adrenaline that keeps me moving, but I continue to crawl backwards as the man readjusts himself, turning back towards me after another episode of pleghmy coughing fits. I spot a tree branch a few feet away from me as the man begins to run again. Instinctively, I  grab it, pulling myself up to my feet and getting into a batting position similar to the ones I had seen many professional baseball players on TV do.

Using all of the strength in my arms, I swing the branch hard just as the man reaches me, the branch breaking upon impact and making a very loud cracking sound against his skull.

"Are you guys okay? What happened?" I just barely heard Gavin's voice say as the body of the man slumps towards the ground. Jumping out of the way of the man's descent, I make my way towards Bella and hold her close to me, grateful that she is okay and unharmed by our previous encounter.

Gripping onto the sides of his arms, I look up into Gavin's eyes, my dark brown ones full of certainty and fear.

"We need to leave. Now."