UPRISE

018

"Tap it!" Corbin shouts from the doorway as he desperately tries to keep it shut. The door jolts behind him, knocking Jasmine on to the ground.

She barely catches herself, her nose colliding with the ground. Jasmine coughs, spluttering up blood all over the ground. Rinn lets out the smallest of gasps from within Harper's arms, but Jasmine doesn't have time to care. She begins to pull herself off the ground.

"Do not tap it!" Harper counters. He lowers Rinn on to the ground, into the small splattering of blood, to go help Corbin in the doorway. As he moves, he watches a hand peak through the doorway.

He slams his body into it. He hears a boy cry out in pain. When Harper let's go for a second, the hand sneaks back out of the room.

Next to them, the glass continues to wobble under the weight of the colourless smashing and desperately trying to get inside. Noah stands on the other side of the glass, sticking his tongue out at them. It's the only thing he can do to keep from panicking.

"I think we could use a gun," Pluto laughs, gesturing to the chaos around her. She's been stuck in stickier situations before, only making it out at the last minute.

"Absolutely not," Wren counters. He pulls Reagan up into a sitting position, putting one of his own knees behind and in front of Reagan, in case he keels over again.

Reagan can't hear anything. He can't even see anything. He is going to die. It's happening now. It really is. His body is burning since he can't breathe. If he could move, he'd stripped down naked in front of everyone.

While the others bicker, Viola is caught, and can't decide if they should bring a gun into this or not. She's probably the best shot out of them all (except perhaps Reagan, she thinks, because he is a boy from the Midwest). However, even just hearing about a gun makes her want to stick needles inside her arms until her fingers begin to feel like toes.

"I wasn't asking you," Pluto sticks her tongue out at Pluto. "You're occupied."

"We're all fucking occupied!" Harper screams.

Pluto rolls her eyes and moves to tap for a gun.

As she wipes blood out of her mouth, Jasmine checks to make sure her nose isn't broken. She's lucky that it seems to be in place. Though everything is blurry, she can make out Pluto. Perhaps a gun would suit them. While it could help, she heard the certainty in Wren's voice and the panic in Harper's. Though she stumbles, she manages to tackle Pluto and drag her away from the screen.

Pluto yelps and begins to claw at Jasmine's arms. The brunette barely notices, even though Pluto draws blood. She pushes her knees into Pluto's thighs to prevent her from kicking and easily pins her arms. Though Pluto thrashes, and Jasmine feels like her brain is dripping out of her ears, she manages to keep her ground.

Noah hangs above them. He flinches as the glass nearby cracks from the kick of a Clear. He looks around the room at the others struggling. "We need something."

Jasmine is barely able to cast a glance over her shoulder at him. "Tap... tap bats."

"We do not need weapons in this," Harper ignores her. He can feel himself panicking as he runs a hand through his mess of curly hair. "We... we need more time."

"We haven't got time," Corbin cuts him off.

Jasmine looks up at Harper. He pauses for a second, as if the room itself waits just to let them look at each other. Harper watches blood drip down her face. He looks at her watery eyes and sees something softer than he was expecting behind them. Something less brutal.