Opening Day

Alice and I dashed across the grass to a hallway door of the school. I trained my gun on the hallway while she opened it. "Let's kick this off," I muttered. We started moving down the hall. There were rooms on both sides. I took the left, Alice took the right. I came to the first room and saw carnage immediately. I held my breath and turned the corner hard as I entered the room. Clear. The scene immediately got worse. Corpses lay in heaps, by themselves, or stuck in oddly lifelike positions as rigor mortis set in. It looked like someone had poured blood all over the fucking place. I had to step through it to clear the room. It splashed and covered my pants like rain puddles after a mid-afternoon shower. The stuff had already started to congeal, and there was a little bit of resistance to my foot when I tried to lift it. The mass I had stepped in shifted and breathed like something from another planet. Brain matter and stray bone were splattered like the aftermath of a macabre paintball fight. One kid had been shot execution style at his desk. I knew this because the contents of his skull had liquified and spilled out onto and over his desk. I stood for a moment, then snapped back. "What the fuuucckkkk..." I breathed. As soon as I did so, the full force of the smell of death assailed my nostrils. I couldn't think, and staggered back out of the room. I then retched onto the floor as quietly as I could. I wiped my mouth, spat, and pointed my gun back down the hallway. Alice walked out of the room that was across from mine, looking somewhat shaken. She pointed the carbine back down the hallway. We resumed walking. "They moved fast. These bodies haven't been here long," Alice explained. I wondered how she knew that. "These rooms have been wiped out. We can't take this slow. Check the room to see if it's been wiped, then move. We gotta find where they're at," I stated. Gunshots sounded down the hallway. I looked at Alice. She nodded. We kept moving down the hallway, checking rooms as we went. I whispered to my microphone: "They went room by room. They didn't leave anyone alive. They confirmed their kills. If it looks like a room has been shot up, don't bother going in. Just try and find them." "Copy," was the response. "I'm with Hannah on the second floor. Moving to engage." It was Yasahiro. He'd get it done up there. As if in reply to my thought, I heard several suppressed gunshots ring out from upstairs. "Two down," Yasahiro mused. "Don't know how many are left. Keep it tight." It was Uncle. Alice and I suddenly heard gunshots from a room just to our right. We dove to the wall next to the doorframe. "Watch the hall." I moved to the door just in time to see a particularly zealous, tough-looking guy get shot in the chest. No shooters visible. Time to go. I pushed the handle of the door down, quietly, silently, then kicked it open. I turned the corner to the right hard and saw two shooters unloading their pistol magazines into kids, still sitting at their desks. I put the sights of the Glock on the first shooter's head, and pulled the trigger. The cinderblock wall was immediately covered in a pink spray. The second shooter was behind him. Before he could react, I shot again at the head. I missed, just a bit high. Little bit overexcited. I pulled the gun down before it was level with his chest. I got off five rounds before he got one of his off. A searing pain in my leg dominated my thoughts. I glanced at it for a moment before advancing on the crumpled heap that was the other shooter. I put one in his forehead, and watched his face transform. I remembered the pain in my leg, and my knees buckled. "God FUCKing." Well, it wasn't too bad. Blood started running down my leg. I started checking bodies for a shirt that wasn't blood soaked. I found one with a fluffy sweatshirt on. "He was still heaving. I took the sweater and stuffed it down my pants, pressing it into the wound. "Ah...sorry," I muttered at the soon-to-be corpse. A couple of kids that the two guys had shot were still moving on the floor. Alice appeared at the entrance to the room. She moved to my side. I was clutching the spot in my leg. "Got ya?" she said flatly, looking at the wound. "I'm good. Watch the damn door," I said, seething. Alice held a tight angle to the doorframe. One of the moving kids was face down. I rolled him over. When I touched underneath him, my hand became bloody. His chest was ripped to shreds. Blood tricked out of his mouth, adding a red hue to his teeth. "Help..." he gurgled, more blood running down his mouth and off his chin. I almost laughed at how feeble any attempt to save him would be. I quickly assessed all of the other moving kids. Their conditions were similar. No chance of survival. I stood up, staggering. I reloaded the Glock and put the half-spent magazine in my pocket. "There might be more. Let's go," I said. Alice checked right, I checked left, and we left those kids to die. The gunshots had stopped. Either all the kids were dead or all the bad guys were dead. "Two more down on the first floor," I whispered into my microphone. "Copy," Uncle came through again. "You all good?" "Alice and I are fine," I responded. "Will and I are good," Willow said. "Hannah's good, I'm good," Yasahiro chimed. "Liz and I are alright," called George. "Okay, keep it going," Uncle responded. "Anyone got anything?" I said into the mic. A series of nopes and nos came in. Huh. Alice and I walked past a bathroom. A disheveled girl, covered in scratches and blood smears, jumped out of it and put a knife to Alice's throat. She was too quick. Alice dropped the carbine. I trained my gun on the girl. "Whoa, whoa, relax," the girl began. "Much too hasty." I smiled, and put a 9mm round through her temple. She instantaneously became a corpse. The knife clattered to the tile floor. It was an odd little number. A plastic kitchen pairing knife had been painted purple with splotches of color around. Blood covered the blade. Alice picked the carbine back up. "Punta," she muttered, sounding irritated. "Good shot, thank you," she mused. "No problem," was my reply. I picked up the knife and pocketed it. I offered it to Alice after smearing the blood on my pants. "War trophy?" I suggested. She took it and cracked a small smile. "As much of a romantic gesture as you're going to get out here." I said, amused at my joke. "Yep. Probably," Alice said, slipping the knife into her waistband. Uncle came in over comms. Alice and I cleared the bathroom, then ducked into the handicap stall. "SWAT is inbound. Five minutes. Exit the AO now. Police are entering as we speak. You're not going to look so good holding guns in there. Nor are you going to do so well against SWAT at this time. Move." Alice tapped in to the comms: "We don't know if we got everyone yet." Uncle's reply: "I know. But if you're still there, we can't keep the Team black. We need secrecy and stealth. If we don't have that, the Team is nothing. Get out of there now. You aren't here to kill cops. Uncle out." "Okay... we gotta walk out of here like we own the place," I said to Alice. I handed her one of the pistols I picked up. "Hide it," I said. I tucked my Glock into my waistband as she tucked the pistol into hers. "We should probably look the part, too. All teary eyed?" Alice suggested. I agreed. She produced the knife. "I'll press it in until you cry. Um... somewhere it won't be seen." I pulled back my shirt, revealing the scars on my left shoulder. She pressed the blade in on a small piece of skin that wasn't scarred. The pain grew until it consumed my mind, and tears ran down the inside of both of my eyes. She handed the reddened knife to me as I mopped up the blood with my shirt. I wiped the blood on my khakis and uttered a single word: "Where?" Alice pulled back her sleeve and pointed at a spot on her left forearm. I looked at her for a moment, then pushed the knife in. I glanced between her eyes and the blade until a frown was evident on her face and tears trickled. She looked like she was one iota of discomfort away from crying. I immediately wondered if I had pushed too hard. She saw me looking at her, blinked, sniffed, and pulled her sleeve back down. I offered the knife back to her, but she held her hand up. I put it in my cargo pocket. We ran back to the door that we came in. Already police crews were milling around our car. "Okay, we get our car and get out of here. Time to do some acting," Alice nodded, and we took off back towards the car. A policeman saw us, and as we closed the distance, said: "What are you doing? Get out of here!" "This is my car," I growled. "No its-" I cut him off as Alice and I hopped in. "I don't give a FUCK if its mine or not, I'm getting the FUCK out of here." That shut him up. I started the car and performed a U-turn. I accelerated slowly through the wooden police barricades that had been set up, then drove the speed limit back to... whatever that place was. I parked the car and turned it off. Alice and I then stared at the windshield for 2 minutes. Uncle and all of the other Team members were already outside of the car, waiting. I was the first to stop looking at the windshield. I looked at my hands, then at Alice. "Hold together for a moment or two more. Come on," I said. Alice nodded and we both left the car. I looked at the other Team members. They were damn near hyperventilating. Their eyes were red and their faces were tear-streaked and glistening. All except Yasahiro. Uncle looked solemn. As soon as we left the car, the other kids started walking back to the building. Hannah was holding her arm. "Go get cleaned up. I don't have much else planned for today," Uncle said, looking at his feet. Alice and I nodded and started walking at a brisk pace towards the building. We barely got through the door to our joint room when we both lost it.