Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
“Wylde! Wylde!”
I headed in her direction and was aware Sting and Brick had done the same. “Dani, what’s wrong?” That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach started churning again. I could see it in her eyes before she ever voiced it. “It’s started,” I muttered. Dani’s wide, frightened eyes told me all I needed to know. “It’s started!” I yelled. “We need to go now!”
“Apple says the classrooms are all locked down, but Lemon was late to class and is out in the hall somewhere. I can’t get her to answer her phone, Wylde!”
I turned and sprinted to my bike, started it up, and left the compound like a hellhound. So help me, God, if even one hair on either of those girls’ heads were harmed, I’d kill that motherfucker with my bare fucking hands in front of God and everybody, and damn the consequences.
We arrived at the school before emergency crews or police. Which was another thing I was pissed about. They were pretty fuckin’ quick to get to Danica’s house when they had, yet no one was here yet. Not a rational thought, but one I’d be bringing up later. After they got here to clean up the fucking mess I was about to create.
“Stop, Wylde!” Sting called -- but fuck that shit.
I stormed to the back entrance to the school. As suspected, it was locked. So I shot the latch several times until it gave with one solid kick. I switched to a full clip before entering fully, needing the maximum amount of ammo available to me without reloading. When I killed this fucker, I was gonna kill him to death.
Making my way slowly into the school, I could hear the pop pop pop of automatic fire. Screams filled the air as the subtle pops of the assault rifle was replaced by a loud BOOM of a large caliber handgun. Unless I was mistaken, that was a three-fifty-seven Magnum. If the guy hit someone with that, it didn’t really matter where it struck. Someone was either dead or missing a limb.
I came to the first room, just a few meters away from the exit. I tapped on the door before opening it. There were a few whimpers and the teacher had a baseball bat in her hand, ready to attack, but I placed my finger to my lips.
“The way to the back door exit is clear,” I said. “Take your class and head out. Don’t make a sound and whatever you do, do not stop running or look back. There’ll be men outside to get you to cover and the police are on the way.” Then something occurred to me. “Do you have a resource officer I need to watch out for?”
She nodded her head. “Three, but I think… We think they were the first ones…” Her voice broke, but she clamped her lips together to keep from showing how frightened and grief-stricken she was. She took a breath then added. “There’s three ROTC teachers also. They’ve been trained as well.”
“Good. Get your students to safety.”
The teacher nodded and urged the students out. One large boy seemed to take over from there, putting another boy in charge of leading the class out and he brought up the rear. When his teacher tried to stay behind to help the other kids deeper in the school, he gently took the bat from her hands.
“Please, Mrs. Bradley. You know you can’t fight a gunman with a bat.” He was kind and spoke softly but insistently.
That seemed to be all the woman needed because she nodded in agreement. “I know. You’re right, Obie.” Tears streamed down her face. “But everyone else needs help too.”
“I know,” the young man said as he urged her out of the class to follow the others. “But that guy’s better equipped to handle this than we are.” He met my gaze, and I knew that kid wanted in this fight with everything in him. Much as I wanted to give him his shot at vengeance, I couldn’t.
“What’s your full name, Obie?”
“Obadiah Mason.”
“I’ll find you later. We’ll talk.” Obie nodded once, then followed the rest of his class to the outside.
I continued on, listening for the gunfire to judge where the shooter was. Each room I passed, I gave instructions on how to get out. Some I sent back the way I’d come, but as I got closer to the gunfire, I started sending them out the window.
It wasn’t long before Blaze and Cyrus joined me. I couldn’t deny I was glad to see the big men.
“What took you so long?”
Blaze shrugged. “Had to make sure all the kids you sent out got to safety.”
“Police?” I asked, needing to know they were on the way and why there seemed to be a delay.
“On the way. There was a scheduled shutdown of their communications system for an upgrade. At the same time, there was a cell outage all over the southern half of the city. Seems like a coordinated attack to me.”