Room 204 (#OpenNovellaContest2021)

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

The teacher and kids around me seemed to perk up a little with the meager food we were able to share. My brain was already in survival mode as I began glancing around the room, I hadn't actually been in more than a few times, looking for things that we may need. The vending machine glass was smashed out, littering the floor around it. I remembered the one time I used it, the pastry was stale and out of date. The machine had been pulled away from the wall a bit to create a bit of privacy for a bathroom, which consisted of a single white trash can. The smell was harder to ignore when you were on that side of the room. The windows in this room were only panes of glass that didn't open. I continued looking, taking in the kids in the room. The new kids speaking in hushed tones to my students about what they had seen and dealt with. I hoped they were editing out some of the gorier details, some of the kids in this room were freshman, several years younger, with baby faces to match. The teacher, Scott Stevens if I remembered right was becoming more irritable. I think our presence made the small room feel more claustrophobic and he was beginning to pace back and forth. There was a small kitchenette in the opposite corner of the room with a coffee maker, microwave and empty fridge. I searched the cabinets to find a few stained coffee mugs and an odd hodgepodge of stuff. Old lightbulbs, mix matched screws, a screwdriver, a putty knife, and a hammer with a broken handle. I slipped the screwdriver into my pocket and closed the drawer, unsatisfied with what I had found and tried to ignore Scott's pacing, but wanting to pace myself. It helped me think. I checked the fridge again, knowing it was empty, but needing to do something with my hands. The second time closing it I realized there was something behind it. A door.

"Hey, where's this door go?" Scott ignored me the first time I asked so I said it a little louder, a little harsher.

"What? Oh, roof. We blocked it because kids kept sneaking in here to go up there and smoke."

I turned, my kids already looking at me to see what the plan was when they heard this.

I began shimmying it away from the wall as best I could in the small space, it being between the wall and the cabinets. The boys pulled it completely out and into the center of the room to give us some space. Thick dust coated the walls and door and I let out an involuntary sneeze. I turned to see what Davis thought, realizing he was softly snoring, the fatigue of the gun fight setting in. I tried the door, assuming it would be locked, but still let down when I realized it was.

There was a wooden wedge used to prop the teacher's lounge door open on the ground next to the vending machine that I asked Emma to grab and bring back to me. My grandpa had been a volunteer firefighter for years and always enjoyed teaching me little tricks he had learned, this being one of them. I took the wedge and shoved it into the gap a few inches above the lock. I went back to the cabinet retrieving the broken hammer and paint scraper. I gingerly held the broken hammer, hoping to avoid any splinters as I gave the wedge a good whack. Hoping it would create enough of a gap for me to the paint scrapper in there. I wiggled the scraper around, relieved when I felt the latch give, but I jumped when a gunshot rang out. I dropped the tool, and reached for my own gun, my brain not understanding where the sound came from, thinking somehow my weapon had gone off. I turned around in time to see Scott Stevens slump onto the ground, knocking the chair we were using as a makeshift lock away from the door, his skull missing pieces and his blood leaking onto the ground. Davis had jumped up, limping on his hurt ankle, reaching for his holster and finding his weapon missing. I heard screaming, my mind still not comprehending what I was seeing. The two girls arguing from before were clinging to one another across the room, other students I wasn't familiar with were staring at his lifeless form. I saw the door lever flicking down before I heard the shrieks. They were trying to get inside. My ears were ringing from the gun shot as I heard muffled responses coming from all around me "Oh fuck!" "Hurry, hurry!"