Glory (Book 5) (15 page)

Chapter 2

Adam walked down the hall, constantly expecting one of the men to jump out and attack him
-
even though he was pretty sure that they weren’t in the schoo
l
. He kept his gun steady, held up in front of him. His finger lightly upon the trigger. If he saw one of the men, he'd shoot
…
without any hesitatio
n
.

He came upon the side door that led to the playground and looked through one of its windows. No one was on the other side of it.

He looked up and saw that there was a way to lock it. But he needed a tool. Something like an Allen key. And he didn't know where he could find one.

He looked back at Shelly and tried to smile at her, to tell her that everything was okay. But he knew that it wasn't the truth. They were in trouble. And it would take a lot to get out of.

What about the door?

He kept his eyes on Shelly
.
She was here. She had a gun. She could shoot whoever came inside.

That idea settled heavily on him. He didn't want her to kill anyone else. The man at the farm had been more than enough.

They didn’t have a choice.

Another forced smile. Then he turned and saw Marianne making her way down the hallway. It was easy to make out her bright yellow shirt.

With all that was happening, he found himself wondering why she hadn't changed it
.
She must have been wearing it for days. Maybe weeks. It was covered in blood. Covered in dirt. There were more than enough clothes out there to change into.

He decided not to think about it
.
There were more important things to worry about.

He focused on what to do next
:
go upstairs
.
He could get a better look at the men from up there. See how many there were
,
wher
e
they were.

He looked back at Shelly and waved to her. She waved back. Her gun in her other hand.

He pointed up to let her know that he was going to go upstairs.

She replied with a look that told him she wanted to tell him to stay. Yet, that she kept her mouth shut.

"I'll be back soon," he said. Not loud enough for her to hear. But enough so that she could make it out on his lips.

Though the expression on her face stayed the same, she nodded.

He headed upstairs.

*

Marianne walked away from Adam. And, for some reason, she wasn't all that scared. She hadn't planned on doing anything heroic. She was just going to look at the end of the hall, to see if any of those guys were there. That was it. Simple. Nothing to worry about.

Marianne squeezed her gun. She had never shot one before. She had never actuall
y
hel
d
one before. This was all new to her. But so was most of everything that had happened in the past few weeks.

It was all new. Everything. The world. The people. Her life.

She squeezed the gun again and pointed it out in front of her
.
If one of those men stood in front of her, she'd shoot. No question.

No, she really wasn't scared at all.

*

Claire creeped up to the window. She wanted to look out of it, but was afraid. And for good reason. The old woman had already gotten shot. Claire didn't want to join her.

She looked over at Alice. Alice lay sprawled the floor. She had knocked over a few chairs in her fall. Blood dripped onto the floor, making as sound that Claire was positive she could hear.

It's just my imagination
,
she told herself. Though that didn't make her feel any better.

Claire turned back to the window with another urge to look out of it.

Don't be stupi
d
, she told herself.

She crept closer to the wall. But that was the most she planned to do.

"Do we have a deal?" the man yelled from outside. "You give us the women, we let you go."

Claire had no intention of answering. She didn't want to give anything away
.
Let them worry about what was going on in here. Let them guess.

In any case, Scooter answered for her. "Fuck off!" he yelled. It was his usual reply. But it was also one that Claire thought best under the circumstances.

She waited for more shots to enter the library. Nothing happened.

The man outside called to them a few more times. Nothing special. Just the same old stuff
.
Give us your women and we'll let you liv
e.
If you don't, we'll come in and take them.

She looked back at Scooter. The more she thought about it, the more she liked his reply
.
Fuck of
f
. It was so simple, but said so much.

She wanted to try it herself, but couldn't get herself to.

Not yet.

*

Scooter grabbed his axe
.
What the hell was going on? This was ridiculous
!
He looked over at Alice's corpse, lying on the library floor. He couldn't believe that her life had ended so quickly.

And, as with her husband, he hadn’t been able to do to stop it.

“Fuck,” he said, grabbing his axe tighter. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

*

Even though Adam was more than confident that there wasn’t anyone else on the second floor, his heart beat picked up its pace. There was something about the silence. Something about leaving Shelly to guard the door. Something about Claire staying behind in the library.

They'll be okay
,
he told himself, unconvincingly.

As he stepped into the second floor hallway, his nerves continued to get the better of him
.
He was that much farther away from everyone. That less able to help them if they needed it.

He forced himself forward.

His footsteps seemed to echo against the walls.

His throat threatened to close on him.

He stopped when he noticed the blood on the floor
.
Damn
,
he thought
,
the janitor
!
He remembered the set of keys that had been hanging off of the man's belt
.
He could've used them to lock the doors
!
It was a stupid mistake, and he couldn't believe that he had made it
.
Now the janitor was lying in a ditch outside…

He shook his head and tried not to dwell on it
.
There was nothing he could do about it anymore. He needed to think of a solution.

The idea of putting a chair in between the doors' handles occurred to him
.
It would be better than nothing.He'd do it when he went downstairs.

Having that decided, he walked down the hallway and went into one of the classrooms. Then he went to the window and took a deep breath
.
He had to be carefu
l
.

When he thought he was ready, he pressed himself up against the wall and glanced around the edge.

He could see a few men, all holding guns
.
One. Two. Three
…
He counted up to five
.
Five me
n
. He knew that didn't mean that's all that there were
.
That was simply all he could see.

He moved back from the window and, at that exact moment, heard a crack. Someone had shot at him. The bullet burst a hole through the window and slammed into the ceiling.

Adam dropped to the ground as a few more shots came at him, exploding the window into a shower of glass that fell all around him. He put his hands over his head and crouched into a ball.

A few seconds passed before he could hear laughter.

The men outside had almost killed him. And they were laughing about it.

*

Marianne heard the gunshots and stopped walking. She looked around, not knowing where they were coming from. It didn't take long for her to realize that they weren't anywhere near her.

She looked back at Shelly to see if everything was all right. Though there was a startled expression on the young girl's face, she waved to tell her that the shots hadn't come from the library.

But where had they come from?

Marianne got to the end of the hall and peeked around the corner.

Nothing there.

Adam had told her not to any farther than where she was, but something in her wanted to push on
.
To make sure that the men hadn't gotten into the front of school
.
It wouldn't be hard for them to do. None of the doors were locked. A lot of the windows were broken.

She had to know.

She rounded the corner and motioned to Shelly not to worry. Then she walked out of the young girl's sight.

*

Scooter heard the shots and dropped a little closer to the floor. To his amazement, nothing had come into the library.

He looked over at Claire and could see that she was thinking the same thing. He shrugged his shoulders. She did too. Then her mouth dropped and her eyes widened.

Adam
,
Scooter could see she was thinking
.
They had shot at him.

Knowing that she was about to run out of the library and search for him, Scooter raised his hand and told her to stop. He didn't think that it was a good idea for her to go. She would be too frantic. Might make a mistake.

"I'll go," he said.

Claire pulled away from her spot, ignoring him.

"You have the gun," he added. "You should stay here to protect everyone." He pointed at Julie, Charles, the children.
"
I'l
l
go."

Claire's eyes shot between him and the others. When it settled back on him, she nodded.

Scooter got up and ran to the library door. Shelly jumped when he approached.

"It's only me," he whispered. "I"m going to check on them. Where did they go?"

"Adam went upstairs. Marianne went down the hall." Shelly pointed in each direction.

"They didn't stay together?"

"No."

He decided that this wasn't the time to question that. "All right, do you think you know where the shots came from?"

Shelly took a few seconds to think about it. "They must've come from upstairs."

"Upstairs? Why?"

"Marianne was at the end of the hall when they went off. She looked at me, wondering if they had come from the library." As the meaning of what she had said dawned on her, Shelly took a step forward as though she was about to run upstairs.

"Hold on," Scooter said, grabbing her arm.

"It's Adam. They shot at him. That had to be it. I have to check on him!"

"Stay here. You need to guard the door. I'll go upstairs."

"Do you think they shot him? Do you think he's okay?"

"I think he's okay." Scooter said, unsure of what he really thought. "Just wait here."

With that, Scooter turned and ran to the stairwell. He tried his best to be quiet, but his boots weren't the best for that. The plopped upon the floor and echoed as he hurried up the stairs.

"Adam," he called out once he got to the top. "You up here?"

Immediately, Adam responded, "I'm in here."

"Where?"

"First classroom on the right."

Scooter charged into it and found Adam lying on the ground, shattered glass spread all around him. "You hit?"

"No, I'm all right."

"What happened?"

"I was looking out the window. They must've seen me."

"Did you se
e
the
m
?"

"I saw at least five. There might be more."

"Five?" It sounded like a big number. Especially if they were all armed. And it only made matters worse if, like Adam had suggested, there might be more. "You think there are?"

"Could be."

"Is that why Marianne went to the front of the school?"

Adam cocked his head and squinted his eyes. "Front of the school? I told her only to go to the end of the hall. Just to have a quick look."