Part 2

Sage trained her ears for any sound – voices, footsteps, bumps or thumps – outside the door. An echoing cough erupted on her left. The ffft of a sweater unzipping. A whisper from the middle of the cluster. But the world outside had gone silent. Sage drew her tongue across her lips, parched and on the verge of cracking, and pictured her lip balm fifty feet away on the top shelf of her locker.

The end-of-day bell blared through the room and echoed down abandoned hallways. The door should be opening. She should be pushing her way into the hall, swimming upstream in a crowd of high schoolers, ready to meet Mira at their lockers.

The trill of the bell faded – swallowed by walls and closed doors until the air was still. Sage pictured a half-open locker, a lost pencil on the floor, a water fountain that sat unused. A ghost-like school frozen in time. In the quiet darkness of the math room, Sage’s textbook sat open on her desk, pencil ready for the next notation, calculator mid-calculation. Brooklyn’s book waited for her to come back from the restroom. To come back at all.

“This is a dumb time for a drill,” someone murmured. Sage glanced over her shoulder as the word drill swam through her head.

Hugging her arms around herself, Sage focused on her shoe that her mom insisted needed replacing. She ran her finger over the flaking glue and cracked sole and dug her nail into the exposed lip. Grit stuck under her nail and grime coloured the pad of her finger as she picked and tugged until a flap of rubber hung from her shoe. She flicked the flap. It bobbled to a stop.

Whispers drifted through the group and kids shifted in the shadows while the clock tried to convince them that only 11 minutes had passed. After-school plans faded as Sage’s phone became a brick in her pocket. All her friends were on the other side of that phone. So were her mom, dad, and brother. Sage slid the phone out and found Mira.

You ok?

In a blink, Mira’s words shone out at Sage.

ok but scared. u?

Ok but my classmates are dumb

do what ur supposed 2 do. dont worry bout them

They are loud & stelter isn’t keeping them quiet. Do you even know what’s going on?

idk. thought its a drill but timing is weird

I know

Keep safe luv u

Luv u2

Sage pulled up her brother.

You ok?

She stared at her screen, waiting for Delivered to become Read, but the word sat dead.

“No phones.” Mr. Stelter’s eyes were on the collection of teens hunched on the floor. Sage slipped her phone into her pocket and prayed for the buzz of a notification.

A voice, deep and muffled outside the door, cut the air and heightened the tension like a restrained spring. “Sweep the second floor.”

Sage’s head snapped up. The world stopped turning as the voice filled Sage’s head.

“Down the east hallway.”

As though building to a crescendo, the pounding of boots grew louder and then faded.

Sage’s breath rushed in and out and she hugged her knees. A whispered voice floated across the pod of students. “Mr. Stelter, who’s out there?”

As if on command, broken words from police radios followed the cadence of the boots. Sage pictured radios strapped to police officers. And handcuffs. And guns.

In their school.

The boots and radios faded until the only sound was Sage’s heart pounding in her ears. Her mind filled with images of guns and blood and her favourite people lying lifeless in the hall. She swallowed, the ball of saliva pressing against every ring of cartilage in her throat as it pushed its way down to her stomach.

Fists clenched and jaw tight, Sage forced herself to focus on the back of Penelope’s head. Her golden hair was pulled back in a clip mottled blue and pink like cotton candy, with a tiny green plastic gummy bear fashioned to each end. Penelope’s hair gathered in the clip before spilling down her back, like a river coming to a pinch point before plummeting over the falls. Sage breathed deeply and stared at the gummy bear.