Open Season

Mutatio 5

A few days ago, the shooting during opening day had occurred. Since being shot, Nicholas only spent a single night in the hospital getting treatment for his superficial wounds. The hospital was filled with people recovering from their own personal experience that day at the park.

Nicholas had too much going on to lounge away in the hospital. He was too private a person, he couldn't stomach the constant interjections of the medical staff. He needed to be free of here, he had to check on Ethan. Ethan and Staphanie. So much didn't make sense right now.

Staphanie had only called to check in on him. He knew if they were still married, she would have moved the headquarters to be near him during his admission... even despite her being responsible to heading up the investigation into the shooting.

But things had digressed too far. Staphanie and he weren't on the same wave length these days.

While he was unconscious, he'd heard murmurings in the hospital that had deeply disturbed him, causing him to look critically at every person he crossed baths with.

He actually felt like he was in an alternate reality.

The doctor was late to come sign his release papers. He'd felt a weird vibe earlier that morning and noticed some pointed glances between the charge nurse and doctor when he'd mentioned the doctor signing his release.

If he hadn't been mistaken, the doctor could have signed his release right then and there; however, the nurse had feigned to not be able to locate the proper document. Just how long did it take to locate the right form? Hell, by now they could even have reprinted the paper.

He sighed, rising with a hiss from the bed.

Mentally telling himself, he was just sore. His experience had been about as physically tramatic as a car accident, same shock... same adrenaline surge. Same day after soreness.

He knew he was lucky. How many people had faced down a gunman at point blank range and lived to tell about it. Hell, had lived with zero negative repercussions. He knew exactly how lucky he'd been yesterday.

Ultimately, he'd had no choice. He'd chased Staphanie into the fray to find their son, Ethan. Once he'd seen the gunman holding Ethan captive, even from a distance, he'd known that no force on earth could stop him from reaching his son.

Ethan was all he had left.

Even as that realization rooted, he turned into the corridor of the hospital. Every eye in the ward bore into him. He could feel their eyes, predatorily tracking his every footfall.

The drugs they'd given him must have been strong indeed. Ducking into the common washroom, Nicholas rested on the back of the closed door... looking for a way to lock the rest of the world out.

Settling on the metal tube of the mop resting in the corner, he quickly jammed the thin metal bar into place. This would only buy him a little time. He would have to work quickly.

Climbing atop the toilet in the first stall, he tried to open the camper style window. Failing miserably with a terribly wet foot, Nicholas continued to grunt in frustration... not really wanting to break with window and alert everyone to his hasty exit. He needed as much time as possible.

Hello. Hey. He heard coming from the corridor. Time had run out.

Over the schools loud speaker Ethan could hear the growing list of student names, but he wasn't paying too much attention as he doodled in his notebook... excited his dad would be home when he got out of school later. Ethan knew both his parents loved him, of that he had no doubt. Hell, they'd both just faced down a crazed gunman just for his safety. But he couldn't understand why they didn't love each other anymore.

Hell, they couldn't even be in the same room without animosity, the tension would be unbearable until one of them would relent and leave.

"Damnit Jake," Ethan swore at his best friend as he switched his pencil to the eraser side to get rid of the unententioned lines resulting from Jake bumping his elbow.

Ethan leveled Jake with his annoyed glare, brows furrowed... jaw locked. "Dude, what?" Ethan hissed, trying to avoid attracting the teachers attention.

Jake had been acting weird for the past few days. Acting as if he wanted to tell Ethan something, then glancing around and changing the subject. Was he trying to play that same game? Ethan had had enough of it.

But he suddenly noticed the attention of the whole class was riveted, directed exclusively at the two of them. What had he missed? He'd been caught talking and now he was in trouble.

Glancing at the teacher, she met his confused gaze with an annoyed one. "Ethan, they called your name. You need to report to the office. Take all your things please." she said dismissively, redirecting her attention the black board.

Gathering his things, he chanced a glance at Jake who had a sudden unwavering interest in his textbook. What on earth was wrong with everyone today, he mused as he heard sniffles coming from the desk in the front corner.

Giselle Preston. The cutest, coolest girl in school. And she was crying. What had he missed?

Giselle leveled him with her quiet misty gaze, her green eyes were so somber and clear. He could see her trepidation. His body moved in her direction of it's own accord... but fear leapt into her gaze and she vehemently shook her head and dropped her gaze to begin sniffling into her hands resting on her chest.

Confused, Ethan exited the classroom to the quiet hallway, quiet except for the fellow students who had heard their names called and were on their way to the cafeteria as the message had instructed.

Choosing seats on the bleachers in their combination cafeteria - gym the students continued to stream in for the next few minutes. Casual yet quiet conversations erupted with each student questioning if anyone knew why they were all being forced to gather, if anyone knew what this was about.

Ethan noticed a theme to this meeting. A theme he didn't particularly like, it just didn't sit well with him. From time to time, he would notice how unfair skewed things were, and it always bothered him. He was a boy from two different worlds; White and Black... Why was he always forced to choose? And why was that choice often made for him?

As the last black student that Ethan knew entered the gym, he could hear the chains being set outside the doors, blocking them from exiting. Wait. What?

And Ethan wasn't the only student to notice. As panic set in, some of the students abandoned their belongings to go inspect the doors.

zzzzZZZZZZ, was all the students could hear to accompany the macabre jig that Anthony was performing as he was being electrocuted by the gym door handles.

His screams of anguish were quickly muted by the screams and cries of panic from his fellow classmates, as they watched in horror while Anthony danced his last. Falling limply to the ground, as his bladder released a hot torrent in a growing puddle.

Ethans mind rebelled. This couldn't be happening! Anthony wasn't really dead. Someone call my MOM!

As the crying escalated, hopelessness set in for some of the students and they begin to wail openly rejected comfort from some of the stronger, yet unbroken kids.

What to do? What to do? They had to get out of this gym, and fast.

Ethan quickly moved in the direction of the biggest group of kids, stealthily marking his steps. He knew a way out of there... all the basketball team who did dawn practice did. He just had to hope that they'd forgotten to secure the entrance-exit, and he prayed he woudn't meet a similar end like Anthony.

Pressing his finger to his lips, he motioned for the students to follow him.

The obscure door, right of the gym floor opened to a storage room that housed all the Physical Education Equipment. Having spent so many hours in this gym practicing basketball, there wasn't an inch of this place Ethan wasn't familiar with. Down the stairs off each corner of the floor were locker rooms, situated beneath the gym floor underground.

Ethans' mom being sheriff had always told him to never climb, or go underground when trying to escape any situation... you only cornered yourself. So he knew climbing up the bleachers to the windows that opened onto the roof was a dead end that would result in them having to find a way off the roof of the school. While going down into the locker rooms would mean that they'd entombed themselves, making whatever this was far easier for whoever was behind this.

Measuring his steps, while making sure to continue to stress the importance of quiet, Ethan continued to make his way toward the strange, unmarked exit from the school gym. This door was never locked. When Ethan had questioned his coach on that particular point before the coach had remarked that he didn't need to remember to unlock it because it was NEVER locked.

Touching the door with a baseball bat to assure it didn't have a charge like the other gym doors, Ethan was satisfied when he didnt' sense a current or hear any noise. Gingerly reaching out to touch the door, despite the quiet pleas of some of his classmates; they all breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened.

Ethan could hear his heartbeat loudly in his own ears. Yanking the door quickly open, Ethan's every instinct wanted to shrink back from the sudden influx of sunlight into their damp, dank storage space.

The door looked like a portal to another world. A far cry from the terror they'd just endured inside their school gym.

Huddling together after quickly entering the portal-like door, the children deftly follow Ethan as he darts at full speed toward the tree line of the woods around 300 feet away.

Over the school loudspeakers, they can hear the Star Sprinkled Penon playing.