“You bastard!”

 It took me a while before I realised I was screaming and landing a well-placed kick in where I assumed the masked man’s ‘sensitive spot’ was. I must’ve attacked in the correct place, because the person took a step backwards and toppled onto the ground, writhing and groaning in pain. Good, I hoped it hurt just as bad as it looked like it did. Whereas Lay attended to Tao with his first aid kit – I seriously had no idea where he even got that from – , Luhan and I decided to remove the mask of the possible cause of this school incident.

The mask wasn’t easy to get off for some reason, so we had to literally pry it off with a small glass shard. But as soon as I saw the face of the person, my dark eyes widened in horror. It was a boy. And not just any boy, but a high-school boy. I doubted it was normal for such a young teenager to be going around exploding schools and killing people, so I was extremely shocked.

“There’s nothing else here, let’s go.” Luhan announced before heading out the door, despite the fact that he was shivering from learning how a kid had been involved in such a horrific thing. The rest began to follow suit, but I stayed behind a little longer because I had caught sight of something white in the masked boy’s hand. His grip on the item was loose, so I was able to get it out without a problem. Hearing Tao call my name, I quickly slipped it into one of the pockets of my jacket and hurried after them.

We went through all of the science labs and staffrooms without finding anything majorly useful, to our disappointment. Apparently, there had been a whole rack of acid-filled test tubes in one of the rooms, but the tremors caused by the explosion had caused them to topple over and spill. However, we did find several scalpels and tongs that we would probably need sometime in the future. As we made our way out of the area, I couldn’t help feeling afraid of the suffocating silence that enveloped the four of us. Schools were usually filled with laughing, happy children, but here they were replaced with cold, dead ones. For what must’ve been the millionth time since the beginning, I wondered why all this had to happen.

“Hey, we’ve been looking around for hours. Isn’t it strange that no-one else has turned up yet?” Lay suddenly commented, finally breaking the silence. I had to agree and ask myself the same question. There were 12 of us altogether and in a place like this, one would expect a few more to appear. Unless… What if they had all made a base somewhere in the school to protect themselves from further harm? It was a likely possibility and I doubted any of them had found a way to leave yet.

Stopping in my tracks, I turned to my companions and responded with, “What if they’ve all set up secret bases, to hide from the attackers?” Luhan seemed to be deep in thought for a moment before he slowly nodded and said, “Probably. At least it’s a start.” The others nodded in agreement as well, and I mentally sighed in relief because I thought that I was making no sense. Taking out the map, I opened it up for everyone to see.
“Okay, so we’re here in the social sciences area right now.” Luhan gestured his arm towards the many posters on the walls around them, all depicting things like the Earth, different varieties of cultures and so on. “Where do you think is the safest place in the school?” He continued on, not waiting for us to respond. I couldn’t blame him though, the atmosphere surrounding us was leaving everyone on edge.

As I stood there thinking, I recalled how we had gone through a whole day without eating that much food, and how we were talking about going to the nearest sushi restaurant right after school ended. If the others were still hungry, they would most likely be at the canteen gathering food supplies. It wasn’t exactly the safest place to be, but since there were bars covering the front where students lined up to buy and order things, wouldn’t that count even just a little?
“I think they’re all at the canteen.”

Tao gave me a confused look and asked, “But why? This isn’t just an excuse to eat, is it? Is there even a canteen here, if there’s already a cafeteria?” I hesitated. Was there? I couldn’t remember. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I was about to tell the others to forget what I said, but I stopped myself. If my memory served me correctly, there was a small canteen mainly for staff near where we were right now. When we had been lead around by the tour-guide, I had smelled the scent of cooked onions coming from a smallish-white building right outside the social sciences department.

“Yeah, a small one for teachers. It’s near here, in fact.” I replied, crossing my fingers in the hope that I wasn’t making a silly mistake based on my love for food. “I can show you there.” The others, especially Luhan, seemed to be hesitant at first but they finally gave in, talking about how it was better than just standing around and doing nothing.

So once again, the four of us began moving forwards again, filled with the anticipation of reuniting with our members. However, we soon came to see that it wouldn’t be that easy after all, as there was a large piece of debris blocking the exit leading to the outside. The explosion must’ve caused a chunk of the brick walls on either side to topple over into an almost impossible to move pile right where the glass doors previously were (probably got smashed to pieces by the bricks).

“What the hell? What are we supposed to do now?” Tao muttered, eyeing the debris with furious eyes. I guessed he was almost at his limit now, seeing as how he was unable to function properly in situations like these. Out of the 12 of us, he was most likely the one being pressured the most despite the forced look of determination in his eyes.
“I guess we’ll have to find another way around,” Was all I said.