The entire city seemed to be in an uproar as Owen spread down the streets toward the middle school. His car practically skid into the parking lot as he arrived and he exited the cars. Cops were everywhere and Owen could almost feel the fear that rolled off of the city.
“Owen!” he heard Vicky yell for him. It took him a while to spot her, but eventually he saw her face poking out of a small window near the ground.
“Are you okay?” He asked in a rush.
“Yeah we are okay for now. What is going on?” She asked. Owen could hear the worried children crying from within the locker room below.
“I have no idea. Can you get out of there?” He gestured to the small window.
“Uh...probably. But I'm not going to leave the kids.” Owen rolled his eyes, his sister was ever the bleeding heart.
“Okay, okay. How many do you have down there?” He asked.
“Ten.” Vicky replied with a quick look back to be sure.
“Hold tight,” Owen said with a grunt.
“Like I have a choice?” She asked lightly. Owen made his way to the group of people at the door of the school, most of them looked like worried parents. If he could get the kids away from Vicky he could get his sister to safety.
“Hey!” He yelled over the crowd. When they quieted down he suddenly felt kind of nervous. Talking in front of people was not his strong suit.
“My sister is in there with some children. How many of you have kids in the acrobatics program?” A few raised their hands. Owen nodded. “Good come over here for a moment?” He regretted it as soon as he said it because the small hoard of parents immediately started bombarding him with questions.
“Are they alright?”
“What is going on in there?”
“Woah! You're kids are fine. I'm about to return them to you!” Owen said hushing the crowd. He counted nine. There were nine parents here which still left one kid without a parent. Owen cursed, it looks like he would be giving a kid a ride home.
“Stay here for a bit, I'm going to go get your kids.” Owen said. He rushed over to Vicky's window.
The locked door behind them started to move. Something was pushing against it. Vicky was suddenly very glad her brother was coming to their rescue. It didn't take a rocket scientist to decide that something was amiss. Suddenly the sounds became more violent outside the door, loud bangs and moans.
“Vicky!” He heard Owen shout. Vicky climbed back up the lockers to look out the window.
“Yeah?” She called.
“Most of the parents are out here. Let's get the kids out of there.” Owen explained. Vicky sighed. That sounded good.
“Yeah. I'll boost them up, you pull them out.” Vicky commanded. She explained what was going on to her kids and began to hoist them up on the lockers. With Owen's help she had all of them out in just minutes.
“Alright, your turn sis,” Owen said offering his hand. Vicky took a breath and scaled the lockers. It was going to take some flexibility to get out. The window was narrow and some of the children had a hard time squeezing through.
“Get them to their parents and get out of my way, it's going to take me a minute.” Owen nodded and soon was out of view. Vicky let most of the air out of her lungs and got her head through the window. She pulled her right arm through and her shoulder, hearing her bones pop. Fully exhaling she got her other arm and part of her chest through. Her waist made it through rather easily. She could hear the bangs on the doors grow in volume.
Slowly she wiggled her hips through, the sides scraping her skin to the point of broken flesh. If she could get her hips through she would be sold. They were the widest part of her body.
“How are you doing?” Owen's voice called
“Slowly, but I'll make it.” Vicky called back. She heard the doors groaning and she could feel her heartbeat quicken. There was something unnatural about the door. If it was an intruder wouldn't they had just shot through it or unscrewed the door knob? Or at the very least left to bother another part of the school? She couldn't see through the window at all, her hips taking up most of the narrow space.
There was a loud groan and a thud. The door had broken free.
“Owen!” Vicky screamed. Owen didn't hesitate, he grabbed her around her chest, under her arms and pulled with all of his strength. She felt something grab her ankle and she began to panic. What was going on? She asked herself for the millionth time. Vicky cried out in pain as the window squeezed her, but she was able to break free, all put her left shoe which was left in the assailant’s hands.
“Someone grabbed me. We have to go.” Vicky said pushing her brother away from the window. She was pretty confident no one but her and the children would have been able to squeeze out of it.
“Someone was in there?” Owen asked in a panic.
“They broke in while I was pulling free.” Vicky explained. Owen quickly turned to one of the cops talking to the parents and told him about the intruder being in the locker room. He got on his radio and started talking to some cops she assumed were already in the building.
Vicky looked down at the scared child holding on to Owen's pant leg.
“Lilly? Where are your parents?” Vicky asked.
“I don't know,” She said with a whimper.
“We'll take her home.” Owen said to silence his sister.
“Miss Vicky, I don't feel well. I feel dizzy.” Lilly said weakly. Owen gave his sister a quizzical look.
“She has low blood sugar problems, her peanut butter crackers are in the locker room.” The ginger explained to her brother.
“Okay there is a grocery store across the street. Let's go get her something and then get the heck out of here.” Owen said pulling the two along. They hopped in Owen's truck and the drove to the grocery store. The place looked mostly abandoned which was weird after being at the school.
“Stay close to me,” Owen said lowly. “We don't know what is going on.” Vicky nodded and gave Lilly a comforting smile. The poor child was scared out of her wits.
Even the workers seemed to have abandoned the place. The aisles were a mess as if people had been in here looting. It seemed the whole city was in some sort of crisis.
“Hello?” Owen called, holding both Vicky and Lilly behind him. He pulled a gun from inside his jacket. Vicky stared at and made a mental note to ask her brother why he was carrying a gun at a later note.
“Anyone here?” He shouted.