Page 5 of Engulfing Emma

I look at all the blood on the floor. The woman with black hair is pressing her hands against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but it’s not doing much good.

I ask, “Does anyone here have medical training?” I get blank stares. “The blood is bright red. I think that’s bad. The bullet must have hit an artery.”

“How do you know that shit?” the guy with the gun asks.

“I, uh … watch a lot of TV.”

The kid cries out again.

“I can’t think with him screaming like that.” He walks over and kicks the kid’s leg, making him bellow even louder.

I position myself between the gun and the injured kid. I feel the need to protect him. It wasn’t so long ago that he was a student. Maybe even in a school like this one.

I take a deep breath and confront our assailant. “Did you kill anyone at Shettleman’s?”

The guy looks pissed off. “I didn’t kill no one,” he says, patting a pocket in his coat. “I was just there for the cash. I ain’t no murderer.”

I gesture to the kid on the floor. “Not yet, but if he dies, you will be.”

He looks at the screaming kid and then at me. “Well why don’t you make it your job to make sure he don’t die?”

“My job?”

He points his gun to the door on my right. “What’s in there?”

“It’s a storage room.”

“Open it.”

I step over and open the door. He keeps me in his peripheral vision as he pops his head in and looks around. “Perfect. No windows. Take him in there. That way I don’t have to hear him.”

“Take him inthere?”I ask.

“Yeah, and you damn well better make sure he don’t die. If he does, there won’t be no reason to keep you or anyone else around. Got it?”

“You want me to put him in a closet and try to help him? I’m not a doctor. I teach first grade.”

“You knew about the blood,” he says. “You’re the best chance he’s got. Now get the fuck in the closet.” He turns to the thin man. “Move the kid inside.”

The door to the back hallway opens, and Becca and Kelly walk in.

“Run!” I scream.

Horror crosses their faces as they see the blood on the floor, the barricade at the front door, and the man with the gun.

Kelly, who is behind Becca, manages to turn around and run back into the hallway. She tries to grab Becca, but Becca is frozen in place and doesn’t move. The gunman hustles over and pulls her inside.

“Becca!” Kelly screams from down the hall.

“Sit your pretty ass down over there with the rest of them,” he says. He turns to the man who just put the kid in the storage room. “Find some shit to block off that door.”

“Like what?” the man asks.

“Teacher,” the gunman says to me. “Suggestions?”

“Um … there are some desks in the storage closet. And boxes of paper—those are pretty heavy.”

He waves the gun at the man doing all his heavy lifting. “Do it.”

---