I walked around the room while the rest of the students came out of their hiding place in the closet. Bethany sat down where I was and tried to calm herself. I made my way to the door. Sure enough, it was locked like the boy said. I glanced back over towards the windows. The latch's were quite visibly tightened. I couldn't figure it out and I could tell I wasn't the only one struggling to come up with an answer. Anthony and the other boy who had previously checked the doors, had begun poking at the teachers desk phone. They were mumbling instructions to one another. I walked past them to the body. I crouched down next to a girl who was stuck crying in complete shock. I ignored her and began pushing Mrs. Creaths head to different sides to see if there was a fatal wound. There was nothing. I slipped my hand under the back of her head to lift it. Her hair was matted with blood and my hand was quickly drenched in it. I looked around her scalp and neck. There was still nothing. The only place blood seemed to be coming from was the eyes.
"This doesn't make sense." I said out loud, hoping someone would join my personal investigation. "This doesn't make any sense at all!" I said louder alerting the room I was helping. Elliot turned from his place with Bethany and faced me.
"We heard you the first time. If you want to help, go figure out the phone so we can call for help." I laid the soggy head back down on the floor and rose to my feet. Slightly embarrassed, I went quickly to Anthony and the other boy. They seemed immersed in the confusing technology that was a telephone.
"Have you tried 9-1-1?" I joked. The boy turned and glared at me silently, then turned back to mumbling to Anthony.
"The phone line is messed up but not down. It just sounds like static no matter what we press. See if you can't find a guide or instructions in the desk drawers Hunter." Anthony said without turning from the phone. I obeyed and pulled open the bottom drawer, only finding rows of untitled folders. I flipped through them, hoping to see a guide for the phone or anything helpful. Only the last folder had any contents, which I could tell by the girth of the folder itself. I plucked it from its holster and began looking through it. Nothing but graded homework. Familiar graded homework. I continued to flip through it. It was all my graded work. I recognized the doodles around the edges and the way I scribbled my name quickly to make people think I knew cursive. As I flipped through the pages I kept seeing a pattern of failure. One page would be graded with a low percentage and the next would be a letter grade, usually a 'D' or an 'F'. I kept flipping through, hoping to find better grade. The task at hand left my focus. F, 27%, F, 45%, D, 33%, F, the pattern continued. I flipped to the final page. No percentage. No letter grade. Just a word. A word that sunk deep into my chest. Failure. I closed the folder and shoved it back into the drawer.
"Any luck with that guide?" Anthony still didn't turn his head to look at me.
"No just a lot of bullshit. Did you try her computer?" I walked around Anthony and the other boy to the stationary pc that was sitting up on the corner of the desk.
"We were more focused on calling for help not emailing for it." The boy behind Anthony said stepping beside me.
"Anything's better than nothing." I pushed the power button only for the screen to show a small, white horizontal line in the center. There was no noise or anything in response.
"Figures is the phones are down then the computers would be too." He stepped back beside Anthony who finally clicked the phone in the hung up position, admitting defeat.
Suddenly there was a scream from the back of the room. I turned me head in time to see something on the wall. I jumped around the desk to see it better, but it was gone. There was a hard thud followed by the sound of Bethany silently sobbing. I looked at her to see the other girls trying to calm her down while also crying. The boy with Anthony pushes past me and ran to what they were all avoiding to see. Elliot was face down on the floor, with his arms to his sides. I could see from the side his mouth was open slightly and his eyes were wide. I watched as a few crowded him on the floor. My eyes trained from him on the ground to what shot into the ceiling. One of the ceiling tiles were crooked, exposing the abyss of above it. Suddenly the tile shifted perfectly into place. I pointed but no words came out. I choked on stress for a moment then caught my breath.
"It's in the ceiling!" I shouted and walked past the collapsed boy close to the tile that moved. "Whatever killed Creathe and Elliot is in the ceiling!" I smiled for a second, feeling pride in my ability to do something right for once.
"He's not dead!" The boy shouted at me while tears ran down to his chin. He placed his face on Elliot's back and cried loudly. "He can't be! He can't leave me!" My smile disappeared. I thought about saying something for Elliot but snapped my attention back to the ceiling. I spun slowly, scanning every tile in on the ceiling until I was again facing the tile that dropped Elliot. I felt a hand lay on my shoulder.
"Nice job Hunter, their all just in mourning. You did good now we know where the attacks are coming from." I turned to face Anthony and smiled again nodding in agreement. He nodded back and walked over to the sobbing boy. "Come on Cody, sit up." He patted the boys back and led him to a chair where he slouched and sobbed louder. I looked to see Bethany was still in her corner chair. Her hand covered her mouth as she silently sobbed for the loss of her friend. I looked down at the now bleeding corpse and rubbed where his fist hit me.