We slowly descend the main stairs. I have my hand on her waist, making sure she's behind me. “Char there’s so much screaming.” Aria whispers to me, voice cracking from the lump in her throat. I look at her, she's on the verge of tears. I give her a reassuring smile. 
   “I promise I will not let anyone hurt you.” I say as we continue. The screams coming from the cafeteria are on another level. It’s as if it never stops. 
   Crash. 
   We get down to the doorway. 
   It’s brutal. 
   There’s blood all over. The red flowing from the tables to the walls. These things are killing people. But they are kids in my grade. They’re hurting one another. Girls screaming while standing on tables. The guys running into the kitchen. One looks at us. Just before he’s taken out by another kid. “Char.” Aria whispers, holding my arm so tight I think it might break in half. “Aria. Run” I say. She starts sprinting up the stairs. He looks at me, bloodshot eyes, black veins on his neck. I know him. He sits behind me in Pre-calc. He never paid attention, just laughing in the back with his friends. Once I look to see Aria has made it to the top of the staircase, I slowly walk backwards. Hand outstretched. “Hey Josh.” I say my voice is shaky. His head tilts. For a moment I believed he was still there.
Then he starts sprinting at me. 
I sprint up the stairs. I see Aria standing at the top waiting for me. “RUNNNN!” I scream, my voice going hoarse. She starts shaking. She can’t move. “Char” she says, tears streaming down her cheeks. I grab her arm and we start running. The boy behind us, snarling. She looks back. “WHAT THE HELL IS THATTT!” She screams. I push her in the science room, under one of the counters. Josh stops in the doorway. I run in, looking around for anything I can use to help me. 
Left. 
Right. 
Nothing but damn sinks. I look at Josh, or at least whatever he is now. He’s getting ready to pounce. I look at the teacher's desk and I see it. A hot plate. We used them to heat up our experiments in Chemistry. I go to touch it. It’s still hot. 
Perfect. 
As Josh leaps, I grab it. I can hear my fingertips sizzling against the smooth surface. The heat rising from my fingertips, up my hand. I smack him across the face with the plate. Dropping it. I scream. I look down at my hands. My hands are shaking. My fingertips are peeling, bright red, bruised. I don’t even realize that I’m screaming. That thing runs out of the room. Aria gets up and shuts the door. I can’t focus on anything. I feel like I’m going to pass out. I stumble. My eyes never look up from my burning hands. Am I screaming? I can’t tell. I can’t hear anything. All of a sudden someone’s holding my hands. Rubbing and caressing my palms. I look up. 
Stella. 
She’s saying something to me. I can’t hear her. My mouth is open. Am I screaming still? I don’t know. “Breathe. In and out.” a boy’s voice says. I look over to my left. 
Archie. He’s rubbing my back and telling me to breathe. I feel my mouth close finally. I look around the room. Aria standing in front of the door, Stella and Archie at my side. Drew is standing at another counter. And Troy. I look at him for a moment. Then I look back at Archie and Stella. “I’m good” I say, putting my hands up and walking backwards. “Where did you guys come from?” I ask looking at them, I’m glad they are all here, all okay. “We’ve been here Charlotte.” Archie says, looking at me. I take a step back. I can feel my heart thumping in my head. “So you watched Aria and I sprint in here scared for our lives, and did nothing?” I say voice cracking. I thought I was going to die. I thought Aria would have no protection. I thought-. I stare at them, all four of them in disbelief. “We weren’t sure.” Drew finally says. I take a deep breath. “Okay, no point arguing about it now.” I sigh. I look over at Aria. She’s hugging Archie. “Glad we’re all caught up.” I say, interrupting their awkwardly long hug. I grab a bag I see on the floor and start packing things up, beakers, old hot plates, small knives, anything we could defend ourselves with. “What are you doing?” Archie says. I look up at him, bag in my hand. “Packing things that could help us, so we can go look for others hiding.” I answer. He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. “We aren’t going anywhere.” He says. Stella looks down, shrinking. “You can’t be serious.” I say, surprised. “We just were thinking-” Troy begins to add. “I don’t give a damn what you were thinking Troy.” I say, not even looking at him. I stare at Archie. “So what? You’re just gonna wait here till people come and find you? If you’ve got tons of people, we can split off and find others and find out what is happening.” I explain. “So you believe we should split off and die? What if no one else is out there? Not all of us are worried about everyone else.” Archie says frustrated. “Oh we’re aware Archie.” I say getting up in his face. “Don’t start this crap with me Charlotte-” he begins to say.
“ENOUGH!” Aria yells. “Arguing gets us nowhere.” Stella joins in. I roll my eyes and start looking for more things. I put my hands in cupboards. All of a sudden I pulled out my hand from one of the cupboards and my fingertips were bleeding. I can’t feel them. 
Stupid hot plate. 
“I just don’t want to endanger our group we have here.” Archie explains while I continue searching for materials. Drew walks over to me with a first aid kit. He starts putting hydrogen peroxide on my finger tips. “Does that hurt?” he whispers. I look down, I can’t feel anything on my fingers. “No,” I say. 
“Are you listening to me Charlotte?” Archie says, visibly irritated. “Yeah that's great that you don’t wanna endanger the group, but I’m sure there’s other people that need our help.” I say gritting my teeth. Archie just looks at me, arms crossed. He shakes his head. “I cannot ask to put people in danger because of a maybe.” He says. I stand up and get in his face. He’s barely a bit taller than me. "And who put you in charge?” I say quietly. He gets up in my face. “Me.” He says. I laugh in his face. “Okay tough guy, why don’t we vote on who’s plan is better.” I say. “All in favor of going out on a limb, and putting ourselves in danger on Charlotte’s maybe, raise your hands.” He says still in my face. I look around. 
All four of them raise their hands.