How traumatized were they going to be by this event? Would they get out of here unscathed only to suffer from anxiety and or PTSD for the rest of their lives? Would Tanya lose her sense of humor forever? Would Emily withdraw from everyone? And what about Sadie, who had already been through so much in her short life?
Hopefully Regina Sandhurst would be willing to spend whatever money necessary on some therapy for her star students. These girls not only needed to survive the night, but also they needed to thrive in their lives going forward in spite of this horrifying event.
She had almost fallen asleep when gunfire snapped her eyes wide open and sent her heart racing. It wasn’t just Jacob firing out the window in their room, it sounded like everyone in the building was shooting all at the same time. The girls screaming added to the cacophony of noise.
Within minutes smoke began to fill the air, coming in from the hallway. What was happening? Was the Brotherhood trying to kill all the police officers outside? Her heartbeat banged so erratically she wondered if she was about to have a heart attack. What was going on?
Gretchen ran into the room. “Let’s go,” she screamed at Jacob. “We have a chance if we move right now. It’s time to go.” To Annalise’s horror, she yanked Sadie up by her arm.
“Leave her alone,” Annalise yelled. She struggled to her feet and tried to get Sadie away from Gretchen. “Let go of her,” she screamed as she held tight to Sadie’s other arm.
“Let her go,” Gretchen yelled as she tugged Sadie closer to her. “I swear before this is all over I’m going to kill you.”
“I’m not letting go,” Annalise replied feverishly. She couldn’t let Gretchen take Sadie. She tried to pull the little girl closer to her.
Gretchen punched Annalise in the stomach hard. Her breath whooshed out of her, and pain weakened her knees. Still, she reached out and grabbed one of Gretchen’s braids and held tight.
The woman screamed and grabbed Annalise’s wrist. As long as Gretchen had one hand holding Sadie and the other holding Annalise, she couldn’t get to the gun in her waistband.
Annalise yanked as hard as she could on the woman’s hair. Gretchen screamed again in outrage. Jacob rushed them both, and shoved Annalise so hard her back smashed against the wall and she lost her grip on Sadie and Gretchen. “No,” she screamed. Jacob swung the child up over his broad shoulder, and then he and his wife ran out of the room.
Chapter Six
Annalise struggled to her feet, half breathless and nauseous from the blow she had taken to the stomach and the force of her back slamming into the wall. She had no idea what was going on. All she knew was she desperately needed to get Sadie back.
She ran out into the hallway, but she saw no sign of them. Oh, God, where had they gone? The smoke grew thicker, and she narrowed her eyes against it. She coughed as it burned the back of her throat.
Was the building on fire? She felt no heat radiating from anywhere. She didn’t believe there was a fire threat. She suspected it came from a smoke bomb. And that meant the people outside were taking the building by storm.
It all seemed surreal...the smoke, the gunshots...the terror. When she heard the cries of the other three girls, she ran back into the classroom.
“Come on, girls. You need to get up. I want you to get beneath the desks. Duck and cover.” Unsure what to expect, she only hoped the desks would provide the girls some measure of safety against whatever was happening.
It felt like the apocalypse, like the entire world was exploding all around them. The sound of shattering glass added to the chaos. The girls continued to cry as they huddled beneath the desks.
Again Annalise looked out into the hallway. Where was Sadie? Where had they taken her and for what reason? Would they be back to take the other girls? Maybe she should move the girls out of here.
She stepped back into the classroom, intending to do just that when the gunfire suddenly halted. The only sound was that of men yelling for help.
“Annalise!” Evan’s voice rose above the pandemonium. It came from somewhere just outside the room.
“In here,” she cried desperately. “Evan, we’re in here.”
Then he was there, standing right in front of her, and she was in his arms. “They took Sadie,” she cried. “You have to find her. Evan, they took her and then ran out of the room.”
“Gretchen hit Miss Annalise in the stomach,” Emily said.
“And Jacob pushed her real hard and she fell back,” Amanda added.
Evan looked at her in alarm. “I’m okay. You just need to find Sadie,” she replied.
He released her and got on his radio, which was attached to the top of his shoulder. Annalise gathered the girls close to her side and prayed that the good guys outside had Jacob and Gretchen in custody and Sadie was safe somewhere out of the school building.
Evan got off his radio and drew all of them closer to him. “We’re going to get the girls to go out through the window.”
As he said the words, another man appeared outside the window. He knocked out what was left of the jagged glass, and Evan hunched down in front of the girls.
“That man at the window is Davis and he’s with Nick, another agent. They are going to carry you all to safety.”
Annalise hurried the girls to the window, where Evan raised Tanya and passed her out the window. He did the same with the other two girls.
“Is Sadie safe?” Annalise asked worriedly. “Do they have her someplace safe outside?”
“Let’s get you out of here,” he replied. He grabbed her hand, and she squeezed his tightly.
They left the classroom and immediately she understood
