The Power of Four || Ethan, Paige, Zoey & Kara
Tagging: Ethan Bishop, Paige Westmore, Zoey Sinclair, and Kara Lansing
Date: May 5, 2017
Location: RIAP - Unclaimed Dorms
Notes: A fire is started in the unclaimed dorms by the hunters with students trapped inside of it. Not wanting to let anyone die, Ethan uses his air magic to try and help push down the flames while Zoey, Paige, and Kara work to get people outside to safety. Barbara Roth will be found dead in one of the dorms with from smoke inhalation with another unnamed student.
With hunters arriving all over the campus, all of the officers were scrambling to try and get the students to safety. Ethan had taken the dorms, knowing they needed to find any students remaining. However, one of his fears was realized as he closed in on the Unclaimed dorm and saw smoke billowing out from one of the windows and the sound of students inside. Not wasting a second he rushed inside and ran through the dorm until he found the source of the fire. It wasn't too large, but rapidly growing. "Is anyone in here?" He yelled, trying to make his way through the smoke that was quickly filling the room.
Paige smelled the fire before she saw it. She dropped her books and ran as quickly as she could. Outside the doors she paused, no, froze. She was unsure what to do. After a beat, she ran in and started checking dorms before closing the doors. No air. She gasped when she heard a voice behind her. She shook her head frantically. "Not that I've found yet... But they might be closer to the fire, trapped."
Zoey had been searching all over the campus for Kara. She'd heard that there was an attack and she'd been flying around trying to find her and she had. What she didn't think she'd find as well was the Unclaimed dorms on fire. "We have to help," she told her roommate. Though her mind was clouding and almost seemed like it was telling her not to go. For a split second, she was frozen trying to shake off what she wrote off as fear ran towards the dorm. Even if her mind seemed to be saying otherwise. She had an overwhelming sense of dread coming over her but shook it off. Now was not the time for a panic attack, she told herself. When she encountered Ethan and Paige, she asked, "How can I help?"
Kara hadn't been ready for any of this to happen. Maybe she'd gotten a little too used to things going well and being "normal" after she'd been dealing with the darkness she'd had inside of her that came with all the things that had happened. But now was not the time to dwell on all those things, now was the time to act. Following Zoey's lead, after her roommate had found her, they hurried to the Unclaimed dorms. "Shit. There's no time for that! We need to start getting students out. Zoey, Paige, we need to do sweeps of the floors. We need to get everyone that we can out. I just... Fuck. This whole place could burn down if we don't--" Kara watched in horror as the flames grew tenfold, sweeping up towards the ceiling. "What the hell did they do? Douse the place in gasoline?"
Ethan: continued to move through the room as he heard the voices. He was moving toward them until he came across the group of girls and paused for a moment as he listened to them. Planning how to keep everything continued, he was quiet before seeing the fire grow and realized best thing to do was control the fire and get people out as quickly as possibly. "Alright, we all need to stay calm. Otherwise, we will go down with this building." He told them, knowing they needed to keep this serious. "I'm going to hold this fire back you guys need to go through and make sure everyone is out of the dorm. I honestly don't care if you have to break down every door. Make sure no one is in any of these rooms." He spoke, keeping his words fast. "And be careful if you send them outside. Hunters are all over this place and we don't want to send them from a disaster to the next." Ethan added. "Sound good? You're welcome to leave and save yourself, but if you want to help, that's what we need to do."
Paige could barely focus on what he was saying. Her eyes kept darting around, her skin felt warm from the air. "Lock any rooms that are empty of people." She ran a hand through her hair. "If we can minimize the air that's spreading, non-magically, we can save our powers for bigger issues," she pointed out. She shook her head. "We need to know where is safe to send them. For all we know this is a smoke trap and getting them outside is going to get them killed faster than the fire." She looked to the girls beside her. "One of us could go with them if we find someone?"
Zoey nodded, knowing that this was going time. It was time to put fear aside, put on her big girl undies and keep people safe, but why did her mind seem like it was telling her to leave. âOkay, got it. We need to clear the first floor. And the students can trickle down from there. Because if we donât clear the first then we could be sending someone to their deaths. I can clear the first and then move on to help on another floor. Someone want to direct people once we get them out?â
Kara knew that she couldn't let Zoey go alone, especially not with what the girl was going through lately. She was not about to let her best friend die on her watch during an attempt at heroism. "Paige, I'm going with Zoey to sweep the first floor and then I can go with you to sweep the second floor so Zoey can direct them out next. We can rotate." She nodded towards Ethan who she assumed was going to try and keep the fire under control, not that that was something that could be prevented much by now. Tugging on Zoey's hand, she headed towards the flight of stairs that would lead them up to the first floor. "Stay low." She reminded her best friend, remembering to have seen it in a movie once. She went up to the first door and moved her hand near the handle, seeing that it wasn't hot yet before using her magic to bust the door down. A girl was underneath the bed, cowering. "C'mon. Get up, you need to go down to the lobby and out. The damned building is on fire." Turning towards Zoey, she nodded at the door across the hallway just in time for flames to start climbing up the walls around them. "Shit. I don't think--" It was then that she heard someone's voice, someone that sounded angry, someone that sounded like they didn't belong. "Did you... Hear that?â
Ethan kept his eyes on the flames around them, making sure it didn't continue to grow anytime soon. He kept his listening focused on the girls, wanting to make sure he knew what their plans were exactly. Being the officer of the group, he thought it was important for him to know what they were doing. As they went to leave, he turned towards the group before speaking. "You guys be safe and stay together as much as possible." He told them before turning back to the fire. Fighting fire with air might not be the best of ideas, but he knew if he could do things right the fire could be control. Using the air around him, he slowly started to close the air in around the fire, very carefully pushing the fire back down as he waited for the dorm to get cleared out.
Paige nodded at Kara. "Sounds good," she paused and bit her lip before adding, "Stay safe. We don't know if any of them are hiding in the building looking for weak targets." Paige had been lucky enough to avoid hunters for the most part of her life. Her heart pound in her chest was a result of the adrenaline. New experiences weren't always good, she reminded herself. "I'll stay with," she gestured to Ethan, "this officer until you guys are done the first floor and we can swap." Paige then watched as Ethan managed with great diligence to slowly tame the fire. "If we can manage to get as much air away from the fire as possible, we might be able to snuff it out."
Zoey nodded when Kara said that she would come with her and theyâd gotten a system together. âYes, sir,â she said to Ethan. âYou stay safe too.â She worried about them all and as she went to move along the first floor, she paused, not quite knowing why her feet had stopped. Or why there was a sense of dread. When she and Kara made their way up to the first floor, she stayed low as suggested, as they helped a student out of the room. When the fire started to climb the walls, everything in her was yelling flight, and she grabbed Karaâs hand, leading her out of the room and closing the door. She looked at Kara then. âYesâŠsomeone could be in trouble, we should -â She paused as she heard a voice in her head rock her to her very core in surprise. Donât go inside. Get out of there. The voice was direct and Zoey stood there immobile for a moment unsure if she was losing her mind. âWe have to help,â she breathed, fighting against the overwhelming sense to run.
Kara looked at Zoey as her best friend seemed to stop for a moment, the brunette coming closer. "Are you okay?" Before she could check her over, Zoey was saying they had to help and Kara nodded. As they went from room to room, no one seemed to be in them, Kara helping Zoey close each new dorm. However, when they made their way to the last door at the end of the first floor, Kara noticed the door was cracked open. Looking at Zoey, she motioned for her to get on the other side of the door-frame. From inside she could hear the sounds of someone fighting before a gunshot went off. Kara's head shot up and her blood ran cold as she heard footsteps begin to approach. "Zo. Use your magic to get that gun out of his hands... I'll take his air. Okay?"
Paige heard the gunshot from downstairs. She shot a look at Ethan before bolting to the staircase, not waiting for his approval. As she got closer, she slowed down to slink quietly. She paused at the top to take in the hall. It didn't look like the shot came from a hallway. She heard the girls planning and silently nodded with them. She could help as long as she stayed hidden. Peering through the hall door she tried to catch Kara or Zoey's attention before things escalated too much.
Zoey tried to listen out to make sure Paige and Ethan were okay as she and Kara made sure the rest of the rooms were clear. When she asked her if she was okay, she nodded. âJust a littleâŠfreaked but who isnât?â she covered, knowing she couldnât tell Kara right now about the voice. When she motioned for her to get on the other side of the door, Zoey took her position, preparing to enact the plan and in her mind, she felt as though Karaâs plan was solid. She looked up to see Paige, she held up a finger to her lips, letting her know to stay quiet. As soon as the hunter stepped out of the door, Zoey used the force of the air to knock the gun out of his hand and brought it towards her. In a sheer moment of panic, and because she heard the voice in her head say Shoot him. She aimed the gun low and shot his foot. That just seemed to anger him though. She scrambled backward, and he lurched forward. She felt as if something had pushed her out of the way because she fell to the floor and started to scramble backward towards Paige.
Kara felt her eyes go wide as soon as Zoey shot the hunter in the foot. Before she could even stop herself, she was reacting, which is exactly what the Hunter was also doing. He lunged towards Zoey and Kara pushed her out of the way. Her jaw connected with his fist and she felt her head snap to the side before watching as he began to move towards Paige and Zoey. "I'll kill them both and you'll get to watch, you stupid bitch." He sneered, or at least, he'd tried. Something was wrong. He was losing his breath. Behind him Kara was standing, right index finger twirling in a steady circle around his head. All the anger she'd felt from everything that had happened was being channeled through her in this moment, only brought out by him wanting to kill her friends. The Hunter turned to look at her, shaking his head as he struggled for breath. "Please... Please stop." Kara couldn't hear him beg, though, as the light slowly began to dim from his eyes. In the back of her mind, she heard Zoey screaming at her to stop. It was in that instant that she relinquished her hold on him, watching as he choked and started to catch his breath. Before she knew what was happening, he was smirking at her, reaching towards his side for a second firearm. Kara's reaction was almost instant, clenching her left hand into a fist as she pushed, effectively slamming him into a wall as she lifted her left hand, bringing him into the air and away from the wall as she used her right index finger to spin tight, fast circles. Within seconds, his body dropped to the floor, dead. Kara took a stumbling step backward, finally snapping out of her rage and looked up at Zoey and Paige, green eyes wide. "I..."
The instant after she started to see Zoey fall, ran to her to help. She was quick to throw herself in front of Zoey for defense. Paige even started moving her hands into positions, but before anything she did started to take effect, she noticed Kara's magic. Her head shook light to the side as he plead for his life, but Paige was unsure to whom she was shaking her head. Things only moved faster after that, Paige started to increase the pressure of the air to create a shield from the gun, but was stunned at Kara's even quicker, violent reaction. "Oh my god," Paige breathed. "Is he..." She looked back at Zoey to make sure she was already, then slowly approached the dead hunter. She nudged him with her boot. Paige immediately cringed backward. She ran a hand through her hair and started scanning the floor. "What if he wasn't alone?" She looked toward the other girls, eyes darting between them.
Zoey couldnât believe her eyes as she watched Kara kill the hunter. She didnât recognize her own voice when she was screaming for Kara to stop. Everything in her screamed to shut up. To let it happen. It was so overwhelming that she did shut up and let it happen. She looked from the hunter to Kara, and Kara to Paige, nodding. She didnât know what compelled her to say it, but she said, âHe was going to kill usâŠyou had to.â Sighing, Zoey said, âYou two need to go clear the next floor. Someone could be hurt or dying.â She held up the gun that was in her hold. âIâll be fine. Iâll be in the lobby.â Except, when she ran off toward the lobby, she kept going to the third floor, figuring that she could do more by actually helping clear a floor than just waiting in the lobby with no one to direct.
Kara stared down at the dead body in stunned silence, her mouth slightly agape. She turned to look inside of the room that the Hunter had just left and found something that made her immediately sick. There was the body of a freshman, someone that she didn't know. "I don't... I don't know their name." She pointed at the dead body, before moving inside the room. She ignored the way Zoey told her to keep checking the second floor because all she saw was the dead body of some kid and... Oh God. Her throat felt tight as she saw the corpse of Professor Roth, a bullet-hole right between her eyes. Resisting the urge to vomit, Kara went to go and see if she could pick up their bodies because they didn't deserve to be here like this. "Paige!" She called out and waited for the girl to show up in front of the door. "We need to... We need to get them down to the lobby. I can't... We can't let them..." But as she went to reach for the student, the smoke and fire finally caught up to them. It was a lost cause. Tears burned her eyes as she stood up and went over to Paige. "Let's go clear the second floor..." Her voice was quiet as she walked out the door and headed towards the stairwell.
Paige couldn't deny that killing the hunter had been necessary, but she was still unnerved nonetheless. Before Paige could object to them splitting up, Zoey had gotten to the stairs and Kara into the room. She debated checking on Zoey, but her blood ran cold when she heard Kara call her name. She pushed her way into the room. Paige's hand went immediately to her mouth. "Oh God," she whispered. "There's nothing we can do," Paige's voice was steady. It was unsettling how calm she seemed. "I'm sorry," she watched Kara walk from the room. "I wish there was more that we could do for them." She bit her lip. Abruptly, Paige's head snapped up. She exited the room quickly and grabbed Kara's arm. "Did you hear that?" Her eyes drifted upwards. "There's definitely someone up there... but I'm not sure if they're..." her gaze flicked to the room they just left then back to Kara, "if we're going to be able to help them." The truth was hard, but Paige was ready to face it. They had to be for now. "We should go now, but we have to be careful." Paige tried to tip-toe up the stairs as much quickly as possible.
Zoey knew almost instantly that this wasnât such a good idea. As soon as she stepped foot on the third floor, the sense of dread in her stomach came once more. She held tight to the gun in her hand, but the sheer fact that she was holding a gun made her want to vomit. Violent delights always had violent ends, and here she was in a war-like situation. She closed her eyes, trying to listen for movement. Opening first one door, ushering out students hidden up there, advising them to find the campus officer out front. She closed off the door, and just as she opened another checking the room, leaving the door ajar, her senses overwhelmed her and she realized that she was not alone when she turned back around. A gun went off in the hunterâs hold and this time she was knocked to the ground but no one was there to push. The bullet just missing her. Kill him. You have to kill him. Shoot him. Use the gun, Zoey. Donât miss. Kill him. The voices in her head were loud, they overcrowded any disapproval she might have had. They were screaming, and it was as if she had no choice as the hunter aimed once more. She had to be faster or she would die. Zoey lifted the gun, and she shot, multiple times in many directions. She was frantic. Panting, crying but once she pulled the trigger she couldnât stop shooting. She couldnât stop until there was nothing left. And yet she continued to click the gun long after the hunter was riddled with bullets. Leave now the voice commanded, and she dropped the gun, picking up his instead, shaking as she shut the door. She hadnât cleared the floor, but rather walked back to the lobby standing there almost lost, feeling sick to her stomach, reliving each shot she made even though she didnât want to.
Kara froze as soon as Paige grabbed her arm, standing still as she listened to the sounds of someone moving around. Please don't be another hunter. Nodding, she followed Paige, ready to kill if the moment called for it. But God, she hoped that it wouldn't call for it. She hoped that it was just a student, or multiple students. Pointing at the door, she motioned for Paige to stay before counting down from three with her fingers. Slamming the door open with her magic, Kara stared at the horrified faces of five students, all huddled on the ground. "Oh thank God." She mumbled under her breath before going to help them up. "You need to get out of here. Take the stairwell and go out the lobby. It isn't saf--" Kara stopped immediately at the multiple gunshots that resounded throughout the building. Zoey. It was like everything in her was screaming to go find her best friend because she couldn't, no she wouldn't lose her. But the rational side of her, the one that knew she had to keep going, to keep helping, had won over. Gritting her jaw, she turned to Paige. "You take the right side of the hall. I'll take the left. We move quickly and thoroughly." So they did, moving from room to room and thankfully, no one else was there. When they reached the last room, Kara turned to Paige. "Go downstairs with Zoey. I'm going to see what those shots were." Her stare was firm, leveling. Kara usually had that way about her when she meant business and she felt kind of bad she had to use it on Paige but she wasn't about to have another person die on her watch. "I'll be right there. Promise." Without another word, Kara went up to the third floor. The smoke was billowing by now, the hallway glowing an angry orange. As she moved from room to room, Kara eventually took her button-up plaid shirt off, throwing it to the side. She was too hot, far too hot but she knew that there could be people here. Finally, she got to the middle of the hallway, heading towards the other stairwell that led up to it when all of the sudden, she was falling flat on her face. Kara groaned before she realized what exactly she had landed in, and what exactly she had tripped on. A scream tore from her throat before she could stop it, realizing that her torso and hands were covered in blood. A hunter's blood. Trying to compose herself she quickly stood up, moving from room to room once more in an almost daze. How had the hunter gotten that way? Who had killed him? Her questions went unanswered due to the fact that there was no one on the floor. Finally, she made her way down to the lobby, the smoke and flames making the building creak. "I don't... I don't know if we can make it to the fourth floor. The smoke is too thick." She spoke as if she hadn't just literally fell into a pool of another person's blood, like that very blood wasn't soaking her own clothes, into her hair, into her skin. Her eyes found Zoey's, then. "You're alive."
Ethan: knew that the there was no good way to keep this fire contained. Even if he could keep the flames down, the heat and smoke were still going to fill the building and make it hard for the girls to get this building cleared. Keeping his focus on the job he head, he started to cut off the air from the fire and watched as it started to dwindle down a little bit more. It wasn't long after the first two girls left that the third one had turned to him before leaving as well. It only made him worry that something wrong might be happening out there. However, he knew at this point he couldn't just leave to go check because the minute he stopped focusing on this fire, the faster this building was going to go up in flames. Keeping his focus on the fire and making sure he didn't get burned as some of the flames shot out and hit him. Even with the winces that came out, he was still able to keep it contained and give those girls sometimes. As he thought things would be okay, the sound of gunshots and something thumping against the ground made him distracted and the fire quickly grew once more, taking over even more of the area than it once did. "Shit!" He cursed before looking around as if he could see anything. With quick feet, he moved to the stairwell, thinking that was the best way they might be able to hear him if he was loud enough. He yelled with all the volume he had, "You have to get out. This building is going to go down quickly. Grab everyone you can and get back down here!" Once he finished, he moved back to the fire. He was going to need to control it again in order to give them enough time to get out. Using all the magic he could muster, he started pulling the air from the fire, trying and slowly succeeding at getting it controlled once more.
Paige followed Kara with ease. There was a strength to the other girl that made her easy to follow, something Paige admired rarely in people. Paige nodded with every finger Kara counted down with. She helped her usher the students out, but felt once again paralyzed by the sound of gunshots. She looked to meet Kara's eyes, but found impossible to connect. She nodded numbly in response then quickly checked the rest of the floor with Kara doing the same. Her lips pursed at Kara next instructions, but she made not verbal objections. As neared the first floor in the staircase she heard Ethan downstairs. She rushed to meet him. She hadn't noticed the sweat on her skin until she was back on the ground floor. The room itself felt like a sauna, only making her warmer. "We can't stop yet, Kara's upstairs!" She looked around quickly and noticed a lack of Zoey. "And where'sâ" Just like the devil, at the mention of her name Zoey descended the stairs. With a gun. "Oh my god, Zoey," Paige murmured. But the fire demanded more of her attention. She moved closer to Ethan and tried to help him with reducing the fire. "Kara's upstairs, we have to buy her as much time as possible," she explained. Paige hissed as the fire reached out and licked her wrist, but kept going best she could. Slowly she started coughing, not before long it started to impede her magic. "I don't know how much longerâ" But she never finished. Kara finally came down, covered it blood. Between the sight of the blood and the coughing, Paige's concentration broke. She shrieked as the fire swelled again. "We have to get out of here!"
Zoey felt as if she was in a daze, but that made no difference because this whole thing seemed like one long, horrendous nightmare. She didnât truly register Paige yelling for her or the building seeming to be on its last leg. She heard Ethan, she heard Paige, but their words seemed warped and under water as she kept hearing and seeing the scenes of what had transpired on the third floor. The only time she snapped out of it was when Paige said that Kara was upstairs. She heard a scream and she knew the voice it caused her heart to drop. Just when she was about to run back up the stairs, when she saw Kara. Zoey ran into Karaâs arms hugging her despite the blood. âYouâre alive too!â she said stating the obvious. Once she heard Paigeâs shrieks, Zoey realized that now was maybe not the time for hugs. âLetâs go,â she said. Making sure she didnât let go of Karaâs hand as she started to leave the building.
Kara stumbled backwards slightly when Zoey ran into her, hugging her tightly. Her mind was numb but she knew one thing, they had to get out of there. "Yes..." She said in response to Zoey, blinking several times as if that would help her wake up from the horrible nightmare this day had turned into. It didn't work. She didn't even realize that they were out of the building until she felt the cool air. She was only in a tank top now after having thrown off her outer shirt and accompany that with the blood that was soaking her skin, she was so, so incredibly cold. Jaw clenched, she looked back towards the Unclaimed dorms, seeing how it was being completely engulfed in flames. There were dead bodies in there. Not just hunters... The thought made her sick as she leaned on Zoey for support, trying to hold herself together. As she looked around, she noticed that the campus looked like a damn tragedy. Smoke, destruction, and an overwhelming smell of death loomed around them. How could this have happened?
Ethan: continued to keep the flames at bay as much as he could. In this moment, the most important thing to him was giving the students as much time as they could to get out of the building. Seeing Paige help him, they were able to get the fire down a decent amount before the third girl showed back up and he at least knew they cleared as many halls as they could and if they stayed in this building any longer they were going to go down with it. As the girls continued to move out of the room and outside, Ethan waited a moment before following them outside, making it out in time before the fire completely took over the building. As he stood outside, he looked up at the building and could only think of how bad it really was. He had no idea if there were students still inside or what happened while the girls were gone. His gaze turned to the three of them for a moment and he paused before speaking. "Are you all alright? Injury wise..." He asked, knowing that mentally most at this school weren't going to be alright. "And what happened up there? I heard gun shots."
Paige wasn't sure how to react. When they all managed to get out of the building, the cool air was shocking compared to the sweltering heat of the building. Paige's fingers moved blindly to her wrist, then hissed as she touched where the fire had burned her. "I'm fine," she bit out. She turned to the other two girls. "We heard the gunshots, too. Are you both okay?" Paige swallowed the image of Professor Roth in her mind. She looked back at the building. So many dead. She looked back at the campus and wondered how many more there would be. "We have to tell someone what happenedâwe need to inform people that..." Paige was at a loss to explain things. There was so much carnage in one spot, how were they ever going to moved forward. "I know that some of those gunshots were for the hunter on the first floor," she explained, backtracking in conversation. "What happened upstairs?" she asked, turning specifically to Kara. "Was Zoey with you?"
Zoey wrapped her arms securely around Kara, not wanting to let her go. It was as if she did, Kara would just slip away from her. With all the death and destruction they were witnessing, with all of the screams and gunshots theyâd heard, and the gunshots sheâd fired, she didnât want to think about letting go of her best friend. When Ethan asked if they were okay, she said, âIâm fine.â It wasnât a lie, physically she was okay. She simply shrugged her shoulders when he asked about the gunshots. âIâm sure everyoneâs a little busy right now staying alive. Who do we tell? Where do we even go thatâs safe?â she wondered. Even now she wasnât sure it was safe just standing out there. She felt almost sick the way she was almost instinctively reminded that she was still holding a gun, but she wouldnât release it. âNope, I wasnât,â she answered quietly even though no one was speaking to her.
Kara didn't know what there to say, didn't really know what to feel. "I don't really know... There was just... He was dead. And I slipped and fell and..." She motioned to her body before shrugging. "I don't know. We just need to find a safe haven." Kara really didn't feel like doing anything other than getting out of there and finding someplace that they would all be safe. Looking at Ethan with a far-off look in her eyes, she nodded in his direction. "You lead, I'll follow."
Ethan: looked around the area, trying to see if there was somewhere they all could go. This whole school was in chaos and there really wasn't anywhere safe that they all could hide out. He noticed Kara looking at him and he nodded his head. "There probably isn't anywhere that the hunters haven't already hit, but we definitely can't just stand here." He commented. Ethan's eyes moved from building to building once more until he noticed the dining hall. "Let's head to the dining hall. There is probably some people there we can meet up with." He turned towards Zoey, noticing the gun still in her hands. "Either you can keep that gun or I can take it, it's your choice, but if you keep it make sure you don't fire it unless you have to. We need to keep as low a profile as possible." He told her, wanting to make sure she knew. "Make sure you guys stay close to me. Now let's head out." Ethan spoke before moving towards the dining hall.
Paige wasn't surprised to hear Zoey wasn't with Kara upstairs, but it did leave lingering questions (for later). She stood slightly apart from the group. Her eyes were shifting constantly about the area around them. At first, she wasn't even sure she heard what Ethan said. She blinked a few times then nodded. "Someone should be watching at each angle," she paused. "I'll make sure no one is following us." Her hands were poised, ready to defend herself. Paige wasn't sure that any place on campus was safe, but the dining hall seemed safe enough. Everything seemed to be crackling and crumbling under the decay of the hunter's attack. Every little noise spooked Paige into alertness.
Zoey followed Ethanâs lead. They could head to the dining hall, but when he mentioned the gun, she shook her head. âIâm keeping it. I know when to fire it. Iâm not stupid.â She didnât mean for it to come off the way it did, but she left that third floor a changed person. It was as if the good, the light, the innocence in her had been snuffed out, and she was upset that it had to come to this, upset that something spoke to her telling here to do this. As she walked, making sure that no one threatened her life, or anyone elseâs, she knew sheâd never get it back.
