Three Hours(85)
‘Everyone out,’ he says. ‘Quick as you can. Run. You too, Hannah. I’ll come back for him, I promise.’
18.
11.54 a.m.
They hurry out of the library. Hannah sees her English class with Mrs Kale and they look sheet white and thinner somehow, as if they’ve been shrunk by this. Everyone is running towards the doors to the glass corridor in their socks; so quiet that they’re barely breathing, so quiet you can hear the swish of a girl’s long hair.
A loud creak as Mr Forbright opens the doors and they all tense. He holds the doors open and they run through.
Through the glass, daylight is like headlamps shining into your eyes. Snow has banked up, everywhere white, their school has changed entirely; and they are all sprinting towards the theatre, faster than they’ve ever run before. Hannah turns and sees Mr Forbright locking the doors behind them; still inside Old School.
Sally-Anne, waiting by the open doors in the foyer, sees kids streaming towards her along the glass corridor; for a few moments, she can’t believe it’s real because they are silent. As they get closer she can hear them breathing, sees that they’re in socks, holding their shoes, a rustle as they run alongside each other and touch. In the middle of them, but not being touched, is Tobias, his hands pressing his shoes over his headphones. She ushers them in, patting shoulders and backs, shiny hair.
She hasn’t told anyone else about the rescue plan because what if the gunman chased after everyone escaping from Old School along the glass corridor? Followed them here? The kids in the theatre were safer behind the locked doors to the auditorium, safer not knowing.
Last down the glass corridor are the staff, like sheepdogs, she thinks: Tonya, Matthew’s punky secretary, and Donna, the matronly receptionist, and Jacintha. No one else coming down the corridor. No sign of Matthew or Neil.
‘Is that everyone?’ she asks.
‘Yes,’ Donna says. ‘Neil said to lock the doors.’
Startled and moved by Neil’s courage, she locks the doors; the Yale and the deadbolt.
The Old School kids are all in the centrally heated foyer, a great crush of them, but shivering as if they are in snow as the shock of it hits them. Some cannot move but just sit where they are. Hannah is covered in blood and just wearing a bra on her top half.
‘Sweetheart?’ Sally-Anne says to her.
‘It’s not mine, the blood.’
Sally-Anne takes off her cardigan and wraps it around the shivering girl.
‘Everybody into the auditorium,’ she says. ‘Quick as you can.’
She opens the locked doors and helps the ones who are sitting to stand again and ushers them all into the auditorium. Once inside, she locks and bolts the security doors. No way can the gunman follow them in here.
*
In the library, Neil sits beside Matthew, holding his hand. Outside the library door he saw the shattered case of medals, but their students have reached the safety of the theatre. Soon the gunman will realize it was all a trick and come back but in the meantime he and Matthew will stay like this. And in the meantime is everything; it is the gap between terror and isolation and whatever is to come; it is the time in between, in this building, empty apart from the two of them, where love and kindness and friendship exist, and it can’t be measured in minutes or hours, but moments in a lifetime. He isn’t sure if Matthew is conscious, isn’t sure if he can hear him, but is sure he can feel his hand.
*
They walk into the auditorium and Frank thinks it’s like walking into normal life, back into a normal world. The theatre looks exactly the same and some of their friends are on stage, with tunics on, just like they are meant to be; because they are rehearsing just like they are meant to be rehearsing this morning. But as he gets closer he sees their faces are strange, painted green and brown.
Luisa is running at him, like she’s flying towards him; she flings herself around him, his cool twin sobbing into his chest. And other people are hugging, a hug-a-thon all around him; it’s the kids in the theatre giving the hugs, not shaking and sheet white like they all are. No footsteps, he thinks, and loos and phones and chargers. It hits him that they are safe now. Safe. He hugs Luisa back and his shaking subsides a little.
Hannah is in the changing-room loos. She takes off the teacher’s cardigan. Her bra and torso are covered in blood. She’ll wash off the blood and then she’ll find a charger for her phone and call Rafi. He must be okay. Must be. Has to wash the blood off.
Everyone was so happy to start with, being reunited and being safe, and it was like their friends in the theatre were pumping energy and warmth into them.
She runs her bra under the tap, washing the blood off, but why is she doing that? She’s not going to ever wear it again.
And then someone, she’s not sure who, asked about Mr Marr and then they were all asking. ‘Will he be okay? Will he make it?’
Frank said, ‘Yes, he’s conscious and he’ll be okay.’
‘What about Mr Forbright?’
‘He’s staying with him.’
The most brave thing Hannah has ever seen.
All the library kids know Frank was lying about Mr Marr but also the reason, that he’s protecting everyone who’s been in the theatre until this terrible, terrible thing is over; and because they all feel guilty leaving him, Hannah especially because she’s the one who was mainly looking after him, and nobody wants the people in the theatre to feel that bad too.