This next part I can't remember well. Not even now after everything happens.

There was a blur of movement as someone rushes the kid. The gun goes wide as both struggles for control over it. My eyes find where it's pointed, just as I hear the click of the trigger. It lines up with Nek, and my body was moving before I could even think of what's happening. Every moment of training kicking, as my body jerks backward and sideways. My side slams into the girl, while at the same time the bullet punches a hole into my lungs and out my back. Then there was a second that nothing happens.

That's where I now sit. In that space of time where you think of everything that could have gone wrong. Then suddenly you realize that out of the long list, most of it happened. That space is so fragile that no dares to move or even breathe because to do so would make this nightmare a reality.

The kid was the first to recover, as the now empty gun falls out of his hand. It clatters to the tile floor. The pools of ruby red painting the gleaming black of the gun a sickly red. He takes off down the hallway, leaving clear red tracks. the next to recover is the boy I followed down here, and now he is also dumb enough to attack the gunner, Jake, and Jesusa. Both of them running head long after Conner. Jesusa carelessly splashes through the pools of in her rush. Turning her red and white covers the color of blood, and her navy pants black.

I'm the next to come around. My hand comes up to press uselessly against the hole in my chest just under my breast. It doesn't hurt, I can't feel pain. My eyes still sting from the beginnings of tears. However, I force them away, trying to be for the other as turn to them.

I can't tell you what it feels like to be shot. In books, you read its searing heat and blinding pain. In movies, you watch the actor scream in pain followed one of two things. The actor either keeps moving like nothing happened or they curl pull in a tiny ball and cry. I did none of these things as I faced my friends. I can feel the fact that I've been shot there's... no pain. The feeling of my lungs and other muscles moving around the hole is unnerving.

I feel blood slip through my fingers and out the bullet wound in front. While the back of my shirt becomes sticky as it soaks up more of the stuff. It's slowly getting harder to breathe as my lungs fill. Somewhere in the back of my head I know I won't be able to breathe at all soon, drowning in my blood... It's the sick type of ironic now that I think about it. The thing that keeps most alive is now going to be the thing that finally does me in. Then there's the fact I've lived through every bit of hell life has thrown at me, and when I think I've finally made it through, I was finally happy... One gunshot will kill me, all because I pushed someone else out the way.

Haha, I guess that's just how my life works. No good deed goes unpunished.

I don't have time for self-pity, I have to keep going while I can. I let my stare meet the wide, shocked, and scared eyes of those who remain. Everyone is frozen in the same place they were before the shot, except for Nek who lays on the floor hands over her mouth.

"Are one of you guys going to call 911 or are you going to make the wounded one find a phone?" I whisper jokingly, though everyone was able to hear in the deafening silence around us.

That seems to snap them out of it.

"Does anyone have a phone?" Charity asks, her voice even.

There's a loud rumble as everyone says no then starts to panic. Warner looks like he's about to take off. Before he can, I speak, the taste of copper heavy in my mouth, both blood and words moving past my lips. "Kick one of the doors open. Every room has to have a phone."

Warner nods and, though he still seems like he's still in shock, moves over to the closes door and starts to try to kick it in. Charity quickly runs to get help, leaving Evelyn to stand alone a few feet away. She shaking worst then before now, tears streaming down her pretty, child-like face.

I try to go to Evelyn, to comfort her and tell her that everything will be ok. However, blood chokes out my words as my legs give out. Nek screams as my knees crash into the unforgiving ground. Lunging she catches me as I slump sideways. My eyes never leave Evelyn as I watch her sink to the floor. One hand was hugging herself while the other pressed against her mouth.

I hear more than seeing the door give in under the pounding Charity and Warner were giving it. The Nek pulls my head and shoulders into her lap, and I lose sight of Evelyn. I hiss and pull away, and instantly Nek releases me.

"Oh crap! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry for!" her words tumble out without an order to them. Never finishing one sentence before starting the next.

I shake my head, starting slowly, "No, I just don't want to get blood on you."

I feel Nek shake and something wet land on my head. Looking up I see tears falling from her face as her shoulder tremble with a cross between a sod and a laugh.

"How can you still be joking?" Nek croaked.

"Without my sarcasm what do I have left?" I snort, but it rapidly changes into a cough, and I turn my head as blood splatters across the pale floor.

I hear footsteps quickly coming towards us. Groaning I force my head up, finding it to be the pair who went off to get a phone. Charity rushes over and as she gets closer her footsteps turn into splashes. At first, this confuses me; we were away from all the bodies and blood. I struggle to lift my head higher to look, only to see that I now sit in my own pool of red.

"We should put some pressure on that... it'll help stop the bleeding." Charity Whispers, placing her hands on top of mine and presses. I feel the blood beginning pushed from my lung and into my mouth.

This time I couldn't turn my head fast enough, more blood splattering across my chest and the hands pressed against it, as my whole body shakes with the effort to cough. I have to force my eyes to focus on the two worried faces above me, as I desperately gasp for air.

Finally, when I'm able to speak once again, I whisper, "That won't do much good. The bullet went through... I'm... I'm not going to live..."

There's a loud gasp, but I can't tell whose it is anymore, my eyes have blurred over too much. There the sound of someone running. Rolling my head to the side, I force my eye to see. Watching as Evelyn slid down next to me, something strange burning within her eyes.

"Don't you dare say that?" She nearly yells, "You are not going to die!" My heart hurt just listening to her broken voice.

I want to tell that she was right, I was not going to die. That I was going to be ok... But I couldn't as another round of coughing takes me, this time to don't even try to turn my head. My site completely blacks out; then it comes back ever so slightly. My lungs are gasping full out now, struggling for every little bit of air they could get.

"Kate you're going to be ok," someone assures, I can't tell who and honestly I don't care at this point. "You're going to be ok."

I want to tell every to stop worrying. That I hate to hear, them all sound so broken and scared. However, my voice doesn't work anymore. Instead, I feel the tears return to my eyes.

Then I stop breathing, my lungs struggling uselessly under the pressure against it. There's so much blood... it covers everyone... it's in my lungs, throat, mouth, nose, everywhere. I know this is it, my final minutes, and so do the other, and they panic.

"No! No! No! Don't you dare die! Do you hear me?!" one girl screams, shaking my shoulders, but my body is too heavy for me to control.

"Where the fuck are they?" One voice growls.

There's running footsteps, then a boy's voice. "Think I hear the sirens."

"They're not going to make it..."

"They have to!"

Two more voices join in the chaos. One the deep voice of Jesusa and high pitch (teen boy) voice of Jake, Both coming back to the group.

"Sh!t..."

"Is she..?"

She was cut off by someone else, "No!"

"Close..."

The girl I'm lying on moves, and I slump into my own blood with a splash. The footsteps are loud even with my fading hearing, followed by a thud as something hits a wall.

"What the fuck where you were thinking?! Kate had it under control, but no you had to play hero! You're the reason she's... she's... she's dying!"

Someone else starts to talk, but I can't make out what they're saying, and the two fighting doesn't care.

Jake's voice is the one that answers, anger dipping form every word, "Do not blame this on me! It's her fault for getting in the way. Or how about this, maybe she shouldn't have followed me!"

"She followed you to stop you! If you didn't have run off, we wouldn't be here in the first place. And she fucking saved my life or were you too busy playing hero to see that part!"

They weren't stopping, so I do the only thing I think of. Put the last of my power I raise my shaky, stained, hand a few inches into the air. Quiet follows the movement; suddenly five hands are holding on to mine.

There's another sound, but it's as if I was listening to it from underwater... and someone breaths, "They here."

"Too late..." I think as the strength leaves me.

And

I

Fade

Away

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Based on a true story.