Chapter 8 - LOCKDOWN
Rain hammered the windshield.
I wasn’t cleared for field duty with Titan suspended and hospitalized, but nobody had time to argue.
Harris drove.
I worked the radio.
“School status?”
“Lockdown active.”
“Suspect?”
“Last seen west side.”
“Container?”
“Still with him.”
We arrived to chaos.
Parents gathering behind police lines.
Teachers pulling blinds.
Officers moving around the building.
A school security guard ran toward us.
“He went behind the gym.”
“Did he enter the building?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What was he carrying?”
“Gray case. Both hands.”
Harris drew his weapon.
“Mercer, stay with the perimeter.”
I looked at him.
“Not happening.”
We moved along the fence.
Rain soaked my uniform.
My boots slipped in mud.
Then I saw something beside a dumpster.
Gray plastic.
Open lid.
Empty.
“Harris.”
He stopped.
“Oh, hell.”
We backed away.
“Dispatch, suspect container located open. Possible dangerous animal release.”
A scream came from inside the school.
Then another.
My blood froze.
We ran toward the nearest door.
A teacher opened it.
“Officer!”
“What happened?”
“Something’s in the hallway!”
“What?”
“I don’t know! One of the kids saw a snake!”
Harris looked at me.
“This guy released them inside a school.”
We moved through the corridor.
Children were locked inside classrooms.
Teachers shoved towels beneath doors.
Over the intercom:
“Remain in lockdown. Do not enter hallways.”
Then I heard it.
Rattle.
Not one.
Two.
Different directions.
“Damn it.”
Animal control was still eight minutes away.
Eight minutes is nothing on a clock.
It’s forever when venomous snakes are loose inside an elementary school.
A classroom door cracked open.
I snapped.
“Close that door!”
A boy’s terrified face appeared.
“Our teacher fell.”
“What?”
“She went outside to get Noah.”
“Where?”
He pointed down the hallway.
“Library.”
I exchanged a look with Harris.
We moved.
Near the library entrance, a woman lay against the wall.
Conscious.
Crying.
“I got bit.”
My chest tightened.
Harris called medical.
I crouched.
“Where’s the student?”
She pointed toward the library.
“Noah’s inside.”
“Alone?”
She nodded.
Then we heard glass break.
Not from the library.
From behind us.
Pike stepped through an emergency exit.
He saw us.
Dropped something.
Ran.
“Police! Stop!”
Harris chased him.
I looked down.
Another plastic container rolled across the floor.
Its lid popped open.
Something dark slid out.
Now I had two choices.
Chase the man who had started all of this—
or enter a library where a child was trapped with a venomous snake.
May you like
Then a small voice screamed from behind the library door.
“HELP ME!”
