But another thought occupied their relieved state soon.
The hall's door was already broken, it was no longer safe to stay there. They couldn't get out through the main door, who knew if that creature was still there or not!
Ryan looked around and soon found a way. The back door of the auditorium, at the left side of the podium, was half-opened. That door opened to a narrow corridor, which led to the back side of the school. He calculated quickly — they could escape through the corridor and then find another classroom to hide in.
He took a deep breath and called out.
"Guys, c'mon, exit through the back door. We have to find a safe classroom soon. This room's door is already broken, we can't stay here anymore."
They all agreed and fled towards the back door. Ryan, along with a couple of students helped the injured to move out. Some of them fainted, some were groaning in pain, and some had to be carried by them.
This corridor was not used frequently; it was only wide enough for two people to pass through at once. None of them had ever set foot in this corridor before, they only saw it in the school's navigation guide.
"Anyone, have anything for defense?" Someone among them asked hopefully.
"I have a pepper spray in my bag, but I guess that's of no use." The earlier girl from the hall replied.
Ryan noticed a large crossbody bag on her shoulder, a small teddy bear swinging from it. Even now, when most of them abandoned their belongings, she didn't forget to bring her bag along!
'Interesting!'
But keeping that thought to himself, he focused on the important thing — how'd they defend themselves if another attack happened before they could find a safe haven?
It was obvious that they didn't have anything; the academy would never allow them to bring weapons, right?
"Hey, don't waste time here; let's move quickly; we have to find a suitable shelter."
Someone from the crowd said out loud. All of them nodded in agreement, then proceeded forward.
Walking through the narrow corridors was becoming difficult, especially with so many wounded people with them when they were over a hundred in number.
But somehow, they felt safe because of the high chance of this corridor going unnoticed.
Soon after, they arrived at a space in front of the stairs, at the intersection point of four corridors. All of them searched hurriedly for a suitable place, standing in an open space like this was not at all safe.
"Look there!" Someone from the crowd said. Ryan glanced in the direction he pointed out; it was the sports equipment room.
"Perfect!" The girl exclaimed. "Though it's a smaller room to fit all of us well, there's a lot of equipment that we can use for defense purposes. And it's the corner most room; no one'll find us so soon. Brilliant!"
They sped towards and strode into the room. Closing the door carefully behind them, they settled wherever they could — on the ground, on baskets, even on tables.
Ryan settled himself on a giant wooden box. Beside him sat the girl, leaning on the wall. The incident was getting on everyone's nerves.
"Hey, it's Sylvia, you?" The girl asked, with a subtle smile.
"Ryan." He returned a smile.
His mind was racing through the only question he had as of now.
'Who they are! And how have they managed to enter the school campus!'
It had been half an hour since they entered the equipment room, though they felt they were there for a lifetime.
One of them searched out a first-aid kit from a drawer; they had given some painkillers to the injured students and bandaged their wounds roughly to stop bleeding. It was not enough, but as mere teen high schoolers, they couldn't do anything much.
None of them knew what was happening outside, but the sound of fighting outside was gradually fading. After about fifteen minutes or more, all the sounds stopped coming.
No footsteps. No slamming. No howls.
Just silence — absolute, unnatural.
'Did the elites take control of the situation already?' Ryan thought.
But until the principal's announcement, they couldn't go out. All they had left to do was simply wait.
And as that, another half an hour passed, but nothing happened. There wasn't a single sound outside, but the principal's order also didn't come as well.
The room was too small to fit over a hundred people; it started feeling stuffy. They all were sweating in the closed room; some of the seriously injured students' condition had worsened a bit, and one had already fainted. With every minute passed, their patience grew thinner.
"What the hell is going on, man!" Someone said frustratedly. "Where's all?"
The same thought lingered in everyone's mind.
'Why hasn't anyone come for us?'
The elites were probably still busy fighting, but the others? Already more than one hour had passed, but not a single guard or teacher came to find them! As if they were left alone in this building!
Amidst all this chaos, a student sitting at a corner suddenly asked. "Hey, any of you have a mobile? Mine doesn't have any signal." His brows were furrowed deeply; his gaze was fixed on his mobile's screen.
During the attack, most of the students left their belongings in the hall, and only fifteen to twenty students had their phones with them and carried them in their pockets.
All of them started checking their phones. Until now, they were so shocked by the successive events that they forgot about the device that could potentially bring help to them from outside.
But as soon as they checked their phones, their eyes were wide open.
"There's no signal in my phone too!" Sylvia muttered, looking at her phone; followed by the same answer from all the others.
'That's strange! Not a single phone can catch signals! What's going on?'
"I think we should go out to check on what's happening." Suddenly, Ryan spoke.
"Are you crazy? What made you so eager to die so soon, bro?" A boy from beside exclaimed.
"He's not wrong though." Before he could say anything more, suddenly, someone from behind spoke.
Ryan turned to look; it was Freddy, one of his classmates, an introvert like him, staying far away from unnecessary gossip and with a perfectly working brain.
"We can't stay confined here forever. The room already feels stuffy, and look at them-"
He pointed towards the injured students. "Their condition is worsening, do you think they can make it a shot if they aren't given proper treatment soon? We don't even have a bottle of water to drink. Who knows what the situation is!"
And... No one talked back. Each sentence Freddy uttered had a point.
"Me and Ryan going outside. Anyone else?" Freddy asked, but no one responded. He stood for a few seconds, then turned to Ryan. "Let's go."
Ryan jumped off the box, dusting off his pants. "Yeah, let's find out what's going on."