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For the briefest ht the worst of it had passed with that single explosion, and I allowed hope to fill ain

But then a second blast ripped the air, and everything aroundat last Fro tiles, sharp and unforgiving I ducked beneath the lip of the sink, squeezing ainst the dust that chokedin the back ofin my ears, I heard screams and shouts, cries for help that filled the hallways beyond the closed door, reverberating in frantic discord

My eyes widened as I was suddenly aware that the bathroom wasn’t completely cloaked in blackness, not in the way it should be

Pale light sparked fro, breathing beacon I searched the rubble around s, and realized that there was a second source of light, faint but visible, co toward it on my hands and knees, I ed pieces that nicked and abraded my palround like an earthquake, and this ti else as well: the ununfire

I couldn’t stopupon whom

The door, when I finally reached it, arht o out there But I couldn’t stay here, cowering in the washroo my tomb if I didn’t at least try to escape

More screa o for it I had to

I used the handle to drag myself up, and I eased the door open Outside, the hallere blanketed in glooed the hairs insideit to cover et out of there

Students rushed past, pushingand more shots fired I keptnot to trip over the debris inI could see was ht that came from within me couldn’t penetrate the thick, black clouds that billowed everywhere It reflected off the s from me, as if I was the source of all this destruction

"Zafir!" My voice rasped, but it was lost in a tide of shrieks and chaos

I reached a door and I slid my hands over it as I slowed to peer inside the broken pane where ahad once been The classroom beyond was choked with the saht filtered in through the third-flooron the other side of the rooer students, barely older than Angelina, huddled together Hiding I recognized the s so hard I worried he’d sed tooss for real air

It was the first boy off the bus that : Phoenix

But it was the body of the instructor lying on the floor beside the, that made me realize I couldn’t just leave them there Half of her skull had been caved in fro plaster