The Failed Coward Read Online Free PDF Page B

Mrs. Goodell has him in there to keep him safe, she was waiting for the police to come.  I think if you go there, you might be able to calm her down.  Just gotta be calm, okay Dan?”
    “That crazy bitch.  There are no more police.  They’re all fucking dead.  I’m gonna go fix that bitch.  Get my son and get the hell out of here.”  Dan jabbed a finger at her and spun on his heels.  He marched out of the building and right past the confused and frightened parents in the lobby.  Amy felt the dread grow in her belly with a twisting ache.
     
    *****
     
    Less than half an hour later a dose of salvation walked up to Amy.  One of the overnight dorm supervisors had arrived on campus for reasons unknown to Amy.  He had no reason to think he had to work that night, but she was glad he arrived.  Adrian was the definition of man, holding a military style rifle and a pistol sitting menacingly on his hip, and when he walked silently onto the lawn to see what was going on with the worried group of parents, each and every other person shut their traps loud enough you could hear their teeth clinking together.  Adrian had a presence that politely demanded respect. Amy noted that her worry dissolved at the same time.  One person’s fear is another’s salvation, she dimly noted.
    “What the fuck happened to you Ring?”  Most of the staff here at Auburn Lake Preparatory Academy simply called Adrian “Ring.”  That was his last name.  As she asked him, she eyed the head to toe blood spatters and smears on his face and clothing.
    Adrian Ring looked down at his clothing and after a second to let the situation soak in he looked up at her and smirked. “It’s kind of shitty out there, and I’ve had a very long day in that shit.”  He nodded in the direction of the bridge that led towards town.
    Amy swallowed hard.  His expression said a lot.  Ring was a veteran, Army she thought, and she knew the scuttlebutt on campus said he had been in the shit in Iraq.  If he said it was bad, then it was bad.  Really bad.
    Adrian looked at the other parents with a mixture of sympathy and disgust.  Much like the other staff at the school the parents were often tolerated with disdain.  They were usually rich, usually assholes, and almost always got in the way of their children’s education and happiness.  Amy noticed that the longer Adrian was there, the less afraid of him they became.
    “What’s happened here today?  I was hoping this place would be empty.”  Adrian asked Amy as he slowly assessed the campus, looking for danger.  His wariness and experience with danger was as obvious to her as a street sign.  She felt safer and safer with every moment’s passing.
    Amy filled him in as the summer’s heat faded into the comfortable June night.  She had to stop a few times as they heard loud booms emanating from the direction of the school building Dan had headed to.  The parent’s frantic demeanors nearly leapt out of control.  Adrian calmed them down with a simple shush and a stare.  Amy couldn’t believe his presence and calm, even as she told him about the horror of watching the car crash turn into a horror scene.  All he did was nod at her, and smile gently as the emotions came back.
    She suddenly wished she’d talked to him more before today.  He was a pillar of strength, and she desperately needed someone strong to lean on.  After she’d stopped for the last time to listen to a gargantuan series of shotgun blasts, she told Adrian about the situation in the school building.  He stood there, impassive in the face of the parents pleading to him for help, until finally he spoke to all of them.
    “Get in your vehicles, or get in a building.  It isn’t safe out here.  I’m going to go to the classroom, and make sure that moron doesn’t kill a kid, or kill Mrs. Goodell, and I might even stop him from killing himself.”
    That elicited a small burst of nervous laughter from the parents.  Amy didn’t