“What’s that sound,” My eyes shifted from my textbook towards a boy directly across from me.
“Oh, they test our emergency siren every month. What time is it?” Replying, I looked back at my bool and continued to study.
Glancing at the clock confused, he replied with a time that slightly alarmed me.
“8:47”
My head jerked towards the calendar, now greatly alarmed. My heart began to jump, as no one were even slightly concerned with the noise.
“Ma’am, may I use the restroom?” I frantically ran out the room, with permission of course, pulling my phone out of my pocket.
No signal, no school internet. It was nearly impossible to check the news. Suddenly, my phone shut off without warning. Great, now I REALLY cannot check the news. Classroom doors began to open, teachers and students rushing out of the room. Frantically running towards the basement stairs.
“Kaitlin, let’s go!” I pushed the girl away from me.
I could not leave yet, not without my best friend. I scanned the hallways searching for the tallest boy in school. I saw a figure towering over the crowd in the distance. My breathing slowed a little more with each step I took towards him.
Ben and I had been through everything together. Piano lessons when we were six, youth basketball practices and camps from 3rd grade to 5th grade. Things got a little harder once we discovered that Ben would be moving across the state, leaving me behind in our small little town. Fortunately, six months later, my family also moved across the state. To the much larger town of Florence, South Carolina. Look at where we are now, seniors in high school, so close to graduating.
Noise snapped me out of my precious flashback, causing me to jump back into a small freshman with curly brown hair.
“Uh... Sorry.” I stuttered, turning my head to face him while continuing to walk forward.
“Ben!” I exclaimed, trying my hardest to push through the sea of students and teachers in front of me.
Suddenly the building began to shake, the lockers on the walls clattered together. The emergency siren grew louder as we rushed quickly to the basement. They told us this was the safest place in the school; no wonder it is everyone’s first choice. Students were screaming across the room just to communicate with their friends and teachers. I, however, stayed quiet trying to understand what could possibly be happening outside these walls. The basement grew louder and louder as people poured into the double doors. I looked up towards the ceiling, eyes closed, praying to God that this would soon end.
In my head rang those perfectly fitting lyrics, “You are God over the storm, and I am yours.”
The room’s noise softened as our principal walked through those doors, and in front of the crowd of frantic students and teachers. Running both his hands through his hair, he moved towards the microphone standing in front of him, “Ladies and gentleman, first of all, let’s remain calm in this unknown situation. We currently do not have any news about the situation, or if this is just a false alarm and they just hit the button. We don’t know, but we will do everything in our power to inform you as we are informed.”
The noise began again, only this time you could hear bits of crying from around the room. Every few people, including the teachers, were crying into their hands. We were all just confused; none of us knew what was happening. All I knew was that I had to find Ben; I had to be in the comfort of my best friend. There was no way I was getting through this without him. I suddenly remembered our hiding spot down here, how could I have possibly forgotten about it? We established it last school year that if either of us were in trouble, run to the basement. Directly past the second set of double doors, there is a door to the left that leads into the third floor boiler room. In the very back of the room, there is a small crawl space leading to another room.
I slipped out of the crowd, towards the door. A hand grabbed my shoulder and yanked me back into the sea of people. As I turned around to hit the person who grabbed me, I hear the sweet voice of my lifelong friend, “I’m right here Kat, there’s no need to break your neck trying to get back there.”
We exchanged words about the situation at hand, laughing and pointing out the biggest flaws in the perpetrator’s plan. I felt safer once I knew he was not going to leave my side, we were in this together.
The principal steps up to the microphone again, fixing his tie as he steps. There was something different about him this time. His face looked mechanic; he looked taller and much thinner than I remembered him being. He cleared his throat, “We now have word that this was just a false alarm, it is now safe to go outside. Let’s get some fresh air guys.”
Ben shifted his eyes towards me, giving me a look that I knew too well. I backed towards the double doors leading towards the boiler room. Pushing the door open slowly with my back, we ran.  Smacking into the second door to push it open and locking it behind us.
“Go! They’re behind us.” Ben screamed as I pulled the cover away from the crawl space entrance, throwing myself into it. In the process, I smacked my head against the wall. The blood poured from a small cut on my forehead. Ben crawled in backwards like usual to pull the covering back over the entrance.
Wiping the blood off my head with his shirt, Ben sighed. He crossed his legs and opened his arms, waiting for me to crawl into his lap. A thing he knew was always necessary if I was scared, and he knew my feelings right now. I shook my head at him, wanting to sit by myself and think.
We heard the loud knocks on the boiler room door, the deep yelling from outside. I jumped with every knock on the door. My heart again felt like it was going to jump out of my body. I pulled out my phone to check if it had turned back on, and I was surprised to see that it had and I had what seemed like a billon text messages, “Are you okay?!” “What’s going on?” “Are you inside and safe?” “Kaitlin!”
What seemed like hours later, the knocking finally stopped and the yelling faded. We looked at each other seemingly; ready to get out of here. Ben stood up from his spot and reached out to grab my hand, “Let’s go figure out what’s happening, pretty girl.”
We crawled out and made our way slowly to the boiler room door, peaking over the door I saw a body lying on the ground by it. Ben pushed me behind him, making sure I do not see whom it is. My heart started pumping quickly again, as I stepped around the corner to find my friend lying by my feet. I kept down my tears as we past her, avoiding stepping on her dead body. Once we reached the double doors, we stopped. Listening carefully he overheard our principal from outside the door, “It worked, they’re all gone. Step 1 is complete, commencing step 2 as we speak. Let’s get all of our ships down in the storage by the playground, go before it detonates.”
I gasped, covering my mouth; I stepped back towards the boiler room. I could no longer hold back my tears, hitting the ground I tried not to let out single noise as we were trying to keep him from noticing us. Ben turns towards me whispering, “He’s gone, and there’s no one else in there as far as I can tell. I am going to go in and check it out. I’ll be back.”
“No! You are not going anywhere without me! I am not losing you Ben; you are all I have right now. I do not know if my family is okay, I do not know if I have a place to live. Right now, I am relying on you and this basement. What if you get killed out there? How am I going to live with myself?” I punched the ground, therefore realizing it was concrete.
“Listen Kaitlin, I do not want to lose you either. That is exactly why you are staying right there, in that floor. I’ll be back I swear.” He pushed the door open, and he was gone. 
He turned back and motioned for me to come with him. Pushing open the doors, I slowly followed behind him, making sure there were no other humans in the room. The doors to the outside were wide open, letting just the slightest bit of light inside. We stepped outside and the little bit of sun that was left in the sky shown through the clouds.
“Kaitlin, look over there.” Ben says pointing towards the opposite side of the field. The clouds opened up slightly in that spot to reveal a dark figure standing in the distance.
“What is that...?” I backed up towards the open doors back into the building when a flash of light shined right on us.
Suddenly a loud explosion and a bright light flashed. I only remember the fading noise of the final emergency alarm. I remember hitting the ground with Ben by my side. My life ended better than I ever imagined, given the nuclear war starting and all.