Shin-Ae Yun was usually a master of calming herself down. Or at least she considered herself that way. Nothing important, really; the occasional scuffle at school that she tried to break up, the occasional awkward moment with her mom at home, all these
little things that she'd considered important, she was good at coming down from without anybody really knowing.
This was not one of those things.
She leaned against the wall underneath the clock in Mr. Potter's room with a few other students; Hera, Quinn, Ethan, Aaron...she paused a moment, trying to remember the other girl's name. She had in her head somewhere, she knew, but she'd talked to her so little in the past she couldn't quite place it. Something with a J. She'd figure it out later, when she managed to calm herself down. Eventually. She tried to get her heart to beat in time with the
tick-tock of the second hand, but she couldn't manage deep breathing, couldn't slow her heart. She'd been in the front row of seats in the auditorium; consequently, when the entire flipped the switch and decided to go insane, she'd been mostly clear from the stampede that had claimed so many. All things considered, her version of the entire nightmarish experience wasn't all that bad compared to a lot of people.
That didn't make it much better to think about.
School had always been extremely important to Shin-Ae. For obvious reasons, of course, but also because she genuinely cared for the place and wanted to see both it and the people in it happy and prosperous. Being happy and prosperous did not involve watching someone's throat get ripped out by the treasurer's
teeth. She was hyperventilated and didn't realize it until she started to get lightheaded; she managed to calm herself down after that, if only to the point where she was no longer maybe going to pass out. For
that reason, of course, there were a few others.
What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.For what must've been the tenth time that minute, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her flip phone, checking for texts, missed calls, anything. She'd tried to call both of her parents and the home phone, but nobody had picked up. She didn't text much because texting with a flip phone numpad was a pain, but she'd texted both of them too, as well as her vice president Simon Creighton. Eerie radio silence, all of it.
Hera spoke; the first voice that she'd heard in something other than a
scream, or a gurgled bubbling noise, or a
no, help me! in quite a few minutes, and twitchy as she was right now, she nearly jumped out of her skin. A moment later, J girl responded, and her words were surmounted with a simple question:
"And unless we intend to join them, we're going to need a way out. Any ideas?" Shin-Ae finally managed to take one or two deep breaths, enough to think about the question.
She thought a moment before responding, trying to keep herself calm once again, to keep the tremble out of her voice. She absolutely did not succeed.
"
I think...our best bet would be the doors near administration, I think? People don't tend to use them very often, so they might not be too crowded right now. Or maybe if we get to roof access we can climb down somehow."