I'd have to go back for them.
My heart sank.
I huffed then turned around and headed back to the lab. Maybe I'd luck out and Professor Bradley would have left already. I knew as soon as I swiped my keycard to get into the building, headed inside then climbed the stairs, and walked to where the hallway leading to the lab was located that once again luck had left me.
I stopped at the corner when I heard people talking.
Professor Bradley stood in the hallway outside the computer lab talking to another man. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place him. I was pretty sure from his fancy black Armani suit that we didn't socialize. My friends tended to wear jeans and T-shirts.
Their discussion seemed rather heated. Professor Bradley was gesturing wildly, and he had a glint of desperation in his eyes. The well-dressed man was simply giving him an angry-looking glare. A larger man stood behind him. He was dressed similarly, except he had a suspicious bulge under his suit jacket. Having hung around Hank and his fellow soldiers for awhile now, I knew it was a gun.
Who would need a gun in a computer lab?
I debated going home instead of getting my gloves, but I was already here. I might as well follow through. I started to take a step toward the long hallway when the door behind the professor opened and Michael stepped out.
"Hey, Professor." Michael smiled as he nodded to the guy in the suit then started walking down the hallway toward me. "Night."
He had taken just a couple of steps when the guy in the suit nodded his head toward Michael. Professor Bradley's shoulders slumped. "Michael, I need to speak to you for a moment."
I almost called out in protest when Michael turned and walked back. My skin began to prickle with unease. I could feel the odd creature that lived inside of me screeching that we were in danger.
When Michael reached the three men, the muscular one drew his gun and pointed it at him. Michael screamed and turned to run. The man with the gun simply raised it into the air and pulled the trigger, shooting Michael in the back.
I knew Michael was dead even before he slid to a stop mere feet from me. He stared off into space, unblinking, as a pool of blood began to spread across the tiled floor beneath him.
"Did you have to shoot him?" Professor Bradley asked.
"Yes," one of the other men replied, "I did."
"How am I going to explain this?"
Confessing to murder would be a good start.
"That is not my problem, Professor. It is yours."
"Mr. Atkins—"
I flinched when I heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh.
"No names, you fool," the man snarled. "Someone could hear you."
Someone did.
"No one is here," the professor insisted.
Wanna bet?
"The school closed hours ago, and Michael was the last one here."
Wrong again.
But I knew I'd be in the same position as Michael if I didn't get out of there. I turned to head back down the stairs, but screamed instead when I ran into a wall of hard muscular flesh. I instinctively struck out with my claws, raking them down the face of the man grabbing for me. He cried out and grabbed his face, which freed me to run around him.
I raced for the stairs just as fast as my feet would carry me. I reached the bottom of the stairs and started to run toward the front doors when I saw two men dressed similarly to the shooter upstairs coming toward the doors.
I wanted to run back upstairs, but that was out. I could hear arguing on the second floor landing. That didn't leave me a lot of options. I glanced toward the large cement planter in the middle of the lobby.
It was big, taking up a good fifty percent of the main floor. The planter itself was surrounded by tall flowers and plants with a water statue in the middle. Granted, the water wasn't on at the moment, but the plants were tall enough, I might be able to hide in them.
