The bell rang, and it interrupted Ms. Laozina’s last lecture of the day. Before she could give details about the exam review, the students swarmed to the door and left the classroom. Along with kids and teenagers from the other rooms and floors, Neha and Sachen were at odds with the traffic again. The claustrophobia resulting from a lack of space, they could barely breathe—thus the girls held still in one place while the students hacked their way through. And it was soon that most of the kids gathered around the bulletin board, and they looked close to what at first appeared to be ordinary pieces of paper.

The pair went near the stairs and overheard the raucous voices from the middle of the hallway. While the girls waited for the results of their plans, the students scratched their heads. They wagged their fingers, and as though they had became detectives, they scrutinized the documents, in an effort to understand what was so special and strange about the papers. There was one classmate that said the documents could be a forgery, or more distressing, they might be papers which stemmed from a group of conspirators, who possibly forced Yebuka to sign the operations against his own will. Some classmates agreed, others did not. The others sought to refute the person’s conclusion; they stated that the Lama would never sign such things, and that he would arrest them even if they forced him to agree the terms. All in one space, the students spewed insults. They rolled up their sleeves, poked their noses at each other’s faces, and denounced one another for being in the wrong. It seemed to the girls that their plan backfired, for Sachen had never expected for the students to get to this point right off the bat. But she assured herself that things would turn out well.

Among the commotion, the Young Guards intervened immediately. They tried to break off the crowd in the hallways and shoved them back to their classrooms—but the students pushed the group to the corner. Yelling, the majority choked off the Young Guards from getting to the middle area. In a few seconds of the blockade, the president of the high school section steered himself to the bulletin board, and he got his eyes close to the documents. Instantly he wailed and fumed. From the red seal alone, he said that he could never fathom these things being exposed out in the open—it seemed too overwhelming. A second look at the papers, and the president fainted, and his colleagues escorted him off for first aid. Sachen didn’t know what just occurred, neither did Neha. Perhaps the president had contracted an illness.

The students continued their clamors regardless. Their noise growed and stirred into the air, conjuring about a rising tempest. Outside, a battalion of the Holy Army, specifically the ones from the northern gate, arrived without invitation. The soldiers hoisted their rifles and beared the dove on their breastplates, prepared for their malicious acts. Three senior officers, including the fat man, swerved their unit to the front door, and since they had feathers on the top of their helmets, they were distinguishable in sight. Then as soon as they were at the doors, the youth noticed them—and they jumped. They surged through the doors and headed to the flagpole area, feeling the fire developing in their hearts.

The fat officer, when he saw the kids, emerged from the battalion. His belly stuck out of his armor, his cheeks were bloated. His smile turned crooked. “It must be a fine day youngins! All of you scram off now, for we are about to do a thorough inspection of your school to see if it’s safe or not! Don’t be shy, run along and go home to your mommies and daddies!”

The young ones clamped their mouths, and they burst in sweat and gazed around as not to stare at the officer’s face. The high school students encircled the soldiers, protecting the little pupils for the sake of their safety. It was then they were shackled in rage.

“What is the meaning of this?!” a girl with a ponytail said. She thrust her fist forward to one of the soldiers’ faces. “How dare you have the audacity to attack your own people?! Shame on you, you are the devils of the world! Get out of here!”

A boy next to her stepped up. “You were the ones who forced the Lama to agree with your evil plans! Do not clam up, speak the truth right now! We want to get to the bottom of this!”

The fat man snickered. “What are you talking about? Calm down kids, there’s nothing to worry about.” He nudged the shoulders of his skinny companion. “Nothing wrong at all, is that right lad? Haha!”

“Um sir, you do realize that they are angry at our presence,” the grunt said. “What is the matter with them anyway?”

“I don’t know! But we should get our troops inside!” Seeing that the other officers were leading the battalion, the two men followed suit—but suddenly, they couldn’t get themselves through the doors. Too many people, not enough space. Then in turn to this, the teenagers linked their arms and legs, and with scowls they hacked spitballs towards the grunts’ foreheads. The senior officers uttered countless warning, but the student body did not budge an inch. The kids that were outside the encirclement held each other, not wanting to get hurt. As for Neha and Sachen, the girls rushed to the door of the stables and witnessed the standoff. Sachen still thought the plan would succeed in no time, given that the student body was outnumbering the battalion, a display of power—but success would not come without difficulties. The situation would spiral into something unexpected.

After the refusal to surrender to the warning, the officers sneered. Then they ordered for their men to summon their rifles. The soldiers brought their guns and targeted the teenagers right between the eyebrows. Holding their fingers near the trigger, no hesitation came forth—from the flare of their eyes, they were ready to fire upon the students. Without anything to bear in comfort, Neha and Sachen could only watch. The latter stood speechless, and her lips convulsed. It arrived to her assumption that there’d be bloodshed of the innocents, thus it left her worried of what she had done, of how their actions had led to this. Regret dwelled within her. Of course she didn’t know this would happen—her little mind presented to her the triumph of the plan being guaranteed, without any harm or drawbacks. A child would always think everything in short-sightedness, wanting something to happen immediately, pondering of nothing else. One could say the same to Sachen. As much as such a thought came to her at a desperate time, she kept her head up. It was only a matter of patience and time, and for sure she needed them.

Sachen gulped. She clasped her hands behind her friend’s shoulders. As the battalion were about to open fire, the Young Guards swooped to the grounds and carved a narrow passage among the masses. The group confronted the unit. They told the soldiers they could go inside now—only if they withdrew their firearms. The officers agreed, and as they walked along the passage, the students bombarded them with insults, and all they responded with was a grin. The unit then went to the hallways, and seeing the posters around them, they slapped each other’s chests and laughed. The teenagers crowded the windows, banging their hands against the glass. The kids joined in too.

Upon the bulletin board, the officers set their eyes on the documents. Nothing seemed to catch their attention at first, but when they read the whole thing, they stood back. The second time the officers perused through the whole papers, they did it again—and the third time, again. Their mouths hinged open. Red blotches stained their cheeks. Steam coming out of ears and nostrils, the officers hit their heads on the wall behind them. The soldiers looked at the documents also. They reacted the same.

“W-what the hell?!” The chubby officer buried his nails on his neck, and choked on his saliva. “The documents were here the whole time?! I didn’t know that!”

“I told you to hold onto them,” the companion said.

The man cleared his throat. “I was looking for them for more than a day, ever since somebody broke into the shed! I don’t have an idea of who did it!” He held his hands together and cried out in consternation. One officer, a tall one, nabbed the inflated man’s collar and jabbed his rifle to his large stomach.

The tall man gritted his teeth. “What in God’s name is this? You sir, were supposed to be responsible for holding the papers! And they happened to make their way to this school, out of all places?! Wait a minute. You and your scrawny friend there were drunk the day that the documents went missing. Perhaps you sneaked them into that jelly grease among the crevices of your stomach, and you purposely sent the papers flying all the way here! And just maybe, when you were intoxicated and full of yourself, you went into the shed and took a piss, along with your little buddy!” His eyes kindled. Imaginary smoke pillared from his nostrils.

“What?! I swear, I didn’t take them with me!” the overweight man said, he bawled with tears. “I left them in the shed, and I once swore that I’d retrieve and bring them back to the northern gates, so that we can implement the authorization! I did not do anything, not at all!”

“Lies, all lies huh? As expected of you.” The senior swiveled his gun along the layers of the man’s fat. “One click from this, and your remains will become a harvest.”

“No please! Anything but this! Oh!” The officer bowed down and kissed the person’s feet, begging for mercy. A single shot could guarantee a bloodbath, something that the students wouldn’t tolerate to see.

The next thing that occurred, somebody from one of the classrooms traipsed her way to the battalion. Wheezing her lungs out, Ms. Laozina approached them. Her eyes glared, and she scrunched her eyebrows. “What is going on?” she inquired. “Who the heck are you people? I demand an explanation!”

The tall guy replied, “I don’t know. But you can ask this piece of lard right here. Apparently, he knows everything.”

“Oh?” The moment the teacher saw the accused man, she recoiled. There was a faint smile on his faint face. In return to such an expression, she stomped the overweight man’s belly and smacked him in the face. “Give me an answer! Right now!”

“Um, I... ah!” No words could defend him. His face turned cold, and he screamed and rolled around on the floor. The officers and soldiers, including the skinny companion, guffawed from the man’s plight. As the teacher started to pester him on an endless amount of questions, he locked his mouth shut. At this rate, the battalion seemed more focused on this humiliation than their plan, which would have made things easier.

The tall officer squinted. “I guess we are caught. There’s no use bottling it. But the part where we supposedly intimidated the Lama, that cannot be anymore false.”

The battalion hung their heads, exhausted. They complained that their unit had walked all the way here for an inspection, only for the students to contest and interrupt them. All of that, and they were about to break down. Now with the school realizing their plans, along with the truth behind the first raid, the loss compelled them to fall back and retire. Could they carry such shame from here? It was possible, from this point on, that they’d never come here again, as it looked like they had nothing to fight for.

Thanks to the setback, the troops threw punches and kicks at each other. Blood they drawn, teeth they broke. They spared not even themselves. In light to the tussle, Ms. Laozina and the other teachers repelled them out of the hallways, and the battalion returned outside, still immersed in their fight. Pulling armor, battering their chests with their guns, and lunging at their shoulders, they lost their attention to the students. This was what Sachen wanted, to see what how her classmates would respond to this open opportunity.

The teenagers and the little ones, together when the battalion was exposed, suddenly struck at the soldiers. The kids grabbed stones and sticks from the ground, and salvoed it upon the grunts. At the same time, the teenagers used all their collective power, and they jostled against the officers, not granting the opposition a moment’s haste to rally. In no less than a minute, the unit was overran, though they remained. The teachers and the Young Guards, awestruck, staggered to the side, unable to stop the storm. Amidst the students lacking armor protection, their numbers made up the strength, and surely it could weaken the soldiers. Facing hundreds of angry youth was not something to take light of.

While it transpired, Sachen marveled at the chaos. She jumped and giggled, seeing that success was in the horizon. Neha squealed, she closed her eyes as to not witness the horror.

“You should see all of this!” Sachen said. “Because of you and me, a lot of crazy stuff is happening!”

“No need to be so enthusiastic,” replied Neha. “But it can’t be helped.”

Sachen puffed her chest. “Now our classmates and upperclassmen know about the truth, nothing else matters for today. What’s important is that at least with this chaos, the situation might be able to prevent another attack from happening again.”

Neha nodded. She opened her eyes. “That’s good. I feel a little bit safe because of those papers. Thanks.”

“No problem!” Then Sachen saw the overweight officer wallowing in his tears. “Haha, look at that guy! He is literally going to pass out!” She laughed more and more until she ran out of breath. “So what are we going to do now?”

“How about we stay here for a little bit, so that we can see what is going to transpire...”

Neha’s voice died down. She slumped her shoulders. All the sudden she eyed at the school gates, leaving Sachen hanging.

“Hey, what’s the matter Neha?” Sachen grabbed her hands and shook them as to get her attention. But her friend didn’t respond. “You must be really sick. Come on, let’s go home as soon as-”

Sachen stopped. Something heavy was in the air. The cacophony from the riot, they drowned in her ears—she could hear nothing but the rushing of blood through her head. For a moment time was at a standstill. Like her friend, Sachen arrowed her gaze at the gates. There was someone coming forth—someone familiar. Sachen thought it was a mirage. But no sooner than ever did she realize it was that person who would come to grapple the girls into shock. No time could reserve an individual worse than anybody else.

The person floated along the side of the encirclement. Nobody saw, beckoned, or even glared at the strange. It was as if he or she was a phantom. As the person was coming close, Sachen froze like a statue—screams and whimpers, she could not eject them. She tried to get back her composure, but it was too painful just to move. And before she knew it, the person materialized in a blink of an eye. Wearing a hooded robe with long black hair, she smirked. It was too late to run away.

The individual, who spoke of nothing, plucked the two of them by the back of their collars, and dragged them away from the mass. The girls struggled to slip off. Neha choked, and from the suffocation, she flailed her entire body. Sachen grated her head against the person’s lower back, but the latter strengthened the grip more on her collar. In another attempt, the girl dipped her lower weight to the ground to drop herself—but that failed.

By now, they were at the streets, inches away from the gates. No possibility of calling for help. The person ferried them into an alleyway, then dumping them. Neha and Sachen recollected their breaths, and as they did, the person lifted the hood.