Rutherford was darker than I'd ever seen it. Due to the manual shutdown, the emergency lights had shut off too, so the only source of light was the windows, which the hallways didn't have many of.

Ian and I were crouched down in one of the halls, each of us holding a smoke bomb in our hands. His half-zipped backpack was filled with the rest for when we needed to reload. I peeked around the corner we were hiding behind-- there was a small group of teachers lingering not too far down the corridor.

I could make out parts of their conversation as they discussed the sudden loss of power, but tuned out when Ian whispered my name. I turned back to see him pulling out his lighter, a sudden glow in the darkness.

"Here goes nothing. You want to do the honors?"

"Sure," I replied, holding my smoke bomb up so he could light it. It wavered as I held it, and I realized I was shaking. Maybe I was more nervous than I thought.

He lit the fuse and I rolled the bomb towards the unsuspecting adults, watching as it traveled across the linoleum and slowed to a stop about a foot away from them. About three seconds later, green smoke began to pour out from it, quickly surrounding their feet and rising into the air.

We didn't wait around to see their reactions, but I could hear bursts of confusion and panic as we hurried away-- apart from their voices, our quiet footsteps, and the rustling of our clothes, the school was quiet, staff and students inside their classrooms, waiting for news about the power.

Ian lit another bomb and tossed it down the next hallway, not even stopping in the process. I threw one upstairs from a stairwell, following the plan. We all agreed we should stay on the first floor-- we didn't want to trap ourselves, so it was smarter to stay around exits. But even so, we needed to cover as much of the school as possible.

As we reached an intersection of four corridors, the sound of quick, heavy footsteps and the unmistakable jingle of keys started heading towards us. Ian and I halted, turning, trying to figure out which direction was unsafe, but the fog that was now filling the lower floor made it impossible to see far enough down the halls to tell if someone was coming.

The click of a walkie-talkie slowed the footsteps a bit, a gruff voice coming through from the other end. "Have you apprehended anyone yet?"

"We need to keep working," I whispered, grabbing Ian's wrist and leading him away from the noise as I reached for his open backpack.

"Keep working?" Ian turned to look at me, eyebrows raised as he stopped walking. "We need to leave."

Before I could respond, there were more approaching sounds-- more shoes against the tiled floor, and a voice ordering every hallway to be checked. Then there was a sudden hand on my arm, pulling me into a room.

Ian shut the door and we were plunged into total darkness. The lingering smell of ammonia made me assume we were in a janitor's closet, which proved to be correct once Ian unlocked his phone, the illuminated screen just barely providing light.

Our bodies were practically flush against each other, unable to move apart in the small area.

"We keep ending up like this," Ian noted, a tinge of humor in his voice.

"We can't leave," I insisted, ignoring his joke. What I couldn't ignore was how close we were, or the way my heart quickened its pace and my knees turned weak-- the feelings that were supposed to be a fluke had returned full force, and as much as I wanted to blame the fact that I was breathing in chemicals, I knew that wasn't the reason.

"Maddie, they've got security scouring this place for us, it's not safe," Ian argued.

I forced myself to focus, reminding myself where I was and why. "We barely even touched the second floor--"

"And we won't manage to anyway if we get caught. It's too big of a risk. At this point we're lucky if we even make it out without someone seeing us."

"For someone who has such an issue with my boyfriend, you sure sound a lot like him right now," I huffed.

He scoffed. "This is not the same thing."

"How?"

"Because I'm here! I'm here with you, doing the challenge. You can't ignore that just because I'm not being stupid and handing myself over to security."

"Oh, so I'm being stupid?" I asked, barely remembering to keep my voice down.

"No, that's not--" he sighed, looking away. "You're thinking with your heart right now, not your head, okay? You know we should leave but your motive is important to you--"

"Yeah, it is. Not that I expect you to understand that--"

"Well I do understand it," he said, brow furrowing. "Maddie, I wouldn't even be here if I didn't."

"I... What?" I fumbled over my words in confusion, the harshness of my voice fading away. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying I'm here because I think your motive is important, and because I think you deserve to win. Look, I wouldn't do something like this just for money-- the basketball court had something in it for me, which is why I agreed. But if you hadn't told your story, I probably wouldn't have stuck around for this."

The fluke feelings increased tenfold. "You're doing this for me?"

"Yes."

I didn't know how to respond to such a shameless admission. More footsteps passed by our door, forcing us into silence, where the word echoed in my mind. Once they were gone for sure, Ian continued.

"Maybe Daniel's bad attitude isn't the only reason I'm not so fond of him. Maybe it just so happens I'm a little jealous."

My eyes widened, a hot rush of blood traveling through me. I wished we were having this discussion somewhere else, where we didn't have to be so close, or where I at least felt like I could breathe. "Ian, you don't even know me," I reasoned.

He shrugged. "Maybe not as well as I'd like, but enough to know I want to help you. Enough to know I'd like to get to know you better."

Before I could even sort out my spinning thoughts, the PA system clicked on.

"Staff and Students," Principal Herrings' voice echoed through the halls, muffled slightly from the other side of the door. "This is Principal Herrings. I urge everyone not to panic-- there is no fire in the school building. We believe this is nothing more than another escapade related to The Seven, and the smoke appears to be harmless. Even so, we're going to perform an emergency evacuation. Teachers, please lead your classes outside, following standard fire drill procedure at the sound of the alarm. Students, we're arranging buses to take you home."

There was a moment of silence before the fire alarm rang out.

"What should we do?" I asked, dropping the previous conversation. Right now we needed to focus on the task at hand, as difficult as that was going to be with what he just confessed.

Ian opened the door and the two of us stepped into the hall, watching as students and teachers began to file out of their classrooms.

"Close my bag," he instructed, turning his back to me. I zipped it up, hiding the leftover smoke bombs from view. He started walking, pace quick with urgency. I followed closely, trying not to lose him in the crowd or the haze.

"We should head for the exit closest to the meeting point," Ian spoke just loudly enough for me to hear. "This doesn't change the plan, it just means we can't let anyone see us going back into the woods."

More students were starting to merge into the halls, many covering their noses with their arms or their shirt collars. Despite what fire drills had aimed to teach us, the evacuation was already chaotic, some students sprinting for the exits, others searching for friends, and many pulling out their phones to record the event that was unfolding.

"I'd say that's a pretty big change to the plan," I argued, trying to look inconspicuous as more people filled the halls with us. "How exactly are we supposed to go unnoticed with the whole student body and every staff member lined up outside?"

Ian broke us away from the crowd, turning into an empty locker bank. "We need a distraction. Something to draw everyone's attention in the other direction."

"Any ideas?"

"A terrible one," he admitted.

"Probably better than nothing," I urged.

"You might take that back."

😬