Chapter 12: The War of Schools (Three)

  The moment I walked out of the library, I felt a very dangerous aura had locked onto me tightly.

  I had just walked ten steps towards the teaching building opposite the library when I heard someone shouting loudly, "Halt! Stand there and don't move, or you'll be shot dead on the spot!"

  The speaker's voice was filled with murderous intent, and I felt that his words were not just a simple warning, but he would really do as he said.

  So I stood still, raised my own hands and said loudly: "No matter who you are, now many of my classmates have fainted due to lack of food and water. I demand that you give me water and food immediately. My classmates can't wait any longer..." As I spoke, I saw a lot of bloodstains on the ground, and there were also many bullet shells scattered on the ground, but I didn't see anyone dead or injured, probably they had been taken away already.

  A person slowly walked out of the teaching building opposite, with a large mask on his face, only revealing a pair of eyes that seemed to be gleaming with ferocity. He spoke in a hoarse voice: "This is none of our business, we don't even have food and water for ourselves, what can we give you?"

  "So what should we do? Just watch as my classmates fall ill and even die from lack of food?"

  He raised his hand, and there was a gun in it. He said coldly, "What are you at school? A teacher or a student?"

  I honestly replied to him: "I am a student of the Student Union."

  That person hesitated for a moment: "I can allow you to go to the cafeteria of your school to fetch some water, but don't agree with me on one condition."

  I was overjoyed and hastily said: "You speak."

  That person stared at me for a moment, then slowly said: "You must first bring us a bucket of water, and only then can you give your classmates water to drink. How about it, will you agree or not?"

  I didn't dare refuse, nodded: "It's settled!"

  That man waved his hand, turned his head to look at the artificial forest about 100 meters away from the library, and said loudly: "I know that your troops are in the forest across the street. You must have heard my conversation with this classmate. If you agree to give us a bucket of water, we promise not to harm this classmate, and even let him take a bucket of water for his classmates to drink. How about it?"

  After a moment of silence in the woods opposite, someone shouted: "Let that classmate come over and fetch water!"

  I glanced at the person opposite me, saw him nodding, and then turned around and walked towards the woods.

  The area of this forest is not very large, the whole forest is less than one acre, it's an artificial afforestation. However, because this forest has existed for a long time, the trees inside are very big, with branches and leaves flourishing, almost reaching the sky.

  It is also for this reason that government troops have chosen this place as their base to strike at those ****.

  I walked to the edge of the forest, and a soldier immediately ran out of the forest. I was about to speak, but saw him winking at me repeatedly, as if telling me not to speak carelessly. So I stopped talking and followed him into the forest.

  At this time, a gunshot suddenly entered my ears, and at the same time, an angry voice came: "Don't go into the woods, go straight to the school cafeteria to get water!"

  I feel like something hit the mud behind me, and I can see the splashing dust.

  The soldier stopped in his tracks, looked back in the direction of the gunfire, and said to me in a low voice: "Someone will be waiting for you in the cafeteria later. He'll give you a military phone that you need to bring with you so we can get in touch."

  I nodded, indicating I knew, and he said loudly: "We have water here, no need to go to the cafeteria to get it."

  The man behind him wearing a mask hesitated for a moment, then shouted loudly: "No way, let him go to the cafeteria alone to get water! Don't play tricks, or I'll shoot him dead!"

  I felt a chill on my back, as if Death itself was standing behind me, and I turned pale with fright.

  That soldier nodded at me, and his eyes said it all.

  I took a deep breath and turned around to run towards the cafeteria in big strides.

  The canteen's gate was open, and at the time of the raid, no one had time to close it, so it remained open.

  I rushed into the cafeteria, but there was no one inside. I looked around and called out softly "Is anyone here?" But I still didn't see the person that soldier said would contact me.

  In the cafeteria, there was a small warehouse used to store food and water. I rushed in, not caring that the food hadn't been washed yet, stuffing some edible things into my mouth while putting high-calorie items into the pockets of my clothes. Unfortunately, my clothes only had two small pockets, which couldn't hold much. And if I stuffed too much, it would be easy to get caught. I also didn't dare take the large bags from the cafeteria warehouse to carry food, after all, the person wearing a mask hadn't allowed me to take food.

  The water was packed in a bucket, and one bucket weighed about thirty kilograms. I held a bucket of water with one hand and was about to go out when I saw a figure flashing at the door of the warehouse, and a soldier in casual clothes appeared in front of me.

  I was sure this person was a soldier the moment I saw him because he was holding something that looked like an ordinary mobile phone, and I judged that he was the soldier who had brought me the military telephone.

  He didn't introduce himself, but simply said briefly: "Press this red button and you can call us." He paused, then added: "When you go back, hide it well and don't open the door casually."

  I answered the phone and hid it in my pocket, turned around and walked out of the warehouse with big strides, still chewing on those raw vegetables. I need to keep enough physical strength, otherwise, these two buckets of water are not easy to carry back.

  The masked man was still there waiting for me, the gun in his hand never put down. I handed him a bucket of water and then said very carefully: "I... can go deliver water to my classmates now?"

  He nodded, saying nothing more, his attention focused on the several soldiers who had emerged from the woods. Those soldiers were apparently afraid that he would change his mind and harm me, so they stood up to monitor him.

  I rushed back to the library, and the classmates inside immediately opened the door to let me in. They were all worried about me one by one.

  I put down the water in my hand and said hastily: "Give the water to those who need it most, I still have some food here, quickly take it to give to those classmates who fainted."

  Some classmates quickly took the food and water I brought back from my adventure to rescue those who had fainted, so I took out the military phone that was close at hand, walked quickly up to the second floor, and pressed the red button.

  Soon, a voice came over the phone: "Hello, brave student, I am the highest commander here, thank you for your heroic performance just now."

  "I said hastily: 'That's right. Excuse me, when can we go out? Many of our classmates have fainted due to lack of food and water, they need help urgently...'"

  "My words had not yet faded away, when that voice said: 'Tell your classmates, we are already negotiating with the leader of the terrorist organization. We believe that within an hour there will be results and at that time we will rescue you as soon as possible. You were able to form a defensive line in the first place, blocking ****'s attack, great job!"

  I still wanted to ask about the situation outside, but the officer said: "The rest of the matters you can discuss with our liaison officer, I have military affairs to attend to now and won't say more. Goodbye, our hero!"

  My face turned red, being called a "hero" by an officer, I felt unprecedented pride and honor. It's not just me, even my classmates who could hear the voice coming from the phone next to me were all proud...

  But our current situation is not optimistic, it can be said that we are still on the line of life and death, if we are not careful, we may die without a place to bury us. So I immediately put away that thread of pride and self-esteem, and loudly said: "Classmates, we will be rescued soon, everyone hold on for a moment, our army will come to rescue us soon, everyone in this last moment, must hold on."

  Most of the classmates were overjoyed as soon as they heard, and suddenly came to spirit and strength. The fatigue caused by hunger before seemed to be swept away, and one by one was full of energy and vitality.

  As for those classmates who were originally injured or fainted, no matter what, they couldn't muster up the spirit. What they needed wasn't a few words of encouragement, but actual food, water, and medicine.

  Although the morale of my classmates has improved a lot, I still feel that this matter will not end easily and I am worried about one thing. That is, if the negotiations are unsuccessful, how much longer will we be trapped here? I'm afraid that when the time comes, classmates who have lost hope will no longer be able to hold on...

  We students plucked up our spirits and guarded all the doors and windows after which we once again connected the military's phone.

  The voice on the other end of the phone was that of a female officer: "Hello, I'm the liaison officer here. You can call me Sister Wang."

  I thought for a moment and carefully said: "Wang... Wang sister, may I ask, how much longer will it take before we can be rescued?"

  "Sister Wang" said without hesitation: "Please rest assured, we will do our best to rescue you as soon as possible. The specific time can't be said for now, it shouldn't be too long, can you hold on a little longer?"

  I know this thing is urgent and can't be rushed, so I won't say more about it. Instead, I asked: "Can you think of a way to airdrop some food and water into the library for us?"

  Sister Wang hesitated for a moment before saying, "We'll think of a way to deal with this. This incident happened too suddenly, so many of our troops and departments were unable to coordinate in time, and even now, not one military helicopter has been able to be assembled, so don't hold out too much hope."

  Actually, I know some situations in this city. For some reason, there is no air force stationed in this city, and there are no military aircraft at all. The only medical helicopter is also very old, and it's questionable whether it can be used or not.

  The nearest air force to the city is also thousands of miles away, and it takes a lot of time to gather troops to participate in battles or airdrop supplies. It's precisely because of this that there was no air force participation even ten hours after the attack occurred.

  I understand in my heart, but still hold a certain hope: "Then you see if it's possible, between the forest where you are and the library where we are, there is a building, which is the school's cultural and artistic museum. This cultural and artistic museum is less than fifteen meters away from our library, and this cultural and artistic museum is a bit higher than our library. Can you see if it's possible to throw some food and water from the top floor window of the cultural and artistic museum into our window?"

  "We'll send someone over right away and if possible, I'll contact you immediately."

  I felt a little relieved, so I hung up the phone and began to carefully observe the windows on the second floor of the library that were close to the Cultural Arts Museum.

  Mr. Wang came over and whispered, "Jin Cang, we've been trapped here for so long, many classmates think that waiting for others to rescue us isn't the best solution, they say they want to try escaping from school on their own. What do you think about this..."

  I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, so I didn't feel surprised. I just patiently said to Teacher Wang: "Teacher Wang, look at the situation now. If we rashly leave from here, who can guarantee that those **** will let us go? What if those **** take us as their hostages or simply shoot us... Do you think it's too risky to rush out now?"

  "Actually, I also know that going out now will be very dangerous, but we are trapped here, without food or drink, what can we do?"

  I told Teacher Wang in great detail about my conversation with Sister Wang earlier, and finally said: "I think it won't be long before someone comes to rescue us. Besides, as long as we have water and food, we can wait a little longer, safety first!"

  "Alright, I'll go talk to those classmates again and ask them to wait another hour. If no one comes to rescue us within an hour, I think it's okay to follow their suggestion and try to leave this place."

  I knew there was no better way now, so I nodded: "You can tell them that it's okay to wait a bit longer, but don't say just one more hour, at least two or three hours."

  Mr. Wang was in a dilemma: "If we let them wait for another hour, it might be okay, but if it's two or three hours, I'm afraid some people won't agree."

  I had no choice but to shake my head: "If they don't agree, then let them go by themselves. Anyway, we can't rescue everyone immediately, and who knows, maybe they'll be able to save themselves after they leave..."

  Teacher Wang looked at me and didn't say anything else, then turned around and went to talk with those classmates.

  I glanced at the time on the military phone, it was already 11 o'clock in the morning. No wonder some people couldn't control themselves and wanted to leave here to find another way out. We had been trapped for too long.

  I couldn't help but call Wang Jie again and told her about the situation here, then I got some information: The government has been in formal negotiations with the leader of the terrorist organization, whether we can be rescued in the shortest time will likely have an answer soon.

  I felt extremely tired and couldn't care about the dust and dirt on the ground, so I sat down where I was, leaned against the wall beside me, and quickly fell asleep.

  Five minutes later, I opened my eyes and felt much better. Then I felt that the surroundings were a bit too quiet, so I hurriedly looked around and found that most of my classmates were leaning against the wall and sleeping.

  One night without sleep, plus nothing to eat, everyone was really too tired, and it was really impossible not to rest.

  I didn't disturb the sleeping classmates, but went upstairs to see those who had fainted, chatted with them in a low voice, and then waited for Wang Jie and others to think of ways to get us some food and water.

  As long as we have food and water, we can wait a little longer, and our chances of being rescued will also be greater.