Everything happened so fast, and Maddy's head was empty of thoughts.

One moment she had her foot on the sill, a steady surface beneath her legs, and then the next one she was... flying.

She jumped outside the window with a leap, and, for a split second, it felt like she was actually flying. That familiar, yet alien sensation from her nightmares, the sensation of falling into the void, into a black abyss of nothingness, and those few seconds of weightlessness got a gasp ripped out of her mouth, her adrenaline pumping. She stretched her hands in front of her, grabbing at the first branch in sight.

Next thing she knew she was hanging from that branch by both hands, a plunging drop taking over her stomach. Her fingers slipped on the wood, and she winced at its harsh surface scratching and digging at her flesh as she struggled to push herself up.

With her next moan of pain, she was sitting on that very branch, legs dangling loosely, separated by the bough of the tree on which she had laid her cute little butt. She had her back turned on the building, eyes staring straight at the trunk of the tree.

"Guys... Run." A rough voice came from somewhere in the detention class behind her, and she knew it was his voice.

She turned around swiftly, her messy hair flipping in the process, only to face a wild Sia jumping straight towards her direction. Maddy made a small jump and pushed herself up, balancing her weight on the branch, her breath almost taken away. She finally managed to stand on her feet and then walked towards the trunk of the tree in a fast pace.

When she had eventually reached the inside part of the branch, thick enough to make her feel as secure as she could possibly feel in such a situation, she turned around to take a peek at what was going on behind her.

Mia was now also balancing on one of the branches, and Maddy spotted Logan sneaking out of the window as well, his athletic figure sliding on the tree effortlessly, like a graceful panther.

Down, Maddy, get down, she told herself and turned back around, but then she heard an hysterical scream ripping through the air, emptying her lungs.

"WHAT ARE YOU KIDS DOING?! JOHN, DO SOMETHING! STOP THEM!"

That was the nurse. There was no doubt. Maddy's gaze snapped back at the window, a rather novel set of adrenaline pumps rushing through her veins. Her glistening eyes fell on Carter, who was still in the detention class.

Throwing a punch right on "John's" jawline.

It must've been a strong right cross, the type of hook you must avoid at all costs, because the "bodyguard" stumbled backwards and met the ground, probably seeing little stars circling him.

Maddy saw the nurse coming to rescue, screeching at the river of blood flowing off the man's mouth.

Then Carter jumped out of the window, following the others and already climbing down the tree.

Maddy did the same, placing one foot after the other on the lower branches as fast as she could, her legs longing to feel the safety of the steady ground beneath them.

In a few seconds, they were all down, under the chilly shade of the tree, panting.

Carter was the last one to hit the ground.

"Run," was all he uttered, not slowing down for a single second.

Say no more.

And they all broke into a sprint, racing across the backyard in a marathon.

The gate was on the other side of the building, and Maddy winced as she almost sprained her ankle in her flat Oxfords, which were clearly not matching the situation.

The cool breeze felt like a gale-force wind all of a sudden, now that she was running against it, swirling her hair in a spinning tornado.

She didn't know how many minutes she had been running like that, focusing on her breathing, but when the high steel bars of the gate came into sight in the distance, she sped up even harder, the space ahead dwindling.

Maybe it was just the adrenaline kicking in, but something about the way the wide open gates were patiently waiting for her made Maddy think they were safe heaven's doors leading straight to her salvation, her liberty.

Until the gates shivered and, with a clanging sound, swung slowly inward.

The gates were closing, and so was her throat.

No no no no no!

"Fuck!" cursed Logan, accelerating his speed.

Run.

Three, four, five steps...

But she wasn't close enough. None of them was.

Her steps turned into leaps. She wouldn't make it.

Eight, nine, ten leaps...

The crunching, grinding sound of the gates closing filled the air, deafening.

Mia and Sia passed through the gap that was left and stepped outside. Logan was next, and Carter made it right after him.

Come on, Maddy.

Five feet open. Four feet. Three. Two.

She pushed forward, squeezing past the almost connecting bars at the last second.

And she stepped outside.

The gates slammed shut behind her, the metallic echo of their boom bouncing off the black-painted steel like hysterically mad laughter.

Her speed at its peak, she stumbled forward.

Falling directly into Carter's chest.

Her hands flied out, shaking palms meeting the solid surface of his muscles to balance herself out. His arm was already wrapped around her waist, holding her close to his body to steady her out and prevent her from falling. His tight grasp on her shirt made her skin on that area burn and tickle at the same time, sending a shiver down her spine. She could feel his heavy breathing brushing her flushed cheeks like a gentle caress, a smell of mint and coffee and faded cologne invading her nostrils. She lifted her eyes on him, and she thought her heart stopped beating. His face was only inches away from hers; one move and their noses would touch.

Hell, how many times in one day is this going to happen?

It must've only lasted one second, but it sure felt like eternity to her, and her breath was blown away, knocked out of her lungs. She decided to blame it on her last-second by-a-hair escape from the gates' teeth, and not on the ebony-headed idiot who was standing only a breath away from her, his pitch-black eyes sinking into hers.

Maddy pushed at him and got away, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Holy heck," she gasped, cupping her knees with her palms and bending double.

"Shit, you guys. That was close," said Sia, almost collapsing on the hard ground.

"Why the fuck would they close the gates? And how fast are these people anyways?" Mia's face was a bright red, burning with fury.

"Let's go, we probably shouldn't stay here," said Carter, his heavy breathing already abating.

Maddy straightened up, sucking in as much air as her frenzied lungs could afford, and sidled closer to Sia, whom she found the most approachable.

The five of them started jogging away from that nightmarish building in a silence louder than bombs exploding. It wasn't awkward, though.

Now that the adrenaline released in her bloodstream had slowly started to subside, Maddy's feet were killing her, her toes bleeding inside her stupid Oxfords. She bet those bloody shoes had blistered her heels, but she chose to swallow the pain instead of saying anything.

She tried to process the neverending events of the last hour, but, with her mind still scrambled from the overwhelming amount of confusing happenings, she felt her head heavy with countless question marks.

Why were they so insistent to vaccinate us today? Why couldn't they do it tomorrow? Is that girl... dead? Just what exactly is this vaccine? What is going to happen tomorrow? Should I skip school for tomorrow? What if I get expelled after today?

So many questions springing up inside her head out of nowhere and taking root there. So many questions remaining unanswered.

"Wanna go grab some lunch?" proposed Logan, breaking the silence like a hammer on ice.

"Are you serious, Logan? We could've died back there, and you want to eat?" scolded him Sia, shocked at his unbotheredness.

D-Died? Well, Maddy definitely almost had her skull smashed into two by those gates, not to mention what would've happened to the five of them if they hadn't escaped and had been vaccinated instead. They might've ended up just like the other girl, and Maddy cringed at the thought.

"I always want to eat." Logan just shrugged, the corners of his lips curving into a disarming, heart-melting grin.

Sia snorted, then elbowed him hard on the ribs, making him stumble at the unexpected attack.

"Hey! It's not my fault I'm hungry! My stomach is rumbling," he shouted like a little kid.

"Then would you prefer a punch in the stomach?" Sia shouted back, sounding serious and sassy at the same time.

And in the midst of it all, Maddy couldn't hold back a spontaneous, authentic smile at their bickering.

"I'm hungry, too," purred Mia, rubbing her belly with her hand.

"Does anybody have any money?" asked Logan, ready to jump at whoever answered "yes".

But the wave of "no"s that came on the heels of his question made him shake his head in despair.

"Wanna come over to my place? I have leftovers from last night," recommended Sia in an attempt to lift the mood.

A successful attempt, on that matter.

"Yes! I'm in," Logan was the first one to react, almost jumping for joy.

"Me too", said Mia.

"Maddy, wanna come?" Sia turned to face her direction.

Maddy looked at her with eyes big from the shock of such an invitation. "Um..."

Yes, I'd love to.

"Sorry, I think I'll pass... I have to go home." She stared down at her feet.

"Oh... Well, maybe next time? What about you, Carter?"

"I have to go home, my dad needs me for something," the boy turned down the invitation shortly.

"Ok... Maybe come by later?"

He nodded.

"Okay, my house is that way, so I guess bye for now." Sia pointed on her left.

"Bye," said Maddy as cheerfully as she could, and then turned right, walking in big strides.

"You going this way?"

Maddy started at the sound of his voice right next to her.

That idiot again.

"Yeah, stalker," she rolled her eyes at him.

"Don't flatter yourself, we just happen to be heading in the same direction. Aren't you excited at the prospect of us being neighbours?" He gave her a smug, sarcastic smirk, and she squeezed her hands into fists.

"No. Not by a long shot."

He snorted. "It's mutual."

She didn't respond. If they kept going this way, she would slap him.

They continued walking side to side, immersed in silence, their breaths forming steaming clouds in the cold air.

Her place was only three blocks away, but her toes hurt so bad each step was a torment. She started limping, dragging her sore feet more and more slowly.

"Are you okay?" asked Carter, although his voice didn't bear half the concern his question did.

"I'm fine", hissed Maddy, trying to keep up with his brutal pace, her pride forbidding her to slow down.

"You don't look fine."

"I don't remember asking you."

He ignored her. "Your shoes pinch, don't they?"

Maddy opened her mouth to protest, but then shut it again. "Well, Oxfords are a bad option when you have to run."

Carter glanced at her with the corner of his eye, then suppressed a laugh.

"What are you laughing at?" she barked, her eyes narrowing.

"Nothing, nothing." His laughter echoed louder.

"Hey!"

"You're walking like a grandma, that's all."

Maddy smacked his arm. "You're a grandma", she said, her words at the intellectual level of a five-year-old.

He burst into laughter, not even trying to hold it back anymore.

He was laughing at her. Great.

What a dullard. She glared at him, although she knew he was right. Each step was agony.

"Hey, come here," he said suddenly.

She stopped and looked at him cautiously. He had bent his knees, his back towards her, hands on his sides.

"Are you suggesting you give me a piggyback?" she scoffed, certain he was joking.

He wasn't.

"Just get on and shut up."

Maddy froze for a second, realising he was dead serious. This idiot was driving her mad. She wanted to kick him in the butt, but her toes hurt so bad she had to reconsider.

Fine.

Pouting childishly, she wrapped her hands loosely around his shoulders and neck, then jumped lightly on his back, which felt solid and strong underneath her. His hands cupped the back of her thighs as she pushed her legs forward, poising them on his hips. She felt a blush creep up her neck at the contact, and she was glad he couldn't see it. He gave a little jump to move her more upwards, steady and secure in the right position.

"Shit, you're heavy," he said.

"Did you just-"

"Relax, I'm just kidding. You're light as a feather, princess," he cut her, his tone mocking as ever.

Maddy just shot him a glare.

How had she ended up getting a piggyback from a complete stranger she had met on the bus that same morning? A hateful stranger, on that matter.

She didn't know. But what she knew was that the fatigue and soreness of her body hit her like a truck, and before she could control herself, her cheek rested on the muscle near his shoulder blade, her eyelids heavy.

"Don't drool on my shoulder, princess", he warned her, disturbing her calm state.

Her eyes snapped open, her head dizzy as she lifted it away from her new pillow.

"You're a jerk. And don't call me that."

"Okay... princess."

Insufferable. He's insufferable.

"Is it contagious?" she asked.

"What?"

"Your stupidity."

He huffed a laugh. Or a bark. Maddy wasn't so sure. "So, where is your house?"

"Turn left."

He obeyed, pushing her upwards again with a jump, his grip tightening around her exposed thighs. She leaned forward, red like a rose as she looked down on his hands. Looking at his left one, wrapped softly around her left thigh -just like his right one was wrapped around her right thigh-, she took a glimpse of a tattoo extending across his upper knuckles and up his sleeve. She spied a cross, but then his sleeve fell on top of it, covering the tattoo. His messy hair tickled her nose, black as midnight, and she fought the urge to sniff it, a weird habit of hers. She looked heavenward, at the dense clouds barely letting any rays of sun break through. The weather was still so grey.

But her house was close -they only had to turn on their right at the end of the street.

"You really broke that man's jaw back then, didn't you?" She filled the silence, her voice warning him not to get too cocky about it.

"He deserved it, no?"

"Sure he did", she agreed for once with him, then hasted to add: "What will we do tomorrow? You know, with the school."

He didn't answer for a while, and Maddy wondered whether he was listening to her at all. "I don't know", he said finally.

Why was that not comforting at all?

"Do you think they'll call our parents?"

"They already have, most probably."

"Great." She sighed deeply. "For how long are we going to avoid this?"

"We can't avoid it forever. I mean, most students didn't show any side-effects after getting vaccinated, and..."

Maddy heard something. She frowned in confusion. Then her pupils went huge.

"Shhhh!" She covered his mouth with both her palms. "Do you hear that, too?"

He stopped walking, and the two of them listened carefully, pricking up their ears. Male voices echoed in the near distance, and a blast from a siren. At the end of the street and on her right hand, she could see blue and red lights flashing dimly in the gathering gloom, and the shadows of men and cars in the midst of these lights.

Right in front of where her house was supposed to be.

Narrowing her eyes, she saw something that made her breath stall in her chest: the white bodywork of a police car.