Three Killers

Three Killers
Sarah's POV

As the grenade rolled across the concrete, I leaped to the left.

"Get down!" The students were still running around us when I yelled at them.

I was flat on my back from the explosion. There was dust everywhere, and my ears were ringing. The phony janitor had vanished by the time I was able to see again.

However, my phone continued to buzz. My nephew's message.

I stumbled to my feet and turned to face the gym. Elena was hardly visible now, but her copy was still there. As if she might vanish entirely at any moment.

"Elena!" I yelled as I dashed in the direction of the gym. "Speak to me!"

Her feeble voice suddenly came from nowhere and everywhere. "David Park is the person in the gym, Sarah. The basketball team is stuck in the equipment room because of him.

"What about the other two?"

"In the library, Susan Cole. She's killing children who are attempting to contact their parents. Additionally, Mike Foster is preventing people from leaving the parking lot.

Three murderers. Three distinct structures. Elena was also dying.

I heard sobbing coming from the rear of the gym as soon as I walked through the doors. Behind some bleachers was a girl wearing a torn jersey.

"Hey," I said quietly. "I work as a police officer. "Are you hurt?"

The girl's eyes were filled with fear as she looked up at me. "During the game, he locked us in. Then, as though we were animals, he began shooting people with a bow and arrow.

I felt sick to my stomach. "How many students are still in here?"

"Twenty maybe. Although the majority of the basketball team is confined to the equipment room, I believe he is eliminating each player individually.

I heard it then. Horrible laughter followed a scream from the gym's rear.

"Please," the girl muttered. "Back there is my boyfriend. Jake is his name. He is the team's center.

My phone buzzed again, and I wanted to help her. Another fake Torres message.

Sarah, you have one minute and thirty seconds left. Your nephew's tears for his aunt Sarah are audible to me. Should I inform him that you decided to save strangers rather than your loved ones?

I typed back, trembling, "Prove he's really there."

I received a video message a few seconds later. Tommy, my six-year-old nephew, was tied to a chair in what appeared to be a basement, tears running down his cheeks.

He addressed the camera, "Aunt Sarah?" "The bad guy says you don't love me enough, so you're not coming to save me."

It was as if I had been struck in the chest. Tommy was the world's sweetest child. When I visited, he would always draw me pictures of us together catching bad guys.

Elena's voice, however, was so faint that I could hardly hear it coming from behind me.

"David Park just killed another student, Sarah. Marcus, a boy. Next on his list of targets is the team captain.

I checked my phone. You have one minute to call a fake Torres.

I turned to see children dying in the gym's back.

I turned to face the girl who was pleading with me to save her boyfriend from behind the bleachers.

Then I had to make the most difficult choice of my life.

Instead of calling the phony Torres, I called Agent Martinez.

"Where are you, Martinez?"

"Two minutes are up. Elena's vital signs are rapidly declining on my apparatus, Sarah.

"Pay close attention. Please trace a call for me. My nephew is with the Hunters. If I don't give up, they'll kill him." I checked my phone. "Forty-five seconds."

"You can't—" Sarah said.

"Just trace it!"

After hanging up, I dashed to the gym's rear. I was determined to save as many of these children as possible, even if it meant losing Tommy.

The door to the equipment room was secured from the outside. Inside, I heard whimpering.

"This is Detective Chen! How many of you are inside?

A boy's voice called back, "Eight of us." However, Marcus and Jake were taken by David. A few minutes ago, we heard Jake yelling.

My heart fell. The girl hiding in the bleachers was in a relationship with Jake.

"Where did he take them?"

"The pool area. A door leads to the aquatic center.

I drew my gun and ran toward the pool. I opened the door and immediately smelled chlorine.

David Park stood at the diving board's edge. He had a broad smile on his face and was brandishing a crossbow. Two boys were fighting to stay afloat in the pool beneath him. An arrow protruded from the shoulder of one of them.

"Detective Chen!" David cheerfully called out. "Just in time! The length of time basketball players can tread water while carrying arrows was about to be demonstrated to me.

"David, let them go."

Or what? Will you shoot me? Proceed. However, I shot both of their heads with an arrow as soon as you fired that weapon.

My phone began to ring. The phony Torres called at the precise moment he promised.

David Park was pointing his crossbow at two defenseless children when I turned to face him.

With the call that could save my nephew, I glanced at my phone.

I checked my watch. For nearly eight minutes, Elena had been separated. After ten minutes, according to Agent Martinez, she might not survive.

The phone continued to ring.

One of the boys in the pool submerged himself and never surfaced.

"Time's up, Detective," said David Park. "What's more crucial? Your family or these strangers?"

I was about to answer my phone when an impossibility occurred.

Elena's strong, clear voice came directly behind me. However, she wasn't there when I turned around.

"I found them," Elena said.

"Found who?"

"The actual murderers. Mike Foster, Susan Cole, and David Park. They aren't the actual Hunters.

My blood froze. "What do you mean?"

"All three of them are merely dummy actors. The actual Hunters are at the elementary school on the other side of town. Two hundred kids are going to be killed during the after-school program.

David Park appeared perplexed, but he was still aiming his crossbow at the boys in the pool.

"That's impossible," he whispered. "The Hunters are us."

Elena's voice was fading once more. "No, David. All you are is a distraction. To keep us occupied while the actual attack takes place somewhere else, someone hired you three."

I was ill. We had been tricked.

My phone abruptly stopped ringing and then started up again.

However, it wasn't phony Torres calling this time.

My sister was the one.

She yelled into the phone, "Sarah!" "Tommy's school was just broken into! All of the children are stuck in the cafeteria! It's a terrorist attack, according to the police.

I turned to face David Park, who continued to wield his crossbow.

My sister and I were crying over Tommy as we looked at our phones.

I searched for Elena, but none of her three copies were visible.

Then the entire bui
lding's lights went out.

David Park began to laugh in the dark.

"Surprise, Detective Chen," he said. "The real game is only getting started.”