I turned to Melis."How old are you?" I asked. She chuckled.
"I think you"ve got it all wrong. There is nothing weird with me. I am at the same age with my cla.s.smates." she replied.
"But your approximate date of birth is in contradiction with your actual age." I said. "How old are you, really?"
She sighed.
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"Twenty? Thirty? I don"t really know either. But it doesn"t matter. I am, or at least I used to be until today, a high school student."
"Mr. Kenan..." the mother interrupted. "I understand that you want to learn more about this whole new world you"ve been introduced to, but now, it is time to act. Although the time is somewhat under control, wasting it is still discouraged. There are people in this building that requires our protection."
I had almost forgot about that "favor".
"Yes." I said. "What do I do?"
"Convince your students to follow you into the cafeteria." the mother said. "You will see the rest of it as it happens."
"How will I do that?" I asked.
"That"s your job. Those people respect and trust you as a teacher, and as a person. There is no doubt they will follow your words." the mother explained.
"I understand." I said.
"I know you wish the best for your students, so I am sure you will have no second thoughts." the mother said with a calming voice. "For now, farewell."
I looked at Melis.
"As a student, I will accompany you." she said. "Let"s go."
I carefully listened for movements in the building. It was good to know that there were still some life among all the inanimate bodies laying around inside the school.
"Downstairs." said Melis. "They are downstairs."
She followed me silently as I walked downstairs. In the hallway, there were two students. A boy and a girl. I had seen the girl before, but I couldn"t quite remember the boy.
"Hey, you there." I called them. They turned their heads to look at me, and their eyes lit up as soon as they recognised me.
"Teacher!" the girl said and ran up to me. "I thought we were alone..."
The boy slowly followed her. He was a bit more relaxed than she was.
"Mr. Kenan, the door has been locked. We are stranded here." he said.
"We found bodies!" the girl added.
"Okay, calm down..." I said.
"Mr. Kenan said that he will get us to safety now." Melis said that before I could try to explain anything.
"Please!" the other girl got excited. There was nothing else I could do.
"Follow me." I said. Then, I glanced at Melis, trying to express my anger. She shouldn"t have been interrupting me like she did just now. This straightforward approach was not what I had in my mind. Apparently, she was aware of that.
"They don"t have to know everything." Melis whispered to me. I said nothing in return.
"Where are we going, teacher?" the other girl asked.
"I..." I had to make up something to satisfy their curiosity for now. "I know a safe place where we can stay until I unlock the exit." I said.
"Does no one really know where the keys are?" the boy asked.
"Oh, shut up, Arda!" the girl said. "He probably has to get them from the vice princ.i.p.al"s room or something." In reality, the boy -apparently whose name was Ard was completely right to be worried. But I had to keep cool and make sure my cluelessness was unnoticed.
We came in front of the cafeteria, and I pushed the doors open. The students walked inside before me excpet for Melis, who was trailing me a few meters behind. When I got inside, I heard the doors closing. Melis had pulled the doors with her as she entered. Now that we were here, I only had to wait.
"What is going on here, Mr. Kenan?" asked Arda. "Having ourselves trapped in this place doesn"t make me feel any safer. In fact, it is the opposite."
"Someone is on it"s way to rescue us." Melis replied him instead of me, then swallowed the rest of her words. Unable to handle herself, she had almost screwed everything up. "This is what Mr. Kenan told me, right?" she tried to cover up her own stupid reaction.
"Oh, yes." I played along. "Someone is on her way to get us out of here."
Both students were confused by the awkward explanation Melis and I tried to do, but they decided not to push it.
I was walking towards Melis to talk to her in private, but just as I was approaching, she turned the lights off by pressing the light switch near the door. It became completely dark.
"Whoah!" Arda said. Judging by his voice, he was far behind me.
"Melis!" I shouted.
"Arda?" the girl was searching for her friend in worry.
"Where are you!?" I asked without specifying a person. No one said anything. I started searching around with my hands, slowly walking around in random directions.
I heard a few footsteps. Someone ran past me to my left. I tried to follow the sound, but when I arrived at the point that the sound had stopped, I couldn"t find anyone. After a while, I gave up trying. I picked a direction and walked until I reached a wall. Then I followed the wall using my hands until I came to where the cafeteria"s doors were. Guessing the distances by my memory of this place, I reached out to the light switch. The lights turned on in a few seconds. When I turned around to have a look inside the cafeteria, I saw no one.
"Melis!?" I yelled, but got no response. I had lost everyone. There was nothing I could do, as they were not going to materialise out of thin air; although, having learned about a lot of interesting things today, I wouldn"t be too surprised if they did.
I tried to open the doors of the cafeteria to get out. I had done what I was asked to do, and I had no intentions to trap myself in this large, useless room. As soon as I opened the doors, I heard the voice of the old woman.
"Please allow me to take some of your time." she said. "I just wanted to talk to you in private."
I hesitantly closed the doors again and walked back into the empty cafeteria.