People start screaming and yelling in a panic. I look around us, but no one seems to know what to do.

Some people are running in circles, bumping into one another, while others are still sitting down in their seats in shock. A number of people have dropped their boxes on the ground, but I know the security guards can just look at the names on the boxes and find out who they are. Devin’s stuffed bunny for Mud is long gone in the crowd of scared people and has probably been trampled over.

I look around to see if there could somehow be another exit we could use to get out of here, but there isn’t.

We remain standing on the bottom of the benches. I look at my Dad, and I can see him looking around the place for a way out, just like I was. I can see the fear in his face, but he is not panicking, which helps me not panic.

A tall guy comes running past us towards the locked exit, pushing me down in the process. My Dad reaches a hand out for me to take, and I hold onto it once more.

“Are you alright, Sam?” He asks.

“Yeah,” I say, sounding out of breath. I am not sure when or why it got so hard for me to breathe. It gets worse the more I look around at the situation we are in.

People are running anywhere and everywhere in a panic, and the sound of verbal threats and yelling consumes my ears. Another gunshot is heard, then another. I don’t see where it was fired from or where it was aiming. I can’t seem to focus on anything. There are just too many people moving around in a panic.

I take another look at the room for any possible exit. As I am looking, I am once again pushed by an unfamiliar person, but this time I do not fall. I look over and see that my Dad and Devin are both having the same struggle as me. People keep bumping into them or shoving them to get through to the locked door.

Dad pulls our hands and leads us back onto the bleachers, where we climb up to the sixth row. My eyes start wandering to the bleachers across the way. The white light around the bottom of the seats is still lit, but I catch the sight of red on some of the lower seats. I assume that whoever was sitting or standing there was the target of one of the gunshots that were heard.

More people move down from the top of the bleachers and pass us by. Some are screaming. Others don’t say anything out loud, but I know what they are thinking based on their terrified faces.

I see a boy about Devin's age sitting down about three rows up from us. In his hands, he holds a box with a green light. He sees me looking at him, and I can see the panic in his eyes as he quickly hides his box behind his back.

I look back at the center of the room and see that the guards have some people sitting down with their hands behind their backs. I look past them, and my eye catches something in the far back of the room. I can only see a little bit of what is happening, but it looks like a group of people have found a way to get out.

I tug on my Dad’s hand, “Look! Dad, look over there! In the back!”

He sees what I’m pointing at, and the three of us start making our way to the back. A group of men are standing behind the bleachers, and they have lifted the tent's tarp to reveal a chain link fence underneath. Each of them starts running over and over again at the same time at the fence.

The fence starts to lean over slightly, and it now has many dents in it. Each of the men do not give up, and Dad tells us to stay put while he joins them. My Dad isn’t the biggest person here, but I know he is strong and will do his best to knock the fence over anyway. The more people that join, the faster the fence falls.

With a loud metallic sound, the fence is on the ground, and Dad is grabbing our hands again and leading us over the fallen fence.

Bang

Another bullet is heard being fired. I don’t know where it came from or who it was intended for, but I look and see that the three of us are okay before quickly rushing out of the tent with their hands still in mine.

More shots are heard, but we ignore them and run as fast as we can towards nowhere in particular. I see more people running beside us, but no one seems to know where to go.

We just keep running. The only things heard are the sounds of our feet hitting the ground, along with some gunshots. I catch sight of a group of people running together before splitting up and running in different directions, but I don't focus too much on them. I instead focus on where we are going to go. My Dad suddenly yells left, and we all quickly run to the left, where there is a pathway between a few game stands.

When the path reaches the end, Dad pulls us to the right, and we continue running down another pathway. None of this looks familiar now that it’s darker out, and I don’t have the time to figure out where the exit is.

“Stop now or risk being shot!”

I take a quick glance behind us and see a few guards running after us.

“We have to hide,” Devin says. But where? The game stands are small and fully lit up. They would find us there in no time.

We continue running but quickly encounter a problem. While we knocked down the fence that held us in the tent, a large fence still surrounds the whole carnival, and we have just cornered ourselves against it.

Two guards come running towards us, blocking us so we can’t move. Dad turns to Devin and me, “Listen to me. You need to run. Find a way out of here, and then warn the rest of the town. Okay? Please do that for me. I love the two of you very much. Okay? Remember that.”

He doesn’t give us a chance to say anything back. He turns around and runs at the two guards, tackling both of them down to the ground while he screams at us to run.

I quickly grab Devin’s hand and run reluctantly past my Dad and the guards on the ground. It is like I can’t hear anything anymore. White noise fills my ears, and I can’t focus on where we are running anymore. Most likely, we are running away from our Dad, who is probably going to be shot by one of those guards.

We get maybe a few hundred feet before my body feels like it’s going to collapse any second. As if sensing this Devin holds me up.

“Sam, look at me. We need to go! Please! Dad's going to be alright, okay? He’s smart. He’ll get out of this. I just need you to move your feet.” I can hear the panic in his voice, and the look on his face matches it.

This seems to be enough to snap me back into reality because I start breathing a little better and start running alongside Devin again without his help. When we reach a darker space in between two games, we take a moment to crouch down so no one can see us.

I notice now that the loud, playful music that once filled the air is gone. I hear the sound of feet hitting the pavement to my right, but I don’t dare look in case it’s another guard. I poke my head out from around the corner when it quiets down again. The area is clear of people for now, but we can’t stay here.

“How the hell do we get out of here, Sam?”

I look at my younger brother. I can tell he’s scared but is trying to hold himself together until we get out of here.

“I don’t know,” is all I can tell him.

I look out of our hiding spot again to try and find a place we could maybe climb onto and then jump the fence, but I have no luck.

I duck back down into our hiding spot and sit there. Devin and I do not say anything to each other. We just sit on the ground and try to catch our breath. Every few minutes, the sound of footsteps is heard, and Devin and I look at each other with panicked eyes.

I wait for about five minutes after the last sound of footsteps is heard, then peek my head out of our hiding spot again. Nothing has changed since the first time I looked, but I keep looking anyway. I am about to turn back to Devin, but my eye catches movement in the distance, and I can’t look away.

Across the way, a small group of about fifteen people are sneaking around different stands before they reach a dark path between two food stands. I watch how the person in the back looks around for any guards. I also notice that he looks very familiar.

He’s the guy from the Mirror Maze. He catches up with the rest of the group and points across the way to another stand and a building. He stays in the back of the group, and by looking around cautiously at their surroundings, I can tell he is keeping a lookout.

As he skims over the open area before us, and then he catches me watching him.

Chapter 8

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