05.05: Another School - Part 2

NOAH
Noah and Danny broke outside on to the concrete ramp, with the teacher hurtling after them. The front gates of the school were less than fifty metres away, but the lock was controlled from indoors via an intercom and there was no way they'd be able to clamber over before the teacher grabbed hold of them.
Their only option was the flap in the wire fence they had arrived through, but that was on the opposite side of the school grounds.
Noah took a glance over his shoulder as they charged back into the main school building. The sports teacher was over two metres tall with a football player's build, and he was closing up rapidly. To make matters worse, they wore flat-soled shoes that skidded hopelessly on the polished floor. By the time Noah and Danny made it to the flight of stairs leading down to the playing fields, the teacher was almost within touching distance. They gained ground by sliding down the metal banister in the middle of the staircase, but this trick nearly back-
fired: Noah picked up so much speed that he couldn't stop himself when he slid off at the bottom and he ended up crashing painfully through the doors.
.oO(So much for his fast reactions), he thought bitterly.
It took a second for Noah's eyes to adjust to the afternoon sunlight. His heart sank as he looked out on to two pitches covered with Year Eleven kids. They were playing soccer and he got a nasty feeling that they would try and bundle him if he charged into the middle of their game with an angry teacher in hot pursuit.
While Noah hesitated, Danny had sprinted onwards, displaying an impressive turn of speed. As the senior on this little raid it was down to Noah to cover for Danny.
Noah jerked violently and stumbled forwards as the teacher ploughed into his back and wrapped a hairy arm around his chest.
|You lot, get that other one,” the teacher shouted, his mouth almost in Noah's ear as he pointed towards Danny.
The teacher thought he had captured Noah the moment he got an arm around him. But he'd assumed he was chasing after a pupil of Montresor Day, not a youth trained for just such situations. Noah had done his advanced self-defence training some months before. He ducked down and used a simple Judo throw; taking advantage of their forward momentum
to roll his much heavier opponent over his back and
slam him against the sun-baked grass. There was a chance the throw had injured the
teacher, but Noah reckoned he looked way tougher than that. It had probably just made him extremely angry and Noah didn't want him getting up and coming after him again, so he drove a hard punch into the base of his nose.
While the man wrapped his hands over his face and yelled out in pain, Noah looked up and
rapidly tried to assess his chances of escape. Danny had nearly made it across the pitch. He had an entire soccer team on his tail, but it looked like he was going to make it to the hole in the fence and out of the school. The trouble was, once Danny had revealed the location of the flap, the kids chasing him would easily be able to block it off. Noah realised his only way out now was over the fence, barbed wire and all. The nearest stretch of perimeter backed onto the gardens of some houses. It was less than fifty metres away, but there were three guys closing him down.
Noah picked the smallest one who was still heavier than he was and charged straight at him. The kid dropped low and spread out wide to make a tackle, great, an American football player. Noah dummied, before spinning out to the right and avoiding him with ease. He cursed his stupid school uniform shoes as he stumbled a couple of paces, before clattering into another kid who shoved him flat on to the grass. Using a technique learned in Karate training, Noah managed to roll head over heels and spring explosively back to his feet. He now had a clear path to the fence.
Ideally, Noah would have had time to throw his blazer over the barbed wire topping the fence, but the heavy pack hooked around his shoulders made it impossible to get the jacket off quickly. He launched himself at the fence at full speed. The gaps in the wire mesh were too narrow to get a toehold, so he had to rely on upper body strength to haul himself up four
metres. By the time he was within reach of the barbed wire, his shoulders were in agony and his fingers felt like they were set to pop out of their sockets.
Noah swung his leg up on to the top of a concrete fence post, narrowly missing the grasping hand of a soccer player trying to get hold of his ankle. He had second thoughts about the four-metre leap awaiting him as he tried to position a hand on the barbed wire without getting spiked; but the prospect of giving up and getting on the wrong end of a group of angry sixteen year-olds was hardly more attractive.
As he tried to perch atop the wire to make his jump, the kids down below gave up trying to grab him and adopted a new tactic: violently rocking the wire mesh in an attempt to knock him down.
As Noah swayed precariously back and forth, the teacher who'd been taking the football lesson was practically foaming at the mouth, still convinced that he was looking at a genuine Montresor Day pupil.
“Come down this instant, boy. You will be expelled for this.”
Noah wondered where the incentive was in that statement. But his attention went to the pain as one of the barbs tore into his thigh. He took a quick breath before hurling himself clumsily off the fence. He'd hoped to jump clear of the shrubs edging the garden and collapse sideways onto the lawn, paratrooper style, but the violent swaying of the fence made the jump impossible to judge even with his natural agility. He ended up landing on his side, with his feet tangled in a hydrangea bush. Only the heavily padded backpack saved him from injury.
After scrambling up, Noah couldn't resist an opportunity to triumphantly flick off the Montresor boys.
He kept low as he jogged across the lawn towards the house. The TV was on and there were some little kids running around inside. Fortunately there was a wooden gate at the side of the house that opened with a simple latch. He crunched down a gravel driveway between two houses, inhaling the stench of overflowing plastic rubbish bags as he caught his breath. When Noah stepped out onto the pavement, he leaned against a low wall and burrowed into the cell phone pocket on the side of his backpack, trying not to think about the growing circle of blood soaking into his trousers. He hit an icon.
'Bobby,' Noah gasped into the handset. 'I'm outside number thirty-four Pollack Street. I think we might have screwed up. You've got to get me out of here
fast.'
“I'm on my way to get Danny,” Bobby Drake answered. “I have your phone location on screen. I’ll meet you at the junction with Williamsburg. Top of the road.”
Noah's heart thumped as a police siren wailed in the distance. ‘You'd better hurry up about it,' he gasped, feeling a sharp pain in his injured thigh as he broke into a jog.