<strong>Emily Steele, Starting to Panic in the Cafeteria</strong><br/><br/>The sounds of screaming and gunfire grew louder outside the doors of the cafeteria. At first, Emily put who she could to work on building a bigger barricade in front of the doors … then stopped.<em>What if people run here for safety?</em>she thought.<em>I can’t let … well, whatever’s out there! … kill someone outside the doors because I locked them out.</em><br/><br/>Of course, Emily knew that would mean the doors wouldn’t be as secured as they needed to be … and that by not securing them, she might be doing more harm than good.<br/><br/>Emily wanted to cry. Her hands trembled, and she kept looking around, trying to find someone else in authority, let them make these decisions that she didn’t want to make … except there wasn’t anyone. There weren’t too many people in the cafeteria – mostly older folks, and a few young people that were ordinarily her students. And most of them, old and young alike, seemed shell-shocked. Emily didn’t blame them, to be honest. It’d be easier not to think.<br/><br/><em>Stupid manuals,</em>Emily thought bitterly.<em>I’ve studied them all my life, I know them practically by heart, but they never covered a contingency like <strong>this</strong> …</em><br/><br/>So with the help of a few students, Emily placed a few tables in front of the doors … but left them open a crack, so they could see anyone approaching.<br/><br/>“And if anything nasty comes close,” Emily told her students, “slam everything shut. Fast.”<br/><br/>Nervously, Emily paced around the cafeteria as her students did as they were instructed, keeping a close eye out for attackers. She stole uneasy looks up at the ceiling, towards the large ventilation ducts, which seemed, well,<em>louder</em>than normal. She didn’t know if that was paranoia or not.<br/><br/>She also glanced about for other exits, trying to determine if the attackers might assault them from another direction, or maybe there was a better way to escape to somewhere more secure …