Mind Two:
Not sure if Mind One and I have talked about this yet, but we are in a forensics class. It is pretty much the only reason I go to school, except for seeing my friends. But seriously, it's great. So since the Columbine shooting, our school decided to do a mock school shooting about once a year. I have never been, until now. At first, I was all like, "No, I don't want to go. That is going to be depressing and emotional." But then our forensics teacher was all like, "Extra credit to anyone who comes." So I had to go. Except Mind One told me she was going. And I got really excited. Because the whole time I was thinking Mind One and Mind Two + a school full of cops and guns = trouble (or fun, whichever way you prefer).
At first, they just put us in a room and we were screaming for help. That part was pretty boring. But then they finally let us into the hallway, where we had to pretend to be wounded or dead or dying. Mind One and I switched it up every time. Mind One has some pretty pitiful moans. I was supposed to be dead and I wanted to get up and help her. It was sad. When Mind One decided she couldn't be pitiful anymore, we both pretended to be dead. And stretched across the whole hallway to take up as much room as possible. We even did the whole stretch-our-hands-towards-each-other-like-we-died-right-before-we-got-to-each-other thing. Until one of the cops tripped over Mind One's foot. (m1, and he did this little hop and went "hoo-ooh")
Then we got moved into the room with the fake shooter. When we got in there, there were a ton of empty shell casings (fake, of course), so our forensics class kicked in and we started analyzing them, matching which bullets came from the same gun by the mark the firing pin made. So when the dude in charge said, "Volunteers make some noise," Mind One and I went into full self-preservation mode. We started screaming as loud as we could and clutching each other, while huddled in a corner. Tears may have even been shed. When the cops came in, they screamed at us to put our hands up. Mind One and I were probably a little but too much into this, so we were the first ones with our hands in the air. Except we were still holding all the bullets. SOo it was pretty much quiet except for the cops and you just heard this ping ping ping ping, because we dropped all the bullets when we put our hands up. The cops kind of looked at us for a moment before they realized they were supposed to be disarming the shooter. In between scenarios, the guy in charge would talk to the cops about mistakes and what was good. So Mind One and I had a lot of time to kill. Which is when we started discovering the bullets that didn't go off. And trying to explode them. Because they were just filled with paint. Which is how our legs ended up looking like this by the end.
We stayed in the hostage room for a few more scenarios. The guy who was pretending to be the shooter was great. When the cops would come in and shoot him instead of disarming him, he would fall to the ground all dramatically and lay there and moan and make dying noises for like 5 minutes. Which of course made Mind One and I laugh hysterically while the cops were trying to do their job. Then they decided to make it a little bit trickier for the cops. They hid a gun in the shooters waistband. Technically, the hostages were supposed to act like we didn't know, but we did. The first few teams missed it, so when the next team came in and found it, Mind One and I were relieved, which is why we gave them the Hostage Seal of Approval. This was pretty much just us giving them the thumbs up signal, except we had our hands in the air, because the cops told us to put them there. So it looked like this:
Mind One and Mind Two don't wear glasses, those are safety glasses, in case you were wondering. And I realize our hands aren't in the air, but we were trying to take a picture in the middle of a school shooting, so back off. After that I had to leave. Your turn, Mind One.
Mind one.
This was great, they turned us loose and said "scream for your lives". For those of you who know me, I'm a loud person overall, like if I had been look out on Titanic, my warning shout probably would of shattered the ice burg from pure loudness (and badassery). One officer told me later that I should record my scream and sell it to a horror movie; it's that horrifying. After mind two left, they moved us all out into the hallway and created a T intersection for the cops to deal with. (In case you're curious, T intersections are complicated when you are a gun wielding good guy, awesome if you're a gun wielding baddy.) They strategically scattered our dead bodies, and dying bodies all over, then plopped down a great big home made simulated IED. Which was really a real IED minus the part that goes BOOM. I'm laying in this hallway, great acoustics by the way, screaming bloody freaking murder, and the first team of cops comes through. They just casually step over me, and then proceed to step right over the bomb and the wounded girl next to the bomb. Just oh so chill like "hey man look, I'm just gonna step over this bomb, shoot some dudes, whatever.". I think out of the six teams that went, only two noticed the bomb, and only one dealt with it in a way that as a wounded hysterical girl I felt good with. End of day one.
Day two. Mind two couldn't go to this day because she had to "work".
By the second day, my vocal cords were feeling it, and I was starting to sound even...better. This raw scratchy sound only improved my scream, honestly I was freaking my self out. The drills ran in about the same pattern as the day before, but for a few small changes. Change number one, when I was in the hostage room, this time I was giving a girl CPR and about a foot from the one shooter, so guess who got peppered with casings when she heroically threw her self on the wounded girl to save her. Yeah, I'm cool. Change number two, in the second hostage room I sat behind a desk with a "broken leg", and was a royal pain in the cops doughnuts. And the best change of all, in the bomb hallway. I got to be the girl by the bomb, and it was perfect. Just down the hallway from me however, was a friend of mine playing dead (in-between throwing casings at my face, yeah thanks), and this dead friend of mine had managed to rip the ass of his jeans in a most spectacular manner. The boy that ripped his pants. It was a simulated school shooting, I was two feet away from an IED and I have the freaking boy that ripped his pants for a co-star. Awesome. This second day was for the local officers that didn't fit into the previous days teams, so I knew all of these cops, and they knew me. I can work with that, I just sat there and cried pitifully for help until they rounded the corner and made eye contact with me. Mistake. I was slumped there like this.
The first team comes through and they see the bomb. That's a step in the right direction, but then they say this.
Cop:"Get up and get out of here if you can."
M1:"I can't, help me please, my legs, please help."
Cop:"...shit."
Then they decide to clear me out so two cops grab my arms, and drag me away to safety. Hostage seal of approval team one.
Then they got destroyed at the T intersection, but that's not the point. Reset and team two enters the hallway. I go for a different approach this time.
This team sees the bomb, when they are literally on top of it, and me. Literally an inch from my foot one guy sees it and goes like this.
Naturally, his team mates are looking at him like,
Then he goes. "Bomb!! There is a bomb!!" And no joke, they all kind of react like this.
Then they left me. All by myself. The instructor walks by and just does this.
Walk of shame if I've ever seen one.
My favorite was one of the last teams though. That round I was going insane, all hysterical, pleading, crying a little bit, begging for help.
And this guy looks at me, dead serious. "Don't worry, we will come back for you. I'll come back and help you." Then steps over the IED and carries on. And I'm like, "Okay, I'll just wait here then, with the bomb, thats okay."
Mind Two:
Also, we made the front page of the Argus Observer! So we really are famous!
