By: Chloe Wu

The clacks of skulls clashed with the squawks of those evil birds as seagulls circled lower and lower onto the middle school campus.

That was how the dream started. It was the first week of summer break, and I already missed school dearly. My thoughts were reaching out to the memories of school that were fading away exponentially, which I assumed must have been why such a dream occurred.

The seagulls were gathering in the sky, and I was standing on the white-plaster roof of our school with my crush, Kenneth. Mr. Edgeton, a middle-aged social studies teacher with a half-shaved beard, waved us down frantically as all the other students climbed into an underground tunnel. “Come on, hurry, you idiots!”

I gripped onto the gutter pipe that led to the ground. The seagulls were descending rapidly. Seeing this, Mr. Edgeton dove into the underground tunnel and slammed the door. Two loud clicks signaled that the door was bolted. For a moment, my mind froze. Kenneth shouted, “Run!” and led me past the basketball courts and into a narrow hallway. The flashes of white seagull feathers could be seen above us.

We sprinted into a dead end, where a mother with a newborn baby was sitting on a couch, shielding the baby with her body. However, it was too late: the birds swooped down, and nothing could be seen through the wall of seagulls.

“Chloe,” Kenneth was breathing loudly from all the running. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah, you know, I thought of that after seeing the baby-eating seagulls!” I said, half-exasperated at Kenneth and half-dumbstruck at the baby.

We ran back across the campus and into the gym, where I shut and bolted the door. “Lock all the other doors, quick!” I looked him in the eye.

When the doors were all locked, I finally could rest. The thuds of seagulls beating against the windows were harrowing. Kenneth stared into space. “Well, good job, I suppose.” He held out his hand, and I shook it, getting a palmful of sweat.

In my head, I was thinking two things. One, how could Mr. Edgeton close the door on us, right after waving us down? And two, I was in a gym, alone with Kenneth, and seagulls banging on the windows … great, and he’s looking at me as if to say, I know what you’re thinking. I unconsciously glared at him.

“Don’t murder me.”

“Sure. But the seagulls might. I still think the underground place is safer,” I said, leaning against the padded walls.

“Right.” Kenneth lifted a little hatch that looked like a sewer lid hidden below the stack of yoga mats in a corner. “Woah.”

I looked and there was a ladder leading down into a bright, tiled place. It was quiet. “So, you want to climb down there?” Kenneth gave a thumbs up and stepped down into the little space, taking two rungs at a time. I followed, and below was a tiny room just enough for two people to stand in, lit with fluorescent light.

“This was your idea,” I reminded him. Suddenly, the hatch above us slammed closed, and the ladder vanished into thin air.

“No. No. No. What? Now we can’t get out!” Kenneth whirled around.

“I noticed,” I said.

“Not helping,” he snapped. Kenneth felt around room, until he found another hatch that could be opened.

“Should we give this a try?” he peeked in and was met with another face. Kenneth screamed like a little girl.

“Mr. Edgeton!” Kenneth pulled me in front of Mr. Edgeton.

“Oh, my goodness.” I reached out and punched his nose. “All right. I’m satisfied. Now, give us an explanation!”

Mr. Edgeton’s face turned uncomfortable through the hatch. “Well, come through the hatch first.” We climbed through. “So, looks like you found the second entrance to the emergency bunker!”

We looked around, and there were all the students at our school, gathered in little groups, talking amongst themselves. “We’re just waiting it out until the seagulls stop,” Mr. Edgeton explained. “Help yourselves to some ham!”

I was confused to say the least, but I took some ham from the plate Mr. Edgeton was offering us. It tasted terrible. Then, I noticed that the whole room was growing brighter and brighter….

I woke up to the smell of my stinky breath and sunshine blasting through my windows. It was the oddest, yet most memorable dream I had had in a long time. So, to celebrate, I ate a ham sandwich for lunch.