In the not too distant future, due to all the mass shootings, a panel is put in the principal’s office of all schools that basically leads to an isolated apartment behind it. The interior is like most regular apartments other than having an arsenal made for doomsday. In each apartment lives one man extensively trained in combat. Imagine your ultimate special forces soldier come to life.

In the not too distant future, due to all the mass shootings a panel is put
in the principal’s office of all schools that leads to an isolated apartment
behind it. The interior is like most regular apartments but has an arsenal made for doomsday. In each apartment lives one man extensively trained in combat. Imagine your ultimate special forces soldier come to life.

Normally, anything the occupant inside needs is delivered to him after
school hours. They are paid handsomely for enduring such isolation. All
expenses paid is part of the deal. Most days are pretty routine, with the
individual just monitoring the school entrances and hallways, making sure
everything runs smoothly.

But as we look in today, it is all about to go wrong. As the soldier is
monitoring the school, he sees a student pull out an assault rifle and open
fire, throwing the school into lockdown. Alarms ring loudly throughout the
school, even in his room. He stands up calmly and goes to the wall of the
armory, putting on body armor and a trench coat, arming himself and putting on camo paint. As he approaches the door into the principal’s office, a lock clicks open on it.

By now students are evacuating or locked down in their classrooms as the
shooter wanders the halls. The administrators look up, scared, as he enters and takes the mic that broadcasts into the school.

He clicks the mic and speaks: “To the shooter now roaming the halls: know
that your only way out now is through death. Either by my hands or your own. You can run or hide, but the results will be the same. You will die in the end.”

He clicks the mic off, and the exterior doors to the building are sealed. He
checks to see that the only person in the hallways is the shooter before
pushing a button that seals the rest of the building behind walls of steel,
except for the door to the principal’s office. He walks to the door, and as he
goes through it a chip in his hand triggers a shield to seal the principal’s
office as it closes it behind him.

The soldier walks down the hallways slowly. He is confident that the shooter is either trying to find a way out or waiting for him lying in ambush. It matters not which since he is prepared for either case. As he turns the corner, the shooter opens fire, hitting the soldier’s body armor with no effect. The soldier fires at the shooter, hitting him in both knees, dropping him to the floor. The shooter abandons his gun as he tries to crawl away as the soldier stalks closer to him.

Feeling the soldier bearing down on him, the shooter leans up against the
nearest wall in a sitting position and prays the soldier is only going to
arrest him as he lays there bleeding. The soldier will give him no mercy,
though, as he said before. As he approaches the shooter, the soldier swings his gun to his back and pulls out a roll of duct tape and begins taping the shooter to the wall. The shooter keeps praying, even as he is too weak to resist.

As the soldier finishes sealing the shooter to the wall, the soldier takes
out a grenade. He forces the shooter’s mouth open and shoves the grenade into it. The soldier then pulls the pin and walks slowly away. As the soldier walks away, the shooter is screaming and crying through the grenade until the moment it explodes.

The soldier walks back to the principal’s office, having no regrets, but
also no joy, in what he had just done. He enters a code signaling that the threat is neutralized, which opens the exterior doors along with the principal’s office, allowing the cops to come in and secure the shooter’s body. The soldier walks back into his apartment, resealing the door, to wait once more until the next time a shooter dares attack the school.

While the soldier relaxes after doing his job on the outside, there will be
calls in the media for a better solution. While cops talk up the success of the
system. Meanwhile, the soldier will sit and read as he contemplates what will happen when they figure out a better way of doing things. Part of him hopes it will be soon, while another part of him is in no rush.

As darkness comes over the school and the media packs up, the soldier enjoys the return of quiet to the building. He knows the next day there will be a few thank you notes from those that have figured out the secret behind the door. Yet, still, he prays for a better solution. He takes no joy in what he does. He knows that he will continue to have to do his duty regularly while society fights within itself. He chooses to stay out of that fight, knowing it is for the best. For now, he will just let himself be enveloped by the quiet and the night, waiting for the next call to duty.