Chapter 4

Saturday nights were movie nights on campus. The campus film board would put together a single or double feature and show it in either the student union ballroom, or if it were a double feature, they would use one of the large lecture rooms in Kane Hall. So it was that Erin, Megan, Richard, Wendy, and Wendy’s boyfriend Robert were walking across campus toward Red Square on Saturday evening. The first fat drops of rain had just started to fall, and the pace of the rain was picking up quickly. So much so, that the need to get out of the rain was becoming a necessity. Red Square is a large, all red brick plaza that covers an underground parking garage on campus. All the buildings that boarder Red Square have underground entrances to the parking plaza, so everyone ducked into Suzzallo Library, and then worked their way to the Red Square garage, and from there into Kane Hall.

The double feature that evening was the Director’s cuts of “Alien” and “Aliens”. As was usually the case when ‘the gang’ went to a movie, they sat together and generally watched the movie, while commenting to one another in stage whispers about the action on screen. Since nearly everyone else did the same thing, the auditorium was a pretty noisy place. It was something of a campus custom that all movies required direct audience participation and a running commentary. In the case of these classic thrillers, those folks who had seen the movie, or more likely owned the DVDs, largely knew what was coming and worked pretty hard to scare the surrounding folks who didn’t. So there were plenty of good-natured pokes and grabs among the group by the time the show was over. It was also pretty late, close to 11:30, by the time they left Kane Hall, headed cross campus to McMahann. Since the rain was still falling pretty heavily, they once again ducked into the Red Square plaza. Wendy and Robert headed toward Robert’s apartment in the U District, leaving the threesome to continue on across campus.

Happily chattering among themselves, they didn’t notice the quality of the lighting in the normally well-lit garage until they were almost in the center of the plaza. Then, having noticed it, the amiable chatter of before was replaced with worried glances and awkward silence, as they came to a stuttering halt mid-plaza.

Into this quiet came the rhythmic sound of small diameter wheels on pavement seams. Clack, clack ... clack, clack ... Suddenly, the garage was filled with street kids on skateboards. Though there were no more than a dozen, they seemed everywhere at once. They circled the group, who instinctively closed up for protection from a threat that was not yet clearly understood. Richard was the first to realize what was going on and immediately pulled Erin and Megan behind him with a car to cover their backs. Then he looked at Megan and said, “This is not good ... Not good at all...” Seeing the sudden flood of fear in her eyes did little to help Richard’s resolve. Trapped in the center of the plaza, with the nearest exit a good hundred yards away, the situation was definitely not good.