Dr. NoSleep (host)

Sucking oxygen through a hole the size of a needle, I tried desperately to breathe.

My vision pulsed with encroaching blackness.

Marler gripped my right index finger and wrenched it out of its socket.

If I had been able to scream, I would have.

He pulled the gun out just as Gidden turned around.

It had only been moments.

Too much was happening too fast.

Without hesitation, Marler fired my gun into Gidden's face.

The man collapsed in a haze of pink mist.

Panicked and losing consciousness, I was barely aware of the hot gun barrel pressing to the side of my head.

Marler jerked once, the gun fell away from my head.

He jerked a second time, and his choke hold loosened.

He fell to the floor as I dropped to my knees, throat whistling as I sucked in greedy gulps of air.

When I looked back, I saw the other D-Class guy standing there, rubbing his left elbow with his right hand as he gazed at me.

His name was Valverde.

Unlike Marler, I didn't know much about him.

He was a new transfer.

I grabbed the gun out of Marler's limp hand, assuming Valverde had elbowed him in the head twice to knock him out.

By the time I looked up again, the man who'd saved my life was running down the hall.

Before I could think of what to do, Marler awoke again and lurched at me.