Thirty minutes into his first day at a new school, Stride is confronted with a difficult situation. He's just been led into a room with a school shooter, and that's not the half of it, it's the people hiding in the ceiling that he's really worried about, and the dead body they brought with them. The final nail in his coffin comes when he gets a text message from his best friend he was forced to leave behind, and he learns the disturbing news:"I'm trapped, Stride. They came for me too; I'm cornered in a classroom. They're braking down the door to get me. I got shot, but I'm not bleeding, I don't understand. I keep seeing all these things, places I've never been to. I see myself trapped in this dark room...please find me...I need you. If you're alive, if they haven't gotten you, I love you, destroy your phone, and stay alive."How is Stride going to save his best friend from the same people who are after him? Perhaps the better question would be: how is he going to stay alive long enough to do it?