《Re-education》


 Prologue: A Cold Start

    Life is quite boring for Josef, a seventeen year old australian boy attending high school in America, with no special attributes or talents, he is quite a normal person. His height was slightly taller than his peers, his build was average, he had no muscles but he wasn''t thin either, and his face wasn''t that handsome, but it had distinct features that made him stand out from the average mob.


    He was quite comfortable with his everyday life, not asking for much but, if he did get a chance to get a wish granted, he would certainly wish for the blizzard to cease. His life was average and boring, but never did he expect that one day his entire life would change in a way he did not expect.


    It was a cold winter, with particles of white drizzling down and piling up, creating a blanket of endless frost that enveloped the scenery, showering the trees and masking the atmosphere in an illusion of fog, resulting in a winter wonderland with barely any visibility. The frigid breeze bombarded those who foolishly attempted to conquer the season by forcing their way out of their snow-blocked doors and into the cold of the winter, scraping away the frost from their car''s windshields or defrosting the tires of their bikes in order to have a mode of transportation in the harsh environment.


    Unfortunately for Josef, he did not have the luxury of cars nor the balls to commute on his bike on a road where visibility is near to none, where he wouldn''t know what could quickly approach him from behind, like a truck perhaps. He thought it would be funny if he did get run over by one and magically woke up in another world where he is the hero trying to protect the peace of the imaginary land with his overpowered and generic powers, accompanied by beautiful girls, but that was all wishful thinking in order to escape the blistering cold that will envelope him whenever he sets foot outside his warm and cozy home. Having finished breakfast, specifically a piece of toast if you can even call it breakfast, Josef quickly heads to the front door, where he will challenge the cold once again in order to attend school. He didn''t really want to go, he was pissed when he found out that the school he attended still forced students to attend even with the harsh weather, he simply wished to stay in his warm and cozy home, but he couldn''t. Not attending would result in him standing out and getting attention from his sudden disappearance, people would gossip about him and maybe even spread rumors that could potentially ruin his desired normal school life, he simply wished to be normal, like that one guy in every school who just blends in the background.


    With only a backpack and the clothes on his back, Josef clenched his fist and started to brave the snow, tiny white particles piling on his messy nest of black as he walked slowly in the direction of his school. He wouldn''t know if he was going the right way due to the fuzziness of the surroundings from the fog, it was all speculation, but if his memory doesn''t fail him there and then, he would be able to barely make it to first period... just maybe not on time. It was like a maze of sorts, crossing streetlights, passing through tight intersections, and even hopping a fence. Josef was taking his usual route to school; it was a bit unorthodox, but it was his way of making the journey more fun and exciting in order to delude himself that the school day would be as fun as the trip itself, and hopefully not as cold. He would always casually wave to the street cats that could be seen whenever he passed the third corner, but because of the sheer cold, they were all hiding from the harsh environment, hopefully in warm homes. Josef was a bit saddened by the absence of his furry friends, but that did not stop him from continuing on his epic quest to go to school.


    After a few minutes of walking, he was getting close, and he could finally see the convenience store that was only a few blocks away from the school. The green and red glow of the store''s sign gave him hope in the midst of the never-ending blizzard that his day would get better by the end of it, hopefully.


    As he approached the gate, the P.E. teacher, Mr. Fatmouth, was already waiting by the edge of the gate, awaiting for the clock to run out and locking out any student who dared show up late. Josef was intimidated when he first met Mr. Fatmouth. He was huge and had a large belly to compliment his height, he almost looked like a ball, he had a classy moustache and a nice british accent to go along with it. Because Josef likes to sleep-in and comes to school around ten to twenty minutes before first period starts, even though his walk to school takes around 15 minutes, he was one of the problem children when it came to being on time, and he was more or less a regular face to Mr. Fatmouth. Luckily today, that wasn''t the case. Josef crossed the school gates with little to no problems since Mr. Fatmouth felt especially kind today and allowed Josef to pass on through despite him being five minutes late, while the only difficulty that he encountered was the shivering of his hands from the cold due to his lack of mittens that he had forgotten due to his absent-mindedness.


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    He quickly entered the front building and was met with a wonderful surge of warmth from the heater that was installed near the front entrance. His shivering stopped as all the cold left his body, he breathed deeply in relief, it was like heaven when he entered. He stood near the heater for a couple minutes, forgetting that the clock was ticking and class was about to start. When the bell rang, Josef was woken from his daze and quickly rushed to the lockers to switch to his indoor shoes, but unfortunately, he slipped on a puddle of some sort of liquid assumed to be melted snow. He bashed his forehead on the locker doors, he yelled in pain internally cussing as loud as he can in his mind while his hands covered the site of impact, he was a bit nervous as he checked to see if blood was leaking from his forehead by wiping his hand on it. Luckily he was safe, he sighed in relief as he saw the absence of blood.


    Mr. Fatmouth had already closed the school gates and saw the entire occurrence as he entered the main building. He was rather pleased to see Josef hurt himself, secretly of course, like most people do. He did however try to help Josef stand up and asked him if he needed any help in order to cement his status as a respectable teacher, but Josef wasn''t buying into any of that and casually refused the hand that Mr. Fatmouth extended towards him. He instead, grabbed the gray handle on one of the locker doors and stood up with the help of it, standing himself up by pulling on the handle. Mr. Fatmouth paid no mind to Josef''s refusal and silently walked away.


    With the whole incident resolved, Josef finally switched to his indoor shoes, putting on the right shoe then the left, and placed his outside shoes in his locker, closing the door, only to be opened again whenever he would go outside or when it came time for his very special and important club activities, the going home club. He quickly rushed through the hallways, almost bumping into a teacher and almost making the same mistake of slipping and falling a few seconds ago, but he was able to recover by grabbing a door frame before he lost balance. He rushed up the stairs while skipping a few steps because his slightly tall height allowed him to. He traversed the long hallway, reaching the far right side of the main building. He was finally facing the door to his classroom, class 1-F, the most detached room in the entire school that is found at the end of the right hallway on the second floor, void of any interaction from the other classes due to the sheer distance from the other classrooms.


    The Hanamaru Gakuen is an elite, prestigious school where all the students are expected to excel in one thing or another. Everyone was either an athlete, an academic nerd, or talented in a certain field. Josef didn''t fit any of those categories, he simply passed the entrance exam by sheer luck bycorrectly guessing the multiple choice questions, and with his amazing track record of a fifty percent chance of being late to first period, he was placed in the losers'' class, as the others would say, a class where all the delinquents and tardies were gathered, a place for all the problem children, class 1-F.


    After all the hardships and suffering from the trip to school, he finally opened the door to his class, walked in without a care in the world as the other students who were already seated stared at him, while the teacher in charge of first period gave a menacing glare. He paid no attention to anything in his surroundings and proceeded to sit on his chair, which was at the very back window seat in the room, and placed his black backpack on the floor. With only a few seconds of sitting down, he could already feel the boredom seeping through his flesh, as he had the whole day to endure another cold, normal, and boring day of school, or so he thought.

 Chapter 1: Boredom

    As Josef faced the window, looking out into the cold and bleak world of snow, the first period teacher, only known as Mr. Math, started the usual routine of taking attendance. As he spoke into a handheld microphone so he could be heard across the noisy room, he called each student one by one alphabetically. The shy types only raised their hands to show their presence while the more boisterous students did all sorts of things in order to mark their attendance like shouting, laughing out loud, and even cussing. Mr. Math didn''t mind the rudeness of the students, and quite frankly, he was used to it since it was already the middle of the school year and the students of class 1-F are known to be retards, delinquents, and everything else that fits between the lines. Lastly, Mr. Math called Josef, and he answered with his typical "Here." and as he finished taking attendance, he began his lecture on his subject... math, of course.


    As time passed and Mr. Math discussed the usual asymptotes and general forms, Josef sat quietly at the back, pretending to write notes, but in actuality, he was doodling away while his mind had already left the planet and was already adventuring in fantasy worlds in order to escape the excruciatingly boring lesson of mathematics. This wasn''t as bad as what the other students were doing though, the boy in front of him was using his mobile phone under the desk where teachers can''t see it, but it was blindly obvious from the ray of light coming from the screen due to its increased brightness. A girl in front of the class currently holds the record for fastest sleeper, with her falling asleep in class in a record time of fifty seconds while the boys near the back entrance of the classroom were chatting away, ignoring whatever Mr. Math was talking about. And let''s not forget the standard eating while the teacher discusses in front of the class, covering themselves with a large textbook while they munch away their delicious sandwiches that they bought or maybe even stole from the cafeteria. Mr. Math was already quite used to this, and in all honesty, he already gave up teaching this class way back then.


    As Josef continued with his doodles and Mr. Math quietly discussed the lesson, a piece of crumpled paper flew across the room and accurately hit Josef in the head. Josef looked confused as he wandered his vision of the entire room in order to look for the sender, and he saw Caden, his best friend, from across the room waving at him, motioning for him to open it. He picked it up and uncrumpled the small piece of paper on which a message was written: "Want to partner up for lab next period?" was written on the paper. They had science class after math, and there was an experiment assigned for today, so the class will be grouped into pairs in order for the experimentation process to become easier. Josef held up a thumbs up towards Caden, signaling to him that he accepts his proposal, and the two continued with whatever they were doing beforehand while Mr. Math continued to discuss their lesson, to which barely anyone was listening, and if they were, you could easily see the confusion in their faces from the difficulty of the lesson.


    As Mr. Math finished his silent and unattractive lesson in mathematics, the whole class of 1-F quickly got out of their seats and headed towards the chemistry lab¡ªmost of them at least, As they entered the room, they could already see their teacher, Mr. Science, with a disappointed look on his face as he realized which class just entered his facility. The students really didn''t give a fuck about the names of their teachers and just saw them as a nuisance, but at least the feeling was mutual, the students of class 1¨CF only called their teachers by their subjects and didn''t interact with any of them outside of school.


    Mr. Science proceeded to explain the procedures of the experiment while Josef dozed off into space. He didn''t really care about experimentation because all he needed to do was watch a YouTube video or search online for the results. He heard something about mixing and test tubes, but that was all trivial stuff for him since he had no intention of doing the experiment, as did the rest of the class. When Mr. Science finished explaining the procedures with an unenergetic tone to his voice, the entire class proceeded to quietly perform the experiment, but that wasn''t the case. What actually ended up happening was that the students started chatting with each other, not even caring if they were loud. Only a few students were preparing to do the experiment. Josef and Caden were happily chatting to each other while Caden tried to perform the experiment. He tries to be a good student at times but the only reason why he''s participating in the experiment was because he was bored and was simply curious of the outcome, he liked hands on stuff more than reading and listening. He has a nice physique that goes well with sports, not to mention his superb Welsh accent, which makes him the man for the job when it comes to voice acting. The only reason he is in the losers'' class is because of his violent tendencies. He is quick to respond whenever there are fights, and he is usually the loudest one to cheer whenever there are brawls in the room, and sometimes he is the one doing the fighting, since he doesn''t mind getting hurt, all he cared about was to respond when threatened in order to not look like a weakling, but atleast he is smart enough to know when it was a bad decision to fight back.


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    While Josef continues to doze off into his imagination, it was quickly cut short when he heard a shatter of glass near him. When he looked around, he saw Caden looking down at a mountain of broken glass, presumably an entire rack of test tubes, and by the look on his face, he was guilty of the crime.


    "Oh fuck," he said, as he panicked to hide the evidence, but it was too late. Mr. Science had already heard the sound of the shatter, even in a room filled with chatting and laughter. As he walked towards Caden, frustration and anger lit up on his face, almost nearing to explode.


    "Just get the fuck out of my classroom!" He yelled.


    They returned to the 1-F classroom, yet everyone started cheering and clapping for Caden.


    "Ey, thanks for cutting the class short, Caden, I couldn''t stand another second of Mr. Science''s face. You''re the real MVP." said one of the boys.


    "No problem, dude." replied Caden. He tried to act natural, like he deliberately sabotaged the experiment. He was embarrassed because of his clumsiness, but luckily the entire class appreciated what had happened.


    The whole class enjoyed their extra free time due to the incident, and they happily coughed up a storm in the room, with music playing on speakers, desks flipping over, and even one of the chairs being destroyed. Even the room on the other end of the hall could hear their shouting and laughter. It was chaos, but the other classes simply ignored it because they knew that there was nothing that could be done.


    As third period came, Ms. English entered the classroom, saw the utter disrepair of the classroom, and proceeded to say, "I''m fucking done with this shit!" and slammed the door shut. There was a brief silence as they heard Ms. English''s footsteps become fainter as she got further from their classroom. After five seconds passed, the class continued on with whatever they were doing beforehand, but even wilder due to the excitement that they felt from the absence of Ms. English, and thus it was now a study hall, and the students could do whatever they wanted, peacefully of course, but that was never the case in class 1-F.


    Josef was quite saddened by the fact that English class was canceled since he actually excelled in it, but he couldn''t do anything about it since what''s done is done and there''s no going back. He could apologize to Ms. English and beg her to teach, but he knew that it would only lead to him being ganged up on when he left the school, he didn''t want to get hurt. Instead, Josef proceeded to sleep for the duration of the study hall while the entire room was in an uproar as usual.

 Chapter 2: A Nice Lunch

    As Josef peacefully slept during the English study hall due to their teacher, Ms. English, giving up teaching the class and slamming the classroom door closed, Josef was roughly awoken by a loud and forceful slap to the face.


    "Oh shit! The fuck was that!?" yelled Josef in surprise. He tried not to be loud even when surprised as he didn''t want to grab anyone''s attention.


    "Dude, it''s time for lunch, come on." Caden said casually.


    While Josef was asleep, Caden slapped Josef in the face in order to wake him up. After recovering from the rush of adrenaline caused by the sudden surprise of the slap, Josef calmed down as this situation was quite normal for him. Josef and Caden had been together for quite a while, and luckily for them, they were always in the same class together. Because of this, Caden has always known how to deal with the listless and heavy sleeper known as Josef. He had tried a lot of tactics in order to wake Josef up from his deep slumber. The methods include yelling at him, shaking his body vigorously, pinching him, and blocking his nose, but all these tactics failed as Josef was still sleeping. He was almost unreachable in his sleep but Caden pulled out the last resort of a nice slap to the face, and in this way, Caden finally found a way to wake Josef up. From their childhood up until the present, Josef would always be woken up by a slack to the face, and quite frankly, he wasn''t mad about it as this tactic prevented him from getting grilled by the teachers.


    The two walked out of their classroom after grabbing their phones and wallets from their bags. They walked across the long hallway away from their isolated classroom and down the stairs to the first floor. They traversed through another long hallway and went out the door to the right wing building of the school. Their school was quite large and had three buildings in use. As they entered the right-wing building, they were welcomed with a large wave of chatter and noise from the entire room. The undecipherable chatter from the room enveloped their ears. They wandered their vision through the entire landscape: countless tables and chairs with people sitting and eating, chatting to their peers, spilled drinks and pieces of fries, breadcrumbs scattered throughout the white, greasy floor, and a crowd of people flooding a section of the room. The room was indeed the cafeteria, dubbed as the hungry battlefield of starving zombies.


    Caden and Josef approached the large crowd of people that were roughly pushing and pulling their own peers in order to purchase their needed nutrients for the day. Caden sighed as he knew what was going to happen next.


    "All right, you know the drill." Said Josef as he grabbed his wallet from his right pocket, he grabbed a five dollar bill and handed it to Caden.


    "What would you like today, good sir?" said Caden as he put on a heavy british accent, pretending to be a classy waiter.


    "Just the usual chicken and cheese sandwich and a bottle of water, keep the change my good man." he said as he tried to match Caden''s accent.


    It was time for the inevitable, the most dreaded part of Caden''s day. Despite being used to fighting and roughhousing, he still feared the time when it came for lunch, as he needed to fight his way through the hordes of hungry zombies in order to grab the not-so-delicious food that was lined up on the counter. Sometimes he wished that they were really zombies so he could mercilessly mow them down with a chainsaw and grab his well deserved meal like a boss, but that was only wishful thinking in order to brighten the events that will happen next.


    Caden took a deep breath and walked cautiously towards the loud horde. He was at the very back of the sea of people. He tried to squeeze in, he tried and tried again, he used all his strength to try to squeeze himself inside the horde, but he couldn''t, he was simply being pushed out of the way. Caden walked back a few steps and positioned himself like one who''s ready to begin in a race.


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    "On your marks, get set, go!" exclaimed Josef.


    As soon as Josef said "go" Caden bolted to the sea of people running as fast as lighting¡ªwell, not quite. As he reached the very back of the horde, he grunted like a monkey and dove through, squeezing himself inside, and because of the momentum from his starting sprint, he had done it. The first part was successfully done, the next step was going to the front of the line.


    Caden was in a hurry because the sandwiches were one of the first things to run out. Caden tried his best to get to the front, he pushed, pulled, grabbed, and punched his way through the crowd without any sympathy, as he didn''t care who he was hitting. He didn''t care if it was an upperclassman, a frail girl or even a cancer patient, all he had in his mind was to go through the front and grab his and Josef''s lunches. After a few painful minutes of struggling his way through the front, he had finally done it, with a few bruises here and there but he had still done it. Now that he was on the front of the horde, he was now only hands length away from the scrumptious lunches that were displayed, and it was now time to choose.


    Caden looked around at the displayed items on the counter and glanced left and right, but he struggled to find the correct sandwiches. He didn''t have time to check each one as they were quickly running out, he almost made the decision of grabbing a random sandwich and calling it a day, but in the last second, he saw a sandwich with a layer of yellow and brown, it was the chicken and cheese sandwich that Josef wanted. He quickly grabbed the sandwich just in time as someone else was also trying to grab it, luckily, he got to it first. He then grabbed a random sandwich for himself, as he didn''t care what he would eat. He also grabbed two water bottles along with them just in time before he got swatted away by the other hungry students who were in need of nourishment. Now came the final step, paying. Caden rushed to the counter, where he needed to pay for his food.


    Josef smiled from across the room, thinking about the struggles Caden was going through right now. He smiled at the thought of him getting hurt¡ªlike how friends do. After a few minutes, he could see Caden approaching him with a worn-out expression.


    "Here''s your fucking sandwich." Said Caden as he handed him his requested lunch.


    "Also, here''s your money back."


    "Wait what?" Asked Josef.


    "I didn''t pay, there was no one at the counters, so I just.. left." the two laughed for a bit.


    With their lunches secured, it was time to eat them, but they still needed to wait for their friends from class 1-A: Gerald, Avery, and Serenity.


    The two went back to the main building and climbed the long flight of stairs up to the roof. Because of the blizzard, it wasn''t feasible to eat on the snow-covered roof as it was obviously too cold there, so Caden and Josef decided to camp out at the stairwell next to the door to the roof. They could hear footsteps approaching, they were at first quite tensed as they thought that it was another group of students approaching, attempting to claim their land, but as they saw the familiar faces of their friends, they quickly began to feel at ease and proceeded to greet each other like usual and sit on the cold floor. Josef and Avery sat beside each other, they are both in a relationship, Gerald and Serenity were also seated together as they were already sure that they would get married when they graduated, and Caden was seated alone. Caden got a lot of shit from being single, but he simply didn''t care, he was somewhat good-looking, and his british accent does attract some attention, but his relationships didn''t last long as the regular and normal girls simply didn''t want to get involved with "violent people". He was somewhat discouraged at times, but most of the time, he didn''t give a fuck as he wasn''t looking for a partner in the first place.


    They began chatting to each other about the usual topics, bone-in or boneless chicken, bashing on America, and dissing Gerald for his terrible food takes. They happily ate their lunch, and as they heard the ringing of the school bells, their lunch came to a close. They all parted ways and went back to their rooms. Caden and Josef got off at the 2nd floor as their classroom was on the far right of the second floor, while the others went all the way down to the first floor to the far left of the main building, where classroom 1-A lies. It was time for the afternoon classes.

 Chapter 3: Chaos

    When Josef and Caden returned to their classroom after having a nice lunch with their mates, they had forgotten how chaotic their classroom had become, it was as if they had returned to a war zone. For some reason, when they were having lunch, the delinquents at the back of the class had a massive falling out and got the entire room involved.


    Thirty minutes earlier.


    While Josef and Caden were out eating lunch with Gerald and the gang, the delinquents at the back of the class, namely Josh, Zach, and Matt, were having a simple discussion.


    "We should hang out this saturday, I heard the mall will have a new store opened." said Josh.


    "Hmm, yeah that''s pretty nice, but I''d rather go to the gym than hang out with you, bro." said Zach as he laughed. Josh knew it was a joke and paid no mind to it.


    "Hey, how about the park?" asked Matt.


    "In this blizzard? Are you crazy?" responded Zach.


    "Then where should we hang out then?" asked Josh.


    The delinquents speculated a bit on where they will go this Saturday, not many places were open because of the blizzard, and it wasn''t advisable to be outside during the night because the winds would most likely worsen during that time.


    The front door of the class suddenly swung open, and Ms. English came bolting through the door.


    "Alright you fuckers! Here are your exams from last week, those with failing grades will have to retake them this Saturday, and if you don''t, you will be expelled!" exclaimed Ms. English, adding emphasis on the word "expelled," and left the room, slamming the door on her way out.


    All the students grabbed their test sheets one by one and very carefully, as if they were picking up poison. To them, it might have been poison, since the score indicated on the top right of the paper will determine whether they will be able to enjoy their weekends in the cold blizzard or not.


    The three delinquents all got their test papers and were mortified by the results. They all got the same failing grade of ten points out of a hundred.


    "Dude, what the fuck, I thought you studied!" said Josh.


    "Who said I studied?" said Zach.


    "Dude, this is messed up, I trusted you because you were so confident about this exam, I thought for sure you were going to pass." said Matt.


    "It can''t be helped, right? "That''s just how it is, better luck next time then." said Zach as he let out a smug expression accompanied by a shrug.


    "This ain''t funny bro!, I was supposed to hang out with my girlfriend this weekend!" exclaimed Josh.


    "Wait, but... I thought you were going to hang out with us?" asked Zach."


    "Honestly, I wasn''t, I would never want to hang out with a dumbass like you, I trusted you with this exam and yet you tricked us into failing with you. I was confident in my answers, but when you said that you were correct in all of yours, I changed mine because I thought I would pass if I did, and yet here we are with failing grades in our hands and weekends ruined. God you suck!" exclaimed Josh.


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    "Dude, thats not cool, I thought we were friends." said Zach.


    "Pffft, Friends!? you''re just our lackey!" Matt said with a condescending tone in his voice.


    "We would never hang out with a lowlife like you. All you were good for was being our spare wallet and helping us cheat on tests, but now that we know you can''t even do that, just get lost!. We don''t need someone like you anymore." Matt added.


    Both Matt and Josh laughed as if they were watching a circus performance with Zach as the main attraction.


    "What the fuck guys! I thought we were good friends, but you only see me as a mere servant! DONT MESS WITH ME YOU FUCKERS!" yelled Zach as he let out a huge punch and landed his fist on Matt''s face.


    Matt was thrown to the wall, pain aching from his face as he realized that two of his teeth were now on the ground and his mouth was bleeding.


    The entire class laughed at Matt as his face was disfigured from the punch and he looked as if he had been beaten to a pulp.


    "I''LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" shouted Matt.


    Josh grabbed both of Zach''s arms in order to immobilize him while Matt readied to land his fist on Zach''s face, like what he did to him. From the adrenaline rush, Zach struggled like a wild boar until he was able to wiggle free off of Josh''s grasps, but Matt had already committed to the punch and placed all of his force on punching Zach, but because he got free at the last second, he accidentally punched Josh on the chest instead.


    Josh was knocked to the ground while their classmates'' laughter exploded to a different level. Josh quickly got up and was furious at Matt. The two didn''t even try to communicate with each other, instead, they talked with their fists.


    As the two exchanged blows, Zach rushed to the door in order to escape the chaos, but his arm was grabbed by the leader of the delinquent girls in the front of the class.


    "Where are you going, pussy?" asked the leader.


    Because Zach was already stressed and agitated from what had happened to him with Josh and Matt, he wasn''t thinking clearly, so by reflex, he shoved his knee deep into the girl''s stomach.


    The girl was in so much pain as she fell to the ground, her mouth was bubbling a bit. Her friends were standing up one by one from their chairs and proceeded to work together in beating up Zach. He screamed in terror as the girls bashed him with chairs and kicked him while he was shaking on the ground, with his hands protecting the back of his head, like a vulnerable cocoon in an unforgiving forest full of predators.


    It was quite a sight to behold, unity is beautiful to look at, but not in this context. What occurred instead was a unity of savagery, and it was painful to witness, at the very least. What started out as a peaceful discussion with friends progressed to a one on two brawl that resulted in a battlefield.


    As the front door opened again, Josef and Caden were just in time to witness the results of the all out war.


    Almost every desk was split in two, the chairs were missing some legs, the windows were shattered, and everything that should have been hanging from the walls like ornaments and even the sturdy chalkboard was now flat on the ground.


    They saw the delinquent girls holding the missing legs of the chairs like weapons, and some of the legs even had blood on the ends.


    There was a trail of red and when followed, it led to Zach, who was now passed out on top of the teacher''s desk, facing up like a sacrificial lamb. His forehead was bleeding, and his uniform was ripped to shreds. Upon closer inspection, you could see black and red spots all over his body, from head to toe, from all the beating that the girls had done to him. It was pitiful to look at.


    While on the other side of the room, Josh and Matt were still duking it out, but their faces were barely recognizable from the countless blows that they endured. They could barely walk or even stand, but they were both profusely stubborn and refused to give up and look like pussies in front of the other students.


    All Josef and Caden could do was watch in awe. They haven''t even taken a step yet after they first opened the door to the war zone that they called their classroom.


    "This is definitely hell." said Caden, Josef nodded in agreement. But little did they know, the true hell was just beginning as a figure emerged from behind them.

 Chapter 4: Cold-hearted Punishment

    The figure behind Josef and Caden seemingly grew bigger with every second, its footsteps becoming larger and larger with each step, like the final boss emerging from the shadows. Josef and Caden were still in a state of shock as they absorbed the sight of the chaos that unfolded in their classroom while they ate lunch in peace.


    The huge figure came to a stop only inches behind Josef and Caden. They both felt a presence behind them, and as they turned around, they saw the monstrous face of their P.E. teacher, Mr. Fatmouth, seething with anger, red as a tomato, and it was as if a volcano was nearing to erupt.


    Mr. Fatmouth is what you might call a selective teacher, he is good to those that are good, but a monster to those who are not in his definition of acceptable, and class 1-F is definitely not on his favored list. He is known throughout the campus as the big fat teacher, who is the first person you will see whenever you enter the school, because he is the one who closes the school gates whenever the school day starts. Josef knew that his facade of being a friendly teacher was all staged, but he did not know the extent of this teacher''s anger, because he is rarely pushed to the edge, but it all changed today.


    As Mr. Fatmouth glanced at the classroom... or what was left of it, he quickly barged in, paying no attention to Josef and Caden, who were standing in front of the door, shoving them to the side. He saw the two delinquents fighting at the back and tried to stop them.


    "That''s enough! You two, go back to your fucking seats this instant!" exclaimed Mr. Fatmouth.


    "Shut up, Fatmouth!" exclaimed Josh.


    Looking back, Josh''s group was the reason for our P.E. teacher''s nickname. From the start of the school year, he was only known from his subject, Mr. P.E., But because Josh''s group was constantly poking fun at his weight and his diet of four fried chickens a day, the whole class of 1-F adapted the nickname "Fatmouth," and thus, Mr. Fatmouth was born.


    Since talking to Josh and Matt was out of the question, Mr. Fatmouth simply used the most effective means of communication, violence. If something cannot be stopped verbally, then you will have to use your own strength to make it happen, and that''s exactly what Mr. Fatmouth did.


    He went over to the two delinquents, grabbed Josh by the collar, and swung his fist in Josh''s face. He was sent flying to the other side of the room, while a bright red indentation was left on his beat up face.


    Matt was both horrified and surprised by Mr. Fatmouth''s strength, and as Mr. Fatmouth got closer to him, he knew that he was next. When Mr. Fatmouth readied his fist for another swing, Matt was already prepared by covering his face with his arms, but he was a bit mistaken since Mr. Fatmouth was aiming for his stomach. The punch connected, and it dug deep into the poor boy''s belly with extreme pain that goes beyond the pain of getting kicked in the balls.


    Matt fell to the ground whilst clutching his belly, and something began to leak out of him¡ªa yellowish liquid with the consistency of water¡ªurine. He had peed himself from the pain. The entire class erupted in laughter, laughing at the poor boy who had soiled himself by getting punched by a teacher.  Throughout the laughter, Mr. Fatmouth''s face remained the same all throughout the fight, dead serious. He looked at the other students.


    "Would any of you want to be next?" asked Mr. Fatmouth in a serious tone.


    The laughter ceased, and with that, the chaos was over and peace was restored, but not for long.


    Josh and Caden finally entered the room after witnessing the inappropriate violence that Mr. Fatmouth had participated in, and ended. They thought that Mr. Fatmouth would continue with a lecture or turn the class into a study hall after bringing Zach to the clinic, but they were wrong.  When Mr. Fatmouth returned from the clinic, he brought with him a large garbage bag.


    "I want everyone here to change into their gym uniforms, now!" he said.


    No one contradicted him due to the fear of being next in line to be shot with the rampaging bullet known as his fist.


    The male students and Mr. Fatmouth silently left the room with their gym clothes in hand. Josh and Matt struggled as the pain and embarrassment still lingered within them.


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    While the girls were left in the room for them to change there, the boys were satisfied with changing in the hallways, except for Matt. He rushed to the comfort rooms in order to change out of his soiled pants. After a few minutes of waiting for the girls to finish, everyone, including Matt, who had just returned, with a beet red face from pain and humiliation, re-entered the room, and awaited Mr. Fatmouth''s instructions.


    "As of this moment, you are all no longer students of Hanamaru Gakuen. I want everyone to surrender their uniforms and throw them away in this garbage bag, where they belong." stated Mr. Fatmouth.


    The students were all in disbelief because lunch just ended and here they are, already expelled from the school.


    "Throw them away now!" yelled Mr. Fatmouth.


    Some students followed his order, including Josef and Caden who just wanted to get it over with, but most of the class still didn''t follow the instructions. The girls were clutching their uniforms near their chests, not wanting to let go of their precious belongings, while the boys glared at Mr. Fatmouth with ill expressions.


    "NOW!!" Mr. Fatmouth yelled even louder.


    As more and more students threw their uniforms away, there were still some who were holding on to their precious uniforms, tears rolling down their faces. Mr. Fatmouth had no emotional connections with any of the students, and when he realized that the remaining students were too stubborn, he simply yanked their uniforms out of their hands and chucked them quickly into the garbage bag.


    The girls fell to the floor, tears flooding their eyes, pleading for mercy.


    "Please give us a chance." pleaded one of the girls while begging on her knees.


    "That''s exactly what''s going to happen.'''' stated Mr. Fatmouth. The students grew confused at what Mr. Fatmouth had just said, and hope arose from their faces.


    "Follow me." said Mr. Fatmouth.


    They all went out of the classroom while the garbage bag containing their precious uniforms was left in the desolate and destroyed classroom. The students grew more anxious by the second as they traversed the hallway, walked down to the first floor, and stood in front of the main building entrance that leads to the raging blizzard outside.


    "For three hours! If you can survive outside for three hours, then I will accept you back as a student." exclaimed Mr. Fatmouth.


    The students were shocked because the blizzard outside was now stronger than ever, no one dared step outside in such a cold environment. Their uniforms had a thick black blazer, much like a suit, but even then they were still shaking from the cold. But now, they were told that they needed to go outside in their knee-high shorts and plain white t-shirts. They were all sure they would freeze to death.


    "Go outside this instant!" said Mr. Fatmouth.


    The students didn''t want to leave the comfort of the school filled with heaters, it was like heaven inside, while it was hell beyond the school doors, a cold hell.


    Mr. Fatmouth pointed to the door. "OUTSIDE NOW!"


    The students were still not budging, while some of the girls continued to ball their eyes out. Josef had been observing the class for half the day now, and he knew that he shouldn''t become like them. He knew that there was no reasoning out of this situation, and he just wanted to get it over with. It was indeed cold outside, but in his mind, he thought that he could come up with a plan when it gets too unbearable, besides, no adult would abandon their children outside in a blizzard. He was positive that Mr. Fatmouth would pity the students when they collapsed from the cold and bring them back inside, where he would tell the good news, and welcome them back as students for their efforts.


    Josef grabbed Caden''s wrist. "Let''s go." he said.


    "Where?"


    "Outside, obviously."


    Caden was confused with Josef''s proposition.


    "I''m not going out there, especially in these clothes, are you crazy!? This has to be a joke." exclaimed Caden.


    "Well.. we have to, knowing Mr. Fatmouth, he''ll force us to go out there, but I''m sure we''ll be fine if we behave, he''ll pity us eventually." stated Josef.


    "And what if he doesn''t?"


    "Then we hop the school gates or freeze to death." said Josef, he chuckled with nervousness.


    Caden sighed. "Fine, let''s do this, but if we survive, you owe me a juice, an expensive one".


    Josef nodded. The two walked forward, pushing the school doors open and letting the cold blizzard enter into the building, already sending shivers down everyone''s spine.


    "I''m regretting this already." said Caden.


    "So am I."


    The two continued to walk outside in the harsh blizzard while the others simply watched, getting colder by the second as they watched the two disappear into the distance due to the fog. Mr. Fatmouth nodded twice in contentment for the two''s resolve and looked disappointed at the others. He knew that the others wouldn''t budge, so he pushed them all one by one out of the door.


    Some tried to push back but because of Mr. Fatmouth''s weight, they weren''t strong enough to push a wrecking ball of a man out of the way. As Mr. Fatmouth pushed the last student out into the frozen wasteland, he closed the glass doors, inserted the key into the lock, and twisted it, locking the students outside.


    The students couldn''t do anything as Mr. Fatmouth headed deep inside the school, disappearing from view and leaving the students to stare at the warm interior of the school. With a time limit of three hours to survive, the punishment had begun.

 Chapter 5: Shiver

    "Three hours." This was on the minds of every student in class 1-F as they stared at the warm interior of the school, they were slowly getting covered in snow from head to toe. The thin fabric of the P.E. uniform certainly wouldn''t help them in their goal of staying warm and would rather become their downfall throughout the three excruciatingly cold and painful hours.


    The view of the courtyard became fuzzy, and no one could see beyond thirty feet in any direction because of the fog that was brought by the raging blizzard. It was certainly cold, and only those who are crazy would try this for fun, but for class 1-F, this was their punishment, and this was the only way that they could become students in their school once more.


    Some have thought that they could simply report Mr. Fatmouth to the authorities or to their parents, but that would only come back to bite them, as even the entire neighborhood knows about the notoriety of class 1-F, and telling their parents that they got punished because of their extreme behavior would only lead to them being chewed out or, in worst case scenarios, disowned. With three hours to survive, it''s time for class 1-F''s punishment.


    "So what are we gonna do now?" asked Caden.


    "WE are not going to do anything, our gang will survive on our own." said the leader of the delinquent girls.


    "I don''t think that''s a good idea." said Josh. His face was full of bandages, bleeding at some points, and some of his exposed parts were covered with bruises, while Matt''s was the same.


    "Pfff, says the guy who started this mess, if it weren''t for you, we would have been sleeping in the warmth of our classroom, but now we''re stuck here in this dump!" said the female delinquent in a mocking tone.


    "Sleeping in class is a bad idea too." muttered Josef.


    "Like you''re one to talk." said Caden as he chuckled a bit, poking fun at Josef''s behavior.


    "Anyways, me and the girls will be staying at the far left side of the courtyard, if any of you come near, I''ll personally beat you up myself! You wouldn''t want to join Zach in the clinic, would you?" exclaimed the leader.


    Josef liked the sound of the idea since the clinic was warm, but getting beat up in the process made the proposition a tad unappealing. The female delinquent turned around and started to walk towards the far left side of the school, followed by most of the girls, while the rest of the class was left behind, staring at their backs as they vanished in the raging blizzard.


    "So... what now?" asked Caden.


    "Do you know any way to stay warm?" Josef answered with a question.


    The two of them started to think but were quickly interrupted when the cold wind of the blizzard started to get to them. A surge of wind hit their backs and a cold shiver wend down their spine.


    "What if we just talk? That could warm us up." proposed Caden as he crossed his arms, hiding them from the cold.


    "I don''t think I could talk for three hours, I''m not quite as talkative, unlike you." Josef chuckled a bit, he was also cold but he tried not to show it.


    Josh and Matt walked closer to Josef and Caden.


    "Hey, what are you guys talking about?" asked Josh.


    "Nothing much man, just trying to stay warm, obviously" said Caden, he was a bit nervous about the two. They haven''t interacted much with each other and were worried that they just wanted to start some trouble.


    "Can we.. join you guys? I don''t think the others are enjoying our company. If it''s alright with you both, then.. let''s work together." said Matt.


    "Yeah, that sounds nice." said Josef, Caden nods in agreement. They thought It was best if they got along with people, especially with the strong.


    "Great! let''s sit down and chat." said Josh.


    "I don''t think sitting in this snow is a great idea, especially with our bare legs exposed." answered Josef.


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    "Let''s just stand then." proposed Caden.


    The class was now divided into three groups, the delinquent girls group was on the far left side of the school, Josef''s group was only a few meters from the center of the courtyard, which was indicated by a stone fountain, but unfortunately, the flowing water had frozen, while the rest of the class was a few meters away from Josef''s group.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, what happened between you two?" asked Caden as he gazed at the two''s beat-up faces. He was a bit cautious with the questions as he feared that the two would once again rough it out with each other.


    There was a brief silence in the group, Josh glanced at Matt and sighed.


    "Yeah it was a bit dumb, but we''re already passed that." said Josh.


    "It was my fault, this wouldn''t have happened if I hadn''t accidentally punched you, Josh." said Matt.


    "It did hurt a bit, but let''s not forget that Zach was the one who started this mess by throwing the first punch, he''s also the reason why you accidentally punched me." said Josh.


    "I''m sorry for punching you back, when I got hit, my vision became blurry and I could only think about fighting back, I was so angry back then that I thought that violence was the only way to solve things, but now look at what its gotten us to." Josh added.


    "I''m sorry as well. This could have ended well if I just stopped fighting back, I''m really sorry dude, hope the punch won''t leave a mark in your face." said Matt.


    "Oh it definitely will." exclaimed Josh as he smiled, almost forming a chuckle.


    Josef and Caden could only smile at the beautiful sight of two beat up boys reconciling, they were brothers in arms, beat up from head to toe, red and black marks on their faces and let''s not forget the monstrous punch of Mr. Fatmouth that they both endured.


    Two hours and thirty minutes remain. Josef''s group was happily chatting about random things in order to stay warm, they stood close together to share each other''s body heat.


    "Alright be honest with me boys, bone in or boneless chicken?" asked Caden.


    "Boneless!" everyone said in unison.


    "Oh, guess Gerald was the only weird one after all." said Caden. "I wonder what he''s doing right now."


    "Probably doing good student stuff." answered Josef.


    "Who''s Gerald?" asked Josh.


    "Just our friend from class 1-A." said Caden.


    "The other classes are lucky that they don''t have to deal with punishments unlike us, must be nice." said Josh.


    The four boys continued to peacefully chat in the middle of the raging blizzard, their heads were covered in snow, but they continued to share in their laughter, and at some point they had even forgotten that they were in this punishment because they were simply enjoying each other''s company.


    Two hours and fifteen minutes left.


    "Hey, why don''t we guys exercise?" asked Caden.


    "Oh! that could be good." answer Josh.


    "Yeah lets do it, it''ll keep us warm." replied Matt.


    Josef, on the other hand, had some doubts about the proposition, there was something bothering him, but he couldn''t quite put his finger on it, so he simply nodded and the group started to exercise.


    Josh was doing pushups in the snow, his hands were cold, but he could definitely feel that he was getting warmer. Matt was doing burpees, gasping for breath as he got more and more tired. Josef was doing squats because he didn''t want to do any activity that required him to touch the cold ground. He was still pondering about his doubts, and he was getting closer to remembering what it was. Caden, on the other hand, was running and dancing around the group like a monkey. They must have looked like idiots to the other groups, especially Caden.


    This continued on for ten minutes until Josef finally remembered something. He stopped doing squats and shouted something.


    "Guys, stop!"


    "What is it?" said Caden as he stopped running.


    Josh and Matt stopped whatever they were doing as well and looked at Josef in confusion.


    "We''ll die if we continue, sweating in this weather can increase the risk of hypothermia." stated Josef.


    "Oh shit!" the three boys said in unison. They all checked their backs for sweat and luckily they weren''t sweating that much, but there certainly was a bit of sweat.


    The four of them went back to simply chatting, they were a bit tired and certainly did felt cooler as their moist backs started to cool, but they were lucky that Josef stopped them just in time before they were all covered in sweat.


    Two hours remain. As the sun started to decline, it started to become even colder than before. Josef''s group could feel the cold getting to them, and simply chatting wasn''t enough for them to stay warm, but they couldn''t think of anything else that could warm them up without the risk of hypothermia. The boys turned their backs and leaned on each other in order to warm their bodies using each other''s body heat, it was a bit awkward, but it worked a bit, but because of the thin and exposed P.E. uniform that they were wearing, they were slowly succumbing to the cold.


    The blizzard grew wilder and seemed to become enraged as the winds became fiercer, slapping the boys with a gust of cold wind that made them shiver. The punishment was only a third of the way done, but they already felt like giving up.


    Just then a loud, piercing scream was heard in the distance, Josef''s group took action immediately and started to run towards the direction it came from, it was the scream of a woman, and Josh recognized it as the voice of one of the female delinquents.


    Josef''s group rushed to the far left side of the school, braving the blizzard with only the sound of a female screaming "HELP!" to guide them through the fog. They finally saw people on the other side, and as they got closer, they were mortified to see the leader of the female delinquents collapsed on the ground and not moving.

 Chapter 6: Hopeless and Desperate

    "LEADER! LEADER PLEASE WAKE UP!" screamed one of the girls, shaking the fallen delinquent on the ground. She was not responding. The other girls can be seen crying around the cold body of their respected leader.


    "Please! Someone help!" one of the girls pleaded, tears gushing out of her eyes like a waterfall.


    Josef and Caden could only watch in horror as the girl slowly began to develop signs of hypothermia. They were all helpless, no tools, no warm clothing, and they didn''t even have any food that they could eat.


    "Body heat!" exclaimed Caden. "Just hug her until she warms up a bit"


    "But wouldn''t she have a hard time breathing?" asked Josh.


    "It''s the only way I can think of." replied Caden.


    Feeling helpless, the girls started to crowd around the fallen delinquent, with two girls hugging her at her sides desperately trying to warm the poor girl.


    One hour and forty minutes remain.


    The girls are taking turns hugging the fallen leader, desperately trying to warm her up. There was still no reply from the leader, her face turning pale from the cold.


    "I can''t stand this anymore!" exclaimed one of the girls.


    "Let''s ask Mr. Fatmouth for help." proposed Josh.


    "But wouldn''t he expel us if we did?" asked Matt.


    "Expulsion doesn''t mean shit if she''s dead." replied Josh.


    He took the initiative, carried the freezing girl on his arms, and dashed towards the main building while everyone else followed along.


    "HEY FATMOUTH OPEN UP!" screamed Josh.


    The others were trying to call Mr. Fatmouth as well.


    "SOMEONE PLEASE OPEN UP!" screamed one of the girls as she tried to get the attention of the other classes, but there was no response at all, it was dead silent in the inside of the school, but they felt relieved when they suddenly heard footsteps approaching the door.


    "Mr. Fatmouth, please open the door!" pleaded one of the girls.


    She was relieved because she thought that their leader would be saved, but her relief was quickly destroyed as Mr. Fatmouth slowly shook his head.


    "Please Mr. Fatmouth, I don''t care if we get expelled, just open the door." pleaded Caden.


    Mr. Fatmouth just stood there with a blank expression on his face. He shook his head again, denying Caden''s request.


    "PLEASE SHE''S GONNA DIE!" screamed one of the girls as she cried her soul out. Mr. Fatmouth shook his head again. They continued to plead and scream with only one goal in mind, getting into the school. But as Mr. Fatmouth turned down every one of their requests with a shake of his head, the students were slowly losing hope while the fallen leader was beginning to turn pale. As Mr. Fatmouth grew tired of the student''s pleas, he slowly turned his back on them and started to walk away.


    "Hey Fatmouth! Just fucking open the door already!" yelled Matt as Mr. Fatmouth slowly headed inside the school.


    The yelling of the students grew more and more intense as Mr. Fatmouth grew smaller in their vision, getting farther and farther away from them, until he disappeared from view. Feeling hopeless, most of the girls started crying, while the boys were frustrated at Mr. Fatmouth for not even opening the door, they didn''t even sense a shred of empathy in Mr. Fatmouth''s face as he walked away from them, abandoning them outside in the unforgiving blizzard, not giving a damn if the delinquent girl died. After wallowing in their failure, Josh continued to carry the freezing body of the girl and headed back in defeat.


    One hour and twenty minutes remain.


    The students sat in a large circle, feeling helpless as they couldn''t do anything for the girl. They could feel the cold more and more, and their clothing certainly didn''t help keep them warm. The girls continued to take shifts warming the leader up with their body heat, it helped slightly, but they knew that if this kept up, she would die before they finished the three hours.


    As the boys were lost in thought, trying to figure out what they would do next, their thinking was interrupted as another girl collapsed to the ground, face first. The girl next to her screamed in shock. Matt immediately got up and checked the girl''s condition, she was developing hypothermia as well. He carried the girl and gently placed her beside the still unconscious leader. As he finished positioning the unconscious girl, he heard a thud behind him, and as he turned around, he saw the boy next to Josef, now on the ground, freezing and unconscious.


    "We''re all going to die!'''' screamed one of the girls as she covered her leaking eyes.


    "I can''t take this anymore!" another yelled.


    Caden quickly carried the boy and placed him beside the unconscious girl as well. Josef thought that he should have carried the boy since he was right next to him, but he wasn''t confident that he could carry him by himself. He felt a bit useless since he couldn''t do anything for his class, but so did everyone else.


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    Everyone was now feeling hopeless, there were now three people on the brink of death, and yet they couldn''t do anything about them. Just then, Caden got up from where he was sitting, snow covering his butt.


    "Let''s call for help outside the school." proposed Caden.


    "But the gates will surely be locked, they only open at 4 p.m." said Josef.


    "Who cares, let''s jump it."


    "You go, I''m gonna stay here." replied Josef.


    Caden turned around and began to dash north in the direction of the school gate.


    After a few minutes, Josef and the gang could see Caden running back to them.


    "Wait, what?" muttered Caden.


    "Any luck outside?" asked Matt.


    "What the fuck!?" exclaimed Caden, his face filled with confusion.


    "What''s going on?" asked Josef.


    "I''m positive I was running towards the school gate, yet here I am."


    "Did you get confused and accidentally turn around?" asked Josef.


    "Of course not! Who would be dumb enough to do that?" exclaimed Caden.


    "Then how are you here?" asked Josef.


    "I don''t fucking know, why don''t you just come with me." proposed Caden.


    "Fine, let''s go."


    Josef stood up from his not-so-comfortable position, and the two ran to the school gate. As they ran, the fog became thicker and thicker, and they couldn''t even see ten feet in front of them.


    Josef made sure that they were going in a straight line in order to not get lost again. It felt like an eternity as they ran across the courtyard and hopefully towards the school gate. Josef could only see Caden as the fog gobbled up their surroundings.


    Just as they thought that they could see something, Josef''s jaw dropped as he saw the students that they left when they were running in the complete opposite direction.


    "But.. huh.. the fuck is going on?" muttered Josef.


    "How did it go?" asked Josh.


    "Don''t ask, I don''t know what''s happening, but for some reason we keep coming back here even though we were heading straight for the school gate." replied Caden.


    Josh was a bit skeptical because Caden''s explanation didn''t make sense, but he just went with it because there was no point in lying in this situation and Josef was there to testify.


    One hour and ten minutes remain.


    After some thinking, Josef came up with an idea.


    "How about we blanket the unconscious with our shirts to make them warmer?"


    "Then we''ll freeze to death." replied Caden.


    "Either we become next in line to freeze, or the unconscious die." said Josef.


    The others were a bit hesitant at first, but as they glanced over at their freezing classmates'' faces, they knew the former was the correct choice.


    The boys started to take off their shirts one by one and spread them across the unconscious'' bodies, shielding them from the harsh blizzard, while the girls pinned the clothes down so they wouldn''t get blown over by the ferocious winds.


    The students were able to breathe for a bit now that the unconscious were in a better state. The shirtless boys were freezing more than ever, but they knew that it was for the best. The time was still ticking, and as more people collapsed from the cold, especially the shirtless boys, Josef knew that he needed to do something. It was time for him to become usefull and not be a burden to everyone.


    "Where are you going?" asked Caden.


    "I''m going to go talk to Mr. Fatmouth." answered Josef.


    "You know he''s only going to ignore you."


    "I''ll find a way." replied Josef.


    Caden didn''t stop Josef, as he was secretly hoping that Josef could find a way into Mr. Fatmouth''s cold heart, and all he could do was stare at Josef''s exposed back disappearing from view as he hoped for the best.


    "Mr. Fatmouth!, Mr. Fatmouth!" Josef yelled while banging on the see-through door of the main building.


    "Please come here, Mr. Fatmouth!" Josef continued to yell.


    As he heard footsteps walking towards the door, he was relieved when he saw Mr. Fatmouth approaching. He had a confused look on his face as he saw the shirtless Josef.


    "I''m guessing you''re not going to open the door, right?" asked Josef.


    Mr. Fatmouth continued his silence from their last encounter and proceeded to shake his head.


    "That''s fine, I''m just here to ask you some questions." said Josef. "Why are you doing this?"


    Mr. Fatmouth glanced around his surroundings before staring into Josef''s eyes.


    "It''s for your re-education." he said.


    Josef was a bit surprised that Mr. Fatmouth actually spoke to him.


    "Re-education?" Josef muttered. "What do you mean by that, Mr. Fatmouth?"


    There was silence.


    "Mr. Fatmouth?"


    The silence continued.


    "How do I save my classmates? How can I keep them alive in this horrible blizzard?" asked Josef, disregarding his previous question.


    Mr. Fatmouth looked around him again as if he was wary of something.


    "Look around you and find a way, or just leave." he replied.


    "But there''s nothing around, and for some reason, we can''t even find our way outside the school." exclaimed Josef.


    Mr. Fatmouth grew silent. He looked disappointed.


    "Please mr. Fatmouth! There has to be another way to resolve this." pleaded Josef.


    Mr. Fatmouth kept his silence. Josef asked Mr. Fatmouth another flurry of questions, but this time, he stayed quiet throughout all of them. It was like a detective movie where the protagonist was asking the suspect some important questions, but the other party stubbornly ignored the onslaught.


    Mr. Fatmouth let out a sigh as he turned around and started to walk away.


    "Mr. Fatmouth! please wait!" pleaded Josef.


    He ignored the boy''s plea and continued to walk, disappearing from view as Josef felt helpless and confused.


    With more questions than answers, Josef pondered on what Mr. Fatmouth said about their "re-education." He began to feel frustrated and hopeless, as he had no clue what was going on or how he could save everyone from a cold demise. He started to punch the glass door. He let out a flurry of punches, but the glass door was still standing in its transparent glory.


    "What is this? bullet-proof?" Josef muttered.


    He was desperate because he knew that even though there was only around one hour left, his unconscious classmates wouldn''t make it, especially the leader, the one who was first to succumb to the cold.


    He resumed his pondering about Mr. Fatmouth''s statements as he slowly walked away from the door. He had walked a decent distance away from the main building and he gave it one final glance before it disappeared from view, but it was at this moment that he realized that there was an open window on the second floor. Since the light was open, he could see a bit more clearly in the room, and he was a bit surprised to see Mr. Fatmouth inside. But what surprised him the most was what he was holding.


    He was holding something that could solve all their problems and save the unconscious from a cold demise, a lighter. Mr. Fatmouth flicked the orange colored lighter''s switch, and as the small hot flame came out, he held the warm, flickering light towards the end of his cigarette. Smoke came out, indicating that it had been lit, and he placed the cigar in between his lips as he placed the lighter on the desk before walking away from view.

 Chapter 7: Flame of Hope

    One hour remains.


    It was at this moment that Josef only had one goal in mind, getting the lighter, but the problem was that it was located on the second floor, and Josef didn''t have any experience scaling walls, especially if they weren''t designed to be climbed.


    He walked towards the school walls, shivering as he took every step, his cold and shirtless body shaking as the blizzard attacked him from every direction. As he looked for a way up, he couldn''t find any sort of foothold that he could use as leverage. There was a window in front of him, but the width of the ledge wasn''t enough for even a toe to fit, so it wasn''t an option. Not to mention that it was locked from the very beginning, so because of that, the window route was a no go.


    Josef looked around his surroundings again, finding it difficult to see anything in the distance due to the heavy fog. He walked a few feet away from the main building, and saw something huge and thick, a large tree. Josef remembered that he loved to nap under that same tree during lunch, but he had sort of forgotten it was there, as he couldn''t nap there like he used to because of the seemingly neverending blizzard. He could definitely try to climb up and jump the distance to the window, the only problem was that he didn''t know how to climb a tree either. Josef wasn''t discouraged by the fact that he didn''t know how to climb it, but he felt fear rise within him as he stared at the thick brown tree that could be the key to their survival. He was a bit scared, which was a normal reaction, as he knew that he needed to at least give it a try for the sake of his classmates.


    Josef hyped himself up, he jumped up and down to get his blood pumping. He approached the brown tree, and he was now ready to climb. He first tried the running approach. He walked away from the tree by a few feet and dashed. He felt the shivering cold as the harsh winds blew on his body as he ran. He was now only a few dozen inches from the tree, and it was at this moment that he lifted his legs and planted them on the trunk of the tree. He thought that he could simply use the momentum from the sprint in order for him to run up the tree and grab the lowest branch to hold onto because there was a slight incline on its trunk, but Josef soon realized that it wasn''t a good idea as he fell to the ground face first.


    The snow cushioned Josef''s fall, and it left him with minimal wounds, but now that he knows the running approach is off the list, he begins to ponder what to try next.


    Fifty five minutes remain.


    Josef thought of another approach, he would simply hug the tree and scooch himself upward. He approached the tree again, placing his arm around the thick circumference of the trunk. He lifted both of his legs, and now he was ready to climb.


    It was quite a weird sight to see if you have no context of what''s going on, a half naked man hugging a tree, it was a bit hilarious from the outsider''s perspective, but if you know that it was a matter of life and death, it would definitely change the mood.


    As soon as Josef lifted his legs up, readying himself to climb, he soon realized that there was another problem, he couldn''t move up the tree. He tried his hardest to push himself up, but he simply couldn''t for some reason. He thought that it was because of his inexperience, his lack of strength, or both of those factors combined, but what he did know was that he just couldn''t do it. Josef placed his feet back on the ground, his body was now covered in wounds and splinters from the repeated, intense tree hugging action. He punched the tree in frustration, further adding a small wound to his fist, but he didn''t even flinch from the pain as he knew that his classmates have it worse.


    "What''s taking him so long?" said Caden.


    It has been almost twenty minutes since Josef left the group of students in order to talk to Mr. Fatmouth.


    "I wonder if he''s still talking to Mr. Fatmouth." said Matt.


    "Maybe he hasn''t and he''s still trying to get Mr. Fatmouth''s attention." replied Josh.


    "Who knows, maybe he''s just slacking off." said Matt


    "Let''s have a bit more faith guys, I know he wouldn''t do anything stupid at a time like this." exclaimed Caden.


    He knew that Josef would always try to keep his word whenever he was up to something, and he knew that he could easily trust Josef even with his life if he needed to.


    Forty minutes remain.


    The total headcount of the fallen students now reached a dozen, and as Josef still hadn''t returned, Caden grew anxious. He thought of a few scenarios in his head, and when he thought that Josef might have collapsed himself, he grew worried.


    "I''ll go and see what Josef''s up to." exclaimed Caden as he got up from the not so warm ground that he has been sitting on, snow sticking to his butt and still shirtless.


    No one disagreed with Caden, and he quickly dashed towards where Josef went, he could feel colder and colder as he ran faster from the cold wind hitting his shirtless body. As Caden got closer, he could see a figure in the distance. He squinted his eyes to see who it was, and he was relieved to see his best friend.


    During this time, Josef tried countless more tactics on how to climb the tree, but as he stood on the ground, all of them seemed to fail.


    "Dude! What the fuck happened!?" yelled Caden, who was terrified to see Josef''s body covered in wounds, blood dripping from countless spots.


    "Oh!" Josef was surprised from Caden''s sudden scream, "Nothing much, just climbing a tree."


    "Why the fuck would you climb a tree?" asked Caden


    "Do you see that room up there?" pointed Josef


    Caden nodded as he saw the open windows of the room with the lights open.


    "I saw Mr. Fatmouth use a lighter to light a cigarette, and he left it in the room." stated Josef


    "Wait! Mr. Fatmouth smokes? since when?"


    "More importantly, help me climb this tree so we can get it." said Josef.


    "You know I can''t climb trees." said Caden.


    "Just give it a try, you''re much stronger than me."


    Caden tried Josef''s earlier strategy of hugging the tree and pushing himself up, he was able to move up a little bit, but it still wasn''t enough for him to reach the lowest branch.


    The two pondered for a minute until Josef had a thought.


    "What if I stand on your shoulders? I think I can reach the branch." proposed Josef


    "What if I''m the one who''s gonna climb?" asked Caden.


    "Do you really think I''m strong enough to carry you?"


    "Fair enough." Caden replied.


    Josef slowly climbed Caden''s back as he was knelt over so Josef could easily get over his shoulders, Josef was now sitting on top of Caden''s shoulders, Josef braced himself as Caden slowly got up from his kneeling position as he tried to stand, he easily got up as Josef wasn''t that heavy to begin with.


    Now it was Josef''s time to shine. The plan was for him to stand on Caden''s shoulder, climb the tree by climbing the lowest branch, slowly climb to higher branches, jump to the open window, and grab the lighter. It was quite a simple plan, yet it wasn''t. Josef could still feel the fear of falling, but he knew that it was a small sacrifice for the better. He knew that if he did this successfully, he would be able to save his classmates, and they would be able to be accepted back into the school, surviving Mr. Fatmouth''s punishment.


    Josef slowly stood up from Caden''s shoulders, almost losing his balance, but luckily Caden''s head was there to act as a stabilizer to hold on to. With Josef now standing on Caden''s half naked body, he was now able to reach the lowest branch of the tree. He grabbed the branch, but he couldn''t pull himself up since Josef wasn''t strong enough to even do a pull-up. Caden immediately noticed this, and he helped him up by pushing Josef''s feet up using his hands, and with the additional help, Josef was able to pull himself up the branch, with both arms and legs clutching the sturdy branch tightly like a cat stuck on a tree.


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    Josef bravely stood up from the branch, he didn''t lose balance this time as he grabbed the next branch above him. Since the next branch was a bit lower, he was easily able to climb it. Josef repeated this process until he was as high as the window, he could see the light where their hope lies, all he needed to do was jump, but at this moment, his fear struck the roof as jumping was the most crucial and dangerous process.


    Josef took a deep breath as he readied for the jump, he knew that he needed to do this and he will, he must do it for his classmates. With their not-so-memorable faces in his mind, Josef jumped as high and as far as he could. He reached out his hands midair, and in the decisive moment, he was able to grab on to the ledge of the window.


    "COME ON! PULL!" yelled Caden


    Josef was struggling to pull himself up, he couldn''t do it with the branch, and now he has to try with the ledge. He pulled as hard as he could, but his grip slowly loosened.


    "COME ON!" Caden yelled again.


    He repeated his yells as Josef continued to struggle, he knew that he wouldn''t last ten more seconds holding on to the ledge, so in one last ditch effort, he shouted as loud as he could and pulled himself up. Because of the increased adrenaline, Josef was miraculously able to pull himself up the window, and he entered the room.


    Josef wasted no time as he grabbed the orange lighter from the table. He was ready to slowly climb down from the window, but as he heard footsteps walking towards the door of the room, he made a last-second decision and hid under a table.


    The door opened. Josef was silently hiding, covering his mouth and nose just in case the person heard him breathing. He knew he was going to be in trouble if he got caught. It was only after a few seconds that Josef finally heard the entity doing something.


    "beep beep beep." he heard


    He inferred that the person was trying to call someone.


    "Hello?" said the person to the phone, because of the softness and high pitch of the voice, Josef was easily able to deduce that it was a woman who was in the room with him, probably in her late twenties or early thirties.


    "The plan will now be carried out" said the woman.


    "Yes exactly"


    "The substance isn''t done yet!?"


    "But we''re already prepared here! The others are already in position!"


    "Have they been gathered in the room?"


    "Good, just hurry up with the substance."


    "I don''t care! Finish it as fast as possible! I don''t want any further delays. He''s been waiting for a while, don''t you dare disappoint him."


    The woman hung up as she said the last line, footsteps could be heard again, and as Josef heard the door creak as it opened and closed, he sighed in relief as he was safe.


    Josef got out from under the table, confused about what the woman was talking about, he couldn''t understand the context of what the call was about as he wasn''t able to hear who was on the other end of the call. Josef placed it aside for now.


    He looked around the room. He saw a lot of thick document binders that filled the large bookshelves that made up the left and right walls, there was a large black carpet that looked expensive as it had golden embroidery, a lampshade for light, and dozens of picture frames containing images of people that Josef didn''t know. He took interest in one particular photograph, it was that of an ordinary looking family. He grabbed the photograph and looked closer. In it, there was a man standing up, a woman sitting down on a wooden chair, and a newborn on her arms. He didn''t pay attention to any detail, especially since the photo was in black and white, and because of the photo beeing too worn out, he couldn''t even see their faces clearly, he simply thought that they looked like such a happy family. He put the photo back and headed for the window.


    It had just occured to him that this was the principal''s office, and the family on the picture must have been the principal''s, but he didn''t know if the principal was the man or the woman since the principal hasn''t appeared during this school year yet for unknown reasons, it was always the secretary that appears in their place. Now that he thought about it, the woman earlier could have been the secretary.


    "But if this was the principal''s office, then why was Mr. Fatmouth here?" He thought to himself.


    Josef almost made the mistake of just taking the lighter, if he did, they wouldn''t have anything to set ablaze to warm them up. He took a few binders filled with paper and tossed them outside the window.


    "Heads up Caden!" lightly yelled Josef.


    "Oh shit!" yelled Caden as he dodged the falling binders in the last second, "Be careful, you fucking idiot."


    Josef was now ready to go down. With a lighter in his pocket, he hung down from the window, his hands clutching the ledge of the window. He let go, and he landed safely with the additional help of the layered snow that cushioned his fall.


    They had done it, they now had their one and only hope in Josef''s pocket, hope in the form of an orange lighter that can produce a small flame. It was small, yet they knew that it was enough to save everyone''s life.


    Josef and Caden dashed back to the group.


    Thirty-five minutes remain.


    The unconscious were on the brink of death while the boys were shaking more and more, there were now fifteen students who had passed out from the cold, and only half the class remained sitting. During the time when Caden and Josef were gone, others had also tried to escape outside the school but ran into the same situation of magically going backwards even though they went in a straight line.


    Josh grew impatient as he couldn''t stand the cold any further. He slowly lost hope as he felt like it had been an eternity while he waited for the two boys. Just as Josh slowly closed his eyes, succumbing to the unforgiving blizzard, he saw two figures dashing toward him. He swung his eyes open and stood up in excitement.


    "Josef!, Caden!" yelled Josh, waving his hand.


    In response, Josef lit the lighter, and a small and bright flame appeared in the middle of the blizzard. Josh saw the light, and excitement arose from within him, the others saw this as well, and some began to tear up. They knew that it was fire, a warm fire that could save them, a flame that gave them hope.


    When Josef arrived at the site, he wasted no time and grabbed nearby rocks, lining them up in a circle while he shoveled out the snow from the inside of the circle using his hands. While Josef prepared the fire pit, Caden looked for sticks that they could use. When he finished gathering, he placed all the sticks in the middle of the circle, scattering them while the ends met in the middle, Josef lit up a piece of paper, which burned quickly as he held it up to the sticks, hoping that the flame would transfer to the sticks. The paper completely burned out, it had failed to do the job.


    Josef said "Fuck it." as he burned the entire binder. A large flame erupted in his hands, and he threw the burning binder on the sticks in surprise. After a few seconds filled with anticipation, they heard a crackle, and the sticks started to burn. Josef sighed in relief as they now had a source of warmth, and the boys carried the unconsious and laid them near the fire.


    Most of the girls started to cry from relief, while the boys had a huge smile on their faces, they were still shirtless, but at least the fire warmed them. They had done it, they had secured warmth, their classmates were saved, and they simply needed to wait until the punishment was over. During this moment, no one talked, they all stared at the fire. It was their friend, their savior, their hope. One by one, the unconscious woke up.


    "Thanks... everyone." said the leader.


    They were surprised when the leader had finally woke up when they weren''t looking. The girls swarmed and tightly hugged their leader as she had finally woken up from her shivering sleep.


    Twenty minutes remain.


    Ten minutes remain.


    Five minutes remain.


    One minute remain.


    With just a minute left, class 1-F approached the school gate. Mr. Fatmouth was waiting inside, staring at his watch.


    "Ten, nine, eight...", Josh counted down.


    "Seven, six, five..." the entire class joined in.


    "Four, three, two, one.."


    As the time hit zero, Mr. Fatmouth clapped his hands almost sarcastically and walked towards the door. Everyone''s face lit up with joy as Mr. Fatmouth pulled out the key from his pocket, inserted it into the lock, twisted it to the right, and opened the door. The entire class felt the surge of heat that came from the heater near the doorway, they basked in its warmth for a minute until it was interrupted by Mr. Fatmouth.


    "Go back to the classroom, I have some.. good news to tell you all." said Mr. Fatmouth. For some reason, he looked a bit down.


    The students happily followed Mr. Fatmouth, they already knew what he was going to say.


    Josef kept looking around while they walked back to the room. He found it strange that there was no noise to be heard anywhere, the only noise was from his class. There were no other students or even teachers outside. All the doors were closed so he couldn''t peek inside any of the other classrooms. He was a bit curious but ended up ignoring it since he was tired from the punishment.


    Mr. Fatmouth opened the classroom door, and the students saw the messy room that they had left, nothing had changed from the last time they left it, the chairs were still broken, the windows shattered, it was chaos, yet it was a warm chaos.


    The students stood as they awaited Mr. Fatmouth''s good news, they had no chairs to sit on, so standing sufficed.


    "As of this moment, you are all students of Hanamaru Gakuen, welcome back, I hope that you have fun as you continue with your re-education." stated Mr. Fatmouth.


    He quickly left the chaotic room and closed the door, but his sad expression still lingered on his face. The students celebrated in joy while they put on their beloved uniforms. Girls hugged, boys fist bumped, and Caden danced like a monkey, while Josef pondered about what Mr. Fatmouth just said, he has heard him say "re-education" twice now, and he was curious on what it meant.


    The students continued with their celebration for a few more minutes, but it was cut short when they heard something from outside the door. It sounded like a vacuum. Matt approached the door, trying to find out what the sound was. A purple gas seeped through the cracks of the door.


    "What the fuck is this!" exclaimed Matt as he coughed.


    Matt tried to get away from the gas, the class panicked, and everyone rushed to the other side of the room as they tried to get as far away from the gas as possible. Even though there were no windows because they were shattered, the purple gas still covered the entire room before leaving through the open windows. Everyone started to cough and one by one the students started to drop like flies. Caden was next to Josef, but as he glanced at his surroundings, he saw Caden lie face down on the floor. Josef''s vision was now blurry, and he was only a few seconds away from succumbing to the effects of the purple gas. He saw the front door of their classroom open, and a figure wearing a gas mask entered the room as Josef''s vision turned black.

 Chapter 8: The Note

    Darkness..., as Josef opened his eyes, he could only see darkness enveloping him as he laid on his back. He moved around but found it difficult to do so as he realized that he was encased in a cuboid of some sort, from the coolness of the material, he inferred that it was metallic.


    His thoughts were a bit all over the place as he tried to remember what he did before he got into his current situation. The last thing he remembered was the purple gas covering the entire room while a figure wearing a gas mask came in. That was the extent of Josef''s memories, as his head began to ache when he tried to think more about it.


    Josef struggled more and more in order to try and get out of his enclosure. He felt something odd touch the sole of his shoes. He slowly pulled the unknown object towards him by using his feet, and when the object was close enough, he grabbed it with his hands. The object felt cold, quite like the material that he was encased in, and he couldn''t quite understand what it was since there were a lot of complex parts that he couldn''t fathom in the dark. There was a part that spun, a rod-shaped end, a grip that he used to comfortably hold the said object, and a piece of paper that was attached.


    Josef disregarded the object for now as he tried to find a way in order to free himself from his enclosure. He touched the different sections of his surroundings, trying to figure out what it was first. Nothing came up on the front side, nothing on the left side as well, and he couldn''t know if there was anything else on the bottom, but he felt something on the right side. Josef felt that there was a crack, he traced the crack as he realized that it was a door, he pushed the door, it was budging but it wouldn''t open, he knew that it wasn''t locked but there was something that was blocking the door from fully opening. He pushed and pushed with all his might, placing all the strength he had on his arms as he couldn''t fully utilize his entire strength from his position. After countless attempts, the door finally opened. He was in a locker that was facing the wall, he now understood why it became difficult to open it, as he needed to distance the locker from the door before it could open. An indentation was left on the wall from the locker door repeatedly bashing on it from Josef''s onslaught of pushes.


    Josef was now free, he quickly got out of the locker but as he turned around to look at his surroundings, his face deformed with horror. There he saw his classroom, he was still in the class 1-F classroom but something was wrong, something was bloody fucking wrong, the entire sight was so messed up that Josef almost puked, it was a sight for nightmares. Even though it was at the dead of night with the raging blizzard further blocking the light of the moon, he was still able to clearly see everything around him. He saw the walls covered in blood with scribbles of "HELP" drawn in red, intestines hanging on to the broken tables, severed limbs scattered throughout the floor, bloody pieces of torn uniform all around, broken glass fragments stained with blood, and to top it all off, a centerpiece of a pile of corpses. Just from first glance, he knew that the pile of corpses was his classmates. He walked towards the bloody pile, speechless as tears began to flow from his eyes. He didn''t know who most of them were, he hadn''t even interacted with most of them. He knew that they were dickheads, tyrants, delinquents, and everything between those lines, but they were still humans. Even if they were the most horrid people he had ever met up to this point, a life is still a life. Some of them could have been his friends, he could have spent a good chunk of his life with them, they could have hung out at the park, the mall, and other places, but their short journey together ended here, in this classroom.


    Josef was still in shock from what he had seen. But through all the nightmarish scenery, he still remembered the unknown object from the locker. He was clutching it in his hands, and as he looked down on what he was holding, what he had in his hand was a gray revolver with six bullets loaded. Josef flipped the gun over and saw a note attached to the side of the gun, held in place by clear tape. The white piece of paper only had one sentence written on it, a sentence that was written in black, "ERADICATE THE PRINCIPAL".


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    Josef was quite puzzled at what the note said, he was still quite shocked, and fear overwhelmed his legs, his body became noodles as he fell to the ground, shaking as the situation set in. His entire class was brutally murdered while he was left alive for some reason, with a gun in his hand and a message written in blood. It was depressing, it was chaotic, and it was fucked up. With nothing to do but reflect, Josef started to silently cry. Tears continued to flow from his eyes as he sat there silently, staring at the eyes of the diseased while their lifeless gaze stared at him in return.


    His tears were cut short as he gained a tiny bit of hope. From staring at the pile of corpses, he noticed his main friend group from his class wasn''t included in the blood-soaked pile. Josh, Matt, and Caden weren''t there, which gave Josef hope as these were the only people from his class that he was on good terms with. His legs strengthened as he hoped that they were alive, and with him now being able to stand up, he quickly searched the destroyed room to hopefully find his friends... or what''s left of them. Josef turned the face down corpses just to double check if they were his friends, he knew that they weren''t because he could instantly tell from their body shapes, but he did it anyways just to be sure. He also searched the room for his backpack. He wanted to grab his phone and call for help, but as he searched the entire room, he couldn''t even find a single backpack.


    His searching was cut short when he heard something from a distance, he heard footsteps from outside the room, slowly approaching. Josef didn''t know what to do, it was as if time had slowed down. There were two possibilities: either help was coming to save the survivors, or it was the perpetrator who massacred his entire class. Josef couldn''t decide on what to do, but luckily and unfortunately, he finally knew what to do when he heard another sound from the footsteps: the rev of an engine followed by repeated visceral sounds that seemed to drive deeply into his bones, the sound of a chainsaw. In quick thinking, Josef rushed quietly to the fallen locker where he was trapped in the beginning, he got inside, and closed the steel door.


    Josef was sweating buckets as he hid in the locker, he was extremely scared and nervous as he held his mouth with his hands in order for his breathing not to be heard. His nervousness shot up as he heard the sound of a door opening followed by the nightmarish sound of the chainsaw, the sound growing louder as it got closer to Josef''s location. He couldn''t tell if the figure was a man or a woman because it didn''t speak, but since it was holding a chainsaw, Josef guessed that it was male. All he could do was cower in fear as he heard the figure sawing something, it sawed repeatedly, and Josef had already lost count after twenty sessions of sawing. Josef heard the sound of a door closing, and the sound of the chainsaw began to become fainter as it got farther away.


    After a few seconds of calming down, Josef was now ready to get out of the locker and into the blood-soaked classroom once again. He clenched his fist that was holding the revolver as he inhaled deeply, followed by a quick exhale. He slowly and carefully opened the locker door and planted his feet outside of the locker. He looked around and felt his stomach turn as he saw what had happened while he was hiding. All the corpses in the room were now headless, with blood gushing out of their open necks, creating a massive pool of crimson red at the foot of the pile of now-headless corpses. Josef closed his eyes and held his mouth to prevent himself from puking, but he knew he had to open his eyes again, he probably had to absorb the nightmarish visions into his eyesight, cement them in his mind as he searched for his friends in this hell of a situation.

 Chapter 9: Friendship

    In the land of Wales, there lived a young boy whose name was Caden. He lived with his mother and father in a remote village on the country side of Whales. He wasn''t poor by any means, his parents simply wanted to enjoy the peace of the country side and live peacefully. His mother was a simple housewife who took care of the house and Caden, while his father was one of the village''s doctors. When his father got a recommendation from a highly esteemed medical hospital in America, Caden was forced to leave his birthland and migrate to America.


    When Caden enrolled in a private school in America, he found it easy to make friends. Because of his amazingly sociable personality, he instantly clicked with the other elementary school kids, he even became part of many friend groups. His light brown hair and green eyes made him unique to everyone around him, which made the other kids more fond of him. On his first day of school, he was instantly the talk of the town. It wasn''t difficult for him to adjust to the norms of America, and in only just a few weeks, he was already like a local.


    Even though he was now one of the big shots of their school, there was one kid with whom he didn''t interact with much, the kid who sat beside him. The kid was silent and didn''t interact with people much. Whenever the teachers asked him questions, he would respond with the least amount of words possible, almost like a cryptic message, and most of the time, he wouldn''t respond at all. And when he would do something, he would do it with the least amount of effort possible. Caden couldn''t quite make up his mind if the kid next to him was either lazy or shy, as no one really knew the kid well enough to fully explain his personality.


    Caden observed the kid more and more, he watched him during classes, during recess, and during lunch, but he still didn''t know anything about the kid.


    A few weeks passed, and Caden has found his main friend group, which consisted of him, a bald kid, a tall kid, a fat kid, and a snobby girl. His new friends were certainly not ideal, as they were a bit of a bully to other schoolmates, but Caden didn''t mind it, he was happy as long as he had people that he could call his friends, especially since he had left all his friends back in his country, he was simply lonely and starving for friendly interaction with others. He didn''t want to feel left out, but luckily for him, he developed a friendship with the said kids, and after a few weeks, they were now close friends. Caden enjoyed the company of his new friends, they went to the arcade together, ate lunch together, and even went to the mall together during the weekends. It was certainly fun for Caden, and he felt blessed, but he was still intrigued by the silent kid beside him.


    One day, Caden''s curiosity peaked, and as the teacher ended her lesson and left the children in the classroom, Caden immediately got off his chair and approached the silent kid.


    "Hi, my name is Caden." he said with a large smile on his face, trying to be as approachable as possible. "What''s your name?"


    The kid remained silent for a bit as he looked into Caden''s eyes and said, "Josef."


    Caden didn''t really know what he would do after this, and he had no plan on what to do after he had gotten the boy''s name, he wasn''t even expecting him to answer, so he simply came up with a proposition.


    "Want to have lunch together?"


    Josef stood there silently and shook his head, silently turning down Caden''s request.


    Caden wasn''t fazed by this at all, and he really wanted to know more about Josef because he was genuinely curious. Josef wasn''t particularly eye-catching, nor was he good at academics or sports, but there was just something that was telling Caden''s mind to befriend the kid.


    As the weeks passed by, Caden was still trying to engage with Josef, he had repeatedly asked him if they could eat lunch together, but Josef rejected him with the usual shaking of his head each time, Caden even tried to group up with him for team projects because he thought that it would help him get closer to Josef, but the kid simply finished the tasks without saying much, leaving Caden with no new information gained about the kid, he had also tried asking the teachers about what Josef''s interests were, but they themselves didn''t have a clue as to what interests such a collected and quiet child. Even after the countless rejections and silent treatments, Caden didn''t give up, and his curiosity kept him going. To Caden, it felt like he was being a bit too pushy and annoying to Josef as he was constantly asking him stuff while he sat there quietly. He knew this wasn''t the best way for him to befriend the kid, but he couldn''t think of anything else.


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    As another few weeks went by, nothing much changed, Caden was still trying to befriend Josef while he sat there in silence, not opening to speak a word, this became the usual for the two until one fateful afternoon. It was now time for lunch. Many of the kids were seated in groups while Josef sat alone, he was seated with other people, but since it was Josef, Caden knew that he didn''t know the people next to him and they were only sitting there because there were no more empty tables, so he was practically alone. Caden was browsing the selection of delicious food at the counter when, as he glanced over to the lonely Josef, he saw his friends approach the silent kid.


    "Hey, are you mute or something?" said the bald kid. "Why don''t you open your mouth and talk?"


    The tall kid sat next to Josef, placing his hands around his shoulders, and said, "Caden has been so nice for trying to talk to you, but you just kept silently ignoring our friend. If you keep this up, then you better be ready to talk with my fist."


    The fat kid simply stood there, giggling away.


    "What a weirdo." said the girl.


    The kid sitting next to Josef knew that trouble was afoot, so he cautiously stood up and left the silent kid since he didn''t want to get caught in the crossfire. The bullies had also left him after a few more abusive comments. He was now, literally, alone this time.


    Caden couldn''t hear exactly what his friends were saying to Josef, and he paid no mind to it as he needed to quickly pick out his food for lunch, since the sandwiches were quickly running out.


    As the sun sets and Caden walks home from school, he saw the same sight he saw at lunch, but in a different setting. He saw Josef sitting on a park bench while his friends were standing up and surrounding him.


    "Speak up, you weirdo!" said the bald kid.


    "Come on, I want to hear your voice!" said the tall kid.


    "His voice is probably weird." exclaimed the girl, "and it probably smells bad."


    The fat kid laughed.


    "I''ll give you until the count of ten, and if you don''t talk, you better be ready to eat my fist!" said the tall kid. "Ten, nine, eight,..."


    Josef sat there in silence.


    "Five, four, three, two, ONE!" he let out a huge swing, and his fist quickly headed toward Josef''s face. Josef didn''t flinch, he didn''t even blink. He looked as if he didn''t care if the kid was about to punch him, but in the nick of time, Caden was able to block the kid''s punch with his palm.


    "What the fuck are you doing, Caden?"


    "Don''t you dare fucking hurt him, you bastards."


    "I can''t believe you would side with someone like him, you''re out of the group, Caden."


    "That''s fine, now get the hell away from us."


    "Oh yeah? Then what are you going to do about it? There are four of us while there are only two of you."


    Caden grabbed a whistle from his pocket and placed it in between his lips, threatening to blow on it to alert the nearby people.


    "You think I''m afraid of grownups? Eat this!" the tall kid yelled and successfully landed a punch on Caden''s left cheek, he was pushed to the ground.


    "You fuckers will regret that!" Caden quickly stood up and punched the tall kid, dead center of his face. The kid was thrown to the ground even harder than when he punched Caden. His nose started dripping with a bright red liquid, and as he placed his hands over it from the pain, he began to feel nervous when he saw the blood. The other kids saw this and immediately ran and left the tall kid as he sat on the dirt, bleeding from his nose.


    "Now that you''ve learned your lesson," said Caden, "don''t you ever go near us ever again, or else!."


    The tall kid quickly got up, his shorts were covered in dirt. He quickly ran away from the two while his nose continued to drip blood all over the cold ground.


    "Are you okay?" asked Caden. "I hope that those fuckers didn''t do anything else to you."


    Josef sat there quietly while staring at the ground.


    "If they ever approach you again, just come to me, and I''ll shove my fist in their faces."


    Caden grabbed Josef''s chin and raised it so they could make eye contact, "So don''t be afraid to rely on others, ok?"


    Caden let go of his face, He didn''t think much of it, but he was surprised when Josef gave off a smile. It was faint, but he could still tell that he was smiling, this was the first time he saw him smile. Josef gave a slight nod.


    "So... want to walk home together?" asked Caden.


    "Sure."


    Josef smiled more often, but only when Caden was around, for he finally found someone who he could trust, someone who he could call his friend. This was the beginning of their friendship.

 Chapter 10: Bound

    Caden woke up with a smile on his face as he reminisced about his childhood with Josef in his dream. He closed his eyes again as he tried to recall his dream, trying to relive the beautiful moments they had spent together as kids. Caden remembered the old Josef, and compared to now, he was like a different person. He was still a bit silent and reserved at times, especially with new people, but it was a huge improvement from before, he now had friends other than Caden, and he even found himself a girlfriend, Avery.


    Caden''s delightful reminiscing of the past was suddenly interrupted when he realized what was happening around him. When he first woke up, he did not care about the surroundings and closed his eyes, but as he opened them again, he realized that the ceiling wasn''t familiar to him, and he had forgotten why he was asleep in the first place, since he wasn''t that much of a sleeper when it came to school.


    "Wait, what?" Caden mumbled to himself. "Where am I?"


    Caden tried to move but failed to do so as he realized that his hands and feet were tightly chained to a sort of surgery table. The table itself was made out of stainless steel, while the chains themselves were made out of thick metal.


    Caden was confused as he did not remember how he got there, but as he looked around his surroundings, his confusion morphed into fear as he saw something truly gruesome in his peripheral vision, something so disgusting and morbid that he wanted to puke there and then. He wanted it all to be just a silly dream, but the sensation he felt whenever he moved felt extremely real, he could even feel the coolness of the metal that bound him. The thing he saw from the corner of his eye was a mountain of corpses. Caden panicked as he saw the dead bodies of the students. He saw their eyes looking towards him, which made Caden all the more frightened. He tried his best not to puke, but from all the blood that was leaking from the lifeless pile, he couldn''t help himself and he threw up, luckily, he was able to face the side just in time as his vomit hit the floor, if he hadn''t, then he would have covered himself in his own stomach juices.


    Caden tried to calm down a bit. He knew what he just saw was real, but there was no changing that. He needed to know what was happening, but first he needed to save himself. Because he was chained to the table, he knew that he would soon join the other students in the bloody pile. He needed to find a way to escape, but he didn''t know what to do. He carefully observed the chains that bound him, and as he looked closer, he realized that the chains were automatic, since he found no keyhole or any latch that the chains use in order to open and close, he inferred that they must have been controlled from somewhere.


    Caden observed the room in order to find anything that could help him. The walls, including the ceiling, were painted white with some spots, especially in the corner filled with corpses, were stained red with blood. There were countless ampules that were lined up on the table filled with an unknown liquid, syringes stacked inside an open drawer near the ampules, computers lined up in a row to the left of the table Caden was lying on, and to his right, there were nearly a dozen tools, including a bloody pair of scissors, a bloody surgical knife, bloody used surgical gloves, basically surgical tools but covered in blood. Caden was a bit freaked out about the bloody tools, as he knew that if he couldn''t find a way out, those tools would be used on him next, and he didn''t want to find out how they would be used on him.


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    As Caden panicked to find any clue that could help him escape from his situation, he saw a red button that was beside the computer. Since it was his only clue, he had hoped that if he pressed it, his binds would open, but he had another problem, he was simply too far away to hit the button, and let''s not forget that he is currently immobilized by the chains.


    He almost lost hope, as his saving grace was in his field of vision but was simply impossible to get to from his situation, he had already accepted his fate, but he realized something that could save him. In his breast pocket lies a pocket watch. He didn''t need it in his everyday life as smartphones can do the same thing, tell the time, and are even more efficient at it, but it was like a good luck charm for Caden, and in this situation, it was his last hope for survival.


    He rocked his body up and down until the small pocket watch slid out from his breast pocket, sliding out and into his chin, he then grabbed it with his mouth, and it was time for the decisive moment. He needed to toss the pocket watch using only his head and hit the red button, but the only problem was that if he missed, it was over. He first closed his eyes as he thought about times that he attended church. He wasn''t that religious of a person, but in moments like this, he had called upon all the saints in the world in order to give him their blessings as he left it in the hands of whatever god he worshipped. He swung his face left and right in order for the watch to gain enough momentum to reach the button, and when he was ready, he opened his mouth as the pocket watch flew out from his lips. He closed his eyes as he didn''t want to see the tiny clock not hit the button, and in the next moment he heard a small thud followed by the opening of the chains.


    As he opened his eyes, he realized that he had done it, so he quickly got out of the surgical table and jumped up and down like a monkey. He almost stepped on his fresh vomit as he celebrated the stroke of luck that finally blessed him. He felt incredible, he felt like he could do anything at this moment. Unfortunately, his celebration was toned down as he realized that he shouldn''t be this happy as a pile of corpses lay in the corner of the room, their dead eyes were still looking in Caden''s general direction. He walked towards the pocket watch he had thrown, it was now on the ground after hitting the red button that freed him from a bloody fate. The glass was now shattered and the shards of glass scattered on the floor. He grabbed the pocket watch and gave it a quick kiss in order to thank the object for saving him. He swept the shards of glass under the table using his shoes, as he did not want anyone to find the evidence of his escape.


    Caden looked around the room again. At this moment, he had realized that the room wasn''t familiar to him, not in the slightest, he wasn''t even sure if there were any facilities like this in the school.


    "What the fuck is happening?" he said to himself.


    In order to free himself from the gaze of the dead students and to find the answers to his question, he walked towards the door that could be found in the far left of the room on the opposite side of the corpses. As he was ready to twist the white metallic doorknob in order to leave, he suddenly stopped. He became nervous and scared for his life as he heard footsteps approaching from the opposite side of the door.

 Chapter 11: Trial and Error

    "So what did you have for dinner?"


    "Nothing much, just an egg sandwich, how about you? Are you still addicted to those chicken burritos of yours?"


    "Yep, still the best food on earth, no debate."


    "You need to eat some healthier stuff," the man sighed, "chicken every day is bad for your health, you know?"


    "I''ll eat it until I die."


    "Well I hope you die soon then." he gave a slight chuckle.


    Two men dressed in pristine white lab coats entered the room. They waltzed in without paying any attention to the mound of corpses in their peripheral vision.


    "Wait, did you finish with the sample?" he asked, pointing to the surgery table with open handcuffs.


    "Nope, I thought you finished with it." he shrugged. "Eww, why the fuck is there vomit on the floor?" he pointed to Caden''s fresh vomit.


    "It might have been from the last sample, good thing we weren''t there to witness it. Who took over for us anyway?"


    "I''m not really sure, but at least someone lessened our workload when we left for dinner, that''s one more student down for the count." he laughed vigorously.


    "Yep, one more corpse to add to the reeking pile over there." he chuckled as he pointed to the mountain of corpses at the corner of the white room.


    The scientists were indeed correct¡ªto some extent. Caden did join the mountain of decaying corpses, but he wasn''t dead.


    Before the scientist had entered the room, Caden panicked as he heard the two scientists'' footsteps echo outside of the room. He didn''t know what to do, so he simply looked for a place to hide. As he heard the scientists'' chatter more clearly, he knew he was running out of time. There were no lockers, boxes, or anything that he could use in order to act as a hideaway, and in the spur of the moment, he glanced at the mountain of corpses, their eyes glanced back as if they were calling for him, luring him to join them in the afterlife, so at the last second, Caden did exactly that¡ªexcept for the latter part. He jumped in the bloody pile, and he squished his body between decaying pieces of bloody meat, it felt a bit like slime¡ªjust a bit morbid though.


    As the two scientists entered the room, Caden was still trying to calm himself down from the sheer panic of hiding. He couldn''t fully hear what the two were talking about, but he did catch a few words like sandwich and chicken burrito. Caden was smacked center in the pile of corpses and only had a small opening to look through, because of this, he couldn''t see their faces or any feature that could set them apart, they had the same white lab gown, same black colored slacks, same brown colored leather shoe, and even close to identical skin color, the only thing that could set them apart were their voices, and the other one was slightly taller.


    The taller scientist walked over to the table with the ampules, "So... which one was next again?" he said while looking at the different labels on the ampules.


    "It was 23a I think... wait, that''s not right... yeah, it was 24a, or was it 12b..." the man was indecisive.


    "Let''s just try 23a, it doesn''t hurt to double check, well... not hurt us at least." he chuckled.


    "Yep, but it will definitely hurt someone else." he gave a faint laugh.


    "Alright then, I''ll just go ahead and grab the next sample real quick." said the smaller one, he quickly left the room while the taller one was left in the room with the hidden Caden, and he moved around some of the tools, primarily a scalpel, an ampule, and a syringe. Afterwards, he glanced around the room for a moment, then he stopped, he stood still for a moment, he looked towards the pile of decaying students, and approached it slowly, very slowly, like he was cautious of something. Caden started to sweat buckets, his heart pounding more and more as the man got closer, he stopped directly in front of the pile, and as Caden thought it was all over, the man turned back and sat on the office chair facing the computer, where he proceeded to type some things into it while awaiting for the other scientist to come back with the sample.


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    After a few minutes, the door swung open as the scientist had returned from grabbing the sample. The scientist switched the tab on the computer as he got up from typing. Caden wasn''t sure what they meant by "sample" at first, but he did have a slight suspicion, and as the other scientist helped pull the sample into the room, his suspicions were correct. The scientist pulled in a medical stretcher with wheels inside the room, above it lies an unconscious girl wearing the same uniform as Caden, the same with everyone else that was dead on the pile, the sample that they were talking about was a student. The taller scientist carried the girl out from the stretcher and placed her on the surgery table, placing her hands and feet into the cuffs, and as the other scientist pressed the same red button Caden miraculously pressed, the cuffs closed this time, binding the girl and immobilizing her. The scientists strapped on their white medical gloves which they pulled out from their pockets. They attached some wires to the sides of the girl''s head.


    "Let''s continue the testing." the tall one said.


    "Pass me the scalpel." said the tall one. The other passed the scalpel, he was the assistant while the tall one did the operation. He cut into the side of the forehead of the poor girl, the cut starts from the end of the eye brow and extends to the sideburns, leaving an open cut of around three inches in length.


    "Cloth." said the tall one as the other quickly handed him the piece of fabric. He wiped the blood oozing out of the wound.


    "Drill." said the man. The other handed him a small handheld drill. He inserted the long tip into the wound, and as he pulled on the trigger, the drill bit began to spin rapidly. Blood, flesh, and bone particles began to fly out from the drill site, dyeing their glistening white lab gowns red. Caden closed his eyes in fear and disgust as he saw the scientist drill into the poor girl''s skull. The simple thought of it almost made him puke. He knew that whatever they were doing was simply illegal and inhumane. Caden couldn''t stand the sound of the drill anymore, and as the sound continued, he knew that they were drilling deeper and deeper into her skull, and as the sound stopped, the scientists had reached her brain.


    "Ampule, syringe." said the man. The other scientist quickly grabbed both and handed it to him. The scientist grabbed them both, the ampule in his left hand and the syringe in his right. He smashed the glass end of the ampule on the side of the table, opening it while tiny droplets of the liquid inside spilled on the ground. He inserted the syringe tip into the glass ampule and sucked out the unknown purple fluid inside with the syringe. He handed the ampule to the other scientist and inserted the needle into the brain of the girl, slowly injecting the unknown liquid into her head. After he injected all of it and removed the needle, the girl suddenly woke up. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she struggled in her binds.


    "Make it stop! make it stop! make it stop! make it stop!" She screamed. She continued to scream and struggle, but all her efforts were useless as the metal cuffs were simply too tough for a weak high school girl to get out off. The two scientists simply watched as the girl screamed in pain and agony as she continued to struggle, Caden couldn''t do anything and simply watched in horror at the sight that he was seeing.


    The girls'' screams didn''t last long, and as she screamed her final words, "MAKE IT STOOOOP!", she stopped screaming, even her movements were stopped, she was as stiff as a log. Her eyes were still wide open, but she didn''t speak nor move. The small scientist sighed as he went over to the computers and sat on the chair, bashing on the keyboard as he typed something.


    "Let''s see... brain failure followed by organ failure again?"


    "Yep." answered the one typing.


    "We really aren''t going to finish in time are we?"


    "Probably not."


    He sighed, "He''s already starting the project even though the main substance isn''t even finished yet."


    "I know right, He seemed more and more impatient as the days went by, and now he''s starting it even if we''re not ready."


    "I need a raise."


    "So do I."


    After he finished typing, he stood up and pressed the red button, releasing the dead girl from the chains that bound her. The two carried the girl, with the tall one carrying the upper half and the other carrying the lower half. They slowly walked over to the pile of decaying bodies that Caden was hiding in and tossed the girl into it, adding another count to the pile.

 Chapter 12: The Virus

    The scientists simply didn''t stop at one, they continued on with the testing for at least a couple more attempts. They repeated the same exact procedure over and over again. The short scientist leaves and brings back a sample, plug some wires into their heads, they cut open the student''s heads until they reach the skull, they drill the bone until the brain is exposed, the tall one smashes the ampule on the table¡ªopening it, sucking out the purple liquid with the syringe, and injecting it into the sample''s brain. The sample wakes up and screams in terror, dies in a few minutes while screaming the same exact thing, "Make it stop!" Lastly, they toss the fresh, new, lifeless body onto the pile, and repeat.


    Caden could only watch in horror as the bodies began to pile up, it was now heavier than he could take, as dead bodies surprisingly weigh a ton, especially if they are piled up. Caden couldn''t take it, he could not allow the scientists to continue their testing any longer. He saw how his schoolmates died in horror, and he couldn''t do anything about it. He saw some of his friends shriek in pain as the scientists observantly watched in the background, not even giving a damn for human life. It was the scene of nightmares, and he couldn''t simply let it continue.


    The scientists just finished with another sample, throwing the lifeless body into the pile. The pool of blood beneath them scattered more and more as more bodies were added. As the short scientist went out to get another sample, Caden knew that it was time to act, he only had a few minutes to do what he must in order to end this situation. What he needed to do was beat the scientist up to a bloody pulp while the other scientist was out of the room. The second the small scientist walked out and closed the door, Caden took a deep breath. He was ready, his fist was ready, he now needed to struggle himself out of the mountain of corpses and beat the living hell out of the scientist. Unfortunately for Caden, before he could even move an inch, the door opened, stopping him from pursuing his motives. The smaller scientist entered the room again, but he wasn''t alone, following him was a female scientist of almost the same stature as the short scientist, he knew it was female from the short black pencil skirt that she was wearing¡ªnot to mention her voice was clearly female as well, no doubt about it.


    "Oh!" The scientist was surprised as the two walked in. "What brings you to this school, ma''am?"


    "Well... we have a new formula to try." said the smaller scientist.


    "Ehem, This is the new ampule from the main facility, there have been reports of its success, and I simply wanted to see it in action myself."


    "Wait, then why here, ma''am? "Couldn''t you just test it in the main branch?" The tall scientist said.


    "Well.. first of all the main branch ran out of samples, and second, this was the closest facility that hasn''t had a successful trial yet."


    The female scientist casually approached the tall one while grabbing something out from her pocket. "Here''s the new formula." When her hands exited her pocket, she was now holding on to a similar ampule from the table, which she handed to the taller scientist.


    "Are you sure this will work?"


    "That''s why we are scientists, right? Trial and error is ingrained in our roots." she said.


    The smaller scientist did the usual thing of going out of the room to grab another sample. While he was out, the taller one prepared the materials again. As the doors opened, the smaller one had returned with a fresh new sample that they could experiment with.


    "All right, you better not mess up, I only brought one ampule for testing." said the female.


    The male scientists both pulled out a fresh new pair of white gloves and strapped them on to their hands. Caden continued to watch as he didn''t know if he could take on the scientists, he was quite confident when there was only one, but now that there were three, he knew he might not stand a chance, especially against two grownups¡ªbut he''ll gladly beat up the female scientist if she was alone. The scientists proceeded to do the usual, they carried the male student to the surgery table, the smaller one pressed the red button¡ªlocking the cuffs and immobilizing the poor unconscious boy, placing the usual wires on him, and cutting his head open until they reached the skull, and drilling until the brain was exposed. It was time to use the new formula. The taller scientist grabbed the new ampule from the table, smashed the tip in order to open it, and took the syringe and loaded the fluid into it. The mysterious liquid was similar to the previous ones, it was still purple but with a deeper shade. They all looked at the syringe as the taller scientist injected it into the boy.


    It was now the moment of truth, will the boy die as he scream in agony, or will they achieve success just like in the reports. Caden didn''t know what success would mean, but he knew it wasn''t good. Everyone in the room, including Caden, was filled with anticipation, the moment of silence was cut short as the boy opened his eyes. This time, the boy didn''t scream nor did he struggle to get out of his immobilization, he simply laid there, staring at the ceiling. The two scientists gasped while the female scientist folded her arms with a visible smirk on her face.


    "Can you hear me?" said the female scientist. The boy nonchalantly moved his eyes from the ceiling to the female scientist without saying anything.


    "What''s your name?" He continued to stare at her.


    "Ben." he said.


    The woman walked across the room, she took out the wires that were placed on the boy''s head, and pressed the red button. The other two were surprised and confused at what she did.


    "Wait, stop!" said the tall one.


    "Its fine, look." she pointed to the boy.


    Even though the cuffs were off of him, he didn''t even budge. The wound on his head was still bleeding, but even so, he still continued to not move.


    "Can you move?" asked the smaller scientist.


    "Yes."


    "Then stand up for us." The boy calmly stood up on the floor after getting up from the surgery table.


    "Can you.. do a push up?" The boy followed through with the request and dropped to the ground. He positioned his hands at chest height while keeping his body straight and lifted himself up in order to prepare. As soon as he was ready, he collapsed his body to the ground and pushed himself back, successfully performing a push-up. After the show of strength, the boy stood back up, awaiting whatever the scientist would request of him next.


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    Caden continued to watch as the scientists played around with their successful specimen. They had requested a flurry of things, while the boy simply did what he was told. He was like a robot, a puppet even as he simply did any unusual task that was given to him, he didn''t speak a word, and only when asked would he open his mouth to talk, but even then he only answered with the bare minimum.


    "It''s looking good!" exclaimed the small one with a smile on his face.


    "Not just yet, I still need to test three more things." said the woman.


    "I want you to act like your normal self."


    Upon hearing the order, the boy closed his eyes for a bit, and after opening them, his eyes almost screamed in fear.


    "What''s going on!? Where am I!? What''s happening!?" the boy yelled. Blood started to gush out more and more from his wound. "AHHHH IT HURT! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! SOMEONE HELPPP!"


    The woman gave a devious smile while watching the boy''s performance, "That''s enough." she said. The moment he heard her speak, the boy''s eyes quickly returned to their relaxed state¡ªalmost frozen as he stood straight up, blood continued to leak from his head.


    "Here''s the second test, I want you to kill him." She pointed to the tall one. The boy suddenly grabbed the scalpel from the table and dashed towards the taller scientist, he pushed and shoved the scientist to the ground, and with pinpoint accuracy, and no hesitations, he lunged the sharp scalpel towards the scientist''s throat.


    "AHHHHHH!" the tall scientist screamed in horror as dread enveloped his every being.


    "Stop!" The woman said. The boy had almost killed the scientist, the scalpel was less than an inch away from his throat, but with just only one word from the woman, he immediately cancelled the order.


    "Very good." she said while clapping her hands slowly. The boy stood up and got off the scientist. He stood back up and waited for the next command while the smaller scientist extended a hand to the fallen colleague and helped him up, still trying to control his breathing from the sudden ocurrance.


    "The fuck was that!" said the scientist. He was furious, but a glimmer of shock could still be seen.


    "Don''t worry it was just a test." She said.


    "Don''t fucking mess with m¡ª" The smaller scientist covered his mouth with his hand, stopping him from saying anything further.


    "Shhh, it''s alright, just calm down, it was just a test." said the smaller one, trying to calm the man down.


    "Alright, let''s move on to the final test." she said. "Kill yourself."


    Without a moment of hesitation, the boy quickly swung the scalpel in his hand and struck it against his open wound, where the scientist injected the unknown liquid. A few seconds passed in silence, and after a short pause, the boy''s hand dropped down, leaving the scalpel drilled into his brain while blood gushed out, and he dropped to the ground. His eyes were still wide open. The boy had dropped to the floor with his head facing Caden''s general direction. Caden began to feel fear and nervousness as the boy''s lifeless body stared at him.


    "Alright, it''s a success!" said the woman. The other scientist didn''t say a word. The men carried the poor boy''s now lifeless body and tossed it to the pile, adding one final corpse to the mound.


    "Let''s go and report it to the main facility." said the woman. "We''ll need to grab more to finally start the project."


    The woman left the room first, as the men were left to clean up a few things. The taller one was plugging in USBs into the computers, presumably to collect the data that they have written, while the smaller scientist packed all the tools in a duffle bag. After the scientist finished up with the computers, he unplugged the USB and placed them in his pockets, and after a few more brushing up, they both left the room.


    Caden was finally free to get out of the bloody mound of corpses. He was still a bit in shock at what just happened, but at least he knew that he was safe and he survived. He struggled to get out from under the heavy, lifeless bodies that pinned him down. It took a minute before he could get out, and after a few more attempts to worm his way out, he was finally freed. He swung his torso left and right and stretched his arms above his head, as his body was quite stiff from being pinned by heavy corpses for a long period of time. His vision wandered through the now-empty room. All the tools were now gone, the only things the scientists left were the rotting corpses, the scalpel embedded in the boy''s skull, and an open computer. Caden approached the computer, as he was confused as to whether the scientists had forgotten to shut it down. It was on the home screen, and Caden browsed all the applications that he could see. It contained the usual stuff: Chrome, Word, and Excel. There were other applications as well that Caden wasn''t familiar with, but judging from their icons, he inferred that they were tools that scientists use in their research. He was ready to take his gaze off of the bright screen, but in the corner of his eye, he saw something. There was an open notes tab in the task bar, and his curiosity got the better of him as he instinctively clicked on it. A window popped up that contained a letter.


    "Well, hello there, you might be confused as you read this, so let me introduce myself. I am the scientist who performed the trials¡ªthe one who approached you when my colleague was out. From the start, I knew you were hiding beneath the corpses, but I just left you alone because I simply pitied you. I hope that the horrible sights don''t cause you any nightmares, as they certainly did when I first joined the project. I know that what we''re doing is extremely evil and inhumane, but we were simply forced to do it, if we showed signs of discomfort or disobeyed our superiors, then we would be killed on the spot. It''s not easy being a scientist in this project. Now let me get to the point before my colleague comes back. The experiment that we are doing is called the ''Re-education project'', I don''t know who named it that. It involved creating a virus that could control and influence a person''s mind, turning them into mindless slaves. The superiors didn''t disclose what they were going to use these for or what the endgame is, but I assure you that everything is fucked if this continues. We need this project to stop, this madness needs to stop, so I''ll entrust this with you. If you look beneath the computer table, you will see a USB taped there, It contains bits of information that were disclosed to us scientists, it has data on the molecular ingredients that were needed for the base of the virus and speculations on what the finished product could contain. I need you to take this to a scientist that you can trust, someone who could engineer an antivirus that could reverse the virus''s effects. I really hope that you succeed. Good luck, you''ll need it."


    As Caden finished reading the note, he immediately looked at the bottom of the table, and there he saw the USB, taped to the far corner of the table. Without hesitation, he grabbed it and shoved it inside his slacks'' right pocket. With hope in his pants, he was now ready to challenge this fucked-up situation. He braced himself as he walked toward the door. He didn''t know what would happen to him, nor did he know what was going on outside the door, but he knew he had to go out there and save the world from this virus. He held the doorknob and twisted it, pulling the door open as his destiny awaited him on the other side.

 Chapter 13: Reunion

    With only the USB and clothes on his back, Caden leaves the white room. What awaited him outside was a long, pitch black hallway. He cautiously walked along the side, tracing his hands against the wall. He took small, light steps, removing any weight from them in order to be as silent as a mouse. He was extremely cautious, as he did not know what could await him on the other side. He took around fifty steps before he saw something at the end of the hallway, it was a slope, a ramp even. As Caden looked at it in confusion, confused as to why it was a ramp and not stairs, he remembered that the scientists could only bring the unconscious students on a wheeled stretcher, so a ramp would have been the most logical. He approached the base of the slope, there was a dim light coming from the other side. He didn''t want to attract any attention, and he wouldn''t want anyone to see him as he walked up the ramp, so he got on his knees and slowly crawled up the ramp. He took small crawls towards the top, and when he finally made it up, he witnessed a familiar scenery.


    "Wait, what''s going on?" He mumbled to himself. What he saw at the end of the slope was the familiar hallway of his school. He looked around cautiously, as there might have been someone there, but luckily no one could be seen. It was dead silent, no noise could be heard from any direction. The only sound that filled the scene was the gust of wind from the heavy blizzard outside. It was cold, but now Caden was grateful that he had his warm school uniform on, unlike when they were sentenced outside in the blizzard. As there was no one around, Caden slowly crawled out. He took one last look at the bottom of the slope.


    "How the hell is this here? There wasn''t any underground entrance like this before." He thought to himself. And indeed he was right, in this school, there wasn''t anything like it, but as he examined the entrance to the underground, he noticed small latches and contraptions that he could not explain. He inferred that these were used in order to close the entrance, much like a hidden room. He took his gaze off of the entrance as he examined the hallway, trying to figure out where he was.


    As he looked around, he noticed a sign next to the door to his left, "Nurse''s Office." The sign read. From the location of that room, he knew that he was on the first floor¡ªobviously, and also that he was on the far right side of the main building. Caden silently approached the door of the nurse''s office. Every window that faced the hallways of the school had curtains, while the side facing outside the campus didn''t, so Caden couldn''t peek through the window to see the inside of the room. He grabbed the doorknob, but as he silently twisted the knob, it stopped in the middle, signaling that it was locked. At the end of the hallway lies an exit that connects to the right wing building using a small pathway, it mainly contained the cafeteria and auditorium. Caden cautiously walked to the side of the hallway, trying not to fall into the underground entrance as the door to the right wing was behind the gaping entrance to the secret room. As he tried to push on the screen door, it was quite unfortunate since it was locked as well. He could have tried to break it down since it was made of glass, but it would have attracted attention from the sound of the glass breaking, and he didn''t want that to happen as it could have been the end for him.


    As his attempts ended in failure, he was now ready to explore the rest of the first floor. He slowly walked across the hallway, carefully checking to see if any doors were open, but sadly none weren''t. He felt unnerved as the heavy silence creeped him out a bit. By this point he had already passed the class 1C and 2C classrooms and is now approaching the base of the stairs, while beyond the stairwell lies the other classrooms, including the 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2C, while another door leads to the left wing building of the school that contained the club rooms and, weirdly enough, the student council office, which is usually found in the main building of other schools.


    As Caden took one step on the stairs, he quickly paused as he heard something approaching him from up the stairs, a sound that Caden was quite familiar with since he liked to hang out in a forest near his neighborhood, the sound of a chainsaw. Knowing danger was just above him, in quick thinking, Caden rushed back to the right hallway. He knew there was a storage shed just in front of the nurse''s office, so he retraced his steps back there while the sound became louder as it descended the stairs. Caden ran as fast as he could, not minding if his rapid footsteps made any noise as the loud raging roar of the chainsaw drowned any other noise out. The figure holding the chainsaw was almost at the base of the stairs, and in the nick of time, he twisted the doorknob to the storage shed and realized that lady luck was smiling down on him as the room wasn''t locked. He quickly swung the door open, got inside the cramped room filled with brooms, dustpans, and other cleaning supplies, then silently closed the door and locked it by pressing the button on the doorknob.


    The sound of the chainsaw came closer and closer, with an additional sound of something being dragged. Caden''s sweat began to fall to the ground. Since there weren''t any windows in that room, he began to sweat buckets from the combination of nervousness and lack of ventilation, even with the shivering blizzard outside, the cool winds couldn''t reach the inside of the room. As he finally heard footsteps followed by the ever increasing sound of the chainsaw, he knew that the figure was near the room, or even just beyond the door. Suddenly the sound stopped, the chainsaw had been calmed and came to a stop. Caden let out a silent sigh. He heard the sound of keys clattering, followed by a click. The roar of the blizzard could now be heard as he inferred that the figure had opened the door to the pathway of the right wing. After a brief moment, the sound of the blizzard was muted as the door was closed again.


    A few moments passed, and Caden got out of the room. He waited for a bit before leaving just in case the figure turned back into the main building. He immediately looked out of the glass doors as he tried to catch a glimpse of the figure, but because of the fog, he couldn''t see anything outside. Caden sighed in relief as the danger was now engulfed by the blizzard and nowhere near him, but as he glanced to the ground, he was mortified as he saw a trail of blood that leads to stairs. Caden immediately dashed across the hallway and up the stairs as he remembered that his classroom was on the second floor. He grew worried about what could have happened at the end of the trail of blood. His fears increased as the red trail led to his classroom. He increased his speed as he got closer to the room, and just as he was about to turn and enter the open entrance to the room, a figure was exiting at the same time.


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    "Oh shit!" Shouted Caden as he fell to the ground from bumping into the figure. As he looked to see what he had run into, his face beamed with happiness as he saw his best friend, Josef, in a similar position after bumping into him.


    "Caden!?" exclaimed Josef, he quickly got up and grabbed Caden''s shoulders, "Is that really you!?"


    "Wha.. what, yes, yes it''s really me."


    "Oh thank heavens you''re safe, I didn''t know what I would have done if something happened to you."


    "Whats wrong? And what the hell is happening in this school, and what''s with all this blood?"


    "Well... see for yourself." Josef pointed inside the classroom while his gaze met the ground. As Caden peeked inside the classroom, he saw the same nightmare fuel sight that Josef first saw when he woke up.


    "Fucked up, right?"


    Caden was speechless, he didn''t know what to say or do in that situation, so he simply closed his eyes and closed the door, leaving behind the mountain of headless corpses inside the room to continue rotting, never to see the light of day as the heavy blizzard roared in the moonlight.


    Caden took a deep breath and said, "Let''s just... forget about that, there''s no helping it."


    "How did you survive?" asked Josef.


    "Oh well.. when I woke up, I was chained to this table, but luckily I got out just in time, I saw these scientists perform an experiment, it said something about a virus of some sort, and also look here.." Caden pulled out the USB from his pocket, "it says that it contains valuable information about the virus and how to make an antivirus for it."


    "Wait, a virus? What does it do?"


    "I''m not sure either, all I know is that it could control people."


    "Oh! I also have something, I found this when I woke up."


    "Oh shit! what!? a gun!?" Caden was surprised as Josef pulled out the revolver from his pocket.


    "There''s also this that came with it." he handed Caden the note.


    "The principal? kill him? so.. does that mean that he''s behind all of this?"


    "I don''t know, but it''s our only clue at the moment."


    "Alright, but before we do any digging, let''s find somewhere safe to hide, and no, I''m not hiding in that room filled with headless corpses, nor do I want to see it again." said Caden


    Josef nodded, and the two set out to find somewhere they could deem as safe.


    The two walked with confidence as Caden told Josef that the chainsaw figure exited the main building. They were still a bit cautious, as they didn''t know what else could be in this school, but at least they had one less thing to worry about for now. The two were almost ready to descend the stairs to the first floor when Josef remembered something. "Oh wait! Isn''t there an empty classroom on this floor that isn''t being used?"


    "Umm Yes! Yes there is."


    "Then let''s go check there first."


    The two resumed their walk across the hallway, while checking the other rooms. This floor mainly contained third-year classrooms, with the exception of their desolate class 1-F outcast room in the far right side of the hallway. They checked each room, including the glass door in front of the stairs that lead to a balcony, but all of them were locked. With nowhere else to go, they approached the empty classroom''s door. Josef twisted the doorknob, and luckily, it was unlocked. He slowly opened the door, and what awaited them on the other side was a long metal broomstick, quickly swinging down to his head.


    "Wait, stop!" said a voice from inside the room. Josef fell down to the floor in shock, but luckily the metal broomstick was only inches away from his head before coming to a stop, Caden on the other hand took a step back as soon as he saw the broom stick being swung down.


    "Josh? Matt?" Said Josef.


    "Josef? Caden?" Said Josh.


    "Oh thank God you guys are alive. Quickly, come inside." Said Matt.


    Josef and Caden sat on the wooden chairs as they caught their breaths. It was a long day, and a lot happened in the short span after they both woke up, both equally as fucked up. After giving the two a minute to rest, Josh approached the two.


    "So how did you guys survive?"


    "Well.. It''s a long story..." Josef explained everything, including Caden''s side. He also explained the gun, including the note, as well as the USB and its contents.


    "Sounds like we''ve got a lot ahead of us." said Matt.


    "By the way... how the fuck did you guys survive?" Asked Caden.


    "Well, basically, after I got my uniform back, I went out of the classroom while Mr. Fatmouth was talking and went to the roof to relax. There was a room there with a heater, so me and Matt normally hung out there often, but suddenly purple gas started to appear, and the next thing I knew, I was unconscious." explained Josh.


    "So you weren''t taken anywhere?"


    "Nope, when I woke up, I was still in that room." Said Josh.


    "So whoever was responsible for this didn''t check the roof for people." Muttered Josef.


    "How about you, Matt? You were in the classroom with us when it happened. If I''m not mistaken, you were near the door." said Caden.


    "Yes, I was in the classroom. I was supposed to follow Josh to the roof, but it took me a while to find my phone. When I went to the door to leave, purple gas started to seep through. When it covered the entire room, I panicked and jumped out of the window."


    "What the fuck! You jumped out of the window!?" exclaimed Caden.


    "Yep, don''t worry, I wasn''t hurt. I landed on a bush, so it cushioned my fall a bit."


    "Yeah that''s lucky, but you''re still crazy for doing that." said Caden.


    "True, but now that we know that most of the people who were in the classroom were killed, jumping out of the window is the best choice."


    Caden sighed, "I guess you''re correct."


    The group ended their conversation there and continued to relax. Caden was laying down on the floor, Josh was doing pushups at the corner, and Matt was guarding the door. The lock was broken, so someone needed to be ready just in case someone entered. Meanwhile, Josef was sitting on the desk, reminiscing on everything that happened today, from his trip to school to the hell of a situation they were in. Along the way, he had something knocking on his mind, but he had trouble remembering what it was.


    "Hey Josef, were there any others who survived?" Asked Josh.


    "I just told you a while ago, our classmates are all dead."


    "No, I mean from other classes."


    "Others... Oh, shit! Avery and the others." Josef had finally remembered that he needed to find his girlfriend and other friends from class 1-A and see if they survived, or what was left of them.


    "Oh yeah... what do we do?" Asked Caden.


    "Well, we better check just in case they survived." Said Josh.


    "But first we need weapons, We only have a gun with six bullets and a broomstick, it''s best if everyone has a weapon just in case we run into someone dangerous." Said Matt.


    The group scavenged the room for anything that they could use to their advantage. Josef broke off one of the long legs of the teacher''s desk in front of the room while keeping his revolver as a last resort, Caden took the fire extinguisher that was hooked to the back wall of the room, Matt had brass knuckles that he always brought to school in order to show off, it was a bit illegal to bring such a weapon to school, but in this hell, everything goes, and Josh had a long metal broom stick. With weapons ready, and nerves steadied, the boys were ready to tackle the horrors of the school.

 Chapter 14: Class 1-A

    "Good morning everyone." Exclaimed Gerald as he entered the 1-A classroom, which is found on the far left side of the first floor.


    "Hello." said Avery


    "Good morning darling~" said Serenity.


    They were all in the same class and are regarded as the best of the best students as they were enrolled in Class 1-A, which is regarded as the best and most outstanding class in the entire school.


    Before class started, the three sat next to each other and chatted for a bit.


    "So how did training go today, Avery?" asked Serenity.


    "Well, it was a bit rough, I twisted my ankle when I was training my footwork."


    "Damn, that sounds painful." said Gerald.


    From a young age, Avery has always been interested in boxing, especially from watching MMA, it wasn''t until high school that she actually decided to take it up as a hobby. Boxing is quite unprecedented for normal high school girls to take an interest in, and Avery did attract attention from her choice of sport, but she simply didn''t care what others thought of her. It''s not like she sought a positive attention from others, and she didn''t care if she scared off the potential boys who wanted to ask her out, because she was already taken anyways.


    It did hurt a bit when people called her unladylike or savage, but she simply got over it, especially when she had supportive friends by her side.


    "How about you, Serenity? What did you do over the weekends?" asked Avery.


    "Hahaha, well, I''m glad you asked. I received a package yesterday, and it had something that I''ve been waiting for for months." she had a mischievous smile on her face


    "What was inside?" asked Gerald.


    "The pussy of the roundtable!" Avery and Gerald were both shocked at the words that came out of her mouth.


    "What the fuck is ''the pussy of the round table''?" Asked Avery.


    "It''s this round lump of flesh that has pussies on each side," said Serenity, "you place the bottom side on someone''s dick that''s laying down, and the others could fuck it from all angles."


    Avery and Gerald''s faces morphed with disgust. It wasn''t out of the norm for Serenity to talk about this stuff, she is known for her strange hobby of collecting sex toys, and she even creates videos about them for fun. It is quite weird and vulgar, but it''s whatever, as long as her friends still accept her for what her hobbies are.


    "Oh! I forgot to mention, I have this..." Serenity took out a small glass bottle from her skirt''s pocket. "


    What''s that?" Asked Gerald.


    "It''s a waifu perfume," exclaimed Serenity, "this one is the scent of a young girl''s armpit."


    Gerald facepalmed with a sigh.


    "Want a sniff?" said Serenity as she held out the bottle in front of them.


    The two vigorously shook their heads, denying Serenity''s disgusting proposition.


    "Darn, whatever, you guys will eventually get a sniff of this." said Serenity as she placed the perfume back in her pocket, she still had a mischievous smile.


    "Well, what about you, honey? What have you been up to?" asked Serenity.


    Gerald was lost in thought for a second. "Nothing much."


    "Really? nothing?" said Avery.


    "Yep, nothing, well.. I ate a whole box of pizza last night, that''s about it."


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    "I bet you didn''t eat the crust again." said Avery with a smug smirk on her face.


    "Of course I didn''t eat the fucking crust, It''s the worst part of the pizza. Crustless is the best type of pizza, and nothing is changing my mind about it."


    "Gosh you''re so wrong honey, let''s just stop at that, I don''t want to hear another thirty minute rant about pizza crusts." Said Serenity.


    Gerald was known as the king of opinions, particularly bad opinions. His most shit takes include not liking pizza crusts, he thinks that all bread tastes the same, bone-in is better than boneless chicken (I agree with this), and many other shit takes that are too dumb to remember. The three happily continued their conversations, and when the school bells rang, it was time for class. Gerald and Serenity sat in their chairs, which were right next to each other in the dead center of the room, while Avery sat on the far front right seat near the front door of the class. After settling down for a bit, the front door opened, and Ms. English entered the room and lightly closed the door.


    "Good morning class." Ms. English said in a happy tune. Everyone in the room stood up and greeted her back in response. Ms. English started the lesson about Hamlet, while everyone was listening attentively and actively participating in the class, which is why they are regarded as the top class in the whole school. Ms. English happily taught the lesson while Gerald and the others took notes and followed along with the lectures by browsing through the textbook with their other hands. They all seemed like robots as they flipped the pages in unison. Gerald was quite glad that Ms. English was quite tame in their class because he had heard a lot of stories from Josef that stated the monstrous energy that Ms. English gives off in class 1-F.


    After finishing her lesson, Ms. English casually left the room, and after a few seconds, Mr. Fatmouth entered the room, continuing to the second period.


    "All right class, since the blizzard is still rampant, let''s just do some stretching in the room and call it a day, shall we?" Everyone in the class started to move their desks towards the back of the room, carefully stacking the tables and chairs to create ample space for them to stretch in.


    The boys and Mr. Fatmouth left the room carrying their gym uniforms and changed in the hallways, while the girls were left inside the room to change in privacy. After a few minutes, the girls signaled to the others that they were finished, and everyone went back inside the room.


    Mr. Fatmouth plugged a USB into the laptop that he brought, and along with it, he plugged in the HDMI cable as well. He began to browse through his files and played an exercise video that the entire class, including him, would follow. The entire class happily followed along to the video while stretching to the tune of the lively background music. Despite the blizzard and their skimpy gym uniforms, they were quite warm as they had a high-end heater in the room. Their heater was much more expensive than the other classes, which was due to the teachers and the student council liking the behavior of their class, increasing their classroom budget in secret.


    The class did all sorts of stretches, including a standing quad stretch, triceps stretch, neck stretch, side lunge, upper back stretch, and countless others in a similar fashion to the previous stretches. Serenity and Avery performed well during the exercise, as Avery was quite athletic from practicing boxing while Serenity had astounding flexibility. On the other hand, Gerald frequently lost his balance during stretches that required the use of only one foot, but he still performed reasonably well on the rest of the exercises. Despite the thirty-minute-long stretching routine, everyone was genuinely having fun, especially as they humorously watched Mr. Fatmouth, a ball of a teacher, struggle to do the exercises as his body composition simply wasn''t built for stretching. After they finished the routine, the students carried the chairs and tables back to their places in a proper and organized manner, while the out of breath teacher gathered his things and left the class afterwards.


    It was time for third period, and they had an experiment to do today. Everyone in class 1-A started to gather their things and prepare themselves for the experiment in the chemistry lab. The students left their classroom and headed to the left wing building, which contained all the club rooms and subject facilities, including the chemistry lab. As they entered the room, they saw Mr. Science sweeping broken shards of glass on the ground with a broomstick and into a dustpan.


    "Mr. Science, what happened here?" asked one of the students. They also called their teachers by their subjects because the teachers got too used to being called by their subject from class 1-F, so they asked the other classes to do the same to keep things simple.


    "An idiot from the failure class destroyed an entire rack of test tubes, your experiment will be cancelled." said Mr. Science. "It''s quite a shame that you guys won''t be able to perform this experiment, it is quite fun actually."


    "But won''t there be other days to experiment?" asked Gerald.


    "Umm.. yes..." said Mr. Science with a suspicious tone.


    The other students left the chemistry lab and headed back to their classroom while Gerald, Avery, and Serenity helped Mr. Science in cleaning up.


    "It''s a shame that such good kids will be involved in this mess." said Mr. Science.


    "What mess? the broken glass?" asked Avery.


    Mr. Science didn''t say a word, instead, he let out a smile, and for some reason, pity could be seen in his eyes. Gerald and the others finished cleaning the chemistry lab and waved goodbye to Mr. Science. By the time they left the lab, it was already time for lunch. They head back into the main building to their classroom to get their lunches from their bags. They usually bring their own lunches because they don''t want to get involved in the free-for-all known as the cafeteria lunch rush. After obtaining their lunches, they headed to the roof to eat lunch with Josef and Caden.

 Chapter 15: Hostage

    Gerald and the gang just finished their wonderful lunch with his friends. It was quite a nice break from all the schoolwork and academic nonsense that they stress about in their everyday lives. They descend the stairwell and went back to their classroom on the third floor, thinking about their previous conversations during the lunch they had with Josef and Caden. Gerald was a bit sulky as they had their usual debate over bone-in and boneless chicken, and as always, Gerald was at a disadvantage as he was outnumbered four to one for some reason (bone-in is still better). Even though they had frequent heated debates, they were still good friends, and at the end of the day, it''s all water under the bridge.


    Gerald, Avery, and Serenity returned to their rooms, pushing the wooded door inward, and what greeted them was a silent breeze of wind. Although it was still time for lunch, there was barely any noise and chattering inside the room, and if there was, it could scarcely be heard. They silently sat down in their respective chairs and prepared themselves for the mental warfare of the next period¡ªmath.


    After a brief moment of waiting, Mr. Math broke the silence as he entered the room.


    "Good afternoon class."


    "Good afternoon, sir." The class greeted him back after standing up. As the students sat back down again, Mr. Math wasted no time as he subtly pulled out his presentation tools from his large black adidas bag¡ªmuch like a student''s, including a laptop, HDMI cable, an extendable metal stick for pointing at the blackboard, and a handheld speaker and microphone set so he could easily be heard inside the class¡ªuseless as the class was silent enough to hear even a pen drop, but it was necessary for when he taught class 1-F since even talking at a normal volume couldn''t be heard over their loud chattering.


    The lesson had begun, and everyone in the classroom had begun doing what they do best: studying. They were known as the best class in the entire grade, and it wasn''t just for show. Everyone in the class was taking notes, staring intently at what the teacher was doing, as well as solving equations in their notebooks.


    Avery excelled in almost every single subject, so she was easily able to follow the current lesson about rational functions. Serenity, on the other hand, is having a bit of difficulty throughout the lecture, while Gerald''s weakest subject is math, so he struggled a lot in the subject. As Gerald was struggling to solve the equation, he caught a glimpse of the outside, beneath the chilling fog of the blizzard. He saw students as they exited the main building and into the courtyard, snow pelting their exposed legs as the thin fabric of the p.e. uniform simply didn''t look like the best outfit when traversing the snow. Mr. Math also caught a glimpse of the scene, a sad look arose in his face.


    "Alright, let''s move on to the activity before we run out of time as it will be our last chance to do so."


    The entire class was both surprised and confused by what Mr. Math said.


    "Our last?" Gerald asked himself.


    The entire class hesitated to poke questions about the teacher''s statement and just simply went along with it. Mr. Math switched the slides, and an activity sheet was displayed on the screen. The students began answering. Avery breezed through the activity with the speed of a passing train. Due to how studious she was and how easily she followed the lesson, she simply didn''t even see it as a challenge. Serenity, on the other hand, had a bit of difficulty with some of the questions, she found them a bit confusing, but after a while, she managed to finish the activity. Gerald, on the other hand, was sweating his balls out. He didn''t want to fail any tests, including activities and assignments, but for some reason, he simply couldn''t follow the lesson today. He took a while to solve the questions, but he just wasn''t arriving at the correct answers. He wasn''t even sure what to do with some of the items.


    As the clock ticks, "five minutes remain." said Mr. Math.


    Gerald began to panic, he knew that he didn''t have it in him to solve the questions on time, so at the very last moment, he sneakily took out his android from his pocket, opened up Photomath, and the rest was history.


    "All right, pass your papers." said Mr. Math.


    Gerald, sweating from the stress, quickly stood up and sighed in relief, having finished just in time¡ªfinished cheating. The students stood up and orderly approached the teacher''s desk, submitting their hard work and arranging it in an orderly pile. As Gerald passed his paper, he took a quick glance at Mr. Math''s face, he looked like he was going to cry at any moment. Gerald was a bit concerned about this, but he couldn''t think of anything to say at the spur of the moment, so he simply went back to his seat. His face was a bit guilty as he walked away from Mr. Math since he didn''t cheat that often, and the times he had cheated in tests could be counted on one hand.


    "All right class," Every student settled down and shut their mouths as they heard Mr. Math speak, "it''s been a pleasure meeting all of you, I sincerely hope that you learned a lot today, I really hope that you enjoyed your time with me," Tears began to flow like a raging waterfall from Mr. Math''s face, and his sobbing made the next line incoherent. "and I sincerely hope that everyone of you lived wonderful... amazing lives. Thank you, thank you for everything." Mr. Math lowered his body, giving a deep bow as tears fell to the ground. He quickly approached the front door, hesitating as he opened it and left.


    Mr. Math forgot to close the door, and since Avery''s seat is the nearest to it, she knew that she was the one to close it. The entire class was still confused at what had transpired, but their confusion soon diminished as they heard something.


    "Oh shit! Do you guys need something here?"


    The class turned in unison in Avery''s direction as they witnessed her dazzled face. Standing outside the door was a large group of men in pristine white clothes with gas masks hooked to their belts and white surgical gloves strapped on their hands. Most of their faces weren''t showing any sort of emotion, while others had a mischievous smirk, and some looked in pity while avoiding eye contact with anyone.


    "Do you guys need something here?" Avery repeated her question.


    The scientists didn''t speak, but the guy in front answered her question in another way. He reached for his back pocket, and when he pulled it back, he now held a black handgun, similar to those that the police used. Avery, in shock, fell to the floor as the scientists shoved her out of the way and waltzed into the room like they belonged there. The entire class panicked, everyone rushed to the back door entrance, but as one of the girls opened the door, what she met on the other side was the barrel of a shotgun.


    The students rushed to the corner of the room while the scientists slowly approached them, each grabbing their own handguns and similar fire arms. Once the students were now gathered at the corner of the room in the opposite direction of the doors, the scientists gathered in front of them, trapping them in a wall of men, firearms pointed at their faces.


    "Please stop! I don''t want to die!"


    "Please don''t! Please don''t!"


    "Someone please help us!"


    The students were all begging for their lives, with tears of fear falling from most of their faces. Gerald saw Serenity from the very back of the crowd, cowering in fear, she looked as if she were cattle that knew it was their turn on the chopping block. Seeing this, with no hesitation, Gerald rushed to Serenity, pushing the shaking people out of the way until he reached his beloved. She was shaking vigorously as if she was having a panic attack, fear enveloped her as her eyes couldn''t focus on anything, her legs slowly became jelly as she fell to the ground.


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    Gerald quickly wrapped his arms around the frightened teen, "It''s alright honey, everything''s going to be fine." Gerald warmly embraced Serenity, placing her head near his chest, enveloping her in a familiar warmth. "Everything is going to be fine honey. Just stay calm. We''ll be fine."


    Serenity tried her best to calm down, closing her eyes as she embraced Gerald back, getting as close as possible to him, covering herself with his arms, like a scarred puppy hiding itself from the world. She tried to steady her breathing, which was overpowered by sobbing, placing her face on Gerald''s shoulder, wiping away her tears on his shirt. Gerald rubbed her back as she continued to weep. Slowly but surely, she was calming down.


    The sudden outburst was caused by a deep-rooted trauma from ten years ago.


    When Serenity was a child, she was raised in a normal household, happy, cheerful, and surrounded by her beloved family. They had a tradition of going to the amusement park every month in order to de-stress and relax. Everything was perfect in her life until one faithful afternoon.


    It was the day of their monthly trip, and Serenity happily entered the amusement park with her family, enjoying all the fun and thrilling rides that it had to offer. As the sun set, it was time to close the day.


    "This was so much fun! Let''s go again next year, promise?" asked little Serenity as she held out her pinky finger.


    The father nodded and said, "It''s a promise." He held out his pinky as well, their fingers gravitating towards each other, closer and closer, until their pinkies embraced. Serenity looked up at her father with a smile, delighted at their little promise. It was then that time seemed to slow down. In her peripheral vision, she saw a masked person, average in height and body composition, wearing plain civilian clothes, a black ski mask, and.. a shotgun.


    The man was only a few feet away from her father, he placed the barrel towards the man''s head, touching the skin near the hairline, and in a split second, "BANG!".


    Everything was in slow motion, bullets flew through the father''s head, the recoil from the blast made the person throw the shotgun, red fluid dyed the ground as well as every part of Serenity, bathing her in blood, pieces of brain, eyes, and teeth scattered on the floor, and the sheer strength of the shotgun decapitated the father from the mouth as his body plopped to the ground, creating a pool of deep crimson.


    Serenity could only sit on the ground with a blank expression, her eyes deepening, clouding, and fogging. She could only stare at her father''s brutalized corpse, her mother did the same.


    After the accident, Serenity recovered after a year of therapy, while her mother is still being treated in a mental hospital. Serenity currently lives with a close relative. The killer was still nowhere to be found, and the motive for the murder was still unknown.


    After a brief moment, Serenity finally calmed down. She was still frightened like everyone else, but at least it wasn''t as bad as before.


    "Everyone sit down now!" said one of the scientists.


    Since everyone didn''t want to die, they all obediently followed what the man had ordered. The scientists roughly grabbed the students one by one, they struggled as the scientists tied their hands behind their backs as well as their legs using zip ties, tripling them to prevent the students from breaking them. They also placed a large black tape on their mouths, around their heads, and on the mouth again for them to be unable to speak.


    It was Serenity''s turn to be immobilized. The scientist forcibly grabbed her from Gerald''s arms.


    "Honey! please help!"


    "You fuckers! Let her go!" He tried to grab Serenity''s hand, but there was a scientist behind him, and he slammed Gerald to the ground before he could even touch Serenity''s fingertips.


    "Fuck! Let her go!"


    "Honey! help m-" She was quickly taped away from speaking as the scientists saw her as a loud nuisance. She was then tied up like everybody else, so was Gerald. The scientists let them go as they were now immobilized, Gerald immediately wormed his body near Serenity, who did the same. With the help of the wall, Gerald was able to sit down from his position. He stretched his legs, not being able to take them apart from the zip ties. Serenity wormed her way to Gerald''s legs, she laid on them, and as Gerald curled his legs back, it helped Serenity sit down.


    The scientists finished tying everyone up. "If anyone of you does any funny business or even make a slight noise, we''ll pump your heads full of lead." Everyone was terrified, it''s as if they were at the hands of Satan''s minions, being turned into slaves. No one wanted to die, so the students had no choice but to comply with their demands.


    "This will all be over soon, the police will show up and we''ll be saved eventually" said Gerald in his mind.


    It felt like an eternity, time seemed to pass so slowly as the students sat in their confinement, not moving nor talking, they were simply too scared of the consequences if they did anything in retaliation. The room was dead silent, Most of the scientists left, leaving only two behind. Gerald knew that with this many students to only two adults, they could easily win even if the scientists had a pistol and shotgun, but with their feet tied up, their chances of surviving the fight became slim.


    The silence was disrupted when, outside of the room, they heard a scream. "SOMEONE PLEASE OPEN UP!" It sounded like a girl, and the shivering scream could be heard inside the room. The blizzard muffled her voice, and due to the frosty fogging of the windows, they couldn''t see her clearly, or vice versa, but they knew she was near the windows because a faint silhouette could be spotted.


    Hearing this, the students had hope that they would be saved, as they simply needed to alert the girl and call for the police. But the plan was quickly turned down as the two scientists readied their guns and pointed them in the students'' direction while they held up a finger vertically to their mouths with the other hand, signaling them to be silent. Because no one in their right minds wanted to be killed. The silence continued in the room as the yelling girl left the perimeter outside the classroom.


    A few minutes later, they could hear another yell from outside. "Mr. Fatmouth!" the voice yelled.


    Gerald''s face beamed in happiness. It was his friend, Josef. He was so delighted to hear his voice, and because he was outside, he knew that Josef was safe and doing fine, unlike him and his classmates, but in reality, they were both facing difficult situations. Gerald tried to move closer to the windows, but as he glanced over at the scientists, they were already aware of what he was going to try and do.


    Two guns were pointed at Gerald''s head. He wanted to be brave, he wanted to be the one who saves his classmates, he only needed to alert Josef outside to call for help. Even if he gets shot, the sound of the gun will tell Josef that they are in danger. But sadly, he didn''t do it. It wasn''t because he was scared of dying, he was scared of something else. He was scared of what Serenity would become if she saw her beloved get shot dead right in front of her, just like her father.


    Time passed again. It felt like hours after their confinement, they were still stuck in their vulnerable positions, tied up and unable to speak. The room had a clock, but it had run out of batteries last week, so their primary clock was in their phones, but their phones were in their bags that they left in their chairs, so that wasn''t a possible option either, and it made the class unable to call for help.


    Tik Tok Tik Tok, the imaginary clock in Gerald''s head started ticking, Serenity was now laying on his tied-up lap, staring into nothingness as he tried to amuse himself by counting the seconds that passed. They were slowly losing hope, hours had definitely passed, but there was still no sign of help.


    The students'' daze was stopped when the front door opened. The scientists that had left the room a while ago were now back inside the room. "The class outside is now back in their classroom. It''s time to begin." one of the scientists said. They grabbed their gas masks that were attached to their belts and latched them on their faces. The students'' fear worsened as they didn''t know what was going to occur, but by the look of the gas masks, they knew it would be troublesome.


    After all the scientists were now equipped with their masks, a sound could be heard from outside the room. It sounded like something was spewing, like air being blown out from a machine of some sort. A brief moment passed. The students began to panic, Gerald wasn''t paying attention to his surroundings, but as he heard the students struggling, he quickly glanced around to see what was transpiring. He saw from the open door that purple gas was slowly approaching, slowly covering the entire room, the entire school. The students tried their best to get away, worming their way to the farthest possible corner from the front and back doors, but it was simply impossible to escape.


    The gas had entered the room and engulfed everyone in it. The students began to inhale the purple gas, they began to feel dizzy until, one by one, they all fell unconscious to the ground, while the scientists were left standing, looking down on the students. Gerald was one of the last ones to succumb to the effects of the gas, and before he lost consciousness, he tackled one of the scientists from his tied up position. The scientist fell down from the collision, and so did Gerald, he fell on top of the scientist.


    "Don''t get any funny ideas, moron!" Said the scientist as he grabbed Gerald by the head and pummeled him straight in the face. Gerald rolled out from on top of the scientist as his face throbbed in pain. The scientist quickly got up and slammed his heel on Gerald''s dome. He held him there until he finally lost consciousness.

 Chapter 16: Close Call

    Everything was dark, faint murmurs could be heard in the background.


    "Is it time?"


    "Yes, they will continue the testing soon."


    Two male voices could be heard, suddenly, a door opened.


    "It''s time, I need you both to prepare the samples immediately, now." followed by a door closing.


    Gerald opened his eyes and saw a familiar sight, he was still in the classroom, laying in the same position as before he got knocked out by the gas. He woke up on the floor, facing the ground. As he tried to look around, he glanced at the other students, they were all still unconscious, and by the looks of it, he was the only one awake. The two scientists walked closer to him, and out of fear of whatever the scientists could do to him, he froze in fear and pretended to still be asleep.


    The two scientists went up to the unconscious students and forcefully dragged them, arranging them in a log position, facing up with their arms and legs straight, and lining them up in a line. When it came to Gerald''s turn, he tried his best to act unconscious, letting his body relax as much as possible and allowing his body to act limp.


    A scientist grabbed his hand and dragged him to the line, placing him in the same position as everyone else. He was almost found out when he opened his eyes to get a quick glance at his surroundings, that was when the scientist and Gerald almost made eye contact, but in the split second, Gerald closed his eyes. The scientist questioned what he just saw, but he concluded that he might just be seeing things, since Gerald''s acting was superb and you couldn''t differentiate him from the other unconscious students as he made his body extremely relaxed even from the nervousness. He played the role of a lifeless body, and he delivered.


    When the scientists were far enough from him, he looked around sneakily, He was beside Avery and Serenity. He felt relieved as he saw that the two of them were fine.


    The front door opened again.


    "Is everything ready?" asked the man who came in.


    "Yes sir, have you run out of samples from the other rooms?"


    "Yes, this is the last room remaining, hopefully we''ll be able to succeed before we run out of samples."


    The other scientist in the room was silent, instead of engaging with the other''s conversation, he went to each student, opening their eyes and shining a bright flashlight at them, checking whether or not they were unconscious or simply pretending to be¡ªlike what Gerald was doing. The scientist tested the students one by one, and by the time the scientist had reached Avery, Gerald began to feel a chill down his spine. He didn''t know if he could pull it off, and he was quite scared of what would happen if he was found out. He assumed that the scientists would simply knock him out, but what if they went to extreme measures instead?


    The scientist had finished with Avery, it was now Gerald''s turn. The scientist peeled his eyes open with two fingers, one for each eye, and Gerald tried his best to look as straight as possible, not moving his gaze as the scientist looked him directly in the eye. He flashed the bright light towards his eye, it felt like he was staring at the sun. Gerald was determined, even if he went blind, he would continue to act unconscious. He continued to focus, to act unconscious, it had felt like an eternity as the scientist continued to shine the flashlight. Finally, he was satisfied, so he pulled down Gerald''s eyelids, closing them, and he proceeded to check Serenity, then the rest of the class.


    The door opened, and a male scientist pushing a stretcher entered the room. The other scientists knew what to do before he could even say a word, they carried one of the unconscious students, placed her on the stretcher, removed her binds with a wire cutter, and rolled her out of the room, never to be seen again. Gerald was extremely confused at what had just transpired.


    "Were they going to treat her or something?" He thought, it was an acceptable thought as the student was indeed placed on a medical stretcher with wheels like one an ambulance would use, but the setting was extremely unlikely as they were the same scientists that had knocked them out with gas. A few moments passed, and the same scientist entered the room again, rolling an empty stretcher. The scientists followed the same procedure, they grabbed a student, placed him on the stretcher, removed the zip ties, and rolled him out.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Time passed, by Gerald''s estimate, about an hour or two. Gerald continued to act unconscious as the scientists did the exact same procedure over and over. One of the scientists grew tired of all the heavy lifting, he looked quite frail and simply couldn''t keep up with the other scientist in carrying the students to the stretcher. They were indeed two grown men carrying teenage students to the short distance of the stretcher, but even as simple of a task that was, he simply grew tired of it.


    "Hey, can you handle that by yourself?" said the scientist.


    "What? Don''t fucking slack off now, you''ll get in trouble."


    "I''m so fucking tired from doing all this, we''ve been hopping through schools doing the same thing over and over again, but still no good results."


    "Shut up and do your job, a lot of units have already succeeded in the testing, and it''ll only be a matter of time until they hand over the effective formula."


    "I don''t want to do this anymore, can I at least have a few minutes off?"


    "God dammit, just go fucking check the students again."


    With an easier task at hand, the scientist went over to the students, shining the bright flashlight in their eyes again. The process became quicker as there were fewer than half the students left in the room after they were wheeled out. The scientist checked Serenity, shining the light on her eye, there was no response. This time, the scientist did the process in the opposite order, so Serenity was checked before Gerald. It was now his turn to be checked, he laid still like a log, eyes steady as rocks, and he endured the bright burning light of the flashlight and successfully pulled it off again. Gerald mentally sighed in relief. He could become an actor, he thought to himself.


    "Oh shit!" said the scientist.


    Gerald quickly glanced at the scientist without moving his head, and was shocked at what he saw.


    "You fucker! You were awake the entire time." said the scientist.


    Gerald saw Avery, sweating bullets as she got found out. He was surprised as he wasn''t the only one who was awake, Avery survived the first round of checking but simply blundered on the second one.


    "What do we do?" said the scientist.


    "Just knock her out, she''ll be next on the chopping block."


    Avery tried to struggle, she violently shook her body as her muffled, undecipherable voice could be heard from under the tape on her mouth. The scientist formed a fist and brutally socked her on the face. Avery twitched in pain, but the scientist didn''t even feel a single ounce of remorse as he continued to pelt her with his fists. With bruises appearing on her face, she began to cry from the pain.


    Avery was stubborn, despite all the beatings, she refused to succumb to pain and be knocked out. The scientist grew tired of punching, and in a last attempt, he grabbed Avery''s neck and tightened his grip, choking her. She shook her body in response, trying to get the man off of her, but due to her being tied up on both hands and feet, she simply couldn''t do anything to free herself from the man''s grasp. Her face was turning blue, and it was only a matter of seconds before she fainted, her eyes screaming in pain as tears of agony drip from her bloodshot eyes. Gerald couldn''t stand to watch a single second more, he knew that if he did anything then he would receive the same treatment as Avery or even worse, but he couldn''t stand seeing his friend being choked next to him. Mustering up the courage, he took a deep, silent breath, tightened his core, tensed his feet, and lunged his upper body up from the ground, headbutting the scientist.


    The man was knocked over to the side, his hands covered the point of impact while Gerald endured the pain of smashing his head against someone else.


    "Ah shit! What the fuck!" exclaimed the scientist.


    The other scientist in the room simply looked in their direction, not responding to what just happened.


    "You''re fucking dead! I''m gonna fucking kill you!"


    The scientist jumped on Gerald, getting on top of him, and proceeded to choke him just like he did to Avery, but this time more violently. Gerald struggled like a worm, desperately shaking his entirety to shake off the man, but it was simply impossible, his hands and feet were tied up so he couldn''t do anything else but move like a worm.


    In a desperate attempt, Avery ferociously kicked the man repeatedly from her tied up position, but due to being immobilized, her kicks simply couldn''t generate enough power to do significant damage to the man, so he simply ignored her and continued to choke Gerald to death.


    His vision became blurry, his face turned blue, and if any more time passed, he would be unconscious or even worse, dead. Avery tried to scream through the tape blocking her mouth, she continued to kick the man, but he was simply not budging, and she could only watch in horror. Tears gushed out of her eyes as she watched her friend, who was nearing death by the second.


    In just the nick of time, the front door slammed open. "It''s a success!" exclaimed the man who entered. With the good news, the scientist''s grip on Gerald''s neck loosened, and Gerald quickly inhaled as much air as he could through his nose, afterwards, his face returned to its former color.


    "Are you sure!?" asked the scientist as he got off of Gerald. He seemingly lost all his rage as the other scientist delivered the good news.


    "Yes! I''m sure, come on, let''s go report to the main branch!"


    All the scientists quickly grabbed their things and left the room in a hurry, leaving the remaining students behind.


    Gerald thought that it was over, he though it was the end of the pain. He sighed in relief and closed his eyes for a moment, but as he opened it, he caught a glimpse of an object rapidly approaching his face, then his vision went black.

 Chapter 17: A Moments Rest

    "Honey!" A loud yet sweet voice could be heard.


    "Honey! please wake up!" The screaming became louder.


    "Honey! Honey! Gerald! please wake up!"


    Gerald''s eyes flashed open as Serenity''s call finally got through.


    "Where.. where am I? Serenity?"


    "Oh thank God you''re ok honey."


    "What.. happened?"


    "I don''t know, Avery woke me up and I saw you next to me, you were bleeding from your forehead!"


    "Oh shit!" Gerald felt a sharp pain across his head as soon as the word "bleeding" registered in his mind. He glanced over at Serenity and saw her holding a pink handkerchief covered in blood. He inferred that she must have wiped the blood off of him with it while he was still unconscious.


    "Are you ok honey?" Asked Serenity.


    "I''m fine honey, it just... hurts a bit." Said Gerald. "Also, how did you get the tape off your mouth? And how did mine come off?"


    "It''s all thanks to Avery."


    "Yup!" said Avery. Gerald turned his head  until he could faintly see Avery next to him. He got a quick glance of the floor and saw that there was some sort of black shard attached to a string next to her.


    "What''s that?" Asked Gerald.


    "It''s the one that helped us take the tape off." Said Avery. "I always carry one with me just in case anything happens, and would you look at that, Something did happen."


    "How did you use it?" asked Gerald.


    "I basically shook it out of my pocket and grinded my mouth on it until the tape tore a bit, and after that... I forced my mouth open until the tape tore all the way through. Then I peeled Serenity''s and yours with my mouth."


    He was quite amazed at how prepared Avery was, she liked boxing but another hobby of hers is to collect military equipment and knick-knacks, which, in a stroke of luck, had actually become useful in their predicament. After forcing himself to sit down by pushing himself against the wall until his torso was vertical, Gerald began to think. He couldn''t fully grasp what had happened to them, as he didn''t understand the context behind what the scientists were doing exactly. It was quite cloudy, and they were left in the dark. He wandered his vision across the entire classroom, many of the students were now fully awake, while some were still unconscious from the gas. He could still observe the confusion and fear on their faces.


    "What happens now?" muttered Serenity.


    "For starters, let''s go ahead and take these ties off, shall we?" said Avery.


    She picked up the black shard off the ground with her mouth, and she then slowly wormed her way to the side of Gerald.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    "Hmmm hmm." mumbled Avery as she flicked her head to the side, signaling Gerald. He immediately understood what she meant and turned away from her until Avery was face to face with Gerald''s back, where his hands were still tied up with three black zip ties.


    Avery quickly got to work as she saw away the zip ties. She bobbed her head back and forth, chipping away at the tight ties little by little.


    "Ouch!" said Gerald. Avery had accidentally pierced Gerald in the arm, a small cut formed. It was quite shallow yet inflicted the same pain as an annoying paper cut.


    "Oh shit! my bad." said Avery, as the shard fell from her mouth when she spoke. She picked it back up again with her mouth and continued to saw. After a minute or so and a few more cuts and punctures to Gerald''s arms and wrists, the zip ties had finally broke and all three of them fell to the floor.


    Gerald glanced at his arms, they both had horizontal slices from Avery''s sloppy handling of the tool, which could lead to some misunderstanding as it looked like cutter wounds from those who were trying to commit suicide. His wrists had a black line as the zip ties had wounded him due to their tightness.


    "Thanks a lot, Avery." said Gerald in a jokingly sarcastic tone.


    "No problem." she said.


    "Is it just me, or has your right hand been closed the entire time?" asked Serenity.


    "Oh yeah! I almost forgot." Gerald opened his right hand to reveal a silver key.


    "How''d you get that?" asked Avery.


    "Before I lost consciousness, I saw it dangling on one of the scientists'' belts, so I tackled him and grabbed it as I fell on top of him."


    "Nice, but what does it open?" asked Serenity.


    "I don''t actually know, but we''ll find out eventually." said Gerald. "Forget about that, let''s take off the others'' ties."


    Gerald grabbed the black shard from Avery and sawed off the ties on his feet, he then did the same with Serenity''s and Avery''s, and eventually, he had taken off the ties on everyone in the room, including those who were still unconscious on the ground.


    "I wonder what happened to the others." said Avery as Gerald took off the last student''s ties. She had unconsciously counted the people in the room while she watched Gerald help the other students and realized that half of them were missing.


    "I don''t know, hopefully they''re fine." said Gerald. "By the way, since when were you awake?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "When we were knocked out by the gas, when did you wake up?"


    "I actually woke up as the scientist was pointing the flashlight to everyone''s eyes, everyone was unconscious, so I tried to act like it, but when he shined the flashlight on mine, I blinked and he caught me."


    "Oh, so you were still unconscious on the first check."


    "The first? So you were awake way before I was?"


    "Yes, the scientists talked about a specimen or something, and they took away half of our classmates on a stretcher."


    "So that explains why we''re down to half. How about the specimen thing? Did you learn anything from it?"


    "I''m not really sure.. all I know is that they were testing something and it was a success, then they all left."


    "Hmmm, sounds a bit fishy." said Avery. "Also, I hope that scientist doesn''t leave a mark on your forehead."


    "Oh yeah, you saw what happened. Who was it that knocked me out?"


    "The same guy that beat me up and strangled you, luckily his punches didn''t leave a mark on my face, and there''s only a few bruises here and there. Getting slammed with a briefcase must be quite painful." she said.


    "So it was a suitcase, it was quite painful indeed. Hopefully there''s no dent in my skull or anything." said Gerald.


    He glanced at Serenity, she was in the background, silently waking up the still unconscious students. After a few minutes of rest and calming down from what had happened earlier, they were now ready to leave the classroom. Everyone was now awake and ready to get the hell out of the room. The blizzard still raged in the background, sending shivers down their spines as they realized that their heater had been closed the entire time. They didn''t know what was happening outside of their room, they didn''t know if the other classes were being held hostage or if they were the only ones. Gerald was hoping that when the door opened, they would be surprised with confetti or something and it was all just a prank. Everyone stood ready near the door, Avery took a deep breath in and out as she reached for the doorknob.

 Chapter 18: Clean Up

    Avery suddenly stopped as she touched the cold silver doorknob of their classroom, and remembering the past events that transpired, she hesitated on her next action.


    "Alright, someone else do this." said Avery.


    "What do you mean, Avery?" Said Gerald.


    "The last time I opened this door, scientists came in and knocked us out, what if something is waiting for us on the other side again?"


    "You worry too much, that was probably just a one-time thing, scientists don''t usually attack a classroom in the middle of the day, actually, scientists don''t usually attack at all."


    "Yeah, let''s just go home. I don''t think I want to stay at this school any longer after what happened today. We probably need to report whatever happened to authorities." said Serenity.


    "Fine, let''s get out of here, but I''m not the one who''s opening the door this time, someone else have a go." Avery stepped away from the door, she pointed at it with an open hand, motioning for someone else to do the job of opening it. It was a simple procedure, yet from her previous experience, she was a bit worried about what would happen in case something did happen again, something that might be a far worse experience than those with the scientists. She doesn''t risk second chances nor place her trust in something that has previously been proven to be dangerous.


    "Fine, I''ll do it." said a boy. He seemed to be impatient, as he wanted to go home and reflect on the events that had occurred¡ªlike everyone else. He stepped up to the door and twisted the metal knob without hesitation. He slowly pulled the door open. The boy stopped. His hands fell to the ground as if his nerves were cut. He didn''t speak nor move for a few moments.


    "What''s wrong?" asked Avery.


    "Hey dude, what happened?" said Gerald. He placed a hand on the boy''s shoulder and shook him to get him to respond, but instead, the boy fell to the ground.


    "Holy shit!" screamed Serenity as she covered her eyes.


    "Oh shit! What the fuck happened!" exclaimed Avery. She pointed at the boy''s head as she covered her mouth, preventing herself from gagging.


    Everyone started to scream in terror.


    In confusion and curiosity, Gerald quickly glanced over at the boy and saw the horrifying sight. The boy was limp on the ground, eyes wide open, with a large bloody kitchen knife sticking out from his forehead, blood oozing out as it created a pool of red around the pitiful boy''s head. In just a few seconds from him opening the door, he was now on the ground, lifeless as his eyes lost color and his soul left his body, growing colder by the second.


    "Nooooo!" Screamed one of the girls, she pushed her way through the crowd of people who were shocked at what had happened, and she covered her eyes with both hands as she dashed out of the room. As she took a step out to the hallway, a hand appeared from the side of the doorframe, the hand was holding a knife, and before the girl could even see or react, the hand quickly lunged the large kitchen knife at the side of the girl''s head. Just like the boy, the girl dropped dead in only a matter of seconds, blood oozing out from the side of her head.


    "Two down, many to go." said the figure. The students could only watch in shock as they glanced over to what had transpired in the hallway, a second ago, they were looking at the corpse of the boy, but now their eyes were fixated on the dead girl who was just alive a second ago. The figure revealed himself and walked in front of the doorway. There stood a tall man wearing a blood-soaked blue polo shirt and overalls with a lighter blue shade. A large brown paper bag covered his face to mask his identity.


    "Who are you!?" said Gerald.


    "Who, me? I''m just your friendly campus janitor." He talked like a crazed lunatic, with random high-pitched instances as he talked, much like the joker in the Batman movies that Gerald loved to watch as a kid.


    "Why are you doing this!" said Avery.


    "Hmm, well.. I''m simply doing my job as a janitor," said the man as he reached for something to the left of the doorway, something that was hidden from view, "and that is to clean up." As he finished speaking, he pulled his arm to show what he had just grabbed, in his hand was a mop with the handle sharpened like a stake. He stretched his arm behind him and threw the mop like a javelin, soaring through the room.


    The mop was heading towards Gerald with insane speed, if he doesn''t dodge, he will be a goner. In a split second, he leaned back as fast as he could, the sharp mop scraping his forehead, barely dodging the thrown object. He lost his balance and fell backwards to the floor, his back slamming against the ground. From the mop scratching his forehead and from the fall, Gerald was in pain, but not as much as the person behind him, if that person could even still feel pain. Since Gerald barely dodged the mop, someone else took the hit. Gerald was frozen on the floor from shock when a red fluid showered him, covering his eyes. As he wiped the thick fluid out of his eyes, he saw the boy that was behind him with a long metal mop piercing his throat. The boy was suspended for a bit, and after the harsh breeze of the blizzard knocked against their classroom''s windows, the boy collapsed to the ground, lifeless, as a pool of blood was created yet again.


    "Three down." said the janitor.


    The students finally realized what was going on, and everyone rushed to the back door of the room. People pushed and pulled the others just for them to be the first ones to reach the door¡ªto reach safety, but their hopes of survival were quickly shut down as the boy in front struggled to open the door. The school''s construction was a bit weird and off in some places, the front doors opened inward while the back ones opened outwards. Even with ten or so students pushing the door with all their might, they still couldn''t seem to make it budge. It seemed locked, but because the doors lock from the inside, there could be only one explanation. The janitor had planned it out and blocked the back door with something heavy¡ªsomething far too heavy for even a mob of teens to push through.


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    The janitor walked towards the horde of students at the back of the room, very slowly, one step at a time, and he looked at Gerald, who was still on the ground. "You''re quite lucky to dodge that, kid, I''ll get to you later." said the janitor as he walked past him.


    As he walked slowly toward the frantic mob that was still trying to push the door open, he reached from within his overalls and pulled out another kitchen knife, the same as the ones he used to mercilessly kill the earlier students. They started to scream as the janitor got closer. He laughed maniacally and jumped towards the students, slamming his blade against whoever it would hit. Most of the students quickly got out of the corner, but one of them was unlucky and bit the dust. The knife was sticking on top of his head, and the janitor pulled it out, afterwards, a fountain of blood erupted from above.


    "Who''s next?" said the janitor. He glanced around the room, looking at the fear in the students'' eyes. He took a glance at everyone in the room, and as he took a look at Serenity, who was trying to help Gerald stand up, he knew who his next target was. Serenity immediately knew what was going to happen. She quickly pulled Gerald up, and they both ran towards the open front door. They almost got away, but they were forgetting something.


    "Stop or I''ll carve her brains out!" said the janitor. Serenity and Gerald glanced back to the inside of the room, the janitor had Avery hostage with a knife pointed at her head.


    "I''ve been watching you all since the scientists left, and I know that you three are quite good friends. I''ve already made up my mind to slowly torture that boy by slicing him to pieces. If you both don''t get back here, then I will mount this girl''s head on the mop and display her like a trophy.


    Serenity and Gerald were so close to safety, they only needed to take a few more steps and they would have been outside of the man''s view, but they couldn''t leave their close friend behind. If they go back then they would all be killed, but if they don''t then Avery will be killed with the rest of his classmates. The better choice was quite obvious, but their bonds made them choose the idiotic option. The two walked back inside the room.


    "Now close the door." said the janitor. The two obediently followed. The janitor let Avery go, and Serenity rushed in to hug her, tears flowing from her eyes. "I don''t want to die!" sobbed Serenity. Avery knew what they did was stupid, they could have saved themselves, but they chose to die together. Avery simply stroked Serenity''s hair as she sobbed on her shoulder.


    Gerald felt helpless as he watched the janitor brutally kill off his remaining classmates one by one. A stab here, a stab there, multiple stabs to the chest, two knives to the eye, a knife through the heart, beheading, a face sliced in two, guts pulled out¡ªit was horrible, completely appalling, and disgusting, a scene that could only be dreamed of in nightmares, but instead, they were witnessing it when they were fully conscious.


    The three stood there as they awaited their turn to be brutally slaughtered. A girl crawled through the ground, her feet had been messily cut off, she grabbed Gerald''s feet. "Please help me!" she said, tears flowing down her blood-splattered face. Gerald could only stand there and clench his fist and grit his teeth. The janitor slowly walked towards the girl and slammed the blade toward her head. Gerald closed his eyes before the blade made contact. When he opened his eyes again, the girl was still holding his leg, but she now had a fountain of blood on her head. Tears fell from his eyes as he felt useless.


    The man continued to mercilessly slaughter the remaining students until Gerald, Serenity, and Avery were the only ones left.


    "Alright, it''s finally your turn." said the janitor as he pointed the blood-stained kitchen knife towards the three.


    "Who wants to die first?"


    "I do!" said Avery without any hesitation. The janitor slowly approached Avery, they were now only a few inches apart when the man raised the knife, ready to slam the sharp, blood-stained blade on Avery''s head. She felt guilty that her friends couldn''t escape because she was held hostage, she felt like shit and wanted to make it right by being the first one to die. Granted, they will all die, but dying first is the only thing she could think of to apologize.


    Avery closed her eyes, she was ready to die. She had a lot of things that she still wanted to do with her friends, like spend a nice romantic date with Josef, but that will have to wait for the afterlife.


    Gerald watched as the janitor readied himself to kill his friend, Gerald couldn''t stand it, he had watched his defenseless classmates get slaughtered, he couldn''t help the poor girl who was desperately crawling to him asking for help, and now he will fail to protect one of his best friends as well.


    He had enough. Before the janitor could lower the knife to Avery''s head, Gerald screamed, "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BASTARD!" He quickly closed the distance between him and the janitor and landed a nice, strong punch to his face.


    The janitor was knocked back as he dropped the knife. Gerald didn''t let a single moment go to waste as he picked up the knife and lunged at the janitor. He tried to stab the janitor in the chest, but he had failed as the janitor blocked the knife with his hand. The knife pierced the man''s hand, but even though it looked quite painful, he kneed Gerald on the stomach.


    Gerald got to his knees as he clutched his stomach. He felt pain swell in his entire body as he gasped for air, resisting the urge to puke his guts out. The man forcefully pulled out the knife pierced in his hand and lunged it towards Gerald''s head.


    "Die, you insolent brat!" screamed the janitor.


    "HONEEEY!" screamed Serenity.


    The knife made contact with Gerald''s head, but it didn''t pierce him. He was still recovering, but he forced himself to see what had happened. He saw the man on the ground with Avery on top of him, she must''ve pushed the man away just in time. The man struggled to get Avery off him as she weighed slightly more than the average girl. Avery wasted no time and threw a flurry of punches towards the man''s paper bag-covered face. The man flinched in pain with each punch.


    Avery didn''t stop there and continued her barrage, she punched the hell out of the man, and after a minute or so of endless punching, the man stopped moving. Avery steadied her breathing as she rested, when the man grew limp on the ground, Avery thought that she had won.


    She got off of the man and reached for the paper bag. She slowly lifted it up, struggling a bit as the man''s head was lying on the back of the bag. She had raised it high enough to reveal a mouth, but suddenly, a smile arose from his face.


    The man lunged at Avery, pushing her to the ground, the tables have turned, and now the man is the one on top of Avery. The man shakily reached from inside his overalls again as Avery struggled to get the man off of her. He pulled out another knife. Gerald forced himself to stand up and try to help Avery, but the man''s knee to his stomach was simply too painful, and the pain still lingered as he struggled to stand up while Serenity stood there, frozen in fear.


    Avery thought it was over, it was a good attempt, but they failed.


    "I''ve had enough, I''ll fucking kill you all!" screamed the man, raising the knife high.


    Suddenly, the front door of the room slammed open and hurried footsteps quickly flew across the room. The man was slow to react, and when he looked over, he only saw a blurry shoe. In a split second, the shoe made contact with his face, and he was knocked back. Blood gushed out from inside the paper bag¡ªprobably from the nose.


    "Get off of her, you fucker!"


    Gerald, Serenity, and Avery, with surprised looks on their faces, looked at their savior¡ªit was Josef. Rage overwhelmed Josef''s face as he almost witnessed his beloved girlfriend''s death.


    The man tried to get up, but Caden quickly rushed from behind and bashed the man''s head with a fire extinguisher, throwing the janitor to the ground. His head violently crashed on the cold, blood-soaked concrete floor.

 Chapter 19: Goodbye

    "Avery!" Josef exclaimed, "I''m so glad you''re alright, thank God!"


    Josef rushed to Avery''s side, giving her a nice, big, warm hug. She responded with an embrace as tears drizzled from her eyes.


    "Honey!" screamed Serenity, Gerald was still struggling to stand up as the damage from earlier still lingered from within his body. He wasn''t as physically strong as Caden, nor was he a weakling, but a grown man''s full force attack can definitely cause him severe pain. Serenity rushed to Gerald''s side, she placed his arm around her and tried to stand him up, but she couldn''t. She was frail and had no form of strength left in her.


    "Do you need any help?" asked Josh. He extended his hand toward Gerald. He stared at Josh''s open palm for a moment and then proceeded to hesitantly accept his help. With the combined effort of Serenity and Josh, Gerald was finally able to stand up, but he was still wavering with his arms clutching his stomach.


    "Thank you." said Gerald to Josh, he avoided eye contact with him.


    "What the hell happened here?" exclaimed Matt.


    "It''s exactly what it looks like." answered Avery. "Everyone is dead. Scientists came in and tied us up, then gas suddenly came out of nowhere."


    "The same thing happened with us. The gas probably spread throughout the entire school." said Matt.


    "Wait, scientists?" said Caden, "I woke up in a room filled with dead bodies with scientists experimenting on students. What did the scientists do in your classroom?"


    "They took the unconscious students and rolled them out in a stretcher." said Gerald. He was still struggling, but at least the pain was subsiding little by little.


    "Ohhh, so the students that the scientists were experimenting on came from your class," said Caden. "Wait! Then why was I included there when our entire class of 1-F was slaughtered?"


    "Slaughtered!?" exclaimed Serenity, her voice quivering.


    "Sadly, yes, everyone from our class was slaughtered and decapitated in the room, we are the only survivors from our class." Josef answered, "I don''t know who the culprit is, but what I do know is that it was done by a chainsaw."


    "Chainsaw!" screamed Serenity. "I don''t want to be here anymore. Entire classes are dead, scientists are experimenting on students, and a chainsaw-carrying maniac is on the loose! Let''s leave right now, I don''t want to stay in this hell for another second." said Serenity as she held Gerald''s hand.


    "Yep, we are definitely going to leave and report everything to the police," said Caden, "but first we need to get some answers out of this guy."


    Everyone looked over to the unconscious man who slaughtered Gerald''s class. They tied him up in a sitting position. They knew that from the time that they spent talking to each other, the man had already awoken from unconsciousness. He was simply silent the entire time.


    "All right, moment of truth." said Gerald, he had fully recovered and was now ready to get to the bottom of all of this madness. He faced the tied-up man and slowly lifted up the paper bag that was still covering his face. The bag was now off, but most of them had confused looks on their faces.


    "Who''s that?" asked Josef.


    "Dunno, I don''t recognize him." said Matt.


    Avery gasped. "Mr. William!? Is that really you?"


    "Mr. Who?" said Gerald.


    "It''s Mr. William, the janitor, well obviously he''s dressed like a janitor, but he''s the janitor of our school."


    "Then why would he do this to everyone!?" exclaimed Serenity.


    "I don''t know. I have talked to him a few times on campus, and he seemed really nice. I don''t know what made him into this murderer." said Avery.


    The man laughed, "You want to know why I slaughtered all your friends? It''s because it''s fun. Seeing a pool of blood like spilled juice on the floor is simply exhilarating. Cleaning it up and tossing the bodies aside like scrap food calms me down. I feel alive when I do it."


    "Mr. William! This isn''t like you at all, what happened? You were so nice to everyone, and you even lent an ear to students who were having a tough time with their studies. What the hell is going on?" said Avery.


    "Nothing happened, this is the true me, what you saw in the past is simply an illusion. Killing students is what makes me happy, I don''t care about your worries, all I want is to see blood spill."


    "That''s enough, you madman!" exclaimed Caden as he kicked the man in the face. A tooth fell to the ground and the man''s mouth began to bleed.


    "You didn''t need to do that!" said Avery.


    "I don''t know, Avery, something was just bothering me, and I felt like I had to do it. I didn''t want to hear him talk about horrendous stuff like that, especially since you knew him as a kind person." said Caden.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    "Huh? Where... am I?" said the man. Confusion arose from everyone''s faces. "Avery? Is that you?"


    Avery paused for a second before answering, "Yes, it''s me, Mr. William."


    "Oh, thank God you survived." said the man with a relieved smile on his face.


    "What the fuck happened to him? A few moments ago he was a blood-crazed lunatic, but now he''s suddenly back to his senses!?" said Matt.


    "Be careful, he might be putting on an act." said Josh.


    "An act?" said the man, "And why am I tied up?" He looked down on his binds in confusion.


    "Mr. William, what happened to you? Do you remember anything?" asked Avery.


    "Ahhh! My head hurts. I can''t exactly remember.. much." said the man. "Wait! I think I remember a bit."


    "Well, what is it?" said Josef.


    "Scientists! I remember them building a machine with the principal. This purple gas knocked us out." said the man. "When I woke up, I was tied up in a room I''ve never seen before, It was an all-white room that had medical equipment. The other teachers were there as well.


    "An all white room? That was probably the room I woke up in as well. It''s a secret room hidden beneath the school. Did they perhaps strapped you to an operating table or something?" said Caden.


    "Beneath the school!?" exclaimed Gerald. Serenity and Avery''s eyebrows rose from surprise as well.


    "There wasn''t an operating table, it was simply a white room with a table cluttered with medical equipment." said the man.


    "So there''s another hidden room in the school?" muttered Caden.


    "Most of us were still unconscious, but I was already awake, It felt like I spent an eternity there." said the man. "After a while, scientists came rushing in. I heard someone say ''finally, it''s complete'' then they cut our heads open and injected us with a syringe with purple liquid inside. That''s as far as I could remember."


    "Purple liquid!? Now I understand what happened." exclaimed Caden.


    "You know something?" asked Gerald.


    "When I was hiding from the scientists, I saw them inject purple liquid into the students." said Caden. "When they failed, the students went crazy and died shortly after, but when they succeeded, they were able to control the student like a puppet. That''s probably the reason why Mr. William acted like that, he was being controlled."


    "Controlled!? What''s in the purple liquid anyway?" asked Avery.


    "A virus." answered Caden. He pointed to the stitched-up cut near the man''s hairline. "They injected the purple liquid directly into their brains, and that''s probably how they''re being controlled. But.. how did they do it so fast? I heard that they needed to report back to their headquarters first before they did anything else."


    "Maybe it''s really close by." said Josef.


    "Then who''s controlling them." asked Matt.


    "It probably has something to do with the principal." said Josef. "But wait, who is the principal?"


    Gerald laughed, "I can''t believe you''ve forgotten the principal, we all know he''s... umm, who was he again?"


    "Now that you''ve mentioned it, I can''t seem to remember." said Avery.


    "It''s because the principal hasn''t shown up yet, it''s always the secretary that does the talking." said Josh.


    "I have worked for over a decade at this school. I have seen the principal participate in a few speeches and ceremonies in the school, but since the last time he did it was a long time ago, and I could only get glimpses of him since I''m always busy cleaning, I can''t remember who he is or what he looked like." said the man.


    "That principal is looking more and more suspicious the more we bring him up." said Caden. "Do you know anything else, Josef?" he asked as he lightly elbowed him.


    "Wait.. Josef!? You''re Josef!?" exclaimed the man. "I.. I remember now, you''re the...AAAHHHH!" The man twitched in pain, he was still tied up, but now he was collapsed on the floor, screaming his heart out, yelling in pain.


    "Mr. William, what''s wrong!?" asked Avery.


    "I will... I will.." the man became silent and muttered something under his breath. Avery crouched closer to the man, attempting to catch what he''s saying. Suddenly, the man faced Avery and leapt out at her with an agape mouth, attempting to bite her face off. In the nick of time, Josef was able to grab Avery''s shoulder and push her out of the man''s range.


    "What happened, Mr. William!?" asked Avery.


    "I''ll kill you all! I''ll spill your blood all over the floor and mop it up! I''ll chop up your bodies into tiny pieces and stuff them in a garbage bag!" said the man maniacally.


    "It''s the virus!" said Caden. "It must have malfunctioned when I kicked him, but now it''s in effect again."


    "Please come back, Mr. William!" said Avery.


    "I''ll kill you all!" The man continued with his threats until suddenly he became quiet. He had become still, his eyes faced forward as he sat back up into a proper seating position, much like a student who is listening to a teacher in class. "Mr... Principal..."


    "The principal!?" exclaimed Matt. "Where is he?"


    "Yes, Mr. Principal, I shall follow your orders, whatever they may be." said the janitor.


    "What the hell is happening?" said Josef.


    "Yes, I shall do it, anything for you." said the janitor.


    "Mr. William?" said Avery. Suddenly, the man leaned forward and bashed his head on the cold concrete floor. He raised his head back up and smashed it again. He repeated the process again and again.


    Avery and Caden rushed to the man and tried to stop him. They held his arms and pulled him backwards in order to stop him from lunging forward.


    "I shall follow the principal! Don''t stop me!" exclaimed the man. He opened his mouth wide. Caden thought that the man was going to try and bite them, but the man bit something else. He slammed his teeth shut, and a small, slippery object plopped on the ground, followed by a fountain of blood. It was the man''s tongue. Avery and Caden were both surprised and loosened their grip on the man. Seeing the opportunity, the man lunged out and bashed his head again on the floor. A loud crack echoed across the room, followed by silence. The man was still, his head faced the ground.


    "Mr. William?" Avery crouched and touched the man''s back. No response. She rolled the man over until he faced up. His eyes were wide open, his forehead was red as a tomato, and his body was still as a rock. The man had died.


    "Mr. William! No! Please wake up!" screamed Avery. Her knees gave in, and she sat on the ground. "You were always there when I needed someone to talk to, you were always kind and supportive of us even though you were only a janitor. Please! Please wake up!" Avery sobbed on the man''s chest. Josef sat next to her and silently hugged Avery, pushing her face against his chest while stroking her on the back, she continued to weep there.


    "That''s it! We need to get out of here this instant! I don''t want to see any more death! exclaimed Serenity.


    "Yes¡­ Let''s go, everyone." said Avery as she calmed down from the loss of an important figure in her school life. Avery and Josef stood up with Josef''s arm still latched on to her.


    "Let''s go." Said Josef. The group walked out of the room but quickly turned around and faced the inside once again. They lowered their heads and bowed.


    "We''re sorry we couldn''t save you, Mr. William.. everyone. We hope you rest in peace." said Avery. "Goodbye."

 Chapter 20: Encounter

    It was dead silent. No one could hear any other sound except for the cold wind knocking on the windows and the sound of their footsteps. The group cautiously traversed the hallway of the first floor. It was a straight hall, but because of the numerous windows and rooms, they had to be careful, as anything could pop out.


    "A chainsaw!?" exclaimed Avery, a hint of sadness still lingered in her voice.


    Josef and Caden explained their experiences as they slowly walked through the first floor while in a semi-crouched walking posture.


    "Woah, that''s... a bit frightening." said Gerald.


    "This dude or gal with a chainsaw decapitated everyone in my class, luckily I was able to hide just in time." explained Josef.


    "Wait, so why did you have a gun with you?" asked Gerald.


    "I''m not exactly sure myself, It was just there when I woke up."


    "But what if someone is actually helping you? If you think about it, there aren''t any gun stores near our school, and no teacher should have one lying around. Someone probably knew what was going to happen in the school and snuck a gun in, then gave it to you in order to protect yourself." said Avery.


    "Who could have given it to Josef?" asked Josh.


    "Maybe one of the teachers?" said Matt.


    "I don''t think that''s it, the janitor himself said that the teachers were gathered in a hidden room, they most definitely couldn''t have gotten out. Even after they were released, they are now murderous monsters, so they couldn''t have possibly helped Josef." explained Gerald.


    "Maybe it''s one of the scientists then." said Avery.


    "Maybe, but why was it Josef?" said Josh. "Why was he, out of all the students in the classroom, the one chosen to survive?"


    "It was probably random." surmised Matt.


    "Then there''s the note, I wonder if the principal is really responsible for this." said Avery.


    "Obviously, he is responsible, what else could they have meant by ''eradicate the principal''?" said Gerald.


    "You have a point, but why did he do this?" asked Avery.


    "Must be one messed up person." said Caden.


    "So all we need to do is beat up this principal, and everything will be solved." said Matt. "If only we knew who he is."


    "We need to look for him first, that''s why we''ll leave the school and ask around for help, maybe the police could help us." said Josef.


    "Could you lower your voices, everyone, I don''t think it''s a good idea to be talking so much in this situation." said Serenity. She was still frightened by what had happened, her hands and legs were still shaking.


    "Sorry about that, we''ll whisper from now on. Look on the bright side, we only need to walk past one more classroom, and the exit will be just beyond that." said Caden.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    He tried to sound reliable, but in comedic timing, just as he finished saying that they would all be quiet, the fire extinguisher that he was carrying as a makeshift weapon accidentally banged on a doorframe, which let out a loud, echoey metallic sound that traveled across the entire hallway.


    "You stupid piece of shit!" Serenity shouted in a whispered tone.


    They all stood still for a moment, and sweat began to surface as they nervously observed the barren hallway. It was dead silent, and the eerie atmosphere plus the temperature of the blizzard multiplied by the trauma that they experienced earlier made the silence even more frightening than anyone could comprehend.


    "Thank goodness, it looks like it''s just us on the first floor." said Caden, wiping off the sweat formed on his forehead with the back of his hand.


    "You idiot! You could have killed us all!" whispered Serenity while pinching Caden''s shoulder.


    "Ouch! stop! I''m sorry, it won''t happen again." apologized Caden.


    They continued to walk, but even more slowly this time as they were still wary of their surroundings. After a few more seconds of eerie silence, they finally passed the last classroom before the main entrance.


    "All right, who''s going to take a look to see if it''s safe?" said Caden.


    "Since you almost doomed us all, you go." said Serenity.


    "What!? I don''t want to go!"


    "Are you a pussy now, Caden?" said Matt.


    "I''ll gladly be a pussy if it means that I won''t be risking my life. Why don''t you go!?"


    Suddenly, a sound could be heard. Everyone immediately froze as they heard it. It came from the corner, the very same corner that they were going to peek through in order to scope out the entrance door. It sounded like something was rattling, but no, it was more like something was rolling.


    Roll, roll, click, roll roll, click, roll, roll, click.


    It sounded like it was hitting the wall. With each click, the sound got closer and closer to them. Sweat began to emerge again. Click, the sound was extremely close, Josh pushed Caden to the front and held him there so he couldn''t escape. Knowing that the others were just as cowardly as he was, Caden braced himself and held his fists up, ready to attack whatever was at the corner. Caden began to feel tensed as the sound had stopped, but suddenly, roll, Caden sighed in relief. What appeared was a cute and innocent mouse, it looked quite ordinary and definitely didn''t need to be fought. The sounds came from a pen that it was playing with. Caden snatched the pen while the mouse was scared off and ran away, heading straight to the right half of the long hallway.


    "Free pen." said Caden.


    He immediately plunged it into the depths of his pocket, he didn''t even test to see if it was black or red ink.


    As he became confident that nothing else was there, Caden peeked out into the corner. There was no one there, just the large see-through doors, and the blizzard, nothing out of the ordinary. Caden walked to the door, he placed his hands on the cold glass, and pushed. It was unlocked.


    "Guys! It''s unlocked!" yelled Caden with a bright smile on his face.


    As Caden turned around, his smile froze and gradually turned into fright. He realized that he made a grave mistake, he shouldn''t have shouted, but it was too late.


    When you enter the school through the main building, you are immediately faced with the stairwell on the other side. When Caden turned around, he saw a horrifying sight. There stood a figure on the stairs, average in stature, gender unknown, as the slightly oversized suit was hiding any assets that the figure could have. A ski mask covered its head, followed by a red mask that resembled an oni (demon). The mask had black horns with white pointy teeth and a mouth that formed a mischievous smile. The mask alone could send any kid running, but the worst part of it all was that the figure carried a severed head leaking blood on its left hand, and a blood-drenched chainsaw in its right.


    For the first time, Serenity wasn''t frozen in fear, instead, the second she caught a glimpse of the chainsaw, she immediately sprinted as fast as she could past Caden and out of the building.


    The chainsaw figure grabbed the black starter cord and vigorously tugged on it, the engine started, and the chainsaw was now ready for action yet again. Residue of blood spit out from the chainsaw as the sharp teeth vigorously spun. The figure leaped out to the bottom of the stairs, and before the figure could stand up straight, everyone booked it for the exit.


    "RUUUUUUNN!" screamed Gerald as the figure chased closely behind them.

 Chapter 21: Chase

    Amidst the ever-piling snow, a game of cat and mouse had occurred¡ªa bloody one at that. Serenity had already left everyone else behind, Caden was the second to exit, followed by Josh, Avery, Gerald, Josef, and Matt respectively, while the chainsaw fiend chased closely behind.


    Matt faltered behind, he wasn''t able to run as quickly as the others as he had stumbled a bit in the snow and had almost tripped at one point. It had only been a few seconds since they dashed outside the main building, but the chainsaw fiend had already caught up to them.


    "OH FUCK!" screamed Matt.


    He could hear the rumbling of the chainsaw in close proximity to himself. He took a quick glance behind him as he ran, and he saw the sight of death. The chainsaw''s sharp teeth were only a few inches away from his face, growing closer every millisecond. It felt like time had slowed down as his life began flashing before his eyes. In less than one second, he dipped his head down, dodging the chainsaw by only a few millimeters as the saw chipped off some of his hair.


    "Matt!" yelled Josh.


    Matt had fallen down to the ground after dodging the first swing. The fiend had readied itself for another attack as it recovered from its momentum. It raised the chainsaw high in the sky and slammed it down toward Matt. Yet again, just in time, Matt quickly rolled over to the right, dodging the chainsaw. Matt clumsily yet quickly got up and ran, while the fiend pulled out the chainsaw it had struck to the cold, snow-layered ground.


    It was now back to running. The others soon caught up to Serenity, as she wasn''t that fast of a runner in the first place. Matt, who had miraculously survived the attacks of the chainsaw fiend, was now close to the group as well, while the fiend was a bit further behind, not too close to be seen due to the fog of the blizzard, but close enough to hear the roar of the chainsaw.


    Close to a minute had gone by, most of them were out of breath, heavily gasping for air. Gerald looked back and saw the chainsaw fiend''s silhouette in the fog, still chasing them.


    "How the fuck can it keep up with that heavy chainsaw!" exclaimed Gerald, whose breathing was all over the place.


    "No questions, just keep running!" replied Caden. He wasn''t as tired as the others since his main workout routine is cardio, and he likes to cycle for long periods of time.


    "Guys!... Wait!" yelled Serenity as she gasped for air.


    Everyone suddenly glanced back while they ran, it suddenly occurred to them that Serenity was no longer with them, instead, she was way behind, possibly from exhaustion and slow physical prowess.


    "Serenity! Run!" yelled Gerald.


    She couldn''t take another step, her legs were vigorously shaking from exhaustion, this was the most she had run in possibly her entire life. The fiend appeared from behind Serenity, and with the chainsaw ready, it swung the heavy machinery horizontally towards Serenity. The chainsaw''s teeth ravaged the back of Serenity''s uniform, but luckily, not her flesh, as Gerald was able to quickly run back and pull Serenity out of the chainsaw''s path just in time.


    Serenity stumbled towards Gerald. Due to the momentum of the failed attack, the fiend had to readjust its grip on the chainsaw''s handle. Noticing the opening, Gerald didn''t waste any time, he closed the already-close distance between him and the fiend, he pulled out his foot from the snow, and kicked the fiend in the chest. It stumbled back, but because of the weight of the chainsaw, it had let go of it as the fiend fell down backwards, crashing its masked head to the ground, but unfortunately, the snow had padded its fall, preventing any damage from the fall.


    "Let''s go!" exclaimed Gerald to Serenity.


    He held her arm as he ran, but unfortunately, Serenity could only stumble around due to her exhaustion. The fiend had almost gotten back up. They were wasting too much time. In the spur of the moment, seeing that there was no other choice, Gerald scooped up Serenity by the legs and carried her, much like a princess, a princess that was trying to escape from death. In this type of situation, the one who was being carried would ask if they were heavy or not, but sadly, they unfortunately were. No matter how small or frail the person was, extra weight is still extra weight. Gerald continued to desperately run for their lives, being slowed down by the extra luggage.


    "Just leave me behind, honey! I''m only slowing you down." said Serenity. She was indeed correct.


    The fiend was now close yet again.


    "Don''t worry, honey, we can make it through this, together." said Gerald with a desperate and exhausted smile on his face.


    He tried to reassure her, but in his mind, he knew that if the fiend continued its pace, it would eventually catch up to them. He needed to think of a plan, but there was nothing he could do, especially while carrying someone.


    Thirty seconds passed, the fiend was now dangerously close, if it had thrown the chainsaw towards them, they would probably be hit.


    "Gerald! Duck!" yelled Caden.


    "What!" exclaimed Gerald.


    He was confused for a second, but after glancing at Caden, he got the message. Caden stopped running. He swung the fire extinguisher that he had carried and let go, the object flew out of his hand and towards Gerald. Seeing the flying cylindrical piece of steel, Gerald quickly dove, shoving himself and Serenity to the ground. The chainsaw fiend didn''t see it coming, the fire extinguisher perfectly hit the fiend in the face, breaking off the bottom piece of the mask, and knocking the fiend to the ground. The fiend didn''t get up immediately, the last ditch effort had worked, they didn''t let the opportunity pass, but instead of making the smart choice of confronting the already-down fiend, they instead, chose to run away, fueled by the desperate desire to escape the horrors of the school.


    A minute goes by. Two minutes. Five minutes. It had seemed like forever since they escaped the chainsaw fiend, but the school gate was nowhere near their vision.


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    "What the hell! "Was the courtyard always this massive!" exclaimed Josh.


    "It''s only supposed to be a minute at most!" said Avery.


    "I remember the courtyard having the length of five or six basketball courts, but we''ve probably ran three football fields by now!" said Matt.


    "What the hell is going on!" said Gerald.


    They continued to run for another minute, and Josef had finally realized that the same phenomenon was happening.


    "I.. remember this.. happening." said Josef, he was gasping for air. "When we first tried to go towards the gate.. during Mr. Fatmouth''s punishment, we.. ended up coming back to the school unconsciously!"


    "What do you mean!" said Josh.


    "Basically, something is.. preventing us from leaving the school!" said Josef.


    "There must be a way out! There has to be!" exclaimed Serenity. She was still being carried by Gerald.


    "What if we split up and look." said Gerald.


    "Splitting up is always the worst option." said Caden.


    "Then what else do we do!?" said Josh.


    "I think Gerald is right." said Josef. "If we split up, we can cover more ground and look for a way out quicker. Besides, I don''t think that chainsaw fellow would be getting up anytime soon, and if it did, it would probably be weak from Caden''s attack."


    "That sounds reassuring, actually." said Caden. "Let''s split up into pairs then. If you can''t find a way out, then go back to the school."


    "Where in the school?" asked Matt.


    "The main building is definitely too dangerous, maybe the right wing building is safe, plus there are a lot of hiding spots in the cafeteria and in the auditorium." said Josef.


    "Alright then, let''s go!" said Caden.


    They split up and ran in different directions. They weren''t even sure which way was north, but they were willing to do anything in order to escape. Josh and Matt continued to run in the same direction that they were originally going, Gerald and Serenity went to the east from Josh''s direction, Caden and Avery went west, and Josef went south, alone. The group debated at first during the groupings whether it would be best if they explored all four directions, but because of their odd number, someone would have to go solo. Josef nominated himself. The others quickly tried to turn down his proposal, but he assured them that he could take care of himself, plus, he wanted someone else to go with Avery as he was not confident that he could protect her in this situation, since the others were all physically stronger than him, except for Serenity, of course.


    Josef ran for around a minute or so, and just as he had dreaded, he saw the chainsaw fiend, it was now back up on its feet. He thought that it would still be down, and he would snatch its chainsaw, but he was quite unfortunate. Josef readied himself for the inevitable as he formed two fists and brought them forward, much like a boxer''s stance. The chainsaw fiend looked over at Josef''s direction, it tugged on the starter cord, and the engine started to roar yet again.


    The fiend dashed towards Josef, the bottom part of its mask was no longer there, exposing the crazed smile that it had underneath. The image of the fiend became clearer as it got closer, the same could be said for Josef. He walked cautiously towards the fiend. He had left behind the wooden stick that he had broken off from a teacher''s desk along the way, as he thought that he''d be able to snatch the chainsaw from the fiend. Instead, while he was in a boxer''s stance, he now planned to use the revolver that he had found when he first woke up. He won''t shoot it, but he intended to use it as a threat.


    The chainsaw fiend got closer to Josef, he began sweating as he lowered his stance, his hand hovered above his pocket, where his revolver lies. It was time. He gripped the revolver from within his pocket, and all he needed to do was take it out and point it at the fiend, but for some reason, the fiend had stopped running. It lowered the chainsaw, the crazed smile disappeared and left behind a plain expression, while it walked casually towards Josef.


    "damn it! It''s just you." said the fiend.


    A robotic voice came out. Josef assumed that the fiend was using some kind of technology to alter its voice, but there were no devices strapped to it.


    "Who are you!?" asked Josef.


    "You don''t need to know who I am."


    "Then why are you trying to kill us?"


    "I''m not obligated to answer that."


    "What the hell is happening!? Are you the one who''s responsible for everything that''s happened!?"


    The fiend laughed.


    "I''m not responsible for everything, but just as you thought, I am responsible for your classmate''s death."


    "Why are you doing this!?"


    "I''m not allowed to say."


    "Why is this happening in our school!?"


    "..."


    "What''s the deal with the scientists!?"


    "..."


    "Could you at least answer me!?" He started to become annoyed at the fiend''s uncooperativeness.


    "Like I''ve said, you don''t need to know anything, just tell me where the others are, I''m only following orders."


    "Who''s orders."


    "YOU DON''T NEED TO KNOW! Stop asking questions and show me where the others are!"


    "Why the hell do you think I''ll do that!?"


    "Don''t make this any more difficult! I''m giving you one last chance, where are the others!"


    "Fuck off!" He raised his middle finger.


    "That''s the last straw! He said that I shouldn''t kill you, but a severed arm shouldn''t be enough to kill someone."


    He now had more questions than answers, especially about who the "he" was that the fiend had stated. But he had another problem to deal with first.


    The fiend raised the chainsaw and dashed towards Josef, instead of a crazed smile, a frown of anger arose. Josef quickly pulled out the revolver and pointed it towards the fiend, his hands were shaking. But it didn''t falter, it continued to dash towards him and swung down the chainsaw. Josef was able to dodge it as he was a bit nimble. If Caden, Josh, Matt, and Avery were on the strong side, he and Serenity were on the nimble side. He wasn''t quite sure about Gerald, he has never seen him fight, but he could be both.


    The fiend tried for another swing, but Josef dodged it yet again. Another swing, and another, and one more, but all of them were skillfully dodged with perfect timing. Josef knew that he couldn''t keep this up, one mishap could lead to his death.


    The fiend grew tired. The next flurry of attacks became sloppy and slow, it was now child''s play to dodge the attacks. All the running and swinging that the chainsaw fiend did had finally drained it of its energy. Josef ran around while the fiend slowly tried to catch up to him. His plan was to tire it out even more until he was confident that he could knock the fiend out.


    After a few seconds of running and dodging, the school building was now visible in the distance, they had unconsciously stumbled back near the school. The chainsaw fiend lowered its chainsaw to the ground, gasping for breath. Josef saw the opportunity and dashed towards the fiend. He planted his fist up its chin, landing a strong uppercut. The fiend was stunned, but Josef wasn''t done just yet. To finish it off, he took a low stance with his legs apart, He stretched his arm behind him as much as possible, and let out a huge swing, hitting the fiend in the chest. The fiend fell to the ground, arms spread open, mask facing the sky, and not moving. Josef had won.


    He didn''t celebrate just yet. A thought formed in his head. In the instant that his fist made contact with the fiend''s chest, a soft sensation could be felt.


    "A woman!?" exclaimed Josef.


    He walked closer to the unconscious fiend. He reached his hand for her mask, wanting to know who she was. Before Josef could make contact with the mask, a loud, piercing scream was heard from the distance.


    "Serenity!?" exclaimed Josef.


    The voice had come from within the right wing building. It was the kind of scream that could attract everyone''s attention. He was scared that someone other than his friends would find Serenity.


    At that moment, Josef realized that even if he took off the first mask, it would still take too much time to remove the ski mask from the fiend, and he wasn''t even sure if he would recognize who it was, so he gave up on finding out who she was. Upon looking closely at the chainsaw, he also realized that it simply looked too heavy for him to handle, so he left it there and dashed for the right-wing building.

 Chapter 22: Hungry

    "What happened!" yelled Josef as he swung open the cafeteria doors.


    Everyone froze for a second. They were all there: Caden, Gerald, Serenity, Avery, Josh, and Matt were scattered throughout the cafeteria, and they all stared at Josef for a quick second. Gerald gave a quick sigh of relief.


    "Thank God it''s just you." said Gerald.


    "What happened?! I heard Serenity scream!" said Josef, he was quite frantic as he had never heard her scream as loudly as earlier.


    "I''m fine, a cockroach just climbed up my leg, I was just startled." said Serenity.


    Josef sighed, all his nervousness melted away as he heard her explanation. While he was running towards the right-wing building, he could only think of the terrible stuff happening inside, but luckily, it was just a cockroach, a menace to women.


    "What took you so long anyway?" asked Caden.


    "Umm, well, I ran into chainsaw." said Josef.


    "What!? Are you alright?" asked Avery. She walked closer to him and began to examine him from head to toe, looking for anything out of the ordinary. She began patting him like a security guard, looking for any wounds or a reaction of pain from him.


    "Don''t worry, I''m fine." He said while he held both of her hands, assuring her that he wasn''t hiding any serious wounds. But he did have numerous minor injuries from climbing the tree during Mr. Fatmouth''s punishment.


    "How''d you escape? Did you fight?" asked Josh.


    "I fought a bit, but for some reason, chainsaw didn''t attack me at first."


    "It didn''t attack you at first? Why? Did it know you or something?" asked Matt.


    "Probably, I''m not quite sure. Also, chainsaw is a woman."


    Everyone paused for a second. Their faces exploded with surprise, Caden''s was especially funny as he looked like a monkey.


    "What!? Are you saying that a woman chased us with a heavy fucking chainsaw!?" exclaimed Caden.


    "How could a woman swing around that chainsaw?" said Josh.


    "Probably on steroids or something." said Matt.


    "More importantly, are you sure chainsaw didn''t see you go in here?" asked Avery.


    "Don''t worry, she was unconscious when I came here." said Josef.


    "Wow! You knocked a woman unconscious, nice!" said Caden.


    Josef smiled. He wasn''t proud of what he did, and knocking a woman out is certainly inappropriate, but he simply found Caden''s comment humorous.


    "Do you know who she is?" asked Serenity.


    "I don''t know, her voice was distorted, so I couldn''t recognize her. I tried to take off her mask, but I suddenly heard Serenity scream, so I sprinted here immediately."


    "Sorry." said Serenity. She looked down. She felt guilty that she was the reason Josef couldn''t unmask the chainsaw fiend.


    "You could go back and check, she might still be unconscious. We might even get answers to what''s going on." said Gerald.


    Josef glanced out the transparent glass doors, the dead of night combined with the raging blizzard made it impossible to see a few feet outside.


    "I''m not sure about that, it''s too dangerous now." said Josef.


    Caden grabbed a white plastic chair and sat down.


    "So... what now?" said Caden.


    "It''s been a long day, we should probably rest for now." said Gerald.


    "Where?" said Serenity.


    Josef looked around. The cafeteria looked peaceful, too peaceful. Everything looked normal. The main building was extremely eerie and suspenseful, yet when Josef stepped foot inside the cafeteria, he felt a sense of warmth. There was no heater inside, but for some reason, a comfortable warmth embraced him. The chairs, tables, and everything else were clean, it''s as if the bloodbath never happened. It seemed like the right-wing building wasn''t affected by the horrors that unfolded in the main building.


    "What if we stay here?" proposed Josef.


    "That might be a good idea." said Caden.


    "Yep, I agree, there''s a lot of room here, and it''s empty. We just need to barricade the doors, and we''ll probably be safer here than in the main building." said Josh.


    "Plus, since this is the cafeteria, there might be food, I''m starving, I haven''t eaten since lunch." said Matt.


    "Food can come later, we need to barricade the place first." said Avery.


    Everyone began barricading the cafeteria. Josh and Matt pulled the long tables and placed them in front of the glass doors. They placed the tables on top of each other. Everyone else took the chairs and piled them up on the tables and on the floor, they made sure that there weren''t any gaps in their barricade so that no one could see inside. As they piled up the chairs, Josef began to ponder. After everything that happened, it has only been half a day. In only around seven hours or so, his classmates went from chaotic to freezing to dead meat. They were all drained, physically and mentally.


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    "That should be good." said Gerald as he placed the last chair. The doorway was now completely blocked, Even if the chainsaw fiend had ridiculous strength that made her able to carry a chainsaw, they were still positive that she couldn''t break down their barricade, but if she did, they would have enough time to escape through one of the high windows. They placed one of the long tables below a high window that is normally used to provide light inside the cafeteria, and they made an impromptu staircase that they could use to climb to the window as an emergency escape route. They were confident that they were safe. Of all the uncertainties that happened today, all the bloodshed, and all the mysteries, they could finally catch a break.


    "We''re finally done!" said Caden as he plopped on the white floor. He was sweating buckets as he did most of the heavy lifting.


    "I deserve some food by now!" he added.


    "Yeah, it''s about time we had dinner." said Gerald.


    There weren''t any clocks in the room, nor did they have anything on them like phones or watches, but from the dead of night outside, they figured that it was way past dinner time.


    "Let''s go look." said Caden as he got up.


    "Look for what?" asked Josh.


    "What else would you look for in a cafeteria? Food! Obviously." said Caden.


    They walked toward the counter to find food. The display counter normally had bread, chips and other popular items on display. When the school closes, they would normally cover and lock the displays and leave the goods inside.


    "Here''s the lock." said Josh. He pointed to the small gray padlock that prevented students from stealing inside the displays.


    "Let me give it a go." said Matt.


    He pulled on the lock as hard as he could, but to no avail, the lock was too sturdy. He grabbed the cashier off the counter and bashed it on the lock, but it didn''t work as well.


    "That''s one tough lock. Does anyone know how to lock pick?" said Matt.


    They all looked at each other. No one knew how to do it.


    "We''ll need to find the key." said Avery.


    "But the cafeteria staff probably takes the key home with them." said Serenity.


    "Yeah that sucks. Wait! didn''t Gerald say that he snatched a key or something?" said Caden. Gerald had brought up that he had gotten a key from the scientists when they were waiting for Josef to arrive.


    Josef was surprised since this was the first time he heard of it, but he didn''t give it much thought as who knows what that key could unlock. It might just be a random key to the scientist''s house or something. There are millions, or even billions, of locks in the country. Finding the exact one that the key could open would be like finding a needle in a haystack¡ªa haystack the same size as a pool.


    "Well, it is a key, but I snatched it from a scientist, not from the lunch lady."


    "Try anyways, who knows, it might be a master key to the whole school or something." said Caden.


    "Fine."


    Gerald grabbed the key from his pocket and tried to insert it on the lock, but before he could, it became blindingly obvious that it didn''t fit.


    "See, I told you it wouldn''t work." said Gerald as he slid the key back into his pocket.


    "Now what?" said Josh.


    Josef stared at the covered food beyond the transparent counter, he could see the different bumps in the black cloth that covered the food. He imagined what kind of food was underneath, from the bumps, he imagined that there was bread, maybe even his favorite chicken and cheese sandwich. His stomach growled, followed by Caden''s. Suddenly, Josef had a thought, a hilariously stupid one.


    "I''m so fucking hungry!" exclaimed Caden.


    "Umm.. guys." said Josef.


    "What is it?" asked Josh.


    "You know the counter is made of.. glass, right?"


    "So?" said Josh.


    "Wouldn''t breaking the glass be easier than a metal lock?"


    "Oh.. we''re so fucking dumb." said Josh.


    Nearly everyone face-palmed, while Josef sighed in disappointment.


    "Here goes!" said Matt. He bashed the nearly broken cashier on the glass counter. Once the cashier made contact with the glass, Crash! the entire top glass of the counter shattered into a million pieces. Everyone flinched, they expected it to shatter, but not by that much.


    "Alright! Time for the grand reveal!" said Caden. He licked his lips in anticipation.


    He grabbed the black cloth that covered the food and waved it around suspensefully. He quickly whipped the cloth up, which was very idiotic as the tiny fragments of glass flew in the air, which could have hit their eyes or something, but they didn''t mind his idiocy as their attention was all being controlled by hunger. Caden couldn''t wait any longer, as his stomach roared louder than the chainsaw''s engine. He could dive on the counter, bathing himself in food. In the split second of him raising the cover, he could imagine himself having a nice dinner¡ªa feast fit for a king. It''s as if he could forget everything that happened today as long as it meant that he would get to eat. The covering was off, and it was time to stuff their bellies with delicious... rocks!


    "What the fuck is this!? Rocks!? This is so fucking messed up!" exclaimed Caden.


    "What a fucked up joke this is, rocks!? Why would you display rocks on the counter!" exclaimed Josh. He was just as hungry as Caden, but he actually had the decency to hide it, until the rocks came into his view.


    Even though their hope of a nice dinner vanished and morphed into solid, hard rocks, Josef couldn''t help but laugh at the situation. He wasn''t laughing at their loss of hope, he laughed as he saw the excited and eager Caden suddenly become devastated while looking at rocks.


    "This isn''t funny, Josef!" exclaimed Caden.


    "Well, it is a bit funny." said Avery.


    "Yep, it''s hilarious." said Matt.


    Caden and Josh were the only ones disappointed, while the others tried to hold in their laughter, which they simply couldn''t. They calmed their laughter after a minute or so.


    "Are you done laughing yet?" said Caden. His voice was unenthusiastic, and his face was dropped in a frown.


    "Ok, were done." said Gerald as he tries to hold back his laughter.


    "Guys, stop laughing! We''re gonna die at this rate, we have no food!" exclaimed Caden.


    "Don''t worry, there are two more places we could check." said Josef as he snickered.


    "Where!?" asked Caden.


    "There." Josef pointed to the ice cream freezer that was near the counter.


    They observed the freezer, there was no lock, and it wasn''t cooling since the chord was unplugged. They peeked inside. They hoped for ice cream since it was an ice cream cooler, and the image of ice cream plastered on the body certainly gave it the impression of containing the delicious treat. But there was no ice cream inside, yet they weren''t disappointed, instead of ice cream, the freezer was filled to the brim with bottled water¡ªone of their crucial necessities.


    Caden immediately slid the freezer door open, grabbing and opening a slightly cold bottle of water, and chugged it like there was no tomorrow.


    "Are you happy now?" said Josef.


    "A tiny bit, but it''s not good enough, I want food! Meat, burgers, bread, even vegetables will suffice." said Caden.


    "That''s asking for too much, remember, we''re in a fucked up situation right now, always expect low." said Josef.


    "Expecting low wouldn''t exactly fill our stomachs, would it?" Caden said in a sarcastic tone.


    Josef sighed.


    "There''s one more place we could check." said Josef.


    "And where is that?"


    "The storage rooms."

 Chapter 23: Dinner and Uncertainties

    The group headed towards the back rooms. At the far left corner of the cafeteria stood the entrance to the rooms. During their walk, Josef just noticed that Gerald wasn''t wearing his blazer, he glanced at Serenity and saw that she was wearing it. Because the attack from the chainsaw destroyed her uniform, he guessed that Gerald didn''t want her to be exposed and lent it to her. It was obviously too big for her, but it was better than torn clothing.


    Caden grabbed the metallic handle of the door and tried to open it, but of course, yet again, it was locked.


    "Here we go again, another locked room." said Caden.


    Josh placed his hand on Caden''s shoulder, "Stand aside, I got this." he said with confidence.


    He kicked the door, again and again, until the middle of it cracked. He gave it another kick, and this time his leg went through the door. He pulled his leg out, leaving a large hole in the door. He inserted his hand in the hole and unlocked the door from the other side. He twisted the door knob and swung the door open.


    "And just like that, it''s open." said Josh as he motioned his hand towards the open door.


    "How the hell did you do that?" said Caden.


    "This door is made out of thin wood, so it was very easy to break down."


    "And how did you know that?"


    "I''ve snuck in here thousands of times before to grab free food."


    "No wonder the school was paying for some of the students'' food, if they hadn''t, then the lunch crew would have gone bankrupt."


    "Like you''re one to talk, during lunch I saw you grab sandwiches and didn''t pay for them."


    "I was hungry, okay!? There was no one at the cashier, and I didn''t want to wait any longer. I''ll pay them next time."


    "I don''t think there''s a next time." muttered Josef.


    The two went silent.


    "Anyways, let''s go." said Matt.


    The group traversed the back rooms, it was a simple hallway with bare walls and no windows. All that was in the hallway were two steel doors.


    "Don''t worry everyone, the lunch staff doesn''t lock these doors because the doorknob''s broken." said Josh.


    He confidently walked to the first door out of the two and twisted the doorknob. It was locked.


    "What the fuck! I''m sure they were broken." exclaimed Josh.


    "God dammit! What''s with all the locks! I''m so fucking hungry!" exclaimed Caden.


    Josh mustered all his strength and violently twisted, pulled, and kicked on the door knob, but to no avail, it was indeed locked.


    "When was the last time you snuck in here?" asked Gerald.


    "If I remember correctly, it was last week." said Josh.


    "That explains it, the school replaced the doors with new ones the day before yesterday, so you probably didn''t know."


    "Fuck!" exclaimed Josh. "What now?"


    "Gerald, key!" said Caden.


    "Fine." said Gerald. He knew that it wouldn''t work, but he went along with it to satisfy Caden''s hunger-clouded mind.


    He tried the key again, but the lock was smaller than the key.


    Caden''s stomach grumbled, followed by Josh''s, then Matt''s.


    "Does anyone have a paper clip or something?" asked Matt.


    "Umm.. I think I have one." said Serenity as she grabbed a red paper clip from her skirt pocket.


    "Thanks." said Matt.


    "What do you need a paper clip for?" asked Caden.


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    "To pick the lock, obviously."


    "Do you even know how to pick a lock?"


    "Nope, but it''s better to try than sit here and starve to death, or would you rather eat the rocks in the counter?"


    Caden didn''t respond back.


    Matt got to work, he made a sort of hook from the paper clip, he inserted it in the keyhole and tried to pick the lock.


    Five minutes later.


    "Are you done yet?" asked Caden. From his boredom and hunger, he was not lying on the ground.


    "Not yet, don''t rush me." said Matt.


    Everyone except Caden was standing guard outside, just in case someone tried to break into the cafeteria.


    Another five minutes later.


    "It''s open!" yelled Matt.


    Everyone heard this and rushed to the door. Matt swung open the door and revealed a freezer room. It was cold and dark. The group walked inside cautiously and tried to find the light switch.


    "Found it!" exclaimed Avery.


    The lights opened. They were all overjoyed by what they saw.


    "Meat!" yelled Caden.


    In the room were three large three-tier steel shelves filled with burger patties, steak, links, sausages and other meat products.


    "There''s a grill here!" said Avery as she pointed to the electric grill that was near a corner of the room.


    "Let''s get to grilling then!" exclaimed Caden.


    Josh and Matt pushed the grill outside the backrooms and into the cafeteria. Matt plugged in the grill to one of the sockets on the wall and turned the grill on.


    The rest grabbed meats from the shelves and brought them back to the cafeteria.


    "Are you sure we should be eating this?" said Josef.


    "Of course we should, do you want to starve?" said Caden.


    The group began to grill the meat. Just seconds after the meat was grilled, savory juices began to ooze out. Caden licked his lips in anticipation, and his mouth began to water.


    "Hurry up, Gerald! I''m so hungry!" said Caden.


    "Shhh! Don''t rush perfection." said Gerald, he was the one tasked with grilling the food since he was the most experienced in cooking. Joseph, Caden, Serenity, and Avery had all tried Gerald''s cooking before. All of his dishes were delicious, and they even dubbed his lasagna as the "World-famous lasagna."


    "It''s done!" exclaimed Gerald.


    "Here''s the plates and forks." said Serenity as she handed over the dining utensils that they found while waiting for Gerald to finish grilling.


    "C''mon, let''s eat! said Caden.


    "I think we should be cautious, I have a bad feeling about this." said Josef.


    "You think it''s gonna be poisoned or something?" said Caden.


    "No, but.. umm.. I just can''t trust it, especially in this situation."


    "I''ll gladly eat it even if it''s poisoned, I''m so hungry that I don''t care, food is food." said Caden.


    He quickly filled his plate with all sorts of meat. He wasted no time in piercing the sausage with his plastic fork and gobbling it up.


    "It''s so fucking delicious!" exclaimed Caden.


    The others followed and happily stuffed themselves.


    "Eat up already, Josef." said Gerald.


    Josef sighed, "Fine." He hesitantly forked up a sausage from the grill and slowly took a small bite.


    "See! It''s safe, I told you so." said Caden.


    "It''s delicious isn''t it?" said Gerald, he was quite proud since he was the one who cooked them.


    It was indeed delicious, he chewed on the small piece that he bit off, and savory juices filled his mouth. It tasted like pork. Despite it being so delicious, Josef still hesitantly ate the sausage, he kept taking small bites out of it until he finished it. He didn''t feel bad about stealing from the cafeteria, nor did he think that it was poisoned, but he simply had a bad feeling about it, a feeling he couldn''t put into words, a nervousness about something even if you have nothing to be nervous about or know what there is to be nervous of.


    Josef only ate one sausage and just drank a lot of water to make up for it.


    "Your loss then." said Caden as he continued to gobble up the meat on his plate.


    "That was delicious!" said Avery.


    The other''s agreed. They all finished eating and sat around while waiting for the food that they had eaten to come down before doing anything else.


    "It''s getting late," said Gerald, "we should probably go to sleep."


    "You''re right, but it''s too dangerous for all of us to be asleep at the same time." said Serenity.


    "Then let''s take shifts." proposed Caden.


    "How about shifts of three hours?" proposed Avery.


    "That should be sufficient." said Matt.


    They began to sleep on the cafeteria floor.


    Caden, Serenity, Matt, and Gerald slept first.


    Josef stared into emptiness as he looked back on the events that had happened. It was quite a long day filled with horror and bloodshed. He grabbed the revolver from his pocket and stared at it.


    "Will I have to use this someday?" he thought in his mind.


    He had tried to use it during his encounter with the chainsaw fiend, but deep in his mind, he couldn''t pull the trigger. The situation that they were in was fucked up, but he still had his own morals, even if the situation turned bloody, he would still hesitate on pulling the trigger. It wasn''t because he was scared of killing someone, if his friends were in danger, then he would obviously use it to save them, but something deep inside him is telling him not to do it, something that he couldn''t explain.


    He also kept the note attached to it, he grabbed it from his pocket and read it again, "Eradicate the principal." it read.


    He pondered some more about the note. Who gave him the revolver? Who was the principal? Is he the one responsible for everything? Why is the principal doing this? He had a lot of questions that couldn''t be answered as of now, and he was also nervous about whether he would be alive for long enough to even meet the principal, and if he did, would he be able to pull the trigger and put an end to it all? He looked at the revolver again, he imagined him facing the principal, he imagined what it would look like if he pointed the revolver, he also imagined what it would look like to pull the trigger. His hands began shaking, thoughts filled his head, and he began to feel uncertain about everything.


    Avery, who was still awake, saw Josef''s hand shaking. She sat next to him and leaned on him, placing her hand on the shaking hand that held the revolver.


    There were no words spoken, but even so, her warmth was enough to calm him down. He placed his other hand on top of hers and moved them to his lap. He placed the revolver back in his pocket along with the note.


    "We''ll be alright." said Avery.


    He nodded. "I hope so."

 Chapter 24: Peace and Resolve

    "Josef, wake up!"


    "Hey, wake up!"


    "Wake up already!"


    Slap!


    "Shit that hurt!" exclaimed Josef as he flashed his eyes open, immediately placing his hands on the point of impact.


    "It''s time for breakfast." said Caden.


    Josef felt nostalgic for a second. The good ol'' slap from Caden was painful, yet it gave him a sense of peace. Since childhood, it has always been like this, it made him feel warm, waking up and immediately seeing his friends, it felt like he woke up to another normal day, but that was far from the truth. Last night, the others woke up and switched shifts with Josef''s group so they could get some rest. As Josef stood up, yawned, and stretched, a new day in this blood-filled school began.


    "What on today''s menu, Gerald?" asked Caden.


    "I''m frying up some burgers this time."


    "That smells amazing." said Josh.


    "Burgers? Do we have buns?" asked Matt.


    "Nope, it''s best to eat burgers like this, a nice patty, and that''s it." said Gerald.


    As Gerald fried the burger patties, a mouthwatering aroma spread across the entire cafeteria and infiltrated Josef''s nose. It was tempting, yet he was still a bit bothered.


    "No buns!? Are you crazy or something? There should always be buns." said Josh.


    "Don''t bother arguing with Gerald," said Avery, "he hates bread."


    "He thinks that all bread tastes the same." said Caden.


    "That''s so fucking stupid, even a child will disagree with you." said Matt.


    "You''re the type of person to not eat the pizza crust, are you?" asked Josh.


    "Yes, thin crust is the best pizza." said Gerald.


    "But the crust is there so you won''t get bored with the pizza''s flavor. It''s a nice buffer." argued Matt.


    "That''s exactly what I said to him last week." said Caden.


    "The crust shouldn''t be there, I buy the pizza to eat the pizza, not the thick ass bread on the edges." said Gerald.


    "But the crust is part of the pizza." said Josh.


    "It just tastes boring." said Gerald.


    "That''s why there''s a dip you could dip it in." said Matt.


    "If something needs sauce in order to be eaten, then it''s shit." argued Gerald.


    "You should ask him about chicken next." said Caden.


    "Chicken? Oh, bone-in or boneless?" said Josh.


    "Bone-in is the best." answered Gerald.


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    Gerald finished frying up a batch of the burger patties and placed them on a paper plate, then continued frying the next batch.


    "Time to dig in!" said Caden as he slammed his fork on the patties, grabbing five with one pierce, and placing them on his plate. He began eating as he watched the others argue, much like he was watching a movie while eating popcorn.


    "So why bone-in chicken then?" asked Josh.


    "I don''t really know, it''s just.. more juicy." said Gerald.


    "But boneless is juicy as well." said Matt.


    "No, it''s not, bone in is by far better."


    "You just haven''t tried good boneless chicken then." said Josh.


    "Bone in is still better, there''s less preparation, and it''s easier to make." argued Gerald. "Also, the bone gives it a bit more flavor, much like a natural seasoning."


    "I agree with the preparation part, but I''m not so sure with the ''natural seasoning,''" said Matt


    Josef couldn''t help but smile, they were arguing, but it felt warm. It felt to him like it was a regular day, with friends goofing around, arguing, and strengthening their bonds. He wasn''t so sure how Gerald, Matt, and Josh would get along at first, as he noticed that Gerald was a bit cautious towards them during their first meeting, but after all the shit that happened yesterday, they were now comrades in arms. Slowly but surely, Gerald interacted with them more, which led to them openly debating about their tastes. Their stupid debate may seem heated, but to them, it was a nice change of pace. Arguing about burgers, pizza, and chicken made them forget that they just saw their entire class get massacred for a moment, it was peaceful. Amid the raging blizzard and blood-filled hallways, warmth could still be found.


    "Let''s just continue this conversation some other time," said Gerald as he finished cooking the last batch of patties. "let''s eat, everyone!"


    After grabbing their food, they all sat down in a circle.


    "Say ahh, honey." said Serenity as she fed Gerald a piece of burger patty.


    "Delicious as always." said Josh.


    "Yep, I need more, more!" exclaimed Caden as his face was stuffed with food.


    "You should probably swallow first before speaking, or yelling." said Matt.


    "Josef, aren''t you gonna eat?" said Avery.


    Josef looked at his plate. He only placed one burger patty on it, yet he hasn''t even touched it yet.


    "I''m not really hungry." answered Josef.


    "You need to eat, you''re gonna get sick at this rate." said Avery.


    Josef sliced up a small piece of patty and hesitantly placed it in his mouth. As he chewed, he could taste that it was the same as the sausage last night. He was a bit confused, as it tasted like pork, yet when their school served burgers, they were always beef. It was delicious either way, and Josef continued to eat the patty one small piece at a time.


    "I''m full." said Josef.


    "You''ve only eaten half of it." said Avery.


    "I just.. I don''t have any appetite to eat." explained Josef.


    He placed his left-overs next to the grill. He was still suspicious of it, especially since there was never any pork burgers on the school''s menu, yet there was a stockpile of it in the backrooms. To satisfy his hunger, he chugged two bottles of water instead. He knew that he could get by with just water, at least for a couple weeks.


    They finished eating and continued with the rest of their day. Since there was barely anything to do, they could only nap, eat, peek out the doors, and create makeshift weapons. They all threw aside their old weapons and replaced them with the table legs from the cafeteria, since they were made out of steel, easy to wield, and easy to run with. They also found some dining knives that were sharp enough to use as weapons, they all had two knives, one in each of their pockets.


    They had lunch, but yet again, Josef barely touched his food. Gerald, Josh, and Matt continued their debate about food, while Caden watched the chaos unfold, joining in here and there. Avery and Serenity fixed up the barriers and their escape route to the top window. Josef, on the other hand, stood watch over at the entrance, looking for any presence outside. He thought about the chainsaw fiend for a bit, he tried to guess who she was. A scientist? probably not, a teacher? probably, Ms. English? She probably can''t carry something as heavy as a chainsaw, the lunch lady? She''s way wider than the chainsaw fiend, the principal''s secretary? probably.


    As night fell, it was time for dinner, this time, Josef skipped entirely on the food, and drank his ever-reliable water. The others went to sleep while he, Avery, and Josh were on the second shift again. He brought out the revolver and stared at it. Last night he was quite unsure with himself, he was scared about something, yet he didn''t know what it was about. He looked over to Avery, to Matt, then to everyone else who was asleep, and lastly, he looked at the revolver. His hand was steady this time, he could still feel Avery''s touch, her encouragement, and her warmth. This time, he was sure, he mustered his strength, took a deep breath, and made a promise to himself. He will protect everyone.

 Chapter 25: Hungry for More

    "Good morning, Josef." said Caden.


    Josef yet again woke up with a red handprint on his face. It has been over a week since they holed up in the cafeteria. It was peaceful. No worries, no stress, no fighting, only peace, and cold. Amid the ever-raging blizzard, they had finally found peace for a brief moment, until...


    "Umm, guys..." said Gerald.


    "What is it, honey?" asked Serenity.


    "We might have a problem."


    "What do you mean?" asked Caden.


    "Well... we''re out of food."


    "What!? We had so much food just yesterday." exclaimed Caden.


    "You''re actually responsible for this, Caden." said Josh.


    "What!? Why me!?"


    "You''ve been stuffing your face for the past few days!" said Matt.


    "You can''t be serious, I wasn''t eating that much."


    "Well... you do, actually." said Josef.


    "You''ve been eating 10 pieces every meal." said Avery.


    "But.. we had so much food in the back rooms, it couldn''t have run out that quickly." said Caden.


    "But it just did." said Josef.


    "When was the last time you went in the back rooms?" said Gerald.


    "Umm.. only on the first day when we came here." said Caden.


    "Yep, since I''m the one who cooks every day, I could already predict when our supply was going to run out, and that''s today." said Gerald.


    "Then why didn''t you warn us!?" said Caden.


    "He''s right, we would have rationed it wisely if you told us." said Josh.


    "No worries everyone, aren''t you forgetting something?" said Gerald.


    "What?" asked Matt.


    "There are two rooms in the back rooms, and if I remember correctly, it''s used for food storage as well."


    "Then what are we waiting for?" said Caden, "let''s go open it!"


    They all went into the back rooms, they glanced in the first room where the door was wide open, the once filled shelves were now almost empty, the pieces of burger patties, sausages, and other meat products could be easily counted. Gerald was right, they were going to run out of food today.


    From the first hour the disaster hit, and even before that, their stay in this school has been filled with difficulties, and that still applies today. As they stood in front of the second room in the back rooms, they faced their next challenge. Josh reached for the handle and attempted to open the door, but as always, it was locked.


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    Josh sighed, "Here we go again."


    Josh tried to brute force his way in, just like during that time when they tried to open the first door, and just like the first attempt, Josh couldn''t break his way in.


    Josh leaned on the wall, gasping for breath. "Gerald... key!"


    "Not this again, we all know it''s not going to work." said Gerald.


    "Try it anyways." said Josh.


    Gerald took out the key from his pocket and inserted it in the keyhole. This time, the key was too small, and when he inserted it, it was loose.


    "God damnit! That key is looking more and more useless every time," said Josh.


    "It''ll open something eventually, someday." said Gerald.


    "It will open something alright, if we haven''t starved to death by then, right Caden?" said Josh.


    "Oh, here we go again, Don''t place all the blame on me, you were eating a lot as well. Don''t act like you don''t have a fault in this." said Caden.


    "Fine, I admit, I did eat a bit too much on some occasions." said Josh. "But it was because the meat was too good."


    "There we go! Something we can both agree on." said Caden.


    "Enough chit-chatting, more opening." said Avery.


    "If the key doesn''t work, then let''s just do the same thing that worked on the first door." said Josef.


    "Which was?" asked Matt.


    Josef stared at Matt, the others got the memo and stared at Matt as well.


    "Ohhhhhh, oh, fuck." said Matt. "Here we go again."


    Matt grabbed the hook from his pocket, the one he made from Serenity''s paper clip. He inserted it in the keyhole, and got to work.


    "Maybe it''s not so bad after all." said Matt. "I think I''m getting used to this."


    Only a few minutes had passed, but he was now confident in his skills.


    "Push this up, then this one, and... click, the door is open, everyone!" said Matt.


    Everyone stood in front of the door, anticipating that when they opened it, a paradise of food would welcome them again.


    "Matt, you do the honors." said Caden.


    Matt twisted the doorknob, and pushed the door open.


    What awaited them inside, was darkness. They couldn''t see inside the room since there was no light source near them. The only lights that illuminated the cafeteria were from the sun, which had already been dimmed by the blizzard. and a few small ceiling lights here and there that were already a bit dim from lack of maintenance. The first room in the backrooms was just a few steps away from the cafeteria, so the light could still barely reach in, giving them enough visibility, but since the second room was a bit further in the backroom''s hallway, it was completely pitch black.


    They cautiously entered the room.


    "I can''t see a goddamn thing!" said Josh.


    "Same here." said Matt.


    "Ewww, what was that?" said Serenity. A splashing sound was created when she took a step.


    "What is it, honey?" asked Gerald.


    "I stepped on something.. wet." said Serenity.


    "Wet? Maybe some juice spilled or something." said Avery.


    Josef walked along the walls of the room, sliding his hand on the wall, in an attempt to find the light switch. He kept walking until something crossed his path. His foot bumped into something on the ground. He picked it up. It was cold and wet. He gave it a squeeze, it was soft, and as he squeezed the object, it oozed out something, which made it even more wet. It felt like meat.


    "Guys! I think I found food!" exclaimed Josef.


    "What!? Nice! Let me cop a feel of it." said Caden.


    He rushed towards Josef, it was dark, but for some reason, he quickly found his way to him. He may have judged his location from Josef''s voice, or maybe the meat called out to him, guiding him towards Josef.


    "Give me that!" said Caden as he snatched the meat from Josef''s hand. He gave it a squeeze, and more mouth-watering juices came out.


    "This is amazing! It''s so fucking juicy, I can''t wait to eat it." said Caden as he imagined what the meat looked like in his hand.


    "Has anyone found the light switch yet!?" yelled Matt.


    "If someone did, then the lights would have opened by now, idiot." said Josh. "And what''s with all this water on the ground?"


    "Oh! I think I found it!" exclaimed Josef. When Caden was admiring the meat he snatched from him, he went back to searching, and eventually his hand bumped into something on the wall.


    Click. He pressed the switch.


    Caden''s eyes were glued to the slab of meat he was holding, he couldn''t see what it was, yet he fantasized about Gerald grilling it and him eating it, stuffing his face with all the meat they were going to find in the room. As the lights turned on, his delicious delusions suddenly came crashing down as he saw in his hand, was indeed, meat, but it was a kind of meat he wasn''t expecting, human meat, a heart.

 Chapter 26: Dyed Red

    Blood. The entire room was covered with blood, not metaphorically nor figuratively, but literally. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, and even the back of the steel door were covered in blood. The walls were painted in red so much that one couldn''t even guess what their original color was. The ceiling was just as red as the walls, which makes you wonder how blood got there in the first place. The only ceiling fan in the room had guts, intestines, and other grotesque innards dangling from its rotary fans. The floor had puddles of blood scattered throughout the entire room with the addition of bloody footprints that they made from stepping on the so-called "liquid" that they thought before hand.


    Once you thought the horrors were over, the main attraction was still in store, literally. The layout of the room was a bit different from the first storage room, the previous one had shelves neatly placed on the edges of the room, but this one was indeed quite different. In order to match the chaotic and bloody nature of the room, the steel shelves were not placed neatly on the edges, but instead, in the middle of the room, not even dead center, as they were placed a bit further to the right, throwing off the only symmetry and balance of the room, if it had any in the first place.


    There were three shelves in total, and they weren''t even placed neatly beside each other, they were misaligned, crooked, and looked as if they were falling apart from the load that they carried, human meat. The entire three shelves from top to bottom, all six ties equating to two tiers per shelf, were stacked to the brim with dead, rancid, grotesque, and rotting human meat. The bottom portions of the shelves were filled with innards, guts, livers, lungs, and other things you could find inside of a human body and were chaotically stuffed into the bottom of the shelves, some of it even overflowed and was plopped on the red-stained ground, which was the reason why Josef found a human heart lying on the floor, which he thought was delicious, juicy meat, well, to some select few, it might have been delicious. Although it looks as if they were decaying, they were still quite fresh, as blood still trickled down from the shelves, adding more and more droplets to the already blood-soaked ground.


    The only sense of order and symmetry that could be found in the room lies on top of the shelves. All the contents of the top parts of the shelves were arranged quite marvelously, which would make you wonder if the sections of the shelves were displayed by different people. It was perfectly arranged into a neat line of three rows per shelf, none were misaligned or crooked, only a keen and nitpicky eye could find the flaws in their arrangement. No blood whatsoever, all the features were perfectly intact, no bruises, scars, or any other exterior wounds could be seen, all the mouths were closed, and all the eyes were bulged open, starring out into the cold, blood-red room from their lifeless perspective. In the eyes of a madman, the severed heads on top of the shelves were quite near to being regarded as a piece of art, but no one in the group agreed.


    Caden''s mouth gaped wide open, dropping the human heart that he held on the ground, making a plop sound as it hit the ground where no considerable amount of blood had piled up. His hands were shaking, they were shaking so vigorously that he didn''t even notice them, so were his eyes, his entire body even.


    Gerald was almost the same. His eyes were bulging out more than Caden''s were, his arms flopped, and he didn''t move even an inch. It seems like he was trying to form some words, but all he could do was twitch his mouth, unable to formulate any further thought as he witnessed the gruesome display of order and chaos.


    Josh and Matt were a combination of the previous two. Not moving, just staring at the lifeless heads that were aligned on the top shelf, some were even positioned perfectly where their lifeless gaze stared directly towards them, as if they were piercing you with their bloodshot gaze, their stares made them feel guilty as to why they were still alive while they were displayed on the cold shelves, lifeless, like a deer mount on the walls of a sketchy cabin in the woods.


    Serenity could also feel the gaze of those who had passed on to the afterlife, and fear quickly struck her. It was a mixture of a variety of emotions¡ªdread, fear, disgust, but all in all, it could be summarized as an extreme emotion that couldn''t be fully explained as her reaction was cut short by her falling to the ground, unconscious. Blood splashed all over her as she was quite unlucky to have fallen unconscious on one of the most blood concentrated areas of the room, which was due to the blood from the shelves flowing in that direction because of different potential factors, including the cracks in the floor that made the blood flow along them or if it was because the room had a slight incline, but the details were unnecessary to elaborate on.


    Avery, on the other hand, was just like Serenity, quick to respond. Serenity was quick to faint, but Avery was quick to run away in disgust. She took one look at one of the heads neatly displayed on the shelves, it was that of a girl, one of her friends, her gaze met with hers, they were both looking towards each other, the only difference was that one was standing while the other didn''t even have legs to stand on, nor a body. She quickly left the blood-soaked room, both her hands covering her mouth as she tried to hold in her natural urge to vomit. She ultimately failed at holding it in, as after she took a few steps into the cafeteria, she wasn''t quite strong-willed enough as the gastric juices flowed from her mouth like a waterfall.


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    She tried to calm herself, she inhaled for a few seconds, exhaled for nearly the same duration, and repeated. She was smart, she could very well infer things from very little information, which resulted in her being good at academics. Because of this, as she glanced over her throw-up, she quickly noticed bits and pieces of last night''s dinner, which was burger patties, or at least what they had thought were burger patties. The school didn''t serve pork patties, but there were stacks of it in the storage rooms, and there were shelves filled with human remains, which studies showed were quite similar tasting to pork. She put two and two together, and the result made her vomit even more.


    Back in the room, Josef stared at the bloody shelves. He was quite stable in this moment, he was shocked to some extent, obviously, but not as much as the others. Even as gruesome as it looked, he felt simply nothing. Yes, he did think that the sight was disgusting, yet he didn''t have the urge to throw up. It was nightmarish, yet he wasn''t scared enough to make him faint. It felt oddly familiar for some reason, it''s as if he dreamed of it or something, or if he had experienced something similar to it, which made his reaction to this one dull. He couldn''t quite put it into words nor explain why he thought this way.


    He thought there might have been something wrong with him. He thought about his friends dying, which made him quite furious and saddened, but as he looked into the eyes of the unknown bodyless students, he simply felt no emotion at all. Was it because he had no connection to them, or was it because his morality had been stripped from him due to the previous scenes he had witnessed in the short span of the incident? He was not sure himself.


    He averted his vision, he looked to the side, only to see another site of nightmares. There were already innards and heads, so the only thing remaining was the rest of the body.


    At the far back of the room, which they haven''t explored yet, lay a mountain of legs, arms, and hollowed-out torsos. It had formed a pile large enough to be more than half the height of the room, it was even taller than them. Feet and arms were sticking out from everywhere as a massive pool of blood was piled underneath.


    Caden''s focus on the shelves was interrupted as he saw Josef''s head move in his peripheral, naturally, he gazed upon what Josef was looking at. He saw the same sight that Josef saw, but if Josef didn''t feel anything towards the pile of body parts, Caden certainly did. Images of the room where the scientist performed the experiments flashed in his mind. He remembered how he hid under the piles of fresh bodies in order to escape death. He remembered the texture and the ice-cold temperature of the lifeless bodies he surrounded himself with.


    As he remembered all of this, he quickly ran outside, and just like Avery, he vomited everything in his stomach. But at least they were not alone. As the others came to their senses, so did their bodily urges. As they snapped out of focusing on the contents of the shelves, they quickly rushed out of the rooms and joined Avery and Caden in barfing their brains out. Even though no one said it out loud, they all instinctively knew what they had been eating for the past week.


    Josef followed behind, not barfing, but he was lost in thought, he couldn''t exactly explain to himself if he was normal or not. He thought about his feelings towards the dismembered students, and he was definitely not right in the head to simply feel nothing out of it, it was like glancing at the display of a store that you didn''t particularly care about. It bothered him a lot. The lifeless bodies didn''t bother him at all. The first time he saw a scene similar to this was with his classmates in the class 1-F classroom, and during that time, he felt like he would go crazy from looking at his classmates'' corpses. That very first sight was able to mark in his memory that he will definitely be seeing similar sights again soon, but he was still bothered as to why he reacted poorly to such a stomach-turning sight this time. He might have indeed gone crazy back then and didn''t notice until now.


    He entered the cafeteria just to witness his friends barf in unison. During this time, no words were exchanged, not even a single utterance, only horrifying thoughts and vomit. A few minutes passed by, and after drinking some water, they had all calmed down to some extent. Sure, they had all witnessed a horrible sight before, like the massacre in the class 1-A classroom, but it wasn''t as gruesome as the sight they had just witnessed.


    They were finally calm and were able to formulate thoughts again. They glanced over at each other in order to assess how their peers were doing. They felt a sense of camaraderie from their equal share of vomit. They were a bit relieved that the others were in the same boat as them, excluding Josef. They were quite confused with how Josef was doing, but they didn''t think about it any further as their thoughts were quickly interrupted when Gerald remembered something very important.


    "Where''s Serenity!?" he exclaimed.

 Chapter 27: Captured

    Gerald rushed back into the back rooms, not paying any attention to the vomit on the floor from when Avery first saw the nightmarish scenery of the second room, and almost stubbing his foot on the doorway. He rushed to the door of the second storage room. He was exhausted. The mental exhaustion from the horrors in the room plus the physical exhaustion of vomiting made his legs feel like jelly. He struggled to walk when he was vomiting his guts out, but when he suddenly realized one of them was missing, someone who was extremely dear to him, his body immediately forgot all the exhaustion that there once was, allowing him to hurry to the door of the second room.


    He finally made it there, it was only a brief duration of running, a quick sprint, but it made his heart beat quickly, beads of sweat flowing from his forehead. Something wasn''t right. The door was closed. He remembered that no one closed the door when they all rushed outside the room. He might have thought it was Josef who closed it at first, since he was the type of person to clean up after himself, like when he finished eating a meal in the cafeteria, he was good-mannered enough to properly throw away his trash and even wipe the table, so naturally he would close the door whenever he entered or left a room, but in this situation, it seemed highly unlikely.


    He reached for the doorknob and tried to open it, but it was locked. It shouldn''t have been locked. If Josef did close the door when he left, he wouldn''t be stupid enough to lock it. Gerald''s mind raced about why the door was locked, but he ultimately stopped thinking about anything else, all he could think about was Serenity.


    "Serenity! Are you there?" yelled Gerald as he banged on the steel door.


    No response.


    "Serenity! Please answer!"


    No response.


    "Please honey! Open the door!"


    But there was still no response.


    He placed his ear on the door and tried to listen in the room, hoping he could hear the sweet voice of his beloved from inside the room. He thought that maybe she had a problem with opening the door and couldn''t unlock it on her end, maybe she was screaming for help on the other side but the steel door made the room soundproof, or maybe, just maybe, something terrible happened to her.


    He was panicking. He continued to bang on the door, his hands turned red from all the banging he did. It was painful, but not as painful as being separated from his loved one. Separation is not that bad when in a normal context, but when you''re in a situation where you''re seeing blood and dead bodies with the addition of murderous mind-controlled educators, being separated is extremely dangerous.


    In almost every horror movie, being separated would lead to someone''s death. It was always a stupid decision. Sure, it might make it easier to explore the place, but it will leave you defenseless. It is best to travel in a group, as there is strength in numbers. If they were all together, Gerald was confident that they could take on any opponent, except if they were running after you with a chainsaw, then that would be a different story.


    He was confident when his friends were by his side, especially when his beloved Serenity was there, but now, she was in grave danger. If anyone other than a crippled person tried to attack Serenity, then she would be dead. Gerald knew that Serenity wasn''t much of a fighter, she probably couldn''t even beat a dog if she were to fight one, she would simply run away in fear of its sharp teeth. He thought of the worst, he imagined that someone might have locked Serenity inside the room and killed her there and then. Even with just the thought, his eyes began watering.


    He felt hopeless, he desperately banged on the door, his hands were as red as a tomato, but he didn''t stop. As the others continued to vomit and think about what they had just witnessed and probably eaten for the past week, Gerald was desperately calling for Serenity in the back rooms. The others finally noticed Gerald''s yelling and rushed to the back rooms. They saw him there, down on the floor, with his bloody, wound-filled hands banging on the door, tears flooding his eyes.


    "Dude! What''s going on! Are you alright!?" asked Caden.


    "Do you think I look alright, Caden!?" yelled Gerald. "Serenity''s trapped on the other side of this door!"


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    "Is it locked?" asked Caden.


    "Of course it''s locked, you idiot! If it wasn''t, then I would have already opened it by now!" yelled Gerald.


    "Dude, calm down! it''s gonna be alright." said Josh. "We''ll find a way inside."


    "Don''t worry, I''ll just pick the lock again." said Matt as he showed the hook that he made from Serenity''s paperclip.


    Caden helped Gerald stand up and move away from the door, giving Matt enough space to do his work, but before he could even insert the tool in the keyhole, they heard a click, and the door opened.


    Matt couldn''t react, and as the door opened, what immediately crossed his vision was a large, sharp butcher''s knife pointed to his face. It took him a second to respond, but when he did, he immediately backed up and stumbled to the wall behind him.


    The door fully opened, and their eyes widened as they saw the knife-holding figure on the other side. A fat female figure wearing a blood-splattered apron stood in front of them. She wore a plain white t-shirt and denim pants, which were all blood-soaked as well. They slowly raised their vision and examined her face, a large smile and a happy expression could be observed, and her distinct facial features made it obvious as to who she was since she wasn''t hiding her face in the first place, unlike the janitor and chainsaw. It was the lunch lady. The same lunch lady that served their lunches to them all year round. The lunch lady that ran the entire cafeteria and was at the top of the command chain when it came to food, the same person that the students stole countless meals from.


    It was blindingly obvious that she wasn''t right in the head. No one sane would come out of that retched room with a big smile on their face. It might have been because of the virus, was she infected as well? But that didn''t matter to Gerald, even when he was faced with a large, blood soaked monster, he still only thought about Serenity. He tried to dash into the room, pass by the lunch lady, and find Serenity, but he couldn''t. The lunch lady grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him out of the room with monstrous force, which made him hit the wall, making a loud thud sound as his back made contact.


    It was painful, but that didn''t stop him from getting back up and attempting to sneak by the lunch lady again, but this time, Caden and Josh grabbed his arms and pulled him back, seeing that he might be in danger if he tried to do it again, especially since the lunch lady was holding a knife. He was lucky since he was only yanked out of the room, he could''ve been stabbed if he had been unfortunate. Maybe it was because the lunch lady didn''t think about using the knife in that moment, or was it because Gerald tried to sneak past her from her left side when the knife was on her right hand? but that didn''t matter. All that mattered was that he was still alive and well, but that didn''t apply to Serenity.


    Gerald still didn''t know where she was. When he sneaked past the lunch lady, he got a quick glimpse of everything in the room, including the bloody contents of the shelves. She wasn''t there. He was able to glance at every corner of the room, but she was nowhere to be found. He saw the piles of human limbs, he couldn''t discern if she was there, but hopefully she wasn''t.


    Gerald tried to break free of his friend''s hold. He was angry, extremely angry. His friends didn''t even know that he could get this angry.


    "What the hell did you do to Serenity!" He yelled, flames erupted in his eyes.


    She laughed, "You''ll find out very soon, my dear."


    She took a step. Her footstep was heavy, it was as if she was stomping with full force, they felt as if an elephant was approaching them. She took another step forward, and so did everyone else, but away from her. She took another step, and another, and another, and so did everyone else. The cycle continued until they were out of the back rooms and were now back at the cafeteria.


    She raised her knife, and the others quickly felt fear and rushed further into the cafeteria, distancing themselves away from her.


    "Tell me! Where is Serenity!?" Gerald yelled, he was still being pulled back by Caden and Josh. He was furious. It didn''t matter to him if he faced an elephant or a cold-blooded killer, he would gladly risk his life if it meant that he could reunite with his beloved, be it physically or in the afterlife. His friends didn''t agree with this, as they tried their hardest to contain Gerald''s anger and frustration.


    "Fine." said the lunch lady after giving a slight sigh. "I''ll show you where she is."


    She reached into her pocket and pulled out a remote. She pressed a button on it. They heard a mechanical noise. From the ceiling, a trapdoor opened, and a large TV was lowered down.


    Everyone knew that there was a TV there, as it always played music and videos in the cafeteria while they ate. The school implemented the trapdoor since they had an incident of a student breaking the TV by throwing a burger at it and somehow cracking the LCD display. When Josef''s group took refuge in the cafeteria, they didn''t think about looking for the TV remote, as they knew that the lunch lady or the staff always took the remote home with them and that it was the only way to open the trapdoor.


    She pressed another switch. This time, the TV opened.


    Gerald became more furious, he started to yell even louder.


    "You monster! Let her fucking go! I''ll fucking kill you! Let go of me, you idiots! I''m going to kill her with my own hands!"


    "You''re the idiot! Calm down, and we''ll find a way out of this!" said Caden.


    Josef took a look at the TV screen. It was Serenity. She was blindfolded and seemed to be unconscious. But the worst part was that she was tied and dangling from a rope, and below her was a meat grinder. The mechanical sound from within it could be heard from the TV, it was turned on, and waiting for something, or someone to enter its mouth and be ground into tiny pieces of meat.

 Chapter 28: Its Grinding Time

    "Get the hell over here, you monster!" yelled Gerald. His rage overwhelmed Caden and Josh''s grasp as he broke free. He grabbed his weapon, the metal table leg, from the floor where he left it earlier, and rushed the lunch lady.


    "Die!" he yelled. He raised the metal rod as he got close to her, but before he could even lower it to attack her, he felt an overwhelming pain swell from within his body. It was nostalgic, a pain so intense that he could almost faint from it. It felt similar to the janitor''s knee to his stomach, but it was worse, a far worse pain than he had ever felt before. The lunch lady had kicked him in the stomach. The fat and powerful woman who walked with the force of an elephant, shaking the ground with every step, had kicked Gerald in the stomach. He was sent flying, flying back towards Josef and the gang.


    "Oh shit!" exclaimed Caden.


    "Are you alright!?" said Avery.


    He was down on the ground, coughing. It felt so painful that he couldn''t even stand, but he still powered through the pain. He tried to get up, ignoring the pain that was swelling throughout his entire body. Pain was temporary for him, but his love for Serenity was eternal. He forced his way into a sitting position. He felt nauseous, almost wanting to vomit, but he held it in. He grabbed the metal rod that he dropped when he got kicked. He stood back up, his stance was unstable, his leg was shaking, be it from the fear of losing his loved one or from the pain. He looked down for a brief moment as he saw his shaking figure, he felt weak, he felt pathetic, was this really someone who deserves to love someone, did he really deserve to call her his "honey" even though he couldn''t protect her. His tears started to flow again, but this time, even though his face was flushed with anger, he wept out of desperation and self-loathing.


    He looked at his left hand, it was shaking just as much as his legs. He slapped himself. The sharp pain on his face made him calm down a bit, even though it was adding to his bodily damages, but it had helped him stop shaking. As he wiped away the tears, he took a deep breath in and out. He looked towards the lunch lady, his eyes were no longer angry, but his expression was fierce. He took his stand again and rushed the lunch lady, issuing a second round in their short battle.


    "Gerald, stop!" yelled Avery.


    Josef and the rest wanted to stop him, they knew that he wasn''t strong enough to beat or even touch the lunch lady, but they couldn''t. They saw the determination in his eyes, they were the eyes of a man who couldn''t be stopped, someone who would do anything just to get what he wants, to save Serenity.


    He raised his weapon again as he got close. The lunch lady raised her leg to form a kick, but this time, Gerald saw it. He quickly reacted and moved his body away from its path, he had dodged it. While the lunch lady was busy kicking nothing, Gerald wasted no time and swung the already raised metal rod down on the lunch lady''s face. He had done it, but unfortunately, the lunch lady blocked the rod with her hand, grabbing the metal rod before it could smash her face in. She pulled the rod out of Gerald''s hand. He couldn''t do anything, before he could even react, the lunch lady grabbed him by the neck and threw him back towards the group. Luckily, he didn''t hit his head on impact, but he was still down yet again.


    But even though it was his second defeat, he still tried to stand up, nothing was going to stop him from saving Serenity. He would stand up as many times as he needed to, but the others didn''t agree with him. Caden, Josh, with the addition of Avery, grabbed Gerald to prevent him from getting back up again. He tried to struggle, but from the many beatings he endured, it was easy to stop him.


    "Let go!" he yelled. "I''ll kill her! I''ll fucking kill her!"


    "Gerald, please stop!" yelled Avery.


    "You''ll die at this rate, dude!" yelled Josh.


    "Just calm down for now!" yelled Caden.


    "Ehem." the lunch lady coughed to grab everyone''s attention. "Let''s get to today''s agenda, shall we?"


    "Why are you doing this?" calmly asked Josef.


    "Don''t be impatient, my dear, I''m just about to explain that." said the lunch lady. Her face stayed the same the entire time, from her first appearance up to beating up Gerald, she was still smiling.


    "Now, you might all be wondering why I''m doing this, but first let me ask you all a question. Who here has stolen from the cafeteria before? Please raise your hand." she said.


    Everyone looked at each other. They feared that if they raised their hands, then they would be the next target.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t hurt you or anything, my dears, I just want to know." she said.


    Caden slowly raised his hand, he was guilty since he was the most recent to steal from the cafeteria, during the lunch period just before the incident had struck. Josef raised his hand as well, he didn''t directly steal from the cafeteria, but since he accepted the food that Caden had stollen, he was an accomplice to his crime. Josh and Matt saw the two''s courage and hesitantly raised their hands, they were the most guilty, as they raided the back rooms once or twice every week. Avery and Gerald, including the unconscious Serenity, were the only ones who didn''t raise their hands, as they weren''t guilty of any crimes, they were clean, they had never stolen anything before, nor broken any rules of the school, they were model students, model citizens.


    "I applaud your honesty, my dears." she said. " But honesty doesn''t pay the bills."


    They felt nervous, her smiling face suddenly lost its cheerfulness and devolved into a face that showed no emotion.


    "I am so stressed every day ever since the stealing became more rampant, there were so many bills to pay, so many staff to compensate, but even with the additional help from the school, we still struggled to make ends meet."


    They began to sweat from nervousness as the lunch lady became angry, her face turned into a frown, and she spoke a bit louder.


    "I''ve had enough! I can''t stand all this misconduct anymore!. Every day I had to deal with this stupidity!" She sighed, and her face returned to normal. "Therefore, I will need your help, my dears. Many of my fellow lunch staff had quit when the pay was becoming scarce, and some of them.. had died, so I''m running out of manpower to help with food preparation, and that''s where you come in, my dears. You will help me in preparing the food in order to pay me back for all the food that was stolen."


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    They weren''t following her, they couldn''t understand. Why would she be talking about preparing food in this situation. Was she delusional? There wasn''t any food left to prepare as they had already eaten almost all of it, plus there wasn''t much of a crowd to feed as most of the students were... dead.


    "Prepare food? What are we gonna prepare if there''s no food left in the back rooms?" asked Matt.


    "Huh? There''s plenty of food stocked, my dear."


    "What do you mean?" asked Matt.


    "Isn''t it obvious? The second storage room is filled to the brim with food."


    They felt a cold chill down their spines.


    "Wait, do you... mean that..."


    "Yes, my dear, all that delicious raw meat on the shelves, the juicy innards, the meaty limbs, and even the heads in the storage room, you''re going to prepare that."


    They were all frozen. At first, they weren''t sure if she was delusional, but at this moment, they were sure, the lunch lady is crazy, she must have been infected by the virus, a virus that could control people and turn them into murderous monsters that seek nothing but violence.


    "Then... what do you mean by.. prepare?" asked Josef.


    "Oh! I almost forgot to bring them out, wait here, my dears." said the lunch lady as she headed back into the back rooms.


    They did nothing, they patiently awaited her return. They knew that they could have escaped at this moment, their escape route to the top window was still viable, but they couldn''t leave Serenity, especially since she was still alive, and they doubt Gerald would be on board with escaping without her.


    After a few minutes, Gerald was back on his feet, he was thinking straight again. He was a bit calmer now, but his anger still lingered deep inside. From the distance, they heard the sound of wheels rolling. They looked towards the back rooms and saw the lunch lady, pulling two large contraptions that were covered by a black tarp. There was also a large brown sack on top of them. She took the sack and placed it on the ground.


    "Tadaa!" exclaimed the lunch lady as she unveiled the machines underneath the black tarp. Under it were two large meat grinders. The style of meat grinder underneath Serenity. The mouth of it was very large, it could fit an entire person. The lunch lady took the electric cord and plugged it into a wall socket. She pressed a button on the grinder, and it started to operate.


    "Now, it''s time for you to do your part, my dears. Don''t worry, it''s quite simple. You just need to drop the bodies in the mouth, wait for the grinder to do its magic, and collect the grinded meat in this sack."


    The lunch lady didn''t say anything as she left and headed back into the back rooms again. They simply stared at the grinder, imagining what they were going to do to their dead peers. They also wondered where the lunch lady got these grinders from, as they had already explored the back rooms and there weren''t any grinders there before. They also wondered where Serenity was being kept, Josef observed the background on the TV, the room was white, so it couldn''t have been in the second storage room since every wall was stained with blood, and it couldn''t have been the first room since all the walls had shelves in front of them. But if that was the case, then where could Serenity be?


    When the lunch lady returned, she carried two large garbage bags, which were both filled with something. She dropped the bags in front of them, she opened one, and pulled out a severed arm.


    "Let me give you all a demonstration." she said.


    She dropped the arm down the grinder''s mouth, the grinder got to work, and after a few seconds, a grinded mush of pinkish red meat came out on the conveyor. They were all disgusted. Avery looked away. They all wanted to vomit.


    "That''s some nice fresh meat!" exclaimed the lunch lady. She grabbed the brown sack and placed it at the end of the conveyor, and the mush dropped down into the sack.


    "This model is amazing, isn''t it? It grinds the flesh and even the bones. Now that''s a good source of calcium!" she said.


    They felt sick.


    "Easy enough, right?" she said. "Now get to work, my dears, I''ll just be in the first storage room later. When the sack is full, bring it to me, and just yell when you run out of bodies to grind. I''ll stay here for a bit to watch you take your first steps."


    "What if we don''t do it?" confidently asked Josh.


    "I''m not really forcing you to cooperate, my dear, but there will be consequences if you don''t." she said while looking at the TV screen.


    They knew that they couldn''t go against her, and so, they got to grinding.


    Matt opened the garbage bag, it was filled with remains, a combination of everything that they saw in the second storage room, and it smelled terrible. He grabbed a severed leg with two fingers, using as little contact as he could. He hesitantly dropped it into the grinder''s mouth, and mush appeared on the conveyor.


    "Well done, my dear!" exclaimed the lunch lady. "Now it''s your turn." she pointed at Josh.


    He didn''t look inside the garbage bag, he simply grabbed something at random. He felt something, it felt like hair. He pulled it out, and what he had grabbed was a severed head. It dangled from his hand, and the motion of him grabbing the hair made the head turn. He stood there, frozen, when he recognized whose severed head he was holding. It was the leader of the female delinquents.


    "Go on, my dear, into the grinder." said the lunch lady.


    He couldn''t do it, he was still frozen in fear. He thought at first that this would be easy, he just needed to throw the bodies into the grinder. He only needed to turn his brain off and think that he was just throwing garbage in order to save his mind from the inhumane act that he would partake in. But a single glance at the delinquent''s face was enough to make his resolve crumble.


    He was shaking. He didn''t know what to do. This was the very same girl that he carried in his arms during Mr. Fatmouth''s trial. The very same girl that he sacrificed his clothes for in order to warm her up. At first, he wasn''t that close to her, the only thing that made them similar was that they were both delinquents, they barely interacted with each other because they only hung out with people of the same gender, but after Mr. Fatmouth''s trial, they felt like allies, comrades that helped each other survive the harsh challenge. But now, she was dead, reduced to just a severed head. Her other parts were probably still there, but it would be extremely difficult to tell them apart from the other severed limbs.


    "Come on now, my dear, you can do it!" exclaimed the lunch lady as she placed her hand on his shoulder. He didn''t notice that she was already that close to him.


    Josh approached the grinder. He dangled the head of the delinquent above the mouth of the grinder, waiting for something to be ground and turned into mush. He froze in that position for a few seconds, but to him it felt like an eternity. He wasn''t sure if he was going to do it. The girl is already dead, but he just couldn''t do it, he didn''t want to do it. It felt like he was going to do something terrible, which it was. If he did it, then he would feel as if there was no more coming back, he wouldn''t be any different from the lunch lady, or the janitor.


    Matt approached Josh, and he placed his hand on his shoulder. "Don''t worry, Josh. It''s for the best. We''re doing this to save someone, just don''t think about it, and it will all be alright."


    He was right. Josh had just realized it. He was different from the murderous educators that roamed the school. They were doing horrendous acts just for fun, just to spill blood, but he and his friends were different. They are doing this in order to save Serenity, in order to save a life. At this moment, he didn''t care. He didn''t care if he was going to drop the head of someone he desperately tried to save into the grinder. He had his resolve back, he will do it, he will help in saving Serenity, he will survive this mess.


    He closed his eyes and opened his hand, dropping the delinquent''s head on the grinder as he muttered in his mind, "Forgive me."

 Chapter 29: Collapse

    Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, it was all grinding. Three hours had passed, but they could do nothing but grind. They couldn''t go against the monstrous strength of the lunch lady. They feared being killed, they feared dying a meaningless death, but they still feared leaving their friend behind. They had many opportunities to escape, but they chose not to.


    The lunch lady was always in the backrooms, only coming to the cafeteria to empty the sack we filled with human mush, and to bring us the next bodies to grind. She didn''t let us into the back rooms. Caden had tried to go there a while ago in order to sneak a peek at what the lunch lady was doing, it was quite brave of him, but stupid at the same time, as the lunch lady somehow noticed his presence and pushed him back into the cafeteria.


    Her smile, her devilish smile, didn''t leave her face, she had been smiling ever since. The angry expression that she made back then may have been a one-off thing. Josef respected her in that regard. He found it quite difficult to smile constantly for a long time, but the lunch lady did it with ease. Maybe it was just because he wasn''t that expressive to begin with, but he still found it amazing how a person could smile like that, especially in this bloody situation, but it may just be because of the virus.


    As of this moment, they didn''t really know the specific effects of the virus. All they knew was that it could make them follow someone''s, probably the principal''s, orders. But no one knew if it could affect their personalities and thinking.


    The lunch lady approached them, carrying the next garbage bag filled with remains, she expected them to grind them up into mush as well, and they did, they had to, they didn''t have a choice, it was either they followed her orders to a tee or Serenity would be the one getting ground into mush.


    They were drained, the fire of survival in their eyes burned out, it''s as if they turned into cogs in a machine, in an endless loop, following what they were told. Grind, grind, grind, they did nothing but grind.


    They didn''t even eat, as there wasn''t any food left. The lunch lady did provide them with food, she was even kind enough to grill it for them, but they already knew what the "food" was made out of as they were the ones who were responsible for preparing it.


    They were starving, weak, and tired, both physically and mentally. They mindlessly dropped the human remains in the grinders'' mouth and watched as the mush was dragged away by the conveyors, dropping it into the sack, slowly filling it yet again with rancid pinkish ground meat. It was disgusting, it was vile, yet they were already desensitized to it. They had grown used to it, seeing death, seeing all these horrendous things, seeing their peers die, seeing their friends get beaten around, seeing their friends being captured, they thought they had seen it all.


    The boys did all the grinding, they had stopped Avery from participating as they didn''t want her to be subjected to such torture to the mind, especially Josef, who had stopped her on multiple occasions from getting close to the grinder, since he was her boyfriend after all.


    She did object to this, saying that she wanted to at least help lessen the burden, but they prevented her from coming close. They didn''t want her to join, it was for her own good. She may seem tough and smart on the outside, but she was still human, a woman even. It wasn''t discrimination, but they simply didn''t want her to experience such atrocious deeds, they knew it would haunt her for life. They felt concerned for her well-being, but not as much as the worry they had for Gerald.


    He had been silent this entire time, mindlessly doing the gruesome task at hand, he was the most affected out of all of them. His girlfriend was hanging on for dear life, the only thing that separated her from life and death was the rope that bound her, preventing her from falling to her demise. The grinder below her was still on, the agape mouth awaited for something to fall down into it, and it just might happen soon.


    Two hours later.


    "Hello? Where am I?"


    Gerald felt his senses coming back, he heard a familiar voice, so familiar that it brought his brain back to life. A minute ago, he felt like a mindless zombie, but now he was rejuvenated, revived back to his former self. Even with the anxious and nervous tone in the voice, it soothed him, it made his mind clear, it energized him.


    "Hello!? Is anyone there?"


    Gerald turned around and looked at the TV screen. It was Serenity, she was awake. He felt so relieved that she was okay, she was doing fine, the lunch lady hadn''t hurt her physically, nor tortured her mentally. She was alive and well.


    At first he was scared that she was already dead in the first place, forcing them to work for a false hope, but now the hope that he held onto was real, it was alive and well. After hours of being tortured mentally, hours of being drained of his humanity, he formed a smile, a genuine smile, out of relief and happiness.


    Their situation didn''t change one bit, but the tiny bit of hope turned this nightmare into a challenge. He yearned to complete the task and was now focused on grinding the hell out of those corpses and paying back the lunch lady. As of this moment, the dead didn''t matter to him, it didn''t matter if he trampled on their corpses or ground them into dust, as long as he could use them as a stepping stone in order to reach his beloved.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Serenity repeatedly called out to nothingness, the lunch lady was in the first storage room, forming the meat into patties and meat links, while the gang was in the cafeteria, but Serenity''s location was still unknown. Gerald didn''t react to her questions, since doing so would result in nothing, he simply focused on his task and grinded away, but in his head, he was yearning to talk to her again.


    "I''m right here, honey."


    "It''s alright, we''ll be ok."


    "I''m alive and well."


    "I''m coming to save you."


    He had replied all of these to her in his head.


    Three hours later.


    "Alright, my dears, that''s enough for today, here''s dinner, you all should eat up so you have energy for tomorrow''s quota." said the lunch lady as she placed a plate filled with grilled patties on the floor.


    They glanced at the food once and never again. They already knew what they had eaten before, they felt sick, they felt hungry, and they felt tired. But it wasn''t enough for them to result in cannibalism. They had already accepted the fact that they were cannibals, since they had already eaten a fair share of human meat, but it was accidental, they didn''t know, and they won''t do it anymore, especially now that they know the truth. It didn''t matter to them if they would starve to death, as long as they could hold onto the last remaining humanity left within them. They slept on the floor, cold, tired, and hungry.


    The next day, it was back to grinding. They spent the entire morning grinding away. They still hadn''t eaten a single bite of anything since they first met the lunch lady. They couldn''t take it anymore, they were so hungry, but they forced themselves to stand, they still powered through it, They were stronger than this, they had a goal they wanted to reach, they had someone to save, the fight isn''t over until all of them are dead. They were determined to survive.


    But as Josef took a quick glance behind him, another thing added to their worries. Avery had collapsed, be it from the lack of food or from the mental torture of their task. At least the latter was less likely since they had prevented her from participating. Josef dropped the severed arm that he was just about to grind and rushed to Avery, almost tripping on the garbage bag filled with the human remains in the process. He held her in his arms.


    "Avery!" he yelled. It alerted everyone, including the lunch lady.


    Before the others could even react or say anything, they heard heavy footsteps approaching¡ªit was the lunch lady. She burst out of the back rooms and ran to the fallen student.


    "My gosh, what happened here?" asked the lunch lady.


    "I... I don''t know, she just collapsed out of nowhere." said Josef.


    "Let me take a look, my dear." she said as she bent down in order to inspect Avery.


    As if she were a trained nurse, the lunch lady carefully examined her, taking her pulse and measuring her temperature with her forehead.


    "She probably collapsed from starvation." said the lunch lady.


    "But.. she was eating as much as we were before, and we''re still going strong." said Matt.


    "Everyone is different, my dear. Some people can''t handle being deprived of food. Either their bodies aren''t used to it or couldn''t adapt in time, or they simply burn energy way faster than normal. Whatever the reason is, she still collapsed."


    She sounded sincere, like a teacher discussing a lesson to eager students. If you didn''t know the context, she would seem like an ordinary person, one who was concerned for the girl, which indeed she was, but that still wouldn''t change the fact that she was making them grind people into mush, and holding one of their friends hostage.


    "Sadly, she can''t help you with the task anymore." she said as she stood up, carrying Avery in her arms.


    "Wait! Where are you taking her?" asked Josef.


    "Don''t worry, my dear, I''m going to take care of her for the time being."


    "Are you really going to take care of her? Or are you going to hold her hostage as well?" said Josef with a serious tone.


    "You could say both, my dear. But I do promise that I won''t do anything to her. I will simply nurse her back to full health until she is healthy enough to join you again. The more help, the better."


    "How exactly are you going to nurse her then?" asked Caden.


    "Obviously, I''m going to feed her, which is the one thing she''s lacking."


    "Don''t tell me... You mean... feed her.. ''food''?" said Josh.


    The lunch lady said nothing, she simply smiled and walked away.


    "Wait!" yelled Josef. He tried to reach out to the lunch lady, but as he took a step, he tripped on the same garbage bag that he almost tripped on a moment ago.


    Before he got up, he realized that it was for the best. Even if he had gotten Avery back, what could he do about her condition. They didn''t have anything to feed her, no food, no vitamins. They only had water, but water wouldn''t be enough to help Avery. Even if the lunch lady was going to feed her human meat, it was still for the best, as they didn''t have the courage to feed Avery the meat themselves. If it meant her surviving, Josef would leave it up to other people, seeing that the lunch lady had the means to help help her. He was still not confident in himself.


    "Hey! Stop!" yelled Caden as he approached the lunch lady, placing his hand on her shoulder.


    "Don''t order me around, my dear. You don''t want to be kicked, do you?" she said as her smile widened.


    Caden froze in fear. He couldn''t do anything. The lunch lady walked away and disappeared from view as she entered the back rooms.


    "Dude! Josef! Aren''t you going to stop her?" said Josh.


    Josef stood up slowly, but he was still facing the ground. "It''s for the best."


    "What do you mean it''s for the best? She''s going to feed her human meat!"


    Josef didn''t respond. He went back near the grinder, picked up the severed arm he had dropped earlier, and continued doing his work.


    After a brief moment of silence while looking at Josef, they didn''t bother him any further. They didn''t agree with his decision, but they knew that he had it the worst since she was his girlfriend after all. Gerald placed his hand on Josef''s shoulder, comforting him. He knew what Josef must be going through, they were in the same boat. The loneliness, the desperation, the self-loathing, they both experienced it.


    "We''ll get through this." said Gerald


    They all went back to work.

 Chapter 30: Turning Point

    Silence. All there was was silence. Underneath the never-ending blizzard, inside the cafeteria, silence prevailed. The only noise to be heard inside was from the mechanical sound of bones and flesh being ground and the fierce winds of the blizzard. They couldn''t do anything, as much as they wanted to save Avery, they simply couldn''t do nor think of a plan to save themselves in this situation. They had tried their hardest, they spent hours not eating, denying all the food that the lunch lady had provided for them, if you could even call it food in the first place.


    Josef stood there, mindlessly grinding away the poor bodies of the dead, paying no attention to how bloody his clothes had become. He dropped the pieces of human meat in the mouth of the grinder, waited a few seconds for the meat to be ground down into mush, and then repeated the process. He didn''t think anything of it. He was so desensitized to the horrible acts that he was committing that he felt insane and didn''t know what to do. He had no idea how he was going to save Avery. By now, she was probably being forced to eat her peers, her classmates, it was blindingly obvious that they didn''t have much food left, they did have a small amount of it, but they just couldn''t consume it, as it would add to their sins, they didn''t want to be cannibals, they didn''t want to resort to cannibalism just to survive. They still had morals.


    Josef didn''t speak a single word ever since Avery was taken. The others felt concerned for him, but they gave him enough space to sort out his feelings. He was in terrible shape. They were thinner than they used to be, Josef especially. He hadn''t eaten much even before they found out the ingredients of what they had been eating. He had probably lost around ten pounds. He was severely malnourished, but he still powered through it, forcing his body to move just to grind away.


    He felt like a robot, mindlessly following the lunch lady''s order, his soul seemed to have left his body, and all that was left was an empty husk. Avery being taken took more of a toll on him than he though, he didn''t mind being separated from her, but in this situation, he couldn''t bear it. He wasn''t a clingy person, but he still needed her warmth to stay sane. Her presence alone could calm him down, she could bring him back to reality, and cure his deteriorating mind.


    Two hours later.


    He had started to think again, his mindlessness had become desperation, the more time he was separated from her, the more he felt crushed, it was like the world was weighing him down, growing heavier as time passed by.


    He didn''t know what was happening to Avery at this moment, and it scared him. He didn''t know if she was doing alright or suffering. He didn''t know if the lunch lady kept her word or lied to them. The uncertainties amplified his fear. He had a means to end all of this, he had something that they could use that could solve all of their problems, a small hope that was in Josef''s pocket, the revolver.


    He had thought about what would happen if he had used it. They will be able to save Serenity and Avery, but what will the cost be? Death, it was obvious that death will be an option. It didn''t need to be something as extreme as death, but violence will certainly occur.


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    He didn''t know if he was skilled enough to not hit the lunch lady''s vitals, he wasn''t even sure enough if he could pull the trigger in the first place. The few times he had held the revolver in his hands, he was always shaking. Only once did he feel that he could do it, he felt that he could save everyone in one of the past nights, but it was with the help of Avery. It was when she held his hand, she gave him her warmth, her encouragement, and her love. But now that she was separated from him, he had lost all his confidence in himself. He thought that he couldn''t do it.


    All he needed to do was point the barrel at the lunch lady, and pull the trigger. It was as simple as that, but he just couldn''t seem to do it. He had imagined him shooting, blood spilling everywhere, and the lunch lady dropping death on the floor.


    The thought scared him. It wasn''t because of the blood, it wasn''t because of the lunch lady being killed, he was scared of what he would become. If he did it, then he would be a murderer, a cold-blooded killer. Sure, he will be different from the deadly teachers of the school, they kill for fun from the effects of the virus, but he will kill for survival, but it would still mean taking a life.


    The teachers aren''t even the ones at fault, they are simply being controlled by the principal, he was the real villain. During their encounter with the janitor, they learned that the virus could be undone, but just momentarily. The knowledge that the adults were still sane deep inside made his thinking even more clouded. They were still people, they were victims just like him and everyone else. They were being controlled, they didn''t choose to kill, they were forced to.


    It was at this moment that Josef was thinking clearly again. He had found the real target, the one that needed to be killed the most. He doubted if he could harm the teachers and school staff, but he had no doubt that if he were face to face with the principal, he would shoot immediately. He was the one at fault, he was responsible for everything, he was the source of their suffering, he was the root of all evil, he was the devil, he needs to be stopped.


    Two hours later.


    It was time for lunch. The lunch lady brought them another plate filled with grilled meat. They still chose not to eat it. Caden was starving so much that he contemplated on eating the juicy meat that was in front of him.


    Caden grabbed a sausage.


    "Dude! Don''t!" said Josh.


    "I''m just so hungry, I can''t take it anymore!" yelled Caden. Hunger was his number one enemy, he loved to eat, but now he was depraved of food.


    "We''ll get through this eventually, don''t lose hope." said Gerald.


    Caden dropped the patty. Gerald''s words were enough to stop him from committing cannibalism. He knew deep down, Gerald was hurting. His beloved Serenity was still hanging on for dear life, she was starving just as much as they were.


    He gained more respect for Gerald. He was still going strong, even in the face of certain death from starvation. He still had hope, and he still continued to stick to his morals, to stay human, even if it meant that it would be more difficult to save Serenity.


    At this moment, Caden felt terrible. He was succumbing to hunger while Gerald continued to persevere. He had hunger and Serenity''s abduction weighing him down, but he was still able to keep his sanity. He still had hope. He wanted to be like him, so he dropped the patty and refused to eat.


    Thirty minutes later.


    The lunch lady came back and glanced over at the untouched plate filled with meat.


    "Oh dear, looks like no one has an appetite again." she said with a sad voice.


    The lunch lady crouched down to grab the plate, but it was at this moment that the tides could change, something was going to happen, something that could change their hopeless situation.


    It all started when Matt sneaked behind the lunch lady with flames of determination in his eyes, and a metal rod in hand.

 Chapter 31: Trigger

    Matt raised the metal rod, and slammed it. It hit. It actually hit. Matt slammed the metal rod on the lunch lady so hard that she collapsed on the ground. Was Matt really that strong? There was silence yet again. This time, it was out of shock. The lunch lady collapsed on the floor while they stood victorious. It was a miracle. The monstrously strong lunch lady was now down on the ground, and Matt delivered the first and final blow. He was their saviour, he had ended the current hardships they were facing.


    Matt kicked the lunch lady''s head to get a response. She didn''t move.


    "Is she really down?" asked Caden.


    "Probably." said Matt. Even though he only delivered one blow, he looked exhausted, his breathing was intense. Violence was really the answer all along. They didn''t need a plan or anything, once Matt saw an opening, he took it, and this was the result.


    Josef glanced over at the lunch lady. "Was this really all she got?" he said in his mind. He had some degree of amazement for Matt. He did what he couldn''t do. Matt made a move, and the result spoke for itself. While they were working like slaves, Matt was already preparing himself for facing the lunch lady. He was indeed brave, braver than anyone else in the room at that moment.


    Josef felt useless, he thought that they could survive without him. A couple nights ago, he had sworn to himself that he would protect everyone, but now he was the one being protected. He felt weak, he couldn''t do anything to help. It wasn''t a matter of "could," but "should." He should have done something, to at least try and save everyone.


    He felt frustrated. Was he really this weak? The people around him had done so much for everyone. They fought off the janitor, they unlocked the locked doors, Gerald cooked the food, they encouraged each other, and now Matt had defeated the lunch lady, ending their mental torture. But what had Josef done this entire time? It seemed like everything that went well for him was from the result of luck and outside help. He survived thanks to someone hiding him in the locker, Avery was saved from the janitor by Gerald and the others, he defeated the chainsaw lady because the other party didn''t fight him, and now Avery and Serenity are going to be saved thanks to Matt.


    He thought that he should have died, he should have just joined his classmates in the class 1-F classroom, dead and headless. He thought that the only thing special about him was the revolver, but that itself was also from outside help since it was already with him when he had first woke up. But he was wrong, he had already forgotten how he saved everyone during Mr. Fatmouth''s punishment. He had forgotten how many wounds he endured from climbing the tree just to warm everyone up. He focused on his downsides and had completely forgotten his past acts of heroism.


    "I''m not so sure about this." said Josh.


    "What do you mean?" said Caden.


    "The lunch lady, we should.. finish her off."


    "You mean.. kill?" said Matt.


    "Yes, yes, we should." said Josh.


    "Sounds fucked up." said Matt.


    "But guys! She''s still human! She''s only being controlled. We can still cure her."


    said Gerald.


    "Sure, we could cure her, but how? I''m pretty sure only the scientists know how." said Josh.


    "But what about that time with the janitor? We were able to bring him back to his senses." said Gerald.


    "Yes, that is true, but only for a brief moment." said Matt.


    "Josef, what do you think?" asked Caden as he elbowed him.


    "Josef?" said Josh.


    The others had noticed his silence, but he still continued to stare at the ground, thinking about how weak and useless he was.


    "I''m just gonna go ahead and do it." said Matt. "She will eventually wake up and hunt us down anyways, it''s better to increase our chances of survival while we can."


    He raised the metal rod again, aiming for the lunch lady''s head, this time, he was going for the kill. He slammed it down. He missed, he had hit the ground instead, but it wasn''t because his aim was poor, it was because the lunch lady had dodged it. She rolled over in the very last second. Every single one of them was taken back, shocked at what had happened. The lunch lady stood up.


    "That hurts, my dears! I thought we were getting along!" she said, but her cheerful voice wasn''t there. Instead, it was rough, angry, and wrathful. Her face was beaming with anger. They felt nervous. Even though it was cold everywhere, they were sweating.


    "It seems that someone needs to be disciplined!" she looked at Matt. She slowly walked towards him, one step at a time. Every time she took a step, it was as if the building itself was shaking, and so was Matt. Every step the lunch lady took forward, he took two steps backward. He was done for, the lunch lady has chosen him as her target. Her presence itself was frightening, it was like he was facing an elephant, an extremely murderous elephant.


    The lunch lady sneaks her hand under her apron. She pulled her hand out, but now it was firmly grasping a large butcher''s knife.


    Matt''s fear skyrocketed. He booked it for the emergency exit they had made. He dashed toward it and climbed the makeshift staircase they had made, which reached the only available exit, the open window. He dropped the metal rod he carried so it wouldn''t get in the way of his panicked climbing.


    He was almost there, he could almost reach the window''s ledge, but the lunch lady didn''t permit this. She went near the makeshift staircase, they thought she would climb it as well in order to reach Matt, but they were wrong. Instead, she kicked the bottom table, the base of their stairs.


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    It collapsed, the tower of chairs and tables collapsed to the ground, and so did Matt. He was so close yet so far at the same time, he could almost reach the light of the outside, but now he was fast approaching a different kind of light, the light of the afterlife.


    He crashed to the ground, landing on his back, it looked painful. He ignored the pain and quickly stood back up. He didn''t seem to have broken any bones, but he was obviously hurting. He ran for the entrance that was blocked by their barricade. Them barricading the entrance came back to bite them as they had no other exit available, but he still ran towards it. While running, he took a quick glance back, he saw everyone frozen in place, not moving. It wasn''t as if they didn''t want to help Matt, they were simply too frozen by the fear of being next on the lunch lady''s chopping block.


    Then he glanced over at his captor, the lunch lady. But instead of seeing a large, fat, raging woman, he saw a chair instead, a chair that was fast approaching him at seemingly lightning speed. The lunch lady had thrown a chair. He ducked with all his strength, he barely dodged it, but because of all his inertia from running, plus the sudden duck, it made him out of balance, and he tripped.


    The lunch lady didn''t waste any time. She jumped. She jumped so hard that it seemed like she flew across the room. The entire room had shaken when she landed. Matt glanced up from his vulnerable position. The lunch lady was directly in front of him. He was done for. She raised the knife, and after a brief pause, she went for the kill.


    "Aaahhhhhh!" screamed Matt. At the last moment, he had caught the lunch lady''s hand. It seemed highly unlikely, but he was able to stop her, but not for long.


    Even with Matt holding back the lunch lady''s hand, she still forced it down, the knife slowly approaching him. He was using both of his hands, while the lunch lady only used one. He was shaking, he feared death, and he was getting closer to it.


    As the seconds passed, the knife came closer and closer to his body.


    "Help!" He screamed quickly. He didn''t want to yell for a long duration, as it would make him use more energy, making him weaker.


    It was at this moment that everyone started to move again. Matt''s desperate call for help had broken their frozen state, and they were now on the move to help him.


    The lunch lady raised her other hand and formed a fist. She was going to punch him, but Caden had his back. Before the lunch lady had generated enough power to even commit to the punch, Caden had grabbed her hand. He grabbed her hand with both arms and pulled it away, stopping her from performing a deadly punch. When he had the chance, he quickly took out one of the table knives in his pocket and stabbed the lunch lady in the arm. But it wasn''t enough to stop her.


    She changed her mind on punching Matt since Caden got in her way, instead, she focused all her power on bringing her other hand down and stabbing Matt. The blade was almost touching his chest.


    "Gerald! Help!" Caden yelled.


    Gerald ran in to help. He maneuvered around the lunch lady and tried to strangle her. He used all his might, but the lunch lady didn''t even flinch. He had thought about using his table knife as well, one stab in the neck could have done it, but he was too scared to resort to such savagery.


    The knife was now touching Matt, he could feel the cold, sharp blade even with his uniform on.


    Josef and Josh didn''t know what to do. Caden and Gerald were already doing everything they could, but nothing''s changed. The lunch lady was still going strong.


    "Josef! The gun!" yelled Josh as he shook Josef''s shoulder.


    Josef looked at Josh. He looked stressed, while Josef was still frozen in fear. It took him two breaths before he could even move. He quickly plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out the revolver. His hand shook violently as he pointed it at the lunch lady.


    "Shooot!" yelled Josh.


    He couldn''t. He couldn''t do it. All he needed to do now was pull the trigger, and everything would be over. The lunch lady wasn''t that far, so his accuracy would probably be alright. They were holding the lunch lady still, so he probably wouldn''t miss. There were no other factors that could prevent him from saving Matt, only himself. He began to sweat, even from his hands, it made his grip slippery.


    "What are you waiting for, Josef! Shoot!" yelled Josh. This time, he firmly grasped Josef''s shoulder.


    "Josef! Shoot!" yelled Gerald.


    He still couldn''t do it. He was only standing there, yet he was already breathing heavily, like he was hyperventilating.


    "Josef! Quick! He''s going to die!" yelled Caden.


    Matt let out a scream. He was in pain, severe pain. The knife had already cut him. The lunch lady only needed to make the wound deep enough to become fatal. It was extremely painful.


    "Josef!" yelled Josh.


    "Josef! please do it!" yelled Caden.


    "Just do it already!" yelled Gerald.


    He closed his eyes. He couldn''t do it. Everyone was pressuring him, but he didn''t give in, he couldn''t give in. It was his time to shine, only he could save everyone, but he couldn''t. He couldn''t pull the trigger, he couldn''t muster enough strength to do it. He couldn''t, he couldn''t, he couldn''t, it was always he couldn''t.


    The clock was ticking. He needed to make the choice now or his friend will experience a slow and painful death. He just needed to pull the trigger, he didn''t mind the lunch lady dying, but for some reason, he just couldn''t. His hands were shaking. He didn''t know what he was thinking of anymore, his head was in a massive spiral of clouded thinking filled with stress. He knows he could do it, his friend was dying, anyone would obviously shoot, but why couldn''t he just do it?


    "Josef! Please! Please save me!" screamed Matt, the knife plunging deeper and deeper into his chest, his uniform was now stained with blood. Everybody else was screaming at Josef to shoot. But he couldn''t process anything anymore. All the sounds of yelling became distorted and gradually lost volume in his head. His vision became blurry, wavy even. He felt like he was about to faint, everything was now spinning around him. Then suddenly, his vision became black.


    He opened his eyes. All he could see was darkness. He wandered his vision, but everything was still covered in pitch black. He didn''t even know where he was, but for some reason, it felt oddly familiar, like he had experienced this before. He wandered his vision more until he turned around, there was a door, a rusty gray door. It looked like it was floating in nothingness. He approached the mysterious and desolate door. There were post-it notes all over it. He took a closer look, there were words on the notes.


    "Stay away." "Turn back." "Leave." "Do not open." And there were many other messages that were similar.


    He was curious. He reached for the doorknob.


    "Bang!"


    He opened his eyes. He was back in the cafeteria. He didn''t know what was currently happening. He looked forward and realized what had happened. The lunch lady was down on the ground, and blood was leaking from the center of her stomach.


    Everyone was frozen. Matt was still down on the ground, but the knife was no longer slowly killing him. Gerald stood there, looking down on the lunch lady, processing what had happened, and Caden was still grasping the lunch lady''s hand, and since he was holding her hand, he had noticed something that would send a chill down everyone''s spines.


    "She''s... dead." he said. He observed that there was no pulse.


    Josef was still processing what had happened. "What did I just see? What was that door? How did I get there? Why was it so familiar? Why is the lunch lady dead? Was it me? Did I do it?" he thought to himself.


    He couldn''t formulate answers for some of his questions, but at least some were answered.


    He looked at his hand that held the revolver. Faint traces of smoke could still be seen, vanishing into the cold air. His finger had pulled the trigger, but it wasn''t just him, there was another finger on top of his. It was Josh''s. He had pulled Josef''s finger along with the trigger.


    Josef began to shake again, he didn''t directly pull it, but deep in his mind, he knew. He killed her.

 Chapter 32: Send-off

    After taking in what had happened with the lunch lady, and bandaging Matt''s wound using part of his uniform as a makeshift bandage, the group went into the back rooms in order to investigate. They didn''t speak a single word as they walked, they were still recovering from what had happened, both physically and mentally. Caden didn''t even bother with recovering the table knife that he stabbed the lunch lady with, he didn''t want to touch a corpse.


    They glanced in the first room, and what had been almost empty shelves before were now almost filled to the brim. The lunch lady had restocked all the shelves by molding the human meat they had ground. It was disgusting. They didn''t look twice.


    They moved into the second room. They opened the door to see a familiar sight, a hellish sight. The shelves placed in the middle of the room were still somewhat filled, with a few missing chunks here and there. They felt like they worked on grinding a lot, but not much was taken out of the room. The walls, ceiling, and floor were still painted blood red, the puddles were still there, and the heads on top of the shelves still stared through their now desensitized souls. They didn''t feel much fear when they looked at the heads now, only disgust. They had grown so used to death, that it was now the norm for them.


    There was still one problem. Avery and Serenity were still nowhere to be found. But they did find a lead. The piles of human limbs on the opposite side of the room were now collapsed, which revealed a hidden pathway.


    "Woah." said Caden. "Another hidden room!"


    "I don''t trust it." said Gerald. "Maybe it''s a trap."


    "Who knows?" said Josh. "The only way to find out is to explore inside."


    "He''s right. We might even find Serenity and Avery on the other side." said Matt.


    Josef was silent.


    "Fine. But you go in first." said Caden as he looked at Matt.


    "Why me!?" said Matt. "I almost died a while ago. Give me a break."


    "Let''s just get this over with." said Gerald. "I''ll go in."


    They were surprised someone had volunteered to venture into possible danger. Gerald just wanted to get it over with, he wanted to see Serenity again, to see her face, to see her happy, to feel her warmth. He bravely stepped into the hallway, the others followed behind, including Josef, who was at the very back. Many things were still racing through his mind.


    The hallway was long, but they saw light at the end. Gerald sprinted to the light. He reached the end of the hallway, and on the other side was a room that had the same look as the back rooms, just not as bloody.


    "Serenity!" yelled Gerald. He had finally reunited with his beloved. He saw her on the opposite side of the room, hanging from a rope, and beneath her was the grinder, still turned on. He quickly dashed to the grinder and bashed on the buttons until it turned off. He climbed onto the grinder, not paying attention to whether his footing was stable or not. He untied the rope that bound Serenity, and as he finished untying her, he slipped, and they both fell down, Gerald protecting her from the fall.


    They were both on the ground, the impact probably hurt Gerald, but his face showed the opposite. He was ecstatic, filled with joy, thrilled, and every other synonym and word that showed happiness.


    He had finally found her. She was now safe in his arms. Her warmth made him feel comfortable. He cried. He cried tears of joy from being reunited with her again.


    Serenity opened her eyes, she felt weak and couldn''t move much, she probably hasn''t eaten much. She saw Gerald''s face, and she felt that she was being tightly hugged by her loved one. She was delighted and surprised to see him again. No words came out of her mouth, instead, she hugged him back, and tears also leaked from her eyes. It was a heartwarming sight.


    Josef felt another presence. His vision wandered the room, and he saw Avery. She was on the ground and seemed to be asleep. They didn''t see her at first when they entered the room, as she was in the very corner, making her difficult to notice when Serenity took all their attention as she was the first thing they saw when they walked in.


    Josef walked towards Avery and crouched in front of her. He reached out his hand in order to wake her up, but before he could make contact with her, he hesitated. He didn''t feel right, he wanted to touch her but he couldn''t. He felt that he didn''t deserve her, he didn''t have the right to be by her side as he didn''t have the courage to protect her back then. He felt so useless that he didn''t want her to see him in this state. He retracted his hand.


    "Avery! Wake up! yelled Caden. He shook Avery to wake her up. Josef''s role was taken away from him as someone else was the one to wake her up.


    "What''s... happening?" asked Avery as she slowly opened her eyes. She sluggishly got up, her vision was still adjusting. She rubbed her eyes, and after a brief moment, she could see clearly again.


    "Josef!" yelled Avery. She jumped out at him and hugged him tightly, pushing him to the ground. He could feel her warmth, he felt loved. He wanted to touch her, to hug her back, but he couldn''t, he didn''t think he deserved it as he was the one who contributed the least in saving her. He also didn''t want her to touch him, as he was now a killer, his hands were now stained with blood since he dealt the finishing blow to the lunch lady.


    Even if Josh was the one to pull the trigger along with his finger, Josef''s finger was still the one who held the trigger, it was his revolver that killed her, he was responsible.


    Avery continued to tightly hug him, and while he lay there, his arms were locked in place by his side, refusing to hug her back because of his self-loathing. He cried, but instead of tears of joy like Gerald''s, his tears were of frustration.


    After a few seconds of embrace, they were now back on their feet.


    "I''m glad you''re both alright." said Caden.


    "But more importantly, what did the lunch lady feed you?" asked Josh to Avery.


    "Umm.. I don''t want to talk about it." she said. "I don''t want to remember." She shut her mind completely.


    "Did the lunch lady do anything else to the both of you?" asked Matt.


    "No.. I''m not sure. I was asleep or unconscious for the most part." said Avery.


    "Same with me." said Serenity.


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    "Where is the lunch lady anyways." asked Avery.


    There was a brief silence.


    "She''s dead." said Caden. He said it straight to her, he didn''t need to hide it, as she would have found out when they left the room.


    "How!?" exclaimed Serenity.


    There was silence yet again, but this time, no one answered.


    "Anyways, let''s get out of here." said Matt, distracting them from the question.


    Avery and Serenity didn''t poke any further. They saw the look on their faces, including the wound on Matt''s chest. Avery figured that they didn''t want to talk about it, and so she didn''t ask any further questions.


    "Alright, Let''s go." said Josh.


    But before they could start walking out of the room, Matt glanced over at the other corner of the room and saw something. He walked over to it and picked it up.


    "Guys! I found something, come take a look."


    Everyone approached Matt and looked at the object he held in his hands. It was a small brown leather-bound book. The cover looked old and rugged, with some specks of blood here and there.


    "What is it?" asked Josh.


    Matt opened to the first page. He saw a word in bold text that explained what the book was.


    "It''s a diary!" said Matt.


    Gerald looked at the bottom right-hand portion of the page. There was something written on it, it was the name of the owner.


    "Martha Miller? Who''s that?" muttered Gerald.


    "It''s... the lunch lady''s." said Avery, her voice was sad, seeing that the owner of the diary was now a dead woman.


    Matt flipped over the pages and glossed over a few entries.


    August 20, 2022


    This past week was hell. There was so much work to be done at school. I needed to cook a bunch of pasta for the students, but the delivery truck came in late, so we had to rush in cooking them all. It took the life out of us, but it was worth it. At least I thought it was worth it. The other cooks didn''t think the same since some of the pasta they cooked was stolen by some of the students. Some of them quit, including Javis. He was the most efficient cook we had, so the workload will be more difficult for us going forward.


    August 30, 2022


    I''m currently at the mall. I''m waiting for my friends to leave the restroom. I had so much fun today. We ate lunch, went window shopping, and did a lot more activities that made us feel young again. We also went to the arcade, but felt out of place since three grown up women in an arcade would stick out like a sore thumb.


    September 15, 2022


    I''m quite sad. Marlon went off to Japan today. He was having a vacation with his uncle in Kyoto. I hope he''s safe and enjoying himself. It looks like there''s only going to be me left in this house for a short while. I''m lonely.


    October 1, 2022


    I just went shopping today. I spent too much on jackets and scarves to prepare for the winter season. I think I went to a very fancy store because all the clothes were expensive. I wanted to leave and go to a cheaper store, but I felt embarrassed to leave when the sales lady asked me if I was looking for anything. I should have said I was only browsing, but my nervous wreck of a mouth asked where the jackets were. And so here I am, a thousand dollars poorer. I seriously need a better-paying job, but if I left now, the cafeteria would probably crumble from the lack of manpower. I''ll stick with it until the end of this school year.


    October 10, 2022


    It started snowing! It''s really cold here, but I''m fine. I''m just so lonely. Marlon sent me a letter the other day. He said he was doing fine, and he went skiing last week. I hope he''s still doing alright. He''ll be back before December, so I''m looking forward to spending Christmas with him.


    October 21, 2022


    Some of the cafeteria staff were so angry today, they looked like ripe tomatoes. It was because they found out someone was breaking into the backrooms and stealing food. I went to check how the students were doing it and found out the lock was broken. The school ordered a replacement door, which will arrive tomorrow.


    October 22, 2022


    I''m not really sure what''s happening today. I saw the principal talking to some men in lab gowns, they looked like they were discussing something serious. I haven''t seen the principal in ages, but my God, he looked stunning. His face kind of reminds me of someone, I''m not sure who it is, but they looked similar somehow.


    It''s now colder today. The blizzard grew angrier, and the weather reporter said today that it will grow stronger soon. I''m now regretting working for a school that still functions during the winter, but just a tiny bit. I still like my job, and cooking will forever be my passion. I hope I can open a restaurant someday.


    Matt turned the page and felt something was different. The neat handwriting suddenly became terrible, almost unreadable. The writing looked rushed.


    No date


    Help. If someone finds this diary, I need help, we need help. We''re running out of food here, and I feel like I''m not myself.


    Here''s the gist of what happened, since I don''t think I have time to write everything in detail.


    Basically, the principal asked me to come to one of the unused classrooms during lunch. All I remembered next was that I was now in an unfamiliar room with all the teachers. Men in lab coats suddenly entered the room and injected us with this purple liquid of some sort. It hurts. I blacked out, and when I woke up, I was back in school. I didn''t know where or what was happening since my vision was still a bit blurry, but I did recognize that I was back at the school.


    There were so many men in lab coats. I tried to move my body, but I couldn''t. I was still walking, but I couldn''t control my body, it was moving on its own. Then something terrible happened. I blacked out again, and now I was in one of the storage rooms. There were many students in there with me. The scientist gave me my butcher''s knife and said, "Do it."


    I blacked out again. The next time I gained consciousness, blood was everywhere. All the students in the room with me were dead, and I was the one who killed them. I wanted to cry, I wanted to kill myself with my own knife from the guilt of killing them, but I couldn''t.


    Even if some of them had stolen the food I worked so hard to cook, I still saw them as my children, and I care so much for them.


    I blacked out again. When I woke up, I had a pile of sausages and patties in my hand. I was disgusted, I wanted to puke but couldn''t. The meat in my hands was meat from the students. I was grinding their bodies and turning them into mush. My body went back and forth between the first and second storage rooms. I stacked the shelves with the meat I made in the first room while I arranged the organs and severed heads on the shelves of the second room.


    There was a student who was playing dead and snuck up behind me and bashed me on the head. Suddenly, I was able to move again. It took a bit of persuading, but the student was able to accept my explanation of why I was doing this. I told him I didn''t know what was happening and I was being controlled by something.


    I went into the grinder room in the second storage room and asked him to block the entrance with the corpses in order for me to not be able to get out when I lose control of my body. I also told him to lock the door so no one could get inside.


    And here I am now, awaiting the moment that I lose control of my body. I''m writing this entry while I''m still sane. I want all of this to just be a nightmare. I don''t want to see death anymore. Please, if someone is reading this, send help. Please tell Marlon I...


    The entry ended there. The lunch lady wanted to write something else, but it looked like she had been interrupted. Matt flipped through the next few pages in hopes of finding another message, but there wasn''t.


    Matt closed the diary.


    "Who''s Marlon?" asked Caden.


    "It''s probably her son or something." answered Matt.


    They left the backrooms and went back into the cafeteria. Avery and Serenity saw the lunch lady''s body. Avery noticed the bullet wound, and from that, she knew somewhat what had happened. She held Josef''s hand, comforting him.


    "Before we leave, let''s give her a proper send-off." said Avery.


    Thirty minutes later.


    They were now outside, where they were exposed to the elements once again. It''s been a while since they felt the snow directly on their skin. The cold made their exhausted minds somewhat alive. They didn''t mind being seen by potential enemies in that moment. They didn''t care if the chainsaw fiend or some other teacher noticed them. All they wanted to do was to pay their respects.


    In front of them stood a bulge in the ground covered in snow. With a row of metal rods from the tables, they arranged the heights of the rods to form a sort of curve in the middle. It was a grave, and the lunch lady, Martha Miller, together with her diary, now rests under it.


    "It isn''t the best grave, but it''ll do for now." said Gerald.


    "We promise we''ll come back and make you a proper one, and another for everyone else that died." said Avery.


    They placed their hands together, closed their eyes, and prayed.


    In the midst of the never-ending blizzard, there was silence yet again.

 (Part 1 End) Chapter 33: And so it begins

    They walked forward, and didn''t look back. Behind them was the grave of the lunch lady, Martha Miller, which disappeared from view with each step they took. It was time to move on.


    They walked through the snow, shivering as the cold winds of the blizzard hit their bodies. Their bodies were cold, but their hearts were warm. Praying to the grave seemed to give them peace, rejuvenating their exhausted minds and souls. They walked further along the wall of the right-wing building until they were in front of their next destination, the auditorium.


    They pushed the two large doors open, luckily, they weren''t locked this time. They had encountered numerous doors in their journey, and most of them were locked. They were quite surprised when the doors didn''t take much effort at all to open.


    They cautiously walked inside. The room was dark. It felt eerie and dangerous. They didn''t know who or what could be hiding behind the shadows, waiting for them to walk in further and ambushing them when they were vulnerable. They slowly walked in, the doors closed behind them. They couldn''t leave them open, as the doors automatically close when left unattended.


    They traversed through the darkness. They didn''t have anything to light the way, no phones, no flashlights¡ªthey had nothing. All they could do was take out the metal rods from their backs and wield them, readying themselves for what was to come.


    Suddenly, the lights opened. They could now fully see every corner, every detail of the auditorium. It was large. There were only two colors that decorated the entire room. It was fully closed off, the walls and ceiling, even the floor was white. The entrance, where they stood, was the highest point of the room since the structure of it was sort of a downward slope.


    There were three groups of chairs: left, middle, right, with the side groups only having five columns and twenty rows, while the group in the center had fifteen columns and twenty rows, with each row of chairs slightly below the others, forming the downward slope.


    On the opposite side of the room, at the lowest part of the auditorium, lies the stage. It was fully lit up. A large flat screen TV was displayed at the top of the stage, it looked quite expensive as this was the largest TV they had seen in person. The curtains and backdrop of the stage was black, almost no light was reflected from them, it looked like a void.


    "Holy shit! Is that... food!?" yelled Caden as he pointed towards the stage. He quickly rushed down the flight of stairs and reached the stage. He climbed the steps, and he was now standing on the floor of it.


    "Caden, wait!" yelled Josh as he walked down the stairs. The others followed, with Gerald and Serenity holding hands as they went down together, being cautious of their footing as falling from that height and rolling down the stairs would amount to some serious injuries.


    Josef followed from the very back, with Avery in front of him. She glanced back a few times at him to see how he was doing. His head was slightly down, and his face tried not to show any emotion, but it was blindingly obvious that he was bothered by something, although he remained silent the entire time.


    Caden was amazed. On the stage was a long table, and on it were a lot of things that they badly needed. There were backpacks, toiletries, walkie-talkies, flashlights, and new uniforms, but most importantly, food. There was a lot, and this time, Caden didn''t think twice and ripped open a wrapper that had a yellow M sign, which signified the fast food chain that it came from. It revealed a large burger that had two layers of patties and a lot of ingredients.


    "Caden, don''t!" yelled Matt. But before he could even get close to Caden, he had already taken a large bite out of it.


    Caden chewed while the others nervously awaited his reaction. Matt thought of the worst, he thought that the fast food wrappers were only a distraction and the actual meat was still human flesh.


    "Holy shit! It''s beef! It''s real beef!" exclaimed Caden. He happily took another bite, and another, and another, until the large burger that was once in his hands was now reduced to crumbs on the floor from his sloppy eating.


    The others watched him eat the entire burger. They were extremely hungry, and watching Caden eat the juicy, mouthwatering burger made their mouths water.


    "Are you sure it''s real?" asked Josh.


    "Yeah, I''m sure." said Caden. "Go ahead, eat!"


    Josh reached over and grabbed a sort of bucket that had red and white stripes with a face of a sophisticated man on the front. He took out the lid, and inside were eight pieces of plump chicken legs and wings. He grabbed a chicken leg and nervously bit into it. The skin was crispy, every chew gave off a satisfying crunch, while the juicy meat made his mouth smile from satisfaction.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The others joined in. There was so much food on the table¡ªa mountain of fast food, candies, chocolates, bentos, salads, cereal, and even drinks. It looks like it would last them a while.


    Josef grabbed a chocolate bar and bit into it. It was deliciously sweet, but his face didn''t say otherwise, as he was still busy thinking about his shortcomings.


    Suddenly, the TV opened. It did open, but all it displayed was static, a mixture of pixels that was predominantly gray. It gave off an ear-piercing noise that forcibly grabbed everyone''s attention. The volume gradually lowered until the noise couldn''t be heard, but it was replaced with something else, a voice.


    "Everyone, are you enjoying yourselves?" said the voice. It was distorted, it allowed them to hear what the voice was saying, but they couldn''t infer who it was or even if it was a he or she.


    "Are you all satisfied with the food?" the voice asked.


    "Who are you!?" exclaimed Avery.


    "Who else do you think I am? I am the one who sees all, I control everything and everyone, I am your final challenge, for I am the principal."


    "Why are you doing this!? Are you responsible for everything!?" yelled Serenity.


    "Yes. Yes, I am. The reason why I am doing this... You will find out soon."


    "Why is everyone dead!?, Why are we the only ones who survived!?" exclaimed Matt.


    "Some of you survived thanks to sheer luck, while some of you survived because you were needed, the others were disposed of because they simply didn''t serve a purpose, they were useless to the equation."


    Josef walked closer. "Then if the useless was disposed of, why am I still alive?" he asked.


    The voice laughed. "It''s because you are special. You are no doubt the most special individual in this entire room, no, the entire school, and even the entire world. You are in the center of this phenomenon, right next to me. You are the main piece in the puzzle, and you are the one who''s going to complete it."


    The others were speechless, so was Josef. He was confused, it took him a moment before he could speak again.


    "Me? Why me? I haven''t done a single thing to help everyone! I''ve only been dead weight this entire time! I couldn''t even protect the one I love even when I was holding her in my arms! I''m the most useless one here! I''m weak, frail, useless, and I deserve to die with the rest of the dead students!" he yelled, while frustrated tears flooded his eyes.


    The voice laughed even louder this time. " You don''t know how special you are.. Josef? was it? You are indeed weak, and you may think you are useless, but that is only temporary. Don''t focus on the present, try to remember your past and look forward to the future. You will be the one to change everything, you will lead this world into a new generation. You will open the.. door.. to a new era."


    "Door.. what do you mean!?" Suddenly, he remembered the door from his vision. "You! Do you know something about it!? What was that door that I saw!?"


    "You''ll find out soon, very soon."


    He was still confused.


    "Anyways, let''s get to today''s agenda. Congratulations to everyone who has survived so far. You are the challengers. You will be the ones to face the horrors that I have created."


    "What do you mean!?" exclaimed Josh.


    "Don''t interrupt me when I am speaking!"


    Josh took a step back out of nervousness.


    "Anyways. You may have encountered the virus, I suppose. You may think there''s only one, but there are a few variations of it. The main virus was the one injected into all the school staff and teachers, it allows me to control them at will, and turn them into murderous fiends. The other virus, the first one, was scattered throughout the entire school, it has already invaded your brains, but don''t worry, it only makes you unable to leave the school campus. And of course, I have more variations to show you in the future."


    They were all shocked. They finally knew the strange phenomenon that stopped them from leaving the school. Before they could say anything, the principal continued to speak.


    "During your stay here, you will face many educators along the way. Defeat all of them, pass all their tests until you reach me. Grow stronger and find out more about yourself, unearth your hidden potential and reach me. I shall give you all the answers you want to know if you succeed. Now, are you ready to accept my challenge?"


    They didn''t speak. As much as they wanted their questions answered, they couldn''t formulate any thoughts out of shock and confusion, except for one of them. Josef was bursting with anger as he looked down on the floor, clenching his fist.


    "Why was the principal toying with the lives of his students? Why am I special? What makes me superior to everyone else?" He frustratedly asked in his mind.


    He didn''t have a single clue as to what the potential answers could be. He wanted answers, but he could only get them if he reached the principal. It will be difficult, it will be painful, and the road ahead is filled with uncertainties. He didn''t even know if he could survive in the first place, but even so, Josef was now determined. He wanted to know what was in store for him on this blood-soaked path.


    He walked closer to the TV. He took out the revolver from his pocket and pointed it at the TV with a fierce expression.


    "Fine, I.., we! will face you, and I promise that I will be the one to end your life! For the sake of every life you toyed with, to get revenge for every innocent soul you trampled on, we will bring you down!" yelled Josef. While pointing the revolver at the TV, he took a bite out of the chocolate bar that he held with his other hand, accepting the principal''s challenge.


    "Very well. Use everything that you can see on the table, it''s a little gift for all of you. Wait here for three days, then head into the left-wing building where you will face the next challenges." instructed the principal. "I shall be seeing you soon, especially you, the child of darkness. I wish you the best of luck." The TV closed, leaving silence in the room.


    Josef was still pointing his revolver, but this time, he noticed that he wasn''t shaking as he held it, it was as steady as a rock. He retracted the revolver and looked at it, then he glanced back at his friends, who were all looking at him with confused and shocked faces. With a smile on his face, he placed the revolver back into his pocket, and cemented a promise in his head.


    "This time, I will protect everyone."


    Beneath the never-ending blizzard, a life-or-death battle was about to unfold.

 Announcement

    Thank you for reading Re-education and my other works. It may seem that my profile is inactive but I assure you it''s not.


    As of now, I''m currently writing a new isekai light novel series with a heavy a focus on world building and characters. I''m currently at chapter 23 in the first volume and it will be a long running work. I plan to finish the entire first volume before posting it, so it might take a while.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    As for my other works, once I finish with what I said above, I will start drafting and writing the second volume of re-education, then proceed with the continuation of 10 day haunting, plus there might be a second installment to the moving mannequin (possibly becoming a compilation of stories revolving it).


    Also, a new, already completed "short" story will be posted soon. Please be patient with the word count because I am actively trying to remedy it in my ongoing work, and also improving my writing along the way.


    Hope you enjoy what''s to come! ??