Chapter Text

Invasive Species

Book I: The Rising

The hallways of Wiskayok High are silent. Shadows creep quietly up the walls as the horizon quickly slides into darkness outside, only the slightest orange hue betraying that daylight was ever there. If someone took a moment to look outside, they might have found it beautiful. But nobody will. Tonight, all eyes are turned inward, to the halls of what was once a school, though it hasn't served that purpose for quite some time. Tonight, all eyes are on a spectacle of a much different kind: the hunt. 

Hallways that were once filled with the lively thundering of footsteps and the excited chattering of hundreds now lie still against the night, save for the heavy breathing and echoing footsteps of a girl running for her life. A lifetime ago, she was a student here. But time has taken its toll, stripping away the fabric of civilization piece by piece, unmaking millennia of carefully crafted ideas like society, schools, and students until only one simple idea remains. 

Survive.

So tonight, this girl isn’t a girl. She has no name, no history, and no future. Tonight, with all of these imaginary things carved away, she has been reduced to simply what she is: an animal. And the simple truth of the world is that all animals are either hunters or prey, and tonight, she's the prey. The halls of learning have emptied and transformed, becoming a labyrinth and trapping her inside with a monster that belongs only in myth. She is nothing to it. Her skin, her face, her hair, none of it matters. She is simply the meat hanging off her bones underneath.

The hallway ends, splitting off to the side in both directions. She stops, looking wildly back and forth and evaluating her options. To her left: sets of stairs lead away from this floor, one spiraling up, one spiraling down, both leading to equally dark floors. To her right: the hall unfolds into more of the same twists and turns. All routes lead her into the cold and hungry dark. She won't see light again until she makes the long journey through the night, if she even lives that long. Her mind races trying to make a decision. She wants to scream. It builds in her chest, begging to be let out, hammering against the back of her throat, fueled by terror and the desperate drive to survive. She swallows it back, shoving it down and refusing its release; if she makes a sound, it will hear. 

The sound of scuffing echoes down the hall behind her. It's the only indication that the hunter is approaching, and she just barely catches it. In the dark it's impossible to see more than what's right in front of her, so she'll never see it coming. It moves in the shadows and strikes from the deep. She won't know she's dead until she feels her flesh tearing away in its teeth, and she won't die soon enough after that. There’s no time to think, it will be on her in seconds now. She turns and frantically scrambles up the steps, climbing into the dark, towards what she hopes will be salvation.

Chapter I: Hot Apocalypse Summer

”Once upon a time,“ the storyteller began, “a great darkness swept over the land. It sent the townspeople running inside, locking their doors and praying their kings and knights would come and save them. But the kings had also gone into hiding, taking shelter in their big castles with all their walls and knights inside to protect them.“ The storyteller paused for effect, letting their story wash over their audience. Wide eyes fixate on them, hungry for more. The storyteller smiled, a sly little grin that no one would catch, for they live for the thrill of these tales. Perhaps they all do.

”There was nobody brave enough to stand up to the darkness, and so it spread everywhere and plunged the realm into an eternal night. But soon the kings found that they starved just the same as the townspeople they'd abandoned.” 

Murmurs spread through the crowd, and the storyteller felt a warmth in their chest; the satisfaction of an invested audience.

“The people became desperate, and left the safety of their homes to search for a place the darkness hadn't touched. But in the darkness, they found monsters, just as hungry as they were. They-” the roar of another jet engine overhead filled the air, drowning out the storyteller's words. Despite the interruption, the eyes of the audience stayed transfixed on the storyteller. This was not the first time they'd heard this sound, and the novelty had long since worn off. The only sound that mattered now was the storyteller's voice, and the other worlds that spilled from their lips, taking them far away from this one. The roaring died down, as it always did, and the storyteller continued, as they always do.

“They were terrified that the monsters would take them, and at first many did! Children vanished crying into the eternal night, and parents would follow to try and save them, as all parents should.” Booms in the distance vibrate through the walls and the ground, as they waited for it to pass, the storyteller considered how they were going to end this tale. It was something that was perhaps best decided before taking the stage, but then again, where was the thrill in that? The shaking subsided, and they continued without missing a beat.

“It was a dark time; how else to speak of an age when not even children are safe from the world? It was a time of agony and a time of terror. Fear spread further and reached deeper than any darkness ever could, because darkness can always be held at bay by the light of hope, however dimly it may glow. But fear…now that poisons the ones who carry the light; it poisons them with the idea that their light is not enough. It convinces some that the darkness will be here forever, and then maybe they extinguish their light for it. Maybe they forget there was ever light at all.”

The rumbling in the distance is gone, and a deathly silence held the audience in its grip. Nobody breathed, nobody moved, not so much as the creak of a chair. The storyteller took a deep and satisfied breath, savoring the moment when they held the attention of hundreds on the tip of their finger before continuing.

“But then they remembered something they’d come too close to forgetting: that the darkness hadn’t always been there. They learned that in the face of such evil, hope wasn’t something to be feared and banished, it was their greatest weapon. So they hoped, and they dreamed, and they ignited their lights together. And the more that joined, the brighter they became, and finally they started to see again. They saw that they weren’t alone, that the darkness had only hidden their neighbors away, because alone they were weak. Alone they could be ripped from their homes one by one in the dark. So they learned things that they’d forgotten, that they were stronger together, and then they learned that they never needed their kings or knights to save them, and then they learned something that had been forgotten long before the darkness ever came. They learned to save themselves. And as they pushed forward together, they found that in the dark, beyond the monsters, there was a kind of freedom. They not only learned how to make their own light, but how to share it with others. And then they learned that the only thing more contagious than fear was…” They beckoned the audience to answer, to help finish the story. For a few moments it was silent. And then someone answered.

“Hope!”

The storyteller smiled and nodded proudly. “Hope indeed!” they agreed. “Hope is the sister of fear, and the cure. We fear what might happen, just as we hope for what could happen. And when the townspeople joined together in their hope instead of their fear, they banished the darkness, and were finally free to forge their new home together.”

Like hope, the sound of cheers and applause caught fire through the crowd, echoing off the walls of the cavernous auditorium, and it was the best sound the storyteller had ever heard. They smiled and stood, waving to the crowd and taking in the moment and all its glorious joy before jumping down off the stage, surrendering their title of storyteller until the next time. No longer performing, they slipped into the crowd and disappeared among the many, shedding one persona and returning to another. As she did, a familiar face appeared out of the crowd to greet her.

“How was it?” she asked nervously.

”A bit on the nose, I think. Could've done with some actual characters, for starters,” Tai said playfully.

Van laughed.

“Shut up,” she said, lightly punching Tai’s shoulder. “I was trying something new. “It's what they needed to hear.”

Tai smiled and nodded. 

”You're innovating Palmer, and I respect that.”

“For real though, it wasn’t too like…preachy?”

Tai’s eyes glittered and her mouth twisted into that stupid little grin she got when she was about to absolutely rip somebody.

“It was just the right amount of preachy.”

“Oh fuck off!” Van said, but she was smiling. If Tai was quipping then that meant she actually really enjoyed the story and just wanted to poke at Van for fun. She always got that same wry little grin and the sparkle in her eyes; Van suspected it was when she was happiest (aside from when she was eating Tai out, maybe ).

The crowd around them was already dispersing, lines forming at the auditorium’s exit doors as everyone shuffled off to bed. Van’s performance had been the last of the night, ending on what she hoped was a strong note.

“Okay where’s Shauna?” Van asked. “I want to touch base before we have to get back.”

Tai nodded agreement. 

“She was with me back there, let’s go.” 

Van followed as they shouldered through the closely pressed bodies, and she had to fight the urge to pinch her nose shut. Most of the students hadn’t showered in days, and it was rendering the air almost unbreathable. 

When they finally reached Shauna, Van insisted they move away from the aisles, both to not be overheard and to escape the stench of rampant puberty.

”Are we all set for tomorrow?“ Tai asked once Van was satisfied with the distance.

“Yeah, but..." Shauna glanced over her shoulder to where the rest of the yellowjackets were gathering, but Van knew she was looking at one in particular.. ”I don't like keeping it from Ja---from the others, it feels wrong.“ 

”They'd just try to stop us,“ Tai countered. ”And we all still want to do this, right?“ She looked pointedly around their little conspiratorial triangle. Van nodded, and although Shauna scuffed her feet for a few moments, she didn't dissent. 

”Want to do what?“ The voice came from right over Van's shoulder, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. They all turned to lay eyes on their eavesdropper, and the short, blonde freshman looked back at them expectantly. They all fell quiet, unsure of what lie to feed her. Van looked at Shauna, Shauna looked at Tai, and Tai gave them both the sublest glare before she broke the silence.

”Nothing, Allie. We're trying to find some more blankets, the floor is cold and we're not sleeping well.“ 

Allie crossed her arms.

”Bullshit,“ she said defiantly. ”That's not a secret worth keeping.“

”Sure it is,“ Tai shot back immediately, ”We don't want to share .“ She over-emphasized the last word, trying to make her message clear. Unfortunately, Allie either missed the social cue or chose to ignore it.

”Well that's not very 'team spirit' of you. I'm sure you won't mind if I go and tell Jackie...“ she made a show of turning towards where Jackie and the other girls were clustered on the other side of the auditorium. Van looked to the others, searching for signs that they were going to stop her, and although Shauna was nervously rubbing her arms (she should never play poker), nobody spoke. 

Tai's face remained indifferent (Van learned how good she was at poker the hard way), she even raised an eyebrow curiously, calling Allie's bluff. The girl shrugged and started walking away, and while Van had kept some very big secrets in her life, unfortunately she was terrible at poker too; she grabbed Allie's arm.

”Stop!“ she half-shouted, trying not to draw unwanted attention. Tai let out a disappointed huff, which Van tried (and failed) not to take personally.

”Fuck, what's the harm in telling her, it's not like she's going to come with us.”

Allie's eyes widen.

“Go with you...where?” Tai let out another much louder and exasperated sigh.

”Jesus Christ Van, you were the one that said this needed to be secret!“

”It's still a secret! It's just...a secret with more people now.“

”So we can tell JV here, but not Jackie?” Shauna demanded.

“Hey, it's not my fault none of you saw her coming, at least my back was turned!” Van snapped back at the same time Allie said, “Hey I’m varsity now!”

“Well actually the season’s over, so you’re nothing now,” Tai hissed.

Van wasn’t interested in the detour that conversation was heading for, so she simply continued on, hoping that by talking she might smother the feud that was ready to catch fire between them. 

“And Shauna you know damn well why we can't tell miss-goody-two-shoes over there!”

“What?” Shauna asked incredulously. Shit . She instantly regretted it, not because it wasn’t true, but because she might have just inadvertently lit her own fire. But this time Tai saves her.

“All right, it's fine, it's fine,” Tai motioned downwards with her hands, saying settle down. “Just shut the fuck up before the whole room hears us.” She pulled Allie, a bit too aggressively, into their little cluster, and locked her with a razor sharp look. “If you tell anyone, anyone , even Akilah or Diana or one of your other JV buddies, I will fucking kill you, understand?”

“Jesus Tai,” Van muttered. Tai either didn’t hear or, more likely, ignored her.

“Understand?” she demanded again. Allie nodded, and this seemed to finally satisfy Tai. “Okay, well,” she glanced beyond the circle one last time to ensure they didn’t have any more interlopers approaching before continuing. “There's been some rumblings. Everyone's getting sick of being cooped up in here while weird shit happens outside, and some people are going to do something about it. So tomorrow morning there's going to be a jailbreak, and when that happens, we're going to sneak out too.“

Allie was silent for a few moments, then asked, “Why?”

Van answered before Tai. 

“To find Nat.”

The last two weeks had been hard on all of them. Last weekend they'd flown out to Seattle to play in the Nationals tournament, and other than some turbulence towards the end of the flight, it had gone well and their spirits were high. They'd spent the weekend getting settled and exploring the city, which might have been the most beautiful place Van had ever seen. Granted she'd only crossed the state lines out of New Jersey a handful of times, and most of those with New York as her destination, but nonetheless the Pacific Northwest had taken her breath away. Splitting into groups, the girls had scattered across the city and up into the hills, exploring markets and waterfalls, bodegas and ravines. Van even dragged Taissa and Nat out to the waterfront to try to find the location of Tom Hanks' house from Sleepless in Seattle (she might not have found THE spot, but it was a wonderful afternoon regardless.) It all felt like a dream or something out of a movie, and they agreed it felt like destiny that they'd made it here. They entered the tournament on Monday with the confidence of youth and a steadfast belief in the impossibility of failure. So their elimination on Wednesday had left them all stunned.

They spent their last few days in the city in a sort of daze, the wide eyed wonder smashed to pieces by the cold hammer of reality. They'd flown back in near total silence, facing the reality of returning home as failures, just like their baseball counterparts. 

Mari had said, “At least they lose so consistently that nobody cares anymore!” and she was right. Nobody knew what to say; it didn’t feel real. After years of hard work spent proving themselves again and again, when the moment came to prove themselves as the best of the best, they’d failed. And the fear that settled over them all was this: that they wouldn’t be remembered for all their years of winning, only for this one failure. That fear was so overwhelming because they knew it would come true, and the only thing they could do to keep it from becoming real now was to not speak it aloud. So nobody did. 

Everyone went their separate ways after they landed with barely a goodbye shared between them. The weekend and subsequent Monday that should’ve been filled with celebration had gone by quietly. Van spoke with Tai over the phone, but essentially nobody reached out, everyone retreating to the confines of their own little exiles.

Van didn’t imagine that anyone handled defeat well, per se, so she hadn't thought anything of it at the time. But looking back she saw that it hit Nat harder than the rest of them. She wished she'd reached out more. She wished she hadn't been so comfortable with loneliness that she neglected to consider that her friends might be in need of comfort. She wished she considered that Nat, more than the others, was as comfortable with loneliness and isolation as she was, and wouldn't have reached out even if she'd needed it. Van had a lot of regrets in life, but this was rapidly climbing to the top of the list, and it was a hellishly long list to begin with. That regret was festering and infecting her quickly, because when Nat hadn't shown up to school on that Monday, she hadn't paid it much mind. After all, who wanted to show their face to the hundreds of classmates you'd just let down (she'd considered skipping herself to be honest). 

It was when Nat skipped on Tuesday that Van realized something might be really wrong, but by then it was too late. The regret was festering and turning to rotten guilt inside her because maybe if she'd reached out, done something, done anything , then Nat would've come to school the day the world went away. Instead, she was out there somewhere that Van couldn’t reach her. If she was still alive… no, she IS still alive , Van wasn't going to entertain any other notion.

She was alive and out there somewhere, lost and alone for all they knew, and Van couldn't live with that guilt anymore. She'd made a mistake, and she had to rectify it. She had to find her best friend, because she knew nobody else was looking.

“So congrats, you know our little plan and you can scamper off now,” Tai said. “And remember, don't you dare tell anyone. It's not their business and it's not yours, not that you asked.”

“I did though…” Allie responded.

“No, you extorted,” Van said flatly. 

“Fine,” she conceded. “I won't tell anyone.” 

Van sighed with relief. She couldn't stand having this taken away, not when she was so close.

But it turned out Allie wasn't done speaking.

“But I want to come with you.”

“Goddamnit,” Tai fumed at the same time Shauna asked, “Why?”

“Same as everyone else, I want to go home.”

“We're not taking a detour to be your personal taxi service, Allie,” Van said angrily. “You live on the other side of town!” 

“It's fifteen minutes, tops!” Allie shot back.

“It's too far out of the way,” Van said firmly.

“Then maybe I just want to get out of here for a few hours and get some fresh air.”

“We wouldn't have enough seats for Nat,” Tai pointed out.

“What do you mean, there's four of us and five seats.” Allie said it somehow as both a question and a statement.

“Jeff is driving us,” Van said.

“What? Why?” 

“Because he is,” Van said. “Tai's right, we won't have enough seats.”

“Then I guess you'll just have to drop me off at home!” Allie said cheerily.

Van looked at Shauna and Tai, both looked as bewildered as she felt at being blackmailed by a fourteen year old. She let out a frustrated laugh.

“All right Allie! You win,” Van said in the cheeriest, most passive aggressive voice she could muster. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning. You can go now!”

Allie flashed her a smirk before turning and walking away. She moved at a leisurely pace though, as if to show that although she’d been dismissed, she still felt in control. Fine , Van thought. Let her have her delusions . She was only fourteen after all, and enough of a menace to prove it.

“What the fuck?” Shauna laughed, disbelieving.

“What was that about her ‘not coming with us'?” Tai asked.

“Shut up,” Van said playfully. “Like I said, it's not my fault, she was fully behind me.”

“So I'm what, just supposed to assume I'm on lookout duty?” 

“You're supposed to have eyes,” Van teased.

“Oh now I don't have eyes?” 

Van thought they were flirting, but she could hear real anger creeping into Tai’s voice now. She'd misjudged their banter, and suddenly she felt guilty. Add it to the list.

“Okay, I'm gonna go now,” Shauna said, and with that, their meeting was over. Except Van wasn’t ready to end it there.

She looped a hand around Tai's arm, a silent request for her to stay behind as the others left. It was part of their secret language, a code that developed naturally between them over the years of their friendship, and became integral once that friendship became something more. Sometimes it was a hand on an arm, but sometimes it was even subtler than that; a look that meant “meet after class,” a joke during a conversation that said “there are things I want to say and do with you that I can't now, but rest assured, I will later.” And sometimes it was even less than that. Sometimes they just knew what the other was thinking and feeling. When you get as close as they have, it's like sharing a body, and with that, of course, comes sharing a mind. 

Once the others were safely out of earshot, she turned to Tai.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Tai sighed.

“Honestly, right now, I'm pretty fucking terrified. We have no idea what's waiting for us out there, but whatever it is, it's definitely not good.”

“Yeah, I'm honestly trying not to think about it too hard, I'm anxious enough already.”

“Well, I can't not think about it, so I'm just trying to prepare myself for anything and then just...react when it happens I guess.”

“That makes sense,” Van said, rubbing Tai's arm gently. Tai's hand rose to find hers, seemingly with a mind of its own, and came to rest on top of it. Thank you , it said, this is helping, please don't stop . So she didn't. They stood there in silence for a minute that lasted for hours, stewing in the anxiety of what they were going to do, Van trying her best to strip away some of Tai's.

“Hey, I'm sorry for blaming you for Allie. Thank you for doing this,” she finally said. Tai looked up at her and nodded.

“Of course. I'll do anything for you.” She said it so matter-of-factly, like she was giving someone the time, like it was something as simple and true as gravity or Van getting a sunburn at the beach. Anything for you echoed through her mind. 

Anything for me.  

And Van believed her, that's what almost brought tears to her eyes. She'd spent so much of her life feeling like a burden, feeling so isolated and alone. She never thought she would find someone that made her feel seen, feel protected, feel loved. She tried looking for words, but came up empty, a rarity for her. She just smiled and squeezed Tai's arm. 

“Thank you.” Tai smiled and squeezed her hand back, and she knew that Tai understood everything she couldn’t say.

“I do have eyes, you know.” Tai said. “They're just always captivated by you.”

“They should be,” she said, trying to contain the insane urge to kiss her. But that would have to wait. “Now let's get to bed before they cut the lights on us and we're stuck here for the night.”

“Oh no, stuck with Van Palmer, alone and in the dark? One shudders at the thought of what we might do,” she said grinning.

“Well, our dreams can't all become reality, then what would we do while we sleep?”

”I don't know, be at peace?“ 

Van barked out a laugh.

”Yeah,“ she said, chuckling. “You’re not out of dreams yet, Taissa Turner.”

She flies down the halls, putting as many twists and turns between her and the stairs where it will soon follow. She slows down and tries door handles as she passes. Locked. Locked. Locked. She catches glimpses through the glass, and although it’s just as dark inside as out, she can see shadows shifting inside. The doors have eyes, and they’re all trained on her. Their whispers hang in the air all around her, haunting her every step.

Is it true?

Did you do it?

You fucking bitch!

It’s all your fault!

Okay, she thinks, maybe she can pick the lock. She pulls the bobby pins from her hair and inserts them into the lock. She jiggles them around, feeling out for where the little bolts of the lock are situated. She feels a catch and her stomach flutters with something like hope. Yes, this is it! All she needs is one door between herself and her hunter and maybe she can sit out the rest of the night. Safety is four inches of tempered oak wood away, but danger isn't much further behind. 

She's racing against an invisible clock, and every second is her last. 

She can feel the pressure against the pins; she has to be careful now. Apply the right amount of pressure in the right direction and she's home free. She presses and turns and loses her grip. One of the pins falls from the handle. 

Fuck.

She bends down to pick it up, only to find it lost in the darkness. Down on her hands and knees she searches, inch by inch, until her fingers curl around the tiny, cold piece of bent metal that will unlock her sanctuary. She stands to put the pin back into place, and makes her first mistake. 

That something as simple and mundane as standing could be the thing that kills her doesn't seem real, and yet one squeak of her sneakers is all that's needed to give away her position. She freezes; maybe it's not nearby, maybe it didn't hear. She listens for a sign from the darkness, but she knows she won't hear anything. It would be so much easier if it would cry out, scream, moan, or make any kind of sound. But as they've learned time and time again, these things are thoroughbred predators, and right now it's stalking her like a wolf hiding in the brush. She won't know it's there until it's too late and, unlike other prey animals, she doesn't have the speed to survive an ambush.

She's faced now with a terrible choice, the latest in a long line of them: continue working the door with seconds she may not have for a shelter she may not live to see, or RUN.

She doesn't have the luxury of time to weigh the pros and cons. She makes her choice and prays it won't be her last. Gently, but with deliberate speed, she slides her shoes off. The icy tiles kiss her feet when she sets them down. She picks up her shoes, and runs.

The freezing floor punishes each step, somehow numbing and burning her feet all at once, even through her socks. It's awful, but worth the sacrifice for the ability to move without the risk of unnecessary sounds. She'll loop around the floor to make sure she's remained its sole inhabitant, then she'll go back for another lock. It's good to have a plan, by the time she needs to be making decisions it will be too late. She has to stay one step ahead.

She slides around the corner, and her question is answered. Scuffing on the floor gives her approximately three seconds to realize she's dead as the hunter lunges from the shadows. There's no time for thought, and barely any for action. Instinctually, she dives, and outstretched arms grasp at the empty air she leaves behind as she smashes into the ground. The golden necklace around her neck clinks on the cold ground and she gasps as the impact empties her lungs. A clatter behind her reports the hunter's collision with the wall. She's bought herself precious seconds now, and she has to use them perfectly. She scrambles to her feet, her socks slipping for a moment, costing her one of those seconds as the hunter collects itself and turns. She launches herself down the hall, gasping the frigid air into her lungs to fuel her escape. 

It's behind her, and it can run far longer than she can. She slides around another corner, using her socks to her advantage this time. She breaks by slamming into the wall, then keeps going. Doors fly by, each one standing between her and safety, and each one denying it.

She can’t keep up like this. She’s relying on luck, something that’s been in short supply for quite some time now. She won’t find a door they forgot, so her only option is to buy herself time for the locks, and buying time means putting distance between her and that thing. She careens back towards the stairs and retreats back down into the depths she only just ascended from.  

Breakfast was an understated affair. It was Saturday morning, and while the understanding that something was deeply wrong had set in days ago, the knowledge that it was the weekend somehow amplified the sentiment that they shouldn't still be here. It was a silly thing really, but piled on top of everything else, it had a noticeable effect on the general morale. An unspoken tension also hung over those in the know about the day's plans. 

Nobody knew what was waiting for them outside the doors of the school, but after days of quarantine and jets overhead, nobody was expecting anything good. Whatever it was, they'd know soon enough, and the promise of freedom was just enough to balance out the fear and make them brave enough to find out.

Tai poked at her hashbrowns, the same breakfast she'd had yesterday, and the day before. It turned out potatoes were much easier to store in bulk than the ingredients for pancakes or eggs. The faculty was tight-lipped about their resources here, but she suspected there wasn't some secret vault packed with supplies to feed five hundred students three meals a day for weeks on end. She didn't know if that was factoring into anyone else's decision to leave, but it certainly was for her. Finding Nat was still a top priority of course, she shared that with Van. But she had to consider other problems as well. It was only practical. And the longer their lockdown extended, the more problems she found turning in the back of her mind. 

The way she saw it, there were three possibilities (although that list was by no means complete). In no particular order:

• a nuclear power plant had melted down (although each day that passed without signs of radiation sickness drove this down the list), 
• an armed insurrection or an invasion of the U.S., (either would explain the lockdown, to expose the movements of enemy combatants and to keep civilians away from danger), 
• or an outbreak of some highly dangerous and contagious virus (the infection rate would need to be staggering in order to justify the extreme lockdown, and it didn’t necessarily explain the jets, but it was possible). 

Each one carried its own set of risks, and they weren't very well prepared for any of them if she was being honest. But as long as they were ready for anything, then they would tackle every problem one step at a time, together, and then they'd keep going until the problems were all solved or their chances were spent.

The cafeteria was packed. Every table was full, leaving many standing or sitting by the outskirts, with overflow spilling out into the main hall. When school was in session, the lunch periods were staggered: three periods, thirty minutes each, roughly a hundred and sixty students at a time. The cafeteria was designed with this in mind, and therefore didn't have the capacity to fit all of the roughly five hundred students that were calling these halls home this week. The air was thick and hot from all the bodies pressed together, and while the breeze from open windows helped alleviate some of the smell, most of them still hadn't showered in days, and the odor was...overwhelming. Needless to say, the conditions weren't ideal for conversation, which was fine by her. Everything was planned and sorted. Now it was simply a waiting game. 

The yellowjackets had co-opted two tables, pushed end to end to give the illusion of togetherness, nevermind that it was impossible to hear what someone at the other end was saying unless they shouted. The ambient noise wasn't as overwhelming today (the sense of collective exhaustion was palpable), but enough conversations still joined together to offer enough volume to negate the possibility of one end hearing the other without shouting. But Jackie insisted on it, and it was just easier to let her have the illusion of accomplishing something than to argue. Tai was sitting with Van at the end where they joined, Van to her left at the edge of their table. Shauna sat next to Tai on her right, with Jackie beside her. Lottie, Mari, Laura Lee and Allie sat across from them. At the far end on the left were Gen, Melissa, Crystal and Misty, and at the opposite end were some of the JV girls: Akilah, Rachel, and the twins, Diana and Tess. There was one seat left open where Nat should’ve been; nobody had spoken about it in days.

”Do you think the malls are open?“ Allie asked naively between bites of her own hash browns. She sat across from Jackie.

Tai bit back the first answer that jumped to her mind, deciding it was too harsh, so instead she opted for something more generous and vague.

”Maybe!“ she nodded, shrugging. Who knows, it might be true. She didn't care for the direction Allie was going though, and she didn't know how to tell her to shut it before she spilled the beans to everyone (specifically Jackie).

“I'm going to go out with my sister like we do every Saturday,” Allie continued, encouraged.

“What do you mean?” Jackie asked as she raised her fork to her mouth. Tai winced. She looked to Van, who met her gaze with the same panic in her eyes. Shit . There was no time to think. The longer she waited, the more time it gave Allie to blow their secret wide open, and the more time it gave Jackie to think about it.

“Yeah Allie, what do you mean?” she asked pointedly, glaring daggers at the girl as well as she could muster. Apparently she was doing it well, because when Allie looked up, her eyes widened, presumably, hopefully, recalling Tai's threat from last night. 

“I, um, I mean it would be so nice if we finally got to go home today! I just can't stop thinking about how badly I need a shopping day after this!” She smiled as she said it, and Tai had to give it to her, it was a pretty good recovery. She nodded her approval, and swore she saw Allie breathe a sigh of relief.

“That'd be nice, yeah,” Van agreed.

Tai looked skeptically to Van and Shauna. Van looked back with an eyebrow raised, a look that told Tai she was having the same thought: what the fuck is she on about ? She could see something similar in Shauna's eyes when she glanced her way, but there was something else there too, an understanding, and the sadness that came with it. Jackie continued on, oblivious.

“Where do you like to go? Like, what's your game plan for the mall on a Saturday afternoon?” she asked.

“Well, we start at TJ Maxx to see what sales they have. We try on some things, decide what we want, then leave for lunch at Ernie’s in the food court.”

Shauna lit up and finally joined in. 

“Oh I love Ernie’s! Their grilled cheese is to die for. What do you think, Tai?“ Tai tried her best not to roll her eyes, and mostly succeeded.

“Yeah, it's good,” she agreed.

This seemed to satisfy Jackie. 

“Oh my god, me too,“ she said, nodding enthusiastic agreement. ”I need to just disappear into the aisles at TJ Maxx and lose myself for hours.“

”Those Ernie’s milkshakes on a hot afternoon are to die for too!“ Misty said eagerly.

”I’d fuck up a burger with that too,” Melissa added.

“I would kill for some fries right now,“ said Gen.

”Does anyone else dip their fries in their shake?” Mari asked excitedly.

A chorus of disgust rose along both sides of the tables.

”Hey! Don't knock it till you try it!“

”I'm never trying that,“ Shauna said, laughing.

”Your loss!“ she retorted.

“The fuck did you just say?” a male voice suddenly shouted from across the room. Tai turned around and craned her neck, trying to get a view. Somehow, a hush and a buzz of excitement swept over the room all at once. Conversations died and heads turned. Someone said something in response, Tai couldn't hear what, but she heard what came next.

The first voice yelled “Fuck you!” and there was a clatter as the other person's lunch tray fell to the floor, she assumed with assistance. A moment later people were jumping up from their tables chanting “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” and blocking her view.

“Who is it?” Van asked.

“I think it's Sam Anders,” Lottie said before Tai could speak. She must've had a better look before the bodies got in the way. Tai knew the name, he was on the basketball team, though she'd never met him. 

“Is he the one fighting or the one being fought?” Tai asked wryly.

“Fighting,” Lottie answered with a laugh. 

“Boys,” Jackie scoffed, turning back to her food.

“Who's winning?” Van asked, half standing to try and see around the crowd, seemingly to no avail.

“I'm gonna go see!” Mari declared excitedly, jumping up and rushing around the table while Laura Lee did the sign of the cross. Tai could see her lips moving but couldn't hear what she was muttering, likely praying for leniency for their immortal souls.

“Fuck yeah!” Melissa yelled to Van's left, leaving to join her.

She was quickly followed by Allie, Diana, Tess and Misty, all of them disappearing into the chanting crowd. The sound of a table screeching on the floor was the only indicator of how the fight was going; Tai had already turned back to her food, disinterested in the spectacle. She took another bite before noticing Van's leg bouncing anxiously as she poked at her plate. Or no, not anxiously. Tai chuckled, nudging Van with her elbow.

”You really want to go watch, don't you?“ Van looked up guiltily.

”Yeah,“ she confessed apologetically. Tai laughed and nodded.

”Well go on then, don't let me hold you up!“ 

Van's face lit up eagerly, and she squeezed Tai's arm in thanks before shooting off so fast that she almost left a cartoon silhouette behind in her seat. When Tai looked back to the table, shaking her head, but smiling.

”So uncivilized,“ Jackie whined. 

”Boys will be boys,“ Lottie said, shrugging.

”Oh let them have their fun,“ Tai said. ”Everyone's so pent up from being cooped up in here all week, a little release is good.“

”What's fun about violence?“ Akilah half-shouted from across the table. A collective ”OH!“ sprung out from the crowd behind them. Tai noticed teachers rushing past them now.

”Well it's not like we're able to stop it,“ Lottie answered. ”If they want to get something out of it, why not?“

”My mom watches WWE,“ Gen chimed in. ”It's rough but...I don't know, kind of fun.” 

“It's barbaric!” Laura Lee said firmly, finally breaking her silence. 

“It is,“ Jackie agreed heartily. ”It's why I refuse to watch football, and why I'm glad Jeff plays baseball. And this isn't WWE, Gen, those are our classmates.” 

Tai glanced over at Shauna, but she was remaining diplomatically silent.

“I don't think I've ever had a class with either of those guys,” Lottie said, shrugging.

“That's not the-” Jackie started, but trailed off as shouts of “Hey! Hey! Break it up!” cut through the chants and cheers.

Scattered shouts of indignation and protest echoed around the room, but the energy quickly dissipated as everyone started returning to their tables. Van and the others emerged back out of the mass of bodies buzzing excitedly.

“It was Sam and Danny Stevens,” Mari informed them as she sat down again. 

“Do you know what it was about?“ Shauna asked around a mouthful of toast.

”Sandra said they've been at each other's throats for days,” Diana answered as she reclaimed her seat. “But I didn't hear what this one was about.”

”Have fun?“ Tai asked as Van sat down. She grinned sheepishly. 

”I didn't NOT have fun,“ she answered.

”Oh fuck off with your double negatives, you can own it,“ Tai joked. Van shrugged.

”Then maybe so.”

“I think Danny's gonna have a black eye!” Melissa said giddily.

“Why don't you try to sound more excited,” Jackie muttered.

”Woah, okay!“ Van shot back. ”Can you drop the holier-than-thou shit for like two seconds, Jackie?“

”Hey!“ Shauna shouted at the same time Jackie scoffed “Wow!”

”Guys!“ Laura Lee yelled, slapping her hands down on the table, bringing an immediate silence down on them all. ”Can we please not fight?” 

“Laura Lee's right,” Tai said. “I think one fight is enough for breakfast, right?” Nobody said anything, which seemed to be the best she was going to get. “Okay, good.” Everyone sheepishly dug back into their food.

“I'm sorry for yelling,” said Laura Lee.

“You don't have to apologize,” Shauna assured her. “But thank you.”

The fight silently heralded the end of breakfast. Once the energy of the room died back down, it wasn’t long until people started standing up and discarding their trays. The yellowjackets soon followed, and Van excused herself to go check in with the last of their accomplices.

She found Jeff easily through the crowd; she’d made note of where the baseball team was sitting when she came in earlier.

His initial inclusion in the plan had been a bit fraught. He and Van were good friends, but he wasn't Tai’s first choice for a co-conspirator, and she’d pushed back at the suggestion. But they needed a driver, and unfortunately Shauna carpooled with Tai to school that Tuesday, and her parents had dropped them off, needing both household cars for errands that day. It was so stupidly mundane; they really had no idea what was coming. 

Tai had wanted to bring in one of the other girls that had driven, like Laura Lee or Mari, but Van didn’t want to bring any more of them in, lest the secret grow too large to keep hidden within the team (and one person in particular). And while Jeff was tied to Jackie too, he’d been the one to come to her with the whole breakout idea in the first place (it originated on the baseball team, spawned by the apparently impossible notion of their asshole captain Bobby Farleigh spending a weekend without tequila and his couch). As soon as the idea of leaving had been introduced to her Thursday night, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Nat. The knowledge that she was alone out there with whatever was happening had been driving her halfway to madness.

So she’d brought it to Tai (and incidentally, Shauna) yesterday, and after some debate, here they were an hour away from a full-on jailbreak. It was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. She found Jeff by the back wall, saying goodbye to Randy, and waited until they were done and Randy was well on his way before approaching him.

“Hey, the others are getting ready now, I just wanted to make sure we're all set.” she said. He nodded, but his eyes were distant, focused on something behind her.

“Yeah,” he said hesitantly. “Bobby's got the guys ready to go at eleven, but...” he trailed off, grimacing and nervously scratching the back of his head like he did when he was falling behind in the count at the plate. Van knew he was about to say something she didn’t like, and she could see that he knew it too.

“I swear to God, man, if you're about to bail on me...” she started, but he cut her off.

“No no, it's not that,“ he said. ”Promise you won't be mad?“

”Oh I can't wait to hear this one,“ she laughed, shaking her head. She braced for disappointment.

”Come on, I just...“ he started, but it was her turn to interrupt him.

“You feel bad about not telling Jackie, right?” His face lit up with surprise at being read so thoroughly, but he shouldn't have been. They'd known each other a long time, and as far as people go, he wasn't an especially difficult one to understand. Plus she’d already been through this with Shauna, and the two of them were reliably guilty when it came to Jackie these days. His surprise was brief though, and then he nodded.

”I...yeah, yeah I do. And before you say what I know you're going to say, I get why we had to keep this thing from her up until now. I love her, but she is such a damn stickler for the rules sometimes, and I know she'd feel the responsibility to tell the teachers or your coach, and then we'd never get off the ground.“ Van listened, nodding along, waiting for the kicker she knew was coming. 

”But we're less than an hour away now, and I don't want her to be blindsided by this. I don't want her to feel like we…like we don't trust her.“ 

There it is. She couldn't help herself, the way he said it with a straight face and zero comprehension in his eyes. She actually laughed.

”Wow, okay.” She saw his bewilderment, and unfortunately that only made it even funnier.

”I'm sorry, did I say something funny?“ he asked, genuinely, god bless him. She nodded, grinning in disbelief.

”Actually yeah, a little bit!“ she started. ”I just think it's funny how your conscience can pick and choose what it feels guilty over.“

”What do you mean?“

”What do I mean, yeah. Well, gee, I mean that we both know that you can keep a secret from Jackie if you really feel like it.“

He hesitated, only for a moment, but she saw the decision to lie flash behind his eyes.

”I don't know what you mean.”

”Yes you do,“ she said flatly, and turned to look pointedly over at Shauna, then back to him, her eyebrow raised, daring him to try playing dumb again. His eyes followed hers across the room to where Shauna was making her way past the end tables and out the door. It took a moment for the realization to set in, but it was immensely gratifying once it did. It started as confusion, and then it really hit him and his face moved into shock. He stayed there for a few seconds before shifting into the final phase: panic. 

In that moment, seeing it spread over his face and into his eyes, Van felt, to her surprise, sympathy. She imagined what it would be like if the tables were reversed, and Jeff was revealing he knew about her and Tai, and she didn’t have to imagine what she would feel because she'd spent years existing under that very fear. 

So she felt bad, in the sense that she understood the panic in his eyes. But it stopped there because, unlike her, this was a choice he'd made, and then kept making, for months. 

And she wouldn't have said anything either, because he'd become a surprisingly good friend to her over the last few years, and she felt none of the same obligation to Jackie’s good graces that he and half the team seemed to feel. He never hit on her, even before he was with Jackie. He never spoke ill of her friends, and he'd never said or done anything homophobic, which unfortunately set him apart from most of the other boys (and a lot of the girls) at school. They'd been in the same classes for years, and they'd bonded through class and homework and their shared love of sports, and he was one of the only men, classmates or teachers, in her life that she felt comfortable around (although she positively detested his choice of best friends in Randy Walsh).

Maybe it was a failing of female solidarity on her part to stay quiet about the affair after she figured it out, and she was pretty sure she'd figured it out almost immediately, but she didn't honestly feel much solidarity with Jackie. And, if she was being really honest, it wasn't like she'd never hooked up with a girl in a relationship either, although again, she considered those circumstances to be drastically different. So she was content, at least, to let their fucked up little love triangle play out on its own, and she would've stayed quiet about it to Jeff too. His business, messy as it was, was his own, and she respected his boundaries the same as he did hers. But she simply couldn't let such blatant hypocrisy slide, not now, not with Nat's life tangled up in all of this.

So she only let him stew for a few moments before she continued.

“Look dude, if I wanted to tell her, I would have, so don't worry about that.” Relief washed over his face immediately, and she found that gratifying too. It was a subtle thing, but it told her that he trusted her so much more truthfully than words ever could.

“How?” he asked after taking a moment to recover. 

“That's not important right now,” she said, waving that particular conversation away, though she knew they’d have it eventually. “My point is, you've already lied to Jackie about this, and telling her literally at the eleventh hour isn't going to absolve you of that or any other guilt.” She let that sink in for a few seconds before continuing. “Look, either it's fine out there, and we find Nat and we find our families, and we're only gone a few hours. Or it really is bad out there, like, fucking dangerous, and we either come back sooner or we...don't. Either way, she'll be here, safe and sound, right?“ He considered her words, then nodded slowly.

”Yeah, yeah you're right.“

”Damn right I am,“ she said, punching his shoulder lightly to drive home the point. He nodded, laughing a little. ”So, are we square with this now?“ 

”All four nineties, measured and checked,“ he answered, remembering the old inside joke she'd referenced from back when they suffered through Miss Sanchez’s geometry labs together in sophomore year. She honestly hadn’t expected him to remember, but that was what he did: even when you were pissed at him, he found a way to endear himself. She imagined it would come in handy one day when Jackie did inevitably find out.

”Make sure those lengths and widths are equal too,“ she joked back. A small smile broke out across his face, and he nodded.

”They are, thanks for checking my work.“ He held out his fist.

”Anytime dude,” she said, bumping it sideways with her own ”Okay! I'm gonna go find the other rebels, then I'll see you out there.“ She left it there, clapping his shoulder on her way out.

She spirals down to the second floor and runs, once again putting as many turns and halls between her and the stairs as she can. Curious eyes follow her as she flits through the shadows. She's panting by the time she reaches the other side of the building, her lungs burning from heaving in the cold air. She wipes the snot away from her nose and gets right back to work, sliding the pins in and feeling for the pressure. 

She's doing her best to count the seconds, roughly guessing from how long it took her to get here, should the hunter prove able to track her exact path somehow. It took her about two minutes, and at least one has already slipped by. 

She has the first pin in place, now she just needs to create enough pressure from the second to flip the locking mechanism. She twists it in until she feels it catch, and then she pushes, leveraging the pins around like the key they’re replacing, and then she hears the most beautiful click in the entire world. She pulls out the pins, wraps her fingers around the icy handle, and pulls down.

The door opens. 

She doesn't waste a moment, rushing inside and closing it as quietly behind her as possible. Then and only then does she breathe a sigh of relief. Her legs give out and she collapses to the ground, leaning back against the door. Then she laughs. It's short and ragged, but the relief is overwhelming. She's finally safe. She might actually be able to sleep in here tonight. 

The shadows shift before speaking in a familiar voice.

“You can't be in here.” 

Her heart jumps into her throat and her blood runs cold. 

“No! Please don't tell her!” she begs. “You can let me out before it's done, nobody has to know!”

She searches the darkness, frantically trying to find the source of the voice so she can plead directly, make her look her in the eyes, and maybe knock her out with a chair if she has to. There’s barely any light to speak of, and the shades of dark just blur together, creating a kind of shimmering, depthless void. It doesn’t help that one of her eyes is almost completely swollen shut now. Her face was still raw from wounds that were barely an hour old, but that was the least of her problems now. Nothing from before matters now, there was just the next minute, and the next, and the next.

The silence stretches just a little too long, and she hopes it's because she’s considering letting her stay.

“No.” 

Oh, she’s getting awfully tired of hearing that word tonight. Fine, the chair it is then . She stands and starts slowly feeling her way through the dark. She can see enough to make out the outlines of desks and chairs; she'll grab one when she's close enough. The voice came from across the room to her right, so she starts cutting across, maintaining her plea to buy herself a few more seconds.

“Please, please let me stay, PLEASE!”

“You can leave now in silence, or we can throw you out and summon her.“ How generous . She's in the middle of the room now, and the voice is definitely coming from against the wall to her right, so she turns and creeps forward.

“Please! I'm so tired, can I just rest for a few minutes? I'm begging you!” She's almost to the wall. She curls her fingers around the last chair in the row. She just needs to hear her one last time...

Paper rustles and a shadow moves to her left. 

Shit. 

She rushes to follow and lurches right into the corner of another desk. Pain spreads its needles all through her hip as she cries out, stumbling into another desk and tripping on the leg. She gasps as she falls, colliding with the ground and adding about five million new needles all stabbing across her side.

A few feet away, she hears a door opening. It was so easy for them.

“Hey! I need a hand, she's in here.“ 

No. 

They can't do this, not when she's finally this close! Not when she earned this! She pulls herself up by one of the chairs and stumbles blindly forward. Two is tricky but manageable, and she'd rather fight them than that thing out there.

A flashlight clicks on in front of her, and the world goes white. She gasps, her arms flying up instinctively to shield her eyes, and with that, her last second is spent. Hands silently wrap around her arm and she twists away, only to fall right into the other. They jerk her backwards with no delay, so she starts twisting and thrashing. She won't make this easy for them, cowardly fucks.

”NO! PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS!“ she screams, wrapping her leg around a passing table in an attempt to drag it with her, add to her weight and maybe loosen their grips enough to let her slip out. But they simply tighten their grip and yank even harder, and with only her socks on her feet, the table leg slips away from her grasp. 

”NO NO NO NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! I GOT IN HERE! LET ME STAY! LET ME STAY!“

But her cries fall on indifferent ears. They drag her across the rest of the room, their grips remaining ironclad no matter how hard she kicks or twists. She hears the door handle behind her, the sound which only moments ago had sounded so sweet now promising to expel her back into her nightmare.

”No, please, no!“ she sobs as the door swings open and the frame moves over her. They half drop, half throw her down into the middle of the hallway before rushing back to the safety that should be her’s. She stares up at the silhouettes and shifts her feet under her, readying to leap forward and fight her way back inside. 

”AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!“ The scream knocks her backwards as her stomach twists into knots of panic again. The figure in the door screams for five whole seconds, an eternity in the otherwise silent halls. She gathers her feet under her again.

”Better start running,“ the looming shadow says, throwing her shoes back out into the hall before slamming the door shut as hard as she could. 

There's no time to cry or grieve her paradise lost; she picks up her shoes and keeps on running.

Ben had dry cereal for breakfast, again. They'd run out of milk two days ago. The atmosphere in the teacher's lounge was dreadful, to say the least. Fatigue was running rampant among the staff, as well as the students, as they entered their fifth day of quarantine. Everyone was holding together for the most part, but this being the first day of the weekend was having a more profound impact as everyone wondered the same thing: what the hell are we still doing here?

They had stuck to the school schedule for the first few days, for structure's sake more than the desire anyone actually had for teaching and learning. It gave everyone a routine, which had been incredibly important in maintaining morale as anxiety spread through their little population like wildfire. The worry for spouses, children, parents, siblings, and everyone else had mixed with the confusion to create a potent tinderbox that first day. Nobody took the news well that they would be sleeping at the school and not returning home at three o'clock on Tuesday, and the presence of police cruisers arriving outside the doors to enforce their lockdown had only increased the level of tension throughout the school. Nobody could have known that they would still be here five days later, with no clear end in sight. It was taking its toll on everyone, but Ben found himself oddly at peace with it.

He understood everyone's desire to see their loved ones again, of course. But ever since Paul had broken up with him before they flew out for nationals, he had been feeling lost. He felt like a ghost floating through his life: wake up, eat a cold breakfast, go to work, supervise his rowdy teens, go home, eat takeout, maybe watch some Seinfeld, fall asleep. Then do it all over again. He'd already lost the life everyone else was clamoring to get back to, so it didn't honestly make much of a difference whether he was here or at home.

He was sharing a table with a few teachers whose names he could probably conjure if he gave it some thought. But they were barely talking, and he had nothing to say, so instead they simply shared the silence.

At least they did, until Principal Berzonsky cleared his throat.

“Good morning everyone,” he said, and a hush fell over the room, not that there was much being said anyway.

“Not much has changed I’m afraid. I still have not been able to get through to the superintendent’s office since yesterday afternoon. I tried last night and I tried this morning. So, lacking any instruction to the alternative, we will be treating today as a weekend!” Whispers of assent spread through the room, but Ben didn’t feel relief. He didn’t feel much of anything really. It was still going to be more of the same. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad, it was just life.

“The children will still report to their homerooms for attendance,” Berzonsky continued. “But after that everyone is free to enjoy this weekend as it is, within the confines of the school.” And just like that, the room deflated. Ben just chuckled softly; more of the same indeed. Finally one of the teachers, Yousef Mohamed, physics, spoke up. Ben had him in his senior year here. The subject hadn’t interested him, but Mister Mohamed was one of the best teachers he’d ever had. 

“Have you spoken to the police station, are they still answering?”

The principal nodded.

"They reached out to me again this morning, said their orders haven’t changed either, except that they're only sending four officers today."

"Well that's good, isn't it?” said Isabel Sanchez, one of the geometry teachers. “A few days ago we had a dozen, things must be getting better!"

"I honestly don't know,” the principal answered. “It may be that they are, or...it might be bad enough that they can't spare the manpower anymore. Whatever it is doesn't change that they're here to keep us safe, and as long as we stay here, we are."

"But safe from what? They won't even say!" Yousef said, earning several shouts of agreement from around the room. Berzonsky took a deep breath and raised his hands in a universally recognizable gesture to calm down. Looking closer, Ben could see bags under his eyes too. He couldn’t imagine the responsibility he was bearing right now.

"I don't know and it's not our place to ask. The order came from the governor's office-”

“And you don’t think it’s strange that they haven’t reached out again in days? They can’t just keep us here!”

“I don’t like it either, but-” the door opened from the hall and cut him off. Ben didn’t recognize the teacher standing there, but the moment the door opened, sounds of commotion came flooding into the room behind him.

"Sir, there's a problem out here!" he said breathlessly. 

“What is it, what’s happened?” Berzonsky demanded.

“It’s happening outside, the kids-” 

“Outside? Nobody should be outside!” he yelled anxiously, and went rushing out the door, the staff meeting apparently over. Everyone else jumped up without a word, and Ben rushed after them, his cereal abandoned on the table (not that it would go bad). They followed the noise down the hall, and when Ben rounded the corner, he was met with a crowd of students congesting the lobby, clamoring for a view of the front doors. He quickly scanned over the crowd, hoping and praying that the girls weren’t caught up in whatever this was. For a moment he thought he caught a glimpse of Van's fiery red hair from across the lobby, but it was gone before he could call out. He considered trying to push through the mass of bodies, but decided that if he had seen them, then at least they were inside for now. So instead he pushed his way forward behind the other teachers as they shouldered their way through the sea of students. When the doors swung open, he was instantly blasted with a sweltering heat. It was barely eleven, but the overhead sun had already turned the humid air into a suffocating swamp.

He was barely through the doors when he heard the shouting.

“What the hell is going on out here!” Berzonsky was demanding. "Why are you pointing a gun at my students!"

Ben slipped through the doors, past one of the English teachers, Lianna Brandt, and finally saw about twenty students, most of them from the baseball team, facing down with the four police officers stationed outside. 

"We can't let them leave sir," answered one of the officers, a middle aged man with dirty blond hair and glasses that sat poorly on his long face.

"Leave?" Berzonsky echoed, turning to address the students behind him. "What are you kids doing out here, get back inside now!"

"We're done being held prisoner!" one of the kids shouted defiantly, and Ben instantly recognized the smug voice of the team captain and frequent delinquent ringleader, Bobby Farleigh. A cheer rose up behind him, and Ben realized there were more students pouring out of the doors behind him. Emboldened by his growing numbers, Bobby took a step forward, his team following behind. The cops tensed and took a step back, which was never a good sign. Ben knew enough history to know that when the powerful felt threatened, they were quick to resort to violence.

"Stay back!" yelled one of the others, drawing his gun too. He barely looked older than Ben. The others followed suit, and suddenly students were staring down the barrels of four handguns, wielded by the police officers that were there ostensibly for their protection.

"Woah woah woah, what the hell are you doing!" Berzonsky shouted, panic creeping into his voice. He stepped forward to the first officer, who seemed to hold seniority.

"I have orders, sir. Nobody leaves, shoot any dissidents." He said it with such a cold edge to his voice. Dissidents. He wouldn't call them children. The moment someone was on the other end of a gun, they stopped being human. That was one of the first lessons Ben's uncle taught him about gun safety. Never point a gun at something you don't intend to shoot . The only thing that should ever be on the other side of your loaded gun is a target downrange, or prey. Guns exist for one simple purpose: to kill.

Berzonsky was incensed. Ben had worked for him long enough to know when he’d reached a boiling point, and he had to admire the calm in his voice when he spoke. He could barely hear the tremor underneath it. Not one of fear, but of fury.

"If your orders are to shoot children, then they are bad orders." They all exchanged looks with one another, but nobody lowered their gun.

"Please stand down officers," he continued, "the safety of these children is my responsibility first, and no harm will come to them under my watch. So if you're going to shoot them, then you'll have to shoot me first." 

The one that looked Ben's age loosened his stance, which was an encouraging start, but the guns were still raised. Ben’s heart hammered in his chest, and he could already feel his veins buzzing with adrenaline, preparing for something to go horrifically wrong. Berzonsky turned to face the student body.

"We cannot force you to stay here, but for your own safety, I must insist that you not leave! Everyone, please, return inside!" 

The crowd wavered, both sides at a standstill, a frozen moment in time. For a few seconds it was deathly silent. Then, surprisingly, Bobby stepped forward, looking from the principal to the police.

"Are you going to shoot me?" he asked the leading officer. The man exchanged a look with his other officers, then slowly, finally, lowered his gun.

"Nobody is shooting you," Berzonsky said, relief flooding his voice. 

Bobby considered that for a moment, watching the others lower their guns as well. He nodded, and turned to the crowd behind him. Ben let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was even holding. But his relief was short-lived. Across the yard, Bobby Farleigh raised his hands into the air like he’d just hit a walk-off home run.

"Then I'm going the FUCK HOME! WHO'S COMING WITH ME?" 

The crowd erupted with cheers, and with that, the floodgates were opened. They poured forward through the doors and spilled into the parking lot, cheering for their newfound freedom.

"We're clear, let's move!" Tai called out ahead of them. They'd been waiting in the hallway adjacent to the lobby to avoid the crush of the crowd there, not because Allie had taken far too long to get ready, and Tai had gone up alone to keep an eye on things. Now they were rushing down the hall to meet her and melt into the crowd as it rolled forward towards freedom. 

As far as Van knew, the original plan had only been made up of about twenty people, so all these kids must be a coincidence. Drawn in by the spectacle, they now provided camouflage in numbers. Like jumping into a strong river and being dragged by the current, the crowd carried them out the doors before spilling into the parking lot outside. 

It was already quite the scene; whoops and cheers were quickly being drowned out by a celebratory chorus of honking as people started finding their cars. 

Van was looking for Jeff through the sea of people pushing past her when someone grabbed her hand. She whipped around to find Shauna trying to pull her away from the entrance, pointing to where Jeff was waving them over.

“We have an extra?” he asked when they reached him.

“Yeah she's fine,” Van said, waving it away before it could become an issue. “Where are you?”

”Back there,“ he said, pointing at the back corner of the lot.

”Seriously?“

He shrugged apologetically. 

”We were late on Tuesday, there weren't many spots left.“

”And who's fault was that?“ Shauna accused teasingly. 

”Who's to say who was at fault,” he said jokingly.

“Me!” Tai and Shauna answered immediately.

“Oh, well there you go!“ he declared, grinning proudly.

Shauna punched him lightly.

“You're an ass, Jeff, you know that?”

“I do now.”

They're not seriously flirting now , Van thought.

“And we're moving!” she announced, waving them all into motion.

The area was already so full of people that she wasn't sure a car could even get through. Not that it was stopping people from trying. Screeching brakes pierced the air, and the honks were already distinctly changing from celebration to frustration. It proved to be slow going as they shouldered their way through people running every which way, occasionally having to dodge over-eager cars who seemed to be ignoring the many pedestrians standing between them and their freedom. They were one row away from Jeff’s beat up green sedan when a blue Camry came speeding around the bend. Tai grabbed Allie and pulled her to the edge while Van jumped back with Shauna and Jeff. The driver barely slowed down as they passed; Van couldn’t even see who was driving. They left actual skid marks on the ground behind them. Everyone looked around with wide eyed shock, but there wasn’t much to do other than keep going, carefully hugging the edge of the pavement this time.

They reached his car safely and piled in, Van in the passenger seat and the other three in the back, sandwiching Allie in the middle. Van’s heart pounded as Jeff started the car, and not just from the near death experience a few moments ago. They were so close now, the open road just a hundred feet away. Jeff started to back up, then suddenly yelled “Shit!” and slammed the breaks. Van whipped her head around to look behind them and saw the problem. The line to get out had wrapped all the way around in the time it had taken them to get here. They were blocked in, trapped again. 

The lot was too full, but people were still pouring out of the school, some running out for their cars, but many just standing and watching as this chaotic exodus unfolded. The honking and shouting continued as other cars discovered the same problems. At this pace, it would be a miracle if nobody got hurt.

“Jesus, this is nuts,” Shauna muttered in the back.

“People have been cooped up for too long,” Van said, nodding and looking around at the scene. “All that pressure builds up, and when it releases it goes all at once.”

“But this is ridiculous, what are they thinking?” 

“I don't think there's a lot of thinking going on for them,” Tai said warily as Van watched two bumpers collide a few cars down from them. “It's just Go .“

“I think I might have an opening here in a sec--” the gunshot sliced through Jeff’s words and all the other sounds, and everyone froze in their seats. It washed over all the horns in the lot, and then another, and then another, and then it was silent. Nobody breathed. 

The seconds ticked by in deafening quiet.

“Was that...” Allie started, but she trailed off, and Van couldn’t blame her for not having the words.

“What the fuck?” Jeff whispered, disbelieving.

Van’s eyes searched frantically over the cars, trying to see where the shots had come from.

“Okay, guys, here's what we're gonna do,” she started, not entirely sure where she was going because she had absolutely no idea what to do. Fortunately she didn't get a chance to finish the thought, because a piercing scream shattered the silence outside.

Then another, and another, and then they caught like a spark to gunpowder, and the air exploded. In seconds they were coming from everywhere. Car doors cautiously opened around them as people emerged to investigate just what the fuck was happening. Van took a deep breath and reached for the handle on her door, but Jeff grabbed her arm before she could push it open.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he demanded. “You can't go out there, we need to...” he looked back to the others. “We need to stay here, right?”

“I hate to say it, but Jeff is right,” Tai agreed, her voice shaking. “We need to wait here where it’s safe and let the police do their job.”

“I'm just taking a look,” Van answered. “I'm not going to just sit here and wait to die.“ She looked back at Tai and Shauna, both shaking their heads. ”I'll be fine! If we need to run then we need to know. I'll be right back,“ and with that she opened her door, Jeff's hand falling away, and stepped outside.

There wasn’t a clear look from behind the line of cars winding around in front of them, so she ducked between the two parked in front of them, then slipped through where the line curved around again. One of them rolled down their window when she passed, and she saw a boy from her Trig class, Lee Adams, and a short haired brunette girl she didn't recognize, probably a sophomore. It was the girl that rolled down her window as she rushed past.

”Hey, did you hear that? Was that a gun?” 

”I think so, I'm going to check now.“ The girl nodded worriedly.

”Please tell us, we can't see from here!“

”I will, I promise.“ She turned and kept on going towards the screaming, rushing between another row of parking and then ducking down to peek around the back of an especially muddy truck. More gunshots pierced the air. The crowd was scattering like a beehive that had just been kicked, and there was a crush at the front doors as everyone scrambled over each other to get back inside. But she couldn't tell what they were running from. The police officers were running in the opposite direction, pointing and yelling at each other. Wherever the shooter was must not be near the school, which was good enough for her. 

She started running back, slowing down by the girl's rolled down window enough to say ”It looks like the school is safe, get back inside if you can, but be careful!“

She nodded and unlocked her seatbelt, and Van didn't stick around to see the rest. She reached Jeff's car and pulled the rear door open. 

“Everyone is going back inside, I think it's safe there!“ They all stared back with empty expressions. ”Let's go!“ she shouted, clapping her hands to snap them out of their daze. ”Let's go, let's move!“ 

Shauna was first out on her side, followed closely by Allie and Tai. Jeff's door slammed shut a moment later. She recognized the haze in their eyes, the sluggishness of their reactions. She'd felt it many times, and she’d built up a tolerance to it. 

Nat had once described it as being lost in the woods with the sun going down, knowing you’re in danger but having no clear direction to escape . When she was younger, Van used to freeze when she saw the sun setting. It was easier to just stop, curl up on the ground and let the wilderness consume her. She figured that if the woods killed her, then she would finally find the peace Taissa had mentioned last night. But they never did; she was always still alive when the sun came back up in the morning. So she’d taught herself a new tactic: pick a direction and start walking. But this was a lesson she’d spent years teaching herself. She knew how much easier it was to just lay down on the soft ground and wait for the darkness to strike its final blow, and that’s what she saw on their faces now. So she took their hands and started guiding them towards a clearing.

She led them winding through the cars snaking around the lot once more, back just the way she went. They were almost back to Lee's car when another gunshot cut through the air, and then several fired off all at once, and then they stopped. Van stopped them all dead in their tracks and motioned for them to drop down, which they did. She crept forward and looked around the back of the truck again.

”HELP!“ The scream came from the same direction as the gunshots. 

”HELP ME!“ came another. Then a standard issue scream, and then a new crowd burst into sight, also making a beeline for the pileup at the front doors. But this one was different. It was… wrong. 

At first it was just a few people, a few men and a few women, but they were too old to be students. Then more followed behind them, people from all walks of life, but none of them involved attending high school. Most were too old, some were too little, but they were all desperately running from something, and they were all screaming . 

“Help!”

“Help me!”

“Save the children!”

“Help us!”

It was all variations on the same bone-chilling theme. 

Danger.

She looked back at them and saw the same look of absolute panic that she felt boiling inside. She looked back at the chaotic crowds colliding and hesitated on her plan for them to head straight into it. One of the men in front of the new mob collided with a student that crossed his path, sending them sprawling to the ground. It was brutal, but she didn't think much of it beyond the senseless chaos of mass panic. One of the teachers was running to help him up when he slammed into a woman running against him, and this time it almost looked like she intentionally tackled him. They crashed to the ground brutally hard, sending a shiver down her spine. She'd taken hard spills before, but never on pavement like that. More legs were sprinting by them, and she lost sight. 

Fuck it, she couldn't be indecisive in a moment like this.

“Okay come on, we're getting inside before this gets any crazier!” she ordered, and they only hesitated a moment before jumping up to follow her. 

The crowds continued to mix as they ran for the last row of cars, and when they slowed down to squeeze around them, Van got another good look at the people that fell, and her stomach jumped into her throat.

There was blood, lots of it, spreading out onto the hot asphalt and around the knees of the woman kneeling next to the teacher, whose face she couldn't see, but she thought it was Mister Burton, her woodshop teacher. The blood was on her clothes, and her hands, wrapped around his twitching head. And it dripped from her mouth as she smiled and bent down, opening wide and biting down on his neck for what looked like the second time. 

Only then did Van freeze. She couldn't feel any of her limbs anymore, the only thing she could still move were her eyes, and as she did she saw the same thing: children and teachers alike being attacked, teeth sinking into skin, and the shrieks that came with it. 

It was too much. Her vision swam and she felt the acid of vomit burning in the back of her throat, but somehow she managed to swallow it back. She realized the others were screaming behind her, and she grabbed all the pieces of her mind that just blew apart and dragged them all back together...mostly. 

“New plan, run this way!” she declared, and not waiting for them to object, although nobody did. She hadn’t said anything they weren't already thinking. She didn't know where they're going; all the side doors were locked, hence the pileup at the front. What had been safety in numbers was turning deadly. Some were starting to have the same idea as them, turning away from their original destination and flying across the lot towards....well, away from the screaming. 

The others overtook her in moments. It's not that she was slow, but her training never involved as much sprinting as theirs all did. She started to worry when they got four or five strides ahead of her, but it didn't really matter. She just kept running. 

More cries of “Help!” and “Help us!” and other over-the-counter sounds of distress came from behind them, but she didn’t look back. She didn't know what she'd just seen, but she knew she wanted to be nowhere near it.

“Where are we going?” Shauna yelled ahead of her, to no one in particular.

”The shed!“ Tai answered, pointing across the lawn to the athletic building, sitting on the edge of their soccer field and baseball diamond. It was probably locked, but it was worth trying. 

They flew down the road and curved around the school, over the sidewalk and then onto the grass that was the beginning of the sports pitch. Growing large before them was their sanctuary, separate from the main school, unfortunately for them, but it was still a place to hide. They'd been gearing up for games there for the last four years of their lives, and now their lives depended on it.

More people were flanking them now, everyone with the same idea of getting the hell away from the gunshots and screaming.

Shauna was first to the door and wasted no time trying the handle. If it was locked, they could either keep running or try kicking the door down. If it was unlocked, then they could hide until it was safe. It had water and toilets and probably some snack bars, forgotten or stashed. They could wait all day if they needed, and maybe into the night too. Or it could be locked, and they wouldn't need to worry about any of that.

The handle turned under Shauna's hand, and it swung open. 

Van would've breathed a sigh of relief if she wasn't full tilt sprinting. Shauna turned to them, the hints of a smile emerging from under the panic, and waved them over. Tai reached her first, then Jeff, then Allie, and then, finally, Van. 

”Guys, over here!“ Jeff called out to the others around them, and everyone instantly changed direction in a single, fluid moment of uncoordinated instinct, almost like a school of fish. Van hurried inside to make space for the incoming masses. They poured through the door, quickly growing from ten to twenty to thirty before slowing to a trickle. They end at something around forty, although Van was too busy catching her breath to be sure she was counting right. However many there were, the room had filled up to an uncomfortable level of crowding. What felt spacious among twenty now felt more akin to a mosh pit at a Sleater Kinney concert.

Jeff finally closed the door and worked his way back to them through the crowd.

”What the fuck?“ Tai gasped, still catching her breath. She looked between Van and Shauna as if they somehow stumbled on an answer that she missed (as if that was even possible).

”I don't know,“ Shauna said, her voice cracking. ”I don't know what's happening.“ 

Allie had collapsed to the ground, rocking back and forth and muttering “No no no no no no no,” clutching her legs with her back against the wall. “This can't be happening, this can't....this can't be happening.“

”Allie? Hey, Allie?“ Van tried to crouch down to her, but someone backed into her and almost sent her sprawling to the ground. She gasped. The only thing that stopped her was, ironically, another body standing too close behind her. She stumbled into them and caught herself on the lockers. 

”Hey! Everyone! Give us some space please!“

A lot of heads turned, and for a moment nobody moved. Then, begrudgingly, they backed up as much as they could. It wasn’t much of a clearing, but it would do for now. Van hurried back over to Allie, still rocking. 

“Hey, Allie, look at me.” She squatted down in front of her. 

Allie whispered something that Van couldn’t quite hear.

“What?” she asked, leaning in closer.

“We're gonna die!” she yelled, clutching her head. 

“No we're not,” Van tried to assure her, ignoring the murmurs that washed through the crowd around them.

“Hey guys, let's give them some space,” Jeff said behind her. She couldn't see what he was doing, but she heard shuffling and it sounded like he was heading for the back of the room.

”We're gonna die,“ Allie sobbed again. ”We're gonna die, we're gonna--“

“We're--Allie, look at me, hey,” she interrupted, craning her neck to look into her eyes, to bring her back. She found her eyes, somehow distant and piercing at the same time. Van forced a smile and nodded. “We're safe now, we're okay. You're in the shed and you're safe, do you understand?” 

Allie shook her head.

”I don't want to die,“ she sobbed, tears streaming down her face. 

“You're not going to die, you’re safe now,” Van assured her. 

“Hey, someone make sure that door is locked!“ Tai commanded behind her. Allie kept shaking her head and rocking back and forth, her back bouncing off the lockers with a little thump of the metal shifting. There was almost a kind of rhythm to it. thump-thump--thump-thump–thump-thump . 

She looked up at Van and then down to the floor, then back up again, her eyes a little more focused, still filled with tears.

“I want my mom,” she choked out. Something twisted in Van’s chest.

“I'm sure she'll be here soon, but I'm here with you now. I've got you,“ she said softly. Allie nodded and then, surprisingly, stopped rocking to reach forward for a hug. Van opened her arms and hugged her tight. 

They stayed there for a few minutes, with Allie crying into her shoulder and Van holding her, rocking them slowly, something she always found helped after one of her mom's tantrums.

The room was emptier by the time Allie finally pulled away, sniffling but no longer crying. There was probably more snot on Van's shoulder than she cared to think about, but her shirt was already so soaked with sweat that it wasn’t noticeably grosser than any other part of her. 

She looked up at Tai and Shauna, standing at a respectable distance from them. 

“So, um, what do we do now?” she asked, standing up to give Allie some space now that her panic attack had subsided.

“I don't know, stay here until someone comes to get us?” Shauna offered.

“Sheltering in place makes more sense than going back out there,” Tai agreed.

“Did you guys...” Van looked back to Allie, only just coming out of her shock, and lowered her voice, just in case. “Did you see the...the blood?”

“I saw people falling,” said Tai. “Is that what you mean?”

Van shook her head.

“No, I saw, I mean I thought I saw... some of those people were like...biting other people.”

“The fuck do you mean 'biting'?” Tai asked, bewildered.

“I mean like...” She wasn’t sure how else to put it into words, so instead she brought her arm up to her mouth and mimed several exaggerated bites. chomp chomp chomp ! “Like biting biting. Like breaking skin, gushing blood, biting.”

Tai laughed incredulously, maybe mistaking this as Van trying to lighten the mood, but Shauna's eyes went wide.

“I thought I saw someone biting Billy Hendricks,” she said. “It was so fast and I only caught a glimpse and I thought I was going crazy.”

Tai sobered immediately, looking back and forth between the two of them for any sign they were trying to pull one over on her.

“Wait, are you serious?”

As if in answer, Jeff’s voice called out from the back of the room, “I need a first aid kit!”

“What happened?” Van asked once he had shouldered his way through the crowd.

“I don't know,” he said, still a little breathless from either the running or the panic. Maybe both. ”Deke's hurt and he's not making any sense, but his arm's all bloody. I think I need to disinfect it, right?“

The pause that followed consisted mostly of the three of them looking back and forth trying to figure out if he was seriously asking that question. Unfortunately they all arrived at the same conclusion: he was.

”Yes...you do,“ Tai said, astounded. Jeff nodded obviously, nothing but genuine concern in his eyes.

“I’ll show you,” Shauna said, and started to lead him away.

”Wait,“ Van said, grabbing his arm as the thought suddenly hit her. ”Did he say how he got hurt?“ 

Jeff looked around warily, then leaned in and whispered, ”He said he was by the front doors, trying to get back inside, and that some crazy asshole screaming nonsense just ran at him, grabbed him and bit him! I don't know what the fuck he's talking about, but he's definitely hurt. A few others too I think, but I'm not sure.“ His eyes never stopped looking around, like he was afraid that speaking it aloud would make it real, or cause a panic, or both.

Van nodded and released her grip, and he disappeared back into the crowd behind Shauna. Then she turned to Tai, who was shaking her head.

”It doesn't make any sense,“ she muttered. 

“What doesn't?”

“Any of it!“ she yelled in frustration. ”We're locked down in the school all week without being told why, not even allowed to go home, and now there's....what? Fucking cannibals attacking us? I mean what the fuck?“

”Yeah, you can say that again,“ Van agreed.

”I'm seriously asking Van! Do you have any fucking clue, even half a guess about what's going on? Because I've been thinking about this for days and I thought that maybe there were a few reasonable answers... but now this? I can't square it Van, it makes no fucking sense!” 

Van reached out and took Tai's wildly gesticulating hands into her own. Tai's eyes finally met her's, and she saw fear in them that she'd never seen anywhere but the mirror.

“You're right,” she said, keeping her voice as level as possible to give Tai an anchor to grab on to. “It doesn't make any sense, but I don't have any answers right now and as smart as you are Tai, neither do you. So let's focus on the here and now for a few minutes, okay?”

Tai grimaced. 

“It just doesn't make sense,” she said through gritted teeth.

“You'll figure it out, I know you will,” Van assured her. “But right now I need you to focus on the right here, right now.”

Tai nodded begrudgingly. 

“Okay, okay yeah you're right.” She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, and Van could see her already working on the new problem.

“Okay lady, so what are our options?”

“Well, if people are hurt then we definitely need to get them first aid. Then after that...”

“For sure,” Van interrupted. “But I meant what are our options.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that if the keys are still in Jeff's car then maybe we can sneak out the back and-”

“You can't seriously think we're still trying to leave, Van!”

“Why wouldn't we be?”

“Because it's not fucking safe?” 

“But we knew it might be dangerous!” Van said, failing to keep the frustration from her voice. 

“Not like this! Van, those were gunshots! And if you're right and there's people out there right now that are attacking us?”

“All the more reason to leave!” Van urged. “To get as far away from here as we can!”

“No, all the more reason to get back to the school where we've been safe for days! This is what I was trying to say before! I don't know how it's all connected, but it has to be, which means that out there is going to be just as dangerous as it is here, if not more!”

“And if you're right? You want to just abandon Nat out there? What if she needs help!“ She didn't like that they were fighting, but she was just so frustrated. Why couldn't Tai see?

” We need help Van! We need to be safe, otherwise even if we find her, and that's a BIG if, we'll just be bringing her right back into danger.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?“

”What?“

”You said 'if we find her.' Do you not think we can find her?“

Tai groaned in frustration.

”It didn't mean anything, I'm sorry.“

“If it didn't mean anything then why did you say it!”

“Van, I said I'm sorry. There's too much going on and I can't think clearly and I said something I didn't mean, so can we please just stop fighting?“

Van took several long breaths.

“It's fine, you’re right. I'm thinking clearly and you're not.”

“No,” Tai said firmly, “Neither of us are thinking clearly. Which is why we shouldn't be rushing out into a dangerous situation before we understand it.”

Van didn't have a good comeback for that, and she was forced to consider the possibility that maybe she had gotten a little fixated too.

“It's like you said,” Tai continued. “We need to focus on the here and now. We can't help Nat if we get hurt or...or worse.”

Fuck. 

She usually loved when Tai was right, but she hated that it meant she was wrong this time. She hid her face in her palms and let out the quietest yell of frustration she could manage. Their fight hadn't garnered everyone's attention, but it hadn't gone unnoticed, and she didn't want to attract any more than they already had. 

Finally she dropped her hands and said, “Fine, okay, yeah, you're right.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“So what do we do then?” 

“Well we definitely shouldn't be going back out there right now, but we can't just sit on our hands in here and wait for those people to find us...” she trailed off, but Van could see the gears still turning behind her eyes, and she saw them light up the moment the last piece fell into place. ”We need to arm ourselves.“

”Okay, with what?“

”Everything. Anything. We need to empty these lockers and check the boy's as well.“

”All right, then let's pass it down the line.“ Tai nodded, and then they went to work.

Tai instructed everyone around her to check all the lockers, and Van pushed through the crowd until she found Jeff and Shauna tending to several people's injuries. Some just looked like pavement burns from falling amidst the chaos, but some had big ugly swollen flesh where they'd clearly been bitten. If Van didn't know any better she would've assumed they were dog bites. But she did know better. She didn't know what exactly it meant, but it was enough confirmation of what she'd seen that it took a significant effort not to vomit. She fought the urge and instead caught the two of them up on their new game plan. Jeff nodded and offered to take some of the boys to check their adjacent locker room on the other end of the building, tapping in a boy Van vaguely recognized to help Shauna finish bandaging people up. Not that there was much they could do other than dab antibiotic cream onto bandaids anyway.

Fifteen minutes later they had a few baseball bats and lacrosse sticks to their name. Not enough for everyone, but better than nothing. Van and Tai each took a lacrosse stick, and Van even managed to find a backup pair of keeper's gloves in Melissa’s locker.

Allie was back up and moving too, which was a relief. Van had worried about the extent of her shock, but seeing people move into action around her seemed to stir her back to self awareness. It always helped to have something to take your mind off the horrors, at least in Van's experience anyway.

She was pulling on her gloves when a boy lumbered past her in full catcher's gear.

“Dude, what are you wearing?” she asked, absolutely baffled. 

He thumped his chest plate and said ”Armor,“  grinning proudly. She looked over his body, still more than half exposed.

”Don't tell the enemy army, they might not notice. You can take 'em by surprise,“ she said dryly.

”Whatever,“ he said, shaking his head and shuffling away.

“Hey I think I have a spare sword around here somewhere, maybe we can knight you!” she called after him. He ignored her.

Jeff emerged from the hall just behind him, and when he saw the look on her face, he nodded agreement.

”I told him not to do it, but he insisted.”

“If he was calling the pitches all year then I think I finally understand your guy's record,” Van said wryly. Jeff narrowed his eyes, but she just shrugged. “Just saying.”

“He's a hell of a hitter, had the most homers on the team, even more than Bobby,” he offered.

“Should've taken one of your bats then.” 

Jeff sighed and nodded. ”I tried to tell him.“

Before Van could respond, someone started pounding at the door. 

”HELP!“ 

Everyone froze, the previous bustling of the room falling deadly silent. She tried to find Tai among the crowd, but the bodies were packed too tight. The banging continued, loud and desperate.

”LET ME IN! HELP! HELP!“

All eyes turned to the people closest to the door, who were looking nervously among themselves. The pounding was relentless, the screams strained and breathless.

“HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP!”

“For God's sake, let them in!” someone finally shouted. For a moment, nobody moved. 

“Do it!” somebody else shouted, finally stirring the boy closest to the door into action. He rushed over, sliding the lock back and pulling the door in.

They burst in the moment it swung back. The first man through the door had the boy on the ground in barely a second. A few seconds more and he was tearing into his throat. A few more rushed in behind him, all chanting the same word: “HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP!” Their tones climbed from desperate to ecstatic as they spotted their cornered prey. One by one they charged into the crowd, shoving kids back up against lockers and dragging them to the ground. Their bodies were frenzied, like sharks wrestling with a particularly plump and delicious seal. 

The crowd jumped back, like a school of fish. Prey animals all thinking with one mind: RUN! Everyone was screaming. Blood was spraying across the lockers, the walls, the floor, everywhere. Van looked back to the first man through the door; he was crouched over the boy, one hand digging into his face to hold him still as he ripped out his throat, and then Van couldn't see anything because everyone was screaming and scrambling away. The sound of metal clanging as bodies crashed into lockers mixed with the screams of fear and shrieks of pain. 

“HELP ME!” one boy shrieked. “GET HIM OFF ME!” 

“HELP US!” they agreed. “HELP! HELP!”

She couldn’t see who it was, and suddenly someone was grabbing her arm, pulling her back. The pull shook her out of her stupor, and then he didn’t have to pull anymore because she was running. She was already around the corner and running down the hall behind Jeff before the first thought hit her. 

Fight.

That's what they had just prepared for, wasn't it? Somehow she was still gripping her lacrosse stick in her hands. She pulled it in closer so it wouldn't be caught on the walls as she ran. If she could get enough room to swing it...

No, she had to run. Everyone was running, she heard the footsteps behind her. She didn't know if it was her classmates or those people, but it didn't matter. If she stopped and turned, she'd be bowled over and trampled to death. They turned the corner into the boy's locker room and she heard herself shouting, “Open the door!” although she wasn't sure why. But Jeff was ahead of her, and so was the back door leading onto the fields, so she told him to open it and he did, and then she was back out in the sun and the sweltering heat. To her left was the baseball diamond, to her right was the soccer pitch, so she turned right, her feet kicking up dirt behind her as she sprinted away, away, away.

Tai.

It hit her like a freight train, and the thought almost sent her sprawling to the ground as she suddenly started shedding speed. She whipped her head around and saw the shed, already thirty or forty feet away, and the people spilling out of the doors. Jeff was a few paces behind her, with more people behind him, but her eyes hadn't adjusted to the light and they were moving too fast and she couldn't make out faces.

“Tai!” she screamed, her eyes frantically searching. Oh God, what had she done? Why had she left so fast? ”Tai!“ she cried desperately.

”Look out!“ Jeff yelled as he thundered past her, his bat raised and swinging right at her. She jerked her head back as it whipped by, her eyes following its arc, and her blood running cold as it collided with its mark, sending the woman sprawling to the ground, barely missing her. She roared in anger as she tumbled by, reaching out and grabbing for Van's legs. She jumped back out of reach, but the woman was already scrambling after her. Jeff's bat fell again, this time on her back, and then she remembered her own weapon.

Fight!

She lifted it up over her head and brought it down on the woman's head as hard as she could. The impact slammed the woman's head into the ground, her teeth smashing together and splintering with a truly sickening snap as her jaw hit the earth. But she didn't so much as whimper in pain. Instead, she kept clawing at the grass, trying to pull herself closer to Van. Her eyes were wild and her jaw snapped at her like a rabid dog, broken teeth dangling and falling from her mouth as blood came pouring out. Van didn't hit her again. She turned and kept running, Jeff right behind her.

”What the fuck!“ he shouted, but she didn't answer, and she didn't think he expected her to. Her mind was blank with panic, the kind she hadn't felt in years. Not since the months after dad left and she'd come home to the stench of alcohol fumes and bottles flying at her head, and the screams telling her it was all her fault. Her legs were burning, her chest cramping, but she didn't stop, she couldn't stop. 

She risked looking around, and what she saw did nothing to calm her. 

The students that escaped behind them had spread out across the field, but they weren't alone. All around were figures she didn't recognize, chasing them, tackling them to the ground, and the screams that followed. Her eyes caught something large, and she twisted to see the boy in the catcher's gear stumbling across the sand of the baseball diamond. He stood no chance as three people converged on him and dragged him down. All that hard glossy armor on his legs and chest entombed him as he thrashed and screamed beneath them. She turned and kept running, she didn't know where. She didn't care. 

Anywhere but here.

Jeff was several feet ahead of her now, and getting further away by the second. She was becoming acutely aware that her keeper training hadn't involved nearly as much endurance training as the rest of the team, and the punishing heat wasn't helping. Every time she blinked she saw that woman’s mangled face. She saw what she’d done to her. And hidden inside of the yelling and screaming that was all around the field was her mother’s voice. Her fists fell on her in flashes, and in turn her hands brought down the stick on that woman’s head. Over and over and over again. The screaming blurred together too, and suddenly she was living two lives at once. The stitches in her side were becoming unbearable, but what choice did she have but to keep going? Jeff started arcing in a turn, and she tried to follow, but it was too much. Her heart pounded desperately and she suddenly found that she’d never once breathed in her life.

”Wait,“ she gasped. ”Jeff, wait!“ 

He looked over his shoulder and slowed.

”Come on! We need to get back inside!“

Why in the hell does he want to go back there? she wondered, before she saw where his arc was taking them. They had crossed the entire length of the soccer pitch, and now that they were turning, the school loomed before them, a few hundred feet away. She shook her head.

”I can't,“ she said between breaths, ”I can't.“

”Yes you can! Come on!“ He rushed back to her and grabbed her arm. ”We can make it!“ She stumbled after him, her sides still burning with cramps, her lungs still empty, years of screaming echoing in her ears.

Somehow she managed to ask, ”Where's Tai? Where are they?“

”I don't know,” he said, still pulling her back into a run despite her legs screaming at her to stop. “They're probably already inside, come on!” 

She gritted her teeth and forced herself back into a run. The screaming was a pretty good motivator. She tried to focus on that instead. Another burst of adrenaline hit her, and the pain subsided. Just one foot in front of the other, just keep going, just a few more, she repeated to herself.

“Van!” Her heart jumped and her eyes flew up, searching desperately for that familiar voice. “Jeff!” That was Shauna's too. Hope crept back into the back of her mind, and she grabbed onto it like a life raft in the middle of the ocean. Finally her eyes found them, all three of them about thirty feet away, hitting the pavement at the same time as her and Jeff. 

“Come on!” he urged, the same hope infecting his voice as well. They were going to meet them, they were going to get inside, they were all going to be okay!

Then her side felt like the skin was ripping open from the inside, and she couldn't do it. She stumbled into a car, slamming into it to break her speed, and that was it. Jeff disappeared ahead of her, around the bend in the parking lot, but Tai was still coming straight for her when her vision went completely white, her mother’s voice hammering in her ears from beyond the void.

She scrambles down the steps, disregarding the danger of stepping where she can't see. She just keeps going, round and round, until there's no more, until the hallway that opens before her leads to the one room she knows is unlocked. She doesn't stop until the doorway of the cafeteria emerges from the dark, its arches passing overhead as she wades into the sea of tables. 

Moving them to block the doorway isn't an option, it would be as loud as it would be time consuming. But they can provide a different kind of safety: she can conceal herself underneath, perhaps away from the hunter's superior eye, and failing that, she's reasonably confident that she can use the tables themselves as a means of transport, leaping across and putting them between hunter and prey. It's as close to a plan as she can manage, and it will be put to the test immediately, as she hears telltale grunting from the stairwells.

She moves awkwardly between the tables, careful not to move any of them; she's made enough accidental sound tonight. She ducks under one in the center of the room, and just in time, as she sees a silent silhouette emerge in the doorway. She watches, barely, as it glides through the room, searching, searching, searching...

“Help!” The scream seems to come from everywhere and nowhere, a formless shriek filling the air all around her. 

“Help me!” It cries out. It's hungry for her, and now it seems to have abandoned its stealth in an attempt to startle a sound out of her.

“Help m-me please!” it whines again as it rounds the last table and starts down her row. 

BANG!

She jumps instinctively, smacking her head right into the table above her. Her ears ring like a bell striking on the hour and suddenly her world is swimming. She claps her hands over her mouth and swallows a scream as pain splits her head open like lightning, stabbing down a thousand little roots spreading across her skull. 

BANG!

It slaps the next table angrily as it approaches.

“HELP ME! PLEASE!” it sobs as it marches toward her.

Her head throbs like it’s suffering an aftershock, the pain shooting around her skull in waves. She chokes on a sob as tears flood her eyes. Its footsteps fall louder and closer every second. Her vision is swimming.

BANG!

It lands directly overhead, and she holds herself to just a small twitch in response. But she lets out a whimper. 

“Jackie?” it asks, legs only inches away from her face. 

Tears are streaming down her face and she realizes she’s holding her breath and she needs to breathe but it’s standing right there . 

“JACKIE!” The hunter cries out in a voice that was once familiar, but has long since belonged to the thing that girl became.

She holds her breath, hands slippery with tears locked over her mouth. Trying, despite everything, not to fucking scream.

“I’ve got her, get Shauna inside!” she heard Tai yell, and then she was there, her beautiful face looking down at her and ordering her to get up. But she couldn't. Her legs were burned out, shaking beneath her, and she couldn’t seem to hold any air in her lungs, so she just kept gasping again and again. And on top of it all, the adrenaline had worn off, revealing all the ugly aches and pains it had been suppressing. 

“I can't,” she gasped, shaking her head. “I can’t b-b-breathe.”

“It’s okay, you’re having a panic attack, that’s all. Just listen to me okay? Breathe with me now, just like we practiced. In…” Van gulped for air, listening to Tai while she did the same. “Hold…” It felt like her chest was going to implode. The seconds dragged into eternity. “Out.” She knew she was supposed to let it out slowly, but it hurt too badly to keep in for even another second, so she blew it all out at once.

“That’s okay,” Tai said soothingly, “Now again, with me, in…” Van obediently dragged more air into her lungs.

“Guys?” Allie’s voice came from somewhere in the white void beyond Tai’s face. 

“Not now Allie,” Tai said, and Van lost the count, blowing the air out and gasping for it right back. “Fuck, come on babe, you can do this.” 

She wanted to trust her, but it didn’t feel like she could. The scorched air, the screaming, her body shaking, she just wanted it all to go away.

“They’re coming!” Allie shouted from the void.

“Just leave me, just go,“ she whimpered.

”No!“ Tai said firmly as she grabbed Van's arm. ”Come on, move it mister!“ 

Van groaned as Tai dragged her up against the car, her stomach churning and vision swimming.

”Help me Allie!“ Van saw a second figure come up to her, then felt her other arm being pulled up. Fine , she thought, I'll stand .

”Let's move!“ Tai commanded, and who was Van to deny her wishes? So she stumbled forward, one foot in front of the other, her muscles protesting every step. In, hold, out. In, hold, out. She wasn't sure how far they'd walked until they left the shade and the sun was beating down on her once again. She looked up and saw the school standing a few dozen feet away. Things were clearing up a bit as she caught her breath, and she thought she could-

”Oh shit!“ Tai yelled, dropping her arm and turning behind them. Van turned and saw a figure racing straight at them, and then the adrenaline was back, and her vision cleared. She realized she was no longer holding her lacrosse stick, and she wondered when she'd dropped it. But she still had her gloves, and if there was one thing she knew how to do after a decade of playing keeper and living with her mother, it was how to throw a punch. Tai swung her stick as their attacker reached them, and Van clocked him in the face after Tai's impact knocked him off balance, sending him flying down to the pavement a few feet behind them. 

”Run!“ Tai shouted, and Van didn't need to hear it twice. They both spun around and took off for the school's doors, only about twenty feet away now. Van put one foot in front of the other, and then again, and again, and then she couldn't, because something grabbed her, and then the pavement was rushing up to meet her. She threw her arms up to break her fall. She gasped as the impact knocked out what little breath she had. More out of instinct than any real thought, she rolled over to see what had tripped her, and saw the man's hand wrapped around her ankle. His teeth were bared, reaching hungrily for her exposed leg. She heard Tai screaming her name behind her, but it didn't matter. She kicked at his face, but his grip was ironclad. So she kicked him again, scrambling back on the burning hot pavement. She kicked him again, and his hand loosened, and then she was free. But there were more behind him, coming fast, too fast. She was pushing herself up, steeling herself for a fight; any second now they were going to drag her to the ground and sink their teeth into her.

Something snapped, cutting through the air like the crack of a whip. She’d barely gotten to her feet to look around for the source when the screaming started. Then someone grabbed her from behind, and she jumped, swinging around ready to fight, but it was only Tai. She was grabbing her arm and yelling ”Run!“ Van was starting to follow behind her when she saw Allie on the ground, and realized the source of the screaming. Her leg was bent sideways, the bone splintered out from under her skin. She was rolling back and forth, hands wrapped around it, shrieking.

It didn’t make any sense, how could this have happened? Had she tripped? There wasn’t anyone else around, just her and Tai. It wasn’t until the man stopped crawling towards her and turned his attention to Allie that those words from last night came flooding back to her.

I’ll do anything for you.

Tai told her to just keep running and not look back, but how could she? It hadn't fully set in yet, the fact that Allie's life had just been traded for her's, but on some level she must have understood, because she couldn't bring herself to look away. It felt too easy to just turn away, to pretend it wasn't happening. 

So she watched. 

Even as she stumbled those last few feet back to the front doors, she forced herself to watch, to understand that it should be her back there, writhing on the ground. She watched and she watched and she burned it all into her memory. She remembered the way Allie’s leg splayed over the ground at an impossible angle, the bloody bone jutting out towards the sky. She remembered the way Allie's voice ran coarse as she screamed, begging for someone to come to her. 

And they did. 

It was a man in a shredded suit that came to her first, the one Van had only just escaped. He stumbled over to her and bent down, grabbing hold of her arm and biting down like he hadn't eaten in days. She remembered the way her flesh dangled from his mouth when he ripped away, the way it bounced up and down while he chewed. 

It was a woman that came running next. Her long dark hair was tangled in knots and matts, stuck together with dried blood. She was wearing a butterfly patterned dress, and she had a tattoo of a panda wrapped around her thighs, six inches long at least. She was even hungrier than the man, barely even stopping to kneel, taking more of a dive onto the pavement next to Allie before taking hold of her broken leg. Allie's screams climbed an octave as her leg jerked in the woman's hands. She twisted and thrashed, like an animal caught in a trap, trying to break free of their grip, but she had nowhere to go.

Even as Tai dragged her through the school's doors, she watched the skin peel away from Allie's fingers as she clawed at the pavement trying to get away, all while more of the starving knelt beside her to take communion of her flesh. She watched as a blonde girl not much older than her took hold of Allie's head and leaned down to offer a kiss of death, coming away with most of her cheek between her teeth. Without it, Van could see Allie’s teeth and jaw, exposed to the air and grinning in a deathly grimace. She listened as Allie's desperate cries for help gurgled and drowned in her blood.

She remembered Allie's laugh, she remembered her tears, and she remembered her screams. But most of all, she remembered the moment it all went away when her body went limp. The way her eyes unfocused, looking at nothing, or maybe at whatever was beyond. The way she simply relaxed all at once, and rocked back and forth as they tore into her like wolves, ripping away chunks of her like it was nothing. She remembered that Allie died in her place, and she remembered it every day for the rest of her life. 

Chapter Text

Bodies lay scattered across the ground in pools of blood, glistening under the baking sun. They couldn’t have been dead long, but the sweltering summer air was already taking on the smell of a Saturday afternoon cookout. A few of the bodies lay alone, their meat sizzling in the heat and ringing the dinner bell for anyone with a nose and carnivorous cravings. And everywhere she looked, hungry diners answered the call. On the soccer field, in the parking lot, on the street; they crouched over the dead, ripping flesh from bone with their hands and mouths like a pack of wolves digging into a carcass. No, she thought, they weren’t like carcasses. They were dead. All of them. Except for the ones that weren’t. The air was heavy with humidity and screams. The hunt was only just beginning.

Her fellow escapees were still running and screaming behind her. Dozens of students and dozens of strangers moved in a dance with no direction like a cat and mouse playing a fucked up game of sudden death tag. A few had made it to the school doors ahead of them, but most had been intercepted en-route and peeled off in various other directions across the school grounds. They ran panicked and wild in that hazy heat of summer noon, and one by one their screaming reported the failure of their strategy. Death was feasting in that schoolyard, hungrily harvesting the youth for everything they had from meat to marrow. It littered the ground with gore and choked the air with cries for help. Death was all around her, and now it was reaching out for Van. 

Tai planted her feet without even thinking. It wasn’t a thought to stop and go back for her, it was an instinct. Something she physically had to do, like breathing. She reached out and grabbed Allie’s arm, also without thinking.

“What are you doing?” Allie demanded, skidding to a halt a few feet ahead of her. “Let me go! They’re coming!” 

“We can’t leave her!” 

Allie yanked her arm away from Tai, but she tightened her grip.

“Let me go!” Her voice wasn’t angry, it was fearful and panicked. Tai knew because she felt it too. She had never been so afraid in her life as she was in that moment. But they had to go back and she couldn’t do it alone.

“Stop!” Tai snapped desperately. “Help me! Come on!”

But Allie shook her head and said “No no no no” as she backed away, and Tai understood that she was going to run.

The future flashed before her eyes; a future without Van, and it was a decaying husk of a life, empty and bleak and utterly pointless. She thought of the locker room just moments ago, of the men and women that brought her classmates to the ground and started ripping into their flesh. She watched that man clawing after Van with the same insatiable hunger and rage. She watched her kick him in the face and scramble away. 

“Run Van!” she shouted, but he grabbed Van’s foot and tripped her again before she could stand. There were more people coming, adults she didn’t recognize racing over the pavement towards them, and somehow, in that split second, she made a decision that would haunt her until the end of her days.

Allie was trembling, and again she tried to pull her arm free and run for the doors. Her arm was slick with sweat, and this time she slipped free from Tai’s fingers.

Looking back she would tell herself that she thought it through. That on any other day she thought Van could outrun them, just enough to catch up and get through the doors that were just behind them now. She'd tell herself about how she'd just had to drag her up in the throes of a panic attack, and that she'd seen how breathless Van already was. She would tell herself that she weighed all these facts and reached a cold, logical conclusion. And maybe it was true. Maybe somewhere deep in her subconscious she did run all those equations through her head in one fleeting second. 

But it didn't matter. 

It stopped mattering the moment the thought skipped across her brain: that maybe these people would stop chasing them if they had an easier target. 

Allie tripped over the curb behind her and cried out as she fell. Tai reached down and grabbed her arm to help her back up. Allie planted her feet, rose halfway, and then Tai stomped down on her leg. She felt it give way beneath her foot, the snap of the bone traveling up her leg and into her body. It was like a piece of Allie broke off and burrowed itself into her, infecting her with the memory of how it felt the first time she killed somebody. 

Maybe it was a piece of Allie's soul. It certainly would have explained things later. She tried to tell herself it was just vibrations traveling naturally through the body. Just like she tried to tell herself the screams were just vibrations traveling naturally through the air,  nothing more. But she knew exactly what she took away in that moment, and she knew exactly why she did it.

She left Allie before she had even finished crumpling to the ground.

She grabbed Van's arm and dragged her to her feet. 

She yelled “Don't look!” because she knew how her best friend felt about blood. She didn't know what Van was going to think of her once she figured out what happened, but whatever it was, at least she'd be alive to feel it. Allie's screams filled the air around them, joining the others. Every second brought her closer to death and she knew it. 

Tai kept her eyes on the doors.

“Don't look!” she yelled again, trying to take Van's attention away from everything, which was hard with Allie screaming and dying behind them. Van was still looking back at her and Tai risked a glance herself. Allie was writhing beneath the hands and mouths of five different people, her screams ripping through the air as they ripped off her skin. She was pumping blood out of her body from holes in her arms, stomach and legs. It sizzled on the hot pavement where it was pooling around the cannibal’s knees. She screamed and begged and cried as it was all taken away, and then her screams abruptly sputtered and died. 

She died. 

Allie…died. 

All that she ever was, and all that she ever could be, it all vanished. Or no, it didn’t vanish. 

It was stolen. 

Every morning before school, where she would have woken up exhausted after staying up late to finish homework. Every lunch she would have gone to, where she would have eaten a mediocre sandwich to enjoy the company of her friends. Every grueling soccer practice that left her knees and chest burning from the effort, every late night spent studying for finals before graduation, every hug from her parents and every laugh shared with friends, all of it was gone.

Tai had ripped it away from her with a single, well placed stomp of her foot. It fell silent in the air between them, giving way to the uncaring whine of cicadas and the distant screams of the other kids from the shed that hadn’t been fast enough. Some had made it to the parking lot behind them, and she could see a few in the distance running away from the school. She probably wouldn’t see them again. She yanked the door open and dragged Van inside, and then the door slammed shut behind them.

Chapter II: Delicate Ecosystems

Van bent over and vomited at her feet, hurling chunks of breakfast and stomach acid across the floor of the front lobby. It splashed in a wide arc, and Tai felt some of it spray up onto her leg. She almost joined her, but her attention snapped to the sound of a voice saying “What the fuck?” 

Jeff stood a few feet away from the entrance, eyes wide and gaping at them. The realization hit like an ice bath: he had just seen her commit murder. She didn't know how much he'd seen, but given the windows in the doors, it was too much to hope that he'd missed everything. She had to deal with it now before he left her sight to go and tell God knew who. 

She rushed forward, and she could feel the crunch of Allie’s leg snapping under her feet with every step. It sent icy shivers up her legs and into her spine.

“Listen to me, Jeff. Allie tripped, do you underst-HEY! Look at me!” His eyes had started to drift back out the doors. She grabbed his shoulders and he jumped, his wide eyes finally snapping away from the window and focusing on her.

“They were right behind us, okay? We were almost back to the doors, and she tripped and fell. We tried to go back but they were already on her. It was too late. Understand?”

She could see he was starting to by the way his expression was shifting from shock to...something she'd rather not think about, actually. He eyed the hallway behind them, where teachers were coming running at the sound of the doors being opened. Fuck! She needed to know he wasn't going to say anything, now!

”She saved my life,“ Van said quietly behind her. Jeff's eyes flitted over Tai's shoulder for a few seconds, then focused back on her, a new expression emerging. But before he had a chance to respond, the faculty was there.

”Are you kids all right?“ one of the teachers asked. 

”You need to lock the doors, they're right behind us!” Tai answered, dodging the question. She was beyond grateful that they hadn't thought of it before.

“What? We can't do that, there are still people out there!”

“Did you see what's happening out there?” Tai demanded. “Those people cannot get inside!“

”Tai! Van!“ Ben called out from behind her. He rushed over, but stopped short when he saw Van’s vomit spread across the ground. ”Are you girls okay?“

She wanted to say, No. Not at all. I just killed someone. I'll never be okay again. But even as the words took shape in her mind, she knew she could never speak them aloud. She couldn't stand the look she’d seen in Jeff’s eyes, and the thought of seeing that across everyone's faces was too much to bear. Allie was dead. Van was alive. The world was going more insane by the minute, but that was her lifeline. It didn't matter how it came to pass. Nobody ever needed to know the price. That was her burden to bear for the rest of her life, however long or short that would end up being. And that longevity depended on her right now. She swallowed back the words and instead answered, ”You need to lock the doors!“ 

It was probably no more than thirty minutes ago that these doors had been trapping them inside, an obstacle that she and everyone else had been eager to overcome. Breakfast felt like a lifetime ago. Now the whole world was upside down and she wanted nothing more than for those same doors to stay closed forever.

”What? We can’t do that, there are still people outside, we’re still missing at least–”

”They’re not coming!“ she yelled, her voice cracking. Her chest twisted and tried to force out a sob, but she swallowed it back, allowing just a few tears to fall down her face.

“You don't know that!” Jeff cut in. “There were dozens of people with us a minute ago, they could still be coming!”

“And you know who else is coming!” Tai snapped at him before turning back to Ben. 

“Taissa, we can't leave kids trapped out there!“

”Please Coach, they CANNOT get inside! Did you see what they were doing to people?“

She could see fear in his eyes, but she also saw confusion. He knew there was an emergency, he just didn't know just how dire it was. She grabbed his arm before he could answer and dragged him back over to the doors, pushing Jeff aside and taking over the spot she knew had a clear line of sight.

”Look at them! They are eating Allie out there right now!”

Tai risked a glance out the window. It was hard to see from this angle, but she was there, a few dozen feet away, losing more of herself by the second. It looked like a few more people had joined in the feast since they left her. Her arms had been stripped of more than half their flesh, and her broken leg was no longer the only bone that was visible. They were making such fast work of her that Tai couldn’t even tell that injury apart from the rest of her anymore. Nobody will ever know, she thought sickly. Unless one of us tells them.

“Oh Jesus!” Ben gagged, his hand flying up to his mouth as if that would somehow stop him from being sick. “What the fuck!”

“Those people are everywhere right now,” Tai said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with them but we can’t let them get inside!”

Ben looked almost as sick as she felt, the color draining from his face and his eyes growing distant as the shock started to set in, just like it had for them in the shed. But they didn’t have time to be in shock, not yet anyway.

“Coach!” she urged, shaking his arm just like she had Jeff’s. She understood their sluggishness; she hadn’t wanted to believe it either. But any time they wasted now put everyone in danger. There had only been forty or fifty people in the shed, but there were hundreds still here in the school. She couldn’t let it happen again. 

“Coach!” she yelled, shaking him again. 

His eyes drifted back to her, and then he turned back towards the lobby. His voice cracked when he shouted.

“Who–who has the keys!“ 

”They're in the office,“ someone answered.

“Get them now!” he ordered, then turned back to her.

“What happened? What the fuck is going on?” 

Tai took a deep, shuddering breath, in an attempt to hold back her tears. It didn't matter if he saw, he would assume it was just the shock of losing Allie, but she still needed to stay composed because she knew if she let herself lose it, she wouldn't be able to get it back.

”I don't know, she was with us and then she...“ She choked back a sob. ”She tripped, I guess. And they were already on her and we couldn't go back.“ She stopped there, both because there wasn't any more to tell and because if she said even one more word she knew she was going to crack.

”Oh my God,“ Ben rasped in horror, dragging his hands over his face. “What the hell were you girls doing out there?”

“We were…” She wasn’t sure why she trailed off, it wasn’t like they could possibly get in any more trouble than had already found them, but she still found herself hesitating. 

“Please don’t lie to me, Taissa,” Ben said, and in that moment she realized two things. The first was that she had already succeeded in lying to him once. Of course, why would he suspect that she had just killed her teammate? Former teammate, a voice whispered back. The second thing she realized was that there was no point in lying about why they had been outside. She took a deep breath and steeled herself and was just about to tell him when one of the teachers appeared with the keys. 

“Are you sure about this?” he asked. “Shouldn’t we wait for Berzonsky?”

Ben swallowed nervously, and for a moment Tai thought he was going to fold. But then she saw his eyes flick back towards the window, and he said, “No, lock them now.” The teacher nodded dutifully and locked the doors. Tai waited until he was finished and Ben’s stern, questioning eyes were focused on her again. She took another deep breath and said, “We were trying to leave to go find Nat.”

She expected him to be angry, to scold and berate her. More than that, she wanted him to. She had just committed the worst act of her entire life and she deserved to see some kind of punishment for it, even if he didn’t know exactly what for. However good her intentions had been, to find Nat and to save Van, it didn’t change what she’d done. She’d done an unforgivable thing and she deserved to face judgment for it, and judging by the look on Ben’s face, she was about to get it.

“Christ, Taissa, what were you thinking!”

“I–I don’t—We didn’t know this would happen! We thought we would just go find her at home and then…I don’t know Coach, I really don’t know what we thought would happen, but it wasn’t this!”

For a long moment, Ben said nothing. He stared at her, his expression stern but also something else…

“You should have known better, Tai.”

Disappointment. Somehow that was worse. She wanted him to be angry, she wanted him to yell at her. But unless she told him the truth, the whole truth, he wouldn’t. That wasn’t who he was. Somehow that made her even more angry. Angry at him for being too decent to summon up rage, and angry at herself, because she had let him down, even if he didn’t know exactly how.

“I’m sorry Coach,” was all she could think to say. 

“It’s okay, I–” 

“HELP!” 

In a cartoon, they would have leapt right out of their bodies at the shout and the drumming of fists on the door that accompanied it. Their skinsuits would have lifted right up into the air, leaving behind their frightened skeletons. As it was, Tai yelped and leapt away from the door right into Van’s unexpecting arms. They stumbled back several steps, but Van was a thoroughbred keeper and knew how to plant her feet and become a brick wall. She steadied them quickly and wrapped her arms tightly around Taissa. What came next was eerily reminiscent of their ordeal in the shed just a few minutes ago.

“LET ME IN!” the boy shouted. 

Tai’s heart dropped into her stomach. 

“PLEASE! LET ME IN!” 

“Oh fuck,” Ben gasped. He turned back towards the lobby and shouted, “Steve! Bring the keys back!” The teacher that had locked the doors came rushing back over, and Ben grabbed the keys out of his hands before he could hand them over. He took a step toward the door, fumbling through the keys again.

“No! You can’t let him in!” Tai yelled, lunging regretfully out of Van’s protective embrace to grab his arm. “You can’t let anyone in!”

“What? We can’t leave people outside, Tai!”

“No, you don’t understand!” 

Looking into his eyes at that moment, she realized that it was all about to happen again unless she made him understand, right now. And even as she said the words, she realized that she probably couldn’t. But she had to try.

“What do you mean?” he demanded.

“When we saw everyone trying to get back inside, we were cut off, so a bunch of us ran to hide in the shed. We thought we’d be safe there, but they found us and screamed for us to let them in, so we did, and then they attacked us!” She could see it on his face; the same disbelief she’d felt when Van and Shauna told her what they’d seen. The banging on the doors was relentless. More teachers were coming over now, and she heard the keys shaking in Ben’s hands. She was out of time.

“Stop!” she shouted, this time at all of them. “You can’t let anyone else inside! They were killing us! The people that got Allie, there were more like them! I don’t know what’s wrong with them, if they’re sick or–or what, but we can’t risk them getting inside!”

“There are still staff and students out there!” yelled her physics teacher, Mr. Moustafa. Ben looked between them uneasily.

“Please let me in!” the boy at the door shouted again. “They’re coming! Hurry!” His voice cracked pubescently as he begged; he couldn’t have been more than fifteen.

“I’m letting him in,” Ben said, shaking his head in disbelief that he had ever considered otherwise. He pushed past her, rifling through the keys to find the right one, and her anger boiled over. Or maybe it was her fear. Either way, she grabbed his arm again and yanked him back.

“Please Coach!” she shouted. His head spun around, his eyes wide in surprise. “You saw what they did to Allie!” 

He hesitated, and as he did she saw a flash of red in the corner of her eye. The keys clattered like windchimes when Van grabbed them out of his hands. 

It was a terrible lift; she still had her keeper’s gloves on, so instead of neatly swiping them from his fingers she ended up smacking his hand before she closed her fist and yanked them away.

“What the hell, Van!” he yelled.

“She’s right!” Van yelled back. “It’s not safe!” 

“LET ME IN!” the boy objected.

“Van, give us the keys,” one of the other teachers said, the way one would say ‘ Easy boy’ to an angry dog. She hid them defiantly behind her back. 

“For God’s sake,” Ben said. “Bill!” He was calling for Coach Martinez.

Van was trying to back away down the hall, still clutching the keys behind her, but there were too many teachers cutting her off. 

“Van!” Ben shouted. “Give us the keys!”

“You don’t understand Coach!” she shouted back. 

One of the teachers muttered something under his breath and then lunged at Van. She yelped and jumped back, slamming into the wall. Tai leapt after him, slapping his hand out of the air and shoving him back as hard as she could.

“Don’t touch her!” 

He stumbled back, eyes wide, and he backed off. But the others were closing in around them.

“Bill!” Ben shouted again from behind the encroaching line.

“LET ME IN!” the boy yelled, still banging on the doors.

Tai planted her feet and stared down the adults. She could hear Van panting behind her and the muffled keys jingling in her hands. She didn’t have a plan, though she supposed that the two of them would throw fists before letting the keys go. She steeled herself and counted her opponents. Five teachers, plus Ben. 

Fuck. Those were not good odds. 

“What’s going on?” Coach Martinez’s voice carried through the lobby with the practiced, voluminous baritone of a man who’d spent years bellowing orders across entire soccer fields. Tai had been on the receiving end of them for four years now, and she was pretty sure this would be the worst one yet. But she never got the chance to find out, because before he could make his way through the crowd to them, the boy at the doors changed his tune.

“No, no, NO!” he shouted before shifting to a blood curdling scream. The doors crashed like something had been thrown against them, and everyone’s heads turned to see the boy pressed up against the slim window in the door, struggling to fight off several other people. His failure was made plain when another face darted into view, sinking his teeth into the boy’s neck and spraying a curtain of red over the glass. Everyone gasped. 

That would’ve been all of us, Tai wanted to say aloud, but she was pretty sure that much was clear to them now. At least she hoped it was. The boy’s screams died as quickly as he did, and it was nowhere near fast enough. They all stood frozen, Van’s theft of the keys forgotten, and listened to the dying screams of the boy they’d just sacrificed. That made two for the tally already; she was really on a fucking roll today.

As bad as the screaming was, the silence that followed was much worse. The doors creaked slightly on their hinges, disturbed not by someone fighting to be let in, but from the feast they’d just left outside for the others. She thought the silence might stretch forever, and she almost hoped it would so she wouldn’t have to find out what they would do to her for letting that boy die. But she was saved by the bell, or rather, a BANG! on the doors. It snapped the tension like a tree branch, or a leg.

It was unmistakably someone pounding on the door, someone that had very probably just killed the other boy.

“HELP!” shouted a man’s voice. “LET ME IN!”

Everyone gasped again, and in some unspoken, instinctual movement, everyone started backing away from the doors. Now they could see exactly what she had been trying to tell them, and she had the dark thought that she was grateful because that boy’s death might have just saved them all. She glanced over her shoulder and found Van staring at her with the same tragic thought written all over her face. At least she hoped that’s what it was.

Coach Martinez shouldered his way out of the crowd and stood before them, his face shadowed in expressions whose meanings Tai didn’t even want to speculate on. She tensed, ready for another fight. He stopped and held out his hand.

“The keys, Van,” he said sternly. Ben stood behind him, looking nervously between them and the doors.

Tai braced herself, ready to tell him off, but then Van stepped out from behind her and dropped the keys into his open palm.

“Thank you. Now you girls should go join the rest of the team, they were in the gym last I heard.”

“Yes Coach,” Van said, stealing a shameful look back at Tai before she started walking away. Tai started to follow her instinctually and then stopped. She couldn’t leave until she was sure.

“You can’t let anyone in Coach,” she pleaded. “There’s more of them, and they can’t get inside!”

“LET ME IN!” the man outside disagreed.

“I understand, Taissa. We’ll take it from here.” He said it firmly, leaving no room for discussion, and she didn’t know what else she could do, so she ran off after Van to trade one impossible conversation for another.

The hallway outside the nurse's office was chaos. At least two dozen students were crammed in the room and the overflow was spilling out into the hall. From what she could see, it seemed like most of them had fallen and taken scrapes on the pavement. Shauna stood behind them, clutching her arm where the skin had been ripped away, blood staining her hand as it slipped by down her arm. The pain had been surprisingly bearable in the moment, but as soon as she got inside it all came roaring back.

”Excuse me,“ she mumbled, trying unsuccessfully to push her way through the crowd. Her voice died in the din of everyone else yelling basically the same thing. ”Excuse me,“ she said again, raising her voice slightly. The boy in front of her was unmoved by her plea.

”There's a line!“ he snapped, barely looking her way as he adjusted to cut her off. 

Her left arm was throbbing. Blood was running down the length of it and falling in a stream of droplets to the floor, but nobody cared. She stepped back and scanned the crowd, looking for any kind of opening, but the only thing she saw was a chaotic mass of people pushing and shoving each other like they were trying to get a celebrity autograph. She wouldn't find a way through, but maybe she could get around. She slipped over to the wall and turned to push through the crowd with her right arm. 

The first few people she shouldered past turned and started muttering complaints, but stopped when they saw her arm. Then the crowd shifted again and suddenly she was being shoved into the wall on her left side. Her arm protested the sudden impact and she cried out as the skin seared in pain again. The girl that had fallen back into her quickly regained her balance and turned around, apologizing profusely.

“Shit I'm so sorry-” she started, but she stopped the moment she saw Shauna's bloody arm. “Oh my god! Did I do that?” 

“No, no it happened outside,” Shauna grunted. 

“That looks bad,” the girl gasped. Shauna's stomach dropped. She had really been hoping that it felt worse than it looked. The searing hot pain of contact was dispersing into a rhythmic throbbing throughout the entire arm now. She was ready to keep pushing when the girl surprised her.

”Hey! Move out of the way assholes!“ She moved forward, yelling and shoving everyone away from the wall and clearing a path for Shauna. ”Come on! Move it! Move! Fucking–“ she grunted as she shoved a much taller boy out of the way.

“The fuck!” he protested, stumbling into several more people who also began whining and snapping at the girl. But she persisted. She wasn’t much shorter than Shauna, but she was thinly built in a way that made her seem smaller. At least enough that Shauna felt mildly embarrassed to have her clearing the crowd for her. What she lacked in stature she made up for with volume and fiery confidence.

She cleared a path for Shauna with targeted, preppy efficiency. The crowd zipped and unzipped around them, creating a small pocket of movement towards the door, which they reached in no time at all. Shauna rushed forward before someone could cut her off, and she muttered ”Thank you,“ to the girl who was now holding the door open for her.

“You’re welcome!” she said sweetly, without a trace of the forcefulness she’d deployed on everyone else. “I hope you feel better!”

The inside of the nurse's office offered little relief. Every chair in the room was full and everyone else was standing in a disorderly array around the room. Attending to them all was the nurse, Ms. Grant, several teachers and, to her surprise, Misty and Laura Lee. Misty was across the room, wrapping a bandage around someone’s leg, and Laura Lee was washing her hands in the sink to Shauna’s left. The noise level was fairly reduced from the hallway, but Shauna still had to shout to get someone's attention.

“Help!” she yelled for lack of a better word. 

Laura Lee's eyes shot up at the sound of her voice, surprise flooding her face and her voice.

”Shauna?“ Her eyes quickly drifted down to Shauna’s arm, and then the surprise was gone, replaced by something more resolute.

She beckoned for Shauna to come over while she dried her hands. She shooed a boy out of a nearby chair and gestured for Shauna to supplant him. 

“Ms. Grant, she's bleeding a lot!” Laura Lee yelled over her shoulder as she pulled on fresh gloves.

“I'll be there in a minute!” the nurse answered from across the room where she was busy helping another girl.

Laura Lee hurried over to a cabinet and pulled out a large plastic sleeve with an image of a bandage printed on the front, a roll of medical tape, and a fresh towel. She placed them on the counter behind her and then leaned in to examine Shauna's arm. Her brow furrowed in concern, and Shauna felt that pit in her stomach again. 

“Is it bad?”

“I think it looks worse than it is,” Laura Lee said hesitantly, which did nothing to quell the butterflies of anxiety furiously beating their wings in her chest.

“Well it fucking hurts. Ow!” She twitched her arm away from Laura Lee’s prodding hand. 

“Sorry!” she yelped, pulling her hand back. “I can’t tell if there’s any other wounds or just this.”

“It’s fine,” Shauna muttered, even though her touch had sent a fresh wave of pain reverberating through the arm. 

Laura Lee called out anxiously for Ms. Grant again, and the nurse came hurrying over a few moments later. She looked over Shauna’s arm with the anxious fervor of someone who was used to dealing with a few skinned knees and, on a bad day, maybe a dislocated shoulder. Nothing like what was happening now. Her office didn’t look like part of the school right now, it looked like the emergency wing of a hospital.

After about a minute of examination Ms. Grant said, “Just wrap it for now.”

“Don’t we need to clean it first?” Laura Lee asked. 

Ms. Grant shook her head.

“We’ll clean it later, after the bleeding stops. Can you handle this?” Shauna thought No, before she realized the question was directed at Laura Lee.

After a moment of consideration, she answered, “I think so. Yes, yes I can.” 

Shauna would have felt much more comfortable with Ms. Grant doing it herself, but apparently that answer was good enough for her because she said, “Good. Thank you,” and then left as quickly as she’d come. Other patients were in worse shape than her, Shauna supposed.

She shifted nervously in the chair while Laura Lee ripped open the plastic sleeve and pulled out the sterile bandage.

”I'm really sorry but this is going to hurt. I’ll go as fast as I can.”

“Okay.“ 

She thought she was ready, but she still gasped when Laura Lee pressed it down onto her arm. She groaned as a million needles all stabbed her at once, then kept stabbing to ensure the pain never relented. She cried out immediately.

”I'm sorry!“ 

”It's okay,“ Shauna replied, gritting her teeth. She was used to all kinds of bruises and scrapes, but this was admittedly a step above the injuries she usually walked off the pitch with. Laura Lee pressed the bandage around her upper arm, then reached for the tape on the counter behind them and started ripping off strips and sticking them onto her skin.

Her fingers were shaking, but they deftly circled Shauna's arm as she secured each side. A dark red blotch was already growing on the sterile white cloth. 

“I didn't know you knew how to do this,” Shauna said in an attempt to take her mind off both the pain and the visual of her blood leaking out of her body.

Laura Lee shrugged.

“Nobody ever asked.” 

Shauna felt a pang of shame in her chest, but she didn't hear any anger in Laura Lee's words, which actually made her feel even worse after thinking about it for a second.

“So then when did you learn to—OW!”

“Sorry!“

Shauna ground her teeth together and tried to push through it.

“When did you–AH–learn how to do this?“

“A few years ago,” she answered casually. Shauna's stomach twisted even further into knots. She'd never been particularly close with Laura Lee. The closest they'd come to being friends was four years ago, when Shauna had gone through a short but intense phase in which she toyed with the notion of converting to Catholicism. She had inexplicably found herself drawn to the tragic nature of the saints (that period overlapping with Jackie and Jeff making their status official was completely unrelated).

Laura Lee had been more than happy to answer Shauna's many burning questions, and she'd even taken her to church a few times. But the fixation had waned, and with it their burgeoning friendship had withered before it could fully bloom. Shauna had avoided getting close to her after that, mostly out of embarrassment and shame. Laura Lee had never made any indication that she cared one way or the other, which Shauna had taken as validation that there hadn't been anything there, and therefore they hadn't lost anything. But hearing Laura Lee talk now, she realized that had been a profoundly selfish interpretation.

“Why did you learn it?” 

“I got hurt at summer camp. I hit my head diving into the pool and I drowned.”

“Jesus,” Shauna whispered. Laura Lee's eyes flitted up for a moment before returning to Shauna's arm. “Sorry,” she added quickly, swallowing another cry of pain as Laura Lee secured another strip of tape around the now deeply crimson bandage.

“The lifeguard saved me, and when I thanked him he told me that God had worked through him.”

Shauna tried not to roll her eyes. The other reason she never tried getting close to her was that during the time she tried converting, she realized that she cared very little for religion all together. And Laura Lee was just so…

“That's cool,” Shauna said, almost with meaning. Laura Lee’s face twitched in frustration, which probably had more to do with the tape stuck to her fingers than Shauna’s disinterest in the almighty. It was stuck on two of her fingers, and the more she tried to free them the more it got tangled and stuck.

“When I was better, I signed up for a first aid and CPR class so that God could heal others through my hands too. Can you hold this please?” She held out the roll of tape for Shauna to take, then reached back and grabbed a pair of scissors off the counter. She cut the last strip and let out a satisfied huff before sticking it over the last corner of the bandage. Shauna winced as the pressure caused the pain to flare up again. 

“I'm sorry,“ Laura Lee said again as she finished up.

”It's okay,“ Shauna said weakly. ”Thank you.“

”Don't thank me, thank Him,“ she pointed a bloody finger up at the ceiling. Shauna's eyes followed it up warily, but then Laura Lee laughed. ”I'm kidding, kind of.“

Shauna laughed, or more accurately she let out a tired and subdued chuckle. It was the best she could manage through the pain and exhaustion. She had patched up plenty of skinned knees and other scrapes, but she didn't feel like some greater power was working through her to heal people, and she seriously doubted that she ever would. But good for her.

”Why don't you tell him for me,“ she offered. 

”It's okay, He already knows.“ Of course he does. Suddenly she leaned in, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “Hey, what happened out there? We heard gunshots and then everyone came running back inside and people were hurt.”

She didn't have to ask whether Shauna had been out there, and she realized by now that the other girls had probably figured out the same thing. She hadn't thought about what she was going to tell Jackie, or the fact that she would have to explain the bloody arm and come clean about lying to her. She preferred the pain to the look she was going to see on Jackie's face. She didn't even know where to start her explanation.

“I–uh–uuuhhhh,” Shauna started to answer, but suddenly the noise of the room suddenly sounded very far away, and she wondered if she had fallen into the pool Laura Lee had told her about. The room started to turn around her, and Laura Lee started slipping away at the edges as the world spun away. The other girl gasped and grabbed her shoulders. 

What happened next wasn’t exactly clear. It was a lot like watching a conversation from underwater, seeing the movements and catching bits and pieces of the words but never the whole sentence.

The nurse appeared in front of her. She started speaking to Laura Lee. Their voices were warbled and slurred.

“She needsnnrink som…at her…uice.” A cup appeared in Shauna's hand. She didn't want to drink anything; her stomach was churning.

“-eento drink some, sweetie.”

The cup was filled with something that wasn’t water. It was brown, bordering on golden, and she really didn’t want to drink it, but after another minute of gentle encouragement, she begrudgingly sipped. It was sweet and tasted like apples.

“That's good,” the nurse encouraged from very far away. ”A few more.“

”Okay,“ Shauna said wearily.

”What happened ooher?“ 

”I donnnow! I just finishandagishendshe fainted.“

”-auna, whappend your arm, honey? Dissumonbite you too?“

Shauna tried to answer, but she only managed a half hearted grunt. She sipped the golden liquid again. It was delicious, and it made her tongue tingle with pleasure. Her stomach was still upset, but she didn’t care. She drank more. She tipped the cup up on its end and emptied it.

”What did it look like?“ the nurse asked Laura Lee.

”Sommuts alongerr arm, they were bleeding but they didn't look deep.“ Their voices were already getting clearer again, like she was swimming up to the surface.

”Okay Shauna, I want you to lie down for a few minutes, take some Tylenol and finish that apple juice, can you do that?“

”Yeah,“ she moaned, nodding slowly. 

“Okay, good. Can you stay with her Laura Lee?”

“Of course.”

After Shauna completed her sluggish return to consciousness, Laura Lee handed her another glass (this one was filled with water) and two little red pills that she promised would ease the throbbing in her arm and maybe even help quell her nausea. Shauna swallowed them without objection because her arm hurt like hell and she felt like she was about to throw up. There were no immediate effects, which left her feeling just a little bit betrayed. She wanted to voice her objections, but Laura Lee had left her to ‘sit tight for a few minutes’ while she tended to someone else’s injuries. So instead she tried to lean back, close her eyes, and rest like she’d been instructed. A few minutes later she accepted that this was an impossible task. The cries of pain, the nurse and teachers trying to speak calmly to each other (and failing), the yelling of the crowd still waiting out in the hall. When Laura Lee came back over to wash her hands, Shauna was already at her limit.

“How are you feeling?” 

”A little better,“ Shauna answered tiredly.

”Good, your face is looking better too.“

”Did it look bad?“

”It got a little pale.“

”Oh.“

“You just lost some blood is all,” Laura Lee assured her. "It happens, but you’re okay now.” 

A girl screamed. It was like being stabbed in the sides of her head by a hundred tiny needles. Shauna clapped her hands over her ears and glared across the room at her aural aggressor. The girl was blonde and she didn’t recognize her, but the nurse was disinfecting a patch of swollen and mangled skin on her left calf. One of the other teachers was holding her hand, or rather, she was holding his, and trying to break it by the look of it. Shauna was intimately familiar with the stinging pain of a fresh wound and found the whole thing performatively melodramatic. As if on cue, the girl screamed again. For fuck’s sake, her arm had been mangled too, but nobody had heard her cry over it! She decided that she hated this girl more than anyone else in the world, and the girl didn’t help her case by screaming for the third time.

“Ow it hurts!” 

“Can I go now?” she asked Laura Lee, who appeared unbothered by the voluminous protests as she dried her hands. “It’s–”AAHH!”– too loud in here."

”I—um-“ she looked around hesitantly. ”You should really lie down.“

”I will,“ Shauna insisted. ”I just can't be in here.“

Laura Lee rocked uneasily on her feet for a few seconds as she considered this. Then the girl screamed again, and she sized up Shauna’s state of hands-clamped-over-ears because this fucking bitch had never been hurt so badly before in her entire miserable life, and then nodded.

”Okay, okay, yeah… I'll walk you back, how about that?"

”Sure,” Shauna agreed heartily. Whatever it took to get the hell out of there, at this point as much for the girl’s safety as her own.

Laura Lee helped her rise to her feet.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think so.” 

Laura Lee nodded and positioned her hands by Shauna's waist, which seemed unnecessary. She felt steady enough on her feet, if still a little light headed. But she didn’t protest. If this was what Laura Lee needed to do to allow her to leave then she could do it, and, if she was honest, it was more than a little comforting. If anything, Laura Lee might be able to stop her if the blonde screamed again.

They made it to the door and Shauna pushed it open with her good arm and was reintroduced to the full cacophony in the hallway. So many voices overlapping, so many people hurt. The crowd parted for her this time, apparently it was fine to let her through if she was leaving because it meant they were closer to getting in. The two of them were through in seconds and crossing the lobby when someone shouted, ”Shauna!“ 

She turned and saw Jeff jogging over, and behind him she saw Tai and Van arguing with Coach Ben. She let out a breath of relief accompanied by a kind of deflating feeling in her chest. They’d made it back inside too. All of them were okay. They didn’t have much right now, but at least they had that now. Jeff came to a stop in front of her, and she found that she had never been happier to see him in her entire life, if only for the fact that he was still alive. 

”Are you okay?” He asked. “How’s your shoulder?“ 

She nodded.

“I think it’s going to be okay. Laura Lee took care of it.”

“And you’ll be coming back later so Ms. Grant can treat it properly.”

“Where are you going?”

Shauna realized she wasn't actually sure.

“Um-back to the team,” she decided. Then she realized there was one small problem with that plan. She looked at Laura Lee and asked, “Where are they?”

“They were heading to the gym when I left,” Laura Lee answered.

“Okay. I think I can get there on my own, you can go back if you want.”

“I can walk you the rest of the way, it's not far.“ The gym was on the other side of the school, and she didn’t want to take Laura Lee away from people that needed her help.

”It's okay. Jeff can take me, right?“ He nodded in confirmation. ”More people need your help, you should stay.”

Laura Lee looked unsure, but after a few moments of consideration she nodded and turned to Jeff.

”Okay. She needs to take it easy, she fainted a few minutes ago. Make sure she drinks more water and gets off her feet. She lost blood and she might get dizzy.”

“Got it,” Jeff nodded. Laura Lee made sounds of assent and turned to leave.

“Laura Lee,” Shauna called after her. She turned around, her dark hazel eyes meeting Shauna’s expectantly. “Thank you."

The only blonde girl she could tolerate, the one who’d almost been a friend, who maybe was one and always had been even when she got nothing in return, smiled and nodded, then turned back and disappeared into the mass of bodies. Jeff came around and took Shauna's good arm.

“You feeling all right?” he asked.

Her arm was still throbbing and she had just seen a bunch of strangers attack and ravage her classmates, but she didn't feel dizzy anymore, so that was something.

”Yep.“

They started walking, leaving behind a rapidly developing shouting match between Tai, Van, and some teachers. Whatever it was, Shauna was sure the girls would win. Over the dull roar, Jeff posed a complicated and compelling question.

”Any idea what we're gonna tell Jackie?“

Jackie paced the entire length of the locker room. She reached the far wall, turned around, and paced it back again. She had lost count of how many times she'd done it. She hesitated for a moment, staring at the blank wall with her arms crossed and tapping her foot like she was waiting for it to offer up an answer. It didn’t. She huffed in frustration and spun around to retread her path yet again. 

She hadn't thought much of Shauna's nearly complete silence at breakfast, and she’d even shrugged it off when she didn't show up to homeroom at eleven. Maybe she was stuck in a conversation, or the bathroom, or a hundred other things. People had started running down the halls, shouting about something happening outside, and she hadn't thought much of that either. Some bone heads trying to leave school despite being told they couldn't. But then she heard the gunshots, and then everyone became frantic. She'd gotten out of the way of the crowds and ended up here, and had been quickly joined by most of the others.

She didn't know where Shauna could possibly be, but if she wasn't in their homeroom then she figured the next best place to find her would be here. And if she wasn't here yet, then she would be coming. She will be coming, she will . Her stomach was twisting itself inside out. It wasn't like Shauna to just disappear. She was always there by her side, and now nobody knew where the hell she was. She had looked up expectantly at every new entrant to the room, but after a few minutes the door had just stopped opening. She sulked by the rows of lockers and occupied benches, ignoring both their inhabitants and the empty spaces between them.

They were missing almost half their number, and nearly all of them from varsity. The only ones representing the seniors with her at this impromptu team meeting were Mari, who was sitting in the back, nervously chewing on the strings of her hoodie, gross, and Lottie, who sat in the front, closest to the door and staring at her intently. Jackie met her eyes briefly as she started her march anew, but averted them again quickly. Lottie had a way of speaking with her eyes such that Jackie could almost hear her whispering the words in her ear, and she didn’t want to hear what Lottie hadn’t just said. She couldn’t sit down. Being still right now meant death, and quite frankly she didn’t understand how the others weren’t completely losing their shit right now too. At least Mari was exhibiting a normal stress response, even if it was a slobbery and unsanitary one.

The JV girls were mostly keeping to themselves. In the first row, behind Lottie, Gen, Melissa and Rachel were huddled together and whispering quietly amongst themselves. 

The second row was louder, which was to be expected. Not because there were more of them, but because of who was there. Akilah, Crystal and Mari shared their benches with the Alvarez twins, Diana and Tess, and Diana was eagerly regaling them all with some tale of misadventure. Jackie was only half listening, enough to catch that the situation had been entirely of Diana’s own making, but everyone else was leaning in and snickering along with her, seemingly oblivious to the world spinning out of control around them.

Tess sat in the middle between her sister and Mari, quietly fidgeting with the metal buckles on her signature overalls. Jackie couldn’t remember a single time she’d seen the sophomore wearing anything else outside of their team uniform. 

In her mind, the Alvarez’s closet was split in two, perfectly down the middle. On one side hung a long row of overalls and undershirts all in subtly varied colors, neat and organized and carefully selected each morning before school, and she imagined the other side looked like a tornado had blown through a Salvation Army. It was hard to imagine anything else when Diana paraded around the halls in a new outrageous outfit every time Jackie saw her. Mismatched skirts and blouses, color scheme clashes and no visual cohesion whatsoever. Honestly, sometimes it looked like she was just choosing them at random in the dark.

Jackie had even offered to help her out last year, to which the girl had frowned and asked, “What, you don’t like it?” with regard to her latest monstrosity of the day: a beautiful white dress with daisies embroidered all along the sides, unquestionably beautiful but perhaps not proper attire for school, with a crusty, ripped and paint spattered red hoodie thrown on top. She’d twirled a little to make sure Jackie got a good look at it from all sides. It was discordant and baffling, to say the least, which she had tried to explain, but Diana had grown restless after barely a minute and whined, “Ugh, enough with this wah wah wah shit! If you don’t like it then just say so!” 

Jackie had explained that it wasn’t about what she thought, it was about what everyone else might think, at which point Diana had started to look really concerned. Jackie had thought it was the realization finally setting in, but before she could offer her fashion services again, Diana had asked, with a great amount of concern, “Do you really spend your days worrying about what everyone else might think?”

Jackie had been baffled, stupefied even. “Of course!” she had said like it was obvious, which it was. This was high school for God’s sake! Diana had considered this, nodded somberly, said simply, “Yikes,” and then walked away. 

This interaction had soured Jackie on the girl considerably, though she felt sorry for her more than anything. With what she and her sister had gone through, being distracted and irritable was perfectly understandable. 

But appearances still mattered; when Shauna had gone through family troubles, Jackie had been there for her to guide and keep her presentable, even when she didn’t have the energy to care. That’s what friends were for. Plus, she had a deft eye for these sorts of things and loved staying up to date with the latest trends, so she thought she could do the same thing for Diana. 

Being turned down was a disappointment of course, but the way in which Diana had gone about it had left a bitter taste in her mouth. She could have simply declined without weaponizing her intent into an insult, one that was pretty fucking rich considering the rumors Jackie had heard about her seemingly habitual cheating for the last two years. No amount of disruption at home could excuse that behavior. Jackie thought that perhaps the girl could worry more about what people thought of her. At least today she was wearing something palatable: blue jeans and a green tee shirt depicting two skeletons tangled up in each other’s arms with the text KILLSS YOUR DARLINGS scrawled underneath in cartoonishly bloody lettering.

She tuned back into the story in time to catch, “–so I finally called the house, and Tess picked up and she just knows it’s me and before I even say ‘hi,’ she says…” At this, Diana diverted her wildly gesticulating hands to encourage Tess to join in, and together they said, “Bitch you either need to get home right now or go back into hiding!”

Diana leaned back and howled, a high pitch that felt like getting stabbed in the ears with joy. What the girl lacked in stature she made up for in volume. It was like none of them even cared. She couldn’t take it anymore.

“Do you mind?” she snapped.

Diana broke off mid-laugh to glare at her, cocking her head slightly to the side in a move Jackie had come to know as the preamble to her saying something obmoxious.

“Do you?” she sneered back.

The bench fell silent. Everyone looked nervously between the two of them, except for Tess, who was staring at the floor and furiously twirling hair around her fingers.

“Jackie...” Lottie said warily as Jackie reached the wall and spun around to make another pass.

“What!” 

“You should sit down before you wear a hole in the floor.”

“Well you should…you should stand up before you wear a hole in that bench!” She regretted it instantly, but before she could apologize, Lottie sighed, stood up, and started walking over. Jackie’s shoulders tensed, anticipating a retaliation that she knew she deserved. But Lottie didn’t yell. She nodded, ever so slightly, towards the back of the room to the hall that led to the pool. Jackie huffed in frustration and finally abandoned her well worn path and followed her around the bend. Diana smiled sweetly and with great menace in her eyes when Jackie passed by, then resumed the conversation as if nothing had happened.

“Anyway, she was right, our mom was fucking pissed. Mind you I’d been gone for barely two days…”

Lottie was holding the door to the pool area open when she rounded the corner. She stalked past her and the sharp, chemical smell of chlorine stung her nose immediately. Lottie let the door swing shut behind them. The metallic clang echoed around the wide, empty room. They were alone.

The subdued quiet of the locker room had felt oppressive; too many people in too small a space being too damn quiet, until Diana had shattered that peace. It had given her too much space to think and work herself up into an anxious mess, winding herself up so tight that she lashed out. But the silence here was worse.

The room was too open. The high vaulted ceiling and hard cement floors meant every sound reverberated off every surface, and with nobody in the pool the surface of the water lay almost completely still, dancing ever so slightly from the disturbance of the filter pumping water in and out below the surface. The hum of the pumps offered the only ambient sound. Under different circumstances, it might have felt serene, but the room was too big to be this empty, and the silence here made her feel small and lonely. 

She took a deep breath and turned to face Lottie, crossing her arms and bracing for the fight she knew was coming. The acoustics in here would amplify the yelling, so that should be fun, she thought. Lottie took a step forward and reached out as the gap closed between them. Jackie wanted to back up on instinct, but she had nowhere to go, so instead, she froze. Trapped between warring desires to run or stand her ground, weighing the chances of her beating Lottie (or anyone) in a fight against the likelihood that she could outrun her. The indecision wasted what little time she had to prepare, but Lottie only placed her hand on Jackie’s shoulder, and to her surprise, there wasn’t any anger in the other girl’s voice when she spoke.

“Hey, you need to calm down.” 

Jackie sent an anxious, borderline manic laugh echoing around the room. Her voice shook almost as much as her body.

“How am I supposed to be calm right now?”

“I’m not saying you have to feel calm, I’m saying you have to act calm. You’re freaking everyone out.”

She considered Lottie for a moment: the calmness of her voice, the steadiness of her legs, her gaze holding level and firm such that Jackie had to look away for fear that the girl was staring directly into her soul. She quickly took stock of what she was feeling, and determined that she was having the appropriate reaction given the circumstances. Which begged the question…

“You don’t seem freaked out.”

“Well I am. But I’m not going to help anyone by melting down and causing a panic. Right now everyone is scared, and we need a leader. You’re our captain, act like it.” Her voice remained almost completely level. The way she said it wasn’t a scolding, it was a statement of fact. It still cut Jackie deeply, but she understood, and then she was furious at herself for losing control. Lottie was right; it was her job to stay composed, and she couldn’t help but hear Coach Martinez’s words ringing in the back of her head.

Jackie, you possess something no one else on this team has; influence. When things get tough out there those girls are gonna need someone to guide them. Can you handle that?

She’d failed them at nationals. She didn’t want to fail again.

“Yeah, okay, you’re right, I can do that.”

“Thank you,” Lottie said with an unsubtle note of relief, finally lifting her hand off Jackie’s shoulder. This seemed to signal the end of the discussion, and Jackie made to follow her out. 

But Lottie hesitated at the door, fingers dangling over the matte grey handle, and she turned back to Jackie with a look of tragic understanding on her face.

“She’ll be here soon,” she promised. “They all will.”

By the time Tai finished pushing through the crowd in the lobby, Van had vanished. There was no way she could have gotten that far ahead, not unless she ran or was intentionally hiding from her. Tai pushed that thought from her mind. She couldn't blame Van for however she was going to feel about what she had just done, but she hoped…she couldn't take it if she saved her life only to still lose her. She refused to believe that. So instead of panicking, she ran through the possibilities:

Van ran, Van was hiding, or she was close by and just not in the hall, like in the…

Tai hurried over and heard the running water before she even opened the bathroom door. There was Van, beautiful and alive, hunched over the sink and rinsing the vomit out of her mouth. Tai tried to walk over casually. She didn't make any demands about why Van left her behind; maybe it wasn’t about her, maybe she just needed to get the taste of stomach acid and half digested hash browns out. Van glanced up into the mirror when she spat down into the sink, but she didn't say anything, so neither did Tai. She stopped behind her and waited until she finished rinsing and shut off the water. 

“How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Van grunted. She still didn’t look back at Tai. 

“Feels like we just played three championship games all at once, right?”

“Something like that.” She reached for the paper towels and found the dispenser empty, so instead she just wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

Tai couldn't do it, this nonchalance like nothing had just happened. 

“Van, can we please talk about this?”

“We don't need to talk about it.”

“Well I do!” Tai said, more aggressively than she meant to.

“Let's just get back to the team, okay?”

“No, I need you to know that I–” Van whipped around, eyes wide, and her hand flew up to her mouth, one finger up in the universal gesture for SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Tai froze. Van leveled her finger back over Tai's shoulder towards a closed stall door, and Tai felt a disgusting mix of relief and horror. She was normally on top of these things, making sure nobody was around before she and Van…did things they didn't want other people overhearing. Scanning their surroundings for signs of other people was something they had both learned to do very early in their friendship. A closed stall door and a pair of feet was so fucking obvious Tai couldn't believe she missed it. She swallowed and nodded.

“I need you to know…that I'm sorry for what I said at breakfast. While You Were Sleeping is definitely good Sandy.”

“Well I'm glad you finally came to your senses. Let's go share the good news with everyone.” Van started for the door and Tai followed. “So what changed your mind?” she asked casually as she pushed open the door. “Did you finally come around on their chemistry or was it–” the door swung shut behind them. “What the fuck was that?” 

“I'm sorry, I should have seen that. Fuck!” Tai cursed at herself and buried her head in her hands. “I just wanted to talk about it with you for a second.”

“There's nothing to talk about,” Van said dismissively, starting down the hall again without waiting for Tai.

“That's just…not true!”

“Yes it is, I don't want to talk about it.”

“But–”

Van halted suddenly, and when she turned around Tai saw the redness in and around her eyes, and she knew she had pushed too hard.

“They ate her, Tai!” she half shouted, dropping her volume quickly after catching eyes from other passers by. “We left her there and they ate her legs, her arms… Christ, they ate her fucking face, Tai! Is that what you want to talk about?”

She didn’t know what to say. It was exactly what she wanted to talk about, and she also never wanted to mention it again. She stood there, gaping and sputtering, apparently too long for Van’s liking.

“Let's just go find the others, okay? Let's focus on that right now.” She started walking again, and Tai had no choice but to follow.

As they exited the pool, Jackie was trying to think of something to say to the girls, something that might help calm them down and lighten the mood. She had a few half baked jokes in mind by the time they rounded the corner back into the locker room, but they were pretty weak and probably not very funny anyway, so really she had nothing.

For as much as her mind had been racing with anxiety, she really would have liked to harness that energy into something more productive. Now she was going to have to wing it, again. Public speaking didn’t bother her when she had something prepared, but if she had nothing, her mind would go blank, and then she’d be self-conscious of all those eyes on her while she stood there like an idiot. This was what had happened last week at Nationals. 

She thought she’d pulled a halfway decent speech out of her ass at halftime during their match versus Colorado, but then they’d lost. So if she couldn’t rally them then, how the fuck was she supposed to do it now?

She was teetering on the edge of another spiral when she heard voices around the corner ahead of her. Maybe they were gossiping about what they thought Lottie had said to her. Maybe they were happier chatting without her there. Great! She steeled herself for the awkward silence that would fall over the room again after she reappeared. But it turned out that she was wrong.

Her thought-spiral ground to a halt when she rounded the corner and saw the actual cause for the stirring of the room: Jeff and Shauna were back and making their way to the benches, Jeff seemingly supporting Shauna as she walked, like she was…

All her other anxieties scattered to the dark corners of her mind to make room for a new hulking beast of worry.

“Oh my god Shauna, are you hurt?” Jackie yelled, rushing across the room straight to her. It was only after she was past everyone that she saw Shauna's shoulder, wrapped in bandages that had presumably been white at some point, but now were soaked through in dark crimson. 

“What happened to your arm?” she demanded. ”Did someone hurt you?“

“She needs to sit down,” Jeff said.

Lottie jumped off the nearest bench to make room as Shauna carefully shuffled over. She sat down slowly, Jackie and Jeff holding her hands. She let out a deep sigh, like an old oak creaking in the whispering winds.

“Okay. I'm okay, thank you,” she murmured.

“She needs water,” Jeff said to Jackie.

“Does anyone have any water?” she asked, looking up at the room.

“I do Jackie!” Mari said eagerly. She pulled a bottle out of her backpack and hurried over.

“Thanks Mari,” Jackie said, unscrewing the lid and handing it to Shauna. She tipped it back, not drinking enough for Jackie's liking. ”More.“ Shauna nodded and obeyed, sipping until Jackie was satisfied. ”Okay good. Now what the hell happened? Where were you?” she demanded, looking between the two of them. Truthfully, she hadn’t been worried about Jeff at all, something she only realized now that he was here, so she tried to include him in her questioning as if she had been. She wondered if that made her a bad person.

“I fell,” Shauna answered quietly as she handed the bottle back to Mari.

“You fell,” Jackie repeated, staring at her bloody bandage. “On to what, a fucking sword?” 

Shauna sighed and buried her head in her hands, so she turned her questioning to Jeff instead.

“Were you with her? What happened!”

“I don't know,” he stammered. “We got separated outside!”

”Outside? Why–“ she looked between them, searching for a sign that they were having her on. Shauna kept her face hidden, but Jeff was a terrible liar, and his face screamed that this was the truth. Her stomach dropped. ”Why were you outside?“

”Um...“ he swallowed nervously and glanced at Shauna. The room had fallen silent around them again. Jackie’s heart raced as her anxiety and fear started to morph into something else. They were hiding something from her.

“What!” she snapped. “Spit it out!”

Jeff winced at her sudden increase in volume. 

“We were, uh–” The door to the hall swung open behind him, and in walked the next terrible part of her day. Tai and Van entered, both soaked with sweat like they’d just had an entire training day without the rest of the team. Jackie didn’t understand the expressions she saw on their faces, but they did nothing to quell the sinking feeling in her chest. Neither did Tai’s first words.

“Thank god, Shauna! Are you okay?”

Shauna dropped her hands from her face to answer, “Yeah.”

Jackie didn’t understand what the hell any of this meant, and there was probably a better way to go about getting answers than what she led with. 

“Do you know about this too?” 

“What?” Tai asked like it was an afterthought as she hurried over to Shauna, who continued the trend of ignoring her and engaging in an entirely different conversation.

“Where’s Allie?” 

Tai crouched down in front of Shauna and gently took one of her hands.

“She’s, um…she didn’t…uh…” her voice faded to a cracked whisper, then it faded to nothing and she simply shook her head.

“She didn’t make it, did she?” Shauna asked weakly. “Did they get her?” Tai didn’t say anything to help the rest of them figure out who they were, or what it had to do with Allie. Instead, she nodded, then bowed her head until her forehead rested on Shauna’s knee. Jackie thought she had felt insane before they got here, but whatever was happening now was driving her to a whole new level.

“What do you mean?” she demanded. 

“What happened?” Shauna asked.

“Guys!” It was like she was invisible! 

“They were right behind us and she was with us but she… she tripped. They got to her before we could and we…we couldn't go back.“ 

Van put her hand over her mouth and turned away.

”What?“ Jackie asked. Why weren’t they answering her? ”What the hell are you talking about? Who got her?“

Jackie could feel everyone’s eyes burning into her, and she could feel their fear because she was feeling it too. Nothing they were saying made any sense. To her surprise, it was Lottie that came to her aid. She had been standing quietly nearby after giving up her seat, and finally deigned to break her silence.

“There’s a lot of rumors going around, guys. Can you tell us what happened out there?”

”There were these people, I think they were sick, and they started…attacking us,” Shauna said.

Murmurs and gasps spread through the room, the first sounds the rest of them had made since the other girls arrived. They were listening intently; even Diana had finally shut up, which Jackie hadn’t thought possible.

“Sick? Like what?” Mari asked. 

“I don’t know. They were going crazy, they…they…” Shauna’s voice cracked and she buried her face in her hands again. Tai moved to sit down next to her and started rubbing her back.

“Hey, it’s all right. We’re inside and we made sure they locked the doors until they can call the cops or someone. We’re safe now.”

“We thought we were safe in the shed,” Shauna mumbled through her hands.

“Hey! What do you guys mean, sick?” Mari demanded again. “Like rabies?”

“I don't know Mar,” Tai said. “I don't know if rabies turns you into a cannibal.” The room exploded like she’d just set off a bomb, everyone suddenly asking for clarity or shouting their shock.

Melissa yelled, “What people?”

Lottie asked, “What about the gunshots?” 

Diana yelled, “What do you mean cannibals!” which Tess followed with, “Stop messing with us guys, it's not funny!” 

It was all too much to process, and Jackie was still hung up on the first thing Tai had said.

“What do you mean, 'they got her?'“ she demanded over the noise. Tai looked up helplessly, tears brimming in her eyes. ”Where is Allie!“

”She's dead, Jackie!“ Van shouted, her voice rattling over the lockers and walls and silencing the room for the third time.

”Wh–what?“ The quivering in her voice was uncomfortably loud in the sudden absence of all the others.

”They were attacking us, tackling and biting and clawing like Shauna said. They swarmed Allie when she fell and they fucking killed her!“ 

Jackie gaped at her for a moment before deciding this couldn’t possibly be true.

”No, no no no, that's insane. You sound insane!”

“Do I?” Van seethed. “Reality’s a little too much for you to handle these days, huh princess?” Jackie didn’t get the chance to find out whatever the fuck that meant, because Akilah spoke before either of them could.

“Is she really dead?” It wasn’t clear who she was asking, but it was Tai who answered.

“We saw it. They were all over her, and she…there’s nothing, she’s…she’s gone.”

“What the hell were you even doing out there?” Jackie asked. Nobody answered. ”Why will nobody tell me! We were told explicitly that we were not allowed outside! Why would you do that?“

”We were trying to go find Nat,“ Van said, almost like an accusation instead of a confession.

”What?“ Jackie said. She looked at Van, at Tai, and then Jeff, and then Shauna. Aside from Van’s death stare, nobody would meet her eyes. “Why was…was this some kind of secret? Shauna? Were you going with them?”

“Yeah, what the hell!” Mari yelled. Behind her, Akilah was retreating into Diana’s arms.

“It's not her fault!” Tai interjected. “We didn't want you to try to stop us.”

“Why would you keep that from me?” she demanded, still looking at Shauna, and then quickly corrected to, "From us?”

“You mean aside from what you just said about why we shouldn't be outside?” Van shot back.

“I didn't know!” Jackie said, her voice rising with the tides of panic in her chest. ”And why would you assume that we would try and stop you?”

“Because nobody has said anything about her!” Van yelled. “It's been almost a week and nobody has said one fucking word! It's like you don't even care that she's gone!”

“That is not true!” Jackie said, appalled. “And assuming that is so incredibly unfair!” 

“Really Jackie, is it?” Van seethed. “After the way you treated her at nationals?”

“What did I do?” She was bewildered. As far as she could remember, she and Nat had been on perfectly fine terms during and after the tournament, hadn’t they?

“Van…” Tai cautioned. Van ignored her. 

“Oh come on, you made it abundantly clear that you blamed her for us losing!”

“What? I never said anything remotely close!”

“No, you just gave a fucking passive aggressive speech about how important it is to stay in position, how everyone has to do their job or you'll let everyone down!”

“I was trying to get us to pull together! We were a mess out there! I don’t know how that could possibly be your takeaway!”

“Well it–” 

“And how is this my fault? You lied to us!”

Van actually scoffed. Jackie folded her arms in front of her, hoping it gave off the impression that she thought she’d won, and not that her legs were shaking so badly that she was ready to collapse into a heap on the ground. She had no idea that her speech had upset anyone, let alone this much. And she had never seen Van this angry before, let alone at her. She didn’t think they were quite friends, but this was the first time she’d ever had an inkling that one of her teammates might not like her at all. 

Van finally broke the silence.

“Actually, no, fuck this.” She turned and stormed out.

“Van, wait!” Tai jumped up from the bench and shot out of the room after her, leaving them all dazed and confused. 

Jackie had absolutely no idea what had just happened. She was still reeling from cannibals. She looked around the room as the door swung shut behind Tai. The Gen/Melissa/Rachel trio were still huddled together, looking like a family of spooked mice after seeing a cat kill another mouse. Akilah’s face was buried in Diana’s shoulder with Mari slowly rubbing her back in a very there there motion, and Crystal and Tess both looked as shell shocked as she felt.

“What the fuck was that?” Lottie asked.

“I have no fucking idea!” Jackie said, high strung. She rubbed her arms before uncrossing them in the hope that it might alleviate some of the residual trembling. It didn’t.

“Did you guys really see like, feral cannibals out there? Like come on, what the fuck even is that?” Lottie said, half laughing. “What’s really going on?” 

Her laughs died in the ensuing seconds of silence. Jeff rubbed the back of his neck, the way he did when he was behind in the count at the plate. The way he did when he was nervous. She didn’t understand anything that had just happened. Van must have made it all up to scare them or to hurt her. Even in the face of Shauna’s bloody arm and Akilah’s muffled sobs, she didn’t believe it. She didn’t believe there were cannibals running around outside right now, and she didn’t believe that Shauna would lie to her. Jeff maybe, but not Shauna.

“Tell me it’s not true,” she begged.

Jeff blanched, which told her enough. 

“Jackie,” Shauna started. “I never wanted–”

But the PA system screeched to life, drowning out whatever words would have come next.

ALL STUDENTS PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR HOMEROOMS IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT LOITER IN THE LOBBY OR HALLS.

Van handed the keys over to Bill with barely any hesitation. At least calling him had worked, for all the good it did for the dead boy outside. 

“LET ME IN!” a woman begged from the other side of the metal doors.

BANG! BANG! BANG! 

“HELP ME! PLEASE!”

He couldn't make out her face; it was just a silhouette behind the red dripping down the window. Everyone was backing away and Ben was doing the same.

Behind him, he heard Tai say, “You can’t let anyone in Coach. There’s more of them, they can’t get inside!”

“LET ME IN!” the woman objected, the banging intensifying.

“I understand, Taissa. We’ll take it from here.”

Bill swung the keys in his hand as Taissa disappeared into the crowded lobby. 

“What the hell was that?” he asked Ben.

“I don't know!” Ben stammered. “They, uh, they came running back inside shouting about locking the doors–”

“They were outside?” Bill asked.

“I guess so, yeah.”

“Goddamnit it,” Bill muttered. “Bad enough all these kids got it in their heads that they know better than us, but I hoped the girls were smarter than that.” He scoffed. “I hoped after Nationals that they might pull together, like a real team. Not give in to petty impulses and selfish desires.”

Ben didn’t know what to say to that, so instead he pushed past it.

“What the hell do we do now?”

Bill bounced the keys in his hand and looked past him to the doors contemplatively.

“Put these back in a safe place.”

He turned back towards the office and Ben followed through the mess of bodies, both teachers and students, gawking at the doors.

The office was buzzing when they pushed inside. Several people on various phones were shouting across the room at each other, while others were scrambling around looking for something.

“It's still ringing!”

“Nobody’s picking up in guidance!”

“Nancy hasn't seen him!”

“Who’s got the state police number?”

“Still looking!” shouted a man rifling through a massive binder on the front desk. 

“What's going on?” Bill shouted with just the right balance of authority and urgency.

“We can't find Principal Berzonsky or Vice Principal Morris!” one of the receptionists, Mia Ryan, shouted back.

“Berzonsky was outside last I saw,” Ben said. “Did he not come back?”

“If he did, he didn't tell any of us,” she said frantically.

“Then who's in charge?” Ben asked, although the chaos unfolding before him didn't bode well for an answer.

“I don't know!” she yelled in frustration. 

“Has anyone called nine-one-one?” Bill asked.

“We've been trying for twenty minutes!” another woman, Meg, he was pretty sure, shouted from the back. “It either keeps ringing or screams a dial tone.”

“State police, got it!” the man at the front desk yelled. “Five-Three–”

“Just bring it over here, Mike!” Meg shouted, waving him over.

Mike nodded, hoisted the binder up and hurried across the room.

Ben watched the yelling and frantic dialing and shouts of frustration as their calls for help went unanswered, a black pit of dread growing in his stomach all the while.

“This is bad,” he whispered.

Bill glanced at him and popped an eyebrow. He was always so good under pressure. Ben didn't know how he did it, but he had that ability that allowed him to see the whole board before him, not just the cluttered pieces scattered around, and he always stayed calm enough to conduct through the noise. It made him a fantastic coach, and he’d built the team up over the last four years and brought them all the way to nationals this year. 

Ben could see the look in his eye again, the one that he’d watched fade away after their defeat last week. The look that said he saw everything, he had a plan, and he was about to start coaching them through the storm of panic and confusion.

“Okay everyone, here’s what we’re going to do!” he announced, and everyone stopped, eager for someone to step into the vacuum of authority and give them instructions. “Tracy, stop calling the police and try the mayor’s office instead. If that doesn’t work, move up to the governor’s office. Mike, find those numbers for her!”

“Got it, Bill!” he answered.

“Mia, get on the intercom and tell the kids to get to their homerooms so we can take attendance, find out who’s missing and clear those hallways. Sean, go clear the lobby and get everyone away from those doors. Ben, I want you to go check on the girls and make sure they’re okay and not getting into any more trouble.”

“Got it,” Ben nodded dutifully.

“Dad!” 

Ben and Bill both spun around at the sound of Travis’ voice. He was standing in the doorway, panic written plain across his face.

“What’s happening?” Travis asked. “People are saying there was a mob outside, that they attacked people and–”

“It’s okay, Travis. The police are on their way, everything is going to be fine,” Bill lied calmly. Ben tried to keep the surprise from his face. 

“But they’re saying that some people–”

“Travis!” Bill snapped. Travis paled and shut up. Bill grimaced in frustration and looked around at all the expectant faces of his son and his colleagues. He addressed them first. “You all have work, do it!” They stirred to action behind him, and he turned back to Travis. “It’s going to be okay, son. We have this under control and we’re safe right now. Don’t listen to rumors, they spiral out of control and lose the truth along the way. Now I want you to go find your brother and make sure he gets to his homeroom. He’s the only responsibility you need to worry about right now, okay?”

“Okay,” Travis nodded.

“Okay, good.” He reached out and gave Travis’ shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Remember, an orange at the mall, sunset is such a lovely taste.”

Confusion flooded Travis’ face.

“What?”

“I said go find Javi, now stop wasting time and go.”

“But that’s not what you–”

“Dammit Travis, Jackie was a water slide! Thank god for a buffalo on a bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. No, a bicycle… fuck! Kick?” 

“Are you okay, Bill?” Ben asked cautiously. 

“Dad?” Travis asked again. “What’s wrong?”

“What–what–what was th-that word?” Bill stammered. He pressed his hands into his forehead. “I had it a month ago on the tip of my-of my-of my-my-my-my..." 

He was going pale, his skin draining and going clammy. It happened so quickly.

“Woah, Bill, maybe you should lie down for a minute,” Ben said gently. “You look–”

“Fence!” Bill yelled in satisfaction. “That’s it, get the fence, Travis.”

"What's wrong with him?" Travis asked, looking past his father to Ben. Everyone else in the office had stopped their work before they’d even started.

"I'm fine Travis, I'm fine," he answered reassuringly, which was almost more disconcerting. "Ben, run a four-four-two at the game today."

"Bill, there's no game today, the season is over.” 

"No, no, no you don't understand, run a four-four-two, four-two-four, no. Run a two-two-four-four-four-two-two-two..." he trailed off, staring blankly at the wall. 

"Dad?" Travis asked. "Dad?"

"My god those clouds look expensive," he gasped, and then he fell forward into Travis, who gasped and stumbled back under the weight of his father, who kept on muttering.

"I'm sorry Cynthia, my wife is home tonight. Travis go help Javi with his–help Javi with his–help Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" he screamed, slowly rising in octave and volume until it was deafening. Everyone clapped their hands over their ears. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" he screamed longer than he should've been able to. His lungs should've run out of air, but he kept screaming, kept screaming, kept screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" and then his body convulsed and cut him off. Ben rushed forward to help, but he was too late. Travis couldn’t hold him, and he collapsed into a heap on the ground, contracting and relaxing and contracting, and then he was still.

"Dad? Dad!" Travis shouted, but his cries were met with a blank stare. 

"Jesus! Bill! Bill?” Ben knelt down by his side. “Bill? Can you hear me?”

Bill moaned but his eyes were glazed over, staring off into the distance.

“Christ, okay,” Ben cursed to himself. He looked up at all the faces around the room staring at them in shock. “Do what he said, get those kids out of the hall! Travis, Mike, help me with him!”

The three of them gathered up his arms and dragged him up, Ben and Mike slinging an arm over each of their shoulders. They stumbled awkwardly towards the doors as Mia flipped the PA system on and said, with no small amount of distress, “All students please report...

REAR STAIRWELL

FIRST FLOOR

FAR SIDE OF THE SCHOOL

…TO YOUR HOMEROOMS IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT LOITER IN THE LOBBY OR HALLS.

“Van, wait!” 

Van kept storming away down the hall.

“Hey, wait up!” Tai called after her. Van started up the stairs, unyielding.

“Van!” she pleaded.

“I'm going to homeroom, Tai,” Van answered without slowing or turning around. “I'm exhausted and I just want to sit down for a fucking minute without some shit happening.” 

Tai jogged up the steps after her.

“That's fine and I totally get that, but I want to ask–”

“I said I don't want to talk about it!”

“–if you're okay.”

Van stopped at the top of the stairs and laughed. 

“I would have to say no, because I don't want to lie to you.”

Tai reached the top too, and they stepped to the side to allow other people past. Tai fought the urge to take her hand.

“You don't have to go to homeroom,” she said softly. “We can skip together, go somewhere quiet and sit in silence if that's what you want.”

“I'll be okay,” Van whispered back, but she was having trouble meeting Tai's eyes. 

“You're sure?”

“Yeah. Whatever this is,” she gestured vaguely to indicate that by this she meant everything. “They'll release us soon and we can meet back up later.” She said that last part in a more reassuring tone.

“Okay,” Tai nodded, unassured. “I'll see you later then.”

“I'll see you.” Van half smiled, and then she disappeared around the corner into the hall. Tai wanted to go run after her and tell her she needed to know they were okay, that Van forgave her and still… 

But she had asked for space, and she figured that the conversation could have gone worse, and if Van wasn’t telling her to straight up go to hell, then maybe there was hope.

Tai could wait an hour. She was pretty sure she could wait an hour without exploding, but she really hoped it wouldn’t be longer than that. She would wait for her though. For a whole day, a week, or a month, however long it took for her to come around. At least she would be alive to be angry. She turned and headed for her homeroom, in the complete opposite direction from Van, and she felt the space growing between them with every single step. It felt like bone splintering beneath her feet.

NURSE'S OFFICE

FIRST FLOOR

NEAR SIDE OF THE SCHOOL

The phone rang four times before the nurse made it across the room to answer. Laura Lee was washing her hands nearby after finishing another wrap, this one on a freshman girl’s shoulder. Apparently she had fallen during the rush to get back inside, though still nobody had been able to say exactly what had happened out there other than gunshots and mass panic. The phone was on its fifth ring when Ms. Grant finally pulled it off the wall.

“Nurse’s office, Mira speaking. What? Where?” She asked, her voice climbing into the telltale octaves of distress. “Well, can you bring her here?” She scratched her head nervously while she waited for an answer. “Shit, okay, I’m on my way.” She shoved the phone back up onto the wall and grabbed a first aid kit out of a cabinet.

“Is everything okay?” Laura Lee asked.

“I just have to go check on someone, can you girls hold down the fort here until I get back?”

“How long–” Laura Lee started, but she stopped herself. “Yes, yes we can.”

Ms. Grant smiled. “Thank you, both of you,” she raised her voice and directed it over Laura Lee’s shoulder to Misty, who was finishing up cleaning a scrape on a boy’s leg. “You’ve really stepped up today.”

“Of course,” Laura Lee said. “We’re glad we could help.”

“You can go back to your homerooms when I get back.” And with that, she pulled open the door and disappeared. It swung shut behind her, ringing in the newly discovered quiet. Laura Lee took a deep breath and turned back to face the room. 

It was emptier now than it had been twenty minutes ago; Ms. Grant had ordered everyone out after their injuries had been treated to keep the room from overcrowding, and the ones with minor scrapes and cuts she’d sent to their homerooms to use the first aid kits there. Only three were left now, and they were resting after losing blood the way Shauna had. Misty was busy re-wrapping a junior boy’s bandage.

“So what’s going on?” she asked over her shoulder.

“I guess we’re in charge now?” Laura Lee said.

“Why? Where did Ms. Grant go?”

“I’m not sure, she just–”

The phone ringing again cut her off. It rang twice before she realized it was her job to answer it now.

“Hello, nurse’s office, Laura Lee speaking!”

“Where’s Ms. Grant?” The distressed voice on the other line was a woman’s, but she couldn’t place who it was. 

“She just left a minute ago.”

“Where did she go?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did she say when she was coming back?”

“No, I’m sorry.”

There was a grunt of frustration on the other end, and then the line went dead. Laura Lee frowned in dissatisfaction, then gently hung the phone back up on the wall. Less than ten seconds later, it came back to life again. It was so fast that she thought maybe it was the woman calling back, having accidentally hung up the first time.

“Hello?”

“Who is this?” It was a man’s voice this time. “Where’s Mira!”

“I’m sorry, she’s not here. She left about a minute ago after getting another call.”

“Where is she!”

“I don’t know, I’m sorry!”

“Goddamnit! One of my kids is having a seizure!”

The PA screeched to life while he was speaking and boomed:

NURSE GRANT PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE IMMEDIATELY. NURSE GRANT PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE IMMEDIATELY. THANK YOU.

“I don’t know where she is, I’m sorry!”

She heard someone else shout, “I think it’s stopping!” in the background of the call.

“Shit, okay. Just tell her to come to room three twenty-two when she gets back.”

“I can do that,” she said, but the line went dead before she’d finished speaking.

She was barely halfway across the room when it rang again.

“Sounds like Ms. Grant is pretty popular today,” Misty remarked. Laura Lee was debating whether to go back and answer it again when the PA crackled to life to announce that Ms. Grant was needed in room two ten, right now. “Wow, really popular!”

The door swung open, swinging in fast and hard and hitting the wall with a sharp BANG!

“Help!” Travis shouted desperately in the doorway. “My dad!”

A moment later they appeared behind him: Coach Ben, Mr. Ridley from the office, and Coach Martinez hanging between them. He was stumbling forward, but they were practically carrying him on their shoulders. 

”He just collapsed!“ Ben yelled.

”Traaaa—“ Coach moaned. 

”Lay him down on the bed!” Misty ordered. 

Laura Lee rushed ahead of them to pull the curtain out of the way.

“Where’s Ms. Grant?” Ben demanded as they half carried, half dragged Coach Martinez across the room.

“I don’t know, she just left!” Laura Lee answered.

“Where!”

“I don’t know!” she yelled over the nagging rings of the phone. “I’m sorry!”

She backed up to make space as they finished stumbling across the room and awkwardly deposited Coach onto the bed. She stepped in to help, cupping his head in her hands and guiding it down onto the pillow while Misty helped lift up his legs. Travis stood behind them, eyes wide as he watched his father flop limply onto the mattress.

”Is he...” he whispered. 

“He’ll be okay,” Ben tried to assure them, the shakiness in his voice betraying his doubts.

Laura Lee followed Travis’ eyes to his father’s chest. It had fallen completely still. She quickly brought her hand up to his nose and mouth, just like she’d learned. She held it there for about ten seconds longer than she needed to, just to be sure, but her heart had already dropped into her chest.

”He's not breathing!“ she gasped. She looked up at Ben and Mr. Ridley, but they hesitated, and there was no time to waste. 

”I can do it,” she said shakily. “I can do it!” 

She knew how to do this. This was the reason she took those classes, to let God help her save others in need. She folded her hands together, placed them down on his chest, and started pushing. 

Down.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

Up.  

She counted in time. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…  

“You're going too fast!” Misty said. “I can tap in for you if—”

“I can do this Misty!” she said. She slowed her pace ever so slightly.

Twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty. 

She stopped and brought her hands up to his face, pinching his nose and drawing his chin back to open his trachea. She inhaled sharply and exhaled quickly into his mouth twice, pushing fresh oxygen into his lungs. Then she kept pumping. 

One. Two. Three. Four.

“Laura Lee—” Ben said.

“I-can-do-this,” Laura Lee grunted. “God-is-with-me.”

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.  

She pushed down and let up, down and let up, down and let up, down and something cracked under her fist. She gasped, and from the way everyone jumped, they heard it too.

”Don't stop! It's okay!“ Misty urged. ”It means you're doing it right, pushing in deep enough to pump his heart!“

Laura Lee nodded, more to reassure herself than anyone else. 

”Okay, okay, okay,“ she assured herself. She pushed down again. 

Twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty.  

Two more breaths. 

Another thirty beats. 

Two more breaths. 

”Oh Lord,“ she whispered as she started pumping again. “By your own three days in the tomb, you hallowed the graves of all who believe in you, and so made the grave a sign of hope that promises resurrection even as it claims our mortal bodies.” 

She hit thirty and gave him another two breaths. 

“Please return your child Bill to us, for we are not ready to be without him. Please have mercy, Lord, and do not take your child's father from him.“ 

Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, tw—

”He blinked!“ Travis gasped. She stopped pumping. His chest lifted and fell ever so slightly beneath her hands.

”Bill?” Ben asked cautiously as Travis came rushing over.

“Dad?” 

Coach took in a shaky, wheezing breath. 

“Traaa–” he wheezed.

“I'm here Dad, you're okay. She saved you.” He looked up at her, eyes wide and brimming with tears. “She saved you.”

She took a long, deep breath. Her own heart was pounding and her hands were shaking. She’d done it. She’d prepared herself as an instrument and God had finally worked through her hands. Right now Travis was crying tears of relief instead of anguish because she’d held a life in her hands and guided it back. 

She had often wondered how it would feel to be used as a hand of the divine, and while she didn’t have the words right now, she knew she had never felt closer to Him than she did right now. She praised Him with a sign of the cross and whispered, “Thank you lord.”

Coach was starting to move before them, coming to and reorienting himself to life. She imagined it must be a lonely journey, even if the Great Gates did await you, and it must be even more jarring to take your first steps on that journey only to be turned back.

“Traaaaavis,” he moaned. “Tra-UH.” His body spasmed, his legs jerked in a half kick while his shoulders rolled forward and his arms jumped.

“Bill?” Ben asked. As if in answer, Coach spasmed again. It shook his entire body this time. He fell to rest, then spasmed again, and then he didn’t stop shaking. 

“Oh shit! Hold him!” Ben yelled. He and Mr. Ridley rushed forward.

Coach's legs started kicking almost the way Mari's dog Rufus did when he was asleep and dreaming of running. He kicked and kicked and kicked, even after Ben grabbed his legs to keep him from falling off the bed while Mr. Ridley held his shoulders down. 

“Tra—vis, Tra—vis, Tra—vis,” he gasped out with every spasm. 

“What's happening?” Travis cried. “What's wrong with him!”

“I don’t fucking know!” Ben yelled. 

“It might be a seizure from the shock,” Misty said. “It should be over soon, they don’t last long!”

Travis was backing away from the bed, running his hands anxiously through his hair as tears fell harder down his cheeks. She rushed forward without thinking and wrapped her arms around him. He jumped and tensed at her touch. She didn’t know him that well, but she didn’t feel awkward. Kindness was something she gave freely, and until today it was the closest she had ever come to feeling God’s light.

“He’ll be okay,” she whispered confidently. “He’ll be okay.”

Travis relaxed, then surprised her by dropping his arms around her and returning the hug. He sniffed quietly, probably trying to hide his crying out of some unfounded masculine shame, but his grip was firm. He was opening himself up to her as much as he could, and it wasn’t her place to judge.

She held him while Coach’s seizure started to subside. His convulsions grew slower and smaller until he lay at rest. She released Travis as soon as he loosened his grip. 

“Bill? Can you hear me?” Mr. Ridley asked. 

Ben let go of his legs and started to circle around behind the other man. 

Coach whispered something to himself and suddenly swung his legs over the side of the bed, pushing himself up on shaky arms. Across the room, the phone started to ring again.

“Woah Bill, take it slow,” Ben urged.

“Traaa-v-v-v-vis,“ he said slowly, pushing himself up to stand.

”Easy there—“ Mr. Ridley started, but he was cut off when Coach Martinez stumbled into him, throwing him off balance. They tumbled backwards, crashing through the curtain and onto the ground. 

”Oh shit, are you okay!“ Ben asked frantically.

“I'm—ah, okay, help him up!” Mr. Ridley said. Coach had fallen on top of him, pinning him to the ground.

Ben only took one step forward before Coach Martinez's body shuddered and he reared his head back to let out a piercing, rageful scream.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” 

“Bill what the f—” Coach's head flew down and he sank his teeth into Mr. Ridley’s neck. 

He screamed and tried to twist away, but Coach was holding his shoulders down. Blood sprayed up in his face like a fountain as his teeth tore into the skin until he finally ripped away a chunk of flesh. When he reared his head back, the blood fell from his face like curtains of rain. 

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

“AAHH FUC-C-C-K-K!” Mr. Ridley gurgled.

Laura Lee, for lack of any other sane reaction, screamed. 

Coach’s head whipped around towards them, sending drops of blood flying off his chin and falling on Mr. Ridley’s convulsing body. His eyes fixated on her, and his lips smacked as he chewed. She clapped her hands over her mouth and froze. 

The phone rang like an alarm bell.

RIIIIIIIING! RIIIIIIIING! RIIIIIIIING!

Travis’ voice cracked when he whispered, “Dad?” as if the answer were a wild animal to be spooked if startled.

Coach’s eyes finally left Laura Lee and darted over to his son.

“Trav-v–vis?” he stuttered. “Help!” 

“What the hell is wrong with you Bill!” Ben shouted. Coach’s eyes slid over to him.

“Bill?” he asked. “Wrong is hell! Help me! Help!” 

The momentary distraction allowed Mr. Ridley to get an arm free. He grabbed Coach’s shoulder and pushed.

“Fucking get off!” he shouted. Coach snarled, turning back on him and biting his other shoulder. Mr. Ridley screamed again, and it was unlike anything Laura Lee had ever heard before. Blood curdling notes of pain and desperation.

“HELP ME!” 

Everyone in the room had fallen into a daze. Ben shook out of it first. He ran over to the two wrestling men and tried to pull Coach Martinez off. He swiped and lunged at Ben. Ben jumped back. Mr. Ridley used the distraction to wiggle his arms free and shove Coach off, yelling, 

“Fuck you!” But Coach climbed right back on top of him. “Get off! Help me!”

Coach roared and raked his fingers down Mr. Ridley’s face, ripping the flesh and starting half a dozen streams of blood. Mr. Ridley let out a cry that finally made Laura Lee understand the word agony .

“Dad, stop!” Travis yelled, but his father ignored him.

Something grabbed Laura Lee’s arm. She yelped and jumped back instinctively, but it was only Misty. She was pulling her towards the door.

“Run!” she shouted. Laura Lee snapped out of her daze and followed Misty’s momentum across the room, but she stopped just short of the door. 

“Travis!”

Travis was still frozen, watching in horror as Coach wrapped his bloody fingers around Mr. Ridley’s balding, screaming head and smashed it into the ground until he stopped. He fell silent, twitching beneath Coach Martinez for a few moments before falling completely still. Coach leaned in to inspect his work, sniffing Mr. Ridley’s face and trailing down his neck with the intimacy of a lover before becoming very interested in the blood pooling around the man’s head. He stuck out his tongue and licked the red liquid off the floor. His head shuddered with pleasure, like it might after the first bite of a freshly cooked steak. A grin spread over his face, blood dripping from his chin.

“Travis,” she whispered. The boy still didn’t move.

Coach had begun inspecting the back of Mr. Ridley’s head, the source of the blood. Then, suddenly, he started digging enthusiastically at the wound in the back.

Ben grabbed Travis’ arm.

“Come on Travis!” he said, just a little too loudly for Coach’s taste. His head snapped up, his excavation abandoned.

“Travis?” he asked.

“Go!” Ben shouted. The two of them broke for the door. Coach scrambled over Mr. Ridley’s body after them. One of the other boys, who up until that point had been watching in silent terror, had already started running. Laura Lee rushed through to make room. The boy came flying out, Travis and Ben right behind. Laura Lee caught a glimpse of the other two boys cowering in the back corner before Misty yanked the door shut after them.

She backed away, her heart beating so fast she could hear it pulsing in her ears and feel it shaking her entire body, right down to her feet. 

“Why did he do that?” Travis sobbed. “What's wrong with him!”

The door crashed. He'd slammed his body into it. They both jumped back. 

“Shit!” yelled Ben. He grabbed the door handle. 

“Did you lock it?” he asked.

“It locks from the inside!” Misty said desperately and dreadfully. Coach pounded the door again.

“Travis!” His shout was muffled by the door, but it was still loud enough to make them jump again. “Help me!”

“Help!” Ben shouted to the lobby.

“What’s happening!” asked Mr. Torres, one of the office administrators.

“He attacked us!” Misty shouted.

Coach pounded behind the door again. 

“Someone lock this fucking door right now!” Ben shouted.

The pounding on the door stopped as suddenly as it started. But the silence was fleeting.

“No, no no no please! Help!” one of the boys yelled from inside. A moment later, the screams and crashing began again.

Ben backed away from the door. 

“Okay, we need to call nine-one-one,” he said in a daze. “They need to send…somebody, I don’t fucking know.”

Travis was sobbing. Several more teachers came running down the hall, demanding to know the cause for all the yelling. Ben tried to sputter out an explanation while the voices inside begged them to come back. One of the men pushed past Ben, dissatisfied, and reached for the door.

“No, wait!” 

Ben’s warning was cut off by the door opening from the inside. The third boy crashed right into the other teacher on his way out. He didn’t stop to apologize. He sprinted right past all of them with a frantic and haunted look in his eyes. The door swung almost all the way shut before Coach came running out with his bloody teeth bared.

“TRAVIS!” he screamed, charging forward into the same teacher.

“Stop!” the man yelled in surprise.

Coach grabbed him by the shoulders and tackled him. More teachers rushed forward yelling for him to stop. Coach thrashed and screamed. 

“Dad, stop!” Travis sobbed.

“You guys need to get out of here, now!” Ben yelled.

“We can't just leave him here!” Travis pleaded.

“You don’t need to see this! Get out of here, now!”

“Come on!” Misty yelled, tugging once again at Laura Lee’s hand. 

But she couldn’t move. She stared transfixed on Coach Martinez as he roared and twisted free from where the adults were trying to wrestle him to the ground. He quickly grabbed one of their arms and sank his teeth in. The man screamed and tried to pull his arm free, ripping the skin and leaving pieces of it behind in Coach’s teeth.

“Fuck!” he shouted as his arm started to run red.

Had she done this? She prayed for God to return Coach Martinez to them, but not for this. This wasn’t their Coach, it couldn’t be! She asked God for a resurrection, but He’d sent something else back in his place.

Why? What sins had she committed that corrupted her as a vessel and damned her touch to bring forth a demon in place of a father?

“Come on Laura Lee!” Misty shouted, grabbing her arm and dragging her back more forcefully this time. It jarred her out of her shock, and after a few stumbling steps she started running with them.

“Where are we going?” she asked as the lobby disappeared around the corner behind them. The shouting of the adults behind them faded, replaced by more shouts echoing down the hall ahead of them.

“Help!”

“He just passed out!”

“She’s not breathing!”

Chapter Text

MR. ROMERO'S CLASSROOM

FIRST FLOOR

MIDSECTION OF THE SCHOOL

Tess didn’t have to go far to reach her homeroom. The gym sat at the back of the school, and Mr. Romero’s room was just a hop, skip and a jump away down the hall. She was lucky; most of the other girls had to go up to the second and third floors. Diana had peeled off in the opposite direction for the stairs when they’d left. Tess had almost asked her to come with her instead. 

She usually liked having her own homeroom. She and Diana already shared almost everything else: friends, soccer, and half their classes. She loved her sister more than anyone else in the world, but she still needed to feel like her own person. So when the guidance counselor had offered for them to be placed in the same homeroom together their freshman year, they had declined. 

She was pretty sure it had been a special offer; the accident had happened just a few months before, and she appreciated that they had considered that maybe she didn’t want to be separated from Diana. Or, more probably, that Diana didn’t want to be separated from her. She would have accepted the offer if Dee had wanted it though, but to her surprise her sister had shared her sentiment for wanting space.

Tess had agreed and kept her feelings of relief private, both to shield Diana from the potential misunderstanding that wanting her own space meant she didn’t want to be around her anymore (which was absolutely untrue) and to hide her shame for wanting something so selfish after what Diana had just been through. 

The offer hadn’t carried over into their sophomore year. In late August, when their schedules for the semester came in the mail, they’d ripped open the envelopes to compare courses and found the homeroom assignments listed at the top, just like everyone else. Tess had Mr. Romero, a coveted first floor homeroom (the last thing anyone wanted to do at seven in the morning was climb two flights of stairs to have their attendance taken), and Diana had Mrs. Ripley up on the second floor. Again, Tess had felt relief, and again, she’d been ashamed. 

But she had made friends with some of the other kids in her room, and it felt good to be around them as herself and not as the quieter half of The Twins. 

Diana was much more outgoing than she was, and she loved to ride her sister’s charisma through lots of their social activities, but sometimes she felt smothered. When someone with a smaller personality like her was in a room with one as large as her sister’s, the larger one tended to fill up most of the space. So she was secretly and selfishly grateful to have a space where she could be her own person. Except for today. 

After what they’d just heard in the locker room, she really didn’t want to be alone right now. She wanted to curl up in Diana’s arms and have one of their epic twinning cry sessions. She realized, startlingly, that they hadn’t done one of those since Christmas. They usually had one at least once a month. Why had they stopped? It might be a good sign–maybe they just hadn’t needed one? She had definitely cried a few times since then, but not over anything too serious. She wondered if Diana had had a private breakdown and not told her because it could also be a sign that they were starting to separate… 

No!  

She pushed that thought right into the garbage bin where it belonged. It was a good thing. She worried sometimes that she cried too much anyway, over little things, stupid things, things that shouldn’t set her off like that. Sometimes she didn’t even know where it came from, it would just start: emotions lurching up out of the depths of her mind to send her doubling over with sobs. Usually Diana was there to comfort her and contribute tears of her own. Her sister always seemed to have them ready to go, like she controlled the handles on the faucet and could turn them on and off at will. 

Sometimes Tess was jealous of that; sometimes she wished she could shut it all off and never have to cry again. She always had to let it all out, just completely empty the emotional tank, before she could recompose herself. But Diana always seemed to just cry until she didn’t want to anymore, and then she was fine again. 

So, since Tess didn’t possess that level of control and could feel the dam ready to burst behind her eyes, she wanted nothing more than to curl up in her sister’s arms and let it all out. She didn’t want space today. She usually liked having her own homeroom, but she couldn’t cry in front of those people, even if they were friends, because she was still too embarrassed to do it in front of anyone else. 

But they hadn’t said anything before parting. Neither had Akilah, Rachel, Gen, Melissa or any of the other JV girls. She had made the short trek down the hall alone and in a daze that remained with her long after she sat down in Mr. Romero’s room. He was one of two science teachers at the school, and his was the size of two classrooms. Last year he’d taught her Biology and Environmental Science, and this year she was learning Chemistry. She was the first to arrive, and it felt empty without anyone else there. Long rows of desks filled the center of the room, waiting patiently for the next horde of students to sleep through a lecture on…

Her eyes wandered over to the whiteboard. The freshman must have been getting ready for their final unit tests of the summer. She read over all the diagrams and term definitions she remembered memorizing last year: the various levels of the food chain with blank lines next to each, presumably for the students to fill in on their study guides. She remembered learning about producers and consumers fondly; Environmental Science had been much more fun than Chemistry. While she reminisced, her eyes passively scanned the rest of the board, half registering the notes about: 

-the stages of recovery when an ecosystem experienced a disturbance

-how to calculate the carrying capacity for a designated amount of habitat

-how the introduction of a new species can alter an ecosystem by disrupting habitat and the food chain, especially when there are no natural predators to control the growing population

She finished reading the board, grateful for the momentary distraction and nostalgia, and returned to the present once more. If she possessed Diana’s control over her emotions, maybe she could have had a short cry to relieve some of the pressure behind her eyes before anyone else showed up. But if she started she would never stop, so instead she decided to attack the problem instead of succumbing to it. She retreated into her thoughts, and they filled the empty room around her. 

Allie was dead.

She played with her hair, twisting her long dark curls around her finger while she turned the phrase around in her mind, examining it from all angles to find the place where logic could pry it apart and reveal the lie. 

Allie was dead.

That couldn’t be true. She’d just been sitting next to her at breakfast an hour ago! They’d talked about going to the mall, getting food, and shopping for new clothes for the summer once their weird lockdown was over. It couldn’t be true. Cannibals attacking the school? Come on! Taissa and Van had to be lying. There was no other reasonable explanation. No, that was too harsh. Maybe they were just mistaken. In the chaos and confusion, they had simply lost track of her. She nodded assuringly to herself. She was close to the truth. She could see the words crumbling under the weight of reason now. 

Allie was dead.

No, Allie was missing. She’d probably come back into the school after Tai and Van and they just hadn’t seen. Something had happened outside, that much was true. Everyone had heard the gunshots, and then people had come running back inside scared and hurt. She’d seen Shauna’s shoulder. But cannibals attacking people? That was some bullshit they’d whipped up, stolen from one of those horror movies Tai was always talking about. Allie had probably put them up to it! She was having a good laugh somewhere in the school right now. She could hear the conversation she’d had with them before sending them to break the news. 

“You know what would really be funny?” Allie whispered conspiratorially. “Tell them I died!” Tai and Van were skeptical, but Allie was very persuasive when she wanted to be. “Come on, it’ll be funny, I promise!”

“And how did you die?” Van asked.

“Ooo, I don’t know, think of something really crazy to see if they buy it.”

“Oh, I’ve got it!” Tai announced eagerly, getting into it. “What if some crazy people attacked the school and ate you!” The three of them busted out laughing in her head, and Tess laughed with them. It was a good one, she had to give them that! Allie would never let them live this one down.

She could hear Allie howling, “You really believed it!” after jumping out from behind a door to give them all a good scare. They would all laugh with her to celebrate the single greatest prank ever pulled. Classic Allie. 

She heard them laughing like they were in the room with her. Their voices sounded deeper than normal though, and then one of them said “I hope I get a scar” in a voice much too baritone to be one of the girls. Then it said, “Hey Tess!” and her daydream melted away as she realized that Rob, Alex and George were walking through the door. She stared at them for a second while her mind caught up to reality, then she smiled and waved back to them, hoping the delay hadn’t been noticeable. 

“Hey guys!” 

She knew Rob and Alex better than George; they shared both Chemistry and homeroom here, as well as AP English Lit. They were funny, outgoing and loud, especially when they were together. They reminded her of Diana, which was probably why she liked being around them. If they were bored, they liked to entertain. If you were stressed, they knew how to make you laugh and relax a little, which had been especially helpful during the exam windows this year. 

Tess was accustomed to being a straight-A student. She had been all her life. But freshman year had been a disaster. Felix had told her to go easy on herself, saying how, given everything that happened with all the tumult and heartbreak at home on top of the shock of entering high school, it was completely understandable for her grades to have dropped off. But she knew colleges wouldn’t be so understanding. They would have a sheet of paper sitting in front of them saying “ Here was a top notch, straight-A, potentially high honors student who inexplicably flopped as soon as she hit high school and never recovered. Her life will never amount to anything and we shouldn’t bother wasting more of her time by letting her flop here too. What a shame, best of luck though!” 

She knew the admissions board wouldn’t ask why exactly she had dropped off in ninth grade, so she had to prove to them and to herself that it had been just a fluke. 

Dear College, I’m sorry my home life imploded that one time, but I swear I can still be a functioning human despite everything being awful and I promise I can still churn out a twenty to thirty page paper on any novel written by a white man in the 1900s and make it sound almost interesting. Please take my money (of which I have very little)!

-Sincerely, Theresa Alvarez-Soto

She didn’t just need to bounce back this year, she had to be better than ever. She needed A’s and four-point-o’s next to classes with honors and AP for the next three years. Needless to say, the year had been a little bit stressful, and while Felix and Dee had been there for her, she couldn’t rely on them for everything. They couldn’t be there in every class, every day, all year. So having Alex and Rob there to crack jokes and pull pranks and generally keep things silly and fun had made the most stressful parts of her year bearable. She was grateful for them, and she felt lucky. And this week definitely qualified as one of the most stressful parts of the year. 

It had been George talking about wanting some kind of scar. Alex was shaking his head.

“You better hope it doesn’t get infected, dude.” 

“Infected,” George mimicked in a mocking tone. “You know my dog bit me once? Everyone was all worried about it ‘getting infected.’ But you know what? It never did!”

“That’s because your mom gave you antibiotics, George.”

“No, I’m telling you man, I just don’t get sick!”

“You’ve been sick plenty of times,” Rob scoffed.

“Really? Name one.” 

Alex had an answer ready to go in his back pocket, not missing a beat before retorting, “You missed my birthday party because you were sick.”

“Oh come on, that was because of a flu shot, that doesn’t count!”

“Do we even have a first aid kit in here?” asked Rob.

“Yes we do!” Tess interrupted. The boys looked surprised. 

“Really? Where?”

She pointed to the back corner of the room, where the supply cabinets were and always had been. “Top right cabinet I think!”

“Sweet, thanks Tess,” Rob said. She felt good; she liked being useful. 

“Are you hurt?”

“‘Tis but a scratch!” George answered in a dramatic, mock British accent.

“He’s actually dying,” Alex said in a deadpan tone that Tess had come to understand was his signature. Rob feigned passing out, pausing his journey to the back of the room to stumble backwards and collapse in Alex’s arms. “Oh, the pain! It’s too much!”

“No! Stay with me!” Alex faux wailed.

“You have been, and always shall be, my–my–f-f-fr-gaaaaah,” Rob stuck out his tongue and went limp in Alex’s arms. George gasped and fell to his knees before them. Alex looked up at her with a glimmer in his eye. She didn’t know if they’d made the reference just for her because they knew she loved Star Trek, but it didn’t matter. She raised her fists into the air and together they screamed “Khaaaaaaaaaan!” at the heavens above. Everybody laughed. Her tears were forgotten.

Rob reanimated, Alex helped steady him back on his feet, and then they resumed their course to the medicine cabinet.

“So if you never get sick then why did you need a flu shot?” Rob resumed their banter without missing a beat.

George shrugged.

“Cos’ it gets my mom off my back. Doesn’t matter. I am superhuman, baby!” George flexed his arms, then winced. “Ah!” He grabbed his upper right arm, and Tess noticed for the first time that the flesh was swollen and raw. 

Rob opened the cabinet and pulled down the white and red box labeled FIRST AID. He set it down on the counter and popped it open. After rifling through it for a moment, he made a satisfied “Ah ha!” and then lifted up a small white bottle. The pills shook inside when he held it up in George’s face.

“I guess you don’t need this tylenol then, huh?” George considered the bottle for a moment and then swiped for it. Rob was quicker, snapping it out of reach and hiding it behind his back.

“Come on dude, give it!” he whined.

“No can do I’m afraid, gotta save the pills for us normals,” he mocked. George rushed at him, trying to reach around and grab it from his hands. Rob laughed and deftly shifted the bottle to his other hand and tossed it to Alex. The bottle rattled like a maraca in mid air. The two boys laughed, playing hot potato while George ran between them, protesting profusely.

More people walked in while the boys played keepaway in the back. Tess didn’t notice them until she heard their voices behind her. A whole gaggle of girls were buzzing around one of her other friends, Hannah Moore, firing a barrage of questions over each other.

“Did you see what they were shooting at?”

“Is it true they shot a student and that’s how it all started?”

“Why did he attack you?”

“I don’t know!” Hannah protested. “I’m sorry!”

Something began to twist in Tess’ stomach. She slid cautiously out of her chair and began to pick her way through the desks.

“Are you okay, Hannah?” 

“I’m fine,” she answered quickly through the noise. “Actually I think I saw one of your teammates in the nurse’s office! Is she okay?”

“Allie?” Tess asked excitedly.

“No, I think it was Jackie? Her arm was hurt, way more than mine.” Tess noticed the bandage wrapped around her left arm right away. While it had certainly started out white, a huge red splotch had spread through most of the cloth, and she handled the arm tenderly. “Did you see her?”

“Oh,” she deflated again, her momentary hope vanishing. “Yeah, yeah, that was Shauna. I just saw her a few minutes ago. I think she’s okay.”

Hannah exhaled a sigh of relief.

“Oh good! I was really worried about her. I’m worried about everyone to be honest.”

“Yeah…” Tess said hesitantly. “Hey, were you outside?”

The other girls were quieting down now that Hannah was giving answers to someone. 

“I was for a bit, why?”

“Did you see Allie while you were out there?”

“No, I’m sorry. There were a lot of people out there though. I was with Millie and Becca. Why?”

Tess bounced nervously on the tips of her toes.

“Oh, it’s…um…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it, so instead she pivoted, hoping to arm herself with more facts to disprove Tai’s story. “Um, what happened out there? Did you see anything? I heard some weird stuff, but it can’t be true.”

The other girls had gathered around, expectant eyes locked on Hannah. They leaned in, faces keen, ready to hang on to every word she spoke. Hannah picked at her bandage nervously.

“I don’t know, it was crazy out there.”

“Come on!” one of the other girls protested. “They were shooting at kids!”

“I didn’t see any of that,” Hannah started before another girl cut her off.

“Kara said they were eating people!”

A chill shivered up her spine, spreading like ice water through her veins.

“Is that true, Hannah?” she asked. 

“I don’t know what was happening, okay!” She snapped. “We were supposed to be going home! I just wanted to take a shower and then flop on my bed and let all of this crazy shit be over! Now we’re still stuck here and my fucking arm hurts!”

“Got some tylenol with your name on it back here, Hannah!” Rob called across the room. “We have some extra.” He giggled and tossed the pills back to Alex, then yelped when George continued coming after him. They danced around the desks, Rob whooping as he dodged George’s swipes.

“I don’t even have ‘em dude!”

“I’m giving you something to medicate!” George shouted, though Tess could hear the laughter in his voice. 

“Look out!” Alex cheered. “He’s coming for ya!”

The girls had started up a new string of questions, and Hannah looked on the verge of tears.

“Guys, please, I don’t want to bark about it right now!”

Tess wanted to press and get more answers, but Hannah was clearly overwhelmed to the point of mixing up her words. One of the other girls, Mary Fowler, spoke first.

“Okay, it’s okay. We’ll leave you alone, right guys?” She stared pointedly at the other girls. They bowed their heads in shame, but didn’t protest. 

“Yeah, just rest for now,” Tess said, mildly ashamed.

“Thank you,” Hannah sniffed. “I’m sorry for yelling. I know everyone just wants pancakes right now but I really don’t lie on the upside.”

Tess frowned. She looked around at the other girls to confirm if they heard the same thing, and she knew instantly that they had.

“What?” Mary asked.

“I just need to sit down, okay?”

“Are you okay Hannah?” Tess asked. 

“I’m frequent. My arm just really hurts this way, I need maybelline.”

“Hannah, did you hit your head out there too?” 

Hannah groaned and buried her face in her hands, massaging her forehead slowly.

“Fog in the brick of my hand, and scene!” The color drained from her face and she stumbled back into a desk. “I don’t feel…don’t feel…so…I don’t…”

All the girls were looking around nervously at each other, but Tess was closest. She rushed forward and grabbed Hannah’s good arm.

“Hey hey hey, maybe you should sit down.” Hannah nodded groggily, moaning again and pressing her hands harder into her temples. Tess started guiding her towards an empty seat while the other girls stood frozen around them. “Can someone get her some water?” They stared blankly back at her.

Hannah arched her back suddenly, jumping away from the open seat, and cried out.

“Beaches in summer! The dog dyed key-lime green, morning, morning! No!” She cried out, tearing her arm free from Tess’ hand. “No! No! No! Not that dinner! Forks and knives make such dull instruments! Eighty eight waiting for one day! Two day!” She whipped around and grabbed Tess by the shoulders and screamed, “Two made one! Two made one! Offering mindful watches in the…in the…”

“What are you talking about?” Mary shouted, her voice laced with the same confusion and panic that was building in Tess’ chest. 

“Please!” Hannah sobbed, her eyes still locked on Tess. She shook her head.

“I don’t understand!” she said. “You’re not making any sense!”

Hannah sobbed again.

“I’m trying to–AAAAAHHHHHH!” She released Tess as suddenly as she’d grabbed her. Her hands flew back up to her face as she stumbled back into another desk. Tess leapt forward to catch her arm, but it was a bad angle, and Hannah dragged her down. The two of them crashed to the ground together. 

“Oh shit! Are you guys okay?” George called from the back, breaking off his pursuit of Rob. Tess had fallen on top of Hannah on their way down, and now she was writhing beneath her. She rolled off her as quickly as she could.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

“Does she look okay?” one of the girls snapped.

Hannah screamed in answer and started scratching at her face. Her nails dug through the skin and drew blood everywhere she touched. She thrashed and screamed again, her hands jumping back up to start digging again. 

“Stop!” Tess shrieked. But Hannah ignored her. Her hands were raking in a frenzy, already a dozen lines of blood running down over her eyes, nose, cheeks, and chin. She dug into her face, screaming in agony but never stopping. 

“NO NO NO NO NO!” 

Tess lunged forward again and grabbed her by the wrists. Her bloody fingers twitched as she desperately fought against Tess’ grip.

“What’s wrong Hannah?” she begged.

“BEES IN MY HEAD!” 

She couldn’t tell if that was more of her nonsense, or what she meant if it wasn’t. Hannah thrashed against her again, trying to bring her hands back up to her face. She kicked and twisted and writhed. Tess couldn’t hold her.

“Stop! Hannah! Stop!” 

She ripped her hands free and dug her fingers back into her forehead, rigorously carving out new streams of blood. Tess grabbed them again, pulling like she was trying to separate two heavy magnets. Hannah screamed like she was impaling her on a bed of nails.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” 

Then, as suddenly as if God flipped a switch, the magnets shut off and she went limp.

Chapter III: Species Introduction

MAIN HALLWAY

FIRST FLOOR

Laura Lee rounded another corner behind Misty and Travis, and the main hall unfolded before them. It ran through the entire midsection of the school, capped by T-intersections at both ends. The near side, where they had just come running from, led to either the main lobby or the first floor classrooms that ran along the outside edge of the school. The far side of the hall branched toward either the gymnasium or the technical wing of the school that housed the Audio Visual and Wood Shop classes. The main hall itself housed only three things: the library, cafeteria, and the primary stairwell leading up to the other floors where most classes took place. When they rounded the corner, about a hundred faces were staring directly at them, or maybe at the sounds of shouting behind them.

“What’s going on?” asked a nearby girl, probably a freshman.

“Our coach, he…” Misty started, but she trailed off when the school PA system screeched to life.

WE NEED FACULTY ASSISTANCE IN THE FRONT LOBBY! ALL AVAILABLE FACULTY PLEASE REPORT TO THE LOBBY IMMEDIATELY!

Several teachers started pushing their way out of the crowded corridor. As the bodies shifted, she saw that the crowd in the middle of the hall was circling around something. Misty must have noticed it too, because she asked the girl, “What’s going on over there?” 

“I think someone’s having an asthma attack.”

“I told you it’s not asthma, she was shouting before she fainted,” said another girl to her left. “Asthma means short of breath.”

“I know what asthma is, Macy. Someone just said she stopped breathing! Ms. Grant is over there now.”

“No, I heard he just passed out,” a boy said over his shoulder.

“Who?” Laura Lee asked.

“Nate,” the boy answered at the same time the girl said, “Sophie!”

SECOND FLOOR BATHROOM

FAR SIDE OF THE SCHOOL

Van gripped the edge of the sink with both hands. She was alone. She finally let out the sob that had spent the last twenty minutes inflating in her chest. Then she let out the next one, and the next, and the next. She held onto the white porcelain for dear life. Her entire body was shaking, it had been since the moment Tai closed the doors. Her thoughts swam through murky waters of fear, hunger and grief. She expelled them with choking cries and salt, her body’s immune response to the horrors the morning had wrought. 

Gunshots. Screaming. Dying. Allie.

Her eyes and throat burned. 

Don’t look back!

She doubled over the sink, gasping for air only to force it right back out again. 

Help me!

Her legs buckled beneath her.

I’ll do anything for you .

Her tears felt endless.

Come back!

She looked up into the mirror and Allie’s mangled face looked back. Without her cheek, her mouth was twisted into a leering grin. Her eyes burned with hatred. Van couldn’t blame her. She’d probably feel the same if she’d been left behind to die. Allie’s eyes sparkled with rage at Van’s pathetic attempt to identify with her full-death experience. 

Van opened her mouth to say something, though she didn’t know what. Maybe she wanted to apologize, even though she’d been helpless to do anything. That’s what was eating away at her and fueling her tears: the decision to trade Allie’s life for hers had been made without either of them. And the worst part? She was grateful. She had been so sure that she was about to die that the relief had come against her will. So maybe what she really wanted was to apologize for that. But Allie didn’t care. The moment Van opened her mouth to offer her sorrows to a ghost, Allie snarled and lunged forward, smashing her head into the other side of the mirror.

Van gasped and ducked into the sink, frantically twisting the faucet open and splashing cold water over her face. The sound of running water almost drowned out the sound of splintering glass. 

She stayed down until her face hurt from the cold. She shut the water off and cautiously raised her head out of the basin. The mirror was smooth, unbroken, and it reflected back only her petrified face. She grabbed a strip of paper towels and patted herself dry. She risked another glance into the glass, but Allie was gone. 

“Okay,” she nodded, and mirror Van nodded back. Okay!

They were in agreement. This was all fucked.

She took a deep breath, steeling herself to rejoin her classmates in the hall in pretending that everything happening this week was normal and fine.

“Okay,” she said again, hoping the repetition would cement the word as truth. Mirror Van looked unconvinced, and a little judgy, so she left her behind, repeating it again as she pushed open the door, and again as she stepped out into the hall. Everyone was talking and laughing like it was another Tuesday. It was over. They made it inside. They were safe now. Everything would be okay. 

Okay. Okay. Okay.

She could almost feel herself believing it, so she tried again, and again, and again, and–

SECOND FLOOR

FAR SIDE

Jackie held Shauna's hand all the way up the stairs. She seemed steadier on her feet now, but Jackie wasn't taking any chances with her safety. 

The PA crackled to life, screeching over the noise of the hall:

WE NEED FACULTY ASSISTANCE IN THE FRONT LOBBY! ALL AVAILABLE FACULTY PLEASE REPORT TO THE LOBBY IMMEDIATELY!

The interruption was fleeting, and everyone ignored it the way they always did. A hundred conversations danced and merged in the familiar background noise of an ordinary school day. Except it was Saturday, and it had been anything but normal.

”Do you think this is because of what you saw out there?“ Jackie asked nervously as they climbed the last of the steps out of the stairwell.

”Probably,” Shauna muttered flatly.

Jackie had a million questions, mostly revolving around the cannibals that Tai had described. But one pressed to the forefront of her mind, and she couldn't let it go.

”Why didn't you tell me?“ 

Shauna glanced up at her but quickly averted her eyes again.

”Because...they asked me not to.“

”Is that it?“ Jackie felt her anxiety twisting and morphing into something else now, something more tangible. Anger.

”So that's it, Tai and Van ask you to keep something this huge a secret from me, and you just go along with it? I thought we told each other everything!”

“I don’t think he’s breathing anymore!” a boy shouted from somewhere in the crowd. “Ms. Grant, help!”

“She’s doing CPR! She can’t stop!” someone else shouted.

“He’s definitely not breathing! Someone help!”

Laura Lee hesitated and looked down at her hands. She could still hear yelling coming from the lobby behind them. She thought of coach Martinez roaring and sinking his teeth into everyone after she’d brought him back to life. If she really had committed some monstrous sin, if her hands were truly cursed to corrupt any soul she touched, how could she risk it again? Was God punishing her? Was He testing her faith? Did she have an imperative to help, despite the risk? 

Misty had no such reservations.

“I know CPR! Move!”

Her tiny frame disappeared into the sea of bodies ahead of them. Laura Lee was frozen. Her head throbbed with confusion and fear and doubt, and then guilt. Was her faith really so easily shaken? Travis was still by her side, and when she looked up they exchanged panic stricken looks that said–

“What the fuck was that?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know!” Tess cried. Hannah’s hands dangled limply in her own. Her mouth hung open like she was still trying to scream, but her eyes were shut. The other girls hovered in a circle around them, gawking and crying and yelling yet another round of questions, this time at Tess.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Did she just faint?”

“Hannah, can you hear us?”

“Do something!”

“Everyone shut up!” Mary snapped.

Tess didn’t know what the fuck to do. She’d never seen someone faint like this before. Streams of blood were still dripping down Hannah’s face. Tess watched the little red trails curl and wind around her nose and mouth, dripping off her cheeks and chin. She stared and stared, and then she realized something.

“I don’t…I don’t think she’s breathing,” she whispered hoarsely.

“What?” Mary asked, her voice cracking.

“Wh–what do you mean?”

“I don’t…” Tess started, her voice catching in her throat. “Sh–she’s not m–m–moving.”

“Can you check?”

“How do you check?”

“Hold your hand up to her mouth? I don’t know!”

Tess laid Hannah’s arms down gently to rest on her chest, then raised a shaking hand up to her empty face. She couldn’t feel anything. She pressed it closer, as close as she could without completely smothering her mouth. There was nothing. No air moving in or out. She started shaking even harder.

“Anything?” Mary demanded. Tess was worried that if she spoke she would start sobbing, so she just shook her head.

“Oh God,” one of the other girls gasped.

“We–we should start CPR,” Mary said. Nobody moved. “Tess!” she snapped.

Tess jumped and snatched her hand back from Hannah’s mouth and curled it in close to her chest. She had never seen a dead body before, and she didn’t know how to do CPR. She whimpered and shook her head. She was definitely about to start crying.

“You do it!” one of the other girls yelled.

“I don’t know how!” Mary cried. “Does anyone know CPR? Guys!” she shouted across the room. “Guys!”

There was a loud crash somewhere behind Tess, metal screeching against metal. And shouting. Alex and Rob were both shouting.

“Fuck dude, we were joking!” 

“We were just messing around! Get up man!”

George’s voice answered them by shouting back, “The mountain is such sweet sorrow! Always climbing! Up! Up! Up!”

The other girls looked away from Hannah, their attention now grabbed by whatever was happening behind Tess. She turned around and followed their eyes to the noise. 

George was on the ground now too, writhing and ripping out chunks of his own hair.

“MAKE IT STOP!” he screamed. 

Alex and Rob dove down after him.

“Stop! Dude, George, stop it!”

“What the hell are you doing!”

“Arking! Marking! Ants climbing across the dandelion sky!” 

George fought against them, just like Hannah had fought against her, and then he screamed. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

And then he stopped too. 

Rob stumbled back from George’s body, eyes wide with horror.

“Oh fuck,” he cried. “Oh fuck, oh fuck! Is he…”

Alex shook George’s shoulders. They moved like jello. He looked up across the room and locked eyes with Tess. They didn’t need to say anything; the panic arced between them like lightning.

Alex broke first, looking back down at George and shaking him again. Tess shook out of her stupor and crawled back to Hannah.

“Hannah!”

“George!”

“Wake up!”

“She’s awake!” Laura Lee couldn’t see where the shout came from, somewhere up the hall. She decided to push further in to try and get a better look. Maybe she could help Ms. Grant with whatever was happening.

“Excuse me,” she said politely. “Can I get through? Excuse me, thank you.” 

Travis was trailing behind her, keeping his head down to hide his bloodshot eyes, but when he saw that her manners were getting her nowhere fast, he pushed his way forward.

“Yo! Get out of the way! Move!” 

People shot him various looks, but begrudgingly began to part before them. She was about to thank him when she heard the first scream. A jolt of panic shot up her spine, and both she and Travis froze. She heard Ms. Grant yell, “Hold her down!” somewhere ahead of them. They were getting closer.

“Everyone get back!” Ms. Grant ordered. The crowd pressed back, and she had to move quickly to avoid Travis’ rapid retreat. 

SECOND FLOOR

FAR SIDE

Tai slumped into her chair. She wasn’t the first to reach her homeroom, there were a few kids sitting across the room chatting casually to each other. One of the girls waved when she walked in, but she had no desire to talk to any of them. 

There was only one person she needed to talk to right now, and she was all the way across the building. She shouldn’t have let her leave without talking. She didn’t care if it was what Van wanted. Every step that had taken her to this room had felt like a mistake. How could she not want to talk? Or at least let Tai explain herself! 

But she wasn’t sure she could explain. She was already replaying it all in her mind. They could have both gone back, fought the man off of Van and brought her back inside together. There were too many other people behind him. But they could have done it. Allie wouldn’t have turned around. She was going to leave you there. But maybe she would have helped. Tai hadn’t even asked her. She would have said no. But there was no way to know. 

No, she had to go back further. Maybe at the shed; if they hadn’t separated then they wouldn’t have had to stop! That’s where it had all gone wrong. The rest was already swimming in a haze of panic and decisions she didn’t even remember making. Splitting up was the mistake. They should have all stayed together. They would have left together. They would have made it back together. 

She needed Van to understand that it had all gone wrong, that there was nothing they could have done. That she’d been forced to make a terrible choice that she already thought wasn’t a choice. It wasn’t that she wanted to kill Allie, she just wanted to save Van. It happened so fast, she wasn’t even sure she’d thought about it at all. Was that worse? It sounded worse. Was Van more likely to forgive her if she thought Tai had killed for her on purpose, or by accident? Was she going to forgive her at all? Why didn’t she want to talk about it! 

She was so wrapped up in her own head that she didn’t even notice Lottie until she sat down next to her.

“That was some crazy shit,” she said as she settled into her chair. “I’ve never seen Van that angry before. Is she okay?”

Tai frowned in confusion before remembering the fight between Jackie and Van. She was half right; Tai had seen Van angry before, like, scary angry. But she’d never seen her take it out on someone like that before. A thought skipped into her mind immediately and burrowed itself in deep before she could rip it out: you broke everything .

“Are…you okay?” Lottie asked, and Tai realized she’d been staring at the floor. A manic and distraught sound that distantly resembled a laugh escaped from her chest.

Lottie took this answer in stride and asked if she wanted to talk about it. 

She considered saying any of the thoughts currently warring inside her head aloud, but she didn’t want to lose both of her best friends in one morning. Besides, she wouldn’t even know where to start.

“Can you see anything?” she asked Travis. She couldn’t see anything except the backs of people’s heads, but he had a good six inches on her. He tried to push forward again.

“Almost, I think.”

“Sophie, can you hear me sweetie?” 

That was Ms. Grant. Her voice was clear, they must be close! 

“Move!” Travis ordered a group of girls ahead of them. Their expressions soured as he pushed through them.

“Forget your manners, flex?” one of them snarked. Laura Lee hurried after him, apologizing to the girls as she squeezed through.

“Sorry, thank you, sorry!” They stared daggers at her too, but said nothing. 

Someone screamed again. It came from somewhere ahead, somewhere close. Quickly a second voice pierced the air, and then a third, and then she couldn’t count them because everyone started screaming. The crowd jumped back again, sending people tumbling back into those standing behind him like dominoes. The gap between her and Travis collapsed when a girl stumbled back into her, which sent her back into the other girls. One of them caught her and then shoved her away again.

“What? What is it!” Laura Lee yelled, but nobody answered her. The crowd surged like a pack of giseles scattering away from a lion on the prairie. Bodies crashed into each other as people scrambled back in every direction. The screaming infected everyone as the crowd took on a life of its own, scattering away from whatever was happening down the hall. 

Someone shouted, “What the fuck!”

She couldn’t see anything while she was being battered around.

“Stop! What’s happening? Hey! What–” she shouted, but nobody was listening. Suddenly Misty reappeared out of the sea of bodies and grabbed Laura Lee’s shoulders.

“We have to get out of here, now!” she yelled.

“What’s happening?” Travis asked.

“It’s happening again! Come on!”

But Laura Lee didn’t understand, not until Misty grabbed her arm and started dragging her through the crowd. For such a small and scrawny girl she was surprisingly strong. They pushed through the swarming bodies and she realized Misty was taking them towards the library, against the current of the crowd, which seemed to be flowing up into the stairwell. It wasn’t until they reached the doors that the crowd had thinned enough for Laura Lee to see Ms. Grant flopping around on the ground, a pool of blood spreading around her. Her hands were flailing around her neck as she writhed around on the floor. And Sophie, the girl she’d supposedly been giving CPR, was nowhere to be found.

“No…” Laura Lee whispered. 

“Come on Laura Lee!” Travis yelled.

“No, we can’t just leave her!” she said, wrenching her arm free from Misty’s grip and rushing towards the nurse.

“Where are you going?” Misty shouted, but Laura Lee ignored her. She fell to her knees by Ms. Grant’s side.

“It’s okay Ms. Grant, I’m going to…to…” she faltered. Blood was gushing out of her throat and spilling all over her face and chest. Laura Lee raised her hands over the wound, but this was far more than she had ever been taught to handle. Ms. Grant tried to speak, but she only gurgled up more blood in place of the words. She was suffocating and drowning at the same time.

SECOND FLOOR

NEAR SIDE

“You could have been hurt!” Jackie yelled, then corrected herself. “You DID get hurt! I should have been there with you! Or you should have told me so I could tell you it was a stupid idea and not to go!”

She weaved their way through the crowded hall, trying to get to their homeroom as soon as possible. Shauna was shaking more now, and Jackie was worried she might faint again. But finally she answered, her voice cracking as she did.

“I wanted to tell you, I really did. I'm sorry Jackie, I'm so sorry.“

”You should've. It wasn't–”

Someone roughly shouldered past her from behind. 

“Hey!” she snapped, turning to accost them for their lack of respect for personal space. “Watch where you’re–”

The words caught in her throat. Van glared at her as she passed, and Jackie immediately noticed the redness in her eyes. She’d been crying. 

“Van, wait, I–” she stammered, but Van turned away without breaking her stride, pushing away down the hall ahead of them. “Shit,” she muttered to herself. Van’s red hair disappeared, so she turned back to Shauna, who also avoided her gaze. What had she been saying?

“It just… it wasn’t fair to me or any of the other girls for you guys to keep something like that from us. What if you hadn't just gotten hurt? What if...” Shauna's eyes finally flitted up to meet hers. Jackie saw the tears beading up along the edges of those big blue eyes, and the anger in her chest deflated. “You should've told us.”

“I—” Shauna started, but the scream cut her off. It came from up the hall ahead of them. Jackie’s heart skipped a beat and they stopped dead in their tracks. The conversational noise of the hall sputtered. There was another, and then another, and then a whole chorus of them erupted all at once, rising from below and echoing off the walls of the stairwell ahead of them. It gave them a surreal and haunting warble, like the sounds were coming from an old stereo crackling back to life to serenade her grandparent’s living room with Sinatra. It was like that, only much worse. Everyone in the hallway fell silent and stopped, heads all turning in the same direction. The entryway to the stairs was like an open mouth, screaming on its own, heaving in breath and expelling pure panic. 

” No ,“ Shauna whispered as the screams grew louder, accompanied by a thundering drumming and banging. People that had just entered the stairwell suddenly turned around and rushed back up into the hall, like animals clearing a path for....

They appeared suddenly, a mass of bodies storming up the stairs, climbing up the throat and pouring out the mouth, screaming all the while. They raced out into the hall without breaking speed, crashing into everyone that had stopped to gawk.

The frozen crowd sprang back to life and surged back. Some were yelling questions, but their voices only added to the madness. 

Jackie barely had time to process anything before bodies started crashing into her, tossing her around like a violent current.

Hannah’s eyes fluttered open. Tess gasped.

“She’s awake!” 

“Oh thank God!” Mary cried out in relief.

The girls crowded around them.

“Is she okay?”

“Are you all right?”

“Can she hear us?”

Tess gently took her hand again.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re all right. You just fainted.” She didn’t understand why she hadn’t felt her breathing, but she must have been. Relief flooded through her body. She’d been wrong; everything was okay.

Hannah moaned like she was waking up with the world’s worst hangover. Tess brought her other hand up to her forehead to brush away the loose hairs that had fallen over her face. She gasped when her fingers grazed Hannah’s skin. She was burning the hottest fever Tess had ever felt. Heat radiated up like the moment before bread popped out of the toaster. Hannah moaned again. Her fingers twitched in Tess’ hand.

“Get her some water!” Tess ordered the onlookers. “And a wet rag! I think she has a fever.”

One of the onlooking boys nodded and disappeared to the back of the room.

“A fever?” Mary asked. Tess pressed the back of her hand against Hannah’s forehead.

“I don’t know, she’s running really hot.”

Hannah ripped her hand out of Tess’ without warning, twisting it into her body and wrapping it around her chest. Her shoulders rolled forward and she uncurled her arm into a straight line, then curled it back up when her shoulders rolled back again. Her other arm twitched back to life too, first flapping her wrist and then following the same curling and uncurling. She lurched upwards like she was trying to sit up, but she relaxed again almost immediately and laid back down.

“Woah!” Mary yelped. 

“No no no, don’t try to sit up!” Tess urged her. Metal screeched as Hannah kicked the leg of the desk that stood by her right foot. Then she kicked violently out with her left, and then again with her right, and then both, and then her whole body was shaking and convulsing. Her limbs went wild. Her arms flew out in both directions; her left smacked Tess in the chest and her right smashed into the leg of the desk behind her with enough force to leave an ugly bruise. 

“Hannah stop!” Tess yelled. Hannah did not stop. 

Her body contracted and relaxed like she was doing crunches for gym class. On the fourth one her head slammed back into the ground with a sickening WHACK!

Tess gasped and scrambled forward, pulling her friend into her lap to cushion her. Hannah crunched again and slammed her head back into Tess’ chest. She gasped as the pain rattled through her body. Hannah seized upwards again almost immediately, and slammed back just as fast. The second impact hurt worse than the first, but this time Tess wrapped her arms Hannah’s shoulders and squeezed, trying to hold tight. Once again, Hannah thrashed and writhed against her. Tess clenched every muscle in her upper body trying to hold her still.

“What’s happening to her!” one of the girls cried.

“I don’t know!” Tess cried back. “What’s wrong, Hannah? What’s wrong!”

She gripped Shauna's hand like it was a life vest in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a storm. They stumbled back as bodies slammed into them, and she pulled her in close as the raging current pushed them down the hall. The banging of bodies crashing into the lockers mixed with the screaming, punctuated by the sound of doors opening and slamming shut all around them.

Jackie tried to fight the press of bodies, but she couldn't steady herself. Several people were pushed right up against her, and all of them were stumbling backwards together. Her hand was slipping from Shauna's.

“Hey! Stop!” she shouted, but her voice was drowned in the chaos. Suddenly she felt another hand grab her arm, and she jumped for a moment before she realized it was just Shauna. She was pulling her away from the middle of the hall, dragging her through the mob with both hands.

“We have to get to the wall!” Shauna shouted. 

Jackie nodded and turned, pushing through the surging crowd and bouncing off other bodies like bumper cars. Someone behind her tripped and fell, disappearing under a blur of legs and feet. She heard the thud of a body hitting the floor, but couldn't see who it was or whether they got back up. 

She collided with someone, hitting them with her shoulder and stumbling sideways, crashing into someone else. They both grunted and shoved past each other, and then she was up against the wall. Screaming and shouting filled the hall, scored by hundreds of feet thundering over the floor.

“HELP!” Tess screamed as Hannah convulsed in her arms. She didn’t know who she was even calling for, but she didn’t know what to do! The other kids were panicking, screaming and crying and being generally useless. Her muscles were starting to burn from the effort of holding Hannah still. She had secured her arms and head, but her feet were still violently thrashing around. She hooked a foot through the leg of a chair and ripped it out from under the desk. It tumbled over her legs and crashed next to them.

“HELP ME!” Tess screamed again. Mary finally moved, grabbing Hannah’s legs and locking them down while the girl continued her violent convulsions.

Across the room, Rob was shouting “–ever scornful, ever mournful! Sweet morning of dreadful delight!” and grabbing his head while Alex continued shaking George and calling his name.

There were voices in the hall behind her now too, and the sounds of many feet landing heavily on the ground. A loud crash made her jump, and she twisted her head around to see a boy scrambling into the room, the door swinging into the wall behind him. Beyond the door, people were racing by in the hall. Several more charged into the room, crashing into the door to slow their momentum. 

The first boy was shouting “Get in! Get in! Get in!”

She could hear screams echoing down the halls for a moment until Rob drowned them out.

“There is no objective! No limit! No lines! The angles are all wrong! It hurts! God! It hurts! Help me! Help me!”

More people streamed into the room; five, ten, maybe twenty in total, maybe more. They rushed into the room, clearing away from the door to make room for more behind them. 

Tess’ muscles burned, but she couldn’t relax even as Hannah’s seizure finally started to subside. Her friend whimpered in her arms, diverting her attention away from the chaos for a moment.

“It’s okay!” She tried her best to sound soothing, but even she could hear the quiver in her voice. “It’s almost over.”

The door slammed behind her, followed by the screeching of metal being dragged across the floor.

“No no, get more!” a boy’s voice shouted.

“What are you doing?” Mary demanded. Tess craned her head around once again to find some of the kids dragging desks and chairs across the room, piling them up against the door.

“Some fucked up shit’s happening out there man!”

Hannah’s breathing was relaxing, her involuntary twitches growing smaller and smaller. She finally came to rest in Tess’ lap, breathing heavily and still burning up. 

“What’s happening?” one of the other girls asked. 

“Sophie attacked the nurse, right in front of everyone!” Another girl, one of the newcomers, answered.

Rob screamed in the back of the room again, but there was so much happening that nobody seemed to even notice.

“Attacked? Like with a gun?”

The girl shook her head while she grabbed another table and started dragging it towards the door. 

“She bit her! Right in the neck! It was so fucked up! There was so much blood!”

“I–I don’t–” Laura Lee sputtered as her hands fretted over the nurse’s shredded throat. The first step…the first step…the first step was…stopping the bleeding. Could she stop this much bleeding? It was flowing down Ms. Grant’s neck and shoulders like a sheet and pooling around Laura Lee’s knees. She was convulsing and frantically grabbing at her throat, but the blood kept flowing around her fingers. If anything, she was opening up the wounds and making them even worse. 

“Stop!” She cried out, her hands shooting out to stop Ms. Grant from clawing open more of her throat. She let out a panicked moan and fought back against Laura Lee’s grip. “Stop stop stop!” She clasped her hands around Ms. Grant’s, warm and slick and red and still twitching, still trying to get free. She glanced at the wound again, then her eyes wandered to the blood still spreading across the floor. All around her the hallway was still filled with panicked screams and bodies crashing into each other. Ms. Grant’s hair was splayed on the ground around her head, her formerly light blonde hair now drenched in deep red. 

Jackie pressed herself flat against the wall. The metal from one of the lockers dug into her back. There was too much to take in: everyone was running or falling, screaming or crying, leaping into open doors or banging on ones that were already shut. Her eyes landed on an open door on their side of the hall, just a few feet away. They needed to get away from whatever this was.

“Jackie!” 

She spun around, searching for the familiar voice amongst the madness, but it was impossible to tell where it was coming from over all the other shouting. “Shauna! Help!“ 

Jackie's eyes finally found her in the middle of the hall, not at eye level, but down on the ground. She was curled up in a ball, her back in the direction of the rushing crowd. Jackie watched as she tried to uncurl and crawl, but she had to stop and wrap her arms around her head again as more feet stomped on her. She couldn't move because she was being trampled. Van's eyes found Jackie's through the mass of bodies. They looked wild and desperate.

“Help me!” she screamed.

“We have to help her!” Shauna gasped, taking a step forward.

Jackie tried frantically to spot some kind of opening in the crowd. Van was only a few feet away, about as far as the door but in the opposite direction. She couldn't see the stairs, but it didn't look like there was an end to the rush of bodies. Then, as she was craning her neck to find any kind of opening, one of the doors down the hall suddenly flew open. Several kids came racing out, not hesitating to fling themselves into the madness of the hallway. They were shouting something too, but it was drowned out in the roar. 

Someone else appeared out of the doorway behind them, a boy she might have recognized from her trig class. He tried to run into the hallway too, but someone else tackled him from behind and slammed him up against the door. She couldn't tell who the girl was, but she could see them wrestling with each other. The boy shoved her back and took a step into the hall, but then she lunged from behind and sent them sprawling onto the floor in the hall, only a few feet behind Van. Jackie couldn't see everything through the racing bodies, but she heard a scream pierce higher than the rest.

“What the fuck!” someone in the hall shouted, followed by several more yells of shock. 

“What the hell!”

“Oh God!”

The current of the hall changed as people started scrambling away from the open doorway, and then there was a gap in the bodies for just long enough for Jackie to see the girl crouched over the boy, pinning him down and biting into his shoulder. She saw blood already spurting out of him while he thrashed around, trying to get her off. Several other kids stopped and tried to pull her off, but she snarled and jumped up at them. The crowd panicked again and surged back.

Her eyes found Van, still trying to get to her feet and getting knocked down for it once more.

“Jackie!” she yelled again. “Help!”

Shauna stepped forward, but Jackie grabbed her arm. Her mind roared with panic. People dying. Cannibals. Not even Shauna's injuries had convinced her that any of it was real. But all of it came crashing in at once as she watched this girl lunge into the crowd like a starving wolf. They had to get away from...from this. It wasn’t a thought so much as an instinct, something that would bring her both comfort and torment when she looked back on this moment.

“Come on!” she shouted, grabbing Shauna's arm and pulling her along the wall towards the open door. 

“No!” Shauna protested. “We can't leave her!”

But they had to. She had to get Shauna away.

“We have to go!” she shouted back. “Come on!” 

It was only about ten feet away, but pushing through the mob made it feel like a hundred. Shauna stopped fighting her about halfway there. 

Jackie slammed the door behind them and flipped the lock without even thinking. The screaming was slightly muffled behind them now. 

Jackie looked around the room. About a dozen students, no teacher. They were in Ms. Espenson’s room, a few doors down from their own homeroom. 

”What's happening out there?“ Kelley Fowler asked, her voice trembling. Jackie recognized her and a few other girls.

“I don’t know! Everyone’s going crazy!”

“It's happening again,” Shauna answered in horrified disbelief.

“What?” Jackie demanded.

“Maybe they got inside after us, I don’t know, but…” she trailed off, her eyes going wide. “We have to go back. We have to get Van!”

“We can’t go back out there!”

“But if they got inside then it’s not safe, we have to–”

“Enough with the cannibals!” Jackie interrupted. “There are no rabid cannibals attacking the school! People don’t do that! That’s insane!”

”Why are you yelling at me? I know it sounds insane, do you think I don't know that?“

“Cannibals?” one of the boys asked. 

“I know what I saw, Jackie!” Shauna protested, ignoring him. “And so do you! You saw that girl in the hall just now!”

Jackie shook her head and backed away from her.

“No, no, I don’t know what I saw. They…they fell, that’s all.”

“She bit him!”

”I don't–“ Jackie winced as another piercing scream cut through the others outside the door. A fresh wave of panic coursed through her body. “We need to hide!“

“No!” Shauna protested. “We need to–” Another scream rose above the chaos.

“What’s happening out there!” Kelley demanded.

“We need to hide. Right now!” Jackie ordered, her voice cracking and betraying her panic.

”Where?” Shauna asked, looking around the room. Five rows of desks, which were too small to hide a person underneath, a couple of shelves around the room, and Ms. Espenson's desk, which could only hide three or four people at best. 

“Under the desks?” another girl asked, accepting Jackie’s decision without question. A loud crash reverberated through the wall, probably someone crashing into a locker.

“Um, maybe, I don’t know,” Jackie fretted. Her eyes darted around the room, but it was so hard to think with all the screaming behind them. Shauna spoke before her.

“No, up against the wall, here by the door!“ 

She moved immediately, but Jackie grabbed her arm.

”Woah, are you sure? What if they see us through the window in the door? Maybe we should hide under the desks like she said.“

”They're too small! Come on, get away from the door!“ Shauna waved urgently at the room, and everyone hurried over.

Jackie hesitated. How was Shauna so sure right now? Was she not experiencing the same fog of panic right now? How was she thinking at all right now with hundreds of their classmates screaming on the other side of the wall?

“Jackie!” Shauna urged, grabbing her hand and yanking her towards the wall. “Get away from the door!” 

She stumbled after Shauna, shaken out of her daze. The others were already rushing across the room and huddling in the back corner. Jackie crouched down next to Shauna when they reached it too. Another crash hit the wall behind them. Everyone jumped. Another scream. Shauna squeezed Jackie’s hand tighter.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “They can’t get in. They won’t get in again.”

Jackie looked out at the room again, her eyes scanning past Ms. Espenson's empty desk and landing on the other door at the back wall that led to the adjoining room. Her stomach dropped. She imagined the girl from the hall bursting through it and charging right at them and sinking her teeth into…

She didn't stop to overthink it. She jumped up and ran for it.

”What are you doing?“ Shauna yelled after her. “Jackie! Come back!”

Ms. Grant’s arms pulled against her grip again. Laura Lee’s attention snapped back as she held firm. That’s when she noticed the nurse’s eyes. Wide and panicked and fixated on her. Laura Lee stared into them and as she did, she swore she could almost hear the words Ms. Grant couldn’t speak aloud anymore. It was like an echo, something from a half remembered dream. Water filling the lungs, clouds of red hanging around her. Gasping, gasping, gasping, and reaching for the light.

And then she understood, and with that understanding came a feeling of calm. It washed over her, like a hand on her shoulder, the assurance and comfort of a Father telling her that everything would be okay, that she wasn’t failing Ms. Grant right now, that her purpose here wasn’t to save her. There was nothing she could do to save her, not even with all the training in the world. She pulled her hands away from the terminal injury and instead took the nurse’s hand. 

“It’s okay, Ms. Grant. I’m here with you,” she whispered soothingly.
“You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.”

She couldn’t tell if her words were of any comfort, or if Ms. Grant could even hear her over the chaos unfolding around them, but she had faith. She also had no idea what else to say. She’d never seen death like this before, savage and senseless and filled to the brim with suffering. If she offered any peace to the dying woman, it didn’t show in her eyes. They were wide and full of fear, somehow piercing and distant at the same time. She convulsed again and Laura Lee slipped one of her hands away, but tightened the one that remained. She wasn’t fighting her anymore. Laura Lee could feel the strength draining away from her. She cupped the woman’s face and gently stroked her hair while she whispered a prayer.

“Lord be my shepherd, for even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, and I am with her.”

Ms. Grant convulsed again, and again, and then fell still. Her hands went limp in Laura Lee’s. There was no CPR for her to use this time. She stroked the nurse’s head again and laid her hands down on her chest, folded together, deceptively peaceful after the agony of her death.

“Go with God, Ms. Grant, and may you find peace in the land of heaven.” Her voice cracked as she finally let out the sob she’d been suppressing. She bent over the body and sobbed into her lifeless chest.

“Mira?” Ben’s voice startled her, she hadn’t heard him approach over the screaming. She looked up over her shoulder, tears streaking down her face. She didn’t try to answer him. There was nothing she could say that he couldn’t already see. They stared at each other, and in her periphery she could vaguely see most of the crowd disappearing down the hall or up the stairs.

“Laura Lee! Ben! Come on!” Misty shouted from the library doors. They turned to look at her in a daze. “NOW!” she screamed, looking past them, back up the hall. Laura Lee turned to follow her gaze and found the abandoned body of the other boy, the one she’d wanted to help. He was lying on the ground about ten feet away, twitching and spazzing so hard that he was kicking himself around in a circle. He looked like he was having the same seizure that Coach Martinez had gone through just a few minutes ago. He cried out in short, sporadic bursts, like he was trapped in a nightmare, unable to escape. Maybe they all were.

“BEN!” Misty screamed. 

“C–c–come on, Laura Lee,” Coach Ben said, grabbing her arm and helping her up. She rose shakily to her feet and then the world swam around her. She tipped right over from the dizziness. 

“Woah, woah!” Coach said, tightening his grip and steadying her arm. “I’ve got you. Come on.” Together they staggered away from Ms. Grant. She looked strangely peaceful now, hands clasped on her chest with a red halo spreading around her head. 

“Hurry!” Misty urged.

The PA screeched to life again, and the panic in the woman’s voice was audible even through the flattening static of the speakers.

ALL STUDENTS REPORT TO YOUR HOMEROOMS. WE ARE NOW IN EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN. EVERYONE LOCK YOUR DOORS UNTIL LAW ENFORCEMENT ARRIVES.

The announcement crackled and died. Only the screaming from the lobby and upstairs remained.

Ben ushered her inside the doors, looked over his shoulder at the noises coming from the lobby down the hall, and then hurried inside after her, pulling the door shut behind them. It muffled the screaming, but not by much. 

Jackie raced across the room, reached the door and flipped the lock with her trembling fingers. It had been unlocked, but now they were safe. She was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when someone crashed into the front door. She gasped and dropped to the ground, a feat that wasn't hard given how much her legs were shaking. She scrambled over to the desk and curled her body tight around her, hoping that nobody had seen her, that the locks would hold and that whoever was there wouldn't try to get in. But she wasn't prepared for who was actually at the door.

”Jackie!“ Van screamed, pounding her fists against the wood. ”Let me in! Please!“ 

Jackie froze. There were still screams coming from the hallway. Van's voice climbed an octave, her fists hammering desperately.

”Shauna! Someone! Please!“

Jackie peeked around the desk at Shauna. Their eyes found each other, and Shauna's reflected Jackie's fear right back at her. Jackie searched for something, anything, to tell her what to do. She didn't dare speak now. The room was silent, only the sounds of the hall and Van's fists punctuated the air between them. Jackie wasn't sure what she was looking for, maybe a suggestion, or maybe permission to go open the door. Or maybe permission not to. 

Shauna moved first, hauling herself up and rushing across the room, hugging the wall to stay out of sight.

”Please someb—!“

Just like that the door fell quiet. Jackie peered up over the desk just as Shauna reached the door. The window was empty. Van was gone. But there were still people flashing by, running down the hall. She let out a ragged breath. She didn't know how to even begin naming everything she was feeling right now. 

“Van?” Shauna called out. No answer. She reached for the lock.

“Don’t!” Jackie cried out. Shauna twisted around and looked back with an expression that made Jackie feel like she’d been stabbed in the gut. She felt an instant flood of shame. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help Van, but the thought of Shauna opening the door and being attacked… It was an instinct, a need, for Shauna to be safe. She wanted to explain immediately, to take it back and apologize, but she couldn’t find the words.

Shauna hesitated for a long moment and then ducked away from the door again.

Jackie let out a shuddering breath and forced herself to move, rushing as fast as she could back across the room and sliding down next to Shauna. She collapsed against the wall, her whole body shaking.

Shauna took her hand again, and Jackie felt her shaking too. They closed them together to steady each other.

“You should've let her in,” Jackie whispered in disbelief. “ I should’ve…” Jackie let out a sob. “Why the fuck didn't I let her in?”

“Guys,” one of the other boys whispered from down the line. “What do we do now?”

Just a few inches behind them, the sounds of the hallway were starting to die down. Less feet, less shouting. She didn't know where everyone was going, or if they were all even still alive. Maybe, just a few inches away, there were a hundred bodies now, separated from them only by the four to five inches of mortar and brick. She let out another sob and buried her face in Shauna's good shoulder.

”What the fuck is going on?“

Rob was screaming in the back while the new kids piled more desks and chairs against the door.

“What the fuck is wrong with him!” one of them shouted. Tess didn’t answer. She was too worried about Hannah. Her seizure, or whatever it was, was finally over. She groaned in Tess’ lap.

“I donnnnn–was–feel–uuhhhh.”

“It’s okay,” Tess said soothingly, stroking her hair gently. Hannah shivered and shook her head, disoriented, then tried to lean forward. Tess gently grabbed her shoulders to hold her in place. “No no, don’t try to sit up. Just relax, we’re getting you some water to cool you down.” Then, to Mary, she whispered, “Where is it?” 

“Water!” Mary shouted over her shoulder. Tess winced; she could’ve shouted, but there was already too much of that going on.

“Coming!” the boy answered from the back.

“George!” Alex cried out. Tess looked over at the two boys; George had woken up, and now his whole body was shaking.

“Is he okay?”

“I don’t know!” Alex yelled. “Talk to me man! What’s wrong?” George’s shaking worsened, eerily similar to Hannah’s seizure.

“Help me hold him!” Alex shouted, trying to grab George’s head the same way Tess had done. “Rob! Get over here!”

Rob’s answer was: “I CAN–AAAHHHH–NOOOO!”

“Guys this isn’t funny anymore!” Alex screamed. “This is a circus leading a donkey to the clock! Yes, no! I mean the sandwich with the…with the…the frontier in a warehouse and…and… GOD WHAT THE FUCK!” He abandoned his attempts to restrain George, his hands instead flying up to his own head. George thrashed violently in Alex’s lap with his newfound freedom while the other boy buried his head in his hands, sobbing and blubbering nonsense. Tess’ heart pounded and her vision swam. There was too much happening all at once. She could feel the dam breaking behind her eyes.

The boy that she’d sent for water rushed back across the room with a cup and a wet rag in hand. She took a deep breath, tore her eyes away from the boys in the back, and refocused on helping Hannah. She was trying to sit up again, and this time Tess helped her, easing her into a sitting position.

“Okay, have some water,” she instructed. The boy knelt down next to them and obediently held out the glass for Hannah to take. She reached out for it, but hesitated just before taking the glass.

“Go on,” Tess urged. Hannah obeyed. She wrapped her fingers around the boy’s hand, yanked it into her mouth and sank her teeth into his wrist. He screamed and dropped the glass. It bounced off Hannah’s chest, spilling water over both her and Tess, and shattered on the floor next to them. Hannah jerked her head back, ripping the skin away in her teeth. Blood sprayed out of the hole in his wrist, right into Tess’ face. Mary screamed and jumped back. The boy followed suit, and Hannah lunged out of her lap after him, leaving her sitting in the middle of the room, her mouth hanging open in horror. Her tears were forgotten, the reservoir of grief evaporated dry in an instant and refilled with pure, unbridled terror. More screams erupted in the room around her. In the back, Rob had fallen silent, George was thrashing around in a circle, and Alex was grabbing at his face screaming, “GET IT OUT! AAHH! AAHHH!” 

Tess joined him, her voice melting seamlessly into the chorus echoing throughout the halls of Wiskayok High as the dead rose from the depths of hell to conduct a symphony of terror.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Chapter Text

June 7th, 1996

Things are really scary right now. We’ve been stuck at school all week. They’re calling it a lockdown and saying it’s for our own protection, but there have been planes flying around all day and night and nobody will tell us why. I’m starting to worry it’s because nobody knows, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. We’re going to try leaving tomorrow, even though we’ve been told we’re not allowed to. Van wants to go find Natalie, and so do I, but I also just want to go home. I don’t understand why we couldn’t go home in the first place! It was going to just be me, Tai, Van, and Jeff, but Allie overheard us so I guess she’s coming now too. The others seemed pretty upset about it but I honestly don’t mind. I wish everyone was coming with us, but they think we need to keep it a secret so nobody tries to stop us. Which I understand, I guess, but it means lying to Jackie, which I’m honestly getting really tired of. It feels wrong, but I feel like if I ever tell her the truth then she’ll hate me forever. How many lies are too many? That I’m not going with her to Rutgers? That I don’t know who I am without her and that I’m terrified of leaving her, but that I feel suffocated when I’m around her and sometimes it feels like she doesn’t even know me?

And I can’t tell her any of this because she could never understand. She lives in her perfect little world where everything always works out. She’s never broken the rules because she’s never had to. So I just have to lie, lie, lie. I lie when she talks about the future she pictures for us, I lie every time I’m around her and Jeff, and now with this, it should just feel like one more lie on top of the pile, but it feels so much more wrong for some reason. Maybe because I could tell the truth about this one thing and I can’t even do that. It feels like no matter what I do, I’ll end up hurting her. I tried falling asleep but I just couldn’t, and I thought maybe writing this down would help but all it’s showing me is how confused and lost I’m feeling, and with everything else going on it feels stupid to be upset about this right now, but it feels like everything is about to change. And I want that, right? If I’m feeling trapped, shouldn’t I feel good about change? But I’ve shared everything with her for as long as I can remember, sometimes it feels like we’re the same person, so what if I’m not even my own person anymore? We’ve always been together, so why do I feel so lonely?

I wish I could just tell her the truth. I want to talk about all of this with her so badly, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin, and if I did, I don’t know if she could ever forgive me. Maybe she could for some of it, but not for sleeping with Jeff. I don’t think she could still love me after that, and I think that would be the end of the world.

Van actually told a story about that tonight, about finding freedom in the dark and how there’s always hope if we stick together. Maybe she’s right. Most of the team is here with me and they’re all asleep right now, like a sleepover at the end of the world. Looking around now, I do feel a little comforted.

Maybe it’s like what Jackie said before Nationals: “No matter what happens out there, we’re a team, and we’re together. As long as that’s true, we can get through anything.” I really hope that’s true.

We did lose Nationals though. Maybe that changed everything.

-From the journal of Shauna Shipman: June 7th, 1996

Chapter IV: The Bodies of Christ, Risen Again: Part One

June 8th, 1996

MR. ROTHENBERG'S HOMEROOM

SECOND FLOOR

FAR SIDE

Lottie sat up in her chair. “Did someone just scream?”

Tai snapped out of her fugue state of self pity and looked up at the door because someone had absolutely just screamed out there.

”I don't know,“ Mr. Rothenberg said, looking up from his desk with concern. He’d been grading history papers when Tai arrived, and until now had barely indicated he was even aware of their presence. She had passed his US History course in her sophomore year with a B-minus, more thanks to her research abilities than his teaching. He was a ‘by the book’ teacher, literally, preferring to split his classes into groups and instructing them to study the pages together while he read old science fiction, usually Herbert, Clarke or Asimov, which Tai didn’t mind so much until her final term paper.

The assignment had been to examine the links and casualties between all the conflicts in which the United States had been involved in the last hundred years, and then predict what conflicts would arise in the upcoming twenty-first century. They had been instructed to consider potential threats from emerging communist states like China and North Korea, but also to predict where new threats might emerge. She understood the purpose of the assignment was to examine the cause and effect of foreign policy mixing with global politics in a world that was more connected than ever before, but the framing of the assignment as it is America’s duty to play world police and where will we have to invade next to keep the peace had pissed her off.

So, she’d shirked the guidelines and instead presented a thesis linking American imperialism to conflicts in developing countries and suggested that if the unifying factor was U.S. involvement, then maybe that was the problem. She further extrapolated, based on foreign policy from Eisenhower in Vietnam to Bush and Clinton in the middle east and central America, that “until the U.S. stops holding a gun to the world while calling it protection, the twenty first century will see drastic escalations in global resistance until enough entangled conflicts emerge to constitute the official designation of World War Three, at which point it is hard to imagine a conclusion that doesn’t involve the exchange of nuclear weapons and the subsequent collapse of the Earth’s biosphere, all as a result of the colonial ideology that this great nation was founded upon.”

She had thought that perhaps living through the red scare and Korean war might have left Mr. Rothenberg more open to criticism of U.S. foreign policy, but unfortunately it seemed to have radicalized him in the opposite direction. In his notes, he’d called the essay “well written, challenging and passionate” but deemed that it did not meet the criteria appropriately and dinged her with a C. (Van agreed that it was not only an A, but thought it was probably the best essay that “miserable wet sack excuse of a man” had ever read, and she said he wouldn’t recognize a critique of imperialism if it bit him on the ass . Lottie said it was good but that she should have known better than to tank her grade). It had dragged her grade down by a full letter, a rare blemish on her record.  And then, to add insult to injury, she’d been assigned to his homeroom two years later.

He stood up from his desk, abandoning his important work of giving A’s to all the kids singing the praises of the country’s warmongering, and walked warily to the phone extension hanging on the back wall. He picked it up and tapped one of the buttons for an extension, though she didn't know which one. Another scream came from out in the hall, followed by more shouting. Mr. Rothenberg looked anxiously back at the door and muttered something to himself.

Tai’s heart quickened its pace and her veins buzzed with the promise of more adrenaline to come. Her fingers tightened on the edges of her desk while she told herself that it was nothing, that people screamed for a lot of reasons, chief among them that teenagers are idiots and just love making noise. But they didn't have to stew in the mystery for long, because more screams quickly followed the others, closer and unmistakable this time, and before they could fade, they were joined by more. They kept coming, faster and louder and multiplying every few seconds like a screaming hydra.

“Oh fuck,“ she whispered as the promised adrenaline arrived.

Behind her, Lucy Donovan offered her tremendous insight by saying, “There's someone out there!”

No fucking shit, Lucy. She was part of Jackie’s inner circle, and Tai couldn’t stand her even on a good day.

“They're not answering in the office,” Mr. Rothenberg said, hanging up the phone. Another person flashed by the window in the door. Then another, and another, all running down the hall and only appearing in their sight for a moment.

Lottie asked, ”Why are they running?“  And then something hit the door.

Everyone jumped. A face appeared in the window, the narrowness cutting off most of his face. The handle jittered as he tried to turn it, but it was locked. He started pounding on the door.

“Let us in!” he shouted. “Hurry, they're coming!”

“Oh God…” Tai said.

“Open the door! Please!” his voice was soaked in desperation, and his knocks fell heavy and fast.

Mr. Rothenberg started towards the door. Tai jumped out of her chair, launched by legs that were spring-loaded with panic.

“Wait!” she yelled. “It might not be safe.”

Mr. Rothenberg did what he did best and ignored her completely. Well, almost completely. He deigned to give her a hideously condescending side eye on his way across the room.

Tai backed up, her body shaking with a primal readiness to fight off a tiger lurking in the trees. Lottie rose beside her and started doing the same.

“Do you think this is the same thing?” she asked, and Tai could hear the hope in her voice; hope that she would say anything other than the truth. She wished she didn’t believe it when she answered, “How can it not be?”

Mr. Rothenberg unlocked the door and pulled it open.

”What's happening?“ he asked, but the boy rushed right past him, coming straight for the rest of them in the center of the room. Her heart started racing so fast she could feel it in her ears. She stumbled back through the rows of desks trying to get away. He was still coming, racing across the room, around the desks and to the back wall, where he...stopped.

She let out a shaky breath and steadied herself against the nearest desk.

”Are you okay?“ Lottie asked as more shouts of ”Run!“ echoed down the hall. With the door open, Tai could see just how many people were out there, all running in the same direction down the hall. Away, she thought. It was too late; they were already inside.

Mr. Rothenberg stepped out into the hall and looked down in the direction the crowd was coming from.

”What's going on!“ he shouted. “Why are you all running!”

Two boys and a girl rushed into the room. She vaguely recognized them; they looked young, possibly sophomores.

”What's happening!“ she demanded of them.

One of the boys answered, ”I don’t know! Everyone went crazy downstairs, we started running to get out of the way!“

”What do you mean everyone?“ she pressed, but already there was more shouting down the hall and more people streaming in behind them.

”Hey! Guys! what's happening?“ Lottie asked the newcomers, but they didn't have anything more to offer than the first three. Tai pushed through them, trying to get Mr. Rothenberg's attention, but he was busy shouting down the hall.

”Woah! Hey! Everybody slow down!“

”Mr. Rothenberg I really think we should close the—“

Two boys collided in the hall, one tackling the other from behind. They fell in a tangled heap on the floor just outside the door.

”Get him off me!“ one of them shouted, trying to scramble away, just like Allie.

”Hey! Stop that!“ Mr. Rothenberg yelled, rushing out into the oncoming traffic and grabbing the other boy's arm. This allowed the first boy to scramble away and stumble into the room. Once she got a good look at his face, Tai recognized possibly the single worst human this town had ever produced.

If dictionaries had pictures, you could find his sharply defined face, his dark, slicked back hair, and wiry arms wrapped up in his signature leather jacket, directly underneath the word douchebag, and that would still be doing the word a disservice.

As he scrambled to his feet, the captain of the Wiskayok High baseball team and architect of the morning’s breakout plan met her eyes. She didn’t know he’d made it back inside after their little jailbreak-turned-horror show. Of course, it was just her luck that Bobby Farleigh not only survived the massacre outside, but found his way, out of all the rooms on all the floors of the school, to the exact same room as her. She and Lottie exchanged a look that said You have got to be fucking kidding me. She wasn’t sure if there was a God in this world, but if there was, he was laughing his ass off.

She saw the same recognition register for him a moment later, but to her surprise she didn’t see any of the usual contempt and resentment that usually accompanied it.

Most of their counterparts on the baseball team didn’t seem to mind the girl’s success overshadowing their perpetual mediocrity. They dealt with it quietly, and if it bothered them, they rarely let it show. The same could not be said for Bobby. Tai could see it ignite in his eyes during their pep rallies. Hell, he’d skipped their sendoff to Nationals entirely. Sometimes she even felt it simply passing in the hallway. Van and Lottie and a few others had voiced similar experiences, though curiously never Jackie. Tai wondered if dating one of Bobby’s teammates somehow granted her immunity (at any rate she doubted it was because Jackie was his captaincy counterpart).

Bobby couldn’t stand being second to the girls, and he wasn’t shy about sharing it, or his opinions about her and Van’s presumed romantic preferences.

He completed an impressive trifecta rounded out by misogyny, homophobia and racism, and the fact that she didn’t see any of that on his face now was frankly even more alarming than all the screaming he was running away from. The only thing she saw in his eyes now was fear. Not the type that comes from panic or confusion. The kind that only comes from understanding. However he’d gotten back inside before, he must have seen the same things they had. And now it was happening again.

Out in the hall, the boy who had tackled Bobby was lunging up at Mr. Rothenberg, sending them both stumbling back into the room. She jumped back as they fell to the ground at her feet.

”What the hell!” Mr. Rothenberg gasped as he grappled against his assailant. The boy bared his teeth. Without thinking, Tai ran forward, directing her momentum into kicking him as hard as she could. She hit him directly in the ribcage and he tumbled off to the side.

“Get back!“ she yelled, trying to help Mr. Rothenberg up.

”What the fuck man!“ yelled Aaron, another boy from her homeroom.

“He chased us all the way up the stairs!” Bobby yelled, still catching his breath. “I don’t know what the fuck’s wrong with him!”

The boy scrambled after them, clawing for Mr. Rothenberg's leg and raking his fingers down the skin. He cried out and tried to kick him back, but he grabbed his leg and bit into it, just like all the others outside had done to Allie. Mr. Rothenberg screamed as blood started leaking over the boy’s lips.

“Get him off!” Tai shouted.

Bobby and Aaron ran forward, grabbed the boy's arms and pulled him back. He writhed against them and screamed, “No! No! No! No!” Mr. Rothenberg cried out again and reached for his leg. Blood seeped out of the raw flesh in the shape of a jaw. Why were all of them biting?

“What the fuck! Calm down man!” Bobby shouted.

“Lottie! Lock the door!“ Tai yelled. Lottie rushed past her, giving a wide berth to the scene unfolding before them. The boy was still fighting to get free.

”Stop it dude!“ Aaron shouted as they struggled.

“What's his name!” Bobby yelled.

“David!” one of the girls answered from the back. “He's in my first period English!”

Tai froze. Wait, he’s a student?

She had been so caught up in the panic that she hadn’t even registered it. She’d just assumed that the people outside had somehow gotten in. But if he was a student…

“David! Calm down man!”

What if Mari was right? What if they were sick with something? And if they had gotten inside, or the infection had somehow spread to the students, then… was it possible that anyone could be infected now?

David was still thrashing back and forth in their arms like a wild animal caught in a trap.

The strangers outside had killed people. They’d killed Allie. You killed Allie, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. She wanted to ignore it, but she couldn’t. She had killed Allie, or at least left her to die, which was functionally the same thing. Whoever those people were, whatever they were sick with, it had to be the reason for their lockdown this week, and she had to assume now that whatever measures had been taken everywhere else had failed to contain the spread of the disease.

The three boys stumbled backwards in their struggle, Bobby and Aaron’s holds loosening under the relentless thrashing.

If they were sick, then maybe they just needed help. But she’d never heard of anything that could turn people into rabid cannibals, and if there was something that could help them, it wasn’t here. There was nothing to stop David, or any of the others she assumed were now roaming the school, from attacking everyone else. She watched David fighting to get free to do the same thing as the people in the shed, and although she couldn’t explain why, she knew he wouldn’t stop until he was done eating them. They had to stop him. She had to stop him. She had to do what they’d tried and failed to do in the shed. This was a history class after all, and if they didn’t learn from the past then they were doomed to repeat it. She charged forward before she could talk herself out of it.

The boys had backed themselves up against Mr. Rothenberg’s desk. It was a bit cluttered: stacks of history papers and folders, pencils and sharpies, a hole puncher and a stapler. But she didn’t care about any of those. She might have settled for a pen, but her eyes found something bigger and more suited to her needs. It wasn’t designed for this, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Once her fingers had closed around the handle, she took two steps forward to close the distance to the boys and drove the sharp end of the scissors straight into David’s throat.

“What the fuck!” Bobby shouted.

“What the fuck!” David echoed. Tai gasped and leapt back as blood started gushing out. “What the fuck! What the fuck!” he shouted again and again, his voice gurgling as his windpipe filled with fluid. Bobby and Aaron released him. The room erupted in screams of horror.

“Jesus Christ Tai!” Lottie screamed behind her. She didn’t get a chance to turn around and see her face, which was probably for the best, because as soon as he was free, David stopped screaming and spun around and shoved Aaron back into the desk. The scissors were still sticking out of his neck as he bit into his upper arm. Aaron cried out and shoved him back, and Bobby recollected himself enough to land a punch that sent David stumbling back towards them. Tai gasped and jumped to the side, adding her own push to send David away from her. She realized too late that she’d just sent him straight back into Lottie.

He tripped on Mr. Rothenberg and fell right into her, sending them both crashing down into the desks. Lottie screamed as they went down in a tangle of limbs and metal.

“Oh fuck!” Tai gasped.

David’s journey across the room had left a trail of blood behind him. Too much blood. Shouldn’t he have passed out by now? She didn’t think even adrenaline could keep someone moving through that much blood loss. Oh, that and the hole in his neck. He shouldn’t be breathing, much less snarling and scrambling after Lottie.

“What the fuck is he on!” Bobby shouted, echoing her disbelief.

“Get him off me!” Lottie shrieked, kicking at him as he clawed at her legs.

Tai rushed forward and grabbed one of the desks they hadn’t knocked over and shoved it down at David. The impact knocked him back enough for Lottie to scramble away, but he was almost as quick to get back up.

“Stop!” Lucy shouted uselessly from across the room. David rose up in the middle of the sea of desks, looking around wildly until his eyes landed on her.

“Help me!” he shouted back, not that he should still be able to shout.

“Don’t listen to him!” Tai yelled.

“What is wrong with you!” she yelled back.

“With me?” Tai asked, astonished.

David charged again, this time for Lucy. She screamed and ran the other way, arcing back around the desks towards Tai. David tore through the aisles after her while everyone else scrambled away to the back of the room. Tai bent down and yanked up the nearest chair by its legs, and when David cleared the last row she swung it as hard as she could into his face. The impact shook her arms and vibrated through her body, but it brought him down. Lucy kept running, not stopping to thank her. Tai raised the chair again, ready for David’s next charge. He shook his head as if a chair to the face was simply a minor inconvenience, then launched himself back up again. She stepped to the side and swung again, but he swerved and she only caught him in the shoulder. He stumbled, but didn’t fall, and now he had her dead to rights.

She tried to side step him again, but he was too close for that to work again, and he crashed into her. The chair slipped from her hands as they fell to the ground. She gasped as the impact knocked the air from her lungs. David lunged down.

She threw her hands up to his neck to hold him back, and they quickly grew slick with blood. He bared his teeth and snapped at her like a rabid dog. His trembling body pressed down on her and she screamed with the effort of pushing his bloody face away. Her arms burned and her hands were soaked. He was slipping through her fingers and bearing down on her with a hunger and rage she’d never seen before. His hot, foul breath stung her nose as he eagerly tried to eat her face.

This is what Allie felt at the end, she thought. That karma sure came around fast.

Suddenly his weight lifted, and he tumbled awkwardly off to the side with a new set of hands wrapped around his throat. Bobby was wrestling him into a headlock. But that wasn’t going to hold him for long. The blood made him slippery, and his entire neck was covered in it. She scrambled forward and grabbed one of his arms to keep him from scratching at Bobby’s. She pulled as hard and she could until she felt something pop, probably his shoulder dislocating. It wasn’t the first limb she’d mangled today, but David didn’t seem nearly as bothered by it as Allie. He kept wriggling and thrashing. Bobby cried out as David got his other arm free and started digging his fingers into his arm. They wouldn’t be able to hold him for much longer.

“He’s getting loose!” Tai shouted.

Someone answered her with a scream. Lottie charged across the room, brandishing the bloody scissors, and dove onto their tangled heap of bodies and drove them into David’s chest. A fresh wave of screams erupted from the room around them.

“Stop it!” Mr. Rothenberg shouted.

“Stop!” David gurgled in agreement. Was he feeling the pain? He couldn’t possibly be, or he would’ve passed out by now. It didn’t make any sense.

Lottie ignored them both. She pulled the scissors out and stabbed him again.

“Stop!” David yelled again, and again she ignored him. She pulled them out and drove them back in, and still he kept thrashing and shouting. She stabbed him again and again and again, screaming over his repeated cries.

“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!”

And still it did nothing.

Tai felt him slipping away from her and Bobby’s grasp.

Lottie’s hands were soaked in blood now too, droplets flying off as she jerked them up and rammed them back down into his chest. She let out a desperate, feral scream at the futility of her violence. She yanked the scissors free again and lunged forward. She grabbed his hair with her free hand, yanked his head back, and buried the blades into his eye. David’s entire body started twitching violently beneath them, but not with the same fervor and control as when he was trying to get free. The electrical impulses from his brain were diffusing through his nervous system all at once. Lottie let out a cry of anguish and twisted the hilt of the scissors deeper, burying them up to the red hilt. David twitched and twitched, his movements growing weaker and weaker until he finally fell still.

The three of them sat there in shock. Tai relaxed her grip on his arm and Bobby slackened his chokehold. They were all panting for breath. The room around them had fallen almost completely silent save for the muffled shouts and footsteps still coming from the hall.

Lottie was the first to move. She pushed herself back from David’s body and wiped her hands on her skirt, leaving red smears across the light pink fabric. It did little to clean them. She sat back against one of the desks and curled her legs up to her chest. Her expression was unreadable. Not because Tai didn’t know what it looked like, but because it looked like everything: fear, anger, shock, and a hollowness in the eyes. Tai imagined she didn’t look any better herself. Lottie stared at David’s lifeless body and started slowly rocking herself back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Bobby moved next, releasing David from his chokehold and scrambling back the opposite way until his back was against Mr. Rothenberg’s desk. The scissors wobbled slightly when David’s head hit the floor. Finally, Tai let go of his arm. It fell to the ground with an understated thud.

“What in God’s name did you just do?” Mr. Rothenberg asked, horrified.

She looked up for the first time and found everyone’s eyes on her. God, what a sight she must be. They all knew she was a killer now.

“He was… he was going to kill us,” she answered. She realized it wasn’t enough as soon as she said it. She knew they weren’t going to believe her because she hadn’t wanted to believe it either. It had taken the full horror of the shed and the escape back to the school to shake the doubt from her mind. Rabid cannibals were attacking the school, and someone had let them inside and now the sickness, whatever it was, was spreading. It was an impossible thing to understand, much less believe, and since they hadn’t seen David eat anyone, they were going to do the same thing she’d done earlier and deny it. Ironically, Aaron went first.

“That’s bullshit!” he said.

“He just tried to eat you for lunch!” she shot back.

“Why did he do that?” Lucy whimpered. She’d made it all the way around the room after Tai had saved her, but she crept forward now that her assailant was dead. Tai didn’t expect a thank you.

“I think he was infected with something from the people outside. They were attacking people too, and they were eating them.” Tai answered, as if she had any idea.

“You think he did that because he was sick?” Bobby asked.

“Yeah, I do,” she said, a bit more confidently. It was the only thing that made sense, even if it made no sense at all.

“You killed this boy,” Mr. Rothenberg rasped. “Because you thought he might be sick?”

“How’s your leg?”

“Excuse me?”    

“He tried to eat you too, and he wasn’t going to stop until he killed us all!”

“If that boy was sick then we should have helped him!” Mr. Rothenberg said in a voice meant for scolding small children.

“If?” Tai asked in disbelief.

“She’s right,” Bobby said. She spun around in confusion. He was genuinely the last person she expected to back her up. But when he met her eyes she could see it; the same pit of dread she felt in her chest. The dread of having seen the reality of their situation, and the paralyzing terror of understanding what was about to happen in their school. “I was out there. I saw it. She’s telling the truth.”

“Jesus…” Aaron muttered. She wanted to be furious that they questioned her word but immediately accepted Bobby’s, but she was so relieved that they believed either of them that she didn’t think she could be. After a moment’s consideration, she decided she could actually do both.

“Are we…sick now too?” Gina Brady asked, following behind Lucy. The rest of them were following behind, now that the danger had passed. Despite herself, Tai felt bitter resentment brewing for all of them. There were upwards of twenty of them, yet they had left her and Lottie and the boys to fight for all of them. She knew it wasn’t fair, that they were just as scared as she was, but it didn’t matter. They’d run the other way when David came after them and abandoned Lucy even though they had nowhere else to go. They would have let the rest of them die. She hoped they weren’t all sick now, or the school was royally and completely fucked. She swallowed back her anger and answered, “I don’t know. But if David was sick then it must be spreading somehow.”

A blanket of dread draped itself over her shoulders as she spoke the thoughts aloud. It wrapped itself around her seeped into her blood and her bones, sapping the heat from inside until she shivered with awful comprehension. Getting inside hadn’t been enough, and nothing short of murder had provided any relief at all. They weren’t safe; not in the shed, not in the school, not even in this room. The hallway had fallen silent outside the door, but the walls were thin, and the screams were abundant and loud. The attack wasn’t over; it had barely begun.

The strangers outside had been the opening shot to a battle none of them were ready to fight, and they had to fight it because nobody was coming to save them. Today was supposed to be the day they went home, but now she wasn’t sure they would even be alive to see the sunset. And if they were going to survive, they were going to foot one hell of a butcher’s bill.

Another scream out in the hallway brought her back into focus.

Van. She had to find Van. She crawled over to Lottie, still rocking slowly back and forth against the desk.

“Lot?” she asked carefully. Lottie’s eyes floated up from her arts and crafts project to meet her’s.

“I killed him…” she whispered.

“We had to. He was going to kill us.”

“Were there…more…like him?”

“Yes,” she answered simply. The room around them gasped. She hadn’t realized they were listening in, but of course they were. What else would they be doing? She stood up and faced them.

“We can’t stay here. There were so many more outside. We have to fight back!”

They all stared blankly at her. Of course. If they hadn’t helped before, why would they now? They were terrified and probably in shock, the same as her. But unlike them, she wasn’t content to sit here and wait to die. She bent down to Lottie again and reached out to gently squeeze her shoulder.

“I need you, Lottie. We need to find the others.”

To her surprise, Lottie nodded almost immediately.

“Yeah…okay.”

“I’m coming too,” Bobby said firmly, to her even greater surprise.

“Okay,” she said, nodding in disbelief. “We need weapons or something to fight them with.”

Lottie crawled over to David and reached for the scissors. She wrapped her fingers around the red rimmed hilt and yanked them out in one swift motion. Everyone gasped in horror. Tai brought a hand to her mouth in a reflexive effort to keep her breakfast in her stomach. Even Bobby, the self-proclaimed Tough Guy of New Jersey, flinched away at the sight of the pulped hole the blades left behind. Lottie wiped them on David’s shirt, and when she looked up at Tai her gaze was hardened but distant, like she was staring at something terrible on a far away hill instead of the terrible thing before her.

She stood and wiped her hand on her skirt again.

“Let’s go,” she said softly, brushing past Tai on her way to the door.

Tai nodded and looked around at the rest of the room. Bobby had just liberated a fire extinguisher from behind Mr. Rothenberg’s desk.

“You sure about that?” she asked. He shrugged.

“I’m more of a swinger than a stabber myself.” He gripped both sides of the red cylinder and swung it in a half arc. She wanted to say Well, you were never very good at that either, were you? Instead, she said, “Okay then. Anyone else?”

A few of the others exchanged looks with each other. The rest all just stared at the ground.

“Fine.” There was no disappointment in her voice. It was what she expected. “Lucy, lock the door behind us.”

Lucy jumped slightly at the sound of her name, but she nodded and followed obediently. Tai and Bobby joined Lottie at the door. She glanced over her shoulder at Tai, silently asking if she was sure about this. Unfortunately for all of them, she was. She nodded in answer, then reached out and took the other girl’s hand. Lottie clasped her's firmly around Tai’s and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Tai sent one back, grateful for the moment of comfort before what was sure to be the worst day of their entire lives, and quite possibly also the last.

“Do it,” she said firmly. Lottie turned back, unlatched the lock, and pulled the door open.

Tai stepped up next to her and they peered out together. Up and down the hall, abandoned lockers hung ajar. Papers, binders, and even a few backpacks littered the linoleum floor. Their classroom sat in roughly the middle of the hall: if they went right, they would skirt across the edge of the school and reach the rear stairwell, and going left would take them across the school to Van’s homeroom. It was also the direction Bobby and David had come running from. Distant screams echoed down the halls, louder now that there were no walls to muffle them. Tai’s stomach felt like it was halfway up her throat.

Most of the other doors were closed now, which was probably good for the people inside, but it meant that once they left Mr. Rothenberg’s room, the odds of finding another place to hide were not in their favor. Tai forced herself to step forward. Lottie and Bobby followed behind. Once they were out, she turned back to Lucy.

“Don’t let anyone inside,” she said gravely. Lucy nodded anxiously and closed the door. A moment later the lock clicked back into place. They were on their own now.

“So where are we going?” Bobby asked.

“To find the others,” Tai said. “Starting with Van.”

Lottie nodded agreement, but Bobby was unmoved.

“Shouldn’t we be looking for better weapons?”

“If you have any ideas, I’m all ears,” Tai said. She realized she’d forgotten to grab something from the classroom, but it was too late now.

“There’s some good shit down in wood shop. Hammers, chisels, knives…”

“That’s great, we’ll go there after.”

He scoffed.

“You do what you want, have your little fuckin’ scissor party or whatever,” he said, gesturing at the repurposed murder weapon in Lottie’s hands and chuckling at his own excuse for a joke. “I’m goin’ downstairs.”

Tai glanced at the scissors and thought about finding them a new neck to call home. But she was used to Bobby’s jabs, and right now he was the only other person trying to help them.

“If you want to split up, then fine, but try to find other people. We can’t do this alone. Tell them what’s happening and that they need to fight.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. Tai nodded; that was about the best she could expect from him.

“Van’s homeroom is this way,” Lottie said flatly before stalking down the hall to the left. Tai followed her and Bobby split off down the hall behind them. The next time she looked back, he was gone. She stopped behind Lottie, who had stopped at the corner of the hallway.

“I’ll show him a fucking scissor party,” she growled quietly, miming the same stabbing motion she’d done only a few minutes ago.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.” Tai chuckled darkly. “Maybe later.”

“Maybe later,” she agreed wistfully.

“How’s it look?”

Lottie peered around the corner.

“Looks good,” she whispered back. “Let’s go.”

They turned the corner and started down the next hall. It was eerily empty considering the pandemonium a few minutes ago. Maybe everyone had found a classroom to hide in.

Tai found herself crouching as they jogged, as if that would help her somehow blend in. She forced herself to stand mostly upright, which was harder than she expected. For some reason it just felt wrong. Then again, everything about the last hour had been wrong. Had it even been an hour? She had no idea what time it was, it had lost all meaning.

They were almost to the next corner when another scream pierced the air, this one much closer. They both jumped. Lottie looked back at her, eyes wide. What do we do? Before Tai could answer, more shouts came from the same direction.

“Fuck!”

“Go back! Go back!”

“Come on Taylor!” a boy’s voice shouted.

“Help me!” another boy shouted desperately.

“Get off him!” shouted a third voice, a girl this time. She sounded familiar, but Tai couldn’t…

“Oh fuck there’s more! Run Diana!” the first voice shouted again.

Diana shouted, “Fucking hell!”

The desperate boy, presumably Taylor, screamed. “No! Come back! Help me!” But Tai could already hear them running down the hall. Running towards them.

“Go back! Go back!” Lottie urged, just moments before the voices rounded the corner ahead of them. The boy in the lead yelped and recoiled at the sight of them, and after a moment Tai realized this was because they were thoroughly covered in blood.

“Fuck! Don’t hurt us!”

“We won’t!” Tai assured him. He took a quick breath of relief and then resumed his pace, racing past them. The other boy and girl followed him, glancing over Tai and Lottie but not breaking their strides. When she rounded the corner, Tai realized why she’d recognized the other girl’s voice. It was Diana Alvarez-Soto, a sophomore and a member of the Yellowjackets JV team.

“They’re coming!” Diana yelled as her tiny frame shot past them.

Tai cursed at being cut off, but they both turned around and leapt down the hall after the others. It was almost like their warm up sprints before practice and games, but with the threat of their impending deaths as motivation. They retraced their steps in seconds and shot back around the corner. When they sprinted past Mr. Rothenberg’s room, Tai considered asking to be let back in until the hall was clear again, but if Lucy followed her instructions then she wouldn’t let them in anyway. It didn’t matter though; they didn’t have enough time.

Even as she heard more people running and shouting behind them, another crowd rounded the corner ahead of them, sprinting equally full tilt to shouts of “Run!” and “She’s right behind me!"

There was no time to stop and nowhere to hide. Ahead of them, Diana and the boys maneuvered to the edge of the hall to skirt around the oncoming party, so she and Lottie did the same. Her heart raced as their paths converged. There were eight or nine of them, and they gave the same berth to them, no doubt due to their bloody figures. She exchanged wide eyed and panicked looks with all of them, and the dread wound itself tighter around her, constricting her like a snake squeezing the life out of its prey. They were terrified, which meant things were exactly as bad as she feared; maybe even worse. They raced by, all six, seven, eight… the ninth girl splintered from the pack and lunged across the hall, ramming Lottie against the lockers with a ringing metallic crash.

She screamed and grappled against her, shoving her back like an attacking midfielder vying for the ball. Tai had seen her towering teammate throw down more times than she could count, and she did not fuck around. The girl stumbled back into the middle of the hall. Tai shifted her own path and shoulder checked her when she passed. She grunted at the impact, but like Lottie, she had plenty of experience with high-speed collisions, especially intentional ones. The other girl went sprawling on her ass and crashed into the lockers on the other side of the hall.

“Fuck you!” Lottie shouted.

“Help me!” she screamed back, already scrambling back to her feet.

Tai shouted, “Run! Just keep going!” and grabbed Lottie’s arm to give her tug. They couldn’t lose any time without finding Van. They were at the end of the hall when the other crowd entered the hall behind them. The girl was already on her feet, but instead of chasing them down, she turned and ran the other way into the oncoming crowd.

Tai didn’t see what happened next, but she didn’t need to. The screams were answer enough. They turned the corner, the way Bobby had gone, and the stairwell came into view twenty feet away.

“We can loop over the third floor!” Tai said breathlessly. If the strangers had gotten inside, there would probably be more of them downstairs than up.

“Okay!” Lottie answered behind her.

Another scream tore through the air ahead of them, and a moment later another crowd appeared down the hall.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” the boy in the lead cursed as he stumbled to slow down. The other two awkwardly followed suit, forcing Tai and Lottie to do the same.

“Go up!” she urged as she stumbled into them.

The crowd was charging right at them, at least a dozen kids, probably more, most of them shouting in panic.

Tai pushed by Diana and the boys and raced up the stairs, glancing back to make sure Lottie was following, which she was.

“Go Oliver!” Diana shouted angrily, and then Tai heard more feet clambering up behind them. She took the steps two at a time, turned the corner, and did it again. The shouting was only getting louder behind them, echoing up from beneath like the screams of the damned in hell.

There were more people in the third-floor hallways. Several went sprinting by right in front of them, and there were more shouts coming from every direction. She looked back and forth, trying to decide which direction was least likely to get them killed, which was tricky since she had no way of making that determination other than to run away from the screaming. Which, at the moment, was coming from everywhere.

Diana and the boys summited the stairs behind them.

“Where are we going?” Diana asked breathlessly. Another bout of shouting echoed down the hall to the right. It was as good a suggestion as any.

“This way!” Tai said, turning left. They fell in behind her and raced by more open lockers, more scattered belongings, and more closed doors. They just needed to get across this floor and reach the front stairwell. Van’s homeroom would be just down the hall from there.

They turned the first corner and faltered at the sight of a dozen students running at them from the other end. It was impossible to tell if they were running from someone specific, or just running.

“Tai?” Lottie asked, slowing behind her. “What do we do?”

The other group was already a third of the way down the hall and would be there in seconds.

“Fuck it, just run fast!” She sped up again, hugging the wall and bracing for one of them to break off the pursuit and charge at them again.

The other kids stayed in the middle of the hall. They would have no warning if one of them attacked again. She ramped back into a sprint and shot by them as fast as she could.

Her heart hammered as their paths converged. The first girl raced by, not even sparing a side glance at Tai. The second girl kept running too. She passed the third, fourth and fifth kids without incident. There were six or seven more still coming, all about to be within arms reach. Her stomach twisted in knots as each of them passed, ready for any of them to charge at her. Four, five, six, seven, eight, they all kept running, wanting as little to do with their group as they did with theirs. They disappeared around the corner behind them, and her heart slowed a little, but she was far from calm. They still had more than half the school to cover. How long was it going to be like this, fearing that anyone could attack them at any moment?

They cleared the hall quickly. Most of the classrooms they passed had their doors shut, but a few didn’t. She didn’t stop to investigate, but they seemed empty when she ran past. Either nobody had reached them before hell broke loose, or they’d abandoned them.

The hall ended and turned right. She slowed her run enough to take the corner at speed. She probably should’ve stopped and checked the hall first, but every second that slipped away was another that Van might be in danger, so she was a little short on patience. The others followed her, keeping pace.

She was surprised Diana and her friends were still with them, but she wasn’t going to question it. Right now seemed like a bad time to be on your own, so the more stragglers they picked up, the better. She just hoped they’d be willing to fight when the time came.

The hall ahead of them ran laterally across the middle of the school, and there was a left turn ahead that would take them the rest of the way across. They were making progress. Just another few hundred feet, another turn at the end of the hall, and the stairs would be waiting. Tai barely slowed when she took the next turn, and then her feet flew out from under her and she was on the floor, her entire left side throbbing from the impact. She tried to shake it off, like taking a spill on the field. She put her hand behind her to push back up, but instead of touching the smooth linoleum tile, it splashed in a puddle of something warm and slippery.

Behind her, Lottie gasped. “Oh Jesus!”

She looked down and took in the puddle of blood soaking into her clothes. She hadn’t looked down when she took the corner. Her shoes had left an almost comical streak through the middle of it.

“Tai, are you okay?”

She tried to answer, but her breakfast threatened to come up and contribute to the slip n’ slide, so she said nothing. She swallowed it back and pushed herself shakily to her feet while Lottie and the others stepped carefully around the veritable pool. Lottie offered an arm to steady her, and she took it gratefully.

“Fuck me,” Diana said.

Tai wiped her hand on her pants, said, “Let’s keep going,” and started down the hall again. She only made it a few steps before Lottie said, “Wait! Doesn’t Mari have homeroom up here?”

“What about it?”

“You told Bobby to gather as many people as he could, shouldn’t we be too?”

“We’re on our way to get Van right now!” she yelled impatiently.

“I know, but…”

“We can come back, right back, after we find Van!”

“I'm pretty sure Mari has Ms. Donovan, her room is right down there,” Diana said, gesturing down the other end of the hall. “Why can’t we just go now?”

Tai took a deep breath and reminded herself that they didn’t have time to argue, so they might as well just get this over with.

“Fine,” she said curtly. “Let’s go.”

Lottie's face was apologetic, but Tai knew she didn't have a right to be upset. She was right, they could use all the friendly faces they could find. As much as she hated it, Van would have to wait.

LIBRARY

FIRST FLOOR

NEAR SIDE

Laura Lee’s eyes burned as she wept. Her chest was tight and she couldn’t get enough air no matter how hard she tried. After Coach Ben dragged her into the library, she had made it to roughly the middle of the room before collapsing among the rows of bookshelves. Now he was furiously punching numbers into the phone by the back wall. She heard him curse loudly and slam it back onto its cradle. She shook with another full body sob.

“What’s going on?”

She recognized the practiced, quiet cadence of the librarian. She knew her name but it wasn’t coming to her. She was having trouble thinking about anything, she just kept replaying Coach Martinez attacking them and Ms. Grant dying in her arms. Whatever comforting presence she’d felt calming her in the moment had abandoned her, leaving her shaking, bloody and alone.

“There’s, uh, some kind of emergency,” Ben started to explain, but she wasn’t really listening. The sound of his voice droned away under the roaring cacophony of her thoughts.

She had saved Coach Martinez, only for him to kill someone and then attack them. She didn’t understand why, and the only thing that made any sense was that it hadn’t been him at all. He would never do something like that, he just wouldn’t! That wasn’t the man she’d known for the last four years. So if it wasn’t him, then something else must have filled the void left behind when he…when he…

She sobbed again, because if she was right, then she hadn’t saved him after all. He had died under her hands, and his soul had departed on the next part of his journey, and then something else had risen from the depths to inhabit the vessel he left behind, which she had then breathed life back into and unleashed onto everyone. An honest to God demon, raised by her own hands.

And then there was Ms. Grant. She had spent all that time and preparation to be a healer, but when the time came, she’d been helpless. She closed her eyes and re-lived it in vivid detail: Ms. Grant flailing around, her eyes wild with panic and fear as the life drained away from her. She sobbed again and felt the journey of fresh tears streaking gently down her face and dripping off her chin.

Her efforts to wipe them away left her face feeling even wetter. It wasn’t until she opened her eyes and held her hands out in front of her that she saw why. The blood was so fresh that it was still dripping from her fingers and running back down her arms.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

She whimpered and frantically wiped them on her skirt, which she discovered was already stained with blood of its own. It felt warm where she’d smeared it across her face. She grabbed a fistful of her unstained blouse and held it up, wiping frantically at her cheeks. She started where she felt the fresh blood, but she kept going, kept wiping, in case there was more. She had to get all of it off. She needed a shower. She needed to stand under the scalding hot water and cleanse her body and spirit of her failure and sin. She needed to cry and scream at God and ask Him why He was doing this, if it was punishment for everyone or just for her and, if so, what trespasses she had done to deserve this.

Someone screamed in the hallway outside. She barely noticed. A few seconds later she heard the door open again, followed by Misty yelling, “Hey! In here! Hurry!”

She heard the rapid pitter patter of feet running across the floor.

A few seconds later Misty gasped, “Oh crap!” and the door creaked on its hinges as she quickly pulled it shut, punctuated by the sound of the latch clicking back into place. Then there was a loud CRASH! and Misty shouted, “Coach!”

A few seconds later she heard him say, “What is it Mis--oh fuck!”

That was enough to bring her back to reality. She sat up and looked through the stacks towards the door, but there were too many shelves. All she could see was a portion of Misty’s overalls and a sliver of the door shaking as someone pounded on it from the other side.

“Gretchen! Lock the door!”

“The keys are in the office!”

“Get them, now!”

Laura Lee rose shakily to her feet and walked around the corner as the librarian rushed by her, headed for the office in the back. 

“Misty get…get back!”

Laura Lee cleared the last aisle and finally saw Misty in full view. She was backing away from the door, and standing on the other side, framed through the large square window, was Ms. Grant, hammering her fists against the glass. Her throat was still torn apart. Laura Lee had watched her die, just like Coach, and yet…here she was.

It was a miracle, terrible to behold and horrifying beyond her understanding. She’d asked only for Coach to be returned to them, and now Ms. Grant had been as well. Or had she? Her eyes locked onto Laura Lee through the glass, and the same eyes that had been so filled with desperation a few minutes ago now bore into her with hunger and rage. She cocked her head to one side. Blood was still leaking out of her throat. Then she flew into a frenzy, slamming into the door with her shoulder.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The glass rippled from the impact so violently that she thought it might break. Then it stopped, and a moment later a loud metallic CLICK rang out in the silence, and the door slid open.

Misty jumped forward and grabbed the handle, stopping it about halfway. She pulled it back about halfway again. Ms. Grant tugged it back open. Misty grunted and pulled back against it.

“Help me!” she shouted. Ben leapt forward and Laura Lee followed. He had a hand on the door by the time she got there. He and Misty both strained in desperate frustration as they pulled against Ms. Grant. For lack of something better, she grabbed Misty’s waist and hauled the tiny girl back as hard as she could.

The door crashed shut, but the nurse wasn’t giving up that easily. She kept pulling furiously, the handle swinging up and down in Ben and Misty’s hands.

Ben shouted, “GRETCHEN!”

Laura Lee heard the jingling of keys behind them.

“Hold it still!” the librarian ordered, her voice shaking.

The handle was shaking relentlessly, obstructing the path to the lock.

Misty yelled, “We’re trying!”

Gretchen shoved her hands in over the others. Laura Lee heard the keys clinking together and then she heard the lock latch into place.

“Is it good?” Ben asked.

“It’s locked.”

He and Misty let go of the handle and backed away as Ms. Grant pulled it back. The doors shuddered and screeched, but didn’t open. After a minute, she stopped and stared at the them curiously through the window.

For reasons she didn’t understand, Laura Lee stepped closer.

“What are you doing?” Misty hissed, but she ignored her. She was transfixed by the nurse standing before her, compelled by horrified fascination. Something beyond their understanding was happening here. In the Bible, miracles were incomprehensible. A true act of God instilled with it hope and terror in equal measure. Be not afraid, the angels said, Be not afraid. She understood now. She stood face to face with the work of His divine hand, and she was terrified.

“What the hell are you doing Laura Lee?” Ben whispered. “Get back!”

She held up her hand in a calming gesture and whispered back, “It’s okay.”

Ms. Grant had fallen still, eyes fixated on Laura Lee as she walked right up to the glass. She stared back into the woman’s eyes, searching…searching…

“Jesus Christ!” Ben pleaded.

“Don’t you feel it?” she asked, trying to show him the way. “The next part of God’s plan is about to be revealed.”

“Like hell it is,” Misty said. She grabbed her hand and tried to pull her away, but she shrugged the smaller girl off and turned back to the door.

“Ms. Grant?” she asked in awe. “Is that you?”

Ms. Grant considered her question for a moment, then flexed her throat as if she was trying to speak and vomited blood right into Laura Lee’s face. She screamed and leapt back. It sprayed all over the window, pulling a red curtain down over the worst one woman show of their lives and obscuring the hallway beyond.

It streaked down the window, the light shimmering behind it like a fountain feature in the mall. She could still see a shadow moving beyond the bloody veil.  She stared into it, horrified and mesmerized, waiting…waiting…

Drip.

Ms. Doyle shook out of her stupor and pulled the keys back out of the lock.

Drip.

The librarian turned to Ben and asked, “What do we do now?”

Drip.

The glass splintered before her with a crash. Everyone jumped halfway out of their skin and Laura Lee took an instinctual step back. The keys fell to the ground at the librarian’s feet. Cracks spread out like fingers across the whole window, weaving a bloody spider web around her reflection and ensnaring her with its tendrils.

Drip.

The glass exploded. Laura Lee curled away from the flying shards. If she had been standing any closer they would have sliced her face in a dozen places. Instead, they showered around her waist and legs and skittered across the carpet at her feet. Ms. Doyle screamed behind her, and when she looked back, she saw that Ms. Grant had her by the arm. She dragged it back through the window, slicing it across the glass shards that remained. Ms. Doyle screamed, then screamed again when Ms. Grant bit into her arm.

Laura Lee watched in horror as the two women fought each other directly underneath a poster that read: Quiet please!

“Help me!” the librarian shrieked in blatant disregard of her own rule.

Ben grabbed her other arm and pulled her away, and together they stumbled away from the door. Ms. Doyle was sobbing and clutching her arm. Ms. Grant eagerly reached for her again, but she was out of reach. Laura Lee kept watching as she wrapped her fingers around the edges of the window, the glass crunching under her hands as she dragged herself through the shattered frame. She crumpled to a heap in front the door, then rose again, glass shards falling from her hair and clothes.

Misty shouted, “Run!” and nobody needed to hear it twice.

They scattered before the resurrected nurse like so many mice under the shadow of a hawk, such helpless creatures desperately fleeing the hunt of an unstoppable hunter. Be not afraid.

But she was, so she ran.

She raced through the aisles, hoping to use the rows of books for cover until she could hide with everyone else, though she didn’t know where they’d all gone. She ducked into the fiction section to cut across the room. She was barely a quarter of the way down when the librarian (Ms. Doyle, she remembered!) screamed. There was a loud crash to her left, then another, then another, each building on the next. She realized too late that she was directly in its path. She was in the middle of the aisle when the stacks came crashing down on top of her.

She dove on instinct and smacked flat down onto the ground as a hundred books rained down upon her. The emptying shelves cracked into the next stack over her head before it finished plummeting down on top of her. The next shelf came thundering down next to her. The ground shook beneath her as hundreds upon hundreds of books showered the library floor.

She gasped for air. Her entire body was throbbing and everything hurt. She tried to move, but there was so much weight on her. She couldn’t see anything either. She was buried alive.

Somewhere above her, Ms. Doyle screamed again. Laura Lee moved her head, tenderly trying to raise it out of the darkness. Books shifted above her head; she could feel them sliding off. Just a little higher and–

The shelf above her crashed again, accompanied by another scream. She ducked, thinking it was going to come down the rest of the way. One of the books fell away when she did, offering her first beam of light up into the world. Through her new opening, she saw Ms. Doyle climbing across the shelf above her, and Ms. Grant climbing over her.

“Help me! Please!”

Ms. Grant answered her by pinning her down on the shelves overhead. Ms. Doyle shrieked like a bird in the talons of a hawk. The shelves shook overhead while the two fought. Laura Lee gasped and ducked down again. Maybe if she stayed perfectly still then Ms. Grant wouldn’t notice her down here. There was a sharp crack! And another, and another, and then a sickening snap. The shelves stopped shaking and Ms. Doyle fell abruptly silent.

Absent the struggle, Laura Lee heard lips smacking. Then ripping. Then more smacking. And then dripping. Something warm was leaking through the books now. It slicked its way down the covers and onto her skin. It started dripping onto her cheek. She tried not to cry as it slid down her face and streaked over her lips. She couldn’t open her mouth; she didn’t want to taste it. More droplets came pattering down onto her face. More ripping sounds. More lips smacking.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

THIRD FLOOR 

MIDSECTION OF THE SCHOOL

They doubled back and hurried to find Mari’s room. Tai ran faster than the rest, retaking the lead and arriving first at Ms. Donovan’s room. She took her frustration out on the door, pounding it harder than she needed to.

“Mari! Mari!” She tried the handle and, to her surprise, it swung open. She rushed in and scanned the dozen-or-so anxious faces staring back at her and found Mari standing alert and confused near the back of the room.

“Tai?”

“Mari! We need your help, come with us!” she wheezed as Lottie entered behind her.

Mari gawked at the two of them. Oh, right, blood.

“Oh, uuuhhh…'' She looked to Lottie for help.

“I… stabbed David Maines in the face with these scissors!” Lottie held up the scissors in question, the blood still slick on the blades.

“What the fuck!” Mari yelled.

“Jesus Christ Lottie!” Tai exclaimed. Lottie threw her hands up.

“What? That’s what happened!”

“Yeah but– no, forget it,” Tai shook her head and turned back to Mari. “The people that attacked us outside are sick with something, and it’s spreading into the school. David was sick and wouldn’t stop coming after us, so we had to kill him.”

“That’s what’s fucking happening?” Diana asked behind her.

Mari’s hands were balled up in her hair. Cries of shock, outrage and horror erupted around the room.

“Hey!” Lottie shouted over the din. “Hey!”

Everyone ignored her. She offered her scissors to Tai and said, “Hold these.” Tai obliged, then watched as Lottie grabbed the nearest desk, lifted it several inches off the ground, and slammed it back down with a crash.

“Everyone shut the fuck up!”

This effectively silenced the room. She nodded in satisfaction.

“Now, like Taissa said, we need your help. You’ve all heard what’s happening out there, right? Just like you heard about what happened outside earlier? Well, the rumors are true. Something is spreading through the school and people are dying, and we need help to stop it.”

“What’s spreading?” one of the boys piped up.

“I don’t know, exactly,” Tai answered. “But the people that are sick are attacking everyone else and trying to kill them.”

“Well, how do you know you’re not sick!” Mari accused, backing away from them. “Did you just come in here and expose all of us?”

“I don’t know,” Tai admitted.

“Oh God!” she wailed.

“Look, it doesn’t matter! It’s already spread to the student body. People are attacking each other. Our classmates, our teachers, our friends! We need to get the others and fight back!”
“Fuck that!” Mari yelled. “I don’t want to fight anyone! Or kill anyone!”

Lottie stepped forward.

“We don’t have a choice, Mari. We have to fight back. Right, Tai?” Lottie looked back at her, and her stomach twisted at the expression on the other girl’s face, the glimmer of fear that they were wrong, that she shouldn’t have killed David. She felt it too, but it was too late to start second guessing now. Besides, the bloody hallways provided compelling evidence that they were right. Tai mustered all the confidence she could find and nodded.

“Look, I’m not happy about it either, okay? But between what I saw outside and what’s happening now, I don’t see any other choice. There’s nowhere to go, and I don’t think anyone is coming to save us, so we have to protect ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to sit around waiting to die.”

“Jesus!” Mari cried out over the murmurs of the crowd.

“I know it’s a lot! But we need you, Mar. All of you!” she added, addressing the gaping onlookers. “We need all the help we can get. If any of you are willing, you should come with us.”

They all exchanged looks of general distress and confusion. Mari looked on the verge of tears.

“Fuck!” Tai growled.

“I’ve got it,” Lottie whispered, and walked over to Mari. She’d buried her face in her hands while the others all whispered around her. Lottie placed one of her blood-stained hands on Mari’s shoulder and whispered something to her. Mari slowly dropped her hands from her face and nodded. Tai only caught a fragment of the conversation, “...need you to lock in–”

She turned away from them to address Diana and her two friends.

“Find anything you can use as weapons.”

“Weapons?” asked the boy who wasn’t Oliver.

“Yeah, did you think Lottie was just carrying these scissors around for fun? I stabbed David in the neck and he barely reacted. Whatever this virus does, it must dull your pain response or something. Lottie really had to fuck him up before he finally died, so don’t be shy.”

She placed the scissors on the absent teacher’s desk and started pulling open the drawers until she found a screwdriver. It was better than nothing.

She stood up and found Lottie making her way back across the room with Mari in tow.

“You good?” Tai asked her.

“I’m coming,” Mari answered. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot and her voice cracked a little when she spoke, but she sounded more resolute than she had a minute ago, so Tai simply nodded her gratitude to her and whatever Lottie had said.

“Thank you.”

Mari shrugged, feigning indifference to mask her anxiety the way she always did, and turned back to face the rest of her homeroom.

“You guys coming?”

The floor and ceiling suddenly became very interesting to the rest of their classmates.

“Cool,” Mari declared flatly, turning away from them.

“Lock the door behind us and don’t let anyone in!” Tai instructed. “Mari, you should find a weapon or something to–”

“I’m not killing anyone Taissa,” Mari cut her off. “You guys have fun with that though.”

“What are you going to do when they attack us?” she demanded, harsher than she meant to.

“I’m coming! That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? I’m here, I’m going, I’ll help find the others.”

“Okay, fine, that’s fair. Thank you,” Tai conceded.

“Don’t mention it.”

They left Ms. Donovan’s room quickly. Tai pulled the door closed behind her and made sure someone was coming to lock it behind her. When she turned around, everyone was staring at her expectantly.

“So…what now?” Mari asked. “Are we just going full Ghostface through the school or is there someone special you want to kill first?”

“We’re getting Van next. Let’s go.” Tai didn’t wait for them to agree; it wasn’t up for debate anymore. She pushed past them and started running, and the sounds of their feet behind her was all she needed.

She gained speed with every step, not wanting to waste another second. She reached the turn in the hall once again and reminded everyone to watch out for the blood puddle, which garnered an “Oh God!” from Mari, and finally ran full tilt down the last stretch of classrooms. She reached the end, turned right, and finally laid eyes on the mouth of the front stairwell. She waited there until the others cleared the corner a few seconds later, and then she hurried down the steps. Their footsteps echoed off the walls as they descended, like droplets of water falling in a wide, empty cave.

There were only two levels of stairs, one going away from them that leveled out onto a small landing, and the switchback for their final descent onto the floor below.  Handrails guarded the center, where a gap in the stairs fell straight down to the ground floor. Once in a while some yahoo, usually a freshman, tried to earn some quick social cred by climbing up over the railing to garner some ooo’s and aah’s. The idea made Tai’s stomach churn. From the third floor, the fall was more likely to kill you than not, but a fall from the second floor was probably survivable, albeit with a high cost. None of it was a price worth paying for such a fleeting moment of attention. At least she’d never heard about anyone dying.

She gripped the handrail tight to guide her swift turn around the landing, launching herself down the last flight of steps and onto the second floor. Van’s homeroom was about halfway down the hall, and Tai wanted nothing more than to keep running towards it. But she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the corridor laid out before her. The others were close behind, and they all gasped when their eyes fell on the scene.

More blood was smeared across several of the doors and many of the lockers, but that was nothing compared to the amount covering the floors. But it wasn’t just the blood that froze them all in place. It was the body lying in the middle of the hall, and the woman crouching over it, tearing off pieces with her fingers and stuffing them into her mouth. It looked like she was muttering something to herself while she chewed, but Tai couldn’t hear what it was. She also didn’t care.

The only thing that mattered right now was that she was standing between Tai and the door to Van’s room. She stepped forward gently, trying not to make a sound. She gripped the screwdriver tight in her hand, trying to ignore the voice in her head screaming at her to run from the danger.

“Taissa…” Lottie started to whisper until Tai shot a look back at her.

“We can take her.”

“What?” Oliver asked incredulously.

“What did you think I meant when I said fight?” Tai hissed back.

“Children?”

Mari yelped when the woman spoke. Tai spun back around to face the hall. The woman was looking up at them from behind the corpse, her head cocked curiously to one side. She had stopped eating. With a clear view of her face, Tai was certain she was Mrs. Lyle. She was in her late fifties and had taught A.P. Literature for decades. She also had a notoriously bad back because of a car accident a few years ago. She often asked for student’s help lifting things around the classroom because it was difficult to bend over too much. But that didn’t seem to be bothering her at all anymore.

“Children!” she called out again, pushing herself to her feet.

“Oh my God,” Diana gasped.

“Calm down!” Mrs. Lyle cooed as she stepped over the body.

Behind Tai, Mari was muttering, “No no no no no no no.”

“Calm down!” Mrs. Lyle assured her again.

“No, fuck this!” Mari yelled.

“Mari, wait!” Tai shouted, but she was too late. Mari turned and ran back into the stairwell, jumping down the steps towards the first floor, and Mrs. Lyle leapt forward and ran right at them.

Tai brought her screwdriver up, clutched tight in her fist, ready to stab her in the face just like Lottie had done. It felt unnatural, preparing to do this to another person. David hadn’t felt this wrong, maybe because he was already attacking someone. But Tai was standing her ground here instead of running away. Killing David had been entirely self defense, but killing Mrs. Lyle was entirely her selfish desire to see Van again, and not for the first time today either. 

She cleared the hall much faster than she should’ve been able to and lunged at Tai without breaking stride. With a yell, Tai surged forward to meet her, driving her makeshift weapon at her head. But the teacher dove under her attack and tackled her at full speed.

The screwdriver flew out of her hand and the air was knocked from lungs the moment she slammed into the floor. But Mrs. Lyle didn’t miss a beat. She lunged down at Tai’s neck with her teeth bared in a bloody snarl. Tai threw her left hand up at her face and caught her in the throat. She pushed as hard as she could to keep the gnashing teeth away from her face, but the older woman was surprisingly strong for her frail frame, not that it mattered anymore. Tai could feel the muscles working in her throat as she tried desperately to eat her face.

She grappled around the floor with her free hand, searching for the weapon that could save her life.

Mrs. Lyle’s head jerked back; Lottie had a fistful of her hair. She let go of Tai and swiped at the other girl’s legs. Tai wanted to get away as fast as she could, but she couldn’t leave Lottie to fight alone. She grabbed the flailing arm and pulled it back. Mrs. Lyle thrashed violently against them.

“Hold her still!” Lottie shouted.

“I’m fucking trying!”

Lottie brought her free hand up over Mrs. Lyle’s head, gave her hair one final yank, and brought the scissors down.

They bounced off, slicing open her forehead as they slid off. Lottie yelled in frustration and stabbed again, with the same futile result.

“Fuck!” she screamed as she tried to pull them back out, but…

“They’re stuck!”

“Get my screwdriver and try again!”

“Where is it!”

“It’s over there!” Diana shouted.

“Get it!” Tai yelled through gritted teeth as Mrs. Lyle continued to rage against them, indifferent to the blood pouring out across her forehead. Tai couldn’t keep her grip. Mrs. Lyle lurched away, still fixated on Lottie.

She spun around, her newly freed arm flying up to grab Lottie’s, whose hand was still tangled in hair. She gasped, yanked her hand away and kicked Mrs. Lyle in the chest. The teacher stumbled all the way back to the stairs before regaining her balance. She shook her head, almost like she was disoriented, but her eyes locked right back onto Lottie just as Tai spotted the screwdriver at the teacher’s feet. A glance showed her that Diana and the boys had jumped away when the teacher had fallen back. She had to get it herself, right now. Tai dove for the weapon at the same moment Mrs. Lyle lunged at Lottie, kicking the screwdriver out of Tai’s reach.

There was no time to be upset. Tai scrambled after it while Lottie grappled against the attack.

Tai reached the screwdriver, grabbed it, and turned around just in time to see a blur of crimson red charge out of the hallway and crash right into the fray. The collision sent Mrs. Lyle flying back across the landing and down the stairs. Her grunts of surprise echoed off the walls as she tumbled out of sight.

Lottie, panting, put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder and said, “Thanks.”

Van said, “Don’t mention it.”

Chapter Text

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

John 11:25

It started, as it did many times that day, with three curt staccato raps of knuckle against wood.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Hello?” asked a casual, baritone voice. “Is anyone in there?”

“John?” Mr. Nickerson called out. The handle of the door shook in response, rattling loudly over the silence of the room.

“It’s locked!”

“I’m coming!” Mr. Nickerson hurried across the room, dropping the phone he’d been holding and leaving it dangling off the wall. He had been trying to call nine-one-one for the last ten minutes. She could hear it faintly ringing as it swung lazily back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

“What’s going on out there?” Mr. Nickerson asked as he unlatched the door.

Ringing.

Ringing.

Ringing.

The door swung open, revealing her German teacher, Mr. Monroe, smiling pleasantly as the blood dripped down his chin. He stepped through the doorway, screams pouring in from the halls behind him.

“Oh my God! What happened to you?” Mr. Nickerson gasped. The blood was all over his neck too, rapidly staining the collar of his white polo.

“What happened?” he echoed.

“You’re bleeding!”

Mr. Monroe smiled and shook his head indifferently, as if to say it is what it is.

“Sie waren hungrig,” he said, like it was obvious. They were hungry.

“What the hell do y—” Mr. Nickerson stopped abruptly when the other man grabbed his shoulders and bit into his neck. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

The room erupted in horror around her. She and Gen grabbed each other’s arms, searching desperately for any kind of comfort as the two men struggled. She didn’t understand why Mr. Monroe was attacking him; she’d had Mr. Nickerson all year for A.P. Calculus, and in that time, she’d seen nothing but a gentle, soft-spoken man. He never marked anyone tardy for class, no matter how many times they were late. He granted extensions on papers whenever he was asked, kept a stash of candy in his desk to hand out at the end of every exam, and as far as she knew, he got along well with all the other teachers. They crashed into his desk as he stumbled back under the other man’s press.

Mr. Monroe had also never struck her as violent. Occasionally temperamental maybe, snapping at the rowdiest students when they were being aggressively disruptive during his French classes, but nothing like…this.

He ripped his teeth away, taking with them a chunk of skin and flesh. Mr. Nickerson collapsed behind his desk, gasping and clamping his hand over the wound, which did little to stop the gushing blood.

Mr. Monroe turned to survey the room. His eyes flitted over all of them, cowering in the back, and settled hungrily on…her. She tightened her grip on Gen, trying to steady herself from the shaking as a wave of panic shivered through her veins. He spat the skin out, his eyes never wavering from her, and smiled amiably like they were passing each other on the street. A chill rattled up and down her spine as Taissa’s warning of rabid cannibals finally set in, but she had also said those were strangers outside, and that they were safe now that the doors were locked. But she didn’t get to think on it again after that because he charged across the room and all hell broke loose.

Everyone scattered, panicked and screaming, but there was nowhere to go. Some of them ran for the door, arcing around the edges of the room while he charged down the middle. Others stood frozen, paralyzed by the gory scene unfolding before them. Gen released her arm and tugged hers free, turning and running for the back, but that only meant she and the others would be cornered.

“No, wait!” she shouted after her, but the other girl ignored her. With seconds ticking away like footsteps, she turned and ran the other way, following the others in circling the room to get away. She stumbled through the rows of desks, her legs shaking like jelly.

She barely made it a quarter of the way across the room before he cut her off. Her back was against the wall when he lunged.

She planted her feet at the last second and spun, juking left, a move she had been winning midfield battles with all year, and his arms missed her by a hair. He crashed into the wall behind her, and she darted around the nearest desk into the next aisle, home free.

“Help!” she screamed, but nobody was listening. She turned to make for the door and then pain crackled around her hip like lightning, followed a moment later by the metallic thunder of the desk toppling into her. She lurched to the side as the lightning spread its fingers up her side and down her leg. Mr. Monroe leapt around the desk he’d pushed at her, and pounced.

She smacked into the ground beneath his weight and the wind blew out of her lungs. She tried to wriggle away, but he had her pinned by the shoulders.

“No! No! Please! Wait! Wait!” she begged, swatting desperately at his face as he bent down, teeth bared. “No! No! No!”

He sank his teeth into her shoulder, and Akilah screamed.

Chapter V: The Bodies of Christ, Risen Again: Part Two

He was twenty-two when he tore his Achilles.

It was the middle of his last season of college ball, prime time for recruiters seeding themselves in the crowds to render judgement upon the player’s future careers. Going down with a season-ending injury was never a pretty sight, and he used to think the only thing that could make the excruciating experience worse was having an entire stadium of strangers to bear witness to the worst moment of your life. At least the silver lining to that was that you got to go out in a blaze of glory, having played so hard that the crowd gave you a round of applause as you left the field on a stretcher. It gave you one last memory of greatness to hold on to before the next year of surgery and grueling rehab make you question why the hell you ever wanted to do this in the first place. But he hadn’t even gotten that.

They were playing a scrimmage on a rainy Tuesday afternoon when his right foot slipped out from under him on the wet grass. He fell to the ground and cursed at the defender he thought had just tripped him. His ankle throbbed like someone had whacked it with a baseball bat. He’d thought it was probably only twisted, or maybe mildly sprained. But when he stood up and put pressure on the foot again he knew something was wrong. It wasn’t just the pain; it was the tightness in his calf and the looseness of the foot itself. It buckled under his weight, and he fell back to the ground immediately.

Crumpled there the mud, he had no idea that his life had just changed forever. There was no fanfare, no glory, not even the pitying applause of strangers. It was just him and his throbbing leg in the rain, waiting for the school nurse to inform him that his life was over.

Now his right leg was pinned beneath a bookshelf. He’d almost managed to get out of the way before the shelves collapsed on him, but he hadn’t been fast enough. It hurt more than the leg’s previous injury, but he didn’t think it was broken. He was, however, very stuck.

LIBRARY

FIRST FLOOR

Mira Grant, the school nurse, hadn’t noticed him yet, and he was trying his best to keep it that way. She was currently preoccupied digging into Gretchen Doyle’s corpse, but who knew how long that would last. She’d climbed through the window, slicing up her arms and legs on the broken glass, and proceeded to kill the librarian, and that was after he’d watched her die out in the hall a few minutes earlier. He didn’t have a damned explanation for any of it, but he knew that if she noticed him now, he was going to be next.

He grunted quietly as he tried to lift the shelf off himself, but it was too heavy to leverage from underneath. His legs throbbed with the preamble to some epic bruising and his arms were shaking, which he quickly realized was because his entire body was shaking. He had never been more afraid in his life. Of all the times he thought he might get outed in high school, or the times he and Paul risked even the smallest displays of affection out in public, or the time he’d almost been shot by another hunter while out in the woods with his uncle, nothing compared to this. He strained again, uselessly, and gave up. He would never get out like this. He looked around desperately for one of the kids and spotted Misty hiding under a table across the room.

He wanted to shout for help, but stopped himself. He scanned the rest of the room and didn’t find anyone else, so he waved frantically at her. She was transfixed by the gory scene unfolding down the row from him. Come on, over here! Over here! He was directly in Mira’s line of sight, and every second he spent waving, even silently, brought more of a chance for her to take notice, and she would get there long before Misty. He cursed under his breath. For fuck’s sake! She had been obsessed with him for years, but now, when he actually needed it, he couldn’t get her attention?

Mira moaned in satisfaction, like she hadn’t eaten in days and was finally having a rich and delicious cut of steak.

Misty! He pleaded silently. God, what was the world coming to?

Mira moaned again, louder this time, and his eyes darted back over to make sure she hadn’t seen him. She still was engrossed in her meal. When he looked back, Misty was staring directly at him. If he hadn’t already exhausted his panic response, it might have startled him. Instead, he waved for her to come over, pointing at his leg and mouthing, “Help! I’m stuck!”

She stared at him for a few seconds, then her eyes darted back to the school nurse having the librarian for lunch. Her gaze wandered warily back over to him, and his stomach dropped. He shook his head. No, no, no!

“Help me,” he whispered hoarsely. He looked nervously back at Mira too, but she didn’t seem to have noticed. When he craned his head back towards Misty’s table, she was gone. He tried to find her again, but his view from the floor was mostly table and chair legs. If she had run away to hide in the more shelves across the room…

Oh fuck.

He strained against the fallen shelf again, still with no result. His heart pounded against his chest; he could feel his pulse up in his temples and hear it throbbing in his ears.

He looked around himself, desperately trying to find something he could use for a bit of leverage. He reached out for one of the chairs parked under a nearby table, but it was out of reach. He looked back at Mira; still eating Gretchen.

He pulled at his leg again, but it was well and truly stuck. His heart was putting in overtime like he was in the middle of a game. It was hitting him all too quickly that he was probably about to die here, trapped in this school, in this god forsaken town in New Jersey. He’d sworn to himself that he’d get out of here one day, that his life would amount to more than this.

He'd still been rehabbing his leg when he graduated, and without any recruitment prospects, he’d moved back home to Wiskayok. Not to be with his family, they hardly gave a shit what he was doing when he still lived at home, and they gave even less of one after he left. No, he’d come back because this town was familiar, and when one life was ripped away, he retreated back into an old one. He started subbing at the school as a temporary gig to pay the bills while he figured out what the hell he was going to do with the rest of his life, but it was like this place had a kind of gravity well, like a black hole, pulling him in and keeping him trapped in its orbit.

He took up the assistant coaching job to boost his income and try to reconnect with his love of soccer, and it worked. He fell into his routine, and before he knew it, he was thirty-three and still telling himself that one day he’d get out of here. The day the girls won States was the first time he’d believed it, and the day they lost Nationals was the last. He had considered quitting a few times over the years, to start over somewhere else, far away from here. But he never mustered up the courage to do it. He hadn’t thought he’d ever regret anything more than losing Paul. Today, he discovered he’d been wrong. He’d wasted all that time, and for what? To lose the love of his life and then die two weeks later? A tear streaked down his cheek as he desperately and futilely tried to free himself.

Something scuffed the carpet behind him. He twisted around to look behind him and saw Misty rushing over with Travis in tow behind her. A ragged breath of relief escaped as the sobs that had been building in his chest subsided. As they knelt beside him, he whispered, “Thank you.” He’d really thought Misty was going to leave him there.

“Can you move your leg?” she whispered back.

“Not really. Can you guys lift it?”

“Probably. Travis, get that side.” She indicated the right side of the shelf, where it had fallen over into the next one. She moved around and crouched to his left, and together they lifted.

The pressure releasing his leg was a sweet relief. He dragged himself back across the carpet and it came free. Disturbed books shifted and fell, thudding down across the ground around his feet. They dropped the shelf as soon as his leg was free, and it fell back to its original resting place with a soft clunk! Ben let out another ragged breath of relief.

“Thank you.”

His leg prickled with pins and needles. It had hurt so much that he didn’t realize some of the circulation had been cut off. He leaned forward to massage it, hoping nothing was broken.

Misty grabbed his shoulder and shouted, “Run!”

His head snapped up, and he looked back across the room to find Mira scrambling towards them over the fallen shelf where she’d pinned Gretchen.

“Get up!” Misty shouted again.

He staggered to his feet. His leg buckled under the weight, still feeling more like a tree trunk than part of his body, but he stumbled forward anyway because Mira had cleared the shelf and was standing up just fine.

Travis yelled, “Come on!” just in case they needed any extra motivation. Ben limped after them across the room, quickly falling behind.

“Guys! Wait!”

“Help me! Please! Come back!” Mira cried out behind him.

He shot a look over his shoulder and his heart jumped into his throat; she was already more than halfway across the room.

He yelped, “Fuck!” and stumbled into his best approximation of a run.

“Help him!” Misty ordered Travis, running ahead of them to get the door to the librarian’s office. She pushed it open and held it, waving at them frantically as if it would make them go any faster. Travis grabbed his arm and pulled, which did less to hurry him along and more to throw him off balance. He stumbled into the boy, nearly sending them both to the floor, and it took them a moment to steady themselves again before continuing. They were only a few feet away now, clearing the last table before they could reach it. He could hear the footsteps behind them, falling softly on the carpeted floors.

“She’s right behind you!” Misty screamed, which was confirmed a second later when she tackled them from behind. All three of them fell into a sprawling faceplant before the threshold of the door. Mira dug her fingernails into his sides and lunged with her teeth bared.

He screamed and twisted away, displacing one of her arms. She lost her balance and the rest of her weight fell directly onto his back. He tried to drag himself away, the carpet burning his hands and elbows and knees, but she was still on him. Her fingers wrapped around his arm as she dove in to take a piece out of him. He jerked his elbow back and caught her in the chin, her jaw snapping shut with a sickening crack.

“Help me!” he screamed.

“Help me!” Mira echoed.

A pair of hands appeared on her shoulders, and then she jerked back, her weight lifting and freeing him to scramble away. She growled and swiped at Travis. He leaned back and avoided her hand, but she shook free of his grasp and swiped again. He leapt away, and she abandoned the effort once he was out of reach. Ben was pushing himself to his hands and knees with the seconds Travis had bought him, but she reoriented herself quickly and lunged for another attack, flattening him back into the ground and pinning him down by digging her knee into his back. He cried out as she clawed at his shoulder with one hand and shoved his face into the rough, musty carpet with the other.

“Help!” he sobbed. He could feel her breath on his neck, and she giggled in his ear. It was a gleeful sound of utter delight, like a butterfly had just landed on her finger. Tears blurred his vision of the sideways room, the fallen shelves and scattered books, the tables and chairs that sat idly for children that might never use them again. The blood spilling from her throat dripped over the back of his neck.

He didn’t want to die.

Something crashed and shattered directly overhead, raining small pieces of glass and plastic down around him. Mira careened to the side and fell next to him with a THUD! The lingering phantom of her attack throbbed in his neck and lower back. He gasped and rolled away from her. Someone grabbed his shoulder and he cringed away, but it was only Misty.

“Get up Ben!” she snapped. He pushed himself awkwardly to his feet and stumbled the last few feet to the door. Misty went in first, and Travis was right behind him. Misty slammed the door behind them.

“Thank you,” Ben rasped through the tears. “Thank you.”

“Help me move this!” Misty ordered, ignoring him and pointing at Gretchen’s desk. “There’s no lock! We need to block the door!”

He and Travis rushed forward and grabbed the desk on both sides. It was large and awkward, but not too heavy for three people to move. Travis lifted from the back while he and Misty dragged it towards the door. They had it halfway across the doorframe when the handle snapped down and it swung inward, crashing against the desk and stopping after opening just a few inches. Misty dropped her side and threw herself against the door. It crashed shut again. Mira pounded on the other side in protest.

“Let me in!”

BANG!

“Please!”

BANG!

Ben dropped his side and threw his hands against the door over Misty’s head.

“Please!”

BANG!

“Please!”

BANG!

“Please!”

“Go away!” Misty screamed.

BANG!

“Please!”

BANG!

“Let me in!”

BANG!

The handle shook again. Misty grabbed it as the door shuddered and pushed open again.

“Travis!” Ben yelled. Travis abandoned his side of the desk and rushed around it. He slammed his shoulder into the door and pushed it shut again.

“No! Let me in!” Her voice climbed an octave in gurgling desperation.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG…

Ben kept pressing firm against the door, waiting for the next hit. Misty gripped the handle, but it sat motionless in her hands. He peeked through the thin slotted window in the door, and saw nothing. He looked back at the kids and shook his head. Misty hesitated for a few moments, then released the door and wiped the tears from her eyes. Travis did the same, and a muted chorus of sniffling filled the room for a moment. Ben’s legs were shaking, and so was Misty’s voice when she spoke.

“We need to finish this.” She pointed to the desk.

“Yeah,” he agreed, wiping his nose. “Yeah, Travis, come on.”

He waved the boy over as he resumed his abandoned post. Travis hesitated.

“Wait…where’s Laura Lee?”

Out in the library, somebody screamed.

MR. NICKERSON’S ROOM

SECOND FLOOR

FAR SIDE

“Help me!” Akilah shrieked as her teacher tightened his jaw around her shoulder. For three years he’d taught her the intricacies of the German language, her third after Arabic and English; how to shape the intonations and inflections so she could converse with her in-laws when she visited her sister in Munich every summer. How to curl the consonants around her lips so she didn’t ask, “Who is the grocery store,” and not, “Where.” How to ask for help when she couldn’t find the train station, or when a man covered in blood tackled her to the ground and tried to kill her in her classroom.

His teeth dug through her shirt and she cried out at the pinching pain on her muscles and skin. Her hands flew up to his neck, and she pushed as hard as she could.

“Get off me!” she shouted again, this time directed at him. He pulled back, shaking his head and spitting like he’d taken a bad bite from an apple.

“Help me!” she screamed again. She shifted one of her legs beneath him and kneed him hard in the groin. Then she hit him again, and again, and again. It was supposed to be one of the most guaranteed-to-incapacitate self-defense moves, and it was like he didn’t even feel it.

He shifted over her, moving his hands to rip hers away from his neck. She fought as hard as she could, but he was stronger. His muscles rippled as pinned her again. He bared his bloody teeth, reared his head back, and roared.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“HELP!” she sobbed.

He looked back down at her, grinning and licking his lips, ready to help himself to her flesh. He leaned back in for another bite and then a foot smashed into his face.

His head snapped to the side and he tumbled halfway off her. Suddenly she had a hand and a leg free, and she twisted away. He recollected himself and lunged back after her, and then two pairs of hands wrapped around his shoulders and yanked him back. Finally free, she scrambled back, right into someone else’s legs. They grabbed her shoulder. She yelped and flinched away.

“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Gen assured her. “It’s me!”

She grabbed Akilah’s arm and helped her rise shakily to her feet.

Mr. Monroe was struggling with the boys that had pulled him off her—Gary Andres and Mark Wheeler. She wasn’t very close with either of them, which made her all the more grateful for their help. They had him for a moment, but then he twisted free and lunged at Gary. He scrambled away, right into the desk lurking behind him. The teacher leapt after him, and the two went down in a tangle of limbs and metal. She should have helped him in return, but she just stood there, watching as Mark tried to pull the man off.

“Get off me! Get off me! Stop! Stop! Stop!” Gary screamed. Mr. Monroe ignored him and bit down on his arm.

“Stop it, John!”

Mr. Nickerson rushed past them and helped Mark pull his colleague off of his student. Monroe spun around and shoved him back; Nickerson punched him in the face, harder than she thought possible from the thinly built man. Monroe shook it off and lunged again, sending them both crashing down into another desk.

“What is wrong with you!” Nickerson yelled.

“Wrong is what! Wrong is what! Das Abendessen wird kalt”

Monroe smashed his forehead into Mr. Nickerson’s face, then again, and again, and again. He cried out as blood started pouring from his nose.

“Do you kids need help?”

Both girls both jumped. Akilah tore her eyes away from the fight and found two more teachers standing in the doorway; Mr. Ellison and Mrs. Conway, Algebra and Home Economics.

“Yes! Please help us!” Akilah gasped. “He’s attacking us! You have to help him!”

They looked quizzically at the two men brawling on the floor.

Mr. Ellison studied the scene for a moment, rubbing the back of his balding head in concern.

“John!” he shouted over the ruckus. Mr. Monroe raised his head at the sound of his name, another piece of Mr. Nickerson’s arm hanging from his mouth.

“Mmmnnnrrrnggg,” he mumbled around a mouthful of meat.

“John,” Ellison said, like he was disappointed in his table manners. Mr. Monroe rolled his eyes and reluctantly spat Mr. Nickerson’s missing flesh back onto his chest.

“Morning!” he said in the same exasperated tone one might say, “What?” after an interruption at dinner.

“Is the matinee on Monmouth, or is Martin on the march?” Mr. Ellison asked casually, like he was musing about the weather and not spouting absolute gibberish.

Akilah and Gen exchanged looks of confusion and alarm at the bizarre interaction.

“Marzipan on Mondays, as much for you as me,” Monroe answered, nodding definitively. Mr. Nickerson groaned beneath him. He looked down at him, then back at the other teachers. “Camry?” he asked, though his inflection said he probably meant, “May I?”

Mrs. Conway shrugged. “Papers due on Monday, much adieu, much adieu.”

“Danke,” he said, nodding gratefully. Then he leaned down and tucked into Mr. Nickerson again, this time treating himself to a hearty chunk of shoulder. The man screamed again.

“What are you doing!” Akilah shouted. “Help him!”

Mrs. Conway stared at her for a moment, then shouted, “Run!”

Nobody in the room needed to be told twice. The ones that hadn’t already fled into the hallway all broke for the door at once, but Akilah didn’t move.

“You have to help him!”

Mr. Ellison rushed forward, but not towards Mr. Nickerson. He ran right into Ricky Holden, who was leading the pack of escapees. They crashed together and stumbled back into the group behind her. They screamed as they all went down together like bowling pins. Tracy Moran raced around them, not breaking off her path to the door, and Mrs. Conway grabbed her as soon as she reached her.

Akilah’s heart dropped into her stomach as they all started screaming too. Everyone else scattered around them; nobody was stopping to help them now. Mr. Nickerson cried out behind her as Mr. Monroe bit into him again.

Gen shook her arm and shouted her name, snapping her out of her daze.

“Akilah! What do we do?”

Akilah’s eyes flitted across the gory scene unfolding before them: tangled bodies, blood on the floor, the screaming. So much screaming. Gary and Mark had abandoned their attempts to stop Mr. Monroe, opting instead to make a run for it. There was still a path to the door, zig-zagging around the desks and hugging the wall, the way she’d tried to go before.

“Run!” she yelled. “Go around!”

They broke for the door, following the boys escape route through the desks that were still standing and abandoning Mr. Nickerson too.

Mrs. Conway and Tracy were still struggling in between Mr. Nickerson’s desk and the doorway. Akilah paid her rescue forward and kicked the woman in the face.

“Get off her!”

Gen followed her up, and the second hit sent her tumbling off. They grabbed Tracy’s arms and pulled her up.

Gen yelled, “Come on!” and they half helped, half dragged the other girl out into the open hall. Akilah released her once she was steadily on her own feet. She wanted to go back inside to help the others, but all she could think was run, run, run! And she was quickly distracted from the thought, because when they stepped through the doorway, they crossed a threshold out of a nightmare and into hell.

Gen gasped, “Oh God!”

To their left were more bodies; two, three, four, and crouched over all of them were more of her fellow students, ripping into them with their hands and teeth. Blood was smeared across the floors and spattered up on the walls and lockers around where they lay. And down the other way, Gary and Mark were struggling against two other girls, screaming for them to stop it, get off, help me man!

Tracy let out a shrill scream, and then another door erupted down the hall to the left, and more screaming students poured out behind the bodies. Their screams doubled when they discovered the grisly scene before them. The cannibalistic students all broke off their meals and rose to their feet, shouting at the newcomers to ask for their help.

Akilah whispered, “Run.”

The cannibals charged into the new crowd, and everyone scattered. Half broke and ran the other way down the hall, and half broke towards them. Akilah, Gen and Tracy turned and ran after Gary and Mark, who in turn were disappearing down the hall with the other two girls hot on their heels.

“What do we do?” Gen sobbed. Akilah said nothing. She didn’t know. Screams echoed down the halls from every direction. She didn’t fucking know. She just kept running.

LIBRARY

FIRST FLOOR

“Where’s Laura Lee?”

Ben froze. Where was Laura Lee? He hadn’t seen her at all after the shelves came down. He hadn’t even looked for her in his bid to escape, he’d… left her behind.

“Oh God!” he gasped. He grabbed his edge of the desk and dragged it back away from the door.

“What are you doing?” Misty protested.

“I’m going to help her!” Ben grunted as the table rumbled over the carpet. The girls were his responsibility, and he couldn’t leave her out there with Mira on the loose. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if something happened to her.

Misty held a hand out in front of the door.

“Is your leg okay?”

The leg in question was throbbing.

“I’m fine! You don’t have to come, just close the door behind me.”

It was Travis’ turn to protest.

“You can’t go out there alone, she just beat the shit out of you!”

Ben glared at him, but unfortunately couldn’t refute it, so he did what Bill called ‘pulling the adult card.’

“Look, this is not a debate! Just watch the door in case she comes back before me!” He pulled the door open for emphasis, and to get it done before he talked himself out of it. He stepped back out into the room, and it clicked shut behind him again. He stepped out cautiously, and something crunched beneath his feet. He looked down to find the computer monitor from Gretchen’s desk lying shattered on the ground, with a great gaping hole in the screen and what looked like chunks of blonde hair tangled up inside. The pieces of glass and plastic and ripped wiring lay scattered on the ground where Mira had been holding him down.

The girl screamed again. His eyes snapped to its source at the back of the room. It came from another section of shelves, this one still standing. He couldn’t see anyone through it, so he cut across the open middle of the room. He glanced back the other way, down the aisle of fallen shelves, and saw Gretchen’s body sprawled across them, violently seizing, just like Bill had done before he murdered Mike Ridley, two boys, and tore through another dozen faculty that tried to stop him. He’d fled from the nightmarish scene, only to end up here. Behind him, the girl screamed again.

“No! Please! Leave me alone!”

“No!” Mira shouted back. “Come back!”

He turned back towards her as she shot out of the aisle. Her long, dark curly hair lifted off her back from the speed, and her dark skin glistened with sweat from the pursuit. That was not Laura Lee. But he did recognize her. Olivia Logan, a junior and a friend of Nat’s. They both shared a penchant for skipping gym class to smoke weed, or so he’d heard. She met his eyes as she crossed the room, screamed, “Help!” and altered her course towards him. Mira raced out of the aisles behind her.

“Get to the office!” he called out, waving her over.

Mira arced around the tables after her. Now that she was closer, he could see new cuts and shards of glass sticking out across her face. He started retreating to the door, and as he did, he screamed to the room at large: “Laura Lee!”

Olivia was a few steps away. He reached out for her as she ran by. “Did you see Laura Lee?”

She yelped and jumped away from him, offering no answer. She finished her beeline for the door, and he turned to face down the rabid and bloody nurse. Her throat was torn to pieces with blood still leaking out, and her arms, legs, and now face were likewise minced and bleeding from various encounters with glass. Not to mention that she seemed to have shrugged off having her head smashed through a computer monitor. His pulse hammered in his ears and his legs felt like jelly, but he darted off in the opposite direction of the office. Her eyes stayed locked on him. He turned and ran, weaving between the tables, and she followed.

“Laura Lee!” he screamed again, but there was no answer.

“Hey!” Mira snapped like she was scolding him. “Stop running!”

“What the fuck are you doing!” he yelled back. “Stop chasing us!”

“Help me!” she insisted, dancing around the tables after him.

“With what?” he asked as he ducked into the aisles she and Olivia had just emerged from.

“I’m hurt!” she cried after him. “I need help!”

“You killed Gretchen!”

“You killed Gretchen!” she shouted back, darting into the aisle behind him. They bobbed and weaved through the rows of now librarian-less books. He couldn’t get away fast enough. He came out at the end of a long row and broke out across the center of the room again, heading straight for the office.

“Laura Lee!” he screamed again.

“Laura Lee!” Mira echoed.

There was still no answer. He knew she was in here somewhere, but maybe she had found a better place to hide while they distracted the nurse.

He cleared the room and broke his speed, grabbing the door and pushing it open. It stopped halfway as someone pushed back.

“Stop! It’s me!” he cried out. The weight vanished and the door swung open. He stumbled inside past Travis, who was apologizing for trying to lock him out. He spun around to push it shut behind him, and slammed it right on Mira’s arm. It was through the opening up past the elbow, jamming the door open. Her hand whipped around, wildly grabbing for him. He leaned on the door with all his weight. He could feel it digging into her arm.

“Stop!” she cried. “Let me in! Please!”

“Guys!” he grunted. “Help me!” Travis threw himself against the door to his left, but it wouldn’t close, and Mira didn’t seem at all bothered by having her own limb crushed. Olivia tried swatting the outstretched hand away, but it grabbed at her again, and she yelped and jumped back out of reach.

“Let me in!” Mira begged.

Out in the library, Laura Lee screamed.

SECOND FLOOR

NEAR SIDE STAIRWELL

Tai practically leapt onto Van, running up and locking her in a bear hug. Van jumped, her hand flew up to Tai’s arms, and then she relaxed.

“You’re okay!” Tai gasped. She locked her arms around her and held on to her like a life raft in the middle of the ocean. Her arms curled around Tai and locked her in an embrace of equal desperation. Tai’s hand wandered up to the back of Van’s head, and she held cradled it gently as Van buried her face in her shoulder.

“I’m okay,” Van whispered, and Tai was unsure if it was a statement or a question. “Are you okay? That’s a lot of…”

“Oh God, I’m sorry!” She hadn’t even thought about hugging her, it was just an instinct, a need. She knew how Van felt about blood; she should’ve stopped herself. She tried to pull away, but Van was still hugging her just as tightly, so maybe it didn’t matter.

“Where were you?” Tai whispered.

“I tried to find you.” Van was shaking in her arms, or maybe they both were, it was hard to tell as this point. “But they said you left to find me.” STUPID! Tai screamed at herself. YOU IDIOT! IF YOU’D JUST STAYED PUT…

“I’m sorry.” Tai buried her head in Van’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered back, tightening her grip as if Tai would disappear if she ever let go. She didn’t mind. She’d almost lost Van twice already today, and she was in no hurry to do it again.

“We’re never splitting up again, okay?”

Van nodded furiously in agreement and tightened her arms even further. Tai breathed her in. The fading scent of her musky shampoo, the sweet smell of her sweat that Tai had grown so accustomed to in the locker room after games. Her mind jumped back to the shed. Christ, so much had happened since then that it felt like it had been hours ago, but it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. At least, not for them…

“Children!” Mrs. Lyle yelled from down the stairs. A cold shiver shot down Tai’s spine and she shuddered against Van’s arms. Down the stairs on the landing, Mrs. Lyle was pushing herself to her feet as if nothing happened. “No running!” She stepped forward on her bad knee and started climbing up the stairs.

“Back, back, back!” Lottie urged.

“Shit!” Van shouted, releasing Tai.

They backed away as the teacher approached the landing.

“Help me!” she shouted.

“What’s wrong with her?” Van asked, trying to sound casual and failing.

“She’s sick!” Tai answered. “She’s like the others outside. They’re cannibals now or something.”

“Or something?”

“I don’t know! I’ve been a little busy!”

“Okay, okay, okay…plan?”

Tai looked around the floor, reached down by her feet and closed her fingers around the screwdriver again.

“You hold, I stab,” she growled.

“What?” Van barked.

“Lottie lost her scissors!” They weren’t bouncing around on top of Mrs. Lyle’s head anymore. The fall must have shaken them loose.

“Van, go right!” Lottie ordered as Mrs. Lyle cleared the last step and rushed them. Lottie and Van swung around Tai: Lottie on the left and Van on the right. They caught her by the arms and halted her charge. She thrashed back and forth against their grips, but they held firm, pushing her back into the stairwell and shoving her up against the railing.

“HELP ME!” she snapped at the girls.

“NOW TAISSA!” Lottie bellowed over her.

Tai ran forward with the screwdriver raised in her right hand. She grabbed Mrs. Lyle’s grey, wirey hair with her left, the same way Lottie had done. It was slick with blood and horribly tangled, but Tai dug her fingers in to try and hold her head still. Teeth snapped in her face as wild and hungry eyes sized her up like she was meat on a platter. She hadn’t hesitated with David, and she couldn’t hesitate now. She tightened her hold on the handle one last time and drove the end of the tool right in between Mrs. Lyle’s eyes. The impact shuddered up her hand and into her arm. There it was again; splintering bone.

More blood started weeping out of the new hole and over the woman’s face. She sputtered through the blood and lunged at Tai’s face again. She yelped and jumped back, the screwdriver slipping from her hand. She’d buried it in the teacher’s skull, and it sat there just like Lottie’s scissors, protruding out of her face like a DIY cannibalistic narwhal.

It didn’t work. It hadn’t gone deep enough. Mrs. Lyle raged against Lottie and Van’s holds.

“Children! Stop that! No holding on the monkey bars!”

“Oh fuck!” Van yelled. “What do we do?”

Tai’s mind raced. Lottie’s scissors were somewhere down the stairs, and her only weapon was already embedded in the person she needed to stab. They needed time, they needed more weapons, and they had neither. All they had were their hands and their…surroundings.

“She’s slipping!” Lottie yelled.

Then let’s set her free.

Tai dove forward under the gnashing teeth and grabbed Mrs. Lyle’s legs.

“Lift!” she ordered. A second later the woman rose off the ground. All three of them grunted with the effort of hauling the feral woman up and onto the railing. Lottie and Van couldn’t get her all the way over on their own, but Tai hoisted the legs up and flung them up over her head. The woman tumbled back over the railing and plummeted down the stairwell. Van looked away. Tai and Lottie didn’t. She smacked into the first floor about five seconds later, landing flat on her back. The sound of bones breaking echoed crisply around the brick walls, followed immediately by Mari screaming.

Tai craned her neck but couldn’t see her.

“Mari!” Lottie yelled down. “Are you okay?”

The girl kept screaming in answer. Lottie looked worriedly at the two of them, and then bolted down the stairs.

Tai squeezed Van’s shoulder and ran after Lottie.

Van cursed and followed Tai, and together they spiraled down towards the screaming and whatever horror awaited them next.

SECOND FLOOR

FAR SIDE

Akilah and Gen shot down the hall, quickly outpacing Tracy and the others in tow behind them. One of their warmups before games was sprinting from one marker to another, about ten feet away, then stopping and turning back to do it again. They were called suicide sprints, and this felt a little like that, just with, you know, a little more screaming and death.

They reached the end of the hall and turned the corner, then raced down the next. All the doors they passed were closed, as if classes were all in session right now. Once the screams were far enough behind them, they slowed to a jog and then stopped. Some of the kids in the trailing group ran past them, maybe heading for the stairs. A few others stopped with them, rounding their group out to Tracy, another girl, Angela, and two boys whose names she didn’t know.

Gen raked her fingers through her hair and said plainly the thing that was buzzing through all their heads at the moment.

“What the fuck! What the fuck!”

Akilah leaned against the wall, panting and shaking her head.

“I don’t know.”

“Why would he do that!” sobbed Tracy.

“What do we do?” cried one of the boys.

“We need to get help!” Angela suggested. “We need to find a teacher!”

“Teachers just attacked us!” Gen shot back. “Mr. Monroe attacked Akilah and Mrs. Conway attacked Tracy!”

“Hey! Let us in! Please!”

The shouts startled them all. There was another small group of students banging on a door down the hall.

“Are you guys okay?” Angela yelled.

“Have you seen this shit?” one of the boys shouted back.

More screams warbled down through the ceiling, probably from the room right over their heads.

“It’s coming from everywhere,” Akilah whispered.

“Oh God. Oh fuck!” Gen cried.

“We need to find somewhere to hide,” the second boy said.

“Where?” Akilah asked.

Down the hall, the boy screamed, “Come on guys! Let us in!” again. The door opened and he and his group rushed inside, then it slammed shut behind them again.

“Someone will let us in!” Tracy said optimistically. “My friend Kiara has homeroom near here, she’ll let us in!”

“What if they don’t?” Gen said.

“We could hide in the bathroom,” Akilah suggested.

“Those doors don’t lock,” Tracy shot back.

“What if the classrooms aren’t safe? We let them into our room and then they attacked us. Our door was locked, but they still got in.”

Angela whirled on them. “Wait, what?”

Someone started pounding on a door on the third floor above them.

“What do you mean, what?” Gen said. “What happened to you guys?”

“Cassie started having a seizure, just right there in the middle of the room. Then she passed out and we thought she was dead for a minute, but then she woke up and attacked us. Then we saw that shit out in the hall!”

Another round of shouting echoed down the hall, and a few moments later another crowd appeared, running full tilt towards them. Akilah tensed immediately. She doubted they were running from the same hall they’d just escaped from because they were coming from the opposite end of the school, but each passing minute was hammering home the terrifying understanding that whatever was happening was widespread. She was starting to understand why Taissa and Van had been so terrified in the locker room earlier. Allie was already dead, Tai said so herself. She hadn’t wanted to believe it. In the moment, the words hadn’t felt real. But reality was hitting them all hard and fast now, and she was starting to wonder if anywhere was safe.

The crowd of other students reached them. Akilah was barely paying attention, so she didn’t see the girl who yelled, “Guys!” or notice that she was talking to them until Gen gasped.

“Melissa?”

“Wait up a minute, guys!” Melissa barked.

Akilah’s eyes snapped back into focus, and she quickly found the JV goalie’s blonde hair pushing through the crowd, which was slowing to a stop. Twenty students stood around them, all breathing heavily and looking around with the same wild eyes she was sure they saw on her. She noticed that Melissa wasn’t the only teammate in the mix either; Rachel was shouldering her way through the crowd too.

“Guys! What’s going on?” Akilah asked.

“It’s fucked dude!” Melissa yelled. “There’s kids fucking eating each other!”

“Are you guys coming?” one of the other girls in the group asked.

“What?” Gen asked.

“Just hang on!” Melissa barked. Then, back to Gen, “We’re getting out of here! Come with us!”

“Where are you gonna go?” Akilah asked.

“Who fucking cares! I just saw Kyle Beasley bite Jimmy Henderson’s nose off!”

This prompted a chorus of gasps from Akilah’s party.

“Come on Akilah. We should leave!” Gen urged. Akilah thought for a moment, fighting through the fog of panic to string more than two thoughts together. Her instincts were screaming at her to run, but the school had been in lockdown for almost a week. They couldn’t leave. That’s why the breakout earlier had been such a big deal.

“Aren’t the doors locked?”

Melissa grinned and raised her hand triumphantly. A golden key ring dangled in the air between them; she jingled it for effect, the many keys clinking together softly like little windchimes.

“Swiped these from the teacher’s desk on our way out,” she said proudly.

“There’s like thirty keys on there!” Akilah protested. “Do you even know which one it is?”

“Who cares! We’ll try them until one works!”

Another scream echoed down the hall. Akilah gently rubbed her shoulder, still throbbing from Mr. Monroe’s attempt to bite her. She didn’t feel keen on sticking around to give him, or anyone else, another try.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” she agreed, nodding more to herself than to Melissa. “Fuck it, let’s go.”

“Okay! Let’s go!” Melissa yelled, and the crowd surged down the hall again at her command.

They picked up a few more kids on their way down the stairs. They were coming down from the third floor, with more shouting echoing down behind them, and more screaming greeted them when they spilled out onto the first floor. It was coming sporadically from the left and constantly from the right, though they were fainter in that direction, likely further away.

“Oh my God,” Akilah whispered.

Melissa shook her head violently.

“Oh, we are so fucking outta here.”

They followed her down the hall to the right, despite Akilah’s panicked thoughts screaming at her to go away from the screaming. But they stopped when they reached the exit door, the screams still a ways off down the hall. Melissa went right to work, trying the first key, which didn’t fit. She tried the next one. And the next. And the next.

A door slammed somewhere else on the first floor. More screams.

“Fuck!” she muttered as she flipped to the sixth key.

“Are you sure it’s even on there?” Gen whispered.

“It has to be, there’s like, a million of them! Why wouldn’t it be here?”

Another round of shouting echoed down the hall behind them. A few moments later, another group barreled around the corner.

“Guys! Over here!” shouted one of the boys in their entourage.

Melissa flipped to her eleventh key, then cursed again.

“Come on, hurry up!” Rachel hissed.

“I’m trying!” Melissa snapped.

“Try that one,” Akilah said, pointing to a key that was slightly longer than the rest.

“Okay, okay,” Melissa said shakily. She lifted it to the keyhole, and then—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three staccato raps of knuckle against metal. They all yelped in surprise and jumped half a step back.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Hey! Is anyone in there! Let us in! Please!”

Melissa froze; the keys chattered nervously in her shaking hands. They all stared at the green metal slab that separated them from both freedom and strangers.

“Um…” Melissa said, looking uneasily at the rest of them. Akilah didn’t know if she was looking for instruction or something else, but before she could say anything, another bout of shouting echoed up the hall behind them. It sounded like another big group of kids.

“We can hear you!” the stranger outside shouted, a man, by the sounds of it. “Let us in! For God’s sake! We tried all the doors!”

“Fuck it,” Gen muttered before yelling, “No, it’s not safe in here! We’re coming out!”

“Fine! Just let us in!”

Behind them, someone yelled, “Guys! Over here! We’re leaving!”

“What are you waiting for?” Rachel pleaded. “Open it!”

Melissa swallowed nervously and stepped forward, slowly raising the key to the lock. Then everyone started screaming.

“Stop!”

“He’s biting me!”

“Get off me man!”

Akilah bowled forward and slammed into the wall as someone crashed into her from behind. She tried to get her hands up to cushion her, but it happened too fast. She gasped at the impact on both sides as the other girl sandwiched her. Pain bloomed in her cheek and arms where the rough brick and mortar scraped her skin away. All around her, the crowd was contracting. She rolled to the side to get out from under the press. The other girl didn’t apologize. There was no time. Like a mosh pit at a concert, bodies pressed in from all sides. She heard the keys clatter to the ground, followed by Melissa shouting, “Fuck!”

Akilah pushed back against the other bodies, looking around wildly to figure out what the hell was going on. She couldn’t see Gen, Melissa or Rachel anymore.

She shouted, “Let me out!” to an indifferent audience. Her voice drowned in the chorus of mass hysteria. Someone else slammed into her from behind, and she stumbled forward half a step into the boy in front of her. She shoved his shoulder and stepped between him the boy next to him. A gap opened to her left and she rushed forward. There was no clear path out, but she figured if she kept pushing out then she’d reach the edge eventually. She stepped into the momentary clearing, and then the crowd surged again, everyone tumbling into one another like dominos. Another girl slammed into her side and sent her sprawling down to the floor. She cried out as the second impact sent fresh waves of pain radiating around her torso. She scrambled to her feet, got halfway up on her hands and knees, and then someone tripped over her and came crashing down, flattening her into the ground. The air blew out of her lungs as the full weight of another body crushed her into the cold linoleum below.

Her hand erupted in agonizing fire as someone stepped on it with full force. Someone else stepped squarely on her calf, and then she caught a foot to the face. Nobody was looking where they were stepping anymore. She was caught in the mass panic of a crush. Another kick landed squarely in her ribcage.

Akilah screamed as they trampled her alive.

LIBRARY

FIRST FLOOR

Laura Lee lay perfectly still beneath the corpse of the librarian as the nurse tucked into her. The shower of blood upon her seemed relentless at first, and soon she was covered in the warm, viscous liquid. It streaked over the books and fell all around her, soaking into her hair, her clothes, and the carpet around her. She tried to focus on keeping her lips shut so she didn’t swallow the stuff, but the bitter metallic taste was seeping in anyway.

The fallen books that concealed her were also pressing her down into the floor, and her whole body throbbed with the aftershocks of the fall and the persistent weight. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. But she couldn’t make a sound; above her, Ms. Grant smacked her lips and moaned in satisfaction, like she was tasting brownie batter and finding it perfectly sweet. So she did the only thing she could and lay perfectly still, listening to the wet sounds of ripping flesh, and as she did, she found her mind wandering back to an Easter service a few years ago.

It was a special memory to her, not because of the holiday, but because Shauna had accompanied her. It was midway through their sophomore year, and Shauna had been coming to her with all sorts of questions about the Bible, its history, church services and more. She’d been more than happy to answer all of them, thrilled that someone was engaging seriously with her faith. She knew the other girls didn’t understand or care, and she did her best to feel secure in her faith, and for the most part, she succeeded. But sometimes it was tiring, so for someone to show a genuine interest had been very exciting indeed.

She didn’t know why Shauna had started showing interest, or why, after a few months of questioning Laura Lee and accompanying her to several Sunday worships, she had lost it. But she thought back on those days fondly, and did her best not to feel the sadness that they had ended so keenly.   

Ms. Grant grunted over her head, followed by more ripping.

She shuddered and closed her eyes. She reminded herself that communion of the flesh was a blessed act, and she repeated the passage to herself.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Matthew 26:26-28

She remembered Shauna snarking about the communion prayer, and it brought a momentary smile to her face.

After a time, the pitter patter of red rain slowed like a dying heartbeat. She couldn’t say how long; she was counting breaths, not minutes.

There was a crash in the distance, followed by a chorus of muffled thuds of more books falling asunder. Maybe another shelf had fallen over.

Suddenly the shelf providing her canopy shook overhead. Several books shifted and fell further around her as Ms. Grant scrambled above her head. Laura Lee whimpered and closed her eyes, praying that she wasn’t digging for her now. The wooden frame creaked under the shifting weight. A distant and shrill voice that probably belonged to Misty yelled, “Run!”

And then Ms. Grant was gone. The others were shouting at each other, and by the sounds of it being chased. This was her chance.

She mustered what strength she could in her shaking arms and pushed herself up. The carpet was warm and sticky and squelched beneath her palms. The books slid off her back as she rose, and then the top of her head exploded in pain. She gasped as it spread its millions of fingers around her scalp. So that was as far as she could go without hitting the bookshelf, got it.

She bent back down and craned her head around; the empty bookshelves formed prison bars over her head, too narrow for her to fit through. Ms. Doyle’s body was behind her, lying limply above her legs.

A door slammed, and then fists fell upon it furiously.

“Let me in!” Ms. Grant begged. “Please!”

BANG!

“Please!”

BANG!

“Please!”

Unable to climb, Laura Lee wiggled forward, pulling herself over paperbacks and hardcovers, works of fiction that would never come close to the horror she had unleashed upon herself and the rest of the school.

They completely blocked her path like a rockslide on a mountain road. She dug at it, pulling and pushing them to the side with a roughness and disregard that would have driven the librarian mad, had she still been alive to feel anything. She had just about cleared herself an opening when something began dripping on her legs again, followed quickly by the pitter patter of droplets falling anew.

She craned her neck to look behind her, and saw fresh streams of crimson streaking down from above. She turned back and kept crawling; she was nearly halfway there.

The shelves creaked overhead, and someone moaned nearby. Maybe someone else was trapped too. She would look for them as soon as she was free.

Out in the library, someone screamed. Then the shelves started shaking overhead. She looked back again. The dead librarian was convulsing like the hand of God was reaching down and rattling her like a ragdoll, just like Coach Martinez.

Her heart sped up by about ten beats per second at the thought of being trapped beneath her when she woke, and she started crawling again with renewed vigor and desperation. The books dug into her skin as she pulled herself over them, trying not to make any sound lest the librarian hear.

“Laura Lee!” Ben shouted from somewhere far away.

“Laura Lee!” Ms. Grant echoed.

She wanted to call out for help, but she was almost free. Only a quarter of the row was left.

Ben shouted, “Stop! It’s me!” and the shelves buckled over her head. She pulled herself forward again, and then she felt the pressure and warmth of droplets falling on her back, accompanied by frantic breathing. She looked up, and Ms. Doyle looked back. She was lying face down on the shelf about two feet above her head, showering her in blood from the holes in her neck, shoulder, and chest. She was panting, recovering from the seizure. Laura Lee froze. The woman’s eyes were shrunk to pinpricks, and they were locked right on her.

She whispered, “Help me!”

Laura Lee screamed.

An arm shot down and started clawing at her. She screamed again and cringed away, but she had nowhere to go. Fingers grabbed onto her blouse and she slapped them away, but they came right back down. She grabbed a book and swatted the air above her head. Ms. Doyle snatched the tome right out of her hand and tossed it over her shoulder, then reached back down. Laura Lee kept crawling, desperately reaching for the opening.

Something moved on the other side of the room. Legs flashed across her field of vision, and a few seconds later she heard metal jingling over the librarian’s shoulder.

“Help!” she screamed. “Someone help me!”

“I’m getting help!” Misty answered. Ms. Doyle grabbed her blouse again, yanking her back.

“No! Help me, Misty! Please!”

“Help me!” the librarian agreed, scrambling to dig Laura Lee out like a dog after a bone.

She pried her fervent fingers off again and twisted away, trying to drag herself those last few precious feet.

“I need more time! I don’t know which key it is!”

“MISTY PLEASE!” She ducked away from another swipe, and another, and another. She reached for another book to shield herself with, and then she felt a fist ball up in hair. Her head snapped back, slamming into the shelf above her head.

She managed one last wretched cry before her vision shattered into lightning as fiery fractals of pain spiraled around the back of her skull. The world swam before her in a chaotic kaleidoscope of dancing colors. The exit she’d been scrambling for stretched further and further away as everything spun and whirled around her. The pain was so overwhelming that she didn’t realize she was being dragged backwards.

Another hand grabbed her shoulder and lifted her off the ground. She looked up and saw a dozen Doyle's above her, all with their mouths hanging open and leaning down to take communion of her flesh. They all sparkled with stars all around them like halos as they opened wide, and prayed.

“Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed by thy name.

Our kingdom come, thy will be done,

On Earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses.

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Amen.”

“Amen,” Laura Lee whispered with the rest of the congregation. Their voices joined together and echoed around the wide open chamber.

Shauna leaned over and whispered, “Do you guys do this every week?”

She nodded excitedly. It had been years since she’d had one of her friends at church with her, not since Natalie and Van’s families had stopped coming. She knew most of the other girls thought her beliefs were silly, but it didn’t bother her. Her faith gave strength. When Shauna had approached her with questions, she’d been eager to answer, and invited her to join her family for a service sometime. To her surprise and excitement, Shauna had said yes.

“Yes! It varies between churches, some only do it once a month, but I like that we do it more because Reverend Bruce brings the yummiest bread and grape juice!”

Shauna narrowed her eyes.

“So you eat bread, but you say it’s Jesus’ body?”

Laura Lee nodded. “And the grape juice is His blood. But the adults get wine.” She leaned and whispered conspiratorially, “I’m not supposed to drink it, but I grabbed one by accident once and it was nasty.”

“So you guys are basically just vampires,” Shauna said wryly.

“I guess so?”

Shauna made a face and nodded, and Laura Lee’s heart dropped. She was losing her.

“It’s not freaky or anything,” she stammered. “It’s a metaphor. He gave up his body for our sins, so we—”

Shauna chuckled.

“No I get it. It’s freaky but it’s interesting. I like it.”

Laura Lee’s heart soared.

“Do you want to come up and try it? I know you said you just wanted to watch, but there’s no harm in trying.”

Shauna shrugged.

“What the hell, sure.” She looked over at Laura Lee with a conspiratorial smile. “I’ve heard the bread is pretty good.” She caught herself a moment later and sputtered, “Oh shit, sorry, I’m not supposed to swear in church, am I?”

Laura Lee was too busy blushing at the comment to care.

“We try our best,” she stammered. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Let’s go!” She nudged the other girl up and they followed her parents out into the aisle. The congregation formed two lines on either side of the sanctuary.

“How long does this usually take?” Shauna asked, out of curiosity, not impatience.

“Not long,” she answered. “A few minutes, tops.”

The line shuffled forward. Slurping echoed around the chamber. Laura Lee licked her lips. This was her favorite part of every service.

Her mother was next in line. She bowed as Reverend Bruce greeted her with the chalice.

“This is the blood of Christ, given for you. Drink it, in remembrance of me.”

“Me?” Shauna whispered behind her. “Is he God, now?”

“He’s just relaying His words,” Laura Lee whispered back. “The Lord speaks through him.”

Her mother took the cup and drank. When she was eighteen, Laura Lee would finally be allowed to drink the wine too, though she hoped it tasted better by then or she might stick with the grape juice.

Her mother lowered the wine from her lips and handed it back to the Reverend.

Then she said, “This is the body of Christ, given for you. Eat it, in remembrance of me.”

Reverend Bruce nodded and curled his lips back. His teeth retracted up into his gums, and he leaned in to bite into her neck with the two rows of razor-sharp fangs that slid down into their place.

Shauna whispered, “Woah, I thought you said the vampire shit was a metaphor!”

Laura Lee froze. Shauna bumped into her.

“What?” the other girl asked. Laura Lee watched the Reverend drink from her mother’s neck. When he pulled back, the blood dripped from his fangs. Her mother collapsed on the stairs.

Her father stepped forward, unconcerned, and by the time the Reverend finished eating him, her mother had risen again and joined in the feast. After he collapsed, they turned to her.

She took a shuddering breath, stepped forward, and hesitated.

“What is it?” Shauna asked.

“I—I don’t—”

“Go on!” Shauna urged. “You’re next!”

“Step forward, Laura Lee,” Reverend Bruce said gently. Her mother held out her hand.

“Come on sweetie. Join us.”

Her heart was picking up speed. This wasn’t right. None of this was right.

“I—I’m okay today. My tummy hurts.”

She backed up into Shauna.

“Hey!” she protested. “What’s wrong?”
“This is wrong,” Laura Lee whispered, her voice quivering.

The other girl curled her fingers around her waist and whispered into her ear.

“I thought you said it was yummy.”

“I thought—that’s not—”

Shauna huffed in frustration.

“Then move, I want to try.”

She stepped forward and bowed.

Reverend Bruce nodded solemnly and handed her the cup.

“This is the blood of Christ, given for you. Drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Shauna lifted the chalice to her lips and drank. Laura Lee’s heart thundered in her ears. Shauna lowered the cup and handed it back, then turned back to Laura Lee.

“Hey I think they gave me the wine by mista—” Her parents descended on her with fangs of their own and bit into her shoulder. Their slurps echoed around those hallowed halls; stained glass murals of Jesus looked down upon them in satisfaction as they honored his words.

Shauna collapsed, shuddered, and rose.

“Well come on!” she barked impatiently, like nothing had happened. “Don’t you do this every week?”

She did not actually remember doing this every week. But she must have, right? It would be okay. Her parents were here, and they would never let anything bad happen to her. She closed her eyes and asked for His strength to be brave, and he answered her with a gentle shove in the back. She stepped up to the dais and accepted the chalice from the Reverend.

“This is the blood of Christ, given for you. Drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Laura Lee drank, and the sweetness of the grape juice gave way to the bitterness of blood. She gagged and coughed and spat it out, dropping the chalice. It clattered to the ground and echoed off the walls, spilling the rest of the contents over her feet.

The Reverend lunged forward and grabbed her.

“It’s okay,” he murmured calmly. “It’s okay, Laura Lee.”

She froze, trembling.

“It’s okay darling,” her mother said soothingly. “Just say the words.”

She swallowed nervously, and her voice quivered when she spoke.

“Th—this is the b—body of Christ, given for you. Eat it, in—n remembrance of me.”

Shauna stepped forward, her fangs glittering in the morning sun, and sank them into her in the neck. A hundred needles of pain shivered into her skin, and her neck flamed in pain as Shauna sucked the blood from her veins, moaning in her ear while she drank.

“Mmmmm, that is yummy!”

Laura Lee fell away from her and collapsed on the stairs. Her head bounced off the top step and her vision shattered into lightning as fiery fractals of pain spiraled around the back of her skull. The world swam before her in a chaotic kaleidoscope of dancing colors.

She heard the organist striking chords, and the congregation distantly sang the opening words to Holy Holy Holy.

A hand grabbed her shoulder and lifted her off the ground. She looked up and saw her parents, Reverend Bruce, and Shauna, grinning and licking her lips. They descended on her with open mouths to take communion of her flesh. They sparkled with stars all around them like halos as they opened wide.

Lightning flashed again, cracking across the glimmering maw of the cosmos with a thunderous crash, and then she was falling. The books greeted her eagerly with jutting corners and edges stabbing up into her back. She stared up at the empty space above her. Everyone was gone: her parents, Reverend Bruce, Shauna, and Ms. Doyle. Then another face appeared overhead, and the bars of her prison lifted. She stared up at the sky in dazed amazement.

“Come on! This is really heavy!” Misty grunted.

“What?”

“Get up! Come on!”

She remembered that she had been crawling, but now there was enough space for her to push up onto her hands and knees. So did she did as Misty said and dutifully shuffled out. The shelf crashed down behind her, and then Misty was grabbing her arm.

“Get up,” Misty said. “Laura Lee get up right now!”

“Wh–what?” About half the stars were gone, but the world beyond them was spinning far too much for her to stand. Misty tugged her arm again.

“Come on!” she pleaded.

Laura Lee rose to her feet, then tipped over as the floor wobbled beneath her. Misty cursed and caught her, pushing her upright again.

Someone groaned behind them, and Misty yelled, “Run!” She grabbed Laura Lee’s hand and dragged her stumbling behind.

She didn’t know where they were going until Misty stopped and whispered, “Get down!” Stacks of books surrounded them once more, hundreds of tomes bending and swirling with the current of the room. Her legs felt like jelly, and she collapsed beneath them again. Her head was throbbing. She touched the back of it gingerly and groaned in pain. Misty clapped her hand over her mouth and hissed, “Sssshhhhh!”

“Hey!” she mumbled weakly into the other girl’s palm. Misty shook her head and held a finger to her lips, at which point Laura Lee realized there were actually six Misty’s.

Somewhere far away, Ms. Doyle called out, “Hello? Can anyone help me?” It sounded like she was hearing a conversation from underwater.

From somewhere else, just as far away, Ms. Grant was yelling “Let me in!”

Closer to her, all the Misty’s whispered, “We need to split up. One of us needs to unlock the door while the other keeps them distracted so we can go get help, okay? Tell me you understand.”

“Unlock the…door?” she asked absently.

Misty nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, unlock the door! Can you do that?”

Laura Lee wasn’t sure which of the six Misty’s were asking, so she just nodded to all of them.

They said, “Okay, that’s good. You go that way.”

“Okay,” Laura Lee nodded, almost positive she understood the Many Misty's command.

They all nodded their appreciation to her and then disappeared down the stacks together. They should all split up, she thought. No, that’s silly, that would be too many Misty’s. But now she was lonely. Couldn’t at least one of them have come with her? She turned and snuck very sneakily down the opposite way. Her hands and feet were very quiet on the carpet, though it was getting tricky to stay in a straight line with it wiggling beneath her palms. Nevertheless, she crawled on to the end of the row, and then she paused, trying to remember what exactly the Misty’s had said.

Ms. Doyle called out, “Hello?”

She froze. Nobody was supposed to be shouting, this was the library! Then again, Ms. Doyle was the librarian, so maybe she was allowed to break her own rule. Wait, no, they weren’t at school, they were at church! There was no shouting in church either! What had Shauna been saying about the wine? No, she drank the wine, no, the grape juice. Oh, it had tasted so nasty, a heartbreaking betrayal.

Footsteps padded closer to her beyond the stacks. No, she wasn’t in church anymore, she was in the library.

“Where did you go?”

Laura Lee didn’t answer; she was hiding. Why was she hiding? Her head throbbed. Ms. Doyle had hurt her. She was bad now. Laura Lee remained very, very still. The librarian’s steps fell closer and closer and closer until she was standing right on the other side of the shelf. Laura Lee tried not to fall over as the room tipped over to the side, because that would probably make a sound. Miraculously, none of the books fell overhead as the shelves bent down around her.

Somewhere else in the room, she heard sleigh bells jingling. It was a bit early for Christmas, she thought, but maybe Santa was coming early for her.

Misty yelled, “Oh shiitake mushrooms!” and then the bells clattered together like they’d been dropped. Ms. Doyle’s heavy footsteps raced off across the room.

Laura Lee peeked out over the lowest row of books on the shelf. The librarian disappeared around the corner, probably chasing one of the Misty’s, but she’d be okay. There were six of them, after all! But they’d forgotten something on the ground, shimmering under the light. Why did she drop them? Didn’t she want to open the door? To get…help?

Oh. They did need help, and since Misty was busy and hadn’t send a replacement, it seemed she would have to go. She pushed herself unsteadily to her feet, holding on to the shelf for support. The room wasn’t spinning now, so much as swaying. She staggered out into the room, aiming resolutely for the door. Her eyes wandered at a commotion across the room, where she saw Misty ducking under a table, and Ms. Doyle crawling after her. Her heart started racing as she remembered why exactly they needed help. The dream of the church was fading fast, and as the room slowly steadied around her, so too did reality come crashing back in. She lurched forward and hurried the rest of the way to the door. She grabbed the keys and raised them to the lock despite her violently shaking hands.

She had no idea which key of the twenty would work, so she just shoved one into the lock. It didn’t fit.

She tried the next one, and it didn’t fit either. Neither did the next one, or the next, or the next one, or the next one. There was another crash behind her. The next key didn’t work, and neither did the next one, or the next one, or GOD HOW MANY FUCKING KEYS ARE ON THIS THING!

She would atone for cursing later, but she thought maybe she’d earned this one. The next key didn’t work. I’m sorry for using Your name in vain. The next key didn’t work. The next key worked. She pulled it back and flipped to the…wait, that key had worked! She fumbled back to it and jammed it in, her hands shaking so badly she almost dropped the entire keyring. It slid into place and she twisted it around and she heard that click, the most beautiful sound in the whole world. She heard another crash behind her and risked a glance over her shoulder to see Misty swinging another chair at Doyle.

“I’m getting help!” she shouted. She didn’t wait for Misty to answer. It didn’t really matter. There was only one thing she could do for her now. She ran out into the hall, her steps triumphantly echoing off the walls, and ran right into a bloody monster.

Chapter Text

Mari was no stranger to death.

She saw her first dead body when she was twelve. She was watching TV with little Bruninha, keeping her company for a few hours after school. It wasn’t the first time she’d done this; Bru had been pretty sick for a while, but Mari knew that enough time in the hospital would make her better. She liked this time they spent together; it was basically babysitting. She had been there for about an hour when Bru’s heart monitor flatlined and the alarms started screaming SHE’S DYING! SHE’S DYING! SHE’S DYING! She ran into the hall and screamed for help, her heart pounding as the nurses and doctors raced in, fussing over her baby cousin while she stood there in shock. She didn’t know what to do, so she just watched and focused on what she could see:
A body, lying still on the bed, devoid of any of the little signs of life she’d always taken for granted. Bru’s chest didn’t rise or fall, and her eyes were unnaturally still behind her eyelids. It almost looked like she was asleep, but Mari knew she wasn’t. She wasn’t there anymore. She was just gone. Mari watched this unfold with a dark pit growing in her stomach. The more she watched, the more it felt like the walls of the room were pressing in around them, whispering darkly and reaching out to take Bru away. She didn’t know what was there with them, but she could feel it prickling across her skin as it moved. She stood very, very still, so that maybe it wouldn’t notice and take her away too.

One of the nurses finally took notice of the paralyzed twelve year old behind them and led her out to the waiting room, cooing about how everything was going to be okay and oh how brave she was and don’t worry about it sweetie, she was comfortable and it was peaceful. 
Death was peaceful. She struggled to wrap her mind around it. Bruninha was only four years old, and now she was gone. She went to sleep and she wouldn’t be waking up. It was peaceful. She looked at the room around her: people sat in chairs and couches, reading magazines, watching TV, or just staring absently into the air before them. Their days would continue; they’d get news, good or bad, they would get a soda from the vending machine, and eventually they would go home and eat dinner. She realized this was true for her as well, and it struck her oddly how a life had ended just a few hundred feet away, yet it changed nothing. There was no disturbance to the world at large. Everyone else in the room didn’t even know a little girl had just died. They’d never known she even existed in the first place. The room was quiet. It was peaceful.
“See? There’s nothing to be afraid of. Nothing is lost, so nothing will change.”
She froze. The voice hadn’t come from any of the couches around her; it had come from the the wall overhead. The show that had been playing in Bru’s room was now on the TV above the one of the couches. It was like it followed her out and down the hall. Her death hadn’t interrupted the episode at all. It felt like the universe was laughing at her.
She stared in disbelief at the screen. In it, the characters had all broken off their scripted paths. They’d stopped moving completely, and they were all staring right into the screen, or no… they were staring past it. They were staring at her. One of the puppets walked up to the screen and placed its hands on the other side of the glass, like a child looking into an aquarium tank, and spoke again.
“All this pain you’re feeling, all this fear, it all goes away. Everything is fleeting and brief, Mari. Pleasure and pain, sadness and joy. In the end, it all ends the same! It’s all so peaceful; all so gentle. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Behind him, the rest of the puppets cheered.
“Yes! Yes! It’s all so wonderful! We’re all so tired and we just want to rest!”
He nodded somberly.
“Are you tired yet, Mari?”
She’d never had a conversation with puppets in her TV before, so she didn’t know what to say, but she’d been awake since seven and had forgotten to eat lunch. She didn’t know if they would hear her if she spoke, so she just nodded in a daze. She was actually very, very tired.
“So many things are exhausting, but being alive is the most tiresome of all,” he continued sadly. “I wish I could tell you it gets better, but you’re a big girl now and I think it’s time for you to learn the truth. Are you ready?”
She swallowed nervously as the puppet’s eyes fixated on her quizzically. He was waiting for her to answer. 
She whispered softly, “Yes.”
He nodded solemnly, then leapt back to life, full of all his puppety pep.
“It’s coming for you! It’s coming for all of us! Even in here! All life is fleeting, and one day you’re going to die too and join little Bru in oblivion! After all, what’s a puppet to do when there’s no more hands to make us dance?”
The puppets all flew into a frenzy behind him, jumping and thrashing and screaming with manic joy. The music swelled around them, trumpets and banjo’s and drums joining into a discordant cacophony. It was mesmerizing in its awfulness. They were ecstatic; they were free. Then, all at once, they froze in place. They hung there, suspended and lifeless. In the background, she heard new voices.
“Cut!”
“What’s going on?” the puppet asked, seemingly addressing someone behind her. She turned around and looked over her shoulder, but there was just the wall.
A deep baritone voice answered from somewhere…else.
“Just got word from the network, they’re pulling the plug. That’s a wrap people, pack ‘em all up!”
“No! Wait! But we’re having so much fun!”
“Knock it off, Marcus.”
His head swiveled back to face her.
“You see, Mari? It all goes away, so enjoy it while it la—” the TV screeched with feedback and the screen dissolved into static. Her heart doubled its pace, thump thump thumping away against her chest. 
“Aw hell, not again!” one of the men across the room protested. He got up and crossed the room to the TV and shook it. The static screeched again, a high-pitched protest against his attempts to bring it back to life. It sounded like Bru’s monitor. The man whacked the side of it and just like that, the episode returned. The puppets were all back to normal, chattering away at each other and pretending their conversation with her had never happened. She didn’t know what to do; her mom was on her way, but she was coming from her office and wouldn’t be there for at least another twenty minutes. So she stayed there on the couch and finished watching the episode, and when her mom finally picked her up, she took them out for ice cream. Mari got her favorite, mint chocolate chip, and she enjoyed it so, so much because she knew that one day— 

Chapter VI: It All Goes Away

She saw her second dead body when she was fifteen. This one belonged to their dog, Marty. He was thirteen and he was so tired all the time. The last few weeks he’d been struggling to get from his bed to the door. She checked on him every night before bed, just to make sure he was only sleeping. Her parents told her it was almost time, but she already knew. She sat with him while she did her homework, and she got her parents to shift the TV in the room so she could watch with him too. She even passed on several invitations to her friend’s houses because she was worried she might miss it. They had some good hours together, and she cherished them because she knew it would be over soon. 
This went on for about a week and a half, when, she was ashamed to admit, she’d gotten bored of waiting. She felt like she’d emptied herself of everything in that time, and she was tired too. So, she resumed her normal routines, save for the homework by his side. And it turned out that she didn’t miss it. Her parents finally decided to call the vet after he’d skipped more meals than he ate that week. His death was scheduled at four o’clock on a Friday. Her parents asked if she wanted to stay home from school that day, but she said no, she’d rather go. She’d already said goodbye to him. The vet came an hour after the bus dropped her off at home, and she cried after, but then she got tired of crying, so she called Shauna and went over to her house to play video games. Just like before, it was peaceful, and life kept on going for another three years, when she saw her next dead body. 
This one belonged to another child. He was two or three years younger than her, and his guts were spilled all over his stomach. One of her teachers, Mrs. Lyle, was ripping them out with her hands and stuffing them into her mouth. Mari was no stranger to death, but she’d never seen it like this. This wasn’t peaceful, it was so awful that it didn’t even feel real! It felt like she’d stepped into another version of reality, one she’d felt whispering from the corners of that hospital room, but never enough to be noticed. It was lying in wait, taunting her during the worst moments of her life, daring her to believe it was real. Apparently that jig was up now, and it was bursting forth onto their carefully constructed world, built to keep out any reminders of how fragile it all was. 
Mrs. Lyle looked up at them with blood running down her chin.
“Children?”
Mari yelped when the woman spoke. Tai spun back around to face the hall. The teacher was looking up at them from behind the corpse, her head cocked curiously to one side. She had stopped eating. Mari’s brain went blank with panic. There wasn’t really a good way to process seeing your AP Lit teacher eating one of her students.
“Children!” she called out again, pushing herself to her feet.
“Oh my God,” Diana gasped.
“Calm down!” Mrs. Lyle cooed as she stepped over the body.
Mari started backing up, muttering, “No no no no no no no.”
“Calm down!” Mrs. Lyle assured her again.
“No, fuck this!” Mari yelled. She denied this version of reality. It couldn’t possibly be real, and it was time to get the fuck out of there.
“Mari, wait!” Tai shouted, but she was too late. Mari turned and ran back into the stairwell, racing down the steps towards the first floor. She heard yelling behind her, but she kept going. She’d get help. Tai had to be wrong, there must be someone coming to save them. Hadn’t they said something about the police on the PA?
She hit the first floor and raced out into the main hall, ignoring the giant pool of blood outside the library to her right. She turned left and ran for the lobby, unsure of her plan but knowing that someone there would know what to do. They had phones, they could call someone, they could call her parents to come and pick her up! She’d been cooped up in this stupid school for too long anyway.
She turned right when the hall ended and a few seconds later the lobby came into view and she stopped dead her tracks because now she was seeing more bodies than she’d ever seen before in her life. There were at least four, five, six, maybe more. They were all adults, she could tell that much, but some of them were hard to see because there were more people crouched over them, stuffing guts and meat into mouths, just like Mrs. Lyle. 
She was very proud of herself for suppressing her scream. She clapped her hands over her mouth and fell to a dead stop. In the silence, she could hear their lips smacking wetly. She recognized Mr. Ziegler, Mr. Lyman, Mr. Seaborn, and Ms. Cregg, as well as Mr. Ridley and Coach Martinez, who, among others, were eating them. Tai really hadn’t been lying about the rabid cannibals. 
Okay, fine. This was reality now. They were going to get sick with whatever these people had, and then they were going to eat each other holy fucking shit, she was going to die today. The scream was fighting for its freedom like a caged feral beast. It howled and clawed at the back of her throat, furiously fighting for its freedom.
It all goes away in the end, so enjoy it while it lasts!
She didn’t want to die. She wasn’t ready. And she sure as fuck didn’t want to die like that! Her vision throbbed with adrenaline and her heart worked triple time to circulate it. It was game time, two minutes on the clock of her life. It wasn’t time to think, it was time let instinct take over.
She took a shaky step back, then another, then another, and another. She slowly backed away until the lobby disappeared behind the wall, then she turned and sprinted back down the hall. She didn’t really know where she was going now, but she thought that she would find her friends and tell them that coming out here was a fucking terrible idea and they should all go hide until the cops could get here, because someone must have called them by now. 
She came up on the stairwell again and she heard Tai’s voice echoing down while she shouted something upstairs. Good, they were still there, she still had time to—the next body she saw came plummeting out of the sky and THWACKED into the ground about three feet in front of her. She watched Mrs. Lyle’s arm snap back into an impossible position beneath her. She watched her head smack into the grey tile floor with a sickening CRACK! She watched the impact reverberate throughout the woman’s body, watched as several of her ribs erupted through her back. Then she raised a broken arm towards her and cried out, “Heeeeeeeeeelp meeeeeeeeee!”
Mari gave up, opened the cage, and let out the scream.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Mrs. Lyle cried out again, a wretched, wheezing sound, like a deflating balloon.
“HEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEE!”
Mari screamed even louder, trying to drown out the sound. She scrambled away from the grisly sight until she slammed into the wall, and then something else lurched up her throat behind the screams; her breakfast. 
“Mari!”
Lottie raced around the corner and down the last flight of stairs just in time to watch her hurl half of her stomach across the floor. Tai and Van appeared behind her a moment later. Mari finished vomiting, sobbed, then screamed again. Lottie jumped in between her and the mangled woman on the floor.
“Oh, Jesus!” Van gagged.
Lottie grabbed Mari’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
Mari swatted her blood-stained hand away and screamed, “What the fuck!”
“Fuck me,” Tai gasped. Diana and two other boys appeared on the stairs a few seconds after Tai and Van, all gasping in turn.
“Heeeeeelp meeeeee!” Mrs. Lyle croaked, reaching for the other girls.
“Oh God, Tai. I can’t,” Van said, turning away and leaning into the wall to stop from mixing her breakfast with Mari’s.
“Are you okay, Mari?” Lottie asked again. 
Mari’s eyes focused on her blood-spattered teammate in disbelief.
“You almost dropped a fucking person on me! I’m not—no, fuck off, don’t touch me!” She twitched her arm away from where Lottie had tried to offer a comforting, but bloody, hand.
“Sorry,” the other girl said, pulling it back. 
“Just get back!” Mari cried. “God, you’re like, covered in blood! What the fuck is wrong with you guys!” 
“Mari—” Tai started.
“No! I don’t know what the fuck is happening, but I’m done! I’m going back upstairs and you all should too! This—” she waved at the broken pinata that had been their teacher. “Is fucked!”
She turned to storm back up the stairs, but Lottie was in the way.
“Can you move?” she snapped, twisting to avoid getting any of that blood on her shirt or, God forbid, her arm. To her credit, Lottie ducked back to give her space. Then she tripped and fell backwards right onto Mrs. Lyle.
Lottie screamed.
Mari screamed, “Oh shit!”
Tai and Van both screamed, “Lot!”
Mrs. Lyle screamed in delight.
Lottie screamed again and flailed around on top of the pulverized flesh puppet she’d created. Mrs. Lyle twisted beneath her and brought her unbroken arm around. She grabbed Lottie’s arm and tugged it down to her wide-open mouth.
Lottie let out a sound that was somewhere between a whimper and a scream. She yanked her arm back, but the woman’s grip was disturbingly strong.
Tai leapt forward and grabbed Lottie’s other arm.
“Let go!” Lottie cried. 
Tai yanked her back in the other direction.
“Sorry!”
“Not you!” Lottie grunted, giving her arm another pull. Mrs. Lyle’s hand followed it back as far as it could, and then Lottie wrenched herself free and tumbled off. Tai let go once she was off the body, and she scrambled away on her hands and knees until she was safely out of grabbing distance. 
“Fuck, Lottie, I’m sorry!” Mari gasped.
The other girl didn’t answer. She was too busy trying to wipe the new blood and other bodily slimes from her arms and chest, but her clothes were just as filthy as she was, and her efforts were fruitless. 
“God, it’s everywhere!” she sobbed as she resorted to wiping her arms with her bare hands, once again to little effect. It looked like she was painting with various shades of red and brown acrylics all over her skin. She cried out in frustration, and then her hands fell to her sides in defeat. She leaned back against the wall and brought her hands to her face. Her voice cracked when she said, “What the fuck is going on?” 
Nobody said anything, except for Mrs. Lyle, who whined for help again, heartbroken at having come so close to it. 
“How is she even still alive?” Diana asked from the stairs, gesturing at not only the broken bones and guts, but the screwdriver that was sticking out of her forehead. Mari realized she actually had a great point. Not only was Mrs. Lyle not dead, but aside from her cries for help, she seemed relatively unbothered by her fall. 
“I don’t know,” Tai answered, in disbelief herself.
“Help me!” the teacher wheezed again. She reached out for Lottie, and when she came up short, she grabbed the floor and started pulling herself forward. 
“Why don’t we just let her leave,” Diana said.
“Thank you!” Mari said, nodding in agreement. She started moving for the stairs again, but Van blocked her and held out her hands.
“No, just… wait.”
“I’m good, thanks,” Mari said blithely. She stepped forward, and Van matched her. “Um, hello?”
Van shook her head.
“It’s not safe, Mar. Just hang on a minute, all right?”
She didn’t think she could push past their goalie, so she huffed and crossed her arms in protest.
“I was perfectly fine upstairs! I didn’t get nearly crushed by a falling person until I came out here with you guys!”
“We need to stick together, Mari. Just hang on!” Tai said.
“Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp meeeeeeeeeeee,” gurgled Mrs. Lyle.
“What do you want us to do?” Lottie snapped. “Why were you eating that kid? Why did you attack us? Why—“ her voice cracked again. “Why is this happening?”
“Pleeeeeeease,” she whined. “Help meeeeeeee.”
“How!” Tai barked. Mrs. Lyle paused her sluggish crawl to look over at the other girl.
“Come here,” the teacher whispered conspiratorially. Her lips parted in a bloody smile as reached out with her good arm. “Please, come help me.” 
Tai took another step back, her face twisting in confusion and horror.
“I don’t think we can,” she said.
“No!” she protested. “Come! Come!”
“Let’s just get out of here,” Lottie said uneasily, eyeing the woman’s progression across the floor with growing concern. She was leaving a gory streak across the tile behind her. 
They all looked at each other, glances darting around the stairwell in silent conversation. Mari didn’t understand what there was to consider; did they want to stay here with Mrs. Lyle and her five protruding ribs, her improvised unicorn horn and her horrifying pleas for help? 
Lottie pushed herself up in the entryway as the woman resumed her inchworming.
“Come on, let’s go.”
“Sold,” Van said, but she lingered in Mari’s way. Her eyes moved to her once more, and her voice was heavy when she said, “Stick with us, Mar. You don’t want to be alone right now, trust me.”
“Whatever, fine, as long as we’re leaving.” 
That seemed to satisfy Van, and Taissa as well, who nodded and turned to follow Lottie out into the main hall of the first floor. Mari followed them, and Van and the others trailed behind.
“No, wait!” Mrs. Lyle cried as they skirted around her. “Children! Come back!”
They all averted their eyes. Mari heard one of the boys with Diana mutter, “Christ,” under his breath as he passed the broken woman. The stairwell was almost out of sight when Tai stopped in front of them. 
“Wait.” She turned to look at them sadly. “We can’t just leave her like that.” Her eyes drifted back over their shoulders. Mari didn’t turn around. 
“What are you gonna do?” she asked. 
“Tai, let’s just go,” Lottie said, reaching out for the other girl’s arm. Tai shook her head.
“I’m sorry, I can’t.” 
She held out her hand. “Give me your scissors.”
Lottie hesitated.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s okay. You did David. I’ve got this one.” 
David Maines. Mari knew him, or had known him before Lottie apparently, in her own words, stabbed him in the face with those same scissors. She started to imagine what that might have looked like, the scene playing out behind her eyes as her brain desperately tried to make sense of the carnage unfolding around her. She quickly realized there was no need. Not only did she know how it ended; the Lottie standing before her now had a decidedly final girl look from the end of a slasher[[ Looked more like Jaime Lee at the end of a Wes Carpenter flick]], but she was apparently about to have another opportunity to catch the matinee on The Wiskayok Face Stabbing show.
Lottie considered this for a moment, then nodded and held out the scissors.
“Tai…” Van started.
“It’s okay,” she said as she walked by. Van opened her mouth to say something else, then closed it. Mari looked at her, she looked at Mari, then shook her head and turned away. Mari did the same, having decided she’d rather not have the visual available for instant recall for the rest of her life. 
She only listened as Mrs. Lyle cried out for help one last time before Tai reached her. She listened as Tai took a deep, shuddering breath, and she listened to the sickening sounds of what came next. 
Tai cried out, or gagged, or both. 
“Let’s go,” she said shakily when she hurried past them. Mari was all for that. A door opened somewhere down the hall. Lottie turned and walked out into the hall, and the rest of them hurried after her. She rounded the corner ahead of them and walked about ten paces before another bloody monster came hurtling into view and crashed right into her.
Everyone screamed as the two tumbled to the floor, with Lottie on the bottom and another, bloodier girl—if that was even possible—on top of her. Lottie screamed. The other girl screamed. They flailed around in a tangle of limbs, with Lottie trying to scramble away and the other girl trying to…
Van shouted, “Jesus!” and charged into the fray. Lottie was just starting to untangle their legs when Van grabbed the newcomer’s arms and dragged her off.
“Get back!” Tai shouted, but Lottie was way ahead of her. Van threw the other girl to the ground and jumped back, ready for retaliation. But instead of chasing her, the other girl scrambled back across the hall.
“No no no no no no!” she begged, her bloody hands slipping several times on the linoleum floor. “Don’t eat me don’t eat me don’t eat me!” She slammed into the far wall, closed her eyes and cringed away. 
Everyone gawked. The other girl trembled, curled up against the wall. 
“Laura Lee?” Lottie asked cautiously. It was hard to see the blonde underneath all the blood, but Mari squinted and realized she was right. Buried under all the blood was her blouse, her skirt, and her face. 
“Oh no!” Van gasped. “Holy shit, I am so sorry Laura Lee! Are you okay?” 
Lottie crawled towards her and reached out. Laura Lee screamed again.
“It’s okay!” Lottie said softly. “Hey, it’s okay.”
“Please don’t eat me, please, please, please,” she whimpered.
“I’m not going to eat you, Laura Lee,” Lottie assured her. 
“What happened, Laura Lee?” Van asked, kneeling down next to her. 
There was a crash down the hall, followed by a scream. It sounded like it came from the library. Everyone’s eyes snapped up. Mari noticed a huge pool of blood in the middle of the hall in front of them, similar to the one sitting in the stairwell behind them, the outstanding difference being the presence of a body behind them, and none beside the pool in front. 
“What’s happening in there?” Tai demanded.
Laura Lee looked around at all of them with eyes that were at once pinprick wild and glassily distant, like she was looking through them and at something else beyond.
“They need help,” she said absently.
Another crash. Another scream.
“Shit, come on!” Tai yelled, starting for the door. Van jumped up after her, and after lingering to whisper something to Laura Lee, Lottie followed suit. Mari hesitated, looking between the library and her teammate on the ground.
“Are you…good?” she asked.
Laura Lee looked up at her through crimson eyelashes, then glanced warily at the library doors.
“I don’t—“ she started, but Tai shouted over her.
“Come on, guys!”
“We’re coming!” Mari snapped back. Then, to Laura Lee, “Hey, are you okay, dude?”
After a moment of consideration, Laura Lee nodded.
“I think so.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding her head more resolutely. “Go ahead, I’m coming.” 
Down the hall, the library doors clanged open again. Mari noticed one of the windows was shattered. Another scream eminanted from within.
“What’s in there?” Mari asked.
Laura Lee’s eyes focused on something in the distance again before she answered simply:
“Monsters.”
Mari’s stomach dropped, and she suddenly found herself reconsidering the whole ‘sticking together’ thing. 
“Guys!” Van shouted as Tai and Lottie rushed inside.
“Fuck!” Mari muttered. She didn’t want to go in there, she wanted to go away from all the screaming, not towards it! Away from the monsters, not towards them!
“You can say that again,” Diana said behind her. Mari turned to look at her, and the two taller boys that were with her. The boys looked as terrified as she was, but Diana seemed almost flippant about the whole thing. Mari knew she’d seen some fucked up shit before, but she still seemed so…unfazed. Maybe it was an act. It had to be how she was coping. Mari was jealous. She had tried that approach and failed miserably. Her heart was thundering away and her body was buzzing with more adrenaline than she’d ever felt in her life. She wondered what was really stopping her from running away. She wondered if they would come with her. Then she wondered why the hell she was running towards the library. The door was swinging shut, abandoned by Van, who had already raced inside. Mari caught the door and pulled it back open, noting the smashed mirror and glass crunching beneath her feet. Inside, she was met with an entirely different scene of carnage.

An entire row of bookshelves had collapsed across the room, spilling books all over the floor by the back wall. There was a mess of blood across several of the fallen shelves. And in the middle of the room was Misty Quigley, dancing around a table with the librarian, Ms. Doyle, whose neck and arms were covered in ripped and swollen flesh, leaking blood all over the floor as she chased after her.
Misty was shouting, “Stop it! Leave me alone!” 
The blonde girl’s eyes found Mari, filled with desperation, as was her voice.
“Mari! Help me!”
Mari gawked.
“How!” she shouted back.
Misty started to answer, then yelped when Ms. Doyle lunged around the corner and nearly grabbed a loop of her overalls. The tiny girl darted farther around the table.
“She won’t stop!” she yelled. She ducked another swipe from the teacher and shot off for another loop around the table. Ms. Doyle faltered, and Mari thought that maybe the problem was taking care of itself. The older woman broke off her pursuit, stopping and breathing heavily while she watched Misty complete half the circuit. She stopped across the table from her. 
Mari froze. Ms. Doyle’s back was to her now, and she didn’t know what to do. She looked over the librarian’s shoulder to Misty, but her eyes were locked on Ms. Doyle.
The two eyed each other warily for several seconds. More shouting from the back of the room scored the underlying panic of their delicate standstill. Mari stood uneasily a few tables away, trying to swallow back the feeling of her heart beating in the back of her throat. Her vision was blurry from the adrenaline, and every scream sent another pulse shivering through her entire body. It felt like the room was vibrating and the walls were closing in, but maybe it was just her. She heard the other girls yelling around the corner in the back, then she heard Coach Scott too. Then Ms. Doyle broke the peace and leaped onto the table, scrambling after Misty and leaving bloody hand prints on the wood behind her. 
Misty dove under the table and started crawling under Doyle.

“MARI!” she shrieked as she scrambled towards her. “DO SOMETHING!”
At the sound of her voice, Ms. Doyle stopped in the middle of the table, then spun around and started backtracking to her starting point, where Misty was about to pop out.
Lacking any better ideas, Mari desperately looked around for something to distract the librarian. Her eyes fell on the nearest object she could find. She grabbed it off the closest table and hurled it as hard as she could as Ms. Doyle reached a bloody hand down at the emerging Misty. Pencils flew out of the metal cup as it tumbled through the air, showering point-nine Ticonderoga’s down upon them both.
“Are you kidding me!” Misty shouted, ducking back under the table.
“I’m sorry!” Mari yelled back. 
Ms. Doyle didn’t even flinch. She was fixated on Misty, pawing under the table like a bear hunting salmon.
“Get her off me!” Misty cried as she retreated further back. “Hit her with the chair!”
“What chair?”
“ANY CHAIR!”
Ms. Doyle was now hanging upside down off the table, inching forward to extend her reach underneath. 
Mari grabbed the nearest chair and hoisted it into the air. She charged forward, gripping the legs even as hers threatened to buckle beneath her. She closed the distance, planted her feet, and swung it down onto the librarian’s back with a sickening CRACK!
Ms. Doyle grunted under the impact, then swiped up at Mari’s leg. She couldn’t react in time. Wet and clammy fingers wrapped around her ankle, first five, then ten. The older woman’s head snapped up, her mouth wide open in a grisly smile. She tugged Mari’s ankle in closer; Mari screamed and yanked it back, but her grip held firm and she lurched off the table after her. Mari screamed and brought the chair down again, this time on Ms. Doyle’s arms. They shuddered under the hit, and her fingers came loose. Mari leapt back, abandoning the chair. The librarian pushed it out of the way and scrambled to her feet. Her eyes were wide and wild. Mari backed up slowly, a sob climbing up the back of her throat. 
From under the table, Misty shouted, “Mari! Run!”

Ms. Doyle sprang forward. 
Mari shrieked, spun, and sprinted away. 
The library wasn’t a small room; half a dozen tables sat clustered in the middle, with plenty of breathing room from the rows of shelves that filled the rest of the room. On a busy day, fifty students could study comfortably. But that was predicated on the idea of everyone remaining still. It was a great library, and had done well by her countless times over the last four years, but it was a terrible gymnasium. It only took a few seconds for her to reach a corner, and only a few more to clear the next length after she turned. She ducked into the shelves and raced down the aisle, with Ms. Doyle still close behind. The librarian was hunting in her natural habitat. She wouldn’t lose her in the stacks, and she couldn’t outrun her in such an enclosed space. She cleared the row and turned again, racing for the back of the room where the others were all shouting at each other.
“We need to get out of here!” That was Coach Scott.
“No! We have to kill them!” That was Taissa.
“What? Why!”
They came into view as Mari bounded around the corner.
Tai and Van were dancing around another table with the school nurse. Coach Scott and Travis were orbiting the brawl, and there was no sign of Lottie.
“No reason!” Van grunted as she dodged another swipe from the nurse. “We just kinda feel like it!”
“They’re everywhere!” Tai said. “And they’re sick! Van, watch out!” Ms. Grant reversed course and rushed at them from the other side.
“Shit!” Van yelped, ducking under the table in sync with Tai.
“I found scissors!” Lottie said, appearing in the doorway of the librarian’s office, clutching the blade’s purple-hilt. 
“HELP!” Mari shrieked as she bolted across the room and into the fray. “She’s chasing me!”
“No shouting!” Ms. Doyle scolded, a few steps behind her. “And no running!”
“Fuck you!” 
She raced by the pursuit under the table and its onlookers and shot into another row of bookshelves. There was a loud crash behind her. Travis shouted for help. 
“Hang on!” Lottie shouted back. Travis yelled again; it sounded like he was wrestling someone. 
“Fuck! Hold her still!” Lottie yelled in frustration. “I need hands! Mari! Get back here!” 
Mari poked her head out from the aisle and saw the tangle of limbs that was Travis, Lottie, and Ms. Doyle. Lottie’s hand was raised above her head, and blood dripped from the scissor’s blades. Before Mari could look away, she slammed them back down into the librarian’s throat.
Travis was screaming. Lottie was screaming. Ms. Doyle was screaming. Behind them, everyone else was screaming too. Mari figured one more voice couldn’t hurt, so she screamed too. Lottie’s eyes jumped up at her.
“Get over here!” 
Mari didn’t move. Ms. Doyle grabbed the scissors, yanked them out of her neck, and swung them back up at Lottie. She yelped and jerked her head back, dodging the swipe, but losing her balance and falling back. With her arm now free, the librarian twisted and brought the scissors down on Travis. He gasped and batted it away, but not far enough. He cried out as she drove the blade through his shoulder. 
“AAAAHHHH!” 
Lottie scrambled forward and dove onto Ms. Doyle once again, wrestling the stabbing arm away and grabbing for the scissors. She glanced up at Mari again.
“MARI! FUCKING NOW!” Lottie boomed.
Mari jumped, snapping out of the trance the violence had placed over her, and rushed over. She didn’t understand why she was running towards the violence, but she didn’t really understand anything anymore, so what the hell.
“Hold her down!” Lottie ordered, indicating she wanted Mari to take over for her.   Ms. Doyle was writhing beneath them. Mari grabbed the librarian’s arm with both hands, and then Lottie was free to pry the scissors back out of her grip.
“Travis, I know that hurts but you can’t let go!”
“I’m trying!” he sobbed. Blood was weeping down his arm, and he was already shaking from the pain. Lottie cursed and straddled Ms. Doyle, raising the scissors in her right hand. In the moments before she brought them down again, Mari stared up at her in awe. Covered in more blood than bare skin, with her weapon raised and eyes wide, Mari didn’t see the teammate she’d known for six years anymore. Gone was the softly spoken, often forlorn girl, with flowered skirts and gentle eyes. The violence had buried her under blood and bile. For the first time in years, an old warning wormed its way back into Mari’s thoughts. It all goes away. 
There were moments when parts of you died, like a tree in an old forest finally falling to make way for something new. For her, it had started with her cousin; that first crack in the veneer of innocence. And though it was impossible to understand as it happened, because childhood was meant to give way slowly to change and maturity, she would, in time, come to realize that this was the end. This was the day that hundreds of children died, and something else rose to take their place. The figure that towered over her now looked more akin to an ancient priest offering a squirming sacrifice to the gods than she did a high school soccer player.
Lottie grabbed a fistful of the librarian’s dark and curly hair and shoved her head down into the carpet. Ms. Doyle shouted, not in pain, but in rage. Lottie strained to hold her still, lowering the scissors down towards her face. Then she cried out in pain when Ms. Doyle brought her knee up into her back. She kicked and thrashed and kicked again, rejecting her impending demise with all the desperation of a cornered fox. Lottie cried out as she took blow after blow.
“Paperbacks! Go! In! Reminiscence!” The librarian shouted with each kick. Lottie  drove the scissors down and punched a new hole through the woman’s cheek. Her shouts took on a gurgling sound as she sputtered blood up onto Lottie’s hands. 
“St-aaaggghhppp! St-uugg-uugg-uugg-ppp!”
Lottie yanked them out again and tried to line them up with one of her eyes.
“Go through her ear!” Misty shouted. The tiny girl appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and dove down onto the librarian’s legs. 
“What?” Lottie barked.
“Stab her in the ear! It’s the best way to the brain!” The legs squirmed beneath her. “Hurry!”
“I can’t hold her!” Travis cried out. “She’s slipping!”
Lottie wrapped her free hand around Ms. Doyle’s forehead and pushed her down into the carpet again, this time on her side. Her muscles rippled as she fought to hold it still. Ms. Doyle coughed blood onto the dark navy fiber, and more blood bubbled up around the blades as Lottie pushed them into her ear with shaking hands. Lottie whimpered and pushed harder, and Mari gagged and looked away. 
She knew it was done when Ms. Doyle went limp beneath her. 

They all sat there in stunned horror. 
Mari relaxed her grip on the latest corpse to grace her eyes. She didn’t know what to do, so she just stared and focused on what she could see:
A body, lying still on the ground between them, chunks of meat torn from her limbs and holes in her neck and face. Blood oozed out of her ear and onto the carpet as her heart went still. The pool of dark crimson spread over the navy carpet like blood spilled in the ocean. It reached out for the scissors Lottie had dropped a few inches away.

Lottie collapsed off the corpse and started sobbing, and the guise of the priest fell back to reveal the girl underneath. She came back broken, having unwillingly butchered herself upon the altar as well.

Travis whimpered and clutched his bleeding arm.

Mari gagged and threw up again.

Lottie wept.