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.