What’s going on? She held her breath, shining the light on every chunk of flesh, every bloody smear on the wall and floors. The leg beside the classroom door was covered in a long sock that went up to the knee. On the foot was a leather shoe. The thigh was bare and led to the exposed red flesh, darkened around the edges.

Eve? thought Jenny, turning away from the leg and inspecting the rest of the hall. At the end was the central area where all the hallways connected, and then the entrance to the main stairwell. That was where she and Susan had seen dozens of Angels rushing by. Yet now there was nothing to be found.

> I am not attuned to the presence of Angels.

Is there anything you can tell me?

> There are Human participants nearby. Oliver Spencer is among them.

She pressed her lips tight, peering into a room. This door was wide open, held in place by a wooden doorstop. Nobody was inside. One of the windows was broken and stained with blood. The chairs and desks were knocked over, and there were several pools of blood, but each of them was smeared towards the door. As though the bodies had been dragged away from where the person was killed. There were bloodied feet and handprints as well; those had to be the angels’.

Jenny walked slowly, taking each step with care so as not to make a sound. It was disturbingly quiet, and the air felt heavier, increasingly difficult to breathe. She squeezed her hatchet tight, ready to slice anything that jumped at her. She kept her shield in front of her defensively.

Everywhere she looked, there was blood. And all signs pointed to several bodies having been dragged out of classrooms and down the hallway. Some of the blood was dried and rust-colored. Some fresh and glistening by her flashlight.

The silence was freaking her out. Every one of her breaths felt too loud, like they might give away her position. She decided to check the Chemistry wing first. That was the direction the Angels were headed before. Something must have happened.

Near the very last room of this hallway, she heard a noise. A faint cry.

Her heart thumped against her chest. Jenny stood beside the door. She recognized the room; it was the computer lab. Students could access the room during free periods or lunch to finish up work or print assignments. Was someone in there? Was it an Angel?

What if it was Oliver?

The door to the computer lab didn’t have a window to see inside. But after standing still for a minute or two, she didn’t hear any hissing. No movement.

Then she heard the faint cry again. She sucked in a breath, turned the handle as slowly as she could, pushed the door slightly, then shone her flashlight through the tiny opening. She raised her shield in front of her; if anything jumped out, she was going to knock it back and then sink her hatchet into its face.

Nothing hissed or screamed or rushed at her, so that was a good sign. But nothing moved either. There was no sound, no sign of life. She pushed the door further open. It creaked.

She held her breath and looked up and down the hall, expecting the worst. But there was still only silence. The room was large with several long white tables bolted to the floor. It was dark with the shades down. The beam of light from her flashlight shone on rows of flat-screen monitors. Many of them were knocked over.

There was no sign of fighting in this room. No blood. No bodies. Jenny stepped inside and gently shut the door behind her. Could this be another safe area like the library? The door was thicker than normal classroom doors, and the windows were completely covered. Someone could turn the lock and hide in here for a while. Jenny walked past the tables, shining her light on the wooden doors of the closets that made up the far side of the room.

There didn’t seem to be anyone in here, nothing that could’ve made the faint cry she heard. Maybe I’m just hearing shit now. Then something grabbed her leg.

Swallowing a scream, Jenny stepped back and tried to wrench her foot free, ready to attack. A monitor rattled to the floor from the table beside her. The sound startled her, and she turned her head, shining a light on everything, trying to find what grabbed her.

It was a thick computer cable. She’d stepped into a bunch accidentally, and with a groan of embarrassment, she kicked the cable off. She breathed a sigh of relief, trying to steady her nerves. She gave the room a cursory glance, then turned to leave. That was when she heard the cry again.

Much more audibly this time. Then she heard hammering, like someone was trying to break the door down. But the sound came from the other direction. The closets.

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Worried it would attract angels, she rushed over. Eve, is anyone nearby?

But before Eve could respond, the closet rattled. Someone or something was inside, trying to get out.

Slowly, she stepped over a fallen monitor. Each storage closet had two doors. The one in the center was where the sounds came from, and the handles of its doors had something pulled through. Jenny shone her light on it and saw that it was a thick computer cord. Someone looped it through the handles and then plugged it into itself, effectively locking anyone who was inside. Or anything...

“Hello?” whispered Jenny, her voice barely more than a croak. There was no response from inside. She cleared her throat to try again, her head spinning with what if’s. What if an angel was in there? What if she let it out and the screaming drew more attention to the computer lab? Someone obviously shoved something into the closet and locked it for a reason.

She decided it was worth the risk. If it was a Tarnished Angel, she’d kill it and take the Energy. If it was a person, then she’d help.

“Hello?” said Jenny, raising her voice and knocking lightly on the closet with her hatchet.

“I’m in here!” came a girl’s voice from inside. She sounded faint and hoarse. The girl rattled the door again. “Oh, thank god, please, just let me out!”

Jenny’s eyes went wide. A girl? A human... She was sobbing inside the closet. Who’d locked her in here?

Holding her hatchet with her left armpit, Jenny tried to unplug the chord. But it was stuck tight, and she couldn’t get a grip with one hand. This was stupid. She called out for the girl to move back and cover her face. Then Jenny struck the cable with her hatchet, cutting right through the cable and splintering the closet doors.

She used her hatchet to pull one of the doors open slowly. Her light shone inside, and Jenny saw a girl sitting on the floor with her legs folded beneath her. Her black hijab was pulled back and loose, and her denim shirt was wrinkled as though she’d been clawing at it.

> Human (Level 1)

Jenny’s jaw dropped. “Miriam?”

Miriam's eyes were wide and red from crying, her mascara ran down her face, smeared across her cheeks. She blinked repeatedly and raised a slender arm to shield her face from the light.

Jenny knelt, retracting her shield and trying to keep the flashlight out of Miriam’s eyes. “Were you in here this whole time?” She couldn’t believe it. Had the angels not heard her? Or did they, and they couldn’t get into the room? What was she doing in here anyway?

Nodding, Miriam sniffed. She slowly got to her feet, leaning against the side of the closet for support while Jenny held her arm. Her legs shook violently. “I got scared,” she said, her voice raspy and strained. “We had earthquakes back home, and...” She bit her lip. “I panicked and ran in here... then I heard someone putting something through the handles. And they wouldn’t open. I kept banging and trying to push it but...”

“It’s alright,” whispered Jenny, helping Miriam out of the closet. Miriam shut the closet door behind her before leaning back against it, her eyes shut as she muttered something in Arabic.

Jenny knew Miriam from Robotics and the Classical Movies Club. Miriam Khalique was a junior, tall and fragile and ghostly pale. She was badly underweight and had nearly translucent skin because of some condition. But it had the unfortunate side effect of making any hair on her body more pronounced. It didn’t help that her hair naturally grew dark and thick, and some of the girls took it upon themselves to make Miriam’s life even more miserable.

She once came to school with the shadow of a mustache, and several mocking pictures and videos got shared online – one of the photos ended up on a “vote for me for class president” poster, and someone posted it on nearly every locker in the school. Miriam stayed home for two weeks after that.

She was a sickly girl who’d been locked in a closet during an earthquake, and now Jenny had to explain the actual situation to her. Jenny didn’t really know Miriam that well. They’d spoken a few times and even worked together on a project for Robotics once, but it was nothing more than the occasional small talk.

Jenny always thought Miriam was exceptionally pretty with pronounced cheekbones and piercing green eyes, but Miriam kept to herself mostly. She had a slight accent, as she’d grown up in the Middle East, but Jenny always got the sense that Miriam preferred her own space and peace to spending time with other people. Something Jenny could respect.

Someone probably locked her in the closet as a cruel joke and then rushed off when the screaming started.

Once Miriam calmed down enough, she stared at Jenny. “I thought you might’ve been a firefighter or something...” She blinked, looking at something on Jenny’s face. “Is that... blood? And what are you wearing?”

Jenny touched her cheek and felt the crust of dried blood. She nodded.

Miriam held up a hand to block the flashlight’s beam as she got closer to look at the scaley armor. She noticed the hatchet on the floor, and her eyes went wide. She opened her mouth to say something, perspiration glistening on her pale skin, then she shook her head and simply said, “Nope.”

She stumbled past Jenny, looking around the room and setting one of the monitors upright on a table. She pulled her bag out from underneath and placed it on the chair with a heavy thud. Then she rummaged through it, muttering about her head and being dehydrated. She grabbed her phone and powered it on.

“That’s not going to...” Jenny started.

Miriam dialed anyway, holding the phone up to her ear, her other hand on her hip. Her denim shirt was oversized and hung loose. She was wearing dark jeans that flared out at the bottom and pink sneakers. When she spoke again, her words came rapid fire. “It’s not working,” she said, on the verge of tears. “Why’s it not working? Aren’t there first responders? Emergency services? I need to call my Dad. How bad was the earthquake? We had a 7.1 once back home, but this didn’t feel that strong. Was there structural damage? Am I hallucinating right now?”

Jenny rubbed her eye with her palm. Her head ached. She was so close to finding Oliver. Should she take Miriam back to the library first? But what if they ran into an angel? Or several?

What should I do? Can I just leave her here and circle back?

But what if Oliver and the others were hiding too? Jenny remembered the shouting and the stampede of angels... There’d definitely been fighting. But now all the bodies were missing, the halls were empty. So, what was even going on? Jenny looked up to see Miriam with her hand on the doorknob. Oh, shit.

“Wait!”