Amidst the ever-piling snow, a game of cat and mouse had occurred—a bloody one at that. Serenity had already left everyone else behind, Caden was the second to exit, followed by Josh, Avery, Gerald, Josef, and Matt respectively, while the chainsaw fiend chased closely behind.

Matt faltered behind, he wasn't able to run as quickly as the others as he had stumbled a bit in the snow and had almost tripped at one point. It had only been a few seconds since they dashed outside the main building, but the chainsaw fiend had already caught up to them.

"OH FUCK!" screamed Matt.

He could hear the rumbling of the chainsaw in close proximity to himself. He took a quick glance behind him as he ran, and he saw the sight of death. The chainsaw's sharp teeth were only a few inches away from his face, growing closer every millisecond. It felt like time had slowed down as his life began flashing before his eyes. In less than one second, he dipped his head down, dodging the chainsaw by only a few millimeters as the saw chipped off some of his hair.

"Matt!" yelled Josh.

Matt had fallen down to the ground after dodging the first swing. The fiend had readied itself for another attack as it recovered from its momentum. It raised the chainsaw high in the sky and slammed it down toward Matt. Yet again, just in time, Matt quickly rolled over to the right, dodging the chainsaw. Matt clumsily yet quickly got up and ran, while the fiend pulled out the chainsaw it had struck to the cold, snow-layered ground.

It was now back to running. The others soon caught up to Serenity, as she wasn't that fast of a runner in the first place. Matt, who had miraculously survived the attacks of the chainsaw fiend, was now close to the group as well, while the fiend was a bit further behind, not too close to be seen due to the fog of the blizzard, but close enough to hear the roar of the chainsaw.

Close to a minute had gone by, most of them were out of breath, heavily gasping for air. Gerald looked back and saw the chainsaw fiend's silhouette in the fog, still chasing them.

"How the fuck can it keep up with that heavy chainsaw!" exclaimed Gerald, whose breathing was all over the place.

"No questions, just keep running!" replied Caden. He wasn't as tired as the others since his main workout routine is cardio, and he likes to cycle for long periods of time.

"Guys!... Wait!" yelled Serenity as she gasped for air.

Everyone suddenly glanced back while they ran, it suddenly occurred to them that Serenity was no longer with them, instead, she was way behind, possibly from exhaustion and slow physical prowess.

"Serenity! Run!" yelled Gerald.

She couldn't take another step, her legs were vigorously shaking from exhaustion, this was the most she had run in possibly her entire life. The fiend appeared from behind Serenity, and with the chainsaw ready, it swung the heavy machinery horizontally towards Serenity. The chainsaw's teeth ravaged the back of Serenity's uniform, but luckily, not her flesh, as Gerald was able to quickly run back and pull Serenity out of the chainsaw's path just in time.

Serenity stumbled towards Gerald. Due to the momentum of the failed attack, the fiend had to readjust its grip on the chainsaw's handle. Noticing the opening, Gerald didn't waste any time, he closed the already-close distance between him and the fiend, he pulled out his foot from the snow, and kicked the fiend in the chest. It stumbled back, but because of the weight of the chainsaw, it had let go of it as the fiend fell down backwards, crashing its masked head to the ground, but unfortunately, the snow had padded its fall, preventing any damage from the fall.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Gerald to Serenity.

He held her arm as he ran, but unfortunately, Serenity could only stumble around due to her exhaustion. The fiend had almost gotten back up. They were wasting too much time. In the spur of the moment, seeing that there was no other choice, Gerald scooped up Serenity by the legs and carried her, much like a princess, a princess that was trying to escape from death. In this type of situation, the one who was being carried would ask if they were heavy or not, but sadly, they unfortunately were. No matter how small or frail the person was, extra weight is still extra weight. Gerald continued to desperately run for their lives, being slowed down by the extra luggage.

"Just leave me behind, honey! I'm only slowing you down." said Serenity. She was indeed correct.

The fiend was now close yet again.

"Don't worry, honey, we can make it through this, together." said Gerald with a desperate and exhausted smile on his face.

He tried to reassure her, but in his mind, he knew that if the fiend continued its pace, it would eventually catch up to them. He needed to think of a plan, but there was nothing he could do, especially while carrying someone.

Thirty seconds passed, the fiend was now dangerously close, if it had thrown the chainsaw towards them, they would probably be hit.

"Gerald! Duck!" yelled Caden.

"What!" exclaimed Gerald.

He was confused for a second, but after glancing at Caden, he got the message. Caden stopped running. He swung the fire extinguisher that he had carried and let go, the object flew out of his hand and towards Gerald. Seeing the flying cylindrical piece of steel, Gerald quickly dove, shoving himself and Serenity to the ground. The chainsaw fiend didn't see it coming, the fire extinguisher perfectly hit the fiend in the face, breaking off the bottom piece of the mask, and knocking the fiend to the ground. The fiend didn't get up immediately, the last ditch effort had worked, they didn't let the opportunity pass, but instead of making the smart choice of confronting the already-down fiend, they instead, chose to run away, fueled by the desperate desire to escape the horrors of the school.

A minute goes by. Two minutes. Five minutes. It had seemed like forever since they escaped the chainsaw fiend, but the school gate was nowhere near their vision.

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"What the hell! "Was the courtyard always this massive!" exclaimed Josh.

"It's only supposed to be a minute at most!" said Avery.

"I remember the courtyard having the length of five or six basketball courts, but we've probably ran three football fields by now!" said Matt.

"What the hell is going on!" said Gerald.

They continued to run for another minute, and Josef had finally realized that the same phenomenon was happening.

"I.. remember this.. happening." said Josef, he was gasping for air. "When we first tried to go towards the gate.. during Mr. Fatmouth's punishment, we.. ended up coming back to the school unconsciously!"

"What do you mean!" said Josh.

"Basically, something is.. preventing us from leaving the school!" said Josef.

"There must be a way out! There has to be!" exclaimed Serenity. She was still being carried by Gerald.

"What if we split up and look." said Gerald.

"Splitting up is always the worst option." said Caden.

"Then what else do we do!?" said Josh.

"I think Gerald is right." said Josef. "If we split up, we can cover more ground and look for a way out quicker. Besides, I don't think that chainsaw fellow would be getting up anytime soon, and if it did, it would probably be weak from Caden's attack."

"That sounds reassuring, actually." said Caden. "Let's split up into pairs then. If you can't find a way out, then go back to the school."

"Where in the school?" asked Matt.

"The main building is definitely too dangerous, maybe the right wing building is safe, plus there are a lot of hiding spots in the cafeteria and in the auditorium." said Josef.

"Alright then, let's go!" said Caden.

They split up and ran in different directions. They weren't even sure which way was north, but they were willing to do anything in order to escape. Josh and Matt continued to run in the same direction that they were originally going, Gerald and Serenity went to the east from Josh's direction, Caden and Avery went west, and Josef went south, alone. The group debated at first during the groupings whether it would be best if they explored all four directions, but because of their odd number, someone would have to go solo. Josef nominated himself. The others quickly tried to turn down his proposal, but he assured them that he could take care of himself, plus, he wanted someone else to go with Avery as he was not confident that he could protect her in this situation, since the others were all physically stronger than him, except for Serenity, of course.

Josef ran for around a minute or so, and just as he had dreaded, he saw the chainsaw fiend, it was now back up on its feet. He thought that it would still be down, and he would snatch its chainsaw, but he was quite unfortunate. Josef readied himself for the inevitable as he formed two fists and brought them forward, much like a boxer's stance. The chainsaw fiend looked over at Josef's direction, it tugged on the starter cord, and the engine started to roar yet again.

The fiend dashed towards Josef, the bottom part of its mask was no longer there, exposing the crazed smile that it had underneath. The image of the fiend became clearer as it got closer, the same could be said for Josef. He walked cautiously towards the fiend. He had left behind the wooden stick that he had broken off from a teacher's desk along the way, as he thought that he'd be able to snatch the chainsaw from the fiend. Instead, while he was in a boxer's stance, he now planned to use the revolver that he had found when he first woke up. He won't shoot it, but he intended to use it as a threat.

The chainsaw fiend got closer to Josef, he began sweating as he lowered his stance, his hand hovered above his pocket, where his revolver lies. It was time. He gripped the revolver from within his pocket, and all he needed to do was take it out and point it at the fiend, but for some reason, the fiend had stopped running. It lowered the chainsaw, the crazed smile disappeared and left behind a plain expression, while it walked casually towards Josef.

"damn it! It's just you." said the fiend.

A robotic voice came out. Josef assumed that the fiend was using some kind of technology to alter its voice, but there were no devices strapped to it.

"Who are you!?" asked Josef.

"You don't need to know who I am."

"Then why are you trying to kill us?"

"I'm not obligated to answer that."

"What the hell is happening!? Are you the one who's responsible for everything that's happened!?"

The fiend laughed.

"I'm not responsible for everything, but just as you thought, I am responsible for your classmate's death."

"Why are you doing this!?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"Why is this happening in our school!?"

"..."

"What's the deal with the scientists!?"

"..."

"Could you at least answer me!?" He started to become annoyed at the fiend's uncooperativeness.

"Like I've said, you don't need to know anything, just tell me where the others are, I'm only following orders."

"Who's orders."

"YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW! Stop asking questions and show me where the others are!"

"Why the hell do you think I'll do that!?"

"Don't make this any more difficult! I'm giving you one last chance, where are the others!"

"Fuck off!" He raised his middle finger.

"That's the last straw! He said that I shouldn't kill you, but a severed arm shouldn't be enough to kill someone."

He now had more questions than answers, especially about who the "he" was that the fiend had stated. But he had another problem to deal with first.

The fiend raised the chainsaw and dashed towards Josef, instead of a crazed smile, a frown of anger arose. Josef quickly pulled out the revolver and pointed it towards the fiend, his hands were shaking. But it didn't falter, it continued to dash towards him and swung down the chainsaw. Josef was able to dodge it as he was a bit nimble. If Caden, Josh, Matt, and Avery were on the strong side, he and Serenity were on the nimble side. He wasn't quite sure about Gerald, he has never seen him fight, but he could be both.

The fiend tried for another swing, but Josef dodged it yet again. Another swing, and another, and one more, but all of them were skillfully dodged with perfect timing. Josef knew that he couldn't keep this up, one mishap could lead to his death.

The fiend grew tired. The next flurry of attacks became sloppy and slow, it was now child's play to dodge the attacks. All the running and swinging that the chainsaw fiend did had finally drained it of its energy. Josef ran around while the fiend slowly tried to catch up to him. His plan was to tire it out even more until he was confident that he could knock the fiend out.

After a few seconds of running and dodging, the school building was now visible in the distance, they had unconsciously stumbled back near the school. The chainsaw fiend lowered its chainsaw to the ground, gasping for breath. Josef saw the opportunity and dashed towards the fiend. He planted his fist up its chin, landing a strong uppercut. The fiend was stunned, but Josef wasn't done just yet. To finish it off, he took a low stance with his legs apart, He stretched his arm behind him as much as possible, and let out a huge swing, hitting the fiend in the chest. The fiend fell to the ground, arms spread open, mask facing the sky, and not moving. Josef had won.

He didn't celebrate just yet. A thought formed in his head. In the instant that his fist made contact with the fiend's chest, a soft sensation could be felt.

"A woman!?" exclaimed Josef.

He walked closer to the unconscious fiend. He reached his hand for her mask, wanting to know who she was. Before Josef could make contact with the mask, a loud, piercing scream was heard from the distance.

"Serenity!?" exclaimed Josef.

The voice had come from within the right wing building. It was the kind of scream that could attract everyone's attention. He was scared that someone other than his friends would find Serenity.

At that moment, Josef realized that even if he took off the first mask, it would still take too much time to remove the ski mask from the fiend, and he wasn't even sure if he would recognize who it was, so he gave up on finding out who she was. Upon looking closely at the chainsaw, he also realized that it simply looked too heavy for him to handle, so he left it there and dashed for the right-wing building.