"What happened!" yelled Josef as he swung open the cafeteria doors.

Everyone froze for a second. They were all there: Caden, Gerald, Serenity, Avery, Josh, and Matt were scattered throughout the cafeteria, and they all stared at Josef for a quick second. Gerald gave a quick sigh of relief.

"Thank God it's just you." said Gerald.

"What happened?! I heard Serenity scream!" said Josef, he was quite frantic as he had never heard her scream as loudly as earlier.

"I'm fine, a cockroach just climbed up my leg, I was just startled." said Serenity.

Josef sighed, all his nervousness melted away as he heard her explanation. While he was running towards the right-wing building, he could only think of the terrible stuff happening inside, but luckily, it was just a cockroach, a menace to women.

"What took you so long anyway?" asked Caden.

"Umm, well, I ran into chainsaw." said Josef.

"What!? Are you alright?" asked Avery. She walked closer to him and began to examine him from head to toe, looking for anything out of the ordinary. She began patting him like a security guard, looking for any wounds or a reaction of pain from him.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." He said while he held both of her hands, assuring her that he wasn't hiding any serious wounds. But he did have numerous minor injuries from climbing the tree during Mr. Fatmouth's punishment.

"How'd you escape? Did you fight?" asked Josh.

"I fought a bit, but for some reason, chainsaw didn't attack me at first."

"It didn't attack you at first? Why? Did it know you or something?" asked Matt.

"Probably, I'm not quite sure. Also, chainsaw is a woman."

Everyone paused for a second. Their faces exploded with surprise, Caden's was especially funny as he looked like a monkey.

"What!? Are you saying that a woman chased us with a heavy fucking chainsaw!?" exclaimed Caden.

"How could a woman swing around that chainsaw?" said Josh.

"Probably on steroids or something." said Matt.

"More importantly, are you sure chainsaw didn't see you go in here?" asked Avery.

"Don't worry, she was unconscious when I came here." said Josef.

"Wow! You knocked a woman unconscious, nice!" said Caden.

Josef smiled. He wasn't proud of what he did, and knocking a woman out is certainly inappropriate, but he simply found Caden's comment humorous.

"Do you know who she is?" asked Serenity.

"I don't know, her voice was distorted, so I couldn't recognize her. I tried to take off her mask, but I suddenly heard Serenity scream, so I sprinted here immediately."

"Sorry." said Serenity. She looked down. She felt guilty that she was the reason Josef couldn't unmask the chainsaw fiend.

"You could go back and check, she might still be unconscious. We might even get answers to what's going on." said Gerald.

Josef glanced out the transparent glass doors, the dead of night combined with the raging blizzard made it impossible to see a few feet outside.

"I'm not sure about that, it's too dangerous now." said Josef.

Caden grabbed a white plastic chair and sat down.

"So... what now?" said Caden.

"It's been a long day, we should probably rest for now." said Gerald.

"Where?" said Serenity.

Josef looked around. The cafeteria looked peaceful, too peaceful. Everything looked normal. The main building was extremely eerie and suspenseful, yet when Josef stepped foot inside the cafeteria, he felt a sense of warmth. There was no heater inside, but for some reason, a comfortable warmth embraced him. The chairs, tables, and everything else were clean, it's as if the bloodbath never happened. It seemed like the right-wing building wasn't affected by the horrors that unfolded in the main building.

"What if we stay here?" proposed Josef.

"That might be a good idea." said Caden.

"Yep, I agree, there's a lot of room here, and it's empty. We just need to barricade the doors, and we'll probably be safer here than in the main building." said Josh.

"Plus, since this is the cafeteria, there might be food, I'm starving, I haven't eaten since lunch." said Matt.

"Food can come later, we need to barricade the place first." said Avery.

Everyone began barricading the cafeteria. Josh and Matt pulled the long tables and placed them in front of the glass doors. They placed the tables on top of each other. Everyone else took the chairs and piled them up on the tables and on the floor, they made sure that there weren't any gaps in their barricade so that no one could see inside. As they piled up the chairs, Josef began to ponder. After everything that happened, it has only been half a day. In only around seven hours or so, his classmates went from chaotic to freezing to dead meat. They were all drained, physically and mentally.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"That should be good." said Gerald as he placed the last chair. The doorway was now completely blocked, Even if the chainsaw fiend had ridiculous strength that made her able to carry a chainsaw, they were still positive that she couldn't break down their barricade, but if she did, they would have enough time to escape through one of the high windows. They placed one of the long tables below a high window that is normally used to provide light inside the cafeteria, and they made an impromptu staircase that they could use to climb to the window as an emergency escape route. They were confident that they were safe. Of all the uncertainties that happened today, all the bloodshed, and all the mysteries, they could finally catch a break.

"We're finally done!" said Caden as he plopped on the white floor. He was sweating buckets as he did most of the heavy lifting.

"I deserve some food by now!" he added.

"Yeah, it's about time we had dinner." said Gerald.

There weren't any clocks in the room, nor did they have anything on them like phones or watches, but from the dead of night outside, they figured that it was way past dinner time.

"Let's go look." said Caden as he got up.

"Look for what?" asked Josh.

"What else would you look for in a cafeteria? Food! Obviously." said Caden.

They walked toward the counter to find food. The display counter normally had bread, chips and other popular items on display. When the school closes, they would normally cover and lock the displays and leave the goods inside.

"Here's the lock." said Josh. He pointed to the small gray padlock that prevented students from stealing inside the displays.

"Let me give it a go." said Matt.

He pulled on the lock as hard as he could, but to no avail, the lock was too sturdy. He grabbed the cashier off the counter and bashed it on the lock, but it didn't work as well.

"That's one tough lock. Does anyone know how to lock pick?" said Matt.

They all looked at each other. No one knew how to do it.

"We'll need to find the key." said Avery.

"But the cafeteria staff probably takes the key home with them." said Serenity.

"Yeah that sucks. Wait! didn't Gerald say that he snatched a key or something?" said Caden. Gerald had brought up that he had gotten a key from the scientists when they were waiting for Josef to arrive.

Josef was surprised since this was the first time he heard of it, but he didn't give it much thought as who knows what that key could unlock. It might just be a random key to the scientist's house or something. There are millions, or even billions, of locks in the country. Finding the exact one that the key could open would be like finding a needle in a haystack—a haystack the same size as a pool.

"Well, it is a key, but I snatched it from a scientist, not from the lunch lady."

"Try anyways, who knows, it might be a master key to the whole school or something." said Caden.

"Fine."

Gerald grabbed the key from his pocket and tried to insert it on the lock, but before he could, it became blindingly obvious that it didn't fit.

"See, I told you it wouldn't work." said Gerald as he slid the key back into his pocket.

"Now what?" said Josh.

Josef stared at the covered food beyond the transparent counter, he could see the different bumps in the black cloth that covered the food. He imagined what kind of food was underneath, from the bumps, he imagined that there was bread, maybe even his favorite chicken and cheese sandwich. His stomach growled, followed by Caden's. Suddenly, Josef had a thought, a hilariously stupid one.

"I'm so fucking hungry!" exclaimed Caden.

"Umm.. guys." said Josef.

"What is it?" asked Josh.

"You know the counter is made of.. glass, right?"

"So?" said Josh.

"Wouldn't breaking the glass be easier than a metal lock?"

"Oh.. we're so fucking dumb." said Josh.

Nearly everyone face-palmed, while Josef sighed in disappointment.

"Here goes!" said Matt. He bashed the nearly broken cashier on the glass counter. Once the cashier made contact with the glass, Crash! the entire top glass of the counter shattered into a million pieces. Everyone flinched, they expected it to shatter, but not by that much.

"Alright! Time for the grand reveal!" said Caden. He licked his lips in anticipation.

He grabbed the black cloth that covered the food and waved it around suspensefully. He quickly whipped the cloth up, which was very idiotic as the tiny fragments of glass flew in the air, which could have hit their eyes or something, but they didn't mind his idiocy as their attention was all being controlled by hunger. Caden couldn't wait any longer, as his stomach roared louder than the chainsaw's engine. He could dive on the counter, bathing himself in food. In the split second of him raising the cover, he could imagine himself having a nice dinner—a feast fit for a king. It's as if he could forget everything that happened today as long as it meant that he would get to eat. The covering was off, and it was time to stuff their bellies with delicious... rocks!

"What the fuck is this!? Rocks!? This is so fucking messed up!" exclaimed Caden.

"What a fucked up joke this is, rocks!? Why would you display rocks on the counter!" exclaimed Josh. He was just as hungry as Caden, but he actually had the decency to hide it, until the rocks came into his view.

Even though their hope of a nice dinner vanished and morphed into solid, hard rocks, Josef couldn't help but laugh at the situation. He wasn't laughing at their loss of hope, he laughed as he saw the excited and eager Caden suddenly become devastated while looking at rocks.

"This isn't funny, Josef!" exclaimed Caden.

"Well, it is a bit funny." said Avery.

"Yep, it's hilarious." said Matt.

Caden and Josh were the only ones disappointed, while the others tried to hold in their laughter, which they simply couldn't. They calmed their laughter after a minute or so.

"Are you done laughing yet?" said Caden. His voice was unenthusiastic, and his face was dropped in a frown.

"Ok, were done." said Gerald as he tries to hold back his laughter.

"Guys, stop laughing! We're gonna die at this rate, we have no food!" exclaimed Caden.

"Don't worry, there are two more places we could check." said Josef as he snickered.

"Where!?" asked Caden.

"There." Josef pointed to the ice cream freezer that was near the counter.

They observed the freezer, there was no lock, and it wasn't cooling since the chord was unplugged. They peeked inside. They hoped for ice cream since it was an ice cream cooler, and the image of ice cream plastered on the body certainly gave it the impression of containing the delicious treat. But there was no ice cream inside, yet they weren't disappointed, instead of ice cream, the freezer was filled to the brim with bottled water—one of their crucial necessities.

Caden immediately slid the freezer door open, grabbing and opening a slightly cold bottle of water, and chugged it like there was no tomorrow.

"Are you happy now?" said Josef.

"A tiny bit, but it's not good enough, I want food! Meat, burgers, bread, even vegetables will suffice." said Caden.

"That's asking for too much, remember, we're in a fucked up situation right now, always expect low." said Josef.

"Expecting low wouldn't exactly fill our stomachs, would it?" Caden said in a sarcastic tone.

Josef sighed.

"There's one more place we could check." said Josef.

"And where is that?"

"The storage rooms."