Gerald rushed back into the back rooms, not paying any attention to the vomit on the floor from when Avery first saw the nightmarish scenery of the second room, and almost stubbing his foot on the doorway. He rushed to the door of the second storage room. He was exhausted. The mental exhaustion from the horrors in the room plus the physical exhaustion of vomiting made his legs feel like jelly. He struggled to walk when he was vomiting his guts out, but when he suddenly realized one of them was missing, someone who was extremely dear to him, his body immediately forgot all the exhaustion that there once was, allowing him to hurry to the door of the second room.

He finally made it there, it was only a brief duration of running, a quick sprint, but it made his heart beat quickly, beads of sweat flowing from his forehead. Something wasn't right. The door was closed. He remembered that no one closed the door when they all rushed outside the room. He might have thought it was Josef who closed it at first, since he was the type of person to clean up after himself, like when he finished eating a meal in the cafeteria, he was good-mannered enough to properly throw away his trash and even wipe the table, so naturally he would close the door whenever he entered or left a room, but in this situation, it seemed highly unlikely.

He reached for the doorknob and tried to open it, but it was locked. It shouldn't have been locked. If Josef did close the door when he left, he wouldn't be stupid enough to lock it. Gerald's mind raced about why the door was locked, but he ultimately stopped thinking about anything else, all he could think about was Serenity.

"Serenity! Are you there?" yelled Gerald as he banged on the steel door.

No response.

"Serenity! Please answer!"

No response.

"Please honey! Open the door!"

But there was still no response.

He placed his ear on the door and tried to listen in the room, hoping he could hear the sweet voice of his beloved from inside the room. He thought that maybe she had a problem with opening the door and couldn't unlock it on her end, maybe she was screaming for help on the other side but the steel door made the room soundproof, or maybe, just maybe, something terrible happened to her.

He was panicking. He continued to bang on the door, his hands turned red from all the banging he did. It was painful, but not as painful as being separated from his loved one. Separation is not that bad when in a normal context, but when you're in a situation where you're seeing blood and dead bodies with the addition of murderous mind-controlled educators, being separated is extremely dangerous.

In almost every horror movie, being separated would lead to someone's death. It was always a stupid decision. Sure, it might make it easier to explore the place, but it will leave you defenseless. It is best to travel in a group, as there is strength in numbers. If they were all together, Gerald was confident that they could take on any opponent, except if they were running after you with a chainsaw, then that would be a different story.

He was confident when his friends were by his side, especially when his beloved Serenity was there, but now, she was in grave danger. If anyone other than a crippled person tried to attack Serenity, then she would be dead. Gerald knew that Serenity wasn't much of a fighter, she probably couldn't even beat a dog if she were to fight one, she would simply run away in fear of its sharp teeth. He thought of the worst, he imagined that someone might have locked Serenity inside the room and killed her there and then. Even with just the thought, his eyes began watering.

He felt hopeless, he desperately banged on the door, his hands were as red as a tomato, but he didn't stop. As the others continued to vomit and think about what they had just witnessed and probably eaten for the past week, Gerald was desperately calling for Serenity in the back rooms. The others finally noticed Gerald's yelling and rushed to the back rooms. They saw him there, down on the floor, with his bloody, wound-filled hands banging on the door, tears flooding his eyes.

"Dude! What's going on! Are you alright!?" asked Caden.

"Do you think I look alright, Caden!?" yelled Gerald. "Serenity's trapped on the other side of this door!"

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"Is it locked?" asked Caden.

"Of course it's locked, you idiot! If it wasn't, then I would have already opened it by now!" yelled Gerald.

"Dude, calm down! it's gonna be alright." said Josh. "We'll find a way inside."

"Don't worry, I'll just pick the lock again." said Matt as he showed the hook that he made from Serenity's paperclip.

Caden helped Gerald stand up and move away from the door, giving Matt enough space to do his work, but before he could even insert the tool in the keyhole, they heard a click, and the door opened.

Matt couldn't react, and as the door opened, what immediately crossed his vision was a large, sharp butcher's knife pointed to his face. It took him a second to respond, but when he did, he immediately backed up and stumbled to the wall behind him.

The door fully opened, and their eyes widened as they saw the knife-holding figure on the other side. A fat female figure wearing a blood-splattered apron stood in front of them. She wore a plain white t-shirt and denim pants, which were all blood-soaked as well. They slowly raised their vision and examined her face, a large smile and a happy expression could be observed, and her distinct facial features made it obvious as to who she was since she wasn't hiding her face in the first place, unlike the janitor and chainsaw. It was the lunch lady. The same lunch lady that served their lunches to them all year round. The lunch lady that ran the entire cafeteria and was at the top of the command chain when it came to food, the same person that the students stole countless meals from.

It was blindingly obvious that she wasn't right in the head. No one sane would come out of that retched room with a big smile on their face. It might have been because of the virus, was she infected as well? But that didn't matter to Gerald, even when he was faced with a large, blood soaked monster, he still only thought about Serenity. He tried to dash into the room, pass by the lunch lady, and find Serenity, but he couldn't. The lunch lady grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him out of the room with monstrous force, which made him hit the wall, making a loud thud sound as his back made contact.

It was painful, but that didn't stop him from getting back up and attempting to sneak by the lunch lady again, but this time, Caden and Josh grabbed his arms and pulled him back, seeing that he might be in danger if he tried to do it again, especially since the lunch lady was holding a knife. He was lucky since he was only yanked out of the room, he could've been stabbed if he had been unfortunate. Maybe it was because the lunch lady didn't think about using the knife in that moment, or was it because Gerald tried to sneak past her from her left side when the knife was on her right hand? but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was still alive and well, but that didn't apply to Serenity.

Gerald still didn't know where she was. When he sneaked past the lunch lady, he got a quick glimpse of everything in the room, including the bloody contents of the shelves. She wasn't there. He was able to glance at every corner of the room, but she was nowhere to be found. He saw the piles of human limbs, he couldn't discern if she was there, but hopefully she wasn't.

Gerald tried to break free of his friend's hold. He was angry, extremely angry. His friends didn't even know that he could get this angry.

"What the hell did you do to Serenity!" He yelled, flames erupted in his eyes.

She laughed, "You'll find out very soon, my dear."

She took a step. Her footstep was heavy, it was as if she was stomping with full force, they felt as if an elephant was approaching them. She took another step forward, and so did everyone else, but away from her. She took another step, and another, and another, and so did everyone else. The cycle continued until they were out of the back rooms and were now back at the cafeteria.

She raised her knife, and the others quickly felt fear and rushed further into the cafeteria, distancing themselves away from her.

"Tell me! Where is Serenity!?" Gerald yelled, he was still being pulled back by Caden and Josh. He was furious. It didn't matter to him if he faced an elephant or a cold-blooded killer, he would gladly risk his life if it meant that he could reunite with his beloved, be it physically or in the afterlife. His friends didn't agree with this, as they tried their hardest to contain Gerald's anger and frustration.

"Fine." said the lunch lady after giving a slight sigh. "I'll show you where she is."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a remote. She pressed a button on it. They heard a mechanical noise. From the ceiling, a trapdoor opened, and a large TV was lowered down.

Everyone knew that there was a TV there, as it always played music and videos in the cafeteria while they ate. The school implemented the trapdoor since they had an incident of a student breaking the TV by throwing a burger at it and somehow cracking the LCD display. When Josef's group took refuge in the cafeteria, they didn't think about looking for the TV remote, as they knew that the lunch lady or the staff always took the remote home with them and that it was the only way to open the trapdoor.

She pressed another switch. This time, the TV opened.

Gerald became more furious, he started to yell even louder.

"You monster! Let her fucking go! I'll fucking kill you! Let go of me, you idiots! I'm going to kill her with my own hands!"

"You're the idiot! Calm down, and we'll find a way out of this!" said Caden.

Josef took a look at the TV screen. It was Serenity. She was blindfolded and seemed to be unconscious. But the worst part was that she was tied and dangling from a rope, and below her was a meat grinder. The mechanical sound from within it could be heard from the TV, it was turned on, and waiting for something, or someone to enter its mouth and be ground into tiny pieces of meat.