"Get the hell over here, you monster!" yelled Gerald. His rage overwhelmed Caden and Josh's grasp as he broke free. He grabbed his weapon, the metal table leg, from the floor where he left it earlier, and rushed the lunch lady.

"Die!" he yelled. He raised the metal rod as he got close to her, but before he could even lower it to attack her, he felt an overwhelming pain swell from within his body. It was nostalgic, a pain so intense that he could almost faint from it. It felt similar to the janitor's knee to his stomach, but it was worse, a far worse pain than he had ever felt before. The lunch lady had kicked him in the stomach. The fat and powerful woman who walked with the force of an elephant, shaking the ground with every step, had kicked Gerald in the stomach. He was sent flying, flying back towards Josef and the gang.

"Oh shit!" exclaimed Caden.

"Are you alright!?" said Avery.

He was down on the ground, coughing. It felt so painful that he couldn't even stand, but he still powered through the pain. He tried to get up, ignoring the pain that was swelling throughout his entire body. Pain was temporary for him, but his love for Serenity was eternal. He forced his way into a sitting position. He felt nauseous, almost wanting to vomit, but he held it in. He grabbed the metal rod that he dropped when he got kicked. He stood back up, his stance was unstable, his leg was shaking, be it from the fear of losing his loved one or from the pain. He looked down for a brief moment as he saw his shaking figure, he felt weak, he felt pathetic, was this really someone who deserves to love someone, did he really deserve to call her his "honey" even though he couldn't protect her. His tears started to flow again, but this time, even though his face was flushed with anger, he wept out of desperation and self-loathing.

He looked at his left hand, it was shaking just as much as his legs. He slapped himself. The sharp pain on his face made him calm down a bit, even though it was adding to his bodily damages, but it had helped him stop shaking. As he wiped away the tears, he took a deep breath in and out. He looked towards the lunch lady, his eyes were no longer angry, but his expression was fierce. He took his stand again and rushed the lunch lady, issuing a second round in their short battle.

"Gerald, stop!" yelled Avery.

Josef and the rest wanted to stop him, they knew that he wasn't strong enough to beat or even touch the lunch lady, but they couldn't. They saw the determination in his eyes, they were the eyes of a man who couldn't be stopped, someone who would do anything just to get what he wants, to save Serenity.

He raised his weapon again as he got close. The lunch lady raised her leg to form a kick, but this time, Gerald saw it. He quickly reacted and moved his body away from its path, he had dodged it. While the lunch lady was busy kicking nothing, Gerald wasted no time and swung the already raised metal rod down on the lunch lady's face. He had done it, but unfortunately, the lunch lady blocked the rod with her hand, grabbing the metal rod before it could smash her face in. She pulled the rod out of Gerald's hand. He couldn't do anything, before he could even react, the lunch lady grabbed him by the neck and threw him back towards the group. Luckily, he didn't hit his head on impact, but he was still down yet again.

But even though it was his second defeat, he still tried to stand up, nothing was going to stop him from saving Serenity. He would stand up as many times as he needed to, but the others didn't agree with him. Caden, Josh, with the addition of Avery, grabbed Gerald to prevent him from getting back up again. He tried to struggle, but from the many beatings he endured, it was easy to stop him.

"Let go!" he yelled. "I'll kill her! I'll fucking kill her!"

"Gerald, please stop!" yelled Avery.

"You'll die at this rate, dude!" yelled Josh.

"Just calm down for now!" yelled Caden.

"Ehem." the lunch lady coughed to grab everyone's attention. "Let's get to today's agenda, shall we?"

"Why are you doing this?" calmly asked Josef.

"Don't be impatient, my dear, I'm just about to explain that." said the lunch lady. Her face stayed the same the entire time, from her first appearance up to beating up Gerald, she was still smiling.

"Now, you might all be wondering why I'm doing this, but first let me ask you all a question. Who here has stolen from the cafeteria before? Please raise your hand." she said.

Everyone looked at each other. They feared that if they raised their hands, then they would be the next target.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you or anything, my dears, I just want to know." she said.

Caden slowly raised his hand, he was guilty since he was the most recent to steal from the cafeteria, during the lunch period just before the incident had struck. Josef raised his hand as well, he didn't directly steal from the cafeteria, but since he accepted the food that Caden had stollen, he was an accomplice to his crime. Josh and Matt saw the two's courage and hesitantly raised their hands, they were the most guilty, as they raided the back rooms once or twice every week. Avery and Gerald, including the unconscious Serenity, were the only ones who didn't raise their hands, as they weren't guilty of any crimes, they were clean, they had never stolen anything before, nor broken any rules of the school, they were model students, model citizens.

"I applaud your honesty, my dears." she said. " But honesty doesn't pay the bills."

They felt nervous, her smiling face suddenly lost its cheerfulness and devolved into a face that showed no emotion.

"I am so stressed every day ever since the stealing became more rampant, there were so many bills to pay, so many staff to compensate, but even with the additional help from the school, we still struggled to make ends meet."

They began to sweat from nervousness as the lunch lady became angry, her face turned into a frown, and she spoke a bit louder.

"I've had enough! I can't stand all this misconduct anymore!. Every day I had to deal with this stupidity!" She sighed, and her face returned to normal. "Therefore, I will need your help, my dears. Many of my fellow lunch staff had quit when the pay was becoming scarce, and some of them.. had died, so I'm running out of manpower to help with food preparation, and that's where you come in, my dears. You will help me in preparing the food in order to pay me back for all the food that was stolen."

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They weren't following her, they couldn't understand. Why would she be talking about preparing food in this situation. Was she delusional? There wasn't any food left to prepare as they had already eaten almost all of it, plus there wasn't much of a crowd to feed as most of the students were... dead.

"Prepare food? What are we gonna prepare if there's no food left in the back rooms?" asked Matt.

"Huh? There's plenty of food stocked, my dear."

"What do you mean?" asked Matt.

"Isn't it obvious? The second storage room is filled to the brim with food."

They felt a cold chill down their spines.

"Wait, do you... mean that..."

"Yes, my dear, all that delicious raw meat on the shelves, the juicy innards, the meaty limbs, and even the heads in the storage room, you're going to prepare that."

They were all frozen. At first, they weren't sure if she was delusional, but at this moment, they were sure, the lunch lady is crazy, she must have been infected by the virus, a virus that could control people and turn them into murderous monsters that seek nothing but violence.

"Then... what do you mean by.. prepare?" asked Josef.

"Oh! I almost forgot to bring them out, wait here, my dears." said the lunch lady as she headed back into the back rooms.

They did nothing, they patiently awaited her return. They knew that they could have escaped at this moment, their escape route to the top window was still viable, but they couldn't leave Serenity, especially since she was still alive, and they doubt Gerald would be on board with escaping without her.

After a few minutes, Gerald was back on his feet, he was thinking straight again. He was a bit calmer now, but his anger still lingered deep inside. From the distance, they heard the sound of wheels rolling. They looked towards the back rooms and saw the lunch lady, pulling two large contraptions that were covered by a black tarp. There was also a large brown sack on top of them. She took the sack and placed it on the ground.

"Tadaa!" exclaimed the lunch lady as she unveiled the machines underneath the black tarp. Under it were two large meat grinders. The style of meat grinder underneath Serenity. The mouth of it was very large, it could fit an entire person. The lunch lady took the electric cord and plugged it into a wall socket. She pressed a button on the grinder, and it started to operate.

"Now, it's time for you to do your part, my dears. Don't worry, it's quite simple. You just need to drop the bodies in the mouth, wait for the grinder to do its magic, and collect the grinded meat in this sack."

The lunch lady didn't say anything as she left and headed back into the back rooms again. They simply stared at the grinder, imagining what they were going to do to their dead peers. They also wondered where the lunch lady got these grinders from, as they had already explored the back rooms and there weren't any grinders there before. They also wondered where Serenity was being kept, Josef observed the background on the TV, the room was white, so it couldn't have been in the second storage room since every wall was stained with blood, and it couldn't have been the first room since all the walls had shelves in front of them. But if that was the case, then where could Serenity be?

When the lunch lady returned, she carried two large garbage bags, which were both filled with something. She dropped the bags in front of them, she opened one, and pulled out a severed arm.

"Let me give you all a demonstration." she said.

She dropped the arm down the grinder's mouth, the grinder got to work, and after a few seconds, a grinded mush of pinkish red meat came out on the conveyor. They were all disgusted. Avery looked away. They all wanted to vomit.

"That's some nice fresh meat!" exclaimed the lunch lady. She grabbed the brown sack and placed it at the end of the conveyor, and the mush dropped down into the sack.

"This model is amazing, isn't it? It grinds the flesh and even the bones. Now that's a good source of calcium!" she said.

They felt sick.

"Easy enough, right?" she said. "Now get to work, my dears, I'll just be in the first storage room later. When the sack is full, bring it to me, and just yell when you run out of bodies to grind. I'll stay here for a bit to watch you take your first steps."

"What if we don't do it?" confidently asked Josh.

"I'm not really forcing you to cooperate, my dear, but there will be consequences if you don't." she said while looking at the TV screen.

They knew that they couldn't go against her, and so, they got to grinding.

Matt opened the garbage bag, it was filled with remains, a combination of everything that they saw in the second storage room, and it smelled terrible. He grabbed a severed leg with two fingers, using as little contact as he could. He hesitantly dropped it into the grinder's mouth, and mush appeared on the conveyor.

"Well done, my dear!" exclaimed the lunch lady. "Now it's your turn." she pointed at Josh.

He didn't look inside the garbage bag, he simply grabbed something at random. He felt something, it felt like hair. He pulled it out, and what he had grabbed was a severed head. It dangled from his hand, and the motion of him grabbing the hair made the head turn. He stood there, frozen, when he recognized whose severed head he was holding. It was the leader of the female delinquents.

"Go on, my dear, into the grinder." said the lunch lady.

He couldn't do it, he was still frozen in fear. He thought at first that this would be easy, he just needed to throw the bodies into the grinder. He only needed to turn his brain off and think that he was just throwing garbage in order to save his mind from the inhumane act that he would partake in. But a single glance at the delinquent's face was enough to make his resolve crumble.

He was shaking. He didn't know what to do. This was the very same girl that he carried in his arms during Mr. Fatmouth's trial. The very same girl that he sacrificed his clothes for in order to warm her up. At first, he wasn't that close to her, the only thing that made them similar was that they were both delinquents, they barely interacted with each other because they only hung out with people of the same gender, but after Mr. Fatmouth's trial, they felt like allies, comrades that helped each other survive the harsh challenge. But now, she was dead, reduced to just a severed head. Her other parts were probably still there, but it would be extremely difficult to tell them apart from the other severed limbs.

"Come on now, my dear, you can do it!" exclaimed the lunch lady as she placed her hand on his shoulder. He didn't notice that she was already that close to him.

Josh approached the grinder. He dangled the head of the delinquent above the mouth of the grinder, waiting for something to be ground and turned into mush. He froze in that position for a few seconds, but to him it felt like an eternity. He wasn't sure if he was going to do it. The girl is already dead, but he just couldn't do it, he didn't want to do it. It felt like he was going to do something terrible, which it was. If he did it, then he would feel as if there was no more coming back, he wouldn't be any different from the lunch lady, or the janitor.

Matt approached Josh, and he placed his hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Josh. It's for the best. We're doing this to save someone, just don't think about it, and it will all be alright."

He was right. Josh had just realized it. He was different from the murderous educators that roamed the school. They were doing horrendous acts just for fun, just to spill blood, but he and his friends were different. They are doing this in order to save Serenity, in order to save a life. At this moment, he didn't care. He didn't care if he was going to drop the head of someone he desperately tried to save into the grinder. He had his resolve back, he will do it, he will help in saving Serenity, he will survive this mess.

He closed his eyes and opened his hand, dropping the delinquent's head on the grinder as he muttered in his mind, "Forgive me."