Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, it was all grinding. Three hours had passed, but they could do nothing but grind. They couldn't go against the monstrous strength of the lunch lady. They feared being killed, they feared dying a meaningless death, but they still feared leaving their friend behind. They had many opportunities to escape, but they chose not to.

The lunch lady was always in the backrooms, only coming to the cafeteria to empty the sack we filled with human mush, and to bring us the next bodies to grind. She didn't let us into the back rooms. Caden had tried to go there a while ago in order to sneak a peek at what the lunch lady was doing, it was quite brave of him, but stupid at the same time, as the lunch lady somehow noticed his presence and pushed him back into the cafeteria.

Her smile, her devilish smile, didn't leave her face, she had been smiling ever since. The angry expression that she made back then may have been a one-off thing. Josef respected her in that regard. He found it quite difficult to smile constantly for a long time, but the lunch lady did it with ease. Maybe it was just because he wasn't that expressive to begin with, but he still found it amazing how a person could smile like that, especially in this bloody situation, but it may just be because of the virus.

As of this moment, they didn't really know the specific effects of the virus. All they knew was that it could make them follow someone's, probably the principal's, orders. But no one knew if it could affect their personalities and thinking.

The lunch lady approached them, carrying the next garbage bag filled with remains, she expected them to grind them up into mush as well, and they did, they had to, they didn't have a choice, it was either they followed her orders to a tee or Serenity would be the one getting ground into mush.

They were drained, the fire of survival in their eyes burned out, it's as if they turned into cogs in a machine, in an endless loop, following what they were told. Grind, grind, grind, they did nothing but grind.

They didn't even eat, as there wasn't any food left. The lunch lady did provide them with food, she was even kind enough to grill it for them, but they already knew what the "food" was made out of as they were the ones who were responsible for preparing it.

They were starving, weak, and tired, both physically and mentally. They mindlessly dropped the human remains in the grinders' mouth and watched as the mush was dragged away by the conveyors, dropping it into the sack, slowly filling it yet again with rancid pinkish ground meat. It was disgusting, it was vile, yet they were already desensitized to it. They had grown used to it, seeing death, seeing all these horrendous things, seeing their peers die, seeing their friends get beaten around, seeing their friends being captured, they thought they had seen it all.

The boys did all the grinding, they had stopped Avery from participating as they didn't want her to be subjected to such torture to the mind, especially Josef, who had stopped her on multiple occasions from getting close to the grinder, since he was her boyfriend after all.

She did object to this, saying that she wanted to at least help lessen the burden, but they prevented her from coming close. They didn't want her to join, it was for her own good. She may seem tough and smart on the outside, but she was still human, a woman even. It wasn't discrimination, but they simply didn't want her to experience such atrocious deeds, they knew it would haunt her for life. They felt concerned for her well-being, but not as much as the worry they had for Gerald.

He had been silent this entire time, mindlessly doing the gruesome task at hand, he was the most affected out of all of them. His girlfriend was hanging on for dear life, the only thing that separated her from life and death was the rope that bound her, preventing her from falling to her demise. The grinder below her was still on, the agape mouth awaited for something to fall down into it, and it just might happen soon.

Two hours later.

"Hello? Where am I?"

Gerald felt his senses coming back, he heard a familiar voice, so familiar that it brought his brain back to life. A minute ago, he felt like a mindless zombie, but now he was rejuvenated, revived back to his former self. Even with the anxious and nervous tone in the voice, it soothed him, it made his mind clear, it energized him.

"Hello!? Is anyone there?"

Gerald turned around and looked at the TV screen. It was Serenity, she was awake. He felt so relieved that she was okay, she was doing fine, the lunch lady hadn't hurt her physically, nor tortured her mentally. She was alive and well.

At first he was scared that she was already dead in the first place, forcing them to work for a false hope, but now the hope that he held onto was real, it was alive and well. After hours of being tortured mentally, hours of being drained of his humanity, he formed a smile, a genuine smile, out of relief and happiness.

Their situation didn't change one bit, but the tiny bit of hope turned this nightmare into a challenge. He yearned to complete the task and was now focused on grinding the hell out of those corpses and paying back the lunch lady. As of this moment, the dead didn't matter to him, it didn't matter if he trampled on their corpses or ground them into dust, as long as he could use them as a stepping stone in order to reach his beloved.

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Serenity repeatedly called out to nothingness, the lunch lady was in the first storage room, forming the meat into patties and meat links, while the gang was in the cafeteria, but Serenity's location was still unknown. Gerald didn't react to her questions, since doing so would result in nothing, he simply focused on his task and grinded away, but in his head, he was yearning to talk to her again.

"I'm right here, honey."

"It's alright, we'll be ok."

"I'm alive and well."

"I'm coming to save you."

He had replied all of these to her in his head.

Three hours later.

"Alright, my dears, that's enough for today, here's dinner, you all should eat up so you have energy for tomorrow's quota." said the lunch lady as she placed a plate filled with grilled patties on the floor.

They glanced at the food once and never again. They already knew what they had eaten before, they felt sick, they felt hungry, and they felt tired. But it wasn't enough for them to result in cannibalism. They had already accepted the fact that they were cannibals, since they had already eaten a fair share of human meat, but it was accidental, they didn't know, and they won't do it anymore, especially now that they know the truth. It didn't matter to them if they would starve to death, as long as they could hold onto the last remaining humanity left within them. They slept on the floor, cold, tired, and hungry.

The next day, it was back to grinding. They spent the entire morning grinding away. They still hadn't eaten a single bite of anything since they first met the lunch lady. They couldn't take it anymore, they were so hungry, but they forced themselves to stand, they still powered through it, They were stronger than this, they had a goal they wanted to reach, they had someone to save, the fight isn't over until all of them are dead. They were determined to survive.

But as Josef took a quick glance behind him, another thing added to their worries. Avery had collapsed, be it from the lack of food or from the mental torture of their task. At least the latter was less likely since they had prevented her from participating. Josef dropped the severed arm that he was just about to grind and rushed to Avery, almost tripping on the garbage bag filled with the human remains in the process. He held her in his arms.

"Avery!" he yelled. It alerted everyone, including the lunch lady.

Before the others could even react or say anything, they heard heavy footsteps approaching—it was the lunch lady. She burst out of the back rooms and ran to the fallen student.

"My gosh, what happened here?" asked the lunch lady.

"I... I don't know, she just collapsed out of nowhere." said Josef.

"Let me take a look, my dear." she said as she bent down in order to inspect Avery.

As if she were a trained nurse, the lunch lady carefully examined her, taking her pulse and measuring her temperature with her forehead.

"She probably collapsed from starvation." said the lunch lady.

"But.. she was eating as much as we were before, and we're still going strong." said Matt.

"Everyone is different, my dear. Some people can't handle being deprived of food. Either their bodies aren't used to it or couldn't adapt in time, or they simply burn energy way faster than normal. Whatever the reason is, she still collapsed."

She sounded sincere, like a teacher discussing a lesson to eager students. If you didn't know the context, she would seem like an ordinary person, one who was concerned for the girl, which indeed she was, but that still wouldn't change the fact that she was making them grind people into mush, and holding one of their friends hostage.

"Sadly, she can't help you with the task anymore." she said as she stood up, carrying Avery in her arms.

"Wait! Where are you taking her?" asked Josef.

"Don't worry, my dear, I'm going to take care of her for the time being."

"Are you really going to take care of her? Or are you going to hold her hostage as well?" said Josef with a serious tone.

"You could say both, my dear. But I do promise that I won't do anything to her. I will simply nurse her back to full health until she is healthy enough to join you again. The more help, the better."

"How exactly are you going to nurse her then?" asked Caden.

"Obviously, I'm going to feed her, which is the one thing she's lacking."

"Don't tell me... You mean... feed her.. 'food'?" said Josh.

The lunch lady said nothing, she simply smiled and walked away.

"Wait!" yelled Josef. He tried to reach out to the lunch lady, but as he took a step, he tripped on the same garbage bag that he almost tripped on a moment ago.

Before he got up, he realized that it was for the best. Even if he had gotten Avery back, what could he do about her condition. They didn't have anything to feed her, no food, no vitamins. They only had water, but water wouldn't be enough to help Avery. Even if the lunch lady was going to feed her human meat, it was still for the best, as they didn't have the courage to feed Avery the meat themselves. If it meant her surviving, Josef would leave it up to other people, seeing that the lunch lady had the means to help help her. He was still not confident in himself.

"Hey! Stop!" yelled Caden as he approached the lunch lady, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't order me around, my dear. You don't want to be kicked, do you?" she said as her smile widened.

Caden froze in fear. He couldn't do anything. The lunch lady walked away and disappeared from view as she entered the back rooms.

"Dude! Josef! Aren't you going to stop her?" said Josh.

Josef stood up slowly, but he was still facing the ground. "It's for the best."

"What do you mean it's for the best? She's going to feed her human meat!"

Josef didn't respond. He went back near the grinder, picked up the severed arm he had dropped earlier, and continued doing his work.

After a brief moment of silence while looking at Josef, they didn't bother him any further. They didn't agree with his decision, but they knew that he had it the worst since she was his girlfriend after all. Gerald placed his hand on Josef's shoulder, comforting him. He knew what Josef must be going through, they were in the same boat. The loneliness, the desperation, the self-loathing, they both experienced it.

"We'll get through this." said Gerald

They all went back to work.