Red. Humans connect this color with danger, a serious problem, or… death. The hallway which was previously white was now drenched in a scene of this color. The walls, the floor, and even the ceiling were painted in blood.
The moment Jim opened the door, he was assaulted by a heavy stench of iron hanging in the air. No matter where he looked, he could only see red, soon after the numerous corpses littered around the floor struck his eyes.
Every single one of them had slash wounds on them or holes put through their body, many had only one small and precise hole in the chest, but one corpse, in particular, struck Jim's eyes. In comparison to the rest, this one had a gaping wound on the stomach and a trail of his innards, stretched for meters along the floor.
Looking at this, Jim could only imagine what the scene looked like…
It was supposed to be a normal and boring school day. Noah just got to school and was absent-minded sitting in math class, when suddenly a bright light blinded him. Before he could recognize what was up and down, he laid on the ground with pain comparable to nothing he ever experienced before. After what felt like an eternity, he awakened.
Weakly, he stood up, and looking around himself, he noticed that his classmates were in a similar situation to his own. Not really understanding what was happening, he heard a ruckus coming from outside. Out of curiosity, he opened the door to look at what the chaos was about.
He took a step outside and was greeted by a few people frantically running away, and before he could even ask someone what was going on they were already gone. Only seconds later, the hallway was filled with students, and he got tangled up in the stream of people and was carried away, without even understanding what he was running for.
Still trying to understand what was happening, Noah suddenly heard a scream from behind, then another, and after a moment he could hear nothing else but the screams of people.
Curiosity and fear got the better of him. He had to know what was going on, and a quick peek behind his back couldn’t hurt, right? Sadly, this single moment, the moment where he got a glance of the situation, should be his last.
*Sweeeth*
Before Noah could even focus his eyes, or comprehend what he was seeing, a shadow rushed past him. Turning after the shadow, to see what rushed past him, he witnessed a very peculiar sight. Out of nowhere, students fell down one after the other, hitting the ground… dead.
Hyperventilating, Noah noticed his vision blurring. Trying to calm himself down, he took one weak step after another. A few steps later, he felt like all of his energy got drained away, like he had a hole somewhere through which he lost all of his energy. It was hard to breathe, and he didn’t feel well. He had to stand still and catch his breath for a moment. He pressed his hand on his chest to calm himself.
Feeling something wet, he looked at his hand and saw a deep red smeared all over it. Looking down, he suddenly realized that a curved slash wound went from his stomach up to his chest.
Seeing this gaping wound resembling a cliff, the blurring of his vision just got a lot worse, and it felt like he could not take another breath. That wasn’t supposed to be there, and Noah didn’t understand where he got that or what the hell was going on. What was this shit? Was he about to die?
He took a closer look to make sure that all of this wasn’t a dream, which was hard to do, when his vision was so blurry, but it seemed like there was something like a meaty sausage coming out of his wound.
Following the trail of the sausage, he looked behind him and finally realize what he just lost. Without ever really understanding the situation, he fell sidewise, while his vision finally turned black. His life slipped away like sand through an hourglass, and during his fall his last words escaped his mouth that sounded like a whisper, “What the fuck-?”
***
It was shocking to imagine what the death of each one of these students was like, but the number of corpses was shocking.
After Charlotte saw this scene and began to vomit, the others began to hesitate and Max asked, “Jim, what is out there?”
“Corpses, nothing but corpses. FUCK! How are we supposed to know what to do in his kind of situation?!” Ignoring the others, Jim had a small panic attack and started going in circles. To understand the situation better, everyone decided to have a look, they had to leave anyway.
One after the other, everyone looked out of the door. Many vomited, some could hold it in, but it was nevertheless a horrifying scene. Half of their classmates and teacher already died moments ago, but at least they kept everything that should be inside their bodies. They could avoid looking at the corpses in the classroom but the hallway? There was almost no space to look, where you wouldn’t find blood, organs, or limbs.
Everyone took a moment to realize what they had just seen, to somewhat calm down and try to make sense of the situation, while Clay was still looking outside. He looked almost lost in thought. Making sure everything was fine, Charlotte asked, “Clay?”
Taking a moment to answer, he looked at her and said, “Yes?”
“Did you find something, or why did you stare for so long?”
Taking a moment to think, he said, “Maybe.”
Annoyed at his secrecy, Max asked, “If you know something, just say it. Or did you just want to admire the corpses to find some inspiration for your next target?”
“Max!” Shocked by the unnecessary provocation from Max, Charlotte was about to scold him, but before she could do that Clay stood up, came face to face with Max, and asked, “Do you want to be the next, or what is your fucking problem?”
Pushing him back, he said, “My problem is that a fucking murderer is standing right beside us as if it was something normal!”
Chris stood beside Clay and was ready to help if needed. Before the situation could escalate even more, Jim intervened and screamed, “Enough! How old are you?” Turning to Max, he seriously said:
“Stop provoking Clay, it was an accident, and we have more pressing matters to attend to than the dead. There are dozens of corpses just outside the fucking door! I know that this situation is really fucked up, but our survival should be the top priority. We can mourn the dead later.”
Now turning to Clay, Jim came to a step close and said, “And why the fuck are you going with the provocation and threaten him to kill him? You should know best that killing someone isn’t a small matter, you can’t just run around threatening to kill someone!”
Looking down, Clay said, “S-Sorry. I didn’t want to threaten him. My emotions just got the better of me.”
Nodding, Jim turned back to Max and looked sternly at him. Breaking under the stare, he said, “Fine. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to rub salt in the wound, I’m just a bit on edge. It’s just that… I never saw someone dying before.”
Suddenly, Charlotte laid an arm around Jim’s and Max's shoulders and said, “Now that the drama of the dead is out of the way, can we please talk about how we can get out of here!”
Hearing this, Lukas came to word, who didn’t speak for a while. “I’m not really sure, but I guess that this light somehow changed… everything. I don’t know exactly what, but something in our body must have changed. I mean, judging from the size of the hawk that attacked us previously, something's clearly wrong.”
Pointing at the corpse, he explained, “I mean I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure a hawk never gets this big, and they would never crash through a window to attack humans.”
Joining the explanation, Clay said, “I also believe some sort of mutation must have happened in each one of us. What it does to humans I don’t know yet, but animals seem to heavily mutate, especially in size.”
Nodding her head, Charlotte said, “That indeed makes sense, but what exactly killed all the students outside? I mean, what animal in a school can cut so cleanly through flesh, the wounds almost looked like they were done by a sword.”
Correcting, Clay said, “Not a sword but a claw. The wounds could have been done by a sword but for that, the angle is too weird or far apart. The only possible explanation is that a mutated animal killed everyone.”
“That makes sense, but what animal has claws like that?” Asked Charlotte with concern.
“That is why I looked at the corpse for so long. After thinking about it, I could only think of one animal that could do such wounds and is in the school. At first, I thought it was maybe the cat of our principal, but that didn’t make sense as there would be more claw marks and not singular slash marks resembling a sword or holes in the chest.
Thinking a bit more about it, the only animal that comes to my mind is a heavily mutated spider. It is very fast and agile, more than enough to quickly dispose of some running students. If increased in size, its legs would certainly be big enough to be used as weapons.”
Intervening, Lukas said, “That is impossible, spiders don’t use their legs as weapons, and they are certainly not sharp enough to slice so easily through flesh. Also, would a spider really increase that much in size?”
Nodding his head, Clay said, “Yes, that would be right if we are talking about a normal spider, but it’s not. We don’t know what everything can change after a mutation and spiders use their legs to attack, just that their teeth are more effective.
Meaning that this spider most likely doesn’t use poison, as it relies on its legs, which is good for us. Also, the spider doesn’t have to be big. Just a meter in height would be enough to kill us, humans. Our body is not famous for its defense.”
“Okay, that really could be the case. We don’t know the changes this mutation can do, after all. More important is not what we have to fight, but how are we going to fight it? No matter which monster awaits us, how are we supposed to kill it without weapons?” Jake asked with worry written all over his face.
Thinking for a moment, Chris said, “We could go to the storeroom, take some supplies and then head out through the backdoor to reach the storage of the gardening club.”
Confused, Lukas asked, “What weapon is in the storage of the gardening club? A shovel?”
“No, a machete.”
“Why the fuck does the gardening club have a machete?” Asked Lukas confused.
Shrugging his shoulders, Chris said, “I don’t know. A friend of mine, who is in the gardening club, just told me about it, because he is in charge of the storage.”
Joining the conversation, Jim said, “For now, I think that is the best plan of action. We first get a proper weapon and then we look further. We can’t waste any more time here, every single second we think is a second more people are dying and possibly more animals coming to the school. Furthermore, we need foremost a place that can give us some sort of protection and safety.”
Grabbing the broom which stood beside the bin everyone vomited in, Jim asked, “Are you prepared to go?”
Shaking her head, Charlotte said, “No I’m not prepared to die and fight for my life but I sure as hell don't want to die. I’m way too young and pretty to die here. Also, what do you want with this broom?”
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“It’s a better weapon than nothing, right?”
Shaking her head she said, “I guess so,” looking at the others she asked, “Are you coming or not?”
Seeing Charlotte's carefree and cheerful behavior coming back, everyone felt better, and a more cheerful mood came to the group. The morale was high or at least as high as it could get in such a situation and ready or not they had to move.
They carefully opened the door and began to walk through the hallway. The sight of all the corpses was still disgusting and horrifying, but they just tried to ignore it and focus on what was in front of them.
Jim was at the front and never before in his life so nervous and tense. Without him noticing, he grabbed the broom so hard that it was almost breaking. His nerves were completely on edge as the group walked in the hallway. Never in his life was Jim so concentrated on something.
I’m really impressed by Clay’s and Lukas's ability to get so much information from the corpses of our classmates. They said they aren’t sure, but I believe that we are definitely fighting against a spider or something similar in physique.
Their school only had one huge staircase, so if this mutated animal was waiting at the stairs, they would have a big problem. Luckily, as they navigated through the hallways, the group didn't see any spiders, monsters, or other humans.
At least not living ones. The corpses everywhere didn't make the situation better. Especially when they reorganized some of the faces.
I wish I could grieve about the lost lives a little longer, or at least make a grave or something. But we really don't have the time to worry about others, I promise I’m coming back later. I have an awful feeling about this whole situation.
Thinking this, Jim and the others increased their pace and after some more meters Jim could see that the wounds for some of the corpses changed. The wounds looked more like claw marks and not like slashes.
Shit. Of course, there are multiple mutated animals, and we don’t even have a guess about this one. We probably don’t stand a chance against either, so our top priority is to avoid everything dangerous we see.
The group walked further on and made it safely to the staircase.
*Bad…ump*
Jim’s heart made a jump as he saw a beast just a few meters away from the staircase, sleeping. Taking a more careful look, he realized that it was not sleeping but already dead. They carefully made their way over to examine it better.
The beast strongly resembled a cat. It had beautiful white fur, and very deadly claws, and was, like their assumption way bigger than it should be, it looked more similar to a small tiger in size than a cat. After a closer look, Jim realized that this was the cat from their school principal.
Then we can at least cross this from the list of possible threats. This also means that the previous corpses were probably done by this cat. The biggest problem is that the wounds on the corpse of the cat look oddly similar to those of the students in front of our classroom.
Looking at Clay, Jim wanted to speak about his discovery, but he already nodded his head and said, “I already noticed it. We have to get moving.”
Quickly making their way to the stairs and carefully going down one step at a time, they soon reached the ground floor and got as fast as they could to the storeroom, as it was only a few meters away from the staircase.
Rushing in front of the door, Max opened it and everyone got in. They arrived safely at the storeroom and quietly closed the door behind them. Hearing the door fall in its lock, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Taking a moment, Jim soon found the light switch and turned it on. After they got in the storeroom, everyone rested for a while to calm their nerves. The thought of a beast that could kill you at any time is really nerve-wracking.
Taking a moment to take the whole place in, everyone soon began to look for anything useful, they all had their school bags, so storage was not a problem, but they needed to decide what to get. After about ten minutes, everything that could be useful was placed on one of the tables in the room.
Standing in a loose circle around the table, Lukas summarized their findings. “So like we thought there was one medical pack, some ropes, flashlights, and some tools. Is that really everything?”
“Did you expect some great weapons or some food and water?” Asked Charlotte sarcastically.
Shaking his head Lukas said, “I know that most of the things a school stores are papers but I had some hope we would find a bit more. I mean every storeroom has some junk in it. At least we can use the tools as weapons I guess.”
Taking a screwdriver from the table Jim said, “That is at least better than nothing. We shouldn’t waste too much time and go to the garden.”
“But do we really have to?” Hearing the question everyone turned their attention to Charlotte, “I mean why bother with finding weapons if we could just leave the school? On our way down here I didn’t see any other animal, so what is stopping us from just leaving through the door?”
“Ah yes and after we go outside we defend ourselves with what?” Asked Max
Shrugging, Charlotte said, “I don’t know, the tools maybe? I mean I just want to leave and find some more people, with higher numbers our survival is going to be higher.”
Hearing this, Jake said, “Now that you say it, isn’t it a little to quit? I mean sure there are now monsters running around the school, but we also survived it so should there be at least some people at the school?”
"Probably, but they would be just as silent as us when fucking monsters are out there," said Jim with worry.
While everyone else was discussing, Chris was silently opening a small slit of the door to look outside.
“Wha-”
Before finishing his sentence, Chris stopped himself and looked with wide-open eyes outside. Just in front of the main exit was an almost completely black spider. The slightly curved legs with sharp edges and spiky ends were almost completely dyed blood-red. He could see remains of human flesh on the bloody mouth of the spider.
The spider had a weird blue pattern on his back which resembled a blooming flower but with very sharp teeth. It looked to be about a meter in height. Suddenly, the spider blurred in front of Chris' eyes. The next moment he only saw a shadow shooting in one direction so fast that he could almost not see it. In seconds, the spider appeared on a pillar on the other side of the hall.
At this moment, the sun shone through the main door, which led to Chris seeing something sparkle in the air. Taking a closer look, he almost cursed. It turned out that almost the complete hallway was littered with very fine threads that were barely visible to the naked eye.
Chris silently continued to observe the spider in hopes of finding a weak point. Shortly after, the spider suddenly turned in a direction before shooting off with great speed. Something must have walked in his threads.
It went from a stand to a full sprint in just a second. Chris carefully turned around to his group and said with a grim face. "Guys, I think we need a proper weapon if we want to get out of here."
Confused, everyone looked at Chris, who was previously completely ignored. Clay broke the silence and asked with a wary face. “What is it?”
“I just saw what probably killed most of our classmates and the cat,” said Chris with a look of horror on his face. Impatiently, Max asked, “Okay, and is it a spider?”
Nodding his head with a grim face, he said, "Yes, and I don't like what I saw. Clay was right, it is a spider of about one meter in height, but what frightens me is not its size but its speed. I don't know how strong this thing is, but logically thinking, it shouldn't be that strong or durable. We only have to watch out for its speed and sharp legs."
"Okay, more reason to just grab our legs and start running, right? We don't need a weapon if we just flee." Said Charlotte with hope.
Hearing this, Chris shook his head with a hopeless expression. "We can’t do that. The problem is that the spider has littered the complete first floor with its threads. It is a miracle we didn't touch any on our way here. We definitely can't escape the school without alerting the spider.”
“So to summarize, we have to kill a spider several times faster than us if possible in one hit, as it would otherwise kill us?” Asked Jake with a frown. Seeing Chris nod, he threw his hands in the air. “Great, the way I see it, our only option is to ambush it.”
Nodding his head, Lukas said, “That is probably our best shot. We have seen the carnage that this thing has left behind, so it is the one who hits first that is going to win.”
Nodding Charlotte added, “For us to be able to kill it in one hit a proper weapon like a machete is probably best so we go now to the garden I assume? I really don’t want to stay here any longer than I need, so can we please get going?”
Agreeing with the urgency of the situation, the group made their way outside. The storeroom luckily had a backdoor leading outside, which was not far from the garden. Outside stood some trash cans and Clay grabbed one of the lids.
Confused, Max asked, “What the fuck are you doing?” Shrugging, he said, “That is a better shield than nothing, and I will use everything I have to get an advantage.” Rolling his eyes, Max ignored him and continued.
Luckily for the group, they didn't meet the spider or any other resistance on their way to the garden and after briefly supervising the vicinity and confirming that it was safe, they got quietly to the wooden house.
Jim slowly opened the door, and before he could inspect the inside, he saw how a shadow came flying at his head. Good for Jim that he was on high alert and managed to avoid the shovel barely by shifting his body to the right.
Startled by the person holding the shovel that was just about to hit Jim, Chris asked, "Dennis!?"
Only now did Jim realize that in front of him, a little boy with raven black hair, dark brown eyes, and a very thin body held a shovel between his trembling hands.
The person described almost cried out as he ran to Chris and said, "Chris, is that you? Thank god you are alive. I thought you would die after I saw this bird crash through the window of your classroom.”
“I’m happy to see you, but what are you doing here, and where is the rest?” asked Chris with concern.
“I didn't know where I should go, so I just hid in the wooden house, hoping help would arrive. Everyone was screaming and running around like it was the start of some apocalypse. But why are you here? How is everyone else? Is help on its way?"
"Calm down, Dennis, everything is fine now. Let me explain," said Chris with a calming voice.
Chris explained briefly everything about the whole situation, Dennis grew more and more shocked, but was able to keep his calm. Afterward, he asked, “More importantly, is this machete you told me about in the past, still in the house?”
Nodding his head hurriedly, Dennis said, "Of course! Wait for a moment." He quickly turned around to go back into the house and rummaged in it for a good minute. Afterward, he came out with a shiny machete.
"Do you mean this machete?”
"Yes, that is perfect." Said Jim before Chris could say anything. He carefully grabbed it and admired it in the sunlight. Jim thought Dennis would come out with an old, rusty, and used machete. Surprisingly, he was greeted with the opposite.
The machete had a beautifully crafted black blade, which even had some carefully inscribed patterns in silver color flowing along it, like a lightning crashing down from the sky. It shined like it was polished and fitted perfectly in Jim's hand. He swung it around a little bit to get a better feeling for the weapon.
Looking at Dennis in disbelief, Jim asked, "Why does our school even have such a wonderfully crafted machete?"
"Oh, you probably don't know, but our facility manager was a war veteran and was more than once dispatched to a jungle where this machete helped him out. In one of its last missions, a thunderstorm raged, and he could only survive because of this machete, this is why he commissioned a master blacksmith to inscribe the blade with this lightning pattern.
After his retirement, he stored it in this little wooden house because his wife didn't want to have something so dangerous in her house when they got their first kid. She thought it could hurt itself one day. He sometimes comes to the garden just to clean the blade in memory of his fallen comrades." Said Dennis with a sad expression on his face.
"Wow, I didn't expect that our old and grumpy facility manager had such a tragic backstory. I hope he can forgive me for using his blade, but we have to survive, and this weapon is going to be the key to that." Said Jim with anticipation and hope in his eyes.
Dennis asked with a little wary expression. "So, this spider you told me about. How exactly do you plan to kill it?"
"The only thing which comes to my mind is to lay a trap for it. The problem is how we are going to do this when the spider can react way faster than us," said Jim with a puzzled look on his face.
Jake had an idea as he said. "We could use the web of the spider to our own advantage. We just need someone that touches the web in the main hall so that the spider comes. Immediately afterward, he will run into the storeroom, and after it enters, someone will slash with the machete from behind the spider to cut it in hal-."
Lukas interrupted him. "That would never work. What if the spider arrived faster than expected and killed the person touching the web directly or dashed to the ceiling after entering and afterwards kills one after the other? We need some sort of distraction for the spider only then, does Jim have a real chance of hitting it before it realizes something is wrong."
After some thinking, Chris came up with an idea. "Okay, I have an idea. We could use one of the corpses to distract it. When the spider comes into the room, it will see the corpse in the room and is going to get near it to investigate.
For the spider, it would be surely weird if there was a corpse in a room close to where its web was triggered. It would then investigate the corpse to make sure it is really dead. When the spider confirms that the body is dead, it will most likely relax for a moment. At this exact moment, Jim will come from behind the door and cut it in half."
“That still doesn’t solve the problem of its speed. How can we guarantee that it doesn’t arrive before someone reaches the room?” asked Lukas.
“We can’t guarantee it, but I saw the spider. It was fast, yes, but not so fast that someone wouldn’t be able to run a few meters, while the spider is god knows where. We could also just use the rope in the room to hinder its movement. That is the best I could think of, or do you have a better plan?” asked Chris.
Noticing him shaking his head, Jim intervened and said, “I think the plan is good enough. I think speed is of importance here before the spider can find us, and it is better than nothing. Or does anyone disagree?”
Seeing that no one disagreed, Jim and his group settled for this plan. Shortly after, they got back to the storeroom. Clay opened the door and got inside, while Jim held it open for the others. Just as Jim looked back to him, he could see something glint in the air.
*spyk*
A small string snapped and before Jim could process what was happening he already started running to Clay and pushed Lukas out of the way who was about to enter the door. He wanted to warn Clay.
"CLAY RU-!!!"
He was too late. Before he could even finish his sentence, a shadow shot out from one of the corners of the room. Within seconds, the shadow already reached Clay and collided with him.