Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

What happens when a person desperately tries to keep a dying dream, afloat?



                                                                                                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m75ZPodyc5k

Chapter Text

It was weird...I don't know what it was, but Logan uploaded a video a while ago. A video that not a single person was able to save before it got deleted. It's still unknown whether Logan deleted it himself or just that Youtube took it down due to violating some sort of rule. But...the video is gone now, and nobody can ever truly see it again.

There's only a screenshot saved and a really badly recorded video that showed a small portion of the actual short video that Logan made. And even so. It still left me confused and wondering just what the video was about...?

Here's a video I made that talks about it, the sources of each media is left unknown. What was Logan trying to say?

https://youtu.be/9pmaOgK6uYA

Chapter Text

A cough is heard, before being followed by a voice. A voice, of which expressed sorrow and regret.

"I'll never forget you. Nina...your beautiful eyes, your lovely black hair. And that soft, translucent skin of yours...!"

And then, the sorrow and regret, turned into boiling anger.

"And Nina. I'll never forgive the guys that put you in this situation....it's-"

Wake up...

Upon hearing such a unrecognizable voice, one that could send vibrations down your spine. A man opens his eyes, full of confusion.

Only to be met by the sight of something horrible, straight out of a nightmare. Set in the deepest pits of hell.

A giant decapitated head, with burnt darkened red skin. Floated over the man, giving him a unearthly smile. Lips that extended to heights that shouldn't have been possible. Showing sets of rotten and bloody teeth. Staring at the man, with deep black soulless eyes.

The man stared at the horrifying head for a few seconds, feeling his heart race up in an instant. Feeling a coldness that stung his body.

The head, only spoke one question.

What is your name?

An odd voice came out. Reversed and unnerving to the soul. Something that shouldn't be understood, yet the man did understand. And he wasn't sure know.

All he could focus on, was the terrifying smile that the giant head gave him after the question. Like a gleeful person, ready to make a new friend at work.

But this didn't feel like a friend.

This was a nightmare.
-

He woke up with a startled gasp, waking up in a sweat from that horrible vision of...whatever that was.

...

Where am I....?

His very first thought in his own head, he would stare directly at nothing ahead of him at first. Until he held his head and began to look around. Noticing a rather unfamiliar location, one that he obviously didn't know about.

It was a forest...well, rather a unlively looking one. One with dead looking grass and trees, setting off a unnerving atmosphere. Combined that with the lack of lighting. It wasn't a ideal spot for a family picnic, that's for sure.

He began to look both ways, before immediately standing up. As of by instinct. He stood idly on his spot and kept looking at both ways for a seemingly long time. Until looking ahead with a confused face. This wasn't...making much sense to him.

"Ughhh...what's going on...?"

Upon hearing a groan from behind. The man slowly turned around and saw...another man, just sitting on the ground and rubbing on the top of his bald head. It was odd how he never saw him until now.

It was a balding man, probably around his mid 30s. Rubbing on his head and looking quite irritated by this predicament.

The man silently stared at the other man, not saying much. Rather taking a cautious stand, keeping his distance away from this stranger...who didn't look that much threatening. Considering by their rather short height and chubby weight. And their...pitiful position.

The balding man, quickly looked both ways and then immediately towards the other, taller man. Before asking in a disturbed voice. "W-...who are you...where am I at?!"

He received no answer from the taller man, who just kept observing him with a stoic look on his eyes. As if he was studying him, or more like judging him. He couldn't tell behind those tired eyes.

"Ughhh..."

Slowly turning his head around, he quickly spotted another pair of strangers. One of them was on their knees already. They were teenagers, the one awake was a girl with an unusual hair color. A purplish hair, stylized in two long pigtails. She was slowly picking her glasses off the ground.

"What is...this?" she slowly asked, her voice filled with uncertainty and no clarity. Her face freezing upon seeing two adult men standing nearby. Which made her eyebrows narrow out of concern. Hee next question coming out in a cautious, yet nervous tone. "Who...are you...both?"

While the taller man didn't respond and only gave her a confused look. The shorter, bald man stood up.

"What the...aren't you...?" his voice was uncertain, like a puzzle he couldn't solve. But was on the verge of doing so, until his eyes went over to the other teenager on the ground. His eyes widening out of surprise, as he let out a semi-loud. "Hey!"

The other man watched as the bald man ran towards the girl on the ground. The girl with the purple hair quickly stepped away like lighting, even if she was nowhere near him. His frantic reaction was enough to put her on the edge. They both watched as the man took a kneel and began to shake the unconscious girl awake.

"Come on, wake up!" he would frantically shake her and constantly say. "Wake up, wake up! You have to-"

The girl inevitably woke up with a jolt. And without a warning, she punched the man in his big nose and sent him standing up. Much to the surprise of the two others.

"Ough!" the man groaned and held onto his nose, before looking at the girl with frustration. "What was that for?!"

"WHO THE HECK ARE YOU GUYS?!" the girl, one with a light brown dress and...bunny ears. Angrily asked and held her fists up at everyone. Glaring at them with a very big frown.

"U-ugh...my nose...!" the man grumbled and rubbed on his nose with gritted teeth.

The anger from the girl's face then dropped. Instead it was replaced with genuine surprise and confusion. "Marvin...is that you?"

"A-Almond?" Marvin gave her a concerned look and stopped rubbing on his nose then. "What's...what's going on here?"

"Wha-...hey!" Almond looked around her surroundings and was left confused even further. "Where the HECK am I at?!"

"That's what I was asking..." Marvin grumbled lowly.

"Marvin!" Almond turned to face the balding man. "WHERE AM I?"

"I literally don't know!" Marvin told her with a irritated look.

"Shouldn't you know?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

"How am I supposed to know something that I can't even..." Marvin stopped midway with a deep sigh, holding onto his face and shaking his head at the girl. Almond just scratched her head and looked around some more.

"Okaaay..." the girl with the purple hair then sighed deeply, a sigh that seemed more tired than anything. "Here we go again...great"

"Don't...don't I know you too...?" Marvin slowly asked the girl with a lost expression.

"I'm afraid of saying yes..." the girl flatly said and crossed her arms. Seemingly impatient by now.

"Heeey..." Almond's hand moved under her chin and tilted her head with a perplexed look. As she slowly spoke to the other girl. "I feel like I've seen you before, too..."

"Wow...that's new" the girl sarcastically muttered under her breath, before taking a deep breath and finally asking. "Can someone just tell me what's going on now? Am I stuck in another...stupid freaking game or something?"

"Oh God no!" Marvin said dreadfully and held the sides of his head with worry.

"Another one...OH, you mean..." Almond paused, looking quite annoyed with the idea. It seems like all three shared the same concern.

All but that other man, who was just left confused and lost with everything. Especially with Almond, who unlike him and the other two. She was a bunny, with long ears and a pinkish nose. And the fact that nobody was questioning it.

The three of them stood still for a moment, and kept looking around the eerie forest. Until eventually. Marvin asked this.

"S-so...where are we?" he nervously asked and rubbed his arm. His eyes darting left to right, a bit unnerved.

"I don't know..." the purple haired girl admitted with a sigh.

"Hey, who are you again?" Almond asked her.

"Lilith" she briefly introduced herself and kept looking around the trees.

"Cool cool, and I'm Almond" Almond pointed her thumb at herself, before pointing it at Marvin. "Baldy there is Marvin, we kinda uh...know each other"

"Did you REALLY have to call me baldy...?" Marvin gave her a tired look.

"Am I wrong though?" Almond countered with a smirk. Marvin just grumbled and covered his head with one hand.

"And...you are?" Lilith asked, turning to the other adult. Which made both Marvin and Almond look as well.

The other man then looked at each person and looked away, considering his answer for a minute.

"Yeah, who the heck are you supposed to be?" Almond asked in a demanding voice.

"Yeah, who are you!" Marvin joined in too.

The man eventually sighed and revealed his name to them all.

"Dwight Murdoch..." he softly spoke, his voice having a bit of edge to it. Sort of lacking in energy too. His eyes turned away from the three and a frown seen on his lips.

"Dwight Murdoch..." Almond raised her eyebrow, before looking at Marvin. "I forgot that you humans have weird names....at least it's better than Marvin. I guess?"

"Really?" Marvin gave her a flat look. "It's been years since we met and this is how you're acting towards me?"

"I am JUST saying...gosh!" Almond rolled her eyes at the exaggerated reaction.

"...Why didn't you say your full names?" Dwight asked.

"What?" Lilith gave him a look.

Dwight points his finger at Marvin and Almond. "You both didn't state your full names, unlike us..."

"What...?" Marvin looked both ways, before awkwardly saying. "Uh...well...my full name is Marvin Marvin...does that work for you?"

"Marvin MARVIN?!" Almond turned her head with surprise. "THAT'S your actual last name...are you serious?!"

"And what's wrong with it?" Marvin asked.

"Geez...be creative at least. Like...seriously, it's just your name repeated two times" Almond rolled her eyes with a unimpressed look.

"Oh yeah?" Marvin raised his eyebrow with a grumpy look. "And just what's YOUR last name?"

"What..." Almond then blinked twice, a bit taken back by the question. "Ummm...I don't have a last name...maybe...like...Almond...Cabbage...Lord...Cabbage...ummmm...."

"How are you gonna make fun of me when you don't even have a last name!" Marvin questioned her.

"It's not like I need one..." Almond shrugged nonchalantly.

"Right..." Dwight gave them a stern look, before turning around to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Lilith asked, standing still with her arms crossed.

"I really don't have time to deal with you all...just go home" Dwight told them, a bit vaguely as he proceeded to leave the group. And make his way onto an open path.

"Seriously?" Almond gave him a frown, before calling out. "Well okay, go away! It's not like we need you!"

"Why are you being so rude?" Marvin gave her a concerned look. Almond just shrugged in return. Marvin grumbled before shaking his head. "Y-you know...I don't feel safe around here. I'll...I'll just take the same pathway as that guy..."

"Could you give me a ride?" Almond asked, as she held her hip and looked around. "I think I'm lost...just a hunch"

"I don't know if this is supposed to be New York...but I'm leaving either way" Lilith sighed and began to follow after Dwight Murdoch. Marvin immediately follows behind with a gulp. Almond following closely by too.
-

Dwight Murdoch. Marvin. Lilith Henderson and Almond, all walked together in the same pathway. Trees surrounding them on each side, giving off a very unwelcoming vibe to each one of them.

This place...the atmosphere and the sky. None of it felt right at all. Dwight looked up at the sky, it was red and almost static like. There were black clouds above, odd depressions that floated up there. They all heard odd sounds coming from somewhere by. And it was almost dead dark in the forest. It felt like something out of a...horror movie.

Lilith looked around and held her arms, seeming a bit disturbed by the scenery. "This reminds me of the time when we all went camping, and Julia started telling stupid scary stories...just that we're missing a small bridge to walk under"

"I...I feel really nervous" Marvin admitted with a anxious look.

"BOO!" Almond yelled behind the man.

"AHHH!" Marvin jumped and held his heart, watching as Almond laughed at his pathetic state. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! YOU SCARED ME!"

Almond eventually calms her laughter down and wipes her eye. "Gosh...you're still a scaredy cat. Marvin..."

"That's not funny..." Marvin grumbled at her.

Dwight eventually stopped and turned around to ask. "Why are you all following me?"

Lilith stopped too and raised her eyebrow at him. "We're not following you, this is just the only clear pathway in the forest..."

Dwight looked back then, noticing that she was right. "Oh, yeah...you're right"

"You're telling us to get lost, huh. Dwight MURDOCH" Almond exaggerated the man's name.

"No..." Dwight began with a small sigh, before explaining himself. "I just don't know what to do...I don't mind if you follow me, but...do you know where your homes are?"

"I think...so?" Marvin began, though seemingly uncertain with himself. He looks around again and says. "I just kinda don't know where I'm at, currently..."

"I guess you'll have to ask for directions, whenever we get to the main road" Dwight said, before continuing to walk away.

"Marv, you still giving me a ride?" Almond asked and continued on with everyone else.

"I don't even know where you live!" Marvin exasperated to the kid.

"I can just look at my phone for directions" Lilith pulled out her phone and began to use it for some directions. Dwight in the meanwhile kept walking ahead of everyone else. He wasn't trying to guide them or anything, but...he really doesn't mind if he did.

They were just as lost as he was, he can't blame them for that. He just hoped to make it back home...even if there was some questions ringing in his head.

Those should be answered later...if they can.

The four kept walking together ahead. Two adults, and two teenagers. At least the latter two had adult supervisors with them. Even if they were strangers. Well...maybe only Dwight was a stranger, somehow the three knew each other, but not him.

Not important for now...

Dwight thought to himself.

Eventually, their journey led to an end. Right towards a...cliff?

Dwight stopped, looked around at the end of the road. They were in a high altitude of some kind...he could tell. The view was high here, and...quick frankly?

Disturbing to no end.

Marvin stood still, shaking in his boots as he stared at the red, almost hellish landscape ahead of him. Almond walked towards the edge of the cliff, along with Lilith. The two girls stared ahead and could only feel lost and disturbed by what was happening here.

It was just...

This entire place...it all seemed off. The landscape and the atmosphere itself. It all felt wrong...and nothing normal. The red sky, the dark clouds and the broken looking mess ahead of them. It didn't feel like home.

"...What the heck is this place?" Almond eventually asked, her playfulness no longer there. But replaced with a confused and uneasy tone.

"I..." Lilith let her jaw hang for a few seconds. Her eyes still scanning the unbelievable sight ahead of her, until she eventually continued. "I have no idea..."

Dwight walked towards the cliff and looked around the dreadful landscape. Feeling quite uneasy too.

What is this...is this still Chicago?

Dwight asked himself and rubbed his head. It all felt confusing to hell...he's starting to remember some events from before, like-

"I-Is that my house?!" Marvin quickly spoke in with a worried look. Looking down at a house that was down all the way. His eyes kept turning side to side. "This...this entire place...why does it feel like I know it...isn't this supposed to be Pensacola?!"

"I don't think this is Pensacola...?" Lilith slowly said, unable to believe that this is truly Pensacola Florida. How could it be, when it looks like a literal nightmare?

"The heck is Pensacola?" Almond gave them a confused look.

"Is that your house?" Dwight asked the other man.

"I...I don't know" Marvin admitted nervously. "I mean...it looks familiar, but I can't see the front!"

"...Maybe we should head down" Dwight suggested, trying not to let this get to his head.

"How?" Lilith asked, as she leaned down and looked at the cliff and how far it seemed like down there. "It's not like we can climb down..."

"Then let's find another way, come on" Dwight didn't wait for another moment. As he began to walk away from the spot. In a hurry too.

"Hey hold on!" Almond spoke up and pointed down. "I could just slide down there. I can do it, like that one episode from Pumice...oh that'll be cool!"

"Almond, you're NOT sliding down!" Marvin objected to her ridiculous suggestion.

"It's way faster than just finding another way...here I go!" Almond was about to slide down the cliff. Until Marvin quickly ran over and grabbed her by the waist and began to struggle with her. Lilith in the meantime, was seen checking her phone.

"Weird...I'm not getting any signal" she sighed deeply and put her phone away, as she began to follow after Dwight then. "Come on you both...let's go"

"Marviiiinnn...let me do it!" Almond whined and tried to get away from Marvin's hold.

"Just stop acting like Jeffy and MOVE!" Marvin pushed her forward, making her grumble and begrudgingly followed after the others. Marvin following behind with an annoyed sigh.
-

A few minutes of wandering around the dark woods...

The odd group of four, traveled through the woods. Almost aimlessly, their directions were uncertain. Dwight was unsure of where he was going too. It's not like he knew the place all that well.

"Are we there yet?" Almond asked with a whiny voice. Hunched down while walking along the others.

"I am not exaggerating when I tell you that this is the 23rd time that you asked that" Lilith said with a clearly irritated voice and face. Tired of this aimless journey AND Almond's constant question.

"Whare are we even going?" Marvin sighed and rubbed his leg. "My legs feel sore..."

"That's a good question...where ARE we going?" Lilith then questioned the leading man. Dwight.

"We're supposed to go down this...mountain" Dwight explained, before stopping. As he rubbed his head and turned back to face them. Giving them a causal shrug. "I actually don't know, to be honest"

Lilith stopped too and gave him a "really" look.

"What?" Dwight innocently asked upon her look.

"You've been leading us aimlessly!" Marvin glared at him angrily.

"I tried my best to look for the best directions...sorry" Dwight shrugged and looked away from them.

Lilith sighed and pulled out her phone again. "I can't even get my phone to work...this forest has no signal anywhere!"

"I forgot my phone...crap!" Almond grumbled and stomped her foot angrily.

"I think I've got mine with me..." Marvin patted his pockets with a wondering look.

"You got games on your phone. Marv?" Almond quickly asked.

"I think I've got chess installed-"

"EW?" Almond gave him a disgusted look. "Who the HECK even thinks of installing chess on their phone?"

"I use it to test my smarts and stuff like that!" Marvin countered with.

"You expect me to think that you actually do that...?" Almond gave him a flat look.

Dwight watches as Marvin and Almond bicker with each other. While Lilith tried to get her phone to work. It was an odd situation right now, but he feels like that he dealt with such situations like this before. People talking, having their own events. While he kept quiet.

Always quiet...

Too quiet.

....

Rustle...rustle...rustle...

Dwight slowly turned his head upon hearing the sounds of some bushes being moved by...something. His eye could only see through the trees a bit, but he couldn't see much. Although he couldn't just let this go by.

"You heard that?" Dwight immediately said and got their attention onto him.

"Heard what...?" Almond asked with a bored face.

Dwight and co then went silent for a minute...

.....

"I'm not hearing anything?" Lilith said after nothing was heard.

"Are...are you messing with us?" Marvin gave him a slight glare. His body trembling a bit. "I...I don't like that...just don't be like Almond"

"Are you scared, huh. Marvin?" Almond teased with a smirk.

"H-haha...scared? Me?" Marvin scoffed and tried to put on a brave look. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm a man and one of the responsible adults for you kids...I ain't scared of anything!"

"Uh huh..." Lilith gave him a unimpressed look at that.

Almond scoffed with a snort. "See, she even finds that unbelievable, too!"

"I really am not scared of anything...come on!" Marvin argued with her. Almond just kept on laughing at him, much to his annoyance.

Rustle...Rustle...rustle...!

"Shhh!" Dwight hushed the two and turned back towards the sound direction. "Hear that?"

Lilith leaned in and eventually began hearing the faint shuffling of some bushes. "I...hear it too...something is...something is coming towards us"

"W-what?!" Marvin yelped and backed away from the trees.

"Not scared, huh?" Almond gave him a look.

As everyone stood by and heard the bush rustling getting closer...they slowly began to hear...groans...?

"Ughhhh....."

"What...what is that...WHAT'S there?!" Marvin asked with a trembling manner and kept himself behind the others. Everyone else looked at the trees and felt anxious about what was coming...the sounds were getting louder. The sounds of something moaning and groaning...it sounded inhuman like.

Eventually...it revealed itself.

They all watched as a disfigured creature limped out of the trees. Missing a jaw, an eye and one arm. Skinny and boney, holes poked onto its body. Skinned like an animal...reaching out towards them. With one single hand. Groaning and speaking in a jumbled up mess.

A high pitched scream filled the air afterwards.

"Ugh!" Almond felt her sensitive long ears hurt from the scream. "Lilith, don't scream too loud!"

"I literally didn't even say anything..." Lilith spoke, disturbed by the sight of the mutated creature coming towards her.

Almond looked over to Marvin, before noticing him cowering on the ground and holding his mouth...she then sighed deeply and realized who screamed like that.

Dwight stared at the limping monstrous creature...he was disturbed, but to an extend.

This shouldn't be possible though...

The creature gurgled and was seen reaching towards Lilith, with its decaying lacky fingers and dreadful smell.

"H-hey...?!" Lilith immediately backed away with a terrified face and was struck with fear by how fast this thing started hopping for her.

Dwight looked at the girl and was about to act...until.

"NOT SO FAST!"

Almond, pulling out a sword out of her front pockets off her dress. Leaped towards the monster and sent a horizontal slice towards the creature. Easily cutting the creature into two. Its upper half fell down onto the ground, spraying the grass with its nasty thick red blood.

Everyone watched in shock as the creature fell down onto the ground...its bodies chopped in half. Lilith nearly fell backwards out of disgust at what she saw.

"Ewww...." Almond looked at her bloody sword and tried to wipe it off by flinging it around.

"O-oh...oh my GOD!" Marvin yelled and looked at the dead monster on the ground. "Almond...you...you killed it...!?"

"Uh...yeah?" Almond gave him a confused look and was seen rubbing her sword on the grass to wipe off the blood. "Did you just want me to let it attack Lilith or something...?"

"B-but...you killed...someone...?" Marvin was stunned by her causality in murder.

"Hey. I killed bigger monsters back home" Almond shrugged and looked at Lilith then. "Ya okay?"

Lilith held her mouth and looked away from the corpse. "Y-yeah...I just feel sick now..."

"This monster..." Dwight looked down at the dead creature and felt odd. "Where did it come from...I thought it all stopped...the fog is gone..."

"What?" Marvin looked at him, wondering what he was trying to say. Until everyone heard another groan from nearby.

"Huh...?" Almond turned back and saw another creature coming out of the trees. It was a humanoid one again...it had sharp teeth and a twisted smile on its face. Just it missed two arms and seemed distorted. "The heck...those guys are WAY scarier than the monsters I've fought back home"

"KILL IT KILL IT!" Marvin screamed and trembled upon seeing that hideous creature.

"Oh NOW you're okay with me killing them?" Almond gave him a flat look.

"ALMOND PLEASE!" Marvin begged her.

Almond sighed and turned towards the monster, as she quickly jumped up and sliced its head off, before it could harm her. The monster's body falls limp onto the ground. Its head rolling away towards Dwight. Who backed away, feeling disturbed by how it still kept smiling with those sharp teeth.

"WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!" Lilith yelled, absolutely terrified by the events.

"I am...gonna throw up!" Marvin held his mouth and gagged at the awful smell that the bodies radiated now.

Almond kept looking at her stained sword, until she and everyone else heard multiple groans now.

They began to get surrounded.

Several nightmarish creatures came out of the trees. Each of them were decaying and unearth like. Limping creatures with missing limbs and boney bodies that bones sticking out of them. Some creatures had distorted faces, some had huge grins on their faces. Making them seem more horrifying than they already were.

"We've gotta run...now!" Dwight began to back away from the creatures. Lilith did so too. It was getting crowded here.

"You guys run. I've got this handled" Almond stood her ground, not that afraid of those creatures.

"Are you crazy...MOVE now!" Dwight quickly moved in and grabbed her by the arm, pushing her back towards Lilith.

"H-hey!" Almond grumbled and was bumped into Lilith then. She glared at Dwight and frowned angrily. "I'm telling you that I can handle it...don't treat me like a kid!"

"YOU ARE A KID!" Marvin yelled at her and quickly dodged one of the creatures from lunging at him. He then began to run away screaming.

Dwight then took off running too, making sure that Lilith and ESPECIALLY Almond, did the same thing. Once he saw them running. He didn't stop to think.

They ran together, unknown to where. They just ran like hell, being chased by those horrible creatures that all groaned loudly behind them. Dwight looked back and notice how some of the creatures were running towards them. The ones that could at least, some of them lagged behind due to having one leg or being too disfigured to properly run at all.

"I could've just taken care of them, ya know?" Almond was heard telling them as she ran besides Lilith.

"They outnumbered us, are you kidding?" Lilith grumbled and panted. "What are they even supposed to be?"

"Don't ask. Just run" Dwight told her sternly and kept running ahead of them.

Marvin panted and panted, slowly lagging behind everyone else due to his unfit physical. Until out of nowhere, or just his absolutely horrible luck.

He tripped down.

Marvin groaned in slight pain and felt his heart racing up, feeling himself lying face first onto the grass.

"Marvin!" Almond gasped and stopped upon seeing the bald man lying on the ground. And that one of those ugly creatures was approaching him.

Marvin yelped and tried to get up, although he felt himself unable to do so. Like he was literally glued to the ground. "What the...HELP!!!" he cried out to his companions.

The creature behind him growled loudly and was ready to lunge at the balding man. Marvin looked back and screamed with tearful eyes at his incoming doom. A hideous smiling monster that was ready to eat him ALIVE!

Like a miracle, that didn't happen.

Dwight himself, straight up rammed his shoulder onto the monster and sent that thing flying backwards onto the ground. A harsh crack would be heard coming from the monster's fragile body once it hit its back against the ground.

Marvin looked at the fallen monster in shock, until he felt himself being forcibly pulled up by Dwight Murdoch.

"Go.GO!" Dwight hurried Marvin and pushed him forward along with him.

"Marvin, you're surprisingly still alive!" Almond said, sounding a bit relief amidst her joke.

"I think I saw my own life flash before my eyes..." Marvin said with a traumatized look, still running ahead.

"Just run..." Dwight told him and saw Lilith a bit ahead of them. "Lilith, stick together!" he called out to her.

Lilith was seen taking a moment to breathe, until she pointed towards something. "Over there. I see shelter!"

Dwight and the others looked at what she was pointing. It seemed like a huge school of some sort, the gates of it were opened. Dwight would've liked to dicuss other options, but right now. It wasn't the time.

They ran right inside the school gates, although Dwight stopped upon having an idea in his head. Once everyone got inside the school grounds. Dwight immediately took hold of each gate door and forced them shut, before quickly running back to his group.

"Nice thinking!" Lilith complimented him as she kept running.

"I doubt it'll hold them off much..." Dwight admitted to her.

"Let's go...there!" Almond pointed at a bunch of trains that were parked nearby. Colorful ones too.

"What kind of school has TRAINS in it?!" Marvin questioned at the ridiculous sight.

Nonetheless, they all followed through and went straight to those trains, which turned out to be multiple train cabins just parked around in some station of some sort. It was...interesting to say the least.

Dwight and the others picked a random cabin, slid the door open and then immediately locked it up once they got inside. For a moment, they all took some time to catch their breath.

Dwight stood by the door of the train cabin and looked through its transparent window. Noticing that nobody was outside...none of these monsters or anything. Everything was fine now. He'd pull down the small curtain down and sigh deeply before turning around to look at the others. Who were all catching their breath too.

"Everyone okay?" he asked them all.

"I think so..." Lilith sighed and sat down on a chair nearby, holding her stomach and fixing her glasses.

"Did you get bit. Marvin?" Almond asked the adult, as she checked around him. "You gonna turn into an zombie now...should I put you down before that happens. Like in the movies with the sad scenes an-"

"NO!" Marvin frantically yelled and panted deeply, shaking his head and sitting on the ground. "I'm...I'm okay...it didn't touch me"

"Yeah" Almond rolled her eyes and gestured at Dwight Murdoch. "Thanks to him, you would've been DONE...I was too far to save ya"

"Ugh...thanks. Dwight..." Marvin grumblingly said and looked down at the ground.

"No problem..." Dwight brushed it off and held his forehead for a moment, trying to think of what to do now.

Lilith looked around the train cabin. There were four beds here for some reason. "This is...weird, this looks like a dorm room?"

"It looks like it..." Dwight nodded at that and looked around. "I guess this is the dorms design for this...school?"

"School?...I think I prefer the forest now" Almond jokingly said to them.

"You're NOT going there..." Marvin insisted.

Dwight then noticed something on the table, next to where Lilith was sitting at. He walks over to the table and sees...a video camera there. It had a green line painted on it. And a note too. "What's this...?"

Everyone looked as he picked up the camera and the note. Dwight slowly began to read it. "To go home, you will entertain us...until the video is ready to be uploaded. This will be the greatest...SML...yet...?"

....

"What" Almond flatly said.

Dwight rubbed his head and left the note down, picking up the video camera up. An object so familiar to him now. He couldn't help but be confused by everything. Just what this note meant...?

"What does that even mean?" Lilith eventually asked him.

Dwight shrugged and proceeded to sit down on one of those bunk beds, until he heard a squeak that forced him to sit up with a small gasp.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion at what that sound was.

Dwight looks down at the bed, before he slowly kneels down and took a peek under the bed.

And all he found...

Was a little girl, with a tearful and scared expression on her face...

Chapter Text

Archived from "Martin-Maverick'

I decided to share an odd and scary story from a past experience that I had. It involved a show called Atout 5. It is called that in the French version of the show, but the one I remember was always called Five In Our Band! I don't know why, but I guess it was changed for localization purposes?

Anyways, I used to love that show whenever it would air on this one random TV channel that I can't remember the name of. It used to air back a few years ago. I think mainly 2007? I remember the show being very colorful and comfy to me. It has been such a long time since I've watched it. So one day I decided to relive some childhood memories and watch the show again. But for some reason, it seemed like this show was wiped out from the face of the earth for some reason. I couldn't find any episodes available, not a single one on YouTube or any other websites on the internet. I tried so hard to look for the English dub of the show, but there was nothing. Only screenshots and old articles written about the show itself. It always showed me the Atout 5 name instead of the English title. I guess the English dub was lost now? I don't know what was going on here, but I spent some days looking for any possible source to watch this cartoon again. But as the days went on. I started to become hopeless, maybe it was just lost forever now. No episodes, no sources or any available footage to watch. I felt really bummed out about it and was going to give up searching for it. That's until one day. I would stumble upon a miracle, or...I should say a nightmare. Because at this point of time I wasn't aware of what was being sold to me. I was trying one last time to look for a copy of this show in English, and then I found some guy selling it on the web for a very cheap prize. The DVD box set he was selling, was simply called "Atout 5 DVD Box Set (ENG Dub)"

Naturally. I felt ecstatic to finally have found something about this God forsaken show. I wasted no time and immediately bought the DVD, with some permission from my parents that is. I waited for a week, until finally. It arrived to me. I got the package, it was a black box for some reason. It had no labels or addresses written on it. I thought nothing about it and just took the box to my room. I opened it up and what I saw inside the black package box, was a simple disc. It had a poorly edited cover of the show's logo itself. Atout 5. There was one title on the disc and it read "Atout 5 ENG Complete Series"

I thought the cover was really poorly done, but I guess whoever edited this wasn't a professional from the actual company that made this disc. It could've been another fan like me. I wasn't sure, but the way this cover was edited and titled...it just gave me ominous vibes. I couldn't tell why. Anyways, I wasted no time and just inserted the disc into my DVD player and sat down to watch. Ready to relive some nostalgia for an old show that I so desperately looked for. I expected for some menu to pop up, you know like those special DVD menus that you could navigate through and select some stuff. I didn't have that experience with this one. The screen was black for a minute or two. I began to get worried and thought that this dealer sent me a broken copy. Or even worse, a fake dvd with nothing in it. Even if I didn't spend too much on it. The thought of getting nothing, bothered me...and more so when I was desperately looking for this damn cartoon. However then, something happened. The intro to the show began playing.

Whatever annoyance I've had, was gone. I remember smiling widely upon the intro playing. I felt happy that this thing was actually working. Maybe this was just one big compilation of the episodes in order, that's why there was no episode selection in the menu? I just sat and watched. Waiting for the familiar intro song to start playing. It played normally at first, but something weird happened...the intro played again, like a badly edited cut. Then it began playing in reverse, the footage kept playing forward but the audio itself was like reversed. I was confused at first, was my DVD player broken? I thought that couldn't be it, I remember that I played a movie a week ago and it worked just fine. But this one...the whole thing was messed up. The audio reversed and all corrupted. When it moved onto the characters section, the part of the intro where the spotlight would show each of the main characters. That being Chloe. Sam. Miou. Shanoor and Matteo. Subtitles appeared on the bottom of the screen, and the text...it all read gibberish, incoherent garbage that I couldn't understand. Random letters and numbers just sparkled across the screen with no meaning. The audio got to the part where there was supposed to be singing, but since it was all reversed. I couldn't understand anything...what the fuck was wrong with my DVD? I grew impatient again at this point and didn't know what was happening. I thought maybe the DVD was corrupted at this part only? Because at some point, the intro stopped and the screen faded black. It stayed like that for longer than usual..I recall how the blackout during the intro was much shorter than this, because why would it take it a minute to even load the episode? This wasn't a video game, it was a animated show...so weird. But thankfully, the black screen ended and then a familiar shot was shown to me. It was of the school building that I fondly remember now, still as colorful and bright as I remembered. But there wasn't music yet, it was just silent with some birds chirping in the back and the sound of the wind blowing. I thought it was normal because I remember the episodes starting calmly like this...sometimes, at least. Then the yellow text for the episode appeared. I forgot what the first episode was called, but I think it was something about one of the main characters being afraid of signing autographs? I can't remember. But imagine my surprise when the title showed me something else.

Chloe's Final Run

That's what the episode title appeared as. I couldn't even have the time to process that odd title, because it faded away quickly, much like how it appeared into the screen. There was a zoom into the school building then, the frame then faded to show that of the school's interior, the hallways and those lockers. I kinda recall seeing this location used for the show. But somehow the colors seemed a bit dim...I guess it was because of my screen or something else. I was in a dark room at the time and I usually liked having no lights in my room. Don't ask me why though. Anyways, finally one of the characters appeared into the frame of the shot. She came from the left side of the screen and it was one of the girl characters. She was called Chloe, I think that was her name? I did recognize her light brown hair and those blush marks on her face. So I guess she was Chloe. I immediately noticed something off about her, but not totally off. She was crying in this scene, tears running down her chubby face. I wasn't surprised, because I remember that Chloe was sort of a crybaby character in the show. I thought it was another stupid reason for her to be crying like this.

The frame cut to two other characters that I remembered. Matteo and Sam, they were actually my favorite characters in the show, because I am a boy. So of course I'd enjoy their characters more, mainly because Matteo reminded me of myself. I think he was the jock character who messed around? I liked Sam too, he was a nice character. Anyways, when Chloe walked up to the two, still crying. Matteo turned to face her and he eventually spoke. I was expecting to hear some old familiar voices from him. But...something off happened. When he spoke, his voice was reversed. He didn't even speak English at all like I expected him to. He just spoke in an unclear reversed voice and the subtitles simply said. "'What's wrong, Chloe?"

I saw Chloe looking up at them, her animation was slower than usual. She spoke too, her voice also reversed. What she said next was...shocking to me. Because I didn't expect it. Her subtitles said "My baby sister...died"

I was actually shocked by what she said, talking about death in a kids show like this? Sure, it wasn't a rare concept. Cartoons from decades ago already dealt with topics like death before and all. But this one was just...I don't EVER remember seeing any cartoon that talked about the death of a baby sister before. I just can't remember one. That's why it surprised, and also because I just can't recall this cartoon ever mentioning anything like death before. And what the hell was up with these reversed voices??

Chloe said what she said, the frame was stuck onto her for a moment. Until it cut to Matteo and Sam, they looked frozen, and by that. I didn't mean that their expressions changed, nor did they seem shocked by Chloe's words. Their characters just...stood still, their facial expressions seemed stoic too. I literally felt like my DVD froze or something. Until the screen flickered and the next thing I saw was...Matteo and Sam laughing? They were straight up laughing at Chloe, the audio distorted and reversed, but the way it sounded...it definitely felt like laughing. And the thing was, it felt like the scenery changed from the one that they were at. Matteo and Sam looked like they were taken from another scene from a different episode, like a badly edit of some YTP or I don't know...their laughter just distressed me. Their animation kept looping for some reason, they just laughed and then the clip played again. The audio was out of sync at this point. I just sat in silence as the next frame showed Chloe's hurtful expression at the two. She spoke to them and the subtitles said "Stop it...why are you laughing at me?! STOP IT!"

The screen cut back to Matteo and Sam laughing again, their animation kept looping. Until eventually the screen turned black, leaving me to stare at the screen in total confusion. I was just thinking...WHAT THE FUCK?

I didn't have enough time to think, because then it continued. It was a scene of another familiar scene, it showed some sort of ruins. Like something from Rome or so. I remember this background from the first episode, when Chloe sat here and talked to another character. I saw Chloe walking into the frame again and she looked really upset. I then saw another character. It was a little black haired girl playing with her dolls. I think she was Miou?

Chloe approached her and spoke in that reversed voice. "Miou, can I talk to you?"

Miou turned to face Chloe, her voice was reversed too...I think this entire thing was just reversed, it was getting on my nerves. Anyways, Miou said. "About what?"

Chloe then said to her "My baby sister is dead..."

I still was taken back after she said it again, because seriously...would they allow for topics like this in the show? I don't know...this show used to have lessons about life and stuff like that. Maybe this was going to be a episode where they taught us that taking death as something light, wasn't nice?

I couldn't think about that. Because when Chloe said that, the sound cut off abruptly. It changed to a frame of Miou's stoic face...until the animation changed to her LAUGHING...what the fuck? It just showed her laughing and laughing. The animation looped for five times, some distorted laughter was heard each time. I was starting to feel sick watching this. It showed me a clip of Chloe running off then, the screen went black and I still heard that annoying laughter being played. Until it finally stopped. I was thinking that whoever sold me this, was the one responsible for this sick edit. Because just what in the hell is going on here? I doubted that this was anything normal to begin with...it was just creepy and not funny to me.

The scene showed some sort of empty room, with a piano nearby. Another character was there. Shanoor? She was that one Indian character in the show, with the purple clothes and whatever. She was just standing in the shot. Chloe then walked into the shot too and went over to Shanoor, crying. I already knew what was about to happen here. Shanoor saw Chloe and spoke in reverse. The subtitles said "Why are you crying again. Chloe?"

Chloe just said the same line. "My baby sister is dead..."

The sound cut off again, and the frame was stuck onto Shanoor's face. I waited for a bit and expected her to start laughing too. But...the frame was stuck there, like the episode actually froze there or something. I was waiting for a bit and was actually about to turn it off. Until out of nowhere. I noticed Shanoor's face changing, her thin line was slowly curving up Like she was smiling up. Her smile grew and grew so slowly, as if someone was using a morphing editor in a picture and stretching her mouth to a smile. I sat down again and stared at the weird effect. Uncomfortable with her face distorting...until it abruptly cut to her face, all distorted and curved up into a smile. It was such a terribly edited photo too. It looked like someone used a morphing effect and made her face into a huge smile. But it looked so creepy to me...especially when her eyes were barely shown at this point. I just didn't understand what the fuck was going on. Was this some sick and creepy YTP of the show? Why would someone bother even making this...I just don't understand it.

The laughter came back again. Shanoor's face was still laughing and it didn't show an animation of her laughing or whatever. It was reversed laughter again. I felt really scared now and didn't know what I was watching. But then it showed Chloe running away again...I noticed this now, but it literally reused that running clip for multiple times. I knew that this was just a badly edited video by now. I just didn't know why it was made to be like this. I waited for a moment because the episode seemed to end there, until finally it showed me another scene. It was dark, like badly dark. It barely showed me anything. I had to turn on my lights in the room to see what was going on, I just spotted what looked like the outside of the school? I saw Chloe though, her face was not visible but I think she was holding a backpack? I knew it was Chloe because her bright hair was enough to be seen in the darkness. I saw that she was leaving her dorm room actually, the place where the train cabinets were at. The characters used those as their rooms, which I always thought was cool. Chloe seemed to walk outside into some kind of forest. There was no transition or anything, it just showed her going there. There was some loud footsteps added in. Too loud actually. I just turned down the volume a bit and even then. It was still loud for me to hear...I hoped this shitty DVD didn't break my DVD player or TV. I'd be pissed. I saw Chloe just walking in the forest, she wasn't seen in the darkness, just her bright hair. The screen went black for a moment and then...it showed Chloe running away?

I don't know what was happening, but it just showed Chloe running with tears in her eyes. I heard loud footsteps and some distorted roaring in the back. It was so terrifying and loud that I felt felt myself jumping, like a flight response that I wasn't sure to take or not. I saw Chloe's face and she was looking absolutely horrified, it wasn't normal. I just kept watching until eventually she tripped on something. The next thing it showed me was a view of some cliff. It showed a low view of it. Then like a jumpscare. Chloe fell through the screen, a LOUD scream followed by and showed her screaming face. I nearly screamed too when it happened. Chloe just zoomed past the screen and then what I heard was a loud, disgusting and nasty crack...

Thea screen was black, and I held my heart. After a short moment. I saw something that made me drop my jaw. It showed...Chloe, lying in a puddle of blood, her neck all broken as she laid on some sharp rocks. It looked the same style as the actual show...they literally showed actual gore in this show. And it was of one of main characters too. I was shocked, just pure shocked. Because what the fuck was this...who drew this frame?

The screen got closer to her dead body. I heard some breathing, like something was approaching her. Until the screen went black abruptly. The intro to the show played again, this time it was normal. No reversed audio or anything. I was just silently watching, until I noticed the first weird thing. When it cut to the part where it shines the spotlight on the characters. Chloe was missing in the scene. There was only Sam. Miou. Shanoor and Matteo. If I had to describe what it looked like, it was like this. I took this screenshot from one of the only videos on YouTube that showed the intro of the show and edited it for better clarification. 

The lyrics to the song only went like "Sam. Miou. Shanoor and Matteo!"

The vocals stopped, because it only played the normal instrument to the song then. I noticed that Chloe was missing in each frame of animation, because I knew for damn sure that she was there in the intro and in each scene. I remember clearly from the moment I put this damn DVD into the player. But now...she was just gone?

The intro stopped, the screen went black for a moment, until I saw a shot of a classroom, with all of the characters. From main to background characters. I noticed their faces, they looked distressed, depressed. It felt off...because each character seemed to have the same depressed face on them. It cuts to a frame of two other characters, they were adults. They looked like the directors of the school. I think one of them was called Gary and the other one was Paul...or Pol?

The one in the blue suit. I think Gary, spoke up. And again, their voices were reversed and only showed me subtitles. And I couldn't believe what they said. "I'm afraid to say that...Chloe has been found dead and taken away. She won't come back to the school anymore"

I just silently sat with shock...so they really killed off one of the main characters...and she was a kid too...what the hell was this episode...?

The scene was frozen for a bit, until it cut to Chloe's friends. Sam. Matteo. Miou and Shanoor. I saw them talking in reversed voices, but there was no subtitles for me to read. I couldn't understand what they were saying at all. I just noticed them looking depressed and sad...and I thought, well that's weird? Didn't they just make fun of her dead sister?

I saw them leaving then, but then Sam stopped for some reason. He turned back to something, it looked like his character froze when he saw...whatever it was. Then it abruptly switched to a door, it was left ajar and I didn't know what I was looking at. The frame just kept showing me that door. I leaned closer to the TV and...noticed something then. I saw an eye and what looked like a person smiling? It was nerve-wracking to me for some reason, because the character was just standing there and smiling at me. Or Sam...I don't know anymore.

But then Sam said, smiling. "Chloe, you're alive!"

I couldn't be more confused until that line. I saw Sam walk off frame, before the next frame jumpscared me with a close up of Chloe, who was smiling like she did in the intro. I noticed something weird about her design, there was a red line across her neck...I thought she was dead?

It switched to Sam speaking, but there was no audio or text. It switched to Chloe smiling again, then back to Sam, who had the same speaking animation. It switched back to Chloe, before it went black.

The intro played again, and I was taken back...why the hell was it playing the intro again????

The intro was different, because it showed Chloe now...but Sam was gone? the lyrics went "Chloe. Miou. Shanoor and Matteo!"

Sam was gone now...like Chloe was, and I just couldn't understand. I made another picture and this is what it looked like to me.

The intro played normally, but no. Because I swear to God that Chloe was different, her animations was just her...staring at me. She had no animation in any of her scenes. She just kept smiling at the screen and not moving. It was anxious as hell for me. I couldn't bare looking at the screen, until the intro stopped. It just showed me a scene of Matteo, he was playing basketball in the gym. He looked a little unnerved by something. He turned back then and gasped at something. The subtitles said. "Chloe...how...are you alive...?!"

Chloe was seen staring smiling again, she didn't spoke. She just...stared at me...no it was at Matteo. I don't fucking know, I was just so scared at the time and felt like she was looking at me. I just remembered her staring silently and smiling with no animation. She was stiff and never blinking. I saw some subtitles below her and they said "Where's Sam?"

I assumed Matteo talked, even if it didn't focus on his character. Chloe actually just walked away then. Matteo then followed after her. And then the screen went black for a moment...until the sound of a loud scream was heard. The sound of some man screaming in pain and I could hear gushes of what sounding like something being stabbed? I just don't know. I got so scared by the loud scream that didn't even sound like Matteo at all. It just played the intro again, and this time...

Two characters were gone. Sam. Matteo. Only Chloe. Miou and Shanoor were left. The intro didn't play fully this time, because it cut to a scene of something else. It showed Miou, she was hiding under the bed for some reason. I heard slow breathing coming from her. Then it switched to a perspective of her eyes. Showing me her hiding inside her room, I think it was the train cabinets again. I recall the colors and some of the objects. I wasn't focused on that though, because I was scared of what was going on. Why was Miou hiding anyways? And what the fuck was that scream about? I heard faded taps coming from the screen. I didn't know what that was, but it sounded like...footsteps? Miou was heard sobbing quietly and she wasn't shown on the screen again. Just that I saw through her own perspective. And then...things seemed frozen, until a closeup of Chloe's face appeared, along with the scream of girl in the background. Scaring me and nearly sending me jumping back into my pillow. It just kept showing Chloe's face and the constant screaming of the girl. Then it stopped, the intro played again. Now it was just Chloe and Shanoor.

I noticed how nervous the latter looked...and I didn't even get a chance to relax at this point. The scene cut to several disturbing things that left a bad taste in my mouth. It showed dark pictures of the backgrounds of the show, a dark sky and faded colors. Before it changed the scene to the hallway of the school interior. Blood was drawn everywhere. The audio was something from a nightmare. It kept playing muffled voices and other odd noises that made me wanna cry for no reason. I saw dead characters on the floor, actually drawn in the same way as the show. Their bodies were cut up and intestines were ripped from their bodies. The kid characters and the adults. I recognized those like the teachers. The directors and even the two antagonists of the show. Lucie and Marc, they were all chopped into bodies...It flickered between bodies, until everything went dark. The next scene I saw was of Shanoor, cowering into a corner, her eyes crying badly and a dark shadow looming over her. Some distorted crying audio was playing and it didn't sync with Shanoor's mouthwash movements. Subtitles played, which showed Shanoor begging.

“Chloe, please no! No! I’m sorry! Please don’t do this to me!”

It then abruptly cut to Chloe again, her smile stretched out, bloodied teeth and eyes. Just staring directly at me.

It went back to Shanoor, she cried more and her lip sync didn't match the next subtitles. “Why… WHY did you kill our friends?! Please, Chloe… noooooooo!!!”

What I was shown next, still makes me shiver. Chloe snapped her own neck sideways, a loud snap was heard. The screen went black, screams, stabbing and flesh tearing was all I heard. Everything went silent then.

And for the final time. The intro played, only this time. Chloe was there, staring at me.

The lyrics looped, nobody else was spoken of. Only it said. Chloe...Chloe...Chloe...Chloe...it kept looping and looping that I felt like going insane.

The song slowed, warped into something nightmarish. The screen then abruptly zoomed to Chloe's smiling face and then everything went silent. I just saw Chloe's face and nothing else. The whole thing stopped there and I couldn't bare to take anymore of this shit. I took the disc out of my DVD player, but the screen still showed me Chloe. I had to turn my TV then and just then, she was finally gone from my sights.

I sat down, thinking to myself...what kind of fucking sicko made this? What staff member from the animation studio decided to make this as a joke? It could explain the janky animation and the loops. And still, none of it could make sense to me. Because whoever made this shit was sick in the head. I immediately went over to contact the dealer who sold me this shit and imagine my surprise to see that this guy pretty much wiped his entire information from the web. I couldn't find his number, his page or anything. He was gone...

I was left clueless on what to do. I left the disc for a few days, until I felt like sharing it with my friends and family, but when I tried to play the disc for them. It was broken, this thing wouldn't play. No matter what I tried or do. The disc was beyond repair...none of them believed me. My friends thought I was pranking them, and my family had no time for cartoons. I was the only one left to have witnessed this gross shit. I felt so horrible...I wanted someone so badly to believe me, that I actually found some sick and twisted version of a friendly cartoon. I don't know how to prove this to anyone. But if anyone else was able to witness this...tell me so. I can't be imagining all this.

Months went by then and I forgot about everything that I saw, but during the very first weeks of seeing this cursed DVD...
I kept seeing Chloe's face, staring at me.

Smiling....

Always...

Chapter Text

Dwight stared at the little girl, hiding under the bed. Surprised to see that she was the source of that squeak that was made upon him sitting down on the bed. He stared right back at her, just as she did. While he was more confused and surprised. She was more scared and shaky. What he noticed besides her scared expression, was the many cuts on her body. And another one that was forcing her left eye to be shut. He knew that she was badly hurt.

"W-what is it...?" Marvin stuttered a bit, as he made sure to stand behind the rest. Looking quite unnerved by what was under there. "I-...is it another one of those monsters!?"

"Relaaax" Almond rolled her eyes at the cowardly adult, holding up her bloodied sword. "If anything tries getting you, I'll just get them...jeez. Have you always been this hopeless?"

"I...I...what does that mean!" Marvin asked, slightly irritated with the remark.

"Ugh!" Lilith grumbled and just asked the main question. "Just what is it!"

"It's...a girl?" Dwight slowly said, as he kept staring at the little one.

"What?!" Almond perked up and quickly went over to check on the bed too, before noticing that girl. "Hey! There's really another girl here!"

"What...?" Lilith said, her voice coming out as flat as her look. She slowly stood back and watched Dwight and Almond, lean down to look under the bed. Marvin meanwhile tried to get a peek from the back, but couldn't see much.

"The heck are you doing down there?" Almond asked the little girl, giving her a questioning look.

"I...I" Marvin kept trying to take a peek, until he grumbled. "I can't see SHIT from here!"

"Then get closer?" Lilith gave him a look.

"Um...well-" Marvin sheepishly looked away from her. "I...I think...here is fine too..."

"Hey...who are you?" Dwight slowly asked the unknown girl. "Are you okay, did you get hurt?"

"..." the girl just remains silent, crawling further back away from both Dwight and Almond.

"Hey, why don't you just get outta there?" Almond asked, as she leaned down and tried to reach in for her. "Lemme help you-"

The girl just ended up whimpering and holding herself even tighter, obviously scared of the hand.

"Almond..." Dwight sighed, giving her a slightly stern look.

"What?" Almond turned to face the adult. "I was just trying to help..."

"You're overwhelming her...just let me do it" Dwight told her, as he gently pushed her back away from the bed.

"Fine..." Almond grunted, a bit pouty too. Standing back with Lilith and Marvin, to let the man handle the situation.

Dwight then leaned down to look at the scared girl, as he tried to gently encourage her. "Hey, it's okay...we're not here to hurt you. Could you please come out, we promise that everything is okay now. You won't need to worry about...monsters"

He said to himself, uncertain about what he was referring to. He didn't quite understand what those things were, but...if they were anything like the monsters he knew. Then...they were just that. Monsters with no mind.

The girl stared at the man and his supposedly gentle look. Her eye looking quite shaky and unsure. Everyone else stood back and waited for a response from her.

"It's okay, we won't hurt you...promise" Dwight reassured, as he stuck his hand out to her, making sure it wasn't reaching out to her. As he waited for her to make her response. She just stared back and kept silent, until...finally. She decided to move.

She slowly moved to him, and held her hand out to his. Dwight took her small hand in, and helped her get out of the bed. Sitting her down so that she can face him, and everyone else. They took notice of her rough state.

"God...what happened to you?" Marvin asked, pitiful for her cuts.

"Did those ugly things attack you?" Almond asked next.

"D-did you run away from them too?!" Marvin quickly added in.

"Were they like zombies or something?"

Turn by turn, Almond and Marvin asked the girl. Who seemed to be backing away again from them. Until...

"STOP!" Lilith yelled at them. Dwight was seen wincing and shaking his head, seeming annoyed. Lilith grumbled and rubbed her forehead. "Could you both just...give her some space to breathe?"

Almond and Marvin stared at each other, before slowly backing away from the girl.

"Keep your voices down..." Dwight told them. "You want those monsters to hear us or something?"

"I'm not worried" Almond said, as she crossed her arms without much fear.

"I'm quiet..." Marvin backed away and zipped his mouth.

"Who are you, anyways?" Lilith asked the girl.

"What is your name?" Dwight asked her, keeping a soft voice as he spoke to her.

The girl looked down, a bit hesitant to answer. Until she quietly answered. "Miou..."

"Miou...okay" he gave her a nod. As he gestures at himself. "My name is Dwight"

"And I'm Almond!" Almond quickly chimed in. Before gesturing at the other two. "That's Lilith and that's...um...Martin"

"Marvin..." Marvin corrected with a grumble. "What even is a little girl doing here...?"

"What happened to you...did those things hurt you?" Lilith asked, as she kept staring at Miou's injuries.

"I...I...." Miou held her left eye and shook slightly.

"It's okay, you can tell us" Dwight reassured her.

Miou's lips quivered, as she slowly began to explain. "I...I woke up somewhere in the school...and...and my friends...we didn't know what was happening...everything seemed scary...everything was dark...scary things...zombies...everyone ran away from each other. B-but...I found her...I...found her..."

"Found who?" Marvin impatiently asked.

"Chloé...she...she attacked me..." Miou said through a shaky voice. "A-and...and then Sam came to help me...a-and then...Chloé...she...she...Sam...!"

They all watched as she couldn't finish. Holding her face to cry. Everyone watched silently as the little girl cried softly to herself. Dwight rubbed his head for a bit and eventually asked. "And your friends, where are they?"

"I...I don't know..." Miou said between sobs.

"I'm so confused..." Marvin admitted with a stressed face.

"Who the heck is Chloé?" Almond flatly asked.

"I highly doubt that's important to know right now..." Lilith said through a small sigh.

"Okay, it'll be okay now" Dwight tried to assure the girl, patting her head softly. "We'll find your friends, alright?"

Miou stopped holding her face, as she gave him a weak look. "R-...really...?"

"Yeah..." Dwight simply nodded.

"What!?" Marvin suddenly said and began to object that. "WHY would we do that?! Don't you think that we have bigger problems right now?!"

"Like what?" Almond asked.

"Oh I don't know...HOW ABOUT THE FACT THAT WE'RE STUCK SOMEWHERE WITH ACTUAL ZOMBIES!?" Marvin angrily yelled.

"Shhhh!" Dwight hushed him harshly, before getting up to face the other man. "We can't just leave these kids around...if they're out there with those things. We could at least help"

"Yeah!" Almond nodded at the idea. "You saying you don't care about kids or something. Marv?"

"I-I just don't think we should risk our lives for this!" Marvin tried to explain himself. "Can't we...can't we just stay and call for help?"

"There's no signal here either" Lilith said, putting her phone away with a sigh. "It's like...there's no signal anywhere. I doubt that our phones would help"

"Cool, so why don't we just help her out?" Almond asked. "It's not like we've got anything better to do..."

"But...but..." Marvin tried to argue.

"We'll look for Miou's friends, then we'll leave" Dwight decided for them. "Maybe there's not many monsters around here..."

He slowly turned to face Miou then, a bit concerned about his own words. "Is there...?"

"I don't know..." Miou sadly admitted. "I just want to find my friends...please..."

"Okay, we'll help" Dwight gave her a nod. Marvin just grumbles to himself, seemingly unsatisfied.

"What about the note?" Lilith asked, as she then eyed the camera in Dwight's hand. "And the camera?"

"I guess it's nothing..." Dwight held the camera and opened its side panel. Noticing the battery was at 99%. "It seems to be working...but this doesn't matter, we just need to find those people and leave as soon as we can"

"Awesome!" Almond said with a excited smile. As she then asked Miou. "So, where are they?"

"I...I woke up near the ruins" Miou timidly explained to them.

"The ruins?" Dwight questioned.

"It's...where we sometimes do our yoga classes...with Debby-Rose" Miou shyly said, looking down with a small frown.

"Debby-Rose....?" Marvin slowly said, as he held his head for a minute.

"Debby-Rose...hmmmmmmmm" Almond held her chin and hummed for a long time.

....

"Eh" she then nonchalantly shrugged.

Lilith sighed deeply and shook her head. "Let's...get it over with, okay?"

"Fine" Dwight nodded, before walking over to the door and lifting the curtains to see what was out there. "We'll follow Miou and find her friends, we get them and just leave...nothing more"

He slowly turned to give them a serious side glance. "Understand...?"

"Suuure..." Almond slowly said.

"I am gonna regret this..." Marvin grumbled with annoyance.

Eventually, they left the train cabinet they were in, and began to search for Miou's friends. Stepping outside...for potential danger.
-

Outside, they walked away from the train yard. And followed after Miou, who kept close to Dwight. As they walked together, they couldn't help but take another look at the odd sky. It still was red, dark clouds hung over them. Dwight couldn't help himself and tap into an old habit. Which was him recording around with the video camera that he found. In the little screen, he captured the sky and the odd atmosphere of the school. Moreso, they could also hear some odd distant noises.

"This place is giving me the creeps..." Almond admitted, as she looked behind her. Her ears picking up those unknown sounds.

"Seriously...why would you even live here?" Lilith asked, just as disturbed. "This entire place looks like a whole nightmare..."

"It never was like this..." Miou told her with a frown. "I hope this is all a bad BAD dream..."

"Oh...me too" Marvin gulped, as he then caught a glimpse of someone behind him. "ALMOND YOU BETTER NOT!"

"Hehe..." Almond eventually stopped her plan to scare the man again. As she walked ahead of him with a sheepish smile.

"Where's the ruins at?" Dwight asked the girl, looking down at her. Miou walked pretty close to his leg.

"There!" Miou pointed at a small curved bridge. "We can walk on that bridge, it takes us to the ruins...we sometimes sit there and hang out. I...I hope that they're all there..."

"Even that Chloé girl?" Marvin slowly asked, which earned him a scared expression from Miou.

"Maybe we shouldn't ask that...huh?" Lilith gave him a look, to which Marvin embarrassingly looked down from.

When they walked up to the small bridge, the first thing they all noticed was...the river below. It was not blue or clear. It was all red. Red and thick, just like blood. Because it was blood, and it smelled like it too.

Miou gasped upon the sight, the wonderful river of the school was now full of blood. It all was blood.

"Ew..." Almond held her nose. "It stinks!"

Dwight focused the shot on the red river, thinking to himself...how odd and disgusting.

Marvin nearly gagged. "Ugh I can't stand this...I gotta move!"

He moved first into the bridge and ahead of everyone, but as he turned to face ahead of him. Marvin stopped with a loud gasp. Because what he saw...was disturbing to hell.

Everyone followed by, and saw what Marvin was frozen about. They all were shocked. Shocked to see...bodies lying around, all students...

Miou was in disbelief at what she saw...familiar classmates, all scattered around the ground and lying dead in their own blood. Some were missing body parts, some had their limbs away from their sockets. It was disgusting. And horrifying.

"L-Look!" Lilith pointed over towards something, or rather someone. It was a student, hunched over another student on the ground. Dwight focused on the two and zoomed in with his camera. The student was...doing something to a girl?

"Marie...?" Miou gasped, holding her mouth in total disbelief at what she saw. Marie, one of her classmates was lying dead on the ground. While that one student was...doing something to her body.

"Hey!" Almond called out to the student, while everyone else winced at the loudness. "The heck are you doing...what HAPPENED here...?"

This student, a boy. Stopped whatever he was doing and slowly turned their head towards the group. Dwight saw something horrific in his screen. The boy was bleeding from his mouth, all over. But what disturbed him was that...chunks of skin and flesh fell down from his wide mouth. Sharp teeth and lifeless eyes stared back at his viewing screen. He knew immediately like a memory, that the boy was eating the girl.

"OH MY GOD!" Marvin screamed in horror and immediately backed away. Bumping into Dwight in the process, as he pointed at the student. "DID HE JUST EAT HER!?"

"Marie...no!" Miou began to tear up again, watching the lifeless girl lying on the ground.

"..." Dwight kept silent and just filmed the whole scene, he then watched the mutated boy get up and begin limping his way towards the group. Growling like a zombie and reaching out to them.

"Hey I got this!" Almond took out her sword, before rushing ahead and not thinking twice. As she basically sliced the student in the stomach and sliced him in half. The upper body fell down as Almond posed proudly with a smirk. "Easy peasy!"

"Watch out!" Dwight quickly called out and pointed down. "Your leg!"

"Huh?" Almond was confused at first, until she felt something brush against her shoe. Making her jump and see that the student was still alive. Crawling towards her. Almond grumbled and quickly struck the mutant with her sword, finishing him off. She took out her blood stained sword and complained. "Grosssss...why do they bleed so much?"

"Is it...dead?" Marvin nervously asked, as he hid behind Lilith.

"You think?" Lilith sarcastically asked, as she walked away from the cowering man. Forcing him to hide behind Dwight instead, who also walked away from him. Marvin just groaned and slowly followed after them all. They all walked and surrounded the dead mutant. Looking down at it.

Dwight turned his camera and took some footage of the bodies around, then back to filming the dead mutant. The ground was starting to turn into a red sea by this point.

"This can't be possible..." Lilith held her chin and seemed very deep in thought. "How are...zombies real, they're just a movie concept..."

"Well, there you go" Almond gestured at the dead one below their feet. "Looks pretty real to me...but then again, aren't you humans always this weird?"

"What does that mean?" Marvin turned to face her with a scowl. "Zombies and humans aren't the same thing!"

"Suuure..." Almond shrugged at that. Before continuing. "But I only had weird experiences with you guys. Like...those guys from that one reality show I was in. I forgot their names...pretty weird"

"Ugh...just what the hell is going on?" Marvin asked the others. "Is this just the apocalypse or what? I just can't understand this!"

"It must be the virus..." Dwight whispered to himself...was it really back?

"Sam...Matteo...Shanoor?" Miou looked around the bodies, but she didn't notice any of her friends. "They're not here..."

"Didn't you mention that you all ran away?" Lilith reminded her.

"I was with Sam...but...Chloé was here too" Miou frowned with worry, as she kept looking. "But now...they're gone...where are they?"

"Where do you suppose?" Dwight asked her. "You know this place, don't you?"

"Um...yeah" Miou slowly said. Rubbing her head as she looked back at a nearby building. "Maybe they went into the school...maybe we could find the teachers there, they could help us!"

"Then let's go" Dwight nodded and helped her walk ahead.

"What about these guys?" Almond pointed at the bodies, looking a bit concerned.

"There's nothing you can do about it...that's how it is" Dwight told her bluntly, and just walked away with Miou. Nobody bothered standing around, they just left the goresome scene. Heading straight for the main school building.
-

Inside the school, when they all entered inside. They saw that the place was dark and void of any life. It already looked unnerving, like entering a abandoned building into the night.

Dwight looked around with the camera and didn't spot much, he turned to ask Miou. "Where now, Miou?"

"I...I don't know..." Miou rubbed her arm and frowned.

"This place is making me nervous..." Marvin admitted.

"Everything makes you nervous..." Almond remarked with a flat expression.

"You just admitted to having the creeps earlier!" Marvin immediately pointed out. "Why do you gotta always make fun of me...?"

"Cuz it's funny" Almond causally answered with.

"So you don't know where they are?" Lilith asked the little girl. "Your friends, I mean..."

"They could be anywhere..." Miou admitted, as she held her chin for thought. "They could be at the gym...or the dance studio...or the cafeteria?"

"Then why don't we split up?" Lilith suggested instead. "We could find them easier that way"

"Hey that doesn't sound bad" Almond admitted to the idea.

"No, we won't do that" Dwight objected.

"Why...not?" Lilith slowly raised her eyebrow at him.

"Well unlike Almond, none of us have any means of self-defense. If we end up stumbling upon those monsters. How would we defend ourselves?" Dwight asked her. "It's dangerous to go alone...we should stick together"

"I don't mind that" Marvin quickly nodded.

"Of course you don't..." Almond muttered under her breath.

"...Right" Lilith sighed, adjusting her glasses. "You're not wrong with that thought...guess we should stick together after all"

"I...want to check the dance studio" Miou told them, looking up to Dwight. "We take classes from Debby-Rose there...maybe she's there with my friends?"

"Then take us there" Dwight asked, as he then watched Miou nod and begin taking them to their next destination. They began walking together with her. Dwight made sure to film all that he could on the way. Mostly nothing, just empty hallways with echoes of their footsteps.

"Hey...why are you filming with that?" Marvin asked, having taken notice of the camera. "Is that really necessary right now?"

"Guess it's an habit nowadays..." Dwight told him with a bit of vagueness.

"What does that mean?" Marvin raised his eyebrow in question.

"I'm...a cameraman" Dwight eventually said, as he slowly began to explain. "That's my career. I work for a TV news company. I am used to it...used to filming for...ZaKa TV..."

...that name, that damn name. I'll never forgive them...for what they did to her and everyone else!

Marvin noticed Dwight's eyebrows narrowing, his serious expression looking more stern than usual. He turned away and didn't feel like asking why. Dwight seemed kinda mad...

"Oh can I hold it?!" Almond quickly slowed down to walk closer to Dwight. As she tried to take the camera away from his hands. Dwight just held it up from her reach. Making her whine and jump for it. "Oooh...c'mon! Gimme...gimme!"

"Almond..." Marvin turned to face her with a exhausted face. "Don't annoy him..."

"Oh come on!" Almond pleaded with a whiny voice. "I never used one before...I just wanna see what it feels like filming with an actual camera and not a phone!"

Dwight rolled her eyes with a small sigh, before lowering the camera and letting her catch it. "Fine, but...don't break it. We might need this"

"Cooool!" Almond beamed and already began fiddling with the thing, before moving the screen to her eye. Where she began filming around. "So cool! I'm like a film maker...is this how they film the Pumice episodes?"

"Was that a good idea?" Lilith turned to Dwight, as she also noticed Almond going around and filming everything she could find.

"Not really...but I guess it doesn't matter" Dwight shrugged, not caring in the slightest.

"Where did you guys come from...?" Miou asked, as she kept watching the bunny girl. She seemed to be annoying Marvin now.

"Marvin, look at me" Almond asked, as she filmed the back of his bald head. "Marv, Marvy. Marvin, why your head so shiny. I'm about to make a movie based on your bald head. Marvin-"

"Oh my God. Almond!" Marvin groaned and covered his head. Almond just giggled and kept filming him.
-

Minutes later. Dwight had to take the camera away from Almond, since she kept bothering Marvin and filming him. She complained for a bit, but eventually stopped whining. Dwight and everyone else encountered disturbing sights on the way. Dead bodies on the hallways. Flickering lights and echoes of whoever knows what. It felt like a horror movie.

"This doesn't feel like my school..." Miou shivered, as she held onto Dwight by the leg. "But...it feels like it..."

"I don't even know how this happened..." Lilith hummed. As she was thinking again. "I hate getting into these situations...what did I even do?"

"Yeah...I wonder that about myself, too" Marvin said with a very frowny look.

"Cheer up. Marv" Almond slapped him on the back. "We get to go on another adventure. It's like, better than doing nothing and going to school or whatever..."

"I would rather just sit on the couch and do nothing, but okay" Marvin grumbled and just hunched even further down.

"There" Miou pointed at a door, quickly running up to open it and get in. They had to hurry up and follow after her. Dwight heard a loud scream from there and he quickly had to run in and see what was going on.

Once he got there...he saw Miou, kneeling down on a dead body. Crying to herself.

"What the..." Marvin muttered, as he peeked at the dead body of a boy. His arm was missing and he looked badly mutilated. Marvin gasped and backed away. "Oh my GOD!"

"Oh...gee" Almond frowned, along with Lilith. As they looked at Miou crying over the dead body.

"Miou...?" Dwight slowly walked over to her and saw the boy's dead body. They were really hurt badly.

"S-Sam...no...no...no!" Miou cried out, her tears following down onto Sam's dead body. Dwight slowly got down to her and frowned in empathy.

"...." Dwight set the camera down and tried to help the girl, patting her head. She was too much in grieve to stop crying, though.

"What sort of sick monster would do this...?" Lilith asked, as she was looking at the mutilated body in sheer disgust.

"He's just a kid..." Marvin muttered. Trembling badly at the horrible sight.

"Y-you think..." Almond rubbed her neck and looked back for a moment, before looking back at the others. "The monsters did this...?"

"I mean...it must be?" Marvin nervously said, looking away from the grotesque sight of the body.

"Let's go...you don't have to see this" Dwight picked up the camera, and also Miou. She tried to reach out to her dead friend, but...there wasn't anything else to do for him.

There wasn't anything to do.
-

They stood outside that room. Miou had to be calmed down, when she did. She seemed really sick.

"You okay?" Almond asked her, noticing how depressed she seemed.

"I...don't feel okay..." Miou sniffed and held her head. "I...want to see Antonella...she makes me feel better every time..."

"Who's that?" Lilith asked her.

"She's the nurse..." Miou weakly said. "I want to see her...I don't feel okay"

"It's okay...we'll take you there" Dwight told her, as he then helped her walk.

"This is getting ridiculous..." Marvin told them, seemingly nervous now. "There's too many dead people in here...who's doing this?"

"I dunno...but it's weird" Almond said, as she held tightly onto her sword. "I haven't see any of these zombies around..."

"Probably for the better..." Lilith added in, before looking back at the door to the dance studio. "I just hope we don't end up like...that"
-

The door opens up. Dwight gets inside with everyone else. The nurse's office seemed empty. Nobody was there.

Lilith looked around the office and held her arms with confusion. "Okay, nobody here...just an empty office"

"Oww...." Miou rubbed her head and moaned. "Antonella...where are you?"

"Uh...nobody's here" Almond pointed it out to her.

"Nobody is in the entire school but us" Marvin sighed deeply, as he leaned against the counter. "Are you sure that this place isn't abandoned or something?"

"Do those dead bodies answer your question?" Dwight coldly asked, as he set the camera down on a nearby counter. "I doubt that those bodies moved themselves from outside to inside. Something definitely happened to them..."

"Like what?" Almond asked, as she was sitting on the counter next to Marvin, kicking her feet. "It's those zombies, right?"

"Probably..." Dwight quietly said and looked at Miou, she was sitting on a chair and looking down with a sad frown.

Poor kid. I understand how loss feels like....

"I'll try to help Miou" Lilith spoke up, as she began to look around for something. "I have to find some antibiotics and some bandages. It'll be quick"

"Okay..." Miou said through a weak moan.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Marvin asked, as he looked around the boring office.

"Wanna play rock paper scissors?" Almond suggested with a smile.

"I'd rather...go home" Marvin shook his head.

"You're no fun..." Almond rolled her eyes and jumped off the counter, before going around to check something else. "I should've gotten stuck with someone else...like...um...who was that one kid again. With the orange hair?"

"Huh" Marvin looked up, a bit perplexed by the question. "You know...I actually forgot about that kid, he was with us during that time..."

"There's a lot of people from that killing game that I forgot about. Like...that orange dude with the glasses, the other girl with the glasses. There was a dude with a mask, another girl who was short and smart like Nautilus...umm..." Almond stopped counting the people she remembers, before putting her arms behind her neck and shrugging. "I forgot...guess they a little forgettable, except for you. Somehow...haha!"

"I don't know why that feels like a backhanded compliment, but...I'm glad you haven't forgotten about me" Marvin said through a small scoff. "But you're right. I hardly remember some of the people there...they really are forgettable"

"Did you say...killing game, Almond?" Lilith peeked from behind the cabinet that she opened.

"Ya heard that?" Almond turned to face the girl in the glasses.

"I've been in one before, but just to be clear. There was a black and white bear, who was just so insufferable, that you felt like choking him to death...right?"

"Uh...yeah, actually" Marvin answered for her.

Lilith smacked her lip, before continuing. "And do either of you, know someone by the name of Chef PP and...Carrot?"

"Hey how'd you know about Carrot?!" Almond asked with a surprised look.

"Didn't you already meet Chef PP before?" Marvin pointed out to her. "In that one...TV show?"

"Yeah, actually" Lilith nods in response, as she was seen looking at the label of some medicine. "The one, where you had to do challenges with your teams. Right?"

"Hey! I've been in that one too!" Almond quickly said. "And my brother too. Cuco!"

"My son was in it too...I don't know why" Marvin sighed deeply.

"You all seem to know each other..." Dwight eventually spoke up, having been silent this entire time.

"Oh we go way back" Almond casually said with a small hand wave. "At this point. Humans are like...a thing that I know, so does my brother. Dad thinks we're hallucinating, I don't know why though"

"And at this point, non-human beings aren't that surprising to me" Lilith said, nonchalantly so. As she has seen enough to treat those like Almond, as normal.

"I can't even begin to describe half of the things I've seen, my whole life is just own comedy act...trust me" Marvin deeply sighed and wiped his forehead. "It's hot here...jeez"

"Marvin, seriously...what was the name of that kid with the glasses and the orange hair?" Almond asked them. "He kind of reminds me of Cuco!"

"I don't know..." Marvin just shrugged.

Dwight just heard them speak to each other...all three knew each other like old friends. People knowing one another. Friends. Distant relatives. Acquaintances.

....

And...I've got nobody.

He closes his eyes to reflect on something. Marvin would keep talking to Almond about something. She'd then laugh now and then. Lilith seemed to be busy with Miou, who was silent like Dwight. This calmness sure was...needed.

Bump!

Dwight opened his eyes, after some sort of noise was heard coming from a nearby locker. It seems like everyone else heard that.

"What was that?" Lilith asked, as she was just about to bandage Miou. Her eyes turned to one of the lockers.

"I-I...don't know" Marvin nervously said and began backing away. "Oh God...another one of those things!"

"Hey" Almond gestured at her sword then. "Just remember that I got it"

They went silent for a moment, until that bump happened again.

"What's that noise...?" Miou turned back and held herself, looking afraid.

"This feels familiar..." Dwight muttered to himself, grabbing the camera off the counter and filming again. He walked closer to the locker, along with Lilith. They both looked at the middle locker and heard some bumping inside.

"Open it" Almond told them, as she was holding her sword and already getting into her stance. "I'll slice whatever jumps at ya..."

"How reassuring..." Lilith sarcastically said, looking back at her with a not so impressed look.

"C-can we just go?" Marvin asked, holding onto the doorknob and sweating.

Dwight was about to open the locker, until...it eventually opened by itself. Revealing....a boy inside. Sitting, holding his knees and looking at the wall, unmoving.

"Huh...?" Dwight said, leaning away from the camera to stare at the boy cramped up inside. They just sat and didn't even react to them opening the locker.

"Nikolai!" Miou gasped, as she walked over to the familiar face. "What are you doing here? Are you okay? Did you see Shanoor and the others?"

....

"Nikolai...?" Miou stared in confusion, how the boy didn't respond to her questions. How he just kept sitting in silence.

"Um...hello?" Lilith waved at him, trying to get his reaction. But when he didn't respond. She just looks back at the others with a shrug.

"You okay, dude?" Almond asked him next. Tilting her head and wondering what was up with this kid.

"Kid, are you okay?" Dwight called out to them. When they wouldn't respond. Everyone began to wonder if they were even awake.

But when Nikolai slowly turned his head to face them. His blue pupils small and unnatural.

"Nikolai, it's okay!" Miou tried to go after him. But was held back by Dwight. "Huh...Dwight, what's wrong...this is my friend!"

"Something...isn't right with him" Dwight slowly said. Still staring deep at the boy's face.

"What...?" Miou said, before slowly looking back at Nikolai and noticing his still expression. "Nikolai...are you...okay?"

She was answered, when Nikolai's head, slowly slid off his neck. Following down on the ground, followed by his body flopping down to the ground.

....

Everyone began to freak out.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Marvin screamed from way back and slammed his back onto the door.

"EWWW!?" Lilith backed away from the bleeding body and held her mouth, nearly throwing up at the sight.

"DUDE WHAT IS THIS?!" Almond backed away to the counter and ended up knocking bottles of pills by accident. Staring at the headless body in disbelief.

Miou screamed at the sight of her dead classmate and held her face, crying out along the process.

"Everyone out, OUT!" Dwight demanded, picking up Miou and then pushing both Lilith and Almond away from the body. Almond kept looking at the body, but Dwight was about to push her and everyone else out. Marvin being the first one to get the hell out of there.
-

Moments later...

It took time for them to help Miou calm down, she was crying hysterically and in pure shock at what she saw. Dwight couldn't blame her, she was only a kid. She didn't have to see any of that.

"Please...PLEASE!" Marvin was seen begging them all. "Let's just get out of this HELL HOLE...I can't handle seeing this anymore!"

"What even happened there!?" Almond asked, looking quite unsettled by what she saw. "The locker just opened...and...and his head just...just..."

"It shouldn't be possible...it just can't!" Lilith held her head and was stressing out. "If his head was already cut off, how'd he stare at us...this all doesn't make sense!"

Dwight rubbed his forehead and looked down at Miou, she was holding her knees and rocking back and forth on the ground. Her eyes all shaky along with her body. He took a kneel to check on her. "Hey, don't worry...you'll be okay"

"Why...why...?" Miou whimpered, her voice sounding shaky. "Where's everyone...why's this happening...why is everyone...going away?"

"...Is there anything we can do to help?" Dwight asked her.

"...The directors" Miou whimpered, wiping her tears as she looked at the side. "They...they have to help...I...I have to find them..."

"How are they supposed to help?!" Marvin angrily asked. "How about we just get the hell out of this school!"

"Don't yell at her" Dwight shook his head and picked up Miou on his arms. "She already is going through enough...we've gotta hurry up"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Marvin held his head and was bewildered by the persistence. He looked at the girls and tried to get their support. "Come on, don't you realize how stupid this is...we need to go!"

"Gosh, you act like we were nearly killed or something" Almond tilted her head at the panicking man. "It's...just creepy stuff, that's all"

"THAT KID WAS DECAPITATED!" Marvin yelled with disbelief.

"I wouldn't mind going away...but" Lilith looked down. As she pinched her the bridge of her nose with a frustrated sigh. "God, I feel like I'm going to explode in the head...what the hell is going on?"

"We can go after this..." Dwight told them, as he began to walk towards a staircase. "Right now, we've gotta get help...come on"

Marvin watched hopelessly as everyone followed after Dwight, he looked at the door to the nurse office, before looking back at the others. Grumbling something under his breath as he quickly called out for them to wait up.
-

At the principal office...

The door was opened by Lilith, she walked inside along with everyone else. The office was at the very last floor, there was a huge window ahead of them. It showed the arms of a clock, the one that they barely noticed from the outside. Furthermore, this place seemed very quiet and faded of colors. Much like this entire school.

"Hello?" Marvin stepped in, calling out for anyone that was in here. He looked around the office and noticed many decorations. "Huh...this place looks weird"

"So where's the director or whatever?" Almond asked, as she turned to face Miou. Still on Dwight's arms.

"Mr.Valberg...?" Miou weakly called out, looking around but noticing anyone.

Dwight looked around and walked further, noticing that there was a desk ahead of them. The chair was turned away from them. "Maybe he's behind that chair?"

"What are the chances of that happening?" Marvin dersively said with a small scoff, as he slowly walked up to the chair. "It's probably empty, I'll just sit on it and rest my feet from all this stupid walking"

"Laaaazy!" Almond remarked from behind. Marvin ignored her and was about to approach the chair...until it slowly turned over to face them.

It revealed the dead body of some man in a blue suit. Their body looking quite decayed and burnt. Everyone stared at him in silent shock.

"What happened to him...?" Dwight eventually asked.

"N-no..." Miou whimpered and quickly buried her face into the man's shirt. Dwight sighed, eventually realizing that this was the director that she talked about.

"Why-"

Lilith didn't finish, as Marvin screamed loudly and jumped back. Away from the dead body in the chair.

Almond was seen holding onto her ears, until she glared at the man and complained. "Maaaarvin....why the heck did you scream THAT late?"

"I-I was in shock!" Marvin anxiously said and made sure to stay as far as he could from that chair.

"As I was saying..." Lilith sighed deeply, before stepping ahead to look at the dead body. Her face showing that of concern. "Why's everyone just...dead?"

"I still think it was those zombies that did it" Almond told her. She was seen messing around with some of the trophies inside the office.

Dwight tried to record the scene, but it was hard to do so when he had a crying girl on his arms. Guess he'll just have to stand around and look...

Lilith eventually noticed something on the desk. It was some sort of ripped off page. "Hey, what's this?"

She picks up the page, everyone gathered around for her to start reading it. She eventually does. "I’ve been stuck here for so long... I keep thinking this place feels familiar, but I don’t know where! I just want to go home... I keep hearing and seeing things. I can’t move at all — all I can do is watch. I see these characters... they’re from a show... I know them! But they can’t eefing see me or hear me. I’m going mad. Someone please help me go back home. Signed...MM?"

"Uh...what?" Marvin eventually gave her a confused look. "Did this guy write that or something?"

"It doesn't sound like him..." Miou finally spoke, still wiping her tears. "Poor Mr.Valberg..."

"Someone was here before us...I guess" Dwight shrugged at the possibility.

"Did they seriously write 'eefing' in the note?" Almond flatly asked. "Why not just say the actual word at this point...?"

"They did, but I just didn't say the actual thing" Lilith pointed out, before throwing the note away.

"Didn't you swear a few minutes ago?" Dwight asked.

"I've got into this bad habit of doing so, because of that stupid killing game and the people within it..." she grumbled at the reminder.

They went silent after that. Seems like nothing was here.

"Hey, so" Almond slowly turned to Miou and asked. "Who are your friends that we're looking for, again?"

"I only have Matteo and Shanoor left...but I don't know where they are" Miou sadly admitted, as she continues with a unsure tone. "They could be at the cafeteria...maybe...?"

"Okay, but we're not going there, right?" Marvin turned to Dwight, a bit hopeful for his next answer.
-

Later at the cafeteria.

Marvin frowned very deeply as he stood inside the cafeteria with everyone else.

"Cheer up, Marv" Almond patted him on the back.

"I don't know why I'm even following you all..." Marvin spoke with a very annoyed voice.

"You can leave, if you want to" Dwight told him, as he was too busy looking at the dead bodies around the cafeteria.

"N-never mind..." Marvin awkwardly coughed and decided to go quiet.

"Just look at this..." Lilith pointed at the awful sight. There were more dead students around the place. And it all left a bad stench in the air.

"Ugh..." Almond covered her nose and looked at Marvin. "Marvin, did you just fart or something?"

"VERY funny..." he gave her a deep frown.

"Do you see any of your friends?" Dwight asked the girl on his arms. She seemed to be looking already.

"No..." she sadly said, shaking her head.

"Okay, let's leave then!" Marvin quickly said as he covered his mouth. "I feel like throwing up..."

"I'm with Marv on this one...it stinks!" Almond complained and was ready to turn away and leave with Marvin. Until a loud noise was heard coming from somewhere.

"What was that?" Lilith asked, as she turned her head around.

"Seems like it came from behind the counter..." Dwight gestured at the counter ahead of them, the line where you'd easily get your lunch. "Is someone...in there?"

"It could be Shanoor or Matteo!" Miou hopefully said, before tugging on Dwight's vest. "Let's go there, please!"

"Okay, okay..." Dwight nodded, as he began walking towards there. Ignoring all the dead bodies in the ground.
-

Inside the kitchen.

Upon entering the kitchen, everyone stopped to look around. The kitchen seemed very empty...and dirty.

"Dirty..." Dwight muttered. Miou was off his arms now and he could freely record. The kitchen seemed to be decaying like the bodies themselves.

"I wonder what happened here...?" Miou held her chin and was looking around the kitchen. "Matteo...Shanoor?"

"Nobody seems to be here..." Lilith pointed out.

"Then, what was that noise?" Dwight asked with a small glance.

"Could've been the wind knocking one of the pots" she gave him a shrug and crossed her arms. Leaning behind a counter. "It tends to happen sometimes, nothing that unusual"

"You see any knocked over pots?" he asked, as he moved his camera on the ground. Not noticing anything on the ground.

"Okaaaay..." Lilith narrowed her eyes a little and countered back. "Could've been the building itself, creeking. This place seems out of date and not that well kept. It wouldn't be surprising for it to just make noises"

Dwight hummed and turned his camera to film the ceiling. The lights were flickering on and off. Nothing was of interest there...

Almond stood around with a very bored face, until she felt her stomach rumbling. She eyed a nearby refrigerator and hummed. "I'm hungry...I'll get a snack since we're here"

Marvin turned to her with an unimpressed expression. "Seriously, at a time like this?"

"Hey, a gals gotta eat!" Almond gave him a small shrug and reached out to the fridge handle. "Wonder what kind of snacks you got in the human world-"

The door to the fridge suddenly opened, a loud roar was heard as some adult man jumped onto Almond. Pushing her back to the counter and attacking her. Everyone immediately turned to the two and began to freak out.

"UGH! GET OFF ME!" Almond angrily grumbled, as she stared back at a mutilated man. His eyes all pure black, along with his rotten black teeth. The same teeth that was trying to bite onto her, leaving thick saliva falling onto her face and assault her nose with an awful rotting smell. "YOU...GROSS FREAK!"

"MR.ALBERT WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Miou screamed, recognizing the man as the school's janitor. Staring at him in horror as he was trying to harm Almond.

"KILL IT. KILL IT!" Marvin frantically spoke in a high pitched voice and was shaking in fear. Watching how Almond tried fighting off the monster.

"I can't find anything to use!" Lilith anxiously told them, as she kept looking for something that she could use to help.

"DO SOMETHING ALREADY!" Almond groaned and was slowly beginning to get overpowered by the janitor, no matter how she tried to kick him with her boot in the face. Forcing herself to be pushed on top of the counter.

Fortunately, Dwight came in and smacked the monster in the side of its head. With a pan, sending the janitor crashing to the ground with a loud thud. Echoing deep into the kitchen. Almond falls on the counter and rolls to the side, falling onto the ground next. Dwight held up the bloody pan and kept staring down at the monster. For a moment, it began to slowly get up again. But Dwight wasted no time and immediately smashed it with the pan again, and again. Until it could no longer move. He backed away with a huff and threw the pan away then. Miou slowly looked in shock, watching how he basically killed the janitor that she knew and liked.

Lilith slowly peeks in and sees that the janitor was unmoving and bleeding onto the ground. She then asked, eyes still on the dead body. "Is it...dead?"

"Yeah..." Dwight slowly said, before turning around to Almond. As he leaned down to offer a hand. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah..." Almond said through a shaky face, wiping her cheek with a disgusted groan. "Thanks for giving me a help...UNLIKE someone here...!"

She said, shooting a specific glare at Marvin.

"I...I tried to..." Marvin embarrassingly muttered and looked down. Rubbing his neck.

"Right..." she grumbled with an eye roll. Before she kicked the janitor for good measure. "Gross zombies...ugh!"

"Mr.Albert...." Miou sadly whimpered, staring down at the dead janitor. "Why's he like this...?"

"They're not themselves anymore, they're just monsters" Dwight told her, picking up his camera to record the sight. "I've seen people like this, once they turn. They're not the same person that we used to know..."

"The question is, how'd they turn into zombies?" Lilith asked.

"...Could be the Gagne virus" Dwight slowly muttered with a shrug. Everyone went quiet, nobody seemed to hear what he said. For a moment they just stared at the dead body.

Marvin shivered and held his arms, before complaining. "It's freezing here..."

Dwight looks back, noticing that some sort of door to the freezer was left open. He'd gesture towards it. "Seems like that's the source...why's it left opened?"

"Ugh, well...I'm closing it" Marvin grumbles and then walked over to close the freezer, until he suddenly froze in place. Dwight noticed that, before slowly going over to see what was up.

"What's wrong?" Dwight asked the shorter man, but Marvin was too stunned to speak. Dwight raised his eyebrow, before looking inside the freezer. What he saw next...made his blood run cold.

Inside the freezer...two bodies hung from meat books. Missing their legs. An adult woman and one boy. They were both...lifeless, their skin all blue and frozen.

....

"What are you looking at...?" Miou suddenly asked from behind. Dwight then quickly pushed Marvin aside and closed the freezer shut. Miou just looked at them with confusion, until Dwight eventually shook his head and said. "Nothing...there's nothing here"

"But-" Marvin tried to say, but Dwight nudged him slightly. Making him go quiet.

"Yuck!" Almond was seen washing her face with the sink. Before turning back and shaking her face to dry off. "That was so groooosss....can we leave this place?"

"Yeah..." Lilith slowly nods. "I'm ready to leave, there's nobody but monsters here"

"But...my friends, they're still here. I have to find them!" Miou pleaded with them all.

"Just where are they, then?" Lilith asked, a bit impatient by now.

"M-maybe the gym...they could be there?" Miou hesitantly said, her eyes looking down with a shaky frown.

"Well if they're not there. THEN I'M LEAVING!" Marvin loudly declared, turning over to face Dwight. "And you better NOT refuse! I don't care about these kids, fuck em! I just wanna look out for myself!"

"Wow..." Almond said, giving him a flat look.

"Fine...we'll leave after checking the gym" Dwight decided, before gesturing for them to leave. "Let's go..."

The girls began to leave then. Dwight just stood back, back pressed against the freezer. Marvin stood by too, until he whispered to him. "You...you think that kid was her friend...?"

"She doesn't need to see that..." Dwight said with a stern voice, before looking down. "What the hell is happening here...monsters can't be doing this. Hanging those bodies on those hooks...who's doing this?"

"Don't say who, you're scaring me..." Marvin said, looking very anxious at this point.

"Let's leave, but let's take something to defend ourselves, first" Dwight leaned away from the freezer, as he then took two knives from nearby and handed one to Marvin. "Alright let's go now"

"Oh God..." Marvin gulped and held his knife tightly, following after Dwight.
-

At the gym. Of course, much like everywhere else, dead bodies filled the room.

Miou held her mouth, recognizing some bodies on the floor. Such as her classmates and teacher.

"Wait...look" Almond pointed towards two students that were seen standing around.

"Marc...Lucie?" Miou called out to each student, until she gasped loudly when they turned to face her. Each student were now like Albert, zombies.

The two mutilated students snarled and began limping over to the group. Their skin all decayed and rotten. Dwight stood still and watched as the boy student. Marc, lunged over to him. But Dwight just stepped aside and tripped the student with his foot. Marc falls onto the ground, the zombie growled and tried to get up. Dwight just rammed his knife onto its skull, killing it.

"God..." Lilith winced and gave him a concerned look.

"Sorry..." Dwight quietly apologized and shrugged.

Miou yelped as Lucie was about to attack her, but Almond just jumped at her and sliced her head off with one slice of her sword. Lucie's body falling limp onto the ground, her head rolling away.

"My sword is gonna need a lot of cleaning after this..." Almond grumbled, trying to wipe off the blood off her sword.

Miou looks over at the two bodies, before speaking in a remorseful tone. "Marc and Lucie weren't nice to us...but they didn't deserve this..."

"That's sad and all, but um...nobody's here!" Marvin gestured, taking a small spin around the empty gym. "Sooooo...let's just get out of here and go home. Okay? Okay! Leaving now!"

As Marvin was just about to leave...soft humming was heard, echoing into the empty gym. He froze up, as he and everyone began to look around for the source of the humming.

"Who's there...?" Lilith quietly asked, turning her head in all directions to see who it was.

"Creeepy...." Almond said, holding her sword and going all cautious.

Dwight points his camera all over the place, until eventually, from within the shadows. He saw...a little girl, walk out of there. He'd quickly point out at her. "Hey, over there!"

"Chloé....?!" Miou gasped, backing away as she stared at her friend. Chloé, who stood nearby with an uneasy smile. Hands behind her back, just staring at them.

"Oh finally..." Marvin sighed. "Looks like we found ONE of them...can we leave now"

"N-no..." Miou shook her head and began to back away from the smiling girl. "What...what did you do with Sam...where's Matteo...where's Shanoor?"

Chloé just kept smiling at her, until finally. She lifted her hand and revealed something to them. Earning some gaps and looks of shock from them. Dwight felt his stomach turn, as he zoomed onto Chloé's hand...which showed her holding a severed head. Bleeding from its lump.

Chloé then tossed the head towards Miou, the head rolls over to her and makes Miou scream in horror. Seeing that it was the head of her friend. Shanoor...

"NOOOOOO!" Miou screamed, staring at the lifeless eyes of her friend.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON ANYMORE?!" Marvin screamed again and nearly fainted from the sight of the lifeless head.

"Did you...do this?" Dwight lifted his camera away, to glare at the little girl. "Why...would you do this...?"

"Shanoor...n-no...nooo!" Miou already began to cry again, as she shook her head at the head of Shanoor, not wanting to believe that it was real.

Chloé then pointed at Miou, and like something from a horror movie. Chloé's neck snapped to the side. At an unusual angle that made everyone back away in shock. And then out of nowhere, red fleshy tentacles shot from Chloé's neck. They immediately wrapped around Miou and forcibly dragged her towards the other girl.

"WHAT!?" Lilith screamed and was left shocked by the abrupt action.

"HEY!" Almond yelled and tried to reach out to Miou, she watched as Miou was dangled by the tentacles. Chloé's neck snapped back to its original position, forcing Miou to stare at her in the eyes. Chloé's lifeless and reddened eyes.

Miou cried and stared back at her friend with pure fear in her eyes. Trying desperately to escape from those tentacles. Chloé just opened her mouth, widely. Unnaturally so big that it broke her jaw. And all that Chloé did, was let out a small and deep laugh at Miou.

"Chloé...please don't-"

Nobody expected what could happen next. But what happened was that Chloe. Bit onto Miou's entire head, shoving it inside her wide mouth and begin...eating her. Miou's horrified screams of pain were heard. Her body twitching violently as she desperately tried to escape. Everyone was speechless, unable to move. As they stared in pure shock at the girl being eaten alive.

Chloé eventually released Miou, the latter fell lifeless onto the ground. Her entire face was eaten off, showing nothing but one big wound. Bleeding so badly onto the floor, that it flood the ground.

They all just stared at Miou's lifeless body. All in absolute shock.

....

Marvin screamed loudly then.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Lilith was the next one to scream.

"Oh no..." Dwight muttered, having captured everything on footage. His body trembling.

"YOU MONSTER!" Almond angrily yelled at Chloé and immediately charged at her with her sword. "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!"

"ALMOND NO!" Marvin yelled in worry and watched Almond jump towards the girl, ready to strike her down.

Almond lets out a battle cry and slashed towards Chloé, but Chloé just dodged. Almond missed and landed on the ground with a groan. Until she then felt tentacles wrap around her hand and neck. Forcing her to turn around and struggle with Chloé. Who was trying to pull her towards her wide mouth, trying to chomp on her face. Almond struggled with a groan. "U-ugh...let...let me go!"

"ALMOND NO!" Marvin screamed and quickly rushed over to her and the monstrous girl. Raising his knife into the air. "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU MONSTER!"

Marvin attacked the tentacles that were wrapped around Almond. Slicing them off with his knife. Almond fell backwards then, gasping for air. Marvin nearly tumbled down due to his harsh attack. He heard a loud and angry roar from behind. Before turning around to see Chloé coming towards him. Still smiling with a huge open mouth. Marvin screamed and began running away from her. Chloé sent two of her tentacles from within her neck. Wrapping them around Marvin's ankle and tripping him down.

"NO NO NO!" Marvin cried and tried to crawl away from the monster. "STAY AWAY FROM ME. SOMEONE HELP!"

Chloé slowly dragged Marvin towards her, until she felt something hit her from behind. It was Lilith, who threw a basketball at her.

"Get away from him, you freak!" Lilith angrily demanded, as she threw another basketball at Chloé, even though it didn't do much but annoy the monster.

Almond got up, rubbing her neck as she grumbled. Before jumping high into the air. "I GOT YA NOW!"

Chloé was about to attack Marvin, until she saw Almond flying down towards her. So she just stepped aside and let Almond come towards Marvin instead.

Marvin screamed loudly and crawled backwards. Almond's sword ended up going between his crotch, nearly castrating the man. It got stuck on the ground instead.

"Oops, sorry Marvin!" Almond sheepishly smiled and tried to pull out her sword. Marvin just whimpered and backed away from her, holding onto his crotch.

"ALMOND WATCH OUT!" Lilith warned, watching that monster creep up behind Almond.

"Huh-" Almond turned back, before gasping as Chloé was about to chomp down on Almond's face.

Thankfully. Dwight just came up and rammed into Chloé with his shoulder, sending the girl crashing towards the stairs, where she ended up falling on her neck, hitting it against the first step. A loud crack was heard in the process. Forcing Chloé to fall limp.

"And stay down!" Dwight angrily told her.

Almond was about to pull her sword out, before looking at the girl. Noticing how her neck was twisted in a bad way. "Gosh...you actually killed her...cool!"

"Is it...is it over?" Marvin nervously asked, as he slowly stood up and looked at the limp girl.

"Hey, thanks for the save, didn't know you were actually brave enough to rush in like that" Almond smiled, as she gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder.

"Well I couldn't just stand by and let you get hurt..." Marvin muttered, as he rubbed his shoulder. "But...I guess you should thank Dwight for saving you"

"Oh yeah...thanks Dwight" Almond turned to the taller man and slapped him on the arm.

"...Miou" Dwight shook his head with a deep sigh. The other two then frowned and stared at Miou's dead body.

"I can't believe that happened..." Lilith said, walking up to them with a stressful expression. "Did this girl...do all this?"

"I can't believe she's dead..." Marvin said, looking remorseful.

"I should've done something..." Almond sighed, looking down with frustration.

"There's nothing you can do, sometimes..." Dwight slowly said, holding his head with a grumble.

Ugh...why did I just stand by again...what's wrong with me...!?

....

"Can we please leave?" Lilith then asked.

"PLEASE!" Marvin begged.

Dwight just nodded, as he spoke in a dry tone. "Yeah...let's leave"

Just as they were about to leave...they heard a crack.

"Huh?" Almond turned back to Chloé's dead body, only to see her twitching violently. "What the?!"

Everyone turns over to the body, watching it twitch nonstop...until eventually more tentacles crawled out of Chloé's neck, until those tentacles grew into actual thick limbs. Lifting Chloé up from the ground, nasty cracks and flesh noises were heard. As Chloé's head began to shake violently...until it exploded on the spot. Sending chunks of her face to splattered on the ground. As a bunch of lacky limbs crawled out of her neck. Four spider like legs with sharp claws at each end. Tentacles that were wiggling crazy and slapping anything around them. Everyone was in sheer shock and horror at what they saw. Chloé's body hung lifeless, with huge limbs coming out of the lump of her neck. Making her look like a huge spider monster.

".. RUN!" Dwight yelled and quickly booked it for the door, nobody else stood back and argued. They all ran out of the gym. The monster slowly turned around with their four legs and immediately began chasing after the group.
-

Everyone was seen running out of the gym, the door bursted open by Dwight. With the other three running after him. They quickly found the main exit door, Dwight stopped and quickly gestured everyone to leave. "GO GO GO GO!"

When they all exited through. Dwight was about to leave too, until he heard a loud crash happening. Looking over to see that the monster broke through the wall and was now coming after them. Dwight gasped and quickly rushed outside too. Running behind the others.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Marvin was screaming the entire time as he ran faster than usual.

"WHAT IS THAT THING?" Lilith asked with a horrified face.

"A MONSTER?" Almond gave her a look in response, before looking back at Dwight. "HURRY UP!"

"To the gate, everyone go back the way we came!" Dwight directed and pointed towards the way that they originally came from. He turned back for a moment and saw the monster breaking through the main entrance of the school building. Crawling like a spider towards them. Chloé's body still dangling from underneath the massive legs.

It's all over like Chicago again!

Dwight grumbled at the thought and just ran as fast as he could, he was about to get to the gates where they eventually came. All while having to constantly look behind and see that monster coming towards him. But it all got worse.

"Oh crud!" Almond stopped in her tracks, when they all arrived at the gates. They saw a bunch of monsters waiting for them on the other side.

"OH NO!" Marvin held his head and shook terribly. "NOW WHAT?"

"Um...uh...!?" Lilith frantically looked around for something to do. Until she froze upon hearing a roar.

Dwight looked back and saw the monster crawling towards them. Their tentacles squiggly and wiggling like crazy. The huge spider legs shook the ground and made loud stomping noises. Shaking their hearts to the core. They all stood hopelessly and watched their doom approaching.

"I'll...I'll take care of it!" Almond stepped ahead and held her sword, looking quite worried, despite her brave expression.

"NO YOU WON'T!" Marvin quickly pulled her back and held her from doing anything stupid. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING THAT MONSTER BY YOURSELF!"

"If I could take on a huge squid monster. Then I can take care of this one too!" she insisted, but didn't fight him off from holding her.

"SOMEONE JUST DO SOMETHING!" Lilith frantically begged, as she watched the other smaller monsters trying to reach out to them from the gates.

Dwight just opened his camera and filmed the monster coming towards them. Not sure of what to do here...was this just going to be another death for them?

...

Well, at least it was nice to live for once more.

Dwight sighed deeply and closed his eyes, waiting for the monster to just to end them all.

The monster was just about to approach them...until.

BANG!

A loud shot was heard, and the monster was heard roaring loudly. As it fell and crashed onto the ground. One of its front legs was split in half. Dwight and everyone else looked ahead and were shocked by what happened. The monster was seen trying to get up again, but then another shot was heard. Which hit the monster's other leg, forcing it to kneel down and bleed out.

It weakly growled, until eventually. A third shot was sent towards it, hitting Chloé's body in the heart. The monster roared loudly, until it finally fell limp into the ground. A loud thud was to be heard in the process.

....

Dwight slowly turned over to a tree nearby, where they saw a figure. Dressed all in black, holding a sawed-off shotgun, smoke coming out of its barrel, pointing at the monster. Everyone was shocked by the sudden turn of events. The monster that was just about to kill them, ended up being killed instead. By...whoever that was.

"Okay...?" Lilith let her arms fall down to her sides. "I guess...we're safe...?"

"Is it dead...please tell me it is..." Marvin nervously asked, hiding behind Almond and shaking.

"I think it is, dude..." Almond sighed, as she gave him a annoyed look.

"Who are you?" Dwight eventually asked the unknown figure. Watching how they put their weapon away, and silently walked over to the dead monster. They didn't have even stop to answer.

They watched as the unknown figure examined the huge monster, poking it with their boot.

Almond sighed impatiently and eventually demanded an answer. "Hey! We're talking to you, who the HECK are you!"

"Don't anger them!" Marvin quickly settled her down. "They have a gun...!"

"So?" Almond casually said.

Dwight steps up and asks loudly this time. "I asked a question, who are you?"

The unknown figure kept looking down at the monster, until finally they turned around. Their face was unclear, hidden under a black mask, their clothing all dark and heavy. They spoke, but their voice was distorted. "We're....Naf"

....

Lilith tilted her head in question. "Naf...?"

"We didn't think anyone was still alive here..." this person, supposedly known as Naf, spoke. Fixing their gloves and being all casual. "Guess we were wrong...you all came for shelter, right?"

"Not really..." Marvin admitted with a sigh. "We just um...kinda ran here and hid, until we found some girl and then...I don't even know, THIS happened!"

"So we seen..." Naf looks back at the monster for a moment.

"Do you work here, you know anyone named Miou or...something?" Dwight began to question the...man...woman?

"No, and no" Naf simply answered with, before turning to face them. "We never seen you before, how'd you get here?"

"Like we know..." Almond cynically said with a small eye roll, before putting one hand on her hip and glaring at the unknown stranger. "Where did you come from, why were you here, huh?"

"We...just passed by" they simply answered with.

"Uh huh?" Lilith crossed her arms at the answer.

"We would like to say that you should clear away from this place, it's not safe anymore" Naf warned, before pointing at the forest. "There's somewhere else that's safe to take shelter in. We'll take you there, so you should follow us"

"Uh..." Dwight uttered in response...seriously, just follow this stranger?

"Hold on, we'll uh...gotta talk to each other" Lilith said to the masked figure, before gesturing everyone to group up. Once they did so, she whispered. "Okay...what are we gonna do?"

"I dunno?" Almond shrugged in response, as she slowly peeked at the stranger. "Should we like, trust this guy?"

"Is it even a guy?" Marvin questioned.

"That doesn't matter" Dwight shook his head with a sigh. "They claim to know somewhere else that's safer than this school...now should we follow him or not?"

"They did save us from that monster..." Lilith admitted, albeit looking reluctant.

"I could've handled it..." Almond muttered under her breath.

"I don't care about any of this, but I wanna get out of this damn place!" Marvin demanded with a anxious face. "Let's just...do what they say"

"Fine, but if they try anything...we'll handle it" Dwight told them, before backing away from the group. As he stared back at Naf. "Okay, you'll take us there...is it far?"

"We know this place more than you do, just follow us and you should be safe" Naf simply told them, before turning away to walk away. Everyone else stood back at first, until eventually they had no choice but to follow the stranger. Walking past the dead monster and staring at it, a bit anxious that it might get up again...but it never did.
-
Later into the deep forest.

They all followed after this Naf person, they walked a little weird...they wore a big coat too, covering up their entire body. Their face was invisible and their eyes too. Nobody knew who they were, really.

They just kept following them, until eventually...they reached to some sort of...maze?

"What's this...?" Dwight stopped, everyone stared at the tall grassy hedges. There was a open entrance ahead.

"Take this maze" Naf pointed at the entrance. "When you get across the exit, you'll find a small town ahead. You can find some sort apartments there, take whichever you want as shelter. You'll be safer there. We must go now"

"Hold up!" Almond quickly said and held up two fingers. "I've got two questions for ya! One, where the heck are you going...and TWO. Why the heck are you talking like you're royalty. This whole 'we' 'us' stuff..."

"We've got...business to handle" Naf slowly said, before they began to walk away. Until they stopped for a moment. Turning back to face the girl, only to say. "And we, don't have any reason to explain that to you...be careful now"

"Okay?" Lilith raised her eyebrow and watched them leave, before she turned to face the others. "Definitely not suspicious at all, huh?"

"I don't trust them..." Almond crossed her arms with narrowed eyes.

"So...we just go into this maze and find a town?" Marvin asked, as he stared at the maze with uncertainty.

"That's what they said..." Dwight shrugged in response.

"But do we REALLY want to go in there?" Lilith asked, as she stared deep into the maze entrance. "What if...it's not safe?"

"Hey, I'm here to protect you guys!" Almond reminded them. "Besides if we just stick together and don't get lost. We'll be okay, right?"

"Yeah..." Dwight slowly nodded at that, before walking in. "Let's just go in, and find somewhere safe"

"Come on, Marvin" Almond pushed the balding man ahead.

"O-okay!" Marvin grumbled and walked inside with everyone else.
-

Minutes into the maze...

"Another dead end..." Dwight muttered, as they stared at another hedge wall.

"Maybe going into this maze was a bad idea..." Marvin sighed deeply. "We've been stuck here for...hours now!"

"It has been 5 minutes, though" Lilith flatly pointed out.

"Same difference!" Marvin threw his hands up with a grunt.

"Is it me or do these green walls look more red now?" Almond asked, noticing that the hedge walls had...blood stains on them.

"Let's just...take another route" Dwight said, before gesturing everyone to leave. Marvin grumbled and walked behind them. As they all walked to find another exit. Marvin came across one corner, and froze upon seeing something in there. Something that made him nearly scream. Just staring at him....

A giant, decapitated head. Floating and smiling at him, with no teeth, but chunks of meat within its mouth.

"Hi! I'm Charleyyy!" the head spoke in a distorted face and floated closer to Marvin.

.....

Marvin just screamed loudly and ran ahead, overtaking everyone in the process and just running away like hell.

"What are you doing?" Dwight asked with a grunt.

"Marvin, stop being a coward...HEY!" Almond quickly ran after him then.

"Wait, don't separate from each othe-ugh!" Dwight stopped and face-palmed with a deep groan.

"That went well..." Lilith sighed deeply, as she and Dwight quickly ran after both Marvin and Almond.

Marvin just kept running and then took a right turn, looking behind him for that weird floating head. Until he looked ahead and stopped, nearly screaming at what he saw next.

Almond and everyone else eventually caught up to him. "Marvin, oh my Gosh why do you gotta always be a....coward?"

Almond eventually stopped speaking, after looking at what Marvin was seeing...and it sure was disturbing. When Dwight and Lilith came up to the two, they also saw the thing.

Marvin slowly backed away in fear, as he looked at at a familiar face. "Mr...Mr...Goodman?"

Mr.Goodman, Marvin's landlord, was seen standing at some sort of exit. Smiling in a very creepy way, his smile unusually stretched out and their skin being all red and dark. They melt rubbing their fingers together, smiling gleefully at them all.

"Okay...I am kinda scared now" Almond admitted, as she held onto Marvin by the shoulders and hid behind him.

"O-okay...maybe we should go back and-..." Lilith slowly began to back away, feeling really uncomfortable by the odd figure.

"Give me a tribute" the reddened Goodman asked, their mouth never moving and their voice sounding deep and echoey.

"What...Goodman, why are you here?" Marvin tried questioning them. "Do you know what's happening her-"

"Give me a tribute" Goodman repeated again.

"Tribute?" Dwight lifted his eyebrow, what kind of tribute?

"Goodman...is that you?" Marvin nervously asked, as he slowly began to question whether that was really the same Goodman or not. But judging by their demonic appearance...it didn't look like him.

"Give me a tribute" Goodman repeats, still smiling widely.

"What freaking tribute?" Almond asked. Refusing to look at the creepy figure.

"Um...maybe he wants something to let us pass?" Dwight suggested.

"Like what?" Lilith asked, lifting her eyebrow in question. "And no, I'm not giving away my phone..."

"Almond, give him your sword-"

"Like heck I am!" Almond immediately refused and slapped Marvin on the back. "How about you give him YOUR sword?"

"I don't even have any sword!" Marvin complained to her.

"Then give him the camera" Lilith suggested, as she looked at the camera in Dwight's hand.

"No..." Dwight simply refused, and looked around for something else. Until he spotted...some dead body, behind them. "Huh...?"

It was some...random person, their body was badly mutilated and their intestines were spilling out of their ripped stomach. It was an awful sight, but also gave an idea to Dwight.

Dwight sighed deeply and walked over to the body, before kneeling down to look at the intestines.

"What are you doing...oh God!" Lilith backed away, as she watched Dwight take the intestines and hold up them with his hands.

"Ewwww!" Almond held her mouth and gave him a disgusted look.

"Dwight what the FUCK are you doing?" Marvin asked with shock, as he stepped aside when Dwight walked over to Goodman, with the intestines in his hands.

"Here" Dwight said, dropping the intestines down to their feet. "Take this as tribute...okay?"

"Hehe...well done, you may pass. Don't forget to pay" Goodman chuckled lowly, before he slowly descended right into the ground, being swallowed whole by the grass.

....

"What the fuck?" Marvin eventually said, absolutely confused by what just happened. "What...what's even happening anymore?"

"Looks like we can pass now..." Dwight said as he looked at his bloodied hands, wiping them with his shirt. "Let's go, come on"

Everyone gave him a disturbed look at first, but they just silently followed after him. Trying not to step on the intestines that he dropped.
-

Later...

They all arrived at a town, it was a small one. It looked really abandoned and destroyed. The sky was still red and everything looked dark. But there were no monsters around there. They walked for a bit, until they got to some sort of house nearby.

Marvin looked at the house for a moment and hummed. "This looks a little familiar..."

"So...we go inside?" Almond asked them.

"We may as well" Lilith said with a small sigh. "Why else did we come all the way here?"

"Then let's go in..." Dwight said, before making his way into the house.
-

Later...

After exploring the small house, they realized that it was safe enough to take shelter in. After that, they sat together in the living room, in the big couch.

Dwight let the camera to rest for a bit, the battery was at 90% now. Looks like they've been filming for a bit. But now, some questions were left to be answered.

"So..." Lilith began, arms holding his each other. "Why's this happening to us...how'd we get here?"

"I don't know..." Almond shrugged in response.

"Things happen to me all the time, but this one I can't understand..." Marvin told them, as he constantly looked at the door. "I...I wonder what Goodman was doing in that maze...he looked like a monster...!"

"Why did you even run away?" Almond asked. "I know you're a coward, but...geez"

"I can't even explain it..." Marvin admitted, shivering badly at that giant floating head.

Dwight sat silently and tried to reflect on what was happening. Was it really because of the virus again? Things seemed different though...

Everyone sat silently for a moment, until Almond held her stomach.

"I'm so hungry..." she complained while holding her stomach, she then looked at the others. "Can we eat now?"

"I think the fridge was empty..." Lilith said, resting her bored face under her palm.

"Well there was a store that I saw outside, let's go and get something there!" Almond suggested with a smile.

"I kinda recognize that place...this looks like Pensacola, so..." Marvin stopped to think for a moment.

"Can we go then, please please please?" Almond begged with clasped hands.

"I guess so..." Dwight sighed and stood up from the couch.

"Oh yeah-"

"Marvin and I will go, you both stay here" Dwight said, before Almond could finish.

Almond blinked twice at first, until frowning. "But...I wanna come too!"

"It's dangerous, it's better if you just stay here with Lilith" Dwight suggested. "Letting two people go to get supplies is better than just everyone going, you're safer here anyways"

"Yeah I don't mind" Lilith shrugged and didn't complain much about staying.

"But COME on!" Almond pouted and crossed her arms. "Why do I gotta sit here? I wanna go and get some stuff too...come on!"

"It's too dangerous for you!" Marvin argued back.

"I've got a sword!" Almond countered back with.

"Why are we even letting a kid have a dangerous sword like that?" Marvin looked at Dwight, as he asked.

"Why are we letting Marvin walk around with a bald head...how about that?" Almond shot him a glare. "Not very cool when someone else does it to you!"

"That DOESN'T even make sense..." Marvin face-palmed at the ridiculous comparison.

"I just wanna go...so just-"

"Enough" Dwight snapped at her, before giving her a scowl and reprimanding her. "Don't argue with the adults. It's too dangerous for you girls to go outside with all these monsters. This is for your safety and I don't want to hear any more arguments from you, okay?"

Almond glared at him at first, before she crossed her arms and slumped against the couch. "Fine...whatever" she muttered angrily.

Dwight shook his head and looked at Lilith. "Lilith, you make sure she doesn't so anything stupid. We'll be back in a moment"

"Sure" Lilith flatly responded with. Dwight nods before he and Marvin left through the door, leaving Almond and Lilith behind.
-
A few minutes ago.

Dwight and Marvin walked through the dystopian town. Empty and all alone, that's what they hoped for.

"You think...there's any more monsters around here?" Marvin nervously asked, as he kept looking around the streets.

"Let's hope not" Dwight simply said and kept walking in the sideway of the street

"I hope that Almond would be okay..." Marvin sighed deeply. "She's really reckless sometimes..."

"I'll be okay, don't worry Marvin!"

Both Dwight and Marvin stopped, as they slowly turned back to see Almond and Lilith standing behind them.

...

"For your information, she basically left me behind and I had to chase after her" Lilith told them with a very exhausted expression.

"Hehe!" Almond sheepishly giggled and gave them a wink. "So, we still going to the store?"

Marvin just groaned loudly before face-palming. Dwight hanging his head and shaking his head in disappointment.
-

Later at the store.

When all four arrived at the convenience store, they found it to be sort of empty. The store had flickering lights, but the shelves were a bit stocked.

Marvin looked around the checkout and noticed no cashier. "Hello...anyone here?"

"It looks empty..." Dwight pointed out to them. "It all feels familiar to me..."

"Guess nobody is here to manage the store" Lilith shrugged.

"Yes!" Almond excitedly said and held her face. "I was hoping for this!"

"What?" Dwight gave her a look.

"I always wanted an empty store all to myself!" she explained with a big smile. "I could just eat everything I see and don't have to pay for it...I'm...I'm going to do it now!"

"Almond, listen" Dwight kneels down to her and tried to speak to her in a serious voice. "Even though there's nobody to manage the store, we still can't steal anything without paying for it. I can make an exception for situations like this. But just remember, us cameraman have a code of honor to follow, which is-"

"I'M GONNA ROB THIS STORE!" Almond yelled before running around the empty store, all while Dwight kept kneeling down with a flat expression.

They watched the bunny girl run around and check out all the shelves she could, grabbing all that she could and eat.

"For the love of God..." Marvin groaned and sighed in defeat.

"I should've just stayed behind..." Lilith was heard saying in the back, as she sat down on a chair nearby.

Dwight just rubbed his head and shook his head. "Let's just get some supplies and leave, okay?"

"Fine..." Marvin said through a exhausted voice.

"Marvin!" Almond then came up to him and showed him a bunch of candy in her arms. "There's a lot of cool human snacks here! Like...like...what's a Snickers?"

"A chocolate bar..." Marvin flatly answered.

"What's a KitKat?"

"A chocolate bar..." Marvin flatly answered.

"What's a Hershey's?"

"A chocolate bar..." Marvin flatly answered.

"What's a Milky way?"

"THEY'RE ALL CHOCOLATE!" Marvin eventually snapped at her.

"They all taste so good!" Almond gleefully said as she hugged the candy.

"T-..then why did you even ask me what they were?!" Marvin asked with a defeated look.

"Ice cream!" Almond then shoved the candy into Marvin's arms and quickly ran over to check out the freezer with the ice cream on it.

"Do these even have expiration dates...?" Lilith asked, as she watched Almond digging through the small freezer.

"Almond, wait don't eat it until you read the date!" Marvin quickly went over to stop her.

Dwight just sat on the counter and sighed deeply. Just letting them cause chaos inside the store and not caring much.

I wish I knew what happened to me....guess I'll just deal with those people for a while now. I hope...they'll be safe...

TO BE CONTINUED

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