Devoured
The journey to the second floor would be a long one. It would have been quicker had they gone back to use the stairwell they'd come down to escape the first floor but Chiyo didn't want to go anywhere near there for obvious reasons and Tomo quickly picked up on the sentiment. They would have to use the stairwell on the north-western side of the building instead. That meant trekking across almost the entirety of the building.
After a while Tomo began to take the lead again in directing them safely through the corridors, but the determined spark seemed to have gone out. Her pace was slower and she seemed less focussed than before. She no longer really seemed to believe that they would get out of the building this way.
Chiyo realised that the way Tomo was leading them would probably lead them past the front door. Maybe Tomo intended to try to move the blockade after all? It could hardly go worse than their other attempts to get out of the building.
Travelling the halls hadn't become any less dangerous. They were walking past more smashed windows now as the monsters searched the classrooms. Chiyo didn't know if they were specifically searching for them or just one another.
It wasn't long before Tomo stopped in her tracks. There, lying against the walls was one of the monsters. She only started breathing again when she saw it had had its throat torn out… then she saw the rest of it.
It was half eaten, the flesh of its torso torn away with vital fluids flowing out onto the ground. A massive void was visible where its stomach should have been, a hole leading up to where the heart had no doubt been before whatever had slaughtered the monster ripped it out. Tomo and Chiyo would have both thrown up if they hadn't been too terrified to move.
At least with the monsters tearing each other apart they stood a better chance of getting to where they needed to go. Chiyo's mind was still on Tomo's actions back in the classroom. There was no doubt it had been a noble act and Chiyo would never have dared approach the fallen creature, let alone walk up to it as fearlessly as Tomo had. Yet the whole episode had clearly affected Tomo and Chiyo couldn't help but be depressed by it as well. Even the things that chased them were suffering.
Tomo eventually managed to move again, taking them in a different direction. She was definitely heading towards the front door now. When Chiyo asked her about it, her only response was "Might as well try."
That worried Chiyo. As scared as she was she still had the presence of mind to understand they were in a survival situation. Tomo seemed to be so hell-bent on getting out of the building without going to the assembly hall that Chiyo was beginning to believe that she would jump off the top of the four-storey school if it got her out of it one second earlier.
On the other hand the fire escape ran the obvious risk of setting off the fire alarm. With power to the school dead it shouldn't be possible, but there was always the possibility of the alarm being connected to some auxiliary power source. On the other hand the monsters probably didn't understand the concept of a fire exit. They wouldn't know to check the doors in the event of a fire alarm.
They were coming down towards the bulletin board where they had started their ill-fated exploration of the school when Chiyo heard a rustling sound ahead. They both froze. It sounded almost like running water, but there was a hard note amongst the sound that ruled out fluids.
Tomo stood there for a while, not making any sound and simply listening. The noise didn't seem to be getting any closer. To Chiyo's alarm she started to walk forward.
"Tomo come on, let's go another way." Chiyo insisted, trying to pull her back. Tomo shook her head and simply dragged Chiyo along with her.
"This might be our only way out." Tomo said, breaking from the original plan without even consulting Chiyo. She did turn off the torch though.
The noise grew louder, and Chiyo began to distinguish the sounds. It was like hundreds of individual taps and clicks and shuffles, as if the entire area ahead of them was moving.
It was only as the noise began to become deafening that Chiyo dug her heels in and forced Tomo to stop. Tomo tried to move forward but Chiyo physically threw herself to the ground, forcing Tomo to stop.
"What are you doing?" Tomo hissed.
"Turn on the torch." Chiyo said.
"What? Are you-" Tomo began
"Turn on the torch! Now!" Chiyo interrupted. The urgency in her voice was so pronounced that Tomo obeyed in an instant. The beam snapped on… and what it revealed wasn't so much a corridor as a massive, scuttling wall of flesh.
Thousands of centipedes smothered the floors, ceilings and walls of the building. Tomo stepped back wide eyed as Chiyo crawled backwards, struck dumb with horror and disgust at the sea of insects. They had literally been one step away from walking into the swarm.
The insects didn't seem to react. They scuttled around on the floor, blocking the way to the entrance. For a few seconds Tomo didn't move. Then she started forward again, only to be locked in place by Chiyo's arms around her leg.
"Come on! They're only insects!" Tomo growled, trying to pull her leg free.
"Tomo there's thousands of the things!" Chiyo yelled.
"Are centipedes even dangerous?" Tomo asked, a definite note of irritation in her voice now as the scepticism rang loud and clear. Despite this she momentarily stopped her struggles. If Chiyo had something to say about anything academic you could bet it was worth listening to.
"If they're what I think they are then yes, especially in bare feet! And even if they weren't, they don't swarm around in thousands and they definitely don't guard doorways!"
The centipede Chiyo was thinking of was the mukade. On the surface mukades looked like perfectly normal centipedes. However, Chiyo knew they were extremely aggressive and had a bite that could swell up a hand. A thousand of them could easily overwhelm two people, especially barefoot. If they walked into that mass they were dead for sure.
Tomo hesitated. In the torchlight Chiyo could see the gears in her head working, her desperation to leave the school fighting with her common sense not to walk into a swarm of large insects. It was insane to try to call the bluff of a building that had so far threatened them with monsters, possessions and dangerous traps but still Tomo made up her mind to risk it, and Chiyo saw the potentially fatal decision evident on her face. She grabbed hold of Tomo's leg, determined not to let her do something so stupid and suicidal.
Then they heard the running footsteps behind them. Tomo struggles to move intensified as she tried to get them away from whatever was approaching.
"What are you doing? That thing's going to kill us! Chiyo-"
Chiyo just clung on. Moving forward would lead them straight into the centipedes and Chiyo was sure they'd swarm if they were disturbed. Back would lead them straight into a monster. A desperate plan formed in Chiyo's head as she held Tomo immobile, fighting the older and far stronger girl for control of the situation. The footsteps drew near and a terrifying growl sounded out.
"Chiyo! Let go! We have to move!"
Still Chiyo held on, even as Tomo now tried to disentangle her with her own hands, shaking her leg in a way that threatened to overbalance both of them and send them toppling into the mess of writhing centipedes on the ground. The footsteps closed in and Tomo gave a shriek as she shielded herself with her arms…
…only for Chiyo to let go suddenly and shove her as hard as she possibly could to the ground as she threw herself back against the nearby wall. The torch clattered to the ground, going out, and something hurtled by them in the dark, something sharp missing Tomo by barely a centimetre. Chiyo stuck out her leg and felt something connect with it to go tumbling onwards… straight into the bugs.
Tomo picked up the torch quickly from the ground. She shone it down the corridor as she backed up, expecting to see whatever it was that had attacked pick itself up and throw itself at them, certain to kill them easily.
Instead what she saw was somehow even worse.
A bizarre humanoid with four massive arms and tusks coming out of its skeletal jaws writhed on the floor as the centipedes swarmed over it, parts of the floor becoming clear as they rapidly covered it completely. Horrible howls of pain came from the monster as the centipedes bore down on it. Tomo saw the horrible razor sharp bones that jutted out of each of its four translucent arms, slicing at the writhing mass of insects and trying to clear them off. Its jelly-like, see-through flesh that didn't even hide its internal organs was rapidly ripped open as the beetles began their feast. Beside her Chiyo just stood there transfixed, unable to move or look away.
Tomo didn't let her watch any longer. She grabbed her arm and wrenched her away from the scene as they ran as far as they possibly could away from that horrifying swarm at the front of the school.
It wasn't until they were several corridors away that Tomo let them stop running. They stood there panting in the hall.
"What the heck was that?" Tomo asked breathlessly, only to hear Chiyo's angry voice sound out in the darkness.
"That's a good question!" Chiyo hissed. "What did you think you were doing back there?" She looked up, watching as a defensive expression came onto Tomo's face.
"I was trying to get us out of the building." Tomo muttered weakly.
"Through a sea of dangerous insects in our bare feet? Shall we just walk up to one of the things in the corridors next time and ask it to throw it out a window?" Chiyo asked.
Tomo just stared. Anger was something she'd never expected to hear from Chiyo. Yet part of her realised she'd earned it. She looked along the corridor as she leant against the wall, avoiding Chiyo's gaze. Guilt battled with an urge to defend her actions.
It had been stupid. She'd been so desperate for an escape route that she'd almost led them straight into obvious doom. Colour came into her cheeks as she blushed. Chiyo just stood there, her arms crossed, the anger still there. It was her who spoke next.
"Tomo I don't think we should go to the second floor. I don't think we can get out any of the normal ways."
"What do you suggest we do instead then?" Tomo said, her voice dangerously quiet. Chiyo's temper wasn't helped by the sulky, condescending tone that had come into Tomo's voice as she continued. "Shall we just line up in assembly like good little girls and wait for the building to get tired of playing and finish us off?"
"Do we have any choice?" Chiyo said resignedly.
"Yes! We can do anything but walk straight into a death trap!"
"Like you almost did!"
"I was trying-"
Tomo stopped. For a moment the two girls stared at each other, neither shifting. It was a ridiculous scene, they were arguing with one another in a dark corridor in the middle of a monster-infested building. Tomo sighed.
"Look, two wrongs don't make a right here. We might as well try everything else before-"
"Tomo we're not going to get out of here by trying more doors." Tomo was astounded by the tired certainty in Chiyo's voice. "We're wasting time and we might as well get this over with. We can't be trapped in this building when night falls."
"But-"
"Do you want to help Yomi?" Chiyo charged.
Outrage flooded into Tomo as she heard Chiyo say that. "How can you even ask me that?" she said, barely holding back the anger. Chiyo just looked her right in the eyes.
"If you want to help Yomi then we need to get out of here as fast as we can. Checking the exits isn't getting us anywhere. Even the windows were trapped! Do you really think whatever is doing this won't have trapped the fire escapes?"
Tomo was silent. She just looked down, anger in conflict with newfound respect. Yet there was reluctance and fear still evident in her face.
"We've tried everything we can Tomo." Chiyo said. "I think we'd better go to assembly."
Tomo stood there for a few moments, digesting that. Then an idea came to her head.
"There's one thing we haven't tried." she said.
"What?" Chiyo asked. Something about the way Tomo had said that worried her.
"We haven't tried climbing down from the roof."
Chiyo just stared at her, and wondered if Tomo had finally completely lost her mind.
