Simon slowly walked through the dark corridor, his path lit by the dim light from his phone. He held, in his other hand, an already-crumbling wooden cricket bat. He would need to find something else soon, before any more of them showed up. Simon could tell from the lockers and layout that this was some kind of school, but not one that he knew or had been to. The place looked very spacious and modern, much different than the old local town schools he used to attend in his youth. He remembered managing to find his way into the basement after traversing some dark tunnels but that was all he could recall. After trying at least half a dozen locked doors he finally found an open one. He entered the room slowly, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign of of a threat. The first thing he noticed was the smell, there was an oddly soothing, floral scent in the air, it reminded him of some unpleasant trips to his grandmother's house many years ago. But layered in that was the strong odour of something rotting. He tightened the grip on his bat. He walked further into the room, his phone light catching the surfaces of many desks and chairs to his right. To his left was the teacher's desk. He could see the dull shapes of some small objects and shone his light on them to see if there was anything useful. Some empty teacups, a kettle, and a plate of… cupcakes with cartoon cat faces on them? Now Simon felt confused. Not shocked or disturbed like so many times recently, just a genuine confusion. It was quite jarring to to see some otherwise cute confections after the many horrid experiences he had faced. Simon decided to put it off his mind and see if he could go behind and check the desk drawers. That's when he noticed the corpse laying on floor.
He shone over it briefly with his light. It was laying just by the corner of the desk, as if it was trying to go behind it too. Old, blood stained clothes and dry, mangled skin. A Slower, Simon thought to himself. He approached carefully, as these things had the habit of playing dead only to jump out and flail themselves at him. But as he got near he realized that the creature's head had already been caved in, its forehead and eyes completely crushed.
"Whoever did this must have a strong swing." Simon thought to himself.
Suddenly he heard a slight rustling coming from the teacher's desk. Simon readied his bat and slowly walked forward. Just as he was about to turn to see the back of the he heard a faint whimpering, it sounded like a young girl. Simon stopped in his tracks, these creatures could sometimes sound like people, but this definitely sounded human. If there was someone else here than he had to make sure.
"H-hello?"
Suddenly a large shape leaped from under the desk and flung itself towards Simon. He quickly dodged to the side as the figure crashed into a student's desk. Simon heard quick, heavy breathing as he stood himself up. He focused his light on the figure. A small, teenage girl in a school uniform with short and messy pink hair looked at him with desperate eyes and a bloody baseball bat in her hands. Simon put the cricket bat on the floor and slowly raised his hands.
"Calm down! I'm not going to hurt you!"
"Who- Who are you?!" The young girl said. Her whole body was shaking, a look of fear on her face. "How do I know you're not one of those things?!"
Simon put his hands downs.
"These "things" don't ever waste time talking. Trust me, I should know. My name is Simon. I ended up here trying to run from these "things" as well. What about you? Are you hurt?"
The girl calmed down slightly and slowly lowered her bat.
"I-I'm Natsuki. I'm not hurt and… I just don't know what the hell is going on. I was with my friends here in the clubroom and then it all got dark suddenly, the lights went out. I was alone. Then the door burst open, and that fucking thing!" She looked at the corpse on the floor. So she did it.
"I hid under the desk. I don't know for how long. Then I heard more footsteps, I thought it was another one of those things. But then… Oh, God."
Natsuki looked at Simon square in the face. "We need to find Them! Now!"
"Find what?"
"My friends, you idiot!"
"So there were more people!" Simon thought to himself.
Natsuki put one hand to her face in frustration.
"Sorry. I just- Look, can you help me find them, please?"
If there were more people here then there was no way in hell that Simon was going to leave them behind.
"Okay. I'll help you find them. Who are your friends?"
"Sayori, Monika, and Yuri."
"You say they were just in this classroom and then they just vanished?"
"Yes! That's what happened!"
Simon thought for a few seconds.
"Okay, Natsuki. I'll help you out. We're gonna search the school together to see if we can find your friends. But we're going to need some stuff to keep us safe while we do that. Where did you get that bat?"
"Some kid left it here. There should be some more in the gym, its not far from here."
"Then that's where we're heading. But first..."
Simon walked to the back of the desk and opened drawers, he pulled a set of keys out from one of them.
"This'll be helpful."
"Wait. Before we go, I want to ask you some questions."
Simon put the keys in his pocket. "Alright."
"You seem to know a bit about these "things". How long has this been going on?"
Simon was unsure what to say. He didn't want to distress her any further.
"A while. I still don't know what's going on either, but I think whatever it is reached this place and already took effect. But it isn't going to slow down or stop if we stay here, we have to get moving. You hold onto that bat, you look like you can handle yourself with it quite well."
"Well, I wasn't planning on sharing."
"Right, let's get moving. Stay close to me." Simon opened the door and Natsuki followed behind.
The two teens walked side by side in the dark hall, each holding their respective weapons in front of them. Simon's phone acted as their torch through the foreboding passageway.
"These "things", were they people once?" Natsuki whispered.
"Whatever they are or were, they can't be called human."
"There!" Natsuki nudged Simon and pointed to a pair of large double doors between a row of lockers. Simon pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed Natsuki his phone.
"Right. Keep an eye out."
As Simon tried key after key on lock, Natsuki moved her head left and right to make sure nothing snuck up on them. A loud click came from the door.
"Ah! I got it!"
Without warning the locker next to Simon burst open as a small creature leaped out, screaming. The figure lunged directly at him, the phone's light catching the shine of a blade in each hand. With a loud crash Simon managed to strike the creature with his cricket bat, breaking it completely and knocking the creature flat on its back. However, it quickly got back up and raised its daggers. Simon caught a glimpse of the dead-eyed, child-like creature in the dim light before it all went dark as he heard the phone drop.
"Natsuki!"
Simon heard a succession of quick footsteps before guttural yelps and loud, wet crunching sounds filled the halls. Simon scrambled across the floor in darkness looking for his phone amongst the chaos. When he found it the noise had stopped. He lifted his phone and aimed the light. Natsuki was breathing heavily, she was standing over the creature, splats of blood on her face and clothes and holding her bat down to the being's crushed head.
Simon walked towards her.
"Thank God. Are you alri-"
Before Simon could finish Natsuki turned around and vomited.
As she regained her composure Simon stretched out his hand. Natsuki reluctantly grabbed on and got up.
"Told ya you could handle yourself. Same thing happened to me when I started fighting back."
Natsuki wiped the spit from her mouth.
"Am I gonna end up a tone-deaf weirdo too?"
Simon gave a fake smile.
"No, I've always been like this."
"Sorry, I'm just-"
"It's alright. Come on, I got it open"
Simon slowly pushed away one door and shone his light across the large gymnasium. The hall was dimly lit by the blue light streaming from the high windows. Despite the silence, Simon remained on his guard. Their feet echoed throughout the hall as they walked across.
"Right there." Natsuki pointed to a closet with sliding doors.
Simon stopped and turned to Natsuki.
"I'll stand over here on this side and open the door while you stand on the other side with your bat at the ready. That way if anything runs out you can knock it down and we can finish it off together."
"Where'd you get these tactics from? Are you a cop or something?" Natsuki said with a weirded-out expression.
Simon froze up at the very mention of the word. "Uh, no. I just used to research stuff like that in my spare time." Simon said with a mixture of embarrassment and regret.
They positioned themselves by the door. Natsuki held the bat behind her head and gripped it tightly.
"On three."
Natsuki nodded with stern look on her face.
"One, two, three!"
Simon flung the door open and strong white light shone from out the room. They both waited for a few seconds, but there was nothing but silence.
"Someone left the lights on."
They both entered the room. There were buckets of footballs and shelves of rolled up mats strewn about. Simon set his eyes on the baseball bats in a narrow bucket in the corner. He picked one up and admired the shiny metal finish.
"This'll do."
He then noticed a medicine cabinet on the wall. He opened it and found that it was empty except for a single first aid kit. He grabbed it and strapped it to his back.
"I best hang onto th-"
Simon felt fingers tapping his shoulder. He turned around and nearly jumped at how close Natsuki was to him. She had a nervous look on her face.
"There's something outside."
Simon leered from behind a shelf to see out of the door. In the distance there were two shambling figures caught in the light coming from the door. He could make out long skirts, and the gleam of a short blade in on of their hands.
Simon turned back to Natsuki.
"Two creatures, they both have knives. I've seen how these things fight. After they swing, it takes them a good second to catch their breath. We're gonna go out there, dodge their first strikes, and in that second we swing at their skulls. We don't stop until they're on the ground. Remember, dodge, strike, dodge, strike. You ready?"
Natsuki looked him dead in the face with an angry frown.
"Let's fucking do it."
For the first time in a long time, Simon felt like he had a friend.
"I go left, you go right. Remember what I said."
"You think I forgot?"
As soon as Simon and Natsuki were out the door the two figures turned and noticed them. They were tall, gruesome creatures with worn grey dresses and heads that bore empty black holes for eyes and a hanging jaw. Their skin was pale and dry with hair was matted and curled upwards giving the beings a horrid doll-like appearance. They fixed their gaze on them and ran with blades drawn, emitting a piercing howl.
"Dodge, then strike, dodge, then strike." Natsuki repeated these words in her mind as one of the monsters ran right at her. It then began to swing its blade towards her and she leapt to the opposite side. The creature was bent over, pulled by its missed strike. She quickly brought her bat crashing down onto the back of the monster's head with great crunch. The creature then sunk to its knees with a painful cry. Natsuki turned around to see how Simon was doing. She managed to see Simon deliver a great swing to his opponent's neck before she felt a sharp pain quickly slide across her side. She yelped and jumped back, nearly falling over as the monster towered over her and looked down with empty eyes. The monster held its knife high over its head. Natsuki, trying her best to ignore the pain, dodged to the side as the blade was brought down and took a swing at the monster's left leg, snapping it at the knee. The monster made a mournful cry as it collapsed to the ground.
"Yeah! Eat that!"
Natsuki's celebration was cut short when the monster plunged its knife into the floor as it dragged itself towards her. Footsteps could be coming from behind it, suddenly Simon's bat slammed straight down onto the creature's head, turning it into paste.
Simon breathed heavily as he stood over the corpse.
"That's why you go for the head. These guys usually don't have legs to worry about anyway."
Simon then looked at Natsuki with concern.
"Did it get you?" He pointed at the wound on her side. "How bad is it?"
Natsuki looked at her cut. It was a little sore now, but nothing serious.
"I'll be fine."
"You sure?"
"You want to be my doctor that bad?"
Simon's face flushed red.
"What?"
"Relax, I'm only kidding." Natsuki said with a smirk that quickly faded. "But we should focus, we need to find-"
A loud rustling was heard coming from the end of the gym. The teens turned to see the red stage curtains moving slightly.
Simon raised his bat.
"Get ready."
They both walked towards the stage, weapons drawn. They were only a few feet away when the curtain began to move again. They stopped dead in their tracks. The movement stopped as soon as it began. The teens took one step forward.
Suddenly a figure fell through the curtains and collapsed off the stage onto the floor. Simon and Natsuki readied their weapons as they prepared for the creature to lash out. But it didn't. Soon a pool of blood began forming around it. Simon then noticed the large gash in the creature's neck and pointed at the wound. Natsuki looked down and a fearful realization overcame her. She approached the stage, gesturing for Simon to follow. He was somewhat confused by her boldness but brushed it off. They both climbed onto the stage and went behind the curtains.
