Arthur's stomach rumbled, making Clara lose her train of thought. “Oh, are you hungry?” She looked at the clock. It was pretty late, past the average dinner time. Arthur nodded shyly, and the teacher smiled tenderly. “Aw, it's alright, I'll go see if I have anything left in my lunchbox. Or maybe in yours?”

Arthur nodded again.

“Stay here with Mr. Smith, I'll be right back, okay?”

Arthur sat on the floor next to the janitor and Clara quickly walked out of the infirmary. She looked around and turned on a few lights. The sun had already set, and walking in a dark silent hallway was starting to make her a bit nervous. The woman quickly found her lunchbox, then walked back outside to the locker room to try and find Arthur's.

Clara then stopped in her track and took her phone out of her pocket. She dialed 911 again, and brought the phone to her ear.

Still nothing.

"Damn it… why isn't this working??" she whimpered, staring at her screen in despair.

She heard thunder outside and quickly looked in the glass of the entrance door, placing her phone back in her pocket. The sky was very dark, full of clouds, letting barely any space for stars to shine through. Most lights in the street's houses and shops were off, with the exception of a few lamps, mildly lighting up the driveway with their yellow light. There were no cars, as opposed to the usually very busy roads in this time of day - or should she say - night. Clara wondered if there was anyone outside, and, after taking a deep breath, opened the door slowly and took a few steps outside. There was a gentle breeze that passed through the trees and through her hair, refreshing her as it cooled down her sweat that had formed in the heat back inside. A few crickets could be heard chirping far away, and the woman jumped and turned around abruptly when she heard cawing coming from the nearby tree. A raven stared at her with beady eyes, before flying away into the night sky. 

Closing and locking the door, she looked around the locker room and found Arthur's, quickly opening it and taking his lunchbox. She did a double take before closing the door, taking his backpack, closing the locker door as quietly as she could, and walking away.

Clara sighed in relief, passing a shaking hand on her forehead before walking back inside and Arthur smiled when he saw her arrive, and Clara smiled back, sitting besides him. “Here, I also brought your bag. Don't know if you wanted it.”

Arthur gave the bag a hug and set it aside, grabbing his lunchbox and looking into it to see if he had anything left over. Clara took out an apple and a half-eaten sandwich from her box, and turned around, gently shaking Mr. Smith, who was still asleep. The man groaned sleepily and turned around. “Hm? Oh, that's food.” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and sitting up on the bed. “Yeah, Arthur was hungry, I figured you'd be too.”

The man huffed and yawned. “Yeah, I guess I am...”

He took the apple and bit into it. “I think I got some food in my closet, actually.” He put his hand in his pocket and got out his keys. “Here, you can go search, I feel really tired for some reason, I don't think I can move alot.” He yawned and scratched his nose. Clara smiled gently. “Yeah, no, it's alright, you did lose quite a bit of blood back there.” She looked a bit closer to the wound. Her face scrunched up in disgust. It smelled a bit weird. “It might've gotten infected, I'll check”

She removed the bandages and examined the bite mark. It didn't look infected. It looked completely clean. She looked in the first aid kit. Seems there was nothing more she could do to help.

“Well, it seems fine. I'm no doctor or anything.” She stood up, replacing the bandages on the janitor's shoulder, and walked up to the door. “I'll be right back, alright?”

Both Arthur and Brendon agreed, and Clara walked out of the infirmary.

It didn't take her long to get to the closet, although she had wished it could've been even shorter. Walking around in the dark and empty corridors of the school creeped her out. Everytime she turned a corner it felt as if something would suddenly pounce on her and devour her, like that crazy man they had encountered outside, earlier.

She opened up the door and went inside quickly, the lights turning on automatically as she walked in. The room smelled of Purel and old wood, although that smell was already better than the one she could smell outside.

She looked around the cleaning materials in the shelves and on the desk, hoping to find anything that looked even a bit edible. She did find a box of bandaids, hidden amongst books and CDs. A noise resonated in the room as a mop fell on the floor and Clara jumped, gasping and looking at the object as if it had been a ghost that pushed it. She felt her heart beat faster in her chest and she placed a hand on it, breathing slowly, trying to calm herself down.

"It's alright Clara, you'll be fine… nobody else is here…"

Clara then sighed and looked at the keys she was still holding on to, lodged in her right hand. Maybe she could go look in the cafeteria. She had the key for the doors after all. She took a bag that was on the janitor's desk and looked into it to see if it was empty. If there was any food in the cafeteria she'd put it in there. She then placed the bag on her shoulders and walked away from the desk.

The teacher made a beeline for the door, closing it behind her and clutching the box of bandaids in her hands, before tossing it in the bag. She looked left and right and then, as fast as she could, ran towards the cafeteria doors. She pulled out the keychain from her pocket, fiddling around with the ring holding them all together and trying to find the right one. She placed one in the keyhole. Didn't work, didn't even go all the way in. She whimpered softly, trying another key, and then another one, until finally…

The lock clicked as the handle turned. Clara smiled proudly and pushed the door slowly, the hinges creaking loudly as the door opened. Clara looked around. It seemed like the place was empty. All the tables had been placed away against the walls for the night, the lights were off, and the metal curtains of the kitchen's window were down.

A noise was heard from that place, like the shuffling of plates, and Clara froze in place, her head turning slowly to the cafeteria's kitchen, her heart beating like a drum in her chest.

There definitely was someone in there, wasn't it? They seemed to be looking for something... maybe food?

The woman took her bag and placed it in front of her, taking a few steps forward. It was probably just a regular normal human. Else they wouldn't be making this sort of noise.

"Or maybe… maybe it's one of those things again?? Oh god.. please have mercy.."

The door to the kitchen suddenly flew open, making Clara gasp and jump away, and a woman came out from it. She laughed proudly, looking at the crowbar in her hands, and then stopped and looked up at Clara.

"Oh. Uhm, did you notice I was trapped in there? I've been yelling for quite some time now." The woman asked. Clara shook her head. She felt like she knew this woman, but wasn't exactly sure who she was in the school.

"Oh, you probably don't know who I am yet. I'm the new replacement teacher for Mr. Jackson. He broke his leg while biking this weekend, I don't know if you heard?" She moved her right hand down, offering a handshake.

Clara shook her hand and looked at the crowbar. "I'm… Clara. Clara Moth." She said softly, her voice shivering a bit as she tried once again to calm down.

"I'm Ryanne Deverre, nice to meet you."

Ryanne then looked at Clara and frowned. "A-are you alright? You seem… distressed, sorry if I'm being a bit too intrusive."

The teacher look away. "I-it's a long story, but basically we're not allowed to get out of this building, and I'm here searching for food."

Ryanne tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, pouting a bit in confusion. "Food?" She asked.

"We got a kid here whose parents still haven't picked him up, and he's getting hungry, I was thinking there might be some stuff in here he, and us too, could eat."

Ryanne nodded and smiled, moving to the side of the door and gesturing at the entrance. "There's plenty of food in here, I think I even saw cans in a cupboard." Her soft smile then became a grin, small wrinkles appearing at the corner of her eyes. "You don't mind if I join your lil feast, right?" Clara smiled back, before walking inside. "O-of course not."

She looked around the room, opening up her bag and taking in anything that looked edible. There were a lot of fruits and pastries, and, like Ryanne said, lots of canned food.

The hard aluminum of each container clanked softly whenever a can fell at the bottom of the bag. After having looked around the entire kitchen and having filled her bag up to the brim, Clara turned back and headed towards the exit.

Ryanne was still there, playing with her crowbar, making it twirl around in her hands. "So, what exactly is going on here? Were you serious when you said that we weren't allowed to get out of the school?" She asked, following the teacher outside and walking next to her in the corridor.

"Yeah. We, uhm, we found a strange man outside an hour or so earlier, about after I got a ca from a colleague that I shouldn't leave the school right now because of accidents and traffic. And then that man-" She swallowed back the urge to vomit, thinking back to how the assailant bit into Brendan's shoulder and ripped off his skin. How much blood there was all over him, how much he screamed...

"That man… He attacked the janitor and attempted to attack me as well. I tried calling 911, but the line is.." she stopped in her track, her heart skipping a beat in terror as she said the words out loud once again. It was as if every time she said it, the reality and gravity of the situation sunk in a bit more each time, fear taking place of shock, the hopelessness of the whole thing starting to overcome her a bit more each time.

Ryanne stopped a few seconds after, turning around and placing the crowbar on her shoulder. "W-what.. what???" She asked loudly, frowning with concern.

"The line's dead. Nobody's picking up, no matter how many times I try." She looked down, trembling, her head feeling light all of a sudden, her legs shaking. She felt weak, she had to lay down before she passed out.

Her bag fell on the ground and a few cans rolled out of it and onto the floor in loud bangs and clangs, as Clara sat down on the cold hard ground of the school's hallway, moving her knees up and her head down in between them, wrapping her arms around them.

"As if there's nobody available. As if they were all gone, or dead.."

Ryanne moved closer and crouched down, picking up the cans and placing them back in the bag, then lifting it up and putting it over her shoulder. "H-hey, it's alright, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all this, no need to jump to conclusions…" the young teacher said softly, looking at Clara with an uneasy and slightly nervous expression.