Glancing back down the hall once again, Rebecca considered getting Matthew and sharing her discovery, but then shrugged off the idea. If the jackass wanted her to do and figure out things on her own, then she’d do things on her own. Still shaking with adrenaline from her brief fight, Rebecca grabbed the handle to the closest door and tried to pull it open, only to have to stop after a few inches as the moss and vines bunched up tightly in front of it.

“No wonder those bastards felt like they could hibernate,” Rebecca muttered to herself. “There’s no way the people inside could’ve forced these doors opened with all the shit grown up in front of them.” Taking a step back, she took several moments hacking at the greenery several feet in front of the door, before grabbing it and tossing it off to the side.

“That should do it, I hope,” she whispered softly, grabbing the handle and pulling once again. This time the door scraped open several feet before the slimy scum at the bottom caked up and stopped it. “One last go,” Rebecca murmured, as she shut the door and used her sword to slice and scrape away the line of slime that had bunched up as the door opened. Wrinkling her nose at the soured swampy odor released by scraping the slime buildup, she grabbed the handle and finally pulled the door open wide.

“Sta.. stay out you bastards!” A quivering young man’s voice half-whimpered, half-shouted from the room as a basketball flew through the door and make a wet splatting sound as it hit the moss covered wall opposite.

“Woah! Wait. Wait a minute. I’m a people,” Rebecca called into the room as she swiftly stepped inside. “See! No fur. No fangs. Just people parts.”

Almost instantly a slight murmur went back and forth in the recesses of the gym as several dozen boys and girls slowly moved closer to see in the dim light. “It’s a girl! A girl,” the murmur slowly grew louder, until finally one voice cut through the loudest. “Rebecca?!” Suddenly moving through the crowd was a tall, muscular young gentleman with blond hair and a wide build. “Is that you?”

“Jason?” Rebecca blinked several times seeing the young gentleman and then shook her head slightly from side to side. “Is there anyone else from our class in here? How’d you get here? Is Mrs. P with you?”

“It’s all right. It’s all right,” Jason assured the other frightened students. “Rebecca’s one of the girls who was in my class when this mess all happened.” Calming somewhat, a small crowd of about twenty students slowly worked their way across the gym towards Rebecca and the door leading out. Leading the pack, Jason half ran to get to her.

“It’s just me here from our class,” he assured her, stopping a few feet before he got to her completely. “What’s up with the sword? And what the hell happened to your clothes? They look like they’ve been through a shredder,” he said wearily, suspicion clearly obvious on his face.

“It’s a long damn story,” Rebecca said, lowering the sword so the blade was pointed beside her feet and not out menacing anyone. “Let’s just say I’ve had a hell of an experience. Or,” a slight smirk crossing her lips as she said it, “you might could even say I’ve had an experience of Hel.”

“Whatever…” Shrugging indifferently, Jason confidently walked forward and held out his hand. “Let me have that before you cut yourself trying to shave with it or something.”

“Excuse me?” Rebecca blinked several times, wondering if she’d just heard him right.

“The sword,” Jason clarified, reaching to take it from her startled grasp. Too shocked to stop him, Rebecca stared wide-eyed as he swung the blade a few times in the air before asking, “Where’s the cops. Are they with you?”

“No cops,” a cold, emotionless voice answered from behind her. “Just me.”

“And what the hell are you supposed to be, freak boy?” Jason half laughed, feeling a lot more confident now that he had a respectable weapon in his hands. “Batman?” Puzzled, Rebecca took a moment to glance over her shoulder at Matthew, who was still wearing the plain outfit he’d had on when she’d first seen him. If it wasn’t for the black, silk-looking cape hanging lip at his back, he wouldn’t have looked any different than he had that first day.

“No,” Matthew replied, a large smirk twitching at the corner of his lips. “I’m not Batman. I’m Batshit-Crazyman! Remember?”

“You are bat shit crazy,” Jason grumbled. “Now get the fuck out of the way and let us out of here.”

Laughing, Matthew suddenly hopped several feet to the side of the door and then bowed deeply. “Apologies good sir. This batshitter didn’t realize he was in your way. Where, if I can be so bold as to ask, are you going once you leave this room?”

“Damned if I know,” Jason shrugged. “I’m just getting the hell out of her while we still can. Those bastard things will probably be back when it gets dark again, and I don’t want to be sitting here waiting on them.”

“An excellent idea!” Half laughing, Matthew motioned to the open door with a wide sweeping motion with both arms.

“Please, don’t let me stand in your way. Leaving just a few hours before dark, going who-knows-where, and running into who-knows-what, seems like a certain way to end up in a what-the-fuck situation! Sounds like you have it all planned out.”

“I don’t have to take this shit off of you,” Jason warned, glaring hard at Matthew.

“No. No, you certainly don’t,” Matthew agreed amiably. “I’m sorry. I’m bat shit crazy after all. Just one thing before you go, if you will?”

“What?” Suspicious, Jason looked Matthew up and down several times while gripping the sword tight in his fist.

“Nothing big,” Matthew laughed. “I was just wondering if you’d trade me that pokey-pokey for bangy-bangy.” Grinning wildly, Matthew reached behind his back and pulled out the pistol he’d tried to give to Rebecca earlier. “Me like cutty-cutty, slicy-slicy,” Matthew said, grinning like an idiot.

“You like the sword?” Jason asked, licking his lips as he stared at the gun in Matthew’s hand. “Is that thing loaded?”

“A full clip,” Matthew promised, “and I have two more. You can have all three for the sword. Deal?”

“Deal.” Holding out the sword with his left hand, Jason greedily snatched the pistol with his right. Nodding to himself in satisfaction, Matthew pulled two long black ammo clips from his waistband and tossed them over to Jason, who awkwardly caught them and then shoved them both into his back pocket.

“I’m out of here,” Jason half yelled, glancing back over his shoulder at the other students. “Who’s with me?” Holding up the gun, he walked the remaining distance to the door before looking back over his shoulder. Mumbling amongst themselves, only a few students broke from the crowd and moved up to stand beside him.

“What the hell is up with you guys?” Jason half yelled again, waving the pistol to get everyone’s attention. “We can get the hell out of here!”

Wearing a short frilly white skirt and snug fitting tank top, one girl timidly asked, “And go where? He’s right. It’s going to be dark soon, and we don’t know anything about what’s out there.”

“So what?! We know what’s in here!” Jason shouted. “Screw it and screw you Jen! I’m out of here. If anyone wants to come, you’re free to follow me. The rest of you can stay in here and wait on those damn things to come back if you want.” Turning angrily, Jason stormed out of the door and headed down the hallway towards the exit. Hesitant, about half the students looked back and forth at each other before rushing to catch up to him.

As the last student rushed out, Matthew slowly walked over and casually pulled the door shut. “Now that the blowhards and jackasses are gone, we can finally get back to business.” Smirking, he turned the sword in his grip and held it out pommel first towards Rebecca. “I think you dropped this.”

“Why didn’t you stop them?” Rebecca demanded as she grabbed the sword back from his grip. “They’re just NPCs. They can’t survive out there on their own!”

“Why didn’t you stop them?” Matthew asked pointedly. “And even more importantly, how could you have stopped them? They wanted to leave and didn’t want to listen to reason. Was you prepared to use force to stop them?” Shrugging indifferently, Matthew told her, “I wasn’t.”

“Excuse me…” The girl in the tennis outfit slowly walked up and coughed lightly. “I’m hoping we didn’t just make a huge mistake,” she admitted hesitantly. “Do the two of you have some sort of plan? You made it in here in one piece. Tell me you have a plan to get out of here in one.”

Looking her up and down, Matthew half laughed. “Nice tits,” he whistled. “Do you want to make a bargain?”