Looking left and right down the hallway, Rebecca was relieved to see that nothing had noticeably changed since they’d forced their way into the auditorium the first time. Well, nothing that is, if she discounted the withering vines and putrid stench of moss decaying. Claiming the core had altered the nearby atmosphere, changing the school from a paradise environment for the gibberlings, into a setting much more comfortable for human habitation.

The air was warmer, with less moisture in it, and the silent buzz of gnats and mosquitoes had lessoned almost overnight to the point of being non-existent. Dim light seemed to somehow find its way into the school better through the moss smeared and sap streaked windows, somehow making the hallway leading back towards the gym and main entrance seem a little less intimidating.

Glancing down the hallway to her left – towards the way to the health classrooms and the cafeteria – Rebecca was even more relieved to see that the changes had taken place in the other direction, where they hadn’t explored yet. Taking a deep breath, Rebecca took a moment to glance back over her shoulder to look for Matthew’s reassuring presence, and then she half growled in frustration, “Little bastard, hiding again!” Sighing in frustration, all she could do is trust that he was close as she slowly began to ease her way down the hallway.

Moving forward slowly, Rebecca was almost instantly made aware that not every change to the school seemed to be for the better. Sure, the thinning of the moss and vines made it slightly easier for her to see, and the air being less humid was a little more bearable than before, but now she cringed slightly with every step she took. Dried moss and withering leaves crunched slightly under each tender step as she took them, causing her to hold her breath and pause to see if anyone – or anything – had heard.

Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, went the dried leaves under her feet as she held her breath and tried to creep as quietly as possible to where the hallway turned to the left and led down to the cafeteria. Rising herself up to her tiptoes seemed to help a little, but in the unnaturally quiet recesses of the overran hallways, each little sound seemed to echo endlessly into Rebecca’s ears.

Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. Swallowing down the lump in her throat, she glanced back over her shoulder for what was probably the hundredth time already, making certain that nothing was creeping up unaware behind her. For all her bluster towards Matthew, Rebecca now found herself wishing that he was there with her. Just how the hell could he hide himself and move in such a situation without her being the least bit aware of him?! Was he even following her at all?

Stopping dead in her tracks, Rebecca trembled slightly. Was he still there? How could she be certain if he was? Matthew was an independent guy and he seemed to type to just wander off and do his own thing if something caught his attention. Licking her tongue against her dry lips, Rebecca started to whisper his name, “Ma…”, but then her pride made her stop herself. If he was following her and watching, she certainly didn’t want him to think she was just some worthless scared girl who he’d have to babysit or leave behind! After all, he’d already left Jennifer behind, the first time she turned out to be the least bit unreliable!

Biting her lip, Rebecca forced down her voice and continued to creep ever closer to the corner where the hallway turned. Thirty steps away. Then twenty. Then ten. Her heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest at any moment as she ever so slowly eased the last few steps and then stopped at the corner.

Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Rebecca couldn’t hear any sounds coming from around the side where the hallway turned back to her left, but then again she wasn’t certain she would due to the incessant pounding of her own heartbeat. If there was something out there on the other side – some stray gibberlings, or some other unknown creature freshly born into this new world – wouldn’t it be able to hear the pounding in her chest and know she was there?

Gripping the handle of the sword Matthew had given her so tightly that her knuckles turned white squeezing the hilt, Rebecca slowly leaned forward and peeked around the corner. ‘Let it be clear. Let it be clear. Let it be clear,’ she prayed slightly to herself. When her gaze fell upon nothing but a hallway empty of all things except the same dying grass and moss which she’d been walking upon, Rebecca almost felt as if she was going to faint.

“It’s clear,” she whispered in relief to nobody in particular. “No little green men here to fight!”

Looking down the hallway, she was probably about thirty steps from the double doors on the right which opened up into the cafeteria, with nothing but moss-covered lockers on either side of the hallway been her and them. Another dozen steps or so past the cafeteria entrance was an intersection which led to the left and back outside the school, while the rest of the hallway continued straight for another fifty or sixty paces past the three or four classrooms which were used for home economics, cooking classes, and some of the shop classes like the boy’s woodworking class, before finally ending at another set of double doors which opened up outside.

Leaning back against the wall, Rebecca reached up and wiped several beads of sweat from her forehead. Looking back over her shoulder, she was shocked to see that what had seemed like an impossible distance before was actually no more than several dozen steps back to the entrance to the auditorium. Her nerves had made the distance seem much further, leaving her legs weak and Rebecca feeling as if she’d ran a marathon already.

“This isn’t good,” she chided herself, softly. Being scared wasn’t a terrible thing; it helped people become more aware of their surrounding and be able to respond more rapidly if necessary, and she knew this. “The problem,” Rebecca whispered softly to herself, “is being too scared. I’m going to work myself into a tizzy and become worthless if I don’t get myself under better control than this.”

Taking a deep breath, Rebecca leaned up and smacked herself across the face with her left hand. “Left alone for just a moment and my courage runs away like a fart in the wind!” Biting her lower lip, Rebecca took a deep breath and then forced herself to calmly walk around the corner and down the hallway.

“See,” she encouraged herself, “nothing to it. Even the moss doesn’t seem as loud crunching underfoot anymore!” Taking a deep breath and then letting it out, Rebecca tried to her best to maintain a normal pace as she headed down the hallway and glanced past the open doorway and into the cafeteria.

“Empty,” she whispered, as she eased past it and continued down the hall. “I’ll come back and check out the kitchens and storeroom in a moment,” she promised herself quietly. “First, let’s make certain that there’s nothing and nobody else in this hall to worry about!”

Somehow, she had to admit reluctantly, talking to herself did seem to help calm her nerves somewhat, as she slowly strolled past the hallway to the left leading back out to the main parking lot. Glancing to the side, the doors here were closed and too stained with sap and mossy goop for her to make out anything outside, but from what she could see they appeared to be undamaged and were probably in good working order. “If this place is going to become some sort of stronghold, we’ll probably need a way to keep them shut from intruders,” Rebecca mused to herself.

Easing on down the hallway, Rebecca strode carefully past each classroom, pausing only long enough to peek inside for any sign of anything which could be trouble, or any survivors. Overturned desks, moss-covered corpse mounds, and broken debris was the only thing which seemed to remain. “Clear here,” she whispered as she passed the first classroom, and “Clear here,” she repeated as she passed the second.

The door leading to the shop room was one without a window – the school had it built without one to help reduce noise of the shop machinery – and the door was vine covered and overgrown. A quick tug showed her that it opened outward into the hallway, and that it was currently blocked much like the auditorium door had been, so she shrugged slightly and left it for now. “If I can’t get in, then any nasty in there can’t easily get out and get me either,” she reasoned to herself.

Easing all the way down the hallway, the last two classrooms – home economics and cooking – were more or less what she was getting used to calling “empty”. Moss and vines were thick in both rooms – much thicker than anywhere else she’d seen so far, except for the auditorium where the entrance to the core was – but otherwise the rooms were basically empty. “I guess the cooking supplies here were fertilizer to the plants,” Rebecca mused, as she eased on down to the end of the hallway and the double doors leading out to the side of the school building.

“Both these doors still look workable as well,” Rebecca told herself quietly, before taking a deep breath and slowly sinking down to her knees and leaning back against the wall. “Looks like it’s all clear for now,” she sighed with relief. “All this worrying I’ve been doing about getting eat by little green men, and it looks like claiming the core got rid of them!”

“Thank goodness!” Feeling almost as if she’d just spent hours fighting for her life, Rebecca leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes while trying to calm down, before frowning slightly and asking herself, “I wonder where the hell asshole went? Is he really even watching over me, like he promised?”

Tried as she might, Rebecca couldn’t see, or sense, any sign at all that Matthew was still with her.