(Dana)

They stood in front of the heavy double doors to the gym. There was supposed to be large but more or less empty room on the other side of these heavy metal doors, but the lack of windows prevented them from checking.

"So on top of these giant lizards, there are giant fucking insects too?"

James sighed at her.

"I guess so. And listen, this is going to be pretty bad if we try to go there, so let's just walk by. The office is so close."

Dana wasn't even remotely happy with the idea that there were giant spiders so close to them. She was fine with small spiders that could be found England. All of which were less than 4cm across. (About 1 and a half inches)

But an unfortunate accident involving a tarantula at the zoo had left her with an intense hatred for any spider that could cover her face. And any spider big enough to make silk strands as thick as wires were pretty big.

James reached out to touch the web and made a face when his finger stuck to the surface of it.

"Well, what did you think was going to happen."

James silently laughed, and pulled his finger free, causing the web to vibrate.

Dana followed the origin of the web through the gaps above the doors and suddenly got a very bad feeling.

A series of heavy thus echoed from the other side of the door, and the two of them began to panic.

"Quick, weld the door shut!"

Dana yelled, spurring James into action.

"Weld!"

He wiped his hand down the seal between the heavy metal doors, leaving a thick line of smeared metal between them.

He held both his hands out to the still lightly glowing seal.

"Cooling!"

The light but fast thumps from the gym were getting louder, and James was rushing.

He swept his hands up and down the doors, solidifying the seal. He was just about done when the first impact arrived. What was on the other side had expected the door to swing open, but a screech indicated it was now quite pissed off.

A series of weaker impacts rocked the doors, but James' seal held.

Dana was still worried the monsters would still get through.

"Quickly, put a spear in the handles."

James didn't even need to reply, he just followed her advice. In one fluid motion, he pulled one of his spears free and jammed it in the handles. Even if the seal broke, they would need to break the spear or the handles to get out.

"Softening."

He spoke under his breath. The entire length of the spear began to droop, and he pulled the ends over and around the handles, making a complicated knot that he pulled tight, then pushed the still circular ends to each other.

"Link."

The ends glowed slightly where they met, then James let go, leaving a seamless join.

It would be nearly impossible to get in there now.

James stumbled back. The rapid use of his stamina had left him breathless. The thumping on the door continued but was getting weaker by the second.

As a final precaution, Dana swept Fire Stream across the area of web that emerged from the door, causing it to rapidly burn. The fire failed to keep up through to the inside of the gym, but at least the trap was disarmed.

Dana felt her heart beating quickly.

"Yeah, let's um. Let's leave this alone."

Her hands were shaking, but she wasn't sure if it was due to being ready for combat or fear. Probably both.

She took the adrenaline in her stride and smashed open the window of a vending machine with a wild mana bolt. Typical that the one in front of the gym was half full of healthy dried fruit and water. But the other half had a load of energy drinks and high protein snacks. They needed the change in diet because she couldn't stand to eat one more bag of fatty snacks or sweets.

Filling her bag with the healthier protein foods and some more water, she hastily strode down the hallway, leaving James to catch his breath and grab some food of his own.

As soon as she reached the office, right next to the main entrance, she made sure to check her surroundings before doing anything. James had her back, but if she was leading, she couldn't afford to spring any traps by accident.

The entrance hall was clear. And silent. It was an odd feeling seeing a place usually filled with busy students so quiet. Nevertheless, Dana had a mission to complete. She walked back to the door for the office, finding James fiddling with the lock. He had two small and thin pieces of metal stuck in the lock and was apparently attempting to pick it. Concentration and frustration equal parts shown.

Dana almost facepalmed. James had forgotten one of the most useful rules the school had.

She simply reached out and twisted the handle.

The door swung open, leaving James kneeling with empty hands. And an amused look on his face.

Dana just sighed.

"Student office is never locked in case of emergency. Ya big dunce."

James stood, brushing the dust off his knees.

"The important thing is that we're in. And that I got a lockpicking skill."

With that, Dana followed him in. He went straight to the medical cabinet and started trying to pick the lock on it.

Dana just went over to the wall with the spare keys on and threw the ones for the cabinet at him.

"Hey. This will be really useful in the future. I promise."

Dana snorted at his delusion.

"This is hardly a game. We can just break any lock that we can't find the keys for."

As an example, she unlocked a large cupboard under the admin desk and pulled out the top drawer.

"Yours is the one with the weird green case right?"

James immediately went defensive as he rummaged through the various medical supplies he could find.

"It's not weird, it's a survivalist case. It can survive an earthquake and all kinds of shit."

"Mhmm. Sure. Catch."

She threw his phone to him and he spun immediately, a thing it with ease.

"Awesome."

Letting him admire himself some more, Dana took her own phone from the drawer and turned it on.

The logo showed up like normal, and she watched it go through all the normal start-up motions.

When she reached the home screen, she was disappointed to find that there was no mobile network.

"No signal?"

James called from where he was staring disgusted at his own phone.

"No. I'll hold on to it though. It might be useful to hold digital data."

"True. But also, have you tried analysing It?"

She hadn't. But the fact that James mentioned it at all meant there was something to it.

Old Communication Device:

Useless comm device with some valuable components. Can be salvaged by a tinkerer.

"So. What?"

James started talking excitedly.

"So these phones are all valuable. Grab some of the nicer ones."

"Fine. But if we get haunted by some pissed off teenagers, I'm blaming you."

James' expression dropped, and he went quiet.

"Yeah."

Dana immediately felt bad and chastised herself for what she had said. James had taken the deaths of all his friends badly. Like, really badly. It was all she could do to keep his mind off them, and on anything else.

Even if she desperately wanted to discuss some of her observations with him.

"Let's go. The others weren't here, so they probably hit up the cafeteria."

James nodded and started to walk out the room. Dana swore that she would do something nice for him if they were safe at any point. Maybe some softcore boob action. Show him she was sorry.

But planning would have to wait. Now was the time to act.

With a handful of phones hastily stuffed into her already almost full bag, she ran out the door following him

A few minutes of nervous sweeping later, James had gotten serious again and was focused on getting to the only place left that might have some good food.

So they stood outside the doors to the cafeteria. There were windows in the doors this time, so they would be able to see what was inside. In theory. What they actually saw was just a lot of opaque clotted blood on the insides of the windows. That was all that was stopping them from confidently striding in.

"Do we really need to do this?"

James looked over at her with a disapproving look.

"We didn't come all the way over here to stop now. Besides, for all we know, that's all lizard blood."

"Doesn't all the monster blood just kind of... Evaporate?"

James didn't answer her, he just grabbed her free hand, and held it tight. He drew his pistol and held it loosely in his other hand. She noticed he didn't even have his finger on the trigger. Even as he pulled back the hammer with his thumb, his trigger finger remained parallel to the barrel.

She could feel him shaking a little. Or maybe it was her. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Ready?"

She squeezed his hand in confirmation, and he pulled it free, laying it on the butt of the gun opting for a double-handed grip.

He kicked the door open and strode in.

Dana hurriedly joined him, raising a hand to cast from and holding her book open on the other hand. She had noticed that spells were easier to imagine it open, and mana felt more familiar, it just seemed more natural. It felt right.

The scene of the blood-filled cafeteria, on the other hand, was anything but right.