Joy's words died in her throat as the classroom was nearly empty. With no corpse and no evidence to show, she went completely silent. She swore she had seen another body here—but now it was gone too.
"See? Nothing here," Keneric shrugged as he leaned against the doorframe.
She opened her mouth to argue, but the only thing that came out was, "Ken… I'm not insane."
But in reality, inside, she was feeling delirious. Had she hallucinated everything? The fever, the green veins, the corpses, and the… death? She did hit her head last night. Maybe it was all a dream?
"You are not insane. I believe you. But let's go now." Keneric patted her head and moved ahead.
Soon they descended the stairs, and Joy's mind found some comfort in hearing him say those words. She believed she was not going insane—but Keneric was definitely hiding something from her. That thought was not comforting.
"We should check the cafeteria," Keneric suggested when they were close to reaching the ground floor. "We might find some leftover food or supplies there."
Joy nodded, following him closely. The whole compound felt different in daylight as they made their way out of the IT building. Soon they were outside and decided to follow last night's strategy—walking on the spiky grass straws to avoid sinking into the swamp.
"Have you been here before?" Joy whispered.
"Yes, a few times. IT and Engineering are close. Remember those science fairs they organized? Yeah, I participated in them a lot," Keneric said before adding, "But the distance between buildings seems to have stretched out a lot after the earthquake. So let's see how long we have to walk."
Joy nodded. She had also figured that out last night. That's why she didn't try to carry Keneric to the medical building, which was on the other side of campus. She didn't know how far she'd have to travel to get there. And as a medicine student (Dentistry, but let's not focus on specifics here), she feared the unknown the most.
The further they went from the buildings, the better the sunlight became—but everything in the world still looked tinted in some form or shade of green. Some darker, some lighter, and others mixed with colors that still somehow came back to green.
After walking for a few minutes, they finally reached the cafeteria, which—like the other buildings—looked badly damaged but still stood.
Before the apocalypse, Keneric and Joy would've never walked into such unstable structures. But now was different. Now, they only had completely broken-down or partially-collapsing buildings everywhere and nothing seemed to stand in pristine condition.
Joy was about to say something as they approached the cafeteria, but Keneric held up a hand and pointed at the open door.
Joy nodded. Moving stealthily, they crept closer to the entrance. Weird sounds came from inside—like some pets had been left in there and were now ransacking the whole place.
They peered inside, staying as hidden and silent as possible.
What emerged made Joy's blood run cold.
A humanoid-shaped monster—not too tall, not too short, and a little smaller than the average human—was running rampant inside. Its sickly green skin glistened in the faint light that slipped through the half-opened door. A once-formal, now tattered suit was fused to its misshapen body. A single eye also gleaned from its face as the creature turned and began destroying other parts of the room, as if searching for something.
Joy's breathing grew erratic.
Because that monster—its suit, its size—looked exactly like the corpse of the teacher she had found before.
It was so similar that Joy was convinced they were the same. But after death, he did not rest in peace. He had transformed—mutated into something inhuman.
Remembering those green veins, she glanced sideways at Keneric for a second before he slowly gestured for her to back away.
And back up they did, as quietly as possible.
But Joy, caught in her thoughts, failed to notice a small stone on the ground and tripped backward with an audible "Ouch."
Instantly, Keneric's face grew serious.
"Hide," he said.
The creature had clearly heard the sound. It hadn't spotted them yet, but it knew something—or someone—was there.
Joy whispered, "What about yo—"
She was cut off by Keneric's sharp word "Move."
She nodded, heart hammering against her ribs, and ran to the corner of the wall, hiding behind it.
Keneric raised his voice slightly—not to shout, but loud enough to say, "Stay hidden!"
Once to tell her. And once to draw the creature's attention to himself, not letting it wander off in some random direction.
And then, something impossible happened.
An axe materialized in his hand.
But it wasn't the fiery axe he once used in the parking lot. This was something else entirely.
The weapon had the same size and structure—but glowed with an unearthly greenish-yellow hue. Its surface didn't appear to be metal, but looked like it was ripped from living tissue. The blade at the front looked like hardened flesh, wrinkled all over.
Joy caught a glimpse of it from her corner. Her eyes widened in disbelief as Keneric engaged the creature.