She didn't know how much time had passed when she opened eyes, blinking wearily.
At that thought, her eyes widened, and she whipped her head forward. When did I fall asleep?
The flashlight was still on, and she picked up her phone—looking at the battery life. 2%. Shit. She quickly opened it—closing out all the open apps and switching it onto battery saving mode. Goddamn it, do I leave the flashlight on? She glanced up at her friend.
Saphris' head was leaning back against the corner of the cooling cabinet, eyes shut and earbuds in her ears. Dylan could hear the faintest sounds of music playing. Is she asleep?
She reached over and lightly shook her knee, watching for a reaction. Saphris' brows furrowed and she opened her eyes blearily, before becoming abruptly aware. She whipped her phone out and stared at the screen, terror creeping into her groggy face.
"What?" Dylan asked, still letting her brain come to terms with where she was at.
"The time," Saphris answered, panicked. "It's fucking 7PM!" She continued, flipping the phone around to show her.
What? She echoed the thought aloud. "We've been in here for over three hours now?" Her words came out slow and confused. "Does that mean we're safe to leave? Have the cops shown up yet?"
Saphris shook her head, "I don't know; service is still down."
Dylan grimaced, rubbing at her eyes. "So do we want to leave and see what's happening outside?"
Saphris cringed, "I'd really rather not… but who knows when they'll find us." She commented reluctantly, staring at the cabinet doors.
Dylan groaned quietly, agreeing reluctantly. "Let's get this shit over with then." She muttered, lightly pushing on the door, she didn't want it to go slamming open and causing a commotion.
Saphris did the same and crawled out first, giving her the space to pull her awkward limbs out.
Her flashlight fell across the floor, illuminating the kitchen space. Darkness encroached from all around, trying to close in on them.
The silence was deafening.
They glanced at each other, perturbed. "Did they forget about us and lock up the school?" Dylan wondered, her voice barely even a whisper—it felt wrong to fill the quiet with any kind of noise.
Saphris shrugged, and looked at the doorway, the outline of it faintly visible by the flashlight. "I don't see how our parents would forget about us… but not even the emergency lights are on now."
Dylan wandered closer to it, keeping the light angled more toward the ground.
When she reached the doorway, she noticed something strange… It was the entryway she and Saphris ran through earlier, but where she thought it was flush with the access she stood in now—was actually a few feet away from her, leaving a narrow hallway in between the two of them. What? This wasn't here before, was it?
"Saphris," she whispered, gesturing the girl over. "Does this look the same to you?"
The other girl frowned, and poked her head out of the door—staring down either side of the hallway. "To be honest, I wasn't really paying attention…" she whispered back, trailing off. Dylan had to strain to hear her.
Weird. She edged forward, pointing her phone down the right side of the hall—it seemed to go on and on, the end of it beyond their sight. "How long does this go on for?" She questioned, glancing back at Saphris.
"No idea. And I'm sure as fuck not gonna find out." She answered, sneering at the dark corridor and walking through to the other doorway.
Dylan stared down the hallway a moment longer, before glancing down the other side, swinging her flashlight to stare down it. It didn't go on for nearly as long as the other one—the light barely touched the wall at its end, but she could faintly see the grooves between the stones.
Just a dead-end; she looked away and walked through—raising her phone to scan the room before her.
The door leading to the serving stations was right in front of them. But right when she started walking towards it, Saphris whispered, "wait." When Dylan turned, she saw her pointing at another cooling cabinet—just like the one they had hid in.
This time though, it was open and food bags were spilling out of it. "What the hell?" Dylan whispered, unease creeping up in her lungs.
Her flashlight died.
Her phone was dead. She grit her teeth and shoved her phone in her back pocket, annoyed that she fell asleep with it still on earlier.
"Hold on, I got it. Mine's still on 30% last I checked." Saphris mumbled somewhere from her right. This blackness is fucking disorienting.
Saphris' face was lit up by her phone screen, and she could see the furrow in her brows as the girl flicked through her phone.
But before the flashlight was turned on, they heard a loud smack—like someone falling against the tile floor. Saphris' phone screen went dark not even a moment later.
"Oh dearie, what are you doing back here?" A woman croaked in the room ahead of them.
Dylan froze, and she could hear Saphris suck in a breath. The voice was almost motherly, but it had a weird warbly quality to it and sounded off in nature. We're not alone?
She could hear panicked breathing, gasping like something had gone terribly wrong. "What are you?" A boy stuttered out, terror plain in his voice.
A gurgling laugh bubbled out of the woman, "I'm just the lunch lady, dearie!" She croaked, the threatening tone clear as day in her voice.
There was a loud thwap! and the boy screamed before being muted abruptly.
A hand grabbed onto her arm, and she jumped before realizing that it was Saphris gripping her arm.
"Oh my, that one was quite large! I think I need to sit down after that," the woman warbled again. There was the sound of wet slapping and it took Dylan a moment to realize that it was footsteps she was hearing, and it was coming closer.
Saphris pulled her off to the side, moving her away from where she stood in front of the doorway. "Who's there?" The woman gurgled—right next to them. Fuck! That doesn't sound human!
The woman-like creature hummed, and there was another thwap! sound—slapping against the wall near them. She could hear a quiet peeling sound as whatever-the-thing-was came away from the wall.
"Ugh. I need to have 687 come here and recharge the lights—even I can't see anything!" The woman-thing muttered before slapping away into the room they had just left.
Moments passed as they stood there, trying to process what just happened. Dylan strained her ears, but she could hear nothing coming from the other room. Did she go down that hallway instead?
She shifted her arm until she was gripping Saphris' hand, and tentatively stepped forward from where Saphris had pulled her back. From what she remembered, the doorway to the serving stations was just a couple feet to their right.
She inched forward, reaching out with her other hand to feel for obstacles. She ended up touching a table and felt along it til she reached its edge, hoping it was right next to the doorway.
Saphris tapped her shoulder; she looked up, and was startled to see an emergency light in the next room still on—so dim it was almost going out.
There was no boy—or body, but there were bags of food on the ground. He was scavenging for food? The bags spilling out of the cabinet made sense now.
So help really didn't come then…? None of this makes sense. She glanced back at Saphris and stepped lightly into the serving area.
The grate blocking them off from the cafeteria was rolled up. It made her feel that much more exposed. How'd that dude know it was unlocked? She and Saphris made sure to roll it down again… Was it desperation? It's only been a couple hours since school was supposed to end.
What do we do now? Where do we go—if we're still stuck in here?
She glanced back at the doorway they came through, is it even safe enough to talk yet?
Saphris stepped closer, leaning up to whisper directly into her ear. "Where do we go? We're obviously not safe—and we can't go back into the kitchen."
Dylan shrugged, worrying her lip. Where is safe? "What about a classroom?" She suggested, leaning down to whisper it into Saphris' ear—trying to avoid getting hair in her mouth, the girl's mane could be quite frizzy sometimes.
Saphris nodded.
Okay, so a classroom—that's easy enough, right? They crept out of the serving area, leaving behind the faint red light.
She was glad they didn't need to lift up the grate themselves—who knows how much noise it would've generated. That's probably what alerted that woman –was she really one of the lunch ladies?– to the boy…
It was dark, and she could barely make out a thing. If she had felt exposed before, it was nothing compared to the vastness of the cafeteria now. She hadn't considered how big it was until the lights were gone… and the possibility of monsters lurking nearby—watching them, sent shivers down her spine.
How the hell are we supposed to navigate this crap without being able to see? What if we bump into something? These tables were notorious for being squeaky.
"Hey, can you see too?" Saphris murmured lowly in her ear, startling her.
What?
That was when she really noticed, she could see. She hadn't realized it moments before, but of course she wouldn't be able to see the outlines of the tables if there wasn't light. The fact that she could meant it had to come from somewhere.
"Where is it coming from?" She whispered back, looking at Saphris.
The girl raised her arm, pointing to the entrance on their right. "There…" she breathed, trailing off.
Dylan frowned, why does she sound starstruck? Her gaze followed the length of Saphris' arm to the entrance.
"Woah," she gasped quietly, staring in awe.
They were on the far side of the cafeteria, the glow barely reached them. But at the entrance, it was much stronger—bathing the floor and foyer beyond it in a soft white light. It seemed to shimmer the longer she stared at it.
It's obviously not an emergency light; she had no idea what would generate something like that without power though.
Is it sunlight?
No.
Moonlight?
It looked like it. Maybe it was a way out and she hadn't noticed it in her desperation to find her friend?
"Is that coming from outside?" She murmured, nearly forgetting to keep her voice down.
"I don't know," Saphris mumbled, pulling her phone from her pocket. Dylan glanced at the screen: 7:20PM. Well that doesn't make sense—it's April. "It could be someone's flashlight too." She continued, but her voice was doubtful.
Yeah, I don't believe that either. It looks like it's coming from outside the windows… but there's shutters covering them, I thought? Dylan took a hesitant step towards it anyway. "All the more reason to check it out, no?" She muttered back. She wanted to be uneasy, but it was hard to be when that light could mean escape.
Saphris didn't answer, instead moving toward the entrance without a second thought.
She dithered for a moment before following, not wanting to be left behind. She sure as hell wasn't gonna let her go alone either.
At least it was nice to be able to see where she was going the closer she got.