The girl had fallen asleep when Jill got back, sitting down leaning on a large box. Jill paused upon seeing this and couldn't help but shake her head, though there was a small but real smile on her face. The infected have a hard time sleeping due to the hunger they feel and, when they do sleep, they have learned to wake up at the slightest noise to avoid being killed in their sleep. They also know when to pick a time to sleep. You don't want to be sleeping right next to a battlefield, after all.

Upon seeing the girl for the first time, Jill instantly knew she wasn't infected...or at least not in the way she and the other students are. She didn't have any orange in her pupils, didn't look ravenous and hungry, and seemed more scared and defeated than insane and fearful when Jill started speaking to her. Then there was the simple fact that she smelled sweet, like sugar. At least, sugar is what comes to mind. Jill hasn't really tried smelling sugar before, even if she does bake. 

While thinking of what to do, Jill realized that she didn't even know the girl's name. So, she decided to make one up on the spot.

"You'll be Sugar," Jill told the strange girl, taking a knee and running one of her hooked claws over her cheek. Though Jill had seen normal people before, it felt like so long ago. Six months of this hell really does something to someone, especially when they are infected. 

There is no doubt that Jill would like to eat this girl. Even if she did have lunch quite recently, the hunger in her was never satisfied. To make matters worse, the girl really did smell like sugar and, like Jill had said, sugar and meat were her favorite treats. Well, she didn't quite say treats.

Yet, there was something about this girl. Something that makes Jill not want to turn her into a tasty treat. At least, not right now. Maybe later if she pisses her off. After all, she does have plenty of food too, so it's not like she is on short supply.

So, with a little sigh, Jill reached down and picked Sugar up, carrying her like a princess. There was a small blush on her face. She always thought she would be the one to get princess carried, and never had she thought she would actually get put in one or carry someone that way. 

Even though Jill was abnormally strong, she was surprised by how light Sugar was. From the looks of it, Sugar hasn't eaten anything either in a couple of days, probably three days going off of what Jill knows. 

As she carried the girl up the stairs and through the door leading into her house, Jill started thinking what to give the girl to eat when she wakes up. Pretty much everything she has is made of human flesh or blood and most of the stuff like whip cream, cherries, and fruits had gone bad a month ago. She had no doubt in mind that Sugar doesn't want to eat any human, even in such a situation such as this.

'And in that way, you are weak.' Jill thought, watching Sugar sleep in her arms. She has been through these halls so many times she doesn't need to look to know where she is going.

Jill's feet automatically stopped a foot away from another grey metal door, the room inside being a storage room with a small window that is too dirty to see anything out of in the top of the room. Settled down by a heater is a makeshift bed formed of broken sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets. There was more but, by the time Jill moved down here most of the bedding had been taken upstairs somewhere by other students.

After settling Sugar down, she tucked her in and made sure the heater was on and not too hot. When Jill slept in this room previously, she was constantly sweating or freezing from the heater. After a bit of searching around Jill finally found the controls to the heaters down in the basement and had to learn how to work them. It took her a solid two weeks to fully learn everything there is to know about the heaters in the school, and the experience was less than pleasant, even if Jill won in the end.

Luckily, the heater wasn't acting up. So, with nothing else to do here, and because Jill doesn't want to just stare at the girl while she sleeps, she turned and left the room, gently closing it behind her. Once the door was closed Jill carved a one in the wall next to the door with her nails, ignoring the dust that threatens to make her sneeze.

Once done, Jill turned and left, going down the long dark hallways of stone. The school was running low on power and, as such, the basement lights never worked, the few that did being so dim they hardly made a difference. During the second month, when Jill moved down into the basement for good, she had constantly bumped into things in the dark. Her infection didn't affect her eye sight as well as the other infected, at least in the early stages.

Jill's destination was clear; the kitchen. She was going to see what she could make Sugar. She doesn't want the girl to die. If she did, she would have killed her the moment she saw her. So, if the girl was to die from any injures or of thirst or hunger after Jill had just brought her to a spare bedroom, Jill would be both upset and embarrassed. 

 

 

_.~._

 

 

Yuu woke up in a dark place. At first Yuu thought she was at home due to the feeling of having two warm blankets on her and the three pillows under her head. What tipped her off that she wasn't was the feeling of a fourth pillow. Yuu only has three pillows in her bed, not four.

It was a stupid way to realize that you're not in your bed but it was what set Yuu off. At that moment Yuu was glad no one could read her thoughts. 

After getting up Yuu checked on her left foot. The throbbing has gone down but, after some brief testing, Yuu determined that she still can't run with it. 

'I'm lucky my magic healed my foot to this extent before it ran dry. If it stopped when my foot was nearly torn off, I doubt I would be able to survive for long.' 

With a sigh Yuu got out of the bed she was in. The grey walls told her that she was in the basement still, and the black shelves with plastic containers told her she was in some kind of storage room. The room even had some sunlight but, after finding the source, Yuu realized with a bit of gloom that she couldn't see anything outside of the window. Even if it was just a tree Yuu still wished she saw something of the outside...

....even if the outside isn't any safer than in here.

Upon arriving to the grey door leading out of the room, Yuu had a brief moment of hesitation. What if Jill had locked the door? What if Jill was planning on eating Yuu.

'Ah. Even if she did what could I do about it? I'm no fighter. In fact, the only thing I was ever useful for was saving my friends as a distraction.'

So, with another sigh, Yuu tried the door. To her delight, the door opened without  problem, making a little whine as it did. However, Yuu instantly came face-to-face with another problem.

Outside of the room was almost pitch black. 

"Should I wait for Jill or should I look for her?" Yuu asked herself, peeking out the doorway to see if she can spot any light. From what she gathered she was in a bunch of hallways. The sunlight barely penetrated the darkness so Yuu couldn't tell if there was even a door in front of her.

Before Yuu could decide, the world decided for her. From the corner of  Yuu's eyes a bright pair of large glowing orange eyes came. Jill spotted Yuu immediately and stopped walking and gave her a little wave. 

 

....

 

...Completely forgetting the fact that it's near pitch black in the place she calls home. As such, Yuu didn't see that Jill was waving at her. It took an uncomfortably long amount of time for Jill to finally realize the problem, not that Yuu wasn't a part of it either for just standing still. staring as she tried to make out what Jill was doing in the dark. However, once Jill realized the problem, she did a face palm before she gently grabbed Yuu's hand and started to lead the girl somewhere.

Yuu instantly flinched when Jill grabbed her hand. Jill's hand was cold, long, and firm. There also was something sticky on it and Yuu instantly thought it was blood. However, she quickly denounced her own thoughts upon realizing the texture of whatever was on Jill's hand wasn't one of blood. In fact, it felt more like dough!

Before Yuu could figure out why Jill had dough on her hands, she saw a light up ahead. Unlike the other doors in the basement, the two doors where the light was coming from looked industrial, like kitchen doors. When Jill pushed open the doors and walked inside, taking Yuu with her, Yuu got her answer.

The room was, in fact, a large kitchen. It didn't seem as advance as the other kitchen the staff use upstairs but it definitely was one. Yuu also noticed there was quite a lot more ovens and tools to bake here than the one in the cafeteria, or behind it really. There looked to be three doors, two of them being freezers. The one furthest to the right was locked by two heavy locks and a metal latch and, judging from the small trail of blood leading inside to the door, Yuu didn't really want to know what is inside. 

"If you want to stay safe, I wouldn't go in there," Jill said, noticing what Yuu was staring at.

Yuu only responded with a small nod.

"Now then," Jill said with a clap of her hands, "you must be starvin so let's get you something to eat."

"U-um, no, I-I act-" Yuu started but stopped when Jill ignored her and started leading her to one of the counters in the back.

As Jill and Yuu got closer, Yuu started to make out food on the counter, most of them in bowls. At first glance, the food was really well made. However, after examining it closely, Yuu realized that none of the baked treats looked right, like the frosting was made with something else. Even the ones with jelly filling seemed wrong, like Jill wasn't used to handling Jelly.

"Not a baker?" Yuu asked, causing Jill to stiffen a little.

"No...I am," Jill began, looking away from Yuu so she doesn't see her awkward expression, "I'm just very rusty."

"It's alright," Yuu told Jill, patting her on her shoulder with her free hand, "A bit of practice is all you need."

Jill didn't know how to feel about lying to her. The real reason is that Jill learned the art of baking using human parts instead of the normal ingredients. Plus, most of the ingredients had gone bad since some mold had managed to find its way into them so Jill just decided to improvise.

As one could tell, her improvised baking isn't perfect.

As Yuu decided what to eat, Jill froze and slowly turned around, tilting her head as she did so. She did it so gently yet quickly that Yuu wasn't even aware that Jill had turned around.

"I'll be right back," Jill informed Yuu, though Yuu could barely hear her voice from how low she said it.

By the time Yuu turned around Jill was already out the door, really putting the 'speed' in speed walking. In no time the glowing eyes of Jill turned the corner and disappeared, leaving Yuu alone in the kitchen.

'...Was it something I said?' Yuu wondered, asking herself why Jill upped and left like that without any warning.

Knowing she wasn't going to get an answer any time soon, Yuu turned back around, her attention back on the snacks Jill had made for her. As she was deciding which one to pick out, Yuu noticed a piece of a cake sticking out of the trashcan a couple of feet away tucked in the corner. Curious, she went over and took off the light blue lid. The light blue trash can reminded Yuu of the robin's egg trash bin she has back at home. Just thinking about it brought back unpleasant memories.

When Yuu looked inside the trash bin she was instantly in for a surprise. Inside was what had to be hundreds of small cupcakes, many of them deformed or ruined with too much frosting. Yuu knew that, if she looked further, she would find many more mistakes. 

'...Did she even know how to bake? And, if she didn't, why did she learn all of a sudden?'

Yuu's heart came to the realization before she herself did as it began to pound harder, making her cheeks flush red.

'She couldn't have learned it for me, could she? I mean, it makes sense. Jill's a cannibal so she eats human meat while I'm not. But why would she do that for someone you've just met?'

Yuu was always considered a nice and smart person but, after waking up in her school with the whole...infection thing, it doesn't seem like she has changed, always trusting others so easily. In reality, she really just gave up and fell into despair. That is how she was always so "trusting" to others. She just gave up and came to the decision that, if they betray and kill her, then that's that. 

"Pathetic, is it not?" Yuu whispered to herself, feeling hot tears starting to spring in the corner of her eyes. 

'Ah! I'm crying again.'

With a heavy heart, Yuu took a plastic plate and put a couple of snacks on her plate and walked down to a white table, sitting on one of the eight stools there and started to eat them. Even if she was feeling down, Yuu smiled at the fact that the cupcakes tasted quite good. 

 

 

+^*^+

 

 

Jill walked into the room where she first met Sugar, humming a little tune. This was Entrance 2B if she remembers correctly. Located near the entrance to the school that leads to the courtyard. Or at least one of them anyway. As she made her way to the slide, or chute, her eyes widened a little and her smile turned smug. 

"Fleshlings came through here," Jill said, her voice song-like as she traced her finger on the edge of the chute, flicking off the orange gunk that stuck to it.

"And...going off that sound," Jill sang again, turning to look at a closed gate. Even if it was closed Jill still saw through the magic that was there. Three weapons were missing, and one of them was a 9mm, with the other one being a twelve-gauge shotgun. 

Jill's smile grew, twisting and showing all her sharp teeth. Salvia, bright orange in color, came out of her mouth and fell past her chin. The orange swirls in her eyes started to spin like they were actual whirlpools. 

"Oh to joy, you lovely fleshlings. You just made things so much more interesting!"

Jill's head leaned back as she started laughing, her laughs filling the basement for some distance. She knew something was up the moment she heard a distinct noise. While the lock is meant to deter people from opening the gate, Jill doesn't have any trap or alarm magic, meaning she doesn't really have any way to stop them from entering. But Jill figured something out for that quite a while ago. The gate, when it opens, makes a distinct noise, as stated before. The noise travels for most of the basement and, to others, they won't pay the noise any attention, thinking it to be nothing but background noise. Yet, if one were to know what the noise of the gate opening sounds like, like Jill, they would know the gate has been opened.

"When I find you, o so tasty flesh, I shall mash you into lots of tasty pastries!"

Jill twirled around, her dress flaring, reflecting the light like a bright ray of sunlight.

"O so clueless are you, not knowing your efforts are useless. Hopping around on the hunt, unaware of the terror that haunts you."

With each verse of her twisted song, she spins faster and faster, the hunger in her eyes growing more and more.

"Whatever drives you o fools to go down deep, only leads you to your grave. Bright wary are you, but on the contrary I am now bright and cheery!"

With that verse Jill stops her spinning and clutches her head, getting rid of the dizziness that came with her violent and free spinning.

"And if that final dance, I shall now start my prance. With every little mistake you make..."

Jill's eyes narrowed briefly and, for a second, regret flashed through her eyes before it was replaced with a sadistic hunger.

 

"...."

 

"...."

 

 

 

 

 

"I shall show you how monsters hunt each other."