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The school had turned into pandemonium.

Hero, Aurelia and Serenade had holed up early, narrowly avoiding the dorm building fire -- Miss Thorne had, Hero thought, proved herself a gift as ever. Water was essential. Too much of the school kitchens was perishables, but there was no way off-campus -- but they had water, and the water mains were still on in the school, so they could hold out for a while. (Saying this did not seem to cheer up Serenade any.)

They stayed in their fortified little offices off the second gym, the door barred, the windows wadded up, but there were little pockets of resistance all over the school. They listened to the radio much the first day; Hero hadn't liked any of them to go out. Particularly because -- as evidenced -- Serenade was apparently the school's last best hope for peace, and she knew nothing about sailor senshi but she knew that they probably had to preserve the only one of them to turn up on campus. Pretty lax of the rest of them.

But she'd encouraged Serenade out that day, dressed in the frilly little skirt and bodice of Chronos, out in the dusk next to the gym -- Hero still had the pistol (though she knew all too well the exact amount of bullets she had -- this wasn't a video game), and worst coming to worst, the ridiculous wooden sword she'd kept that day with Mr. Lawson. Serenade had needed a little bit of encouraging. They'd left Miss Thorne safely behind.

"Just one test," said Hero. "If you can make a difference, Miss Soriano, we are not about to squander your talents."

Especially because.

You know.

The campus was filled now with monsters.

Elke, you're dead!

Night was falling, and Elke couldn't make herself move.

There was a kind of sick dread accompanying the thought of darkness. She wasn't so scared of the hunger as she was of the dark, of the thought that she might hurt someone overnight that she didn't want to hurt. Also, whenever she looked down at her hands they seemed a little different, and it was a little worse every time she looked. What if she was a monster?

Elke...

And maybe she'd found Giselle, but where was Avery? Sebby, too, and Serenade, and Yvette. She was worried about the kitty, too. All the teachers had vanished, and Kitty was owned by a teacher, right? Since Mr. Collins had known whose kitty Kitty was, maybe Kitty was all alone - ohhh, she hoped the little gray cat was alright. If not, that probably wouldn't be too bad.

She finally lurched forward, surprised at herself for thinking that; that was a terrible thing to think, not nice at all. What were you supposed to do with yourself when you started imagining how a kitty cat would taste? She didn't do this normally! It was just wrong.

...you're dead!

Well, everything was wrong. She shouldn't be dead in the first place. Nor should Giselle, or anyone else. You just had to make the best of the situation handed to you, especially since -

Huh. There were people coming out of the second gym. She tilted her head a microscopic bit to the left. One of them looked familiar, and one was dressed like a princess. Elke smiled at that; things might be weird, but drama kids were drama kids.

(Drama kids were also weak, with noodle arms--why was she thinking that???)

She glanced over at the pair, and began to approach them. It might go better this time, maybe, if some creepy blonde zombie (had that been Calintha Johnson?) didn't try and roll into a bush.

It was funny that Hero was basically saying that all the Barren Pines students were dead when she and Aurelia were ones themselves. Still, Serenade, or rather Chronos did not voice this out loud, and merely pondered on the eerie fact that she had been schoolmates with people that were already dead. It wasn't as awkward as one would have thought, because they had at least looked human, looked alive.

The problem with Hero's idea was that she did not know what she could do 'mystically'; they had discovered that the energy thing she had done was part of her transformation. She supposed that the voice would come back to help her again, though it sounded strange that she was actually relying on a voice only she could hear. Who was this mysterious voice, really?

And the part of her consoling herself that her schoolmates had 'looked alive' halted as they spotted Elke and Chronos promptly froze. What in the world had happened? Why did Elke look like a...monster? At least it would be easier to fight a monster, easier as in there would at least, be a reason. "Hero." She said, placing a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Do you really think she'll do something to hurt us?" This was Elke. The Elke that they went to school with.

Deep down inside, despite having the evidence before her, she didn't want to believe all the Barren Pines students were not actually alive, not actually human.

"I'm afraid you're not," said Hero. "Don't come any closer."

The gun was still trained on her. Elke didn't have to know that Hero was not used to firing a firearm at all. She just kept her hand steady, as steady as her tone, though she jerked her head briefly at Chronos. It looked like Elke -- at least it looked like a bloodied, green version of Elke, a pitiful verison of Elke, dragging her monstrous claws beside her in the gloaming. Hero said, "Ma'am, if you're going to do something, I recommend you do it now."

Miss Arma had been Giselle's bosom friend -- the same way Miss Thorne was hers. It was somewhat of a relief that Giselle wasn't present. That would have been too much. It would have been far too much. Better to not think of it as Elke at all. "It's Elke's shell," she argued. "It is not Elke Arma."

It sure sounded like Elke Arma.

How do you know, Elke wanted to say, I think I'm still me and I'm the only one that matters!

Except that wasn't true. She wasn't the only one that mattered; sure, she'd never interacted much with Hero, but everyone knew Hero Barrett. The redheaded girl was smart, she belonged at Barren Pines. Well, she belonged at the place Barren Pines was supposed to be, since clearly it was not a school. Zombies did not belong at schools. Elke just had to remember that--

God, she was so hungry. It felt like she hadn't eaten in months.

She trained her attention on the green-haired girl when she spoke. Elke felt quite certain that she knew this person, but could neither recall name nor... anything. It might have been the hunger, or maybe just the elaborate costume, but... how did this person know that she spoke languages? Hardly anyone seemed to remember that.

"I won't," said Elke as she took a careful step forward, but it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than the green-haired princess girl, or even Hero. Normally, she would have added I promise I won't, but she felt that that might turn out to be a lie. Even accidental lies were wrong, and she wouldn't make them-- Would it really be so bad? "Yes," she said to her own question. It would be bad.

Hands by your sides (well, feet) don't do anything threatening. Elke took another cautious step.

"Hero, no." She said; she had jumped slightly at the gunshot, but Chronos still managed to keep her cool. Both her eyes were fixated on Elke's face, or at least what seemed to be Elke's face. "Don't shoot her." Strangely enough, it sounded almost like an order even though she didn't mean it to. She just didn't want Hero to shoot Elke again. Not again. Even though they were technically dead.

As she had expected, the voice made it's appearance again and Chronos took a step forward. She knew. She knew what she had to do now. She knew that she, and only she herself could do this, whatever it was. "Elke." She said, now right in front of zombie Elke. "Elke, I can help you. I can help you stop this pain, okay?" And then she smiled, in an attempt to reassure the other.

Hero was still holding the gun, though she now regarded it a little like some kind of horrormachine that she had to hold on to with both hands just to make sure that it wasn't going to leap out of her fingers and drag all of them down. She really had never had experience with a firearm (even when she'd been considering the police force back when she was nine -- too low cultural capital, that).

She had startled when Chronos approached Elke, stepping forward as well, the gun still trained on the green-skinned monster... girl.

All right. Kneel down. The Princess had obeyed. All right, you've got to touch her star seed -- it'll be right there in her chest. Press your hand in. It'll sink in. Think good thoughts! That's all you need, to want her back. Find the pain. Stop it.

It was obvious Hero wasn't hearing any of this; she still had the gun on Elke, and was privately hoping to God that Giselle would understand. Giselle would understand. Of course.