The plopping sounds had stopped. I silently screwed the cap on the bottle and stifled a sneeze. The fumes had filled the entire closet and was beginning to burn the inside of my nose. I forcefully swallowed a second sneeze, eyes watering, and crouched down to peer through the vent again.

The frogs had gone. I detected a very faint series of plops; they were fading away, disappearing down a hallway somewhere to the left. I made a mental note to avoid those hallways.

Another hiss, followed by an eerie, drawn-out sliding sound.

Should I run for it? I clenched my fists. Impulsivity had brought nothing but ruin onto my friends. There were things out there that were designed to be faster and cleverer than normal human beings. I had to stay calm and quell my nerves. And just hope that it-whatever it was-wouldn't bother to check a tiny janitor's closet for a fresh victim.

What the hell.

My friends Chelsea and Sarah had chosen this College for a reason. For one thing, we'd thought it was abandoned- Federal Emergency Law had forced all schools and universities to shut down, presumably to 'stop' the viral epidemics. Well, our city eventually lost electricity, and the generators chugged to a halt when the people ran out of gas. That's when the fights had erupted- and so Chelsea, Sarah, and I chose Newquark College as our hideout. It was relatively secluded, being far from the city center, and had an array of solar panels on its roofs. Solar panels meant the place lit up at night. A good thing.

Newquark College. A safe choice! Completely abandoned, locked-up, and safe!

I was such a goddamned idiot.

I held my breath and peered through the vent.

Two gore-spattered boots passed by, followed by a high-up hiss. Immediately afterward, there was that sliding sound. I squinted and gulped. What the-

It was Sarah.

She slid past, eyes bulging and fogged. She was dead.

Her hair was dark and slimy from mopping up the gristle of the floors. I spotted a gaping slash on her neck, a slash which was clotted with the dark blood that had splashed down her ripped and bedraggled cardigan-

-which exposed her split-open belly and splintered ribcage, revealing a darkened hole where her liver had been.

I shut my eyes as Sarah slid away. So that was it. A human had killed Sarah.

Everybody I knew was dead.

Everybody.

Despair welled up in my throat.

Why did it have to be like this? Why? I thought about my parents. They had passed away relatively early; my mum, in the hospital, and my dad, somewhere in the Southwest. He'd been trucking some goods as shipment. ...Why did they have to go?

My aunts, uncles, cousins- dead, struck down by the insidious flu. My dog- poisoned, by our paranoid neighbor. Jareth, my boyfriend- killed by the flu. All of those people...gone, buried. And now my two remaining friends-my two toughest friends, who had stood by me through thick and thin- they were gone, murdered in the very College that we had deemed safe. What could I do?

I rubbed my eyes, feeling royally pissed. A human killed Sarah? A human?

Sh*t. I have nothing to lose.

I can take on a human.

Especially one that's out of ammo. I thought about the lockers stuffed with livers, and the slash across Sarah's throat. Goddamn it.

I grabbed the bleach and a long-handled broom, and bust out of the closet.

I immediately spotted the man. I knew he was a man. He was a good six feet tall with broad shoulders, and he was wearing some sort of suit. He was also wearing some kind of gas mask. He was dragging Sarah's body, holding her by the wrist.

He was facing the other way.

Hot anger burned in my chest. I dropped the bleach bottle and ran full-speed towards the murderer, clutching the broom handle like a javelin. Then I drove the handle with all my strength into the man's lower back, dodging a bit to avoid stepping on Sarah. The murderer fell to the floor with a muffled yell and clutched his back, writhing with pain. I kicked the guy, hard, in the ribs, then tried to rip off the gas mask but failed. He grabbed for my ankle and I leapt away.

Adrenaline pulsed through my veins. "You KILLED her!" I screamed. The man shakily got to his feet and straightened the gas mask. A slow hiss came from the air filters in the front. I was struck by how inhuman he looked.

I backed away, fists clenched, as the man slowly started to shuffle towards me.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHY?" I screamed. "WHY?"

The man paused. "I didn't kill her," he said. His voice was low, muffled by the bulk of the mask.

I glared at him. "You did, you f***ing psychopath."

He shrugged. "I didn't," he said. He turned and pointed down the hall. "Shouldn't shout. Frogs are coming."

I strained my ears and heard nothing. "Liar," I spat.

He pointed at Sarah's mangled corpse. "Bodies like this spread disease. Textbook case of decomposition. Need to remove the bodies before the rot sets in-"

His voice became more muffled, and I took another step back. This guy was a complete madman. In the opposite hallway, I heard the approaching plops. Damn frogs.

Time to go.

I turned and sprinted, feeling the burn in the muscles of my legs.

I had to get out of here, leave this hellish College. And there was just one way to do that.

I had to go back. To the place where we'd entered. To that one damn reinforced-steel doorway that wasn't locked and chained-up and barred; to the door I've been sprinting for and looking for this whole goddamned time. I passed an open lecture hall and thought I saw something move. Not good. Have to keep running.

There it was, the unsecured exit door.

I raced towards it and madly crashed into it with all my strength. It flew open, launching me into the cool night air, with the vast expanse of glittering stars stretching overhead and the fireflecked ruins of the city below. I was outside, dammit. I was finally outside.

I gritted my teeth. Now, what was the plan...?

I felt the chilly breeze caress my hair as I fled from the College. My friends were dead, my relatives were gone. I had no dog. What the hell should I do...?

My stomach growled. Right. Time to find food.

I headed for the edge of the campus, to climb a tree and gather my thoughts.