Sugar and Blood

The fire alarm echoed throughout the halls of Lawndale High. Daria looked over at Jane and stood up to leave the room. As Mr. DeMartino opened his room door, the first student's scream could be heard. The rest of the class began to panic and bolted for the open classroom door. A gnawing feeling formed in Daria's stomach and instead of heading for the door, she went over to the window and found it was locked. Jane could see the concern on Daria's face.

"I don't know what's going on, I just know it's not a fire," Daria said in a cold, harsh voice.

They decided to leave the room and realized that things were horribly wrong. The fire axe was missing out of it's case and several of the soda machines had been split open. As students continued to run around and past them, they debated on whether to follow the crowd to the main exit or try to find another way out. Their thought process was cut short when they heard what sounded like Brittany and Nikki start to scream only to have them quickly silenced. They realized that the voice came from the direction of the girls' restroom and began to head in the other direction. It wasn't until they passed the hacked in half bodies of Tiffany Blum-Deckler and Kevin Thompson that the fear officially set in. Daria looked at the Fashion Club member and realized that she hadn't seen Quinn run past her yet. Jane looked over at her best friend and could tell what she was thinking. Instead of heading for the main exit, they went in search of Quinn.

Jane and Daria could hear the blood curdling screams of their classmates as they raced for down the hallways in search of the younger Morgendorffer. Daria lost her footing on a pool of soda and blood that had spewed from the cans and bodies that littered the floor. Jane grabbed Daria's arm and the two quickly rounded the corner. Echoing behind them through the halls was the voice of Angela Li yelling "SODA! SODA! SODA! - if you want to live, I better see a soda in your hands damn it!"

As Daria and Jane rounded the corner to Ms. Barch's room - they found a cell phone on the floor next to the fallen science teacher. Daria flipped it open and tried to get a signal - to no avail. That's when they heard a voice struggling off to their side.

"She has a switch behind the Buddha in her office that will... unlock... the door... and unscramble the signal," Ms. Bennett said as she struggled to breathe. She lifted her hand to reveal a key. As Daria knelt down beside her, Ms. Bennett stared at her "She's... looking... for... you." The economics teacher took one more sip of oxygen and went silent. Daria grabbed the key and tossed it to Jane.

"You're a lot faster than me - the second that she sees both of us, I want you to head for her office - I'll make sure she goes after me," Daria said.

"Okay, but I will come find you once I unlock the door and call the police," Jane said.

Their plan was quickly changed when Daria heard Quinn screams in the next hall. Jane used her sprinter speed and made a mad dash for the office. Daria grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and headed for her sister's voice. A few moments later - she saw Ms. Li raising the axe above her head with Quinn trying to shield herself. With a burst of speed, she ran up to the principal and swung the fire extinguisher. Ms. Li turned around with anger and hatred in her eyes. The ultra high levels of caffeine that were pulsing through her veins had caused her to become a monster. She began to make her way to Daria. Daria looked at her sister, who was starting to stand up.

"Quinn - head towards the office and let Jane know where we are. Hurry!"

"I'm not leaving you, Daria!"

"Yes, you are damn it, NOW GO!"

Quinn hesitated for just the briefest of moments before running away from to safety. Ms. Li began tapping the axe against her hand. Daria swallowed hard and hoped that she had enough energy left to at least not get killed.

"Ms. Morgendorffer, I don't see a soda in your hand. I thought I made it clear that you were to drink damn you," Ms. Li growled.

A few seconds later, Ms. Li swung the axe at Daria. Daria used the extinguisher to glance the blow away. Daria then thought about the fact that she was basically holding an explosive in her hand. She tried to look around for anything other weapon, but came up empty. Great - well if this thing blows, maybe I'll get lucky and it'll take us both out. She swung it a second time to block another swing, but missed. Feeling the blade go through her right arm and her bone break, Daria screamed and immediately dropped the fire extinguisher. Despite the pain, Daria picked the extinguisher back up and continued to block a couple of more swings from Ms. Li's axe. Ms. Li took a swipe at Daria's leg, causing the teenager to collapse on the floor. Between the blood gushing out of her arm and now her leg, Daria was beginning to fell dizzy and light-headed. Her strength was waning and it was all she could do to keep her eyes focused. The last thing she saw was Ms. Li raising the axe above her head for one final swing, then she heard a loud crash and saw Ms. Li collapse in front of her.

"Jane, can we carry her out? - I don't know how long Ms. Li will be out of it," Quinn said still holding some of the pieces of the broken Buddha statue in her hands.

"Yeah - the police and ambulances should be arriving any moment. Let's get her towards the exit," Jane said.

Several students were hovering in the parking lot when Jane and Quinn kicked open the exit with Daria in their arms. The police pulled up moments later and were about to escort them to safety when Ms. Li appeared behind them and tried to take one final swing at them before the police struck her with several tasers. The ambulances arrived and the paramedics began to work on Daria while the police put restraints on Ms. Li and strapped her to a gurney.

The whole time she was being restrained and while the ambulance door closed, the students could hear Ms. Li's demonic laughter in between the yells of "KEEP DRINKING!"

End