Shit! Rather than the clean lead-in to the slide that Juniper had envisioned in her head, Juniper half-fell into position as the thing's other hand reached out for her. She may not have been fast the way she was strong, but she was still plenty quick. Juniper took small comfort in the fact that she'd at least built up enough momentum to move passed her, though she came to a stop next to the blonde.

"A little too slow, "Dearie!" she called back, grabbing hold of the door jam out into the hall and pulling to get some forward momentum as she got her feet under her again. There was none of the satisfaction from her last close-call this time though, it was a calculated maneuver, to try and get her focused on the retreating student.

Good luck, blondie she thought as she took her first steps, God, I hope karma is a real thing!

Her eyes fixed on the door of the infirmary as she broke smoothly into a run. Mentally she kicked herself for shirking her running practice for the last few months, she'd been in a huff after she'd learned she was being transferred here and wouldn't be able to really compete. Her form was still good, she'd drilled the movements until she naturally fell into them whenever she ran, but her legs didn't feel nearly as ready, the speed she put on not quite as high. And right now, she wanted every inch of lead she could put on.

She kicked her legs up and slid over the top of the reception desk, knocking all manner of flotsam to the floor in her bid to put a hurdle between her and the nurse. She closed in on the door and turned the lock, gripping the doorknob to jerk it open. Given the thing's muscle density, she knew there would be no way she'd be able to beat it in a straight-away, she was trusting that her lighter frame could reorient faster and that a twisting path through the halls of the school was her best chance to escape. It worked for gazelles hunted by cheetahs, it could work here.

Of course. . .she'd only been to Shokushu for a few days now. . .she didn't know the layout nearly as well as this thing would. . .

Rena glared at the student as she made her comment but there was a smirk on her face as well. She was in for a few surprises this one, oh how she loved a good chase but she did not run, no she came after her with a relentless stride, that smirk still on her features, yellow eyes gazing out into the dark cooridor though her night vision had been unhindered as she came, the soft soles of her shoes echoing as they steadily clicked as she came forth. Her silohet easy to make out as the white of her uniform did not blend in to well with the inky darkness of the corridor but Juniper wasn't wasting time waiting for Rena to catch up getting to the end of the corridor and hasily unlocking the door.

The desk hardly slowed her down as her strength had been so incredible that she slid it aside out of her path sliding it across the floor and into the wall where it crashed against it. She normally did not have to hunt, so many students came to her after all throughout the day. The ones that came to her in the evenings though tended to be “invited” to stay the night. Shough she supposed that she'd make an exception this time around.

She threw open the door, the frame nearly coming off it's hinges, the wood splintering and echoing in the halls. Let her here, let her know that their game begun. Though security would have been alerted by the sounds Juniper brought their involvement upon herself, she choose to come here after all.

Rena sniffed the air and while her olfactory skills had been better than a humans they were little better though she decided to go straight ahead. It would have probably been one of the most unlikely paths and thus she determineted that the girl probably took it thinking that Rena would pass it up as to ob ious.

Come out, come out wherver you are. She chuckled as she came forth.

"Jesus!" Juniper covered her head reflexively when she heard the splintering of the door behind her, then clapped both hands over her mouth. Out of her league didn't even begin to cover it, she wasn't even in the same solar system as this thing! She'd been thinking of it like a wild animal up to that point, ridiculously dangerous, but something that could be handled with tools and ingenuity. Now it was looking like the freakin' Terminator, and instead of an eighteen wheeler or a steel foundry she had running shoes and pluck.

No, no, she couldn't let herself think like that. Keep moving. If it had been sitting in a dark room, she had to assume that the darkness wasn't going to be the problem for this thing that it was for her. That meant she had to keep a wall between them as long as she could, taking a twisting path through the halls, she tried to cross over the path she'd taken to get into the infirmary a few times on the offhand chance that this thing could track by scent (because the deck wasn't stacked against her enough, right?).

She checked a few classroom doors, but they were all locked up for the night. Not that a door was going to stop this "nurse" anyway, it just meant that her options were even more limited. She needed a plan. . .she needed a destination. . .if she just kept running in circles it was only going to be a matter of time before she blundered into that bitch again. She wracked her brain, trying to think, but the fear was catching up to her, she could feel little pin-pricks as tears started to well up in her eyes. Instead of focusing on how to get away, she found herself wondering what this thing was going to do when it caught up to her.

Keep it together, dammit! she admonished herself, sniffling and scrubbing her face with the sleeve of her coveralls. She squared her jaw a bit and tried to put some steel back in her eyes, even a bad plan was better than no plan right now. Taking a few steadying breaths, she slapped her pockets until she came up with the gift card she'd used on the janitor's closet. Window. This side of the building should have decorative shrubs on the ground level, she slid the card into place and took hold of the doorknob, trying to jimmy the interior lock relatively quietly. If she could just get off this floor, hopefully she'd be long gone before the nurse realized she was gone.

The security that had been around earlier had been gone tending to their rounds no doubt though Juniper tried frantically at each classroom door she passed, jingling the handle but finding that they were locked. Somewhere in the darkness she could hear the nurse calling for her 'dearie' to come out.

She was treating this as a game, on that she had already won like someone that was playing Monopoly and owned all the properties and utilities save for perhaps those cheap purple places after go. It seemed hopeless though there was just enough of an outside chance where she might win … not.

But she recalled the shrubbery as she got out that gift card again as she approached the window hopeful that she could open it before Rena caught up to her and knew what had happened. Then she heard it, not too far off either.

No, it was not Rena and masked out all other sounds for a moment. Clearly, Rena would be attracted to the sound of the flushing toliet!

Someone was nearby in one of the bathrooms though the curfiew was in effect so it couldn't be a student, could it? Security? One of them having to answer a call of nature?

Gus, she thought. It was amazing the random bits a panicked mind could latch onto, but the snatch of conversation she heard from the guards earlier popped up unbidden. She glanced up from the door for a moment, if she could hear it this clearly that meant that the restroom wasn't far from here, she needed to make sure it wasn't on the same hall as her otherwise she might end up trapped between a rock and a hard place. She didn't stop what she was doing though, Gus didn't have anything on what she was running from.

C'MON! she threw her weight against the door causing it to rattle, but finally the card managed to slide into place, and she popped it open, Make sure to properly wash your hands, pal. she said as she pushed the door open. She didn't even pause to make sure the door closed properly behind her, focused on moving forward, she stepped into the pale light the moon cast from the outside.

Just a little closer she said, turning the tab to open the window lock and pulling it into the classroom. She clucked her tongue in irritation, doubting she'd be able to pull it closed after her. Not a clean getaway, maybe, but she'd take any getaway she could take at this juncture. She put her first leg up on the sill, hoping to hang from the ledge by her finger tips so she could reduce as much of the fall as she could before she had to take the plunge, Don't look down...this is no time for chickening out, Juni.

Gus hadn't washed his hands though she was in hurry up mod, she was trailing by 7 and there was less than 2 minutes to go in this football game as she was in hurry up mode now. She could hear the faint click of those heels as Rena was slowly closing that gap apparently she could not scent her and was taking her time looking through things in meiculus fashion.

Before she closed the door behind her she though she saw a glimpse of a human down the hall. He or she was not looking directly at her and hopefully had not seen her. A second later it flicked on a flashlight a beam of light shinning on the spot that she had just been in.

Footsteps resounded in her ears, almost stomping but not quiet. Thankfully they did not sound as if they were running but just that the owner of them had a heavy step. She leaned out the window seeing the beam of light cascading beneath the cracks of the door though she could only hope at this stage that the guard continued on, she was so close now! Not the best escape mind you but one she could deal with in the wake of what she had witnessed tonight.

“Hm,” she could hear the guard comment to something, thought that light did not receed. She could hear him on his walkie talkie talking with another guard. “Hey, you guys checked out 232 right?”

“Yeah.”

“Was their any damage to it?”

“Negative.”

“I don't know, the door looks almost as if someone but a shoulder to it, I'm checking it out.”

The delay gave her the time to act though, at least it wasn't Rena that stumbled upon her.

Juniper stretched her hands out to grab onto either end of the window as she put her other foot through, resting the inside of her knee against the window ledge. They made windows narrower these days specifically to prevent idiots from doing what she was up to, it wasn't a snug fit exactly, but it was definitely awkward. She bit her bottom lip as she heard Gus talking with his dispatcher, immediately forming a rather low opinion of the man. From the heavy clomping steps of his feet on the floor and the speed with which he'd exited the bathroom, the guy came across as a gross and overweight man. These were the people she was supposed to trust her safety to? Ha!

She pushed her legs out the window until her hips rested on the ledge, and then she rolled herself over to reorient for the hang. As she turned over though, her hips slid off the edge as she was shifting her grip on the window and she started an uncontrolled fall. She gave a short shriek as she flailed, her legs banged against the wall and her knuckles of one hand turned white as she tried to stop her movement reflexively. She managed to bring herself to a halt as the window ledge dug into her ribs, pressing her modest bust up as she tried to get her other hand back to the windowsill

"Holy shit . . ." she said breathlessly, looking down reflexively, she could feel her gorge raise. Then she heard the door open, and her head turned back up to look into the doorway before she closed her eyes "Fuck it" and then she let go, falling back into the night, trying to go limp so that her body would best cushion her fall.

Her body fell a short time before the door had been cast opened. She could look up seeing the beam of light from the flashlight spilling out of the window and dweeping from side to side. Her body dropped from the lower ledge, seeking injury over being aught here. If there was a cover up there was no telling what the guards would do with her. Would it be just as bad as if the nurse caught her? Would they have turned her over to her for whatever reason?

She considered from her place on the ground fortunately the bed of flowers here broke her fall a little though she was looking up as Gus peeked out the window looking down at her.

The image did not exactly match up to her mental image but was pretty close. He wasn't enormous but it was clear that he had a few exta pounds to shed. He was bald with a brown goatee and brown eyes.

“Hey you! Shit! Wait right there!” And he disappeared from the window probably to take the stairs down.

Closing her eyes had helped a little bit, without looking up at the wall she didn't try to guage how long until she hit the ground. Head held forward and arms spread out to increase the area of impact, she was still loose when her body hit the tangle of branches and leaves at the ground floor. That said, it wasn't as if she landed gently, landing pressed all the air out of her lungs and as she lay among the broken brush she could feel the jagged edges of branches poking her. Lights were still dancing in her eyes when Gus put his round face out of the window and shone a light a light down at her. He even had the good grace to look concerned, though whether for her health or his job security was up for debate.

“Hey you! Shit! Wait right there!”

"Ha, yeah, right. . ." Juniper muttered to herself, raising one hand to give Gus a weak middle finger, though she thought that he might have missed it in his hurry to get to the stairs. "C'mon girl. . .that thing could take a fall like that as if she was stepping off a curb, this is no time to lounge around. . ."

She rolled over gingerly, it didn't feel like anything was broken, luckily enough. She was going to be looking at some bruises in the morning though. She threw her legs over one side of the bush and put her weight on 'em, immediately stumbling and dropping to one knee

"NNGH!" that wasn't good, she pressed a hand to her knee and straightened it out with a grimace, getting upright again. It was working at least, but it hurt like hell. Twisted, maybe? Well, she sure as hell wasn't going to get it looked at under the circumstances. What would coach say?

"Walk it off, ya pussy." she grunted, forcing herself to take a step. "Damn right that's what he'd say." she took another step. She had a bit of a limp, but she could keep going. She tried to pick up the pace, had to get away from here, find some place to ditch the monkey suit so she could circle around back to the dorms. She could self medicate when she was safe, for now, she just had to keep going.

Gus had disappeared back inside as Juniper did her fine salute to him, as if she were going to stay but. It was dark and she was some distance from him so maybe he didn't make out all the details of her visage. She could only hope as she struggled to her feet and eventually got herself into motion after a false start there.

He was running down the hall towards the stairs, Rena who had heard the toliet flush earlier had been coming this way and saw the security guard well before he saw her and thus when he finally saw her she had looked like a human again.

“One of the students have been injured.”

Bring me to her.

And Gus was leading the way down the stairs though by the time the two were outside there was only a broken flower bed. The light of the flash light danced around as Gus looked.

“Shit! She was just here.”

She could not have gotten far ...

“If I find her, can I have her Mistress?”

Rena looked at her pet. She thought quickly. Contact the others, if you find her you may get the scraps.

“Yes Mistress.”

He got on his walkie talkie communicating to the others as Rena caressed the side of his face afterwards. He had been a replace, Thomas had passed with a fluke heart attack so she had not gotten to him just yet, well not all of the way yet.

She grabbed him by the back of his head, kissed him full on the lips as his eyes rolled back in his head as the slug slithered into his mouth. That made three, that's all she needed for his mind was now hers. Not just that but she could tap into his senses now as if they were her own. She drew away from him, smiled.

Find her.

“Yes, Mistress.”

"Hahn..." say what one would about Rena, she could judge an injury, "...Hahn..." Juniper had gotten up to a decent hobble at first, but each time she put pressure on the leg it hurt worse than the last time "...Hahn..." just keeping from crying out was starting to tax her willpower, beads of sweat dripping off of her forehead in the humid tropical air, "...Hahn..."

She'd been circling around, trying to make her way around to the side of the school that bordered the gymnasium. She'd hoped to ditch the jumpsuit in the trashcan by the lockers at first, now, now she just desperately wanted to run her head under the water fountain for a minute. "SSSsssssss" she winced as she took another step, and came to a stop. She was wondering if she'd even make it that far at her current pace.

She let herself fall against the exterior wall of the school, taking the weight off her leg. It was just for a minute, she told herself, just a moment to steel her nerves. She took a deep breath of stale, warm air, and let it out. Better than the heavy scent of disinfectant for sure. She unzipped the top of the coverall and sighed as the breeze off the sea hit her sweating body. That was better, at least. She dug the camera out of the inside pocket she'd put it in and hung it around her neck, tying the arms of the jumpsuit around her waist. The thin white gym shirt had soaked through with sweat from the mix of fear, exertion, and pain, but the same breeze that kept it clinging to her frame also cooled it.

She was busy massaging her tender knee with deep, rhythmic presses of her thumbs when she noticed the exterior door up ahead open up, disgorging about a half dozen more security guards with flashlights, they were spreading out but keeping close enough to see one another, an obvious search pattern. They were probably looking all over the school, damn, this was the kind of manhunt she expected them to send out for escaped killers, not curious students. Someone wanted to keep their pet monster a secret. . .she wondered if the guards were armed. For a grim moment, she wondered if taking a bullet would be better than being caught out.

"Keep moving." she muttered, pushing off of the wall again, and testing the knee after her ministrations, "Figure it out as you go. Equipment shed. . .stay out of the light." she looked up at the sky. "Hey, ya know, I'd love to cash in that good deed earlier for some cloud cover, if anyone's listening up there." she said with a smirk. Had to keep her spirits up, talk trash, tell jokes, anything to keep her fired up. If she could get around behind the equipment shed, maybe, maybe she could climb up to the roof. It was the safest place she could think to lay low for a bit until the guards moved on.

The ifs and maybes are really starting to pile up, aren't they? she thought.

Ironically it would rain that night but that was about twenty minutes too late before these events played out. Security was looking for her in force now, this had gone from bad to worse, and she had dreaded the thoughts that they might be armed too, she had not gotten a good look at the security and she had never seen them out in the day, only at night looking for curfew violators like here.

Rena was still out there somewhere she thought as she forced herself up and moved to the storage shed hoping to get there before the guards had discovered her. She was almost there when she was seen – fortunely it was not by one ot the guards but rather a short girl – nay young woman, she had to be a student, with red pig tails and goggles smeared with grease on her arms and face. The goggles where atop her head but must have been worn recently for there were no grease stains around her eyes, just big circles.

Surprised her green eyes went wide though now she heard the ruckus, search here, the grid clear … she knew what the fuss was, well kind of. Normally they weren't out with this so much force so she had to have done something deserving of all this attention.

She did not know that Juniper was planning to climb up on the roof, she just grabbed the girl's forearm, yanked her inside the shed and quickly closed the door behind her.

“Quick!” The girl rushed to the back of the shed.

Juniper tensed as the smaller girl grabbed hold of her forearm, she'd never been the sort to put blind trust in strangers after all, and she was already having a hell of a night. That said, with the devil she knew snapping hungrily at her heels, the devil she didn't was looking pretty good. She tried to say something like a greeting at least, give the illusion of being a civilized being, but all that came out was another gasp for air as she was pulled inside the shed.

"Quick," she said, casting a glance around the shed, "right. Easy."

She grabbed hold of whatever was nearby with her hands, pulling herself along as she half-hobbled half-hopped after the girl, not wanting to lose sight of her mysterious benefactor. She saw the light of a flashlight pass over one of the upper windows of the shed, casting shadows among the roof supports as she was moving. Whatever was ahead had to be better than the last stand she'd been en route for a moment ago.

Heh, "last stand". She was having trouble just moving, and she really thought she was going to fight a bunch of guys with the height, weight, reach, and experience edge? She wondered if she was a little delirious, or if she was just that determined to at least go down swinging.

The girl hurrried through the dark shed, the smellof grease was strong here, probably better than the disinefectant of the infirmary but not by much. Shadows danced over head as beams of light slashed across the upper windows.

The stuend got to the back of the shed, they were trapped as there was mothing here, no other way of and the guards closing in outside. If anyone came in here, and that was likely, they would be caught.

The student stomped on a section of floor and a panel flipped open as a traip door had sprung open. One that the original builders of this place had not been here. To date no one else saw this place, and no one would have had but this was sort of an emercangy. It had taken the better part of two years to construct but it was ideal since it was hidden, no one knew about save for herself until now and was close to the supplies she needed. There was even a fake pad lock on the door a replacement to the one she broke so the door looked locked then it was closed, of course if the door was checked it was opened. When she wasn't in here she had the actual lock on the door, when she was though she rigged up her fake pad lock method though the door is actually unlocked then as it was now.

“Quick!” She ushered her down into the trap dood and then followed closing the door behind her. Inside was one large room where she had collected some things in her time here, the walls litered with all sorts of blue prints and another wall had hideous drawings of monsterous entities on it.

“Alright, we should be safe in here until things die down.” She sighed sitting on the floor since there was nothing to sit on down her that wouldn't have been missed. “I'm Gigi by the way. Gigi Adams.”

Sure, Juni, jump blindly down the hole, what's the worse that could happen? that niggling voice from before echoed in the back of her head as the red haired woman ushered her through the well-concealed trap door. Swallowing, hearing the guards getting closer, she did that very thing though, falling through the well dug hole and then rolling to one side to clear the way for the other girl.

She rested her back against the wall, sprawling her legs out to the side as she tried to catch her breath. Her half-lidded eyes slowly made a circuit around the room as the pig-tailed girl closed the door behind them and secured it. The engineering was well beyond her, it just looked like white scribbles on a blue background to her, but her eyes lingered on the other shapes. Fangs, claws, tentacles...worse, monsters.

"Gigi. . ." she said, swallowing another breath with a smirk, "I think that's the most beautiful name I've ever heard." she said, dropping her head back to rest against the wall, "I'm Juniper . . . Juniper Modnar. Freshman."

She raised an arm to indicate the wall of creatures, "There's. . .there's more of those things!?"