The Degenerates - Under Edit

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Neijla Woods tugged the earphones out of her ears quickly as the gleam of white and blue shone through the leaves of the bushes. He used the 'Welcome' sign as protection.

Alsbury.

She kept her eyes on the road and ignored the stationary patrol car as if she had never committed an offence in her life. Innocence. Purity. A new beginning. In two miles, she would be starting again, fresh and clean and then she would have never committed a driving offence in her life.

The bleak town of Alsbury came into view, surrounded by a thriving forest and thick shrubbery, however murky and wet thanks to a heavy bucket of rain earlier this morning. As soon as she made her way inland about two hours from home, the weather took a turn for severely overcast and 8 degrees colder. Goosebumps rose on her arms under her jacket, the cold weather penetrating the glass and onto her skin. She reached over to the heater dial under the radio, and turned the fan up to the next setting; the strongest it could go.

Rows of federation style houses lined both sides of the streets until Neijla reached what may be the centre of the town. A strip of shops emerged, but dropped off on one side as the ground fell away behind a steep hill, leaving her to imagine there was a large ditch, or maybe a creek, below.

Neijla drove slowly through the main strip, eyeing the features of the small neighbourhood, and eventually the main street broke off into branches of streets off further and deeper into thicker land, grass and trees. She followed the road, which took her up another small hill, and over the other side emerged the university campus.

The suburban nature of Alsbury stayed camped behind the hill, and the full extent of the campus stretched on for a large section of land which lay pocketed by mossy trees and bush that eventually broke off into long, wide forest.

The main road ended once it reached the entrance of the campus, splitting off into three distinct, initial pathways.

Neijla slowed the vehicle, and fumbled for her phone, which was tangled amongst the charger cable and the unused earphones. She pulled up the map the school had emailed to her upon enrolling and craned her neck search for the sign which indicated her new home.

She was in block C, and after rolling slowly forward and to the left, saw a bricked building with a large, metal sign stating 'A'. She learned she had a designated car spot, so she continued to crawl along behind the cuboidal buildings in search of block C, and quickly moved her vehicle into the only vacant spot, spray painted number 41; her own.

Finally turning off the car, Neijla frowned at the thought of leaving the warm inside, but she gathered her paperwork and slung her bag over her shoulder as bits of cracked, faded brown leather tumbled down her arm from overuse.

Before Neijla could open the door, her phone began to vibrate. She bit her bottom lip, which had ulcered over the past week from consistently biting the same spot, and declined her mother's call.

Neijla stepped out of her car, bracing for the icy air, which hit her like a slap. She couldn't help but wonder what creatures of the night could easily climb through the lousy barbed wire that fenced off the stretch of forest from the small carpark.

Neijla came from a suburban town that favoured warm weather and bordered a lake, which the locals used as a spot for family barbeques in the day, and frequent, drunken bonfires by night. The suburb was mostly surrounded by houses rather than bushland, and she hadn't necessarily been exposed to the mountainous terrain that surrounded Alsbury.

Neijla crossed her arms across her chest and hurried around the side of the building to the front, hoping the front door was close by. Her fingers ached already from the cold, and she tucked them under her tight elbows. A wide, thick glass door came into view on the side of the building, and another 'Block C' plaque was plastered onto the front.