A few months later...
"Exceptionally, as you know, classes will end early today..." said Ms. Labelle, standing in front of the blackboard. She was wearing her usual blue suit, which hugged her young, curvaceous body. Her stern gaze was not hidden in the slightest by her glasses, and her face was framed by brown hair that fell in curls.
She was the archetypal strict young teacher, and with her beauty, she was the fantasy of many of her students, and even some of the parents...
And in front of her, a multitude of young minds made up entirely of high school students sat at their desks, but at least half of the seats were empty. Not everyone was there. Those who lived far away had been given permission to leave early today to make sure they got home in time for the evening, and many students hadn't been there today or even all week.
"I'm not allowed to give you homework for tomorrow, or even give you a test..." she said, grimacing...
"Who knows what the government is thinking..." she muttered under her breath.
Some students, the kind who weren't interested in anything more than themselves, their popularity, and their hormones, were content to smile at each other.
They had no idea why the government was so interested in tonight's news flash, but right now, it suited them just fine. It might be the only good thing to come out of this week, if you believed the media's alarmist predictions...
But they were the only ones. The rest of the teenagers who weren't idiots and the rest of the population didn't agree...
"Amen!" exclaimed the blond high school student at the back of the class, a big smile on his lips.
"Silence, Mr. Moure!" yelled the teacher, his high-pitched voice echoing among the laughter of his students.
"Just because I can't give you detention today doesn't mean I won't do it later... Don't tempt me, Mr. Moure..."
The teenager continued to smile foolishly, accompanied by the laughter of his group, but he was smart enough to nod his head and say nothing.
She turned her gaze back to the young minds in front of her, engaged in hushed conversations, their smiles still childish, their laughter joyful, but also the many with serious faces, anxious and frightened, like deer caught in the headlights at night, a model copied from their parents.
The teacher couldn't help thinking that she was facing a generation that would surely inherit one of the worst and last legacies of human history.
"Whether it's climate problems, dwindling resources, and more recently... things that shouldn't exist...")' She sighed, pushing up her glasses and looking at what might be the last of humanity, before shaking her head.
Her voice rang out:
"I still advise you to review the integrals and do the exercises on pages 101 to 102..."
The students sighed at the teacher's determination to ruin their unexpected half-day vacation...
"You may go now..."
They wasted no time gathering their things and leaving the classroom.
"HAHA! Wanna go to the Appolo Club?"
"All the clubs and stores are closed, idiot!"
In the commotion, a young girl also put her pencil case and books in her backpack and left the classroom.
All the students and teachers were leaving the school. Normally, the staff had to stay longer for the quarterly review, cleaning, and closing up, but not tonight.
Madison left the large high school building, walked a few steps, and sat down on the steps.
She looked up at the clear blue sky, accompanied as usual by her white spots and his lifelong 50/50 companion intermittently: the big yellow ball that gently warmed her skin.
Sitting there, stretched out quietly, the young girl's attention was elsewhere, returning only occasionally to smile and wish a good evening to the students who greeted her.
She took her phone out of her pocket.
'(5:42 p.m., so there's about an hour and 20 minutes left...)' The young girl wondered how many people in the country were counting the seconds.
'(I wonder...)' She wasn't the only one wondering.
The official announcement had been made earlier that week, with no further information about the content of the special edition other than that it was related to...
'(Monarch...)' The department behind the Titans, the one that had been kept secret from the public for nearly 60 years, the one where her mother worked, and would surely have continued to do so if that day had not come, the G-...
"Hi Madisson."
Madisson turned toward the voice and was greeted by the sight of a girl with blonde hair framing her face and freckles on her cheeks, just below her round glasses that didn't hide her clear eyes. She was quite small compared to other teenagers her age.
"Hello Sophie."
The girl smiled and approached Madisson.
"I just came to say goodbye..." she said softly, sitting down on the steps.
"Your father is determined, isn't he...?" Madisson already knew about Sophie and her family's plans.
Sophie nodded slowly.
"If the airports hadn't been closed, we would have already left the country..." the girl continued in a low voice.
"Hmm..." was all Madisson replied to her friend beside her.
"If the flights don't resume, my father knows some people..."
"He's called a smuggler..." she continued very quietly, in a voice only audible to the person on her left.
Madisson turned to her friend.
"But..." said Sophie, without finishing.
Madisson saw the tension deeply hidden in the girl's eyes.
"And... how are you going to travel?"
"Flying isn't possible, so we'll have to go by sea..." replied Sophie in a low voice.
Madisson said nothing for a few seconds.
"That sounds... dangerous."
"Not as dangerous as the Titans are for my father," Sophie replied simply.
"And where will you be going?" Madisson asked.
"The bunker is somewhere in Ireland, my..." The word stuck in her throat, as if she was hesitating to obey someone else's orders.
"My father... forbade me to tell the exact location to anyone..." Sophie said softly, looking a little uncomfortable at her friend.
Madisson watched Sophie's behavior before placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm going to miss you, Sophie..." she said, smiling simply.
The brunette with glasses smiled back and laughed.
Before her laughter died away in her throat, her voice became serious and grave.
"Maddie..."
"I don't want to reopen old wounds..." " she said, stammering quickly,
"But I know you were there..." Madisson looked at the blonde, who was squirming slightly in her seat.
"But just... How was it?" Sophie continued
"That day..." her voice becoming calmer
The place was noisy, but a strange moment of silence followed her words.
Sophie felt the arm still resting on her shoulder go weak, lose its strength, and go limp.
"You know, we were so unaware of what was sleeping beneath our feet," she began softly, scenes of chaos and emotions flashing through her eyes.
Most of the students around them had already left, only a few remained, chatting and hanging around.
"You know, from a human perspective, we didn't bother to proudly declare that we were at the top, we just knew we were, at least on this planet and outside of religious thought, it was an unconscious certainty..." A sound escaped his throat, a small laugh that sounded hollow. The teenager's light brown irises had a bitter hue, and the rest of her body shared the same state as her arm.
The slightest energy, spark, had just disappeared.
"Sophie..." in a weak voice
"We built the illusion of a stable world..."
"And nature, through its most ancient creation, swept it away without even a glance at us."
The girl's words were strangely profound. Few people have such clarity, and even fewer have it as teenagers.
"And suddenly, the mirage shattered," she said.
"Man didn't just cry. He just stopped standing."
It was an unintended wisdom, born with a price.
'(The Titans...)' Madisson plunged into her many thoughts and memories.
Before their public revelation, a few rare individuals knew of their existence, even her parents, but for the rest of humanity, it was a rude awakening.
Even though it had happened in a single city, San Francisco is a large metropolis, but it is still just one city among thousands around the world.
And this city was home to only 10 million people, at least half of whom survived, a staggering number, but from a broader perspective, it was a drop in the ocean.
And this toll of civilian losses was nothing compared to the phenomenal number of deaths that Man had caused in his wars since the dawn of time.
His own battles must have claimed at least a billion lives.
But this was something else, something he couldn't fight or resist.
UNESCO classifies all Titan attacks as natural disasters. They happen, you have no control over them, and the best thing to do is pray that they pass without taking you with them.
The blonde watched her friend, who was lost in thought, staring into space.
His words still ringing in her ears, she asked no more questions.
The two girls sat side by side in silence.
Time passed
And one of them stood up
"Well, I have to go. I shouldn't even be in class, but I begged my dad to let me come and say goodbye. He told me to come straight home after school," said the blonde softly.
"I'm going to miss you, Sophie." Madisson looked at one of her few friends for the last time.
Sophie smiled at her and went down the stairs, leaving.
But she took a few steps before turning slightly and looking at Madisson with an unreadable expression.
"Madie..." she said softly, deliberately in a low voice.
"If you and your mom need it," her voice was serious, grave.
"You'll find friends in Norway, on a small island called Utøya." Sophie gave her a deep, meaningful look, emphasizing the word "friends."
The brunette, sitting on the steps, returned her gaze.
And after a few seconds, she nodded silently.
Madisson watched Sophie leave without looking back...
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