Night had long fallen over the high school.
Outside, the wind had picked up, carrying with it the metallic scent of the approaching rain.
No one was really asleep.
Some students lay on the desks, others whispered quietly, their eyes glued to their phones — still with no signal.
The teacher sat near the door, half-asleep, half on alert.
A sudden noise made everyone jump.
A deep rumble, distant but getting closer.
Max lifted his head.
— "Listen…"
Outside, above the school, a beam of light swept across the courtyard. Then another.
The low droning became louder, clearer.
A military helicopter was flying over the island, slowly, as if searching for something.
Some students rushed to the windows.
The blades made the glass vibrate. They could barely make out the dark silhouette of the aircraft in the sky.
— "Why is it flying over here?" Lara asked, her voice trembling.
— "Maybe they're watching the area," Jack-Antoine replied.
— "Or looking for someone," added Amalia.
The teacher quickly intervened.
— "Stay calm. It's probably just patrols. The army's taking over, that's all."
But no one really believed him.
The helicopters kept circling above the school for most of the night.
Sometimes, far away, they could hear muffled gunshots, faint and scattered, carried away by the wind.
Around midnight, Max quietly got up. He couldn't sleep.
The sound of the rotors still echoed in his head. He needed to move, to breathe.
He opened the door silently.
The flickering neon light buzzed above him, and his footsteps echoed softly on the tiled floor.
Everything seemed frozen.
The classrooms were dark. He passed by the main office. On a table, a small radio was crackling, left on.
A distorted voice came through in fragments:
"…keep the doors locked… avoid contact with the… infected… evacuation suspended until further notice…"
Max froze.
He leaned closer, but the transmission cut off abruptly in a burst of static.
A chill ran down his spine.
— "What does that mean… 'infected'?"
A sound of footsteps behind him made him flinch. He turned around.
Two silhouettes were walking toward him, phone lights in hand.
— "Max?!"
It was Anthony, followed by Rehann.
— "Holy shit, man, you're alive!" Anthony said, grabbing his shoulder.
— "Where were you?" Max asked, relieved.
— "In room A11," Rehann replied. "They kept us there until a while ago. We heard gunshots outside. Cops were shouting like crazy."
They sat down on a bench in the corridor, hidden from the teachers' view.
Silence hung between them for a few seconds before Anthony spoke again.
— "You know what they're saying?"
— "What?"
— "That people are attacking each other. There are videos online, but they disappear right away. The government's blocking everything."
— "Yeah," said Max. "I heard the radio. They mentioned 'infected.'"
Rehann shook his head.
— "Then it's not just some normal virus."
No one said a word.
Outside, the helicopter noise was fading, but its white light still swept across the city.
Max looked at his friends.
Their faces were drawn, eyes hollow.
They were trying to act calm, but each of them could feel that quiet dread tightening around them.
— "You noticed?" Max murmured.
— "What?" asked Anthony.
— "The silence. You can't hear the city anymore. No cars, no voices. Just the wind… and the helicopters."
They listened for a moment.
He was right. Everything felt… paused.
The world outside had gone still.
Rehann stood up.
— "I'll go check if anyone's still awake in the other rooms. Maybe the teachers know something."
Max hesitated.
— "I'll come with you."
They walked down the hallway, phone lights cutting through the darkness.
The doors were locked, classrooms pitch-black.
Behind some of them, they could make out sleeping shapes — teachers sitting against the wall, makeshift beds made of foil blankets.
Anthony joined them farther down.
— "Nothing on my side either."
A sudden noise made them stop.
A sharp crack, close by.
They froze.
The neon light at the end of the corridor flickered, revealing for a split second a shifting shadow turning the corner.
Max's pulse quickened.
— "You saw that?" whispered Rehann.
— "Yeah."
They stepped forward cautiously.
But when they turned the corner — nothing. Just a door slightly open, leading to the courtyard.
Anthony exhaled.
— "Probably the wind…"
Max wasn't so sure.
Something had moved. He was certain of it.
They shut the door and walked back faster this time, their flashlight beams trembling.
That night, no one spoke again.
The helicopters circled the island until dawn.
And in the dead silence of the sleeping school, Max knew — the world outside was already starting to fall apart.
He could feel it deep inside him.
The calm was just an illusion.
The storm was coming.
The sun had risen over the high school.
The heat — heavy even in the early hours — shimmered above the concrete.
The palm trees in the courtyard swayed lazily in the damp wind drifting in from the sea.
It could've been an ordinary morning… if everything hadn't been so silent.
The helicopters had stopped circling around four in the morning, but no one had really slept.
Max opened his eyes, lying on a table in the library. The shutters were half-open, letting in a blinding white light.
Next to him, Anthony was still snoring, his head resting on his backpack, while Rehann stared at his phone — still no signal.
— "Still nothing?" Max asked in a tired voice.
— "Nothing," Rehann replied. "Even the school's Wi-Fi went down last night."
Anthony sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes.
— "Pretty sure I slept, like, two hours… It's already morning?"
— "Yeah," said Max. "And from the sound of it, things outside aren't getting any better."
From the courtyard came the sound of shouting — parents had returned to the gate, screaming their children's names despite police warnings.
Teachers were trying to calm them, but the tension was building fast.
Some parents forced their way through the gate to grab their kids. Within minutes, half the students were gone.
Max watched the scene from the window.
— "They don't care about the curfew," he murmured.
— "It's panic," Anthony said. "If my mom could, she'd probably be here too."
— "Yeah, except the ones leaving now… they don't even know what's out there," Rehann added quietly.
Little by little, the courtyard emptied. Only a handful of students remained — the ones whose parents lived too far or hadn't called.
The quiet that followed felt heavy, unnatural.
Max sighed.
— "We can't just sit here doing nothing. We should at least find the others."
Anthony looked up.
— "You mean the BVC?"
— "Yeah."
— "I thought they already left."
— "Maybe not all of them. Rosenel, Matheo, Cedrick… knowing them, they're probably hiding somewhere near the science rooms or the Carbets."
Rehann grabbed his power bank and pocketed his phone.
— "Then let's go. We find them, and we check if the school's still safe. Because if it's not, we need a plan."
They went down the stairs. The sunlight hit hard in the courtyard, the air almost suffocating.
The windows of the administrative building gleamed under the morning light, and a few police officers still stood by the gate, talking in low voices.
As they crossed the yard, Max noticed the traces left from the day before: a strip of yellow tape near the fence, scattered papers, crushed water bottles.
Everything looked calm — too calm — and yet deeply wrong.
— "You notice," said Rehann, "the cops don't look like they're leaving anytime soon."
— "Makes sense," Anthony replied. "They're making sure we stay in."
— "Or making sure we don't get out," Max muttered.
The classrooms were open, fans still, club posters peeling from the walls under the humidity.
A faint smell of dust and disinfectant hung in the air.
— "I think I hear something," Anthony said, pointing toward the far hallway.
They moved carefully.
Behind a half-open door, voices whispered.
Max knocked softly, then pushed it open.
— "Rosenel?"
A familiar face appeared instantly.
— "Max?! Dude, I thought you guys left!"
Inside, a few members of the BVC were gathered — Rosenel, Matheo, Cedrick, Ian, and Nathan.
They had rearranged the desks to make a small base: water bottles, backpacks, and a phone plugged into an extension cord.
— "You slept here?" asked Rehann.
— "Yeah," Rosenel replied. "Didn't wanna move around. It was chaos last night."
Cedrick, leaning by the window, pointed toward the flashing lights still visible in the distance.
— "Looks like the lockdown's official. I caught part of a radio message this morning: 'Do not leave your current shelter, stay inside, don't believe the rumors.'"
Anthony frowned.
— "Rumors? What rumors?"
— "People going crazy. Attacking others," said Matheo. "Like… you know, that show—"
— "What show?" Max asked.
— "C'mon, that zombie series you always used to watch!"
— "Ah— The Walking Dead?"
— "Yeah, yeah, that one," Matheo nodded.
A nervous laugh rippled through the group.
— "Right," Anthony said. "And tomorrow we'll have dragons in the courtyard."
— "You're joking, but what if it's true?" Max said seriously. "We saw someone get shot yesterday. And he was still moving."
Silence.
No one dared to speak.
Finally, Rosenel broke it.
— "Real or not, we should check if this school's actually safe. The gates, the windows, everything. If we're stuck here, we need to know the weak spots."
The others nodded.
They grabbed their phones and began inspecting the campus.
The main gate, the parking entrance, the windows of the tech building — all secure.
But near the gym, they found a rusted, broken fence.
— "If anyone wanted to get in," Anthony said, "it'd be through here."
— "Then we block it," Max replied. "Pile up some tables in front."
They did just that. The sound of chairs scraping echoed through the empty hallways.
When it was done, silence returned — thick, unsettling.
Max wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked out at the sunlit courtyard.
The hot wind drifted lazily through the gates. The city beyond was still — no cars, no voices, no movement.
— "Don't you think it's too quiet?" Rehann murmured.
— "Yeah…" Max answered.
He fixed his gaze on the horizon.
— "Too quiet for the morning after the end of the world."