[Win – 6:03 p.m.]
The sun begins to dip behind the shattered school walls.
And we're still fighting.
Our weapons are dull.
Our hands are blistered.
Every breath feels like sand in our lungs.
A Locust leaps toward Palm—
He ducks just in time.
Kao cuts it mid-air.
CRACK.
It twitches. Doesn't move.
That's the fifth one she's killed this hour.
She hasn't spoken a word since 4 p.m.
[6:06 p.m.]
Namtan screams in the corner, slashing wildly.
"Make them STOP!"
Jack pulls her back, panting. "They're not human! They don't die!"
Dean snaps another one's spine with bare hands.
No emotion. No comment.
Just… execution.
Best is bleeding from the arm. Emily's out of bandages. FahFah has a limp now.
Lin—
Lin nearly collapses after one swing.
She grabs a pipe for balance, chest heaving.
Her vision blurs.
Her neck is burning.
"Not now,"
she whispers.
"Don't show it now."
[6:10 p.m.]
We're cornered.
Every wall has more Locusts.
They skitter across the ceiling beams above the roof door.
They crawl on the generator.
They twist and twitch, stalking from shadows.
We try to form a circle — a last stand.
Palm presses his back to mine.
"I'm out of tricks,"
he mutters.
"Me too,"
I say, gripping my chipped blade.
[6:12 p.m.]
Another surge.
Four Locusts jump in unison.
Dean takes two down instantly.
Palm takes a cut to the shoulder.
Lin collapses—
FahFah catches her, barely.
"She's burning up!"
FahFah yells.
I run toward them—
but Jack yells,
"WIN, LOOK!"
I turn—
And just like that—
They stop.
[6:13 p.m.]
Every Locust freezes mid-motion.
One has its hand raised, twitching.
Another's crouched, limbs flexing to pounce.
Then—
SKRRCH.
They all turn away.
Crawling backward.
Retreating.
[6:14 p.m.]
"What the hell…"
Palm breathes.
Best lowers his weapon slowly.
"Is this a trap?"
Jack shakes his head.
"They're leaving."
We stand there, dripping in blood and dirt and sweat—
Watching them crawl back down the school's outer walls.
Back to wherever they came from.
No noise.
No reason.
No answer.
[6:16 p.m.]
Dean walks to the edge of the rooftop and watches them vanish into the darkness below.
He turns to us.
His voice is quiet. Hollow.
"They retreat at night."
"Because something worse wakes up."
Nobody moves.
Even Lin, burning with fever, stays silent.
We watch the sun vanish beyond the school gates.
And the world becomes darker than it's ever been.
___________________________