Chapter 68
"Disaster of Sorrow"
They had remained on the rooftop until evening, desperately waiting for the rescue team that had been sent to save them.
But the weather had already begun to deteriorate across the surrounding regions.
Since morning, violent rainstorms and powerful winds had swept through different areas. The rescue teams that had been deployed under Mission Survival were eventually ordered to turn back on the Army Chief's command. The weather had become far too dangerous for the operation to continue.
And so, as the hours passed, the survivors' last hope of being rescued that day slowly faded.
By five in the evening, the sky had already begun to resemble night.
Thick, black clouds had swallowed the heavens, turning the world beneath them strangely dark. The daylight disappeared behind the enormous storm clouds, while distant thunder rolled across the sky like the growl of something enormous awakening in the darkness.
Then the storm reached the school.
Rain began crashing against the rooftop with tremendous force. The wind howled violently around the building, shaking whatever remained loose on the roof.
Realizing that remaining outside was no longer safe, everyone hurried back inside.
They entered the old storage room and locked the door firmly from the inside.
For the first time in three days, they had somewhere they could close themselves off from the outside world.
But none of them truly felt safe.
---
It was nine o'clock at night.
Inside the storage room, nineteen survivors were scattered around the cramped space.
Some sat with their backs pressed tightly against the walls, their knees drawn toward their chests. Others had spread old sheets across the dusty floor and were lying upon them, trying to find even a few moments of rest.
Hasnain, Ghani, and Saad sat together in one corner, their backs against the wall.
On the left side of the room sat Michael, Jack, Jason, William, Mary, and Jackson.
In another corner, Miss Selena, Lina, Sana, and Afra sat close together.
John, Jacob, and Mr. Simit had managed to find a small patch of floor where they could lie down on the old sheets.
No one was talking.
No one had the strength for conversation.
Outside the storage room, the storm raged without mercy.
Rain hammered against the school building while lightning repeatedly illuminated the darkness beyond the windows. Thunder followed almost immediately afterward, shaking the walls with every deafening roar.
The wind screamed through the corridors like a living creature.
It was so loud that even the familiar growls of the zombies throughout the school had completely disappeared beneath the storm.
And strangely enough...
That terrible storm brought an unexpected peace to the storage room.
For three days, these people had lived with fear, exhaustion, death, and the constant threat of being attacked.
Now, for the first time, the storm outside had drowned out the sounds of danger.
Inside the little storage room, there was silence.
A fragile, temporary peace.
Most of them slowly drifted into sleep.
But even while their bodies rested, their hearts remained burdened by memories that refused to disappear.
For some, tonight's sleep was the first peaceful sleep they had experienced in days.
For others...
It was impossible to sleep peacefully at all.
---
Jinjin sat quietly in one corner beside Saim.
Her head rested gently against his shoulder.
She appeared to be asleep.
But even in her sleep, tears were silently slipping from the corners of her closed eyes.
Her breathing was uneven.
Her face occasionally tightened as though she were trapped inside a terrible dream.
In her mind, the same memories kept returning.
Adam.
She saw him again.
She saw the moment when he became a zombie.
She saw the helplessness in front of her eyes.
And then another memory appeared.
Her brother.
The moment she had watched him turn into a zombie remained deeply engraved in her heart.
Even in sleep, Jinjin could not escape it.
A faint tremor passed through her body.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
She blamed herself.
Somewhere deep inside, a painful thought had begun to consume her.
Adam became a zombie because of me.
My brother became a zombie because of me.
The more she thought about it, the heavier the guilt became.
She had survived...
But the people she loved had not.
And somehow, surviving felt almost like a punishment.
Yet the truth was different.
None of it had truly been her fault.
Sometimes, life placed people in situations where no choice could change the outcome.
And no matter how desperately a person wished to save someone, there were moments when fate simply could not be changed.
Every human being, sooner or later, had to leave this world.
The hardest part was not always death itself.
Sometimes, the hardest part was learning to live with the memories of those who were gone.
Jinjin's tears continued to fall silently as the storm raged outside.
---
A few meters away, Michael was awake.
His eyes were fixed on the dark ceiling.
He couldn't sleep.
His mind was filled with memories of his girlfriend.
Every time he closed his eyes, memories of her returned.
Her face.
Her voice.
The moments they had shared.
And then came the painful realization that he would never see her again.
His jaw tightened.
His hands slowly curled into fists.
His grief gradually turned into anger.
And with every passing moment, that anger seemed to strengthen his hatred toward Hasnain.
Michael remained silent.
But the hatred burning inside him was becoming harder to control.
---
On the opposite side of the room, Hasnain sat quietly with Ghani and Saad.
None of them spoke.
Their eyes were red from exhaustion and grief.
Their thoughts kept returning to the same person.
Burak.
Their friend.
Their brother in everything but blood.
The one who had given his life so that they could survive.
Hasnain lowered his head.
For a long moment, he simply stared at the floor.
Ghani sat beside him with his arms wrapped around his knees, his expression empty.
Saad's eyes remained closed, but the sadness on his face revealed that he wasn't sleeping.
And Saim...
Saim looked completely broken.
No matter how hard they tried, they could not push Burak out of their minds.
His memory remained among them.
In every silence.
In every empty space.
In every breath.
He had sacrificed himself so that his friends could continue living.
And that sacrifice had left a wound that the passage of time could not immediately heal.
The peaceful air inside the storage room could not erase their sorrow.
It could not bring Adam back.
It could not bring Burak back.
It could not undo what had happened to Jinjin's brother.
And it certainly could not erase the memories of the people they had lost.
Outside, the storm continued to rage.
Lightning flashed across the sky.
Thunder shook the school.
Rain poured endlessly against the windows.
It was as though the entire world was mourning with them.
The storm outside seemed to echo the storm inside their hearts.
For tonight, the survivors were alive.
They had escaped death once again.
But survival came with a price.
Some had lost friends.
Some had lost family.
Some had lost the people they loved.
And some had lost a part of themselves along the way.
The nineteen survivors were together in that small storage room...
Yet each of them was fighting a completely different battle inside their hearts.
Outside, the storm refused to stop.
And inside...
The disaster of sorrow had only just begun.