Still inside the school, Amanda and Letícia huddled down in the tall, unkempt grass that hadn't been cut in a long time. The rough blades brushed against their skin, and the smell of damp earth mingled with the cold sweat trickling down their faces. They trembled. They cried silently, lying in the middle of that suffocating vegetation. The grass was their only protection, but soon it would begin to itch their legs and arms. A small price to pay to remain unseen.
Outside, the sound of frantic footsteps and screams grew more distant. Marlon ran like a madman, sobbing in desperation, his cries echoing through the street as the infected pursued him without hesitation.
Amanda waited until the last screams had faded into the distance before cautiously raising her head. The courtyard now appeared empty, the bodies scattered across the ground forming a grotesque scene of death. The smell of blood and entrails permeated the air.
— Le… I think the school is empty. We should take a look around. What do you think? — Amanda whispered, keeping her voice low so that only Letícia could hear her.
Still crouched down, Letícia narrowed her eyes, hesitating for a moment before nodding in agreement. Her heart hammered in her chest, each beat so powerful that she swore the dead around them could hear it.
They moved forward with light, calculated steps. Every movement seemed like a potential death sentence. If they stepped on the wrong body, if an infected was still alive… The tension was unbearable.
The cafeteria was dark, long shadows stretching across the walls. Amanda went in first, searching through drawers and cabinets until she found a few kitchen knives. She took two and handed one to Letícia. They weren't the best weapons, but they were something. Better than being defenseless.
Afterward, the two of them began making their way through the school. They checked every classroom on the ground floor, moving like ghosts through the blood-stained hallways. On the first floor, Letícia looked up and saw, through the glass of a room on the second floor, the faces of Vivian and Lídia. The two of them were there, motionless, silently watching everything, but Letícia said nothing. She simply followed Amanda, focused on making sure there was no danger left.
Once they had finally confirmed that there were no more infected in the courtyard or on the first floor, Amanda made a decision.
— We should lock the gate. Staying here might be safer than running around the city.
Her house was in the Paulo VI neighborhood, and she had seen with her own eyes what was happening outside. People going insane. Killing one another. The chaos wasn't limited to the school.
Convinced that they were alone, Amanda approached the main gate. She walked more casually, trusting the silence around her. Then, without hesitation, she stuck her face outside.
And that was when everything went wrong.
An infected who was standing behind the gate, outside the school, grabbed her. He behaved very differently from the others, having not been inside the school before. He had simply been passing by, trying to follow Marlon's distant screams, which soon fell silent as he lost his voice from screaming and running.
The infected grabbed Amanda by the hair and landed a powerful punch directly on her face, hard enough to break one of her side teeth. Amanda screamed, and the infected slammed her forcefully onto the ground. Her head struck the stones of the street.
Letícia, who was checking the gate, wasn't near her, so she heard Amanda's scream.
The infected climbed on top of Amanda and began tearing her clothes apart. The more she resisted, the harder he struck her. Amanda could no longer fight back. She was badly injured, her face covered in blood. The infected forced her legs apart and brutally assaulted her. Unlike all the infected who had appeared so far, he attacked her in a savage and violent manner, causing her severe pain. He continued striking her with such force that Amanda eventually lost consciousness. Her knife lay abandoned in front of the gate.
Letícia reached the scene and was horrified to see her best friend being violently attacked by an infected. She froze in shock, while the infected took about two minutes before finally stopping. Letícia pulled herself together, and when the knife caught the sunlight and reflected it into her eyes, she grabbed it and drove it forcefully into the back of the infected's neck. The tip of the blade came out through his mouth, but he neither stopped nor seemed affected until Letícia struck him again, this time in the heart, causing the infected to collapse dead on top of Amanda.
She pulled the infected off Amanda, who was unconscious on the ground. Letícia grabbed her by the arm and carried her inside the school. She sat her down against the wall and closed the gate.
Without thinking twice, Letícia ran to the edge of the window where she had seen Lídia and the others. Her eyes, swollen from crying, shone with a mixture of rage and desperation. She began to scream, her voice broken by grief.
— Someone, please! — she screamed, the sound of her voice echoing through the empty hallways. "Please, help!"
Letícia's scream reverberated throughout the school, reaching those who were still hiding. Lucas, his eyes fixed on Lídia, watched as his friend struggled to gather the courage to go out and help. The tension in the air was palpable.
— We have no way of knowing how many infected there are down there… — Lucas said, his voice wavering, but firm in its warning. — If I were you, I wouldn't risk it. I'm serious. Don't leave, Lídia.
Lídia stood still for a moment, hesitating. Fear seemed to paralyze her for an instant, and the weight of the decision overwhelmed her. She looked at Lucas, but none of the others moved. They all remained there, hidden, breathing quietly as if the school were completely empty, as if the danger were already behind them.
The classroom door shook when Letícia reached it, pounding on it harder than ever. Her breathing was ragged, and her clenched fists trembled as she hammered against the door.
— Get out, you cowards! — she screamed, desperation carved into every word. — Get the fuck out of there! I saw Lídia looking through the window, damn it! The school is already empty!
Inside the classroom, Geovane stood up, convinced by the urgency in Letícia's words. He opened the door without thinking and took a vicious punch to the nose. The pain was immediate and sharp, but he didn't back down. Blood began to run from his nose, but he didn't care.
— You sons of bitches! Stop hiding, for fuck's sake! I need help down there! Amanda was attacked, she was assaulted! — Letícia exploded, her anger mixed with the sobs choking her voice as she struggled to get the words out.
Lucas, his eyes widening with concern, asked:
— But… what about the infected? Down there… are there any more?
Letícia, nearly out of strength, answered in a broken voice:
— There aren't any more. They all went through the gate. Now there's nothing left but the bodies scattered across the courtyard.
Vinícius, his face tense and his breathing heavy, stepped forward. He raised his head as though freeing himself from a burden, and his voice came out firm, without hesitation.
— Let's go! I'm not a coward. I'm not going to leave my friend down there alone, and I'm not afraid to go down there and help her!
He started walking without looking back, and Letícia followed him without a second thought. Geovane went as well, but grabbed a chair, carrying it almost instinctively, as if it were his only protection.
The others remained in the classroom, paralyzed, fear cutting through the air. Their silence was heavy, doubts eating away at them. They didn't know whether they should leave or stay.
When they reached Amanda, unconscious and with her face almost unrecognizable, Vinícius and Geovane stopped for a second. The shock was visible on their faces, their eyes wide and their stomachs churning at what they saw. Amanda, their friend, was almost unrecognizable. The damage to her face was horrifying. Vinícius swallowed hard, but didn't hesitate. He crouched down, his arms steady, and began lifting Amanda, trying to remain calm even as his body betrayed the tension he was feeling.
— Help me here, Juninho! — he said, his voice hoarse as he tried to hide his anguish.
Geovane moved closer, breathing heavily, and began to help. They carried her, the weight of the moment bearing down on every step, all the way to the administration office. Letícia followed them, never letting go of Amanda, her hands trembling but firm.
Inside the office, Letícia went to a cabinet in the corner of the room and pulled out two mats, carefully placing them on the floor. She arranged them gently and laid Amanda down on them, her expression a mixture of pain and desperation. She couldn't stop looking at her friend, as if she could wake her simply by staring at her.
Geovane, his brow furrowed, approached, still worried.
— Letícia… did you close the gate? But were you able to lock it with the key? — he asked, anxiety evident in his voice.
Letícia nodded without saying a word. She simply remained there beside Amanda, tears streaming down her face. The sound of her crying mingled with the heavy silence hanging over the room.
Still suspicious, Geovane looked at Vinícius.
— Man, I'm going to lock the gate. What are you going to do?
Vinícius, his expression filled with determination, answered as he turned to look for something in the cabinet:
— I'm going to look through the lost-and-found clothes so Amanda can change when she wakes up.
Letícia, her eyes still filled with tears, looked at him, the pain visible in every inch of her face. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
— Bring me the clothes. I'll clean her up and change her myself. — She said in a faint voice, still sobbing.
The two of them looked at her for a moment, their eyes meeting, but neither said anything else. In silence, they walked out the door, leaving Letícia there alone with her unconscious friend.
Six days later…
Over those six days, Letícia and Geovane became the pillars of leadership at the school. Geovane organized a search party tasked with bringing back essential resources for survival, while Letícia, alongside the girls, took responsibility for maintaining order within the school, coordinating their efforts and making sure everyone had what they needed to keep moving forward.
When the explosion happened, the distance between the locations was great enough that its impact was felt more as a slight tremor in the ground. However, for those surviving at Dr. Antero Chaves State School, the shockwave was more direct. There was only a powerful gust of wind that made the windows rattle, but fortunately, it caused no serious damage or structural complications to the building. Even Paulo VI School suffered no major damage; the greatest destruction was concentrated in the city center and the neighborhoods closest to Ouro Branco.
After the impact of the explosion, the sky began to change rapidly. Clouds gathered along the horizon, and the calm was replaced by an ominous sign of a storm. It wasn't long before heavy rain began to fall, pounding against the school walls, as if the weather itself wanted to reflect the growing tension inside each of the survivors.
Everyone there had already silently and reluctantly accepted that the school was now their new home. It was a home, yes, but not a comfortable one. There was a constant need to keep the place clean, safe, and minimally functional. Everyone knew that survival depended on mutual cooperation, and accepting their individual responsibilities became a way of maintaining order amid the chaos.
At dawn, Geovane set out in search of supplies. He knew the situation was becoming increasingly difficult, and the priority was to make sure there were clothes, more comfortable mattresses, and blankets for everyone. With his firm posture and determined gaze, he left alone, hoping to bring back whatever was necessary to improve the school's conditions. His quick footsteps echoed through the empty hallways as he moved away, knowing that the danger outside was nothing compared to what he was facing within himself as he led that small group of survivors.
But when Amanda woke up the next day, she was unrecognizable. What had once been a girl full of energy had now become someone who seemed trapped in a vegetative state. Her lifeless eyes were empty, as if something inside her had been irreparably broken. She didn't say a word to anyone. Her face remained expressionless, without a smile, without a sigh. Not even tears seemed to reach her eyes, which remained fixed on some distant point, as if she were somewhere no one else could reach. Whenever one of the boys approached her, she recoiled, an uncontrollable tremor running through her body. Her chest heaved with rapid breaths, and visible panic took hold of her, as though their mere presence were unbearable.
Because of this, the boys kept their distance from her, avoiding any kind of contact. It was a delicate situation, and no one knew how to deal with the trauma she was carrying. Only Letícia and Ana approached her, with an almost maternal tenderness, treating her with seemingly endless patience. The girls kept her under their care at all times, feeding her despite her resistance, unable to get a single word, gesture, or any reaction from her. Amanda seemed like a shadow of her former self, someone who had somehow been lost forever. Letícia and Ana, their hearts aching, took turns day and night, offering her food with trembling hands and speaking to her as if she were a helpless baby, desperately trying, without success, to reach whatever remained inside her that could still be saved.
The girls then took on the responsibilities inside the school. They became the guardians of order, the ones who kept everything as organized as possible. They organized the supplies, tended to the garden that was beginning to timidly bloom in the school courtyard, washed the clothes, and kept the place clean to ensure everyone's health remained as stable as possible. They worked in silence, often with their minds wandering while their hands continued with the task, as a way of distancing themselves from the weight of the situation.
Meanwhile, the boys took on the harder and more dangerous tasks. They were the ones who faced the outside world, with all the risks and challenges the apocalyptic world had to offer. They worked in what remained of the city, facing constant danger and searching for ways to ensure the group's survival. Although the tasks were demanding, there was something almost instinctive about their behavior. They were there to protect, to do the dirty work without hesitation, even with fear constantly by their side.
There was a silent understanding between them, an unspoken pact about how to survive. But behind every completed task, every smile that never came, was the awareness that nothing would ever be the same again.