Mira almost didn't see him coming.
The hallway was already crowded that morning, students rushing toward the main hall after the announcement alert. She had been half-distracted, adjusting the strap of her bag and thinking about how strange the day already felt the noise level higher than normal, teachers tense, security posted at intersections that were usually ignored.
Then someone collided with her shoulder.
The impact spun her half a step sideways.
"—sorry," the voice said automatically.
She looked up and blinked.
Josh.....
For a moment she just stared at him. Something about him felt off, it just felt different looking at him. His eyes looked sharper, like he'd slept badly but woken up too alert. People usually looked dull in the mornings. He looked like he'd just come out of a storm.
"You look like you saw a ghost," she said, half teasing.
He hesitated before answering. That was what caught her attention most Josh never hesitated with her. Their rhythm had always been easy, familiar.
"I'm fine," he said. "You heading to the hall?"
She studied him one more second, then nodded.
There was more she wanted to ask, but the hallway pressure pushed them forward again. The flow of students carried them toward the main building entrance.
Still..... she noticed he kept scanning faces like he was trying to confirm something.
Or someone.
Inside the grand hall, Mira felt the mood shift from noisy to compressed.
Rows upon rows of students filled the space. The building could hold thousands, and today it felt like it was trying to hold more than that voices bouncing off the high ceiling, banners hanging above the stage, officials seated at the front.
She took her assigned line. Josh ended up a few rows away, but she kept noticing him anyway.
The speech started. Just Political tone. Institutional promises. Scholarship programs. Investment. Opportunity. Future.
Most students were pretending to listen.
Mira tried.....she really did. but something kept bothering her. The guards at the side exits weren't relaxed. They were listening to their radios too often. One even stepped out midway through the speech.
She frowned.
Something wasn't matching the ceremony mood.
Then the vibration came.
At first she thought it was feedback from the sound system a deep bass tremor through the floor. But it didn't stop. The banners swayed slightly. Dust drifted from a lighting frame above.
Students murmured.
The speaker paused.
Another tremor hit stronger.
Now people were turning.
The radios started crackling loud enough that nearby rows could hear the static bursts. It was Just broken noise.
Mira's stomach tightened.
She turned instinctively and saw Josh already standing.
He looked like someone who had been waiting for confirmation.
When the doors were sealed and the instructions came to remain calm, Mira felt the first real spike of fear. the kind that makes your skin aware of every sound.
Then came the distant screaming from outside.
The sound traveled through structure muffled, echoing, it felt wrong.
The crowd started to break shape.
When movement orders came back stairwell, controlled exit, she didn't argue. She moved. But she also did something else: she searched for Josh.
She didn't fully understand why.
Maybe because he looked like the only person whose eyes were actually processing the situation instead of denying it.
She found him halfway into the moving cluster.
"Stay close," he told her then realized he had grabbed her arm.
She didn't let go.
Because the crowd pressure was real now. If you lost contact, you could vanish into bodies that were being pushed forward.
She didn't dare pull away.
The stairwell descent and climb blurred into noise and breath and movement. Mira focused on simple goals, don't fall and don't get separated.
When the lights failed in the upper passage, her pulse jumped again.
Phones came out. Flashlights turned on. Floating islands of white light.
She hated how small the light circles felt.
Someone went ahead to check the dark stretch and didn't come back.
That silence hit harder than a scream.
She tightened her grip on Josh's sleeve without realizing it.
He noticed adjusted position placed himself slightly between her and the dark ahead.
That helped more than words.
The hall they entered next felt creepy.
The air felt wet. Heavy. The smell hit first copper and rot mixed together.
Then the sounds....
Muffled crying. Wet slipping noises. Choked breaths.
She didn't want to look up.
But something warm touched her cheek.
A drop of something wet but she couldn't see clearly the color but can get the smell
She did look up.
Her brain rejected the image before it accepted it, bodies suspended, bound in organic strands, something alive threaded through them. People still breathing. Some barely.
Her throat closed.
Someone behind her started sobbing.
Someone else gagged.
Mira turned away fast pressing her forehead briefly into Josh's shoulder she did so for comfort as it seems, just a human reaction to something unbearable.
"We have to keep moving," he said quietly.
She nodded shakily.
Moving was good. Moving meant not freezing.
The run to the rooftop cost people lives as she saw students and guards yanked in towards the darkness.
Brief screaming before being shut.
She didn't count who was lost. She couldn't. Counting would make it real in a way she wasn't ready for. She focused only on staying upright and staying connected to the one anchor she had chosen.
By the time they reached the roof, her hands were shaking hard enough that she noticed.
The open air felt unreal.
The sky looked like it belonged to another world that hadn't received the message yet.
Students collapsed into sitting positions along walls and railings. Some cried quietly. Some stared. Some laughed in that thin, unstable way people do when shock is winning.
Officials spoke. Instructions were given, Rationing of food carried. Order was made at the most.
Mira listened but not deeply. Her mind was replaying the hallway images in broken flashes.
Screams, the wet liquid on the floor. rotten smell in the air as they passed through.
It was a nightmare and she felt like this would be a upcoming trauma for her.
She sat beside Josh near the chest-high rail.
Only then did she realize she was still holding onto him.
She released slowly.
"Sorry," she said.
"It's fine," he answered.
She looked at him..... really looked now at the sweat-soaked uniform, the steady breathing, the eyes that were thinking instead of spiraling.
She search around looking at the surroundings and the city from above.
Seeing smoke and destruction from the point she could see.
Hearing screams, pleads and sirens all around.
She just couldn't get and accept what is happening.
"I...Is this really the apocalypse...."