I immediately cursed my stupid decision to scream.

Not content with just ripping chunks of flesh from my friend sprawled on the stairs, three of them turned their grotesque heads to me and started running toward me.

They weren’t fast, but that didn’t make them any less scary.

“REBECA?” I heard Victoria’s voice boom above me. “LAURA?”

“I am fine!” I yelled back, unsure how to report Laura’s condition.

I turned to run back up to my group, but I tripped and fell to the ground. My shin bumped against the edge of the step and a grunt of pain leaked from my lips. Only then did I realize how I was shaking. The metal bar continually hit the floor, emitting a constant metallic sound due to the lack of instability with which I held it.

With no time to waste, I supported myself on my arms and climbed some stairs on all fours until I was able to stand. I ran to the end of that flight of stairs and looked back.

One of them was very close to me. How close did he come to grabbing me while I was down? I felt a gross shiver go through my body, but I didn’t run again. There was no use going up and taking those monsters to my colleagues, to surround us in that dead end.

I tightened my fingers around the metal bar tighter, gripping it with both hands now. I stared at the approaching thing, paying attention to its movements: it didn’t seem to be fast, although it climbed determinedly, grunting and keeping its eyes on me. It was a girl and her face was intact, so I recognized her by sight, but I didn’t know her name. I didn’t care. I positioned myself with one leg in front of the other and brought the bar hard back, looking for momentum. I swung around and, with all the strength I could find, slammed the bar into the creature’s chest just as it hit the bottom step.

The blow made my arms ache, but it worked: she was thrown violently backwards and, unable to find her balance, fell backwards down the stairs, landing violently on the floor. I heard a grotesque sound as her head met the concrete, splattering blood from the side. I felt like vomiting.

I braced myself for another blow when she stood up, but the former student remained completely still, her neck twisted at a bizarre angle. I gripped the bar hard, bracing myself for a sudden rage from that thing, but nothing happened for a few seconds.

I couldn’t watch any longer, as at that moment the other two monsters turned the curve, entering my line of sight. I don’t know where the courage that led me to face that being came from, but I wouldn’t challenge my luck against two of them and I bolted up the stairs. I could hear growls behind me and the constant thunderous protest of the door with every kick.

As soon as I rounded the next turn, however, I felt something hit me hard and a searing pain shot through my head as I hit something hard. I had to hold back a scream of terror as I went on alert with shock. I tried to move away, but as soon as I looked up, I saw Guilherme’s green eyes.

“My God, I’m sorry Rebecca!” He said, putting one hand on his chin and holding my shoulder with the other. I felt completely dizzy “Are you all right? Were you attacked?”

“No,” I groaned, thanking him for his support. “They got Laura. They ate her… I ran away. I hit one and he fell headfirst to the floor. He didn’t move anymore… “ I vomited the words in a hurry, dominated by the adrenaline that the scare had caused me.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” I heard growls right behind us and Guilherme’s hand wrapped around my wrist. “ Come on, go up.” He put his arm around me, guiding me to the stairs. The dizzy feeling lingered in my body, causing me to zigzag up.

Just as we reached the top, a final crash echoed off the walls and declared that the door had finally opened. A few pieces of wood flew out as the double doors swung open and the hinges groaned loudly. The late afternoon sun invaded that dark staircase.

Everyone immediately bolted into the street except Melissa and Victoria, who stopped to see if I was okay. When I put my hand where I hit my head, I felt a hot liquid, but I declared that I was fine.

“Come on, damn it!” Shouted Carlos. “Do you want to die?”

I saw that Guilherme looked at him with disapproval, but he put his hands around me again, indicating that I should go outside. I obeyed, joining the girls.

“You can close it, Laura couldn’t.” I heard Guilherme shouting behind.

As soon as we were through the door, I heard another noise as they closed it. Everything revolved around me. When I felt a sudden lack of balance, I was held up by the chubby boy with the glasses and I smiled at him in gratitude.

“Come on, help me barricade this!” I heard Rogério’s call and the boy’s support went away. I didn’t pay attention to what was happening and I just sat on the floor, closing my eyes, not before I saw that Faber was also sitting there, eyes wide. I wanted to exchange any words with him, but my body was flooded with adrenaline and, again, the clatter of the metal bar against the floor told me I was shaking. I realized only then that I was still carrying it.

“Rebecca, what happened to your head?” Victoria asked, kneeling beside me. I felt like she pressed something against my wound, making it hurt. I groan.

“I… I was hit by G-guilherme.” I replied, opening my eyes and finding her black pupils next to me. Finally everything had stopped spinning.

I saw that the boys were dragging a rust-corroded metal cabinet to the door, while Carlos and Davi struggled with their bodies to keep it closed. Ana joined the group to move the locker more quickly, using it as a barricade. Soon they started looking for some tables and chairs that could give more support. I felt a little useless at that moment.

“I’m glad you’re okay. What happened to Laura? Didn’t she make it?” I finally realized that what Victoria was pressing against my forehead was a piece of gauze.

“Thank you, Victoria.” I muttered, taking her hand away with mine so I could hold the gauze. “I’m better now, I think I got a little dizzy.” I opened my mouth to speak, but found it very difficult to continue with the speech.

“Laura… When I arrived they were already… She didn’t even move.” I felt the tears coming again.

Laura wasn’t a great friend of mine. In fact, one of my best friends had been killed that morning and I had no idea where the other one was and at that moment it hit me like thunder. It was almost late afternoon on the day of the apocalypse and that was the first time I remembered my friends. Would Amanda have saved herself or managed to run from that freak show that unfolded in the schoolyard? I shivered, letting the tears flow. What kind of friend was I?

I felt Victoria’s thin arms wrapping around my body and offering me warmth. That gesture alone was enough to set off an uncontrollable wave of crying. I didn’t know if my friends were okay, my last contact with my grandmother didn’t give me security, nor did I know if I would have any chance of meeting the rest of my family again. My father… My brother…

My God, Mei should be so scared.

I squeezed Victoria tightly into her embrace, feeling the bones prominent in her back.

Carlos knelt, facing me. He seemed calmer and looked at me with understanding. I felt his warm hand on my shoulder.

“Rebeca, I know it’s not easy. It’s not being for anyone. You were very brave to have gone to save Laura,” he began, looking me in the eye. “But you can’t fall apart now. We’ll need to continue soon.” He nodded toward the emergency stairs and I immediately understood what he was talking about.

Carlos was right. It was no use crying like a child. If I was worried about everyone, that was precisely why I needed to get out of there soon. I took a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears, and wiped my face on the back of my arm.

“Thank you so much, Victoria.” I smiled at her, pulling out of her embrace and standing up again.

I looked around and found everyone else standing near the edge of the penthouse overlooking downtown. Only Carlos and Guilherme were further away, talking softly to each other while looking at me, not bothering to be discreet.

I helped Victoria to her feet and we approached the edge.

Not even in my worst nightmares could I witness as much fear as what dominated my body at that moment.

As our school was in a higher part of the rest of the city, we had a privileged view of the penthouse, beautiful on all other days. Today, however, this cabin only gave us a worse prospect of the end of the world that lay beneath us.

There was a lot of smoke, and that was the most noticeable right away. Several spots of a thick black curtain rose to the sky from high flames of fire. Almost every street we saw was completely dominated by cars parked in single file and only then did the honking of horns become evident. And these were the good ones. On other streets, it was possible to see grotesque pile-ups, crashes of almost ten cars at once. But the worst was the people running. Like thousands of desperate little ants, they ran wildly from grotesque and infernal beings, but so much like the prey they were chasing. In that profane setting, the case proved to be the only law. Far from the city, the blue carpet of the sea stretched to the horizon, daring to show itself beautiful and calm in the face of this horrible spectacle. I followed its length until I reached the bridge that connected the center of our city to the mainland, trembling with despair: it was completely bottled up, with no possibility of crossing in vehicles.

“I d-don’t…” Melissa began, immediately breaking into a frantic cry. I saw that Ana accompanied her and it was possible to see tears forming in the corners of Rogério’s eyes. I dreaded seeing despair settling on everyone’s faces.

“Calm down. The police should be aware by now. They’ll send the army to help, for sure.” Rogério said, without any belief in his voice. “Let’s stay here, all of us. I’ll try to contact the police.” He took his cell phone out of his pants and brought it to his ear.

That was my cue to let go of the terrified state I was in and realize that it was my time to prepare to finally leave school.

I headed towards the emergency stairs, to check how it was down there. Its metal frame swayed a lot in the wind and looked dangerous, but at that moment this was the last thing I would be afraid of.

To my surprise, the high school woods were completely peaceful, looking like an untouched piece of paradise. In a short, silly daydream, I thought about staying there forever.

“You’re not really thinking about going, are you?” asked Roger in disbelief. “Rebeca, have you seen how the city is? Will you throw yourself into this chaos alone? You will not leave!” He tried to make his voice authoritative, but a subtle stutter got in the way.

“With all due respect, professor, but I can’t stay here. I need to go home. My grandmother and Mei could be in danger, I need to try to talk to my father and brother. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t just sit here and wait for rescue. I’ve been through hell today and I’ll go through as many more as it takes.” The speech would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been for the not-so-subtle tone of dread. Still, I held to the resolve that those words carried.

“And we go along with her.” added Guilherme, coming a little closer to me. If our small group already seemed shocked by my stampede, the surprise that I would be accompanied was more evident.

“My house is also over the bridge. I think I better try to get there before things get worse.” Carlos said, not bothering to bring words of hopelessness.

“It’s stupid to stay here,” said the curly-haired girl.

There was silence in the place, while everyone looked at us as if we were crazy. Maybe they were right.

“I-I… Can you guys drop me off at home?” We heard a low, faint voice from behind the group. Melissa, still sniffling and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, moved closer to us. Her blond hair was messy and she looked shabby. “I live close by.” She pointed somewhere in the distance, towards the sea, without any precision.

“ It’s on the way downtown. On Avenida das Torres.” She sniffled again and looked at none of us in particular, her big eyes wet with tears.

Carlos and Guilherme looked at each other. They were Melissa’s friends and I knew it. I was sure they would make the decision on their own, so I prepared to announce my departure from the newly formed group, when Carlos caught my eye.

“What you think?” He looked at me, his face sincere, then turned to look at the mess our city had become.

A small feeling of satisfaction raced through my body, seeing that my opinion would matter after all. Maybe that’s why I didn’t think of any consequences.

“It’s on the way,” I muttered hesitantly. “I don’t see why not.”

The black girl next to us just shrugged.

Melissa looked directly at me now.

“Can Ana and Victoria go together?” she asked. “Vic’s house is almost on the other side of the island, but her parents are friends with mine, so it’s okay for her to stay there. Then she looked at Anna. “And I know you live across the bridge, you can stay at the house too. If you want to go with them later…”

An uncomfortable feeling coursed through my body. I didn’t mean to sound selfish, but as that group grew, my concern grew with it. Of course, I wouldn’t deny help to anyone, but… It would be difficult enough with Guilherme and Carlos, who can certainly take care of themselves. The other girl was so calm it almost seemed as if no dead roamed the world…

“I’ll come along too,” announced the chubby boy, another person I still hadn’t figured out the name of. His brown hair a little too long was blowing in the wind and he had a serious expression on his face. “ My house is on the other side of the bridge. I don’t think it makes sense to stay here waiting.”

Although no one invited him, none of us showed any disapproval. After all, apparently everyone who thought it was better to get out of there also decided to join us.

I sought the approval of Guilherme and Carlos with my eyes, which did not seem to show any disapproval. The curly haired girl was quiet.

Rogério and Davi remained looking at us as if we werewe are completely crazy. Faber, meanwhile, stood in shock looking out over the burning city. Only God knew what could be going on in his heart, far from his family, in a country whose evil dominated the native language. I wanted to invite him, but even I wasn’t sure of my choices.

Now, next to me were Carlos, Guilherme, Melissa, Victória, Ana, and the other two students whose names I didn’t know.

“I know now is an awkward time for this question, but what are your names?” I looked at them both.

“Helena,” the girl replied, her skin as dark as her serious eyes. “I’m a sophomore. Since you didn’t ask our names, I assumed you might know us.” After all, it was a little more common for younger students to meet seniors.

“Hector.” answered the boy with the glasses, nervous. “I heard you are called Rebeca. That’s it, right?”

I nodded at him.

“Now that the introductions are over, shall we?” Guilherme asked, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I looked at him and then at all the other students who had eyes full of anticipation and nervousness on me.

It was time for us to go, then.

May God watch over us.