Sol straightened up.
— "Stay in your place, human. This battle is beyond you."
The professors still conscious helped their headmaster to his feet, but they now understood they were powerless against these beings.
Mr. Lancaster, though humiliated, clenched his teeth and stood up with difficulty. His gaze remained steady.
— "I won't let you break the spirit of my students," he whispered.
Sol gave an amused smile.
— "We'll see."
Then, he turned his attention back to Hayden and his group.
The hour of choices was drawing near.
A Blood Confrontation – Léna and Laelia
The atmosphere was still heavy after the headmaster's humiliation. The silence hanging over the school courtyard was broken by the arrival of a new presence.
A clear, strong voice rang out:
— "Lila!"
All eyes turned toward the source of the cry. A young girl was approaching with a determined stride. She had long black hair tied into a tight braid, and pale blue eyes filled with restrained pain.
It was Laelia, Léna's twin sister.
Léna, who had until then worn an arrogant smile, suddenly lost her amused expression. Her golden gaze, now charged with a new energy, locked onto her sister.
— "Don't call me that," she said coldly. "I'm not Lila anymore."
Laelia stopped a few meters away, short of breath.
— "I don't know what happened to you… but it's you, isn't it?! You're alive, Lila!"
Léna burst out laughing — a laugh full of irony and repressed anger.
— "Alive? Really?"
She slowly approached her sister, her footsteps echoing on the ground.
— "Tell me, Laelia… where were you when I screamed? Where were you when I reached out, begging to be saved?"
Laelia took a slight step back under the weight of her sister's words.
— "I… I wasn't there, I didn't know…"
— "Exactly," spat Léna. "You weren't there. No one was. All those people I thought were my friends, they left me. Abandoned me. Thrown to the dead!"
Her body trembled with rage, and the golden aura around her pulsed, making the air heavier.
— "You think I forgot, Laelia? You think I didn't feel that terror, that pain, that betrayal?"
Laelia clenched her fists.
— "I swear, if I had been there, I would have done everything to save you! But that's not a reason to—"
— "Why?" Léna interrupted, her eyes blazing. "To change? To turn away from all of you?"
She stopped, letting a heavy silence hang, before tearing the medallion from her neck — a keepsake from their family. She looked at it for a moment before letting it fall to the ground.
— "I'm no longer that naive girl who believed in non-existent bonds. I've found a true purpose, a real master. Sol gave me something no one here ever did: a second chance."
She raised her arms, as if to embrace her new existence.
— "I'm no longer Lila, the victim. I am Léna, and I walk beside those who understand the truth of this world."
Laelia lowered her head, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
— "Lila… no, Léna… I'm sorry."
But Léna turned away, her heart hardened beyond compassion.
— "It's too late for regrets."
She took a step back and stood beside Sol, who watched the scene with a satisfied smile.
— "Soon, you'll all understand."
And in a burst of golden light, she vanished with him.
Laelia dropped to her knees, her trembling hands pressed against her chest.
She had just lost her sister a second time.
A Dying World – Outside the Bunker
Two weeks. Only two weeks had passed since the catastrophe, and yet the world already seemed to have shifted into a new era.
The area outside the secured bunker where Amber's group was hiding was nothing but a remnant of the past. Once, this residential neighborhood had been full of life — the laughter of children playing in the streets, carefree passersby coming and going. Now, it was no more than a silent graveyard, where even the wind seemed to whisper the remnants of a forgotten world.
The streets were littered with the carcasses of abandoned cars, some still smoldering, others covered in dried blood. Torn grocery bags, shredded clothes, and scattered suitcases showed just how frantically people had tried to escape a threat they didn't even understand.
The surrounding buildings bore the scars of chaos: shattered windows, doors torn off, walls stained with red streaks and deep claw marks. Some buildings had burned during the first nights of riots, leaving behind charred skeletons against the grey sky.
The corpses that littered the sidewalks had begun to decompose in the suffocating heat, releasing a nauseating stench — a blend of rotting flesh and rusting metal. A few crows picked at the remains of those unfortunate enough not to have been buried.
But what made the scene even more sinister was the total absence of human life.
The silence was absolute.
No horns, no screams, not even the buzzing of insects or birdsong. It was a world frozen in horror. Only the distant sound of cold wind rushing between buildings reminded them that time still moved on, indifferent to the survivors' fate.
And in the midst of this post-apocalyptic landscape, the secured bunker stood as a final bastion of hope.
Its entrance was well-camouflaged, hidden behind an old abandoned gas station. Makeshift barricades of metal sheets, fences, and wooden planks reinforced the structure. A few empty barrels lay around the entrance, evidence of a desperate attempt to ration resources.
Inside, Amber's group lived under the illusion of safety. But that night, that illusion would be shattered.
Because in the shadows of the ruins, a being was returning to life.
A zombie unlike the others.
Its once-mutilated body was now wrapped in a spectral, sickly glow. Its movements were more fluid, faster. Its blank gaze seemed to carry an inhuman awareness. This was the special zombie — brought back from the dead by Sol himself.
And Sol watched the scene with a satisfied smile, Léna by his side.
— "Ready for the next part?" he asked with a playful tone.
Léna, arms crossed, stared at the bunker entrance with an unreadable expression.
— "They don't know what's coming," she replied coldly.
Sol chuckled.
— "Then let's go show them."
In a chilling breath, the special zombie began to move.
The Bunker – Waiting and Dread
The mood in the secured bunker was tense, almost suffocating. Since Léna's troubling reappearance, the youths were trying to pass the time, but a silent anxiety hung over them.
The bunker, far from being a mere shelter, was an actual underground luxury haven. Built for elites who had foreseen the chaos, it featured spacious rooms, a large entertainment area with a giant screen and leather couches, a fully equipped kitchen worthy of a top-tier restaurant, and even a modern gym.
But despite all that comfort, the silence was stifling.
Sitting on one of the large couches, Amber, legs crossed, nervously tapped her nails against the velvet armrest. Her gaze was lost in the void, her mind racing.
— "That bitch…" she muttered, her tone thick with restrained anger.
— "She comes back from the dead, and the first thing she does is provoke us? Seriously?" added Véra, leaning casually against a wall, a mocking smirk on her face.
She loved getting on people's nerves, and seeing Amber upset was a golden opportunity.
— "This isn't a joke," said Loïs, scrolling through images on her tablet with a bored expression. "If she's still alive… well, if you can call that 'living'… then we're in danger."
She wasn't speaking out of concern — her priority was her own safety and comfort. She didn't care about the others' feelings as long as she stayed on the winning side.
— "Tsk. What difference does it make for us?" Gary replied, arms crossed, an arrogant smirk on his face. "We're here, protected. She's out there. Good for her, too bad for us."
— "Good for her?" Liam snapped, clearly irritated. "It's not 'good' if someone who's supposed to be dead comes back to haunt us like nothing happened. And what was that aura around her?"
He ran a hand through his perfectly styled blond hair, annoyed. "No seriously, this reeks."
Harry, as usual, nodded silently, following the opinion of whoever seemed the strongest without thinking for himself.
Léna was no longer the same. They had all seen it. And somewhere deep inside, a feeling of guilt gnawed at them.
No one dared say it, but they knew they had been cowards.
The Control Center – An Unexpected Presence
While the teens argued inside their luxurious shelter, Gabriela Sanchez wasn't wasting any time. In the surveillance room, she and her team of experts watched the control monitors, scanning the outside for the slightest anomaly.
She was a woman of experience — pragmatic and methodical. Her mission was to ensure the survival of those under her protection, but what she saw on the screens made her doubt.
— "It's her," whispered one of the analysts.
On one of the screens, Léna's silhouette appeared clearly in front of the bunker's entrance. But she wasn't alone.
At her side stood a man dressed in white, with an aura so oppressive that even through the cameras, Gabriela could feel something unnatural.
And just behind them…