[POV Era]

  We walked along the central avenue, fnked by the skeletons of skyscrapers that cast long shadows under the purple light of the sky. My steps were steady and mechanical, while Chelsea’s were quick and uneven—a reminder of the biological fragility I had left behind. The wind blew hard, dragging ash and fragments of paper, but my attention was entirely focused on the voice of the girl beside me.

  "Everything happened too fast, Era," Chelsea began, hugging herself to fight a cold that I only knew through numbers on my retina. "That sound... it wasn't a noise you could hear with your ears. It was like someone struck a giant tuning fork inside your brain. I saw the students in the courtyard fall like dominoes. One after another. In the cssroom, in the hallways—even the ones who were running just dropped dead in their tracks."

  I stopped for a second, looking at an overturned, empty school bus. "But you didn't fall. Why?"

  Chelsea shrugged, her fringe hiding her left eye. "I don't know. I felt sick, like my bance had shattered. my head hurt so much I wanted to rip it off, but my legs kept holding me up. I saw other people like that, maybe one in a hundred, who just stood there, staring in horror as the rest of the world switched off. I tried to wake Sora. I shook her, I screamed at her, I even spped her... but it was like trying to wake a statue. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was so slow I sometimes thought it had stopped."

  "And then they arrived," I interjected, recalling the images from the police computer.

  "Yes. The ships took no time at all. They were like bck storm clouds descending from the sky without making a sound," Chelsea continued, her voice trembling slightly. "I hid behind some rge pnters near the Science building. I saw the hatches open and it wasn't just beams of light coming down... things were coming down. Those Ganut things you killed in the building... there were hundreds of them. But there were also others—taller, slender beings that looked like they were made of smoke and gss. They started picking people up off the ground with terrifying efficiency. They weren't in a hurry. They knew no one was going to wake up."

  I imagined the scene: a systematic harvest of defenseless human beings. "What did you do with Sora and the others?"

  "I panicked, but I knew I couldn't leave them out there in the open courtyard," she expined. "With the help of another guy who was still awake—I think his name was Mark, but I haven't seen him since—we dragged Sora, Leo, Jake, and two others into a small janitor's closet in the main building. It was a tight space, smelled like disinfectant and old mops, but it had no windows. We piled them in there, one on top of the other. It wasn't dignified, but it was safe."

  Chelsea paused, taking a deep breath of the freezing air.

  "I went out for a moment to look for someone else, a girl who was near the fountain... but then a Ganut saw me. It let out that hideous roar and started chasing me. I ran back to the building, but the thing was fast. I locked myself in the cleaning room with Sora and the others. I could hear its cws scratching at the wooden door. I knew it would break through in seconds."

  "How did you escape?" I asked, fascinated by the courage of this ordinary girl against a predator designed to kill.

  "I did the only thing I could think of. While the Ganut was pounding on the door, I started piling everything in the room—metal shelves, heavy trash cans, boxes of soap—on top of my fainted friends. I wanted to hide them, make the thing think the room was empty or that it was just me. As soon as the wood gave way and the Ganut poked that disgusting head in, I ran out in the opposite direction, screaming so it would follow me."

  "You used them as bait... no, you used yourself as bait to lead it away from them," I corrected, feeling a spark of respect for the human.

  "It worked," she said with a sad smile. "It chased me through three floors until I managed to slide down a ventition duct that led to the basement, under the university theater. It's a pce full of cables and pipes, dark and dusty. I stayed there, Era. For days. Without moving. Without making a sound. Eating cereal bars I had in my backpack and drinking water from leaking pipes. Above, the world was ending. I could hear buildings colpsing, the screams of those still awake, and the howls of those things. Until one day, the noise stopped."

  We walked in silence for a while. The university was already taking shape in the background, a complex of low buildings surrounded by gray, withered trees.

  "When I came out, I expected to see corpses or blood everywhere," Chelsea continued, her tone becoming more urgent. "I ran to the cleaning room. I was terrified of finding only my friends' bones or that the room had been destroyed. But when I got there... there was nothing."

  I stopped dead. "Nothing? You mean they had been taken?"

  "That’s the point, Era. Listen closely," Chelsea stood in front of me, forcing me to look at her with my golden eyes. "The furniture I had used to cover them had been pushed aside, but it wasn't broken. There were no cw marks on the floor, no sign of a struggle, no blood. If a Ganut had found them under the furniture, it would have ripped everything apart to get to them. But the pce was... orderly, in its own way. As if someone had woken up, carefully pushed the shelves aside, and walked out."

  I processed the information at lightning speed. <[HYPOTHESIS: SPONTANEOUS AWAKENING. PROBABILITY: UNKNOWN.]>

  "You think they woke up and fled," I said.

  "I know it!" she excimed with hope. "There were no signs that the ships had entered that specific area. If it had been the invaders, they would have left the building marked. But the cleaning room was intact. That’s why I’m looking for them. That’s why I agreed to come to the skyscraper with that group of crazies, hoping to get a better view of the campus. I’m sure Sora and the others are somewhere, hiding, waiting for the sky to clear."

  I looked toward the university campus. If what Chelsea was saying was true, Sora wasn't a prisoner on a ship, nor a victim of the Ganuts. She was a survivor. Like us.

  "If they woke up, they would need supplies," I analyzed aloud. "Or a pce with better defenses than a janitor's closet. The campus is big, Chelsea. If they are alive, they left a trail my eyes can see."

  Chelsea nodded fervently. "That’s why I need you to help me. You can see things I can't. You can protect us from those who stayed behind."

  "Then let's not waste any more time," I said, adjusting my backpack. "The radio countdown is still dropping. If your friends are out there, we have to find them before that clock reaches zero."

  We set off with renewed energy. Chelsea seemed to have regained her vitality by sharing her secret, and I... I felt that my mission had a solid foundation. It was no longer just about searching for a ghost from Orion’s past. It was about rescuing people who had achieved the impossible: waking up in the middle of the harvest.

  "Let's go, Era," Chelsea said, pointing to the main campus gate. "Sora always said the best pce to hide is where no one dares to look."

  We entered the university grounds, my sensors sweeping every shadow, every broken window, searching for a trace of life among the ruins of human knowledge. The hunt for Sora had officially begun.