Reborn, I Let Them Take the Cursed Graduation Photo Chapter 07

Reborn, I Let Them Take the Cursed Graduation Photo Chapter 07

Plague.

The word alone was enough to send a chill through everyone’s body.

Nobody took it lightly.

They had all lived through disease outbreaks before. They’d seen the headlines, the lockdowns, the overflowing hospitals. Everyone knew exactly what a rapidly spreading epidemic could do.

Panic settled over the supermarket.

“What are we supposed to do?”

“The pharmacy section barely has any medicine left.”

“What if it runs out?”

“What if none of us make it?”

The answers came sooner than anyone expected.

Barely a day later, students started coming down with sudden, unexplained fevers.

When there had been more than thirty people packed into the supermarket, it had felt crowded but comforting.

Now it felt suffocating.

The moment someone showed signs of sickness, everyone around them instinctively backed away.

Then the symptoms worsened.

Blood began streaming from the victims’ eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Those with weaker constitutions collapsed where they stood, unable to get back up.

Some went from their first fever to death in less than forty-eight hours.

Fear spread faster than the disease itself.

Someone finally voiced what everyone else had been thinking.

“The sick should move downstairs.”

“If they stay here, they’re going to infect the rest of us.”

No one volunteered.

No one wanted to be abandoned.

Then the bodies began to rot.

The smell drifted through every aisle of the supermarket.

That was when humanity started to crack.

“Throw the infected out!”

“If we don’t, they’ll kill the rest of us!”

“The dead too!”

“Anyone who’s infected has to go!”

“Otherwise we’re all going to die!”

Ethan said nothing.

Isabella stayed silent too.

Neither of them objected.

Silence was all the permission the others needed.

Groups of three or four pulled on masks and disposable gloves.

Together, they dragged the corpses…

…and the classmates who were still barely alive…

…to the shattered windows.

Then they threw them out.

The supermarket stood ten stories above the street.

Even the people who were still breathing had no chance of surviving the fall.

No one protested.

No one tried to stop it.

As long as they weren’t the ones being thrown over the edge…

They could live with it.

By the end of the second seven-day cycle, twelve people had been cast out of the supermarket.

Only thirty remained.

They sat scattered between the empty shelves.

No one talked anymore.

No one cried.

They simply stared into space with hollow eyes.

They had survived.

But something inside them hadn’t.

On the evening of the seventh day of the Plague Trial, the landline beside me suddenly rang.

I hesitated before picking it up.

“Ethan?”

“Katherine!”

His voice came through immediately, breathless and frantic.

“Are you okay?”

I tightened my grip on the receiver.

“What do you want?”

“And how did you even find this number?”

He spoke so quickly that it sounded like he was running.

“Isabella saw you heading south during the storm.”

“There aren’t many tall buildings in that direction.”

“The hospital’s the tallest one.”

“We figured you had to be on one of the upper floors.”

“Come over here.”

“We’ve got plenty of food.”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me.

“I’m fine where I am.”

And I was.

The hospital had turned out to be the safest place imaginable.

The plague hadn’t touched me at all.

His voice grew even more urgent.

“I’m serious.”

“I’m trying to help you.”

“The next trial is the Insect Swarm.”

“You hate bugs more than anything.”

“Tell us where you are.”

“We’ll come get you.”

I froze.

My fingers slowly tightened around the phone.

How did he know what came next?

The Insect Swarm…

Had Isabella told him?

Before I could ask…

The familiar crimson words appeared across the sky once again.

Fresh blood seeped through the clouds, forming line after line of glowing text.

[The Plague Trial has ended.]

[Total Dead: 20.]

[Total Survivors: 30.]

[Next Trial: Insect Swarm.]

[The countdown begins now.)

[Time Remaining: 1 Hour.]